At the end of November 2024, information circulated on the Internet about a curious statement by the US President: allegedly at a gala dinner in the White House, he misspoke and called himself his own husband. We decided to check the reliability of such publications.
Many Russian media reported about the American politician’s reservation: “Vedomosti", "Moskovsky Komsomolets", "RBC", "Arguments and facts", Lenta.ru, "Evening Moscow", "Sight", "Gazeta.ru", Life etc. Journalists quoted him in articles: “I am Joe Biden’s husband. This is the title I am most proud of." The news was also shared by social media users (“VKontakte", X, Facebook) And blogging platforms. Popular Telegram channels also wrote about this: “Ax Live"(949,000 views at the time of writing this analysis), "Live broadcast • news"(847,000), "Ne.Sugar"(289,000), "Solovyov"(218,000), "Observer"(211,000), etc. Bigger Some publications on social networks and Telegram contain a seven-second video of the politician’s speech, in Russian subtitles for which there is the quote mentioned above.
November 22, 2024 US President Joe Biden and his wife arranged gala dinner on the White House lawn to thank his supporters for their support. The event was broadcast on the official YouTube channel White House.
Unlike the Russian press, major American media did not report any reservations from Biden during the reception, although some of them (for example, the TV channel C-SPAN) published a recording of the politician’s speech. The video, which lasts about 7 minutes, is almost identical to the White House broadcast, except that, in addition to the speech of the US President, it contains general shots of the guests of the event. It is the C-SPAN video that most Russian publications refer to when they talk about Biden’s reservation.
On the channel's website, you can turn on subtitles for the video, and below it is a full transcript of the speech. Both in the subtitles (the US President utters a phrase from viral publications at about the fifth minute) and in the transcript there actually are the words: “I’m Joe Biden’s husband. That’s the title I’m most proud of” - the same ones cited by Russian-speaking journalists. However, if you ignore the subtitles and listen to the speech itself, you can quite clearly hear that Biden is not saying “Joe” at all, but “Jill” - that’s his wife’s name. The sound [l] at the end of the name is heard quite clearly. Over the next minute, he thanks his wife and declares his love for her, repeating her name several times. Although it sounds exactly the same as the first time, both in the subtitles and in the video description the name of the first lady is indicated correctly throughout this fragment.
Under the transcript on the C-SPAN website, it is specified that the text was compiled based on “uncorrected” subtitles (most likely automatically generated and not proofread by an editor). IN transcript Biden's speech on the White House website shows the phrase "I'm Jill Biden's husband" and there are no notes about the disclaimers that stenographers occasionally use. Apparently, the artificial intelligence incorrectly recognized Jill’s name in Biden’s speech, and none of the channel’s editors (as well as the Russian publications that wrote about the slip) listened to the speech itself and double-checked the correctness of the transcript. At the same time, users of social networks and Telegram mainly cite a fragment from the White House broadcast, where there is no problem with subtitles - on YouTube, the politician’s speech is transcribed correctly.
The earliest publication about the clause that “Verified” was able to find was posted in the Telegram channel “RIA Novosti: USA» November 23 at 03:54 Moscow time. It is impossible to establish where exactly the video used in the post was cut from, but it does not have a body kit (as design elements are called in professional slang: for example, a channel logo, ticker, windows, frames, etc.), as in the White House broadcast, so, most likely, the blogger took it from a C-SPAN publication or cut off the official video. Unlike later (and more widespread) versions of the video with this statement from Biden, no subtitles were superimposed on the video in the earliest publication - only the accompanying commentary from the author reported the disclaimer.
Biden, 82, does have some problems with diction, which led to him being repeatedly ridiculed by the media and internet users for his slips of the tongue, both real and imagined. Thus, “Verified” has already denied that Biden allegedly attributed to the United States victory over cancer or stated that born in Israel. In July 2024, the Internet was already spreading video, where Biden allegedly called himself his husband - in fact, at that time he also spoke about his wife Jill, pronouncing her name quite clearly. But even then, some journalists and Internet users chose to ignore the consonance of their names and portray the American president as not quite sane.
Thus, Biden did not misspoke during his speech at the White House State Dinner and did not refer to himself as his husband. Apparently, the confusion occurred due to the similarity of the names Joe and Jill and their incorrect recognition by artificial intelligence, with the help of which subtitles were generated in the video of the American television channel C-SPAN. After this, Russian journalists, followed by other Internet users, without listening to the politician’s speech, wrote about a funny thing that allegedly happened to Biden.
Cover photo: screenshot of video @POTUS / X
- Forbes. What Joe Biden's Speech Disorder Means For Young Americans With Disabilities
- Business Insider. Jill Biden says she will 'continue to fight' for Joe Biden after his disastrous debate. Here's a timeline of their relationship
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