Fact Check: Is the viral political ad featuring footage of world leaders appearing to mock Trump real?
WASHINGTON, DC: As the General election is less than five months away, several political leaders are busy promoting themselves and their parties with the help of political ads. However, at times these ads are morphed by people on the Internet and presented in a way that ridicules the opposition.
In a recent incident, a political ad has been making rounds on the internet which features footage of world leaders appearing to mock Donald Trump and audio of current President Joe Biden criticizing him. Is there any truth to this? Let's find out below.
Claim: Joe Biden's ad attacks Donald Trump as 'incompetent'
A political advertisement including audio of current President Joe Biden attacking former President Donald Trump and video of international leaders making fun of him was posted on Facebook on June 9.
The post’s caption read, "The Biden campaign is fighting back, and this new ad is brutal. Share away!" and in just three days, it was shared over 100 times.
Before it was removed, a similar Threads thread was reposted thousands of times. The assertion and its video also received a lot of views on X and received hundreds of likes on Instagram.
Partly False: It is an old ad from 2019
Although the advertisement is genuine, it is not completely new. As a component of Biden's 2020 presidential campaign, it made its debut in 2019, according to USA Today.
The world is laughing at President Trump. They see him for what he really is: dangerously incompetent and incapable of world leadership.
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) December 5, 2019
We cannot give him four more years as commander in chief. pic.twitter.com/IR8K2k54YQ
A video showing many NATO leaders smiling and chatting among themselves is included in the advertisement, including French President Emmanuel Macron and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
.@JustinTrudeau, @EmmanuelMacron, @BorisJohnson and other VIPs shared a few words at a Buckingham Palace reception Tuesday. No one mentions @realDonaldTrump by name, but they seem to be discussing his lengthy impromptu press conferences from earlier in the day. (Video: Host Pool) pic.twitter.com/dVgj48rpOP
— Power & Politics (@PnPCBC) December 3, 2019
A voiceover in the advertisement, seemingly lifted from a news report, asserts that they are "mocking President Trump." In the hot-mic video, Trudeau states he "watched his team's jaws just drop to the floor" although he does not mention Trump by name. Later in the advertisement, Biden refers to Trump as "dangerously incompetent."
However, the timing of the Facebook post is misleading. The advertisement is not brand-new. It was made public in 2019 as a component of Biden's prior presidential campaign and posted on X that December.
Proof: Facebook post is misleading as video is not new
The video of international leaders used in the advertisement was taken from a pool feed from the London conference commemorating NATO's 70th anniversary that the CBC had released the day before, as per USA Today.
The caption on the video and news sources at the time seemed to allude to Trump's protracted press conferences at one point in their talk.
There is a new advertisement from the Biden campaign, but it isn't this one. Instead, a video showing cemeteries and flag-covered caskets, accompanied by many remarks from Trump labeling fallen troops "losers'' and "suckers," was uploaded to YouTube and X on June 7.
Notably, Trump has demanded that the Biden campaign take down the advertisement and denied ever saying those things.
