A video was posted on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, on Tuesday that appears to show President Joe Biden sleeping while meeting victims of the Maui wildfires. The video immediately went viral. The flames that ravaged the island of Maui were the deadliest in almost a century.
Authorities said that more than 1,000 people remain missing as of Wednesday. Naturally, those who watched the video were outraged at Biden for allegedly sleeping while meeting the victims of the Maui wildfires. However, the claim is completely false as the video was edited in an attempt to spread misinformation.
Edited Video and Bogus Claim
The video posted by a dubious user on X appears to show Biden falling asleep while meeting the victims impacted by the Maui wildfires. The video in question video was filmed inside the Lahaina Civic Center and was just one of several locations visited by the President and the First Lady, Jill Biden, during their trip to the island on August 21.
"Joe Biden just fell asleep in the middle of his meeting with victims of the Maui fires," the caption of the video read. In no time, the video went viral. So fat around 6.5 million people have watched the video.
The claim is completely bogus given that the user responsible for creating this post has gained notoriety for disseminating unfounded conspiracy theories concerning the Maui wildfires.
He has also bragged about making financial gains from promoting these deceptive rumors on X.
Interestingly, Fox News host Sean Hannity shared a similar video of President Biden, seemingly dozing off, along with a caption that read, "Biden appears to fall asleep during a ceremony in Hawaii honoring the hundreds of Americans killed by the fires."
This further added fuel to the fire.
Completely Baseless
That the claim is completely false and baseless gets proved once again through a short and simple check of C-SPAN's coverage of the event in Maui. The complete video is accessible on C-SPAN.
The video confirmed that during the segment highlighted by questionable people on X, President Biden's eyes were open and not closed. This particular moment can be observed starting at approximately the 19:28 mark in the video.
To summarize, there is no evidence to support the claim that Biden had fallen asleep while meeting the victims, as clearly demonstrated by the high-definition clip obtained from C-SPAN's broadcast.
Biden had earlier fallen asleep at several events and the dubious user took this opportunity to make the false claim. However, this time Biden did not fall asleep.
