A video of Biden speaking at a White House children’s event was edited to add offensive audio

CLAIM: A video of President Joe Biden speaking at the White House during a “Take Your Child to Work Day” event shows him being interrupted by a child who yells, “shut the f— up.”

AP’S ASSESSMENT: Altered video. C-SPAN footage of the April event has been edited to add the disparaging outburst. No such comment can be heard in the original video, nor is it reflected in the White House’s transcript of the event. The audio was taken from a years-old clip of a classroom graduation ceremony, and has been edited into other videos in the past.

THE FACTS: A popular Instagram video that spread online in recent days has been edited to make it seem as though the obscenity was yelled at the White House event.

“I want to thank you all, all you kids, for bringing your parents to work,” Biden states in the footage.

The video’s audio then makes it sound like a child in the crowd screams the objectionable command, which is followed by a number of people shouting “hey!” and one saying “that’s not nice!” Meanwhile, Biden appears to continue his remarks without acknowledging the outburst.

As of Monday, the post had received more than 35,400 likes.

But no such interruption occurred at the April 27 event, during which Biden answered questions from the children of White House staff as part of “Take Your Child to Work Day.”

The original C-SPAN footage shows Biden speaking without any unexpected disturbances from the crowd. A White House transcript of the event also does not include the obscenity. The additional audio comes from an unrelated video that has been shared online since at least 2019.

In the clip, a young child can be heard cursing at a teacher during a classroom graduation ceremony as adults try to quiet the situation. It is unclear where the video was taken, but its audio has since become a widely-shared sound effect, often used in comedic ways.

The same disparaging audio has been edited into videos of first lady Jill Biden in the past.

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This is part of AP’s effort to address widely shared misinformation, including work with outside companies and organizations to add factual context to misleading content that is circulating online. Learn more about fact-checking at AP.