Does a video on social media show President Joe Biden speaking very slowly and haltingly about the powerful drug fentanyl? No, that's not true: The video in a viral Instagram post has been digitally edited. In the real, extended video, Biden speaks at a natural pace on various topics at a press conference during the U.S.-China summit in November 2023.
The claim appeared in a video post (archived here) on Instagram on November 18, 2023. The black-and-white text in the post, above a video of Biden speaking behind a lectern, reads:
Holy Shlt. Get this doofus away from all microphones!
This is what the post looked like on Instagram at the time of writing:
(Source: Instagram screenshot taken on Wed Nov 22 14:24:44 2023 UTC)
The video in this post was edited to make it appear that Biden was speaking very slowly and only about fentanyl. However, the original 20-minute 20-second video, which appeared in this November 15, 2023, CNN post on YouTube titled, "President Biden holds news conference after Xi Jinping meeting," shows Biden making the comments, starting at 7:42, and speaking at an average pace.
Additional Lead Stories fact checks mentioning President Biden can be found here.
