Did President Joe Biden use a racial slur during a speech at the 2021 Virtual Munich Security Conference? No, that's not true: According to a White House transcript, Biden did not use the N-word, a slur targeted at Black people, during the speech. There are also no credible news reports of Biden using the term while making the speech.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on Instagram on February 26, 2024. The post included a video clip of Biden making a speech with text that read:
WATCH: BIDEN SLURS N-WORD WHILE READING SPEECH TO EU VIRTUAL MUNICH SECURITY CONFERENCE
This is what the post looked like on Instagram at the time of writing:
(Source: Instagram screenshot taken on Thu Feb 29 19:34:40 2024 UTC)
However, Biden did not say the slur, which is derogatory against Black people. Instead, he said, "eager." The speech was made on February 19, 2021, during the Munich Security Conference, held via a live broadcast that year (archived here). A White House transcript of the speech (archived here) clarifies Biden's comments during the moment captured in the clip (bolded emphasis by Lead Stories):
Look, the range of challenges Europe and the United States must take on together is broad and complex. And I'm eager to hear -- I'm eager to hear -- I'm eager to hear next from my good friends and outstanding leaders, Chancellor Merkel, about her thoughts on the way forward together.
The slur does not appear in the transcript.
A video of the speech posted on the White House's YouTube page also does not indicate that Biden said the slur (archived here). The portion in question begins at the 19:09 mark.
Lead Stories also used Google News to search for news stories about Biden saying the slur during the speech (archived here). However, the only relevant top results were other fact checks of the claim -- which also conclude that he didn't say the slur -- and an untrustworthy article posted on a notably biased website (archived here).
Other Lead Stories fact checks related to Biden can be found here.
