Did President Joe Biden turn and smile when a reporter asked if his son, Hunter Biden, should receive a presidential pardon? No, that's not true: The audio track of this video was altered. Audio from a press briefing held on September 15, 2023, was added to video footage filmed on May 31, 2024, to suggest that Biden had smiled after being asked by a reporter if his son should be pardoned.
The altered video appeared in a post (archived here) published on X on December 1, 2024. The post was captioned:
This hits so much differently now that it's not a joke anymore.
This is how the post looked on X at the time of writing:
(Image source: X screenshot taken on Mon Dec 02 14:32:28 2024 UTC)
The altered video clip was 0:15 seconds long and showed Joe Biden leaving the lectern in the White House State Dining Room. At 0:03 seconds, the edited audio features a voice calling out a question:
Should Hunter get a pardon Mr. President?
This question in this audio had once been directed to Joe Biden -- but it was on September 15, 2023, (here, at 3:37 minutes in) after the president delivered remarks regarding contract negotiations between the United Auto Workers Union and the "Big Three" auto companies. Biden did not respond to the question.
The visual footage from the altered video was from May 31, 2024. At that time, a reporter asked:
Mr. President, can you tell us sir, Donald Trump refers to himself as a political prisoner and blames you directly. What's your response to that sir? Do you think the conviction will have an impact on the campaign? We'd love to hear your thoughts sir.
The question came after Biden delivered "Remarks by President Biden on the Middle East," also posted on the whitehouse.gov website, one day after a jury returned the verdict on the New York state case against Donald J. Trump. Biden's remarks began by mentioning "what happened yesterday in New York City."
The White House streamed Joe Biden's remarks on May 31, 2024, live on YouTube, but the video feed cuts off as he exits and does not show the moment when he smiles.
A 1:01-minute clip posted on the Forbes Breaking News YouTube channel (pictured below with closed captioning text visible) highlighted the reporter's question about Trump and Joe Biden's smile starting at 0:40 seconds in:
(Image source: YouTube screenshot taken on Mon Dec 02 17:30:10 2024 UTC)
Although there were several times (archived here) when the president or White House press secretary denied that Hunter Biden might be pardoned, on December 1, 2024, the pardon was announced in a "Statement from President Joe Biden" published by the Briefing Room on whitehouse.gov.
Additional Lead Stories fact checks on claims related to Joe Biden or his son Hunter can be found here and here.
