Did a video clip shared to X authentically show a BBC reporter joking the February 28, 2025 Oval Office meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and President Donald Trump was " ... the second time that a U.S. president f***ed someone in the Oval Office." ? No, that's not true: The audio was generated using artificial intelligence. The original newscast did not include any such remark and the reporter has publicly dismissed its authenticity.
A version of the claim was shared in a video (archived here) posted to X on March 5, 2025, with a caption that read:
Amazing things happen when the BBC forgets to cut its reporter's feed while covering the Trump-Zelensky fiasco 🤣
In the 23-second clip shared on X, the video was tossed from the reporter to a desk anchor. As the anchor begins talking, it appears that the reporter, still on a live mic, says the following:
Are you done? Okay. I saw a meme saying this is the second time ever that a U.S. president fucked someone in the Oval Office.
Below is how the post looked on X at the time of this writing:
(Source: X screenshot taken Thur Mar 6 09:13:53 2025 UTC)
BBC News published the original newscast (archived here) to YouTube on March 1, 2025, titled, "European leaders back Zelensky after Trump clash." At the 7:20 mark, BBC reporter James Waterhouse finishes his field segment and tosses to the desk anchor host -- no audio is heard over the newscaster about the supposed "meme."
On March 5, 2025, Waterhouse also addressed (archived here) the claim on his X profile, noting that the clip was "AI-generated," as shown in the live embed of his post below:
There's AI-generated clip of me doing the rounds - for those who believed it - you can watch the original feed from 7:20 here 👍🏻 https://t.co/b7S3rTcqKA
-- James Waterhouse (@JamWaterhouse) March 5, 2025
Lead Stories ran 20 seconds of audio from the video shared to X through the online AI-detection platform Hive Moderation. It found that the audio is 95.7 percent "likely to contain AI-generated or deepfake content. These results are shown in the screenshot below:
(Source: Hive Moderation screenshot taken Thur Mar 6 09:40:00 UTC)
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Other claims about the February 28, 2025, Oval Office meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and President Donald Trump can be read here.
