Does a video authentically capture a smoke detector's "low battery" alarm beeping during U.S. Representative Jasmine Crockett's speech? No, that's not true: The sound was added later. Original recordings from 2023 don't show such an interference.
The claim appeared in a video (archived here) published on TikTok on May 3, 2025, under the caption:
🤣😁😂🤟🏼💯 beep ☠️
In the clip, the sounds of smoke detector low battery beeps appeared to have occurred during Rep. Jasmine Crocket's speech.
What looked like a screenshot of another post added on top of the video read:
BREAKING: House investigating which representative is playing 'smoke detector low battery beeps' whenever Rep. Jasmine Crockett begins speaking.
This is what the video looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot by Lead Stories)
Altered footage
The clip on TikTok reused the video previously published by Politico on September 28, 2023. It was a fragment of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee's first hearing on an impeachment inquiry into then-President Joe Biden. In a longer recording available on C-SPAN, Congresswoman Jasmine Crocket (archived here) starts speaking at the 19:58 mark.
Neither Politico's video nor C-SPAN's footage captured a smoke detector's low battery beeps interfering with her remarks.
Origins of the claim
The "U.S. Ministry of Truth" account on X whose name was seen in the screenshot partially overlapping the video on TikTok published the same claim on May 2, 2025 (archived here).
Established to prevent disinformation and protect democracy. | They/Them | Sponsored by @PolitiFact , @Reuters , @VerifyThis , & @Newsweek | Satire | 恶搞
Spoof.
The FBI (archived here) defines spoofing as a type of cybercriminal activity when an unknown entity pretends to be somebody else such as a legitimate source of information, government, business, friend, colleague or boss.
The website linked in the bio of the "U.S. Ministry of Truth" account on X had the .org ending frequently used by nonprofit organizations, not by real federal government agencies.
Yet, it wasn't even a legitimate nonprofit. It was an online page selling stickers, mugs and T-shirts that referred to itself as an "embezzlement store" and lacked any other self-description or contact information.
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Other Lead Stories fact checks concerning politics can be found here.
