Is a video in which JD Vance explains why tilting Charlie Kirk's coffin thirty degrees was done to protect his corpse from further damage real? No, that's not true: According to a specialized detection tool the audio in the clip was generated using AI. The part of the clip that shows Vance speaking came from an old CNN interview in which there was no mention of the "cervical spine" of Charlie Kirk at all.
The video (archived here) appeared on a TikTok channel named "celebrity.time2" on September 13, 2025 with a description that read:
JD Vance breaks his silence, explaining why he is willing to face criticism to tilt Charlie Kirk's coffin thirty degrees.#usa #us #fyp #foryou #jdvance #charliekirk
This is what the thumbnail of the video looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Sun Sep 14 08:49:31 2025 UTC)
@celebrity.time2 JD Vance breaks his silence, explaining why he is willing to face criticism to tilt Charlie Kirk's coffin thirty degrees.#usa #us #fyp #foryou #jdvance #charliekirk ♬ original sound - celebrity.time2
Transcribed, the voiceover in the video says:
Many people have asked me why Charlie's coffin had to be tilted 30°. Some say it was disrespectful, others accused me of putting on a show, but the truth is something only I know. When Charlie passed, his cervical spine was completely destroyed. The doctor told me that if his body were laid flat, the wound would collapse even further, stripping away what little dignity he had left. 30°, the number may sound clinical, but it was the only way he could return home in the most complete state possible. When I placed my hand on the coffin, I wasn't pressing it down.
I was protecting him. Through every jolt along the way, I could feel the angle shifting slightly, and I had to check again and again to make sure it didn't deviate. To outsiders, it may have looked like a mechanical gesture from a vice president, but in my heart, I knew it was the last defense I could offer him. To me, Charlie was not just a colleague or a friend. He was the one who carried me from self-doubt to the courage of stepping onto the stage. He was the first to stand by me, to endorse me, to applaud me. His passing has made me realize there are debts in this life that can never be repaid.
So, yes, I insisted on 30°. It wasn't only a medical necessity, it was my conviction. Even if the world misunderstands, even if rumors swirl, I must protect his final dignity because that is what I owe him and it is the only way I can give something back.
But the short part of the clip in which Vance can be seen talking appears to have been taken from a CNN interview (archived here) that was published on YouTube in October 2024 in which he wears the same outfit and sits in front of the same background seen in the clip:
An AI detector (Hiya in the InVid verification plugin) confirmed that the audio was not authentic and that it was the result of "voice cloning" and "very likely AI-Generated":
(Image source: Hiya detection results for the audio in the @celebrity.time2 clip on TikTok.)
