Do videos falsely attributed to the New York Times show actors Leonardo DiCaprio, Eric Braeden, Annie Potts and Patrick Fabian supporting the "All Democrats Are Criminals" movement? No, that's not true: Braeden's rep told Lead Stories the claim is false. The videos use clips from Cameo accounts and MTV News and add completely fabricated sound and captions.
The claim appeared in three videos included in a post (archived here) by the @ireneconc account on X on Sept. 18, 2026. The caption of the post read:
Celebrities are urging people to join the #AllDemocratsAreCriminals campaign and not to vote for Democrats in November
This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Image source: post by @ireneconc on X.)
There are three videos in the post on X and all of them have a New York Times logo (archived here) in the upper right corner. All of these videos were originally published on Cameo, with additional added clips of politicians. None of these videos were published by the New York Times.
Braeden's publicist Charles Sherman told Lead Stories via email on Sept. 24, 2026, that the claim that Braeden announced his support for the "All Democrats Are Criminals" campaign was "Totally false."
In Braeden's real Cameo video (archived here) he is wearing a black shirt and glasses while sitting in a car. This is a screenshot from Braeden's Cameo account at the time of writing:
(Image source: post by Eric Braden on Cameo.)
This video matches the footage that opens the video on X where a voice that sounds like Braeden's says "I'm joining Leonardo DiCaprio's All Democrats Are Criminals campaign." However, Braeden doesn't say this in the real Cameo video. This is a screenshot of the image of DiCaprio that is shown in the video:
(Image source: post by @ireneconc on X.)
DiCaprio's brown shirt and the wall and drapes behind him match footage from a July 2019 MTV interview posted on the MTV News YouTube channel (archived here). A CNN logo was added to the DiCaprio image used in Braeden's video posted on X. This is a screenshot of DiCaprio in the MTV News video at the time of writing:
(Image source: post by @MTVNews on YouTube.)
Potts' video matches one from her Cameo account (archived here) with her short hair and brown turtleneck. She does not talk about the "All Democrats Are Criminals" campaign. This is a screenshot of Potts' Cameo video taken at the time of writing:
(Image source: Annie Potts on Cameo.)
Fabian's videos also open with clips from his Cameo account (archived here) where he is wearing a blue suit and tie and sitting in a green chair. He does not bring up the "All Democrats Are Criminals" campaign at all. This is a screenshot of Fabian's Cameo video taken at the time of writing:
(Image source: Patrick Fabian on Cameo.)
Lead Stories searched the New York Times website (archived here) for news stories about Braeden, DiCaprio, Potts and Fabian supporting the "All Democrats Are Criminals" campaign and did not find any matching reports.
Had the New York Times actually reported that these celebrities were supporting the "All Democrats Are Criminals" campaign, it would have been major news. Searches of Google News (archived here) and Yahoo News (archived here) showed other fact checks of the videos but did not find any credible reports of the actors making the alleged statements.
