RNC ‘cheap fake’ tries to paint a confused, lost Biden

This latest case, channeled through one of the Republican National Committee’s Twitter accounts, shows how easy it is to pick apart a seemingly innocuous moment and attach disingenuous meaning to it.

The stakes are high for Biden’s first trip to the Middle East as commander in chief. With stops in Israel, the West Bank and Saudi Arabia, the visit is intended to put his deep foreign policy acumen to the test.

The visuals of these efforts are just as important, beginning with the moment a president leaves Air Force One. High-profile diplomatic visits by heads of state are particularly detail-oriented, with an eye on creating impressive images for the cameras.

The seven-second video tweeted by @RNCResearch of Biden’s arrival does not reflect the US President poised to take on today’s diplomatic challenges. Instead, it shows a seemingly confused Biden who is unsure of his surroundings – he looks like he’s 79 years old.

The longer source video of the arrival shows the complicated protocol ahead of a scheduled photo op with newly minted Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid. It shows the long reception line and the endless red carpet.

But in the grand tradition of “cheap fakes,” the snippet cropped and posted by @RNCResearch doesn’t attempt to alter or alter the video itself. It makes its point by removing the context of the original moment by simply adding text. And like a good “cheap fake,” it lets the viewer do the heavy lifting by letting you fill in the contextual blanks.

The use of this clip is an example of manipulated video — what we call “isolation” in our manipulated video guide — because it aims to create a false narrative that doesn’t reflect the event as it happened.

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