Did Joe Biden Really Say ‘We Can Only Re-Elect Donald Trump’?

A deceptively edited video went viral thanks to Trump staffers and campaign accounts.

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Dan Scavino, the White House director of social media and presidential assistant, experienced Twitter virality after sharing a clip purportedly from Joe Biden’s campaign rally in St. Louis, Missouri. The clip, actually from a Biden rally in Kansas City, Missouri, shows Biden saying, “we can only re-elect Donald Trump.”

The tweet went viral and was shared by Trump campaign accounts.

https://twitter.com/TeamTrump/status/1236673867889942529
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  1. Avatar photo
    Jason

    Question for the community: how would this apply to, for instance, the analysis of Schumer's comments last week? A number of mainstream media organizations reported the comments, and attempted to provide additional context, reporting as factual their analysis that Schumer was only referring to a previous quote by Kavanaugh, or basing that on after-the-quote supposed clarifications by the Biden team.

    Who at Twitter is going to make those decisions? And based on what editorial analysis will they apply the term deceptive? What appropriate length of video, what sequences of quotes in the midst of a rambling speech will they determine meets their analysis of the overall intended context?

    I've read their policy, but this is too subjective to be repeatable. It will ultimately be more harmful to public discourse. I know that's not where their commitment lies, but this policy leaves us worse off.

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    Relic

    I appreciate the Dispatch Fact Check, very helpful, however the Democrats whining over Facebook allowing disinformation on their platform rings hollow to me. All politicians (Democrats included) engage in disinformation, misrepresenting what members of the other party says is commonplace. If we're gonna pearl-clutch over Facebook let's not leave out how the D's leverage the mainstream media to spread their own disinformation. If we hold Facebook accountable to fact check and stop the spread of disinformation, let's hold the mainstream media accountable also.

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    Bill McDavitt

    I would strongly recommend that Dispatch podcasters look into the Center for Humane Technology. https://humanetech.com/podcast/
    The folks at this organization are 100% on top of this issue and they have some well articulated thoughts on the problems that social media company's inflict on society, regardless of where one is on the political spectrum. The "Mr. Harris Goes to Washington" episode is not necessarily uplifting, but it's worth a listen.

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    Jason

    I believe Twitter has since flagged the video as deceptively edited or misleading. They are not, and will not, be capable of doing this at scale.

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    bitteroot77

    The man is old, is in constant campaign mode and is tired. Stumbling over his words is to be expected, as is Trump's use of the video. Not sure what the point of this article was.

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    1. Stevenmarks

      "The man is old..." Which man are you referring to - Trump or Biden? "[T]he point of the article was" to point out that the video was deceptive. It's wrong for either side to do this. We should respect campaigns that use truth and facts, and reject those that manipulate, distort, and lie. The end doesn't justify the means if the means are dishonest.

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    Ray Salemi

    Thank you Dispatch for bringing this kind of fact-checking to conservative circles. It is the sort of thing that we’ve been seeing for years in other fact checking sources, but Republicans quickly labeled them “biased” and so the message was blunted.

    It is also an antidote for the problem David French brought up yesterday.

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      Aylene Wright

      It is something the Weekly Standard used to do, as well, and U am happy the Dispatch has revived the feature.

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      1. Avatar photo
        Aylene Wright

        Um, " I " am happy but I know "U" are too!

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    CynthiaW

    Thank you, Dispatch, for reporting this.

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    Isaac P

    I would almost prefer it described as “deceptively truncated,” because then they can’t weasel out of saying the actual video was never compromised, or deep-faked, or manipulated. Give them less room to crow about what they didn’t contextually abuse.

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About Alec Dent

Alec Dent is the culture editor and a staff writer for The Dispatch. He is a graduate of the Hussman School of Journalism and Media at UNC Chapel Hill, and previously oversaw The Dispatch's fact checking team.
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