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Video of crowd chanting anti-Biden phrase at Obama rally is fake

People weren’t chanting “f*** Joe Biden” during a rally in Michigan led by former President Barack Obama. The video was edited.
Credit: Screenshot/Twitter

Editor’s note: Video content contains profanity. 

Former President Barack Obama spoke before a large crowd during a rally hosted by Michigan Democrats in Detroit on Oct. 29. 

A video with millions of views on Twitter claims to show Obama responding to a large crowd that is chanting an anti-Joe Biden slogan. 

“Come on … This is what I mean. I mean, we’re having a conversation,” Obama can be heard saying in the 41-second clip, before he makes gestures seemingly in response to the loud chanting.

THE QUESTION

Is a video clip showing people chanting an anti-Joe Biden slogan during an Obama rally real?

THE SOURCES

THE ANSWER

This is false.

No, a video clip does not show people chanting an anti-Joe Biden slogan during an Obama rally. The video was edited to include the anti-Biden chants. 

WHAT WE FOUND

Former President Barack Obama was in Michigan on Oct. 29 as part of a campaign trip to support several Democratic candidates in the state. The Democratic Party live streamed the event on the party’s YouTube channel, and at 24:58 minutes into the real video, a man can be heard shouting “Mr. President” from the audience.

Sir, sir, come on, but this is what I mean,” Obama says at the 25:07 mark in the video. “This is what I mean, this is what I mean, I mean we’re having a conversation.”

At the 25:11 mark in the video, the audience begins cheering for Obama, chanting “Obama, Obama” in unison and Obama repeatedly says “sir,” addressing the heckler. 

At 25:30, Obama says: “Sir, this is what I’m saying. Look, we've got a, there’s a process that we set up in our democracy. Right now I’m talking, you’ll have a chance to talk sometime soon.” The crowd applauds.

“It’s not a good way to do business. You wouldn’t do that in a workplace. You wouldn’t just interrupt people in the middle of a conversation. It’s not how we do things and this is the point that I want to make, just basic civility and courtesy works,” Obama says from 25:48 through 26:08 in the video. 

At no time during his encounter with the heckler does the crowd chant “f*** Joe Biden” in unison, as the viral video claims to show.

Footage posted by CNN also doesn’t include anyone chanting the anti-Biden phrase. A reporter who was at the campaign event shows hecklers being removed from the event, and no one is chanting “f*** Joe Biden” in those videos, either.

The audio from the manipulated video was created using a audio from a clip of a crowd chanting “F*** Joe Biden” at a University of Kentucky football game last year. 

This isn’t the first time that same audio was used to make it appear as though a large crowd was chanting against Biden. 

A video went viral in mid-October after First Lady Jill Biden appeared at a Philadelphia Eagles game. That video was fake, too

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More from VERIFY: Video of First Lady at Eagles game manipulated to include audible boos, anti-Biden chants

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