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A video featuring President Joe Biden talking about a new round of stimulus payments is fake
If Your Time is short
- A video of Biden talking about a new round of stimulus payment is faked, taking clips from unrelated events and featuring an imitator mimicking the president’s voice.
- The video repurposes comments made by White House press secretary Jen Psaki on March 11 regarding the American Rescue Plan Act.
- The federal government has made no announcement about Medicare recipients getting $2,880.
A video shared on Facebook purports to show President Joe Biden announcing that Americans will get a new round of stimulus payments over the next several weeks.
"Some people in the country will start seeing those direct deposits in their bank accounts this weekend," Biden says in the Feb. 15 video. "Payments to eligible Americans will continue throughout the course of the next several weeks."
The video features a split screen view of Biden giving a speech at the top and signing an executive order at the bottom.
Care First Homes, the Facebook page that shared the clip, claims that it "came across (the video) on the news last night."
"My friend also called me this morning and told me about the great news for Medicare holders in the US," the account goes on to say. "All I did was entered my zip on the website and confirmed my Medicare details and now we are getting back $2880. Just check zip on the website!"
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Americans expecting any such payment will be left disappointed, because the video is a fake and didn’t appear on any recent newscast.
This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.)
The voice heard on the video isn’t Biden’s but of an impersonator mimicking his speaking style. The voice also doesn’t match the mouth movements in the video clip of Biden, which repeats in a loop every four seconds.
The clips of Biden speaking and signing an executive order were not related to stimulus payments.
The speaking clip was taken from footage of a speech he gave Nov. 1, 2021, on climate change at the COP26 summit in Glasgow, Scotland.
The clip of Biden signing an executive order is from Feb. 24, 2021, when he signed an order related to a global shortage of electronic chips.
The voiceover actually uses comments made by White House press secretary Jen Psaki on March 11, 2021, about the American Rescue Plan Act.
PolitiFact previously checked a claim that also repurposed Psaki's comments as proof of a new round of stimulus payments and rated it False.
The federal government has sent out three rounds of COVID-19 relief payments to Americans. While some legislators have called for a fourth round of payments, it has yet to be approved.
The Facebook post also mentions Medicare recipients will also receive $2,800, but we have not been able to find any evidence to back this claim.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the federal agency that administers the Medicare program, did not immediately respond to PolitiFact’s request for comment.
A different social media post claimed Medicare recipients were eligible for a flexible spending card that covered up to $2,880 in expenses — the same amount as mentioned in the Facebook post. PolitiFact ruled that Mostly False. The cards are offered by private insurers, not Medicare.
A Facebook video purports to show President Biden announcing a new round of stimulus payments to Americans, and the caption on the post claims Medicare recipients will receive $2,880.
The video was doctored, using an imitator to mimic Biden. The video actually repurposed comments made by Jen Psaki regarding the American Rescue Plan Act in March.
We found no evidence to back the claim about Medicare recipients receiving $2,880.
We rate this claim Pants on Fire.
Our Sources
Facebook post, Feb. 15, 2022
Archive of Feb. 15, 2022 Facebook post
PBS NewsHour, "WATCH: Biden speaks at COP26 climate summit in Glasgow," Nov. 1, 2021
CNBC, "President Joe Biden signs executive order to streamline chip supply chain," Feb. 24, 2021
C-SPAN, White House Daily Briefing, March 11, 2021
PolitiFact, "Clip of Jen Psaki talking about stimulus payments is old," Feb. 1, 2022
CNBC, "Fourth stimulus checks not expected as federal government grapples with omicron surge," Feb. 15, 2022
PolitiFact, "Medicare ‘flex cards’ are not as advertised," Jan. 12, 2022
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A video featuring President Joe Biden talking about a new round of stimulus payments is fake
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