White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre faced a wave of criticism Monday after claiming a series of viral videos of President Biden appearing frail in the past week were "deepfakes."
Numerous controversial videos have emerged of Biden during his visits to commemorate D-Day in France, attend the G-7 summit in Italy, and attend a recent fundraiser for his campaign that have raised questions about his age.
Jean-Pierre was asked about "a rash of videos that have been edited to make the president appear especially frail or mentally confused," and responded by calling them "cheap fakes," a phrase she attributed to the Washington Post, "pushing misinformation, disinformation."
"It tells you everything that we need to know about how desperate Republicans are here," Jean-Pierre said. "And instead of talking about the president’s performance in office, and what I mean by that is his legislative wins, what he’s been able to do for the American people across the country, we’re seeing these deepfakes, these manipulated videos. And it is, again, done in bad faith."
According to Merriam-Webster, a deepfake is an "image or recording that has been convincingly altered and manipulated to misrepresent someone as doing or saying something that was not actually done or said." Deepfakes are associated with the use of artificial intelligence.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for further clarification.
"These videos are absolutely not ‘deep fakes’ or ‘manipulated,’" Fox News contributor Guy Benson wrote. "Feel free to argue that they’re being mischaracterized, or unfairly portrayed, or taken out of a fuller context. But it’s literal misinformation to pretend the videos themselves are fake. They are not."
"Wait, exactly which videos we’ve all seen—of Biden freezing or looking lost—are deepfakes?" Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, asked. "I’d really like to know."
The senator shared a series of videos and wrote, "I’m not just being snarky here. If the president of the United States is being smeared by deepfakes, I’d like to know what they are. I hope @PressSec will let us know."
"The White House calling legitimate video footage a deep fake is every bit as dangerous as a right wing troller saying a deep fake is legitimate video footage," columnist David Marcus wrote. "In both cases the purpose is to confuse people by lying."
"She's so pathetically bad at this and the saddest part is she probably thinks she's doing the best at her job out of anyone in the world," State Freedom Caucus director of communications Greg Price wrote.
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"DON'T BELIEVE YOUR LYING EYES," radio personality and news editor Ari Hoffman wrote. "Here's where KJP switches from saying cheap fakes to deep fakes as if we can't see Biden's deterioration in real-time."
"A reporter needs to genuinely ask her what she thinks a deep fake is," The Spectator contributing editor Stephen L. Miller wrote.
"The Biden WH is so desperate they’re trying to convince everybody videos of the actual Biden are deepfakes. LOL," Twitchy’s Doug Powers wrote.
"She lied and called them ‘deep fakes,’" New York Post journalist Mirana Devine wrote.
"Wow…Democrats are truly panicked," Rep. Keith Seif, R-Texas, wrote.
"She’s #FakeNews herself so that’s what she uses to explain away," former California state senator Gloria Romero wrote. "No one believes her anymore."
