United States President Joe Biden attended a ceremony on June 6 in Normandy, France, to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Allied forces' D-Day invasion of Nazi-occupied France. The event, which also included French President Emmanuel Macron and veterans of the Second World War, was widely covered in the news media, but a short video clip from the ceremony appearing to show Biden crouching to sit in an "invisible chair" has gone viral on social media. The clip is misleading. A full recording of the event shows the clip was edited, and cuts off just before Biden and those surrounding him sit on chairs behind them.
The shows Macron and Biden standing on a stage, flanked by their wives, Brigitte Macron and Jill Biden, and rows of military veterans behind them. A lectern with the U.S. presidential seal is visible in the foreground. Biden shakes Macron's hand and moves to sit, hovering in a crouched position for a few seconds while the others remain standing before the clip ends.
"Awkward," wrote the @RNCResearch account on X, formerly known as Twitter, on that appears to be the first to share the video. The is run by the Republican ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø Committee and former U.S. president Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.
The video was reshared by that Biden was attempting to sit on an "invisible chair." Others went further – and cruder – by baselessly claiming the president had "."
The @RNCResearch post had been viewed more than 4.8 million times as of publication.
Rating: Misleading
The of the ceremony shows there was, in fact, chairs behind Biden and the others on stage.
The moment occurs at about four hours and 16 minutes into the video. The group had just walked over to the row of chairs as music plays in the background. There is a moment of silence, which is when Biden begins to sit but hesitates as an announcer welcomes U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to the stage.
Seconds after the viral clip cuts off, everyone on the stage sits and Austin walks to the lectern to speak.
Online discussion of the president's behaviour during the D-Day commemoration events was riddled with other false or misleading claims, including that Biden was .
As the full video shows, Biden gives his speech after Austin, and with his wife once the ceremony is over at around four hours and 58 minutes into the video – about 42 minutes after the viral moment on stage. Macron turns back to greet some guests, but leaves soon after.
Sources
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