The Dispatch
Share this post
Was Joe Biden’s Speech Recorded Rather Than Delivered Live?
factcheck.thedispatch.com
The Dispatch Fact Check

Was Joe Biden’s Speech Recorded Rather Than Delivered Live?

No.

Alec Dent
Aug 24, 2020
54
34
Share this post
Was Joe Biden’s Speech Recorded Rather Than Delivered Live?
factcheck.thedispatch.com

Right-wing media personalities, including Rush Limbaugh, and social media posts have claimed that Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s nomination acceptance speech was pre-recorded. Limbaugh specifically alleged that his speech “had to be taped in segments, and the segments had to be edited together.” The Biden acceptance speech was one continuous shot, and, as reported by ABC’s John Verhovek, Biden delivered his speech in front of “roughly three-dozen reporters, a skeleton camera crew, a handful of Secret Service agents and a smattering of campaign staff.” (Verhovek was one of the reporters in attendance and live-tweeted lines from it as well as images and video he captured on his cell phone.) After his speech, Biden interacted with supporters who were video-conferenced in. 

BuzzFeed’s Ruby Cramer attended the speech as well, and reported “about 30 members of the press and a skeleton production crew” in attendance. She also tweeted images from the event, as did the Washington Post’s Annie Linskey, the New York Times’ Katie Glueck, the Wall Street Journal’s Ken Thomas, the Daily Beast’s Hanna Trudo, and CBS’ Bo Erickson, who also shared images of Biden’s teleprompter.

One tweet from John Cardillo claims that a missing pin and watch between “shots” proves the speech was prefilmed in segments and cut together. 

Twitter avatar for @johncardilloJohn Cardillo @johncardillo
Guys, I despise conspiracy theories, you all know that, but if Biden’s speech wasn’t prerecorded, the cop in me wants to know how his lapel pin disappeared off the same suit and a watch appeared on his left arm as Harris joined him “right after his acceptance speech.”
Image
Image
Image

August 22nd 2020

21,342 Retweets47,916 Likes

However, the tweet does not actually compare images from Biden’s acceptance speech: while the first two are from his speech, the last “gotcha” picture shows Biden some time later with a completely different background, on a stage outside for the fireworks. Again, Biden’s speech was one continuous shot, and the images Cardillo used were misleading as the positioning of Biden’s arms obscured his watch and pin. Twitter users pointed out that Biden’s watch could have easily slid beneath his shirt sleeve, and video of the pictured interaction between Biden and Sen. Kamala Harris shows he was still wearing the pin at the time. 

In short, there is a plethora of evidence that Biden’s speech occurred live, thanks to video of the speech and the journalists who were there in person to cover it. Claims that the acceptance speech was prerecorded are, as Biden would say, complete malarkey.

If you have a claim you would like to see us fact check, please send us an email at factcheck@thedispatch.com. If you would like to suggest a correction to this piece or any other Dispatch article, please email corrections@thedispatch.com.

This fact check is available at IFCN’s 2020 U.S. Elections FactChat #Chatbot on WhatsApp. Click here, for more.

Photograph by David Cliff/NurPhoto/Getty Images.

34
Share this post
Was Joe Biden’s Speech Recorded Rather Than Delivered Live?
factcheck.thedispatch.com
34 Comments

Create your profile

0 subscriptions will be displayed on your profile (edit)

Skip for now

Only Dispatch Members only can comment on this post

Already a paid subscriber? Sign in

Check your email

For your security, we need to re-authenticate you.

Click the link we sent to , or click here to sign in.

Marty
Aug 24, 2020

The really sad part is that the tens of thousands (hundreds of thousands? millions?) of Limbaugh's listeners take his word as gospel. They will never read this fact check or any other. If they happen to see any of the "plethora of evidence that Biden’s speech occurred live ,thanks to video of the speech and the journalists who were there in person to cover it," they will dismiss it as part of the mainstream media's conspiracy to elect Biden.

Expand full comment
ReplyCollapse
Monte Montana
Aug 24, 2020

What Limbaugh lied? That's so difficult to process . . .

Expand full comment
ReplyCollapse
32 more comments…
TopNewCommunity

No posts

Ready for more?

© 2022 The Dispatch
Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Publish on Substack Get the app
Substack is the home for great writing