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Opponents of President Biden have been relentless spreading misinformation about his mental health, the latest involving a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.

A new video that is being circulated on social media appeared to show Biden falling asleep during a meeting with Bennett.

The video has been viewed hundreds of thousands of times; one post on Twitter alone had amassed over a half million views.

But the video was doctored and heavily edited.

A longer video, posted on C-SPAN, shows Biden awake and talking to Bennett.

In the clips posted on social media, the video cuts short before Biden responds.

In the moments before that, he had been looking down as Bennett spoke.

This is not the first time misleading photos and videos have been edited in a way that makes it look as though Biden is asleep while carrying out official duties.

In September 2020, during his presidential election campaign, another video circulated widely which appeared to show Biden falling asleep during a live TV interview.

In fact, the video was pieced together from different sources, including a 2011 interview in which singer Harry Belafonte fell asleep on California TV station KBAK.

The sound of snoring was also added to that video.

The editor, Damon Imani, confirmed to Reuters that he had edited the footage together, but said that he had made it as a parody.

In February this year, a digitally altered photo falsely showed Biden sleeping in the Oval Office; that was also debunked.

As well as being widely shared on social media, the videos and photos are also sometimes shared by officials who lend the false footage an air of legitimacy.

Dan Scavino, social media director at the White House under the Trump administration, drew criticism after sharing a doctored video in September last year.

The persistent claims that Biden has been caught asleep on the job appear to relate to the ‘Sleepy Joe’ nickname that former one-term president Trump gave to Biden.

Trump also regularly described Biden as senile, something his supporters continue to do to this day.

 

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