Old video misrepresented to suggest Joe Biden is weighing resignation

InfoWars founder Alex Jones is claiming a new video shows Joe Biden saying he might resign from the US presidency out of concern for his health following a shaky debate performance. But the clip is years old, and it shows Biden alluding to a hypothetical he discussed during his tenure as vice president under Barack Obama.

"Breaking Video: Biden Says He May Resign The Presidency For Medical Reasons," says a June 30, 2024 X post from Jones, a conspiracist and misinformation profiteer who has been ordered to pay nearly $1.5 billion in damages to the families of victims of a 2012 mass shooting he called a "hoax."

The post shows a snippet from a 2020 CNN segment in which Biden speaks to network anchor Jake Tapper alongside Vice President Kamala Harris.

Similar posts spread across X as the calendar flipped to July with the Biden campaign scrambling to assuage rumblings among some Democrats about the way the president presented himself during the June 27 debate with Republican former president Donald Trump, his presumptive opponent in November's election.

Some political commentators called for the 81-year-old Biden to stand down following the debate, including The New York Times editorial board, as polls show his age remains a concern for some voters.

The Democrat has attempted to tamp down the nay-saying with a fiery campaign speech in which he pledged to keep fighting, followed by a series of campaign fundraisers in which he sought to reassure high-dollar donors.

But contrary to Jones's claims, Biden did not indicate in a recent interview that he is considering abandoning the White House for medical reasons.

Keyword searches revealed the clip dates to December 3, 2020, when Biden and Harris had been elected to office but not yet inaugurated (archived here).

Tapper had asked Biden to describe the biggest surprise in working with Harris, who had campaigned against him before dropping out of the race and becoming his running mate.

Biden responded that he does not hold grudges. He said he and Harris share the same thoughts on government and ethics, likening it to his experience serving for eight years as Barack Obama's vice president.

"We are simpatico on our philosophy of government and simpatico on how we want to approach these issues that we're facing," Biden said. "And so, I don't have -- and when we disagree, it will be just like -- so far, it has been just like when Barack (Obama) and I did. It's in private."

He continued: "And like I told Barack, if I reach something where there's a fundamental disagreement we have based on a moral principle, I'll develop some disease and say I have to resign. We don't have that -- we haven't -- and we discussed at length our views on foreign policy, on domestic policy, on intelligence."

His reference to a career-ending disease appears to have been a hypothetical meant to make a point about his understanding on moral principles with Obama and Harris, well before the 2024 campaign.

AFP reached out to the White House for comment, but no response was forthcoming.

AFP has debunked other misinformation about US politics here.