A video showing President Biden authorizing a new round of stimulus checks is fake. The audio was manipulated from a video taken during COP26.
The third stimulus check, formally known as an economic impact payment, was a product of the American Rescue Plan enacted in March 2021. Those eligible for payments received up to $1,400, and married couples filing a joint return received up to $2,800. As of late July 2021, the IRS said it had made more than 171 million payments.
Since stimulus checks were first issued, taxpayers have been warned about scams. Many viewers have also emailed VERIFY to ask if the fourth round of payments is in the works.
A video claiming to show President Joe Biden announced the next wave of stimulus checks has been shared widely on Facebook. In the video, Biden appears to say, “Some people in the country will start seeing those direct deposits in their bank accounts this weekend and payments to eligible Americans will continue throughout the course of the next several weeks.”
The video also shows a screenshot at the bottom alleging Biden is signing an executive order.
The Fake Stimulus Checks Video Was Posted On Facebook
The video was posted to a Facebook page called “Care First Homes,” which only has 830 followers, and was viewed more than 45,000 times.
The post said, “We came across this on the news last night and were so happy. My friend also called me this morning and told me about the great news for medicare holders in the US. All I did was entered [sic] my zip on the website and confirmed my medicare details and now we are getting back $2880. Just check zip on the website!”
The fake video is not from a newscast, nor is it an official White House video. Facebook has also labeled the post as “missing context.”
The video footage was edited from a speech President Joe Biden delivered at COP26, the United Nations climate change conference held in November 2021. The audio in the video posted to Facebook is also out of sync with Biden’s lips, and was either digitally altered to sound like him or is someone doing an impression of the president.
