Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
Army Cadets fill the stands during the first quarter of an NCAA football game between the Navy Midshipmen and the Army Black Knights at Gillette Stadium Saturday, Dec. 9, 2023, in Foxborough, Mass. An altered video from the game in which the crowd appears to yell an anti-Biden chant is spreading online. (AP Photo/Winslow Townson)
CLAIM: A video shows the crowd at this year’s Army-Navy football game chanting “F— Joe Biden.”
AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. The video has been edited to add the chant, which occurred at a concert in 2021. Unedited footage of the game shows the crowd, including a large contingent of Army cadets, singing and bouncing to an EDM song often played at Army football games and other sporting events.
THE FACTS: The altered video began spreading on social media following Saturday’s annual Army-Navy game.
In the clip, Army cadets and others in the spirited crowd jump in unison while appearing to chant the disparaging phrase about U.S. President Joe Biden at Gillette Stadium, home of the New England Patriots.
“Entire Crowd at Army VS Navy Game Chants ‘F*ck Joe Biden,’” reads one tweet that shared the edited footage. It had received approximately 37,000 likes and 11,000 shares as of Monday.
But the footage was edited to add the chant.
An unedited video of the same scene shows the cadets and other fans singing along to “Tsunami,” an EDM song released in 2013 by Canadian electronic music duo DVBBS and Borgeous, an American DJ. The track is often played at Army football games, as well as other athletic events.
“It’s inaccurate, it is false — it is blatantly false,” Army spokesperson Cynthia Smith told The Associated Press in reference to the erroneous claims.
Similar anti-Biden chants have been added to other footage of Biden, including his appearance at the University of Pennsylvania’s commencement in May and multiple videos of his speeches. The audio added to the video currently spreading online is from a 2021 concert in Scranton, Pennsylvania, featuring the rock band Staind.
The Army Black Knights of the U.S. Military Academy won this year’s matchup in Foxborough, Massachusetts, beating the Midshipmen of the U.S. Navy Academy 17-11.
___
This is part of AP’s effort to address widely shared misinformation, including work with outside companies and organizations to add factual context to misleading content that is circulating online. Learn more about fact-checking at AP.
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
