Fake video of child swearing at Jill Biden during book reading spreads like wildfire online

Edited footage with years-old audio shows Dr Biden being heckled by child yelling ‘shut the f**ck up’

A video of a child yelling at First Lady Jill Biden to “shut the f**ck up” during a reading at the White House is spreading wildly online despite being determined to be fake.

The edited video includes inserted audio of a child yelling the comment to make it appear as if it’s coming from off-camera. A full video of Dr Biden’s interaction with the young students doesn’t include the child’s comment.

Dr Biden met with second-grade students from Malcolm Elementary School in Maryland on Monday, hosting a reading of a kids’ book the first lady has written along with her granddaughter Natalie. The reading was part of the unveiling of the White House Christmas decorations.

Users on social media started sharing the edited video soon after the event. The audio of the child screaming comes from another viral video that has been shared online since at least 2019.

Some users said the video had been altered, but others posted it as if it was real. “A kid yells at Jill Biden just as she begins to read to them,” one tweet inaccurately says. The post had been liked almost 3,000 times as of Wednesday morning and has been viewed almost 230,000 times.

The previously used audio first appeared in a video that seemed to show a child yelling at a teacher during a graduation ceremony, prompting parents to reprimand the child. It’s not clear where the video was filmed, but the audio has been used in other videos to create often comedic moments.

In the edited video of Dr Biden, she starts to speak about her 2012 book Don’t Forget, God Bless Our Troops.

“When my son was away, my granddaughter — just like you kids — really, really missed her daddy. So I wrote this book to tell other kids, ’cause there’s lots of kids who don’t know what it’s like,” Dr Biden says before the added audio makes it appear as if she was interrupted by the screaming child.

First lady Jill Biden reads a book co-written with granddaughter Natalie, “Don’t Forget, God Bless Our Troops,” to a group of students from Malcolm Elementary School (AP)

The full-length video of Dr Biden’s appearance includes no interruptions and shows her finishing her remarks.

“So I wrote this book to tell other kids, ’cause there’s lots of kids who don’t know what it’s like to be a military kid,” she said.