That video of President Joe Biden discussing aliens is so far out it’s fake

"Joe really does believe in aliens," reads the text over a video of what appears to be President Joe Biden telling CNN anchor Anderson Cooper about an extraterrestrial encounter. 

"I think there’s a man on the moon or whatever, you know, something, you know, whether those aliens are here or not, I’m not sure I’m going to talk to them but they’re real," Biden says in the video. "I promise you. I guarantee you. I’ve had this encounter with one of them. And I’d get up in the night in the middle of the night with a flashlight, and I’d look for them."

At this point in the video, Biden puts a hand to his forehead and looks out at the audience, which is filled with people wearing face masks.

"I could tell when I saw him," Biden continues, "when he put his hand out he went like this."

In the video, Biden then points to the side.

"For the love of God, retire," someone commented on a Feb. 15 Facebook post sharing this video. It was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)

The video, which amassed 92,000 views, is a compilation of footage from three different CNN town halls in 2021, two with Cooper and one with CNN anchor Don Lemon.

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On Feb. 16, 2021, for example, Biden said, "I promise you," in response to a parent’s question about when children would be able to get the COVID-19 vaccine. 

"So don’t worry about it, baby," Biden said, addressing the parent’s daughter, who worried that she would catch COVID-19 and die. "I promise you. But I know, it’s kind of worrisome. Are you in first grade, second grade?"

On July 21, 2021, he said, "I’ve had this encounter with China" — not an alien. He did mention aliens, but in the context of using "trusted interlocutors" to change the minds of people who are skeptical of COVID-19 vaccines. 

"There are trusted interlocutors," Biden said. "Think of the people — if your kid wanted to find out whether or not there were — there’s a man on the moon, or whatever — you know, something, or, you know, whether those aliens are here or not — you know, who are the people they talk to beyond the kids who love talking about it?  They go to people they respect, and they say, ‘What do you think?’"

And on Oct. 21, 2021, he joked that first lady Jill Biden "went like this," and then pointed "down the hall" for him to sleep in another bedroom in the White House after failing to get free community college in a piece of legislation. 

We rate claims that this is an authentic video showing Biden talking about an alien encounter False.