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stated on January 15, 2025 in social media posts:

Former President Joe Biden’s farewell address was prerecorded and the event livestream shows “his handlers queuing it up.”

President Joe Biden speaks from the Oval Office of the White House as he gives his farewell address Jan. 15, 2025, in Washington. (AP)

By Sofia Ahmed January 22, 2025

No, former President Joe Biden’s farewell speech was not prerecorded

If Your Time is short

The video shows someone opening a JPEG or image file, not a video file.
Multiple media outlets livestreamed former President Joe Biden’s farewell remarks.
Photos from Jan. 15 that were taken through a window outside the Oval Office show Biden delivering his speech.

See the sources for this fact-check

On Jan. 15, during his final week in office, former President Joe Biden delivered a farewell speech, and some social media users claimed the speech was prerecorded.

"Shocker! Joe Biden’s farewell address to America was pre-recorder," an Instagram post said, seemingly meaning prerecorded. "The official livestream just accidentally caught his staff queuing it up." The post included a video of a screen recording where someone opens a file with an image of Biden and text that reads, "President Joe Biden Oval Office address, January 15, 2025."

This post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and Threads.)

But the video is not proof that Biden’s speech was prerecorded. A closer look at the video reveals that the screen recording shows someone opening a JPEG or image file, not a video file.

Many news outlets, including The Associated Press, NBC News, ABC News and CBS livestreamed Biden’s speech. The Associated Press livestream included the same image seen in the Instagram post, before Biden began speaking.

Instagram posts

stated on January 14, 2025 in an Instagram post

Video shows “Israeli tourists celebrating” the Los Angeles wildfires.

Patrick Maks, an Associated Press spokesperson, told PolitiFact the image was a "slate" before the president spoke. A slate is content that can be used as a placeholder during a livestream.

Trump’s communications director and press secretary shared the video claiming Biden’s remarks were prerecorded, The Associated Press reported.

But photos taken Jan. 15 show Biden delivering his farewell address the same day.

A Jan. 15 Associated Press image, taken through a window outside the Oval Office, shows Biden giving his speech. And a Jan. 15 Getty Images photo depicts Biden arriving at the Oval Office for his remarks.

Biden’s White House team did not respond to PolitiFact’s Jan. 17 questions about the Instagram post, and Trump’s White House team did not respond to Jan. 21 questions about Karoline Leavitt, Trump’s press secretary, resharing the video.

We rate the claim that Biden’s farewell address was prerecorded and the livestream shows "his handlers queuing it up" False.