ANALYSIS: White House Press Conference Video Manipulated to Spread False Pro-Russian Narrative

On May 8 a video appeared on X (formerly Twitter) of an exchange at a White House press conference held on the previous day. The video, posted by @Sprinterfactory, with nearly 600,000 views, showed an unidentified journalist asking White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre a question.

The journalist’s voice in the brief video says: “Meanwhile, it’s known that Ukraine itself has mixed views on this ideology. Why aren’t we condemning Ukrainian manifestations of Nazism and continuing to sponsor it?”

Jean-Pierre, who is wearing a green blouse and white earrings at the podium, responds: “Seventy-nine years ago, the United States and our Ukrainian allies joined forces to combat the oppressive regimes of Hitler and Stalin. While Berlin is now an ally, the threat from the East persists. That’s why we’re committed to standing by Ukraine and offering our full support in any way we can.”

The journalist’s voice is not in sync with his lips when he asks the question, and in comparison to the voice heard on the official White House video of the press conference, it is noticeably different. This would indicate a high probability of AI manipulation.

Jean-Pierre’s response, on the other hand, seems to be in sync with her lips, although nowhere in the White House transcript does she mention the words “Berlin” or “Hitler and Stalin.” While her outfit and hair is clearly the same, the content of her speech appears to have been inserted with slightly more sophisticated AI technology, which allows for manipulation of facial features.

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Moreover, what she actually says in the clip is patently false, if not absurd. Seventy-nine years before the date of the press conference in question, Hitler had just died, and the US was still an ally of Stalin, whose forces had just taken Berlin. Ukraine, at the time, had no state to speak of – apart from the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic ruled by Stalin himself – and the overwhelming majority of Ukrainian soldiers were fighting in the ranks of the Soviet Union’s Red Army.

The actual video of the entire press conference clearly shows the same exchange with completely different words being uttered.

According to the transcript, at the 18:30 mark of the video, the journalist who appears in the @Sprinterfactory post asks questions about the situation in Gaza and never mentions Ukraine:

“Thank you, Karine. Cindy McCain, the head of the UN World Food Programme [WFP], said over the weekend that northern Gaza is currently experiencing ‘full-blown famine.’ That famine is moving southward towards southern Gaza. Currently, as you and Mr. Kirby have said, the two main checkpoints for aid, Kerem Shalom and Rafah, are closed, and the President has asked for those to be reopened.

“This is an ongoing pattern. Israel closes crossings. The President asks for them to be reopened. The crossings are eventually reopened. Some aid starts to flow through again. But then, Israel cuts off the flow of aid into Gaza once more, even though the President has said multiple times that it is important that aid be flowing continuously. And he seems to keep pushing for it, only to get these one step forward, two steps back results.

“Does the White House have any plan to convince, cajole, pressure Israel into allowing a steady flow of aid into Gaza, other than asking nicely?”

Jean Pierre responds: “So, let’s just — just say — just give a little bit of readout. Over the past — since early April, the past several weeks, we have seen over 5,000 trucks entered Gaza…”

Ukraine is never mentioned in her response to the journalist.

Conclusion

Kyiv Post analysis has determined that the video posted by @Sprinterfactory has certainly been manipulated.

The source, @Sprinterfactory, whose landing page on X has the image of a bear, is a veritable factory of pro-Russian and Iranian propaganda. Quite likely it is part of the Russian network of “trolls” meant to undermine spread anti-American messaging.