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Sara Swann
By Sara Swann July 25, 2023

No, this video doesn’t show Joe Biden leaving midinterview with MSNBC

If Your Time is short

  • President Joe Biden didn’t leave in the middle of his June 29 interview with MSNBC’s "Deadline: White House" anchor Nicolle Wallace. A 10-second clip of his exit was taken out of context; this happened at the end of the 20-minute interview.

Some social media users shared a misleading video of President Joe Biden appearing to abruptly walk out of an on-air interview. But it was edited to omit what really happened.

The caption of a Facebook video, shared June 30, read, "Biden just gets up and leaves during a live TV interview."

In the 10-second clip, Biden gets up and shakes hands with MSNBC’s "Deadline: White House" anchor Nicolle Wallace. The two exchange thank-yous before Biden walks off the TV set as Wallace addresses the cameras.

A June 30 tweet made a similar claim with a screenshot of Biden walking off the set. TikTok videos also shared the brief clip of Biden’s exit and questioned why the president left during a live interview.

The Facebook video 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 and Instagram.)

Biden didn’t leave midinterview, as the social media posts suggest.

Biden’s exit occurs at the end of his 20-minute interview with Wallace, which aired June 29. The two discussed the Supreme Court’s rulings on affirmative action and abortion, foreign policy and bipartisanship.

The full interview on MSNBC shows Wallace signaling the end of the segment about 17 minutes into the video, and then Biden walking off the set a couple of minutes later after thanking and shaking hands with Wallace.

"Well, Mr. President, we don’t get a lot of presidents through this studio, so consider it your chair, consider it an open invitation. They’re going to be a lot of things on people’s minds, and I hope you’ll look at this as a place you can come and talk about anything that’s on your mind," Wallace said.

"It’s been an honor to be here. I really mean it," Biden replied. "Thank you, thank you, thank you."

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"Thank you so much. Thank you so much, sir," Wallace said as she shook Biden’s hand. "To be continued. We’re really grateful."

Then Biden quipped, "This ain’t your father’s Republican Party."

"It is not. I can attest to that," Wallace replied. "If you ever need a witness, I can attest to that. Thank you very much."

Following this exchange, Biden remained at the interview desk and spoke for about a minute about Republicans who have privately agreed with him on certain issues and how bipartisanship is still possible.

"I said I’d be a president for every American, whether they voted for me or not," Biden said before getting up from the interview desk.

Wallace said, "Well, and the ones who didn’t vote for your bills but run on them." As Biden stood up, Wallace said, "Mr. President, thank you."

"Thank you, Nicolle. I appreciate it. Thank you, thank you, thank you," Biden said, shaking Wallace’s hand.

"Thank you very much. It was great to have you," Wallace said to Biden before turning back to the cameras.

The Facebook video ends after this exchange, cutting off Wallace midsentence as she addressed the cameras and giving the impression that Biden left with the interview in progress.

A longer clip of Biden’s exit, shared on Twitter, shows Wallace announcing a commercial break. "Don’t go anywhere. It’s a very exciting day around here. We’ll have reaction and analysis to everything we just heard from the president. We’ll be back after a short break."

We rate the claim that a video shows Biden left abruptly amid a live TV interview False.

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No, this video doesn’t show Joe Biden leaving midinterview with MSNBC

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