President Joe Biden, trying to lower record-high gas prices, has released an unprecedented amount of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserves, first in November 2021 and again in March 2022.
A post critical of Biden claims he recycled his December 2021 announcement about the reserves nearly word-for-word three months later. It shows two videos of Biden delivering very similar remarks at podiums with different backgrounds.
"Two separate occasions, months apart, exact same speech,” text in the meme reads on Instagram.
Fact check:No, the government is not emptying the Strategic Petroleum Reserve
The comparison of the clips posted by Instagram user David Harris Jr. on July 12 racked up more than 900,000 views in five days.
"A puppet," Harris Jr. captions the meme. "Not a commander of anything."
However, the meme's main premise is false: the videos don't show Biden using the same messaging months apart.
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C-SPAN archives show the videos were taken just two days apart in December 2021 and show the president discussing the same event. Biden's announcements of Strategic Petroleum Reserve releases on March 1 and March 31 don't match his comments in the clips.
USA TODAY reached out to Harris Jr. for comment.
The rightmost clip, which shows...
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