Barack Obama appears to say ordinary people are too small-minded to govern themselves: real or AI?

What we found

The clip shows Barack Obama giving a speech in which he seems to say that ordinary men and women are too small-minded to govern their own affairs. It has been shared again on Facebook, almost 10,000 times, with posts claiming it was deleted from every platform years ago. The footage is real: it comes from a speech Obama gave to young Europeans in Brussels on 26 March 2014. Full Fact compared the clip with the White House video and transcript and found it had been cut. The words 'this alternative vision argues' were removed, so a view Obama was arguing against looks like his own, and a camera shot of the audience hides the join. PolitiFact, AP and Reuters had already checked the same clip. The lesson: real footage can be cut to reverse its meaning, so look for the full speech before trusting a short clip.

Key facts

Original source

The White House (Obama administration) ↗

First published

26 March 2014, speech in Brussels published by the White House

Earlier appearances

Not recorded

The claim you saw

No caption recorded

Signs of AI

None that decide it

The evidence, strongest first

What we couldn’t establish

Who first made the edit, and how many times the latest copies have been viewed. If you know more, tell us.