Fact check: Biden was quoting Walmart US CEO when he said 'end of quote' during speech

McKenzie Sadeghi, USA TODAY
·4 min read

The claim: Video shows Joe Biden reading 'end of quote' from a teleprompter

Critics of Joe Biden are taking the president's comments out of context on social media to make it seem like he forgot he was reading off a teleprompter.

A viral clip shows Biden saying, "Because of the actions we have taken, things have begun to change. End of quote."

Some social media users who shared the brief video mocked the president, comparing the moment to a scene in the movie "Anchorman."

"Joe Biden reads 'end of quote' off the teleprompter never saw Trump doing that," reads the caption of a Nov. 23 video shared to Facebook by The Committee to Defeat the President, a conservative super PAC.

The post accumulated more than 17,000 views within a day. The eight-second video quickly went viral on Twitter, where it was shared by The Post Millennial and Insider Paper, among other accounts.

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But the clip is misleading. While Biden did read "end of quote" during a speech, the full context of his remarks show he was quoting the CEO of Walmart U.S.

The Facebook page that shared the video did not return a request for comment.

Biden was quoting someone else

The clip of Biden saying "end of quote" was taken from a roughly 11-minute speech on Nov. 23, in which he addressed inflation and discussed the state of the U.S. economy ahead of Thanksgiving.

While Biden did say "end of quote" at one point during his remarks, the full video and transcript show he was quoting Walmart U.S. CEO John Furner.

"You may have heard the CEO of Walmart yesterday on the steps we’ve taken," Biden said during the speech. "He said, and I quote, 'The combination of private enterprise and government working together has been really successful.' He went on to say, 'All the way through the supply chain, there’s ... a lot of innovation.' Because of the actions we’ve taken, things have begun to change. End of quote."

The statement Biden was referencing stems from a Nov. 22 MSNBC interview, when Furner was questioned about how to solve supply chain issues.

Biden has repeatedly said "end of quote" when citing statements made by other people. Previous White House transcripts show he used the same language at least two other times in November alone.

Fact check: Video purporting to show child swearing at Jill Biden is manipulated

USA TODAY has previously fact-checked videos that critique Biden based on videos taken out of context..

USA TODAY reached out to the White House for comment.

Our rating: Missing context

Based on our research, we rate MISSING CONTEXT the claim that a video shows Biden reading "end of quote" from a teleprompter, because without additional details it is misleading. Biden said "end of quote" because he was referencing a statement made by the CEO of Walmart U.S. Edited versions of the clip omit that context and suggest he mistakenly said "end of quote."

Our fact-check sources:

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fact check: Joe Biden 'end of quote' clip taken out of context online

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