© 2024 Blaze Media LLC. All rights reserved.
White House Says ‘Technical Issue’ Led to Omission of Key Piece of Audio in Video of Bilateral Meeting

White House Says ‘Technical Issue’ Led to Omission of Key Piece of Audio in Video of Bilateral Meeting

"A technical issue...led to a brief drop in the audio recording of the English interpretation."

The White House said Friday evening that a technical problem was responsible for video uploaded online that dropped audio of French President Francois Hollande saying "Islamist terrorism" at a bilateral meeting this week.

"A technical issue with the audio during the recording of President Hollande's remarks led to a brief drop in the audio recording of the English interpretation," a White House official said in a statement provided to TheBlaze. "As soon as this was brought to our attention, we posted an updated video online with the complete audio, which is consistent with the written transcript we released yesterday."

[sharequote align="center"]"A technical issue...led to a brief drop in the audio recording of the English interpretation."[/sharequote]

The official noted that the official transcript uploaded to the White House's website always contained the phrase.

The conservative Media Research Center first noted Friday that the White House had uploaded video which silenced the French president's English translator just as she said "Islamist terrorism," a phrase that President Barack Obama has avoided using.

According to the MRC, the White House pulled video, then re-uploaded it to redact the audio of Hollande's translator. The MRC suggested the first version of the video was later reinstated after its report drew attention to the issue.

Here's the video of both versions uploaded by the MRC:

A White House official, however, disputed that report and said that the initial video uploaded failed to include the audio because of the "technical issue."

The official said that when the White House became aware of the error, they replaced the faulty video with the amended version.

Follow the author of this story on Twitter and Facebook:

Want to leave a tip?

We answer to you. Help keep our content free of advertisers and big tech censorship by leaving a tip today.
Want to join the conversation?
Already a subscriber?