By: Soham Shah
July 11 2024
No, Joe Biden did not use offensive language to refer to NATO secretary general
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Post claiming Joe Biden used a derogatory term to refer to the NATO Secretary General. (Source:X)
Fact-Check
The Verdict False
U.S. President Biden uses "intellectual rigor" when discussing Jens Stoltenberg, not a slur, as confirmed by the official transcript of his speech.
What is the claim?
A video circulating on social media purportedly depicts U.S. President Joe Biden calling Jens Stoltenberg, the Secretary General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), a "w****r" (a derogatory term used for a white person who tries to appropriate African-American culture).
The clip was shared on X (formerly Twitter) with captions such as "Joe Biden just called the Secretary of NATO an 'intellectual w****r'." Archived versions of these posts can be found here, here, here, and here.
Posts claiming Biden used a derogatory term to refer to the NATO secretary general. (Source:X)
However, we found that this claim is false.
What is the truth?
The viral posts feature a clip from Biden's speech aired by the White House. We located the full speech, delivered by Biden at the NATO summit marking the alliance's 75th anniversary, on the White House's official YouTube channel (archived here) on July 10, 2024.
At the 29:16 timestamp, Biden invites Stoltenberg to the stage, stating, "So much of the progress we've made in the alliance is thanks to the secretary. He's a man of integrity and intellectual rigor, a calm temperament in a moment of crisis..."
Media outlets such as ABC News also uploaded the speech (archived here). At the 11:45 timestamp of this video, both the audio and the YouTube-generated transcript clearly show Biden saying "rigor." Following his speech, Biden awarded the Secretary-General the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the U.S.
We slowed down the viral clip to 0.5x speed for better audio clarity, confirming that Biden indeed said "rigor."
Furthermore, the official transcript of Biden's speech on the White House website corroborates that he said "rigor" and not "w****r."
Reputable news organizations like CNN and Axios also reported on the event, quoting Biden's use of "rigor" without mentioning any use of offensive language.
Logically Facts has also debunked claims that Biden, during the same speech at the NATO Summit, made a derogatory sexual comment about NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg's wife.
The verdict
This claim is false. President Biden clearly said "intellectual rigor" when referring to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.