Video of President Obama Kicking a Door-Fiction!
Summary of eRumor:
A forwarded video of what appears to be President Obama angrily kicking a door after a press conference.
The Truth:
The video was a digital manipulation by the special effects department at The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on NBC for a joke that the late night host delivered during one of his monologs. The video, complete with a set up by Leno was found on the program’s web site. Click for Tonight Show video.
On the video, Leno set up the joke saying that the President’s body language as he was leaving the podium may have revealed that the bipartisan leadership talks had not been as smoothly as President Obama had stated. The version of the video that circulated on the Internet left out the set up by Leno but failed to edit out all of the audience laughter at the end of the video. Some versions of this video are circulating on the Internet without any audio.
President Obama made a televised statement on November 30, 2010 after meeting with bipartisan leadership to discuss the federal budget. This is the original video source that was used for the joke.
Looking closely at the prank video revealed the stars on the flag went out of focus and moved slightly at the edit point as the President walked away from the podium.
updated 10/25/11