MISSOURI, USA —
A Missouri candidate for governor is facing backlash from a fellow legislator for posting a "fake video" to his X, formerly Twitter, account promoting his campaign.
Senator Bill Eigel, who represents part of St. Charles County, posted the video on Tuesday which appears to show a crowd in a bar watching one of his promotional campaign videos and cheering after Eigel said Missouri should eliminate personal property tax.
Is the video edited? We dug into the facts to VERIFY.
The question:
Did a crowded bar really cheer for a Senator Bill Eigel video?
Our sources:
- Tineye- a reverse image search engine
- A spokesperson for Senator Bill Eigel
- House Bill 2628
- KnowYourMeme.com
The answer
No, a crowded bar did not cheer for an Eigel video. The video Eigel posted was edited.
What we found
The ecstatic crowd video that Eigel posted is from 2016 when soccer fans celebrated after the England national soccer team scored a goal against the Wales national team. The original video was originally posted by the Heart News West Country YouTube account, but the video has since become a viral meme.
The soccer match on the screen in the original video has been replaced with numerous different videos, including a bouncing DVD logo, a yule log video and even a moment from Seinfeld, according to the meme database website Know Your Meme.
Eigel's tweet was called out by Missouri Representative Ashley Aune, who represents Platte County.
"We just passed a bill out of the house that would make this kind of fake campaigning illegal," Aune said.
The bill Aunne referenced is HB 2628, which "prohibits any person or entity from, within 90 days of an election, distributing a synthetic media message of any candidate or party for elective office who will appear on a state or local ballot." The bill near-unanimously passed the Missouri House. It has now moved to the Missouri Senate for debate.
When 5 On Your Side asked Senator Eigel about the video and Representative Aune’s criticism, he said “these miserable leftists have no sense of humor. And now they want to be the meme police.”
We can VERIFY: A crowd did not cheer for an Eigel promotional video.
VERIFY
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