Fact Check: Did Joe Biden Fall Asleep During Maui Fire Event?

President Joe Biden's response to the wildfires in Maui, which have claimed the lives of at least 115 people, has been roundly criticized by conservatives who claim he has not behaved appropriately following the disaster.

Biden had been attacked for an initial "no comment" after being asked about the death toll, and faced further scrutiny at a community event on Monday for making a joke that appeared to compare the deadly blaze with almost losing his '67 Corvette.

Video from that same event this week, shared on social media, has since been used by conservative commentators to suggest Biden fell asleep as community leaders spoke.

The Claim

Several posts by conservative commentators on X, formerly Twitter, on August 22, 2023, suggested that Joe Biden fell asleep during an engagement event in Lahaina, Hawaii, which addressed the recent wildfires in Maui.

A post by DC_Draino, since viewed more than 400,000 times, stated Biden "just fell asleep during a ceremony in Hawaii honoring the hundreds of Americans killed by the fires."

Trending Politics' Collin Rugg also sent a post, since viewed more than 560,000 times, which stated: "Biden appears to briefly fall asleep during a ceremony in Maui honoring the hundreds of people who died."

Another post by Fox News host Sean Hannity, since viewed more than 102,000 times, stated: "Biden appears to fall asleep during a ceremony in Hawaii honoring the hundreds of Americans killed by the fires."

The Facts

The comments based on the clip shared on X, taken from the community event in Lahaina, Hawaii, are inaccurate.

The clips, taken from a TV broadcast, are of particularly low quality, making it hard to tell whether the president's eyes are open or not. There is no way to tell from them whether he is sleeping and, alone, may well just show the president bowing his head as he listens.

Full, high-quality video from C-SPAN, however, clearly shows that the president was not sleeping during the event.

The C-SPAN video, at around 19 minutes, shows Biden with his head upright, before he bows, continuing to listen, before returning his gaze. The footage shows him blinking as his head is down. Less than 10 minutes later, Biden joined the stage to give a speech.

The clips on X do not show this, only depicting the moment while his head was down.

This is not the first time that a video of Biden has been used claiming to show the president falling asleep during an important event.

In July, political commentator Monica Crowley suggested he had dozed during a meeting with Israeli President Isaac Herzog. However, the clip was edited from a longer video, which showed Biden had only paused as he listed a number of U.S.-backed talks and negotiations, his gaze returning to meet Herzog's seconds later.

The Ruling

False.

Biden did not fall asleep during the community event in Lahaina. High-quality video footage shows the president bowing his head, with his eyes open, before returning his glance toward the event's stage.

The clips shared on X are edited down and of sufficiently poor quality to help falsely suggest that he was asleep.

FACT CHECK BY Newsweek's Fact Check team