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Fact check: No, Biden didn't repeat speech about Strategic Petroleum Reserve 3 months later

Bayliss Wagner   | Paste BN

The claim: Clips show Biden gave near-identical speeches about oil reserve releases in December 2021 and March 2022

President Joe Biden, trying to lower record-high gas prices, has released an unprecedented amount of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserves, first in November 2021 and again in March 2022.

A post critical of Biden claims he recycled his December 2021 announcement about the reserves nearly word-for-word three months later. It shows two videos of Biden delivering very similar remarks at podiums with different backgrounds.

"Two separate occasions, months apart, exact same speech,” text in the meme reads on Instagram.

Fact check: No, the government is not emptying the Strategic Petroleum Reserve

The comparison of the clips posted by Instagram user David Harris Jr. on July 12 racked up more than 900,000 views in five days. 

"A puppet," Harris Jr. captions the meme. "Not a commander of anything." 

However, the meme's main premise is false: the videos don't show Biden using the same messaging months apart.

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C-SPAN archives show the videos were taken just two days apart in December 2021 and show the president discussing the same event. Biden's announcements of Strategic Petroleum Reserve releases on March 1 and March 31 don't match his comments in the clips.

Paste BN reached out to Harris Jr. for comment.

Both clips are from December 2021

The rightmost clip, which shows Biden in front of a blue banner with eagle insignia, was recorded first. It comes from a longer speech on the administration's response to economic and supply chain issues on Dec. 1, 2021, and was delivered in the Eisenhower Executive Building, C-SPAN archives and the White House transcript show.

The clip on the left side of the meme comes from a news conference Biden gave on December 3, 2021. The large, white fireplace visible in the clip, decorated with pine branches and string lights for the holidays, is that of the White House State Dining Room, according to C-SPAN and the White House transcript.

In the clip, Biden's voice is noticeably deeper and raspier than usual, which he attributes to a cold he caught from his grandson.

As the side-by-side comparison of the roughly minute-long clips makes clear, Biden's comments in each are nearly identical. They begin with Biden saying that he has "used every tool available to address the (oil and gas) price increases" and references his announcement of the release of 50 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve on Nov. 23, 2021.

However, the speeches did not follow the same script overall. His Dec. 1 speech focused on supply chain issues, inflation and the Build Back Better Plan, while his Dec. 3 remarks included a nod to the November 2021 jobs report and a discussion of COVID-19.

Our rating: False

Based on our research, we rate FALSE the claim that the clips show Biden gave near-identical speeches about oil reserve releases in December 2021 and March 2022. The clips in the posts making this claim were recorded on Dec. 1, 2021, and Dec. 3, 2021, not in March 2022, and were part of different speeches.

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