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Video is a deepfake, not Biden secretary performing 'pagan' chant | Fact check

Hannah Hudnall   Paste BN
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The claim: Video shows Assistant Health Secretary Rachel Levine performing pagan chant

A Nov. 19 Facebook video (direct link, archive link) shows a woman in glasses and a shawl performing an equinox-related ritual in the forest.

"Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services Dr. 'Rachel' Levine is also a High Pagan Priestess," the post's caption reads.

Other versions of the claim were shared on Facebook and X.

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Our rating: Altered

The video is a deepfake of Assistant Health Secretary Rachel Levine. Her face was edited onto a video of the senior minister of a spiritual church in Wisconsin.

Video edited to show assistant health secretary

Levine has been the subject of misinformation and disparaging online comments throughout her career as assistant health secretary.

But the video connecting her to a supposed pagan ritual is altered.

Levine's face was digitally superimposed over the face of a woman named Selena Fox, who originally shared the video on Instagram on Sept. 15. Fox's face differs from Levine's, and she does not wear glasses in the original footage.

The video is an example of a deepfake, which is when an image or video is convincingly altered to make it appear as though someone did or said something they didn't.

Fox is listed as a senior minister and high priestess on the website for Circle Sanctuary, which describes itself as a "nature spirituality church" and "pagan resource center" in Wisconsin.

She confirmed to Paste BN that the altered Facebook video was based on her original footage, in which she was celebrating the upcoming autumnal equinox. Her original post's caption includes the phrase "#Equinoxiscoming next Sunday" and she can be heard chanting about the equinox during the video.

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Fox also said the video was altered in several Facebook posts.

In one such post, she linked to AFP's fact-check of the claim and said, "ALERT: In the News: Video of Equinox Ritual Chant at our Equinox Stone is of me, Selena Fox & NOT Federal H&HS Assistant Secretary Rachel Levine!"

Paste BN reached out to the user who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

Lead Stories also debunked the claim.

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