Macron dismisses viral moment with wife as 'joking around' after disinformation claims backfire
French President Emmanuel Macron allegedly argued that video images showing his wife Brigitte pushing him away with both hands in the face on Monday were a pro-Russian disinformation campaign.
"Brigitte's hands #Macron brought to the PR's face at #Hanoï : the Élysée initially denied the veracity of the images, suggesting a video generated by AI and relayed by pro-Russian accounts, before finally authenticating the sequence and evoking a moment of "complicity," a post from the French outlet, Brèves de presse, claimed.
Although Macron's office initially denied the authenticity of the images, The Associated Press later confirmed them as genuine.
His office has continued to downplay the incident following the initial attempt to suggest a pro-Russia disinformation campaign.
"It was a moment where the president and his wife were decompressing one last time before the start of the trip by horsing around. It's a moment of complicity. It was all that was needed to give ammunition to the conspiracy theorists," his office said.
Macron has also told reporters that the couple were just joking around.
"We are squabbling and, rather, joking with my wife," he said, adding that the incident was being overblown into "a sort of geo-planetary catastrophe."
Video of the incident showed a uniformed man opening the plane door as Macron was seen wearing a suit and standing in the doorway. Brigitte Macron's arms – in red sleeves – could be seen reaching out and pushing Macron away, with one hand covering his mouth and part of his nose while the other was on his jaw. The French president turned his head away but suddenly noticed news cameras capturing the moment. He quickly smiled and waved before exiting the door frame.
Macron and his wife later disembarked the stairs of the aircraft together. The French president offered his arm, though the first lady – seen wearing a red blazer – did not take hold of it.
The video quickly went viral and was mainly promoted by accounts that have been accused of being habitually hostile to the French leader.
"For three weeks … there are people who have watched videos and think I shared a bag of cocaine, that I had a fight with the Turkish president, and that now I'm having a domestic dispute with my wife," said Macron. "None of these are true. Everyone needs to calm down."
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Washington Post
2 hours ago
- Washington Post
UN assembly elects Germany's ex-foreign minister as next president after Russia demands secret vote
UNITED NATIONS — The U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly elected Germany's former foreign minister Annalena Baerbock to be the next head of the 193-member world body in a secret-ballot vote demanded by Russia. Baerbock got 167 votes, almost double the 88 votes needed to win, while high-ranking German diplomat Helga Schmid received 7 votes as a write-in and 14 countries abstained.
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Tulsa mayor unveils plan for $100M trust to 'repair' effect of 1921 Race Massacre
Tulsa Mayor Monroe Nichols is proposing a $100 million private trust as part of a reparations plan for descendants of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. Nichols, the city's first Black mayor, told the Associated Press that the proposal wouldn't require city council approval, but the council would need to authorize the transfer of any city property to the trust. Dig deeper Tulsa Mayor Monroe Nichols said the private trust would offer descendants of the Tulsa Race Massacre scholarships and housing help. This plan would not give direct cash payments to descendants or the last two centenarian survivors of the attack that killed as many as 300 Black people. RELATED:Reparations lawsuit for 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre dismissed by judge Nichols told reporters he does not use the term reparations, which he calls politically charged, characterizing his plan instead as a "road to repair." The Associated Press reported that the trust would be created with a goal to secure $105 million in assets, with most of the funding either secured or committed by June 1, 2026. The plan calls for the bulk of the funding, $60 million, to go toward improving buildings and revitalizing Tulsa's north side. Nichols made the announcement about the plan at the Greenwood Cultural Center, located in the district of North Tulsa that was destroyed by a white mob during the massacre. There are only two living survivors of the Race Massacre in Tulsa, both of whom are 110 years old: Leslie Benningfield Randle and Viola Fletcher. The women, both of whom were in attendance on Sunday for the event. The backstory TheTulsa Race Massacre occurred between May 31 and June 1, 1921 in the Greenwood community, a Black-owned business district and residential neighborhood in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Sparked by allegations that a 19-year-old Black man had assaulted a 17-year-old white girl in an elevator, the Greenwood community, known as Black Wall Street because of the number of Black-owned businesses, was destroyed in a two-day attack by a white mob. RELATED:Tulsa Race Massacre survivor Hughes Van Ellis dies at 102 Tulsa's police department appointed white mobs and provided them with guns. Some reports describe white men with badges setting fires and shooting Black people as part of the Greenwood invasion. In the aftermath of the attack, roughly 300 Black people were killed. Over a thousand homes were burned and others looted, leaving 10,000 residents displaced and homeless and the Black business district destroyed. As residents worked to rebuild the Greenwood community, thousands of residents during the winter of 1921-22 were forced to live in tents, according to the Oklahoma Historical Society. Dig deeper Tulsa is not the first U.S. city to explore reparations. The Chicago suburb of Evanston, Illinois, was the first U.S. city to make reparations available to its Black residents for past discrimination, offering qualifying households $25,000 for home repairs, down payments on property, and interest or late penalties on property in the city. The funding for the program came from taxes on the sale of recreational marijuana. According to the Associated Press, other places and organizations that have considered providing reparations range from the state of California to cities including Amherst, Massachusetts; Providence, Rhode Island; Asheville, North Carolina; and Iowa City, Iowa; religious denominations like the Episcopal Church; and prominent colleges like Georgetown University in Washington. The Source Information for this story was provided by the Associated Press and the Oklahoma Historical Society, which provides background on the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. This story was reported from Washington, D.C.
Bloomberg
3 hours ago
- Bloomberg
Hagar Chemali on Lawmakers Weigh New Sanctions on Russia
Hagar Chemali, Greenwich Media Strategies Founder & CEO, discusses members of Congress proposing new sanctions imposed on Russia ahead of the G7 Summit later this month. She also talks about Ukraine using drones to hit Russian nuclear bombers and what Russia's potential response could be. Hagar speaks with Kailey Leinz and Joe Mathieu on the late edition of Bloomberg's 'Balance of Power.' (Source: Bloomberg)
