A false online rumor claims U.S. President Joe Biden delivered his July 24, 2024, live televised address while seated in a fake Oval Office located in a White House bunker. According to the rumor, a photo of the wristwatch worn by Biden displayed the incorrect time, purportedly indicating his remarks were not actually broadcast live.
These claims and Biden’s speech related to the president’s decision to drop out of the 2024 presidential election. On July 21, 2024, he announced in a letter he would no longer seek a second term. In the letter, Biden endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as his preference for the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee.
The idea behind the false rumor apparently was that — following Biden’s announcement he would drop out — unidentified forces of “pure evil” controlled the White House, with even the president himself no longer having freedom or power.
X user Matt Wallace (@MattWallace888) promoted this rumor in posts and in a video on Rumble.com. Other users also shared similar rumors or simply engaged with Wallace’s posts. As we have previously reported, Wallace is a known purveyor of misinformation, using X as a megaphone for the large-scale promotion of false rumors.
However, one twist in this specific case came when Wallace accidentally debunked his own conspiracy theory with a new post about a different false rumor. Soon after, Wallace deleted that newer post.
Wallace did not respond to our direct message asking questions about his false posts, including whether he personally believes the content he posts or if his efforts mainly center around making money via content monetization.
In this story, we’ll walk through Wallace’s false posts about the Biden-bunker conspiracy theory, review the facts, present evidence, explain how Wallace accidentally disproved his own posts and then examine the specific language he chose for his video.
Wallace’s Posts
On July 24, Wallace posted, “The Watch From Their ‘Live’ ‘Joe Biden’ Speech Tonight DISPLAYED THE WRONG TIME. What’s really going on here is much more dark and disturbing than most can even imagine.” Quotation marks around both “live” and “Joe Biden” indicated Wallace’s attempt to persuade his followers into believing a false rumor about a Biden “body double” — a matter we’ve reported about before — as well as the false claim Biden did not deliver his speech live.
In a subsequent post, Wallace linked to a monetized video on his Rumble.com account, falsely claiming, “EXCLUSIVE REPORT: JOE BIDEN IS BEING HELD IN THE BUNKER UNDER THE WHITE HOUSE! SPREAD THIS VIDEO QUICKLY BEFORE THEY PUT IT ON THE BLACKLIST.”
In a third post, from July 25, Wallace once again linked to the video, adding, “FAKE OVAL OFFICE EXPOSED! ONLY WATCH THIS FOOTAGE IF YOU ARE PREPARED TO EXPERIENCE PURE EVIL.”
‘Fluttering’ and ‘Movement’ Visible Behind Biden
In Wallace’s brief video posted on Rumble.com, he displayed a close-up view of the window directly behind Biden. Wallace said, “As you can also see right here, the fluttering in the background. Strange movement that is not commonplace. This coming in from @ImMeme0 on X.”
However, as a community note on X revealed, the “fluttering” and “movement” were nothing more than a reflection of Biden’s teleprompter repeatedly moving and pausing as he read his speech.
Biden’s Watch
Regarding the false rumor Biden’s watch displayed the incorrect time, Wallace said in his video on Rumble.com, “It was filmed at around 1:38 p.m., I believe, which means that Joe Biden was filming that in the daytime, and yet, huh, I wonder why it’s dark outside.” Wallace then said in his video he couldn’t definitively confirm the wristwatch rumor.
However, as X user @dieworkwear and others noted, high-quality pictures captured by professional photographers in the Oval Office during the address showed Biden’s watch correctly displayed a time just after 8:00 p.m. EDT — the same time he started his speech.
For example, The Associated Press’ chief photographer Evan Vucci captured a picture showing Biden’s watch reading 8:06 p.m. The Getty Images website hosts the complete, uncropped image.
Biden’s watch displayed the time 8:06 p.m. EDT. With Adobe Photoshop, we cropped the photo, zoomed in and applied the “Smart Sharpen” effect to help the hands of the watch appear clearer. (Getty Images)
Wallace Accidentally Disproved His Own Rumor
In Wallace’s video on Rumble.com, he claimed the audio of Biden’s Oval Office address sounded “like it is being filmed in a basement, likely a bunker or something where Joe Biden is being held possibly under the White House.”
However, Biden delivered his speech in the genuine Oval Office, with first lady Jill Biden and other family members photographed in the room. Getty Images photojournalist Andrew Harnik even snapped several pictures from outdoors, looking into the Oval Office through either the glass windows or doorways.
Further, Wallace himself unknowingly debunked his own bunker rumor when posting a newer, different misleading claim about the first lady. He then apparently tried to cover up his mistake by deleting that newer post.
That deleted post — captured by another user (archived) and witnessed by this Snopes reporter before Wallace removed it — showed a video of Biden and his family walking directly out of the Oval Office — not a bunker — after his July 24 address, where White House staff greeted them. That newer post received at least 4.6 million views before Wallace removed it.
WPRI-TV posted on YouTube the same video of Biden and his family walking out of the Oval Office:
As of this writing, we found no record of Wallace attempting to correct or retract his false Biden-bunker posts and video. (The definition of disinformation is the deliberate promotion of misinformation.)
Wallace Tells Viewers His False Claims Should ‘Scare’ Them
In Wallace’s video promoting the false Biden-bunker rumor — a rumor posted just days following the July 13 attempted assassination of former U.S. President Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania — he chose words for his viewers including “very dark,” “disturbing,” “strange,” “intense,” “pure evil” and “very scary.” He also called the people supposedly behind the false plot “psychopaths,” telling his viewers they should be more than scared about the purported developments he described.
Specifically, Wallace told viewers — again, completely based on false claims — “This is one of the most intense challenges to the Constitution of the United States and to the democracy that we’ve lived under for so many years that we’ve ever seen in the history of this country. Very scary stuff indeed.” He then added, “And what we’re seeing right now should not only scare us. What we are witnessing right now shows how desperate these psychopaths truly are.”