On Tuesday, Rachel Maddow aired a segment on MSNBC about edits made by the White House to its video of Presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin's press conference in Helsinki.
Maddow also tweeted out the segment along with claims that "White House edits video to remove question about whether Putin wanted Trump to win."
In that clip, Maddow claimed that the White House recording of the Helsinki Press Conference "skillfully cut out that question from that Reuters reporter as if it didn't happen."
THE QUESTION:
Did the White House edit or alter their video and transcript to hide what a reporter asked Putin in the press conference?
THE ANSWER:
No. While the White House didn't respond to Verify's requests for clarifications or comments, there is no evidence supporting claims they "skillfully cut out that question..."
And there are multiple other video examples of media outlets that had similar issues or missing audio in their recordings.
WHAT WE FOUND:
As can be seen in this Youtube clip from Fox News, Reuters reporter Jeff Mason asked Russian President Vladimir Putin the following:
"President Putin, did you want President Trump to win the election? And did you direct any of your officials to help him to that?"
"Yes, I did,' Putin responded. "Because he talked about bringing the US-Russia relationship back to normal."
But take a look at the recording posted on by the White House. At about 32:23 in the video, you hear a translator finishing up President Putin's statement when Mason begins his question. You see Putin put in his earpiece to hear the translation, but the audio of Mason's question doesn't begin until: "And did you direct any of your officials to help him do that?"
Maddow used this clip to claim the White House "skillfully cut out that question...as if it didn't happen."
The only problem? The White House recording wasn't the only one to have Mason's question cut off.
Here's a clip from UK outlet "The Guardian" that was streamed live to their Youtube.com channel. At 1:33:00 in the video, the feed experiences the same things as the White House recording. The translator continues talking and then the audio cuts to Mason asking only: "Did you direct any of your officials to help him do that?"
"The Guardian" and the White House weren't alone. Feeds by "The Independent,"and "The Washington Post," both had the same cut off question.
A separate feed posted by CNN can show what happened. At large press events like this conference, different outlets have different feeds for their recordings.
On the CNN and Fox News feeds, you can hear the translators but also hear the questions being asked in the room. (If you have headphones, you can hear them coming out of different ears)
On the streams the White House, and others missing part of the question posted, the translator's voice covered up Mason's question until his microphone was live.
Here are more examples of recordings where Mason's question can be heard in varying levels of clarity:
Using the multiple other outlets who experienced similar, almost identical audio overlaps, we can Verify that claims the White House video were edited or doctored are False.
ABOUT THE TRANSCRIPT
Maddow also pointed to the White House transcription of the conference.
That transcription leaves out the same part of Mason's quote.
Q And did you direct any of your officials to help him do that?
PRESIDENT PUTIN: (As interpreted.) Yes, I did. Yes, I did. Because he talked about bringing the U.S.-Russia relationship back to normal.
As of writing this article, the White House had not corrected their transcription of the conference and had not responded to requests from VERIFY for comment.
The Washington Post published an article offering an explanation for the transcription error.
Author Philip Bump wrote that the White House transcript matched "how the Posts's transcript of the news conference initially read, too."
Because of the translator speaking over Mason's question, the transcriber did not hear the first portion and did not record it.
Bump explained:
"Ours came from Bloomberg Government and ours, too, excluded the first part of the reporters question in which he begins, “President Putin, did you want President Trump to win the election”.
This story will be updated if and when the White House responds to requests for comment.
