Ongoing hostilities between Texas Governor Greg Abbott and the Biden administration have stirred Moscow's attention recently, with posts across social media from Russians supporting Texan secession from the United States.
Among commentators, Dmitry Medvedev, the former Russian president and ally of current Vladimir Putin, reiterated his past prediction that Texas would secede from the rest of the U.S. amid Abbott's legal battles with the Department of Justice over his migrant deterrent tactics.
A video shared on social media this week appeared to suggest Abbott had found a kinship with Russian President Vladimir Putin, showing the Texas governor urging President Joe Biden to emulate the Moscow leader.
The Claim
A post on X, formerly Twitter, posted on February, 1, 2024, by user @djuric_zlatko, viewed 130,000 times, said "'Biden should learn from Putin to work in the national interests"—Texas Governor Abbott, on Fox News.'"
During the clip, which appears to show Abbott talking to Fox News, the Texas governor says: "If only President had been dealing with real internal problems and not trying to play with Putin, from whom he needs to learn how to work for national interests, then everything would have been different. He needs to follow immigration laws."
Russian subtitles played along the bottom of the video.
The Facts
Apart from the Russian subtitles, there is not much of an initial giveaway that the video is fake. Not only does it sound like Abbott, it mirrors several of his talking points on border security.
It is, in fact, a mixture of genuine Fox News footage and, very likely, AI-manipulated video.
The original interview, which is available on YouTube, was broadcast on January 4, 2024. A lot of the same footage from this interview was used in the clip on X.
However, in the original interview, at the point in the clip on X where Abbott begins talking about Putin, he instead talks about border policies.
Abbott told Fox News: "There is only one reason why this is happening, that's because Joe Biden has eliminated all of the four policies that Donald Trump put in place that led to the lowest illegal border crossings in 40 years: The Remain in Mexico policy, the Title 42 policy, the end of Catch and Release and building a border wall.
"If the Biden administration was enforcing the immigration laws passed by Congress, the mayors of New York, the leaders of New Jersey and Chicago, etc... they would not be having these problems."
In the original clip, Abbott can be seen in a picture-on-picture display. This is not the case in the video shared on social media.
Abbott's wording in the clip on X is unusual too. He misses a definitive article when talking about Biden, saying "If only president had been dealing with internal problems" when he should have said "If only the president..."
The phrasing is clumsy too, the AI-manipulated Abbot adding that Biden should "not try to play with Putin, from whom he needs to learn work for national interests."
The Fox News title graphic at the top left of the screen on X is also of lower quality, not in keeping with the rest of the segment.
If further proof were needed, the clip was shared on Russian social media before the post on X was published.
Newsweek has contacted a media representative for Greg Abbott for comment.
The Texas border dispute has provided a new opportunity for Russian misinformation actors to share misleading and fake footage online. Earlier this week, a video was widely shared on social media, showing what was described as tanks rolling up on the border with Mexico.
As Newsweek discovered, the footage was filmed at least two months ago, a few thousand miles away, outside of a chemical plant in Chile.
The Ruling
False.
Greg Abbott did not praise Putin on Fox News. It is a mixture of AI-generated audio and a genuine Fox News interview from January 2024. Abbott did not refer to Putin in the original Fox News video. This edited clip of Abbott was shared on Russian social media networks before it was disseminated elsewhere.
FACT CHECK BY Newsweek's Fact Check team
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
