The White House posted a video to its website this week that edited out French President François Hollande saying “Islamist terrorism” is “at the roots of terrorism,” and blamed the omission on a technical glitch.
Hollande and President Obama met this week to discuss France and the United States’ ongoing efforts to combat terrorism. The two world leaders also held a press event to discuss their coordinated strategies.
“Europe has been hit more, given that it is also the target of the terrorists and [the Islamic State],” Hollande told reporters, according to the official White House transcript. “We’ve seen it in Paris last year, as well as in Brussels. And together with President Obama, we worked on coordinating further our commitments, our organizations, our services when it comes to fighting against these terrorists. We are also making sure that between Europe and the United States there can be a very high level coordination.”
The transcript notes that Hollande then said, “But we’re also well aware that the roots of terrorism, Islamist terrorism, is in Syria and in Iraq. We therefore have to act both in Syria and in Iraq, and this is what we’re doing within the framework of the coalition.”
Video of the press event was posted quickly to the White House’s website and YouTube channel, but it was soon pulled, according to the Media Research Center.
A version that excluded Hollande’s reference to “Islamist terrorism” was eventually uploaded in its place. Instead of hearing the French president’s remarks on terrorism, viewers hear nothing.
Here’s a screenshot from the brief moment when the White House video was temporarily removed and unavailable:
The White House explained Friday that it did not intentionally censor the French president, and said that the silence in the video was the result of a technical malfunction.
“A technical issue with the audio during the recording of President Hollande’s remarks led to a brief drop in the audio recording of the English interpretation,” the video’s description read.
The White House uploaded a separate video Friday of the press event, and this time included Hollande’s remarks in their entirety.
“As soon as this was brought to our attention, we posted an updated video online here with the complete audio, which is consistent with the written transcript we released yesterday,” the White House said.
A White House spokesperson did not respond to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment.
