A video has been viewed millions of times in multiple posts on Facebook, Weibo and Twitter alongside a claim it shows US Vice President Mike Pence delivering empty boxes to a hospital for a publicity stunt during the coronavirus crisis. The claim gained traction online after the the clip was aired on the US television show Jimmy Kimmel Live!, hosted by comedian Jimmy Kimmel.
The 40-second footage shows US comedian Jimmy Kimmel introducing a clip featuring Vice President Mike Pence. Kimmel suggests Pence only\xa0pretended to carry boxes of personal protective equipment (PPE) to a hospital, hinting the boxes were actually empty., In the clip, Kimmel says Pence “didn’t realise he had the mic on” when “pretending to carry empty boxes of PPEs into a hospital”., Pence can be heard saying;\xa0“Can I carry the empty ones just for the camera?” after\xa0being told by another man\xa0that some of the boxes in the van are “empty”., The yellow Chinese characters superimposed on the first eight seconds of the video translates to English as: “US vice president had his show screwed up / He was broadcast live delivering empty boxes to a hospital.”, The video features the Weibo watermark on the top left corner, and the logo of US television network C-SPAN on the bottom right., The caption of the post, written in traditional Chinese characters, translates to English as: “Vice president of the United States delivers empty boxes in live broadcast.”, The video was also shared alongside a similar claim\xa0on Facebook here, here and here, and here, here and here on Weibo, garnering hundreds of thousands of views. It was also viewed more than nine million times in this tweet published by the US-based\xa0political consultant Matt McDermott., The\xa0claim is\xa0false., A keyword search found\xa0this longer version of the video published on the C-SPAN website on May 7, 2020., , The video is headlined: “Vice President Pence Delivers PPE to Woodbine Rehabilitation Center”., "The videos caption states: “Vice President Mike Pence delivered personal protective equipment (PPE) from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to Woodbine Rehabilitation and Healthcare Center in Alexandria, Virginia.”", The same footage as the video shared in the misleading posts can be seen, in part, from the seven-minute 58-second mark and at the nine-minute three-second mark., Below are screenshot comparisons of the video in the misleading posts (L) and the C-SPAN video (R):, The C-SPAN video shows Pence wheeling boxes of PPE to the entrance of a healthcare facility. He returns to the back of a van filled with boxes, to be told “those are empty, sir”, to which he responds "Well can I carry the empty ones? Just for the camera?", before closing the trunk and turning away. Pence and his aides can be heard laughing after the exchange., Jimmy Kimmel issued an apology here\xa0on Twitter on May 9, 2020, saying the full video shows Pence “was joking about carrying empty boxes”., He also issued an on-air apology during his show Jimmy Kimmel Live! on May 12, 2020. This was also tweeted by Kimmel here on the same day., By his vice majesty’s request, my official on-air apology to the truth-loving, profoundly-principled @VP Mike Pence... #JimmyKimmelLiveFromHisHouse #StayHome pic.twitter.com/8SWGW8aLku, , The incident was also widely reported by US media, including news site USA Today here and broadcaster Fox News here., , Copyright © AFP 2017-2020.  All rights reserved.  Users can access and consult this website and use the share features available for personal, private, and non-commercial purposes.  Any other use, in particular any reproduction, communication to the public or distribution of the content of this website, in whole or in part, for any other purpose and/or by any other means, without a specific licence agreement signed with AFP, is strictly prohibited.  The subject matter depicted or included via links within the Fact Checking content is provided to the extent necessary for correct understanding of the verification of the information concerned.  AFP has not obtained any rights from the authors or copyright owners of this third party content and shall incur no liability in this regard.  AFP and its logo are registered trademarks.
This clip was edited for a TV show -- the full video shows Pence joking about empty boxes | AFP Fact Check