A New Chapter of Deepfake Politics: Storm of Misleading Videos Around Schumer, Jefferies, and Harris

In this deepfake video, an AI-generated Schumer repeatedly says, “It’s getting better for us every day,” a line taken out of context from a Punchbowl News report. The original report discussed Democrats’ healthcare-focused shutdown strategy, where Schumer stated they would not back down from Republican threats and “blambuzzling” tactics.

This comes at a time when Democrats and Republicans are unable to reach a compromise to fund the government through October and beyond. Democrats aim to maintain tax credits for millions of Americans to reduce healthcare costs, reverse Trump-era Medicaid cuts, and prevent cuts to government health agencies.

On Friday, the video was posted on the Senate Republicans’ X (Twitter) account. X’s policy states that sharing media that “creates or could create significant public misinformation” is prohibited. However, the video has not yet been removed or labeled with a warning, despite containing a watermark indicating its AI origin.

This is not the first time misleading deepfake content involving political figures has appeared on X. In late 2024, X’s owner Elon Musk shared an artificially altered video ahead of the California gubernatorial election, depicting Kamala Harris making false statements that misled voters.

This post comes weeks after President Donald Trump shared deepfake videos of Schumer and Hakim Jeffries on the Truth Social platform, in which they allegedly made false claims about illegal immigration and voter fraud.

Following criticism, Joanna Rodriguez, Communications Director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, commented:

In this deepfake video, an AI-generated Schumer repeatedly says, “It’s getting better for us every day,” a line taken out of context from a Punchbowl News report. The original report discussed Democrats’ healthcare-focused shutdown strategy, where Schumer stated they would not back down from Republican threats and “blambuzzling” tactics.

This comes at a time when Democrats and Republicans are unable to reach a compromise to fund the government through October and beyond. Democrats aim to maintain tax credits for millions of Americans to reduce healthcare costs, reverse Trump-era Medicaid cuts, and prevent cuts to government health agencies.

On Friday, the video was posted on the Senate Republicans’ X (Twitter) account. X’s policy states that sharing media that “creates or could create significant public misinformation” is prohibited. However, the video has not yet been removed or labeled with a warning, despite containing a watermark indicating its AI origin.

This is not the first time misleading deepfake content involving political figures has appeared on X. In late 2024, X’s owner Elon Musk shared an artificially altered video ahead of the California gubernatorial election, depicting Kamala Harris making false statements that misled voters.

This post comes weeks after President Donald Trump shared deepfake videos of Schumer and Hakim Jeffries on the Truth Social platform, in which they allegedly made false claims about illegal immigration and voter fraud.

Following criticism, Joanna Rodriguez, Communications Director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, commented: