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A Sept. 19 Instagram video (direct link, archive link) appears to show young versions of former President Donald Trump and music producer Sean “Diddy” Combs talking to each other about getting in trouble.
“I’m just a passionate young man and I made a mistake,” Combs says in the video, which was originally shared by another Instagram user but appears to have been deleted.
Trump replies, “Well, everybody’s going to get in trouble. It’s a question of how you get out of trouble.”
Combs then seems to say Trump made the same mistakes as him but hides them better.
The post’s caption reads, “Just two (clowns) discussing how to get away with crimes.”
The post garnered more than 1,000 likes in a week. Other versions of the claim were shared on Instagram.
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The video is comprised of two separate interviews digitally spliced together. Both interviews predate Combs’ Sept. 16 arrest by more than two decades.
Combs was indicted Sept. 16 in Manhattan on charges of racketeering, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution. The rapper and music producer was denied bail the following day after pleading not guilty and will be held in solitude at the Special Housing Unit at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center, CNN reported.
The video supposedly showing Combs speaking with Trump about his “mistakes” has been altered. It is a combination of two separate interviews from the 1990s.
The clip of Trump is from a 1992 interview with talk show host Charlie Rose. In the interview, Trump talks about his experience during the economic recession in the early 1990s, his various properties and his experience nearing bankruptcy.
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The clip of Combs is from a separate 1999 interview with Rose, in which he spoke about his past acts of violence and the media’s portrayal of his actions.
The altered video was originally shared on YouTube by an account called “The Talk” on Aug. 27, weeks before Combs’ arrest. The video’s description includes a disclaimer that the footage is edited.
“THE TALK: Conversations that never took place between people who never met,” reads the video’s description. “Created using existing interviews.”
The video’s creator, a Danish video editor named Jonas Hollerup Helle, told the Danish Association of Visual Arts that his series “The Talk” is made using “the appropriation of existing video material.” He said he achieved the resulting video by combining footage from separate Charlie Rose interviews and cutting out the host.
USA TODAY reached out to the original user who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response. The other Instagram user could not be contacted.
PolitiFact also debunked the claim.
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