An American Olympic hockey star has attacked a TikTok video, shared by the White House, calling it “clearly fake” after it made him sound like he was mocking Canadians.
Brady Tkachuk, from Arizona, who captains the NHL’s Ottawa Senators, appears in footage celebrating the gold medal won by the US men’s hockey team at the Winter Games in Italy on Sunday.
The video includes fabricated audio of the 26-year-old referring to Canadians, who were beaten in the final, as “maple syrup eating f***s” with the expletive muted. The video included a note saying it “contains AI-generated media”.
“It’s clearly fake because it’s not my voice and not my lips moving,” Tkachuk said during a news conference on Thursday.
“I’m not in control of any of those accounts… I know that those words would never come out of my mouth.”
Asked his opinion of the video, which was shared on the White House TikTok account, Tkachuk added: “I would never say that. That’s not who I am. So yeah, I guess I don’t like that video.”
Tkachuk also denied being the voice heard shouting “close the northern border” during Team USA’s celebratory phone call with Donald Trump after Sunday’s 2-1 win over Canada.
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“I’ve been seeing stuff that people think it’s me, but if you watch the video, that’s not my voice and something that I never say,” Tkachuk said. Sky News’s US partner, NBC, has asked the White House for comment.
Tkachuk was one of twenty players who visited the White House on Tuesday and attended the president’s State of the Union speech in Washington DC.
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Team USA’s women also beat Canada 2-1, the first time the Americans swept both Olympic hockey tournaments.
Talking on a speakerphone after the game on Sunday, Mr Trump extended an invitation to the White House to the men’s team, then added, “We’re going to have to bring the women’s team, you do know that”.
The president also joked that if he didn’t extend the invitation, he would probably be impeached.
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Some of the men’s players laughed, something at least one said they regretted later.
Tkachuk said he understood how the moment on the phone call could have been viewed by the women’s players.
“I mean, I get it,” he said. “We supported them, they supported us. You can’t control what other people say.”
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Meanwhile, rapper Flavor Flav scheduled a July celebration for the women’s team in Las Vegas for those who can make it.
