About that video of Obama encouraging illegal immigrants to vote…

Several sites have posted a video of a segment from Neil Cavuto’s Fox Business program that appears to show President Barack Obama saying there would be no repercussions if illegal immigrants voted in Tuesday’s presidential election.

Here’s the video of the segment with Cavuto’s reaction. (We’ll get to the full transcript in a moment)

CAVUTO: I cant believe I heard what I heard.   It’s very clear the question is about illegals who may vote and afraid they might be reported to border security. You’re illegal, you cannot vote. And the President of the United States is saying ‘don’t worry no one will be spying on you or catching you.’

Whether you’re for the President of against the President… whether you’re pro immigration reform or anti-immigration reform, you’re ignoring the fact you’ve been questioned about illegal voting which you cant do. Why? because you’re not a citizen of this country.

It’s a bizarre little video for a couple reasons. First it’s not a direct lift from the show, it’s a guy taking a video of his television with his smartphone.  Secondly, you can hear the guy breathing really heavy in the background so you get the feeling Darth Vader is going to sneak up on you at any moment.

This video has been posted on Drudge and various other sites expressing understandable displeasure over the appearance of the President of the United States giving illegal immigrants a pass for illegally voting. However, the quality of the video (especially that creepy heavy breathing) inspired a more extensive search for the original content that would rise to the Hot Air standard.

This also allowed a more detailed viewing of the entire exchange and provides a bit more context for President Obama appearing to encourage illegal immigrants to vote.

So, was the video doctored or did the President really come right out and tell illegal immigrants there would be no consequences if they voted in this week’s election? The answer is not quite cut and dry. Reading the transcript of the exchange sort of helps us get to the full truth on this one.

After an extensive search, the original content was found. It’s an interview between POTUS and Gina Rodriquez ( an actress and rapper) for a web channel called “Mitu” which is supposed to target millennial Latinos.

First, here’s the video with the relevant exchange occurring between 3:22 and 4:40: