Amy Klobuchar, the U.S. senator from Minnesota, has hit back after a fake video of her trashing Anyone But You star Sydney Sweeney went viral. She says the clip, which shows her mocking the actress and making offensive remarks, was nothing more than an AI deepfake.
The video began circulating after a recent Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing. In it, a fake version of Klobuchar appears to take aim at Sweeney over her ad campaign with American Eagle’s new line of jeans. The clip shows the senator using crude language, even saying Democrats were “too fat to wear jeans or too ugly to go outside.” Viewers were quick to believe it was real, sparking outrage online.
Speaking to the New York Times, Klobuchar made it clear the video was generated by AI and had been stitched together using real footage of her from the hearing. “The A.I. deepfake featured me using the phrase ‘perfect t—— s’ and lamenting that Democrats were ‘too fat to wear jeans or too ugly to go outside.’ Though I could immediately tell that someone used footage from the hearing to make a deepfake, there was no getting around the fact that it looked and sounded very real,” she said.
The doctored video went further, creating a bizarre rant where the fake senator demanded ads for Democrats featuring “ugly, fat b—–s wearing pink wigs and long-ass fake nails being loud and twerking on top of a cop car at a Waffle House because they didn’t get extra ketchup.” It ended with more insults aimed at her own party, saying they “want representation” despite being “too fat to wear jeans or too ugly to go outside.”
Klobuchar stressed that while she recognised immediately it was fake, the realism of the video was worrying. The senator has long pushed for tighter rules around online content, and this latest scandal has only added fuel to her campaign.
Following the uproar, she proposed new legislation that would allow people to demand the removal of AI-generated content that falsely uses their voice or likeness. She said the act would still allow exceptions for speech protected by the First Amendment, but that individuals should not have to live with damaging fakes circulating online unchecked.
Klobuchar has made it clear this isn’t about her personally, but about how technology can now be used to spread lies with frightening believability. She said the Sydney Sweeney video was proof that action was needed before deepfakes become a routine weapon for disinformation.
The New York Post reported on her official statement, where she doubled down on her call for guardrails. She argued that without a legal path to remove deepfakes, public trust in political figures and institutions could take an even bigger hit.
For Sydney Sweeney, the video has dragged her into a storm she had nothing to do with. The actress has not publicly commented, but her American Eagle campaign continues to draw attention online.
The viral deepfake has highlighted a growing problem for politicians, celebrities, and anyone in the public eye. With technology making it harder to separate fact from fiction, Klobuchar’s fight to curb deepfakes may only be beginning.
