I don't buy it, for four reasons. I've been making gif animations since the very early days of photoshop and flash, as well as using conversion programs. I've never had dropped frames so inconveniantly in one part of the animation timeline. Rather, it happens in a more spread out way.Actually, the video is not likely doctored but simply suffered from converting it from a video file to a animated GIF.
1. Gif images have a dramatically smaller colour palette and generally are at a fairly low resolution.
2. Gif images often drop numerous frames to keep the final file size down. That process can introduce garbage into the image and unexpected stops and less than smooth transitions.
3. Not all Gif Creation tools are very good or do a very good job. (I use Wondershare Video Converter Ultimate on a regular basis and am quite used to unexpected conversion results.)
(Personally, I would have just stuck with the original video and focused on Acosta's boorish behavior.)
I doubt Sanders or Trump had anything to do with this...
In my view, this is another one of those situations of people without any knowledge of video/graphic matters passing judgement on things they do not appreciate.
Secondly, dropped frames doesn't explain the part that is *slower* than the live video. I've never had a conversion program sporadically add frames in one place either.
Third, the video is edited and cropped and enlarged to draw emphasis to the supposed point of contact. It's not like they just threw the raw interview into the converter. They were going for a specific narrative.
Four, the original creator posted a screen shot of the timeline where you can see the frame edits before and after the motion.