A savvy camera operator fact checked Donald Trump live.
During his rally in Greensboro, N.C. on Saturday night, Donald Trump bragged, “We have had the biggest rallies in the history of any country, and every rally is full. You do not have any seats that are empty. You did not have anything.”
But immediately after that comment, a cameraman for NTD.com smartly panned the stadium, zooming in on sections of empty seats and people exiting the arena, although it’s unclear whether those attendees are leaving the venue entirely.
News Nation reporter Libbey Dean also captured dozens of empty seats in a post on her X (formerly Twitter) account, including seats that Trump likely would have been able to see from his position at the podium.
Even the X account for the Kamala Harris and Tim Walz campaign got in on the action, posting a side-by-side of Trump’s remarks and a photo of completely empty sections of seats. “He is speaking to multiple sections that are entirely empty,” the campaign said on its X account.
Trump has previously addressed reports that people are leaving his rallies early, claiming it “never happens.” But two weeks ago, The Guardian interviewed Trump supporters who made an early exit from his Marietta, Georgia rally.
“We had to wait a while, like to get him on stage,” Haley Lummus, of Jasper, Georgia, told the publication. Trump took the stage an hour and a half late. “Everyone was doing the wave, and there was a lot of people very excited to see him cheering.”
But, Lummus said, “I worked, and I’m tired.”
The Guardian reported that by the time Lummus left, around 50 other people had also departed. Less than 30 minutes later, the paper reported, “a consistent stream of people hit the exits.”
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