FACT CHECK: Biden Campaign’s Comparison Of Rally Audience With Trump Is Missing Context
The summary focuses on a recent campaign move by President Joe Biden’s team where they compared the crowd sizes at Biden and former President Donald Trump’s events at the same venue, suggesting Biden had a larger turnout. However, the image used by Biden’s campaign was criticized for omitting parts of the venue, as verified by a video from Biden’s 2022 rally showing empty seats divided by a black sheet. This controversy surfaces just before an upcoming debate between Biden and Trump, which features strict rules, including no audience and muted microphones when not speaking. The campaign image and debate details highlight the ongoing rivalry and scrutiny between both political figures and their teams.
President Joe Biden‘s campaign recently shared a side by side photo comparing the audience size to that of former President Donald Trump’s.
President Biden vs. Donald Trump speaking at the same venue in Philly 👀 pic.twitter.com/m33CZ7E0c6
— Biden-Harris HQ (@BidenHQ) June 23, 2024
Verdict: Unsubstantiated
The image leaves out a portion of the stadium.
Fact Check:
Biden and Trump will meet for a debate this Thursday on CNN, which will have different rules than previous presidential debates, NPR reported. There will be no audience, microphones will be muted when they are not directed to speak and there are no pre-written notes allowed.
A post shared on X, formerly known as Twitter, by Biden’s campaign team showed an image of Biden at the podium at the Temple University’s Liacouras Center with some of the venue in view showing that the upper seats were taken in the stadium vs. a photo from the same angle at Trump’s recent rally that showed the upper seats empty.
The caption reads, “President Biden vs. Donald Trump speaking at the same venue in Philly.”
The image, though, is missing important context. The images are authentic, however, video of Biden’s 2022 rally showed the full venue and the far end of the stadium was empty and the audience was pushed toward the stage with a black sheet separating them from the empty portion of the seats.
On the same night that DT had his 3rd night in a row with 10’s of thousands of people, in a 10,000 capacity arena, here is a Mostly empty stadium at the Biden/Obama/Fetterman rally. This is at Temple University in deep blue Philadelphia pic.twitter.com/kd5IzQGnOM
— Costa G (@CostaGlaropoulo) November 7, 2022
Biden’s event took place during the Senate race of 2022, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. Both Biden and former President Barack Obama spoke at the event in support of Democrat John Fetterman who went on to win his senate race against Republican Mehmet Oz.
A video from Trump’s recent rally shows that the audience stretches out into the back of the venue. The venue holds about 10,000 people according to Newsweek. The report indicates that the number of attendees at the event is unknown. (RELATED: Fact-Checking Trump’s Claim That The US Left $84 Billion Worth Of Equipment In Afghanistan)
El Trumpo fails to fill venue.
Here is a video of Trump at his rally tonight in swing state PA at Temple University’s Liacouras Center, capacity 10,200. It’s half empty.” pic.twitter.com/SXoedGgBGr
— George Olivos (@PicoDeGallos) June 23, 2024
Check Your Fact contacted the Biden campaign for comment on the crowd size at their event. We also contact Trump’s team to request clarification on their numbers.
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