The Kamala Harris campaign has hit back at Donald Trump amid back-and-forth attacks between the 2024 presidential election candidates over the size of the crowds at their rallies, suggesting Trump may not have the stamina to keep up with her campaigning.
The former president posted on Truth Social on Sunday that “nobody” showed up to Harris’ Michigan rally, and posted an image of a crowd at an airport but called it “fake.”
The former president added, “Has anyone noticed that Kamala CHEATED at the airport? There was nobody at the plane, and she ‘A.I.’d’ it, and showed a massive ‘crowd’ of so-called followers, BUT THEY DIDN’T EXIST! She was turned in by a maintenance worker at the airport when he noticed the fake crowd picture, but there was nobody there, later confirmed by the reflection of the mirror like finish on the Vice Presidential Plane. She’s a CHEATER.”
The vice president’s campaign replied on X, “1) This is an actual photo of a 15,000-person crowd for Harris-Walz in Michigan 2) Trump has still not campaigned in a swing state in over a week… Low energy?”
Carlos Osorio/AP
15,000 people are believed to have greeted Harris and her new running mate Tim Walz at Detroit Metropolitan Airport on Wednesday.
Hany Farid, a professor at UC Berkeley specializing in image analysis and digital forensics, posted the image on LinkedIn, writing, “I’ve analyzed this image with two GetReal Labs models designed to detect different patterns associated with AI-generated images. Both of these models reveal no evidence of AI-generation. In addition, the text on the signs and plane show none of the usual signs of generative AI. While the lack of evidence of manipulation is not evidence the image is real. We find no evidence that this image is AI-generated or digitally altered.”
On Sunday, the Harris campaign also responded to the attack on Truth Social with a video of the crowd at the rally and the comment, “In case you forgot @realdonaldtrump: This is what a rally in a swing state looks like.”
So far in the 2024 election cycle, the Harris campaign has been on a swing state tour, including rallies in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, Arizona, and Nevada. They also planned to stop in Georgia and North Carolina, however these were canceled due to Storm Debby, a tropical cyclone that caused extensive flooding and damage across South Carolina, North Carolina, Florida, and Georgia.
CNBC reported that Trump has only held one rally so far in August, and has no plans to hold another rally until after the Democratic National Convention, which is set to wrap up August 22.
Harris now leads Trump by four percentage points in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Michigan, at 50% to 46%, among 1,973 likely voters across the three states between August 5-9, according to a poll published August 10 by the New York Times and Siena College.
Trump’s spokesperson has been contacted by Newsweek for comment.
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