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| - A rumor circulating online in late October 2024 claimed that American flags were not visible at a rally supporting U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris' 2024 presidential campaign.
For example, on Oct. 28, 2024, X user @TONYxTWO reposted (archived) a brief video clip captured at a rally for Harris that day at the Liacouras Center on the campus of Temple University in Philadelphia. Former President Barack Obama and musicians Bruce Springsteen and John Legend headlined the rally as part of the "When We Vote We Win" concert series.
The user's post read, "Not one American flag in sight at Kamala's rally." The post received more than 5.5 million views. A different user on X appeared to have originally uploaded (archived) the video that @TONYxTWO shared.
This rumor was true. While photos showed the audience bathed in red, white and blue lighting, as well as some patriotic bunting and horizontal screens displaying white stars on a blue backdrop, we have yet to locate any visible American flags at the rally. Our searches of pictures hosted by both The Associated Press' Newsroom and Getty Images yielded no results for photos showing American flags, other than a picture of a supporter wearing a volunteer badge and a shirt with a flag.
Harris did not herself attend the Philadelphia rally, instead joining her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, at a different rally in Ann Arbor, Michigan. That rally featured large American flags, as evidenced by photos and videos.
One user responded with a photo (archived) of Harris and Walz purportedly showing American flags at the same rally. The user responded to @TONYxTWO's claim of "not one American flag" at the Oct. 28 rally with one word: "Sure."
We found that photographer Erin Schaff captured that image for The New York Times at an Aug. 6 campaign rally held at the same arena in Philadelphia.
We contacted three Harris campaign officials for comment about the claim regarding the Oct. 28 rally in Philadelphia but did not receive a response within several hours. We will update this story if we uncover further details.
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