I Was At A Harris-Walz Rally. Those Crowd Shots Aren’t AI.

Former President Donald Trump’s crowd-size obsession took on a predictable new dimension over the weekend when Trump suggested — without evidence — that Vice President Kamala Harris had faked one of her big crowds using AI.

There is zero basis for claiming that Harris’ crowds last week in Arizona, Michigan or Pennsylvania were anything but real. I would know, I was at one of these events.

HuffPost sent me to Philadelphia last week to cover Harris and her new running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. The line to Temple University’s Liacouras Center snaked around several city blocks. People stood outside for hours, enduring the extreme heat and thunderstorms. I spoke to one family, slowly marching toward the entrance, who had stopped by a print shop on their way to the venue to make Harris-Walz T-shirts. I met Zoomers excited to vote for the first time and two “Republicans for Kamala.”

To my eyes (and ringing ears), the arena was nearly full by the time Harris and Walz took the stage that evening. The Harris campaign pegged attendance at over 14,000 people, including overflow.

It’s easy to see what these events are like simply by following the dozens of journalists who frequently cover them. But that hasn’t stopped Trump from baselessly accusing Harris’ campaign of manipulating images while drawing on the same inflammatory language he used to deny the 2020 election results and foment the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol.

“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!” Trump ranted Sunday on Truth Social, falsely suggesting Harris doctored images from a rally at a Detroit airport hangar on