Did CNN live stream the July 13, 2024, Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, when they have never live-streamed any of Trump's other political rallies? No, that's not true: A spokesperson for CNN told Lead Stories that there was not an internet live stream of that specific rally, but CNN television was covering the rally. The spokesperson also noted that CNN covers political rallies with regularity. Lead Stories did not find any evidence of CNN live-streaming political rallies on their website or YouTube channel.
The claim appeared in a post on X, formerly Twitter, (archived here) where it was published on July 17, 2024. The post read:
I'm not a conspiracy theorist but:
Does anyone else find it strange that CNN livestreamed the Butler, PA rally when they've never livestreamed any of the others?
This is what the X post looked like at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Mon Aug 12 13:17:56 2024 UTC)
A live stream (archived here) is a program broadcasted over the internet in real time. The post does not make this distinction, but it is clear the Butler, Pennsylvania, rally the user is referring to the July 13, 2024, Trump rally in Butler, where an assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump's life took place (archived here). The X post does not provide any evidence for this claim nor does it specify whether the user meant live stream on TV or on the internet.
Lead Stories emailed CNN about the claim. On August 7, 2024, a CNN spokesperson who did not want to be named emailed Lead Stories back:
While CNN regularly covers newsworthy political events and rallies, there was not a CNN.com livestream specific to the rally that day. Users of CNN.com are always able to login with their pay TV credentials under "Live TV" to stream CNN's live television coverage, and CNN television was covering former President Trump's Butler, Pennsylvania rally that Saturday while we were waiting on an announcement of a Vice Presidential candidate ahead of the Republican National Convention ... CNN television does cover political rallies regularly.
In an August 12, 2024, email, when asked for clarification, they added:
CNN was at the rally with a reporter and cameras ... We have a reporter that always travels with former President Trump ... We did not "live stream the rally" -- that makes it sound like there was a dedicated camera/feed that was taking the rally without coverage or commentary. That is false and did not happen.
CNN's YouTube channel does not offer any recordings of the full July 13, 2024, Trump rally. Below are screenshots of the YouTube results page when we searched for the Butler, Pennsylvania, rally:
(Source: YouTube screenshot taken on Mon Aug 12 17:06:14 2024 UTC)
(Source: YouTube screenshot taken on Mon Aug 12 17:06:37 2024 UTC)
(Source: YouTube screenshot taken on Mon Aug 12 17:07:25 2024 UTC)
Neither does the CNN website (archived here), as a search of the site turned up no recordings of the full rally.
More Lead Stories fact checks on claims regarding the Trump assassination attempt are here.
Other Lead Stories fact checks on claims involving Donald Trump are here.
