A clip from a rally in South Carolina purporting to show the crowd booing after President Donald Trump mentioned the late Senator Lindsey Graham has gone viral online.
Trump spoke at a rally in South Carolina on Wednesday as part of his campaign blitz ahead of the midterms.
The president was in the Palmetto State in support of Republican Senator Darline Graham. She is the sister of the late Lindsey Graham, who passed away suddenly in July from a heart condition.
Darline Graham is facing the Democratic challenger Annie Andrews in a bid for a full six-year Senate term.
At the beginning of the rally, Trump spoke about Lindsey Graham, and the shared video appears to show the crowd booing his name.
Republican Governor Henry McMaster appointed Darline Graham after her brother’s death in July, and she later secured the Republican nomination for a full term, defeating Representative Ralph Norman in the GOP primary.
But the contest has become more competitive than the GOP initially anticipated.
A Rasmussen Reports poll conducted October 5 to October 8 showed Graham leading Andrews by 4 points, 49 percent to 45 percent, among 837 likely voters. An earlier Rasmussen poll had put Graham 5 points ahead.
Newsweek has reached out to the Republican National Committee via email for comment.
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The Claim
At the beginning of the rally, Trump spoke about the upcoming election and Lindsey Graham.
“13 days from now the people of South Carolina are going to elect Darline Graham to the United States,” he said.
“After Darline’s brother, oh, I loved her brother,” Trump continued, calling him a “seriously good politician.”
“When I had little difficulties, whether it was on the right or on the left, I could go to Lindsay and say, 'Lindsay, I need a little help.' Lindsey could always get it done,” Trump said.
The crowd can then be heard loudly booing.
A brief 25-second clip of that moment was then uploaded to X by the account Call to Activism, which states in its account description that it was “Founded by Joe Gallina to expose MAGA corruption, defend democracy, and uplift those fighting for truth and justice. 6 million+ followers across our platforms.”
Call to Activism captioned their post, which has been viewed over 100,000 times as of reporting, “TRUMP: We love Lindsey Graham. The crowd in South Carolina: BOOOOOO."
The Facts
The video does not tell the full story or offer the complete context.
Newsweek has reviewed footage of the rally. After Trump finished speaking about the late Lindsey Graham, he was interrupted by a heckler, and the crowd began to boo the heckler.
Trump quickly acknowledged this interruption and said, “Wow. What was that noise I just heard? That was, you know, you like just to power through that stuff, but that was a loud, horrible, disgusting sound.”
“I didn’t know what was wrong with that person,” Trump said, before continuing to talk about Graham.
Ahead of the midterms, Trump has embarked upon a spree of rallies. But these rallies have been routinely interrupted by protesters, in incidents that have repeatedly made headlines.
At the South Carolina rally on Wednesday night, the president was repeatedly heckled, and multiple protesters were removed.
That included one protester who was punched by someone at the rally.
In the first few minutes of the rally, Trump was heckled and interrupted, with the crowd then beginning to boo and chant “USA.”
Less than a minute into his initial remarks, Trump was heckled and responded, “Paid protesters. It’s unbelievable.” He was then heckled after speaking about Graham, and then again around four minutes into his remarks.
“I don’t mind when they do that, but it’s always right at my punchline. You see it?” Trump said.
The president was heckled or interrupted on at least nine occasions during his remarks, which ran for around 90 minutes.
The Ruling
False.
The clip shared on social media takes the moment where the crowd boos out of context. The crowd is booing a protester, not the mention of the late senator. The rally on October 21 in South Carolina was interrupted on multiple occasions by protesters, and the crowd booed in response. As the rally was so frequently interrupted and the crowd was at times chaotic, it can be difficult to tell in isolated video snippets what was actually happening.
Newsweek’s reporters and editors used Martyn, our AI assistant, to produce this story. Learn more about Martyn here. Contact Newsweek editors on this story: John Fitzpatrick and Gray R. Thomas