President Joe Biden faced social media criticism when posts went viral Tuesday about empty seats at his campaign event in Scranton, Pennsylvania.
Brigitte Gabriel and Benny Johnson, conservatives with millions of followers, were among those who published posts that mocked perceived empty seats at Biden's stop in his hometown.
"Here is the 'crowd' that showed up in Joe Biden's hometown of Scranton Pennsylvania today. Note how the Biden campaign had to put up curtains to make the room smaller. There are more reporters in the room than 'Biden supporters.' Joe Biden is not real," Johnson wrote on X, formerly Twitter, to his 2.3 million followers.
However, reports and photos shared from inside Biden's event at the Scranton Cultural Center dispute the claims.
NewsNation reporter Kellie Meyer replied on X to a post about the empty seats by saying: "Your picture was taken hours ago. It is full and people in the balcony, per our reporter inside."
Mike Memoli of NBC News posted a photo on X from the location of the alleged empty seats that show those seats clearly occupied as Biden is speaking.
Biden's stop in Scranton kicked off a multicity tour of Pennsylvania, a key swing state in the path to the 2024 presidency.
Flanked by a banner reading "Tax Fairness for All Americans," the president contrasted his plan to impose higher taxes on Americans making more than $400,000 with the promise from his Republican rival, former President Donald Trump, to preserve his 2017 corporate tax cuts.
"No billionaire should pay a lower tax rate than a teacher," Biden told a room of 200 to 300 supporters, according to reports.
"When I look at the economy, I don't look at it through the eyes of Mar-a-Lago. I look at it through the eyes of Scranton," the president said, contrasting his modest upbringing with the Florida estate where Trump lives. "Scranton values or Mar-a-Lago values. These are the competing visions for our economy that raise questions of fundamental fairness at the heart of this campaign."
During his remarks, he also took aim at Trump's tumbling Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) stock.
"If Trump's stock in Truth Social, his company, drops any lower, he might do better under my tax plan than his," Biden said.
He added that "trickle-down economics" had failed and "the truth is Donald Trump embodies that failure."
"When I look at the economy, I don't look at it through the eyes of Mar-a-Lago. I look at it through the eyes of Scranton," the president said as he contrasted his upbringing with Trump's Florida estate.
Newsweek reached out to the Trump campaign Tuesday afternoon for comment.
Biden spent part of his childhood in working-class Scranton before his family moved to Delaware. He won Pennsylvania in 2020 by roughly 80,000 votes. Trump beat Democrat Hillary Clinton there by fewer than 45,000 votes in 2016. Polls show another close race this year.
The full crowd chanted "four more years" as Biden began and conducted his remarks on Tuesday.
"I think I should go home now. Except I am already home," the president smiled and joked to the Scranton crowd.
Biden heads to Pittsburgh on Wednesday and Philadelphia on Thursday. Trump was in eastern Pennsylvania on Saturday for a campaign rally that drew thousands of supporters.
"Unlike Donald Trump, President Biden is out on the trail again, talking to voters about how he sees the economy through the eyes of Scranton, not Mar-a-lago. That's the difference in this campaign, no matter what crowd, room, or stage Joe Biden is on, he's working to build on his record-breaking economy on behalf of the American people," a spokesperson for Biden's campaign told Newsweek via email on Tuesday.
Sam DeMarco, chair of the Republican Party in Allegheny County, where Pittsburgh is, told the Associated Press: "Across the board, it costs more to live today than it did when Joe Biden came to office. These are the things that families feel. And a scripted appearance by the president is not going to change that."
As Biden campaigns, Trump will spend most of the week in a New York City courtroom for his criminal trial over an alleged hush money scheme.
Update 4/16/24, 5:41 p.m. ET: This story was updated with additional information.
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