In April 2026, a video on X (archived) apparently showed empty seats in an arena in which Vice President JD Vance was speaking. The event, part of a tour conservative nonprofit Turning Point USA organized, took place April 14, 2026, on the University of Georgia campus in Athens, Georgia.
MS NOW reporter Jake Traylor, who appeared to have first shared the video, included it in a post that read:
Turning Point USA seems to have misestimated crowd size for Vance. Akins Ford Arena less than 25% filled for the vice president.
Other internet users reshared the video elsewhere online, such as on Facebook (archived).
Some internet users used the video as an opportunity to mock Vance for the apparent low turnout of the event, while
The video was authentic, meaning there was no sign of misleading editing or artificial intelligence generation. Evidence including other videos, photos and reporting from the event confirmed that the video showed the crowd size while Vance was onstage. Therefore, we've rated this claim as true.
MS NOW confirmed over email that Traylor recorded the video himself. Snopes has also reached out to Turning Point USA by email for confirmation of the size of the event's crowd and to ask if there were any limits on the number of people who could attend.
For ease of reading, we'll break down the evidence chronologically. All times below will be from April 14 and reflect Eastern Daylight Time, which is Athens' time zone.
Reporting from the Red & Black, University of Georgia's nonprofit, student-led newspaper, and The Associated Press indicated the crowd filled just about a third of the available seating in the
The timeline
At 4:11 p.m., Matthew Boedy, a professor from University of North Georgia who writes about Turning Point USA, posted an image to X (archived) showing a largely empty arena. According to Boedy's post, the doors were originally supposed to close at 4 p.m., an hour before the event kicked off.
Then at 4:59 p.m., Boedy posted a video (archived) from inside Akins Ford Arena, which was where Turning Point USA hosted the event. The video, apparently filmed six minutes before the event's start, panned across the arena to show numerous empty seats between the floor seating and the standard arena seats.
From this point on, we'll be referencing photos from The Associated Press, which noted the time each of its photos from the event were taken, and a YouTube recording of the White House's official stream for Vance's appearance. These two sources will help create a frame of reference for exactly when videos and photos of the crowd were recorded.
The AP's first photo of Vance seated was taken at 5:49 p.m. The photo appears to align roughly with the 1:37 timestamp in the White House's video.
At 5:54 p.m., Jake Traylor, the same journalist who later posted the video of the empty seats in the arena, uploaded his first X video of Vance speaking onstage. The end of that video aligns with the 1:57 mark in the White House recording.
The AP photographer also took a photo of the crowd at 5:54 p.m. While the photo doesn't have a comprehensive, clear view of the arena's seating, the arena seating distantly seen in the photo's background does appear to be largely empty.
Traylor posted the video (archived) of the empty seating at 6:09 p.m.
In that video, Vance can be heard saying, "it doesn't bother me when he speaks on issues of the day — frankly, even when I disagree with how he is applying particular principles." Vance says these exact words in reference to Pope Leo XIV at the 11:57 mark in the White House's recording. Therefore, Traylor must have recorded the video of the empty seating at around 6:00 p.m. An MS NOW representative said over email that Traylor believed our reconstruction of this timeline was roughly correct.
About 14 minutes into the White House's video, a protester can be heard shouting "Jesus Christ does not support genocide." Vance looks up and out in the direction of the arena seating to his side while addressing the protester about 16 minutes into the livestream. The protester can be heard for the last time at around the 16:28 mark, and Vance says the protester "just ran away angry" about 30 seconds later.
Based on the timeline so far, this interaction would've taken place between about 6:02 p.m. and 6:05 p.m. The AP photographer took a photo of the protester climbing the stairs of the arena and turning back to shout at 6:04 p.m. That photo, taken about four minutes after Traylor's widely shared video, showed many empty arena seats designated for the event on either side of the protester.
A Getty Images photo of the same protester shouting from the same area in the arena further confirmed that there were audience members sitting at some of those seats, but most were empty.
At some point during the event, an Atlanta Journal-Constitution journalist took a photo of the arena, from an angle similar to the one in Traylor's widespread video, that also showed empty seats outnumbering
In sum ...
The timeline of events shows the video was taken while Vance had been onstage for more than 10 minutes, and that the AP and Getty photos hinting at the sparsely packed arena were taken both before and after Traylor recorded his video — not during a sound check, as some internet users suggested.
MS NOW confirmed to Snopes that Traylor said our timeline of when he recorded and posted the video is roughly correct.
Finally, reporting from journalists at the event confirmed empty seats outnumbered the audience at the event.