CBS News
Trump falsely claims Harris campaign used AI to fake crowd in Detroit
Former President Donald Trump on Sunday falsely claimed Vice President Kamala Harris‘ campaign lied about a crowd attending her Aug. 7 rally in Detroit, Michigan. In a post on Truth Social, Trump said a photo of the crowd was created using artificial intelligence and that the crowd in fact “didn’t exist.”
However, numerous videos from the event at Detroit Wayne County Metropolitan Airport show a large crowd attended, and the videos show a crowd similar to the one seen in the photo. Local reporters for the news site MLive estimated 15,000 people were present as Air Force Two arrived. Similar photos were also taken by news agencies covering the event, including Reuters and Getty Images.
Adam J. Dewey/Anadolu via Getty Images
The photo Trump questioned was posted to X by a Michigan campaign staffer for Harris, who said he received it from a colleague. CBS News has reached out to the Harris campaign to ask whether someone on the campaign took the photograph and to request an original copy of the photograph for analysis.
Hany Farid, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who specializes in deepfake detection, said in a post on LinkedIn that he received multiple requests to analyze the image after it went viral online.
Farid said he found no evidence that the image was AI-generated or digitally altered. Farid said the text on the signs and plane show none of the usual signs of generative AI.
The Harris campaign responded to Trump’s accusations on Truth Social, replying to one of his posts by sharing a video from the event that showed Air Force Two arriving. “In case you forgot @realdonaldtrump: This is what a rally in a swing state looks like.”
But Trump supporters on social media continued to share debunked images and spread false claims.
One of those bogus images on Telegram and X showed AI-generated faces with a caption claiming they were “fake Harris supporters” allegedly circulated by the Harris campaign. However, CBS News found this photo was not circulated by the Harris campaign. An X user who runs a parody account claimed to be behind the image and said it was generated using AI.
A screenshot of what looked like a Craigslist advertisement for paid actors to attend a political event at the Phoenix, Arizona Convention Center, also circulated over the weekend. But the ad was fake, and versions of it have been debunked since at least 2017 by AZ Central, Snopes, and Reuters.
Trump has boasted about crowds at his rallies in recent days. At a news conference on Thursday, the Republican presidential nominee said he thought that more people attended his speech in front of the Ellipse near the White House on Jan. 6, 2021, than Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech in 1963.
Trump acknowledged official estimates showed King had a larger crowd size. According to the National Park Service, approximately 250,000 people attended the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963, where King spoke. Approximately 53,000 people attended Trump’s speech on Jan. 6, 2021, according to the House Select Committee that investigated the assault on the Capitol that took place later that day.
“Nobody has spoken to crowds bigger than me,” Trump said.
Costco is recalling packages of salmon over concerns they could be contaminated with listeria.
Acme Smoked Fish Corp, the shopping club’s salmon provider, sent a notice to Costco shoppers this week informing them of the recall of Kirkland Signature Smoked Salmon, due to potential contamination with listeria monocytogenes bacteria.
The notice was sent to customers who Costco records show purchased affected fish products between October 9-13. Only packages from lot number 8512801270 are affected.
Customers who purchased the recalled salmon are instructed not to eat it and to return it to a Costco store for a full refund.
“We regret this unfortunate incident and have taken immediate corrective steps to ensure that this issue never happens again,” Acme Smoked Fish Corp. CEO Eduardo Carbajosa said.
CBS News
Biden administration rolls out new student debt plan, this time aimed at people with big debts
The Biden administration’s efforts to erase student debt for the 46 million Americans who are carrying college loans have repeatedly hit legal roadblocks. Now, the Department of Education is rolling out a new plan that could provide debt relief to 8 million borrowers who are suffering from financial hardships.
The new plan, unveiled Friday, would provide loan relief for approximately 8 million people with student loans who are suffering financial distress caused by other debts, ranging from medical expenses to costs due to a natural disaster. The Education Department said the proposed rules will be published in the Federal Register in the next few weeks, and that it expects to finalize the regulations in 2025.
President Joe Biden made delivering debt relief to people with student loans a key policy issue of his 2020 campaign, but Republican-led states have sued to block many of those efforts, while the Supreme Court in 2023 ruled 6-3 against his plan to erase up to $20,000 in debt for millions of borrowers.
At the same time, Americans are holding more than $1.7 trillion in student loans, a debt load that has impaired their ability to save or buy a home, among other issues.
“For far too long, our student loan system has made it too difficult for borrowers experiencing hardships, often financial hardships, to access relief,” Education Department Miguel Cardona said on a call with reporters. “It’s not fair, it’s not right and it’s not who we are as Americans.”
How people would get relief
Under the proposal, there would be two ways borrowers could qualify for the debt relief. Some people with student loans could receive forgiveness without an application, with the Education Secretary providing one-time relief to borrowers whom the agency determines have an 80% chance of being in default within two years, Cardona said.
“A big reason why we’re fighting for student debt relief is to address the more than 1 million defaults we see annually in the student loan system,” he said.
The second pathway for loan relief would provide forgiveness after borrowers fill out an application, with the department assessing 17 factors such as the applicant’s overall debt balance, household income, and whether their student loan payments are keeping them from affording basics like housing or health care.
“Financing a college education is supposed to help students climb the economic ladder, not leave them buried in a ditch,” Cardona said.
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