Just over two weeks before U.S. Election Day in 2024, online users and publications promoted two rumors regarding a video clip from a campaign rally for Vice President Kamala Harris, held Oct. 17 at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.
While Harris was speaking in support of abortion rights, she briefly paused when some protesters in the crowd began shouting. As videos posted by USA Today and other publications confirmed, Harris responded, "Oh, you guys are at the wrong rally." The crowd cheered. "No, I think you meant to go to the smaller one down the street."
More cheers followed, as did a heavily viewed post (archived) by the Kamala HQ "rapid response" account on X — a post that labeled the protesters "MAGA hecklers."
When they reported on the incident, both Fox News and The Western Journal said Harris had "mocked" anti-abortion demonstrators who had shouted "Christ is King" and "Jesus is Lord." Numerous X users made similar claims, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga.
However, People, Rolling Stone and other sources published a different account of what happened — namely, that Harris had actually responded to a different person in the crowd who shouted "That's a lie!"
Snopes received reader mail asking for the facts surrounding these versions of events.
What the Video Seems To Show
In our analysis of the clip, we noted Harris did say, "Oh, you guys are at the wrong rally," immediately after two male voices shouted, "Christ is King" and "Jesus is Lord," and a third voice, apparently female, seemed to shout, "That's a lie."
However, the latter words are indistinct in both this and other clips (embedded below) documenting the incident. It's plausible the person yelled something else that rhymed with "lie" — "Bye! Bye! Goodbye!" for example, perhaps meant for the ears of the protesters.
While the video showed that Harris looked in the direction of the two male protesters, it's uncertain whether she clearly heard what they said. Fox News' reporting on the incident couched its description of Harris' response with the word "seemingly," as in: Harris "seemingly told two Christian students at her Wisconsin rally last week that they were 'at the wrong rally' when they shouted 'Jesus is Lord' and 'Christ is King.'"
Fox News correspondent Mark Meredith recorded a video from his perspective at the rally that showed some of the shouting. Meredith — who appeared to be closer to the two protesters than Harris — posted (archived) that he was not able to hear what they had said.
We contacted three Harris campaign officials by email for comment but did not receive a response.
Context
In the moments leading up to Harris' "wrong rally" remark, she was speaking to the crowd about her stance on abortion rights. Dallas-based WFAA-TV hosts a full speech video on YouTube:
Beginning at the 16:59 mark in the above video, Harris said, "Because ours is a fight for the future, and it is a fight for freedom. For freedom. Like the fundamental freedom of a woman to make decisions about her own body and not have her government tell her what to do."
The crowd cheered.
Harris continued, "And, again, we're not going to be gaslighted on this. We remember Donald Trump hand-selected three members of the United States Supreme Court with the intention that they would undo the protections of Roe v. Wade, and they did as he intended."
After a brief pause during which the shouting from the crowd took place, Harris said, "Oh, you guys are at the wrong rally. No, I think you meant to go to the smaller one down the street."
A few moments later she appeared to notice someone in the crowd in need of medical attention, at which point she asked for a medic to attend to that person before continuing with her speech.
Another Video Angle
Instagram user @mckmama77 attended Harris' rally and recorded a video (archived) of the moment one of the protesters could be heard shouting, "Jesus is Lord," followed by the vice president's response. Some X users later reposted that video, garnering more than 1 million total views.
The White House Transcript
WhiteHouse.gov hosts the official transcript for Harris' speech in La Crosse. The transcript doesn't include the interjections "Jesus is Lord" or "Christ is King." However, it does attribute the remark "Lies. Lies. That's a lie" to an audience member:
THE VICE PRESIDENT: — with the intention that they would undo the protections of Roe v. Wade, and they did as he intended.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Lies. Lies. That's a lie.
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Oh, you guys are at the wrong rally. (Laughter and applause.) No, I think you meant to go to the smaller one down the street. (Applause.) (Laughs.) Come on.
Though the transcript could be correct on this point, we found no definitive evidence in three different video recordings of the moment that the words shouted by that person were "Lies. Lies. That's a lie."
We contacted the White House by email and will update this story if we receive a response.
Trump and Vance Comment on Harris Rally
Former President Donald Trump mentioned the incident during an Oct. 19, 2024, campaign rally in Latrobe, Pennsylvania.
"Then she had the other event the other day where she said, 'You're in the wrong location,' when they started talking about a certain subject, right?" Trump said to the crowd. "They're in the… which basically was a knock on Christianity and a knock on religion, because she doesn't know what the hell she's saying."
The moment in which Trump made these comments begins at the 17:27 mark in this WFAA-TV YouTube video.
Trump's running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, also mentioned the incident during one of his campaign rallies on Oct. 20 in Waukesha, Wisconsin. Vance said, "There is something really bizarre with Kamala Harris' anti-Christian rhetoric and anti-Christian approach to public policy." At that moment, a person in the audience yelled, "Jesus is King." Vance responded: "That's right. Jesus is King." The remark drew cheers from the crowd. The moment begins at the 6:24 mark in this C-SPAN video.
At least one X user posted (archived) Vance's and Harris' videos into one side-by-side clip.
Fox News Interviews the 2 Male Student Protesters
On Oct. 20, the hosts of Fox News' TV show "Fox & Friends" interviewed the two student protesters who shouted during Harris' rally. The hosts identified them as Luke Polaske and Grant Beth, both juniors at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. The pair shared their perspective in full. A user on X reposted (archived) the entire "Fox & Friends" interview.
Polaske talked about what he shouted to the crowd and how Harris looked in his direction:
After she talked about overturning Roe v. Wade and Donald Trump, I yelled out to the crowd that abortion is the sacrament of Satan. And when I said that, I deeply do believe that as a Christian. And about 10 seconds go by, and that's when the video of my friend Grant and I proclaiming that "Christ is Lord" and "Jesus is King," when we said that.
And I think it's important to say this is a small venue, and we were about 20 to 30 yards away from Kamala at this point. There's a lot of controversy that says she wasn't talking to us or we left, we didn't get kicked out. Well, I can speak on Grant's and I's behalf. On video, Grant's getting pushed and shoved, and there's about five seconds after, or before she tells us to go to the smaller rally down the street, you can see on the video she waves. She waves. She was actually waving at me.
I took this cross off my neck that I wear. And, as we were getting asked to leave, I held it up in the air and waved at her and pointed to her and she looked directly in the eye, kind of gave me an evil smirk. Yeah, I just want to clear that up and confirm that she 100% was talking to us.
Polaske said he and Beth were escorted out of the rally by three people wearing badges, with one man purportedly saying, "You are uninvited and unwelcome to this event. You need to leave."
Beth talked about why he and Polaske spoke out at the rally and the reactions they subsequently encountered online:
We didn't really intend on, you know, going at any people. People online were calling us "MAGA fascists." That was never our intention going to this rally. We were only here to protest our faith and we did so. We never expected this to grow as large as it was.
Essentially, she was speaking and we decided to say "Christ is King," "Jesus is Lord," and we got a lot of backlash. As you can see in that firsthand video, I was pushed by an elderly woman. We were heckled at, we were cursed at, we were mocked. And that's the biggest thing for me, personally. In reflection of the event, Jesus was mocked, his disciples were mocked and that's OK. In reality, we did God's work and we were there for the right reasons and God is watching us in this moment.
Beth added that he believed God sent him and Polaske to the rally to deliver that message.