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April and May 2025, videos surfaced on social media alleging that White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt had debated MSNBC host Rachel Maddow on live television.

For example, one YouTube video was captioned: “Karoline Leavitt confronts Rachel Maddow live on air, exposing a shocking deception with undeniable proof. Watch the tense moment that left the studio speechless.”

Snopes readers also searched the site wondering if the story was true. However, the rumor was false and no such debate took place.

The claim stemmed from videos on YouTube channels with titles like, “Karoline Leavitt Goes Head-to-Head With Rachel Maddow: Who Came Out on Top?,” and “Karoline Leavitt’s Fiery Confrontation with Rachel Maddow — Unmissable Live Moment!”

However, artificial intelligence (AI) video creation tools seemingly helped create the narration, scripting and sequencing of each video.

Without naming a source for its information, one video’s narrator said:

In a political landscape increasingly defined by sharp divides and fiery rhetoric, the recent confrontation between White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt and MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow has captured national attention. This head-to-head exchange wasn’t just a clash of personalities — it symbolized the broader ideological and generational rifts shaping American discourse today.

The confrontation unfolded during a televised segment where Leavitt, representing the Trump administration, challenged Maddow’s critiques with pointed rebuttals. Maddow, known for her incisive commentary, responded with equal fervor, leading to a heated exchange that quickly went viral.

That YouTube video had been viewed more than 57,000 times as of this writing since its upload on May 1. Posts on social media sites such as Facebook also spread the rumor by linking to unreliable articles that shared the claim.

However, there was no evidence to support the assertion that Leavitt had debated Maddow on live TV. If, hypothetically speaking, there was even a sliver of truth to the claim — for instance, if Leavitt had even appeared on The Rachel Maddow Show — video evidence would exist of her appearance. However, no such evidence existed. For example, a search for “Karoline Leavitt on Rachel Maddow” on Google News produced no such evidence.

Snopes reached out to the White House to confirm our findings. We received a response that simply read, “Fake.”

In short, the claim appeared to be made up from whole cloth for the purpose of gaining clicks or views online. A disclaimer at the bottom of one YouTube video read: “This video is a commentary and opinion-based analysis. No actual debate between Karoline Leavitt and Rachel Maddow has taken place, to our knowledge.”

Despite the fact that the video’s underlying claim was false, the clip could seem believable because Maddow is known for speaking out against the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump. Some comments on the videos indicated that people did believe a debate had actually occurred between the two.

This was not the first misleading rumor about Leavitt supposedly debating talk show hosts that captured social media users’ attention. For example, we previously debunked false claims that Leavitt debated Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert on their shows. Those claims also originated with YouTube videos featuring obvious uses of AI tools.