Karoline Leavitt didn’t debate Stephen Colbert on ‘The Late Show’

Claim:

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt debated Stephen Colbert on his late-night talk show.

Rating:

In mid-April 2025, claims (archived) circulated online that White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt had a heated debate with Stephen Colbert on his late-night talk show. The claim mainly featured (archived) in YouTube (archived) videos, the first (archived) of which was posted on Feb. 24, 2025.

A version of the claim posted on April 18, 2025, was titled: “Karoline Leavitt Fires Back on Stephen Colbert’s Show After a Shocking Accusation.” Other versions (archived) had titles such as: “Karoline Leavitt SHUTS DOWN Stephen Colbert After His Insane On-Air Attack” and “Karoline Leavitt Just HUMILIATED Stephen Colbert and Stephen ERUPTS!”

In videos touting the claim, Colbert allegedly quizzed Leavitt on topics including U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs, the exclusion of certain outlets from the White House press pool and whether traditional news outlets had lost touch with the American people. The videos described how Leavitt’s responses stunned audiences and allegedly left Colbert scrambling.

However, Leavitt did not appear on Colbert’s “Late Show.” A White House spokesperson said a video detailing Leavitt’s alleged appearance on The Late Show posted on Feb. 24, 2025, was “fake.” Leavitt’s name did not appear on guest lists published ahead of Colbert’s shows, and there were no video clips of her appearing on the show. Searches on popular search engines showed no credible reports of her alleged appearance, which would have been newsworthy if it were true. 

Additionally, multiple versions of the claim on YouTube were tagged as “Altered or synthetic content,” a classification used by YouTube for some types of content, including that generated by artificial intelligence. Several of the videos also featured disclaimers that their content was fictional in the description. Therefore, we rate this claim false.

We reached out to “The Late Show” for comment and will update this story if we receive a reply.

YouTube requires its users to disclose when content “is meaningfully altered or synthetically generated when it seems realistic.” YouTube can also place nonremovable labels on videos if it finds they contain “altered or synthetic content” that has not been disclosed.

Additionally, many videos sharing this rumor featured identical disclaimers in their description that the stories in the videos were “entirely fictional and created solely for entertainment purposes.”

Some of the images used in the videos were obviously generated by AI. In a video posted on April 18, Leavitt appeared to have distorted fingers on one hand, with two overlapping. The next image showed Leavitt with a disfigured eye and mouth.

(YouTube channel @phantomstoriesby/Snopes Illustration)

Incorrectly depicted hands have long been a telltale of AI-generated images depicting humans.

Snopes has previously debunked similar AI-generated videos about Keanu Reeves and Elon Musk.

Sources