Fact Check: Has the footage of JD Vance getting booed at the Winter Olympics been edited by NBC?

MILAN, ITALY: Following the opening ceremony of the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy, a rumor is circulating online that NBC News edited out the portion showing the audience booing at Vice President JD Vance and Second Lady Usha Vance, who were present in Milan. The rumor sparked speculations about its authenticity. Let us fact-check it.

Claim: NBC edited out the footage of JD Vance getting booed at

According to the rumor circulating on social media, following the Winter Olympics ceremony on February 6, NBC edited out boos directed at Vance and his wife, who were present during the ceremony. 

Online users alleged that there were discrepancies between different footage of the ceremony, in which one set of footage clearly showed the Vances being booed as they appeared on screen, while NBC’s footage edited it out to downplay the reaction to Vance.

The clip added music over the moment and effectively muted all crowd reaction that appeared to fuel the rumor.

The rumor spread on various social media platforms such as X, Facebook, and Instagram.

Fact Check: Could not confirm whether the edit was intentional

Apart from this footage in question, two different versions of the clip were available on NBC's Peacock streaming service, where one had audible boos before the Vances appeared on screen, and one where the Vances were booed when they appeared on screen.

However, in the version that added music over the moment, and effectively muted all crowd reaction, we could not independently confirm whether NBC Sports deliberately altered the crowd audio during postproduction.

A spokesperson for NBC Sports told Snopes that the network 'did not edit any crowd audio for our presentation of the opening ceremony,' adding that 'the primetime replay and the world feed replay of the Opening Ceremony are both currently available to watch on Peacock.'

JD Vance and Usha Vance booed at the Winter Olympics opening ceremony

Instead of the usual polite applause, the crowd broke into loud boos and jeers once the stadium’s giant screen showed the Vice President and the Second Lady. 

CBC commentator Adrienne Arsenault noticed the sudden change in mood and said, “There’s the vice president, JD Vance, and his wife, Usha—oop. Those are not—oh, those are a lot of boos for him. Whistling, jeering, some applause.”

Reports from inside the stadium also claimed that, unlike other world leaders, Vance’s name was not even announced to the crowd.

The negative reaction happened even though the International Olympic Committee (IOC) had asked people to be nice.