Fact check: Harris campaign social media account has repeatedly deceived with misleading edits and captions
The social media account of Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign has repeatedly been deceptive.
The @KamalaHQ Twitter account, which boasts more than 1.3 millions followers, is known for clipping video clips and captioning them incorrectly to criticize former President Donald Trump.
The Harris campaign uses @KamalaHQ to act as an irreverent attack-dog, posting joking posts that draw attention to Trump’s and his allies’ controversial, inaccurate, or dubious remarks. The account, which is called the “official rapid-response page” by the Harris campaign, has made incorrect comments multiple times.
Here are eight examples, three of which were posted in the last part of the week. The anonymous account @KamalaHQLies has previously highlighted all of these posts. It itself has over 268,000 followers.
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Misleadingly describing Trump’s comment about his supporters
A post on August 17 from @KamalaHQ suggested that Trump was confused as to what state he is in at an event in Wilkes-Barre in Pennsylvania. The post read, “Trump, would that be okay North Carolina?” He is in Pennsylvania). It also included a 6-second video clip where Trump pointed to his left and said “Would this be okay, North Carolina?” I don’t believe so, right.”
The Harris campaign made it clear what its intentions were in the Instagram post that was posted by @KamalaHQ. It said, “Donald Trump has lost his way and is confused.”
Trump, however, was not confused or lost.
The full rally video shows that, earlier in his speech, Trump pointed to the exact same spot to his left, to acknowledge and speak to a small group of North Carolina supporters. He ended by saying “Thank you.” North Carolina!” In the video by @KamalaHQ he pointed at these supporters and called them “North Carolina”. He hadn’t forgotten that he was in Pennsylvania.
The Harris campaign has declined to comment on the post by @KamalaHQ.
Deceptively clipping a Trump immigration comment and misleadingly describing it
The @KamalaHQ Twitter account tried again on Thursday to suggest that Trump had a problem with his location. The post read, “Trump says to Pennsylvania: “Remember this when going to vote” (He’s in Arizona). It also included a clip of Trump in Tucson saying, “So Pennsylvania remember this, when you go to vote. Okay, just remember: 2,000% Increase.” This is just a small –…”
This comment was also more explicit on Instagram than it was in the X-post. The Harris campaign added text to the video, which read: “Trump forgot which state he’s in (again)”.
Trump had, once again, not forgotten where he was.
The extended footage shows how the Harris campaign has removed critical context. Trump was speaking about immigration in Arizona and had just finished reading a prepared text that said a small Pennsylvania village “experienced an 2,000% rise in the number of Haitian migrants” under Kamala Harris. He added, “So Pennsylvania remember this when it’s time to vote. Okay, just remember this. 2,000%, this is a tiny town; all of a sudden, they got thousands.”
You could argue that it is odd for Trump, who speaks in Arizona, to directly appeal to Pennsylvanians. Trump’s remarks are broadcasted to all voters in the United States, so it is impossible to know what people thought about this comment.
The Harris campaign has declined to comment on the post by @KamalaHQ.
Deceptively cutting and misleadingly describing Trump’s Charlottesville comment from 2017.
In a post on Friday, @KamalaHQ stated, “Trump said ‘nothing wrong’ in Charlottesville, in 2017, when neo Nazis chanted Jews won’t replace us’ and murdered an innocent woman. The post also included a 10-second video clip of Trump telling journalists at a Friday evening event in California that I had no idea — it was nothing to do me, he did not correct her, he already knew this. Charlottesville — Nothing was done wrong.”
The full video of Trump’s California comments shows the Harris campaign intentionally cut the clip just before Trump said he wasn’t claiming the neo Nazis in Charlottesville had done nothing wrong, or that the murdering of Heather Heyer an innocent Charlottesville counterprotester was not wrong.
The full video shows that he was saying he had done nothing wrong when he said “very fine people on both sides”, in 2017, about the Charlottesville events, which he repeatedly claimed was not about white nationalism.
Trump complained that David Muir, the moderator for the presidential debate held on Tuesday by ABC News, had not challenged how Harris had described Trump’s comments from 2017. Harris’ description of Trump’s 2017 comments in the debate was fair. However, Trump did not defend murder on Friday.
Here’s Trump’s entire Friday comment, where he invokes various Fox News hosts. “I think (Muir), corrected me 11 time. In 11 of those instances, I do not think he was allowed to correct me. She wasn’t corrected once. He didn’t even correct her once. Charlottesville — Nothing was done wrong. You only had to read one more sentence of my statement before you realized that. Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham corrected that many times. “But they continue to tell the same lies.”
In an email, the Harris campaign defended the @KamalaHQ tweet by saying: “He is saying that he didn’t do anything wrong” in reference to his saying’very good people’ who had done what was described in the Tweet.
This has two major problems. The post did not acknowledge Trump’s “nothing is wrong” comment referred to his previous remark. While it’s possible that the 2017 “very nice people” comment was made about white nationalists in general, there is no evidence to suggest that this comment was directed at Heyer’s killer.
Deceptively cutting and incorrectly quoting JD Vance’s quote on veterans’ health care
The @KamalaHQ Twitter account published a video clip on Thursday of Sen. JDVance, Trump’s running-mate, giving an interview. The account posted: “Q: Would privatizing veterans’ health care be something you would consider?” Vance: “I think I would consider it.”
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