FACT FOCUS: A look at false claims around Kamala Harris and her campaign for the White House (2024)

Table of Contents
___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ FAQs

The announcement that Vice President Kamala Harris will seek the Democratic nomination for president is inspiring a wave of false claims about her eligibility and her background. Some first emerged years ago, while others only surfaced after President Joe Biden’s decision to end his bid for a second term.

Here’s a look at the facts.

___

CLAIM: Harris is not an American citizen and therefore cannot serve as commander in chief.

THE FACTS: Completely false. Harris is a natural born U.S. citizen. She was born on Oct. 20, 1964, in Oakland, California, according to a copy of her birth certificate, obtained by The Associated Press.

Her mother, a cancer researcher from India, and her father, an economist from Jamaica, met as graduate students at the University of California, Berkeley.

Under the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, anyone born on U.S. soil is considered a natural born U.S. citizen and eligible to serve as either the vice president or president.

“All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside,” reads the amendment.

RELATED COVERAGE

Harris freshens up her message on the economy as Trump and Republicans go after her on inflation

Beshear gets a warm embrace in flood-stricken parts of Kentucky where he and Trump are both popular

There is no question or legitimate debate about whether a citizen like Harris is eligible to serve as president or vice president, said Jessica Levinson, a professor at Loyola Law School.

“So many legal questions are really nuanced — this isn’t one of those situations,” Levinson told the AP on Monday.

Still, social media posts making the debunked assertion that Harris cannot serve as president went viral soon after Biden announced Sunday that he was dropping out of the race and would back Harris for president.

“Kamala Harris is not eligible to run for President,” read one post on X that was liked more than 34,000 times. “Neither of her parents were natural born American citizens when she was born.”

False assertions about Harris’ eligibility began circulating in 2019 when she launched her bid for the presidency. They got a boost, thanks in part to then-President Donald Trump, when Biden selected her as his running mate.

“I heard today that she doesn’t meet the requirements,” the Republican said of Harris in 2019.

___

CLAIM: Harris is not Black.

THE FACTS: This is false. Harris is Black and Indian. Her father, Donald Harris, is a Black man who was born in Jamaica. Shyamala Gopalan, her mother, was born in southern India. Harris has spoken publicly for many years, including in her 2019 autobiography, about how she identifies with the heritage of both her parents.

What to know about the 2024 Election

  • Democracy: American democracy has overcome big stress tests since 2020. More challenges lie ahead in 2024.
  • AP’s Role: The Associated Press is the most trusted source of information on election night, with a history of accuracy dating to 1848. Learn more.
  • Stay informed. Keep your pulse on the news with breaking news email alerts. Sign up here.

Despite ample evidence to the contrary, social media users are making erroneous claims about Harris’ race.

“Just a reminder that Kamala Harris @KamalaHarris isn’t black,” reads one X post that had received approximately 42,000 likes and 20,400 shares as of Monday. “She Indian American. She pretends to be black as part of the delusional, Democrat DEI quota.”

But Harris is both Black and Indian. Indeed, she is the first woman, Black person and person of South Asian descent to serve as vice president. This fact is highlighted in her biography on WhiteHouse.gov and she has spoken about her ethnicity on many occasions.

Harris wrote in her autobiography, “The Truths We Hold: An American Journey,” that she identifies with the heritage of both her mother and father.

“My mother, grandparents, aunts, and uncle instilled us with pride in our South Asian roots,” she wrote. “Our classical Indian names harked back to our heritage, and we were raised with a strong awareness and appreciation for Indian culture.”

In the next paragraph, she adds, “My mother understood very well that she was raising two black daughters.” Harris again refers to herself as a “black woman” in the book’s next chapter.

___

CLAIM: Harris got her start by having an affair with a married man, California politician Willie Brown.

THE FACTS: This is missing some important context. Brown was separated from his wife during the relationship, which was not a secret.

Brown, 90, is a former mayor of San Francisco who was serving as speaker of the California State Assembly in the 1990s when he and Harris were in a relationship. Brown had separated from his wife in 1982.

“Yes, we dated. It was more than 20 years ago,” Brown wrote in 2020 in the San Francisco Chronicle under the article title, “Sure, I dated Kamala Harris. So what?”

He wrote that he supported Harris’ first race to be San Francisco district attorney — just as he has supported a long list of other California politicians, including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, former Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Harris, 59, was state attorney general from 2011-2017 and served in the Senate from 2017 until 2021, when she became vice president. She has been married to Doug Emhoff since 2014.

Harris’ critics have used the past relationship to question her qualifications, as Fox News personality Tomi Lahren did when she wrote on social media in 2019: “Kamala did you fight for ideals or did you sleep your way to the top with Willie Brown.” Lahren later apologized for the comment.

Trump and some of his supporters have also highlighted the nearly three-decade old relationship in recent attacks on Harris.

___

CLAIM: An Inside Edition clip of television host Montel Williams holding hands with Harris and another woman is proof that Harris was his “side piece.”

THE FACTS: The clip shows Montel with Harris and his daughter, Ashley Williams. Harris and Williams, a former marine who hosted “The Montel Williams Show” for more than a decade, dated briefly in the early 2000s.

In the clip, taken from a 2019 Inside Edition segment, Williams can be seen posing for photographs and holding hands with both women as they arrive at the 2001 Eighth Annual Race to Erase MS in Los Angeles.

But social media users are misrepresenting the clip, using it as alleged evidence that Harris was Montel’s “side piece” — a term used to describe a person, typically a woman, who has a sexual relationship with a man in a monogamous relationship.

Williams addressed the false claims in an X post on Monday, writing in reference to the Inside Edition clip, “as most of you know, that is my daughter to my right.” Getty Images photos from the Los Angeles gala identify the women as Harris and Ashley Williams.

In 2019, Williams described his relationship with Harris in a post on X, then known as Twitter.

“@KamalaHarris and I briefly dated about 20 years ago when we were both single,” he wrote in an X post at the time. “So what? I have great respect for Sen. Harris. I have to wonder if the same stories about her dating history would have been written if she were a male candidate?”

___

CLAIM: Harris promised to inflict the “vengeance of a nation” on Trump supporters.

THE FACTS: A fabricated quote attributed to Harris is spreading online five years after it first surfaced.

In the quote, Harris supposedly promises that if Trump is defeated in 2020, Trump supporters will be targeted by the federal government: “Once Trump’s gone and we have regained our rightful place in the White House, look out if you supported him and endorsed his actions, because we’ll be coming for you next. You will feel the vengeance of a nation.”

The quote was shared again on social media this week. One post on X containing an image of the quote was shared more than 22,000 times as of Monday afternoon.

The remarks didn’t come from Harris, but from a satirical article published online in August 2019. Shortly after, Trump supporters like musician Ted Nugent reposted the comments without noting they were fake.

___

CLAIM: A video shows Harris saying in a speech: “Today is today. And yesterday was today yesterday. Tomorrow will be today tomorrow. So live today, so the future today will be as the past today as it is tomorrow.”

THE FACTS: Harris never said this. Footage from a 2023 rally on reproductive rights at Howard University, her alma mater, was altered to make it seem as though she did.

In the days after Harris headlined the Washington rally, Republicans mocked a real clip of her speech, with one critic dubbing her remarks a “word salad,” the AP reported at the time.

Harris says in the clip: “So I think it’s very important — as you have heard from so many incredible leaders — for us, at every moment in time, and certainly this one, to see the moment in time in which we exist and are present, and to be able to contextualize it, to understand where we exist in the history and in the moment as it relates not only to the past, but the future.”

NARAL Pro-Choice America, an abortion rights nonprofit whose president also spoke at the rally, livestreamed the original footage. It shows Harris making the “moment in time” remark, but not the “today is today” comment.

The White House’s transcript of Harris’ remarks also does not include the statement from the altered video. Harris’ appearance at the event came the same day that Biden announced their reelection bid.

___

Find AP Fact Checks here: https://apnews.com/APFactCheck.

FACT FOCUS: A look at false claims around Kamala Harris and her campaign for the White House (2024)

FAQs

What is Kamala Harris role in the White House? ›

Kamala Devi Harris (/ˈkɑːmələ ˈdeɪvi/ KAH-mə-lə DAY-vee; born October 20, 1964) is an American politician and attorney who is the 49th and current vice president of the United States since 2021, under President Joe Biden.

What are some important things about Kamala Harris? ›

Harris, the daughter of immigrants from Jamaica and India, has had a career with many firsts: She became the country's first Indian American senator when she was inaugurated in 2017. She is California's first female and South Asian attorney general.

What good things has Kamala Harris done as vice president? ›

Harris was also at the forefront of the administration's pursuit to codify voting rights protections. She pushed for Congress to pass the Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act, which would have extended the protections of the 1965 Voting Rights Act and required federal approval for some local election law changes.

What did Kamala Harris fight for? ›

In 2017, she was sworn into the United States Senate where she championed legislation to fight hunger, provide rent relief, improve maternal health care, expand access to capital for small businesses, revitalize America's infrastructure, and combat the climate crisis.

What is the role of the White House? ›

The White House is where the President and First Family of the United States live and work — but it's also the People's House, where we hope all Americans feel a sense of inclusion and belonging.

What impact did Kamala Harris have on the community? ›

But Harris has been an exponent of reproductive justice for years, pushing to make Black maternal health a national priority. In 2021, she hosted the first federal Maternal Health Day of Action at the White House, where she issued a call to improve health outcomes for parents and infants.

Why does Kamala Harris matter? ›

This past August, that same precocious child, now a member of the U.S. Senate, stood on a stage in a nearly empty auditorium flanked by American flags and accepted the Democratic nomination for vice president, making history as the first Black and Indian American woman to do so.

What does Kamala Harris stand by? ›

Israel, Gaza and foreign policy

If elected, Harris can be expected to largely maintain the Biden administration's Gaza policy. As vice president, she has reiterated her support for Israel's security and right to defense, while expressing the need to end the suffering of Palestinian civilians.

What are some interesting facts about Kamala Harris family? ›

Donald J. Harris is the father of Kamala Harris. He is a Jamaican-American economist and professor emeritus at Stanford University, originally from Saint Ann's Bay, Jamaica. Of Afro-Jamaican descent, Harris was born on August 23, 1938, to Beryl Christie Harris (née Finegan) and Oscar Joseph Harris.

What did Kamala Harris' mother tell her? ›

What is Kamala Harris' religion? ›

Kamala Harris: A Baptist with a Jewish husband and a faith that traces back to MLK and Gandhi.

What is the vice president known for? ›

Today vice presidents serve as principal advisors to the president, but from 1789 until the 1950s their primary duty was to preside over the Senate. Since the 1830s, vice presidents have occupied offices near the Senate Chamber.

What did Kamala Harris do before being vice president? ›

Political and legal career

In 1998, Harris left to work for the District Attorney's office in San Francisco. In 2003, Harris became the District Attorney of San Francisco. She worked as the attorney general of California until 2017 when she became a senator for California.

Was Kamala Harris ever married before? ›

Emhoff and Harris met on a blind date in 2013 and married the following year. It was her first marriage and his second. Harris' stepchildren — Ella and her brother Cole Emhoff — are named for Ella Fitzgerald and John Coltrane.

What does the vice president do in the White House? ›

The Vice President's Ceremonial Office

Today, the Vice President uses the office for meetings and press interviews. Sixteen Secretaries of the Navy worked here between 1879 and 1921.

What role does the first lady have in the White House? ›

A director of social affairs, presidential liaison, symbol of strength, policy advocate, political reformer, keeper of "the People's House," partner, and confidant, the First Ladies of the United States have taken on numerous roles throughout American history.

What is Kamala Harris position in the government? ›

By: Jacob Fischler and Lia Chien - July 28, 2024 6:01 pm. In her search for a running mate in her presidential bid, Vice President Kamala Harris is said to be eyeing a clutch of contenders with executive experience enhanced by an outside-the-Beltway flavor — at least five governors from the Rust Belt, South and Midwest ...

Who is the secretary of state in the White House? ›

Antony J. Blinken was sworn in as the 71st U.S. Secretary of State on January 26, 2021. The Secretary of State, appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate, is the President's chief foreign affairs adviser.

Top Articles
Latest Posts
Recommended Articles
Article information

Author: Rev. Leonie Wyman

Last Updated:

Views: 5463

Rating: 4.9 / 5 (79 voted)

Reviews: 86% of readers found this page helpful

Author information

Name: Rev. Leonie Wyman

Birthday: 1993-07-01

Address: Suite 763 6272 Lang Bypass, New Xochitlport, VT 72704-3308

Phone: +22014484519944

Job: Banking Officer

Hobby: Sailing, Gaming, Basketball, Calligraphy, Mycology, Astronomy, Juggling

Introduction: My name is Rev. Leonie Wyman, I am a colorful, tasty, splendid, fair, witty, gorgeous, splendid person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.