Since the announcement that Kamala Harris is the Democratic nomination for President, multiple rumors came up considering her eligibility or her past.
Some of them already went out years ago, while some came into light just after President Biden decided to end his bid for a second term.
Let’s see what the rumors are!
1. Kamala Harris is not an American citizen, so she cannot run for Presidency
Well, that’s totally false. She was born in Oakland, California and the Associated Press even obtained a copy of her birth certificate. Her mother was a cancer researcher and she came from India to study at the University of California, and her father is an economist from Jamaica. Her parents met as students at the University of California, Berkeley.
We have the 14th Amendment that says anyone born on U.S. soil is considered a U.S. citizen and eligible to serve as President or Vice 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”
Questioning and legitimating if Harris is eligible from this perspective doesn’t make any sense and Jessica Levinson, professor at Loyola Law School, managed to talk about the many legal questions that are nuanced and this – when it comes to being a citizen or not – is far from being one of those situations.
However, there are still posts on social media claiming that Harris cannot serve as President, and they went viral right after the announcement of Biden’s dropout. A famous one is a post on X with more than 35,000 likes saying that “Kamala Harris is not eligible to run for President. Neither of her parents were natural born American citizens when she was born.”
Since 2019 false assertions about Harris’ eligibility started to circulate when she launched her bid for president and they got a boost over time.
2. Harris is not Black
This is another false one as she is, in fact, Black and Indian. Her father, Donald Harris is a Black man born in Jamaica, and her mother was born in Southern India. Kamala Harris talked about her heritage for years and she identifies with both her parent’s culture.
Even if there is so much proof to the contrary, social media still make claims about Harris’ race. A famous X with more than 42,000 likes claims that she is an Indian American who claims to be black as part of the delusional, Democrat DEI quota.
In her autobiography, The Truths We Hold: An American Journey, she talks about her cultural background and origins, her childhood, and even how her mother raised both Kamala and her sister, Maya, to become strong Black women. However, she talks about the awareness and the appreciation she holds for her Indian roots. “My mother, grandparents, aunts, and uncle instilled us with pride in our South Asian roots. (…) Our classical Indian names harked back to our heritage, and we were raised with a strong awareness and appreciation for Indian culture.”
3. The “She started her career by having an affair with a married politician” rumor
There are multiple parts in this story, so let’s take it step by step. First things first, Willie Brown, the politician in this context was separated from his wife during their relationship; and the relationship or the separation was not a secret.
Brown is a former mayor of San Francisco and he served as speaker of the California State Assembly in the 1990s, when he and Harris started a relationship. He got separated from his wife in 1982.
As a response, Brown wrote in 2020: “Sure, I dated Kamala, so what? It was more than 20 years ago.”
Harris’s critics used her past relationships to question her competencies and even the Fox News personality Tomi Lahren 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 apologized eventually for the comment.
Trump used the old relationship also in recent attacks.
4. The clip of television host Montel Willians holding hands with Kamala and another woman – proof that Harris was his sidepiece
Well, the other woman Williams held hands with his daughter, Ashley. And yes, they dated over 2 decades ago when they were both single, as the TV star also came to write on social media when the rumor went out. He showed his support to Kamala both in this situation and in her political career as well.
Social media used the clip misrepresenting it as Kamala being the side piece of Montel and this was a term used to describe a woman who has intimate relationships with a man in a monogamous relationship, which was clearly not the case.
Montel Williams expressed his great respect for Sen. Harris as well as questioned the public regarding whether the dating history of a male candidate would be used or not in such a context. He highlighted the huge differences in how society treats men and women in power positions.
5. The rumor of Harris’ promises to inflict the vengeance of a nation on Trump supporters
This started as a fake quote attributed to Harris that is spreading online for five years already. Harris supposedly promised in 2020 to Trump supporters to be targeted by the federal government if Trump was defeated. The phrase sounds like this: “Once Trump’s gone and we have regained our rightful place at the White House, look out for you supported him and endorsed his actions because we’ll be coming for you next. You will feel the vengeance of a nation.”
This quote was these days re-shared on social media and one post on X contains an image of it with 22,000 shares in a Monday afternoon.
However, these remarks didn’t come from Harris, but from a satirical article that was published online in August 2019, after Trump’s supporters reposted the comments without noting they were fake.
6. The video of Harris’s 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.
Well, she never said this. A footage on reproductive rights at Howard University, her alma mater, was altered to make it seem as though she said this.
This speech was criticized as being a word salad, but what she actually said was: “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.”
The original footage was shared by NARAL Pro-Choice America, an abortion rights nonprofit and it shows Harris having the “moment in time” remark, but not the “today is today” comment.
Moreover, the White House transcript doesn’t include the statements either, so the video was obviously altered. This video of Harris’ appearance at this event came the same day when Biden announced their re-election bid.
In an end note, we remind you to always double-check the news and find a safe and trusted source.
If you found our article interesting, you can read this one next: Harris Promotes Joy, Trump Has a Dark Vision: What You Should Know
