Vice President Kamala Harris fielded questions Sept. 19 from media powerhouse Oprah Winfrey and the audience at “Unite for America,” a live televised forum that featured the Democratic presidential nominee discussing issues such as abortion, immigration and gun violence.
The New York Times noted that this was a departure for Harris, who “has not spoken off the cuff or at length about many issues since she catapulted to the top of the ticket.”
But an X post that’s gained traction in the days since claims there was nothing candid about Harris’ responses.
“WOW!” the Sept. 21 X post said. “Apparently Kamala Harris had a freaking TELEPROMPTER during her ‘interview’ with Oprah. Scamala Harris is a fraud!”
The post included a video clip without sound that showed Winfrey from behind and Harris in profile as words on a teleprompter scrolled in their foreground.
A Winfrey spokesperson told PolitiFact that Harris didn’t use a teleprompter during the forum.
Winfrey, meanwhile, did. In the silent video clip spreading on social media, the words “the fight for us … for the America we desire and deserve to live in” and “to find out more … ” appear on the teleprompter.
Watching footage of the end of the forum with sound, it’s clear that this script is for Winfrey.
“Let’s do better, and vote for Kamala Harris,” Winfrey said around the 1:32 mark of this video that streamed live Sept. 19, adding, “We hope you keep fighting for us and the country we deserve to have, thank you so much. To find out more about how you can register or where you can vote, go to iwillvote.com.
We rate claims this video shows Harris using a teleprompter False.
This fact check was originally published by PolitiFact, which is part of the Poynter Institute. See the sources for this fact check here.
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