During the 2024 presidential election campaign, a rumor circulated online that Howard professors called US Vice President Kamala Harris “the worst student ever.” The Facebook page SpaceX Fanclub posted it on September 10, 2024, a few hours before the debate between Harris and former President Donald Trump:
(Facebook/SpaceX Fan Club)
The image meme read: “Howard University professors confirm ‘Kamala Harris was the worst student ever.'”
The post had received more than 50,000 reactions, 28,000 shares and 13,000 comments at the time of this writing. Some readers seemed to interpret the rumor as an actual retelling of real events. “Probably the reason she failed her first bar exam,” wrote one commenter.
The pinned comment under the post linked to an article on Espots.com that began as follows:
Howard University professors confirm: “Kamala was the worst student ever”
In an unexpected revelation sure to send shockwaves through the political world, a group of Howard University professors emeritus have come forward to reveal a chapter in the university’s history that can only be described as truly bizarre: Vice President Kamala Harris, they claim, was their “worst student ever.”
However, there was no evidence that Howard University professors had spoken about Harris in this way.
The rumor that Harris is a bad student actually comes from a website that describes her posts as humorous or satirical. Espots.com’s disclaimer reads:
Welcome to Esspots.com, a website specializing in satire, parody and humor. Before you continue reading our content, we would like to stress that nothing on this website is real. All articles, stories and comments on Esspots.com are completely fictional and are for entertainment purposes only.
The fabricated story spread as Harris gained ground in the polls over Trump after the September 10 debate.
Espots.com has a history of creating stories to be shared and commented on, sometimes relying on artificial intelligence writing software to tell the stories.
Snopes has previously addressed similar satirical claims made by Esspots.com, including the allegation that Kid Rock refused to share the stage with singer Taylor Swift and the rumor that Swift had to cancel dates on her Eras tour after supporting Harris.
As background information: Why We alert readers to rumors spread by sources that describe their publications as humorous or satirical.
