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Kamala Harris has lines whispered to her through “audio earrings.” Questions are prepared in advance. Migrants eating domestic dogs and cats. The killing of newborns.
These were just some of the baseless conspiracies that emerged from the presidential debate between the Vice President and former President Donald Trump on Tuesday night.
The earbud conspiracy theory has been around for years, with Republicans and right-wing politicians accusing Democratic candidates of relying on consultants to help them with audio devices.
In 2020, then-President Trump spread the conspiracy theory that Democratic candidate Joe Biden had “refused to inspect the receiver” before the debate.
In 2016, right-wing media spread the same idea about Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.
In 2012, President Barack Obama was accused in fundraising emails of wearing an earpiece during a debate with Republican candidate Mitt Romney. Conservative bloggers claimed Obama also did so during a debate in 2008.
And before the Biden-Trump debate in June – a dismal performance by Biden that ultimately led to his exit from the race – Republicans claimed the president was taking amphetamines, drinking energy drinks and wearing an earpiece. The network hosting the debate, CNN, was also accused of delaying the broadcast by up to two minutes.
The demands on the earpiece
During Tuesday night’s debate, conspiracy theorists spread the baseless claim that Harris’ earrings transmitted audio data.
“The Vice President cheated with earbuds? No wonder,” wrote former NFL player Antonio Brown to his 2.1 million X-followers.
A Twitter user who is followed by several right-wing figures has received millions of views on X for a post in which he writes: “Rumors are circulating that Kamala Harris wore audio earrings and was given lines to listen to. Isn’t that against the debate rules?”
The same user seemed to suggest that Obama was behind the microphone delivering lines to Harris by sharing video footage from 2020 in which Obama The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and jokingly said that he would agree to a third term.
“If I could make an arrangement where I had a backup, a front man or front woman, and they had an earpiece, and I sat in my basement in my sweats and watched the stuff. Then I could sort of recite the lyrics, but someone else would do the speaking and the ceremony, I would be OK with that,” Obama joked to Colbert.
Several posts compared Harris’ earrings to a German Kickstarter campaign for clip-on earrings. The Daily Beast noted.
However, the chunky gold and pearl-embellished earrings – which she wore previously and again on Wednesday morning at a ceremony marking the anniversary of 9/11 in New York City – are a design from luxury jewelry brand Tiffany’s “HardWear” collection, according to a website that tracks her style.
Harris would be given questions in advance
Before the debate showdown, Trump claimed without evidence at a Fox News town hall last week that Harris would receive the pre-debate questions and called ABC News “dishonest.”
He pointed to Harris’ long-standing friendship with Disney TV executive Dana Walden. Disney owns ABC.
Under debate rules, candidates were not allowed to take pre-written notes onto the debate stage, nor were they informed of topics or questions in advance.
Trump claimed during an appearance on Fox News on Wednesday morning that Harris had faked her answers.
“Kamala doesn’t do shows. … That’s not fair to the audience because they don’t know what they’re getting. But last night they saw what they got. They had a rigged show with someone who may have even had the answers,” he said.
Immigrants eat dogs and cats
Trump also used the debate to spread a debunked conspiracy theory that Haitian migrants were stealing and eating domestic cats and dogs in Springfield, Ohio.
“In Springfield, they eat the dogs, the people who came here, they eat the cats, they eat the pets of the people who live there,” Trump said, raising his voice.
Anchor David Muir responded that ABC News had spoken to Springfield’s city manager. “He told us there were no credible reports of specific allegations that pets belonging to individuals from the immigrant community had been injured or mistreated,” Muir said.
Trump responded: “People on TV are saying, ‘My dog was kidnapped and used as food.'”
According to officials, there is no evidence that Haitian immigrants steal and eat pets.
The conspiracy began on September 6, when a post appeared on X that appeared to have been written by someone from Springfield. The post stated that the “neighbor’s daughter’s friend” had discovered a cat hanging from a tree for food. The post claimed, without evidence, that Haitians lived in the house. It was accompanied by a photo of a black man carrying what looked like a goose.
Republicans like JD Vance, Ted Cruz and Trump have amplified these claims on their social media platforms.
Springfield City Manager Bryan Heck said in a statement: “In response to recent rumors of criminal activity by the immigrant population in our city, we want to clarify that there are no credible reports or specific allegations that pets have been harmed, injured or mistreated by individuals from the immigrant community.”
Killing of newborns
In a section on abortion rights and reproductive care, Trump suggested that in many US states, abortions were taking place at nine months of age and newborns were being “executed.”
“There is no state in this country where it is legal to kill a baby after birth,” ABC News anchor Linsey Davis responded.
Trump’s racist comments about Harris
Trump was asked about offensive comments he made earlier this summer when he claimed Harris “accidentally turned black” after simply referring to her Native American heritage.
“I don’t care,” Trump said Tuesday night. “Whatever she wants to be is fine with me.”
“All I can say is that I read that she wasn’t black… and then I read that she was black, and that’s fine,” he added.
Alvin Tillery, founding director of the Center for the Study of Diversity and Democracy at Northwestern University and a Harris supporter, told NPR last month that Trump “got the media to cover and reframe his Birtherism 2.0 theory.”
Years ago, Trump promoted the conspiracy theory that Obama was not born in the United States, which eventually led the former president to release his birth certificate. Harris’ birth certificate was also shared online.
“Donald Trump is trying to convince a number of marginal black voters that they shouldn’t consider Kamala Harris one of their own,” Khalil Gibran Muhammad, professor of history, race and public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, told NPR.
The 2020 elections and the insurrection in the Capitol on January 6
Trump again spread the unfounded conspiracy theory that the 2020 election was stolen from him. He also refused to take responsibility for the 2021 Capitol insurrection., Five people were killed and his supporters ransacked the building as they tried to prevent the certification of Biden’s election victory.
During Tuesday’s debate, Trump was asked twice whether he regretted any of his actions on January 6, 2021.
“I had nothing to do with it other than they asked me to give a speech. I showed up to give a speech,” Trump said.
Trump has repeatedly claimed that the 2020 election was rigged and stolen through voter and electoral fraud.
The Elections Infrastructure Government Coordinating Council and the Election Infrastructure Sector Coordinating Executive Committees said in a joint statement shortly after the 2020 election that it was “the most secure in American history.”
Trump’s former Attorney General Bill Barr also rejected the allegations of widespread fraud.
The debate was “rigged”
During an appearance on Fox News on Wednesday morning, the former president claimed that Tuesday night’s debate was “rigged.”
“It was three to one. It was a set-up,” he said, referring to ABC News anchors who repeatedly checked his accuracy.
Trump then proposed revoking ABC’s license.
“To be honest, they are a news organization. They need a license to do this. For the way they have done this, they should revoke their license,” he said. Fox & Friends.
“I don’t know if I would want to do a debate again,” he added. “I would be less inclined because we had a great night, we won the debate, we had a terrible, terrible network… They should be ashamed of themselves.”
