Viral Video Depicting Kamala Harris Speaking Incoherently during Speech is Edited

A video of Kamala Harris is going viral on Twitter. The video depicts the US Vice President speaking at a rally for Reproductive Freedom, during which she can be heard saying things that do not make sense. Here is a tweet featuring the viral video.

Archived Link

In the video, Kamala Harris can be heard saying, “Today is today-and yesterday was today’s yesterday. Tomorrow will be today, tomorrow. So, live today – so the future today will be as the past…today…as it is tomorrow.” 

The statement does not make sense. After watching the video, many have ridiculed Harris for her inability to construct a coherent sentence. 

However, when we investigated the video, we found that the video is altered. Kamala Harris did not make any such statements as suggested by the video. Here is the fact check.

Fact Check

We searched for news related to this speech but could not find any articles reporting the supposed gaffe depicted in the viral video. However, some news channels have criticized Harris for incoherency in her speech. One such report, by Sky News Australia, can be watched below.

Australian presenters call Harris probably, “the worst communicator”. They were mocking a part of Kamala’s speech where she says: 

“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.”

However, they did not mention anything about the above statement of Harris we heard in the viral video. Hence, we searched for the full speech by Harris and found it on her Facebook page. The speech was delivered at Howard University in Washington D.C. at a political event on reproductive rights. Kamala Harris can be heard speaking after the 57^th minute in this over an hour-long video.

In the entire speech, she does not make any statement as suggested in the viral clip. However, she does make the statement for which Sky News mocked her. We also found the transcript of her speech on the website of US White House. 

In the transcript, there is no such statement present. Kamala Harris only mentions the word ‘Today’ three times in her speech, and she does not mention the words ‘Yesterday’ and ‘Tomorrow’ at all. In contrast, the viral video shows her saying ‘Today’ seven times, ‘Yesterday’ two times, and ‘Tomorrow’ three times. Therefore, the audio in the viral video is edited and does not reflect what Kamala Harris actually said.

The video bears the name ‘Ramble Rants,’ and we discovered a Twitter account with the same name. It appears that the account created the video, possibly as a meme to mock Harris. We also found other videos on the account that ridicule Democratic leaders, including US President Joe Biden, former President Barack Obama, and Vice President Kamala Harris. In one tweet, the account tagged another user, Estee Palti (@mommyrn88).

Estee Palti is a Kamala Harris impersonator. In one of her videos, she can be seen mimicking Harris and saying the exact words, we hear in the viral video.

Thus, the voice we hear in the video is of Estee Palti and not Kamala Harris. This audio was used to create the viral tweet. 

Conclusion

Our investigation has confirmed that the viral video, which appears to show Kamala Harris speaking nonsense during a speech, is in fact edited. The video features the voice of an artist imitating Harris and visuals taken from an event at Howard University where she was delivering a speech.