Right-wing influencer spreads false claim Kamala Harris wore earpiece during debate

False claims that Vice President Kamala Harris wore clip-on audio headphones disguised as pearl earrings circulated on social media following Tuesday evening’s  presidential debate, promoted by distinguished accounts on X and different platforms. 

Social media customers, together with conspiracy theorist and far-right activist Laura Loomer, claimed Harris’s earrings have been Nova H1 audio earphones, that are styled to seem like pearl earrings. Loomer’s put up obtained greater than 1.3 million views by Wednesday morning. 

Nevertheless, the earphones don’t look the identical as Harris’s earrings. {A photograph} from the unique product overview reveals the Nova H1 earphones wrap across the earlobe, whereas Harris’s earrings dangle and are for pierced earlobes. 

The earrings Harris wore look like a pair of Tiffany & Co. South Sea Pearl Earrings from the Hardwear assortment. Harris has worn the gold earrings at earlier occasions, together with throughout an Aug. 6 rally in Pennsylvania and the White Home Juneteenth live performance this summer time.

Earpieces should not permitted in presidential debates. Within the ABC debate, candidates weren’t allowed to deliver notes or props on stage. CBS Information reached out to the Harris marketing campaign concerning the claims. 

Google knowledge confirmed searches for “nova h1” and “nova earrings” spiked on Wednesday morning. The earrings are billed on a Kickstarter marketing campaign as “the primary clip-on earphones on the planet,” and their creators say the expertise is embedded in actual pearls, positioned on the earlobe to challenge sound into the ear canal with built-in high-end microphones. 

A historical past of earpiece claims 

The declare that Trump’s opponent was sporting an earpiece has been repeated after a number of presidential debates. Social media customers claimed, with out proof, that President Biden was sporting an earpiece when he debated Trump within the NBC presidential debate in June. 

In 2020, Trump’s marketing campaign ran Fb advertisements accusing Mr. Biden of sporting an earpiece throughout the Sept. 2020 debate, and the claims have been additionally extensively shared on social media. The Biden marketing campaign rejected the claims, and prime quality photographs from the talk confirmed the alleged wires have been probably creases in his clothes and a watch or rosary. 

In 2016, the conspiracy web site True Pundit and others falsely claimed Hillary Clinton was sporting an earpiece to get “stealth communications” throughout an NBC Information discussion board. Reality checkers discovered these claims to be false.

The claims should not essentially restricted to right-wing conspiracies. In 2004, the web was rife with rumors {that a} rectangular bulge between then-President George W. Bush’s shoulder was a radio receiver to strategist Karl Rove. A marketing campaign spokesperson advised The New York Instances later that it was “almost certainly a rumpling of that portion of his go well with jacket, or a wrinkle within the cloth.”