Kamala’s ‘audio earrings’ and all the other bogus debate conspiracies

Kamala Harris being fed traces by means of “audio earrings.” Questions prepped upfront. Migrants consuming pet canines and cats. The killing of new child infants.

These had been simply a few of the baseless conspiracies that emerged from Tuesday evening’s presidential debate between the Vice President and former president Donald Trump.

The earpiece conspiracy principle has been round for years, with Republicans and right-wing figures accusing Democratic candidates of counting on aides through audio gear.

In 2020, then-President Trump pushed the conspiracy principle that Democratic candidate Joe Biden had “declined an earpiece inspection” earlier than their debate.

In 2016, right-wing media pushed the identical concept about Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.

In 2012, fundraising emails accused President Barack Obama of carrying an earpiece as he took on Mitt Romney, the Republican candidate, in a debate. Conservative bloggers additionally recommended that Obama did so in a 2008 debate.

And forward of the controversy between Biden and Trump in June – an abysmal efficiency from Biden which in the end led to his departure from the race – Republicans claimed the president was utilizing amphetamines, chugging vitality drinks, and wore an earpiece. The community internet hosting the controversy, CNN, was additionally accused of delaying the printed by as much as two minutes.

The earpiece declare

Throughout the debate on Tuesday evening, conspiracy theorists unfold the baseless declare that Harris’s earrings had been transmitting audio.

“The VP cheated with earring headphones? Not stunning,” former NFL participant Antonio Brown wrote to his 2.1 million X followers.

One Twitter consumer, adopted by plenty of rightwing figures, racked up tens of millions of views on a submit on X writing: “Rumors are circulating that Kamala Harris was carrying audio earrings and being fed traces. Isn’t this in opposition to the controversy guidelines?”

The identical consumer appeared to counsel that Obama was behind the mic and feeding Harris traces, sharing video footage from 2020 of Obama showing on The Late Present with Stephen Colbert jokingly saying that he’d be okay with a 3rd time period.

“If I might make an association the place I had a stand-in, a entrance man or entrance lady, they usually had an earpiece in and I used to be simply in my basement in my sweats wanting by means of the stuff, after which I might type of ship the traces, however any individual else was doing all of the speaking and ceremony, I’d be wonderful with that,” Obama had quipped to Colbert.

A variety of posts in contrast Harris’s earrings to a German Kickstarter marketing campaign for clip-on audio earrings, The Every day Beast famous.

Nevertheless the chunky gold and pearl-adorned earrings—which she has donned beforehand, and wore once more on Wednesday morning to a ceremony marking the anniversary of 9/11 in New York Metropolis—are a design from luxurious jewellery model Tiffany’s “HardWear” assortment, in accordance with an internet site monitoring her type.

Harris could be handed questions upfront

Earlier than the controversy showdown, Trump claimed, with out proof, at a Fox Information city corridor final week that Harris could be given the questions forward of the controversy, calling ABC Information “dishonest.”

He cited Harris’s longstanding friendship with Disney TV government Dana Walden. Disney owns ABC.

The candidates weren’t allowed to take pre-written notes onto the controversy stage and weren’t instructed about any subjects or questions upfront, in accordance with the controversy guidelines.

Trump claimed on Wednesday morning, throughout an look on Fox Information, that Harris was being fed her solutions.

“Kamala doesn’t do any reveals. … That’s not honest to the general public as a result of they don’t know what they’re getting. However they noticed final evening what that they had. They’d a rigged present with any individual who perhaps even had the solutions,” he mentioned.

Immigrants consuming canines and cats

Trump additionally used the controversy to push a debunked conspiracy principle that Haitian migrants are stealing pet cats and canines in Springfield, Ohio, and consuming them.

“In Springfield, they’re consuming the canines, the those who got here in, they’re consuming the cats, they’re consuming the pets of the those who dwell there,” Trump mentioned, his voice rising.

Moderator David Muir responded that ABC Information had spoken to Springfield’s metropolis supervisor. “He instructed us there have been no credible reviews of particular claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by people inside the immigrant group,” Muir mentioned.

Trump then replied: “Folks on tv say, ‘My canine was taken and used for meals’.”

Officers have mentioned there’s no proof that Haitian immigrants are stealing and consuming pets.

The conspiracy acquired its begin on September 6, when a submit appeared on X, apparently written by somebody from Springfield. The submit said that an individual’s “neighbor’s daughter’s buddy” noticed a cat hanging from a tree for use for meals. The submit claimed, with out proof, that Haitians lived on the residence. A photograph was included of a Black man carrying what appeared to be a goose.

Republicans, together with JD Vance, Ted Cruz, and Trump, have amplified the claims on their social media platforms.

Springfield metropolis supervisor Bryan Heck mentioned in a press release: “In response to current rumors alleging felony exercise by the immigrant inhabitants in our metropolis, we want to make clear that there have been no credible reviews or particular claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by people inside the immigrant group.”

Killing new child infants

Throughout a section that addressed abortion rights and reproductive care, Trump recommended that abortions are happening at 9 months and new child infants are being “executed” in states throughout the US.

“There is no such thing as a state on this nation the place it’s authorized to kill the newborn after it’s born,” ABC Information moderator Linsey Davis responded.

Trump’s race-baiting feedback about Harris

Trump was requested concerning the offensive remarks he made earlier this summer season when he claimed that Harris had “occurred to show Black” after supposedly solely citing her Indian heritage.

“I couldn’t care much less,” Trump claimed on Tuesday evening. “No matter she needs to be, is okay with me.”

“All I can say is I learn the place she was not Black … after which I learn that she was Black, and that’s okay,” he added.

The founding director of the Heart for the Examine of Range and Democracy at Northwestern College, Alvin Tillery, who helps Harris, instructed NPR final month that Trump has “acquired the media protecting and re-articulating his birtherism 2.0 principle.”

Years in the past, Trump pushed the conspiracy principle that Obama wasn’t born within the US, ultimately main the previous president to launch his delivery certificates. Harris’s delivery certificates has additionally been shared on-line.

“Donald Trump is making an attempt to steer plenty of marginal Black voters that they need to not consider Kamala Harris as one in every of them,” Khalil Gibran Muhammad, professor of historical past, race, and public coverage at Harvard Kennedy Faculty, instructed NPR.

The 2020 election and the Jan 6 Capitol riot

Trump once more pushed the baseless conspiracy principle that the 2020 election was stolen from him. He additionally refused to take duty for the 2021 Capitol riot, the place 5 individuals had been killed and his followers ransacked the constructing as they tried to cease the certification of Biden’s election victory.

Throughout the debate on Tuesday, Trump was twice requested if he regretted any of his actions on January 6, 2021.

“I had nothing to do with that apart from they requested me to make a speech. I confirmed up for a speech,” Trump mentioned.

Trump has repeatedly claimed that the 2020 election was rigged and stolen through election and voter fraud.

The Elections Infrastructure Authorities Coordinating Council and the Election Infrastructure Sector Coordinating Govt Committees mentioned in a joint assertion shortly after the 2020 election that it was “essentially the most safe in American historical past.”

Trump’s former Lawyer Basic Invoice Barr, additionally dismissed the claims of widespread fraud.

The controversy was ‘rigged’

The previous president claimed Tuesday evening’s debate was “rigged” throughout an look on Fox Information on Wednesday morning.

“It was three-to-one. It was a rigged deal,” he mentioned in reference to the ABC Information moderators, who fact-checked him on a number of events.

Trump then recommended ABC’s license must be taken away.

“To be trustworthy, they’re a information group. They should be licensed to do it. They ought to remove their license for the best way they did that,” he instructed Fox & Buddies.

“I don’t know that I wish to do one other debate,” he added. “I’d be much less inclined to as a result of we had an awesome evening, we gained the controversy, we had a horrible, horrible community … They need to be embarrassed.”