Does a video on social media show Vice President Kamala Harris receiving audio through the same earrings she wore at the September 10, 2024, presidential debate? No, that's not true: Harris can be seen receiving audio through an in-ear monitor common in TV interviews. The earrings in this video are different from the ones she wore during the debate, and neither set of earrings are sound-receiving devices disguised as earrings. Lead Stories has previously fact checked the false claim that Harris wore sound-receiving devices disguised as earrings at the debate.
The claim appeared in a video on TikTok (archived here) on September 29, 2024. On-screen text read:
BUSTED!! Those same earrings she wore at the debate! Repost this and expose this cheating tramp! I KNEW IT!!
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Mon Sep 30 14:07:37 2024 UTC)
The video has dramatic music while Harris speaks to an unseen person near her but off camera, as she prepares for a TV interview. In the middle of talking, she touches her hand to her ear and says, "Oh yeah, hi!" as she apparently hears through a listening device in her ear. She asks the person communicating with her in her ear if she can "talk about a recipe" while interview preparations continue. The video ends with Harris continuing to explain the rest of the aforementioned recipe to the person off-camera..
A reverse image search of a still from the TikTok video leads to an X post from November 26, 2019 (archived here), that included the same video. The post was published by Jonathan Capehart, an American journalist, who mentioned in his X post that it's his husband who is recording Harris before she went on "Politics Nation with Al Sharpton" on MSNBC.
The full interview with Sharpton can be seen here.
At around 0:21 in the X video, Harris picks up a box that is next to her at a table. That box appears to be controls that come with in-ear monitors. She turns the dials on the controls, apparently to adjust the volume levels she's receiving. In-ear monitors are common for television guests and reporters to wear when they're on air, and for musicians during concerts.
Harris' in-ear monitor is visible in the beginning seconds of the X video, highlighted in the red circle in the screenshot below. It's shiny brown and is inside her ear, rather than an earring, which would be on the outside. Viewers can also see that Harris' other ear (highlighted in the green circle) does not have anything inside it. (Highlighting done by Lead Stories):
(Source: X screenshot taken on Mon Sep 30 18:51:38 2024 UTC)
The video in Capehart's X post is better quality than the one on TikTok that is the focus of this fact check. Viewers can see in the post on X that Harris is wearing earrings that are flat and gold (left image below). The earrings Harris wore in the September 10, 2024, presidential debate were pearls (image on right from Associated Press). Evidence of this is picture below, highlighting done by Lead Stories:
(X and Associated Press screenshots taken on Mon Sep 30 16:54:30 2024 UTC)
We have contacted Harris and will update this article when a response is received.
Lead Stories previously debunked the claim that during the presidential debate Harris was wearing earrings that received audio here.
More Lead Stories fact checks on claims concerning Kamala Harris are here.
Other Lead Stories fact checks on claims related to the 2024 U.S. election are here.
