Did Kamala Harris swear her vice-presidential oath with her hand on top of a "Holy Bible" clutch or wallet that isn't actually a bible? No, that's not true: She had her hand on an actual Bible. In fact, her hand was atop two Bibles -- one belonged to a family friend, while the other belonged to the late Thurgood Marshall, the first Black Supreme Court justice.
The claim appeared in a video post on TikTok (archived here) on October 20, 2024. In the video, a man shows a close-up photograph of Harris's hand on top of Bibles during her swearing-in ceremony. A text graphic said:
What do u think
have a look
At the 30-second mark, he showed images of commercial purses that are made to look like the Bible and said:
Holy Bible book wallet. Definitely look like the same. Witchwood Bags. Holy Bible book clutch and crossbody, $69, out of stock. Continue to pay attention -- just another one.
This is what the post looked like on TikTok, at the time of the publication of this fact check:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Fri Oct 25 22:02:00 2024 UTC)
At the 1:37 mark, the man in the video said about Harris:
She faked this, obviously.
The implication is that Harris faked her oath of office on January 20, 2021, because she did not have her hand on top of an actual Bible when she swore to defend the Constitution.
In fact, she did have her hand on a Bible -- two Bibles to be exact. As previously reported by Lead Stories, Harris used the Bible of a family friend and one that belonged to the late Marshall. The Bibles were stacked on top of each other, as can be seen in this pool photo of the ceremony from Getty Images (archived here).
The top Bible appears to have a zipper, which is why the man in the video argues it's a clutch or a wallet, as opposed to a genuine Bible. Of course, there is no rule against a Bible having a zipper -- a Google search shows that such Bibles are commonplace.
Other Lead Stories fact checks of claims related to Kamala Harris are here.
Additional Lead Stories fact checks of claims related to the 2024 U.S. general election and other elections are here.
