Democratic Presidential candidate Joe Biden announced Senator Kamala Harris as his running mate for the upcoming United States presidential elections.
The announcement caused a stir on social media with questions around her heritage and controversial statements over the years. A post alleging that Harris threatened Trump supporters also went viral.
However, the quote has been falsely attributed to Harris and it actually first appeared on a satirical website in 2019.
CLAIM
Social media users have been sharing a post that attributes a quote to Vice President candidate Kamala Harris:
“And once Trump’s gone and we have regained our rightful place in the White House, look out if you supported him and endorsed his actions, because we’ll be coming for you next. You will feel the vengeance of a nation. No stone will be left unturned as we seek you out in every corner of this great nation. For it is you who have betrayed us.”
The post was shared with messages like "she really said this," "who does she think she is" as well as with US President Trump's "nasty" jibe against Harris.
WHAT WE FOUND OUT
The quote attributed to Kamala Harris is fabricated and we traced it back to a satirical website.
The quote has been lifted from an article on 'BustaTroll.org'. The article dated 7 August 2019, has been attributed to a “Fired Writer” and filed under the tags, “Satire and/or Conservative Fan Fiction.”
The quote was fabricated in the context of the US President Trump’s impending impeachment, not her recent VP candidature.
BustaTroll defines itself as “a subsidiary of the America’s Last Line of Defense network of parody, satire, and tomfoolery.”
The website clearly states, “Everything on this website is fiction. It is not a lie and it is not fake news because it is not real.”
Further, Harris' only public record on 18 June are clips of her interview on the 'Late Night Show with Stephen Colbert,' wherein she speaks about the Black Lives Matter protests and her joining Biden's ticket.
Evidently, the viral post is misleading social media users to believe that Harris was quoted saying those words, even though they are completely fictitious.
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