Video of Kamala Harris talking has been slowed down

First published 24 September 2024
Updated 27 September 2024
What was claimed

A video shows Kamala Harris delivering a speech while she’s drunk.

Our verdict

The clip has been slowed down to change how she sounds.

A video circulating on social media supposedly shows US vice president and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris delivering a speech while drunk, but the clip has been edited to slow it down. 

The video seemingly shows Ms Harris speaking slowly and apparently slurring her words, and has overlaid text saying: “She is hammered. This is insane! Atlanta Georgia 9/20/24”. 

The clip appears to have come from TikTok where it has almost 75,000 shares, but it has since circulated on X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook, including with the caption: “Kamala is hammered…plastered…DRUNK AS A SKUNK”. 

In fact, she can be seen speaking at an ordinary pace in a video of the full speech, which shows that the clip on social media has been slowed down. The edited clip is 32 seconds long, but it takes her 23 seconds to say the same words in the original footage. 

One person sharing the edited clip says: “Kamala has a new accent. It’s called the Pelosi accent. Also known as the drunk accent”. 

This may refer to two clips that circulated in 2019 and 2020 appearing to show the former Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi drunk. But both of these videos had also been slowed down, and were widely debunked.

We’ve written about many examples of misinformation regarding Ms Harris in recent months, including another video of her giving a speech that has been edited to include the audio of someone doing an impression of her.

Misleading images and videos can be convincing and spread quickly online—our guides provide tips for verifying this type of content yourself.  

Update 27 September 2024

This article has been updated to make clear two edited clips of Ms Pelosi previously circulated online.

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