In a wild incident on Wednesday, October 9, that many on the online right alleged exposed Vice President Kamala Harris, she was caught on a hot microphone during a live broadcast, and what could be heard was that she was seemingly receiving prepared questions from her staff during the broadcast.
The incident occurred during an event in which President Joe Biden provided a live, in-person briefing regarding Hurricane Milton as it headed toward central Florida in the wake of the deadly and destructive Hurricane Helene. While President Biden appeared in-person for the briefing, Harris joined over Zoom alongside DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, NOAA Director Graham, and officials from FEMA, the Coast Guard, and the National Hurricane Center.
In the clip of the call that emerged, Harris sat with her mic accidentally on as National Weather Service Director Ken Graham provided information regarding the powerful hurricane. Harris, who sat with her hands awkwardly covering her mouth and lower part of her face, could be heard saying to an aide, “It’s a live broadcast.”
Only then, after the bizarre moment with the aide, Harris asked, “Hey Ken, I have a question for you. You mentioned words matter, and, um, I know there is a lot of, um, media following this briefing. So, there have been, um — we’ve gone from a [Category] 5 to a [Category] 4, and the language that a lot of folks have been using is ‘downgrade,’ but it sounds like you’re cautioning us that that may communicate a sense that the danger is lessened, when, in fact, it’s not. Can you talk a little bit about that?”
Online speculation ensued regarding what happened, with many suspecting that the VP had been fed the question by her staff so that she could look like she was intelligent and knowledgeable about what was going on with the storm and the danger regarding it. Such speculation was particularly prevalent on X (formerly Twitter).
For example, the Trump War Room X account, which is affiliated with the Trump campaign, wrote that Vice President Harris is a “fraud,” saying, “Kamala can be heard telling an aide (who is feeding her questions) that it’s a “live broadcast” before immediately asking the question. She’s a total fraud.”
Replying to that post, one commenter joked, “Personally I like comparing her to a houseplant, but somebody felt aggrieved the last time I did that, saying their geraniums were more intelligent.” Another questioned how the aide could have been feeding questions to Harris, asking, “How are they feeding her the questions? I can’t hear anyone talking to her. What’s in her ear?”
Other commenters, in any case, hammered Kamala for being a “fraud.” One, for example, wrote, “Kamala Harris is a 🤡 fraud. Unprepared, unintelligent, unqualified to do anything. She is not fit to lead our country.” Similarly, another said, “She has to have her staff do everything for her. How is that a leader? We already had that with Joe.” Another joked, “Covering her mouth while the mic picks up the comment. LOL.” Watch the clip here:
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video
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