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Fact Check: Video Omits Main Part of Harris' 2021 Answer About Fixing Inflation
By Jordan Liles,
4 days ago
On Aug. 5, 2024, the @TrumpDailyPosts X account — a user who reposts former U.S. President Donald Trump's posts from his Truth Social platform — shared a 64-second video clip showing U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris answering a question about fixing inflation. The post ( archived ) displayed only a video and did not feature any text. We did not locate the same video on Trump's Truth Social feed on the same day.
Under the video, the @TrumpDailyPosts post displayed the name of conservative journalist and podcaster ( archived ) Breanna Morello. Morello's account hosted the version of the video shared by @TrumpDailyPosts.
In Morello's post ( archived ), she wrote, "Bidenomics is working, but Kamalnomics will be EVEN better. How do I know? Take a look at this video of Kamala Harris detailing how the regime is combating inflation."
We emailed Morello to ask whether she edited the video clip or if she found it already edited somewhere else. We also asked whether she was aware of the existence of the longer question and answer before making her post. Further, we inquired about her policy regarding offering corrections to her followers.
In response, Morello posted on X. She mentioned in a public post ( archived ), in part, addressing her followers about this reporter's email, "He's reaching out because a video I shared was apparently shortened. He wants to know if I will offer you all a 'correction' because no one wanted to play the full word salad Harris served up." She also shared a screenshot of our questions and made other statements, all of which are available in her post.
Harris' Full Answer About Fixing Inflation
While researching the origins of the video, we noticed under the @TrumpDailyPosts post a draft community note not yet publicly displayed. The draft community note linked to a YouTube video published by Forbes showing the full exchange, lasting just over four minutes. The link revealed Harris' answer dated back nearly three years — a fact not mentioned in the posts on X.
According to The Associated Press and WhiteHouse.gov , Harris fielded the question during a four-day trip to France, specifically at the Intercontinental Paris Le Grand hotel in Paris on Nov. 12, 2021. The official White House transcript noted then-Bloomberg journalist Jennifer Jacobs raised the question during the news conference.
We checked the transcript against the video and published the question and answer in full below. (The bolded portion below indicates the only part of the question and answer included in the video clip shared on X in August 2024.)
JACOBS: Ma'am, the U.S. is experiencing record inflation — the worst in 30 years — way beyond expectations. OPEC didn't increase oil production. Can you tell us a little bit about how you would prevent the new spending in your Build Back Better agenda from exacerbating the problem? And also, what else are you going to do to fix this problem with inflation?
HARRIS: All right, thank you. Well let's start with this: Prices have gone up. And families and individuals are dealing with the realities of, of — that bread costs more, that gas costs more. And we have to understand what that means. That's about the cost of living going up. That's about having to stress and stretch limited resources. That's about a source of stress for families that is not only economic but is, on a daily level, something that is a heavy weight to carry. So, it is something that we take very seriously. Very seriously.
And we know from the history of this issue in the United States that when you see these prices go up, it has a direct impact on the quality of life for all people in our country. So it's a big issue, and we take it seriously.
And it is a priority, therefore. So we have addressed it in a number of ways. One of the issues that we know is related to this is the supply chain issue that we just discussed.
And so, on a domestic level, in terms of domestic policy, one of the approaches we have taken is to work with labor unions and to work with municipalities in opening back up and extending the hours of our ports. There are actually three I have in mind: Los Angeles, Long Beach and Savannah. And, in fact, part of the infrastructure bill benefit is, most recently, what we will do to assist Savannah in broadening their ability to be an active port.
And we've seen a reduction in the container ships off of the Long Beach and LA ports because of what we've done, which is to extend, as you know, the 24 — or to extend the hours to now 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
But there is also a point that is important to make on the Build Back Better framework. One, it is designed to make it less expensive for working people to live. It was specifically designed to bring down the cost of child care and increase accessibility and availability; designed to bring down the cost of elder care and make it available to all those working families that need that support and need that help.
And Build Back Better is not going to cost anything; we're paying for it. So when we can get Build Back Better passed — and we are optimistic that we will — the American people will see costs actually reduced around some of the most essential services that they need to take care of their basic responsibilities, including issues like child care and elder care, and also preschool. And that's an important point to mention also.
And, in fact, I had some conversations here in France, including with the minister of education in France, about the, again, global impact of the pandemic on child care but also on education, and in particular for our youngest children.
Universal pre-K — when we're able to do that — 3 and 4 years old — getting education at no cost, what that is going to do in terms of not only supporting working families who otherwise can't afford to put their kids in a private situation and have — and otherwise don't have it available — that's going to have a huge impact on lowering the cost for families.
So that is a big part of our agenda. And I think it's important to also stress that it's not going to cost anything for the American taxpayer.
For further reading, we previously reported on a popular and misleading copied-and-pasted Facebook post claiming to list store closings for prominent American businesses, purportedly directly caused as a result of U.S. President Joe Biden's Build Back Better plan.
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