Video of Kamala Harris meeting with disability advocates circulates without context

"Throwback: "I am Kamala Harris, my pronouns are she and her, and I am a woman sitting at the table wearing a blue suit," says a July 21, 2024 post on X.

The same out-of-context clip has circulated elsewhere on X, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, TikTok, YouTube, Reddit, Rumble and LinkedIn -- including in Spanish, Italian and Korean, alongside comments seeking to portray her as simple-minded or unduly focused on gender pronouns.

The footage was included in a Trump ad calling the California Democrat "dangerously liberal."

Other public figures and politicians including, X and Tesla owner Elon Musk, a member of the Australian Senate and the US House of Representatives, also shared the quote without mentioning the context in which Harris was speaking.

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Screenshot from X taken July 23, 2024

After US President Joe Biden ended his re-election campaign and endorsed Harris for the top job on July 21, 2024, she quickly coalesced support from other senior party figures. She also managed to gather the support of enough delegates to receive the party's nomination within two days of the president dropping out.

The Democratic National Convention -- where the party usually picks its presidential and vice presidential nominees -- is scheduled to start on August 19 in Chicago, Illinois. However, the party said delegates may vote to nominate Harris in a virtual meeting about two weeks before the convention meets.

Since entering the race, Harris has been targeted by a slew of false, misogynistic and conspiratorial claims online, which researchers warn could spark a new wave of disinformation ahead of the US presidential election.

In the roughly two-year-old video circulating online, Harris was not describing her outfit and surroundings as part of a standard introduction, but as a courtesy to participants in the meeting who may have had poor eyesight.

In the 22-second clip, Harris says, "Good afternoon. I want to welcome these leaders for coming in to have this very important discussion about some of the most pressing issues of our time. I am Kamala Harris. My pronouns are 'she' and 'her.' I am a woman sitting at the table, wearing a blue suit."

A Google search for the vice president's statement yields a July 2022 press release for a roundtable discussion Harris hosted with disability advocates following the US Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v Wade, the decades-old federal guarantee of abortion rights (archived here).

The event also celebrated the 32nd anniversary of the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act, a federal law that prohibits discrimination based on documented disabilities, including severe vision issues.

In the nearly 22-minute recording posted on the White House YouTube page, other attendees similarly introduce and describe themselves (archived here).

Robin Wilson-Beattie, a disability sexual and reproductive health educator who attended the meeting, began the discussion with a self-description.

"I am a Black woman with curly hair and I am wearing a vintage black and floral dress," she said.

Some disability advocates, including the London-based charity Vocal Eyes, recommend starting meetings with people who are blind or have poor vision by physically describing themselves (archived here). Proponents say the practice assists those who cannot see the room well in identifying who is speaking and remembering others in subsequent meetings.

"Self-description provides information about the individual that non-blind people take in visually, and when done by everyone at a meeting or conference, gives the blind or visually impaired people present a sense of the diversity or lack of diversity of those speaking, on a panel or in the room generally," the Vocal Eyes website says.

Other guidelines, including those published by the Wisconsin Department of Health Services and Florida Department of Education, similarly recommend that people introduce themselves and give a brief physical description of the room in meetings where attendees have low vision or blindness (archived here and here).

AFP has debunked other claims that surfaced after Harris launched her presidential bid.