Posts falsely claim Kamala Harris used teleprompter during town hall

"BREAKING: Univision accidentally broadcast proof that Kamala used a teleprompter at her town hall. Watch them panic when they realized they were showing the prompter live on-air," says an October 10, 2024 X post shared by conservative influencer Benny Johnson.

A clip of Harris at the event in Las Vegas pans to the audience, briefly showing a teleprompter with words on it before it turns off. 

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Screenshot of an X post taken October 11, 2024

The claims circulated elsewhere on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and X, including posts by Republican nominee Donald Trump's campaign and disbarred former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani.

With less than four weeks until the November 5 election, polls continue to show a race too close to call and Hispanic voters could play a crucial role in key swing states.

On the campaign trail, Trump continued to push his anti-immigration message, while Harris courted voters in the West, home to a large US Latino population, in hopes of clinching Arizona and Nevada. During a town hall hosted by the Spanish language television network Univision, the Democratic nominee answered questions on health care, the economy and border policy.

Soon a wave of conservative commentators falsely claimed the vice president relied on a teleprompter during the event.

But the network quickly debunked the rumors on social media.

"The prompter displayed my introduction (in Spanish) and then switched to a timer. Any claim to the contrary is simply untrue," said town hall host and journalist Enrique Acevedo on X (archived here).

Univision News President Daniel Coronell also confirmed that the teleprompter was for the host and that the text was in Spanish.

"That's not true. The teleprompter that displays a text written in Spanish was a support element for the town hall moderator. I can tell you this with first-hand knowledge because I was in charge of the television program," he said on X on October 10 (archived here).

The network streamed footage of the town hall on YouTube, and later clips show the teleprompter displaying a timer or a blank screen (archived here).

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Screenshots of the Univision town hall streamed on YouTube, taken October 11, 2024

Conservative commentators previously alleged the vice president used a teleprompter during a livestream forum with Oprah Winfrey. But a Winfrey spokesperson told PolitiFact that while Winfrey used a teleprompter, Harris did not.

AFP reached out to the Harris campaign and Univision for additional comment, but a response was not forthcoming.

More of AFP's reporting on misinformation surrounding US politics can be found here.