Fact check: Univision debunks false right-wing claim that Harris used a teleprompter at town hall
By Daniel Dale, CNN
Washington (CNN) — Univision has debunked a viral false claim that Vice President Kamala Harris used a teleprompter during her town hall with the Spanish-language network on Thursday.
The false claim generated millions of views on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. It was made by several right-wing commentators with significant followings, including Benny Johnson, Charlie Kirk, Greg Price and Fox News host Sean Hannity.
Both the moderator of the town hall, Enrique Acevedo, and the president of Univision News, Daniel Coronell, refuted the claim in their own X posts – noting that the teleprompter that was seen on the broadcast had text in Spanish, not English, and that it was material for Acevedo, not Harris.
Acevedo, responding to Johnson’s claim that “Univision accidentally broadcast proof that Kamala used a teleprompter at her town hall,” wrote: “The prompter displayed my introduction (in Spanish) and then it switched to a timer. Any claim to the contrary is simply untrue.”
Coronell, responding to Price’s claim that “Kamala is using a teleprompter during her ‘town hall’ with Univision,” wrote: “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.”
Acevedo and Coronell both posted their debunkings late Thursday night, but the viral posts from Price, Johnson and Kirk remained online as of 12 p.m. on Friday; Hannity deleted his post. CNN has reached out to Price, Johnson and Kirk for comment.
Former President Donald Trump has made teleprompter-related comments a staple of his recent criticism of Harris as he has insulted her intelligence. Trump – who regularly uses teleprompters for his speeches, though he also regularly ad-libs additional remarks – has baselessly suggested that Harris is unable to speak cogently without a script. Last month, he falsely claimed that Harris used notes in a televised interview with CNN.
The right-wing commentators’ inaccurate posts claiming Harris used a teleprompter at the Univision town hall relied on a 12-second clip that was posted Thursday by the Trump campaign’s “Trump War Room” account. The campaign did not make an explicit claim in its own post; rather, it simply wrote, “The teleprompter” and added an emoji of big eyes.
Its allies did the rest.
The-CNN-Wire
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