Right-wing and far-right media figures are circulating the false claim that Vice President Kamala Harris was wearing a secret earpiece during the debate, implying that she was being fed responses.
The claim — which right-wing figures have lobbed at presidential candidates for decades — gained traction across social media, including on X (formerly Twitter) and TikTok, where videos asserting that Harris was wearing a secret device earned at least 1.5 million views.
Trump ally Laura Loomer, who has previously used a slur and racist, sexist language to deride Harris, claimed in a post on X that Harris made an “interesting choice of earrings” for the debate and showed an image of a person wearing a Nova H1 audio earring device.
According to Icebach Sound Solutions, the manufacturer of the Nova H1, it is “wireless earphones embedded in a pair of pearl earrings.” However, Newsweek reported that the Nova H1 does not appear to be available for commercial sale and that backers of the Nova H1’s Kickstarter campaign have been asking for updates on their unreceived earrings for over a year. Newsweek also noted that social media users said Harris’ earrings looked like a pair from Tiffany & Co.
Nevertheless, other right-wing media figures and conspiracy theorists jumped on the claim that Harris was supposedly wearing the wireless earphones.
Naomi Wolf, who has repeatedly pushed COVID-19 conspiracy theories, suggested in a social media post that Nova be required to release sales records.
Infowars host Alex Jones suggested that Harris was wearing Nova earrings in a social media post before claiming that “this is dead on the same earring” and “Kamala clearly was wearing this system.”
Several other far-right figures pushed the claim on social media, with some alleging that Harris was “using assistance” during the debate. At least one post had a “community note” attached to it, stating that Harris was wearing earrings produced by Tiffany & Co., not the Nova H1’s.
Other right-wing media figures claimed that Harris was given the questions ahead of time in their flailing attempts to explain how she outperformed Trump on the debate stage.
Media Matters has also identified numerous TikTok videos — with over 1.5 million combined views — that question whether Harris had an “ear piece in” and share images of the Nova earrings.
One video, which has over 917,000 views, shows an image of Harris’ ear next to an image of what it implies are the Nova H1 earrings, plays audio of former President Barack Obama discussing the importance of the presidency, and overlays text asking, “Kamala wearing Nova H1 earring headphones?”
Another video, which has over 525,000 views, shows Harris at the debate wearing earrings, plays audio saying “welcome to the shit show,” and overlays text that says, “Everyone go look up Nova H1 audio earring on Google before they delete the site!!!!”
Right-wing media figures have claimed for over two decades that presidential candidates have worn secret earpieces during debates. While Harris is the most recent target of such claims, similar accusations were leveled at Al Gore in 2000, George W. Bush in 2004, Hillary Clinton in 2016, and Joe Biden after a 2020 debate.
