Sanjeeb Phuyal is the Nepali Editor of Newschecker based in Kathmandu, Nepal. He brings over a decade of experience writing and editing news. In his previous stint, he worked as online editor for The Kathmandu Post. With the growth of social media platforms—and the ever-growing competition amongst media outlets to churn out breaking news, he feels that fact-checking every piece of information has become more essential today than ever before.
Claim
US Vice President Kamala Harris is against having a merry Christmas.
Fact
Viral clip is from 2017 when then Senator Harris stressed on the need to ensure protection to some minor immigrants.
A viral video purportedly showing US Vice President and Democratic Presidential nominee Kamala Harris speaking against having a merry Christmas is going viral on TikTok.
TikTok user @votevoice posted a video showing Kamala Harris speaking at a gathering. Text superimposed on the video reads, “Kamala Harris is against having a Merry Christmas.” In the video Harris says, “When we all sing happy tunes, and sing merry Christmas, and wish each other merry Christmas. These children are not gonna have a merry Christmas. How dare we speak merry Christmas, how dare we?”
The video posted on August 2 has garnered 4199 likes, 3255 users have shared it and 5355 people have commented until the last count. The archived version of the TikTok video can be seen here.
Newschecker found the claim to be misleading.
Fact Check /Verification
To check the veracity of the claim made by the viral video, we ran a search on Google for ‘Kamala Harris Merry Christmas’ and found an article published on August 2, 2024, on New York Post online. On checking the article titled “Harris fumed at Americans saying Merry Christmas before immigrant children were protected in resurfaced clip,” we found that Harris made the remarks in December 2017 at a press conference after then-President Trump had announced the end of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which shielded some illegal immigrants who came to the US as minors from deportation.
The article also carried a longer version of the video, In the video, Harris was actually stressing on the need to ensure permanent status for some illegal immigrant children, warning that the children were now facing uncertainty over Christmas. According to the article, Harris said it was “morally wrong” to take away the existing protection for those protected by the Obama-era executive order.
We also found another article published Fox News regarding the 2017 video clip about Kamala Harris driving home her stance on the status of the immigrant children. The article published on Fox also carried a video of Kamala Harris which exactly matched the viral video. In the video, Harris goes on to highlight that many immigrant children will lose their status due to the change in policy.
The article led us to another article, dated Dec 2017, published on NBC News, which reported about the protest by immigrant families demanding a clean DACA programme. The article noted that speakers at a news conference at the United Methodist Building, near the Capitol, reiterated the issue of minor immigrants after then President Donald Trump ordered that the DCAC permits be phased out. The article also quoted then Senator Harris as saying, “How dare we speak merry Christmas? These kids will not have a merry Christmas.”
Further, we found an article, dated August 2020, published by the Associated Press, which confirmed that Harris has an interfaith background and she identified herself as Baptist as an adult. While growing up she attended services at both Black Baptist Church and a Hindu temple.
Thus, our findings clearly indicate that Kamala Harris is not against having a merry Christmas and the viral video is clipped and misconstrued.
Conclusion
No, US Vice Presidential nominee Kamala Harris is not against having a merry Christmas. The viral clip is actually from December 2017 when Harris was reiterating the need to provide protection to some immigrant children.
Result: Missing Context
Sources
New York Post, Aug 2, 2024
Fox News, Aug 2, 2024
NBC News, Dec 20, 2017
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Sanjeeb Phuyal is the Nepali Editor of Newschecker based in Kathmandu, Nepal. He brings over a decade of experience writing and editing news. In his previous stint, he worked as online editor for The Kathmandu Post. With the growth of social media platforms—and the ever-growing competition amongst media outlets to churn out breaking news, he feels that fact-checking every piece of information has become more essential today than ever before.
