A teleprompter was present, but it contained text for the moderator, not Harris. Moreover, the text was replaced with a timer when Harris began taking questions from the audience.
Following U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris' Oct. 10, 2024, town hall-style appearance on the Spanish-language network Univision, former President Donald Trump's campaign posted a video to X — captioned only with the words "the teleprompter" and an "eyes" emoji — showing Harris responding to an audience member's question with a teleprompter in her line of sight:
Several pro-Trump influencers suggested that Harris, Trump's Democratic rival in the November presidential election, relied on a teleprompter to answer questions from the public. Tim Pool, for example, shared the video on X with the comment "she can't even ask sincere questions without a script."
"Watch them panic when they realized they were showing the prompter live on-air," Benny Johnson posted. This video, it should be noted, cuts out before any sign of this supposed panic.
On Oct. 11, Trump himself repeated the claim:
Trump: "Did you see where she did a town hall yesterday and she used a teleprompter?" (Harris did not use a teleprompter) pic.twitter.com/w2u84c1jtP
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 11, 2024
This claim that the teleprompter was for Harris' use was immediately rebuffed by the Univision anchor who moderated the event, Enrique Acevedo. On X, he said that the teleprompter text — which was in Spanish — contained his introduction for the event:
Acevedo's account of events is supported by several lines of evidence.
First, the video appears to show Spanish words on the teleprompter — Harris spoke in English throughout the event.
Second, there is a marked lack of panic. As seen in context, the teleprompter turning off mid-answer (starting at the 5:42 mark) does not in any way affect or interrupt her answer:
Third, Acevedo's assertion that the teleprompter was later replaced by a timer is verified by a Getty Images photograph of the event showing that timer:
If proximity to a loaded teleprompter during a network television town hall event is sufficient evidence that a candidate made use of that teleprompter, then Trump, shown below at a Fox town hall held in September 2024, is also guilty:
Because the teleprompter contained a Spanish-language introduction intended for the Univision moderator and was replaced with a timer during Harris' first response to an audience question, and because no other evidence refutes this explanation, the claim that Harris used a teleprompter during her Univision town hall is false.