Kamala’s ‘audio earrings’ and all the other bogus debate conspiracies

Kamala Harris being fed lines through “audio earrings.” Questions prepped in advance. Migrants eating pet dogs and cats. The killing of newborn babies.

These were just some of the baseless conspiracies that emerged from Tuesday night’s presidential debate between the Vice President and former president Donald Trump.

The earpiece conspiracy theory has been around for years, with Republicans and right-wing figures accusing Democratic candidates of relying on aides via audio equipment.

In 2020, then-President Trump pushed the conspiracy theory that Democratic candidate Joe Biden had“declined an earpiece inspection” before their debate.

In 2016, right-wing media pushed the same idea about Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.

In 2012, fundraising emails accused President Barack Obama of wearing an earpiece as he took on Mitt Romney, the Republican candidate, in a debate. Conservative bloggers also suggested that Obama did so in a 2008 debate.

And ahead of the debate between Biden and Trump in June — an abysmal performance from Biden which ultimately led to his departure from the race — Republicans claimed the president was using amphetamines, chugging energy drinks, and wore an earpiece. The network hosting the debate, CNN, was also accused of delaying the broadcast by up to two minutes.

During the debate on Tuesday night, conspiracy theorists spread the baseless claim that Harris’s earrings were transmitting audio.

“The VP cheated with earring headphones? Not surprising,” former NFL player Antonio Brown wrote to his 2.1 million X followers.

One Twitter user, followed by a number of rightwing figures, racked up millions of views on a post on X writing: “Rumors are circulating that Kamala Harris was wearing audio