Vice President Kamala Harris made a verbal slip Friday, fueling a spate of conspiracy theories, after speaking of the need for “population reduction” rather than pollution.
“If we invest in clean energy and electric vehicles and reduce the population, more of our children will be able to breathe clean air and drink clean water,” Harris said during a speech in Baltimore on combating climate change.
The official transcript of the White House comments corrected the apparent error by crossing out the word “population” and adding “pollution” in parentheses to indicate what Harris meant.
The faux pas quickly drew scorn from conservatives on Twitter, especially after a clip of the event was posted to the Republican National Committee’s @RNCResearch account, which quickly responded to Harris’ gaffe.
“I see Kamala Harris supports the Thanos approach to dealing with scarce resources,” one user joked, referring to the fictional Marvel villain who wiped out half the world’s population.
Vice President Kamala Harris made a verbal slip Friday, fueling a spate of conspiracy theories, after speaking of the need for “population reduction” rather than pollution
The official transcript of the White House comments corrected the apparent error by crossing out the word “population” and adding “pollution” in parentheses to indicate what Harris meant
The comment also drew on long-standing conspiracy theories that a cabal of global elites is plotting to drastically reduce the world’s population to make it easier to monitor and control people.
“She said the soft part out loud,” one user noted, possibly jokingly.
Versions of the unsubstantiated theory date back at least to the 1960s, when fringe figures claimed vaccines or water fluoridation were communist plans to wipe out the US population and take control of the country.
The theory enjoyed a renaissance during the COVID-19 pandemic, when conspiracy theories falsely claimed vaccines to protect against the virus were a conspiracy to contain the world’s population.
Like Harris’ other recent blunders, this blunder deflected attention from the purpose of her statements, in which she spoke of a $20 billion investment in a national financing network to finance clean energy projects as part of the Inflation Reduction Act.
Harris has drawn repeated conservative mockery over her verbal faux pas in recent days, including a muddled artificial intelligence statement earlier this week.
“AI is a bit of a fancy thing.” First, it’s two letters. It means “artificial intelligence,” Harris said Wednesday at a roundtable meeting of labor and civil rights leaders in Washington DC.
She continued, “It’s about machine learning, and that’s how the machine is taught – and part of the question here is what information goes into the machine, which then determines – and we can then predict if we think about what information.” enter into.” what will then emerge in terms of decisions and opinions that can be made through this process.’
Harris delivered a speech at Coppin State University in Baltimore on Friday, where she discussed a $20 billion investment in a national network for clean finance and clean energy projects
On Tuesday, the vice president faced similar criticism for her oversimplified explanation of transportation at an event with Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg on Tuesday.
“This transportation issue is essentially about making sure people can get where they need to go,” she told a gathering of disability rights advocates. “It is so easy.”
Harris has had a string of similar gaffes lately, and last Friday she awkwardly spat out a “word salad” as she attempted to define “culture” at the Essence Festival in New Orleans.
“Culture is – it’s a reflection of our moment and our time.” Right?’ the Vice President mused.
“And current culture is how we express how we’re feeling in the moment, and we should always find time to express what we’re feeling in the moment,” Harris continued.
“It’s an expression of joy.” Because, you know,” she said, pausing and then bursting out laughing, “it’s coming in the morning.”
She then added, “We need to find ways to also express the way we feel in the moment, simply by having language and a connection to how people experience life.” And I think about it that way, too. ‘
While 80-year-old President Joe Biden is sometimes criticized for verbal stumbling blocks and faux pas, Harris has been accused of talking almost nonsensically at times.
Her signature gaffes include either bizarrely oversimplified truisms or convoluted explanations that are difficult to decipher.
The Daily Show in comparison She turned down Selina Meyer, the fictional character of the HBO show Veep, who had a penchant for using truisms and circular explanations.
In real life, other vice presidents have also been heavily ridiculed for their verbal goofs, as Republican Dan Quayle memorably observed during the administration of George HW Bush.
Biden has already pledged to keep Harris on his 2024 nominee post as he seeks re-election, even if she faces approval ratings that are generally lower than his.
According to the latest July 14 poll data, Harris had a disapproval rating of 51.3, with just 39 percent of Americans saying they approve of her, according to FiveThirtyEight.com.