In Latino exile communities across the country, a question is being asked: is Kamala Harris really a communist?
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| Kamala Harris |
The vice-president has been the subject of numerous misleading claims that she is a socialist or communist since becoming the Democratic candidate for president, according to the US’s largest Spanish-language fact-checker Factchequeado.
Experts say these claims capitalise on genuine fears held by some voters who fled repression in countries like Cuba and Venezuela.
In one viral video, Kamala Harris and her running mate Tim Walz appear to pose for a selfie in front of a sign for Revolutionary Communists of America, a far-left group.
The video is fake. The background was doctored by a group of Donald Trump’s supporters known as the Dilley Meme Team.
Their original post had more than 420,000 views, but it was shared by many Spanish accounts - and repeated offline.
“It’s everywhere, this doubt: ‘Is this person a communist?’” Evelyn Pérez-Verdía, a cultural context strategist from south Florida, told the BBC.
She was listening to the Spanish-language radio station La Nueva Poderosa in Miami when she heard the hosts discussing the false meme.
“Did you see them standing in front of that picture? They have no shame in who they are,” the hosts said.
She contacted the station to point out it was a fake video. The hosts later said on air that they wanted to clarify the story was “not true” but that “doesn’t take away from the reality that Kamala is a Marxist”.
source: bbc