As the US chose to join Israel in attacking Iran, Kamala Harris’s statement that there would be war if Trump returned to the White House attracted a lot of attention on social media.
Ms. Harris was Mr. Trump’s presidential opponent in the 2024 election – Photo: REUTERS
In recent days, tensions in the Middle East have escalated rapidly as the US officially joined Israel in the war, launching airstrikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities on June 22.
The development has raised concerns that Washington could be drawn into a new all-out war – something many observers say could become a reality if a hardline foreign policy returns under President Trump.
It was in that context that a statement attributed to former Vice President Kamala Harris quickly went viral on social media: “If we elect Trump, we will be at war within 6 months,” reinforcing the theory that many believe that war is indeed coming.However, according to the fact-checking organization Lead Stories on June 24, there is no public or recorded evidence that Ms. Harris ever actually made such a statement.
The quote was shared through multiple images and social media posts, including a June 22 post on the X platform from the account @PeachesMel, with a caption attributing the statement to Ms. Harris.
However, none of the versions of the images provide the specific time, location or context of the remarks attributed to the former US vice president.
Additionally, searching for this information on Google News – a news aggregation system from thousands of online newspapers – did not show any reliable articles citing the above statement from Ms. Harris.
Some posts also assigned September 10, 2024, to the date of Ms. Harris’s statement, as this is the date of the first debate between her and Mr. Trump in the 2024 presidential campaign.
However, a transcript of the entire debate released by ABC News shows that Ms. Harris made no such statement.
Instead, Mr. Trump has repeatedly warned that former President Joe Biden’s policies are pushing the United States to the brink of World War III.
