A video of Mike Pence appearing to endorse Kamala Harris has gone viral across several X (formerly Twitter) accounts.
In the video, which is taken from Pence’s appearance at an event called The Gathering hosted by conservative pundit Erik Erikson, Pence appears to call for voters to elect Kamala Harris.
He then goes on in the clip being circulated to criticize Trump for the way he handled the January 6 Capitol riots and how Trump asked Pence to overturn the 2020 election.
Mike Pence speaks at The Jerusalem Post New York conference on June 3, 2024, in New York City. A clip of Pence appearing to endorse Kamala Harris at an event in August has gone viral.
Noam Galai/Getty images
The Claim
At the event in August with Erikson, Pence appeared to say “Vote for Kamala Harris as President of the United States.”
The video of Pence’s apparent endorsement of Harris, which was initially posted to TikTok on October 13 and then went viral on X on the same day, has been viewed over 500,000 times on an X account under the name @Luciferjesi, and another 271,000 times on the X account @mjfree.
It was created on TikTok by the account Hailhydra23, where it did not gain the same viral momentum as it has on X.
The Facts
The video is clearly edited to remove the first half of Pence’s sentence.
The full 30-minute video of Pence’s conversation with Erikson at The Gathering, which can be found on Erikson’s YouTube page, shows that where the edited clip has Pence saying, “Vote for Kamala Harris as President of the United States,” Pence actually said: “I could never vote for Kamala Harris as President of the United States or Tim Walz as her running mate. Period.”
Newsweek has contacted the X users @mjfree and @Luciferjesi who circulated the clip, and the TikTok creator Hailhydra23 who created it, for comment.
The middle third of the clip, where Pence criticizes Trump’s handling of the election results in 2020, is accurate. However, it has been edited to be in the same sentence as Pence’s falsified endorsement. At the actual event, Pence’s statements about Trump’s actions were said two and a half minutes after he spoke on Harris.
The viral clip has also been edited to place Pence’s rebuttal of the current Republican platform after his statements on Trump. Again, this is not true. Pence spoke about the party as a whole before focusing on Trump.
Pence first spoke about his dedication to God and his belief in conservative values before speaking out against several components of the current Republican platform.
He spoke about how he is staying out of the presidential campaign because he feels like the party has abandoned its allies on the global stage, that it is not taking the national debt seriously, and that it has marginalized fighting for the right to life.
He then said: “And, between me and my former running mate, I cannot endorse President Trump’s continuing assertion that I should have set aside my oath to support and defend the constitution, and acted in a way that would have overturned the election in January of 2021.”
Newsweek has contacted the Trump Campaign and the Republican Party for comment via email.
Newsweek has contacted Pence for comment via an email to the Heritage Foundation, where he is a visiting fellow.
The clip from the X account @Luciferjesi now includes a Community Note which makes it clear the clip is edited.
The Ruling
False.
Mike Pence did not endorse Kamala Harris, contrary to what is shown in the video created on TikTok and circulated by several X accounts.
The viral video is an edited clip from an event in August 2024, where Mike Pence emphatically said he cannot vote for Kamala Harris.
The clip does include an accurate quotation of Pence criticizing Trump for his election denial. However, that quotation is edited in a way to make it look like Pence is justifying his Harris endorsement.
FACT CHECK BY Newsweek
