Vice President Kamala Harris offered a false claim of having “great approval ratings” in a recent interview with ABC News, which was quickly disputed by the website PolitiFact.
In the ABC News interview, Harris was asked about her dismal poll numbers, which the interviewer pointed out as being “the lowest approval rating of any vice president.”
Harris attempted to push back, citing polls from earlier this year that showed her approval rating “above water.” However, PolitiFact determined the poll she cited was from October 2021, which was more than 100 polls ago.
“At the time the ABC News interview aired, FiveThirtyEight’s average was 39.7% approving of Harris’ performance and 52.3% disapproving, for a net of 12.6 percentage points 'underwater.'” PolitiFact wrote in their report.
The outlet went on to cite recent polls which showed her approval ratings ranging between 39 and 42 percent, with her disapproval ratings ranging between 51 and 57 percent. Even after the White House provided evidence to support Harris' statement, PolitiFact gave Harris' false claim a “false” rating.
This isn’t the first time Harris has made a false claim. Last month, the vice president traveled to Jacksonville, FL to criticize the state’s Black history curriculum which details harsh conditions slaves endured and also explains that “slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit” both while enslaved and when they became free.
Harris proclaimed that Florida “decided middle school students will be taught that enslaved people benefited from slavery,” which PolitiFact declared “mostly true.”
However, Dr. William Allen, a descendent of slavery and one of the authors of the curriculum Harris criticized, called the vice president’s statement a “lie” and accused the media of parroting “an agenda-driven” point of view.
“The reason I call the vice president's statements categorically false is because it is obvious to anyone of basic literacy that the mere grammar of the sentence in the curriculum standards to which she referred refutes her charge,” Allen said.
It appears the Vice President's false claims and dubious statistics isn't going unnoticed. The public will be keenly watching to see what she says next.
