A doctored video showing United States Vice President Kamala Harris is being shared on social media where she is heard making a faux pas and being incoherent while elaborating on "yesterday is today" during her speech at a rally for abortion rights at Howard University in Washington D.C. on April 25, 2023.
BOOM found that it was a deepfake and the audio in the video has been edited and added to falsely claim Harris made a gaffe. This was confirmed to us by Dr Dominic Lees, Deepfake researcher and Associate Professor of Filmmaking at the University of Reading, UK.
In the video, Harris can be heard saying, "Today is today. And yesterday was today yesterday. And tomorrow will be today for us, but tomorrow..."
The video was tweeted with the caption, "Good luck today! Today is today. And yesterday was today yesterday. And tomorrow will be today for us, but tomorrow. So live today so that future today will be for you like yesterday today, only tomorrow. Somehow Kamala Harris continues to delight us with her oratorical talent."
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The same edited video is being shared by several Indian accounts with the misleading claim.
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FACT-CHECK
BOOM found that the viral video is doctored and the audio has been overlaid to make the false claim and misattribute a fake quote to United States Vice President Kamala Harris.
The viral video has been taken from a speech Harris had given at her alma mater during a rally for abortion rights at Howard University in Washington D.C. on April 25, 2023.
We checked the full speech delivered by Harris at the event and found that no such statement was made that can be heard in the viral video.
The official Facebook page of NARAL Pro-Choice America broadcasted Harris's speech live. From the 1 hour timestamp, the visuals match as in the viral video. However, at no point in her speech does Harris say "Yesterday is today".
The complete speech can be heard below
Additionally, even in the transcripts of the speech posted by The White House and Howard University on Harris's address, nowhere does any remark appear on "today and yesterday" remark as heard in the viral video.
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We also traced that the edited video was tweeted by the right-wing Twitter account '@Ramble_Rants' on April 29, 2023, which regularly posts memes.
This edited video was tweeted by this account days after a part of Harris's speech was picked up by several Right-wing accounts and Fox News claiming that Harris had made a gaffe and criticising her for it.
RNC Research tweeted a remark from Harris's speech taking a jibe at her on April 26, 2023. The caption of the tweet quoting her read, "KAMALA HARRIS: "I think it's very important...for us, at every moment in time and certainly this one, to see the moment in time in which we exist and are present.""
BOOM reached out to Dr Dominic Lees, Deepfake researcher and Associate Professor of Filmmaking at the University of Reading, UK, who confirmed that the video had indeed been digitally altered.
Lees explained that it is not a face replacement deepfake, but amateur work in deepfake by simply creating a voice clone and applying it to the existing video footage and then manipulating the lips and mouth to match the fake speech.
"This is not a face replacement deepfake: Ramble Rants has simply created a voice clone and applied this to the existing video footage, then manipulated the lips and mouth to match the fake speech. Close observers will detect the video ‘noise’ around the mouth," Dr Lees told BOOM.
"We can also use close listening to detect this deepfake: the voice in this fake speech sounds like it is alone in a recording studio, whereas the video shows Harris as outdoors, surrounded by a large crowd. The lack of background sound tells us that the voice was not recorded at this location," Dr Lees added.