Vice President Kamala Harris made a verbal misstep on Friday that fueled a frenzy of conspiracy theories after she spoke of the need to “reduce population” rather than pollution.
“If we invest in clean energy and electric vehicles and reduce the population, more of our children will be able to breathe clean air and drink clean water,” Harris said during a speech in Baltimore about fighting climate change.
The White House official translation of the comments corrected the obvious mistake by crossing out the word “population” and adding “pollution” in brackets to indicate what Harris meant to say.
The gaffe quickly drew derision from conservatives on Twitter, especially after a clip of the event was posted by the Republican The National Committee’s @RNCResearch account, which was quick to spot Harris’s mistakes.
“I see Kamala Harris is endorsing the Thanos approach to dealing with scarce resources,” one user joked, referring to the fictional Marvel villain who wiped out half of the universe’s population.
Vice President Kamala Harris made a verbal misstep on Friday that fueled a frenzy of conspiracy theories after she spoke of the need to “reduce population” rather than pollution
The official White House transcript of the comments corrected the obvious error by crossing out the word “population” and adding “pollution” in parentheses to indicate what Harris meant to say
The comment also fueled longstanding conspiracy theories that a cabal of global elites are planning to drastically reduce the world’s human population to make it easier to track and control humans.
“She said the quiet part out loud,” one user commented, possibly in jest.
Versions of the baseless theory date back at least to the 1960s, when fringe figures suggested that vaccines or water fluoridation were Communist plots to wipe out the American population and take control of the country.
The theory experienced a renaissance during the COVID-19 pandemic, when conspiracy theories falsely suggested that vaccines to protect against the virus were a plot to curb the world’s population.
Like Harris’ other recent blunders, the mistake diverted attention from the purpose of her remarks, in which she spoke of a $20 billion investment in a national financing network to fund clean energy projects as part of the Inflation Reduction Act.
Harris has been ridiculed repeatedly in recent days for her verbal blunders, including a confused explanation of artificial intelligence earlier this week.
“AI is quite a fancy thing. First of all, it’s two letters. It means “artificial intelligence,” Harris told a roundtable meeting of labor and civil rights leaders in Washington DC on Wednesday.
She continued: ‘It’s about machine learning, and so the machine is being taught – and part of the issue here is what information goes into the machine that will then determine – and we can then predict, if we think about what information goes into, what will then be produced in terms of decisions and opinions that can be made through that process.”
Harris spoke Friday at Coppin State University in Baltimore, where she talked about a $20 billion investment in a national network for clean finance and clean energy projects
On Tuesday, the VP faced similar criticism over its simplified explanation of transportation at an event co-hosted with transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg on Tuesday.
“This issue of transportation is really about making sure people have the ability to get where they need to go,” she told a gathering of disability rights advocates. “It’s that simple.”
Harris has recently had a string of similar blunders, and last Friday she clumsily spat out a “word salad” when she tried to define “culture” at the Essence Festival in New Orleans.
“Culture is — it’s a reflection of our moment and our times. Right?’ the vice president mused.
“And current culture is how we express how we feel about the moment, and we should always find moments to express how we feel about the moment,” Harris continued.
That is a reflection of joy. Because, you know,” she said, pausing and then bursting into laughter, “it’s coming tomorrow morning.”
She then added, “We need to find ways to also express how we feel about the moment in terms of language alone and a connection to how people experience life. And that’s how I feel about it too.’
While 80-year-old President Joe Biden is sometimes criticized for verbal stumbles and blunders, Harris has been accused of talking almost nonsensically at times.
Her signature blunders involve either bizarrely simplistic truths or complicated statements that are difficult to decipher.
The Daily Show compared her unfavorable to Selina Meyer, Veep’s fictional character on the HBO show, who had a penchant for using platitudes and circular statements.
In real life, other vice presidents as well as Republicans were also intensely ridiculed for their verbal blunders Dan Quayle memorably discovered during the George HW Bush administration.
Biden has already committed to keeping Harris on his 2024 ticket as he seeks re-election, though she faces approval ratings that are generally lower than his.
According to the latest July 14 polls, Harris had a disapproval rating of 51.3, with only 39 percent of Americans saying they approved of her. according to FiveThirtyEight.com,