Conspiracy Bozos Think Kamala Harris’ Debate Earrings Have a Dark Secret

It’s not surprising that conspiracy theorists would find a way to explain away a strong performance by Kamala Harris in the presidential debate on Tuesday night—even her opponent, Donald Trump, had baselessly claimed before the event that Harris would be given the questions in advance.

But the claim that started circulating online among the tinfoil hat brigade was even more absurd: that the earrings worn by the vice president during the debate were actually secret earpieces being used to give her information in real time. Yes, really.

The bizarre take was shared widely on social media, including by some accounts with large followings. “The VP cheated with earring headphones? Not surprising,” Antonio Brown, the former NFL player, posted to his 2.1 million followers on X. Some individual posts about the theory racked up millions of views.

Several posts about the crackpot theory likened Harris’ jewelry to “audio earrings” featured in a Kickstarter campaign based in Germany. “NOVA H1 Audio Earrings are the first clip-on earphones on the planet,” reads the fundraiser page for the headphones, which raised over $100,000 from backers. “These Earrings are fully packed with the latest technology embedded in real pearls to provide you with music, phone calls and digital assistants all day long.”

The page adds that the “technology is so camouflaged that while using them no one around you will perceive them as a headset.” The inconspicuous product’s stated list of stated features, however, does not include its potential to be used to cheat in an American presidential debate.

A fundamental flaw with the theory is that the audio earrings—which have a single gold stalk below the pearl—don’t actually look anything like the earrings Harris wore during the debate.

Instead, users pushing the theory compared Harris’ jewelry with a photo of the audio device that was featured in an article by the tech product reviews site Tom’s Guide. That image showed a woman wearing the NOVA H1 headphones as well as two ordinary hooped earrings which are clearly not part of the device.

Even some pointing that out maintained that it was “completely possible she had some sort of earpiece.”

A community note was eventually added to one of the most popular posts on X pushing the bogus theory, claiming instead that Harris’ earrings were actually from Tiffany & Co. and apparently unable to receive audio. Shocking.