In September 2024, a quote attributed to presidential candidate and U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris went viral, largely because of its apparent rambling content.
Harris allegedly said, "I promise to do everything I could have done but didn't do because if I did it I wouldn't have to promise to do it, even though I could do it now, but don't because I don't know what to do otherwise I would have done it."
While readers shared this quote with us, we also found it was spread on X as well as on meme sites like iFunny. An X account attributed to conservative actor Kevin Sorbo also shared a meme with the quote.
(X user @ksorbs)
We found no video, audio or other documentary evidence suggesting Harris ever spoke or wrote the words in the above quote. As such, we rate this claim misattributed.
Using Google's reverse image search, we found the claim largely began circulating in September 2024.
A simple Google search for the quote also directed us to an X account titled "Kamala Harris (barely parody)" which shared the quote on Sept. 13, 2024. The account profile also describes itself as parody and has frequently misattributed nonsensical quotes to Harris, including one in which she allegedly said, "In these times, and at other times, all of the time, but not every time, we are committed to work together. When some of the times melt into the other times that aren't the sometimes, the every time will be attainable."
We searched for variations of the quote, including "I promise to do everything," "I don't know what to do" and "otherwise I would have done it." We surrounded the phrases with quotation marks instructing Google to only display results for an exact match. Harris herself has never said anything remotely similar to the quote in question.
If the quote truly originated from Harris, news websites and even right-wing blogs would likely have widely covered it. We found no such coverage.
This is not the first time nonsensical quotes have been misattributed to Harris during the 2024 election cycle. We covered the incorrect claims that Harris said "'the problem of solving a problem is not a problem" and "the reason we celebrate the Fourth of July is because this is July."