In Latino exile communities across the country, a question is being asked: is Kamala Harris really a communist?
The vice-president has been the subject of numerous misleading claims that she is a socialist or communist since becoming the Democratic candidate for president, according to the US’s largest Spanish-language fact-checker Factchequeado.
Experts say these claims capitalise on “genuine fears” held by some voters who fled repression in countries like Cuba and Venezuela.
In one viral video, Kamala Harris and her running mate Tim Walz appear to pose for a selfie in front of a sign for Revolutionary Communists of America, a far-left group.
The video was fake. The background had been doctored by a group of Donald Trump’s supporters known as the Dilley Meme Team.
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Their original post had more than 420,000 views, but it was shared by many Spanish accounts – and repeated offline.
“It’s everywhere, this doubt: ‘Is this person a communist?’” Evelyn Pérez-Verdía, a cultural context strategist from south Florida, told the BBC.
She was listening to the Spanish-language radio station La Nueva Poderosa in Miami when she heard the hosts discussing the false meme.
“Did you see them standing in front of that picture? They have no shame in who they are,” the hosts said.
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She contacted the station to point out it was a fake video. The hosts later said on air that they wanted to clarify the story was “not true” but that “doesn’t take away from the reality that Kamala is a Marxist”.
Fears weaponised
There are nearly 36.2 million eligible Latino voters in America, about 14.7% of the US electorate, and many live in key swing states like Nevada and Arizona, which makes them a coveted demographic for both campaigns.
They are by no means a homogeneous voting demographic, but historically, Latinos have tended to favour the Democrats. In 2020, 44% voted for Joe Biden, with only 16% voting for Trump. But polls show Republicans have gained ground this election cycle, with many factors cited including the economy, immigration, and abortion rights.
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And for some immigrants, concerns about America today reflect their past experiences in their home countries.
Political messages warning about “socialism” or “communism” have been particularly prevalent in communities with large Cuban and Venezuelan populations, like in south Florida, experts noted.
These expats are especially vulnerable to misinformation about communism because of the trauma they experienced fleeing repression, said Samantha Barrios, a Venezuelan-American based in Miami, Florida who votes Democrat.
She accused right-leaning Spanish media of using these terms to “scare Venezuelans, Cubans, Nicaraguans” because of “the main reason that we left our countries, trying to leave these regimes”.
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For some, their criticism of the Democrats is grounded in opinions that the US government has not provided a tough enough response to political repression in Cuba or Venezuela.
But Ms Barrio is wary of the way these legitimate concerns are being weaponised through “false claims” that Kamala Harris herself is a communist.
Ms Pérez-Verdía agrees, but she also criticised the Democrat campaign for not doing enough to address their concerns.
“Don’t laugh off people’s fears. It’s really disrespectful. People have genuine fears, they came to the United States, they left everything behind. If they have doubts you should address their doubts.”
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Debate fuels ‘communist’ claims
X/AI-generated image
Not all claims exclusively target Latinos, said the Digital Democracy Institute of the Americas (DDIA), which monitors more than 1,300 WhatsApp groups and more than 200 Telegram channels in Spanish and Portuguese.
And notable right-wing and pro-Trump actors and influencers have pushed a “fear of socialism” since 2020, the organisation found.
But while Joe Biden was accused of being a communist when he ran for president, Factchequeado’s founder, Laura Zommer, said their fact checkers had “never” seen this volume of AI and doctored images before.
Some of this misinformation has been spread by Trump himself, or his high-profile supporters.
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Elon Musk, who has endorsed Trump, posted a faked image of Kamala Harris in a red uniform emblazoned with the communist hammer and sickle, captioned “Kamala vows to be a communist dictator on day one. Can you believe she wears that outfit!?”
It had more than 83.9 million views. A reverse image search suggests this was the earliest posting of the image on X.
Donald Trump shared an AI image of Harris addressing a communist crowd that had at least 81.5 million views on X, but it was not the first posting of this image.
Posts linking Harris to communism really took off online after the presidential debate, according a report by the DDIA prepared for the BBC.
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During the debate, Donald Trump called Kamala Harris and her father a “Marxist” and suggested she would turn the US into “Venezuela on steroids” through her immigration policies.
After the debate, “Marxista” trended on social media and searches for “Marxist” on Google in the US jumped 1000% in 17 hours.
Factchequeado said the most searched question in Spanish after the debate was: “Who is Kamala Harris’s father?”
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BBC Verify traced the membership card image to a website which allows people to make fake communist party documents
The DDIA said two claims especially gained traction in the week after the presidential debate. In one, a fabricated document falsely claiming Kamala Harris is a member of the Russian communist party went viral, according to Meta’s own metrics. Another claim, that Harris is “Kamarada [Comrade] Kamala”, arose from a Trump speech in which he portrays her as a “communist comrade”.
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BBC Verify traced the membership card image to a website which allows people to make fake communist party documents.
The membership number, stamp and other details on the card were identical to a template on the site for making a party membership card.
Posts sharing the fake image, which was first shared in August, have been viewed more than half a million times.
‘We’ll slide into communism’
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Republicans have been gaining ground with Latino voters in recent years
The Democratic Party is not a socialist party, nor does it claim to support communist regimes. But some high-profile members like Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have described their political views as “democratic socialist”.
When she was a California senator, Harris co-sponsored Sanders’ Medicare for All bill, which would have brought a single-payer health care system to the US. She has since said she no longer supports a single-payer health-care system, which would have abolished private insurers.
She has never advocated for communist policies, such as the abolition or seizure of private property.
Kamala Harris’s plan to crackdown on “price gouging” at supermarkets has been cited in Spanish social media posts as “communist”. Mr Musk claimed it would mean “empty shelves, just like in Venezuela”.
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Her proposal, which would involve asking the trade commission to investigate price spikes far above the increase in the cost of production, is a far cry from the widespread price controls seen in Cuba and Venezuela that were in part blamed for severe food shortages.
But for some voters who fled those countries, their fear lies in anything they feel remotely resembles policies from the countries they came from.
Duke Machado, who runs a Latino Republican Facebook page from Texas called Latino Strikeforce, said he fears that if the Democrats win, the country would be on a slippery slope to communism.
“If we’re not careful, we’ll slide into Cuba and Venezuela. Their ultimate goal is to destroy capitalism.”
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When asked if it was responsible to share fears that the Democrats could turn the US into a communist country with his followers, including Latino exiles who had fled repression, he said: “It’s not irresponsible at all. I see it as a duty.”
With additional reporting by Kayleen Devlin from BBC Verify
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Theodore Olson, the renowned conservative lawyer who fought to legalise same-sex marriage and was instrumental in securing a presidential win for George W Bush in 2000, has died aged 84.
Olson, a towering figure in the US bar who appeared in some of the most consequential cases in recent legal history, died on Wednesday, according to a statement from Gibson Dunn, the law firm where he had worked.
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“Ted was a titan of the legal profession and one of the most extraordinary and eloquent advocates of our time,” Barbara Becker, Gibson Dunn’s chair and managing partner, said. “He was creative, principled, and fearless — a trailblazing advocate who cared about all people.”
Olson appeared for Bush before the US Supreme Court in 2000, as the Republican candidate fought to call off a recount of votes in Florida during the election against Democrat Al Gore. The decision in that case, Bush vs Gore, ultimately cemented the win for Bush.
Olson later teamed up with David Boies, who had represented Gore in Bush vs Gore, to fight against a ban in California on same-sex marriage. A federal court decision striking down the state ban was seen as a precursor to the Supreme Court’s ruling two years later in Obergefell vs Hodges, which enshrined the constitutional right to same-sex marriages nationwide.
The California case was about same-sex couples’ “right to be treated with respect and dignity and equality under the law in California and throughout the United States”, Olson told reporters in 2013. The collaboration between the two ideologically opposed lawyers was seen as a strong legal endorsement for marriage equality advocates who had been fighting against state bans for years.
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Olson also prevailed in Citizens United vs Federal Election Commission, a controversial decision from the Supreme Court in 2010 that lifted restrictions on campaign finance, allowing companies and others to spend unlimited sums on political races.
Born in California, Olson studied at the University of the Pacific and the University of California, Berkeley. He became an acclaimed appellate lawyer, arguing 65 cases before the Supreme Court during his career.
He temporarily left Gibson Dunn, which he had joined in 1965, twice. The first time was to lead the US Department of Justice’s office of legal counsel in the 1980s, and again in the early 2000s when he served as US solicitor-general during Bush’s first term. During his tenure as solicitor-general his first wife Barbara Olson was killed in the September 11 2001 attacks.
Olson was also private counsel to presidents Ronald Reagan and Bush.
Openwork Partnership chief executive Richard Houghton has left his role with “immediate effect”.
In an internal memo, Philip Howell confirmed he has resumed his role of CEO on an interim basis until a permanent replacement is found.
Meanwhile, Duncan Crocker will take on the role of chair.
The group said it will begin the process of recruiting a new CEO shortly.
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Houghton joined Openwork as chief financial officer in July 2020, after a stint as interim CFO.
He began his career in audit, corporate recovery and corporate finance with Deloitte before leaving practice to join the financial services industry.
For nearly a decade, from 1998 to 2007, Houghton worked for the Royal Bank of Scotland Group, serving latterly as chief operating officer for RBS Insurance.
Between 2007 and 2012 he served as group chief finance officer at Aspen Insurance Holdings before joining RSA Insurance Group in 2012 as group chief financial officer.
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From 2016 to 2017 he served as interim CFO at Co-operative Insurance and held the same position at Hyperion Insurance Group throughout 2019.
He is also an experienced non-executive director, having served as chair of the audit committee at Standard Life Assurance Ltd between 2017 and 2018, and on the Phoenix Life boards from 2018 to 2019.
The news of his departure follows last month’s announcement by Openwork that it had secured investment from global private investment firm Bain Capital.
In 2023, Openwork announced its intention to seek a minority investor to support its growth plans.
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“With Bain Capital as our new partners, we are entering an exciting new era for Openwork,” the memo said.
“We are now commencing detailed planning for our inaugural year together which we look forward to sharing with you at the conference in January and on all colleague briefings.”
A spokesperson for Openwork has confirmed the changes in CEO and chair – and said there will be no further comments at this time.
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Honeywell International is doing its best to rehabilitate the idea of the industrial conglomerate. Elliott Management, an activist investor, has other ideas.
Elliott has amassed a $5bn — or 3 per cent — stake in the $151bn conglomerate. It is calling on the company, which makes everything from cockpit controls to warehouse robots, to split itself up into two standalone businesses: one focused on aerospace, the other on automation.
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Honeywell does not seem to have got the memo that conglomerates have become achingly unfashionable. At a time when the global trend is for industrial empires to break up and generate returns by specialising in a single area of business, boss Vimal Kapur has been bulking up.
Indeed, in just 17 months on the job, he has spent nearly $10bn on acquisitions, such as a $5bn swoop on Carrier Global’s security access business.
Kapur is sticking to the idea that Honeywell can thrive as a conglomerate by shedding slower-growing, low-margin businesses and buying higher-growth ones. Alongside the acquisitions, it has announced plans to spin off its advanced materials unit into a publicly traded company and is looking to divest its personal protective equipment business.
Even so, Honeywell’s finances suggest it’s time for something more decisive. Its $5.7bn in earnings and $37bn of revenue last year are both less than what it pulled in 2019. Honeywell shares have lagged behind the wider market this year. Before the news of Elliott’s stake, the stock had risen just 12 per cent while the S&P 500 gained 26 per cent.
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Compare that with General Electric, a conglomerate that did get the message that smaller is better. GE shareholders have in effect enjoyed a 160 per cent return since turnaround chief Larry Culp announced a three-way break-up in November 2021, Lex calculates. That beats the S&P 500 index’s 27 per cent gain and Honeywell’s 2 per cent rise over the same period.
Elliott makes a good case that a divided Honeywell would be more valuable. Making aeroplane engines has little in common with making electronic door locks. Aerospace operates on decade-long timelines, while the automation business requires a shorter-term outlook.
The activists also reckon a separation could push up the share price by 51 to 75 per cent in the next two years. Sum-of-the-parts analysis from Jefferies and Deutsche Bank suggest more modest upsides. But if M&A roars back under Donald Trump, a break-up could lead to future deals, with Honeywell’s pieces as targets. Honeywell Aviation could be a good fit with GE Aviation, for example. Pressure to shrink to greatness will be hard to resist.
Lidl’s answer to the iconic Coca-Cola Christmas truck will appear on the roads of Britain in a few hoursCredit: Lidl
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The truck will arrive at each stop around midday and will be giving out freebies until 6 pmCredit: Lidl
Lidl‘s Freeway cola truck will begin its tour of Great Britain on Thursday.
The festive tour will see the truck visit nine different cities until December 1.
Tomorrow, the lit-up red lorry will pull into Dundee and the fun will begin at midday, ending at 6 pm.
The timings stay the same for all locations.
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People who are lucky enough to spot the red truck will find that 2,000 mystery present boxes will be given out.
Each box contains several items from Lidl’s famous “middle aisle.”
However, it is on a first-come-first-serve basis so you must hurry to grab one.
As an extra treat, Lidl has ensured that one in 10 of the boxes contains a “Golden Ticket” as well as the middle aisle freebies.
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This ticket will be a coupon worth £100 that can be redeemed on the Lidl Plus app.
Visitors will also find that Lidl will be handing out festive food and even granting wishes.
Christmas has landed in Aldi – with £3.49 decorations and ‘paint your own’ wooden toys that are even cheaper than Lidl’s
The supermarket chain said visitors to the truck can also make a “wish” for something they want this Christmas, with the retailer granting a number of them.
The full list of locations the truck will visit, and the dates it will arrive there are as follows:
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Dundee – November 14
Harrogate – November 16
Hull – November 17
Nottingham – November 21
Wolverhampton – November 23
Wrexham – November 24
Luton – November 28
Bournemouth – November 30
Southampton – December 1
As Lidl hopes to “highlight the magic of giving, sharing and wish-making this Christmas with a pop-up wonderland at each stop,” Coca-Cola has also detailed some of the plans for its truck this year.
Why is the Coca-Cola truck famous?
The Coca-Cola Christmas truck was first seen in the brand’s hugely popular 1995 advert.
At the time they were known as Christmas Caravans and were decorated with images of the Coca‑Cola Santa by artist Haddon Sundblom.
The 60-second clip features the now-iconic Holidays Are Coming song, which is still synonymous with Coca-Cola to this day.
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The truck began touring the US in 2001 but didn’t start visiting the UK until 2010.
The drinks company confirmed the return of the iconic truck last week promising that the tour this year will be “bigger and better than ever.”
Visitors will be able to take part in festive games and a lucky dip which will give them the chance to win exclusive Coca-Cola merchandise.
A food truck will serve up seasonal food and ice-cold Coca-Cola Zero Sugar drinks.
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The exact dates and locations have not yet been released as Coca-Cola urges fans to keep their eyes out for updates on its Instagram and X pages.
Last year, the truck visited some of the UK’s most major cities including Glasgow, Edinburgh, Liverpool and Manchester.
It started on November 23 and ended on December 3, so the wait should not be too long.
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Cola-Cola has remained tight-lipped about its 2024 tour that promises to be ‘bigger and better than ever’
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