FACT CHECK: Did Kamala Harris call Christmas a ‘festival of superiority’?

Brad Sylvester, DCNF

A post shared on Facebook claims that Vice President-elect Kamala Harris made a disparaging comment about Christmas, saying in part, “It’s a long-standing grievous error to allow Christians some kind of festival of superiority that’s forcibly pushed down the throats of others.”

Verdict: False

There is no record of Harris making the statement. The fabricated quote originates from a satirical article.

Fact Check:

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Dec. 11 that makes Christmas Eve a federal holiday this year. Around the same time, a lengthy quote disparaging Christmas that Harris allegedly said started making the rounds on social media, with some Facebook posts saying she made the negative comment about observing the holiday during a recent interview.

“Why is Christmas held above Hamnukah (sic) or Kwanzaa? It’s a long-standing grievous error to allow Christians some kind of festival of superiority that’s forcibly pushed down the throats of others,” Harris supposedly said. “This is not a Christian nation, no matter what the leftover cult of ignoramuses that still hump their dogs over Trump think. I think it should be a one-day fete like Martin Luther King’s birthday. And he actually existed. And was American.”

There is, however, no evidence Harris made the statement attributed to her in the Facebook post. The Daily Caller News Foundation didn’t find any national or local media outlets quoting her as making the remark, and it doesn’t appear in Rev’s collection of transcripts for Harris’ public statements. Searches of her verified Twitter accounts – @KamalaHarris and @SenKamalaHarris – and ProPublica’s archive of her deleted tweets also turned up no matches.

The alleged quote appears to originate on the parody news website America’s Last Line of Defense, where it was published as part of a satirical article titled “Kamala : ‘Christmas Shouldn’t Be A Federal Holiday.’” America’s Last Line of Defense states on its “about us” page that “everything on this website is fiction.”

USA Today reported that Harris identifies a Baptist. She has tweeted about Christmas on numerous occasions such as Christmas Day last year, when she tweeted, “There is no greater gift than time with family, friends, and loved ones. Wishing you and yours a Merry Christmas.”

There is no greater gift than time with family, friends, and loved ones. Wishing you and yours a Merry Christmas. pic.twitter.com/vIRk2iFV6i

— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) December 25, 2019

This is not the first time social media users have misattributed a quote to Harris. In October, Check Your Fact debunked a viral Facebook post that claimed she referred to American churches as “propaganda centers for intolerant homophobic, xenophobic vitriol.”

This fact check is available at IFCN’s 2020 US Elections FactChat #Chatbot on WhatsApp. Click here, for more.

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