With the US presidential campaign in full swing, social media users posted a video purporting to show Democratic nominee Kamala Harris and her running mate Tim Walz posing for a selfie in front of a banner for the Revolutionary Communists of America. But the footage has been manipulated — photos and clips taken at the Arizona appearance show a hand-painted sign reading “Kamala and The Coach” instead, referencing Walz’s experience coaching high school football.
“When they tell you who they are, believe them,” says text over a video posted August 12, 2024 on TikTok.
The video, which was reshared on Facebook, shows an image of a hammer and sickle and the words “Revolutionary Communists of America” along with a famous poster featuring Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin and Mao Zedong. The clips circulated without the text on X, Instagram and elsewhere on Facebook, including posts in Spanish and Chinese.
One Facebook user wrote that the video shows the Harris-Walz “agenda is about communism.”
The posts come amid a heated presidential campaign in which Republican nominee Donald Trump is attempting to brand his opponent as radical or “communist.” The former president posted a fake image of the Democrat speaking at a communist event ahead of the Democratic National Convention, where she accepted the historic nomination.
But the image of Harris and Walz posing in front of the Revolutionary Communists sign is digitally manipulated.
A reverse image search of screenshots from the video revealed that the earliest example on social media is from August 9, 2024 (archived here), and was posted on X by Brahm Resnik, a 12News anchor and reporter in Phoenix — and is not the same as the clip circulating by Harris critics.
Resnik wrote in the caption “@Tim_Walz takes selfie w @VP in front of ‘Kamala & the Coach’ sign made by #LD4 volunteers,” a reference to the critical legislative district in Arizona.
MINUTES AGO @Tim_Walz takes selfie w @VP in front of “Kamala & the Coach” sign made by #LD4 volunteers. 2 Gen Z women volunteers tell Harris they’re ‘obsessed’ w her. pic.twitter.com/H8AHXnFfl0
— Brahm Resnik (@brahmresnik)
August 9, 2024
Resnik told AFP in an August 15 email that he took the video at an office for campaign volunteers and noted that he was “in the press pool following Vice President Harris” before her speech on August 9 in Glendale, Arizona.
Original signs
Other videos and photos, including from AFP, confirm that there were no communist signs or images at the event.
A similar video from another angle was posted on X by the @KamalaHQ campaign page. It shows the “Kamala and The Coach” banner in place of the Revolutionary Communists sign and a smaller poster with the words “Democrats Protect Abortion” instead of the Karl Marx image (archived here).
A photo showing the same background was posted by the Democratic candidates on their joint Instagram account (archived here).
The photos and videos show no horse head sculpture, which is also seen in the manipulated video. A side-by-side comparison shows the elements altered or added in the clip shared online.
Meme account
The manipulated video contains a watermark in the bottom left from the pro-Trump Dilley Meme Team, which states its mission is to “make America great again, by any memes necessary.” It also includes a barely visible “MagaDevilDog” logo next to the large sign. An AFP search found this is an X profile managed by the same group.
Resnik told AFP that the Dilley Meme Team follows him on social media.
The Revolutionary Communists of America is a genuine organization, calling for “the overthrow of capitalism” but it has not endorsed Harris or Trump. In an August 16 blog post, the party stated: “Neither candidate offers an alternative to imperialist militarism.”
AFP has debunked other misinformation about the 2024 election here.
