No, Kamala Harris did not use teleprompter during Univision town hall

On Oct. 10, Vice President Kamala Harris did a town hall with Spanish-language network Univision. It’s the first of two town halls Univision will host with the presidential candidates; former President Donald Trump’s is scheduled for Oct. 16.

Following the Harris town hall, an official Trump campaign account posted a short video from the event to X that showed a teleprompter with text on it in front of Harris as she spoke. Another post with 7 million views reshared the clip with the claim that “Univision accidentally broadcast proof that Kamala used a teleprompter at her town hall.” Town halls are typically unscripted events where the guest answers questions from the audience.

THE QUESTION

Did Harris use a teleprompter during her Univision town hall?

THE SOURCES

• Enrique Acevedo, the moderator of the town hall

• Daniel Coronell, the president of Univision News

• Independent analysis of the town hall broadcast

THE ANSWER

No, Harris did not use a teleprompter during her Univision town hall.

WHAT WE FOUND

While there was a teleprompter in front of Harris during her town hall, Univision says the text was in Spanish and for the moderator. VERIFY reviewed footage from the event and found that the prompter was mostly blank or displayed a timer for the majority of the town hall.

“The prompter displayed my introduction (in Spanish) and then it switched to a timer,” Enrique Acevedo, the moderator of the town hall, said on X. “Any claim to the contrary is simply untrue.”

“The teleprompter that displays a text written in Spanish was a support element for the town hall moderator,” Daniel Coronell, the president of Univision News, said on X. “I can tell you this with first-hand knowledge because I was in charge of the television program.”

Univision’s official X account reposted Coronell’s post.

The segment of the town hall posted to X in the viral clip can be found six minutes into Univision’s YouTube full video of the event, during Harris’ answer to her first audience question, right after the introduction from Acevedo. While the words on the teleprompter are too blurry to be read in the video, the text remains static the entire time on screen until it eventually goes blank while Harris is still talking. Normally, teleprompters scroll through text to match the speed of the speaker as they read. 

There are several other instances during the broadcast where the camera angle reveals what’s shown on the teleprompter.

At 9:09, the teleprompter is blank. It’s still blank when she begins answering a member of the audience at 9:51. She is looking at the audience member and is turned away from the teleprompter the entire time she gives her answer.

At 18:50, there’s a pair of red zeroes visible on the teleprompter with no other text. The teleprompter reads “01:20” in green when it appears on screen again at 21:13. It’s blank at 22:10, 41:12 and 50:49. While blurry, the teleprompter is again displaying some numbers in green at 53:26.