Kamala Harris Gets Stuck on Repeat in Teleprompter Glitch

Vice President Kamala Harris found herself in an awkward situation during a rally in Michigan on Friday when an apparent teleprompter glitch caused her to repeat the same lines multiple times.
Videos of the incident quickly surfaced on X, formerly Twitter, capturing the vice president as she criticized her opponent, Donald Trump, and his running mate JD Vance, over their record on jobs in the manufacturing industry. Harris labeled Trump “one of the biggest losers of manufacturing jobs in American history.”
Midway through her speech, Harris appeared to pause, before repeating the phrase “32 days” multiple times. The vice president was referring to the number of days left until Election Day on November 5.
“Remember this number. 32. Today we got 32 days until the election,” she said.
After a short pause, she added: “So 32 days… 32 days… OK.”
“We got some business to do,” she continued, as she attempted to regain her footing, but her speech didn’t quite make it back on track as she repeated, again, “32 days.”
“And we know we will do it,” she said, before repeating twice that it is “going to be a very tight race until the very end.”
“We are the underdog, and we know we have some hard work ahead,” Harris continued.
While it is not clear if that part of the speech was a gaffe, critics quickly seized upon the moment, suggesting it was due to a malfunctioning teleprompter.
“Kamala’s teleprompter briefly went out at the beginning of her speech—you can tell the exact moment it happened. She had absolutely no idea what to do or say. Humiliating,” the Trump War Room X account posted.
“OMG: Kamala really can’t speak without a teleprompter! You can see the EXACT moment it malfunctions. She can’t speak without a script! This is HUMILIATING for her!” another Trump supporter added.
Newsweek has contacted the Harris campaign for comment via email.
Trump has previously claimed that he does not need a teleprompter. “Isn’t it nice, by the way, to have a president who doesn’t need a teleprompter?” he asked his crowd of supporters at a Michigan rally on Thursday.
Before his remark, Trump was midway through a speech, where he allegedly had two teleprompters in front of him, when he told supporters: “The teleprompter just went out!”
He added that only a “certain type of person” could handle failing teleprompters during a speech.
“Usually, I don’t talk about it,” he said. “Oh, we’ve lost a teleprompter many times. The worst is the wind.
“I was in Ohio for Bernie Moreno, and it was 45-mile-an-hour winds. These things were blowing like flags. You felt like a drunken sailor in all due respect.”
Vice presidential nominee JD Vance has also claimed he doesn’t need a teleprompter.
“Ma’am I don’t need a teleprompter, I actually got thoughts in my head, unlike Kamala Harris,” he said at a rally in Erie, Pennsylvania, in August.
Later during the rally, he was heard confusing Abbey Gate at Kabul airport in Afghanistan, where 13 American soldiers were killed in a bombing in 2021, with Abbey Road in London.
He had been responding to a question from a reporter about Donald Trump’s visit to Arlington Cemetery to mark the third anniversary of the bombing.
“The families of these poor people who had their loved ones die three years ago at Abbey Road,” Vance said.
Abbey Road is a street in London where a recording studio of the same name is located. It is most famous for inspiring the title of the 1969 Beatles album.
Vance corrected himself after his mistake saying: “I meant Abbey Gate,” but the moment still spread on social media.
Journalist Ron Filipkowski spliced the two clips together and posted them to X, formerly Twitter, along with the caption, “First half of clip is JD Vance today saying he doesn’t need a teleprompter like Kamala Harris because he’s smart. Second half of clip is him minutes later calling Abbey Gate in Afghanistan ‘Abbey Road,’ which is a Beatles album.”