Fact Check: Is the picture of Kamala Harris holding record albums real? Vinyl memes takes over the internet by storm

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris has been trending online recently, not due to the elections, but because of images of her holding various vinyl records. These images were created using a meme generator called kamala-holding-vinyls.glitch.me, created by X user @said_mitch. Mitch shared the tool and sample images on July 26.

The tool is based on a 2023 image of the Vice President taken outside the HR Records shop in Washington DC. She was visiting the shop for the Small Business Week and purchased a few vinyl records. The image was taken by freelance photographer, Ken Cedeno, when Harris stopped at the sidewalk after leaving the shop to show her vinyl finds.

Harris bought vinyl records for Charles Mingus’ Let My Children Hear Music, Roy Ayers’ Everybody Loves The Sunshine, and Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong’s Porgy And Bess. The image used as the base for the meme generator is of the Vice President holding Let My Children Hear Music by Charles Mingus.

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The images of Kamala Harris holding different vinyl record albums are not real

The meme generator became an internet sensation in no time, and numerous meme-fied images of the Vice President were being shared on X starting July 26. From Maxtreme's We Are Back to Nirvana's Never Mind, and more, users created and tweeted images of Kamala Harris with different records.

The meme-making experience seemed to have met with some issues on July 28 as the website seemingly broke and became non-functional. However, it didn't last long because the creator, @said_mitch, tweeted later on Friday, confirming the meme generator was back up.

Mitch spoke to Fast Company on July 29 and shared the inspiration behind the idea:

“The site idea came from seeing people posting manually Photoshopped alterations of Kamala’s record choices, and I was drawn to the idea of making it easier and meme-ier to participate. It also brought together my personal obsessions: U.S. politics, vinyl collecting, internet culture, playful tech.”

Mitch shared another tweet on July 29, tagging Kamala Harris' campaign account, @KamalaHQ, and expressed willingness to allow licensing of the meme tool for the campaign. The user received no public response from Harris' campaign account on X.

Readers must note that Harris is one of the presidential candidates for the 2024 elections after President Joe Biden pulled out from the election on July 21. As he left the race, Biden endorsed the Democratic party member, Kamala Harris.

She officially began her campaign on Tuesday, July 23, and released her first campaigning video featuring Beyonce's 2016 hit, Freedom. While the campaign features youth-focused music to connect with prospective voters, Harris has not taken any new pictures while holding vinyl records recently.

The images of Vice President Kamala Harris holding vinyl records are fake. They use an old photo from 2023, taken outside HR Records in Washington, DC, and were created using a meme generator. Neither Harris nor her official campaign account has commented on these images.