Benedict Smith
18 September 2024 5:46pm
Kamala Harris’s ex-boyfriend has hit out over a photograph purporting to show the Democratic presidential candidate with Sean “Diddy” Combs.
A social media post from a Right-wing account claimed to show Ms Harris grinning and linking arms with the rapper, who was charged with sex trafficking and racketeering on Tuesday.
However, the photograph actually shows the vice president with Montel Williams, a television host who she briefly dated in the early 2000s.
“Here is P Diddy with Kamala Harris,” the post read. “P Diddy has been arrested for sex trafficking! Who thinks he should expose everyone in Hollywood?”
Williams responded: “Here they go again with ‘all black people look alike…’”
Other versions of the image have been doctored to replace Williams’ head with that of Combs, who authorities claim threatened and intimidated women into days-long orgies with male prostitutes known as “Freak Offs”. He denies the charges.
One post published the photoshopped image on Sunday, the day that Combs was arrested in New York, with the caption: “The Diddy Client List goes all the way to the top.”
In fact, the unedited photograph shows Ms Harris with Williams and his daughter at an event in California to raise money for research into multiple sclerosis in 2001.
In 2019, Williams posted on X, then Twitter:
.@KamalaHarris and I briefly dated about 20 years ago when we were both single. So what? I have great respect for Sen. Harris. I have to wonder if the same stories about her dating history would have been written if she were a male candidate? https://t.co/UQjkP2m5jr
— Montel Williams (@Montel_Williams) August 7, 2019
The development is the latest example of online misinformation and digital manipulation of images during the presidential race.
Donald Trump, the Republican candidate, has previously posted fake AI images of Taylor Swift endorsing him on his Truth Social account. The Shake It Off singer later endorsed Ms Harris, after citing her concerns about the doctored photographs.
While there is currently no evidence that Ms Harris and Combs know each other, they both appeared at a virtual town hall in April 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The event, which was also attended by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the New York congresswoman, according to the Complex news outlet, focused on the impact of the pandemic on black Americans.
Ms Harris, then a senator for California, later praised the music mogul for drawing attention to “racial inequality” in a post on social media.
“Thank you, Diddy, for hosting this town hall last night,” she wrote on X.
“There’s a lot at stake for our communities right now and it’s critical we bring to the forefront how coronavirus is perpetuating racial inequality and health disparities.”
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