Clinton warns of October surprise that will ‘distort and pervert’ Harris

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned of an October surprise that will “distort and pervert” Vice President Harris.

“There will be concerted efforts to distort and pervert Kamala Harris, who she is, what she stands for, what she’s done,” Clinton said during an interview with “Firing Line” host Margaret Hoover.

She pointed to the 2016 “pizzagate” conspiracy theory that surrounded the end of her presidential campaign against Donald Trump.

“I mean, look, I mean, the crazy story about me running a child trafficking operation out of a basement of a pizzeria,” Clinton said.

The comment evoked laughter from the crowd. “Pizzagate,” as the child sex trafficking conspiracy became known, resulted in a North Carolina man opening fire on a Washington, D.C., pizza parlor in 2016.

“Don’t laugh,” Clinton told the crowd. “It was a huge story. And it got one young man in North Carolina to get in his car with his, you know, assault rifle and drove up to liberate these nonexistent children and shoot up a pizzeria in Washington, D.C.”

“This is dangerous stuff. It starts online often on the dark web. It migrates. It’s picked up by the pro-Trump media. It’s then reported on by everybody else, which makes sure it has about 100 percent coverage, and people believe it,” Clinton said.

She warned that ahead of this year’s election, “the digital airwaves” will be filled with misinformation that can take on a life of its own.

Clinton argued that the press needs a “consistent narrative” about the danger that Trump poses to the country in the coming weeks. She warned that foreign actors like Russia, Iran and China may fuel disinformation on social media, seeking to influence the election.

She said she believes a story about Harris is coming. “So, I don’t know what it’s going to be,” she said of the October surprise. “But it will be something, and we’ll have to work very, very hard to make sure that it is exposed as the lie that it is.”

Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.