Fact Check: Did Mike Pence ask conservatives to 'vote for Kamala Harris as president' in viral clip?

WASHINGTON, DC: Former Vice President Mike Pence found himself making waves on social media after he appeared to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris in a viral clip. 

Pence was offering his two cents on the political status quo at a conservative event called The Gathering, and then suddenly a video of him appears online that makes it look like he’s saying, “Vote for Kamala Harris as President.” Naturally, the Internet lost its mind. But here's the thing - it's not what it seems.

What was said by Mike Pence in video that went viral?

The clip first popped up on TikTok on October 13 courtesy of a user named Hailhydra23. But it gained some real traction only when it hit X (formerly Twitter) the same day. Suddenly, everyone was talking about it. A couple of accounts — namely @Luciferjesi and @mjfree — picked it up and it went viral on the platform.

But here’s the catch - this video is anything but straightforward. The clip shows Pence supposedly saying, “Vote for Kamala Harris as President of the United States,” making it look like he’s throwing his support behind her. But if you dig a little deeper, you find out the video was totally edited to make it seem that way.

The real version has Pence saying, “I could never vote for Kamala Harris as President of the United States or Tim Walz as her running mate. Period.” The doctored video conveniently cut off that crucial first part, completely flipping the meaning. While the editing was slick, it was definitely misleading.

So, what was Pence actually up to at this August engagement? He was chatting with conservative commentator Erik Erikson about all kinds of stuff - from his faith and conservative values to his issues with the current direction of the Republican Party.

Now, he did take a moment to criticize Trump — particularly how he handled the fallout of the 2020 election and the Jan 6 riots. He even pointed out how Trump pressured him to overturn the election results.

“And, between me and my former running mate, I cannot endorse President Trump's continuing assertion that I should have set aside my oath to support and defend the Constitution, and acted in a way that would have overturned the election in January of 2021," Pence lamented.

But in reality, these comments about Trump were made a full two and a half minutes after Pence’s mention of Harris. The edited video makes it seem like all this was one big, dramatic declaration, but really it was chopped up to look that way, Newsweek reported.

Verdict: Mike Pence didn't ensorse Kamala Harris for president

Now, this clip wasn’t just about chopping off a sentence. It also mashed up different parts of Pence's speech to create a totally different narrative.

For example, Pence talked about his frustrations with the current Republican platform—how he thinks the party isn’t taking the national debt seriously, or how it’s stepped back from its global alliances and marginalized the fight for the right to life.

In the viral video, all of these comments were spliced together with his critique of Trump and his supposed “endorsement” of Harris.

But in the actual event, he spoke about these issues in a completely different order. The sneaky editing made it look like Pence was connecting all of his grievances directly to a Harris endorsement.

After the clip went viral, some viewers started to realize that something wasn’t adding up. A Community Note was added to the viral post from @Luciferjesi, calling out the fact that the video had been edited. It clarified that Pence never endorsed Harris at all.

It’s all smoke and mirrors. When you see the full conversation, it’s clear that Pence was distancing himself from both Harris and his former boss Trump.

The whole saga is just another reminder to take viral videos with a grain of salt - because sometimes what you see isn’t quite what you get.