Stand up for the facts!

Our only agenda is to publish the truth so you can be an informed participant in democracy.
We need your help.

More Info

I would like to contribute

$
YouTube videos
YouTube videos
stated on August 28, 2020 in a Facebook post:

“Kamala Harris wants the riots to continue and not let up, not now not even after the election.”

False
By Ciara O'Rourke
September 4, 2020

No, Kamala Harris didn’t say she wants riots to continue

If your time is short

  • Kamala Harris said protests should continue, not riots. 
 
See the sources for this fact-check

A YouTube video being shared on social media shows part of a recent interview with “Late Show” host Stephen Colbert and Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris, but the clip’s title misleads about what Harris actually said. 

“Kamala Harris wants the riots to continue and not let up, not now not even after the election,” the title says.

The account that posted the clip described it this way: “Kamala Harris says that riots are not going to stop, ever, and to BEWARE. With a smile on her face.”

This video was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) 

It blatantly distorts what the California senator said. 

After a Minneapolis police officer killed George Floyd in May, demonstrators across the country started protesting racial injustice and police violence against Black people. 

Speaking remotely to Colbert in June, Harris voiced support for the ongoing protests — but she didn’t say she wants the riots to continue. 

“They’re not going to stop,” she said. “This is a movement, I’m telling you, they’re not going to stop, and everyone beware because they’re not going to stop before Election Day in November, and they’re not going to stop after Election Day. And everyone should take note of that, on both levels, that they’re not going to let up, and they should not, and we should not.” 

That’s all the YouTube clip shows, but a longer version of the exchange posted by the “Late Show” shows Harris saying that the protests continuing is “critically important” to achieve change. Neither she nor Colbert mention riots.

During her rebuttal to Donald Trump’s speech accepting the Republican nomination for president on Aug. 27, Harris condemned looting and violence but she said she supported peaceful protesters. 

“We should not confuse them with those looting and committing acts of violence, including the shooter who was arrested for murder,” she said. “And make no mistake, we will not let these vigilantes and extremists and derail the path to justice.”  

We rate this video False.

 
Our Sources

YouTube video, Aug. 28, 2020

YouTube video, June 18, 2020

Reuters, Kamala Harris condemns looting, violence in wake of police shooting, Aug. 27, 2020

 

Browse the Truth-O-Meter

More by Ciara O'Rourke
Viral image
stated on April 2, 2025 in a Facebook post:
“White hats to investigate Wisconsin Supreme Court election.”
False
Facebook posts
stated on March 28, 2025 in a Facebook post:
Photo shows a missing police officer in “extreme danger.”
Pants on Fire!
Facebook posts
stated on March 28, 2025 in a Facebook post:
Images show damage from an “earthquake in Thailand.”
False

No, Kamala Harris didn’t say she wants riots to continue

Jon Ossoff
stated on June 27, 2026 in a campaign speech:









Donald Trump
stated on June 23, 2026 in a speech in Macungie, Pennsylvania:

David Jolly
stated on June 11, 2026 in a speech:

Marsha Blackburn
stated on June 19, 2026 in an X post:





Steve Robinson
stated on June 5, 2026 in Fox News “The Ingraham Angle”:

Josh Hokit
stated on June 14, 2026 in a UFC event at the White House:


Donald Trump
stated on May 22, 2026 in remarks in Suffern, New York: