Image of Kamala Harris’s supposed communist party membership card is fake

An image circulating on social media claims to show US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris’s communist party membership card. But the picture is fake and was likely created using an online communist party card generator.

One post on X, formerly Twitter, has been viewed more than 60,000 times and is captioned “Communist Party Kamala? Say it ain’t so Joe.” The image includes some printed text claiming Ms Harris received the Communist Party of the Soviet Union ‘document’ in 1984, and that the New York Times reported on the communist party credential. The picture has also been shared on Facebook. 

But the membership card has the same number (04094064), stamp and payment record as a template on a website which allows people to make fake communist party documents. The website shows several examples of the same ID with different names and portraits.

The image used of Ms Harris is her senior portrait taken at Howard University, where she graduated in 1986. 

The New York Times has also confirmed it “did not publish an article legitimizing a false claim that Vice President Kamala Harris was a member of the Communist Party”.

We’ve seen many examples of misinformation regarding Ms Harris in recent months, including an edited video of her with running-mate Tim Walz taking a selfie in front of a sign for the Revolutionary Communists of America, a video which had been slowed down to make her sound drunk, an altered image of her with Sean 'Diddy' Combs and false claims she was wearing “earphone earrings” during the presidential debate with Donald Trump on 10 September.

Misleading images and videos can be convincing and spread quickly online—read our guides to help you verify this type of content for yourself.