For many years, following presidential debates, it’s been a perennial conspiracy theory for one side to argue that their opponent somehow cheated through a hidden earpiece or other technology. Naturally, this has been applied to Kamala Harris following her debate against Donald Trump on Tuesday night.

After the debate, which everyone across the political spectrum seemed to acknowledge was a big win for the vice president, a talking point soon emerged on social media: The earrings Harris wore on the debate stage were used by the candidate to cheat.

This is incredibly ridiculous for a couple of reasons. The “audio earrings” in the picture on the left are clearly not the same design as the earrings Harris is wearing. They’re also not in her ears, so it would be difficult for the vice president to hear whoever is speaking to her. Some on social media pointed to the exact earrings — Double-Pearl Hinged Earrings from Tiffany & Co. — that Harris was wearing on the debate stage.

Also, the earrings referenced use Bluetooth technology. And as Politico reported back in 2021, Kamala Harris does not use Bluetooth devices, believing them to be a security risk. She has been spotted at various times wearing wired headphones, including in the famous “we did it, Joe” video from the 2020 election.

It’s virtually impossible for a candidate in a one-on-one presidential debate to be rigged with a clandestine audio setup without their opponent or anyone else noticing. But that hasn’t stopped similar conspiracy theories from spreading, in just about every presidential election in recent memory.

In the 2020 campaign, when Joe Biden debated Donald Trump, there was a news cycle involving the unfounded theory that Biden had worn an earpiece during the debate, with Trump’s campaign running ads with the questionable claim that Biden had refused an inspection for such devices.

In 2016, there was a “secret wire” conspiracy theory involving Hillary Clinton when she debated Trump. This came from what was described as an unusual bulge in Clinton’s clothing, which in the real world was most likely related to the microphone pack she wore for the debate. A similar conspiracy was alleged about Barack Obama, during one of his 2012 debates against Mitt Romney; one version claimed the listening system had malfunctioned during the first debate that year, which was why Obama did so poorly.

It’s not only Democrats who have been accused of this. In the 2004 campaign, some opponents of President George W. Bush referenced a mysterious bulge in his clothing when he debated John Kerry. Bush’s campaign described the bulge as “a wrinkle in the presidential jacket.”

The QAnon/conspiracy sphere is all in on "Kamala's earrings were actually earphones."

That's how you know they know they lost. They're making up conspiracy theories to cover for Trump's disastrous performance. pic.twitter.com/DWwHQPzYfj

— Mike Rothschild (no relation) (@rothschildmd) September 11, 2024

Once again, none of these things have ever been substantiated. The idea that one of the candidates in a debate could secretly use a listening device without anyone noticing is practically impossible. And it says a lot that the idea of Kamala Harris merely being well-prepared, and performing well in the debate, is so far-fetched to these people that she must have somehow cheated.