A rumor shared on-line forward of the 2024 U.S. presidential election claimed {that a} video confirmed Vice President Kamala Harris saying she sought to “snatch” up patents in order that the U.S. authorities may take them over.
The rumor unfold on X in an 18-second video clip exhibiting Harris chatting with voters in Muscatine, Iowa, on Nov. 22, 2019. On the time, Harris — then a U.S. senator from California — was campaigning for the Democratic Social gathering’s 2020 presidential nomination.
In a short video clip posted (archived) by an X consumer on Oct. 15, Harris stated, “I’ll snatch their patent, so that we’ll take over.” Trying towards the group, she continued, “And sure, we are able to try this. Sure. Sure, we are able to try this. Sure, we are able to try this. The query is, do you’ve gotten the desire to do it? I’ve the desire to do it.” The wrote on their publish, “Feels like communism.” That publish acquired hundreds of thousands of views and tens of hundreds of reposts and likes.
One other consumer additionally beforehand posted (archived) the identical clip on Aug. 16, calling Harris a “dictator” and “wannabe tyrant.”
Additional, as Mediaite reported about this rumor, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott was among the many hundreds of customers to repost the clip, additionally on Aug. 16, captioning his post (archived) with, “Effectively, that is loopy.”
It is true Harris stated the phrases, “I’ll snatch their patent, so that we’ll take over.” Nonetheless, the 18-second video clip customers shared omitted some context from her comment.
The Context of Harris’ Comment
An extended video hosted by C-SPAN confirmed Harris was talking about patents for prescribed drugs, particularly for medicine created by pharmaceutical corporations that had acquired federal funding and, sooner or later, would refuse to decrease customers’ prices to equal quantities charged in different international locations. (The bolded phrases beneath point out the one a part of Harris’ remark included within the transient video clip customers shared on X.)
My plan as a candidate for president on the difficulty of drug costs is as follows: We’re going to set drug costs based mostly on truthful market. So, basically what we will do, and, you recognize, go to the web site if you’ll, and if not, I can get you some paperwork. However, basically what we will do is ready drug costs in order that American customers are charged a value for medicine that’s the common value that is being charged across the globe. [applause] And also you’re gonna… and there is a large distinction, insulin being an instance.
The opposite factor is that this. If folks do not wish to cooperate with that, I am additionally going to do the following factor, which is that this. Numerous medicine, prescription remedy, was born out of federal funding for the analysis and growth of that drug. Your taxpayer {dollars}. So, for any drug the place they did not play by our guidelines, and if that drug happened due to federal funding for what’s referred to as R&D, analysis and growth, I’ll snatch their patent, so that we’ll take over. Sure, we are able to try this. Sure. Sure, we are able to try this. Sure, we are able to try this. The query is, do you’ve gotten the desire to do it? I’ve the desire to do it.
Practically 5 years after Harris made the comment, The Associated Press reported on Aug. 15, 2024, that American taxpayers have been anticipated to save lots of billions of {dollars} after President Joe Biden’s administration “inked offers with pharmaceutical corporations to knock down the lists costs for 10 of Medicare’s costliest drugs.” These medicine embrace Januvia, Jardiance, Xarelto, Entresto and others. The reporting additionally added, “However how a lot older People can anticipate to save lots of after they fill a prescription at their native pharmacy stays unclear, for the reason that record value is not the ultimate value folks pay.”
Additional, the Biden-Harris administration’s Inflation Discount Act of 2022 additionally lowered the cost of insulin for seniors on Medicare.
