Social media users have been sharing content online that claims Senator Kamala Harris refused to be sworn into the Senate with a Bible. This claim is false.
Examples can be seen here and here .
Harris was sworn in on January 3, 2017 and is the first Indian American senator and the first Black woman representative for California ( here ).
Video footage of the moment Harris was sworn in with a Bible can be seen( here ). Around the 01:08 mark, former Vice President Joe Biden instructs Harris by saying: “Put your left hand on the bible and raise your right.”
The caption on an Associated Press photograph capturing the moment Harris was sworn in, reads: “Vice President Joe Biden administers the Senate oath of office to Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., as her husband Douglas Emhoff, holds the Bible during a mock swearing in ceremony in the Old Senate Chamber on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2017, as the 115th Congress begins. (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf)” ( here )
VERDICT
False. A Bible was used for Kamala Harris’s Senate swearing in ceremony.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our fact-checking work here .
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