Claim Tiger Woods said Kamala Harris has ‘fake black accent’ is satire | Fact check

Chris Mueller, USA TODAY
·3 min read
33

The claim: Tiger Woods said ‘Kamala's fake black accent is embarrassing and extremely offensive’

A Sept. 4 Facebook post (direct link, archive link) shows side-by-side images of professional golfer Tiger Woods and Vice President Kamala Harris above a quote attributed to Woods.

“Kamala’s fake black accent is embarrassing and extremely offensive,” reads Woods’ purported quote.

It was shared more than 8,000 times in two days. Similar posts were shared on Instagram and Threads.

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Our rating: False

The claim originated from a satirical social media account. No credible reports support the post’s claim that Woods made this statement, and there is no evidence of the remark on his social media accounts.

Tiger Woods quote originated with satirical account

There is no evidence Woods made the statement attributed to him in the post. It doesn’t appear anywhere on his website or social media accounts. Nor has it been mentioned by any PGA Tour social media accounts. No credible news outlets have reported that Woods made such a statement, either.

The claim originated from a satirical account on X, formerly Twitter, called @PGATUOR, a misspelling of PGA Tour. The account includes “#Satire” and “#Parody” in its bio on X. The original Sept. 2 post attributing the quote about Harris to Woods appears to have been deleted, but the account’s name is visible in some versions of the post.

The post is an example of what could be called "stolen satire," where claims written as satire and presented that way originally are reposted in a way that makes them appear to be legitimate news. As a result, readers of the second-generation post are misled, as was the case here.

Fact check: No, Kamala Harris wasn't fired from McDonald's for stealing. That's satire

The reference to Harris’ supposed “accent” comes after former President Donald Trump’s campaign asked social media users to “spot the difference” between two videos of Harris delivering similar lines during campaign speeches, implying she faked an accent to pander to Black voters. Trump himself has made comments questioning Harris’ racial identity before.

During a Sept. 3 press briefing, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre dismissed a question from Fox News senior White House correspondent Peter Doocy about Harris at times having “what sounds like a southern accent.”

“Do you think Americans seriously think that this is an important question?” Jean-Pierre said. “They care – you know what they care about? They care about the economy. They care about lowering costs. They care about health care. That’s what Americans care about.”

Woods doesn’t often comment publicly about politics, but he played golf with Trump at least twice while he was president and once when he was president-elect, The New York Times reported. In 2019, Trump presented Woods with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.

Woods also played with President Barack Obama while he was in office and Presidents Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush, USA TODAY previously reported.

USA TODAY reached out to the social media user who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

PolitiFact also debunked the claim.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: No evidence Woods said ‘black accent’ quote about Harris | Fact check

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