No, Kamala Harris didn’t say she wouldn't accept the 2024 election results

With less than two weeks until Election Day, concerns are rising about whether candidates will accept the results. One viral post claims Vice President Kamala Harris said she won’t accept the 2024 presidential election result and has lawyers who would overturn it.

"In case you missed it! Kamala Harris sat down for an interview with @NBCNews last night where she proclaimed she would not accept the outcome of the election and has a team of lawyers ready to overturn them," the Oct. 23 Instagram post said. The post came a day after Harris’ interview with NBC News’ Hallie Jackson in Washington, D.C.

The Instagram post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook, Threads and Instagram.)

We reviewed the full transcript of the interview and found no evidence that Harris said or implied she wouldn’t accept the results. 

Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, was asked about a scenario in which former President Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, again declares victory on election night as votes are still being counted. Trump falsely claimed to have won the 2020 presidential election while votes from many states were yet to be counted; four years on, he has yet to accept defeat.

Harris told Jackson she was focused on the present and her campaigning efforts. 

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stated on October 26, 2024 in a Threads post

Four Florida counties had “zero results” Oct. 26, and “something underhanded might be happening.”

"We have got two weeks to go, and I’m very much grounded in the present, in terms of the task at hand," she said. 

As for what could happen on election night if Trump prematurely declared victory, Harris said: "We will deal with election night and the days after, as they come, and we have the resources and the expertise and the focus on that as well."

When Jackson asked Harris whether she had teams ready to handle postelection disputes, Harris said, "Of course." But having a team of election lawyers is hardly evidence of a plot to overturn the election. 

Both parties have been involved in several disputes so far. A recent Bloomberg Law analysis found more than 165 election-related lawsuits nationwide with Republicans and GOP-affiliated groups responsible for 55% of cases filed.  

We asked the Harris campaign how many lawyers it had and in what circumstance would they be used in postelection disputes. A campaign spokesperson did not respond to that question, or say how many lawsuits the campaign had been involved in. The spokesperson referred us to the NBC News transcript. 

Harris didn't say she would not accept the 2024 election’s outcome. On the campaign trail, she has often highlighted Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election as part of her pitch to American voters.

We rate this claim that Harris said she wouldn’t accept the election result False.