Even with Fox News and senior Republican officials Some supporters of former President Donald Trump are desperate for scraps of comfort after Vice President Kamala Harris conceded victory in Tuesday night’s presidential debate. Beware of predictable conspiracy theories.
A frequent refrain from conservatives (but not Democrats, interestingly) over the past decade is that their guy opponent wears headphones during debates. These baseless accusations have come to light President Joe Biden in 2020hour Hillary Clinton in 2016 and the horse Barack Obama in 2012. The theory has been disproven every time.
In Harris’ case, conspiracy theorists claimed that X and other social media platforms had earplugs embedded in her earrings. In search of earpieces that look like strings of pearls, these sufferers report that Harris uses Nova’s H1 Audio Earbuds.
The earrings are said to have directional sound that can only be heard by the wearer. To them Kickstarter pagethey are “placed on the ear tips and transmit the sound from inside the pearl directly into your ear canal.” Of course they are look a little Like the pearl earrings Harris wore on stage, but they’re not the same. Style bloggers already exist is defined A pair of Tiffany earrings that Harris wore to the debate and previous events (she also noted that she wore a chain from the same collection).
The main problem is that the Nova H1 Audio Headphones are almost non-existent.
as Newsweek It was noted that the device was part of a Kickstarter project that died. Earrings cannot be bought anywhere online and never have been. Nova Products, the company behind the campaign, hasn’t been on Kickstarter since May 2023, and backers posted a status update on the page asking for a status update on the earrings they’re donating, and writing information about the earrings they’ll receive in exchange for their pledges.
URL for Nova Products website, As noted on Kickstarter, it is now being diverted to another company, Icebach Sound Solutions. That site showing off a pair of distinctively designed audio headphones, and after the debate, the site added the message “special edition for presidential debates – available to all soon”. 7 in the morning and 11:25 ET, according to caches at The Wayback Machine. Presumably this tongue-in-cheek claim added links to the CES 2025 website.
Both the Icebach and Nova websites list the domain registrar as Stephan Berendsen of BBG Entertainment GmbH, a Germany-based mobile game developer. What such a company has to do with audio products or the US presidential election remains a mystery, but we’ve reached out to BBG as well as the Harris campaign for comment.
“We don’t know if Ms. Harris is wearing one of our products,” said Malte Iversen, managing director of Icebach Sound Solutions. Engadget in a comment, as we assume, is an attempt to make sudden money for an unusual promotion. “To ensure a level playing field for both candidates, we are currently developing a men’s version and will soon be able to present it to the Trump campaign. The color choice is a bit difficult, although orange does not go well with many colors.”
Anyway, this looks like another simple case for Occam’s razor. Harris almost he didn’t wear headphones because the earrings she’s wearing look noticeably different and the product she’s accused of wearing doesn’t exist. Likewise, it’s more believable that a seasoned politician can win a debate that’s extremely well-prepared and willing to outplay an opponent with a rather fragile ego without requiring the team to report via earpiece.
The Nova H1 Audio Earbuds show all the classic signs of being a steamroller until it’s first shown at CES 2023, although perhaps we’ll see a new version under a different brand on the show floor in January.
