Social Media Fixates on 'Eating Cats' and 'Execution After Birth' Claims From Trump-Harris Debate

On the morning of September 11, 2024, Livemint's trending-news live blog led with two phrases that had taken over social media overnight: 'eating cats' and 'execution after birth.' Both were tied to the US presidential debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris.

The entry is brief. Livemint labeled it a one-minute read and last updated it at 9:41 AM IST on September 11. It sits inside a daily roundup of the most talked-about topics, a format that gathers whatever is moving online across politics, technology, entertainment, sports and global affairs.

That format shapes what the piece can tell us. It names the two trends and links them to the Trump-Harris debate, and that is nearly all it does. It does not say who said what on the debate stage, in what context, or whether the claims behind the phrases were accurate. It also gives no figures on how widely the phrases spread, and it does not identify the platforms where they trended.

What the source establishes is therefore narrow. A debate between the Republican and Democratic presidential candidates took place. Afterward, two phrases from it became online fixtures. The roundup records the fact of their circulation without examining it.

A reader who wants the substance behind 'eating cats' and 'execution after birth' will not find it here. The reporting that would explain the origin of each phrase, and test it against the record, lies in primary coverage of the debate itself. This entry only marks the moment those phrases surfaced in public conversation.

For now, the useful takeaway is modest: the debate produced talking points that moved faster online than the debate's policy content, at least in the view of this daily trends feed. Fuller accounts of the debate will show what was actually said and what held up.