A perfect example of liberal bias in U.S. media was put on full display this week.
It all started when President Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential race on Sunday, making Vice President Kamala Harris the most likely candidate to replace him as the Democratic nominee come November.
Harris promptly launched her own presidential campaign, causing the conservative corners of the country to aim a more critical eye at her.
Specifically, conservatives called out Harris’s status as the “border czar” in the Biden administration, pointing to the fact that the vice president has overseen one of the current administration’s most disastrous failures.
Outlets like CNN, MSNBC and others began “fact-checking” these criticisms, arguing that Harris was by no means a “border czar” in charge of anything border-related.
In reality, it was these very same outlets that first reported on Harris’s appointment to lead the Biden administration’s response to the border crisis. What’s more, not too long ago, many of the same media outlets repeatedly dubbed her the “border czar.”
CLAIMS:
- Did dishonest conservative critics dub Kamala Harris the “border czar”?
- Was Kamala Harris in fact in charge of the Biden administration’s border crisis response?
CONCLUSION:
- No, conservatives did not dishonestly label Harris “border czar.” In fact, many of the same left-leaning outlets now decrying the moniker were responsible for popularizing it in the first place.
- Yes, Harris was appointed to “lead the White House response” to the border crisis in 2021.
The media-fueled “border czar” controversy first cropped up Wednesday via an Axios article.
The Trump campaign and Republicans have tagged Harris repeatedly with the “border czar” title — which she never actually had.https://t.co/PPHCjKBf83
— Axios (@axios) July 24, 2024
“In the past few days, the Trump campaign and Republicans have tagged Harris repeatedly with the ‘border czar’ title — which she never actually had,” Axios reported.
Many were then quick to point out on social media that an Axios article previously dubbed Harris “border czar” in 2021.
Axios promptly updated its Wednesday coverage, adding the following note: “This article has been updated and clarified to note that Axios was among the news outlets that incorrectly labeled Harris a ‘border czar’ in 2021.”
Various other like-minded news outlets biased to the left then came out decrying the “border czar” designation, as well.
In response, the Media Research Center put out a compilation of media footage showing that, before Harris became the likely Democratic nominee, many of the very same outlets threw the term around ad nauseam.
The highlight reel showcased CBS News, CNN, MSNBC and ABC News using the “border czar” term before Biden dropped out of the race, and then pretending it was always a dishonest Republican label after he did so.
Journalists were calling Kamala the border czar until like five minutes ago. Don’t let the media gaslight you. pic.twitter.com/oveoFcBn4G
— Bill D’Agostino (@Banned_Bill) July 24, 2024
Semantics over the nickname aside, it is true that Harris was placed in charge of the Biden administration’s response to the unprecedented border crisis.
In 2021, Biden appointed Harris to “lead the White House effort to tackle the migration challenge at the U.S. southern border,” as reported by the Associated Press.
Even Axios itself reported on the news in a 2021 article titled “Biden puts Harris in charge of border crisis.”
BOOOM!!! PLAY IT ON REPEAT!!! pic.twitter.com/XGvQCFGxfs
— il Donaldo Trumpo (@PapiTrumpo) July 24, 2024
Harris later spoke on her work as the border crisis point-woman in an interview with Margaret Brennan of “Face the Nation.”
During the interview, Harris boasted about one of the Biden administration’s proposed solutions: diverting U.S. taxpayer funds towards providing economic relief to illegal immigrants’ countries of origin.
Supposedly, by using billions in U.S. funds to prop up those foreign economies, the Biden administration believed illegal immigrants would be incentivized to stay put.
“The work that I’ve been doing in that regard has been to build public-private partnerships to the extent that we have now raised over $4 billion to invest in the countries in that region,” Harris said.
“My point is that focusing on root causes, and doing the work that we have been doing to bring U.S. investment into those countries in a way that is supportive of their economies and supportive of fighting corruption, actually works.”
