CNN reporter Daniel Dale was among the latest in a wave of legacy news outlets and personalities claiming that Vice President Harris was never appointed President Biden’s border czar.
Harris frequently made headlines serving as what many called Biden’s “border czar,” trying to quell chaos at America’s border with Mexico. Now that she has become the Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee, Republicans have shifted their focus from Biden to call out her lack of success in that role, a role that personalities at CNN, MSNBC and Axios have begun claiming she never served.
On a Thursday broadcast of “CNN News Central,” CNN reporter Alayna Treene spoke about how the Trump campaign has had to switch tactics after President Biden stepped down and endorsed Harris.
“They have had an entire playbook built and designed around going after an unpopular 81-year-old. And so now they’re trying to figure out exactly the best ways to define Kamala Harris and to attack her,” later noting the focuses would be on immigration, the border, inflation, and crime.
CNN reporter Daniel Dale responded to clips of Trump’s recent rally, arguing that there were multiple false claims, one of which was that Harris had been put in charge of the border.
KAMALA HARRIS HIT WITH ARTICLES OF IMPEACHMENT OVER BORDER CRISIS, ‘MISLEADING’ PEOPLE ON BIDEN
CNN reporter Daniel Dale argued that Harris “was never put in charge of the border.”
FLASHBACK: KAMALA HARRIS COMPARED ICE TO KKK IN SENATE HEARING
“He said she was Joe Biden‘s border czar. She wasn‘t. She was never put in charge of the border. She was given a much more limited assignment to lead a so-called root causes diplomatic effort trying to address the reasons in Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras that people choose to migrate.”
The reporter then added that “many Republicans scoff at this kind of fact-check, they’re like ‘There were a bunch of articles back in 2021, they called her ‘border czar.’ Frankly, those articles were wrong,” he said. “And if you look at CNN‘s own covers, not to toot our own horn, but you‘ll see that the White House and Harris‘s office consistently as early ‘21, pushed back on that framing.”
CLICK HERE FOR MORE COVERAGE OF MEDIA AND CULTURE
Biden had said in a March 24, 2021 video that Harris was “leading the effort to coordinate with Mexico and other Northern Triangle nations to address issues such as the surge of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border.”
There has been a fiery debate over the past week over whether outlets are trying to cover for Harris by denying that she was in charge of securing the border.
Vice President Kamala Harris campaigns for president as the presumptive Democratic candidate during an event at West Allis Central High School on Tuesday, July 23, 2024, in West Allis, Wisc. (AP Photo/Kayla Wolf)
Axios went viral Wednesday with its report about the “border confusion” that has haunted Harris, telling readers “the Trump campaign and Republicans have tagged Harris repeatedly with the ‘border czar’ title — which she never actually had.”
The X platform labeled the article with a Community Note declaring “Axios themselves used the words ‘border czar’ in 2021, referring to VP Kamala Harris. ‘Harris, appointed by Biden as border czar, said she would be looking at the “root causes” that drive migration.’”
Axios since then updated its own story Wednesday by saying it “incorrectly” called her a border czar in the past.
Fox News’ Brian Flood, Joseph A. Wulfssohn, and Nikolas Lanum contributed to this report.