The Media’s Sudden Rejection of Kamala Harris’ ‘Border Czar’ Label

There’s been a dramatic push by the legacy media to neutralize one of Vice President Kamala Harris‘ biggest vulnerabilities since becoming the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee: her longstanding “border czar” label.

Harris was widely dubbed the “border czar” after President Biden tasked her in March 2021 to address the root causes of mass migration from Central and South America. While the Biden administration has rejected the title, the term was widely used by her critics and even embraced by multiple news organizations, at least until she ascended to the top of the ticket.

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.”

However, critics cited Axios’ own reporting from 2021 saying that Biden had appointed Harris “border czar.” Axios later added an editor’s note stating “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.”

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CNN had a similarly drastic change of heart. CNN correspondent Ed Lavandera and CNN commentator Alyssa Farah Griffin both referred to Harris as the “border czar” in 2021 and 2023, respectively.

This week, the network repeatedly rebuked the label.

“The Biden team didn’t declare her the border czar,” CNN’s Kasie Hunt said Wednesday morning. “They wanted her to work on kind of the root causes of immigration.”

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ABC’s Jonathan Karl sang from the same sheet of music, saying “She wasn’t the border czar. That’s what Republicans labeled her. She was given the job of dealing with all the migration that was coming up from Central America. But they will portray her as the one that was in charge of the border, which of course is issue No. 1 for Republicans.”

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Media “fact checkers” rushed to defend Harris. PolitiFact gave the claim from the RNC that as border czar Harris was “put in charge of stopping illegal immigration” a “Mostly False” rating. USA Today similarly ruled it “false” to say she was “put in charge of the border” and that her role was “more limited” than what a border czar would do.

Several other outlets also bent over backwards to separate Harris from the label. {snip}

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