From left: President Joe Biden listens as Vice President Kamala Harris gives a speech on April 20.Photo: getty images
A reporter forTheNew York Postquit this week after the paper published and then edited a false story that ran on its front page claiming a book about Vice PresidentKamala Harriswas being given out to migrant children in U.S. custody.
The story spread quickly in conservative circles and to some other news outlets.
A Fox News reporter asked White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki about it at Monday’s briefing.
However, aWashington Postfact-check of the storydiscovered thePosthad either exaggerated or misunderstood what happened — and the story traced back to a photo of a single copy of Harris' book, which was donated during atoy and book drive.
CNNreportsthePosttemporarily took down and then republished the story with an editor’s note.
“The original version of this article said migrant kids were getting Harris' book in a welcome kit, but has been updated to note that only one known copy of the book was given to a child,” the note now reads.
The author of thePostarticle, Laura Italiano, announced Tuesday on Twitter that she had resigned over the matter and suggested she knew the paper was disregarding the truth.
Kamala Harris in 2019.Michael Tullberg/Getty
“The Kamala Harris story – an incorrect story I was ordered to write and which I failed to push back hard enough against – was my breaking point,” Italianotweeted.
A spokesperson for thePostdid not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment Wednesday.
“It was a single book and was not part of a mass donation of that specific title,” Lee said in an email to PEOPLE, adding, “The single book you reference is one of now thousands of various books that have already been donated.”
“The donated books are part of an inventory, or library if you will, at the shelter,” Lee says. “They are not part of a set welcome kit, but rather, children are able to pick and choose what they read from the available donated inventory.”
The HHSsaysthe recently opened “emergency intake site” at the Long Beach Convention Center has the capacity for up to 1,000 children — migrant girls 17 and under, as well as migrant boys 12 and under.
Harris isleading the Biden administration’s much-scrutinized effortsto manage a vast increase of migrant children arriving unaccompanied at the border in recent months.
ThePostreport fueled anger among Republicans over the perception Harris was personally benefitting from the immigration situation.
Sen. Tom Cotton cited it to claim the Biden administration was “forcing taxpayers to buy Kamala Harris’s book.”
“After learning officials are handing out Kamala Harris' book to migrants in facilities at the border, it’s worth asking… Was Harris paid for these books? Is she profiting from Biden’s border crisis?“tweetedRonna McDaniel, the national chair of the Republican Party.
When asked about thePost’s incorrect article at Monday’s briefing, Psaki said she would have to investigate further but added: “I hear it’s a good book.”
A similar debunked claim about the Biden administration had spread from the tabloids to GOP circles in recent days, afterThe Daily Mailin Britain linked Biden’s plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions with a university study — unaffiliated with the White House — about people eating less meat.
source: people.com
