"They were never a part of the kit, it was inaccurate reporting." Those were White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki's words earlier this year when she was asked about reporting that a new "harm reduction" grant program from the federal government allowed taxpayer dollars to end up putting free crack pipes in the hands of addicts.
Townhall, at the time, covered the insane federal program — first reported by our friends at The Washington Free Beacon. Biden's goons in the mainstream media and supposedly independent fact-checking organizations were quick to try and hide the truth after the Biden administration got caught with their hands in the...crack pipe jar.
HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra released a statement at the time saying "no federal funding will be used directly or through subsequent reimbursement of grantees to put pipes in safe smoking kits."
Former Vox "journalist" Aaron Rupar pounced on behalf of Democrats and tweeted furiously that the claim was a "lie," "false," nothing more than "Fox News-fueled hysteria," and "total BS!" then used his tweets to hawk subscriptions to his Substack.
The Daily Beast laid blame for the narrative with a "false" report in The Washington Free Beacon. The Washington Post fact-checked the claim and concluded that "no," the Biden program wouldn't see crack pipes given to addicts.
The self-appointed arbiters of truth at Snopes rated the claims made by The Beacon, Townhall, Fox News, and concerned lawmakers "mostly false" before subsequently changing their rating to "outdated." USA Today debunked the claim. So did CNN and Politifact.
On Thursday, WaPo fact-checker Glenn Kessler updated his initial story that disputed The Free Beacon's first report on the free crack pipes to include their now plain-as-day proof, but did so without so much as an "oops" or "sorry" from the outlet that claims "Democracy Dies in Darkness."
To summarize, the Biden administration made a huge mistake in allowing crack pipes to be part of taxpayer-funded "safe smoking kits," was rightly called out for the insane decision, then quickly denied that such a provision was ever included, after which liberal outlets, writers, and fact checkers used the denials to rule truthful stories as false.
But now, thanks to followup reporting from The Beacon, the truth is again being told — and it's leaving the mainstream media with a whole pile of egg on its collective face:
Crack pipes are distributed in safe-smoking kits up and down the East Coast, raising questions about the Biden administration's assertion that its multimillion-dollar harm reduction grant program wouldn't funnel taxpayer dollars to drug paraphernalia.
The findings are the result of Washington Free Beacon visits to five harm-reduction organizations and calls to over two dozen more. In fact, every organization we visited—facilities in Boston, New York City, Washington, D.C., Baltimore, and Richmond, Va.—included crack pipes in the kits.
[...]
While the contents of safe-smoking kits vary from one organization to another—and while those from some organizations may not contain crack pipes—all of the organizations we visited made crack pipes as well as paraphernalia for the use of heroin, cocaine, and crystal methamphetamine readily available without requiring or offering rehabilitation services, suggesting that pipes are included in many if not most of the kits distributed across the country. All of the centers we visited are run by health-focused nonprofits and government agencies—the types of groups eligible to receive funding, starting this month, from the Biden administration's $30 million grant program.
So, what Jen Psaki said was...false. So was the statement from HHS. And the posts from Rupar and other Twitter libs. And WaPo. And supposedly independent fact checkers, several of which are trusted by Facebook to police speech on its platform.
The White House said safe smoking kits don’t have crack pipes in them.
— Brent Scher (@BrentScher) May 12, 2022
So @FreeBeacon went out to see for our selves.
The answer: Yes, Safe Smoking Kits Include Free Crack Pipes. Read @PatrickHauf:https://t.co/QZB5SQVFos pic.twitter.com/HtAFXORHm4