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Axios Shredded for Lie About Kamala Harris' Role As Border Czar

Rebecca Downs
Rebecca Downs  |  July 24, 2024 12:45 PM

Update: After being hit with relentless reminders about how Axios referred to Vice President Kamala Harris as the border czar, the outlet added a note that reads as follows. "Editor's 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."

That being said, Axios is still being hit with criticism for such a framing.

Original: Especially now that she's the presumptive Democratic nominee to replace President Joe Biden for the 2024 race, there has been considerable scrutiny about Vice President Kamala Harris' role as the border czar. Biden bestowed such a role upon her in March 2021. She's been a failure pretty much from the start, and now the mainstream media, especially Axios, is trying to cover for her.

On Wednesday morning, the outlet published an article by Stef W. Knight, "Harris border confusion haunts her new campaign."

Here's how her piece framed Harris's title:

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Driving the news: The Trump campaign and Republicans have tagged Harris repeatedly with the "border czar" title — which she never actually had.

  • "Harris was appointed 'border czar' in March of 2021, and since that time, millions and millions of illegal aliens have invaded our country and countless Americans have been killed by migrant crime because of her willful demolition of America borders and laws," Trump told reporters on a call on Tuesday.
  • House GOP Chair Elise Stefanik introduced a resolution condemning the administration and its "Border Czar" for failing to secure the U.S.
  • Harris supporters have rushed to her defense. "She assumed the role that Vice President Biden had during the Obama administration, which is diplomacy with Central America," former DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson told Fox News on Tuesday. "She is not the border czar."

...

How we got here: In March 2021, Biden tapped Harris to lead the administration's coordination with Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, which were key sources of migration to the border.

  • The announcement led to near immediate confusion in the media and in the White House over how involved Harris would be. Shortly after, the border surge had grown into a full-blown humanitarian and political crisis.
  • The "border czar" narrative stuck especially in conservative circles, and calls mounted in the spring of 2021 for Harris to visit the border.

Knight uses the term "border czar" in the context of Harris' Republican critics using such a title to emphasize how catastrophic the Biden-Harris administration, and Harris in particular, has been when it comes to dealing with this issue.

As it turns out, though, Axios and Knight herself wrote about Harris' role. "Biden puts Harris in charge of border crisis," a March 24, 2021, headline from Knight read. 

Knight, in another article from April 9, 2021, uses the term "border czar" in her headline when writing how "Biden’s southern border czar Roberta Jacobson to step down at the end of April."

Still, another article for Axios, from Shawna Chen on April 14, 2021, included the headline of "Harris to visit Mexico and Guatemala to address "root causes" of border crossings."

As that article mentioned early on:

Vice President Harris said Wednesday she plans to visit Mexico and Guatemala "as soon as possible" in a diplomatic effort to address surging migration at the U.S.-Mexico border, Reuters reports.

"Why it matters: The number of unaccompanied minors crossing the border has reached crisis levels. Harris, appointed by Biden as border czar, said she would be looking at the "root causes" that drive migration.

Oh, "it matters," all right, over three years later. 

Within a matter of hours of being shared, Axios' post of Knight's article from Wednesday has over 9,000 replies and over 1,000 quoted replies, many of them taking issue with the narrative. Grateful Calvin at our sister site of Twitchy highlighted some of the best examples.

Users over X have also been chiming in to share screenshots as well. 

We'll see if Knight's headline remains, or if there's perhaps an update to the article, but with regards to her current headline, talk about "haunts." 

Knight also referenced a Tuesday call that former and potentially future President Donald Trump held with reporters in her Wednesday article. The call also included Paul Perez, the current president of the National Border Patrol Council, and Brandon Judd, the immediate past president of such a group. As Judd said early on in the call, Harris has shown a "complete disregard to border security formed by either political ambition or incompetence."

It's thus not just Trump highlighting Harris' failed role as a border czar as part of a campaign tactic, but experts on the ground who know and have spoken to the harm that Harris has caused by now caring about the issue and even dismissing suggestions for handling the border.