Tipsheet
Premium

It Sure Looks Like the AP Has Been Covering Up for Kamala Harris

Rebecca Downs
Rebecca Downs  |  August 27, 2024 6:15 PM

As Townhall has been covering, the mainstream media has been covering for Vice President Kamala Harris, ever since President Joe Biden dropped out of the race more than a month ago. He shared a letter to his X account explaining the decision and then endorsed Harris in a subsequent post not long after that. Harris won't grant interviews and she won't hold a press conference, even after officially accepting the nomination last Thursday. And yet the press still covers for her. 

We've covered how POLITICO is among the worst, and how Axios has been hit repeatedly with Community Notes for claims about what roles the vice president has had and her policies. They've also put out nauseating puff pieces on her running mate, Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN). And, just earlier on Tuesday, as Leah covered, they claimed she flip-flopped on the border wall. The Associated Press had plenty of headlines in recent days, though.

The early morning hours of Monday saw not one but two problematic headlines about Harris.

"Trump is expected to tie Harris to chaotic Afghanistan War withdrawal in speech to National Guard," a post shared to X read. The headline currently reads "Trump rebukes Harris and Biden on anniversary of Afghanistan bombing that killed 13 service members," after former and potentially future President Donald Trump gave a speech in Michigan on Monday. 

Earlier in the day, the Republican nominee also laid wreaths at Arlington National Cemetery to pay his respects. 

Recommended

And With That Development, the Matt Gaetz Ethics Report Is Likely to Leak Soon Matt Vespa
Fani Willis Disqualification Hearing Suddenly Canceled Mia Cathell

Here we go again with Trump being the one to "tie" Harris to the Biden-Harris administration of which she is the sitting vice president. POLITICO did the same thing earlier this month with Harris and the administration's economic policies.

Adding insult to injury over the AP covering for Harris is that the vice president herself has bragged about being the last person in the room, which the article even acknowledges, further down, and that it's written in such a way that it's Trump who has brought it up. 

As the article mentioned [Emphasis added]:

DETROIT (AP) — Former President Donald Trump on Monday tied Vice President Kamala Harris to the chaotic Afghanistan War withdrawal on the third anniversary of the suicide bombing that killed 13 U.S. service members, calling the attack a “humiliation.”

...

“Caused by Kamala Harris, Joe Biden, the humiliation in Afghanistan set off the collapse of American credibility and respect all around the world,” Trump told an audience of about 4,000, including National Guard members and their families in Detroit.

...

Since Biden ended his reelection bid, Trump has been zeroing in on Harris, now the Democratic presidential nominee, and her roles in foreign policy decisions. He has specifically highlighted the vice president’s statements that she was the last person in the room before Biden made the decision on Afghanistan.

The piece concludes by mentioning the failures from the Biden-Harris administration with the chaotic Afghanistan withdrawal. That being said, there's been no accountability. Nobody has been fired, though Trump mentioned during his speech that he "will ask for the resignations of every single senior official who touched the Afghanistan calamity to be on my desk at noon on Inauguration Day."

As the last two paragraphs read:

A Biden administration review of the withdrawal acknowledged that the evacuation of Americans and allies from Afghanistan should have started sooner, but attributed the delays to the Afghan government and military, and to U.S. military and intelligence community assessments.

The top two U.S. generals who oversaw the evacuation said the administration inadequately planned for the withdrawal. The nation’s top-ranking military officer at the time, then-Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley, told lawmakers earlier this year he had urged Biden to keep a residual force of 2,500 forces to give backup. Instead, Biden decided to keep a much smaller force of 650 that would be limited to securing the U.S. embassy.

The post shared to X has received approximately 3,000 replies and hundreds of quoted reposts, many of them taking issue with the framing and also reminding about how forthcoming Harris herself was about being the last one in the room. 

Among them is the Middle East Forum's Jim Hanson, who has also warned that "Kamala must never become Commander in Chief."

Speaking once again of POLITICO, the outlet also tried to frame Harris as the "change" candidate, despite being the sitting vice president, weeks earlier. Now, the AP is getting involved with such an angle.

A few hours after posting the Afghanistan piece, the AP posted quite the claim about Harris: "She's the sitting vice president. She's the candidate of change. How Harris is having it both ways." The headline presently reads, however, "How Harris balances competing messages as VP and candidate."

Whatever headline one goes with, the media, in this case the AP, certainly looks to be complicit in looking to let her get away with such a campaign method, by hiding how her real far-left record from the American people.

Fortunately, the Trump-Vance campaign has been responding, including with a statement from National Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt about the border wall. They also put out a brilliant ad about Harris debating herself, which is also relevant as the Harris campaign is looking to change the rules of the agreed upon debate between Trump and Harris for September 10 with ABC News. Trump shared earlier on Tuesday that they had reached an agreement for the debate. 

The piece certainly reads as if it was written by Harris' fellow Democrats, particularly those who wanted Biden gone:

WASHINGTON (AP) — She’s the sitting vice president who has been in office for 3 1/2 years. She’s also the presidential candidate of just five weeks promising a “new way forward.”

Kamala Harris is having it both ways as she hits the campaign trail after the Democratic National Convention, taking credit for parts of President Joe Biden’s record in rallies staged in front of Air Force Two while casting herself as a new leader who rails against “the politics of the past.”

In every presidential cycle candidates run on experience or freshness, but Harris so far appears to be successfully harmonizing two seemingly competing messages, much to the frustration of former President Donald Trump and his allies.

...

Two-thirds of Democrats wanted Biden to drop out after his debate performance against Trump, which crystallized longstanding concerns among the public and many prominent Democrats in private about his readiness.

That piece also mentions Harris on Afghanistan, actually, with more context to show how delusional the vice president is on the Biden-Harris' disastrous foreign policy record:

Harris has sought to take credit for parts of Biden’s foreign policy record...

Harris confirmed to CNN in August 2021 that she was the so-called last person in the room when Biden made his decision to withdraw.

“This is a president who has an extraordinary amount of courage,” she told the network then. “I wish that the American public can see sometimes what I see, because ultimately – and the decision always rests with him – but I have seen him over and over again make decisions based exactly on what he believes is right. Regardless of what maybe the political people tell him is in his best self-interest.”

This post was particularly hit hard over X, as it was ratioed with approximately 4,000 replies and over 500 quoted reposts taking issue with the framing. Doug P. at our sister site of Twitchy highlighted some of the best examples. 

Earlier on Tuesday, the AP put out yet another article covering for Harris. Although it's not as problematic with its framing, it still shows that this doesn't look to be a habit they'll kick any time soon.

"Harris campaign releases new ad to highlight plans to build 3 million homes and reduce inflation," the post and headline for Tuesday afternoon currently reads.

Just like it's ridiculous to frame Harris as a "change" candidate, it's absurd to believe her that she'll do anything to "reduce inflation." She's not only the sitting vice president, and so could and should be doing something now, but in such a role she cast the tiebreaking vote two years ago for the woefully misnamed Inflation Reduction Act. 

Although such posts are particularly problematic and recent, the AP hasn't had the best framing of Harris or Walz for some time now. 

On Sunday, the AP put out such a post about the "criticisms" of Walz and concerns with stolen valor as well as him being a pathological liar.

Earlier this month, it was also revealed that the Harris campaign was manipulating headlines from news outlets and then using those manipulated headlines in paid campaign ads over Google. 

Such a post from August 16 from the AP does not reveal that the Harris campaign is actually changing the headlines to more so favor the vice president. 

House Republicans, such as House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) and Rep. Lance Gooden (R-TX) are demanding answers from Google.