Axios ‘Clarified’ 2021 Report In Desperate Attempt To Distance VP Harris From ‘Border Czar’ Gig

Axios “updated and clarified” a three-year-old article on Wednesday, disavowing its own 2021 reporting in an attempt to assist Vice President Kamala Harris in her efforts to escape her record as President Joe Biden’s border czar.

A separate Wednesday report, written by reporter Stef W. Kight, claims that Republicans have falsely labeled Harris the border czar in an attempt to unfairly tie her to Biden’s failures at the U.S.-Mexico border now that she is the Democrats’ de facto 2024 nominee.

The Trump campaign and Republicans have tagged Harris repeatedly with the “border czar” title — which she never actually had.https://t.co/PPHCjKBf83

— Axios (@axios) July 24, 2024

From the report:

“In the past few days, 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.

Shortly after the article went live, a number of readers pointed out that it was not just Republicans — and it wasn’t a new push to make Harris look bad. In fact, as several noted, Kight had authored the 2021 Axios report stating that Biden had chosen Harris to lead the charge at the border — a report that specifically referred to Harris as Biden’s border czar.

“This goes beyond media spin into the area of intentional dishonesty,” conservative pundit AG Hamilton posted on social media, sharing screenshots of the articles in question. “The same reporter behind this article previously had an article [with the] headline that Harris was ‘in charge of border crisis.’ In another article back then, Axios referred to Harris as the ‘border czar.'”

This goes beyond media spin into the area of intentional dishonesty.

The same reporter behind this article previously had an article w headline that Harris was “in charge of border crisis”

In another article back then, Axios referred to Harris as the “border czar” . https://t.co/GHjHb6Fupe pic.twitter.com/caVt0zZrWZ

— AG (@AGHamilton29) July 24, 2024

Within hours, Wednesday’s report had been updated to include the following:

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, with Republicans and some news outlets, including Axios, giving Harris the unofficial monicker of “border czar.”

The outlet also added an editor’s note at the bottom of the page to drive the point home: “This article has been updated and clarified to note that Axios was among the news outlets that incorrectly labeled Harris a ‘border czar’ back in 2021.”