During the ABC News presidential debate on Sept. 10, Trump criticized Harris for allegedly supporting taxpayer-funded transgender surgeries for federal prisoners and undocumented immigrants in custody. Trump referenced Harris' response from the 2019 American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) questionnaire for the 2020 presidential candidates.
"Now she wants to do transgender operations on illegal aliens that are in prison," Trump said during the debate.
Health reporter Sheryl Gay Stolberg fact-checked the statement in The New York Times live coverage of the debate. In the article, Stolberg quoted Harris' response from the ACLU questionnaire, confirming that she had really supported taxpayer-funded gender-affirming care for transgender and nonbinary people, including those in immigration detention and prisons.
However, Stolberg wrote at the beginning of her article, "This needs context," even though the additional context did little to dispute the claim.
This, in turn, resulted in a backlash, with critics claiming that The New York Times understated the truth behind the claims. Conservatives online even mocked their decision to label the claim as "needs context," despite the obvious. (Related: CONFIRMED: Kamala Harris supports taxpayer-funded gender transition surgeries for federal prisoners and detained migrants.)
Meanwhile, Fox News contributor Guy Benson sarcastically posted on X, formerly Twitter, "NYT: ‘Needs context!’ The context: It's literally her position," while conservative strategist Greg Price posted, "Trump: ‘She wants to do transgender operations on illegal aliens in prison.’ NYT: ‘This needs context.’ The context: ‘Oh yeah, she actually supported that.’"
Media outlets immediately dismissed Trump's claims only to be proven wrong
This case with The New York Times is not isolated. In fact, Trump's claims prompted immediate dismissals across various media outlets.
For instance, Time magazine, initially labeled the claim as false. However, Time later acknowledged that Harris, during her 2019 presidential campaign, had filled out an ACLU questionnaire supporting taxpayer-funded gender transition treatment for detained immigrants.
"The original version of this story mischaracterized as false Donald Trump's statement accusing Kamala Harris of supporting ‘transgender operations on illegal aliens in prison.’ As a presidential candidate in 2019, Harris filled out a questionnaire saying she supported taxpayer-funded gender transition treatment for detained immigrants," the correction read.
Similarly, Ali Breland of The Atlantic initially dismissed Trump's assertion, likening it to something generated by AI parodying right-wing content. But then, Breland later updated the article, claiming that Harris had indeed expressed support for such policies.
"To be clear, in 2019, Harris did tell the ACLU in response to a questionnaire that she supports policies that allow federal prisoners and detainees to “obtain medically necessary care for gender transition, including surgical care, while incarcerated or detained," Breland wrote in the update of her article.
Meanwhile, Susan Glasser of The New Yorker quickly reacted to Trump's statement in a post-debate opinion article, apparently, without doing further research.
"His line about how the vice president 'wants to do transgender operations on illegal aliens that are in prison' was pretty memorable, too. What the hell was he talking about? No one knows, which was, of course, exactly Harris’s point."
Head over to KamalaWatch.com for updates on Kamala Harris' presidential bid.
Watch this video about the mainstream media's failed attempt to memory-hole any mention of Vice President Kamala Harris being the border czar.
This video is from the Justin Barclay channel on Brighteon.com.
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