The New York Times has admitted that an explosive attack on Vice President Kamala Harris was “basically true” after conducting a fact check and saying former President Trump's claim “needs context.”
Trump took aim at his progressive rival after CNN reported that Harris supported taxpayer-funded transgender surgeries for illegal immigrants in detention, according to a 2019 ACLU questionnaire she completed as a presidential candidate.
“Now he wants to perform transgender surgeries on illegal immigrants who are in prison,” Trump said during Tuesday's presidential debate.
Times health reporter Sheryl Gay Stolberg provided a fact check as part of the paper's live coverage of the debate that ruled Trump's claim “needs context.”
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The New York Times has reversed its stance on former President Trump's claim that Vice President Kamala Harris supports funding transgender surgeries for detained illegal immigrants. (Doug Mills/The New York Times/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Except the context her fact-check provided simply further confirmed Trump's claim. In addition to citing the ACLU questionnaire and Harris' response, Stolberg wrote, “he said he supported using taxpayer funds to give access to gender-affirming care to transgender and nonbinary people, including those in immigration detention and prison.”
Stolberg appeared to criticize the CNN report, saying it “prompted harsh criticism from gay, lesbian and transgender supporters” and later noted that a Harris campaign spokesperson attempted to distance the vice president from her far-left stance, saying, “That questionnaire is not what she is proposing or advocating for.”
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Conservative online critics mocked the Times's “This needs context” label when the context supported Trump, rather than marking it as true.
Fox News contributor Guy Benson wrote: “NYT: 'Needs context!' The context: It's literally their stance.”
Conservative digital strategist Greg Price similarly posted: “Trump: 'She Wants to Perform Transgender Surgery on Illegal Immigrants in Prison.' NYT: 'This Needs Context.' The context: 'Oh yeah, she actually supported that.'”
The next day, in a report offering highlights of the political standoff, a Times article acknowledged that Trump's comment had validity, saying it was “the most outlandish line of attack that was basically true.”
The Times did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.
The New York Times previously published a fact check that determined Trump's attack on Harris “needs context.” (Reuters/Lucas Jackson)
The rush to dismiss Trump's attack on Harris was widespread in mainstream media. Time magazine was forced to issue a correction after declaring her claim “false.”
“The original version of this story mischaracterized as false Donald Trump's statement accusing Kamala Harris of supporting 'transgender operations on illegal immigrants in prison.' As a presidential candidate in 2019, Harris filled out a questionnaire saying she supported taxpayer-funded gender transition treatment for detained immigrants,” Time's correction said.
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New Yorker writer Susan Glasser wrote in a post-debate column: “Her line about how the vice president 'wants to perform transgender surgeries on illegal immigrants in prison' was also pretty memorable. What the hell was she talking about? Nobody knows, which was, of course, exactly Harris's view.”
Many in mainstream media were quick to claim that Trump's attack on Harris was false. (McNamee wins)
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The Atlantic's Ali Breland was also quick to laugh at Trump's claim, writing: “'Transgender ops for illegal immigrants in prison' is a phrase ChatGPT would spit out if you gave it right-wing publications and asked it to parody them.”
After initially accusing Trump of “falsely” suggesting that Harris wanted to provide transgender surgeries to illegal immigrants, Breland’s article was updated to admit that is what Harris actually told the ACLU.
