Liberal media claims Kamala Harris was never ‘border czar,’ contradicting their own reporting

Liberal media outlets have begun pushing a new talking point as the Democratic presumptive nominee, Kamala Harris, marches toward Election Day: The vice president was never President Biden's "border czar."

Outlets, including Time Magazine, USA Today, The New York Times, New York Daily News, and Newsweek, all echoed similar sentiments, suggesting that the unofficial title was "misleading" and inaccurate.

However, their claims are, at best, puzzling, considering that some of those same publications referred to Harris as the "border czar" or something similar in reporting that dates back to early 2021.

Axios drew particular criticism over a piece that seemed to contradict its own previous reporting, and it even updated its own story Wednesday by saying it "incorrectly" called her a border czar in the past.

"The Trump campaign and Republicans have tagged Harris repeatedly with the 'border czar' title — which she never actually had," reporter Stef Kight wrote on Wednesday.

Critics pointed out Axios reported in 2021 that Harris was "appointed by Biden as border czar." Another 2021 Axios report, by Kight herself, was headlined, "Biden puts Harris in charge of border crisis."

Left-leaning fact-checker PolitiFact also got in on the action, calling a Republican claim about her being the border czar "mostly false" and part of an effort to "link her" to her own administration's immigration policy.

Past reporting from media outlets across the political spectrum and comments from Biden himself appear to link Harris to the administration's immigration plans unambiguously.

Harris was tasked early on in the Biden administration with addressing the root causes of mass migration from Central and South America. That part of her portfolio has emerged as a cornerstone of GOP-led attacks against the de facto Democratic presidential nominee, as states across the country continue to struggle with the migrant crisis.

In a March 24, 2021, video, Biden said that Harris was "leading the effort to coordinate with Mexico and other Northern Triangle nations to address issues such as the surge of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border."