MAGA Blasts News Site for Backtracking on Kamala Harris ‘Border Czar’ Title

Supporters of former President Donald Trump‘s Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement blasted news site Axios for backtracking on Vice President Kamala Harris‘ “border czar” title.

Ever since President Joe Biden exited the 2024 presidential race and endorsed Harris on Sunday, one major attack that people on the right have used against Harris is her role in the situation at the U.S-Mexico border. In 2021, Biden tasked Harris with leading the administration’s diplomacy with Central American countries—El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras—to address the “root causes” of migration. However, she never was in charge of border security.

As illegal migrant crossings at the southern border have surged in recent years, immigration has become a top issue, especially among Republicans who blame the Biden administration for the situation. While illegal immigration has gone up significantly under Biden, it also increased in Trump’s last months in office after hitting a low from the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Axios promoted a new article on Wednesday morning titled, “Harris border confusion haunts her new campaign.”

In the post, Axios wrote: “The Trump campaign and Republicans have tagged Harris repeatedly with the ‘border czar’ title — which she never actually had,” taking a line from its reporting.

However, Trump’s supporters quickly pointed out on X that an Axios article from April 2021, referred to Harris as the “border czar.” A line in the article read: “Harris, appointed by Biden as border czar, said she would be looking at the ‘root causes’ that drive migration.”

Axios later added an editor’s note in Wednesday’s story that read: “This article has been updated and clarified to note that Axios was among the news outlets that incorrectly labeled Harris a ‘border czar’ in 2021.”

Newsweek reached out to Harris and Trump’s campaigns and Axios via email for comment on Wednesday evening.

Conservative X account End Wokeness shared a side-by-side of Axios’ April 2021 article and its article from today and wrote, “Rewriting history before our very eyes.”

Sean Davis, CEO and co-founder of the Federalist, a conservative online magazine, wrote, “Here’s how Axios described Harris in 2021,” along with a photo of Axios’ April 2021 article with the words “border czar” highlighted and circled.

“The media is now claiming VP Kamala Harris was never the ‘Border Czar’ as the Trump campaign starts ramping up attacks,” Collin Rugg, co-owner of conservative commentary site Trending Politics, wrote. “You don’t hate the media enough.”

The Hodgetwins, twin brothers Keith and Kevin Hodge who post conservative commentary, wrote, “Axios literally said that Kamala Harris was appointed as the ‘border czar’ by Biden,” with a laughing emoji. “They legit can’t tell the truth.”

Kevin Munoz, a spokesperson for the Harris campaign said in a statement obtained by Newsweek: “The only ‘plan’ Donald Trump has to secure our border is ripping mothers from their children and a few xenophobic placards at the Republican National Convention.

“He tanked the toughest bipartisan border security deal in a generation because for Donald Trump, this has never been about actually securing the border – it’s always about himself. He can make up whatever lies he wants but the fact is there’s only one candidate in this race who will fight for real solutions to help secure our nation’s border, and that’s Vice President Harris.”

Munzo was referring to border legislation that failed in the Senate twice this year. Republicans criticized the deal for not going far enough to secure the border, while Biden and Trump’s critics said GOP lawmakers were pressured to block the bill so Trump could campaign on the immigration issue.

Meanwhile, in a statement on Wednesday, Trump Campaign Senior Advisor Danielle Alvarez wrote: “Kamala’s campaign is scrambling to rewrite history on her failures as Border Czar, but we have the receipts.

“Border Czar Harris owns the bloodbath at the southern border, including the rape, murder, and brutal assault of women like Rachel Morin and Laken Riley. Try as they might, Kamala and her allies can’t change reality: she is responsible for the flood of migrant crime and deadly fentanyl into our country, and Americans will hold her accountable when they vote for President Trump in November.”

Laken Riley was a 22-year-old nursing student who was killed in Athens, Georgia while on a run last February. The suspect in her murder, José Antonio Ibarra, is a Venezuelan illegal immigrant. Meanwhile, Rachel Morin, a 37-year-old mother of five from Maryland, was allegedly raped and murdered by 23-year-old undocumented migrant Victor Martinez Hernandez while out for a run in August of 2023.