Axios Reporter Attempts to Protect Harris from Harris

Amid rising focus over immigration and Vice President Harris role, an Axios reporter's attempt to alter Vice President Harris's leadereship in the border crisis reveals conflicting narratives from the same reporters past accounts.

In an article published by Axios on Wednesday morning, politics reporter Stef Kight attempts to clarify Vice President Harris's role in the migration crisis, though it directly contradicts her earlier reporting. Kight writes, "In early 2021, President Biden enlisted Vice President Kamala Harris to help with a slice of the migration issue — a move that has turned into one of the newly-presumptive presidential nominee’s first campaign headaches. Confusion around the VP’s exact role, early media misfires, and the rapidly changing regional migration crisis has made the issue a top target for the GOP trying to define their new opponent."

Kight further explains the political ramifications by stating, "The Trump campaign and Republicans have tagged Harris repeatedly with the ‘border czar’ title — which she never actually had."

However, in March 2021, Kight wrote an article titled "Biden puts Harris in charge of border crisis" with the opening line, "President Biden is putting Vice President Harris in charge of addressing the migrant surge at the U.S.-Mexico border, senior administration officials announced on Wednesday." At that time, Kight quoted an administration official saying, “President Biden said during the transition, whatever the most urgent need, he would turn to the vice president. And today he is turning to the vice president.”

Additionally, another Axios article from April 2021 stated, "Harris, appointed by Biden as border czar, said she would be looking at the ‘root causes’ that drive migration."

The record levels of illegal immigration and the ongoing crisis at the southern border are viewed as significant political liabilities for the Biden-Harris administration in the upcoming election cycle. A Morning Consult poll of swing state voters found that 58% considered immigration "very important" in deciding their vote, with an additional 28% stating it was "somewhat important." Another CBS News/YouGov survey revealed that 62% of respondents, including 53% of Hispanics, would support a "new national program to deport all undocumented immigrants currently living in the US illegally."