22 تغريدة 2 قراءة Feb 27, 2023
🧵THREAD🧵
The Biden Admin finally admitted that a viral story about CBP agents “whipping” migrants at the border was a hoax.
Will the outlets, Dems & others who pushed it come clean?
I’ve been waiting to post these receipts for a long time ⤵️
freebeacon.com
Some background: Back in September 2021, Dems and the media alleged that Border Patrol agents on horseback had used whips against migrants.
Last Friday, a review conducted by the Biden Admin found that there wasn’t any evidence of wrongdoing:
freebeacon.com
But before the facts came out, the media ran with the false narrative.
Outlets including @politico, @CBSNews and @MSNBC picked up the false “whips” story. The local @USATODAY affiliate @elpasotimes said an “agent swung his whip menacingly”
@ChrisCuomo (remember him?) called the agents in question racist and suggested they were acting out slave fantasies.
I know libel is a high legal bar, but how else could you describe this?
One of the leading pushers of misinformation - once again - was @Yamiche. Not only did she parrot the “swung his whip menacingly” lie she also said that Press Sec told her “border agents should never again use whips on migrants” - something they don’t do.
Even after the story started to unravel, outlets continued to push the disputed narrative with only minor caveats.
@NBCNews called it an “apparent whip” and @axios described agents “reportedly whipping” migrants.
Neither of these allegations were true.
My favorite linguistic contortion was from @reuters, who went from describing the instrument as a “whip-like cord” to referring to it as “the use of horse reins to threaten Haitian migrants” three hours later.
@MeetThePress seemed unsatisfied that @PressSec wouldn’t “say what consequences there should be for the agent’s actions” in response to “pictures that appear to show a Border Patrol agent on horseback with a whip” which, once again, is a lie.
And tons of reporters took to Twitter to stoke the flames of this conspiracy theory because it fit their priors, including:
@AdamSerwer
@jemelehill
@WajahatAli (shocker)
@ElieNYC
We’ve got to get to the other offending parties but tons of outlets picked up this fake news, including:
@VICENews
@thedailybeast
@ajplus
Democratic elected officials were quick to promote the fake story.
@SpeakerPelosi was deeply troubled by “the inappropriate use of what appear to be whips.” @SenSchumer goes further, calling out “the use of whips.”
That also included high ranking members of the Biden Admin, including. @KamalaHarris @AliMayorkas & @PressSec.
These from @RepMaxineWaters need no introduction.
Never to be outdone, @RashidaTlaib accused @CBP of “human rights abuses” for “cracking a fucking whip on Haitians” and urged House Oversight to get involved.
Do you still stand by this characterization, Rep. Tlaib?
Plenty of other Squad members and alternates got involved, including @RepJayapal, @AOC and @IlhanMN (on with thread favorite @JoyAnnReid)
There were a lot of others. I don’t have room for everyone but a few other outspoken Dems include:
@RepAndyLevin
@RepBarbaraLee
And of course @RepAdamSchiff wouldn’t pass up a politically expedient conspiracy theory.
And of course there were plenty of the usual Twitter big brains, including longtime thread favorites like:
@RoArquette
@asharangappa_(never one to miss a left wing conspiracy theory)
@mmpadellan (“RT TO CONDEMN THIS”)
@donwinslow (BPD “remain 100% supporters of Trump”)
I can’t possibly get to everyone but here’s a representative sampling of the misplaced outrage from:
@atima_omara
@SiegelForTexas
@moorehn
@themaxburns (one last time - there weren’t any whips).
Look, you know as well as I do that no one is going to backtrack or apologize after smearing the people trying to keep our country safe as vile bigots.
This story has - predictably - already found it’s way straight to the memoryhole.
But these evasions of responsibility by the Biden admin have real consequences, as my colleague @SaysSimonson has documented extensively: freebeacon.com
The same people who purport to be concerned about misinformation and how it spreads online amplified a fake story meant to disparage Republicans to score political points.
That tells you all you need to know about their goals.
Full breakdown and analysis, ICYMI, is up at @FreeBeacon. freebeacon.com

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