‘Fact Checkers,’ Media Surge to Kamala’s Defense Over Hurricane Relief ‘Equity’ Comments
“And so we have to address this in a way that is about giving resources based on equity, understanding that we fight for equality, but we also need to fight for equity, understanding not everyone starts out at the same place.” – VP Kamala Harris
As I’ve said before, whenever Democrats find themselves on the ropes as a result of political calamities of their own making, it never fails that the mainstream media and so-called “fact checkers” will hit the Code Red button in their rush to rescue them from themselves before the damage becomes insurmountable.
That exact scenario has played out to a “t” over the past week or so in the aftermath of controversial comments Vice President Kamala Harris made at a DNC women’s leadership forum that was held last Friday, two days after Hurricane Ian slammed into southwestern Florida and beyond.
In the context of a discussion about Hurricane Ian relief aid and addressing “the climate crisis in the states” and how the Biden administration was handling that, Harris made the following remarks:
“It is our lowest income communities and our communities of color that are most impacted by these extreme conditions, and impacted by issues that are not of their own making,” the vice president told [movie star Priyanka Chopra Jonas]. “And so we have to address this in a way that is about giving resources based on equity, understanding that we fight for equality, but we also need to fight for equity, understanding not everyone starts out at the same place.”
“And if we want people to be in an equal place, sometimes we have to take into account those disparities and do that work,” she continued.
For those who missed it, watch:
You can’t make this up.
Kamala Harris said the administration will be giving hurricane resources “based on equity” by directing funds to “communities of color.”
I guess everyone else is just screwed. 🤦🏻♂️ pic.twitter.com/75y4JfoYD7
— Ryan Fournier (@RyanAFournier) September 30, 2022
Her comments and the video went viral as conservatives correctly pointed out that Harris was basically saying that relief aid should be distributed based on race.
Not surprisingly, The Usual Suspects in the media and in Fact Check World sprung into action, with the Associated Press, FactCheck.org, Reuters, and Politifact all surging to Harris’ defense:
Vice President Kamala Harris spoke at a DNC event about distributing equitable resources to help with the effects of climate change. She did not say that Hurricane Ian relief will be distributed based on race, as some claimed online. https://t.co/lCGveoW3w6
— AP Fact Check (@APFactCheck) October 4, 2022
VP Kamala Harris spoke about the need to provide "resources" for climate change mitigation "based on equity." Republicans misleadingly claimed she said the Biden administration would provide hurricane relief based on race. We put her remarks in context. https://t.co/IfYs9wfR0K
— FactCheck.org (@factcheckdotorg) October 3, 2022
Claims that U.S. VP Kamala Harris said Hurricane Ian relief funds would be distributed based "on equity" are missing context. A clip shared online shows only an extract of her comments on Hurricane Ian and the impact of climate change more broadly https://t.co/UUdlRED4ZP pic.twitter.com/FZTCJwQnZV
— Reuters Fact Check (@ReutersFacts) October 4, 2022
VP Kamala Harris’ response to a question mentioned several issues related to climate change and its effects, including Hurricane Ian. She did not say, as GOP Florida Sen. Rick Scott alleged, that relief money would be granted based on “skin color.” https://t.co/m1YHHrgMbj
— PolitiFact (@PolitiFact) October 3, 2022
As did CBS News:
CBS's Margaret Brennan tried to gaslight Senator Rick Scott by claiming Kamala Harris didn't want to help Floridians who were affected by Hurricane Ian based on race. "That's not what the Vice President said. She talked about equity."
Equity is race based treatment! pic.twitter.com/xWCl9IzpW6
— Kevin Tober (@KevinTober94) October 2, 2022
Reuters reporter Nandita Bose, who boasted about being the only “WH pool print reporter in the room” at the DNC event, alleged that Harris’ comments were “being deliberately distorted,” and posted an entire thread putting them in context, as if that changed anything.
In a nutshell, the claims were rated “false” or “misleading” or “out of context” by the above fact-checkers because Harris’ critics were attaching her comments directly the Hurricane Ian relief aid efforts. But whether she meant Hurricane Ian aid or, more broadly, equity in aid distribution for future natural disasters, the underlying point was still the same: race-based distribution of aid:
"Fact checkers" can say Kamala didn't EXPLICITLY connect "equity" in Ian relief.
But she did say "equity" should be a guiding principle in disaster relief. Reporters should ask if not now, in which disaster will it be applied? Or is this just empty talk?https://t.co/hMdhb7B8EQ
— Tim Graham (@TimJGraham) October 6, 2022
Politifact’s “fact check” in particular included a false statement initially made by Politfact themselves regarding FEMA and equity relief efforts, according to the below screengrab:
— Bryan W. White (@ZebraFactCheck) October 4, 2022
— Bryan W. White (@ZebraFactCheck) October 4, 2022
Politifact has since updated their fact check to point out that there is nothing on the FEMA website regarding Hurricane Ian aid “specific to race or equity,” (emphasis mine) while noting “FEMA’s website does address the agency’s efforts to improve equity in services”:
There is nothing on a FEMA webpage for Hurricane Ian victims or the federal Disaster Assistance Improvement Program specific to race or equity, just information about how Floridians affected by the storm can get help. Elsewhere, FEMA’s website does address the agency’s efforts to improve equity in services “so all people, including those from vulnerable and underserved communities, can get help when they need it.”
These people are nothing if not predictable.
To draw your own conclusions, watch the video below which contains Harris’ full remarks. The conversation in question starts within the first couple of minutes:
— Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym “Sister Toldjah” and can be reached via Twitter. —
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Comments
Soon, Fact Checkers will be making policy.
Then, they will make Checker’s speeches.
Not “will make”, but, “have made,” “are making”, and “will make again in the future” ad infinitum.
King me!
That would be a step forward from no-one making policy, or even worse, biden or kalamity doing it.
Priyanka Chopra….sounds like an alterego of Lorena Bobbitt
The Maoist State Media doing what it does best: dissembling and obfuscating.
They are climbing all over each other to defend Comrade Kamala’s honor.
They’ve got a lot of climbing to do.
Every time they try to counter something that’s undeniable, the “fact checkers” will claim it’s “out of context” or “misleading.”
These fools are nothing if not predictable.
Simple question for them in this case:
Define “equity” and tell us how it is different from “equality”.
The difference is, one is a race whistle and the other is not. People don’t perk up their ears and come running as fast as thy can when you articulate the word, “equality”.
For you see, “equality” applies to everyone, whereas “equity” does not.
Kamala has a great oral history of providing relief.
And if we want people to be in an equal place
Hmmm, Well, I do NOT want that. For a variety of reasons, the most important one being the value of least common denominators. There is e
/cont
There is equity in only one place and condition: death and the grave.
(Stupid laptop keyboard – submitted before I was done.)
That’s okay. It was still a very good post.
Translation the gov will be helping poor people more than rich people. So controversial /s
“Fact Checkers” don’t give a shit about facts. And that’s a fact!
The fact checkers have a point. Harris uses language in a peculiar way, so that every time she says something, even if you heard and understood every word she used, at the end of it you still have no idea what she said. She speaks in a kind of poetry, where her words are full of allusions to all sorts of things, but never actually mean anything specific. Rush Limbaugh used to insist that “words mean things”; Harris seems to exist to provide contrary evidence. The interpretation right-wing commenters seized on is one possible way to understand her words, but there’s no way to be sure it’s the correct one. I doubt even she knows what she really meant.
Poetry? It is gibberish, and worse, racist gibberish.
She is a hack, pushing the systemic racism of the Democrats.
You could say the same about a lot of poetry.
Well…. alleged poetry…
No, she is simply very well-rehearsed and has chosen words/phrases carefully as to not allow herself to be hung in any way on her words.
She isn’t stupid and her word choices are not accidental.
She has made the informed decision that being regarded as a “word salad” speaker doesn’t put her at risk near as much as words that can be used against her later.
Nooe. She’s stupid.
You might have a point had she not included “communities of color” in her statement about equity. That she did include that made her point crystal clear.
Most people call it word salad… I have never heard any one claiming it was like poetry..
Until today. She is supposed to be able to communicate, and she fails at that, along with everything else.
How, exactly, does the suffering of a minority family who lives in a rented 2 bedroom apartment who loses everything in a disaster, exceed the suffering of a non-minority family who lives in a million dollar home which is destroyed?
Our idiot VP claims that they are “disproportionally affected” by the hurricane.
In what way?
It is like the parody of the NY Times headline:
“Asteroid destroys city, women and minorities hit hardest”
I guess the difference is the family living in a mansion is more likely able to recover from such a loss…irrespective of the colour of their skin.
The point lost on the brain dead democrat zealots is that aid should be applied WHERE its needed the most. NOT where the darkies live!
The color of the skin and the degree of loss have no correlation.
They assume the poor have no resources and apparently No responsibility
Poor comparison. Try comparing a minority family with their non-minority next door neighbor. Same socio-economic status, same loss.
But under leftist ‘equity’ one rates relief more than the other.
The left chose the word ‘equity’ carefully because to the ignorant masses it seems to the the equivalent to ‘equality’, yet they couldn’t be more different.
“Equity” demands racism. Racism is integral to the concept, no matter how they describe it.
It is the complete antithesis of MLK Jr.’s concept of equality.
81 million people voted for the Dem team Joe and Kamala. Dems own every word and every action .
No they didn’t he cheated my beat is Trump got 81 million in fact
All this is warm up for when the Dems nudge the vegetable in chief out of the WH.
They worry about it as much as everyone else.
Ah, yes, according to the wagon-circling, water-carrying, slavish Dumb-o-crat media lackeys/sycophants/lapdogs,. the peasant rubes of the proletariat are allegedly too stupid to fully grasp the “nuance” that is contained within harlot Harris’s brazenly and explicitly racist policy descriptions.
Liberal playbook: Push the agenda no matter how stupid it sounds.
That’s because “fact checkers” are actually “fact spinners”.
Any skill or abilities Kamala has related to her mouth has nothing to do with speech.
The crux of the ‘fact checkers’ defense of Harris is that she used the word ‘equity’ while the Republicans are alleging she referred to ‘race.’ So technically, sure, she didn’t say ‘race.’
But EVERYBODY knows what the proggies are talking about when they allude to their ‘equity’ agenda.
So really these ‘fact checkers’ are, once again, completely full of shyte. This is the type of dissembling that would get somebody punched in the face if they did it in person.
Her defenders are doing a slight of hand trick, too … zeroing in on the word “equity” when in introducing the concept, Harris said “communities of color” … the nice way of saying “coloreds” or colored people – aka – race …
You are 100% correct.
The Vice President declared, “…communities of color that are most impacted by these extreme conditions and impacted by issues that are not of their own making.”
They got her in obama’s old media diaper.
Lying liars are lying again. Their lying is mindless and reflexive. It is part of who they are. It is what they are. Manipulative propagandists and pathological liars.
Who do they think they are fooling?
Democrats voters? No need.
NeverTrumpers? No need. They’re also pretty much Democrats already.
Independent voters? Doubtful. For the most part independent voters are not stupid enough to believe their obvious lies.
It’s almost as if they are competing with each other to see who can come up with the most plausible lie. The winner becomes Brandon’s next press secretary,
She made her point crystal clear when she included the communities of color in her original remarks. She was talking about EXACTLY what they say she was.