NBC News’ Meet the Press admitted Sunday that anchor Kristen Welker had been incorrect to say that Vice President Kamala Harris had met the families of Americans killed in Afghanistan — though it also botched the correction.
In an interview with Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR), Welker challenged the Republican over former President Donald Trump’s visit last week to Arlington National Cemetery to pay his respects to the 13 fallen American soldiers on the third anniversary of the terror attack on Abbey Gate at the international airport in Kabul. The Harris/Walz campaign accused Trump of politicizing the memorial, amid controversy over whether his campaign could take photos or video.
In response, the Gold Star families criticized Harris for the botched Afghanistan withdrawal and for failing to call or meet with them. NBC’s Welker picked up the thread of argument with Cotton, before making an incorrect claim:
“Well, they did meet with them at the dignified transfer. They were with them at the dignified transfer,” Welker said, referring to the return of the soldiers’ remains to U.S. soil.
Later, Meet the Press posted the following correction to social media:
Welker had not “implied” that Harris had been there; she had stated so explicitly.
Welker moderated the final presidential debate of 2020.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of “”The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days,” available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of “The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency,” now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
The fact that this lie happened in the first place just went to show how the media bias people have been talking about for years. There was video to put the big lie to Welker’s claim, yet she tried to push the lie again. It seems to me that since Welker was given the opportunity to moderate a debate, her head and ambition has grown too big for her to be journalistic true to the truth. I haven’t watched anything with her behind the mic in years, and NBC apparently approves of the lying. This one was just too obvious even for them.