Give a point to the Washington Post in their “epic” (intramural) newsroom battle with the New York Times. After legacy media outlets noticed Breitbart News’ critical coverage of President Donald Trump’s Monday Afghanistan flip-flop, New York Times ace reporter Maggie Haberman falsely tweeted on Tuesday that Breitbart News has not held Trump to account for his broken promises in the last seven months, alleging that Breitbart News only became critical after former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon returned.
She could not be more wrong. Breitbart News has written numerous stories during the past seven months criticizing Trump for breaking his campaign promises. Breitbart News is featuring 11 such stories below, though there are plenty more, especially on immigration, national security, and education issues.
To her credit–and unlike many of her peers in the legacy media who spread disinformation based on whatever various spinmeisters whisper in their ears–Haberman soon deleted her tweet after it was pointed out to her that it was simply a “lie.”
Unlike the New York Times, the Washington Post has noticed on at least two occasions that Breitbart News White House reporter Charlie Spiering has been holding the Trump administration to account regarding Trump’s various campaign promises. On issues like immigration, Breitbart News has arguably held Trump to account better than the starstruck legacy media called out former President Barack Obama, whom they fawned over and asked what “enchanted” him the most about living in the White House.
Below are 11 instances (there are many more) in which Breitbart News has called Trump out for his broken campaign promises in the last seven months.
1. Trump OKs DACA Amnesty: ‘This Is a Case of Heart’
When Trump said that those who received President Barack Obama’s executive amnesty can “rest easy” because this is a “case of heart,” Breitbart News reporter Neil Munro wrote:
The Friday comments confirm Trump’s reversal of his 2016 campaign promise to stop the DACA quasi-amnesty created by Obama during his 2012 reelection campaign. He created the program in 2012 by telling his immigration enforcement officers to provide young illegals with free work permits instead of repatriation orders. The program has allowed at least 770,000 illegal immigrants to find jobs in major U.S. cities, even though tens of millions of Americans outside the cities are unemployed or have given up trying to find work.
Since his inauguration, Trump’s deputies at the Department of Homeland Security have awarded new work permits to illegals who claim they arrived before age 16, despite Trump’s “Buy American, Hire American” slogan.
Trump’s support for the DACA program is one of his biggest “flip-flops,” said Mark Krikorian, director of the Center for Immigration Studies.
2. Trump Latino Adviser: POTUS Wants to ‘Preserve’ Obama Exec Amnesty—‘DACA People Have Nothing to Worry About’
Breitbart News also reported that Steve Cortes, one of Trump’s top Hispanic advisers, revealed on Maria Hinojosa’s podcast that Trump has decided to preserve DACA and “DACA people have nothing to worry about.”
Breitbart News wrote:
A member of President Donald Trump’s Hispanic Advisory Council recently revealed that Trump wants to preserve former President Barack Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) amnesty program for illegal immigrants.
Steve Cortes, an informal Trump adviser, made his remarks on the “In The Thick” podcast, which is produced by Maria Hinojosa’s Futuro Media Group.
During the 2016 campaign, Trump promised to “terminate” Obama’s “executive illegal amnesties,” but Cortes said Trump’s policy preference is to “preserve DACA.”
Speaking at DePaul University, Cortes acknowledged that “a lot of his base was adamantly opposed to preserving it and keeping the status quo.” He added that DACA was “hotly debated” during the transition and up until Trump’s inauguration.
“The President came down on the side of we’re going to preserve DACA and has said explicitly that DACA people have nothing to worry about, that we are not targeting them for any deportation at all—unless they commit crimes,” he said.
In the podcast, Cortes also revealed how much Bannon cared about the economic opportunities of people of color. He revealed that he and Bannon met with Latino leaders in the White House to talk about how granting massive guest-worker visas to technology titans reduces the opportunities people of color have for good-paying high-tech jobs or advancing if they secure those tech jobs that even Vice President Joe Biden, as Breitbart News reported at the time, said were especially important to black women “from the hood.” (Biden’s words)
3. Trump Quietly Continues Obama’s ‘Catch and Release’ at Border
Breitbart Texas Editor Brandon Darby wrote on May 31:
President Donald J. Trump is allowing former President Barack Obama’s “catch and release” of illegal immigrants to continue deep into his administration’s term with no end in sight to the controversial open borders protocol. Border Patrol agents are once again sounding the alarm and alerting the public about the separation between DC’s rhetoric and the realities on the U.S.-Mexico border — a practice that the agents hoped would become unnecessary under the Trump Administration.
4. Trump’s Border Wall Construction Already Behind Schedule
On June 25, Breitbart California pointed out:
The Trump administration’s self-imposed deadline to start building prototypes for the border wall has passed—and so far, no contracts have been awarded.
5. Breitbart News Calls Out Trump Administration for Printing Additional H-2B Visas
On July 17, Breitbart News reporter Neil Munro wrote:
Homeland defense secretary John Kelly will print 15,000 additional H-2B visas for foreign blue-collar workers in 2017, according to a statement from the agency.
…
The decision was forced by GOP leaders in Congress, and is “a betrayal of [President Donald] Trump’s campaign promise to deliver blue-collar jobs to Americans,” said one opponent of the wage-cutting H-2B visa program.
The decision was forced by GOP leaders in Congress, and is “a betrayal of [President Donald] Trump’s campaign promise to deliver blue-collar jobs to Americans,” said one opponent of the wage-cutting H-2B visa program.
6. White House Unclear When Border Wall Will Be Funded, Built
Breitbart News reporter Michelle Moons wrote on May 1:
“Build the Wall,” chanted Trump 100 Days rally-goers in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania this weekend, but on Monday questions persisted about the lack of border wall funding in Congress’s new spending bill, leaving it unclear when exactly a wall along the U.S. southern border will be built.
At Monday’s White House Press Briefing, Secretary Sean Spicer was asked what the response is to conservatives that do not think they got a lot out of the new spending bill, including no funding for a wall along the southern border, no defunding of sanctuary cities but funding of Planned Parenthood.
7. Trump’s Attack on Sessions over Clinton Prosecution Highlights His Own ‘Weak’ Stance
On July 25, Breitbart News reporter Adam Shaw wrote:
President Trump’s decision Tuesday to attack Attorney General Jeff Sessions over Sessions’ “position” on Hillary Clinton’s various scandals only serves to highlight Trump’s own hypocrisy on the issue — and is likely to fuel concerns from his base who see Sessions at the best hope to fulfill Trump’s immigration policies.
Trump’s attack is the latest in a series of shots Trump has launched at Sessions in recent days, annoyed still over Sessions’ decision to recuse himself from Russia investigations in March. But Trump himself was the one who flip-flopped on whether to prosecute Clinton.
The pinnacle of Trump’s anti-Clinton push came in October during the second presidential debate when Hillary Clinton, high in the polls and confident of victory in November, snarked: “You know, it’s just awfully good that someone with the temperament of Donald Trump is not in charge of the law in our country.”
“Yeh, because you’d be in jail,” Trump fired back, clearly ratting Clinton and triggering gasps and cheers from the audience.
8. GOP Senators: Healthcare Bill ‘Definitely Not Repealing Obamacare’
In June, Breitbart News wrote:
Soon after the Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) released the draft of the Senate’s healthcare bill on Thursday, Sens. Rand Paul (R-KY) and Ron Johnson (R-WI) blasted the bill for not fully repealing Obamacare.
9. Breitbart News Blasts the GOP’s Obamacare 2.0 Bill:
In March, Breitbart News wrote:
Meanwhile, the bill is “a gift to illegal aliens,” as conservative author Daniel Horowitz writes. Illegals can get health care through identity theft and fraud, because Obamacare 2.0 makes it impossible to check enrollees’ immigration status. The bill incentivizes further illegal immigration by encouraging illegals to come to the U.S. to cut into taxpayer-funded programs meant for citizens. Poll after poll shows Trump’s immigration policies prioritizing Americans and their problems over foreigners and their wants are hugely popular with voters. Giving away health care to illegals, while ramping up the price for Trump’s core voters, is a slap in the face.
10. Education Sec Betsy DeVos: ‘There Isn’t Really Any Common Core Anymore’ in Schools
In April, Breitbart News reported:
U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said Monday during an interview on Fox News’ America’s Newsroom that “there really isn’t any Common Core anymore” in the country’s schools.
…
The secretary’s comments come in sharp contrast with President Donald Trump’s statement at a CEO Business Town Hall several weeks ago. During that meeting, Trump returned to his campaign promise to end the Common Core standards and once again make education policy the domain of state and local governments.
11. Local Control? States Grumble at Trump Education Department’s Criticism of Education Plans
On July 19, Breitbart News’ Dr. Susan Berry reported:
U.S. Education secretary Betsy DeVos has touted a move toward the end of federal control of education, but more states are finding the Trump education department – much like that of former President Barack Obama – is still attempting to control their decisions from Washington, D.C.
Bonus: Though this was not in the past seven months, Breitbart News also slammed Trump for his “broken promise” in November of 2016 when Trump said he would not prosecute Hillary Clinton. Legacy media outlets reported on Breitbart News’ headlines, as did non-political outlets like The Wrap, which wrote then:
Breitbart’s lead story on Tuesday morning rips Donald Trump for a “broken promise” to prosecute Hillary Clinton.
The President-elect’s senior adviser Kellyanne Conway said earlier today he will not pursue further investigations into Clinton’s use of a private email server or the Clinton Foundation. It was expected that far-right Trump supporters would bash the decision not to go after Clinton, but the fact that Breitbart is doing it is significant, because Trump’s chief strategist Steve Bannon used to run the news organization.
Tuesday’s headline suggests that Breitbart will cover Trump in a way that fits its readers, as opposed to being an unofficial branch of the Trump administration.
Most of these stories were splashed across the front page in addition to others that questioned whether Trump was keeping his campaign promises to his blue-collar voters. Breitbart News has written critical stories about Trump’s Syria policies and recent comments about Venezuela. And the reporters whose stories are featured above all have written numerous other stories criticizing the Trump administration’s broken promises.
In addition, Breitbart News has been critical of Trump’s advisers who want to “save America” from Trump’s voter base by urging him to court the 3.8%.
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