By Dave Andrusko
If we have time, elsewhere today we’ll comment on a brilliant post written by National Review’s Becket Adams headlined “Two Publications That Might as Well Be Run by the DNC” []. He names names: Politico and Axios.
But while the pro-Harris bias in those publications could have been anticipated, on first blush a NPR critique headlined “12 misleading or lacking-in-context claims from Harris’ DNC speech,” written by Domenico Montanaro, almost floored me.
But then, Montanaro shifts course and paddles back to more familiar waters. He begins by patting himself on the back–“It’s the role of the press to try and hold politicians to account for the accuracy of their statements in a good-faith way”– just before he lambasts the multitude of  “misstatements, exaggerations and outright lies that NPR found from Trump’s hour-long news conference Aug. 8.”
Let’s first look at a few of Harris’s ”misleading or lacking-in-context claims.”
In her speech, Harris said, “We’re not going back to when Donald Trump tried to cut Social Security and Medicare.”
Montanaro responds, “Former President Trump has pledged not to cut Social Security, the popular retirement program.”
Harris said, “With this election, we finally have the opportunity to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act and the Freedom to Vote Act.”
Montanaro responds, “This is another one of those traps politicians fall into – overpromising when it’s not something they can control. Harris needs Congress to do this, and her winning the presidency does not guarantee that any of what she wants done legislatively will get done, even if Democrats take control of both chambers.”
Harris said, “We are not going to let him end programs like Head Start that provide preschool and childcare for our children in America.”
Montanaro responds, “Trump has talked about shutting down the Department of Education, but Head Start is funded through the Department of Health and Human.”
In her convention speech, Harris then gleefully pivots and personally attacks former President Trump unmercifully with over-the-top exaggerations and zero respect for the truth. For example, “Consider the power he will have — especially after the United States Supreme Court just ruled he would be immune from criminal prosecution.”
But that’s not what the justices said. Writing for the majority, Chief Justice John Roberts said, “The President enjoys no immunity for his unofficial acts.”
The Supreme Court ruled “that Donald Trump is immune to criminal prosecution for official acts taken while in office, but affirmed that he can be prosecuted for unofficial acts,” James Lynch wrote.
In other words, “The court did not grant Trump — or any president — full immunity,” Politifact.
Finally, of course, Harris also promised the moon and the stars—“And we will end America’s housing shortage”—but that is to be expected.
But what is not fair, even in a convention speech, is Harris’s accusation that Trump has aspirations to be an “autocrat.” That is a low blow even for Harris.