It was in March that President Joe Biden appeared to task Vice President Kamala Harris as his point person on immigration and the border, a responsibility that Harris and the White House have since attempted to wriggle out of and clarify more narrowly as just addressing the “root causes” of migration.
As such, Harris has yet to visit the southern border or any of the facilities holding newly arrived unaccompanied migrant children. A children’s book written by the vice president, however, has been spotted in such facilities, the New York Post reported, prompting questions of how and why.
Harris’ book part of welcome kit?
Photos recently emerged from a new temporary influx facility for housing unaccompanied migrant children that was established within the Long Beach Convention & Entertainment Center in southern California.
One of those photos showed what appeared to be the contents of a welcoming kit for new arrivals, which contained several basic hygiene items as well as a copy of Harris’ 2019 children’s book titled, “Superheroes are Everywhere,” which seeks to encourage and reassure all children that, “Whenever there’s trouble, superheroes show up just in time.”
NEW: Unaccompanied migrant children brought to a shelter in Long Beach, CA will each be given a copy of Kamala Harris’ children’s book “Superheros are Everywhere” as a welcome gift – NYP pic.twitter.com/Wo4FoiYF0L
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) April 24, 2021
VP claims no knowledge of book inclusion
The clear implication to be drawn from the inclusion of this book in the welcome kits, whether intended or not, is that Harris, and by the extension to the Biden administration, are the “superheroes” that have swooped in “just in time” to save the migrant children from the “trouble” they faced.
In addition to that implication, there remain questions concerning who made the decision to include the books in the welcome kits for migrant children, if Harris was somehow profiting from the arrangement, and whether it posed a conflict of interest or violated any federal ethics laws.
According to Fox News, an unnamed White House official insisted that the vice president had no knowledge of the inclusion of her book in the welcome kits for migrant children at the new facility, which can reportedly house up to 1,000 children at a time.
Instead, it was suggested that the books and welcome kits were most likely organized and provided by the local community. Fox News reached out to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for information on who might be organizing the kits and purchasing the books but did not receive a response.
WH claims books donated by citywide volunteer effort
The Washington Examiner also looked into the inclusion of Harris’ book in the welcome kits for migrant children and reported that, according to the White House, the books had been part of a citywide collections drive to donate books and toys to children who would be staying at the new influx facility.
The outlet also reached out to HHS for comment, as well as the book’s publisher, Philomel Books, as well as the American Library Association, but similarly received no responses.
While this may end up not being a big deal in the larger picture, imagine for a moment that, during the prior administration, children’s books about then-President Donald Trump, or perhaps conservative talk radio’s Rush Limbaugh’s patriotic series of children’s books had been similarly provided to migrant children, and then imagine what the reaction might have been from the corporate media and Democratic politicians like Harris herself, and contrast that with the current muted reports on the situation.
The post Questions raised over inclusion of VP Harris’ children’s book in welcome kits for migrant children first appeared on Conservative Institute.
No comments: