Did Kamala Harris ‘Flip-Flop’ on Building the Border Wall?

Recent headlines suggest that Vice President Kamala Harris has “flip-flopped” to embrace the funding of a border wall – but what are the specifics of the matter?

The Report: On Tuesday, Axios (Lean Left bias) reported that Harris “pledges to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on the wall along the southern border,” citing her Democratic National Convention speech last week when she said she would sign the bipartisan border security bill. Axios prominently called the ostensible change in course “the latest example of Harris flip-flopping on her past liberal positions.”

Headlines: Outlets like The Guardian (Lean Left bias), Rising by The Hill (Center bias), and Daily Mail (Right bias) all published headlines similar to Axios’, saying Harris had “flip-flopped” on her position. The Guardian, however, wrote that "Republicans accused Kamala Harris of a policy flip-flop." Its coverage referenced comments Sen. James Lankford (R-OK), one of the bill’s principal negotiators, made to Axios.

Axios’ Key Comments: Lankford told Axios, "It requires the Trump border wall. It is in the bill itself that it sets the standards that were set during the Trump administration.” Axios also noted Harris’s campaign as saying the bipartisan bill is much more than the continuation of wall funding, and a tiny fraction of what Trump proposed. 

Trump Disagrees: The Washington Times (Lean Right bias) described Harris’s border wall stance as “murky,” and reported a comment from Trump’s national press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, who said the idea that Harris had changed course on the border wall “is a preposterous and false claim.”