[Townhall] "They were never a part of the kit, it was inaccurate reporting." Those were White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki's words earlier this year when she was asked about reporting that a new "harm reduction" grant program from the federal government allowed taxpayer dollars to end up putting free crack pipes in the hands of addicts. Townhall, at the time, covered the insane federal program — first reported by our friends at The Washington Free Beacon. Biden's goons in the mainstream media and supposedly independent fact-checking organizations were quick to try and hide the truth after the Biden administration got caught with their hands in the...crack pipe jar.
HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra released a statement at the time saying "no federal funding will be used directly or through subsequent reimbursement of grantees to put pipes in safe smoking kits."
Former Vox "journalist" Aaron Rupar pounced on behalf of Democrats and tweeted furiously that the claim was a "lie," "false," nothing more than "Fox News-fueled hysteria," and "total BS!" then used his tweets to hawk subscriptions to his Substack.
The Daily Beast laid blame for the narrative with a "false" report in The Washington Free Beacon. The Washington Post fact-checked the claim and concluded that "no," the Biden program wouldn't see crack pipes given to addicts.
The self-appointed arbiters of truth at Snopes rated the claims made by The Beacon, Townhall, Fox News, and concerned lawmakers "mostly false" before subsequently changing their rating to "outdated." USA Today debunked the claim. So did CNN and Politifact.
On Thursday, WaPo fact-checker Glenn Kessler updated his initial story that disputed The Free Beacon's first report on the free crack pipes to include their now plain-as-day proof, but did so without so much as an "oops" or "sorry" from the outlet that claims "Democracy Dies in Darkness."