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Here Are The Conspiracy Theorists Who Spread The Lie That Mounted Border Agents ‘Whipped’ Illegal Aliens

By: Jordan Boyd
5 min read

Despite viral claims, the idea that Border Patrol agents were ‘whipping’ Haitian migrants at the Southern U.S. border turned out to be a lie.

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Despite viral claims amplified by the White House, Democrats, and the corporate media, the idea that Border Patrol agents were “whipping” Haitian migrants at the Southern U.S. border turned out to be a lie.

The photographer who took the viral photos that were circulated to further the false narrative admitted on Friday that he never saw Border Patrol use the leather against anyone.

“I’ve never seen them whip anyone,” Paul Ratje told KTSM. “He was swinging it, but it can be misconstrued when you’re looking at the picture.”

This isn’t the first time that people with platforms have rushed to push an agenda without checking all of the facts and it won’t be the last. Here are all the people who spread the lie that mounted border agents ‘whipped’ illegal aliens.

The Biden Administration

The biggest culprits of this border lie are President Joe Biden, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, and others in the Biden administration who spent the last week condemning and even dismounting Border Patrol over the false whipping allegations.

As late as Friday morning, the president and the White House blamed the border agency for the “outrageous” treatment of Haitian migrants in Del Rio, Texas.

“To see people treated like they did? Horses running them over? People being strapped? It’s outrageous. I promise you, those people will pay,” Biden said.

Earlier in the week, Psaki admitted that she didn’t “have the full context” of the situation but still called the footage “horrible to watch.”

“I have seen some of the footage. I don’t have the full context. I can’t imagine what context would make that appropriate, but I don’t have additional details,” she said. “I don’t think anyone seeing that footage would think it’s acceptable or appropriate.”

Even Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who previously said that Border Patrol agents were not whipping Haitian migrants who illegally crossed the border into the United States, later claimed that he was “horrified by what I saw” and promised an investigation into the alleged incident.

Congressional Democrats

Democrat Rep. Maxine Waters was quick to jump on the “whip” bandwagon. In addition to sounding off on Twitter about Haitian migrants “being treated like animals” by the U.S. government, she claimed that “cowboy” agents “were running down Haitians and using their reins to whip them.”

Squad member Rep. Rashida Tlaib furthered the narrative by claiming that Border Patrol committed “human rights abuses” by “cracking a f-cking whip on Haitians fleeing hardship.”

Another Squad member, Rep. Ilhan Omar, called the pictures “cruel” and “inhumane” and repeated the claim that the U.S. government is denying illegal aliens human rights.

“Use of whips on refugees? Disturbing and unacceptable. This must end immediately,” Democrat Sen. Jeff Merkley tweeted.

The Corporate Media

It wasn’t long after the photos and footage first started circulating that media grifters such as Joy Reid adopted speculations on border agents’ treatment of migrants as fact and even suggested that “whips which come from the slave era, slavery era, were part of the package that we issue to any sort of law enforcement or government sanction personnel.”

That same angle was amplified by a Democrat candidate in Florida who said “asylum seekers [are] being hunted down like runaway slaves on a plantation by whip cracking cowboys.”

Other outlets tried to cushion their role in spreading the false narrative by claiming the agents used “whip-like cords” or “reins like whips” but their agenda-setting is clear.

CNN analyst Asha Rangappa joined in the Twitter fun by asking “who issued…whips. To Border Patrol.”

https://twitter.com/AshaRangappa_/status/1440127027420401671?s=20

MSNBC host Chris Hayes deliberately avoided calling the Border Patrol’s reins “whips” but said accuracy demanded an admittance that “they were using their reins as whips.”

Members of the White House press corps also quickly latched onto the narrative and ensured that it was a regular topic of discussion in press briefings.

Another reporter pressed Psaki for minutes over the Haitian migration issue and asserted that border agents were acting “with the intent to lash” and hurt black illegal aliens.

Current and Former Government Officials and Their Staff

The executive director of San Antonio Mayor and Former HUD Secretary Julian Castro’s political action committee popularized the lie on Twitter which gained more than 73,000 likes.

When news broke that there is no proof of “whipping,” he dug his heels in.

Former director of the United States Office of Government Ethics Walter Shaub tried to diss “right winger-fringe-bigot blue checks on Twitter” who he said “are trying to argue that these aren’t whips.”

“How the hell would it even matter if someone is using an object that was marketed and sold as a whip or using some other object to whip a human being? It’s whip if it’s used as a whip!!” he said.

https://twitter.com/waltshaub/status/1440042718214836224?s=20

Jordan Boyd is a staff writer at The Federalist and co-producer of The Federalist Radio Hour. Her work has also been featured in The Daily Wire, Fox News, and RealClearPolitics. Jordan graduated from Baylor University where she majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow her on Twitter @jordanboydtx.

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