Satire saying Kamala Harris would shut down VA misrepresented as real | Fact check

Nate Trela, USA TODAY
·4 min read

The claim: Kamala Harris said veterans should not get special treatment and called for the VA to be shut down

A July 26 Facebook post (direct link, archive link) shares a comment attributed to Vice President Kamala Harris.

“The United States government cannot continue to pay for the every need of what has become a special class citizen,” the post reads in part. “Veterans are equal to us, not better than us. Veterans Affairs coddles them. It creates a dependency upon us which is not doing these former soldiers any good. They need to live on their own two feet and be responsible adults. The easiest way to assist them on their journey is to cut them off.

"Within these next four years, we will be shuttering the VA, taking away soldier welfare. The money saved will go to better use in assisting refugee families.”

The post was among several on Facebook making the claim.

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Our rating: False

Harris made no such statement. A similar comment originated in a satirical article in 2021 and is being misrepresented as authentic.

Comments are stolen satire

Since Harris began her campaign to succeed President Joe Biden, fabricated quotes misrepresenting her policies, positions and intelligence have begun spreading online.

The purported quote about veterans is among them, having originated years earlier on a satirical website.

The earliest version of the comment USA TODAY could locate came in 2021 on the now-defunct site America’s Last Line of Defense. An archived copy of the page carries a quote that is identical or very similar to versions circulating online. That post is labeled satire.

While the America’s Last Line of Defense site no longer exists, it lives on as a social media handle and is the name of a network of satirical sites. Christopher Blair,  the operator of the original site and the network, previously told USA TODAY, “I don’t publish the truth on any of the websites you’ll find on ALLOD.”

The Facebook post is an example of what could be called "stolen satire," where stories written as satire and presented that way originally are captured and reposted in a way that makes them appear to be legitimate news. As a result, readers of the second-generation post are misled, as was the case here.

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Contrary to the claim in the post, Harris has voiced support for veterans and their benefits. As a senator in 2018, she voted for the Mission Act, which expanded veterans’ access to health care outside of the VA system, and as vice president in May 2024 she touted the PACT Act, which compensated veterans for exposure to toxins.

In 2022, Harris gave a Veteran's Day speech in which she emphasized the debt civilians owe the military.

“President Biden and I believe that as Americans, we have a sacred obligation to take care of our veterans and our military families. Fulfilling that obligation means making sure veterans can access the support and the resources they need to thrive,” she said.

Harris's campaign website does not currently have a policy section, and her campaign did not respond to a request for information on her proposals for policies around veterans issues. But when she ran in 2019, Harris floated a plan to offer new benefits to veterans and expand eligibility.

The claim is one of many fabricated statements attributed to Harris since she began her presidential campaign in July. USA TODAY has previously debunked claims that she made a nonsensical statement about Olympians, that she mangled language in a speech and that she called a teen racist online.

USA TODAY reached out to social media users who shared the claim for comment but did not immediately receive responses.

Snopes and Check Your Fact also debunked the claim.

Our fact-check sources:

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: No, Kamala Harris did not say she will close the VA | Fact check

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