No. of Recommendations: 9
No. She's pointing out that Leavitt was wrong when she said the $50 million was going to Gaza, when instead it was going to Africa (and was going mostly to non-condom spending). - albaby
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Bear with me and I will get around to acknowledging Trumps characterization was wrong.
First of all, lets not heap the blame on Levitt, she is a spokesman for the Trump Admin and it should be no surprise that her choice of words, what to include and what to exclude reflects her mission to promote and defend the Trump Administration. Same as KJB did for Biden. The press secretary did not create the false claim. Associated criticism should be directed a Trump.
Now as far as Heather is concerned, she reports as if there is only one pot of money and it went to Africa, not Gaza. I think that is wrong. Funding for both Africa and Gaza has been on going for years. How much has went to Africa, is going to Africa, and what fraction of Africa funding went to condoms is not germane to Gaza funding. Heather implies the $50M that was cut was from Africa funding, not Gaza. I think there were no cuts to Africa so her assertion is wrong on that regard.
Funding for Gaza is a separate discussion. I noodled around to find some support for Trumps assertion about $50M for Gaza condoms being cut. I could not find it so again I will confess to first believing Trumps assertion. All I could find was this,
Former Biden deputy assistant secretary for Israeli-Palestinian affairs Andrew Miller pushed back on the claim as well, telling The Times of Israel “It’s possible that $50 million is put aside for sexual health or something of that nature, which would include gynecology and many other services, but definitely not condoms alone.”
So there was funding that may have included condoms but not just condoms. Nevertheless Trumps assertion that $50M for Gaza was all condoms is yet another exaggeration and falsehood. Also I didn't find any evidence at all that there was anything cut from Gaza funding.
So there you have it. While I do take exception to some of Heather's reporting, it is clear that Trump once again is on the wrong side of facts with no evidence to back up his claim.
