Did Kamala Harris say that the U.S. military are "soulless cowards" that deserve to have their bugdet cut? No, that's not true. The story was published by a liberal satire website that tries to fool Trump supporters and Republicans into sharing made up stories that are clearly marked as satire when you actually click them. Articles from the site are frequently copied by foreign-run fake news websites. The people liking and sharing these stories are enriching foreign website operators (or a liberal from Maine) via the ad revenue generated with the content which is probably not what they expected or wanted.
The story originated from an article published by Daily World Update on September 11, 2019 titled "Kamala:'Our Military Are Soulless Cowards. Their Budget Must Be Cut.'" (archived here) which opened:
Kamala Harris is back in the spotlight with more asinine promises. Just weeks after revealing her desire to "round up the trump supporters" if she were to win the presidency, she has now revealed yet another layer of democrat stupidity.
In a speech before her constituents in California, Harris spoke in derogatory terms about our outstanding military, ending with an appalling promise:
"We have become a nation of baby killers through our military. Our soldiers have become nothing more than a collection of evil sadistic monsters whose sole purpose of existence is to maim and slaughter.
They enjoy it. I've seen it in their vacant, soulless eyes. Our soldiers are completely dead inside. They are minions of Satan and are so because we have allowed it, indeed, leaders like Trump have encouraged it."
Users on social media only saw this title, description and thumbnail:
Kamala:'Our Military Are Soulless Cowards. Their Budget Must Be Cut.'
Kamala Harris is back in the spotlight with more asinine promises. Just weeks after revealing her desire to "round up the trump supporters" if she were to win the presidency, she has no...
Note that the story was published under the category "Satire and/or Conservative Fan Fiction" and that the referenced promise to "round up the trump supporters" was also made up by the site in an earlier satirical article (which got widely believed and spread online anyway):
Fake News: Kamala Harris Did NOT Say 'After We Impeach, We Round Up The Trump Supporters' | Lead Stories
Did Kamala Harris threaten to round up Trump supporters and did she hint she would put them in prison camps after President Trump was impeached? No, that's not true. The story was published by a liberal satire website that tries to fool Trump supporters and Republicans into sharing made up stories that are clearly marked as satire when you actually click them.
The site is part of the "America's Last Line of Defense" network of satire websites run byself-professed liberal troll Christopher Blair from Maine along with a loose confederation of friends and allies. Blair has been in a feud with fact checking website Snopes for some time now and has also criticized other fact checkers in the past who labeled his work "fake news" instead of satire. In reaction to this he has recently rebranded all his active websites and Facebook pages so they carry extremely visible disclaimers everywhere.
Every site in the network has an about page that reads (in part):
About Satire
Before you complain and decide satire is synonymous with "comedy":sat·ire
ˈsaˌtī(ə)r
noun
The use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues.Everything on this website is fiction. It is not a lie and it is not fake news because it is not real. If you believe that it is real, you should have your head examined. Any similarities between this site's pure fantasy and actual people, places, and events are purely coincidental and all images should be considered altered and satirical. See above if you're still having an issue with that satire thing.
Articles from Blair's sites frequently get copied by "real" fake news sites who often omit the satire disclaimer and any other hints the stories are fake. Blair has tried to get these sites shut down in the past but new ones keep cropping up.
Here is a video of Blair explaining how his process works:
If you are interested in learning more about Blair and the history of his sites, here is something to get you started:
The Ultimate Christopher Blair and America's Last Line of Defense Reading List | Lead Stories
STORY UPDATED: check for updates below. Yesterday Eli Saslow at the Washington Post wrote a fantastic article about Christopher Blair, a man from Maine who has been trolling conservatives and Trump supporters online for years and occasionally even made a living out of it.
If you see one of his stories on a site that does not contain a satire disclaimer, assume it is fake news. If you do see the satire disclaimer it is of course also fake news.
NewsGuard, a company that uses trained journalist to rank the reliability of websites, describes dailyworldupdate.us as:
A news site that publishes false stories and hoaxes that are often mistaken for real news. The site is part of a network run by hoax perpetrator Christopher Blair.
According to NewsGuard the site does not maintain basic standards of accuracy and accountability. Read their full assessment here.
We wrote about dailyworldupdate.us before, here are our most recent articles that mention the site:
- Fake News: NO FBI Surveillance, Malia Obama NOT Seen Leaving Antifa Meeting In Baltimore
- Fake News: Trump Did NOT File Lawsuit To Deport George Soros
- Fake News: Ihlan Omar Did NOT Propose Nationwide Ban on 'Unhealthy and Immoral' Bacon
- Fake News: Malia Obama NOT Arrested Again, NO Complete Media Blackout
- Fake News: Governor's Conference Did NOT Vote 32-18 to Impeach Nancy Pelosi
