Did U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris serve tacos featuring her likeness to journalists aboard Air Force Two during a recent visit to the U.S.-Mexican border? No, that's not true: the claim clearly played off of the recent criticism Harris received for serving cookies shaped in her likeness to journalists.
The claim appeared in an Instagram post (archived here) published on June 25, 2021. The post featured an image of Harris with a platter of tacos with her face on their shells in frosting. The platter was extended toward a group of journalists. The caption opened:
Kamala serves tacos w/her face on them to commemorate her first visit to the border 💀😂
@bricksuit
This is how the post looked on Instagram on June 28, 2021:
(Source: Instagram screen taken on Mon Jun 28 16:39:57 2021 UTC)
There is no evidence that Harris served tacos, much less those featuring her likeness, to the members of the press who attended the border visit with her. After conducting Google searches for the phrases "Kamala Harris tacos," "Kamala Harris Air Force Two tacos" and "Kamala Harris serves tacos with her face on them" Lead Stories could not find any results related to the claim.
Conversely, there was plenty of coverage regarding Harris' serving of cookies shaped in her likeness. Harris was criticized by politicians and right-wing commentators for giving the cookies, some of which were also shaped like Air Force Two, to members of the press who joined her on her Latin America tour in early June 2021. Courtney Subramanian, a USA Today White House correspondent who was given a cookie, included an image of one of the cookies in the tweet embedded below:
@vp made an OTR visit to the back of the plane and delivered cookies decorated with the shape of her likeness as well as AF2. pic.twitter.com/TQrUR47Vgc
-- Courtney Subramanian (@cmsub) June 7, 2021
(Source: Twitter screenshot taken on Mon Jun 28 16:41:27 2021 UTC)
However, it was revealed in a more detailed pool report by Subramanian that the cookies were provided by Cake-Wich Craft, a Black-owned bakery in Washington, D.C., that supports students through its scholarship program "Cupcake Dreams." An excerpt of the pool report is quoted below:
VPOTUS came to the back of the plane and spoke to press OTR for five minutes. She delivered cookies decorated with the shape of her likeness as well as of Air Force Two. The cookies were provided by Cupcake Dreams, a black-owned business in Washington, DC.
Additionally, the image used in the Instagram post to make the claim is digitally manipulated. The figure of Harris is a familiar image that has been used by news outlets. The foreground and background featuring attentive reporters in an airplane are from an image taken of former president Donald Trump while he was in office as he spoke with reporters on Air Force One.
