Fox anchor Bill Hemmer is wrong: The Biden-Harris administration has already begun work on Kamala Harris’ policy agenda

Written by Zachary Pleat

Published

The morning after Vice President Kamala Harris accepted the Democratic nomination for president, Fox News anchor Bill Hemmer pushed a new line of attack against her from Republican nominee Donald Trump, falsely claiming that the Biden-Harris administration has taken no actions on the policy priorities she has so far announced.

Specifically, Hemmer and Fox contributor Charlie Hurt claimed Harris could take action now to secure the southern border and make housing more accessible, and that the Biden-Harris administration just hasn’t “done anything” to address these things. Fox contributor Marie Harf attempted to steer the discussion toward the successes of the administration and “positive, forward-looking agenda” of the Harris campaign, but Hemmer reiterated the claim that if the vice president really cared about improving the economy, she “would have done it over the past three and a half years.”

From the August 23, 2024, edition of Fox News' America's Newsroom

BILL HEMMER (CO-ANCHOR): Trump last night, after she gets off stage, comes on our air and says she talks about the border, she could fly to the White House tonight and do something about it. He said she doesn't need a bill, I didn't have a bill, I fixed it. She could do the same thing if she wants. I thought it was his most effective response, and if he keeps that up on every issue, he'll be in line with how he can prosecute this case, let's say, against her.

CHARLIE HURT (FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR): Yeah, and that's the fundamental problem for Kamala Harris is making the case that she laid out yesterday with — at the same time, making the case for why she hasn’t already done it in the past four years. And she could talk about things like “we're going to end America's housing crisis.” Well, you've been there for four years and you haven't done anything to end it.

…

HEMMER: He’s making a very simple case, Charlie’s referred to it. If you cared about it and you had the power to change it, you would have done it over the past three and a half years. It’s a really strong argument.

But Hemmer’s claims that the Biden-Harris administration has done nothing to address border security and housing affordability are false.

Aside from the bipartisan border enforcement bill, which Trump and Fox worked to kill earlier this year, the Biden-Harris administration took executive action in June to “temporarily shut down asylum requests once the average number of daily encounters tops 2,500 between official ports of entry.” CBS News reported on August 18 that a “months-long downward trend in unauthorized border crossings accelerated after Mr. Biden's order took effect,” reaching “the lowest level in nearly 4 years.” (It’s worth noting that immigrant rights advocates opposed this action, warning that it “will severely restrict people's legal right to seek asylum.”)

In addition to this more recent border security effort, Harris personally managed the diplomatic relationship with Central American countries that were the source of much of the migrant traffic arriving at the southern border. Migration from those countries has “dropped substantially since early 2021,” and Harris’ role has been a fixation for misleading attacks from Fox and other right-wing antagonists.

And the Biden-Harris administration first announced action to make housing more affordable and accessible in May 2022, launching its Housing Supply Action Plan. This was followed in July 2023 with new actions to loosen local restrictions on housing development and funding for more energy-efficient homes, among other policies. In April 2024, the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau announced that it is targeting junk fees in the form of closing costs in mortgages. And in July, the administration called on Congress to pass legislation to cap annual rent increases to help lower costs for renters.

Hemmer and others at Fox are free to debate the effectiveness of these policies. But they cannot simply lie and say that the administration that Harris has been vice president of for three and a half years has taken no action in pursuit of any parts of her policy agenda. (Later in the program, Hemmer made another false claim about Harris, claiming that she had said she met with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin days before he invaded Ukraine. She had, in fact, said she met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.)