CNN’s Kaczynski Deletes Tweet About Kamala ‘Backtracking’ After Campaign Pushes Back

CNN's "KFILE" publisher Andrew Kaczynski.
CNN
Tony Lee

After getting pushback from Sen. Kamala Harris’s (D-CA) campaign, CNN’s Andrew Kaczynski on Tuesday evening deleted an accurate tweet about how Harris backtracked on her call to “eliminate” private health insurance and provide Medicare for all.

At Monday’s CNN’s town hall event in Iowa, CNN host Jake Tapper explicitly asked Harris if people who like their insurance will lose their private insurance under her Medicare-for-all proposal.

Harris replied:

Well, listen, the idea is that everyone gets access to medical care, and you don’t have to go through the process of going through an insurance company, having them give you approval, going through the paperwork, all of the delay that may require. Who of us has not had that situation, where you’ve got to wait for approval, and the doctor says, well, I don’t know if your insurance company is going to cover this? Let’s eliminate all of that. Let’s move on.

After getting backlash from even fellow Democrats, Harris’s camp tried to walk back her remarks on Tuesday evening, with her press secretary Ian Sams telling CNN: “Medicare-for-all is the plan that she believes will solve the problem and get all Americans covered. Period… She has co-sponsored other pieces of legislation that she sees as a path to getting us there, but this is the plan she is running on.”

Kaczynski, linking to his network’s scoop about Harris’s backtracking, initially tweeted: “NEW: Kamala Harris is backtracking on her calls to eliminate all private health insurance in supporting Medicare for all, with an advisor and her spokesman saying she’s open to more moderate plans preserving the private health insurance industry.”

After getting pushback from Harris’s campaign, he said he was deleting his original tweet “because multiple Harris campaign spokespeople would like it clarified. Harris said at CNN’s town hall she supports eliminating private health insurance. Her campaign advisor would like to emphasize she’s also open to bills that [preserve] private health care.”

Here’s CNN’s transcript of the exchange:

TAPPER: So just to follow up — so just to follow up on that, and correct me if I’m wrong, to reiterate, you support the Medicare for all bill, I think…

HARRIS: Correct.

TAPPER: … initially co-sponsored by Senator Bernie Sanders. You’re also a co-sponsor onto it. I believe it will totally eliminate private insurance. So for people out there who like their insurance, they don’t get to keep it?

HARRIS: Well, listen, the idea is that everyone gets access to medical care, and you don’t have to go through the process of going through an insurance company, having them give you approval, going through the paperwork, all of the delay that may require. Who of us has not had that situation, where you’ve got to wait for approval, and the doctor says, well, I don’t know if your insurance company is going to cover this? Let’s eliminate all of that. Let’s move on.

TAPPER: All right. Let’s go to the next question.

Kaczynski was quick to delete a tweet that made Harris look bad, but CNN personalities like Jim Sciutto have left up “fake news” tweets about President Donald Trump’s administration on numerous occasions.

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