Key takeaways:
- The widely reported story that homeless veterans were removed from a hotel in Orange County, New York, to make way for migrants was revealed to be false.
- The story was fabricated by Sharon Toney-Finch, the founder and head of the YIT Foundation, a small local nonprofit.
- The false story had been widely shared by right-wing news outlets, but has now been debunked.
A story that was widely reported by right-wing news outlets last week has been revealed to be false. The story, which originated with the New York Post, claimed that homeless veterans were removed from a hotel in Orange County, New York, to make way for migrants who had crossed the southern U.S. border.
However, it has now been revealed that the story was fabricated by Sharon Toney-Finch, the founder and head of the YIT Foundation, a small local nonprofit that focuses on veterans issues and premature births. Toney-Finch had recruited a group of 15 homeless men from a local shelter to pose as veterans and talk to the press about their supposed tale of woe.
The story was picked up by Fox News, who ran pieces about Republican outrage on their website and live on air. Fox host Laura Ingraham ran a chyron on her show reading “New York City Puts Illegals Ahead of Veterans”, and Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley tweeted “Liberal insanity at work”. Donald Trump Jr. also weighed in, writing “Fuck […]”
The false story had been widely shared by right-wing news outlets, but has now been debunked. It is unclear why Toney-Finch had fabricated the story, but it appears to have been done in an attempt to discredit the Biden administration.
Be First to Comment