You have to admit that it would be one hell of a marketing plan, especially for a book few know even exists. The New York Post thought so, using a picture of a copy of Kamala Harris’ Superheroes Are Everywhere at a children’s migrant facility to posit that the Department of Homeland Security had purchased enough copies of the kids’ book to hand out to every minor crossing the border. They ran it under the NYP-esque headline “KAM ON IN” on Friday:

Vice President Kamala Harris hasn’t been to the border to address a crisis she was tasked to help fix — but a children’s book she wrote is waiting there for young migrants who are being welcomed into the country.

Unaccompanied migrant kids brought from the U.S.-Mexico border to a new shelter in Long Beach, Calif., will be given a copy of her 2019 children’s book, “Superheroes are Everywhere,” in their welcome kits.

It’s just the latest open-arms gesture by the Biden administration, whose mixed messaging regarding the border and immigration has been credited with the surge from Central America to the U.S.-Mexico border.

For the last couple of days, Republicans have howled over this supposed propaganda move. RNC chair Ronna McDaniel wondered whether Harris personally profited off of it, while Tom Cotton demanded to know why taxpayers were being forced to buy Harris’ book. Conservative analysts, including Karen Townsend here at Hot Air, relied on the NYP and Fox News reports to criticize the move — although Karen did ask a key skeptical question: why would DHS hand out a book in English to children who can’t read the language?

The answer appears to be … they didn’t, and they aren’t. Washington Post fact-checker Salvador Rizzo traces the story back to a single donated copy of the book left at the Long Beach, California migrant processing facility, which was propped up and photographed. According to Rizzo, that began a series of assumptions which resembled a “bad game of telephone”:

“The City of Long Beach, in partnership with the Long Beach Convention and Visitors Bureau, has a citywide book and toy drive that is ongoing to support the migrant children who are temporarily staying in Long Beach at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services shelter,” city spokesman Kevin Lee said. “The book you reference is one of hundreds of books that have already been donated. The book was not purchased by HHS or the City.”

The book-and-toy drive was well advertised. “Long Beach is known for being a welcoming community and the donations of new books will truly enhance the children’s stay,” Long Beach Public Library Director Glenda Williams said in a news report partly about the drive on April 23. Officials specifically asked for books from “grade levels kindergarten through young adult.”

“The books can be in English or Spanish — or both — and must be new,” ABC 7 reported, listing five hotels and a theater where they could be donated.

The photograph came from Reuters, but the story spread through assumption:

A news photographer for Reuters visited the Long Beach shelter and snapped a photo of Harris’s book, which was propped up against a black backpack.

How did that transform into Harris’ book being distributed in bulk to all children? No one knows, and according to Rizzo, no one’s talking. He tried e-mailing reporter Laura Italiano (credited in both the NYP and Fox News reports, both owned by the Murdochs) “repeatedly,” but got no response. The RNC claims that they relied on those reports and the fact that the White House didn’t immediately deny the claim.

The story certainly appears to be falling apart under minimal scrutiny. There doesn’t appear to be any DHS “welcome kits” at all, let alone one containing Harris’ English-language book, which would be a bad bureaucratic joke on its own if true. Rizzo assigns the tale four Pinocchios, which unless the NY Post and Fox can substantiate their earlier claims, seems pretty reasonable.

Cotton and McDaniel ran with it, basing their own tweets on these reports. We always remind politicians that they are responsible for their words, so they should double-check their facts.

There is only one photograph. There was only one copy of Harris’s book. But everyone gets Four Pinocchios.

Fair enough. In the future, remember that the phrase “too good to be true” exists for a reason.