Politics

Nikki Haley Demands Retraction From Washington Post Reporter After He Misquotes Her On Poverty

Nikki Haley official photo as the 29th United States Ambassador to the United Nations: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nikki_Haley_official_photo_(cropped).jpg

U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley demanded on Saturday that a Washington Post reporter “retract” his claim that she said there were 250,000 U.S. citizens living in poverty.

Policy reporter Jeff Stein and race and economics reporter Tracy Jan wrote a story titled “The Trump administration has a new argument for dismantling the social safety net: It worked” on Friday. Stein tweeted the 250,000 figure that Haley says she “never said” with a link to his story on Friday.

“The Haley number above, I should note, is for ‘extreme poverty,'” he tweeted less than 10 minutes later on Friday, without deleting the incorrect tweet. The incorrect tweet received 299 retweets. The correction tweet received eight.

It is unclear whether the Washington Post story contained the incorrect number in Stein’s tweet. A photo of Haley speaking is the photo that appears in social media links to the story.

“U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said last month that no more than 250,000 Americans are in ‘extreme poverty,’ denouncing a United Nations report saying 18.5 million Americans suffer extreme impoverishment,” read the sentence in question as of Saturday morning.

There is no note from Washington Post editors in the post saying that a correction was made as of Saturday morning.

“My team has asked you to retract this and take down your tweets. I am now respectfully asking that you to follow through with what you told my team you would do. Thank you,” Haley tweeted at Stein on Saturday morning.

Last month, Nikki Haley said only 250K in US are in poverty

The White House is now declaring the War on Poverty “largely over and a success”

In US:

– 29M dont have health care
– 5.3M live on less than $4 a day
– 15M US kids are in poverty

W/ @TracyJan https://t.co/Vx05z1zQIy

— Jeff Stein (@JStein_WaPo) July 13, 2018

*The Haley number above, I should note, is for “extreme poverty”

— Jeff Stein (@JStein_WaPo) July 13, 2018

@JStein_WaPo I never said this. My team has asked you to retract this and take down your tweets. I am now respectfully asking that you follow through with what you told my team you would do. Thank you.

— Nikki Haley (@nikkihaley) July 14, 2018

Unfortunate when a reporter doesn’t follow through and I have to do this:@JStein_WaPo I never said this. My team has asked you to retract this and take down your tweets. I am now respectfully asking that you follow through with what you told my team you would do. Thank you.

— Nikki Haley (@nikkihaley) July 14, 2018

Stein’s incorrect tweet remains on his account as of Saturday morning.

Follow Evie on Twitter @eviefordham.

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