New Mexico Democratic congressional candidate Gabe Vasquez was the target of a negative article published online by the Washington Free Beacon, a conservative outlet, on Monday accusing him of giving a false name for a 2020 television interview during a Black Lives Matter demonstration in Las Cruces.
The candidate was also accused of deleting past social media posts that would identify him as the person appearing in the news story.
The accusations attack the candidate's honesty and integrity on the issues of policing, criminal justice and racism — issues on which Vasquez has been outspoken throughout his career in politics.
The National Republican Congressional Committee jumped on the story, issuing a statement calling the candidate "a liar who supports defunding the police" to distinguish him from the Republican incumbent, U.S. Rep. Yvette Herrell, who is facing Vasquez in the Nov. 8 election where she seeks a second term representing New Mexico's 2nd congressional district.
Yet even after KVIA-TV said Vasquez had not given a fake name, the Free Beacon did not correct its reporting.
An updated version of its article includes comments from the Vasquez campaign and an explanation from KVIA that confusion over Vasquez's identity emerged from a technical error, but still claimed that Vasquez "gave a fake name during an anti-police rant to a journalist" and "identified himself as 'James Hall.'"
The NRCC continues to claim, falsely, on its website that Vasquez admitted to...
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