Story of migrants displacing veterans in housing that GOP used to attack Biden is a hoax

Republican members of Congress, including House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, have recently attacked President Joe Biden over a story published by the New York Post that claimed U.S. military veterans had been moved out of temporary housing to make room for migrants. That story has now been proven to be a hoax.

The Yerik Israel Toney Foundation is a nonprofit foundation based in Monticello, New York, that says it provides assistance to military veterans and their families. In its story published on May 12, the Post reported that the foundation’s CEO, Sharon Toney-Finch, had claimed that veterans were being removed from temporary housing in hotels so migrants could be housed there instead.

The story was prominently featured on the front page of the Post’s May 13 print edition, with the headline “Vets Kicked Out For Migrants.” The story was also promoted on Fox News in multiple stories on the FoxNews.com website and segments aired on the TV network.

The Post is owned by News Corp, which, like Fox News, is owned by Rupert Murdoch and his family. The newspaper has frequently been the source of false news stories, conspiracy theories, and attacks on Democrats and progressives.

After the story was published, Republicans in Congress blamed Biden for the purported displacement.

“For weeks, the Biden White House has been spewing lies about veterans being hurt by Republicans’ responsible debt limit increase. It’s because they want to distract you from their own open-border policies that are hurting veterans right now. Shameful,” McCarthy tweeted on May 13.

Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York, the chair of the House Republican Conference, wrote: “Joe Biden’s catastrophic border crisis has now forced homeless veterans onto the streets. This is the shameful and disgraceful #BidenBorderCrisis.”

Sen Tom Cotton of Arkansas tweeted, “Homeless U.S. veterans getting kicked out of hotels to make room for illegal immigrants sums up the Biden presidency.”

“I will be blocking all judicial nominees from the State of New York until Chuck Schumer speaks out and urges the Biden administration to stop placing illegal immigrants in school gyms and evicting homeless veterans,” wrote Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee.

Other Republicans who criticized Biden over the story include Reps. Beth Van Duyne (TX), Lance Gooden (TX), Ben Cline (VA), Andrew Clyde (GA), Jake LaTurner (KS), Debbie Lesko (AZ), Andy Biggs (AZ), Nicole Malliotakis (NY), and Ashely Hinson (IA).

But the story was false.

The manager of the hotel from which the veterans were reportedly removed told the Mid-Hudson News in a story published May 18 that it had no veterans in residence there and that nobody had been removed to house migrants.

The Mid-Hudson News reported it was given a receipt by Republican New York Assemblyman Brian Maher, a supporter of the nonprofit, purporting to show a payment of rooms for the veterans as proof that they had been guests of the hotel in question. But the manager of the hotel said it had no record of such a transaction. The outlet said that a graphics expert it contacted determined the receipt to have been digitally altered. 

Maher later told the Times Union newspaper in Albany that the story wasn’t true and that Toney-Finch had admitted to him that her claims were a hoax.

The Post published a story on May 18 in which it reported on the development of the false story.

The Mid-Hudson News subsequently reported that a group of men said they had been recruited at a homeless shelter and told to make the false claim that they were veterans who had been displaced from the hotel and were given food and drinks in exchange for the deception. 

“[Sharon Toney-Finch] told us to act like we were the veterans that had been displaced. And she told us that if asked, we were supposed to say we had been kicked out and Sharon found us rooms in Fishkill,” one man said.

Republicans used the original story to attack Biden over the treatment of veterans shortly after Biden criticized Republicans over their demands for cuts in federal spending, including on veterans’ health care, in exchange for allowing an increase in the nation’s debt ceiling. 

The House on April 26 passed the Limit, Save, Grow Act in a party-line vote of 217-211, with no Democrats voting in favor of it and four Republicans voting against it.

The proposed legislation would freeze federal spending, limiting the funding of executive agencies and departments to what it was in the 2022 fiscal year, and would also repeal provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act aimed at fighting climate change. Biden has called for a clean bill, one without conditions, to raise the federal spending limit and assailed the effect the Limit, Save, Grow Act would have on veterans, among others.

During a March 23 House Veterans Affairs Committee hearing, Secretary of Veterans Affairs Denis McDonough said keeping the agency’s budget at 2022 levels could result in 13 million fewer covered medical visits for veterans, reductions in the VA’s IT budget, and increased time needed to process veterans’ claims.

“Taking care of our service members and veterans is one of the most sacred responsibilities we have as a nation. Apparently House Republicans don’t see it the same way,” Biden tweeted on May 8.

 “Services for our troops and veterans could be halted or delayed under default. That’s not how America treats those who serve our nation,” Biden tweeted on May 18.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.