The New Yorker and The Atlantic both claimed that former President Donald Trump’s claim that Vice President Kamala Harris wants to do “transgender operations on illegal aliens that are in prison” had no basis.

Trump made history last night for sure. Who will ever forget him ranting on stage about immigrants eating people’s dogs? Or insisting that the Vice President ‘wants to do transgender operations on illegal aliens that are in jail’?

My piece on Trump’s too-crazy moment:…

— Susan Glasser (@sbg1) September 11, 2024

Verdict: False

Trump’s claim is based on a 2019 American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) questionnaire that asked Harris if she would support paying for transgender surgeries for detained migrants. She answered yes. Her campaign has not stated whether or not she supports that now.

Fact Check:

Harris and Trump met in their first debate on Sept. 10, where they attacked each other on various topics such as abortion, the economy and foreign policy, Check Your Fact previously reported.

The New Yorker and the Atlantic both claimed Trump was incorrect to claim that Harris wanted to do “transgender operations on illegal aliens that are in prison.”

“His line about how the Vice-President ‘wants to do transgender operations on illegal aliens that are in prison’ was pretty memorable, too. What the hell was he talking about? No one knows, which was, of course, exactly Harris’s point,” the New Yorker column claimed.

The Atlantic reported that Trump “falsely suggested that Kamala Harris wants to do ‘transgender operations on illegal aliens that are in prison.'” (Emphasis added by Check Your Fact).

Trump’s claim, though, has a basis. CNN reported that “a 2019 questionnaire from a leading civil rights organization spotlights her past support for left-wing causes such as taxpayer-funded gender transition surgeries for detained immigrants and federal prisoners.”

The questionnaire, which was from the ACLU, asked her whether she would use “executive authority to ensure that transgender and non-binary people who rely on the state for medical care – including those in prison and immigration detention – will have access to comprehensive treatment associated with gender transition, including all necessary surgical care.”

Harris said she would do that. Her explanation reads:

“It is important that transgender individuals who rely on the state for care receive the treatment they need, which includes access to treatment associated with gender transition. That’s why, as Attorney General, I pushed the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to provide gender transition surgery to state inmates. I support policies ensuring that federal prisoners and detainees are able to obtain medically necessary care for gender transition, including surgical care, while incarcerated or detained. Transition treatment is a medical necessity, and I will direct all federal agencies responsible for providing essential medical care to deliver transition treatment.”

PolitiFact rated Trump’s claim as “Mostly True.” The New York Times reported that Trump’s claim was the “[w]ildest sounding attack line that was basically true.”

PolitiFact noted that Harris spokesperson Michael Tyler told Fox News hosts on Sept. 10, “[t]hat questionnaire is not what she is proposing or running on.” (RELATED: Kamala Harris Claims There Are Zero U.S. Troops In Combat Zones In War Zones)

The Atlantic changed the wording from “falsely suggested” to “suggested” after Check Your Fact inquired, but did not issue a correction. After Check Your Fact published this article, The Atlantic then issued an update to their own article, stating,“This article has been updated to include Harris’s past policy positions on medical care for federal prisoners and detainees.”

“To be clear, in 2019, Harris did tell the ACLU in response to a questionnaire that she supports policies that allow federal prisoners and detainees to “obtain medically necessary care for gender transition, including surgical care, while incarcerated or detained,” reads the updated copy.

A spokesperson for The Atlantic directed Check Your Fact to the updated copy.

Susan Glasser, the author of the New Yorker article, told a Trump campaign official that the “view expressed in the column that this was a memorable line and also one that would be hard as heck for someone in the audience to understand what the former president meant by it,” according to messages reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon.

“Despite this back and forth I still have no idea what the heck the former president was talking about. Kind of like claiming she is a Marxist. Or saying she supports abortions of babies—after they are born. Are you retracting those claims and correcting the record on them? Thanks,” Glasser further said to the Trump campaign official, per the Free Beacon.

The New Yorker did not respond to a request for comment. Check Your Fact reached out to the Trump campaign, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Update 9/12/2024: This article has been updated to note that the Atlantic updated its own article to note Harris’s answers on the 2019 ACLU questionnaire and that it responded to CYF’s inquiry.