Vice President Kamala Harris has been running for president for just over a week, and most of that time has been spent attacking former President Donald Trump while media does the real heavy lifting: putting distance between Harris and policy positions she embraced either as a part of President Joe Biden’s administration or during her 2020 presidential campaign.

On Sunday, the policy in question was fracking — which Harris promised she would ban during her presidential campaign — and the outlet was Politico.

“Harris campaign pledges she won’t ban fracking after Trump accusation,” the headline read, and the text parroted the Harris campaign’s claim that the Trump campaign had made a false accusation even though Harris herself had done exactly what they said she had. Politico later dropped “after Trump accusation” from the headline.

“Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign pledged the likely Democratic presidential nominee would not ban fracking, rejecting what it called ‘false’ accusations by Donald Trump that she would prohibit the technology if elected president,” Ben Lefebvre wrote for the outlet.

“Trump’s false claims about fracking bans are an obvious attempt to distract from his own plans to enrich oil and gas executives at the expense of the middle class. The Biden-Harris Administration passed the largest ever climate change legislation and under their leadership, America now has the highest ever domestic energy production,” The Harris campaign said in a statement, and issued a later statement saying that she would not ban fracking.

But Harris said that she would ban the practice several times, and until Trump said something about it, she had not made any attempt to walk it back.

Make no mistake, Kamala Harris supports a ban on fracking. She said so multiple times.

Roll the tape: pic.twitter.com/eoNR9Eijgn

— Dave McCormick (@DaveMcCormickPA) July 29, 2024

This marks the second time in eight days that media has run cover for Harris, beginning with their repeated attempts to distance her from their own reporting on her elevation to Border Czar under President Biden.

American swimmer Nic Fink broke a 120-year-old Olympic record on Sunday when he tied British champion Adam Peaty for the silver medal in the men’s 100-meter breaststroke: he competed — and medaled — in the Olympic Games at the age of 31 while also holding down a day job.

In a finish that was almost too close to call, Italian swimmer Nicolo Martinenghi took the gold medal with a time of 59.03 and Fink — a New Jersey native — touched the wall at 59.05 seconds, exactly at the same time as the British defending champion.

“It’s kind of strange splitting a medal, but I’ve actually split a silver medal before in the 100 breast. It’s kind of funny how it’s happened again,” Fink said, referencing a three-way tie in the event that had occurred at the World Aquatics Championships in Japan in 2023.

“With Adam, he’s a legend in the sport, and it’s awesome to see his comeback and his return, and to share the podium with him — let alone the silver medal — is an awesome experience,” Fink added, giving a nod to Peaty’s recent break from competition to focus on his mental health. “To see Nicolo there as well, we’ve been racing together quite a while, so it’s really cool to share the podium with all those guys.”

But what made the event a record-breaker was neither the impressively fast time nor the fact that in a race where hundredths of a second count, there was a tie. It wasn’t even the fact that Fink holds a full-time job in addition to his rigorous training and competition schedules. On Sunday, at the age of 31, Fink became the oldest American swimmer to medal in the Olympic Games since 1904.

“At 31 years old, Fink became the oldest first-time U.S. Olympic swimming medalist in modern history — and the oldest in 120 years if you count 36-year-old Edgar Adams and his silver medal in the ‘plunge for distance’ from the 1904 Olympics in St. Louis,” SwimSwam reported.