Mercedes Schlapp makes CBS issue correction for claiming Biden adviser ‘first Latina in top West Wing role’

Mercedes Schlapp was a senior adviser to President Trump during his time in office. 

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On Wednesday, former Trump administration senior adviser Mercedes Schlapp called out CBS News senior White House and political correspondent Ed O’Keefe for incorrectly reporting that soon-to-be appointed White House adviser Julie Chavez Rodriguez will the “first Latina” to hold such a high role.

Schlapp, a conservative political consultant, slammed O’Keefe’s reporting on Twitter, pointing out that she was a “senior adviser and assistant to the president” when Trump was in office. CBS News corrected the article soon after.

O’Keefe broke the initial version of story to Twitter on Wednesday morning, tweeting, “FIRST FROM @CBSNews: @POTUS Biden is promoting @JulieCR46 to senior adviser and assistant to the president, making her the most senior #Latina to ever serve in a West Wing staff job.” 

CBS News incorrectly reported Wednesday that Julie Rodriguez was the first Latina senior adviser to the president in history, though Mercedes Schlapp and Cecilia Munoz held that position before.

His tweet shared a link to the article. The piece’s description featured the claim, “She will be the first Latina to ever hold this kind of top West Wing staffing role.”

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However, Schlapp – an American of Cuban descent – responded to O’Keefe’s tweet indicating that she held that position during the last administration. She tweeted, “This is inaccurate reporting. President Trump appointed me as a senior adviser and assistant to the president.  Im a Latina [that] worked in the West wing.”

Schlapp worked as President Trump’s senior adviser for strategic communications, after being appointed in late 2017.

She provided another fact-check to the CBS reporter’s tweet, writing, “Cecilia Munoz also served as senior advisor under President Obama. @edokeefe.” NBC News reported that Munoz, whose parents emigrated from Bolivia to the U.S., was “was a top adviser to Obama on immigration” during the 44th president’s time in office.

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Former White House domestic policy adviser Cecilia Munoz served as a top aide to former President Obama on the issue of immigration. (2012 Getty Images)

Confirming Schlapp’s fact-check, CBS News issued a correction to its piece on Wednesday afternoon.  It stated, “Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly said Rodriguez would be the first Latina to hold a top West Wing staffing role.”

The updated language in the piece read, “President Biden is naming Julie Chavez Rodriguez to serve as a White House senior adviser, putting her on par with some of his most senior and longest-serving aides and making her one of the rare Latinas to hold a top West Wing staffing role.”

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Conservative pundit Giancarlo Sopo, who recently encouraged the Associated Press to issue a correction over their inaccurate story about a deceased Miami radio host, commented on Schlapp’s tweet. He wrote, “Honestly, I don’t even blame Ed for this. Team Latinx probably told him she’s the first Hispanic senior advisor and he took them at their word because who would lie about such a thing? This is the Biden White House’s response to Mayra Flores’ victory.”

Matt and Mercedes Schlapp at CPAC’s private green room backstage at The Rosen Shingle Creek in Orlando, Florida.  (Fox News Digital)

Gabriel Hays is an associate editor at Fox News. Follow him on Twitter at @gabrieljhays.