During a Wednesday, January 24 appearance on Fox News Channel’s “The Story,” White House spokesperson John Kirby was taken to task by Fox News Channel host Martha MacCallum. MacCallum grilled Kirby over the situation at the border, demanding answers as to the state of border defense and the number of border crossings since Biden took office.
Particularly, MacCallum noted that a huge number of the Republican voters in the New Hampshire primary and Iowa caucus had listed immigration as an important issue for them, with many listing it as their most important issue. She also noted that the issue has ballooned in scope, becoming a far larger problem than it has in much of the past.
Speaking on that, MacCallum said that Joe Biden has “been president for three years” and the situation has gotten worse and worse. She said, noting that the immigration is growing out of control and getting far worse than it was in the past, “This is not just the same old immigration issue we’ve had going on for a decade as he said the other day.”
Continuing, she went on to note that the record numbers of the border disaster have led to even voters in states far from the border treating it as an important issue. She said, “ These are record numbers all the time. And people in Iowa and New Hampshire are the ones that are expressing concerns about it. This isn’t Arizona and Texas. This is Iowa and New Hampshire. I don’t think that people sense that there’s an urgency to address this.”
Kirby, for his part, claimed that Biden is doing all he can and that really it’s the Republican-controlled Congress which is to blame for the state of the border. He told her, “He has taken some executive actions. But there’s a limit to what executive action can do. And we really need support from Congress. We really need additional legislative action here, new laws.”
Continuing, Kirby argued that Biden has been in favor of “reform” since “day one,” telling her, “And quite frankly, on day one, he put forward a new immigration reform, proposed legislation that hasn’t been acted on. So, we gotta act in partnership with Congress. And I’ll tell you, the discussions that we’re having on the Senate side are progressing well.”
MacCallum called Kirby on that, shooting back, “They’re not really moving along well,” referring to the state of the talks and negotiations. Continuing, she said, “You say he’s been concerned about it for three years, but that’s failing, obviously. When you have record numbers of people coming in, that means the policy’s failing. So, why not change gears and try to do something that works?”
Slightly later in the interview, MacCallum hit Kirby with a knockout blow of a question, asking, “John, do we have a border? Do we have a southern border?” Responding, he asked, “Do we have a what?” She didn’t back down, again asking, “Do we have a southern border?” Kirby, for his part, insisted that America does have a border, telling her, “Yes, ma’am. Of course we do.”
But she didn’t buy it. Firing back, she said, “Then how come people can flow across it every single day? Hundreds of thousands of people? 300,000 people in December.” Kirby claimed the President is trying to fix that, telling her, “We’re working very hard to try to fix that, Martha. That’s why we need congressional action. That’s why the president asked for additional funding – $6 billion in the supplemental to try to get border security enhanced. I think– you and I are obviously not going to see the policy solutions the same way, and I respect that.” Still not buying his explanations, MacCallum fired back, “Well, I’m just looking for results. If you’re concerned about the number of people crossing, you’re not getting results. So, at some point, you have to say we gotta do something different.”
Watch their back and forth here:
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video
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