White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre recently dispelled the idea that Joe Biden’s visit to the Southern Border was for political purposes amid the harsh criticism his administration has received over rampant illegal immigration. KJP further claimed that the GOP is “getting in the way” of Democrat’s efforts to secure the border.
This past week, both President Biden and leading GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump made visits to the overwhelmed Southern Border, strained by rampant illegal border crossings. Biden elected to visit Brownsville, Texas, while Trump chose to visit the embattled border town of Eagle Pass, Texas.
KJP addressed a question from a reporter suggesting that Biden’s visit was nothing more than a reaction to Trump’s scheduled visit to the U.S.-Mexico border. The scenario is reminiscent of when Biden was slammed for refusing to visit East Palestine, Ohio, when former President Trump made it a point to visit the struggling community following the catastrophic train derailment in early 2023.
KJP suggested that Congressional Republicans had rejected a possible solution to the border crisis, referring to the bipartisan Biden-backed border security deal pushed by the Senate. Trump and other prominent GOP legislatures criticized the bill for taking an insufficient approach toward securing the border.
“[The president] has said that when Republicans rejected that Senate bipartisan bill on border security, on the immigration policy to fix a broken system that has been broken for decades, he said he was going to take it directly to the American people and also at the same time, hear from law enforcement and frontline personnel who deal with this issue every day,” she said.
“This is not about politics for this president. This is about how we’re going to fix an issue that the majority of Americans care about, a broken immigration system, the challenges at the border. That’s why the president thought it was important to go at this time,” Jean-Pierre continued. “They consistently get in the way of what the president is trying to do to get more resources. They are turning this into a political stunt by listening to Donald Trump and saying that they need to kill it.”
KJP also deflected skepticism toward Biden deciding to visit the Southern Border during an election year ahead of November. Critics have pointed out that the border crisis is not a new issue; rather, it has been raging on since Biden took office. However, KJP alleged that Biden has pushed a “comprehensive immigration policy” since the beginning of his term. “He did that on the first day. That was his first piece of legislation. I would hope the American people would see how serious this president was or is about fixing this issue,” she said.
Watch KJP’s wild performance here:
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