The performance of White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre makes Donald Trump’s spokesman Sean Spicer seem like a rock star.
A reporter asked Jean-Pierre during a Thursday press briefing about control of the southern border. “Crossings are up,” the reporter noted. “Drownings along the border are increasing. We’ve been to one town recently where the morgue is overwhelmed by migrant deaths.”
The reporter asked if the administration was confident and if it felt the border situation is under control.
“Are you doing enough?”
“So what we have been doing is doing the work that wasn’t done by the last administration,” the press secretary replied. “We are fixing a broken system. … More individuals encountered at the border will be removed or expelled this year than in any previous year.”
Fast forward to Friday’s White House press briefing where Fox News correspondent Jacqui Heinrich pressed Jean-Pierre about blaming Donald Trump for the current border mess.
“Yesterday, you repeatedly blamed the Trump administration for what we’re seeing at the southern border but the record crossings have been happening under President Biden,” Heinrich began. “One migrant we interviewed yesterday thanked the president for keeping the border open. So I just want to confirm, the way that this administration sees it, ending Remain in Mexico or Title 42 had nothing to do with the surge that we’re seeing?”
Jean-Pierre responded that the Biden administration added 23,000 border agents to secure the border and has taken a record number of migrants into custody for processing. She added more migrants will be expelled at the border this year than ever before.
The Fox reporter wondered if the record number of expulsions was a result of the unprecedented surge of illegal aliens across the southern border since Joe Biden became president.
“Yes, and they’re also being encountered. Individuals encountered are also being removed or expelled in this year than any previous year,” she retorted.
Heinrich returned to Jean-Pierre’s remarks about how Republican governors shipping illegal aliens to Northern cities “used them as political pawns, treated them like chattel in a cruel, premeditated political stunt.”
“Why would the President turn down a DHS plan then to move migrants to the northern border to relieve some of the crowding at the southern border?” the Fox reporter asked.
“I just — I was just asked about this question,” the press secretary replied, “that’s been already asked and answered.”
The correspondent persisted, asking, “So, he hasn’t turned it down?”
“I literally just answered that question,” Jean-Pierre said.
Heinrich stated he didn’t understand what her answer was and again asked her if President Biden turned down the plan. The press secretary told him he could review the briefing transcript when the press conference ended
“So you won’t clarify whether the President –” the reporter started before Jean-Pierre interjected.
“I literally — Jacqui, I just answered that question,” she said.
The same scenario was repeated another three times with similar results.
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