I realize that Katie and Julio have both covered this flare-up, and you should start by reading their posts. I'm just amazed by the depth the progressive hive-mind's dishonesty. Let's back up for a moment. The Biden border crisis has been directly caused by this administration's policies, incentives and rhetoric. Their various excuses ("seasonality") and "root cause" "solutions" have fallen by the wayside. The ongoing, massive surge of illegal immigrants is simply the result of many people in Mexico, Central America, and elsewhere around the world hearing and receiving a clear message, coupled with American leadership that is uninterested in serious enforcement. For months, the numbers have ballooned to historic levels. Border officials are overwhelmed, with some even leaving their own posts and checkpoints to help process the crush of unlawful entrants in hotspots. In addition to the more than 1.2 million illegal immigrant encounters US agents have logged since Biden took office, tens of thousands of known "got-aways" are exploiting the unsustainable chaos and slipping into the country illegally – to say nothing of unknown or undetected got-aways. Throughout all of this, the media has paid relatively scant attention. They covered some of it early on, then promptly moved on. The story isn't fully blacked out; it's significantly downplayed.
Many of the people who were the most dramatic preeners during Trump-era immigration challenges have fallen conspicuously silent. The parade of Democrats making attention-seeking pilgrimages to the border for anguished photo-ops, and to accuse the United States of "crimes against humanity" (click through for the source of that soundbyte) has dried up. Among progressive politicians and their "blue checkmark" media allies, this story is no longer helpful, even though (or especially because) it has demonstrably gotten far worse than it has been in decades, let alone under the last presidency. But that all changed on Monday during a quick, tempestuous news cycle. An erroneous report from a local Texas journalist, plus images misunderstood by people wholly unfamiliar with the subject matter, finally offered an opportunity for performative indignation about the border crisis. Not real or faux indignation about the existence of the crisis itself, the serial violations of US sovereignty, or the repulsive conditions playing out at the border. Not real or faux fury at the food and labor shortages spiraling due to the crisis, or the COVID double standards at play. No, the anger was directed at a "safe" and familiar target: Border Patrol. Look at them whipping these Haitians! It's an ugly echo of slavery! The White House pronounced itself aghast and called the situation "unacceptable":
White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said that footage appearing to show border patrol agents using whips against Haitian migrants coming into the United States from Mexico was unacceptable and not appropriate https://t.co/NJpcRnV3vM pic.twitter.com/DgR8NrTRR9
— Reuters (@Reuters) September 20, 2021
Psaki called the footage "horrible," but gave herself a little bit of wiggle room on the context. Progressive activist Yamiche Alcindor, whose press credentials are provided by taxpayer-funded PBS, demanded to know if the "whipping" agents would be fired. "Of course, they should never be able to do it again," Psaki responded. "I don’t know what the circumstances would be. It’s obviously horrific, the footage." Alcindor pressed her on why she wouldn't commit to the word "fired." Perhaps because the very basis of the questions was bogus, as you'll see below. There were no whips. Human beings were not whipped. Officers on horseback used reins to control their horses. Freeze frames at certain angles may have contributed to this misplaced panic, but even a cursory review of the footage, including by ignoramuses like yours truly, clearly show this was not even close to a case of wild-eyed lawmen cracking whips at "Black and Brown Bodies" – which is precisely how it was framed by Team Blue, of course. Click and scroll. Squad members, US Senators, and countless lefty media types. On and on. This was the actual reality:
One Border Patrol agent slammed the viral tweet, telling Fox News, "We do not carry whips and the only thing I see in their hands is reins." The agent added, "BP does an excellent job when it comes to use of force training. There is no way a horse patrol unit would be whipping aliens. Whips are not issued or authorized for use."
Even the president's hapless, gaslighting DHS chief felt compelled to set the record straight. This clarification was issued on the same day that the firestorm was raging:
Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas denied Monday that Border Patrol agents used whips to prevent Haitian migrants from crossing the Rio Grande to reach an encampment set up under a Texas bridge where thousands of other migrants have gathered. However, Mayorkas and Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz told reporters in Del Rio, Texas Monday that they saw nothing obviously wrong with how the agents acted based on initial viewings of the images and footage. Mayorkas explained that agents use long reins — not whips — to control their horses, while Ortiz cited the difficulty in distinguishing migrants from smugglers as people move back and forth near the river.
By this morning, Mayorkas had apparently gotten the "horrified" memo:
Memo received.
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) September 21, 2021
DHS Sec yesterday: Guys, the officers were using reins to control their horses, not whips on people: https://t.co/ekls2Q7X6U
DHS Sec today: I am "horrified," and images I contextualized & debunked yesterday now "trouble me profoundly." https://t.co/4RSnVmrztz
Just as he did with Julio yesterday, Mayorkas stuck with the talking point that there is no border crisis in the same CNN interview. They are committed to the bit, even as their point person on the crisis is nowhere to be found, although she did find the time to flip a coin at a college football game while fully masked outdoors over the weekend, so there's that. I'll leave you with this justifiably exasperated assessment of the Left/media's transparently political and mendacious reaction to the "whips" lie, having scrupulously and dutifully averted their gaze from the unfolding border disaster for months (content warning for language):
They didn't care about these people, sitting for 4 days in these conditions, until they could use it somehow to make a point about border agents. The malfeasance is astounding. It's shameless, and they know what they are doing.
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) September 21, 2021
They all awoke from their collective slumber and instantly mobilized, leaping at an opportunity to demonize Border Patrol agents, based on half-baked misinformation. Why don't they trust us, they'll wonder aloud at their next panel discussion on combating misinformation and the future of media.
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