It may be a new year, but the Biden administration's attempts to brush off criticism about the still-worsening crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border continue to fail.
On Thursday, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was again asked if the president accepted any responsibility for the chaos and multiple crises stemming from the record-breaking number of illegal immigrants streaming into the United States. Again, she didn't have much of an answer.
"Did any of the administration's policies contribute to the record number of border crossings?" Jean-Pierre was asked. All she came up with was: "The president understands that there's a problem at the border."
Granted, that answer is a bit better than the previous outright denials of a crisis and insistence that the border was under operational control — but it's still an attempt to avoid blame for the public health, drug, human trafficking, crime, and humanitarian crises Biden has created and allowed to balloon out of control.
"So is that a no?" the reporter asked as a followup after Jean-Pierre failed to answer the question.
"I have not seen any data that would show this," replied Biden's spokeswoman.
REPORTER: "Did any of the administration's policies contribute to the record number of border crossings?"
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) January 4, 2024
JEAN-PIERRE: "The president understands that there's a problem at the border."
REPORTER: "So is that a no?!"
JEAN-PIERRE: "I have not seen any data that would show this." pic.twitter.com/qsssCmTV2n
The answer was plain as can be for KJP in the question itself: December saw the most illegal immigrant encounters in any month — ever. That's the data. It means that Biden has overseen a border crisis that has repeatedly grown into the worst that's ever existed. President Biden's policies over the past three years have created the record-shattering woes now being recorded.
Those policies included using day-one executive orders to stop the construction of a border wall, call for amnesty for more than 10 million illegal immigrants in the U.S., and seek to stop deporting illegal immigrants. Since then, it's been more of the same, including pursuing legal action against Texas for doing what the Biden administration won't: securing the border and removing illegal immigrants.
The Biden White House, of course, has never shown itself capable of being accountable to Americans for the results of its policies. From inflation to the border to international chaos and beyond, Biden has never kept his word that the buck stops with him.
Despite the White House's rather weak efforts to shield Biden from accountability, the American people are largely in agreement that Biden and his policies are, in fact, to blame for the border crisis — and Biden's standing with Americans on the issue is only getting worse as the border crisis does the same.
As The Hill reported in December, "President Biden’s approval rating on immigration dropped 8 points since [November]" according to a Harvard CAPS-Harris poll that found "[j]ust 38 percent of registered voters...said they approved of Biden's handling of immigration." In November, 46 percent of Americans approved of Biden's handling of the border.
More from The Hill's report:
“Based on the polling on immigration, this is one of the key issues dragging down the president’s reputation, and he needs to make progress on this issue or face increasing consequences,” said Mark Penn, chairman of the Harvard CAPS-Harris poll.
But as Biden sees a drop in approval on the topic, voters also rank immigration among the most important problems facing the country.
Nearly 1 in 3 voters picked immigration as one of the nation’s top issues. It came in second only to price increases and inflation, which a third of voters named as a main problem.
Two-thirds said they think the number of monthly border crossings by illegal immigrants has increased since Biden took office — and 70 percent of voters, including 55 percent of Democrats, said they think the administration should impose “new, stricter” policies to reduce the flow of people into the country.
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