Vice President Kamala Harris had a bad start the week with a momentary clip of her laughing off a reporter’s question about whether or not she’ll visit the border with President Joe Biden. The optics were terrible, to say the least.
According to the Washington Examiner, Harris sat for what appeared to be a damage control interview on Wednesday morning, telling CBS News that she believes the situation on the border is a “huge problem,” while vowing to eventually take a trip to the border with Biden.
What did she say?
The Biden administration seems to be slowly ramping up their descriptors of what’s actually happening at the border, but still hasn’t arrived at the point where they’ll label it a “crisis” like the rest of the country and the mainstream media already has.
“Look, it’s a huge problem. I’m not going to pretend it’s not,” Harris said on Wednesday. “Are we looking at overcrowding at the border in particular of these kids? Yes.”
Harris went on to say that the overwhelming number of unaccompanied, illegal migrant children should not be in the custody of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), rather, they should be under the wing of the U.S. Health and Human Services Department, ideally.
Given the sheer number of minors crossing the border, resources are obviously overwhelmed and federal agencies are clearly unable to process them fast enough, which has led to gross overcrowding of available facilities and has resulted in minors being held long-past the 72-hour legally mandated maximum detention time.
The vice president didn’t sound hopeful in her assessment of the crisis, saying “This is, however, not going to be solved overnight.”
Surprise visit
In what also appeared to be an attempt at damage control, the White House announced on Wednesday that a contingent of staffers and members of Congress will make a “surprise visit” to a minor holding facility in Carrizo Springs, Texas.
In what would usually be an event followed by a group of reporters, including those in the White House press pool, the Biden administration said that only one camera reporter will be allowed to accompany the group — a move that continues to raise questions about its campaign promises to be “transparent” with the public.
It’s clear to anyone in the media and anyone paying attention that the moves being made by the Biden administration are strategic with regard to controlling the narrative of what’s actually taking place on the border right now.
The administration took another massive PR hit on Monday when a number of photos were released by Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX), a moderate Democrat, which showed the extreme overcrowding conditions inside of what he said were called “pods” where unaccompanied minors are held.
Only time will tell if Harris and Biden are able to find the time to visit the border to see for themselves just how bad it’s becoming, but it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen anytime soon.
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