On Tuesday’s broadcast of NPR’s “Here and Now,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre responded to a question on whether President Joe Biden is making a shift in an election year from vowing to make the U.S. a “safe haven for refugees and asylum seekers” to promising to “shut down the border” by citing poll numbers.
Co-host Scott Tong played audio of Biden vowing to “immediately end Trump’s assault on the dignity of immigrant communities. We’re going to restore our moral standing in the world and our historic role as a safe haven for refugees and asylum seekers” and contrasted that with Biden’s recent vow to “shut down the border” if he could do so.
Tong then asked, “Karine, the President now is talking about new authority to shut down the border. How is that consistent with America’s moral standing?”
Jean-Pierre responded, “I think it’s very consistent. … Look, here’s where we are today: We need to make sure that Congress acts, that we put together a bipartisan agreement that is going to be, we believe, fair, but also tough. The President, for the past couple of months, his team has been working with senators…to deal with a challenge that we’re seeing at the border, and let’s not forget, a broken immigration system. We need to overhaul that system. And the President has always said, and even through this past three years of this administration, the way that he has moved forward with what he has been able to do from the federal government, he’s made sure that it is done in a humane way. We’ve expanded legal pathways for folks to be able to come to this country in a legal way. But we also have to have deterrence.”
Tong then asked about statements from Democrats who say that Biden has changed and asked, “If this is what the allies of the White House are saying, how can the American people not see this as a political shift in an election year?”
Jean-Pierre answered, “So, let’s be really clear, if you look at the polling, 75% of Americans want this to be dealt with. And if you look at the results in 2022, the midterm elections, they said they want to make sure that we continue to fight for our freedom and democracy, of course, but deal with issues in a bipartisan way. Obviously, we respect the opinion of all the folks that you just named. We’re in touch with a lot of these folks. The President’s team here at the White House continues to have conversations with folks…and I think the shift here actually, the shift has been from House Republicans, from Republicans in Congress, who say that they don’t want to work in a bipartisan way, that this agreement, they want to walk away from it.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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