Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin appeared to contradict her own outlet over the weekend by publishing a piece that defended the Biden administration calling the current, overwhelming border surge "seasonal."
"The administration was caught flat-footed by the issue, but it made clear that the number of arrivals kept pace with the usual seasonal trends plus some pent-up demand to leave Central America due to two hurricanes and the pandemic. Biden officials vowed to get things under control," Rubin writes.
And yet, as her colleague Nick Miroff noted in his own reporting last week, the "seasonal" claim is inaccurate.
"At a March 25 news conference, Biden falsely described the increase as a seasonal norm, not a result of his policies or approach," Miroff wrote last week. "'The truth of the matter is: Nothing has changed,'" Biden said. "'It happens every single, solitary year.'"
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For good reason, Miroff said, "there are widespread worries" about Biden's management of the U.S. southern border. As of now, a record 21,000 young adults and children are in HHS shelters. Customs and Border Protection has projected that 184,000 unaccompanied children could reach the border in 2021.
Rubin admits that the number of migrants "is still at historic highs." But, she asks, if children "are processed swiftly and humanely and given a chance at a far better life than what they fled, is it a 'crisis'"? Yes, according to Republican lawmakers, several of whom say the root cause of the unstable situation was Biden's decision to reverse several of President Trump's border policies, such as the "Remain in Mexico" policy, which kept migrants in Mexico while they awaited their court hearings.
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And yet in her piece Rubin gives Biden the benefit of the doubt, insisting that the president repeatedly and emphatically told migrants not to come to the United States. When asked by PBS' Yamiche Alcindor about how some migrants may be making their way to the States because they consider the president to be a "moral, decent man" and more open to their arrival, however, Biden said he was "flattered" by the sentiment.
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Like Rubin, White House chief of staff Ron Klain tried to argue on Sunday that the current crisis wasn't his boss's fault.
"People who are sending their children here unaccompanied, children as young as 6, 7 years old, coming here with no adult who are sent on a dangerous journey — I don't think that is because of a speech Joe Biden gave," Klain told "Face the Nation." "I think it is because of horrible conditions in El Salvador and Guatemala and Honduras."
The border has proven to be one of Biden's Achilles heels. In a recent Fox News poll, respondents gave him abysmal grades on his handling of the crisis.