Watch: Fox's Fisher Hits Psaki with Tough Border Question, Psaki Goes 'Low and Personal'
White House press secretary Jen Psaki took the low road on Wednesday and took a valid question personal after a Fox News reporter asked her about the humanitarian crisis the Biden White House administration has created along the country’s southern border.
Questions about that crisis have been more frequent in recent days as the “compassionate” Democrats have taken what was a gift on the border from former President Donald Trump and made it into an unnecessary catastrophe. That quagmire has thus far defined President Joe Biden’s first two months in office.
The once-stable border with Mexico is now a human highway of illegal immigrants, many of them children, seeking entry into the country. The message these people are receiving has essentially been, “Come one, come all!”
Despite the Democrats and the mainstream media attacking Trump for four years over “kids in cages,” new reports show that, under the Biden administration, ever more migrant children are being held in facilities that are remarkably similar to jails.
CBS News reported Wednesday there were 13,000 such children being stowed away in cramped and potentially unsanitary quarters. Even the leftist legacy outlet framed the story as one that might forever stain Biden’s young presidency.
“Less than two months into his tenure, President Biden is facing a daunting test at the U.S.-Mexico border, one with acute humanitarian implications that could overshadow his administration’s successes in other areas,” CBS’ Camilo Montoya-Galvez wrote.
“Unlike his Republican and Democratic predecessors, Mr. Biden’s challenges at the southern border have arisen during a once-in-a-generation public health crisis, compounding the difficulty in quickly remedying the situation.”
The situation is critical when the failings of a far-left administration are forcing CBS News to do its job. The border situation is an unmitigated disaster, and so when Fox News correspondent Kristin Fisher asked Psaki about it, she tried to turn the question back on the reporter.
Fisher knocked Psaki off balance with an opening question about rumors that the Biden administration had issued a verbal gag order preventing Department of Homeland Security agents from showing reporters the true scope of the border disaster.
“[Y]ou all came in and promised to be the most truthful and transparent administration. And you all, you know, oversee the Department of Homeland Security. So if you all wanted to grant access to the press, couldn’t you just tell DHS to do it?” Fisher asked, according to an official White House transcript.
Psaki offered a sterilized answer about how much the administration just dotes over being transparent — as if any person without a blindfold on believes that at this point.
Then, the routine blaming of former President Donald Trump reared its ugly head. After being asked about Biden inundating border town and city residents with thousands of migrants, Psaki claimed Biden “inherited a dismantled system that wasn’t prepared for processing asylum requests.”
“We are working to repair what has been an unprepared and dismantled system. It’s going to take some time. Our policy is that we’re obviously going to continue to make sure we’re working through our laws and the border is not open,” she said. “But we also, as you know, have changed our policy to approach it in a more humane way and keep kids safe, and that requires putting in place more effective and efficient processing at the border.”
Then, the situation got ugly — for Fisher.
“So is there a limit or a cap to the number of unaccompanied minors that are going to be allowed into the U.S.?” Fisher asked.
“So should we send some kids, who are 10, back at a certain point? Is that what you’re asking me?” Psaki fired back, as though the treatment of children was the reporter’s responsibility — not the responsibility of the children’s parents, their parents’ own governments, or the Biden administration.
Newsbusters Managing Editor Curtis Houck summed up the exchange in a Twitter post: “Fox’s Kristin Fisher asked Jen Psaki a basic question … but Psaki went low and personal.”
Fox’s Kristin Fisher asked Jen Psaki a basic question if there’s “a limit or cap to the number of unaccompanied minors…allowed in,” but Psaki went low and personal: “Should we send some kids who are 10 back at a certain point? Is that what you’re asking me?” pic.twitter.com/wzyS9OffgJ
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) March 17, 2021
“I’m not setting the policy here; I’m just asking you what the Biden administration’s policy is,” Fisher rightly pointed out.
“Is there a limit to the number of children that will be allowed in? I mean, the numbers we’re hearing now: 565 on average, every day. I’m just curious what the — what the endgame is here. How many, ultimately, would be allowed in?”
Psaki had nothing after that but more blame the former president over Biden’s child migrant crisis.
Fisher was correct, of course. Reporters don’t set policy — at least not Fox News reporters, who have done a superb job with regard to forcing coverage of the Biden child migrant crisis while much of the rest of the mainstream media has essentially given the Biden White House a pass on its handling of the situation.
But could you believe that response from Psaki? The inept press secretary of the hermit president actually attempted to make the issue a personal one for Fisher. This is what the left is; authoritarianism with a smile and a tone of intimidation when cornered by someone it can’t control.
Biden created a mess on Trump’s once-model border. That disaster is now the shame of the country. When asked about it, the true face of the Biden administration could only issue a tacit message.
That message was clear: Don’t ask, and we won’t smear you as a person who wants us to let children die alone in the desert.
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