White House points at GOP when pressed on record border crossings

The White House again pointed the finger at Republicans amid record illegal crossings at the southern border.

A group of more than five dozen House Republicans, including Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), visited the border this week, with Johnson telling reporters during his trip that President Joe Biden’s decision to reverse Trump-era policies “began this chaos.”

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White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre turned that around, saying Biden’s attempts to rein in border crossings have been frustrated by Republicans.

“The president understands that there’s a problem at the border,” she said. “He put forth on his first day something to deal with that problem. What we continue to see from Speaker Johnson and Republicans … House Republicans decided to vote on a bill that would cut 2,000 Border Patrol agents at the border. And that’s what they did.”

Conservatives in both the House and Senate are threatening to shut down the government unless Democrats and Biden agree to their demands on border security. The threat comes as lawmakers struggle to reach a deal on border policy changes that could unlock GOP support for aid to Ukraine and Israel.

Jean-Pierre pointed to the fact that the House went into recess last month without brokering a deal with the Senate and White House as evidence that they’re not sincere about their demands.

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“While Senate Republicans and Democrats, in a bipartisan way, are trying to find a bipartisan agreement to deal with border security, you have House Republicans who left — they left! — in the middle of December,” she said. “And I think they come back next week. Maybe they’ll get some work done. Instead, they’re playing politics.”

Republicans have countered that Biden could take executive action today to stem the flow and that his decision to end policies such as “Remain in Mexico” led to the influx in the first place.