Fox News’ senior White House correspondent challenged Friday White House press secretary Jen Psaki on the reason President Joe Biden has not once visited the U.S. southern border crippled with a crisis.
“Why hasn’t President Biden ever visited the southern border?” Doocy asked Psaki during Friday’s press briefing. “What would you like him to do at the southern border and what impact do you think that would have on the policies?” Psaki fired back.
“What would you like him to do at the southern border, and what impact do you think that would have on the policies?” — Jen Psaki to Peter Doocy’s question about why Biden hasn’t personally visited the border pic.twitter.com/XdBrJIXsON
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 24, 2021
“Why doesn’t he wanna go?” Doocy pressed further.
Psaki then suggested that Biden’s approach to the issue was formed on the basis of “what’s most constructive to address what we see as a challenging situation at the border and a broken immigration system.”
She added that the president preferred to be focused on advancing immigration reform and handling the institutional challenges inherited from the previous administration.
Additionally, Psaki claimed that Biden did not need to make trips to the border as he is kept up to date by a “team of advisors who have been to the border multiple times.” (RELATED: Doocy, Psaki Trade Blows Over Border Crisis, Pregnant Migrants During Heated Back-And-Forth)
The Friday exchange followed Doocy’s question during Wednesday’s press briefing, where he wondered if Biden had ever visited the U.S.-Mexico border in his life, to which Psaki could not give a definitive response, promising to look into it.
Doocy pointed out Wednesday that unlike the epicenters of issues such as hurricanes or wildfires where Biden likes to go himself, he never paid a visit to the southern border engulfed in a crisis.