Former Democratic strategist James Carville said Tuesday that he was “not overly” thrilled with President Joe Biden’s planned visit to the southern border.
Biden and former President Donald Trump plan to visit the southern border Thursday in dueling trips as the border crisis becomes a major campaign issue, Axios reported. Carville told CNN host Jim Acosta that he was “not overly” glad about the president’s plans to visit the southern border.
“Are you glad the president is making that trip?” Acosta asked.
“Well, Jim, not overly,” Carville told Acosta. “I just was in El Paso for a couple of days, and the view there is that everybody’s gotta show up, and I guess it shows that he’s committed.”
“The border has become a giant photo-op,” Carville continued. “And I’m just kind of sensitive to those issues, because I know right after a hurricane we have down here sometimes people show up too early, and it distracts resources.”
“I don’t think that’d be the case, but everybody is, the border is one of the stations across now,” Carville continued. “Everybody’s gotta stop by there.”
Carville said the president should talk about the “torpedoing” of the bipartisan border security bill by congressional Republicans. The abandoned 370-page bill appropriated $118 billion total, pairing $48 billion in foreign aid to Ukraine and nearly $16 billion in foreign aid to Israel with the border crisis. (RELATED: CNN Panelist Jonah Goldberg Says Biden’s Border Policies Expose ‘The Strings On The Puppet’)
Biden, who last visited the southern border in Jan. 2023, plans to travel to Brownsville, Texas. Trump plans to deliver remarks from Eagle Pass, Texas, according to Axios.
An illegal migrant allegedly murdered University of Georgia (UGA) student Laken Riley in late February after she had gone missing. Riley had gone for a run but failed to return, prompting her friend to ask police to conduct a wellness report.
The United States has seen a surge in border crossings under the Biden administration. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) recorded the highest monthly total, 302,034 encounters, at both ports of entry and between ports of entry at the U.S.-Mexico border in Dec. 2023.