Jen Psaki Says Admits Biden’s Border EO Is Political: They Knew They Would Have To Do Something Before the Election

GEIST: “One could ask too, speaking of empty promises why Donald Trump didn’t actually build that wall he promised over the course of two years of a campaign and when he controlled Washington for the first two years of his administration. So Jen, you’re well-informed analysis of how the White House came to this executive order. What’s your sense? Do they get their arms around the fact that there is a crisis at the border, something has to change, mixed a little bit with election year politics?”
PSAKI: “Yeah. Look, I think there are a couple of things that are true at the same time. One, the system, the border is broken for a range of reasons, including security being broken at the border, the wall is not going to fix that. I mean, technology is advanced, I would say over the past couple of decades, there’s lots of technology that can be used to secure the border, that’s part of what needs to happen. If you’re in the minds of the White House, you want to do that, also pairing with a more humane asylum system, which is completely broken and unfair to the people who are seeking asylum and trying to come across the border. They knew I think, as soon as that deal fell apart, which just to reiterate with Chris — what Chris Matthews was saying, was because Donald Trump called Mike Johnson and said, ‘Kill the deal.’ And Mike Johnson said, ‘Yes, sir, I will kill the deal.’ That — that’s why it happened. It was a deal that was so conservative, and Democrats gave so much on that many Republicans were saying, ‘Wow, I can’t believe we got all of these things.’ And a lot of Democrats were mad about it. They knew in that moment, they had to do something. The border — there needs to be something that’s done, but also politically, this is one of the biggest vulnerabilities and regardless of who’s mad about the details of what’s in here and what isn’t in here, it’s a political vulnerability for the president and his campaign. They know that. They knew they would have to do something like an executive order before the election politically as well. And that’s — that’s what we’re seeing play out.”