On Tuesday (November 22), White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre dismissed politicians visiting the U.S. Southern border with Mexico as a “political stunt.”
Her comments came in response to a question about House Minority Leader’s Kevin McCarthy visit to the U.S.-Mexico border. McCarthy had visited the Southern border earlier on Tuesday.
The backdrop of McCarthy’s visit is an unprecedented border crisis.
Despite others in Congress having visited the border, President Joe Biden is yet to visit the Southern border two years into his Presidency.
When confronted with questions about McCarthy’s presence at the border, Jean-Pierre explained she had a question for Mcarthy — who she referred to as “soon to be Speaker McCarthy.” She queried what his plans were and what McCarthy was “doing to help the situation that we’re seeing.”
Jean-Pierre then noted that McCarthy “did a political stunt, like many Republicans do” by visiting the Southern border but hadn’t “put forth a plan.”
She then heightened her attack on McCarthy and the GOP, saying neither had any plans and were only capable of “political stunts,” saying, “They do nothing but political stunts.”
In October alone, there were 230,000 border encounters, according to data by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection. October’s figures broke the previous record that was set the month prior.
October’s figures are also indicative of the general atmosphere of immigration since Biden took office.
September’s data from the CBP also shows the 2022 fiscal year ended with 2,378,944 migrant encounters, which excludes 599,000 known “gotaways.”
