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Obama Takes Shot At Biden: ‘The Idea That We Can Just Have Open Borders’ Is ‘Unsustainable’

   DailyWire.com
Former US President Barack Obama speaks as Governor of Illinois J.B Pritzker listens during a groundbreaking ceremony for the Obama Presidential Center at Jackson Park on September 28, 2021 in Chicago, Illinois. - The 700-million-dollar project has been six years in the making and the center is scheduled to open in 2025.
KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI/AFP via Getty Images

Former President Barack Obama took a shot at President Joe Biden during an ABC News interview on Tuesday as Biden struggles to grapple with the crisis on the U.S.-Mexico border that many say was caused by Biden’s policies and rhetoric.

In speaking with “Good Morning America” co-anchor Robin Roberts, Obama said that the horrifying images of as many as 15,000 illegal aliens being trapped under a bridge in Del Rio, Texas, at one time — and up to 30,000 in the area in total since September 9 — were “a painful reminder that we don’t have this right yet and we’ve got more work to do.”

Obama said that while Biden was “big-hearted,” that it was time to “get serious about dealing with this problem in a systemic way, as opposed to these one-offs where we’re constantly reacting to emergencies.”

“Immigration is tough. It always has been because, on the one hand, I think we are naturally a people that wants to help others. And we see tragedy and hardship and families that are desperately trying to get here so that their kids are safe, and they’re in some cases fleeing violence or catastrophe,” Obama added. “At the same time, we’re a nation state. We have borders. The idea that we can just have open borders is something that … as a practical matter, is unsustainable.”

Obama’s comments come as illegal aliens have flooded the border in record numbers under Biden, according to the Department of Homeland Security. The last two months alone have seen more than 200,000 apprehensions of illegal aliens each month by federal law enforcement officials.

Obama has covertly — and repeatedly — knifed Biden in the media with leaked quotes aimed at Biden’s competency, which Politico highlighted in a report last year:

Yet searing, anonymously sourced quotes from Obama kept appearing through the race. One Democrat who spoke to Obama recalled the former president warning, “Don’t underestimate Joe’s ability to fuck things up.” Speaking of his own waning understanding of today’s Democratic electorate, especially in Iowa, Obama told one 2020 candidate: “And you know who really doesn’t have it? Joe Biden.”

The New York Times reported in 2019 that Obama repeatedly “took pains to cast his doubts about” Biden’s “campaign in personal terms’:

“You don’t have to do this, Joe, you really don’t,” Mr. Obama told Mr. Biden earlier this year, according to a person familiar with the exchange. Mr. Biden — who thinks he could have defeated Donald Trump four years ago — responded by telling Mr. Obama he could never forgive himself if he turned down a second shot at Mr. Trump. …

In March, Mr. Obama took the unusual step of summoning Mr. Biden’s top campaign advisers, including the former White House communications director Anita Dunn and Mr. Biden’s longtime spokeswoman, Kate Bedingfield, to his Washington office for a briefing on the campaign’s digital and communications strategy with members of his own staff, including his senior adviser, Eric Schultz.

When they were done, Mr. Obama offered a pointed reminder, according to two people with knowledge of his comments: Win or lose, they needed to make sure Mr. Biden did not “embarrass himself” or “damage his legacy” during the campaign.

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