Mainstream news networks, including left-leaning ABC News and CNN, repeatedly slammed the Biden administration during the Sunday morning news shows over the massive crisis that has unfolded on the southern border under President Joe Biden.
One of the key members of the Biden administration who appeared on the Sunday news shows was DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. Former President Donald Trump blasted Mayorkas’s “clueless performance,” saying that he was arrogant and a “national disgrace.”
ABC News host Martha Raddatz said at the start of “This Week” that despite the crisis-level numbers that the Biden administration is seeing that the media has not been allowed inside because the Biden administration has been restricting their access “despite promising transparency.”
Raddatz pressed Mayorkas during the interview, asking why he will not allow the media inside the detention facilities where thousands of children are being kept and asking if the media would be allowed in this week. Mayorkas did not answer when he would allow the media to see what was happening inside the facilities.
ABC’s Martha Raddatz confronts DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas: “if you’ve got this great plan, why will you not let the media in?”https://t.co/Lw36M3X9JX pic.twitter.com/dbhmJayHSF
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) March 21, 2021
ABC News reporter Terry Moran said that the Biden administration’s decision to reverse many of former President Donald Trump’s policies “without any preparation” means that Biden “owns” this crisis now.
“He really does,” Raddatz agreed before calling Biden’s decision making “tone-deaf to the politics of this as well.”
ABC on Biden’s border crisis: "to do that 180 without really any preparation,” “he owns this,” “tone deaf,” “doesn’t have a plan”https://t.co/rLpUUDM80S pic.twitter.com/0RqtM8AAom
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) March 21, 2021
During another portion of the interview, Raddatz highlighted how migrants who were waiting to cross the border were saying, “Biden promised that we can cross with minors.”
“We heard the sheriff say it, the governor say it, and the migrants I spoke to say it,” Raddatz said to Mayorkas. “They are coming across because they believe they will be welcomed under the Biden administration.”
“I know you’re trying to get that message out now, but your team was also briefed by career professionals at DHS during the transition about the possibility of this crisis. You yourself say we are on pace to have one of the largest migrant surges in 20 years,” Raddatz pressed. “Why were you not prepared for this?”
ABC Raddatz fact checks DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas: the Biden administration was warned of crisis, migrants cite Biden’s policy changeshttps://t.co/BOYiOJskjz pic.twitter.com/jR4IiI4JTS
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) March 21, 2021
During an interview on “Fox News Sunday” with host Chris Wallace, Mayorkas was again repeatedly slammed over the Biden administration’s secrecy in not allowing reporters in to see the Border Patrol facilities.
Wallace played a clip of Biden speaking the day after he was inaugurated in which Biden said, “We’ll always be honest and transparent with you about both the good news and the bad.”
“So why has the Biden administration refused to allow reporters to see for themselves and to record what the conditions are under which these minors are being housed?” Wallace continued. “Why, in fact, did you — when you went to the border on Friday and led a congressional delegation, why did you refuse to allow reporters to see the conditions under which these minors are being held?”
Mayorkas again claimed that the ban on reporters was intended to protect “hundreds of vulnerable migrant children,” to which Wallace responded that it sounded like Mayorkas was making “an excuse.”
“I think that there is a safe condition under which a pool reporter and a pool camera crew could go into some of these facilities — this has been going on for two months now — and record the conditions under which these minors are being held,” Wallace said. “It seems to me to say it’s impossible to do because of COVID sounds like an excuse” and “not a legitimate reason.”
Fox News’ Chris Wallace calls out DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for Biden’s media blackout on the border crisishttps://t.co/ddP6LzmV8l pic.twitter.com/QgGYlzYCJt
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) March 21, 2021
“Mr. Secretary, why not let reporters go to see what the conditions are at the camp in Midland?” Wallace pressed. “And is it true that more than 10 percent of the minors in Midland have tested positive and, in fact, that more than 200 migrants in Brownsville tested positive for COVID and then were released?”
Mayorkas did not answer Wallace’s question about reports that 10 percent of the minors in Midland tested positive for COVID-19 and more than 200 migrants in Brownsville tested positive for COVID-19.
DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas refuses to answer how many migrants are testing positive for COVID-19https://t.co/P2qANmJgBx pic.twitter.com/Eb6viLSMWP
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) March 21, 2021
Wallace then pressed Mayorkas about the Biden administration’s policies on the southern border, showing how the border crisis unfolded as Biden undid Trump’s policies.
“Mr. Secretary, do you not see a connection between the surge at the border and the policy changes that Joe Biden has made in his first two months?” Wallace asked.
“Chris, I do not,” Mayorkas claimed.
When confronted on Biden’s border rollbacks, DHS Secretary Mayorkas insists that the rollbacks have no connection to the present border crisishttps://t.co/wCDP1sVgnv pic.twitter.com/I8j7Bgrcc7
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) March 21, 2021
CNN host Dana Bash slammed the Biden administration for refusing to call the border crisis a “crisis,” saying that he has heard from a former senior government official — who has worked for Republican and Democratic administrations — that what is unfolding on Biden’s watch is a “five-alarm emergency.”
Bash then pressed Mayorkas on whether it was “acceptable” to him that children in Biden’s detention facilities are reportedly “taking turns sleeping on mats on the floor” while “some haven’t showered or seen the sun in days.” Mayorkas did not answer the question.
CNN’s Dana Bash reports: official says border crisis is a “5-alarm emergency”https://t.co/1Sk3RQIRLi pic.twitter.com/3gEbs0ZvcM
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) March 21, 2021
“I want to get to the cause of this surge at the border,” Bash continued. “And by doing that, I want to talk about what Congressmen Henry Cuellar and Vicente Gonzalez, who are both fellow Democrats and represent areas near the Southern border in Texas, have said. They have been pretty critical about the policy that the Biden administration changed. And they have also been critical about your recent comments telling migrants not to come now, but to come later.”
When asked about Democrats saying that Biden is fueling the crisis, Mayorkas said, “I respectfully disagree with them.”
CNN’s Bash confronts DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on border-state Democrats saying Biden has fueled the crisishttps://t.co/Rzbmp9mtnz pic.twitter.com/EqXCaNlXdt
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) March 21, 2021
During a separate CNN program, CNN host Pamela Brown repeatedly slammed the Biden administration for not allowing the media to view the crisis that is unfolding as migrant children are being exposed to “jail like conditions.”
CNN's Pamela Brown slams Biden's "media blackout" on the border crisishttps://t.co/Zpj40adfWm pic.twitter.com/IQXbhMvRqA
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) March 21, 2021
CNN’s Pamela Brown reports “as the situation at the US-Mexico border gets worse, the media is being kept from it”https://t.co/aQNE02RH7X pic.twitter.com/FVUm2IfyE2
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) March 21, 2021