Apparently, the border fiasco is even worse behind the scenes, if such a thing is even possible.
According to a lengthy new report from Axios called “How Biden botched the border,” the president’s tantrums have made it incredibly difficult for his administration to address the crisis.
One of his worst outbursts reportedly came during a meeting on Air Force One in January 2023, when Biden was on his way to visit the border.
According to anonymous sources who spoke with Axios, Biden asked for “obscure immigration data points” and blew up at his staff when no one could immediately provide them.
“People in the meeting later told others in frustration that his winding process and irritability were making it more difficult to reach decisions about the border,” Axios reported.
The border crisis has reportedly been treated like a “hot potato” within the administration, with one former official telling Axios, “There are definite incentives … to not be the person who owns the scary issue with no solutions. … If you’re the person briefing the president, you get to piss him off every day.”
And, despite being appointed “border czar” by Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris has done nothing to solve any of these issues, instead getting involved in drama with domestic policy advisor Susan Rice (who, according to Axios, blames Harris for tanking her own vice presidential aspirations).
Indeed, a former senior official offered this damning indictment of Harris’ job performance: “She’s been at best ineffective, and at worst sporadically engaged and not seeing it was her responsibility. It’s an opportunity for her, and she didn’t fill the breach.”
Rice, in addition to clashing with Harris, reportedly turned on Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, even referring to him as a “b****-a**” and an “idiot.”
“During one meeting when Biden was tearing into Becerra, Rice passed [Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro] Mayorkas a note that read: ‘Don’t save him,’” Axios reported. Rice has since left her position as head of the Domestic Policy Council.
Should Biden be impeached?
Meanwhile, homeland security advisor Liz Sherwood-Randall was left adrift by national security advisor Jake Sullivan, who handed her many of his border duties despite her lack of experience with the issue.
As Axios’ report laid out in excruciating detail, the Biden administration never had a real plan when it comes to the border, no one can agree on policy or strategy, and almost everyone has been more focused on petty infighting and blame-shifting than actually working together to find a solution.
It’s like high school, only our national security is at stake.
It’s clear that Biden does not have things under control and, if the January 2023 meeting is any indication, his age is affecting not just his memory but his ability to control his temper.
Of course, the White House denied Axios’ version of events, claiming the meeting was “productive” and that “multiple firsthand participants of the meeting refute this description of the tone and outcome.”
But, considering that we have seen Biden explode at reporters at the most trivial of provocations, the White House’s statement seems like more spin to cover for a deeply dysfunctional administration.
It looks like there’s enough drama in the Biden administration to put a college sorority to shame, making its efforts to end the border crisis (such as they are) wholly ineffectual.
