Jen Psaki briefly slipped and termed the border in “crisis” on Thursday. She tried to recover but it was there for all to see. This is in addition to a top Biden official commenting on background that there was indeed a border crisis. How long will Joe Biden keep playing this absurd game of semantics?

 

FNC: “White House press secretary Jen Psaki used the phrase ‘crisis on the border’ during the briefing on Thursday — a notable choice of words after the administration has avoided describing the situation that way. She later seemed to walk it back when reporters asked if her phrasing was indicative of a change in how the White House viewed the situation. She reverted back to using the phrase ‘challenges at the border’ and maintained there is no change in administration messaging.” The lines were this.

“I can confirm that we have 7 million releasable doses available of AstraZeneca,” Psaki said, adding that “2.5 million of those, we are working to finalize plans to lend those to Mexico and 1.5 million to Canada.” She added, “There have been expectations set outside of, unrelated to any vaccine doses or requests for them, that they would be partners in dealing with the crisis at the border.”

She realized she was off message and tried to spin her way back to propriety. Too late. “It doesn’t matter what you call it. It is an enormous challenge…We don’t feel the need to, you know, play games with what it’s called.” Not good. C minus at best.

Psaki said last week about calling the southern border in “crisis”: “I don’t think we need to sit here and put new labels on what we have already conveyed is challenging, what we have conveyed is a top priority for the president.” Oh lord, that’s bad spin. She needs to give her paycheck back for that week.

“We continue to struggle with the number of individuals in our custody, especially in a pandemic,” Acting CBP Commissioner Troy Miller said this week. “Struggle”.

“Today, I activated the Volunteer Force to support Customs and Border Protection (CBP) as they face a surge in migration along the Southwest Border,” DHS Secretary Mayorkas said in an email to staff. “Surge”. However, oh no, no crisis.

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But others are more candid. “A week ago I would not have called this a crisis. Today it meets the definition. We are overwhelmed. We do not have the resources to stop the cartels from bringing in illegal aliens, from bringing in drugs, therefore we are in fact in a crisis,” Brandon Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Council, told press.

A senior administration official with Customs and Border Protection, who spoke on condition of anonymity, echoed Judd’s sentiment. “The president understands it is a crisis, which is why he told migrants ‘Don’t come over,'” the official told Fox News. Thus, if it walks like a duck…