“Fox News Sunday” host asked Biden’s press secretary, Jen Psaki, why the press isn’t allowed inside migrant facilities
Fox News’ Chris Wallace pressed President Biden’s press secretary Jen Psaki Sunday, saying that the new administration is being “less transparent than the Trump administration” with at least one issue — the crisis at the border.
Psaki appeared on “Fox News Sunday” to discuss the surge of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border, which Republicans blame Biden for causing by undoing some of the strict anti-immigrant policies set by Trump. In a flip of the intense criticism leveled at Trump by Democrats for passing policies of separating migrant children from their families at the border and placing them in run-down facilities, Texas Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz have posted pictures of poor conditions at border patrol facilities overwhelmed by migrants from the south. Several Congressional Democrats, including Texas Rep. Joaquin Castro and Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar are expected to visit the facilities this week.
During the interview, Wallace pointed out that pictures from politicians like Cruz have been one of the few sources of information about the state of the facilities because the press is currently barred from entering. “These kids are living in these conditions now. They’re not living in these conditions some indeterminate time from now when the president says everything will be fixed,” he said.
Psaki reiterated Biden’s promise he made during his first press conference as president on Thursday, that the media would be allowed into the facilities once plans to improve conditions and expand the number of facilities have been implemented.
“We want to provide access into the border patrol facilities,” Psaki said. “We are mindful of the fact that we are in the middle of a pandemic. We want to keep these kids safe, keep the staff safe, but we are absolutely committed to transparency and providing access to media to the border patrol facilities.”
But Wallace pressed further, comparing the Biden administration’s media block to that of the Trump administration, which prevented reporters from accessing child detention facilities. “At this point, in terms of allowing access to border patrol facilities for reporters, you are being less transparent than the Trump administration,” he said.
Psaki responded by noting the differences between Biden and Trump’s approaches to migrants, saying that Trump “was turning away kids at the border, sending them back on the treacherous journey, or they were ripping kids from the arms of their parents.”
Watch the interview in the clip above.
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