The White House press secretary on Thursday defended President Joe Biden’s competence as he and his administration face multiple challenges – from the border to the pandemic to the threat of a government shutdown on Capitol Hill – saying that it is the president’s job to deal with crises and that he will not “shy away” from the task.
President Biden in recent weeks has faced stark criticism starting with the execution of the withdrawal from Afghanistan, a chaotic series of events that prompted disagreement from allies, followed by tension with longtime ally France just a few weeks later over a nuclear submarine deal with Australia.
Meanwhile, the Biden administration is dealing with the ongoing issues of the COVID-19 pandemic and the negotiation of his domestic agenda among members of Congress, with a budget deadline fast approaching at the end of September.
And the latest challenge for the president is a mass influx of Haitian migrants in Del Rio, Texas, where as many as 14,000 people were camped out under a bridge at its peak last week, spurring a large-scale deportation this week.
For that, President Biden is facing criticism from both sides: Democrats decry the expulsion of migrants and border agents’ treatment of Haitians while Republicans blame what they call the president’s “open border” policies for the scenes in Del Rio.
The United States’ special representative to Haiti resigned Thursday over the treatment of migrants and deportations.
“Every president is elected to weather storms and navigate crises,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Thursday. “That's what an administration should do. We're not going to shy away from that.”
But amid these challenges, President Biden has yet to address Haiti publicly (though he “certainly may still” do so, Psaki noted Thursday) and has barely taken questions from reporters all week.
At his meeting with United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Wednesday, the U.K. leader called on two British reporters for questions before the press was ushered out of the oval office by White House aides, despite U.S. reporters shouting questions about the southern border.
The U.S. press pool lodged a formal complaint with the White House spokeswoman Psaki as a result.
Asked when the president might give a formal press conference to address recent events, Psaki on Wednesday said “I’m sure we will have another one,” but she noted that Biden had taken some reporter questions at various points last week.
The president did offer his support privately on Wednesday on the issue of his legislative agenda by meeting with groups of Congressional Democrats to work out the kinks of the proposed $3.5 trillion reconciliation package.
And House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Thursday morning seemed positive about the direction of their agenda, promising to also pass a temporary funding bill to avoid a government shutdown on Sept. 30, the end of the fiscal year.
The White House press secretary said the administration was planning for a shutdown just in case.
And she admitted that some recent White House decisions haven’t played out as hoped, such as in Afghanistan.
“The president has been clear that he wanted to end a 20 year war in Afghanistan,” Psaki said. “That's something I would say the American public broadly supports.”
“There are aspects, of course, of how it was handled or how all of the events transpired that were not what we had planned for,” she added.
President Biden’s approval rating hit a new low of 43% this week, according to Gallup, which tracks presidents’ approval over time.