"Dr. Jill" to the rescue - bails out Joe during Univision interview in Houston

President Biden and First Lady Jill traveled to Houston on Friday to meet with Governor Abbott and local officials in the aftermath of the winter storm that ravaged the state two weeks ago. Biden tried to play Comforter-in-Chief. Jill was by his side in the role of his handler.

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Biden’s performance in Houston should alarm anyone paying attention. It is easy to understand why Jill came along. Not only did he botch the names of elected officials – including calling Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee “Shirley”, as he delivered a speech, he did himself no favors when he asked out loud, “Where am I?” He came to town to reassure Texans that he’s got a handle on the situation and yet he came off as confused and bewildered.

Rep. Lizzie Pannill Fletcher, who happens to be my district’s congresswoman, goes by Fletcher, not Pannill, so Biden botched her name even more than Sheila Jackson-Lee’s. He can’t blame cold temperatures for his brain freeze, as the temperatures are well back into the 70s now. Biden seems incapable of delivering the most basic of remarks. Is this why his wife travels with him? Is she tasked with articulating Biden’s message? It sure looks that way.

Joe and Jill Biden sat down for an interview with Univision during their trip to Houston. What is notable in the interview is how aggressively Jill Biden asserts herself to clarify and tweak Sleepy Joe’s answers. This is particularly obvious when the interviewer asks about the reopening of holding facilities on the border for unaccompanied minors and for families and adults, too. Jill jumped in to stress how well the minors will be treated, how humanely, all to imply that the Biden administration will not be the alleged monsters that the Trump administration was to illegal migrants of all ages.

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Univision anchor Ilia Calderon pressed President Joe Biden on the use of temporary facilities for unaccompanied minors, and Biden pushed back at the comparison of his administration’s actions to those of the Trump administration.

Calderon: Mr. President, in the five weeks you’ve been in office you have been taking many actions to revert Trump administrations anti-immigration policy. But today the Washington Post reports that your administration has plans to open tentsat delao a town close to the border. Can you confirm that?

President Biden: What I can confirm is right now there’s thousand s of unaccompanied children coming across the border. We’ve been able to play significant number of them in licensed facilities throughout the country, shelters throughout the country.

But what happened is in Texas, they opened up one that was a former one used in the last administration. Our hope and expectation is that won’t stay open for long. And will be able to provide for every kid who comes across the border safely to be housed in a facility that’s licensed, and what we’re trying to do, and have literally hundreds of people doing now, connect them with families in this country. Get them to the families that they came to see or they are looking for. We’ve already connected thousands of them in that way. So that’s our hope is to unite these children with their families while they wait to have a hearing.

Dr. Jill Biden: And this administration is doing it in a humane way. And that’s really important, I mean we want to make sure that those children are safe, get mental health services, they get physical health services, they get education. So we are really concerned about these children.

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Not to put too fine of a point on this but the Carrizo Springs, Texas facility for unaccompanied minors was opened in 2019 by the Trump administration and was only used for one month in order to accommodate a surge in illegal migrants. The children there received all of the same care that Jill Biden lists. The fact remains, Joe Biden and his administration have no new ideas on securing the southern border and handling the surge of illegal migrants. They continue to point fingers at the Trump administration and never acknowledge the agreements made with Mexico and Central American countries, agreements that past presidents either didn’t attempt to make or were unable to make. Now the Biden administration is even following in the path of the Trump administration in putting up tents again to house the illegal migrants on the border, as they are in the Del Rio Sector area.

Today on Fox News Sunday, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said, when questioned by host Chris Wallace about holding facilities on the border, “The reason we opened these facilities is because of COVID.” Oh. That’s convenient. Trump put in place border closures because of the pandemic. Then, however, Joe Biden called Trump racist and xenophobic.

The question remains – why is Jill Biden sitting in on these interviews? Traditionally it is just the president doing one on one interviews with outlets during these type of visits. Is it that Joe’s staff is not confident enough in Biden’s ability to get through an interview? This one only lasted for 10 minutes and he was only asked basic questions. Can he not articulate his own administration’s policies well enough on his own? It is offputting for Jill Biden to be out there acting morally superior when Status Quo Joe’s campaign was based on civility and a return to normal, whatever that is anymore. Perhaps Kamala Harris should watch her back. It looks like Jill is gunning for the job if Joe isn’t able to carry out his full term in office.

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Ed Morrissey 10:00 PM | November 20, 2024
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