It was bad news bears for the Biden administration on Sunday as the ABC’s This Week and NBC’s Sunday Today had to reluctantly admit that the crisis on the southern border was happening because of their policies. But it wasn’t some great moral epiphany that led the liberal media to finally tell the truth, it was the fact illegal immigrants themselves were saying they were crossing because President Biden told them the border was open.
With NBC spending the last week refusing to call what was happening at the border a crisis in any way, the network tried to make up for the lost time by throwing out the term at seemingly every opportunity. And correspondent Dasha Burns was the Rio Grande Valley where she whined about politicians playing “the border blame game.”
Burns spoke with one family, via a translator, who explained that they entered the United States illegally because they wanted to “take advantage of the opportunities” Biden was giving them:
BURNS: Some say the new president gave them hope for a life in America.
Why did you decide to come now?
[Transition]
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: To take advantage of the opportunities that the President has given to the people who come from Central America to come with their family.
It was the same story on ABC when co-host Martha Raddatz spoke with a father from Brazil who fled to the U.S. with his family. He told her that Biden was getting his hopes up:
RADDATZ: So, did you come here because Joe Biden was elected president?
UNIDENTIFIED FATHER: Basically. Basically. The main thing was the violence in my country, and the second thing I think was Joe Biden. You know, He’s like letting up my hope. You know what I mean?
When she asked him about trying to enter America illegally under former President Trump, he said he wouldn’t dare try. “Definitely not. Definitely. We had the chance, you know, but the same violence that's going on today was there last year. We used to watch the news, and we definitely wouldn’t do this,” he told her.
But Raddatz continued to play defense for the Biden administration when speaking with Republican Arizona Governor Doug Ducey. “We flew alongside the Governor as he took an aerial tour of the border to see the situation for himself. He says Joe Biden is to blame,” she huffed.
She shrugged and threw up her hands when suggesting that Biden did all he could do when he told migrants not to come in an interview with the network last week. Luckily, Ducey made her look foolish:
RADDATZ: You heard President Biden say the other day, don't come. What more can he do?
DUCEY: Well, he certainly can communicate more often, more clearly, and he should be talking to [Mexican] President [Andres Manuel Lopez] Obrador. He’s got a big microphone. He needs to use it appropriately.
“But the Biden administration has turned back the majority of those crossing into the U.S. Many distraught after believing they would find refuge in America,” she pouted.
Meanwhile, the broadcast networks were still refusing to show how migrants had crossed over the border illegally earlier this month while wearing shirts and holding signs that said “Biden please let us in!”
The transcripts are below, click "expand" to read:
ABC’s This Week
March 21, 2021
9:05:25 a.m. Eastern(…)
MARTHA RADDATZ: This father who asked we not show his face, traveled to Mexico from Brazil with his wife and three young kids before crossing the border.
Would you have tried to do this when Donald Trump was president?
UNIDENTIFIED FATHER: Definitely not. Definitely. We had the chance, you know, but the same violence that's going on today was there last year. We used to watch the news, and we definitely wouldn’t do this.
RADDATZ: So, did you come here because Joe Biden was elected president?
UNIDENTIFIED FATHER: Basically. Basically. The main thing was the violence in my country, and the second thing I think was Joe Biden. You know, He’s like letting up my hope. You know what I mean?
(…)
9:07:47 a.m. Eastern
RADDATZ: We flew alongside the Governor as he took an aerial tour of the border to see the situation for himself. He says Joe Biden is to blame.
And what is it exactly? Is it the remain in Mexico? What's made the huge difference, or sit as your sheriff says -- it's the messaging?
GOV. DOUG DUCEY (R): Well, it's a combination of things. Of course, the migrant protection protocols was a good policy, and it was working. It disincentivized people from taking this dangerous trip.
RADDATZ: You heard President Biden say the other day, don't come. What more can he do?
DUCEY: Well, he certainly can communicate more often, more clearly, and he should be talking to [Mexican] President [Andres Manuel Lopez] Obrador. He’s got a big microphone. He needs to use it appropriately.
RADDATZ: But the Biden administration has turned back the majority of those crossing into the U.S. Many distraught after believing they would find refuge in America.
(…)
NBC’s Sunday Today
March 21, 2021
8:05:20 a.m. EasternWILLIE GEIST: Now to the deepening crisis at the southern border where hundreds of unaccompanied children are arriving every day, leading to dangerously overcrowded facilities and a backlog in processing the migrants' cases. NBC Dasha Burns is near the border with Mexico for us. Dasha, good morning.
DASHA BURNS: Hey, Willie. Good morning. The Rio Grande Valley here is the epicenter of the migrant surge and represents a major challenge for the Biden administration that had promised a more humane approach to immigration. But while Washington plays the border blame game, border communities and migrant families are caught in the crossfire.
(…)
BURNS: Some say the new president gave them hope for a life in America.
Why did you decide to come now?
[Transition]
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: To take advantage of the opportunities that the President has given to the people who come from Central America to come with their family.
(…)
