One of Joe Biden’s top advisers reportedly called another a ‘b***-a**’ and ‘moron’ amid infighting over border crisis
One of Joe Biden’s top advisers reportedly called another a “***-a**” and “idiot” amid the infighting over the border crisis.
Domestic policy adviser Susan Rice has criticized Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, Axios reports.
Several people familiar with the cases said the comments were made because of Becerra’s reluctance to find more space in child migrant centers.
During a meeting, Biden reportedly reprimanded Becerra.
Rice is said to have passed a note to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas saying, “Don’t rescue him.”
Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra was reportedly called an “idiot” by another of Biden’s top advisers
Susan Rice reportedly criticized Becerra after the row over the border crisis
The Biden administration continues to struggle to address the issue at the border as the president is reportedly frustrated behind the scenes.
Amid the accusations over the border, a former senior Biden administration official also described Vice President Harris as “ineffective” on the issue.
The president personally appointed her as the point of contact for the crisis in March 2021.
‘She has been at best ineffective, and at worst sporadically involved and failed to recognize that it was her responsibility. It is an opportunity for her, and she has not closed the breach,” the official said told Axios.
Harris and former national security adviser Susan Rice also viewed each other with suspicion, according to the report, because Rice felt more informed about the issue than Harris and took the lead.
President Biden also reportedly “exploded with anger” at his team of advisors on Air Force One during his trip to Arizona in August 2023.
He was angry when they didn’t have some of the immigration records he wanted, further exacerbating growing tension within his administration, according to Axios.
The vice president firmly refused to accept responsibility for the border crisis, insisting that she was solely responsible for addressing the limited “root causes” of the migration crisis in countries such as Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.
Her trip to Guatemala in the summer of 2021 was widely viewed as ineffective after she told migrants “don’t come” at a news conference and embarrassed herself in an interview with NBC news anchor Lester Holt.
When Holt pointed out that Harris had not personally visited the border, she responded that she had not been to Europe either, in an awkward exchange that went viral.
Despite Harris’ reluctance to visit the border, she ultimately made the trip after former President Donald Trump announced his own plans to visit to demonstrate his commitment to the issue.
Harris visited the border 93 days after Biden appointed her to lead the crisis.
The vice president isn’t the only Biden official trying to keep the immigration issue from dragging down her political image.
Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra remained reluctant to address the issue from his position by failing to increase facilities for housing child migrants.
Rice, infamous for her frequent use of expletives in the office, described Becerra as a “b***ha**,” the report said.
Vice President Kamala Harris has tried to distance herself from the administration’s border crisis.
Harris and the White House have decided to blame Republicans in Congress for failing to fix a “broken” immigration system as the 2024 campaign to re-elect Biden begins in earnest.
“We’re trying to force some Republicans in Congress in particular to participate in the solution,” Harris noted in an interview with journalist Katie Couric in January.
“But unfortunately we want to fix it and they want to deal with it,” she continued.
“They want a political issue to be raised in November.”
House Republicans, meanwhile, plan to vote Tuesday to impeach Biden’s top border security official, Alejandro Mayorkas.
It is the second attempt by the Republican party to take down the official. Last week, their first attempt to oust him failed stunningly by just one vote.
Republicans believe Mayorkas should be charged with high crimes and misdemeanors for failing to enforce immigration laws and lying to Congress.
Mayorkas has denied such claims and Democrats insist he is merely implementing the Biden administration’s policies.
He also blamed the “broken system” for Congress’ failure to act – after Republicans destroyed an immigration and foreign aid deal negotiated in the Senate.
“It is certainly a crisis and we bear no responsibility for a broken system,” Mayorkas said. ‘And we do a huge amount within that broken system. But fundamentally, fundamentally, Congress is the only one who can fix it.”