Joe Biden's border catastrophe

In the 1990s, conservatives ridiculed Hillary (hereafter HRC) for coining the phrase "Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy. Listening to her with an uncritical ear would've led people to think that the only thing that Republicans thought about was sinister plots against HRC's philandering hubby. According to HRC, it wasn't her husband's fault that women kept throwing themselves at Bill. It was that danged vast right-wing conspiracy.

Fast-forward to today. HRC has left the stage, only to be replaced by another generation of spinmeisters who've consistently that the border catastrophe isn't Joe Biden's fault. Karinne Jean-Pierre, aka KJP, insists that it's all Donald Trump's fault.

In FY2020, the last year of President Trump's watch, 458,000 illegal immigrants crossed the U.S.-Mexico border. In FY2022, the most recent year under Biden's watch, 2,378,000 illegal immigrants crossed the U.S.-Mexico border. In FY2021, the first year under Biden's watch, 1,734,000 illegal immigrants crossed the U.S.-Mexico border. To hear KJP tell it, though, it's all Trump's fault or those evil MAGA Republicans' fault:

It's incredible but true that two years into the Biden administration, with President Donald Trump 800 miles south of the White House hawking trading cards, Biden officials still point the finger at him.

The other day, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said her boss has been saddled with the "system that was set" by his predecessor. Biden, too, has claimed he was stuck with "one god-awful mess at the border," and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas likes to complain about "inheriting a broken and dismantled immigration system."

During this briefing, KJP insisted that people accurately reporting on the border catastrophe were helping the cartels exploit Biden's open borders:

Forget the fact that the Trump system produced the lowest amount of illegal immigrant crossings in 40 years. Forget the fact that Biden's system have produced the 2 biggest border jailbreaks in U.S. history. Don't pay attention to those truths. Pay attention to KJP's spin. Rich Lowry put it this way:

It'd be one thing if Biden had positioned himself as an inheritor of Trump's border policies and assiduously kept them in place; then, if crossings skyrocketed anyway, he might have had legitimate cause to argue that the Trump measures had failed.

Instead, he declared himself a sworn enemy of all Trump had wrought, tore up as much of it as possible — and when a border that had been brought under control by 2020 unraveled month by month still blamed it on Trump. This is a rhetorical move so audacious that most wouldn't dare attempt it.

Honest people wouldn't attempt lies like this. Then again, Joe Biden and KJP aren't just anybody. Biden's been a liar for 50+ years. KJP hasn't been alive that long but she's a liar, too. She just doesn't have the lengthy history that Joe does. It's noteworthy, too, that they've got a totally uncurious press assisting them. Finally, there's this:

Then there is the communism excuse. "What's on my watch now," Biden has said, "is Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua." Jean-Pierre put a finer point on it: "Failing authoritarian regimes in Venezuela as well as Nicaragua and Cuba are causing a new migration challenge across the Western Hemisphere," she averred. "So what we're seeing is a new pattern."

I could've sworn that Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba were communist/socialist strongholds for decades, especially Cuba. Cuba flipped into communist control before I started kindergarten. The only thing that's new are Biden's open border policies.

UPDATE: Democrats are hopping mad thanks to this:

The White House called it a "shameful stunt."

"Governor Abbott abandoned children on the side of the road in below-freezing temperatures on Christmas Eve without coordinating with any Federal or local authorities. This was a cruel, dangerous, and shameful stunt," said White House spokesperson Abdullah Hasan in a statement.

"As we have repeatedly said, we are willing to work with anyone – Republican or Democrat alike – on real solutions, like the comprehensive immigration reform and border security measures President Biden sent to Congress on his first day in office, but these political games accomplish nothing and only put lives in danger," he added.

This Christmas weekend, temps in Texas were within 5-10 degrees of what they were in DC. There were thousands more illegal immigrants in Texas who suffered through the same temperatures as they suffered through in Washington, DC. Further, those little children that the administration is upset about had to wade through the Rio Grande, where water temps were likely in the 40-degree range. For those uninformed, that's cold enough to cause hypothermia.That means Biden's policies put dozens, perhaps hundreds, of children at risk.