Jen Psaki Grilled For ’Hypocrisy’ as Biden Re-opens Trump-era Migrant Children Facility

By Staff, Agencies

The immigration policies of ex-US President Donald Trump were a common target among critics on the left – especially his ‘family separation policy’ and the conditions of kids in migrant centers. Now President Joe Biden has re-opened one of them.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki had to repel “hypocrisy” calls from The View co-host Meghan McCain, who on Thursday pressured the official about the Biden administration’s reopening of a Texas migrant facility that ex-President Donald Trump had been much criticized for.

“President Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris repeatedly spoke out against kids in cages. I feel like this is the same thing and that you are still detaining kids at the border and this is not meaningfully different from what President Trump was doing,” the interviewer, who is the daughter of the late Senator John McCain, said.

Psaki claimed that the re-opening of the center, which could house up to 700 children crossing the US border from Mexico, was “absolutely not the same thing” as the policies of the former administration.

“We are not ripping children from the arms of their parents. That is horrible and immoral and something we saw in the last administration,” Psaki alleged in an attempt to defend the measure which she claimed was especially needed in the times of COVID as kids were fleeing “really difficult circumstances in their home country” and “prosecution.”

The Texas facility would thus help to “treat them humanely and keep them safe”, the press secretary maintained. She did not deny though that the center would host children separately from their parents – something Donald Trump was strongly blasted for throughout his presidential term.

McCain was not really convinced by Psaki’s arguments:

“There’s criticism all the way around including from people within your own party like AOC and I think there’s just a lot of people that see this as hypocrisy and that it’s sort of just potato potato. Kids in cages are just kids being separated from their families,” the show host said.

Psaki, for her part, had to defend her boss one more time:

"This is kids going to a facility run by HHS [US Department of Health and Human Services],” she argued.

“We had to open a new one to make sure it had the safe protocols in order to address the COVID needs and the health and safety needs because we can't have as many kids in the former HHS facility.”