Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) on Sunday knocked President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris for not visiting the U.S.-Mexico border amid a surge in migrants and blamed the administration for the ongoing crisis.
“The reason they’re not going, I understand from a political perspective, is [it’s] an ugly story for them. They have induced this problem,” Christie, an ABC contributor, said on the network’s “This Week.”
“Look, in the end, they have let this crisis get to the point where it is. That’s why they don’t want to go down there. What politician doesn’t want to go to the scene of crisis? Only if they created the crisis themselves. And the fact that neither the vice president or the president [has] been to the border is something that’s going to be very noticed this week … even more then it’s been noticed before,” Christie said.
The Trump-era immigration policy Title 42, which allowed the border officials to turn away asylum seekers due to concerns about public health within U.S. borders during the COVID-19 pandemic, was struck down by a federal judge last month and is set to expire this week — and some are now bracing for an uptick in border crossings.
The border city of El Paso, Texas, is under a state of emergency declaration as migrants surge into shelters in the area just days before Title 42 is set to end.
Christie on Sunday called the crisis ”disgraceful” and told “This Week” host Martha Raddatz, “You’ve been to the border more than Kamala Harris and she’s supposed to be the border czar.”
“They’ve made promises well over their skis on Title 42, now don’t know how to get out of it because they have a war within their own party,” Christie said of Harris and Biden. “And if we’re looking at 14,000 to 18,000 people cross the border a day there’s going to be mayhem down there.”