White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Thursday that there is a “crisis” when it comes to climate change in the world, despite refusing to use the same label to acknowledge ongoing problems at the southern border.
Asked by a reporter during the White House briefing about protests and demands from climate activists in Washington, D.C., Psaki said that President Joe Biden and his administration are “listening to advocates and people who have been elevating the issue of climate for decades.” She pointed to Biden’s “enormous investment and commitment to addressing the climate crisis that’s in his legislative agenda that’s currently working its way through Congress now.”
Despite efforts by the Biden administration not to refer to the situation at the border as a “crisis,” Psaki, herself, slipped up during a March briefing and did just that.
Asked about certain COVID-19 doses being shared with Mexico, Psaki said, “There have been expectations set outside of, unrelated to, any vaccine doses or requests for them, that they would be partners in dealing with the crisis on the border.”
She later walked back her remarks, using the phrase “challenges at the border.”
Prior to Psaki’s slip up, she was asked in March whether she believed there was a “crisis at the border,” to which she said “new labels” weren’t necessary for what is a “top priority” of the Biden Administration.
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Biden also at one point referenced a “crisis” at the border, a move Psaki was forced to defend. After Biden pointed to “the crisis that ended up on the border with young people,” Psaki claimed Biden “does not feel that children coming to our border seeking refuge from violence, economic hardships, and other dire circumstances is a crisis.”
Psaki previously referred to climate change as a “crisis” in a tweet criticizing former President Donald Trump on the subject. She called gun violence a “crisis” in an August 2019 tweet.
At least 160,000 illegal immigrants have been released into the U.S. by the Biden administration since March, Border Patrol documents obtained by Fox News show.
The White House could not be reached immediately for comment.
