According to an exclusive Axios scoop, President Biden exploded on his staff last year aboard Air Force One en route to tour the southern border; this was January 2023.
Biden was requesting immigration data his staff didn’t have when he lost his temper.
“There are definite incentives … to not be the person who owns the scary issue with no solutions,” a source said.
“If you’re the person briefing the president, you get to piss him off every day,” the source said.
From Axios:
Why it matters: The previously unreported meeting, recounted to Axios by three people familiar with the events, is emblematic of the Biden administration’s struggle with the border crisis during the past three years — infighting, blame-shifting and indecision.
- Biden’s fury subsided, and aides scrambled for the information he wanted. People in the meeting later told others in frustration that his winding process and irritability were making it more difficult to reach decisions about the border.
- The White House counters that the meeting was “productive.” Spokesperson Andrew Bates told Axios that “multiple firsthand participants of the meeting refute this description of the tone and outcome” of a conversation on “the specifics of this complex issue.”
Meanwhile, more than 1.5 million migrant encounters have been logged by Customs and Border Patrol since April 2023, the last time Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas declared that the “border is secure.”
More over at Axios:
🚨🚨Exclusive: How Biden botched the border…People in the meeting later told others in frustration that Biden’s winding process and irritability were making it more difficult to reach decisions about the border. https://t.co/ke3Jn6qt8K
— Jim VandeHei (@JimVandeHei) February 12, 2024
