(PresidentialInsider.com)- When asked about immigration, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki singled out Fox News White House reporter Peter Doocy, pointing out that it has been a common issue in the briefing room even before current reporting on its importance in the midterm elections.
According to a New York Times piece published this week, immigration and inflation might be essential topics in the midterm elections. President Joe Biden’s pollsters have raised red flags on both subjects for over a year.
Psaki was asked about the article and fresh ABC News/Washington Post polling on the problems at Monday’s news conference by ABC News White House correspondent Cecilia Vega.
Vega asked Psaki if she could speak about how the administration is absorbing this data. Considering that the midterm elections are just six months away, does she think there has to be any course correction on these two topics right now?
According to Psaki, President Biden has always supported steps to address both concerns. Any increased attention on them is more about the time of year that we are approaching rather than a course correction from continuing policy work that has been done from the beginning.
Psaki responded to Vega’s question about immigration, and she mentioned Doocy:
Vega asked if the White House feels that, given the current situation at the border and this pollster’s warning that immigration appears to be a rising weakness for the President, immigration may become a preeminent problem for this White House come November?
Psaki said that she believes a lot of the reporting in that piece was also based on memoranda from the previous year. And, as many of the press in the briefing room would recall, they spoke a lot about immigration in the room last year.
She said, “I’m looking at you, Peter,” emphasizing that she feels Doocy’s reporting is unfair.
Psaki said the system is flawed, and it’s far past time to be corrected. She said that is why the President introduced a law on his first day in office.
Psaki said, putting aside the politics, we’ve long recognized that this was a serious policy issue that required more attention. Biden not only introduced a bill on his first day in office, but he has also been a vocal backer and champion of several Democratic Senate reconciliation proposals.
She said that they’d continue to work with everybody willing, able, and eager to join in the effort to pass immigration reform.
Doocy has made immigration a common theme of his squabbles with Psaki, but it was then-Fox News White House correspondent Kristin Fisher who sparked a barrage of inquiries from other reporters last March when she asked if the situation at the border was a “crisis.”
Fisher departed the network and now works at CNN.
