Former Republican Gov. of Arkansas Mike Huckabee said Thursday on Fox News that he believes Vice President Kamala Harris was tapped to lead the border crisis to make President Joe Biden appear competent.
“I have to wonder maybe they wanted Kamala Harris in this job because she actually makes Joe Biden look competent. That may be the only thing.”
Harris was tapped to lead the border crisis in March, with Biden telling reporters Harris was “the most qualified person to do it, to lead our efforts in Mexico and the Northern Triangle and the countries that are going to need help in stemming the movement of so many folks, stemming migration to our southern border.”
“Madam Vice President, thank you. I gave you a tough job. You’re smiling, but there is no one better capable of trying to organize it,” he added.
However, Harris’ staffers panicked after she was handed the assignment and were concerned with potential political blowback, CNN reported.
Aides were reportedly worried Harris’ job would be characterized as a border assignment rather than a foreign policy assignment. White House officials were “perplexed” at Harris’ first foreign policy trip to address the crisis, according to CNN.
Harris’ handling of the crisis has been met with criticism, with Fox News contributor Joe Concha calling her recent trip to Central America a “profound disaster.” (RELATED: Kamala Harris Says It Was ‘Always The Plan’ To Visit US-Mexico Border After Dodging It For Months)
Mexico’s president Andrés Manuel López Obrador blamed the Biden administration for the surge of migrants in March.
AMLO: “Expectations were created that with the Government of President Biden there would be a better treatment of migrants. And this has caused Central American migrants, and also from our country, wanting to cross the border thinking that it is easier to do so” pic.twitter.com/TNrZQamuWK
— José Díaz-Briseño (@diazbriseno) March 23, 2021
Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei also blamed the Biden administration’s immigration policies for the surge of migrants.
“The message changed to ‘we’re going to reunite families and we’re going to reunite children,'” Giammattei said. “The very next day the coyotes were here organizing groups of children to take them to the United States.”