Obama Defends Decision Not to Visit Border: ‘This Isn’t Theater’
After delivering a statement about his administration’s plans to deal with the current crisis at America’s border with Mexico Wednesday afternoon, President Barack Obama addressed for the first time the mounting criticism over his decision not to visit to border on his trip to Texas this week. In answering a reporter’s question on the controversy, Obama defended his decision by saying he was more interested in a substantive solution to the problem than a simple “photo op.”
The president explained that his Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson will be making his sixth trip to the border this week and briefs him on the situation after each visit. “So there’s nothing that is taking place down there that I am not intimately aware of and briefed on,” he said.
“This isn’t theater,” he said. “This is a problem. I’m not interested in photo ops, I’m interested in solving a problem.”
To those who say he should visit the border, Obama said their proposed solutions for how to solve the problem are the same ones he has put forward to Congress, “so it’s not as if they’re making suggestions that we’re not listening to.”
“The question is are we more interested in politics or are we more interested in solving the problem?” Obama asked rhetorically. “If we’re interested in solving the problem, then there’s actually some broad consensus around a number of the issues. There may be some controversies and differences between Democrats and Republicans on some of the policy issues, but on a whole bunch of this stuff there’s some pretty broad consensus. Let’s just get that done. Let’s do the work.”
Watch video below, via CNN:
[Photo via screengrab]
— —
