Fox’s Martha MacCallum Gets into Testy Exchange with White House Spox: ‘John, Do We Have a Border?’
Martha MacCallum and John Kirby tangled on Wednesday’s episode of The Story, where the Fox News host grilled the White House spokesperson about illegal immigration.
Republicans have blasted President Joe Biden over his handling of the southern border with Mexico, which has seen a rise in border crossings by undocumented migrants since he took office.
“He’s been president for three years,” said MacCallum, who noted that many Republican caucus and primary voters in Iowa and New Hampshire cited immigration as an important issue for them. “This is not just the same old immigration issue we’ve had going on for a decade as he said the other day. These are record numbers all the time. And people in Iowa and New Hampshire are the ones that are expressing concerns about it. This isn’t Arizona and Texas. This is Iowa and New Hampshire. I don’t think that people sense that there’s an urgency to address this.”
Kirby answered by pinning the blame on Congress.
“He has taken some executive actions,” he replied. “But there’s a limit to what executive action can do. And we really need support from Congress. We really need additional legislative action here, new laws. And quite frankly, on day one, he put forward a new immigration reform, proposed legislation that hasn’t been acted on. So, we gotta act in partnership with Congress. And I’ll tell you, the discussions that we’re having on the Senate side are progressing well.”
MacCallum interrupted Kirby and insisted those talks are not going well.
“They’re not really moving along well,” she protested. “You say he’s been concerned about it for three years, but that’s failing, obviously. When you have record numbers of people coming in, that means the policy’s failing. So, why not change gears and try to do something that works?”
Kirby responded by portraying the issue as part of a broader problem with Mexico and Central America. MacCallum interjected again, leading to this exchange:
MACCALLUM: John, do we have a border? Do we have a southern border?
KIRBY: Do we have a what?
MACCALLUM: Do we have a southern border?
KIRBY: Yes, ma’am. Of course we do.
MACCALLUM: Then how come people can flow across it every single day? Hundreds of thousands of people? 300,000 people in December.
KIRBY: We’re working very hard to try to fix that, Martha. That’s why we need congressional action. That’s why the president asked for additional funding – $6 billion in the supplemental to try to get border security enhanced. I think– you and I are obviously not going to see the policy solutions the same way, and I respect that.
MACCALLUM: Well, I’m just looking for results. If you’re concerned about the number of people crossing, you’re not getting results. So, at some point, you have to say we gotta do something different.
KIRBY: The idea that we haven’t looked at this and tried to work on this and trying to work in concert with Congress is just not true. We are. This is a complicated issue and it’s going to require a real team approach – not just from the executive branch but from the legislative branch as well.
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