Politico Hammered By Journalists and Progressives for Saying Trump Was Transparent About Border Detention: ‘Unmitigated Bullsh*t’

Tommy ChristopherMar 24th, 2021, 10:45 am
 

John Moore/Getty Images

Journalists, progressives, and others hammered Politico for a Playbook item that cast the Trump administration as having been more transparent than that of President Joe Biden on the issue of migrant detention at the southern border, particularly with regard to unaccompanied minors.

Wednesday morning’s Playbook featured an item contrasting the two administrations’ approaches to transparency at the border, and quoting ex-Trump senior advisor Stephen Miller:

WHEN A CRISIS IS YOUR MESSAGING — It’s a tale of two immigration messages: The Biden administration continues to get flak for barring press access to detention facilities at the border; the Trump administration basically begged press to come to the border. The Biden administration has downplayed the influx of migrants, insisting it’s a challenge, not a “crisis”; the Trump administration highlighted chaos at the border to build public support for its hard-line immigration policies.

“It was a global policy, allowing and encouraging media access,” STEPHEN MILLER, DONALD TRUMP’S top immigration adviser, told Playbook. “I used to call [Customs and Border Patrol] and say, ‘Why can’t you get more reporters to ride alongside?’ … I want to turn on ‘60 Minutes’ and see footage.”

While images of crowded, difficult conditions were helpful to the image Trump wanted to create, they run counter to the Biden administration’s objective of projecting a firm-but-compassionate response to border crossings. The upshot: This is one instance where the media-bashing Trump was on the side of the press — and Biden, despite his supposed respect for the role of journalism, is not.

The item drew strong criticisms from a variety of political and media personalities, who remembered things differently.

Aaron Fritschner, communications director for Democratic Congressman Don Beyer, published a lengthy thread pushing back on the piece, tagging Playbook’s authors and writing “this is unmitigated bullshit, it just isn’t true and it’s astounding to see in print. Talk to your colleagues who covered this story at the time — what you have written here is just wildly false.”

He included video of Rep. Beyer speaking to reporters after visiting a facility from which reporters were barred.

Journalists pushed back as well.

Several other Democratic officials joined in. Rep. Veronica Escobar slammed the site for quoting Miller.

Former HUD Secretary Julian Castro also trashed the inclusion, writing “Transparency at the border is something every administration should achieve. So it’s ridiculous to let Stephen Miller cast himself as a paragon of this.”

Playbook appears to be conflating the Trump administration’s eagerness to show images of a border teeming with migrants and overcrowded adult facilities with the detention facilities for unaccompanied minors, which the press were frequently barred from seeing during the Trump administration, and access to which the Biden administration has thus far promised to allow, but has yet to deliver.

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