Ever since Biden took office, immigration has been one of those things his administration would rather not talk about. It’s not hard to understand why. The polls show a consistent and heavy slant in favor of the Republican Party on the issue; internal Democratic Party divisions (between pro-immigration liberals and open-border absolutists) make for awkward conversations; and a president and party that opted for moral outrage on the issue in opposition struggled with the transition to power — which brings with it the difficult tradeoffs inherent to immigration policymaking.
(For evidence of those tradeoffs, look no further than a series of heartbreaking stories in the New York Times about America’s serious new child labor problem — a consequence of a change in border policy under Biden motivated by “kids in cages” outrage under Trump.)
For all these reasons, the Biden administration put off difficult decisions on immigration for as long as possible. For much of 2021 and 2022, the White House was in the Kafkaesque position of secretly rooting for courts to block their own administration’s official attempt to lift Title 42 — the Covid-era public health order that allowed expedited deportations at the border. But that fudge couldn’t last forever, and so 2023 has, so far, been the year that Biden grasped the nettle on immigration. In January, the White House announced a slew of new border policies, including restrictions on who can seek asylum.
These moves were in preparation for Title 42 being lifted. That crucial moment will come in a few weeks, and Biden has dispatched 1,500 military members to the southern border to help behind the scenes. The administration has also reached a deal with Mexico that will allow the US to deport non-Mexican migrants back across the border.
At many outlets on the left, taking border security seriously is seen as a little bit icky — a trait to be treated with suspicion and a dangerous impulse not to be encouraged. Politico reporters are banned from using the word “crisis” in relation to record numbers of illegal border crossings. Today over at the Atlantic, David A. Graham calls the Biden administration decision to send troops to help handle the anticipated surge of arrivals a “Trumplike mistake.” (For Graham, one suspects reading his piece, a move is by definition a mistake if it is Trumplike.)
Biden may be catching flack from this narrow slice of the media for moving rightwards on immigration. But outside this echo chamber, the shift is a no-brainer. The important question is whether or not it will work. Far more important than internecine progressive rows is whether Biden can deliver something resembling order at the border. That is not something he has managed so far in his presidency, and the biggest test yet will come after May 11, when Title 42 is finally lifted.
On our radar
SCHUMER LETS SLIP FEINSTEIN TIMETABLE There was no mention of absent senator Dianne Feinstein in Chuck Schumer’s Tuesday press conference. But Schumer’s notes were snapped at the Q and A session, and they suggest Feinstein is expected to return next week. The veteran California senator’s absence has been the source of growing frustration for Democrats, as it has left the party unable to nominate judges and reduced the majority in the chamber by one.
BLACK TURNOUT DROPPED SHARPLY IN 2022 Black voter turnout dropped by nearly 10 percentage points between 2018 and 2022, a Washington Post analysis of census data has found. Turnout among white voters dropped by 1.5 points over the same period. The gap between white and black voter turnout in 2022 was the largest in any presidential or midterm election since 2000.
BIDEN WH CONSIDERS NUCLEAR OPTION ON DEBT LIMIT In the latest sign that the White House was banking on Kevin McCarthy failing to pass a budget bill and has no plan now that he has done so, the New York Times reports that administration officials are debating a left-field option that previous administrations hadn’t even contemplated: to simply ignore the debt limit and keep issuing new debt to pay what the US government owes. Jim Tankersley reports: “Top economic and legal officials at the White House, the Treasury Department and the Justice Department have made [the theory] a subject of intense and unresolved debate in recent months, according to several people familiar with the discussions.”
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Joe Biden, bad feminist
Joe Biden has long sought to depict himself as a champion for women — from sponsoring the Violence Against Women Act as a senator to fronting the It’s On Us anti-campus sexual assault campaign as vice president. But frankly, he’s not having a very feminist week.
Cockburn was shocked to read a report in Politico that TJ Ducklo is “on the cusp of officially reentering Biden world in a senior communications role on his reelection campaign.” Ducklo, you may recall, resigned as White House deputy press secretary in 2021 after yelling at Tara Palmeri, a female reporter then at Politico, threatening to “destroy” her. Palmeri had contacted the White House to ask about Ducklo’s relationship with Axios political reporter Alexi McCammond, who covered the Biden campaign.
The Politico piece quotes influential women in Biden’s sphere, such as Anita Dunn and Kate Bedingfield, who argue that Ducklo “has made amends for his actions and deserves another stint in Biden world.” Politico does not quote… Palmeri, who tweeted “very strange to read a story about yourself from your former publication in which you are not named our asked for comment.” Naturally, Cockburn reached out to Palmeri to offer her a platform — and will add her thoughts should she choose to respond.
On the first day of his administration, Biden told his political appointees, “If you ever work with me and I hear you treat another colleague with disrespect, talk down to someone, I will fire you on the spot. No ifs, ands or buts.” This comment was raised frequently during the Ducklo imbroglio. Cockburn wonders whether the president should wait to hear from Palmeri on whether Ducklo deserves a second chance — rather than from dozens of Ducklo’s friends…
Alexi McCammond, whose relationship with Ducklo was the source of the fracas, has in the years since left Axios to become editor at Teen Vogue, resigned before starting there after offense archaeologists turfed up her high-school tweets and rejoined Axios as a political reporter. When her relationship with Ducklo became public knowledge — in a soft People magazine profile, rather than Palmeri’s piece — it was announced that she would forgo reporting on Biden, in order to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest.
It’s not clear if McCammond is still dating Ducklo — there’s no sign of him on her Instagram, at least, just pictures of her looking rather dashing at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner — and so who’s to say whether their relationship (or former relationship) would have a bearing on her ability to report fairly on the Biden White House. Cockburn emailed Axios to ask whether McCammond was still recusing herself from Biden coverage — and had yet to receive a response at the time of publication.
In a more remote part of “Bidenworld” — Arkansas — Cockburn has been monitoring court proceedings with interest. Lunden Roberts is taking her former fling Hunter Biden to task for his attempt to pay reduced child support for the lovechild he fathered with her.
Roberts’s legal team are seeking continued payments of $20,000 a month, so that Hunter’s daughter, four-year-old Navy Joan Roberts, could “enjoy the same lifestyle and quality of life as her half-siblings and cousins who are members of the Biden family.”
Lunden was a stripper at DC’s Mpire club in Dupont Circle when she was impregnated by the first son — hey, who among us… — and is also suing for the right for their daughter Navy to have the last name “Biden.”
Biden press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked in Tuesday’s briefing why President Biden refused to acknowledge Navy, his seventh grandchild. “I’m not gonna speak to that,” Jean-Pierre responded.
Goodness: doesn’t Joe know that “sex work is work” these days? What kind of example is the president setting by allowing his son to run out on his daughter to live in luxury at the White House?
On a seemingly unrelated note, Biden’s social media team thought Tuesday was a good day for Joe to use the word “deadbeat.” And they say us Americans don’t get irony…
White House advisors privately frustrated by Fed rate increases
The Biden administration has always been at pains to stress the independence of the Federal Reserve, who raised rates for the tenth consecutive time today. And so it was interesting to read, in a recent Wall Street Journal profile of Lael Brainard (the former Fed vice chair now advising Biden on economic policy), of behind-the-scenes White House frustration at repeated rate rises. “Some of Mr. Biden’s advisors share concerns that the Fed’s rate increases could hurt the economy more than needed,” reports the Journal. Not surprising, perhaps. But a rare glimpse into White House views of the Jerome Powell and his inflation-fighting moves.
–OW
From the site
Michael Lind: Why bad jobs are the root of America’s problems
Mark Galeotti: Is the Kremlin drone attack ‘Zelensky’s gift to Putin?’
Peter W. Wood: The China influence puzzle
Poll watch
PRESIDENT BIDEN JOB APPROVAL
Approve 42.8% | Disapprove 53.5% | Net Approval -10.7
(RCP average)
WHAT DO AMERICANS THINK IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PROBLEM FACING THE COUNTRY?
The government/poor leadership 18% | Economy in general 14%
High cost of living/inflation 9% | Immigration 8% | Guns/gun control 7%
Crime/violence: 6% | Unifying the country 5% | Race relations/racism 4%
Poverty/hunger/homelessness 3% | Ethics/moral/religious/family decline 3%
(Gallup)
Best of the rest
George F. Will, Washington Post: In ‘Ordinary Man,’ a certain greatness emerges of Gerald Ford
Gabe Kaminsky, Washington Examiner: Hollywood, left-wing foundations behind climate charity quietly bankrolling extremist protest groups
Thomas Mallon, New Yorker: The making of Jackie Kennedy
Khadeeja Safdar and David Benoit, Wall Street Journal: The Epstein documents, part II
Louise Matsakis, Semafor: US House questions Nike and Adidas about possible ties to forced labor in China
Alex Thompson and Hans Nichols, Axios: Biden re-election bid is slow out of the gate
