President Joe Biden put nominal Vice President Kamala Harris in charge of “solving” the escalating border crisis.
Harris will now lead the administration’s efforts on curbing immigration across the southern border, including focusing on coordination with Mexico and Latin America, Biden said in a statement given at the White House before turning reporters away.
“Thank you Mr. President for your confidence,” Harris told Biden. “Thank you.”
“Thank you,” Biden replied. “Willing to do it. And now we’re going to get down to business here, and uh, Ron who am I turning this over to?”
“Thank you very much, Mr. President,” the handler replied. “I think it’s time, I think it’s time for our friends in the press to leave now.”
The press began shouting questions while Biden looked on with a blank stare. He breathed heavily into his mask while the staffers whisked the reporters away.
“Thank you very much,” the staffer said as the chorus of reporters faded.
President Biden continues to delegate major responsibilities that he was elected to handle to his vice president. Harris has met with numerous heads of state in one-on-one meetings, and is included in all of the president’s IC briefings.
On Tuesday, the news broke that the White House was taking the unusual step of granting formal recognition of Harris’s role as a vital member of the Biden administration. Her name was to be included on all official government correspondence to the Cabinet departments.
“Neither of the @WhiteHouse Twitter accounts from the previous two administrations mentioned the vice president in the account’s description,” the report noted. “Under the Obama administration, the account description read, ‘Follow for the latest from President Obama and his administration.’”
“The highly specific language also appears on the websites of all 15 executive departments,” the report noted. “Press releases and other communications from the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Labor, State, Transportation, Treasury, and Veterans Affairs, and the Attorney General all exclusively refer to the Biden-Harris Administration, in lieu of only naming the president, which has been customary until now.”
President Biden has not given a press briefing in over two months in office. He has not yet given a State of the Union Address — one of the latest first-time presidents to do so.