The flood of illegal immigrants into the country has become impossible to ignore for President Joe Biden and his administration … Biden even visited the border for the second time ever and talked about climate change. There was a time when the media would never call the situation at the border a "crisis," but as we noted, even MSNBC's Al Sharpton has described what's happening at the border as "an invasion." Voters care about illegal immigration a lot, and it is an election year.
Drew Holden is back with one of his fantastic threads bringing the receipts. Is it OK to call it a border crisis now?
🧵Thread🧵
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) March 7, 2024
Does it feel like the media call the border a “crisis” more lately? You aren’t imagining it.
After dismissing the term as Biden’s border crisis mounted, the press have broken it out to try to blame the GOP. @FreeBeacon
I break it down. ⤵️https://t.co/0QzhSSavgb
The new change is stark. I went thru @nytimes digital archive.
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) March 7, 2024
Since Biden said the border wasn’t secure in late Jan, “border crisis” appeared in 26 NYT stories, even as crossings declined.
When crossings peaked in Nov & Dec, but there was no one but Biden to blame?
5 mentions
More than 300,000 illegal immigrants crossed the border in December. Sounds newsworthy.
So what changed? Well, Biden empowered the press by saying the border wasn’t secure in late Jan. Then Republicans voted against a “bipartisan” border deal.
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) March 7, 2024
After that, the media were off to the races: yes, there was a border crisis, and it was the GOP’s fault. Here’s @CNN. pic.twitter.com/ltyQBBj57L
Plenty of other outlets did the same thing. Not only did @nytimes start using the term “border crisis” all the time, they trotted out dramatic pieces about the crisis…blaming Republicans.
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) March 7, 2024
Poor Joe Biden, hindered by Republicans, according to the media. pic.twitter.com/XH6FVpBHBF
For the first time in three years, President Joe Biden expressed an interest in the border by backing the Senate's awful bipartisan "border security" bill, which was really just tacked on to a $60 billion aid package to Ukraine.
A quick fact check. The media glosses over the reality that, from day 1, Biden took action to keep the border open. He’s unambiguously to blame for the present crisis, as @RepYoungKim explains: https://t.co/b9uTUu3wXz
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) March 7, 2024
Back to the press. Here’s @axios pointing the blame at Republicans while admitting the crisis.
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) March 7, 2024
They also claimed the border being open was a Republican conspiracy theory.
Not very subtle, guys. pic.twitter.com/BDfMiIiRFj
@voxdotcom almost - almost - admitted that Republicans were right about the border.
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) March 7, 2024
But even they finally admitted that what’s happening is a “crisis.” pic.twitter.com/oBoIeS9vPv
@TIME admitted it was a “crisis” too — and then quickly pivoted to blame Republicans for making it worse, allegedly.
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) March 7, 2024
Maybe it’s worth mentioning how we got to a “crisis” in the first place? pic.twitter.com/VOC2T4LzbJ
Check out this whole video from @thaleigha_ illustrating the shift. https://t.co/QrMwhCT2mG
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) March 7, 2024
For years the media pretended that Biden’s border crisis didn’t exist. Mentions were absent from @nytimes. @AP put out official guidance telling their reporters and other outlets not to use the term in 2021 because the border wasn’t a “crisis.” pic.twitter.com/uDazayhIxH
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) March 7, 2024
"… but it does not fit the classic dictionary definition of a crisis."
The rest of the media got the message.
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) March 7, 2024
A month or so later, @guardian (maybe the most ridiculous media entity) called the idea of a crisis at the border a “political manipulation.” pic.twitter.com/F9Ugp5V9j5
@washingtonpost claimed in 2021, and I’m just quoting the headline here, that “The Migrant ‘Surge’ at the U.S. Southern Border is Actually a Predictable Pattern.”
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) March 7, 2024
Right.
Three bylines to get this spin. pic.twitter.com/ea4FlxCCuP
The migrant "surge" that Biden encouraged during the Democratic primary debates. Migrants should immediately surge to the border after his election, he said. And they did. As we reported earlier, one Honduran migrant recently crossed into Eagle Pass wearing a Biden-Harris 2020 campaign T-shirt. "So they will let me in," he told reporters.
Then there were the outlets who claimed the “real” crisis was something else entirely.@politico trotted out a media favorite. The real “crisis” was, you guessed it!, climate change.@TheAtlantic said the crisis was in the eye of the beholder.
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) March 7, 2024
Maybe it’s just the border? pic.twitter.com/efOLKXSkpk
And then there were the “yeah, but, it isn’t Biden’s fault!” pieces, claiming that really this is all nothing new. @ABC and, who else, @nytimes trotted out stories like this to play down the crisis and cover for the man who caused it: Joe Biden. pic.twitter.com/zAAeRgQZ5l
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) March 7, 2024
One counter example to drive the point home. There was one mention flare up, among @nytimes and others, in 2023…when the media started talking about a “crisis” in NYC and attacked GOP governors for sharing the crisis with otherwise insulated blue cities. @CNN @AP @washingtonpost pic.twitter.com/TCMmEBQts8
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) March 7, 2024
If the media is wondering why their credibility is in free fall, perhaps they should consider calling balls and strikes, particularly on issues that Americans care about, rather than trying to cover for the Democratic president.
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) March 7, 2024
Because we notice. pic.twitter.com/M0zsiVpKgg
And MSNBC showed how much they cared during their Super Tuesday analysis, mocking Virginia voters who said the border crisis was a top priority for them. Virginia has a border with what, West Virginia? This was after an illegal immigrant was arrested for raping a teen girl in Virginia. Every state is a border state.
If they're going to keep reporting on the border crisis, Biden might actually have to take action before November.
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