Covering Donald Trump and the Trump White House was challenging for a host of reasons. But one of the most inexplicable was the familiar cycle: The administration would be asked to comment on something, not comment, then bash the report it had declined to initially rebut as “fake news.”
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In many cases, this was evidently because it had no real leg to stand on when it came to the details. It’s much easier to just throw a blanket over it and move on; “fake news” is a slogan, not an argument. But the effect was the same: A report it disputed (at least eventually!) got out there for all to consume.
We’re seeing a familiar cycle play out when it comes to the Biden administration’s consideration of payments to immigrants who were separated from their children. And it’s not clear that the right hand knows what the left hand is up to.
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Last week, the Wall Street Journal broke the news — and others including The Washington Post confirmed — that the administration was considering payments of up to $450,000 per person to settle cases involving families separated by the Trump administration’s zero-tolerance immigration policy. This was politically fraught, but that it would happen wasn’t totally surprising, given Joe Biden as a 2020 candidate had called the policy “criminal.”
The American Civil Liberties Union, which has been involved in the litigation, went so far as to publicly comment on Biden making good on righting the wrong. “President Biden has agreed that the family separation policy is a historic moral stain on our nation that must be fully remedied,” said Lee Gelernt, deputy director of the ACLU’s immigrant rights project.
The White House, the Justice Department and other federal agencies gave no indication at the time that the reports were in error. But on Wednesday, nearly a week later, Biden issued a strong denial during a Q&A with reporters, calling the reports “garbage” and saying it was “not going to happen”:
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Q: Mr. President: As you were leaving for your overseas trip, there were reports that were surfacing that your administration is planning to pay illegal immigrants who are separated from their families at the border up to $450,000 each, possibly a million dollars per family. Do you think that that might incentivize more people to come over illegally?
A: If you guys keep sending that garbage out, yeah. But it’s not true.
Q: So, this is a garbage report?
A: Yeah.
Q: Okay. So, you —
A: Four hundred and fifty — four hundred and fifty [thousand] dollars per person? Is that what you’re saying? ... That’s not going to happen.
Biden was indeed embarking on an overseas trip while this was landing, but it’s seemingly something the White House or the broader administration could have called “garbage” or even just broadly disputed last week. That it didn’t do so, even apparently anonymously, certainly undermines the idea that the reports were garbage.
And the ACLU is again weighing in with a rather bold statement. Not only does it go after Biden for allegedly reneging on a promise to make the situation right, but it suggests he might not truly know what’s happening in the negotiations — negotiations in which it, again, is intimately involved.
“President Biden may not have been fully briefed about the actions of his very own Justice Department as it carefully deliberated and considered the crimes committed against thousands of families separated from their children as an intentional governmental policy,” ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero said late Wednesday. “But if he follows through on what he said, the president is abandoning a core campaign promise to do justice for the thousands of separated families.”
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The White House on Thursday morning did not immediately respond to a request for further comment and a response to the ACLU’s suggestion.
When the potential settlements were first reported, it was abundantly clear this issue was going to be a political hot potato. Republicans lambasted the move as providing an incentive for illegal immigration — while ignoring that the policy is no longer in effect (thus rendering such future payments inapplicable for would-be border-crossers) and that many or most involved were seeking asylum through a legal process. It also ignored that such families could win even-larger penalties if the cases move forward. There are plenty of incentives to settle in such a scenario.
But Biden’s latest comments reinforce that this would indeed be a difficult one to explain — and that perhaps there’s some cold feet involved, at least to the extent that Biden has indeed “been fully briefed” on the situation.
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It seems possible Biden is trying to downplay the amount of the potential payments. But even the reports at the time noted that figure was tentative and would in many cases be smaller than $450,000 (even the question Wednesday from Fox News’s Peter Doocy, a familiar foil for the Biden White House, said “up to $450,000”). So disputing the reports also means disputing that nuance.
It’s also possible the lack of a denial owed to not wanting to comment on legal negotiations or involve the White House in things that should be independent of politics. But that line has now been bulldozed by Biden, and it’s probably best to provide some clarity.
And for a White House and an administration that has struggled with its messaging — often thanks to the relatively rare instances in which Biden himself submits to questions — it doesn’t exactly speak to its promises of a competent and less-chaotic presidency. In fact, it’s pretty familiar.