Biden Fires Back at Trump’s ‘Pathetic’ Border Criticism

(AP)

President Joe Biden responded to Donald Trump’s criticism that his executive order on the border earlier this week was “weak and pathetic,” asking rhetorically, “Is he describing himself?”

Biden made the comments in an interview with ABC News “World News Tonight” on Thursday. They come two days after Trump released a campaign video in response to Biden’s executive action that would shut down the border at a threshold of 2,500 illegal crossings per day but is reportedly rife with exceptions.

Trump asserted that Biden’s “executive order won’t stop the invasion, it’s weak, and it’s pathetic.” That same day, Trump told Newsmax that Biden’s order was “public relations.”

In the ABC News interview, Biden was asked to respond to Trump’s criticism.

“Is he describing himself? Weak and pathetic? Come on.”

“Look, everybody knows what’s happened,” the president added. “We had a deal, it was much broader than this, much better, much more accepted across the board, and he got on the phone and told the Republicans, don’t support it. It will hurt me, it will help Biden.”

Biden was referring to the Senate-led bipartisan border bill that Republicans quickly dismissed, in part, for the exceptions and judgment left in the hands of the Biden administration on when to close the border, which mirrors Biden’s executive order.

“First of all, it’s a nothing that he did and allowing massive numbers of people still to come in, and it’s just misinformation, disinformation, and just another hit job,” Trump told Newsmax on Tuesday.

“And frankly, this should have been done 3½ years ago, but something meaningful like the one that Congress passed or we wanted Congress to pass, which was basically my things, having to do with the stay in Mexico, called Remain in Mexico, and catch-and-release in Mexico, not in the United States,” Trump said. “No, this is a public relations executive order, and it’s meaningless, meaningless.

The New York Post reported Thursday that tens of thousands of migrants could be exempt from Biden’s new executive order if their home countries refuse to take them back. The Post cited a federal memo saying that illegals who aren’t allowed to return to their home countries will not count against the 2,500 daily threshold that would shut down the border.

“He could stop the millions of people coming into our country with one order and one signature. It’s all there for him. I did it,” Trump told Newsmax.