One of Joe Biden’s top advisers reportedly called another a ‘***-a**’ and an ‘idiot’ amid infighting over the border crisis.
Susan Rice, a domestic policy adviser, sharply criticized Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, Axios reported.
Several people familiar with the cases said the comments were made because Becerra was reluctant to find more space in centers for migrant children.
In one meeting, Biden allegedly rebuked Becerra.
Rice is said to have passed a note to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas that said, “Don’t save him.”
Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra was reportedly called an “idiot” by another top Biden adviser.
Susan Rice reportedly criticized Becerra in row over border crisis
The Biden administration continues to struggle to handle the problem at the border while the president is reportedly frustrated behind the scenes.
Amid the border recriminations, a former senior Biden administration official also described Vice President Harris as “ineffective” on the issue.
The president personally appointed her to act as a contact person on the crisis in March 2021.
“She has been, at best, ineffective and, at worst, compromised sporadically and without realizing it was her responsibility.” “It’s an opportunity for her and she didn’t fill the void,” the official said. he told axios.
Harris and former national security adviser Susan Rice also viewed each other with suspicion, according to the report, as Rice felt more informed than Harris on the issue and took the lead.
President Biden also reportedly “exploded with rage” at his team of advisors on Air Force One during his trip to Arizona in August 2023.
He became upset when they didn’t have certain immigration information he wanted, further exacerbating the growing tension between his administration, according to Axios.
The vice president flatly refused to accept responsibility for the border crisis, insisting that she was only in charge of handling the narrow “root causes” of the migration crisis in countries like Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.
His summer 2021 trip to Guatemala was widely considered ineffective after he told migrants “don’t come” during a press conference and embarrassed himself in an interview with NBC news anchor Lester Holt.
When Holt pointed out that Harris had not personally visited the border, she responded that she had not been to Europe either in an awkward exchange that went viral.
Despite Harris’ reluctance to visit the border, she ultimately made the trip after former President Donald Trump announced his own plans to visit to demonstrate his commitment to the issue.
Harris visited the border 93 days after Biden named her a leader on the crisis.
The vice president is not the only Biden official who tries to prevent the immigration issue from dragging down her political image.
The Secretary of Health and Human Services, Xavier Becerra, was reluctant to address the problem from his position by not improving facilities to house migrant children.
Known for her frequent use of profanity in the office, Rice described Becerra as a ‘bitch,’ the report added.
Vice President Kamala Harris has sought to distance herself from the administration’s border crisis.
Harris and the White House have decided to blame Republicans in Congress for failing to fix a “broken” immigration system, as the 2024 campaign to re-elect Biden begins in earnest.
“We’re trying to force, in particular, some of the Republicans in Congress to participate in the solution,” Harris said in an interview with journalist Katie Couric in January.
“But unfortunately, we want to fix it and they want to move on,” he continued.
“They want a political issue to move forward in November.”
Meanwhile, House Republicans plan to vote Tuesday to impeach Biden’s top border security official, Alejandro Mayorkas.
It is the second attempt by the Republican Party to overthrow the official. Last week, his first attempt to unseat him surprisingly failed by just one vote.
Republicans argue that Mayorkas should be charged with high crimes and misdemeanors for failing to enforce immigration laws and lying to Congress.
Mayorkas has denied such claims and Democrats insist he is only carrying out Biden administration policy.
He also blamed the “broken system” on a lack of congressional action after Republicans killed an immigration and foreign aid deal negotiated in the Senate.
“It’s certainly a crisis and, well, we’re not responsible for a broken system,” Mayorkas said. ‘And we are doing a lot within that broken system. But fundamentally, fundamentally, Congress is the only one that can fix it.”