Katie Hobbs' Title 42 flip will flop on the campaign trail

Add Secretary of State Katie Hobbs to the ever-lengthening list of Democrats who have figured out that President Joe Biden is about to deal a body blow to the party’s November prospects.

Hobbs now believes that Biden should reverse his “rash decision” to end Title 42, the public health policy that has been used to expel asylum seekers more than 1.7 million times since the start of the pandemic.

The frontrunner in the Democratic governor's race told CNN that lifting Title 42 “without a clear plan to secure our border would be a disaster.”

She’s right. But compare that with her answer on Politics Unplugged on April 3, when 3TV/CBS 5’s Dennis Welch asked her if Biden’s decision to reopen the border to asylum seekers on May 23 was the right one.

“Title 42 isn’t working,” she replied.

Republicans were quick to jump on Hobbs

Sounds like somebody’s been reading public opinion polls since then.

Or maybe she just finally decided to follow the lead of Democratic Sens. Mark Kelly and Kyrsten Sinema, who early on saw a political disaster in the making with the floodgates about to open on an administration wholly unprepared to deal with the coming surge.

On Monday, Republicans quickly jumped on Hobbs’ flip.

Matt Salmon, running a distant third in the GOP governor’s race, immediately pumped out both a press release and a tweet about Hobbs’ U-turn.

“This humiliating reversal is yet another reminder that Hobbs is uniquely incapable of running our state,” he said.

Karrin Taylor Robson said Hobbs' flip calls into question her leadership and judgment.

"Arizona cannot afford to elect a windsock," she said, in a press release.

Kari Lake called Hobbs "a really bad liar."

Title 42 doesn't work, but leave it in place?

Team Hobbs, in full damage control mode, quickly explained that Hobbs’ statement to CNN wasn’t a U-turn but merely an elaboration on her earlier four-word answer to Welch.

“Title 42 isn’t working, as evidenced by the fact that border crossings in Arizona have continued to increase since this policy was put in place, but lifting Title 42 without a clear plan to secure our border would be a disaster,” Hobbs said, via a statement. “I urge President Biden to reverse this rash decision and finally commit the necessary resources to end the chaos at our border.”

So Title 42 isn’t working … but Biden should leave it in place anyway?

Anybody buying what Hobbs is selling?

Me? I’m reminded of the hole she dug herself late last year on Talonya Adams, a Black woman who won her second federal discrimination lawsuit in November after being fired from her job as a Senate Democratic analyst while Hobbs was Senate minority leader.

In 2019, Adams won her first trial, prompting Hobbs to publicly apologize and lament that she hadn’t been a “stronger ally”. But suddenly in November, after Adams’ second favorable jury verdict, gubernorial candidate Hobbs blamed the whole thing on Republicans. Then she blamed it on Adams. Eventually, under fire from influential leaders in the African American community, she acknowledged that she at least played a role in Adams’ 2015 firing.

This is hardly the first flip from Hobbs

As decisive leadership goes, her pass-the-buck response was a stunner from someone who claims to be ready to govern a state of more than seven million people.

So was last summer’s filibuster flip, a moment that lives on (as all things do) in YouTube glory.

In June, Hobbs was again on Politics Unplugged and told Welch that she would not pressure Sinema and Kelly to vote to abolish the filibuster in order pass voting rights legislation.

“What I’m not going to do is tell our senators how to do their jobs,” she told Welch.

Then, when pressed, she said it again.

“I’m not going to tell our senators how to do their jobs but I’m going to work with them to get the job done for Arizona," she said.

Twenty-four hours later, after the clip aired, Hobbs was singing a different song.

“Let me be clear, as a champion for voting rights, I am calling on Congress to scrap the filibuster and pass the For the People Act immediately,” she said, in a tweet. “Nobody should play political games when our right to the ballot is at stake.”

So Hobbs wouldn’t urge our senators to vote to end a filibuster rule that she opposes.

And now, she’s urging Biden not to end a border policy that she says isn’t working.

That's some decisive leadership there.

Reach Roberts at laurie.roberts@arizonarepublic.com. Follow her on Twitter at @LaurieRoberts.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Katie Hobbs' Title 42 flip will be a flop on the campaign trail