WH slams Texas and Florida governors for sending migrants to other states

Yahoo News Video
4.5k

During the White House briefing on Thursday, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called out Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for sending migrants to the vice president’s residence in Washington, D.C., and Martha’s Vineyard, describing it as a “cruel, premeditated political stunt.”

Video Transcript

- The migrants that are being bused to DC and other cities. There were some that showed up at the VP's residence earlier this morning. Is the administration looking into whether busing migrants around the country is legal?

KARINE JEAN-PIERRE: So let me just say a couple of things about this because and it's come up in the briefing room before, because this has been happening for the past several weeks.

So as we have said repeatedly, there is-- there is a process in place. We have had a process in place. There is a legal way of doing this and for managing migrants. Republican governors interfering in that process and using migrants as political pawns is shameful, is reckless, and just plain wrong.

And remember, these are people who are fleeing communism, who are fleeing hardship. And if these governors truly care about border security, they should ask Texas Governor Ted Cruz and Florida Senators Marco Rubio and Rick Scott why they voted against the President's request for record, record funding for the Department of Homeland Security.

So this is what they have done. These-- both senators, Senator Marco Rubio, Senator Rick Scott have voted against-- did not vote for-- this funding that would have helped the Department of Homeland Security. That is just a fact.

And also the fact that FOX News-- and not the Department of Homeland Security, the city, or local NGOs-- were alerted about a plan to leave migrants, including children on the side of a busy DC street, makes clear that this is just a cruel, premeditated, political stunt. This is what they are doing.

And a couple of more things. The migrants, including children, who arrived in Martha's Vineyard were misled about where they were being taken and what would be provided when they arrived, is also deeply alarming. The children Governor Abbott abandoned in Martha's Vineyard, the children that Governor DeSantis abandoned as well, you know, deserve better.

They deserve better than being left on the streets of DC or being left in Martha's Vineyard. They deserve a lot better than that. And as we have done many times in response to attempts to create chaos and confusion by Republican governors, we are working to manage the consequences of these two stunts as well.