Jean-Pierre Struggles To Answer If White House Agrees With VP Harris Saying The ‘Border Is Secure’

On Thursday, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre struggled to answer questions about if the White House agrees with Vice President Kamala Harris’s claim that the U.S. southern “border is secure.”

Harris made the claim during an interview with NBC host Chuck Todd.

“We had 2 million people come across this border for the first time ever,” Todd asked. “You’re confident this border is secure?”

“We have a secure border in that that is a priority for any nation, including ours and our administration,” Harris claimed.

A reporter asked Jean-Pierre, “But does the White House stand by those comments that the border is secure?”

“What we stand by is that we’re doing everything that we can, uh, to make sure that, um, uh, that we follow the process that’s been put forth,” the White House Press Secretary said. “That’s why we have, uh, historic funding, uh, to do just that, to make sure that, um, uh — you know, uh, um, uh, to make sure that, um — to make sure that the folks that we encounter at the border be removed, uh, or expelled.”

“Is the border secure, Karine?” the reporter asked. “Is the border secure?”

“I’m just going to refer back to the vice president. We agree with her,” Jean-Pierre responded. “She is saying that there’s a lot of work to do. Right? She also said that in that very statement. We agree that the border is secure, but there is still more work to be done.”

Illegal immigration numbers in fiscal year 2022 reached the highest level on record in June, with three months still left in fiscal year 2022.  In July, that number soared to just under 2 million migrants encounters for the fiscal year, completely shattering the the previous record high of 1,734,686 encounters in all of fiscal year 2021 – which was also set under the Biden administration.