The, uh, situation at our southern border where hundreds of thousands of migrants are massing is creating some interesting essays into nomenclature. The Democrats don’t want to call it a “crisis.” They don’t like that word when it’s applied to something they have caused. But they do like having named crises when they’re things they can blame on others and then exploit for their own purposes. (That whole “don’t-let-it-go-to-waste” thing.)
For example, DHS Secretary Mayorkas, as we reported yesterday, doesn’t like “crisis” because it sounds so negative. It’s a challenge, all right, even one that’s “stressful,” even “overwhelming” and even enough to prompt a desperate call for agency volunteers, but certainly not a crisis.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki: “I don’t think we need to sit here and put new labels on what we’ve already conveyed is challenging.”
Even Representative Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) admits that while “it is not a crisis yet . . . it will become a crisis . . . very soon.”
Meanwhile, in non-Dem circles, the diagnosis is critical and the prognosis dire.
Migrants see Biden as “the migrant president, and so many feel they’re going to reach the United States,” Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.
“White House won’t call border surge a ‘crisis,’ but it’s surely a huge mess,” Newsday.
“Where it’s going is a huge crisis . . . we’re in serious trouble,” Mark Dannels, Sheriff, Cochise County, Arizona.
“It’s going to be insane come spring,” CBP official.
“It’s only going to get worse,” Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R).
“By summer, you’re going to see probably somewhere around a million people trying to get into this country illegally,” Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX)
“Our country is being destroyed,” former President Trump.
And just so we don’t leave anyone out, there’s someone we haven’t heard from, old Mr. Forgetful himself:
As usual, Joe has no comment.