President Barack Obama lands in Texas today and a visit to the border is still not on his agenda — a move his team is ardently defending. Cecelia Muñoz, the director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, even had to make multiple appearances on the usually pro-Obama network MSNBC to justify the president’s response to the growing border crisis.
On MSNBC’s Now with Alex Wagner, Muñoz repeated the same answer over and over as Wagner asked about why the president was not physically visiting the border. Her only response was that Obama is “very focused” and engaged in the “most impactful” way. She said multiple times that he was “on top of the situation,” never veering from her carefully curated talking points.
On Morning Joe, Muñoz fought back against the criticisms of Obama that compare this instance to President George W. Bush’s handling of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. She used the same terms in this interview.
“It doesn’t make sense to compare this to a natural disaster,” Muñoz said. “This is a humanitarian situation that we have been on top of from the very beginning.”
It wasn’t necessary for Muñoz to visit every show because the network already has its own in-house presidential defender. NBC’s Chief White House Correspondent Chuck Todd appeared on MSNBC’s Hardball with Chris Matthews to explain Obama’s decision.
“This White House gets a little stubborn. They don’t like to be bullied into a decision based on politics,” Todd said.
He said Obama’s agreement to meet with Texas Gov. Rick Perry was a “compromise” that would take the place of a border visit.
“They can say they went to Texas, they talked about immigration, they had an important meeting with the governor down there who’s dealing with this, but then they were still able to stand their ground and say, ‘Hey, we didn’t get bullied in going to the border,'” Todd said.
Watch Todd’s full statements below. Relevant clip begins at 7:35 mark.
