We're not finishing the border wall - just cleaning up Trump's mess: Karine Jean-Pierre says Biden is plugging gaps in Arizona to 'save lives' and calls border walls 'ineffective' in stopping migrants

  • White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Friday denied that the Biden administration was completing former President Donald Trump's border wall 
  • 'We are not finishing the wall, we are cleaning up the mess the prior administration left behind in their failed attempt to build a wall,' she said 
  • She was asked why the Biden administration had authorized U.S. Customs and Border Protection to close gaps in a section of Arizona's wall

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Friday denied that the Biden administration was completing former President Donald Trump's border wall. 

'We are not finishing the wall, we are cleaning up the mess the prior administration left behind in their failed attempt to build a wall,' she said to a question posed by Fox News Channel's Peter Doocy. 

Doocy had asked why the Biden administration had authorized U.S. Customs and Border Protection to close gaps in a section of Arizona's wall near the Morelos Dam. 

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Friday denied that the Biden administration was completing former President Donald Trump's border wall

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Friday denied that the Biden administration was completing former President Donald Trump's border wall

The Yuma Morelos Dam Project will close four gaps located within an 'incomplete border barrier project' near Arizona's Morelos Dam

The Yuma Morelos Dam Project will close four gaps located within an 'incomplete border barrier project' near Arizona's Morelos Dam 

The Department of Homeland Security said it was closing up sections of the border wall near the Morelos Dam (pictured) to protect migrants from drowning as they crossed the Colorado River

The Department of Homeland Security said it was closing up sections of the border wall near the Morelos Dam (pictured) to protect migrants from drowning as they crossed the Colorado River

The Yuma Morelos Dam Project will close four gaps located within an 'incomplete border barrier project,' the Department of Homeland Security said Thursday.  

DHS said it was trying to protect migrants from injury and drowning as they attempted to cross the Colorado River into the United States in an area where the wall was left open. 

The openings created 'safety and life hazard risks for migrants' and also presented 'life and safety' risks to first responders. 

Doocy called attention to a remark President Joe Biden had made in August 2020.

'There will not be another foot of wall constructed on my administration,' the presumptive Democratic nominee said at the time. 

Doocy also asked about some Democrats calling the wall 'racist,' to which Jean-Pierre wouldn't entertain an answer.  

Jean-Pierre insisted multiple times that the Biden administration was not completing Trump's wall.  

'Again, what we're doing is cleaning up the mess that the prior administration has done,' she said at one point. 

'We are not finishing the wall,' she said at another. 

'We are not finishing a wall, we are cleaning up the mess that the prior administration made. We are trying to save lives. This is what the prior administration left behind, that we are now cleaning up,' she later added. 

Doocy kept insisting the administration was finishing the wall. 

'A border wall is an ineffective use of taxpayer dollars,' Jean-Pierre also pointed out. 

She pointed to a CBP report that said new bollard fencing on the southern border was breached 3,272 times between 2019 and 2021.  

'It's ineffective, we are not finishing a wall, we are cleaning up the mess that the last administration made. OK,' she said again. 

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