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A leftover from yesterday but a must-note development in the border crisis … and the credibility and integrity of the Biden administration. Remember back in September when Joe Biden pledged that Border Patrol agents who had whipped illegal immigrants from horseback patrols would pay for their abuse? The agents that DHS assigned to desk duty despite record numbers of attempted illegal entries across the border?
Yeah, never mind:
🚨🚨: Fox reporting that the mounted Border Patrol agents falsely accused of “whipping” illegal migrants in Del Rio have been cleared!
Hopefully these men are fully restored after being slandered by Biden and Mayorkas. #BidenBorderCrisis pic.twitter.com/oN1NpshQ1I
— John Cooper (@thejcoop) April 13, 2022
The horseback Border Patrol agents who were wrongly accused of “whipping” Haitians illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border last September have reportedly been cleared of wrongdoing in the months-long investigation that was initially promised to only take a few days.
Fox News reported on Wednesday they learned “officials” have cleared the agents of any wrongdoing. In the time the agents were falsely accused of whipping the Haitians and the investigation from Homeland Security that followed, the agents were put on desk duty, taking away desperately needed manpower during the continuing border crisis.
Well, it’s a good thing that our political leaders kept a cool head and advised everyone to wait for an investigation before jumping to conclusions. Right? Right? Nope:
“We were indeed horrified by the images. That is not who we are,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said shortly after the outrage.
“Of course they should never be able to do it again…It’s obviously horrific,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said in September.
President Joe Biden promised the agents involved would “pay” and there would “be consequences.” Vice President Kamala Harris compared the agents’ actions to slavery.
In case no one remembers, this was Biden last September, leaping to conclusions and throwing the Border Patrol agents firmly under the open-borders bus:
“Of course I take responsibility, I’m president.”
Pres. Joe Biden tells @rachelvscott the controversial handling of Haitian immigrants “sends the wrong message around the world,” claiming “there will be consequences.” https://t.co/kx01LNbaNT pic.twitter.com/o3kDDt5Giq
— ABC News (@ABC) September 24, 2021
Will Biden “take responsibility” for smearing his own employees?
It’s not even clear why it took seven months to “clear” these agents. Even the photographer who took the picture that started the non-scandal scandal told the media that everyone had misinterpreted the shot — the day before Biden’s remarks above:
The photographs, which were taken Sunday, appear to show agents on horses with a whip in hand. The photos caused outrage because from certain angles, it appears to show Border Patrol whipping migrants, but photographer Paul Ratje said he and his colleagues never saw agents whipping anyone.
“Some of the Haitian men started running, trying to go around the horses,” Ratje said.
Ratje is a photographer based in Las Cruces and has been in Del Rio since Friday. He said took the photographs from the Mexican side.
“I’ve never seen them whip anyone,” Ratje said. “He was swinging it, but it can be misconstrued when you’re looking at the picture.”
As had been explained at the time and ad infinitum since, the Border Patrol’s mounted units don’t have whips at all. They are trained, however, to protect themselves and the horses by swinging the reins to prevent suspects from grabbing the horse or the tackle in attempts to unseat the agents. That is what the picture depicts, not “whipping” anyone. And it shouldn’t have taken DHS seven months to figure out what its own training and policy is for mounted agents, either. It shouldn’t have taken seven hours.
Will Biden and Alejandro Mayorkas apologize for their remarks and actions? Not unless the media whips them into some accountability for their smears, so … well, let’s just say that the White House and the administration aren’t the only institutions with a credibility problem.
Source: This post first appeared on HotAir
