Biden says “there are more important things” than the border crisis as he travels to Arizona to visit the Taiwanese semiconductor giant and announce a $40 billion increase in production alongside Apple CEO Tim Cook
- President Joe Biden left the White House for Arizona on Tuesday morning
- He visits a new computer chip factory being built in Phoenix
- It is part of a $40 billion investment by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co
- This makes it one of the largest foreign direct investments in US history
- But Republicans have urged Biden to see the border crisis firsthand
- “There are more important things,” he told reporters as he left
President Joe Biden left the White House for Arizona on Tuesday morning to visit the site of a new computer chip factory and highlight how his policies are creating jobs – but said he won’t travel to the border to see the immigration crisis with his own eyes to watch.
“Because there are more important things,” he told reporters, who questioned him about his decision just before boarding Marine One.
“They will invest billions of dollars in the new company in the state.”
Republicans have urged Biden to visit the border and see the problems there firsthand.
President Joe Biden spoke to reporters as he left the White House. He said more important things were going on in Arizona than the border crisis before visiting a new chip manufacturing facility that is part of a $40 billion investment
Republicans like Nathan Brand of the Republican National Committee said Biden was wrong to dismiss the southern border crisis so quickly
They scoffed at his answer.
“Tell that to the Border Patrol,” tweeted John Cooper of the Heritage Foundation.
Biden will be just over 100 miles from the border during his visit.
He has not traveled to the border at all as president, although it is one of the biggest challenges facing his administration with rising numbers of border crossings, human trafficking and fears it is the main route for deadly, smuggled fentanyl into the country.
Each year of his presidency brought new records for frontier encounters. In 2021 they reached 1.7 million and in 2022 2.3 million.
Critics accuse him of letting security forces at the front down.
Republicans are urging the president to see the southern border crisis firsthand. Pictured: Migrants attempt to cross the Rio Grande in Piedras Negras, Mexico, on November 16, 2022
The first month of fiscal 2023 showed more than 230,000 encounters with CBP, the third-highest month in recent history, all under President Joe Biden
Instead, Biden will be joined by Apple CEO Tim Cook as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. announces plans to increase its investment in the state to $40 billion with a second manufacturing facility.
It’s the company’s largest foreign investment — and one of the largest foreign direct investments in U.S. history.
Cook and Biden will visit the site where a $12 billion facility is being built in Phoenix.
It’s part of a push to bring more chipmakers to the US and avert supply chain disruptions that are costing billions in sales.
His visit coincides with voting in the Georgia Senate runoff, a close contest that Biden has avoided.
Biden is joined at the chip factory in Arizona by Apple CEO Tim Cook
The new facility will produce some of the most advanced chips in the world
Instead, he’s visiting another battleground state where Donald Trump-backed hardline deniers lost campaigns in last month’s midterm elections.
A White House official said the investments would create 10,000 high-tech, high-wage jobs and more than 10,000 construction jobs.
“They will produce some of the most advanced cutting-edge chips in the world for high-tech companies like Apple,” the official said.
A day earlier, the White House dismissed Republican calls for him to visit the border as a stunt.
“If Republican officials really, really want to deal with immigration, they really want to deal with the border — then they would stop doing political stunts and actually work with us on the plan that we put forward, which they don’t.” have done,” he told spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre.
“And we want to make that very loud and clear.”