Pastor Greg Locke, the outspoken pastor and supporter of former President Donald Trump, has called Jen Psaki a "liar" and a "treasonous witch" in a post on Twitter following her latest remarks addressing the migrant situation at the southern border.
The White House press secretary said the "influx of migrants at the border" was "exacerbated by the Trump administration," during a White House press briefing Tuesday.
Both before and after Biden's November election victory, Locke—the head of the Baptist Global Vision Bible Church in Juliet, Tennessee—repeatedly predicted that Trump would remain president regardless of what the actual results claimed.
Following Psaki's remarks on Tuesday, the controversial pastor tweeted: "This woman is a liar.....a terrible liar. She's a treasonous witch," in a reply to a clip of the briefing shared on Twitter by The Daily Caller, the conservative news website founded by Fox News host Tucker Carlson.
The Daily Caller tweeted: ".@PressSec says that the influx of immigrants at the southern border is 'something that began during and was something that was exacerbated by the Trump administration'," alongside the video clip of the briefing.
Psaki's remarks were part of an "update on the situation at our southern border" provided at the White House press briefing on May 4.
Psaki said: "After four years of an immigration system rooted in destructive and chaotic policies, President Biden is taking the challenge head on and is building a fair, orderly, and humane immigration system; that's our objective.
"After coming into office, our administration immediately jumped into action to address the influx of migrants at the border—something that began during and was exacerbated by the Trump administration," she added.
During Tuesday's briefing, Psaki highlighted there were more than 5,000 children in Customs and Border Protection Patrol stations at the end of March. "Today, that number is approximately 600."
Psaki also noted the time children spend in CBP facilities had declined from 131 hours at the end of March to under 30 hours today, marking a 75 percent drop.
She added: "And just yesterday, the Department of Homeland Security announced that it will begin the process of reuniting a number of families who were separated by the policies of the previous administration.
"Clearly, we're not done; there's a lot of work ahead. Migration is a dynamic and evolving challenge, but the President has a plan and we're working on implementing it," Psaki said.
Newsweek has reached out to Locke and Psaki for comment.
According to updated data released this week by the CBP, January marked the highest number of arrests at the U.S.-Mexico border compared to that same month in the past decade.
The agency reported an average of around 3,000 arrests per day in January and has encountered an increasing number of attempts to cross the southwest border since the start of 2021.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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Soo Kim is a Newsweek reporter based in London, U.K. She covers various lifestyle stories, specializing in travel and health.
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