Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley called the meeting between President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping “embarrassing.”
The two presidents met in San Francisco for more than four hours Wednesday as Biden sought to establish an agreement regarding disrupting the flow of fentanyl into the United States, in addition to discussions concerning the resumption of military-to-military communication, fentanyl, artificial intelligence, nuclear arms control, trade, and climate.
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“How embarrassing this all is,” Haley said of the presidents’ meeting with Fox News host Sean Hannity.
Haley pointed to Biden’s weakness on national security and lack of strength displayed in his meeting with Xi as the U.S. border crisis continues to be a “serious” concern.
“It is really serious that you have just the thousand that we know from Yemen and Lebanon and Iran. That doesn’t count Afghanistan. You are talking about China and Russia,” Haley said. “All it takes is one. It takes one to have a 9/11 moment. We have got to secure this border. You’ve got to stop having that flow come in.”
“You look at the fact that Hamas broke through a barrier to do all that they did in Israel. We don’t even have a barrier,” she continued. “They are coming through, and we are not vetting them. We don’t know who they are. We don’t know what’s happening.”
The former United Nations ambassador warned, “If we don’t start securing and protecting ourselves, something bad’s going to happen.”
“We can’t afford to put Americans at risk, and that’s what Joe Biden’s doing every day,” Haley said. “He’s putting America at risk. A president has one job, and that’s to keep their people safe. And he has not done that.”
Biden told reporters late Wednesday that he and Xi would maintain direct contact in the coming months. He additionally said that he will continue to press Xi on human rights issues and that "being blunt with one another, so there's no misunderstanding,” is "critical" for advancing diplomacy.
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Biden and Xi’s meeting comes as congressional Republicans have pressed Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas this week on the influx of illegal immigration at the border as well as the increased flow of fentanyl into the country since he was appointed in 2021.
Since March 2021, the number of immigrants who have arrived at the U.S. border has held at the highest levels in Border Patrol's 99-year existence. Numbers have fluctuated between 160,000 and 270,000 encounters per month. In the decade preceding the Biden administration, monthly encounters remained between 20,000 and 50,000 immigrants.