共和国总统乔·拜登本来计划周五继续他在佐治亚州的“帮助在这里”之旅，以宣传他的救济法案，但最初的计划现在被推迟了射击周二晚上，亚特兰大地区的一场狂欢导致八人死亡，其中大多数是亚裔女性。
一月的乔治亚参议院决选让民主党控制了参议院，让拜登有可能签署他的1.9万亿美元美国救援计划变成法律。这将是他在周二短暂访问另一个摇摆州宾夕法尼亚州后，强调该法案好处的第二站。
但是白宫在周四宣布总统和副总统贺锦丽将推迟周五在亚特兰大举行的“晚间政治活动”，以便两人能够在那里会见亚裔美国领导人，“讨论对社区的持续攻击和威胁”拜登还发布了一项公告，向受害者致敬，并下令周日在所有公共建筑和场地降半旗。
“总统还将表示支持AAPI社区白宫新闻秘书珍·普萨基周四下午在她的每日新闻发布会上说。
卡洛斯·巴里亚/路透社
白宫顶上的美国国旗降半旗，以纪念在战争中遇难的人
拜登周三谈到了这起枪击事件，称反亚裔美国人仇恨犯罪的增加“非常麻烦”，但他说，在调查进行期间，他不想讨论spa枪击案的可能动机。
总统公开表示支持亚裔美国人和太平洋岛民社区，发布了总统令备忘录1月26日，要求司法部长支持州和地方机构以及AAPI社区防止仇恨犯罪，并扩大数据收集和公开报道。Psaki说“来自DOJ的拓展和接触已经开始了”
拜登还直接谴责了“恶毒的仇恨犯罪”黄金时间地址3月11日，称该社区已被“攻击，骚扰，指责和替罪羊。”
拜登说:“此时此刻，他们中的许多人，我们的美国同胞，他们站在这场流行病的第一线，试图拯救生命，但他们仍然被迫生活在对自己生命的恐惧中，只是走在美国的街道上。”“这是错误的，这不是美国式的，必须停止。”
20世纪90年代，歧视和反亚洲仇恨犯罪激增新冠肺炎大流行。包括白宫在内的批评者已经说过前总统唐纳德·特朗普的言辞以及他用来给病毒贴标签的术语，促成了这一增长。
“我认为毫无疑问，我们在上届政府期间看到的一些破坏性言论，指责——你知道称COVID为‘武汉病毒’或其他东西，导致了对亚裔美国人社区的不准确、不公平的看法...已经提升了对亚裔美国人的威胁，我们在全国都看到了这一点，”普萨基之前说。
美国广播公司新闻
2021年3月16日，乔·拜登总统与美国广播公司首席主播乔治·斯特凡诺普洛斯交谈。
尽管佐治亚州的杀戮改变了他周五的原定计划，但拜登的行程已经被穿越美国/墨西哥边境的孤身未成年人创纪录的激增所掩盖。
周四，Psaki无意中称边境局势为“危机”，此前几周他一直小心翼翼地拒绝这样做。她后来试图暗示她使用了“挑战”这个词，但她错了，显然给了它一个新的标签。
尽管拜登周二在俄亥俄州继续他的“帮助在这里”之旅，但他本周表示，他“目前”没有访问边境和美国的计划专访周二，在美国广播公司新闻频道的乔治·斯特凡诺普洛斯的采访中，拜登告诉移民和无人陪伴的未成年人:“不要过来。”
“不要离开你的城镇或城市或社区，”他在谈到被边境巡逻队拘留的儿童人数时说飞涨据政府官员说，本周大约有4500人，许多人在拥挤的拘留室里等待转移到卫生和公共服务部的难民安置办公室。
政府官员说，截至周三，另有9562名移民儿童被HHS拘留，目前平均需要34天才能与家人或担保人团聚。
约翰·摩亚/盖蒂影像公司
美国边境巡逻人员在美墨边境围栏附近拘留无证移民
形势变得如此严峻，以至于HHS在凯贝利·哈奇森会议中心和得克萨斯州米德兰市的另一个会议中心为无人陪伴的未成年人开设了一个过渡设施。官员们表示，这将使他们能够将2000名儿童从美国海关和边境保护局的监管中解救出来。
斯特凡诺普洛斯问，在选择取消特朗普的一些政策后，不预测这种激增是否是一个错误移居拜登指出，政策在过去两年中激增，但承认这“可能”比那些更糟糕。
周三，美国广播公司新闻部(ABC News)的卡伦·特拉弗斯(Karen Travers)也问普萨基(Psaki)为什么拜登没有访问边境的计划，但她只会说，他专注于“加快边境处理和开放更多设施的行动”。
在特拉弗斯的追问下，为什么他不想亲自去看看设施的第一手资料，普萨基转向说他“一周更新几次”，并看到了情况的图像。
“他与许多官员进行了交谈，他还收到了一份附有照片的简报，简报直接来自他的团队，他们去了边境，参观了一系列设施。”
美国广播公司新闻已经十几次要求边境巡逻队、HHS和白宫进入这些设施，但他们以新冠肺炎大流行为由拒绝了这些要求。
Biden, Harris to meet with AAPI leaders in Georgia following deadly spa shootings
PresidentJoe Bidenwas planning to continue his "Help is Here" tour in Georgia on Friday to tout his relief bill, but the original plans have now been postponed after ashootingspree in the Atlanta area Tuesday night killed eight people, the majority of whom were women of Asian descent.
January’s GeorgiaSenate runoffdelivered Democrats control of the Senate and made it possible for Biden to sign his $1.9 trillionAmerican Rescue Planinto law. It was going to be his second stop on the tour to highlight the bill's benefits following a brief visit to Pennsylvania, another swing state, on Tuesday.
But the White House announced on Thursday that the president and Vice PresidentKamala Harriswill delay an "evening political event" in Atlanta on Friday so the pair can meet with Asian American leaders there "to discuss the ongoing attacks and threats against the community." Biden also issued a proclamation honoring the victims and ordered flags to half-staff on all public buildings and grounds through Sunday.
"The President will also offer his support for theAAPI communityin Georgia and across the country and talk about his commitment to combating xenophobia, intolerance and hate," White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Thursday afternoon during her daily press briefing.
Biden addressed the shooting on Wednesday, calling the rise in anti-Asian American hate crimes "very troublesome" but said he did not want to discuss the possible motivation for the spa shootings while the investigation is ongoing.
The president has been vocal in his support for the Asian American and Pacific Islander community, issuing a presidentialmemorandumon Jan. 26 for the attorney general to back state and local agencies and AAPI communities in preventing hate crimes and to expand data collection and public reporting. Psaki said "the outreach and engagement from DOJ is already underway."
Biden also directly condemned the "vicious hate crimes" during aprime-time addresson March 11, saying the community has been "attacked, harassed, blamed and scapegoated."
"At this very moment, so many of them, our fellow Americans, they’re on the front lines of this pandemic trying to save lives, and still, still, they are forced to live in fear for their lives, just walking down streets in America," Biden said. "It's wrong, it's un-American and it must stop."
Discrimination and Anti-Asian hate crimes saw a surge over the course of theCOVID-19 pandemic. Critics, including the White House, have said thatformer President Donald Trump's rhetoricand the terms he used to label the virus, contributed to the rise.
"I think there's no question that some of the damaging rhetoric that we saw during the prior administration, blaming -- you know calling COVID, you know, ‘the Wuhan virus’ or other things led to perceptions of the Asian American community that are inaccurate, unfair ... has elevated threats against Asian Americans, and we're seeing that around the country," Psaki previously said.
Though the killings in Georgia changed his original plans for Friday, Biden’s tour was already being overshadowed by the record surge of unaccompanied minors crossing the U.S./Mexico border.
On Thursday, Psaki inadvertently called the situation at the border a "crisis" after weeks of carefully refusing to do so. She later tried to suggest she used the word "challenges," but she was mistaken and clearly gave it a new label.
Though he's continuing on with his "Help is Here" tour on Tuesday in Ohio, Biden said this week he has no plans "at the moment" to visit the border and in anexclusive interviewwith ABC News' George Stephanopoulos on Tuesday, Biden told migrants and unaccompanied minors: "Don’t come over."
"Don't leave your town or city or community," he said as the number of children in Border Patrol custodyskyrocketedto approximately 4,500 this week, according to administration officials, many spending days in crowded holding cells awaiting transfer to the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement.
Administration officials say another 9,562 migrant kids were in HHS custody as of Wednesday and that it’s currently taking an average of 34 days to reunite them with family or a sponsor.
The situation has become so dire that HHS has opened a transitional facility for unaccompanied minors at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center and another in Midland, Texas. Officials say this will allow them to get 2,000 children out of US Customs and Border Protection custody.
Asked by Stephanopoulos if it was a mistake not to anticipate this surge after choosing to rescind some of Trump’simmigrationpolicies, Biden pointed to surges in the past two years, but acknowledged this "could be" worse than those.
Psaki was also asked on Wednesday by ABC News’ Karen Travers why Biden has no plans to visit the border, but she would only say he is focused "on action" that would expedite processing at the border and on opening more facilities.
Pressed by Travers why he doesn’t want to get a firsthand look inside the facilities himself, Psaki deflected and said he is updated "several times a week" and has seen images of the conditions.
"He talks to plenty of officials, and he also has received a briefing with photos, with -- and directly from his team who went and visited the border and went to a range of facilities."
ABC News has asked Border Patrol, HHS and the White House all over a dozen times for access inside the facilities but they have denied the requests, citing the COVID-19 pandemic.
