(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) A Democratic governor and staunch White House ally sharply criticized President Joe Biden’s open border policies, despite having been considered as his running mate.
In a leaked audio, New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham didn’t mince words when addressing DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’s reluctance to collaborate with the border state to curb illegal crossings.
The origin of the recording isn’t immediately clear, but Lujan Grishman spokesperson Jodi McGinnis Porter confirmed the authenticity of the audio, according to the Santa Fe New Mexican.
Lujan Grisham’s critical remarks were made during a phone conversation with a government official regarding the federal government’s crackdown on marijuana at Border Patrol checkpoints in Southern New Mexico.
While recreational and medicinal marijuana are legal in New Mexico, they remain illegal at the federal level, a point Lujan Grisham emphasized in the leaked conversation.
The governor threatened to draft a letter calling out Mayorkas’s simultaneous targeting of marijuana and refusal to secure the border in New Mexico.
“The press also knows that Border Patrol is taking a hard stance, and the only way is either we have to adjust it or I have to send you a letter saying, ‘You’re persecuting a state, you’re not using your discretion, you’re not working with me on immigration,’ and I don’t want to send that letter,” she added.
During the same portion of the audio, Lujan Grisham expressed feeling “boxed in, hard.”
Lujan Grisham claimed Mayorkas dismissed her concerns about the prosecution of marijuana offenses at the New Mexico’s southern border.
“Here’s what also the secretary said to me, just so you know: ‘Oh, who cares? They make a lot of money,'” Lujan Grishman said. “Well, first of all, it’s patients’ medicine. So I was really offended by that. Shame on him.”
Lujan Grisham was elected as New Mexico’s governor in 2019, following six years of service in the U.S. House. She gained notoriety in 2020 when Biden, then the Democratic nominee for president, considered her as his running mate.
Ultimately, Biden selected Kamala Harris, then a Senator from California.
