Pity poor Martha Raddatz.

The aging ABC host is not the freshest cupcake in the box, and now she's reduced to reporting border surge stories she's studiously tried to ignore up until now.  Doing that surely would cost her some invitations to swamp Christmas cocktail parties unless she could find a way to spin it just right for the White House.  And she doesn't know jack about the border or its realities.  She remains a committed creature of the Beltway.

So with nothing to work with, she came up with this.

The notion the U.S. has an open border is not the fault of President Joe Biden, but of Republicans, according to ABC News' Martha Raddatz.

During an interview with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R), Raddatz confronted him on his claim the president is advancing an "open border" policy.

"You talk about the border wall, you talk about open borders, I don't think I've ever heard President Biden say, 'We have an open border, come on over,'" she said.

The journalist went on, "The people I have heard say it are you, are former President Trump, Ron DeSantis. That message reverberates in Mexico and beyond. So they do get the message that it is an open border."

This comes as a curious echo of what White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre was saying:

Jean-Pierre: "It would be wrong to think the border is open. It is not open." pic.twitter.com/doZ56CRWGp

— Greg Price (@greg_price11) December 19, 2022

Good old Martha, always reliably reporting the White House talking points, and never mind the news.

What's stupid about this is that the claim fools absolutely no one. 

Who controls the border right now?  Joe Biden.  Who sets border policies that illegals pay very close attention to to assess their chances of getting into the States without a visa?  Joe Biden.

That DeSantis; Abbott; Trump; and many, many others are calling that an open border is a description of what is happening after the fact, not a clarion call for open entry.  If these opponents of open borders had such power of their words that illegals would follow them religiously and take them as calls to action, why wasn't Joe Biden's "Don't come over.  Don't leave your town or community" not followed just as assiduously as Raddatz claims the migrants follow the out-of-power Republicans?  Why did Kamala Harris's "Do not come, do not come" go utterly unheeded as five million illegal border-crossers flooded on in?

Migrants right now are amassing at the border, with an estimated 55,000 either waiting at the water's edge of Texas or en route in specific response to the end of Title 42 COVID restrictions (until a stay yesterday by the Supreme Court) on Dec. 21.  That's policy, not words.

Migrants always respond to policy.  With tens of thousands invested in the trip to el norte, they have to be as careful as investors about ensuring that their odds of getting in will pay off.  Just some governor calling it an open border is meaningless to them.  They don't pay attention to this kind of politics; they pay attention to the word from relatives inside the States who have already made it into the U.S. illegally, as well as the big broad television pictures showing thousands and thousands of illegal migrants marching in. 

Raddatz's argument is either the most naïve and backwards analysis ever of what's happening, or more likely a repetition with her own spin of the White House talking points.  Either way, she thinks her viewers are stupid.  Actually, she's the stupid one.

Image: Screen shot from WHAS11 video via YouTube.