Trump unleashes on 'insane' handling of divisive issue

Donald Trump has unleashed, following US President Joe Biden's first news conference where he was repeatedly pressed on his handling of immigration issues at the US-Mexico border.

Struggling to contain a surge in border crossings, Biden told reporters that no previous administration had refused care and shelter to children coming over from Mexico except that of his predecessor, Donald Trump.

"I'm not going to do it," Biden said, noting he had selected Vice President Kamala Harris to lead diplomatic efforts with Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador aimed at stemming the migration flow.

Biden promised transparency, and vowed to give the press access to detention facilities, but did not say when that would be a reality.

Speaking exclusively with Laura Ingraham on Fox News via phone call, Trump said he would not get away with not permitting journalists access to detention facilities.

Trump then offered up a reason as to why Biden's administration is delaying the press access.

"What you're seeing now is inhumane, these children and people — there are a tremendous number of children by the way — but they're living on top of each other in squalor, this is squalor," Trump said.

"That's why they won't allow the press to come in. We let the press go in and we have much smaller numbers frankly because people couldn't come up."

Trump did provide the media access to detention sites and Biden has vowed to reverse his predecessor's restrictive immigration policy.

Images of detention centres were released earlier this week, showing immigrant children in US custody at the border, sleeping on mats under foil blankets separated in groups by plastic partitions.

"They're living in very dangerous conditions," Trump went on to say.

"There's no testing for COVID-19 as we call it sometimes — sometimes we call it something else — but there's no testing, there's no nothing and what's going on is just absolutely insane."

In 2018, the Trump administration detained hundreds of children in many of the same facilities being used now after separating them from their parents.

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The following year, hundreds of families and children detained at one West Texas border station went days without adequate food, water or soap.

Trump went on to say to Ingraham "very few" crossed the border while he was in office because "they knew they weren't getting through".

Trump said the wall at the border should be finished to prevent people from crossing into the US.

"We built almost 500 miles of wall," Trump said on Fox News.

"This was new wall and incredible wall that was, you know, really did a job."

Biden ordered a "pause" on Trump's border wall construction in his first week of office.

Trump says rioters were 'zero threat'

Ingraham also questioned Trump on whether he was concerned the Capitol has "become a fortress", following the January 6 insurrection carried out by Trump supporters.

"It was zero threat, right from the start, it was zero threat," Trump said.

"Look, they went in. They shouldn’t have done it. Some of them went in and they're hugging and kissing the police and the guards.

"You know, they had great relationships. A lot of the people were waved in, and then they walked in and they walked out."

Trump said some of the domestic terrorists were being persecuted, though he admitted some of them should be.

He then began to point the finger at "antifa" and the political left, despite FBI Director Chris Wray saying earlier this month there was no evidence that leftist extremists disguised themselves as Trump supporters to storm the US Capitol.

“We have not to date seen any evidence of any anarchist violent extremists or people subscribing to antifa in connection with the 6th,” he testified, referring to the loosely organised anti-fascist movement.

“That doesn’t mean we’re not looking and we’ll continue to look, but at the moment, we have not seen that.”

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