At any other time, the growing crisis on the Mexican border, with tens of thousands of unaccompanied young people crossing illegally into the United States, might dominate the news. Yet the situation has received less attention than it might amid the furor over House Majority Leader Eric Cantor‘s primary defeat, the collapse of Iraq, the continuing Bergdahl matter, and Hillary Clinton‘s book tour. They’re all genuinely important news stories, and they’ve crowded out disaster at the border.

But whether or not many people noticed, this was the week in which the Obama administration’s attempts to deflect blame for the border crisis fell apart.