CNN’s Jake Tapper had a solid moment of news today when he grilled White House official on why they chose not to tell Biden about the baby formula crisis until April:
Tapper asked Brian Deese, the White House Director of the National Economic Council, why they didn’t tell the one man who could have done something to help avert the crisis:
“I guess I still just don’t fully understand why you didn’t tell the president* until April, if the problem was reported to the FDA last fall. The FDA didn’t check it out until I think December and then they shut down the factory in February. The president*, the only one who could invoke the Defense Production Act to force companies this incredibly direly needed infant formula, he’s not told until April. Karine Jean-Pierre, your press secretary, just said this has been a whole of government approach. That doesn’t include the president*?”
Deese said the FDA shut down the facility in February and that the “relevant officials from across the government were focused on the effort.”
So Biden wasn’t a ‘relevant official’ until the baby formula crisis hit the news. Got it.
Here’s how the interview with Deese ended:
I have a feeling Deese knocked it over with his foot to end a tough interview, LOL!
Seriously, that does kind of perfectly encapsulate the clusterfark that is this White House.