Biden finally got some semi-tough questions from the garbage media today, who were drawing attention to his failure to ramp up testing for the moment we are in now.
Here’s how that went:
CNN's @Phil_Mattingly to Biden: "You said we have to do better but public health officials have been saying for months you need to surge rapid tests for…this moment. Is it a failure that you don't have an adequate amount of tests for everyone to be able to get one…right now?" pic.twitter.com/eRFGSthsMn
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) December 21, 2021
PBS's Yamiche Alcindor: "What's your message to Americans who are trying to get tested now and who are not able to get tested and who are wondering what took so long to ramp up testing?"
Biden: "Come on, what took so long?" pic.twitter.com/lKFgy917ee
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) December 21, 2021
“Come on, man”. Biden wasn’t a fan of getting these questions and claimed that it wasn’t a failure at all, that nobody could have predicted that Omicron would have been so virulent.
But the truth is that because demand fell for testing as the virus subsided, Biden didn’t spend the money to continue the production of tests. Brett Giroir just said as much on Fox News, saying that after demand fell off, neither the federal government nor the states put billions of dollars into the testing industry and the industry cratered. If they had kept the industry going, Giroir said there would be a billion tests per month, which was their projection for May and June.
Giroir also said as much on Twitter a couple of days ago:
#Zients is 100% wrong. There were many #RapidTests approved under #Trump administration & >180 million distributed. Current testing problem is b/c @POTUS dropped the ball for 8 months and allowed testing infrastructure to crater from federal neglect. https://t.co/APIsEHZ351
— Brett Giroir (@DrGiroir) December 18, 2021
This is the very same reason why there was a shortage of ventilators at the beginning of the pandemic. The Obama administration never got the supply back to what it was because there wasn’t an immediate need, and we were caught severely shorthanded when there was a need. Thankfully, Trump was there to solve that problem but no one is here to solve this one. Biden is the reason why there aren’t enough tests and the media should continue to call him out for it.
Biden also got a few questions about Manchin, and these are slanted hard against Manchin. Even so, Biden wouldn’t criticize him…
NBC's @MikeMemoli: "You talk about the importance of keeping your word of trust, do you believe Senator Manchin kept his word to you, and how do you rebuild trust with progressives in your party to advance your legislation now?" pic.twitter.com/Vth0W1uNba
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) December 21, 2021
ABC's @RachelVScott: "Did Sem. Manchin break his commitment to you? When you announced the framework, the WH says that all 50 senators were believed to get behind it — Democratic senators, so did [he] break his commitment to you?"
Biden says they will "get something done" (6/6) pic.twitter.com/nJbp9BY2D9
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) December 21, 2021
And lastly, Biden got all yelly face about something…
Biden is going along and then, all of a sudden, he starts swaying and yelling at the clouds….then ends his answer by saying "I'm not supposed to be having this press conference right now."
That's on top of coughing earlier. The President of the United States is…not well. pic.twitter.com/fvXuxWaMZO
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) December 21, 2021