<mediadc-video-embed data-state="{"cms.site.owner":{"_ref":"00000161-3486-d333-a9e9-76c6fbf30000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b93390000"},"cms.content.publishDate":1654449093774,"cms.content.publishUser":{"_ref":"0000017a-8cb2-d416-ad7a-beb7278f0000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"cms.content.updateDate":1654449093774,"cms.content.updateUser":{"_ref":"0000017a-8cb2-d416-ad7a-beb7278f0000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"rawHtml":"
var _bp = _bp||[]; _bp.push({ "div": "Brid_52367915", "obj": {"id":"27789","width":"16","height":"9","video":"1011406"} }); rn","_id":"00000181-34d9-df81-a381-76fdb44a0000","_type":"2f5a8339-a89a-3738-9cd2-3ddf0c8da574"}”>Video EmbedWhoever is in charge of the Biden administration’s response to the baby formula crisis, it is definitely not Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo.
Asked by CNN’s Jake Tapper Sunday when she first learned about the formula shortage, Raimondo said, “Uh, I first learned about it, you know, a couple of months ago.” Which led Tapper to cut in, “So April?”
“Probably April,” Raimondo responded. “I’m not involved in the administration’s response here, I should say, but I think they’re doing a very good job.”
Raimondo might be the only person in America that thinks the Biden administration is doing a good job on the formula shortage, but her response also raises the question, “If the Commerce secretary isn’t in charge of getting more baby formula on the shelves, who is?”
It is a complicated issue involving a number of departments. The Food and Drug Administration, which has issued regulations making the importation of most European baby formulas illegal, is part of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). But much of the formula crisis also stems from the fact that each state has its own baby formula monopoly thanks to the federal government’s Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program, which is actually run not by HHS, but by the Department of Agriculture.
So is the head of the FDA in charge? The head of HHS? Department of Agriculture? Nobody knows.
Not that the White House press corps hasn’t been asking.
This Thursday CNN’s Ed Henry pressed White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on the issue.
“Part of the reason there’s so much curiosity about this across town is because, as you know, there have been stories written over the last several days and weeks about how things are going here in the West Wing, how things are operating,” Henry began.
“And so, when we ask, ‘Who was told, either by the FDA or the Department of Health and Human Services or the USDA, here in the West Wing — who was told first? How did that get from that person, eventually, to the President?’ It’s completely understandable. There are thousands of things going on across the federal government today,” he continued.
“But here’s the issue: Something else could crop up suddenly as an unforeseen crisis, like this one. And so we’re trying to get a sense of how do things operate here inside the West Wing and how they eventually rise to the level of presidential involvement that then lead to things like invoking the Defense Production Act five — four or five months after the initial flags were raised.”
Jean-Pierre’s response did not inspire confidence. “So, Ed, the President was briefed through his regular channels, as he is briefed on countless priorities that the President of the United States has to deal with. There are countless issues, countless priorities that I talk about here all the time, every day, about different priorities that we have to deal with, whether it’s the economy, whether it’s COVID, whether it’s climate change, whether it’s foreign policy issues that we have to deal with and assess. That is how we run the White House; it’s how any White House is run.”
“You’re asking me for a specific name,” Jean-Pierre continued. “I’m telling you how the process works, and I’m telling you how it goes from White House staff to regular channels to the President.”
So no answer from the White House on who exactly decided to brief President Biden on the formula crisis or when. Instead, we are told to trust the process.
Considering Biden’s record on the border crisis, gas prices, inflation, Afghanistan, and now baby formula, it is understandable that the people have stopped trusting Biden’s process.
