Biden insisted Friday that only “better mind-readers” could have effectively dealt with a nationwide shortage of baby formula, despite his administration knowing about the crisis for months.
“Republicans have said that your administration should have anticipated this baby formula shortage,” CNN reporter Jeremy Diamond said at a Rose Garden event where Biden urged cities to spend COVID-19 stimulus funds on cops.
“Are you satisfied with your administration’s response so far?” Diamond asked. “And some of the steps that you and your administration are taking now, including loosening these import requirements next week — could you have taken those steps sooner, before parents got to these shelves and couldn’t find formula?”
“If we’d been better mind-readers I guess we could have,” Biden replied.
“But we moved as quickly as the problem became apparent to us,” he added. “And we have to move with caution as well as speed because we got to make sure what we’re getting is, in fact, first-rate product. That’s why the FDA has to go through the process.”
Biden also said looming Food and Drug Administration moves to relax imports of formula could quickly ease the crisis.
“I think we’re going to be in a matter of weeks or less getting significantly more formula on shelves,” Biden said. “And the FDA has also made sure we can import and still maintain the high safety standards.”
Critics have hammered Biden’s response to acute shortages that mushroomed since a February recall and shutdown at an Abbott Nutrition factory in Michigan after two infant deaths were tentatively linked by the FDA to bacterial contamination of formula.
The outcry prompted the White House to add calls with formula manufacturers and distributors to the president’s Thursday schedule.