John Hinderaker at Power Line wrote “You can tell the Biden administration has badly bungled the infant formula situation when the best their shills at the Associated Press can do is play the ‘Republicans pounce’ card.” Reporter Paul J. Weber penned a defensive story headlined “GOP’s new midterm attack: Blaming Biden for formula shortage.”
Weber wrote: Weber’s article started with the following statement: “Republicans who aim to retake Congress have already sharpened their message centering on blaming Democrats in high inflation and expensive gas as well as migrants crossing over into Mexico. And violent crime within some cities. The following summary tweet was posted by AP. Conservative Twitter seized on it:
Republicans seeking to regain control of Congress blame Democrats for high inflation and expensive gasoline, as well as migrants who cross the border into Mexico. They also accuse Democrats of violent crime, violence, and high gas prices. The GOP has launched a latest attack on President Biden with the Baby Formula Shortage. https://t.co/fkT12bGRGq
— AP Politics (@AP_Politics) May 14, 2022
Brad Slager laughed: “Why not put it on another Republican filibuster and have it resolved with ?!?!” Weber laments Republicans telling “tall tales,” about how baby formula was being stored for illegal immigrants, then Jen Psaki repeats her claim that she’s legally bound to feed the babies. They are not legally required to control immigration.
Biden has clearly caused a baby-formula crisis, which reporters consider scandalous.
Asked if his administration had responded as quickly as it should have, Biden said, ”If we’d been better mind readers, I guess we could’ve. But we moved as quickly as the problem became apparent.”
The White House’s defense of the Biden administration shows how far-reaching finger-pointing has spread among Republicans in Washington on TV and social media. It’s a new issue for the GOP to hammer at and a way to address families at a time when Democrats believe outrage over the U.S. Supreme Court possibly ending the right to an abortion could galvanize women and other key voters, and thwart or at least lessen a Republican wave in November.
The article includes quotes from Matt Mackowiak, a Texas strategist. Weber is a great supporter of the Democrats.
Democrats use the lack of supply as an example to show how Americans can be hurt when only a handful of large companies dominate the market. Their challenge, like high gasoline prices or inflation, is to explain the factors that are affecting the public.
Senator Mark Kelly, Arizona’s most vulnerable Democrat, stated that the problems in the supply chains of formula, microchips and gasoline have complicated roots. Many of these root back to the pandemic.
This type of poorly disguised opinion piece isn’t a rare occurrence at AP. We noticed Jon Lemire, then an AP reporter, mocking Trump’s blame shifting on COVID in 2020: “President Donald Trump has resorted to a very familiar strategy while he deals with the coronavirus pandemic. Deflect, deny, and place blame elsewhere Trump is not responsible for any mistakes.”
And Biden does?