Tapper GRILLS Biden Official on Baby Formula Crisis, CNN Camera Falls to The Ground

In a rare act of journalism on CNN, anchor Jake Tapper on Wednesday afternoon grilled Biden’s Director of National Economic Council Brian Deese on the administration’s stunning incompetence in dealing with the ongoing baby formula shortage. 

After the revelation that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was made aware of unsanitary conditions at Abbott baby formula plant last fall, and didn’t take action to shut the plant down until February, Tapper wanted to know why President Joe Biden wasn’t told of the worsening situation until April. 

Tapper asked Deese since “The White House has said the administration has been working on the issue since February. So how come President Biden didn’t know it was going to be bad until April?”

Deese had no real answer other than to explain that “the FDA and the staff across the administration in all of the relevant agencies in the White House was working to try to address the issue.” He also blamed the Abbott baby formula company for taking too long to “agree to a consent decree.”

This answer didn’t fly with Tapper who asked again: “Why didn’t anyone tell the President until April?” After another non-answer from Deese,  a frustrated Tapper responded: 

Although the FDA reported the problem last fall to them, it didn’t investigate the matter until December. They shut down the factory in February. Only the President can use the defense production act in order to require companies to produce this critical formula. He wasn’t informed until April. Karine Jean Pierre was your press secretary and said that it has been a whole government approach. This doesn’t apply to the President.

But Deese once again avoided directly answering the question and instead told Tapper “the President’s role in this has been at the right and appropriate moments when we needed to do things like the Defense Production Act when we needed to take extraordinary measures like Operation Fly Formula” adding that Biden “has been informed” and “has directed the action that we have taken.” 

Just to be clear, Tapper briefly went over the timeline: “the whistleblower complaint in the fall, the FDA waited until December to act, waited until February to shut the plant down. President Biden wasn’t told about it until April.” He then asked “You don’t think any of that should have been done more quickly or sooner? You think everything just went exactly how it’s supposed to?” 

Deese promised that the FDA commissioner would conduct a “thorough investigation” into what went wrong. To which Tapper shot back “I don’t need the FDA to investigate itself to come to the judgment that they did not act quickly enough.”  

While Deese was responding to Tapper’s comment, the camera that Deese was looking into during the interview fell over and subsequently ended the interview. One can’t help but think that Deese knocked it over to get out of the well-deserved grilling that Tapper was giving him. 

To read the relevant transcript click “expand”: 

CNN’s The Lead
6/1/2022
Eastern at 5:20 p.m.

JAKE TAPPER – The White House stated that the administration had been working on this issue since February. It is a mystery why President Biden wasn’t aware of the potential danger until April. 

BRIAN DEESE : Let me clarify. In February, the FDA informed us of the closure. The FDA informed us in February that the FDA had closed. From then on, staff in every agency of the White House were trying to solve the problem. Production has increased because companies who were present today could increase their production. This is partly due to the fact that they’ve been trying for months on this matter. Abbott was reluctant to consent to the decree. When it became obvious that this facility wouldn’t be restored to production sooner than expected, we knew that there was going to be an even greater problem. 

TAPPER – Brian, Why hasn’t anyone told the President? 

DEESE : At this point the President was informed.

[crosstalk]

TAPPER: Why didn’t anyone tell the President until April? 

DEESE : At this point the President was notified and directed us all to utilize the tools available to deal with them. That’s why we, for instance, issued the DPA. And as you and me have already discussed, DPA’s can only be used when the production facility is fully operational. In order to ensure uninterrupted supplies. Produces were able to accomplish this because of all the hard work done to date. We are moving forward with Operation Fly Formula, the DPA and other steps to allow more importers to be approved. 

TAPPER – I don’t understand the reason you did not tell President Obama until April. Even though the FDA was notified of the problem last fall, they didn’t investigate it until December. After that, they closed the factory down in February. Only the President can use the defense production act in order to require companies to produce the critically needed infant formula. He wasn’t informed until April. Karine Jean Pierre was your press secretary and said that it has been a whole government approach. This doesn’t apply to the President. 

DEESE. The FDA took appropriate steps to close the facility down in February. When that occurred, FDA officials and relevant federal government officials focused their efforts on trying to boost production and figure out how to bring the facility back up and running as quickly and efficiently as possible. Too long it took to bring that facility up again. Also, Abbott took too long for them to consent to the consent decree. After it became clear that this facility wouldn’t be able come back online it became clear that we would need to significantly increase the production of specialty formulas. However, I would like to make it clear that this was a President’s decision. He acted at the appropriate times when the Defense Production Act was needed. He was informed. He has ordered the actions we took.  

TAPPER The President Biden didn’t know about it until April. It’s not like any of it should have taken place sooner. Everything went just as planned. 

DEESE – The FDA Commissioner has stated that he will do a comprehensive investigation and that it will be clear what the timeline is. That said, I will not take responsibility for the FDA’s evaluations of the facility or safety decisions. It was obvious that two things were required once the facility had been shut down. The FDA would have to negotiate with Abbott in order to get the facility running again. Other producers would also need to increase production. The consent decree was not reached quickly enough and we found ourselves in an unusual position to depend on other facilities for production. The President had to direct his intervention in order for those extraordinary steps to be taken. 

TAPPER – I do not need the FDA’s investigation to conclude that they failed to act promptly enough. On behalf of all those frustrated guardians and moms out there, I ask you to please don’t. 

DEESE : These safety judgements are very serious. You’re right, people can be upset and worried. FDA must conduct an inspection at a facility to ensure that it is done properly and with the best possible scientific judgement. While I agree that FDA should look at the timeline and consider what has happened, it’s also important that they take this seriously. 

Whoa, whoa. Guys!  

TAPPER: Our camera fell down. Okay. Brian Deese: Thank you very much.