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Pelosi Snaps After Republican Blames Baby Formula Shortage On Democrats

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OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.


House Speaker Nancy Pelosi got testy when asked about a top Republican blaming Democrats for the baby formula shortage.

During an interview on ABC’s “This Week,” host George Stephanopoulos asked Pelosi about New York Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik alleging that President Joe Biden and Democrats are to blame for some of the shortages of baby formula.

“Joe Biden continues to put America LAST by shipping pallets of baby formula to the southern border as American families face empty shelves,” Stefanik wrote on Twitter. “This is unacceptable. American mothers and their babies shouldn’t suffer because of the #BidenBorderCrisis.”

Pelosi got snappy when asked about Stefanik’s tweet.

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“As usual, her statement is totally irresponsible,” Pelosi responded. “Babies are crying. We need to get them food. And the president has — now what we’re doing this week in the Congress is, again, Bobby Scott, chair of the Education and Labor Committee, that’s the jurisdiction that will lower some of the regulations, et cetera, so that it’s easier to buy it.”

Pelosi didn’t seem to directly dispute Stefanik’s claim, but said part of the problem was the “supply chain.”

Below is a transcript of the exchange, via ABC News:

STEPHANOPOULOS: So many families are also facing this baby formula shortage right now, dire shortage across the country. Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, Republican from here in New York, is laying this on President Biden and his shipping of pallets of baby formula to the southern border. She has a tweet right there where says “as American families face empty shelves, this is unacceptable.” Is that why we’re facing this shortage?

PELOSI: As usual, her statement is totally irresponsible. Babies are crying. We need to get them food. And the president has — now what we’re doing this week in the Congress is, again, Bobby Scott, chair of the Education and Labor Committee, that’s the jurisdiction that will lower some of the regulations, et cetera, so that it’s easier to buy it. Fifty percent of the — of WIC — 50 percent of the…

STEPHANOPOULOS: The Women, Infants, and Children program.

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PELOSI: … WIC. And so loosening that. But in addition to that, Rosa DeLauro, who has been on this case for a while, she was the chair of the Agriculture Subcommittee of Appropriations when she — now she’s chair of the whole committee. But she has been working on this to have some funding so that we can immediately purchase, overseas — there are four countries, Chile, Mexico, Ireland, and the Netherlands, that have supply that might be available to us. The president is quite correct. We must do something as quickly as possible, but as safely as possible, and use caution, for these babies. But we have to move quickly to do that. And part of this is, again, the supply chain issue.

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Stefanik fired back on Twitter, writing: “As usual, your LEADERSHIP is totally irresponsible. Babies are crying. We need to get them food.”

A report on Monday morning from The Today Show stated that “the nation’s baby formula shortage shows no signs of letting up and manufacturers predict the crisis could last the rest of the year. Meanwhile, the Biden administration is vowing to import formula from abroad.”

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