House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) snapped on Sunday when confronted with remarks from Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), chairwoman of the House Republican Conference, who blamed the some of the shortages of baby formula on President Joe Biden sending pallets of formula to the U.S. southern border.
“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 was asked during an interview with George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s “This Week” whether the shortage was in-part due to Biden’s decision.
“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 did not directly dispute the accuracy of Stefanik’s remarks, but said that part of the issue was the “supply chain.”
Stefanik fired back on Twitter, writing: “As usual, your LEADERSHIP is totally irresponsible. Babies are crying. We need to get them food.”
WATCH:
“As usual, her statement is totally irresponsible," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tells @GStephanopoulos when asked about GOP Rep. Elise Stefanik criticizing shipments of baby formula to southern border during shortage. https://t.co/oqluhc0Sad pic.twitter.com/w3Xh84nBk2
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) May 15, 2022
TRANSCRIPT PROVIDED 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.
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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