‘The Tragedy of the Treadmill That’s Delayed’: Psaki Mocks Reporter’s Question About Supply Chain Crisis
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki mocked a reporter’s question about the supply chain crisis, calling it “the tragedy of the treadmill that’s delayed.”
“It was clear in March of 2020 when Covid hit that the supply chains across the world have been disrupted even as the sort of work to fight back against Covid proceeded … it was crystal clear that things were not improving on supply chain,” said New York Times White House correspondent Michael Shear during Tuesday’s White House press briefing. “People couldn’t get dishwashers and furniture and treadmills delivered on time, not to mention all sorts of other things.”
“So why,” continued Shear before Psaki interjected with “the tragedy of the treadmill that’s delayed.”
“Right,” said Shear, who almost called it a “tragedy” before calling it “the problem.”
“But the serious point is why didn’t the president [Joe Biden] act sooner in a more aggressive way,” said Shear, who went on to acknowledge that there was a task force the president announced earlier this year. Shear remarked that “essentially the president waited until, you know, now before the holiday season to take these series of actions.”
Shear then asked, “Why didn’t the president act sooner, and is that a reflection of the fact that his administration has failed to kind of anticipate and is much more reactive to these kinds of things rather than getting ahead of them as they should?”
“That’s not actually true,” replied Pskai, who cited that Biden “formed a task force at the very beginning of the administration.”
“What we know from the global supply chain news is that they are multifaceted,” said Psaki. ‘Right now we’ve been focusing on the ports and issues at the ports. What the leaders of the ports will tell you is that they’ve seen an increase in volume dramatically as it relates to last year, a year ago, 20 percent, 30 percent increase in volume. But there are other issues that have impacted the global supply chain that we’ve been working to address through our task force from the beginning.”
Psaki went on to list causes such as “the shortage of drivers that we have seen.”
Watch above.
