Biden blamed Trump 'leadership' for shortages during COVID, won't accept blame now as leader: 'The Five'
'EmptyShelvesJoe' trends online as president, USDOT secretary ineffective in confronting crisis
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}President Biden roundly criticized then-President Donald Trump during a rush on toiletries and other goods in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, but now that exponential inflation and a supply chain crisis has set in, the Delaware Democrat fails to be circumspect in that regard, the panel on "The Five" discussed Friday.
Host Jesse Watters pointed to Biden's May 2020 comments declaring that the "food shortage problem" at the time was not that but instead a "leadership problem."
However, now that Biden is president and facing a similar but more dire crisis, he has not taken the same blame he heaped on his predecessor, the host noted – and is instead repeating the importance of passing his party's $3.5 trillion socioeconomic overhaul dubbed "human infrastructure" – and again claiming the net cost will be "zero" dollars.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"We cannot be competitive in the 21st century in this global economy with we fail to invest," Biden said during an event in Hartford, Conn., Friday -- changing his voice to a whisper to state "But pay your fair share."
"Just pay a decent portion of what we lay out in this piece of legislation. If you add it all up over the years, the cost of Build Back Better in terms of adding to the deficit is zero."
Watters further pointed out Biden concluded that set of remarks by appearing to admit he will not reach the $3.5 trillion expenditure goal, but instead "something less than that."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"So we have a lie, we got a whisper and we got a backtrack," Watters remarked to co-host Katie Pavlich.
Pavlich later added that what is further compounding the miles of container ship backups at ports in southern California is a recently-enacted state law that eliminates the idea of private contractors because every worker must be classified as an employee.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"Turns out a lot of private contractors drive trucks and in California there’s 75,000 so there’s a problem where these companies are trying to off-load stuff to get it across the country, they can’t find workers and drivers that have trucks because California reclassifies them as full-time employees even though they’re private contractors," Pavlich said of the law, passed through the Democratic legislature in Sacramento.
The panel later noted that Biden also urged the U.S. oil industry to increase production – though doing so after several consecutive months of "defaming" them.