McEnany: Biden's 'secret' campaign plan to defeat COVID has failed on all fronts
The White House has come under fire for waiting until this week to order 500 million at-home coronavirus tests
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"Outnumbered" co-host Kayleigh McEnany ripped President Biden on Thursday for his failure to anticipate the COVID-19 omicron variant's rapid spread, saying it reveals fatal mistakes made by the administration.
"Here we are — two years down the road and you have the President of the United States, this guy in his basement with the secret COVID plan, admitting that he has failed," McEnany said on "The Five."
The White House has faced criticism for waiting until this week to order 500 million at-home coronavirus tests to send to Americans who request one, meaning the tests will likely not be available until January despite surging demand before the holiday.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}President Joe Biden speaks about the omicron variant of the coronavirus. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images) (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Biden maintains that his administration did not anticipate the pace at which the omicron variant has spread, but said in an interview with ABC's David Muir that he wished he "had thought about ordering a half a million pills [tests] two months ago before COVID hit here."
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McEnany said she spoke to a senior source in the Trump administration who had information that manufacturers were told to scale back testing production in the summer "because the administration wouldn’t give them an answer" if there was a demand for tests.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"Thank you, Joe Biden, you are the reason the pharmacy shelves are empty," McEnany said. "At least you're admitting to your failure, I guess."
Co-host Katie Pavlich said Biden's plan to ramp up at-home testing will likely become another Democrat-run "expensive bureaucratic endeavor."
People queue for a COVID-19 test. (REUTERS/Andrew Kelly/File Photo)
"I’m looking ahead at the 500 million tests project and thinking this will turn into an expensive bureaucratic endeavor for the sake of Joe Biden looking like he’s doing something when he’s actually not doing a lot," she said.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}White House press secretary Jen Psaki was asked why the thought hadn't crossed anyone's mind to order testing in advance.
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"I would just go back to the chain of events here to remind people … before the delta variant was on the rise, there was not a demand for testing in this country," Psaki said. "There really wasn't."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}She added: "We had to take steps as a federal government to build up the market because the market wasn't there to meet if the demand rose."