The White House released a pre-recorded video Tuesday night of Joe Biden making an Oval Office address in which he claims to have saved Christmas and Thanksgiving this year by solving the supply chain crisis “several months ago.” Biden said he spoke with CEO’s of large retailers (and shipping companies) on Tuesday, all of whom he says assured him that everything is much improved. Biden promised Americans that unlike last year they will have what they want for Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Despite Biden’s claim to have solved the supply chain problem at the ports several months ago, it was actually just last month that Biden announced he had worked out arrangements for West Coast ports to operate 24/7 (excerpt via CNBC, October 13):
…Joe Biden will unveil a plan Wednesday to try to ease West Coast delays at the ports of Long Beach, California, and Los Angeles by expanding round-the-clock operations. Central to this plan are commitments by some of the nation’s leading retailers and shippers to ramp up overnight and off-hours operations at Long Beach and Los Angeles. FedEx, UPS, Walmart and Home Depot will announce their expanded-hours operation plans during a virtual meeting Wednesday with Biden, according to senior administration officials who briefed reporters Tuesday night…
Biden’s address was accompanied by a hypnotic piano rift reminiscent of the theme from the Exorcist. The chyron on the video displayed the names of the chief corporate executives Biden spoke with (in order as mentioned): Walmart’s Doug McMillon, UPS’ Carol B. Tomé, FedE’s Fred Smith and Target’s Brian Cornell.
I know folks are concerned about getting what they need for the upcoming holidays. That’s why I spent the afternoon on the phone with the CEOs of America’s largest retailers. Here’s what we talked about: pic.twitter.com/JMKtWxr6Kr
— President Biden (@POTUS) November 10, 2021
“I know a lot of Americans are worried whether or not there’s gonna be enough stock on the shelves for Thanksgiving and for Christmas. Whether you’ll be able to get what you need because there’s, was a short supply last year because of COVID and a range of other things. But, you know, I just got off the phone with the largest retailers in America and here’s what they came up with. They all told me that things are really moving along. One of the things I did several months ago was speed up the operation of the ports on the West Coast that have forty percent of all the goods that come through the Pacific Ocean. And we’ve moved it way, way along in terms of getting more products in and letting people know that they’re gonna be available. We’ve also moved how to get them from the ports to the stores, from the stores to your doors and uh, the bottom line is all the folks I spoke with–not just the East Coast, but the West Coast–they just all are confident that things are gonna be much different Thanksgiving and a much different Christmas this year. And so, the expectation is it’s not gonna be like this time last year. You’re gonna be able to get to the store, get to your pla…, get to the outlets you’re looking for, get the products you need, you gifts that you want. That’s what we’ve been working on.
And that’s why when I passed this thing called the Infrastructure Bill, that has a lot of money in it to improve our ports, improve our highways, improve our transportation systems, bring down costs and also create good jobs. So that’s what this is all about: Getting back to normal, getting back to a place where we lead the world again in our infrastructure and we lead the world again in having, continuing to be the fastest growing economy in the world.”
Transcribed by TGP.
Reports this week show the West Coast ports are more backed up than ever.
“A total of 111 container ships are bobbing at sea around the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, waiting to dock and unload. That breaks the previous record of 108 vessels reported on October 21.”https://t.co/wUzMUZN0XQ
— Jim Geraghty (@jimgeraghty) November 10, 2021
The Biden supply chain crisis now has nearly 160 ships waiting outside Long Beach and Los Angeles port complex to unload goods. https://t.co/RJQrK0BXYZ
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) November 8, 2021
