Rep. Cammack rips FEMA for funding migrant transportation amid baby formula shortage
Rep. Kat Cammack, R-Fla., discusses the Biden administration's priorities in providing funding for the border crisis while Americans struggle to find baby formula.
Rep. Kat Cammack, R-Fla., is pushing back at The Washington Post for its fact-check challenging her comments blasting the Biden administration over the baby formula shortage.
On Thursday, Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler wrote a scathing piece slamming the "faux outrage" over the Biden administration's alleged "stockpiling" of baby formula at the southern border.
He specifically took aim at Cammack's remarks claiming, "They are sending pallets, pallets of baby formula to the border. Meanwhile, in our own district at home, we cannot find baby formula" as well as a joint statement for Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and National Border Patrol Council President Brandon Judd saying, "While mothers and fathers stare at empty grocery store shelves in a panic, the Biden administration is happy to provide baby formula to illegal immigrants coming across our southern border. This is yet another one in a long line of reckless, out-of-touch priorities from the Biden administration when it comes to securing our border and protecting Americans."
Rep. Kat Cammack prepares for an interview in the U.S. Capitol on Nov. 5, 2021. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
"The problem is that the Biden administration is following the law — a law that President Donald Trump also followed," Kessler wrote before citing the Flores consent decree about the detainment of illegal migrants and how facilities, among other things, must provide "drinking water and food as appropriate" as well as a 2015 Customs and Border Protection manual that states, "Food must be appropriate for at-risk detainees’ age and capabilities (such as formula and baby food)."
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Kessler noted he did not receive a response from Cammack as well as Abbott and Judd, but went on to give "Four Pinocchios."
"This is a ridiculous faux outrage," Kessler wrote. "The shortage of baby formula is a serious issue that the administration is seeking to address. But at the same time, the administration cannot be faulted for following the law and providing baby formula to undocumented immigrants. Anyone who suggests this is the result of specific Biden policies, i.e., his ‘reckless, out-of-touch priorities,’ earns Four Pinocchios."
Washington post fact-checker Glenn Kessler. (Getty images / Singerhmk - wiki commons)
In a statement to Fox News, Cammack doubled down on her criticism of Biden, saying he "created a crisis on the border, but ensured migrant children were rightfully fed" and that it's "wrong, no matter how much the Democrats and their cohorts in the media try and run interference for Joe and Kamala, many Americans are just as fed up as I am."
"Our country is an empathetic one that has been committed to feeding children in our custody, something I have never disputed or disagreed with," Cammack said. "I have also said repeatedly that even if supplies were diverted from the border to American store shelves, Biden’s formula crisis is so massive that these warehouses’ contents would do little to relieve the incredible shortage—one he has created due to his lack of a plan to keep our babies fed after shutting down a plant that was responsible for 43% of America’s formula market."
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"The American people deserve better, and they deserve to know what’s happening in our country, no matter what the Washington Post or its liberal media compatriots think," Cammack added.
House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik, who had been outspoken about the baby formula crisis but was not part of Kessler's fact-check, offered a scathing response to the "HACK 'Fact Checkers' at the Washington Post," who she accused of serving "as sycophant stenographers for Joe Biden and his failing Administration."
Rep. Elise Stefanik speaks during a news conference about the shortage of baby formula outside the Capitol on Thursday, May 12, 2022. (Ting Shen/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
"These leftist journalists freely spin the truth into lies for Joe Biden to cover for the crisis the Democrats have caused in America," Stefanik told Fox News. "The American people are smart, and they see right thru the warped mainstream media. The facts are that I demanded back in February that Biden’s FDA develop a plan to address the impending baby formula shortage, which they only just responded to months later after mounting public backlash and being called out by House Republicans. Just last week, the new White House Press Secretary laughed about this crisis. As a new mother, I can think of no bigger crisis than not being able to find formula to feed your baby. The White House failed, and the American people know it."
Stefanik's fiery statement comes after the Post published an article on Sunday with the headline, "Stefanik echoed racist theory allegedly espoused by Buffalo suspect."
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The report attempted to connect Stefanik's vocal criticism of Democratic policy allowing migrants who come into the U.S. illegally to not only stay but give them voting rights like in New York City to the writings of the shooter of Saturday's grocery store massacre, which espoused the racist "Great Replacement theory," a conspiracy alleging Jews orchestrating to diminish the White population with people of color.
The Washington Post did not immediately respond to Fox News' request for comment. Kessler declined to comment.
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