The White House on Tuesday ridiculed concerns about shipping delays for treadmills and other products as supply chains and shortages continue to plague American consumers.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki was asked by New York Times reporter Michael Shear about the shipping delays for products like dishwashers, furniture, and treadmills and why Biden acted slowly to solve known problems in the supply chain.
“The tragedy of the treadmill that’s delayed,” Psaki replied sarcastically.
Shear asked why Biden failed to act sooner.
Psaki argued that there were a number of reasons for shipping problems, citing more online shopping as one of the causes, despite President Joe Biden’s attempts to fix the problems.
“More people are buying more goods, people have started to buy things online [rather] than going into stores,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said. “That is also impacting the volume and there’s a need for more.”
“I think the important thing to understand here is there are multiple issues,” she continued, also citing the increase in products getting purchased, the difficultly of restoring manufacturing levels, and a shortage of truck drivers for snarled supply chain delays.
Over 100 ships continue waiting outside the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, reports noted Tuesday, nearly a week after Biden tried to demonstrate progress on the issue.
During his speech, Biden blamed private business for not paying more to get the products offloaded and shipped.
“We need major retailers who ordered the goods and the freight movers who take the goods from the ships to factories and to stores to step up as well,” he said, warning that “if the private sector doesn’t step up, we’re going to call them out and ask them to act.”