Joe Biden Reacts Late to Clogged Ports Crisis; White House Blames Private Businesses

President Joe Biden will try to address the issue of clogged ports on Wednesday, after months of failing to demonstrate real progress on the issue.

The president will meet at the White House with the executive directors of the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach as well as representatives from Walmart, UPS, FedEx, Target, and Samsung. Biden will also meet with labor unions and trucking and railroad representatives.

But the White House told reporters in a briefing call on Tuesday that the supply chain backlog was ultimately up to private businesses to solve.

“The supply chain is essentially in the hands of the private sector, so we need the private sector to up to help solve these problems,” an official said.

The Los Angeles port and Long Beach port had 81 ships anchored offshore and 62 at berth waiting to get unloaded as of Monday, according to the Associated Press.

On Tuesday, the White House previewed an announcement that the Port of Los Angeles will move to 24/7 service and said that major retailers would commit to using the extra hours to deliver more goods. – READ MORE