President Biden says he wasn’t made aware of how serious the baby formula shortage was until April, and by then it was too late.

The President claimed he wasn’t briefed on the crisis even as company executives said Wednesday that they had known about the “general impact” the mid-February shutdown of Abbott Nutrition’s Michigan production plant would have on the U.S. supply immediately.

Fox News reports:

“Well, here’s the deal.  I became aware of this problem some time in — after April — in early April, about how intense it was,” he continued. “And so, we did everything in our power from that point on, and that’s all I can tell you right now.  And we’re going to continue to do it until we get the job done.”

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre couldn’t explain the delay in making Biden aware of the shortage but said that since he was informed he’s worked to address the problem.

“We have been doing this whole of government approach since the recall,” Jean-Pierre said. “We have been working on this for months, for months. We have been taking this incredibly seriously.”

The press secretary added that the president was satisfied with how the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has handled the response, although FDA Commissioner Robert Califf told lawmakers last week that the agency’s response was “too slow” and that there were “suboptimal” decisions made.

The White House’s “Operation Fly Formula” is being used to import formula and the Defense Production Act has been utilized to hasten domestic production of infant formula – steps that did not begin until mid-May.

Biden’s timeline seems to suggest the White House was operating on solving the crisis without even looping in the President, further underscoring claims that Biden’s authority is often not taken seriously.

Why did it take so long for Biden to learn about the baby formula shortage? Has even his own White House lost faith in him?

The third and fourth rounds of shipments will begin next week.