Much has been written in recent days about the present American baby formula shortage, the worst in decades. Now, Governor Greg Abbott is utilizing the crisis to attack those he believes to be responsible: immigrant babies.
The shortage stems from a bacterial contamination at a Michigan plant run by (the ironically-named) Abbott Laboratories, a multinational healthcare company that produces a large percentage of the baby formula sold in the United States. A disproportionate amount of this formula was manufactured in the shutdown Michigan factory, which has yet to reopen since its FDA-mandated closure in February.
This manufacturing blunder in conjunction with the supply shocks created by the pandemic as well as the high tariffs on formula written into the Donald Trump-led USMCA Trade Agreement has spawned the current dearth of baby formula. However, Abbott is attempting to take advantage of the situation by shifting attention away from complex logistics solutions and towards scoring political points against President Biden by blaming the shortage in part on the administration’s empathy for migrant children.
His thoughts were detailed in the tweet shown below.
Abbott’s statement was released in conjunction with extreme conservative activist Brandon Judd, who serves as the president for the National Border Patrol Council. Judd is a regular Fox News contributor who has repeatedly pushed the white-supremacist theory of an ongoing “great replacement” of American whites with minorities.
This racist sentiment is apparent in the duo’s statement, which suggests that the Biden Administration should starve babies of their necessary nutrients simply because they are not American.
The tweet also hints at Abbott’s possible presidential ambitions, with the statement’s final sentence claiming America’s children “deserve a president who puts their needs and survival first.”
Whatever his plans though, it appears the literal dehumanization of migrant infants will not pose a moral obstacle for Greg Abbott on the path to greater political power.
