President Joe Biden has stated that he is considering deploying the National Guard to assist in driving trucks and resolving recent supply chain problems, but White House officials have stated that this is not the case.
On Thursday evening, October 21st, President Biden addressed at CNN’s town hall in Baltimore, Maryland. During the discussion, moderator Anderson Cooper asked the President whether he was in a position to call up the National Guard to assist with truck driving and alleviate supply chain difficulties, to which the President answered, “Yes, certainly, totally.” I will do it…. if we are unable to move — I will raise the number of truck drivers, which we are now doing.”
When pressed for a timeline for possibly deploying the National Guard, Biden responded, “First and foremost, I want to get the ports operational and the railroads and railheads and trucks in port ready to move because I’ve convinced Walmart and others that we’re going to move stuff off the port and into our warehouses.”
On Tuesday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki issued a more evasive remark in response to the same question about mobilizing the National Guard to assist with the supply chain issues, saying, “I’m not here to rule out any possibilities.”
However, immediately after the meeting, a White House source allegedly informed CNN that, contrary to what Biden stated, the administration is not considering mobilizing the National Guard at the moment.
“At the state level, governors have the authority to request the use of the National Guard, and we are not aggressively pursuing the deployment of the National Guard on a federal level,” the person added.
Although President Biden has directed the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach to operate 24 hours a day, the ports are still unable to operate at these continual hours owing to a shortage of truck drivers.
