Biden admin abruptly delays plan to ban menthol cigarettes amid widespread opposition

The Biden administration said it is delaying regulations to ban menthol cigarettes in a stunning announcement Friday after the proposal garnered significant opposition.

"This rule has garnered historic attention and the public comment period has yielded an immense amount of feedback, including from various elements of the civil rights and criminal justice movement," Becerra said in a statement. "It’s clear that there are still more conversations to have, and that will take significantly more time." Thomas Catenacci is a politics writer for Fox News Digital.

The announcement comes exactly two years after FDA initially proposed the regulations, paving the way for an historic ban on menthol cigarettes that the administration said would be a "critical" piece of President Biden's Cancer Moonshot initiative. FDA also argued at the time that the ban would broadly "reduce the appeal of cigarettes" and have substantial health impacts.