This could just as easily be someone at the top saying "find a legitimate sounding reason to refuse this because we want to refuse it anyways". They will always give such a reason, that doesn't mean it's the real reason.
It's best to take the official statement at face value rather than assuming what's not said. If you take it to mean something that was not said, that's on you.
And if two official statements from two different organization differ, what do you do? And if, of the two, the government is known to be a bad faith actor, how does that affect your answer? Organizations lie, that is a simple fact of life. You can either deal with it or bury your head in the sand.
What are the two differing statements? The primary statement to the applicant by the FDA is what matters. Everything else is irrelevant political commentary.
