On ABC’s This Week, co-moderator Martha Raddatz aired more of World News Tonight’s exclusive interview with President Joe Biden during which anchor David Muir displayed how out of touch he is with the economic reality everyday Americans are facing due to Biden’s rampant inflation and incipient recession. Not to be outdone, a “reporter” from America’s state media, NPR, named Asma Khalid claimed the economy is improved from where it was six months ago.
During the Biden/Muir interview, Muir asked Biden about the economy and seemed befuddled why Americans weren’t feeling good about their financial standing. Of course, Muir made sure to add every seemingly favorable metric he could come up with: “unemployment now at its lowest level in 50 years, but you’ve also seen the polls. Our latest ABC News poll shows 4 in 10 Americans say they’re worse off than when you were elected. Only 16 percent said they were better off. So why is that? Why aren’t Americans feeling this?”
Biden incoherently explained that Americans aren’t feeling good because “it goes well beyond the economy.” The octogenarian President blamed the constant negative stories Americans see when they turn on the news: “can you think of anything when you turn on the television that makes you think, God, that makes me feel good? Almost anything. Everything is in the negative.”
Has there ever been a time when the news wasn’t negative? Not to our memory. That’s why there’s the saying “no news is good news.”
“Inflation is still higher than it should be, and, you know, everything from gasoline prices to a war going on in Ukraine,” Biden proclaimed. “I mean, so I can’t think of a time when there’s been greater uncertainty, notwithstanding the fact that we created 800,000 manufacturing jobs.”
Later on in the broadcast, during This Week’s “PowerHouse Roundtable” segment, NPR’s White House correspondent Asma Khalid showed how out of touch she is too. With a straight face she claimed that by “look[ing] at the inflation picture today, the economy is by most metrics healthier than it was six months ago.”
In what seems to be news to only Khalid, inflation continues to rise and wreak havoc on consumer finances. Inflation rose once again in January by 0.5 percent. This was up from December’s 0.1 percent increase in December.
To be charitable to Khalid, she maybe meant to say that inflation isn’t rising by as much as it has in the past. But it still continues to rise and stands at a red-hot 6.4 percent year-over-year. When Biden took office, inflation was a cool 1.7 percent.
So no, the economy is not healthier, Khalid.
This economic illiteracy from ABC & NPR was made possible by Fidelity. Their information is linked.
To read the relevant transcript, click “expand”:
ABC’s This Week
2/26/2023
9:38:22 p.m. Eastern
DAVID MUIR: I want to ask about the economy. You talk often about how the rate of inflation has begun to slow. Unemployment now at its lowest level in 50 years, but you’ve also seen the polls. Our latest ABC News poll shows 4 in 10 Americans say they’re worse off than when you were elected. Only 16 percent said they were better off. So why is that? Why aren’t Americans feeling this?
PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: Well, look. I think it goes well beyond the economy. Think about it. You make the news–you interview for the news. Can you think of anything when you turn on the television that makes you think, God, that makes me feel good? Almost anything. Everything is in the negative.
We’re also finding out now that one of the outlets is decided that they even put things on that they know to be false in order to increase their ratings. So I think things are a little out of whack and I don’t blame people for being down, you know, when you had the year, two years of the pandemic, kids out of school, the mental health problems in the country are seriously increased, especially among young people.
Some things are, for example, people feeling down about unemployment. They’ve got better jobs or making more money. Inflation is still higher than it should be, and, you know, everything from gasoline prices to a war going on in Ukraine. I mean, so I can’t think of a time when there’s been greater uncertainty, notwithstanding the fact that we created 800,000 manufacturing jobs. We’re better off than virtually any other major nation in the world economically, but it’s understandable why people are just down.
[…]
ASMA KHALID: And I think if we look at the inflation picture today, the economy is by most metrics healthier than it was six months ago, and so I think that if we’re going to look at the X-factor of the economy for President Biden heading into 2024, I think he’s potentially in a better position than Democrats were in the midterms and ultimately the economy did not factor into the midterms as much as we thought it was going to.
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