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U.S. president Joe Biden was questioned pointedly this week by CNN host Erin Burnett on the state of the American economy – and the increasingly self-evident reality that most voters trust former president Donald Trump more than they trust him to turn it around.
His response? That he’s already fixed the economy – and that polling which suggests otherwise is wrong.
“It’s true right now, Mr. President, that voters by a wide margin trust Trump more on the economy – they say that in polls – and part of the reason for that may be the numbers,” Burnett asked Biden. “You’re aware of many of these, of course. The cost of buying a home in the United States is double what it was – when you look at your monthly costs – from before the pandemic. Real income – when you account for inflation – is actually down since you took office. Economic growth last week – far short of expectations. Consumer confidence, maybe no surprise, is near a two-year low.”
“With less than six months to go to Election Day, are you worried that you’re running out of time to turn that around?” Burnett asked the stone-faced incumbent.
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“We’ve already turned it around, look,” Biden responded. “Look at the Michigan survey where 65 percent of the American people think they’re in good shape economically. They think the nation’s not in good shape, but they’re personally in good shape.”
“The polling data has been wrong all along,” Biden continued. “How many – you guys do a poll at CNN, how many people do you have to call to get one response?”
Biden also claimed at one point during the interview that his policies had reduced inflation.
“It was nine percent when I came to office,” Biden said. “Nine percent.”
Actually, inflation clocked in at just 1.4 percent when Biden took office and peaked at 9.1 percent seventeen months later (in June of 2022). In fairness to Biden, our media outlet has consistently pointed out Trump’s own contributions to the pervasive inflationary pressures being felt across the country.
Trump isn’t shouldering any of the blame, though. CNN’s latest polling showed only 34 percent of respondents approved of Biden’s handling of the economy – and only 29 percent approved of his handling of inflation. Nearly two-thirds (65 percent) of registered voters said the economy was “extremely important” to their vote, compared to 40 percent in 2020 and 46 percent in 2016.
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By a 62-30 percent margin, voters who indicated the economy was “extremely important” to them said they supported Trump.
Contradicting Biden, 53 percent of respondents in the CNN survey said they were “dissatisfied with their personal financial situation” compared to just 47 percent who said they were satisfied. Those most dissatisfied? Lower-income (67 percent), minority (64 percent) and young (61 percent) Americans.
Clearly, those are demographics in which Biden must outperform Trump by a wide margin if he expects to have any chance at a second term.
Nonetheless, Biden maintained he had the situation under control.
“We have the strongest economy in the world,” he told Burnett. “Let me say it again – in the world.”
Burnett continued to press Biden, noting grocery prices have soared by thirty percent under his watch.
“That’s a real day-to-day pain that people feel,” Burnett said.
“No, it really is,” Biden said. “And it’s real. But the fact is that – if you take a look at what they make, people have – they have the money to spend. It angers them – and angers me – that you have to spend more.”
That anger could very well sink the incumbent. Trump continues to lead Biden in critical battleground states like Arizona (+5), Georgia (+3.8), Michigan (+1.2), Nevada (+4.5), Pennsylvania (+1.8) and Wisconsin (+0.5), according to the latest aggregate data from RealClear Polling. Should those leads hold, Trump would win a second, non-consecutive term in an electoral landslide.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …
Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina and before that he was a bass guitarist and dive bar bouncer. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.
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7 comments
Wait until they hear about Trump’s inflationary plans to hike tariffs on imports from China to 60% and impose a 10% tariff on ALL imports. Not to mention his plan to renew the $2 trillion tax cut for the richest.
People are really stupid to think that a guy who bankrupted a casino (almost impossible to do), numerous businesses, and claims to be a billionaire but had to borrow to pay for his bond (and pay interest on it) is good for the economy.
NONE IS SO BLIND AS THOSE WHO WILL NOT SEE!
I like how the Biden supporters pretend things aren’t rough for people paying rent, buying groceries, etc. while at the same time Trump supporters are showing their ignorance of just how badly Trump mangled the working class in just four years.
I also like how they both ignore the clear warning signs of end stage capitalism. It only gets worse from here.
The concept the Economy is “bad”, is stupid. We have the best economy in the world and the economy is undeniably better than it was under Trump. Inflation is higher, reflecting the economy’s strength, but the inflation has been somewhat offset by higher wages and the Fed is taking appropriate action to bring it under control. Unemployment remains historically low, job production remains good, and GDP remains strong. Manufacturing continues to return to US shores at a high rate.
Trump of course is a grifter. As shown by his pitch to the oil industry to give him a billion dollars and he will end all environmental restrictions on oil companies. The Trump Tax cuts have cost the country a trillion+ dollars all going to the richest 5% of Americans while large corporations continue to increase prices on consumers and to make record-breaking profits. If you want to know the source of inflation, just look at corporate profits.
To all the people who say, elect Trump and prices will go back to where they were 4 years ago, you may be right. Because the only way that will happen is if the economy collapses and we have massive unemployment. With Trump, all that is possible, if not likely. Especially, with the I am going to kill all my political enemies thing the country would be facing.
What flavor Kool Aid are you drinking? Anyone who thinks the economy, border, inflation, foreign relations, military, wars (2), illegals, gas prices, crime and I could go on forever, is better under Biden than it was with Trump, should not be allowed to vote for lack of common sense. You sound like the idiot James Clyburn!!!
lots of folks have TDS and cannot see the great economy he produced and Biden destroyed. We may be the strongest in the world but without Bidens constant chasing of green energy and redistribution of money we would be a lot stronger
Biden is driving us off a socialist cliff at top speed and doesn’t care about the country or the people.
The first time Lyin “Don” Joe Biden told the truth. The economy is turned around! He took a great economy and destroyed it! I’d say that’s turning it around.