Democratic US Rep. Jim Clyburn claimed on MSNBC that the Biden administration has inflation under control — only to get interrupted on the air with the news that prices rose more than expected last month.
The 83-year-old congressman from South Carolina was in the middle of bashing social media for spreading “disinformation” about inflation — before being cut off for a “breaking news” report that consumer prices “increased at a faster-than-expected pace last month. A signal that inflation remains stubbornly high,” Brzezinski said.
The Consumer Price Index release by the Bureau of Labor Statistics amid MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” came in at 3.5% — ahead of the 3.4% headline inflation figure economists surveyed by FactSet expected, and above February’s 3.2% reading.
Clyburn’s segment then abruptly ended. The Dow was off more than 500 points in Wednesday trading on fears that out-of-control inflation will keep interest rates high for the rest of the year.
A clip of the embarrassing MSNBC segment was later posted to X, with responders noting: “Would love to see a clip of what happened with Rep. Clyburn’s response to the breaking news directly after this.”
“What a lousy liar,” another wrote of Clyburn’s claims.
Clyburn admitted to MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski on Wednesday morning that Americans “are seeing the prices at the stores costing more money,” but claimed that “people are in fact earning greater incomes” and “the inflation rates are down.”
But every month from April 2021 to April 2023 — a majority of the Biden presidency — price inflation has outpaced wage growth, siphoning away consumers’ purchasing power, according to government data.
The latest CPI data — which tracks changes in the costs of everyday goods and services — means that consumer prices still have yet to fall year-over-year since President Joe Biden’s term began in January 2021.
At the time, inflation sat at 1.4% — 150% less than Wednesday’s 3.5% reading.
Brzezinski cited a poll from undecided voters, who said there are “real warning signs for the Biden campaign,” including interest rates and the increasingly unaffordable housing market.
These voters are also “feeling like they’re being gaslit” and Biden isn’t being held accountable, Brzezinski said.
Clyburn, however, cheered the Biden administration for its “policies,” though he didn’t specifically indicate which ones.
He went on to make a confusing call to actions to lawmakers to “make sure that people see the policies of the Biden administration, how they affect their everyday lives and get them to see in his policies that which is real.”
Biden also spun the inflation figures in his favor, noting that the CPI report “shows inflation has fallen more than 60% from its peak,” which was 9.1% in June 2022.
“Fighting inflation remains my top economic priority,” Biden insisted in a statement issued Wednesday.
However, in an effort to slow the economy, the Federal Reserve has hiked interest rates to their current 22-year high, between 5.25% and 5.5%.
When inflation persists as it has in recent months despite the current 22-year high benchmark federal funds rate, the Fed has traditionally hiked interest rates even further in an effort to slow the economy.