During Tuesday’s press conference, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre claimed that President Biden had been working every day since he entered office on the economy, prompting questions about how the economy is currently entering a recession.
“So you said he’s been working on the economy every day for 19 months,” a reporter said. “Now Bloomberg economists are forecasting a 100 percent chance of a recession.”
“So how is it that we can be barreling towards a recession and the economy is, as the President says, ‘strong as hell’?” the reporter asked.
“So here’s the thing about the economy — and I’ve said this many times. You’ve heard this from Secretary Yellen,” Jean-Pierre responded, pointing to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen who notoriously recently admitted that she was wrong on inflation throughout 2021 because of factors she didn’t “fully understand.”
“You’ve heard this from Brian Deese, who runs our Economic Council — is that what we are seeing right now is the job market is strong, the labor force is strong. And that is not what we see usually before — before a recession,” Jean-Pierre claimed.
“And so the — and a lot of that is because of the work that this President has done. We — we are seeing an economy that is resilient. We are seeing an economy that is going through — to — into a transition with more stable growth, more steady growth. And that is because of the work that this President has done; that is because of the economic policy that he has put forward,” Jean-Pierre said, suggesting that a shrinking economy meant “steady growth.”
“And let me remind you: The economic policy that he’s put forward is about building the economy from the bottom to — from the bottom to the top and the middle out. And that is so important because it means that we leave no one behind. It means that there’s equity at everything that he puts forward,” Jean-Pierre continued, and then pointed to gas prices as evidence of Biden keeping “prices low” even though gas prices are about 50% higher than when he entered office.
“And so, again, you’re going to hear from the President about gas prices. That’s, again, trying to make sure that we continue to keep prices low for the American people,” she said.
