White House press secretary Jen Psaki gave a snarky reply Friday morning when Morning Joe co-host Mika Brzezinski pointed out that Ame...
White House press secretary Jen Psaki gave a snarky reply Friday morning when Morning Joe co-host Mika Brzezinski pointed out that Americans care more about economic issues than social ones.
Brzezinski was referring to data collected from a Virginia-based focus group of voters who had chosen President Joe Biden for president in 2020 and then voted for Republican gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin, the race's winner.
'Democrats are losing really badly on economic issues, and that a lot of Americans care more about economic issues versus social issues and, of course, their health,' the anchor said. 'How do you respond? How do you think the White House can do better?'
'No you-know-what Sherlock! Of course they do!' Psaki replied.
Democratic pollster Brian Stryker said in a recent interview with The New York Times about his findings that the 'Democrats have a problem.'
'People think we're more focused on social issues than the economy - and the economy is the No. 1 issue right now,' he said was the party's main branding problem.
The White House has been dealing with inflation at a 31-year high, surging gas prices and a supply chain crisis.
Critics, including members of the Democratic party, have said they were too focused on COVID and Trump when they suffered widespread losses in the off-year November election.
Psaki was also speaking when it was announced that the US economy had added just 210,000 jobs in November, 330,000 lower than estimations. Psaki didn't comment on the disappointing figures, but insisted there were 'good trends' under Biden.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki gave a snarky reply Friday morning when Morning Joe co-host Mika Brzezinski pointed out that Americans care more about economic issues than social ones
'Yes, we recognize prices are up. That's a problem,' Psaki said. High gas prices have created a political headache for President Joe Biden
Psaki agreed with what the focus group unearthed.
'The American people care about COVID, getting it under control, and they care about the economy,' she stated. 'As a Virginia woman in the suburbs who has neighbors who are Democrats, Republicans, independents, I can tell you that's what they care the most about,' she added.
She argued that Democrats have the opportunity to be 'quite bold about the choice that people across the country have.'
'Yes, we recognize prices are up. That's a problem. We recognize we're still fighting the pandemic,' she said. 'Who has a plan to do it?'
'Are you going to be the Republicans, who are going to scream, "It's a problem" from a bullhorn, or are you going to be a Democrat and say, "Look, we just passed this infrastructure bill. We want to get Build Back Better done," which, by the way, will lower costs for child care, for elder care, for healthcare,' Psaki continued. '
'We have a great agenda to run on,' she said. 'Every election is a choice. And yes, we should continue and keep making that choice about core issues that impact people in their homes.'
During the same appearance, Psaki was on live television when the jobs report numbers dropped.
U.S. employers added just 210,000 jobs in November, well below the estimated 550,000 economists had predicted.
'That's a number that feels a little, what? A little off?' Brzezinski asked.
Psaki said she couldn't publicly comment about the Department of Labor report yet.
'Well, I know this sounds a little archaic, but I can't comment on them until 9:30 a.m., by rules because I work at the White House,' Psaki said. 'I will say what people can expect the president to continue to say today, month-to-month, is that what we're seeing are good trends.'
Biden welcomed the news, saying America was back to work.
'Today, we have incredible news that our unemployment rate has fallen to 4.2% – a level experts didn't expect us to achieve until 2024,' he tweeted.
'We've created 588,000 jobs per month on average this year – a record.'
The unemployment rate fell to 4.2 per cent, the lowest since the beginning of the coronavirus crisis. It was 4.6 per cent in October.
The U.S. has gained back 83 per cent of the jobs lost due to the pandemic.
Additionally, wages increased.
White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain tweeted out that the labor participation rate saw an uptick too.
It's at its highest rate since March 2020, when the pandemic triggered widespread closures and lockdowns.
The numbers come after a brighter October, when employers added 531,000 workers to their payrolls.
October saw the best numbers since July, before the Delta variant of COVID-19 stalled hiring.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned Thursday that Omicron could pose a 'significant' risk to the global economy.
'Hopefully it's not something that's going to slow economic growth significantly,' Yellen said in an interview with Reuters. 'There's a lot of uncertainty, but it could cause significant problems. We're still evaluating that.'
Yellen said that new strain of the coronavirus could exacerbate supply chain issues and rising inflation.
Households have also accumulated massive savings and there has been a surge in self-employment.
Biden has been plagued with sluggish poll numbers, exacerbated by the administration's chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan.
His victories on the Congressional front have done nothing to move the needle up, a poll from Morning Consult found this week.
He stands at 45 per cent approval and 52 per cent disapproval in a survey conducted between November 28-30.
The Consumer Price Index rose 6.2 percent in October 2021 from one year prior - the highest it has been since 1990
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