WHOOPS! MSNBC Interrupts Clyburn’s Bidenomics Defense with Bad Economic News

April 11th, 2024 3:03 PM

National Co-Chair for the 2024 Biden Presidential Campaign Rep. Jim Clyburn wasn’t expected to be blindsided by bad news in friendly territory. 

During the April 10 edition of Morning Joe, co-host Mika Brzezinski had to cut off Clyburn’s rosy message about the state of the Biden economy to get an update from reality. Clyburn complained about “disinformation” and “misrepresentation” on social media in his uninformed response to a question about the Biden economy. Then, after seemingly nervously beginning her statement with “I’ll validate that,” Brzezinski covered the breaking news: “The consumer price index increased at a faster than expected pace last month, a signal that inflation remains stubbornly high.” 

To make matters worse, Clyburn had to sit through a segment of CNBC anchor Andrew Ross Sorkin discussing this horrible news. Sorkin speculated that “they’re throwing a party in Mar-a-Lago.” Sorkin added, “The truth is that right now inflation has now moved in the opposite direction. So, it’s going to be harder for the administration to make the argument around this inflation trendline,” before opening the spigot with further bad news, “[F]rankly, mortgage rates are not going to be coming down, credit card rates are not going to be coming down.” 

Sorkin went on, suggesting that “It has been a shock, and I think a surprise for many just how hot this number has turned out to be.” 

Few were more surprised than Clyburn. 

However, Clyburn’s humiliation was not just the result of bad timing. It was well deserved. His Bidenomics talking points were obviously false even before the March numbers made them look even more ridiculous. 

Brzezinski had asked Clyburn about struggling Americans who feel “gaslit” while showing a graphic that gave former President Donald Trump a 9.3 percent advantage with key undecided voters (Undecided voters in PA, MI and WI on the topic: “Better for you and your family’s finances”). 

Clyburn started off weak, telling Brzezinski that “401ks are not about people’s everyday lives,” before following up with an statement favorably comparing current inflation to inflation earlier in Biden’s presidency. Clyburn confidently told Brzezinski that the “inflation rates are down and people’s incomes are up.”  Later, Clyburn would add, “Although we see the prices at the stores costing more money, people are in fact earning greater incomes.” 

Morning Joe and Sorkin made Clyburn’s inflation point look outrageous, but his point on wages isn’t true either. Real wages have gone down under Biden. American median weekly real earnings have declined from $373 in the first quarter of 2021 to $371 in the fourth quarter of 2023. 

Conservatives are under attack! Contact ABC News at (818) 460-7477, CBS News at (212) 975-3247 and NBC News at (212) 664-6192 and demand they tell the truth about the Bidenomics disaster.