On Tuesday’s “PBS NewsHour,” House Speaker Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) stated that President Joe Biden has been “great” and “the American people are certainly better off than they were two years ago.” But Biden “doesn’t get the credit he deserves” due to “a massive disinformation campaign that’s going on in our country” from “people who don’t want to pay taxes, people who are still fighting the Civil War, some combination of those people” who “suffocate the airwaves with disinformation. And that confuses people.”
Host Judy Woodruff asked, “President Biden, his approval ratings, I know you know very well, are in the low 40s, on average, in some places, even lower. Has he been a drag for Democrats this year?”
Pelosi responded, “No, no, not at all. He has been a great President. He has not received the respect and the appreciation, whether we’re talking about lowering the cost of prescription drugs and protecting Social Security and Medicare, whether we’re talking about 10 million jobs created under his presidency. Of course, the private sector has a role in that. You have a President who has had legislation unseen in this country or any country to preserve the planet, to fight the climate crisis, gun violence protection, every subject that you can name, a woman’s right to choose, personal freedom, just enlarge the issue to that. He’s been a great President. And in our districts, our members are doing just fine in terms of their own approval ratings because of what they have done to vote, or, in terms of our candidates, how they intend to vote.”
Woodruff then asked, “And do you think the White House has done the job that it needed to do to get that message across that you just described?”
Pelosi responded, “Let me just say, yes, I do. And I have no complaint whatsoever about the White House and what they have done. What I will say [is] that there is a massive disinformation campaign that’s going on in our country. It’s repeated again and again on TV and in the press. The clicks on it, or the clips and the clicks on it are formidable. And that’s what’s called news. Now, endless, deep, dark special interest money is pouring into that, people who don’t want to pay taxes, people who are still fighting the Civil War, some combination of those people. So, again, the numbers that relate to the President are really not that bad. When we lost in 2010, unemployment was at 9.5%. Right now, it’s at 3.5%. So this President doesn’t get the credit he deserves. But I think that there has to be a recognition of the disinformation that is out there. And so, he’s — the American people are certainly better off than they were two years ago. But, again, because of disinformation — they suffocate the airwaves with disinformation. And that confuses people.”
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