Fmr. Obama Press Sec. Gibbs: Biden Should Stop Saying Economy’s Back, Say He’s ‘Trying’ — Mortgages Are Still Way Up

On Monday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “11th Hour,” NBC Analyst and former Obama White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said that President Joe Biden “needs to stop talking about the fact that America is back.” And should message that “we have a plan to bring America back, we are trying to improve your lives.” Because “saying that the economy has recovered is a danger for people whose lives don’t feel different, even though inflation is down over nine months, it still costs a lot more money to borrow money for a car, it still costs a lot more money to pay your mortgage.”

Gibbs began by saying that “you’ve got to put this choice more clearly in front of people. It is very easy to tell a pollster a year out that you feel agnostic about this choice or you don’t feel great about or enthusiastic about something. I think as people get this choice put in front of them a month, three weeks, two weeks before an election, that’s different.”

He continued, “But I also think it’s important what you just talked about, and that is, it is important to talk about the economy first, right? He’s got to have an economic message that breaks through. The disconcerting numbers that show Trump’s more trusted on the economy than Biden should be alarming. Look, to be very blunt about this, I think the President needs to stop talking about the fact that America is back. I think he needs to talk about the fact — we have a plan to bring America back, we are trying to improve your lives. But the truth is, people — you can’t talk your way into having people feel better about the economy. I think this idea of looking at this through economic statistics and saying that the economy has recovered is a danger for people whose lives don’t feel different, even though inflation is down over nine months, it still costs a lot more money to borrow money for a car, it still costs a lot more money to pay your mortgage. And I think you’ve got to live where people live, and only then are you going to have the permission structure, I think, to talk really about democracy in a way that’s important.”

Gibbs added that Biden does have to sell his accomplishments on the economy, but also has to make a contrast.

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