Jeffries on if Dems Are Responsible for Climate on Border, Inflation, Claims About Biden’s Fitness: Inflation Was Global

On Thursday’s broadcast of CNN’s “The Lead,” House Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) responded to a question on if Democrats are responsible for the political climate on inflation, the border, and President Joe Biden’s fitness for the job by stating that inflation happened all across the globe.

After Jeffries stated that Democrats faced a poor “political climate” in 2024, host Jake Tapper asked, “Well, on the note of humility, you talk about the political climate, Democrats are responsible for the political climate, right? Inflation, the border, the gaslighting about President Biden’s fitness and acuity, that’s — it’s not like climate like actual climate that you actually have no control over, you and Democrats had control over some of this.”

Jeffries responded, “But what we’ve seen all across the world in every single advanced economy is a post-pandemic level of inflation that hit working-class people hard. That’s the reality of what the United States of America has confronted, what Western European democracies have confronted, and what advanced economies all across the world have confronted, and that related specifically to the shutdown of the economy as a result of a once-in-a-century pandemic, and when demand came roaring back, when the economy was reopened all across the world, the supply chain was lacking. That triggered levels of inflation that were unacceptable. And we’ve got to do a better job, of course, of working hard to lower food prices, lower gas prices, lower housing prices, and that’s something that we’re going to lean into, and the American people, correctly, have said they want that issue addressed decisively. We'[re] going to have to ask the question, are some of these extreme picks that have been presented into the public domain for the future Cabinet of the next administration consistent with what the American people have suggested they want to see tackled in the strongest possible way? We will do that as House Democrats. We’re hopeful that, as we move forward, we’ll have an administration willing to partner with us as well.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett