CNN Admits ‘Flailing’ Biden Is ‘Not Focusing Enough on Inflation’

In a CNN analysis titled “Why Biden is flailing,” writer Harry Enten pointed to several polls which indicate voters are extremely displeased with President Joe Biden’s handling of the economy — a rare admission of Democrat failure from the far-left news outlet.

Enten wrote, noting that Biden’s actions have won him his lowest approval ratings yet:

While the causes of Biden’s decline are numerous (e.g. declining trust of his handling of the coronavirus pandemic and the American troop withdrawal from Afghanistan), perhaps the biggest one is that Americans believe there are big economic problems and that Biden isn’t focused nearly enough on them,

Enten proceeded to cite a University of Michigan report, which found that consumer confidence in the government’s economic policy has “noticeably declined” in the past six months, coinciding with Biden’s poor marks.

“American consumer sentiment is significantly worse than it was a month before President Donald Trump was booted from office a year ago,” the analysis continued.

Enten drew attention to a Fox News poll, which found that 53 percent of voters are “extremely concerned about inflation and higher prices. No other issue topped 50 percent.” He then pointed to a CBS News/YouGov poll to explain “why inflation is a problem for Biden.” Enten wrote:

A clear majority (60 percent) of Americans believe that Biden is not focusing enough on inflation. No other issue tested showed that many Americans who thought Biden had not paid enough attention. A low 37 percent say that Biden and his fellow Democrats are focusing on the issues they care a lot about.

He went on further to write that just over a quarter of voters (27 percent) actually consider infrastructure “a major concern of theirs.” The statistic could be troubling for Democrats, considering months of merciless arguing over Biden’s infrastructure spending bills — bills upon which Biden’s entire presidential agenda rests. Most voters also do not give much thought to climate change, one of the main focuses of Biden’s Build Back Better plan. Enden continued:

You can contrast it to climate change, too. Combating climate change is part of Biden’s Build Back Better plan, which is the other bill Democrats are trying to pass through Congress. A mere 35 percent of voters say that’s an extremely important concern of theirs. Though there are other parts of the Build Back Better plan that poll quite well, the overall perception of the deal is one that won’t be particularly helpful to the economy. Only about 40 percent of Americans say the Build Back Better plan would help them or the nation’s economy.

At the end of the analysis though (and considering the willful leftist partisanship of CNN), Enten ultimately played off his criticism by padding his conclusion, saying discontent with the economy proves “politics are becoming a little more normal again.”

“Normally, the economy plays a predominant role in our politics. It’s just that over the last five years, amid the entirety of the Trump administration and the coronavirus pandemic, the economy seemed to take a back seat,” he wrote, not noting the economic success Trump achieved during his presidency before the pandemic. “After nine months of the Biden administration, though, what the American electorate is saying is a sign that our politics are becoming a little more normal again.”