Joe Kernen, CNBC’s Joe Kernen, slammed White House economist Jared Bernstein for failing to explain why Biden’s economic message isn’t resonating among American voters on Monday.
Andrew Sorkin, the co-host, noted that Donald Trump’s poll ratings have increased despite the recent indictment. He asked Bernstein to explain, “how are Americans viewing and thinking of this economy under President Trump? And why do you think, if you think the numbers are positive, that the message isn’t getting through or understood or resonating?”
Bernstein said the numbers were objectively “strong”, before Sorkin clarified that he didn’t disagree with the numbers, but asked why they weren’t resonating well with the public. Bernstein stated, “I believe we need to dig deeper, we must ask people about the specifics of what this administration does.” He argued that increased investment, infrastructure repairs and tax credits would be sufficient to convince voters.
Jared, it’s all about inflation. You already know this. You know this. People aren’t dumb, they know how they feel about economics. Kernen said, “His economic performance has an approval rating of 35% at the moment.”
“The 13,000,000 jobs you call a record is people returning to work after being laid off by COVID. We’ve finally gotten back to where it was before the crisis started, and we’re barely above that. So, you know, mention all of these things so that people aren’t totally clueless as to what’s really going on Jared. You can’t use one-offs as a reason why no one has gotten a pay raise. Real wages are down. The real wages have been down for 24 months straight because of inflation.
Bernstein replied, “I guess we have a disagreement on the facts. I’ll post something to my Twitter account @econjared46,” before Kernen cut him off, “When did real wages begin rising?”
In May, real wages increased –
“In May! “In May!
Bernstein tries to interject “No, No, No, Hold on Joe”
Kernen’s response was “Twenty four straight months, they weren’t!”
“In May, it was the very first time that we saw a real wage increase of 0.2% over the previous year. That’s May. Bernstein: “I think you are fundamentally incorrect about what you say. I want to be more specific. “If inflation was the only concern, it would be 9% or 4%, at the time of the last reading. That’s a 5% drop. It’s progress, but there’s more to do.” Bernstein said. People also care about their job security, employment and the quality of their work. These numbers are impressive. People care about many things, including reversing decades-long disinvestment. They care about getting rid noncompete clauses and junk feeds. They care about doing everything we can to reduce energy costs. “I think you’re mistaken about that, Joe.”
Kernen: “I tried to explain why his approval rating is 35%.”
“Ask about specifics!” Bernstein told the audience, “You have a microphone. Ask people about specifics. See what they say. Then get me here to discuss it with you.”
