EXCERPT:
PELLEY: “Mr. President, as you know, last Tuesday the annual inflation rate came in at 8.3%. The stock market nosedived. People are shocked by their grocery bills. What can you do better and faster?”
BIDEN: “Well, first of all, let’s put this in perspective. Inflation rate month to month was just— just an inch, hardly at all.”
PELLEY: “You’re not arguing that 8.3% is good news.”
BIDEN: “No, I’m not saying it is good news. But it was 8.2% or— 8.2% before. I mean, it’s not— you’re ac— we act— make it sound like all of a sudden, ‘My god, it went to 8.2%.’ It’s been—”
PELLEY: “It’s the highest inflation rate, Mr. President, in 40 years.”
BIDEN: “I got that. But guess what we are. We’re in a position where, for the last several months, it hasn’t spiked. It has just barely— it’s been basically even. And in the meantime, we created all these jobs and— and prices— have— have gone up, but they’ve come down for energy. The fact is that we’ve created 10 million new jobs. We’re in— since we came to office. We’re in a situation where the— the unemployment rate is about 3.7%. one of the lowest in history. We’re in a situation where manufacturing is coming back to the United States in a big way. And look down the road, we have mas— massive investments being made in computer chips and— and employment. So, I— look, this is a process. This is a process.”