CNBC Host Torches Biden-Harris Official Over False Claims About Trump Economy

CNBC “Squawk Box”co-host Joe Kernen was not having it when Biden administration Commerce Secretary and Harris campaign surrogate Gina Raimondo delivered a series of false statements Monday about the economy under former President Donald Trump.

Raimondo first zeroed in on Trump’s tariff policy, saying he now wants to place them on “all imports” if re-elected.

“I mean, that’s insane. That will raise prices on everything for everyone,” she said.

Trump has called for reciprocal trade, meaning if countries impose tariffs or other unfair trade practices on the U.S. products, they will meet the same policy for their goods coming into the U.S.

His campaign website highlights fair trade agreements his administration negotiated, including USMCA with Mexico and Canada.

During his first term, he imposed tariffs on various Chinese goods starting in 2018 (reaching as high as 25 percent) and inflation remained low, reaching 2.4 percent that year and falling to 1.8 percent in 2019 and 1.2 percent in 2020.

So China obviously absorbed the cost of the tariff and perhaps shifted some of its manufacturing to other countries with better trade terms with the U.S.

Despite his economic record, Raimondo asserted, “I don’t think it is at all an exaggeration to think that Trump as president would tip us into a recession” based on his tariff policy alone.

“Squawk Box”co-host Becky Quick responded, noting Trump uses the threat of high tariffs as a negotiation tool.

Raimondo replied that people must take Trump at his word.

“By the way, he was president. We know what that resulted in,” she added.

Kernen then interjected, “It seems like you kind of forgot that earlier.”

“The tariffs that he did put on were continued by the Biden administration. There was no recession. Real wages were actually up. Stock market did well. A lot of very positive things happened. Record low unemployment until the pandemic,” he recounted.

“So it’s just weird to act like it’s a complete wild card. What kind of president he would be when you had  … You’ve got a blueprint right there what kind of president he would be,” Kernen said.

🔥 MUST WATCH: @JoeSquawk torches Harris surrogate Gina Raimondo:

You forgot the Trump tariffs were continued by Harris-Biden, there was no recession, real wages were up, the stock market did well, record low unemployment pre-pandemic — it’s weird to act like he’s a wildcard. pic.twitter.com/KTjELc8Dfa

— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) September 30, 2024

He further argued that the same was true with Vice President Kamala Harris, i.e., the previous three and a half years give a good sense of the polices she would follow.

“Right. What have you seen? You’ve seen more manufacturing since any time since World War II,” Raimondo countered.

Well, to the extent that’s true, it is a trend that began during the Trump administration due to the pro-growth tax policies he and the Republican Congress implemented and Biden and Harris were not able to rescind. They tried but moderate then-Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona blocked their attempts.

Kernen noted that the Biden-Harris administration has also included open borders and a decline in real wages, due to 40-year high inflation on their watch.

“That’s not true,” Raimondo claimed regarding real wages declining.

“Real weekly wages have gone down. Average weekly wages are still down from when Biden came into office,” Kernan said.

CNN acknowledged that under Trump, “Before the pandemic, median household income saw the biggest spike in more than four decades — hitting a record high of $68,700 in 2019, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The poverty rate fell to 10.5 percent, the lowest since records started six decades earlier.”

In 2023 dollars (i.e. post the Biden inflation spike) that peak would have been $81,210, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

Under Biden-Harris household income dipped to $77,540 by 2022, before increasing to $80,610 in 2023. What had changed from the first two years of the administration? The GOP took over the House and at least put some restraint on the Democrats’ out of control deficit spending spree.

Raimondo then tried to change the subject saying, “When Biden came into office, we saw sky high unemployment.” She said it three times in a row for emphasis. Repeating it over-and-over doesn’t make it so.

The economy was, in fact, well on its way to recovery when Trump left office in January 2021. The unemployment rate had dropped from a pandemic high of 14.7 percent in April 2020 to 6.3 percent. It’s 4.2 percent as of August.

Finally, Raimondo asserted, “Deficits exploded under Trump” but are “heading in the right direction” now.

False.

The Congressional Budget Office projects the deficit will be approximately $2 trillion this year and continue to increase annually, if no policy changes are made.

The deficit was $1.7 trillion in FY 2023, up from $1.38 trillion in 2022, and at least down from the Biden administration high of $2.77 trillion in 2021.

It’s true the deficit spiked in 2020 during Trump’s final year in office to a record $3.13 trillion, but that was due to emergency pandemic spending, passed on an overwhelmingly bi-partisan basis.

Prior to that, Trump’s largest deficit was $984 billion in 2019.

Though the pandemic is long over, Biden, Harris and the Democrats managed to put in place several new spending programs that are coming home to roost.

Thankfully, Kernen didn’t allow Raimondo’s false claims to go unchallenged.

The truth is the economy under Donald Trump was very good.

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