Tuesday evening, CNN senior data reporter Harry Enten had a pretty pointed description of how Americans feel about President Joe Biden‘s job performance in the Oval Office as well as the state of the economy — in a word, it’s “awful.”
CNN’s Anderson Cooper interviewed Enten and asked him to explain recent data from the University of Michigan that measured consumer sentiment.
“I mean, it’s awful and how people feel about it is even worse,” Enten responded. “You know you look at the consumer sentiment right now, and what do you see? This is the worst consumer sentiment ever measured by the University of Michigan going all the way back since 1952.”
“Wow,” Anderson replied.
“Even if you double my age, that doesn’t get you back to 1952. And while, I’m young I’m not that young, right?” Enten quipped.
The CNN journalist also observed that inflation had been a significant obstacle to previous presidents’ agendas.
“I don’t have to remind you that inflation got Jimmy Carter,” Enten continued. “It killed that presidency.”
“And in terms of why are consumers feeling this bad?” the senior analyst continued. “Well, it’s pretty clear why they’re feeling this bad and that is because the Consumer Price Index is the worst it’s ever been in a midterm cycle since ’74; It’s the worst it’s been in any presidential cycle or midterm cycle since 1980. So, it’s not much of a surprise. You can see it, it’s literally off the charts on the table on your screen.”
On Friday, The Daily Wire reported that the “Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 8.6% between May 2021 and May 2022, meaning that inflation surpassed record highs.”
Anderson then asked Enten, “And how does President Biden’s performance rate?”
“Awful, I mean,” Enten began to say.
“I knew that was the answer,” Anderson interjected with a laugh.
“But the answer is awful, I mean you know, I’ll compare it to Carter at this point in his presidency,” Enten continued. “Right? Look at the disapproval rating Joe Biden has in inflation right now. It’s over 70%. Carter — Carter was not even there at this point in mid-1978. When you’re doing worse than Jimmy Carter is doing in the minds of Americans on inflation, you know that they’re holding you responsible for the conditions that are currently on the ground that are hurting Americans in their pocketbooks.”
The segment can be seen here:
CNN's Harry Enten on Biden's "awful" approval rating on inflation: Biden is "doing WORSE than Jimmy Carter" pic.twitter.com/2vbBx4tLvE
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) June 15, 2022
Story cited here.
