<mediadc-video-embed data-state="{"cms.site.owner":{"_ref":"00000161-3486-d333-a9e9-76c6fbf30000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b93390000"},"cms.content.publishDate":1655496153941,"cms.content.publishUser":{"_ref":"0000016e-3da0-d10d-abef-3df3e9dc0001","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"cms.content.updateDate":1655496153941,"cms.content.updateUser":{"_ref":"0000016e-3da0-d10d-abef-3df3e9dc0001","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"rawHtml":"
var _bp = _bp||[]; _bp.push({ "div": "Brid_55400009", "obj": {"id":"27789","width":"16","height":"9","video":"1034158"} }); ","_id":"00000181-7342-db25-adf7-7b5b8db80000","_type":"2f5a8339-a89a-3738-9cd2-3ddf0c8da574"}”>Video EmbedPresident Joe Biden defended his administration’s handling of the economy, the war in Ukraine, and a souring national mood during a rare interview Thursday in the Oval Office, granting insight into his thinking as voters worry about his handling of kitchen table issues.
During a half-hour sit-down with the Associated Press, Biden discussed rising gas prices, inflation, and other pressing challenges facing the country ahead of the midterm elections. The president has conducted few one-on-one interviews since taking office, a departure from his two predecessors.
GAS PRICES SOURING THE NATIONAL MOOD
Biden blamed prices at the pump for the national mood, with the cost of gasoline averaging $5 per gallon as the country heads into the summer driving season. Meanwhile, consumer sentiment is trending downward.
People were “much more optimistic” before fuel costs began rising, Biden told the Associated Press. “They had a very different view. … They were much more optimistic.”
To make people feel better, Biden said he needed to “be confident.”
Polls have shown growing numbers of people worried about budgeting for their households as inflation takes hold and prices for basic goods trend upward.
The public assesses the state of the economy by these costs, Biden explained.
“If you want a direct barometer of what people are going to talk about at the kitchen table and the dining room table and whether things are going well, it’s the cost of food and what’s the cost of gasoline at the pump,” he said.
INFLATION
Biden pushed back on the idea that his administration’s spending had fueled record inflation, stating that “most economists do not think” his $1.9 trillion stimulus bill had even a “marginal, minor impact on inflation.” In May, the consumer price index increased by 8.6% year over year, reaching a new four-decade high.
Biden acknowledged last year that inflation surged in the wake of his $1.9 trillion coronavirus spending bill because “people have more money now” as demand exceeded the supply of goods.
“It changes people’s lives. But what happens if there’s nothing to buy and you’ve got more money to compete for getting [goods]? It creates a real problem,” Biden said during remarks in Baltimore. He said at the time that he believed inflation would slow down.
Biden argued against this in the interview, however. “The idea that it caused inflation is bizarre,” he said.
Still, prices have continued to rise, prompting the White House to confront the challenge, in part through an anti-inflation messaging push. The crisis is Biden’s “top economic priority,” the president has repeated in op-eds and speeches.
DEFENDING UKRAINE FROM RUSSIA
Biden said he is “convinced” that if Russian President Vladimir Putin had taken Ukraine, NATO and European countries would have been at risk of attack.
“If we let Russia roll and Putin roll, he wouldn’t stop,” the president said. “Watch what would happen in Poland … and the Czech Republic and all the members of NATO.”
The Biden administration announced an additional $1.2 billion in aid to Ukraine, in addition to $40 billion in aid approved last month by Congress, dwarfing European commitments. Lawmakers and analysts have urged Biden to urge Europe to increase its spending and to appoint an inspector general to provide oversight of the aid.
During the interview, Biden joked that Putin is confronting a disappointing outcome as the trans-Atlantic alliance speeds up the membership process for Finland, a historically neutral country that shares an 800-mile border with Russia.
Putin “wanted the sort of the Finland-ization of NATO. He got the NATO-ization of Finland, instead,” Biden quipped.
The president acknowledged that the efforts to punish Russia through sanctions on the country’s fuel exports had led to higher gasoline prices. But despite the challenge for Democrats and the White House, he said the decision was “not about” his own political survival.
“It’s about what’s best for the country,” Biden argued.
STILL THINKS HE CAN GET SOMETHING DONE
Biden said he hopes to secure the votes necessary to pass legislation to lower prescription drug prices, reform the tax code, boost semiconductor manufacturing, and bring down energy costs. He argued that lowering household costs would help balance the high price of other necessities, such as gas.
“Gasoline may be up to $5 a gallon, but somebody who has a child with [Type 2] diabetes is paying up to a thousand bucks a month for the insulin,” Biden said. “We can reduce it to 35 bucks a month and get it done. We have the votes to do it. We’re going to get that done.”
The president was also confident that a compromise gun reform bill would land on his desk. “We’re going to get gun safety,” Biden said. “We’re not going to get what I wanted.”
MIDTERM ELECTIONS
If the Supreme Court votes to overturn Roe v. Wade, Biden argued that it would hurt Republicans in the midterm elections.
“Let’s look at what our Republican friends are going to have to face with the Supreme Court decision on Roe,” the president said, echoing a prediction last week that a “minirevolution” could be in store if the draft opinion holds.
Biden told the Associated Press that voters’ “overall concerns” would be on the ballot come November, including on abortion. “Even people who are not pro-choice are going to find it really, really off the wall when a woman goes across a state line and she gets arrested,” Biden said.
