Biden Economic Adviser Lashes Out at Fox Anchor for Grilling Him on High Prices: ‘You Just Pretend I Didn’t’ Explain Our Plan
Fox News’ Sandra Smith held a long and fiery exchange with White House American Rescue Plan coordinator Gene Sperling as she questioned him on President Joe Biden’s struggling economic performance.
Sperling spoke to Smith and John Roberts on Tuesday for America Reports, where he was questioned on Biden’s new inflation plan, his attempts to blame inflation on Russia and Covid, and whether the White House underestimated how bad inflation would get. Sperling defended the administration on all of these fronts while facing numerous inquiries about colleagues like former Obama White House economic adviser Larry Summers, who previously warned inflation could become problematic.
Sperling rejected that assessment by saying “I think that the president has been very much where the larger number of experts in the country and around the world have been [on inflation], and I think the idea he hasn’t taken steps is not true.” Smith jumped into the fray at that point to ask “if [Biden] has been obsessed with bringing gas prices down, why are we at a new record high today?”
“You know the answer to that. You know that this is global,” Sperling retorted, to which, Smith asked “so there’s nothing we can do about it?”
“I have explicitly said the opposite,” he answered. “You put in a strong Federal Reserve and respect their independence and their need to take tough measures to bring down inflation.”
“But this is serious stuff!” Smith exclaimed while asking Sperling for a forecast on gas prices by the end of the year.
Sperling accused Smith of “trying to put me in the position of being a forecaster,” and the Fox News anchor responded to his grumbling with the point that “economists forecast.”
“It’s a simple question,” she went on. “The president has people advising him. You are a senior adviser to the president, and we are just simply asking what can you tell the American people where prices will be a few months from now? What is your ability to control those prices and bring them down?”
Smith and Roberts continued to interrogate Sperling over Biden’s ability to bring down prices, plus his upcoming meeting with Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. It was Smith’s continued questioning on Biden’s economic plan, however, that eventually led to Sperling snapping at her.
Here’s the deal: I just go through the plan, and you just pretend I didn’t say it, you just ignore it. You just ask the same questions. It’s your show if that’s what you wanna do, but when I’m going through this and you just interrupt I don’t see how it’s helping your viewers.
“We gave you quite a bit of time to explain,” Smith said. Sperling proceeded to bring up Senator Rick Scott’s (R-FL) “Rescue America” plan, but even though Smith noted that Scott’s plan lacks support among his fellow Republicans, Sperling made the point “You don’t have a plan to discuss on the Republican side.”
“Democrats are in leadership!” Smith responded. “And you want the plan to come from Republicans?”
“I’m here laying out a plan that the president just laid out in The Wall Street Journal, and you want to keep asking the same question,” Sperling continued to groan.
The interview remained tense all the way to the end, and after Sperling’s sign-off, Smith remarked “We appreciate the White House joining us. We ask every day and John, as you know, that has not been offered to us very frequently at all. But we welcome them coming on and we give them the time to explain what the plan is because people want to know.”
Watch above, via Fox News.
