Morning Joe Calls ‘Devastating’ May Inflation Bad News That ‘Republicans Want to Hear’

MSNBC’s Morning Joe reacted to the May inflation number, with one panelist saying it is “what Republicans wanted.”

Inflation rose to a record-high 8.6 percent in May, compared to a year ago. That’s the highest since 1981 — 40 years.

Morning Joe co-host Willie Geist called it “bad news.”

“Let’s go through the numbers. They are devastating,” he told MSNBC anchor and senior business analyst Stephanie Ruhle.

“They’re not good,” said Ruhle.

“Groceries and rent and gas and all the way down the line. In some of these categories the biggest inflation we’ve ever seen not just in the last 40 years.”

Ruhle did not hold back, though she opined that it’s a cause for celebration among Republicans as a distraction to Thursday’s primetime hearing by the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack at the U.S. Capitol.

It’s not good and there’s nowhere to hide. I can’t say to you, ‘Oh but look over here.’ But remember, what is the leading driver here? It’s gas prices. And we’re going into the summer when we drive more than ever. Now I can say to you, remember, this is happening around the world. Look at England, look at Brazil, look at Mexico. They’re all facing it but that’s not going to make people feel better.

Politically a big problem here is this is what Republicans want to hear and I wouldn’t equate the two them but Republicans know last night’s hearing was bad for them and they’re going to go, ‘Don’t look at that, look at this.’ But we need to remind our audience that Republicans, they’re not offering any solutions. They’re saying ‘Inflation is terrible, blame the White House.’ They’re not offering you anything better. And the biggest drivers, which are gas prices caused by the war, and supply chain issues, caused by the shutdown in China. None of those things are going to go away in the short term and certainly not after the midterms. We have got to buckle up. This is going to be a problem for a while.

Watch above, via MSNBC.

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