‘Do I Take Any Blame For Inflation? No!’ Biden Snaps Back At Reporter After Victory Lap On ‘Strikingly Good’ Jobs News

After a brief victory dance over a blockbuster jobs report, President Joe Biden answered abruptly when a reporter asked him “do you take any blame for inflation?”

Friday morning saw the release of a new jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics that showed 517,000 jobs added, nearly tripling expectations and sending the business press into a stunned frenzy.

The report was so good, the White House added a speech to the president’s schedule. At around 10:30 am ET, Biden took to the podium in the South Court auditorium to extoll the news:

I wanted to say a few words about, oh, I think it’s strikingly good news that we just received. Next week, I’ll be reporting on the State of the Union. But today, today, I’m happy to report that the State of the Union and the state of our economy is strong.

We learned this morning that the economy’s created 517,000 jobs just last month. More than half a million jobs in just the month of January. And in addition, we also learned that we — half a million more jobs created last year than we thought. So the January report is updated. I’m assuming the December report is updated. Add that all up.

It means we created 12 million, 12 million jobs since I took office. That means we have created more jobs in two years than any presidential term at any time, in two years. That’s the strongest two years of job growth in history by a long shot.

After about five minutes of remarks, the president said he would be willing to answer questions on the economy only — then bristled when a reporter shouted one about inflation:

REPORTER: Do you take any blame for inflation, Mr. President?

PRESIDENT BIDEN: Do I take any blame for inflation? No!

REPORTER: Why not?

PRESIDENT BIDEN: Because it was already there when I got here, man. Remember what the economy was like when I got here? Jobs were hemorrhaging. Inflation was rising. We weren’t manufacturing a damn thing here. We were in real economic difficulty. That’s why I don’t.

Watch above via pool.