Tough Tapper. Petty Duffy. | Winners & Losers in Today’s Green Room

CNN’s Jake Tapper pressed White House chief of staff Ron Klain on a subject of increasing criticism directed at President Joe Biden’s administration; a touchy, complicated subject.

Tapper confronted Klain with a Senator Joe Manchin tweet that said: “By all accounts, the threat posed by record inflation to the American people is not ‘transitory’ and is instead getting worse. From the grocery store to the gas pump, Americans know the inflation tax is real and DC can no longer ignore the economic pain Americans feel every day.”

Tapper asked if indeed Build Back Better is dead due to inflation, and Klain said “quite the opposite” before attempting to make Manchin’s criticism seem like support.

Klain also argued that leading economists agree BBB will ease “long term” inflationary pressure, so Tapper pointed out that former Clinton treasury secretary Larry Summers believes Biden’s “big agenda” is the reason for the inflation spike. He confronted Klain with consumer price index data showing a sharp increase just in the last three weeks, asking if it proves Summers right. And he showed Klain a poll with 42% saying middle-class families “have not benefited at all” from Biden’s policies.

Tough interview, but not combat. More importantly, it was revealing watching Klain try to walk the line with Summers and Manchin. The administration has not been hugely successful in managing intra-party criticism. Klain’s dance here, thanks to Tapper’s excellent interview, was another look at that under-construction project.

Former Congressman and Fox News contributor Sean Duffy went off on Vice President Kamala Harris over what he claimed was an awkward attempt at a French accent during a diplomatic visit to a Parisian lab.

The ugly moment came at the end of the former Real World cast member’s appearance on Fox & Friends Thursday morning, during which co-host Steve Doocy asked him to opine on a clip of Harris referring to “The Plan” with an emphasis that sounded French to them.

“Sean, before you go, you mentioned Kamala Harris. What do you think the fact that it sounded like she had a French accent yesterday?” Doocy asked.

“She is out of control,” Duffy replied with relish. “This was supposed to be the rehabilitation tour, and she goes in and talks about ‘the plan’ with an accent. Does she not know how stupid she looks? Right? And that she’s not going to get ruthlessly mocked for being such an idiot? We all know don’t pretend to have an accent when you don’t.”

After Duffy gleefully attacked Harris, Fox & Friends aired the clip of her alleged accent, after which they all joined in to ridicule the VP. (Side note – why do they hate America?)

So Duffy feels okay calling the sitting U.S. vice president an “idiot” because she said two words in a different and perhaps awkward way?

This would be like calling a cable news pundit an…[cont]

Read the rest of Colby Hall’s dissection of Duffy’s French dejection here.