Karine Jean-Pierre Tells MSNBC Biden Administration Isn’t ‘Preparing for a Recession’

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told MSNBC on Thursday that the Biden administration isn’t “preparing for a recession.”

“So, Karine, we just talked about how the Federal Reserve is raising interest rates again to try to cool off inflation. But that has sparked real fears that the nation could be teetering on the edge of a recession. How will the White House prepare for that?” Way Too Early anchor Jonathan Lemire asked Jean-Pierre a day after The Fed announced a 0.75 percent hike in interest rates.

Jean-Pierre rejected the premise of Lemire’s question:

So I want to be clear, there is — we are not — there are no meetings or anything happening like that in preparing for a recession because — and I’ll say this very clearly, and we have said this, our economic team has said this, [Treasury] Secretary [Janet] Yellen has said this, you heard this from the president. Look, what we’re seeing right now is a strong labor market.

And the reason we’re seeing the strong labor market is because of the bold actions that this president has taken when you look at the economic — his economic policies. Look, we are seeing a unemployment rate at 3.5 percent, something that we haven’t seen in 50 years. Again, a strong labor market, all of the things that I just laid out, the data points that I just laid out, does not lead to a recession, does not define a recession or even define a pre-recession.

Look, what we’re seeing currently is a transition. You’ve heard us talk about this, Jonathan. You’ve been in the briefing room with me. You’ve heard it from [National Economic Council Director] Brian Deese, you’ve heard it from me, and from other saying that we are heading into a transition from a stable and steady growth without, without losing any of the gains that we have made. And that’s because of the economic policy.

So, we want American people, the president want the American people to know that he is doing everything that he can to make sure that we keep those gains. But also, our number one priority is to lower those costs for the American people. That’s what you have seen the president do with gas prices, taking those bold actions. That’s why we passed the Inflation Reduction Act. And we’re going to continue to see the president work on that every day.

Watch above via MSNBC.