‘Very dangerous ground’: CNN’s John King says Biden’s rosy economic comments risk ‘pissing off’ voters

CNN’s John King said on Wednesday that President Joe Biden’s optimistic outlook on the economy under his presidency may anger voters.

Job growth may decelerate in the second half of 2024 as low growth and elevated inflation persist, according to a Monday report by research group The Conference Board. However, Biden in a CNN interview Wednesday asserted the economy is thriving under his administration, with King on “The Lead With Jake Tapper” reacting by suggesting Americans who are struggling may be infuriated by the president’s remarks.

WATCH:

“He’s right on the numbers about the economic turnaround, but he is on very dangerous ground, Jake,” King told host Jake Tapper. “I would say he risks offending, forgive my language, I would say he risks pissing off some of the voters I’ve talked to in my travels over the last six or seven months because they don’t feel it.”

“And so when he said at the top of that, ‘we have turned it around.’ And he said in the middle of that, ‘the polls are wrong.’ Trust me, from my travels, we have a voter group in Milwaukee, just north of where the president was today,” King added. “And when we visited them there used to be a lot of factories in their neighborhood. Those factories are gone. They’re dealing with Covid, they’re dealing with inflation. They talk a lot about the cost of living and the cost of groceries.”

The economy continues to be the top issue for 30% of voters heading into the 2024 presidential election, according to a March poll by Gallup. Prices rose at a rate of 3.5% year-over-year in March, much worse than the Federal Reserve’s target range of 2%, and have not fallen below 3% since their peak of 9% in June 2022.

“The statistics back up the president’s argument that the economy is much better and is growing and is strong, the strongest in the world,” King said. “He is correct, however, voters don’t feel that way, and voters don’t like being told they’re wrong.”

The American economy grew at a rate of just 1.6% in the first quarter of 2024, according to gross domestic product (GDP) statistics published by the Bureau of Economic Analysis in April. Economists had anticipated that GDP would grow by 2.2%.

Gains in government employment have fueled job growth numbers as these jobs have averaged 55,000 per month over the past year. April marked the sixth consecutive month where the number of individuals employed by the government has reached a new record, totaling 23,271,000.

“The inflation thing is just wild,” a Wisconsin voter named Tom Oberhaus, who is a farmer, told CNN. “And we’re told by the government that, oh, 7% or 8% inflation or whatnot. We’re feeling more like it’s 25% inflation. You get your paycheck and it looks good. But then when you pay the bills off, it’s like, wow, it‘s all gone already.”

The U.S. national debt soared above $34 trillion for the first time at the beginning of 2024 and currently is nearly $34.6 trillion, according to the Treasury Department. The national debt has risen by around $6.8 trillion since Biden took office.

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