CNBC senior analyst and commentator Ron Insana travelled over to MSNBC’s Hallie Jackson Reports on Tuesday to discuss the day’s inflation figures, which are the worst in over 40 years, and to affirm the White House’s talking points that Vladimir Putin is largely to blame.
Originally, Jackson seemed as if she did not necessarily buy the White House’s spin as she asked Insana to, “help us to put this inflation spike, if you will, into context and give us a bit of the reality check on this attempt by the White House to point the finger overseas at Vladimir Putin.”
Insana began by portraying President Biden as a simple bystander: “Well, I think you know, I think, anybody who would be in office right now in the White House would have a legitimate case to make that the pandemic-related supply disruptions, the war-related supply disruptions are having an inordinate impact on the supplies of goods around the world, which is food, energy, computer chips, a whole host of products that's driving up this inflation rate.”
To make his claim seem more credible, he reminded viewers that:
...if you go back to, you know, 2020, February of 2020, none of this was in place. We had inflation that was below 2%, we had an unemployment rate about where it is today, just about 3.5%. But you know, Russia's the third largest energy producer in the world. It's the biggest exporter. We have Ukraine, last year shipped 43 million tons of grains. They've only shipped 1 million tons since July of last year with expectations that were there not a war, they would have shipped 65 million tons this year, so it's hard to suggest that the White House is finger pointing when these things are very real. They're — they’re not made up.
Insana conveniently forgot to mention that inflation was a problem for several months before Putin launched his war. He also omitted mention of Biden’s massive spending initiatives. “This is a series of disruptions that no one had planned for and demand has rebounded nicely and in fact, back to pre-pandemic levels for a lot of goods and services, the supply has not come back online,” he claimed.
With analysts like these who needs a press secretary?
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Here is a transcript of the April 12 show:
MSNBC Hallie Jackson Reports
4/12/2022
3:55 PM ET
HALLIE JACKSON: Ron, let me go to you, as we look and wait for the president to make these comments and as Josh has laid, sort of, out the strategy, politically, and from a policy perspective behind this, help us to put this inflation spike, if you will, into context and give us a bit of the reality check on this attempt by the White House to point the finger overseas at Vladimir Putin.
RON INSANA: Well, I think you know, I think, anybody who would be in office right now in the White House would have a legitimate case to make that the pandemic-related supply disruptions, the war-related supply disruptions are having an inordinate impact on the supplies of goods around the world, which is food, energy, computer chips, a whole host of products that's driving up this inflation rate. Hallie, if you go back to, you know, 2020, February of 2020, none of this was in place. We had inflation that was below 2%, we had an unemployment rate about where it is today, just about 3.5%. But you know, Russia's the third largest energy producer in the world. It's the biggest exporter. We have Ukraine, last year shipped 43 million tons of grains. They've only shipped 1 million tons since July of last year with expectations that were there not a war, they would have shipped 65 million tons this year, so it's hard to suggest that the White House is finger pointing when these things are very real. They're—they’re-- not made up. This is a series of disruptions that no one had planned for and demand has rebounded nicely and in fact, back to pre-pandemic levels for a lot of goods and services, the supply has not come back online.
