On CNN This Morning, CNN senior political analyst Mark Preston warned that under Trump's proposed tariff increase on China, "when you go to Walmart, you're not going to get something for like $3.99. It's going to be $13.99."
That's a 250% price increase! Trump has proposed increasing existing tariffs on Chinese goods by only 10%. So Mark, where's the additional 240% coming from? CNN correspondent Jeff Zeleny agreed with Preston's absurd scaremongering: "Exactly."
Republican strategist Brad Todd pointed out that one of Biden's first actions upon entering office was to renew Trump's tariffs on aluminum. In response, former Biden spokeswoman Kendra Barkoff suggested that Biden had done that because, due to Covid, prices had started going up, and Biden had to stop the "hemorrhage." So Kendra: Biden kept tariffs in place to keep prices down?
Todd also noted that Biden drove up energy costs with his first executive orders, imposing a moratorium on offshore drilling. Preston, who is also CNN's Vice President of Political & Special Events Programming, defended Biden: "To be fair, and I'm not defending him, but, but to be fair, they are, they were trying to transition out of a fossil fuel economy into a new fuel economy."
Actually, Mark, you were defending Biden! His transition strategy was to raise prices on fossil fuels for all Americans. Nothing "fair" about that!
Todd replied: "But the public's not for that if it drives up the prices and their choices with vehicles. I mean, it's the thing that the far-left wanted that Joe Biden acquiesced to." You don't often hear the term "far left" on CNN, even if they often plant themselves there.
Here's the transcript.
CNN This Morning
11/26/24
6:06 am ETKASIE HUNT: Well I will say, Mark, and Jeff, you weigh in too because I'm sure that you encountered this on the campaign trail. I mean, there is a belief among, certainly, Americans who live in some of these hollowed-out towns in the rust belt of the U.S. that, you know what, protectionist trade policies would have helped make their lives better?
MARK PRESTON: 100%. I mean, look at just, just the mere fact that Donald Trump is making this threat right now, right? He is threatening to do it, and we're starting to see some reaction. Of course, we've seen some reaction from China. We've seen it from from the leaders of Canada in Mexico as well. To Brad [Todd's] point, I don't know if he will actually enact it, but I do think the American people, they'd like that. You know, they'd like that bellicose, you know, we're going to stick it to them, you know, and we're going to push back on China and Mexico and Canada.
That is what's appealing. What's not going to be appealing, though, is when you go to Walmart and you're not going to get something for like $3.99. It's going to be $13.99.
JEFF ZELENY: Exactly. I mean, it's one thing to talk about what would have happened under NAFTA. You talked about some of those hollowed-out towns. But now, I mean, that is just a new reality here.
. . .
HUNT: I mean, Brad's point is correct, that the Biden administration did keep some of these tariffs in place, and they're, it's not, it's not a tool that they have entirely rejected, right? I mean, how do Democrats look at this?
KENDRA BARKOFF: Well, I mean I think look, at the end of the day, the thing is that Americans voted for Trump because they wanted their flat-screen TVs lowered, right? They don't want to pay for goods and services at a really high rate.
And I think when Biden came in, we were in a very different place. Covid was still happening. There were prices that were starting to go up because of what was going on with Covid. And so I think they had to do things to stop what was going on around the world with the hemorrhage of, of, of this, of this virus that was going on. So I think you're in a very different place than you were when Biden came in, in, into office.
BRAD TODD: I just wish we'd been this, this hawkish on price policies and inflationary policies when Joe Biden was using his first executive orders to drive up the cost of energy and to pause moratorium, have a moratorium on drilling offshore. I mean, Joe Biden's policies from the very first day were inflationary.
PRESTON: Yeah. But to be fair, and I'm not defending him, but, but to be fair, they are, they were trying to transition out of a fossil fuel economy into a new fuel economy, right? You know, the idea --
TODD: But the public's not for that if it drives up the prices and their choices with vehicles. I mean, it's the thing that the far-left wanted that Joe Biden acquiesced to.
