Biden goes out swinging in final interview, says ‘red states really screwed up’ their economies

In one of his final interviews as president, Joe Biden had the audacity to insist that inflation is down and that “red states” have been screwing up their economies.

“Red states really screwed up in terms of the way they handled their economy and the way they handled manufacturing and the way they handled access to supply chains,” he said during a taped interview this week with MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell.

In reality, red states recovered much more quickly during COVID than their blue counterparts.

In early 2024, ABC News reported that “[a]n examination of key economic measures — including job and income growth — found an overwhelming majority of red states among 18 top performers.”

Here’s the kicker, according to ABC: “The disparity between red and blue states has little to do with anything Biden has done, experts interviewed by ABC News said.”

During his MSNBC interview, Biden also defended his otherwise poor handling of inflation, which economists like Larry Summers have attributed to his unnecessary stimulus spending.

“The only way to deal with inflation is to create unemployment and another recession,” he said. “But guess what? I was absolutely convinced. Give the American people half a shot. They’ll step up and get the job done if you give them the opportunity.”

“Look what they did. They stepped up in every major endeavor. I never believed we couldn’t have a soft landing. We had a soft landing. Inflation is down almost to 2%, a lot going on,” he added.

Meanwhile in reality once more, the Labor Department announced on Wednesday that inflation rose by 2.9 percent in December, the highest rate seen since July of last.

Also, a Fox News poll published Thursday found that a 52 percent majority of voters believe the Biden administration worsened the economy. The poll further found that 89 percent of all voters still remain very concerned about inflation.

Speaking of inflation, Biden also defended his decision to hand out stimulus money, stating that his only regret was not putting his name on the stimulus checks like former President Donald Trump had done with his stimulus checks.

“The mistake we made was, I think I made, was not getting our allies to acknowledge that the Democrats did this,” he said of the stimulus checks. “I’m not a very good huckster. I mean, and that — it wasn’t a stupid thing for [Trump] to do. It helped him a lot. And it undermined our ability to convince people that we were the ones that were getting this to them.”

“Ironically, I almost spent too much time on the policy and not enough time on the politics, because, I mean, you have some senators in Congress, Democratic senators in Congress saying, ‘Well, you know, Joe Biden did this.’ Let people know who was responsible for this happening. But it just seems, I know it sounds so stupid to say it, almost bad taste.”

During the MSNBC interview, Biden also doubled down on his his “oligarchy” rhetoric from his final Oval Office speech.

“Look, if the decision is made that the multibillionaires, the super, super wealthy, the wealthiest people in the world, begin to control all the apparatuses, from the media to the economy, then who do I get to fight back for me?” he said.

“I think everybody deserves just a shot, not a guarantee, just a shot. How the hell can you make it in society today if you don’t have access to an education, you don’t have access to adequate health care, you don’t have access to the opportunity to have a job that you can handle where you can make ends meet?” he added.

Biden has faced criticism for his “oligarchy” attack on Elon Musk and others given as it was him, the outgoing president, who tried to force social media companies to silence dissenting thoughts.

Plus, critics say, Biden amassed his wealth by “selling [his] influence to Foreign Oligarchs across the globe.”

Vivek Saxena

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