Biden Blaming Inflation on Putin
Is as Politically Dumb
as It Is Dishonest
President Biden, seeking to explain Friday’s disastrous inflation report, once again attempted to blame it on Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. “We’ve never seen anything like Putin’s tax on both food and gas,” he said in remarks at the Port of Los Angeles.
As Dominic has detailed before, it is incredibly dishonest to blame rising inflation on Putin. Gas prices had already been rising for over a year before Putin invaded Ukraine. Also, the new report shows broad-based inflation. Even if removing food and energy entirely from the equation, inflation in May was still up 6 percent over last year.
But even if this talking point weren’t completely dishonest, it would still be politically dumb. The reason is that blaming Putin will not in any way absolve Biden of responsibility in the eyes of voters.
One of Biden’s pitches to voters during the campaign was that he would not be pushed around by Putin as Donald Trump. It does not particularly help Biden to send the message to Americans who are upset about skyrocketing gas and grocery prices that he is completely helpless to do anything because Putin orchestrated a massive invasion of a neighboring country on his watch. It just makes him look pathetic and weak.
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