Media

Stephanopoulos Grills Yellen On Biden’s Inflation Lie

[Screenshot/Twitter/This Week]

Brianna Lyman News and Commentary Writer
Font Size:

ABC’s George Stephanopoulos questioned Treasury Sec. Janet Yellen about global inflation on Sunday, just days after President Joe Biden falsely claimed inflation was higher elsewhere in the world.

Speaking on “This Week,” Stephanopoulos asked how Yellen can explain disparate inflation rates between the U.S. and other countries.

“You say that inflation is a global problem, and it certainly is, but how do you explain the fact that Europe’s core inflation last month was under 4% and the U.S. was at 6%?”

“So, energy prices spillover is really half of inflation, food and energy and the spillover is because energy is an important input into almost everything into the economy,” Yellen said. “It is true that we’ve had core inflation over and above that, that is too high and the [Federal Reserve] will take steps to bring it down. President Biden believes there are other things the administration can do to support what the Fed will do.”

“He’s had historic releases of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Even though gas prices are high, they would be higher without those releases,” she continued. (RELATED: The American People Are ‘Really, Really Down,’ Biden Admits In New Interview)

Core inflation, which excludes food and energy, jumped 6% since May 2021 while consumer prices have reached a four-decade high, with the Consumer Price Index for May climbing to 8.6% in the last year.

Biden recently tried to deflect blame for inflation, saying “if it’s my fault, why is it the case in every other major industrial country in the world that inflation is higher? You ask yourself that? I’m not being a wise guy.”

Fox News’ Peter Doocy questioned White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on the claim, noting the U.S. “has worse inflation than Germany, France, Japan, Canada, India, Italy, Saudi Arabia.”