Several of “The View” co-hosts covered for President Joe Biden and his administration’s handling of inflation Thursday after the Consumer Price Index (CPI) indicated another surge.
Liberal and conservative media figures, as well as several lawmakers, have been critical of the Biden administration’s response to inflation rising 9.1% in June, a 40-year high. The co-hosts on the ABC daytime talk show claimed inflation is a global phenomenon and the administration has taken action to combat the soaring prices.
“What do you want him to do that he’s not doing?” co-host Whoopi Goldberg said. “I don’t know very many folks who could juggle this many balls in the air at the same time. He’s gotten hit with COVID, then COVID-19, then COVID-21 and COVID’s cousin. And there’s the wars, then there’s the inflation going on, which is happening all over the world. It’s not just us. So I would like to know, does anybody have a solution to stuff that can be done?”
Guest co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin was critical of the Biden administration’s response, saying they need to “do more.” Goldberg pressed her on specifically what actions he needs to take to tackle the issue.
Co-host Sunny Hostin said the answer is to “educate the American people,” to inform people that inflation is occurring globally, with over 60% of countries having high rates due to the global pandemic, the war in Ukraine, climate change and China’s decreased production. (RELATED: ‘You Don’t Use Them’: Jake Tapper Hits White House Economic Adviser On Biden’s Response To Inflation)
“There’s all these factors that are leading to the fact that we have this inflation and it’s not Joe Biden,” Hostin said.
Guest co-host Chelsea Clinton added that the Biden administration deeply cares for the American people and blamed Congress for the lack of improvements. She said the administration attempted to lower prescription drug costs, lower taxes, and tapped the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to combat inflation.
“The Biden administration deserves credit for what they have been doing, so we can think they should be doing more in a different set of things, but we shouldn’t sit here and pretend they haven’t cared or they haven’t taken any action because they do care and they have taken action,” Clinton said.
Another guest co-host, JuJu Chang, pointed to Biden’s trip to Saudi Arabia with the intent of increasing oil production. She emphasized the significance of finding solutions due to ordinary American citizens struggling to afford basic necessities. Farah Griffin criticized the president for relying on foreign oil from nations that have major human rights violations rather than producing more oil domestically.
“When we’re in a crisis, and people can’t afford gas, we need to be doing domestic production, not relying on human rights abuses,” Farah Griffin said.
Goldberg and Hostin argued that oil companies have the responsibility to produce more oil and lower costs.
“Or we can rely on the people who are in charge of domestic production like all the oil companies,” Goldberg said. “They could release some of that too. Don’t let people B.S. you about what’s going on here. You have the right when you go in to vote for the people who actually care what’s happening with you.”
“Lower the prices for Americans,” Hostin said in reference to oil companies. “Lower those prices, they’re making so much more money on oil here in the United States.”
Millions of oil barrels released from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve by the Biden administration were sold to foreign nations, notably China. The administration ordered an 180-million-barrel release in March vowing to ease oil and gas costs for Americans. The president also canceled the construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline that intended to carry Canadian oil to U.S. refineries.
The administration additionally canceled the issue of new federal leases to oil and gas companies.
