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Jean-Pierre Disputes Polls Finding Americans Frustrated By Biden Economy

[Screenshot/Rumble/The View]

Nicole Silverio Media Reporter
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White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Tuesday disputed polls finding Americans frustrated by the current economy.

An ABC News/Washington Post poll found that 41% of Americans are worse off under President Joe Biden’s economy, and 16% reported to be better off. The poll surveyed 1,003 participants by landline and cellular telephone starting Jan. 27 through February 1 with a 3.5 margin of error.

The press secretary told “The View” co-host Sara Haines that polls are often not reflective of reality and thus the administration will “not pay too much attention” to the results.

“Polls go up, polls go down. We all know this,” Jean-Pierre said. “I know you all talk about this very often so we know that’s a reality. What we’re going to focus on are the data points that I just laid out, how we are going to continue to deliver for the American people. In 2020, during the primary, they said Vice President Biden at the time wasn’t going to become the nominee. In 2022, the polls said there’s gonna be a bloodbath, there’s gonna be a red wave…that didn’t happen.”

“So, again, we’re not going to pay too much attention to the polls, we are going to meet the American people where they are and continue to do what we can, give them a little bit of breathing room which is something that the president says every time he talks about the economy,” she continued.

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Several polls have found similar results, including an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll in October finding 46% of respondents defining their economic situation as “poor,” up from 37% from the last survey in March. However, 54% said their situation is “good.” Another poll in December found only about a quarter of participants believed the economy was headed in the right direction.

The press secretary said the America public feels dissatisfied with the economy because they recently lived through “taking” economic conditions during the pandemic. The Biden administration also witnessed record-high inflation and gas prices, which Americans have repeatedly expressed frustration with in polls. (RELATED: Jean-Pierre Repeats False Claim That Biden Policies Lowered Deficit) 

“Because it’s been a very hard couple of years,” Jean-Pierre said. “As I said, the president is going to speak to folks that are still struggling. When the president walked into this administration, the economy was tanking, COVID was taking over, it was ravaging our country and he took action to make sure that we got the economy back up and running. When you think about the economy, what the president has done is transform the way we think about it. We used to talk about trickle-down economy. He doesn’t say that, he doesn’t believe that. He believes in building an economy from the bottom-up, from the middle-out.”

“Wages are up, unemployment is at an historic low of more than 50 years, think about the more than 12,000 jobs that we’ve created, we’ve seen that manufacturing jobs are coming back, more than 800,000 jobs are being created in the manufacturing industry. Those things matter. They are really important,” she said. “But we understand that Americans are still feeling some of that struggle.”

The improvement of the economy has mostly stemmed from the nation’s recovery from the pandemic rather than the White House’s efforts. The White House released a “fact sheet” Monday taking a victory lap over the 12.999 million manufacturing jobs recorded in January 2023.

Prior to the pandemic, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data showed 12.785 million manufacturing jobs, which dropped to 11.414 million at the height of the pandemic in April of 2020, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The White House also took credit for lowering the national deficit by $1.7 trillion, though that also is mostly related to the end of the federal government handing out COVID stimulus checks.