During a Wednesday interview with Kentucky GOP Rep. James Comer on MSNBC, White House correspondents Kristen Welker and Peter Alexander sounded more like White House press secretaries as they battled Comer on everything from COVID messaging to inflation to President Biden’s economic record.
On COVID restrictions being lifted, Welker referenced a clip of Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds’s State of the Union response and wondered why Republicans are complaining: “She argued specifically and you heard her there in the clip we just played saying that schools should have reopened sooner, restrictions should have been lifted faster. Do you worry that, that type of messaging could backfire at this point given the fact that basically everything is opening up now?”
Comer promptly shut down Welker’s spin: “Well, I think the Republicans have been right all along on that. You look at the difference between the red states and the blue states and how they handled COVID with the restrictions and the mandates.” He also cited cities that still have their school mask mandates as evidence that Welker’s talking points were not completely true.
Alexander then shifted to talking about inflation and wondered why won’t Republicans just go along with the Democratic president’s agenda:
If we can, let me ask you about inflation. You witnessed prices going up across the board on products and on gas right now. The president said it's his number one priority, his top priority. Why not, why shouldn't Republicans get on board with some of the agenda items that he is proposing that could help lower costs for Americans right now?
Once again, Comer shut down the spin: “Honestly all we heard last night from his proposal to combat inflation was more government spending. And Republicans believe that that's what's created inflation, excessive government spending.” He continued: “The government's been spending too much money for the past two years, ever since the beginning of COVID. We've had too many COVID relief funds, we’ve had too many stimulus payments, too much extended unemployment and the solution --”
Alexander then interrupted to repeat even sillier White House talking points:
But sir, as you know that stimulus payments helped a lot of Americans get out of the deep hole that they were in, the country's economy is now growing at the fastest pace in decades, I think more than 5, perhaps 6%, 6+ percent, 6.6 million jobs in the last year right now. So, isn't that clear that some of that spending did have a real impact and there are other ways you can do it without spending money, putting pressure on prescription drug companies and the like. Why not get onboard with those things right now and take real action that puts money into Americans’ wallets?
The reason there is great job growth is because the economy is recovering from shutdowns that Democrats and their media allies demanded. As a commendably patient Comer explained his own prescription drug price plan and that the recovery would’ve happened anyway, but “without the inflation.”
This segment was sponsored by Liberty Mutual.
Here is a transcript for the March 2 show:
MSNBC White House Reports
3/2/2022
11:36 AM ET
KRISTEN WELKER: Congressman, let me ask you about some of the comments that Governor Reynolds made about domestic policy. She argued specifically and you heard her there in the clip we just played saying that schools should have reopened sooner, restrictions should have been lifted faster. Do you worry that, that type of messaging could backfire at this point given the fact that basically everything is opening up now?
JAMES COMER: Well, I think the Republicans have been right all along on that. You look at the difference between the red states and the blue states and how they handled COVID with the restrictions and the mandates. The American people are clearly behind the red state policy with respect to COVID, especially when it comes to school children and masking. There are still many cities that are controlled by the teachers’ union quite frankly, the school systems, that still are requiring masking for children and this is something that does not back up the science. The school is the safest place for school children. We're already seeing kids with developmental disabilities and we should not be requiring our children to wear masks in schools. I'm glad to see the COVID restrictions are coming off many of the cities. You know, this vaccine passport here in Washington. That was not good for business and I don't think there's any proof that it made a dent in the positivity rate of COVID.
PETER ALEXANDER: If we can, let me ask you about inflation. You witnessed prices going up across the board on products and on gas right now. The president said it's his number one priority, his top priority. Why not, why shouldn't Republicans get on board with some of the agenda items that he is proposing that could help lower costs for Americans right now?
COMER: Honestly all we heard last night from his proposal to combat inflation was more government spending. And Republicans believe that that's what's created inflation, excessive government spending. The government's been spending too much money for the past two years, ever since the beginning of COVID. We've had too many COVID relief funds, we’ve had too many stimulus payments, too much extended unemployment and the solution--
ALEXANDER: But sir, as you know that stimulus payments helped a lot of Americans get out of the deep hole that they were in, the country's economy is now growing at the fastest pace in decades, I think more than 5, perhaps 6%, 6+ percent, 6.6 million jobs in the last year right now. So, isn't that clear that some of that spending did have a real impact and there are other ways you can do it without spending money, putting pressure on prescription drug companies and the like. Why not get onboard with those things right now and take real action that puts money into Americans’ wallets?
COMER: Well, I think most Republicans would support prescription drug reform, one area you need to look at is the PBMs and I didn’t hear that mentioned last night, but with respect to spending, the economy’s on fire. There's no question about that. There's no need to spend recklessly, to continue to spend unnecessarily and when the government prints money, it leads to inflation. So, we believe if the government had just taken a much smaller role, that we would have still enjoyed this robust economy without the inflation. The inflation’s a tax on everyone, especially the poor, and more government spending is only going to make inflation worse.
