The Biden administration’s political spin is wearing out its welcome with CNN.
One commentator of the reliably liberal establishment news network rejected attempts from the White House to define away the pending likelihood of a recession in a Monday panel.
Biden administration personnel have called for a “holistic” definition of recession, in a political bid to push back against criticism of President Joe Biden’s handling of the economy.
A White House essay nitpicked economic statistics to argue against the prospect of a recession, rejecting the traditional definition of two consecutive quarters of negative economic growth.
But even the administration’s most reliable media backers aren’t having it.
Republican strategist: GOP Sen. Rubio fighting same-sex marriage bill just to show he’s fighting for something. @ScottJenningsKY, @repdonnaedwards, @fran_chambers and @ChrisCillizza discuss. @kasie pic.twitter.com/ajm2VAP571
— The Lead CNN (@TheLeadCNN) July 25, 2022
CNN’s Chris Cillizza, himself a partisan liberal, pushed back against the administration’s political sugarcoating of the economy.
“There is a technical definition — two straight quarters of negative economic growth,” Cillizza said, rejecting the White House’s attempts to explain away an incoming recession.
Is Biden responsible for a recession?
“They clearly believe that that is likely to come to pass later this week,” Cillizza predicted.
“We have these terms for reasons. You don’t have to like it,” he continued.
“You don’t get to change the nomenclature in the middle of a campaign because it doesn’t work for you.”
“I get why they want to do it from a political perspective, but you can’t fake this,” CNN’s Kasie Hunt said of the economic havoc wrought by inflation and the poor economy.
Hunt quickly pivoted the topic away from inflation and the economy to homosexual marriage and abortion, giving the social issues greater focus in the eight-minute segment.
Biden rejected the possibility of a recession in response to a question from Fox News’ Peter Doocy on Monday.
Joe Biden:
“We’re not gonna be in a recession.” pic.twitter.com/7tsoLFVzXk
— TheBlaze (@theblaze) July 25, 2022
“We’re not going to be in a recession in my view. The employment rate is still one of the lowest we’ve had in history,” Biden said.
Economic concerns reliably score as the most-pressing issue for American voters in national opinion polls.
An October poll shows Republicans with a massive 18-point percentage lead for public confidence in dealing with the economy.
