Walsh: Most People Say Economy Is Poor and Biden Made It Worse Because ‘We’re Still Living Within a Pandemic’

On Thursday’s “CNN Newsroom,” Labor Secretary Marty Walsh responded to poll numbers showing most Americans think President Joe Biden’s policies have made the economy worse and over three-quarters see economic conditions as poor by stating that the foremost explanation for these numbers is “the fact that we’re still living within a pandemic.”

Co-host Victor Blackwell asked, “The latest polling, though, shows that the American people believe that what this administration is doing is not helping. … And this just came out in the last 24 hours, how have Biden’s policies affected U.S. economic conditions? … 55% said that they’ve worsened conditions. 26% said they have no effect. Only 19% believe that they’ve improved conditions. … [T]he current economic conditions, 23% believe that they’re good across this country. That’s the lowest number in a CNN poll of the Biden administration. More than three-quarters, 77% say they’re poor. I mean, the president came out and sold an improving economic picture for the country. What’s the disconnect here?”

Walsh responded, “Well, first and foremost, I mean, I think that we can’t lose sight of the fact that we’re still living within a pandemic. I think that that certainly has a lot to do — a lot of emotion and feelings people have, number one. Number two, President Biden’s been in office since January of 2021, many of his policies, whether it’s the American Rescue Plan that he passed right away, that actually hit the streets right away, the infrastructure law, that’s going to — people are going to be seeing the benefits of that, and the work that we’re doing at Commerce and Labor and Education, across the board, we’re still working on getting these policies and these ideas out to the American people. So, people aren’t going to see it instantaneously happening. But we have to pay very close attention to what the American people are saying. … We know that there are challenges. You mentioned at the top of this before you brought me on, talking about higher gas prices, higher prices, inflation, those are things that we’re working on every single day to bring those costs down.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett