Commerce Sec’y Raimondo: Inflation’s ‘Global’ and Due to War, COVID and We’ll Fix It, So People Should Trust Us on Economy

During an interview aired on Tuesday’s “PBS NewsHour,” Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said that people should believe the Biden administration on economic issues like the CHIPS Act despite them getting inflation wrong because inflation “is a global problem driven largely by the pandemic, by Putin’s war. And the Fed has taken strong action and our administration, the president’s administration, is doing everything we know how to do to bring down inflation.”

“NewsHour” Correspondent Lisa Desjardins asked, “How do you answer those, maybe some on the Hill, who are asking you, this administration didn’t get it right on inflation. It’s worse than we thought it was. Why should we trust you in other areas like this?”

Raimondo answered, “Look, inflation’s a global problem. We were chatting before we came on about Europe. Europe’s seeing much higher inflation than we are, in certain countries, it’s double-digit. This is a global problem driven largely by the pandemic, by Putin’s war. And the Fed has taken strong action and our administration, the president’s administration, is doing everything we know how to do to bring down inflation. So, I think this is apples and oranges. What we’re talking about here is getting behind a bipartisan bill to increase domestic [production] of a critical technology to secure our future. Separately, inflation, which, as I say, is a global issue, and we are going to get that under control.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett