Former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany dismissed Hakeem Jeffries’ claim that Republicans are “on the run” over high prices. She pointed out that inflation soared during the previous Democratic administration.
Jeffries said Sunday that Republicans are “crashing the economy” by allowing inflation to rise. But prices hit record highs under former President Joe Biden. On Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom,” McEnany argued Democrats are facing “internal turmoil” and struggling with messaging after losing the 2024 election.
“When [Jeffries] says the GOP is on the run, I mean, we control both Houses of Congress,” McEnany said. “The GOP controls the presidency, 6-3 constitutionalists on the Supreme Court. Meanwhile, he is holding meetings last Friday, very unhappy meetings, where he has to berate members about their behavior. That doesn’t seem like the red side’s on the run.”
She said Democrats’ messaging on high prices had some effect—until Trump’s congressional address. During the speech, Democrat Texas Rep. Al Green was kicked out for disrupting, and other Democrats refused to applaud a 13-year-old cancer survivor and angel mothers who lost daughters to illegal immigrants.
“[Democrats] put out this, you could say mildly effective messaging of 20 Democrats all talking about high prices,” McEnany continued. “They were, if nothing else, on message. But then Al Green stomped on that, and the other members in not standing for Daniels, the 13-year-old cancer survivor, they stomped on the one message they had where it was all in unison.”
During Biden’s administration, Democrats stayed largely silent as inflation peaked at 9% in June 2022. Despite financial strain on American households, corporate media and Democratic leaders defended Biden, claiming inflation was out of his control.
While slamming high prices under Trump, Democrats blocked GOP efforts to roll back Biden-era regulations that drove up energy costs. Republicans voted to repeal taxes on methane emissions and natural gas but got little support from Democrats.
Many economists blamed Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act and the American Rescue Plan for fueling inflation. The $1.9 trillion rescue plan funded stimulus checks, government bailouts, and vaccine rollouts. Meanwhile, the Inflation Reduction Act funneled $370 billion into green energy projects aimed at climate change.