What did Don Lemon really mean about Nikki Haley?
Let's bring in Congressman Beth Van Dye from Houseways and Means along with Breitbart Finance editor John Carney. It's great to have you both on. Okay, the president today was talking about the Chinese spy balloons. He's saying that they were most likely tied to private companies, recreation or research institutions. Nothing suggests they were related to China's spy balloon programs. Those three recently downed aerial objects. Congresswoman, can you first take that on? Well, it's nice that, you know, finally he's coming and talking to the American people.
It would have been great if after that speech that he gave, he actually took questions. I think the fact is that he doesn't know what we're dealing with. He doesn't know what to tell the American people, which is probably why they kept him, you know, in the basement for so long. But we do need answers. You have had this happen multiple times. People are concerned. People are nervous and for a good reason.
And we have to have better answers than, well, it may not be China. So there's that. And, you know, John, to the congresswoman's point, DC is now talking about this Politico report that quotes senior Democrats, even Democrat senators, privately saying Biden is too old to be running in 2024. He's not up for campaigning. So this is not good. It's not a good look for the president right here. What do you say, John? Definitely not.
He should have some sort of explanation of what these things we keep shooting down are. It makes no sense to say, yeah, we don't know what they are. We just keep finding them and shooting them down again. That's the opposite of reassuring people. This actually just makes people more nervous of what else could be out there and who could be sending them. Yes. So there's that to what John just said.
The people are concerned. They don't know what's going on with that, congresswoman. So there's that. And he had Nikki Haley announcing, Nikki Haley talking about mandatory mental competency tests given President Biden's age. Congresswoman, we're going to watch now Don Lemon insult his female Morning Show viewers with his comments about that. Watch this. She says people, you know, politicians are something that are not in their prime.
Nikki Haley isn't in her prime. Sorry. A woman is considered to be in her prime in her 20s and 30s and maybe 40s. What do you talk about? That's not according to me. Prime for what? It depends. I mean, it's just like prime. If you look it up, it'll say, if you look, if you Google, when is a woman in her prime? It'll say 20s, 30s and 40s.
I don't necessarily agree with that. So I think she has to be careful about saying that, you know, politicians aren't in their prime. You're talking about a woman in her prime. You're talking about prime for like child and. Don't shoot the message. I'm just saying what the facts are. Google it.
Everybody at home. When is a woman in her prime? It says 20s, 30s and 40s. Congressman Don Lemon is about six years older than Nikki Haley and Google is his source. Maybe he could have Googled that Nancy Pelosi's 82 and Hillary Clinton is 75. If he had said that about either one of them, he would have been scorched right now, but they're ignoring it because Nikki Haley is a Republican female and God forbid that we actually exist. Don Lemon has never had a prime. He has no idea what he's talking about.
And of course, the only thing that he's referring to is prime for having babies because apparently to Don Lemon, the only thing that women can do is be baby makers and breeders. I was completely offended by that as I think most Americans would be if they'd listened to him. I mean, she has done so much. She has accomplished. She's got experience. But apparently that's. Doesn't mean anything.
It's whether or not, you know, she is prime on baby bearing years. That was completely. If that had been switched to the other side, he would have been scorched. Yeah, to the congresswoman's point, what was your reaction, John? Well, look, I look at economic reports. So I look at what the Department of Labor calls a prime age worker. It's 25 to 54. Nikki Haley isn't 54 years old yet.
She isn't her prime even by the Department of Labor standards. It's a ridiculous thing. She's not running to be, you know, somebody's mother here. She's running to be president. And 54 is not past your prime when it comes to running to be president. It was quite the day for the sound coming in. We're going to get to Pete Buttigieg in the bottom of this segment.
I want your reaction, Congressman. Pete Buttigieg is basically comparing the toxic train derailment in Ohio to a thousand other train derailments. Not all of those were hazardous though. When you heard that, what was your reaction? I'm surprised Pete even knows where Ohio is at this point. You know, he just seems to have been home and be taking vacations. He is the secretary of transportation. Yes, this is a politically appointed spot.
It's not a vacation. And I think if he really wants to be doing his job and maybe because he's only ever been mayor of a city, you know, a very, very small city, he really hasn't had this kind of experience or this level of responsibility. But these people are counting on him. They are looking for him to be in their neighborhood right now, talking to them, letting them know how this happened, how what steps they're taking to prevent it from ever happening again and listening to them, fighting out what are their pains, how can he help, how can the administration be there to be able to provide services right now when this town obviously needs it. You know, John, it just adds to the feeling to what the Congressman was saying is like disarray. They don't feel comfortable, John. And that wholesale inflation report is not good.
The CPI also for January, it's 6.4% inflation annualized. John, it comes up top of January's 2022 inflation rate of 7.5%. So over the past two years, consumers are getting crushed by nearly 14% inflation. This is a immense problem for the Biden administration. They keep jumping the gun on this.
Every time they get a pretty good report, so in December we had a pretty good report for inflation. They keep saying, oh good, it's over. Hooray. We've heard Biden say that three times by my account, inflation's over. It's not over. The Fed is going to have to keep raising rates. What we saw in the PPI report today was that even in goods inflation, which everybody thought was going to come down because people bought so many goods during the pandemic, people thought that would be over.
People are exhausted. It's going to move on to services. Even core goods inflation was up by half a percentage point. That's really bad. It probably means everybody thought the Fed was only going to raise once or twice more is wrong. They're going higher. They're going higher.
It could go above 6%. Congresswoman, this all stems to pandemic policies and shutdowns that threw 23 million out of work. Millions then dropped out of the workforce or retired early, Congresswoman. Are House Republicans going to investigate pandemic shutdowns and also COVID-19 vaccine mandates? Oh, absolutely. We've already started. I'm on the House Ways and Means Committee and we're already looking at unemployment benefit on fraud and abuse that happened. That's estimated to be over $400 billion.
I mean, if this president was really serious about helping the economy, he could do a number of things. One, expand American energy production to make prices go down and to create more middle-class jobs. Two, he could look at the regulations that are strangling our businesses and reduce those. And three, he could extend portions of the TCJA that actually invested in research and development and would make us a much more competitive globally. But we see him doing the exact opposite things. Let's get the final word from John. I mean, the government poured $14 trillion into the economy since the pandemic.
That's astounding. And that fueled inflation, says the San Francisco Fed. The government paying people who then did not work. Your final word, John. Absolutely. The big mistake, the biggest mistake the Biden administration made right away, passing what they called the American Rescue Plan. The economy was on the recovery path already.
We were going to have some inflation, no matter what, because we had spent a lot. That was just fuel, like gasoline, on an already burning fire. It's what said inflation from a reasonable amount of inflation after the pandemic to the totally unreasonable and unmanageable amount we're seeing right now. That's amazing. What a story. What a time. Congresswoman Van Don and John Carney, pleasure having you both on tonight.
It's good to see you.bl ik.
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