Fox News host Stuart Varney called out White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett for filibustering after being asked about skyrocketing inflation numbers due to President Donald Trump’s war in Iran.
“3.3% rise in consumer prices in the last 12 months,” Varney told Hassett on Friday. “That’s a fairly sharp increase. However, I’m sure you’re going to find some comfort in the core rate of inflation, which went up only 0.2% in March.”
“Right. Well, you know, one of the things that would have been a warning sign would have been that what we believe is a temporary energy disruption would feed through to core, driving up prices of everything,” Hassett responded. “And I think that in fact the 0.2% core number for the month that you mentioned is actually rounded up to point two, which is pretty unusual. It was point one nine something.”
The White House adviser went on to tell a story about how the administration was fighting to lower egg and beef prices instead of addressing the sharp rise in other consumer prices.
“That was a bit of a filibuster,” Varney noted before presenting a graphic showing a stark increase in energy prices over the past year. Fuel oil saw a 44.2% increase, while motor fuel and gasoline jumped nearly 20%.
“All kinds of items which have gone up very significantly,” the Fox Business host noted. “They’re up, and those prices are reflected in the way people think about inflation. I don’t think you’ve won the war against inflation at this point.”
“Once we get the straits open, there are boats going through right now,” Hassett said of the war in Iran. “Once we get back to the normal pace, then we expect things to get back to normal, and then all these underlying factors that I discuss almost in a filibuster-like way.”
“That’s an admission, Kevin, that’s an admission, and you know it,” Varney pointed out.
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