Scott Bessent Says ‘We Will Own the Economy’ — After Kristen Welker Calls Him Out for Blaming Biden: Trump’s Been President for ‘636 Days’

NBC’s Kristen Welker called out Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent blaming the economy on former President Joe Biden 636 days into President Donald Trump’s current term.

In a showdown Meet the Press interview on Sunday, Welker pressed Bessent on the latest inflation numbers — which were less than promising.

“These new inflation numbers we got this week. Consumer prices rose in September at the fastest pace in five months, to 3.7%.” Welker said. “Are the president’s policies driving up inflation?

“Kristen, we have an energy shock,” Bessent replied. “And if you look underneath the hood in the numbers, core inflation has been very flat before this month, and it’d been down for four months in a row. So core inflation is down. Food is below the Fed’s target. Prescription drugs have had the biggest decrease in history. Rents are down. So this is an energy shock. We will get to the other side of the Iran conflict, and those prices will come down.”

But Welker pressed the secretary.

“Core inflation doesn’t take energy, for example, into account or food into account,” she saiud. “And in fact the price of gas is up 44%, Mr. Secretary, since this the of the war with Iran. What do you say to voters right now who say they are struggling and they want change?”

That was when Bessent tried to cast blame on Biden — who has been out of office for the past 21 months.

“Why don’t we revisit the Biden-era policies where the American people got smoked?” Bessent said. “21.5% inflation and only about 17% wage increases. Since President Trump has started, the American people have gotten real wage increases, 1.5%. We’re not satisfied with that. But as I said, you know, were getting these wage increases through our economic policies. And the wage increases are going to be persistent. We will get to the other side of the Iran conflict, and I believe that the energy markets are going to be better supplied than they were.”

Welker promptly called out the secretary’s excuse.

“I hear you blaming President Biden, but President Trump has been in office now for 636 days,” Welker said. “That’s about a year and a half, and inflation was at 3% when he took office. It’s 3.7% now. At what point does the administration take responsibility for the economy and say this is the Trump economy?”

Bessent replied, “Well, we will own the economy.”

He then tried to make his case for it.

“So far this year, we’ve got a million private-sector jobs,” Bessent said. “We’ve never had this many people working in the U.S. The net worth of American households are the highest that it’s ever been. So, Kristen, let’s be clear here. This is an energy supply side shock. We will get to the other side of this. This is one factor.”

“Even President Trump has said this is his economy,” Welker noted.

Watch above, via NBC.

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!