Biden Co-Chair Clyburn on Klain Inflation Criticism: ‘I’m Not an Economist’ ‘Don’t Know How These Issues Really Work’

On Wednesday’s broadcast of “CNN Newsroom,” Biden Campaign Co-Chair Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) responded to criticism by Biden’s former Chief of Staff Ron Klain of President Joe Biden for touting infrastructure when people are dealing with inflation by stating, “Well, I’m not an economist. I don’t know how these issues really work.” But people who have jobs due to the infrastructure law are happy and both sides of the equation should be discussed.

Clyburn said, “Well, I’m not an economist. I don’t know how these issues really work. But I know this, I do know that people who have jobs because of this infrastructure law are very pleased to be back at work again. I do know that people who see these plants being put in their districts, like the Scout plant in Richland County, South Carolina, the…plant in Berkeley County, South Carolina, these battery plants are providing jobs for people that never had good-paying jobs before, those things we need to talk about. So, I do believe you have to do things on balance. But to say you’ve got — you can’t talk about one, because you talk about the other, I’m not that sure that’s the way to do things. So, when I hear people talk about the economy and start talking about the stock market and start talking about their 401(k)s, I ask them about the people that I represent, who don’t have 401(k)s, but they’re looking for jobs and now they’ve got jobs, how do you balance that out? We’ve got to have those discussions on both sides of the equation, not one or the other.”

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