Alcindor Mourns False Dem Spin on Inflation, Gas Prices Not Working

Appearing on MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell ReportsYamiche Alcindor of NBC News Washington was worried Monday afternoon that the Biden White House spin that Ukraine’s war is to blame for rising inflation and high prices for gas was misleading American voters. She cited the abysmal numbers for the President in NBC’s latest poll and fretted that Democrats have a “messaging” problem.

“And Bill McInturf, the Republican partner with the Democratic partner, of course in our poll….is calling these catastrophic results for Democrats,”Mitchell noted, while allocating low poll numbers to Biden (and the Democrats in general) heading into the November midterm election. Noting voter concerns of over the cost of living, she asked Alcindor: “Yamiche, how does the President now focus on the economy?”  

Predictably, Alcindor didn’t see Biden’s unpopularity as the result of policy failures, he just needed a better PR strategy: “What this poll essentially tells the President and Democrats is that they have to be messaging better, that they have to be talking about the things that Americans are listing as their priority.” She assured that her pals in the administration were working on it: “And when I talk to White House officials, they understand that there is this real messaging issue that has to happen.”

Particularly concerned was the White House’s attempt to link the failed war in Ukraine with record-breaking inflation and rising gas prices, which she said had been a failure for months.

Particularly when you take a look at the poll. the number that jumped out to me was the fact that 38% of Americans are blaming Biden’s policies for inflation and gas prices and only 6% are blaming Russia. Remember that President Biden wanted to call this Putin’s price hike. That was exactly the White House message.

It wasn’t just “White House messaging,” the leftist media – especially MSNBC and NBC – eagerly repeated the dishonest talking point:

A Media Research Center study has shown that between February 24 and March 21st, NBC, ABC and CBS morning and evening newscasts blaming Russia 33 times and CBS 3 times respectively, while Biden was blamed only three times.

However, despite going all-in for Biden, the media narrative did not sell with Americans, prompting Alcindor’s anxiety for Democrats on Monday.  

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Below is the transcript of the 28 March exchange

12:36 ET

(…)

ANDREA MITCHELL Yamiche. How does the President focus now on the economy. He’s coming off of this European trip, which might give him some elevation in the polls for his show of strength, we don’t know. We can’t predict that. This doesn’t reflect that. But perhaps starting today, we now know he’s going to take questions at 2:00 in that event with the budget. So today he can talk about gas prices, he can talk about inflation, and about what he’s trying to do with the budget and focus more on the economy.

YAMICHE ALCONDOR: The poll basically shows that Democrats and the President need to communicate better. They have to focus on the priorities Americans list as important. Ukraine of course is something that the President didn’t pick to be talking about, but he had to deal with that. When I speak to White House staff, they are clear that this is a real messaging problem that must be addressed.

Especially when you look at this poll, the number that jumped out to me was the fact that 38% of Americans are blaming Biden’s policies for inflation and gas prices and only 6% are blaming Russia. Remember that President Biden wanted to call this Putin’s price hike. This was exactly the White House messaging. So this really goes to the idea that the President – and the White House says that they have always been focused on cost of living and the economy but this really needs to be, in some ways, a re-centering of that while also having to deal with what’s going on abroad.

MITCHELL: We’re going to see their first attempt at this at 2:00 today. We’ll of course be carrying it live. This White House faces a huge challenge.

(…)