Biden blames the press on Americans thinking the economy is dire

President Joe Biden blamed the press when asked Friday why Americans think the economy is dire, telling a group of White House reporters ‘you all are not the happiest people in the world.’ He then used a bizarre analogy about a dog being pushed in a lake to make his point about negative news coverage.

Biden was delivering remarks about the September jobs report – in which 336,000 jobs were added to the economy, far exceeding economists’ expectations – leading to a reporter to ask why, if the numbers were so sunny, most people still don’t feel positive about the economy. The president argued ‘you get more legs when you report something that’s negative.’ ‘You turn on the television and there’s not a whole lot about boy saves dog as he swims in the lake, you know, they say, you know, somebody pushed the dog in the lake,’ Biden said.

The president’s dog analogy comes the same week it was revealed that first dog Commander was removed from White House grounds after a series of biting incidents. On Thursday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre refused to reveal the dog’s whereabouts.

Beyond the dog comment, Biden told reporters he didn’t believe ‘you’re picking on me.’ ‘It’s just the nature of things,’ he said. ‘I get it.’ The president also acknowledged there were reasons for Americans to be worried.

‘There’s reasons for people to be concerned what’s going on in Russia, reasons to be concerned about what’s going on in other parts of the world,’ he said. ‘I think that the American people are smart as hell and know what their interests are,’ he continued. ‘I think they know they’re better off financially than they were before. It’s a fact. And all that data, all that polling stuff … anyway,’ Biden said, ending his brief Q&A.

Recent polling shows Biden and the Democrats being at a disadvantage on the economy, with a Gallup survey released Tuesday showing a majority, 53 percent, of Americans believe that Republicans would do a better job at keeping the country prosperous.

Just 39 percent gave a vote of confidence to the Democrats. The same poll showed that nearly three-quarters of Americans feel pessimistic about the direction of the economy.

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