Mark Kelly on Biden Era Inflation Causing Dems’ Unpopularity: ‘I Think That’s Fair’

TAPPER: “So, you talk about how the Democratic Party has a communications problem. Your party, the Democratic Party, posted on Twitter or X in the last few days a chart that showed the price of groceries skyrocketing. the White House took that Democratic chart and accurately re-posted it to show that most of the price jumps in that graph happened under the Biden Administration. The Democrats then deleted the post. So I wonder if you think Democrats have figured out their problems both in terms of communications and also acknowledging that Biden era inflation, for example, is one of the reasons why your party is out of power.”
Kelly: “Yeah, I think that’s fair. There was inflation during the Biden Administration. I track this pretty closely. You know, I know what ground beef and eggs and milk costs at the Safeway where Gabby and I shop in Tucson, Arizona. They went up during the Biden Administration. They went up some more. You know, you’re going to see prices go up and down. But I think what’s important for the American people to know is that Donald Trump’s tariff policy is very likely to increase costs. It’s going to take some time because of supply chains, stuff coming from — in some cases from all over the planet. And his trade policy for my constituents in Arizona, there are a lot of products that come across the southern border, agricultural products that create thousands and thousands of jobs, not only in Arizona, but in the state of Texas. And we are facing right now some significant job loss. So, when you think inflation is a problem for a family, somebody losing a job is even a bigger problem. And we’re trying to figure out how we navigate that with this administration. They — you know, I have spoken to the secretary of commerce about some of these tariffs, and we haven’t gotten the response that we need.”