A prominent business leader and one of the Republican Party’s top donors didn’t mince words when reacting to President Biden’s now repeated, incorrect inflation claim.
"Why do liars lie? Because they lie. That's why you call them a liar," former Home Depot co-founder and CEO Ken Langone said on "The Ingraham Angle" Tuesday.
"That's the most absurd remark in the world to say that inflation was 9% when he came in," he continued. "It was... 1.4%."
In a recent interview with Yahoo! Finance, Biden touted his administration’s "incredible" impact on U.S. jobs and the economy while admitting inflation has gone slightly up, "which was at 9% when I came in and is now down around 3%."
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The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in January 2021 – the same month as Biden’s inauguration – that the consumer price index (CPI) increased 1.4% year-over-year, thus serving as a fact check on the president.
"How can you believe them? The numbers speak for themselves," Langone reacted. "Think of all of the other things he said that have no basis, in fact, none."
Biden made the same claim last week to CNN's Erin Burnett, who, like Yahoo! Finance, did not challenge him on the falsehood.
"No president has had the run we had in terms of creating jobs and bringing down inflation. It was 9% when I came into office, 9%," Biden previously told Burnett.
According to FactCheck.org, a White House official said Biden was trying to convey contributing factors to inflation like the supply chain crisis that began before Biden took office.
"And the irony of it is, the American people, because of the media, he's being given a pass," Langone chimed in.
On Wednesday, the latest CPI showed inflation eased slightly in April for the first time in months, a welcome sign for the Federal Reserve even as prices remained uncomfortably high for millions of Americans.
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Fed Chair Jerome Powell said Tuesday the central bank will need to be patient and wait for evidence that inflation is slowing before it cuts rates.
"We did not expect this to be a smooth road, but these were higher than I think anybody expected," he said. "What that has told us is that we will need to be patient and let restrictive policy do its work."
Fox News’ Joseph A. Wulfsohn and FOX Business’ Megan Henney contributed to this report.
