ESPN commentator Stephen A. Smith blasted President Trump for calling the affordability crisis a Democratic “con job,” saying that he “wants to act as if there’s no concern.”
“He has to say that right now because it’s an issue and a concern for the American people,” the host of SiriusXM’s “Straight Shooter with Stephen A.” said on ABC’s “The View” on Thursday. “And he wants to act as if there is no concern because everything he’s doing is just so beautiful and so marvelous and what have you.”
Trump has repeatedly dismissed concerns related to rising costs, insisting that energy and grocery prices are low and that Democrats have manufactured an affordability issue.
“The Democrats are good at a few things, cheating on elections and conning people with facts that aren’t true,” he told reporters after the November elections.
After last month’s contests, Democrats won several high-profile races — including the New Jersey and Virginia gubernatorial races — by wider margins than expected, which experts have attributed to their campaigns’ focuses on affordability.
Several prominent Republican politicians, including Vice President Vance and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), have acknowledged that affordability has emerged as a prominent concern for voters. Greene in particular has directly pushed back against the president’s characterization that grocery prices are falling.
“Grocery prices remain high. Energy prices are high,” Greene told CNN in November. She added that she believed the issue of affordability had contributed to the GOP’s recent election losses.
But Trump has sought to minimize the issue even as it is poised to play a role in next year’s midterm elections.
Smith praised Democrats for forcing Trump to “play ball and figure out a way to beat them.”
“They’re gaining some momentum,” Smith said, referring to Democrats. “We’ll see what happens from there.”
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