A Fox News Digital focus group of Republicans, Democrats and Independents used dials to react live to former President Trump’s criticism of President Biden’s economic record, saying he inherited no inflation when he took office.
During the CNN Presidential Debate, moderator Jake Tapper asked Trump to account for his proposal for a 10% tariff on all goods coming into the U.S. on how he would ensure that it wouldn’t worsen inflation.
Trump said it wouldn’t drive prices higher, but force countries like China ‘who have been ripping us off for years’ to pay the U.S. a lot of money.
‘It’s going to just force them to pay us a lot of money, reduce our deficit tremendously and give us a lot of power for other things,’ Trump said.
These comments received the most positive response from Republicans and Independents as indicated by the dials, which shot upwards. Democrats’ reception was moderately negative, dipping slightly downwards.
Trump conceded his opponent’s point that he inherited ‘the largest tax [and regulation] cut in history.’
‘That’s why we had all the jobs,’ Trump said. ‘And the jobs went down and then they bounced back. That’s why he’s taking credit for bounce-back jobs. You can’t do that.’
With these comments, Republicans and Independents were largely in agreement, showing positive reaction, while Democrats’ reactions remained neutral to negative.
‘He also said he inherited 9% inflation. He inherited almost no inflation. And it stayed that way for 14 months. And then it blew under his leadership because they spent money like a lot of people who didn’t know what they were doing,’ Trump said.
With these comments, Independents notably diverged from Republicans, showing a more negative reaction. Republicans’ and Democrats’ reactions mostly stayed the same.
Elsewhere in the debate, Trump said ‘the only jobs [Biden] created are for illegal immigrants and bounce back jobs that bounced back from COVID.’
A flash poll conducted by CNN after the presidential debate showed Trump soundly defeating President Biden.