White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Americans needed to give President Biden's economic policies more "time" to take effect as voters remain sour on the president and said voters were straying from the president and the Democratic Party because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
MSNBC host Willie Geist asked Jean-Pierre about how she would explain key voting blocks, such as young voters, "straying" from the president and looking at other choices, such as Donald Trump.
"Look, we understand what the American people went through these past three years, right? We came out of a pandemic, right? A pandemic that we haven’t seen in a hundred years. And when the president walked in, the economy was upside-down," she acknowledged.
Jean-Pierre continued, "And so we get it. We get that, so it’s going to take a little bit of time for folks to feel what the ‘Bidenomics’ has been able to do. That’s not something that I’m saying. That’s something that economists have said, right? It takes a little bit of time. But it doesn’t mean, it doesn’t mean that the president is not going to continue to work."
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The White House spokesperson then said Biden was going to "finish the job."
Geist also asked Jean-Pierre about Biden's diminishing support among Black and Latino voters.
"What we have done for the Black community and the Latino community, the Black community, when the president walked in, unemployment was 9.2%. Now, it is under 6%. That is because of ‘Bidenomics,’ as we started this conversation. Very similarly, in the Latino community, we saw unemployment go down. And we saw, also, when you think about wealth, the wealth gap, the economic wealth, that grew with both communities," she told the MSNBC hosts.
Jean-Pierre said "equity" was part of every single piece of the president's legislation.
"So look, the president has always, always put equity at the center of every policy he’s put forward, every legislation that he's put forward. Because we understand that many communities have been left behind, have been left behind. We’re not trying to do the trickle-down economics. We really, truly are not. That’s not what the president believes in," she said.
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The "Bidenomics" terminology has become increasingly unpopular within the Democratic Party, as some have started to distance themselves from it.
A Democratic strategist told NBC News in November that it was a terrible messaging tactic.
"Whoever came up with the slogan Bidenomics should be fired," the strategist told NBC. "It’s probably the worst messaging you could ever imagine."
CNN political analyst Errol Louis warned that Biden might "lose" his re-election bid if he keeps touting "Bidenomics," especially if voters "don't perceive" it in time.
"Sure, the economy might be getting better, but if voters don’t perceive it in time, then he’ll lose," Louis predicted.
Fox News' Gabriel Hays contributed to this report.
