WATCH: Hakeem Jeffries Gets LEVELED by Joe Kernen After Claiming Trump is Failing on the Economy on CNBC’s Squawk Box | The Gateway Pundit

CNBC host Joe Kernen on Thursday obliterated Democrat House Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), calling him out on his failure to explain the Democrats’ fearmongering as President Trump sees historic economic accomplishments since taking office in January. 

While discussing tariffs and inflation, Hakeem Jeffries claimed that “the erratic tariff policies have created a great deal of uncertainty in the business environment, and uncertainty, of course, doesn’t allow for the type of explosive economic growth that we will all like to see here in the United States of America.”

“I think there’s no real basis to conclude that Donald Trump has been successful, particularly as it relates to the core issue of driving down the high cost of living in the United States of America,” Jeffries continued.

“I’m deeply concerned that the tariffs are going to exacerbate the inflationary challenges that we already have.”

This is despite Quarter 2 GDP numbers showing excellent economic growth at 3.0%, hundreds of billions of dollars in new business investment, and hundreds of billions of dollars in tariff revenues into the United States.

Budget data released last month also showed that tariff revenues as a share of federal revenue had more than doubled, and tariffs created a surplus as opposed to a $71 billion deficit in June 2024 under Biden. US Customs duty collections for fiscal year 2025 had already topped $100 billion for the first time in history, with several months still to go.

Additionally, inflation in July held steady at 2.7%, shy of the 2.8% Wall Street expected.

Kernen let him have it.

WATCH:

Kernen: I don’t know about deflation and costs coming down. All I can tell you is that the inflation rate itself was 2.7% in the most recent read, year over year, versus it got to a high of 9% under Biden. Stocks are at record highs. Unemployment is 4.2%. That’s full employment. The GDP was 3%. The border is actually secure. We’ve got trade deals with EU, Japan, many more in the works, and trillions of dollars of foreign investment coming here.

Iran’s nuclear ambitions have been set back indefinitely. And I just wrote down a few things. So, I just have to ask you, where is the calamity that you’re talking about? And it almost seems like for Democrats, Socialism is the answer to these problems or, I don’t know, what an end of democracy or something? We just don’t get it.

In response to Kernen, Jeffries gave a word salad tirade about Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, and food stamps.

Watch:

Jeffries: Well, actually, I’ll tell you what we stand for. Joe is pretty clear. As Democrats, we believe in a strong floor and no ceiling. In America, you work hard, you play by the rules, you should be able to live the good life, and there should be no ceiling on your success, on your capacity to do anything in the United States of America. That’s the great promise of this country. At the same period of time, there should be a strong floor.

Today is the 90th anniversary of Social Security. It was born 90 years ago today. What we’ve seen from this administration is an attack on Social Security, an attack on Medicare, an attack on the Affordable Care Act, ripping Medicaid away from millions of Americans. That actually is the type of strong floor that we should also have in this country You passed one big, ugly bill that’s now law on a partisan basis that represents the largest attack on health care in American history. Hospitals will close, nursing homes will shut down. Community based health clinics will be unable to operate. People all across the country are going to experience increased premiums, copays and prescription drug prices.

That’s a problem for everyday Americans. I’m not talking about people who are already wealthy and well off and well connected. I’m talking about the everyday Americans that I represent in Brooklyn and that we’re fighting hard for. In fact, those same Americans, food is being ripped out of the mouths of hungry children, veterans and seniors, with the largest attack on nutritional assistance in American history. I find that problematic in the United States of America, and millions of people do so as well.