Fox News host Harris Faulkner fact-checked former Democratic Rep. Patrick Murphy of Pennsylvania on Tuesday during a discussion about President Donald Trump’s newly imposed tariffs, pointing out that he failed to address the surge in inflation and credit card debt under the Biden administration.
Trump unveiled a sweeping plan for reciprocal tariffs during a Rose Garden event Wednesday, citing “horrendous imbalances” in global trade. Reports indicated that countries such as Japan and South Korea were already seeking negotiations.
When Murphy criticized Trump over inflation and rising credit card delinquencies, Faulkner interrupted to highlight the Biden administration’s own track record on those same economic issues.
“We don’t want inflation, right? Inflation has gone down, it was still too high,” Murphy said before Faulkner broke in: “Well, you wanted it for the last four years because you tolerated it.”
“Harris, I’ve been on here, it was 9%, it’s down to 2.6%. It’s ticking up, it’s still too much. The goal is 2%. The reality is this, though: American people have been put through the wringer,” Murphy responded.
“We lost 10 million American jobs because of COVID. We lost one million Americans. Right now, the national average of people’s credit card debt, it’s the highest it’s ever been. Delinquencies on paying that credit card off are too high,” he continued.
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) reached a 40-year high of 9% in June 2022, following then-President Joe Biden’s approval of several major spending packages, including the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan—despite warnings it could fuel inflation. During Biden’s time in office, overall prices rose by more than 20%.
By 2023, household debt had surged to $17.5 trillion, with credit card debt climbing to $1.17 trillion by November 2024. Credit card defaults totaled $46 billion in the first nine months of 2024 alone.
Faulkner responded to the former Democratic lawmaker.
“Two things here, two facts there,” Faulkner began. “One, you have different presidents and notice what happened to the inflation. That’s one. The second thing is the highest that we’ve ever seen people in debt actually happened about 12 months ago.
“We know that because the credit reporting bureaus were saying people were asking for, you know, extra counseling to handle their debt. It didn’t just get paid when President Trump became president, but the goal is to try to get them some equality between what they’re earning and what things cost,” she noted further.
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One of Trump’s main 2024 campaign pledges was to rejuvenate the economy and curb inflation. Poll after poll during the campaign cycle revealed “the economy” was consistently the No. 1 issue of concern among voters.
Meanwhile, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is warning that Democrats’ “very dangerous” rhetoric and behavior could lead to something “serious” against Trump.
During an interview on Fox News, Gingrich dismissed a claim by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., that Republicans are “on the run,” warning that Democrats are in a rage and offering “no solutions.”
Gingrich said the left is resorting to extreme tactics to resist President Trump and oppose Elon Musk’s efforts to cut government spending.
“Well, I think that everything you showed earlier reflects what Lincoln said at Gettysburg when he said, this is a test of whether this system or any system so conceived in liberty can survive,” he began.
“You have a hard-line group who believe that they have the right to be violent, that they have the right to deny the American people the choice of their leadership, that they have the right to break the law. The answer to all of that is, frankly, you have to lock them up. You have to enforce the law,” Gingrich added.
“The fact is, the Democrats currently have no solutions. They are so enraged that Trump is actually changing what, overwhelmingly, Americans believe is a corrupt system. I’ll just give you one piece of data. Our America’s New Majority project just had a poll come out yesterday. 82% of the American people believe the system is corrupt. Now that’s dangerous,” he added.
