CNN contributors Scott Jennings and Bakari Sellers argued over President-elect Donald Trump’s claims that he would bring down high grocery prices for consumers on CNN Thursday, with Jennings at one point admonishing Sellers not to touch him.
“During the campaign, Donald Trump said that he was going to bring prices down,” Sellers said, calling Trump’s comments a “lie.”
“One of the things we know is Scott was actually 50% correct, and that Democrats did not do a good job in telling our story,” Sellers said. “We did not do a good job of addressing the pain that Americans felt.”
“One of the mistakes we made throughout Biden‘s presidency was saying that inflation was transitory,” Sellers continued. “Those things were not accurate because there are people who were out there feeling the pain of the price of eggs.”
“What Scott was not accurate about, which kind of happens around the table sometimes, although I know you want to be,” Sellers continued, reaching over to touch Scott on the arm.
“Don‘t touch me,” Jennings told a laughing Sellers as he patted him on the back, which prompted CNN host Abby Phillip to respond.
“All right, everybody keep your hands to yourselves at the table,” Phillip said.
It wasn’t clear if Jennings was actually irked, but he wasn’t smiling when the camera cut to him.
Sellers continued to debate over the Biden administration’s role in lowering inflation, especially at the grocery store.
“This is not Joe Biden’s policies,” Sellers said.
“Yes it is,” Jennings responded. “Of course it is.”
“Of course it’s not,” Sellers said, arguing that inflation was caused by the COVID pandemic. “You know what happened across the globe? You had inflation rise across the globe. You know who addressed that issue? Joe Biden addressed that issue.”
“One of the things that Scott was again right about is that Democrats did not label it: that’s Trumpflation,” Sellers said.
Trump has said high food prices helped him defeat Vice President Kamala Harris.
“I won on the border, and I won on groceries,” Trump said in an interview on NBC News’ “Meet the Press.”
“Very simple word, groceries. Like almost – you know, who uses the word? I started using the word – the groceries. When you buy apples, when you buy bacon, when you buy eggs, they would double and triple the price over a short period of time, and I won an election based on that,” Trump said.
In an interview with Time published Thursday after he was named 2024 Person of the Year, Trump remarked it would be “very hard” to lower grocery prices but hoped to do so with fixed supply chains and increased energy production.