Watch Fox gush over Biden’s economy

News that the U.S. economy grew at a brisk 3.3% annual pace since October wasn't just good: It was great in a lot of ways.

On average, the economy grew a robust 2.5% in 2023—a year in which analysts practically tried to speak a recession into reality. No such luck. In fact, from the fourth quarter of 2022 to the fourth quarter of 2023, the economy grew 3.1%.

The combination of increasing consumption, low unemployment, and falling inflation even had a Fox Business reporter gushing over President Joe Biden's economy.

"It's a sweet spot," remarked Fox Business' Lauren Simonetti, calling consumption "formidable" over the holidays. "We're seeing an economy that is proving resilient—growing as inflation is moderating. That's why I'm calling this the sweet spot, right? Enough growth to cool inflation."

Thank you Dark Brandon! pic.twitter.com/yyE0k4ntWn

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 25, 2024

The New York Times' Paul Krugman likewise dubbed it the "Goldilocks economy," neither too hot nor too cold. And Krugman predicts the country's inflationary woes are now over.

In other words, it continues to look as though the Biden administration is overseeing a "soft landing" for the economy—one that supposedly couldn't be achieved.

Indeed, the University of Michigan's survey of consumer sentiment surged to a reading of 78.8 in January, its highest level since July 2021 and a 21.4% increase from a year ago, according to CNBC. A big driver of that increase stems from consumers’ agreement with Krugman that inflation "has turned the corner," as survey director Joanne Hsu put it.

All of this good news is going to drive an already seething Donald Trump absolutely mad—particularly Fox Business analysts swooning over Biden's economy. The same Fox analyst also promised to scour the report "to see if there are signs that maybe the economy doesn't feel as, or isn't as resilient as it might seem."

Shorter Fox-speak: Stay tuned, Trump. We'll invent bad news one way or another!

For anyone who hasn't noticed, Trump is already getting increasingly erratic on his quest to fabricate bad news for Biden:

  • He's livid over his Republican rival Nikki Haley refusing to drop out of the GOP primary after New Hampshire.

  • He’s strong-arming the Republican National Committee into declaring him the nominee after a grand total of two state contests.

  • He's asking Senate Republicans to torpedo a potential border deal with the White House so he can spend the rest of year fear-mongering over a supposed "invasion" of immigrants spearheaded by Biden.

  • He's pushing House Republicans to impeach Biden so he can rail about Biden's supposed corruption.

  • He's rooting for an economic "crash," hopefully sometime very soon.

  • He's promising "bedlam" in the streets of America if he loses the election (a chaos candidate promising chaos if The People vote against chaos).

  • And he's agitating for full immunity from absolutely any action—including murder—he takes as president.

It's January, folks, and Trump is already coming off the rails despite the fact that he's basically cruising to the Republican nomination.

It's a palpable show of desperation sprung from a place of weakness. Trump knows New Hampshire and Iowa both exposed serious cracks in his general election voting coalition. The turnout and makeup of the electorate in both states suggests he isn't expanding the universe of Republican voters. He's simply culling the party down to a smaller, harder-right faction of the electorate.

In short, Trump's not adding, he's subtracting. And if he's going to ride that smaller slice of the electorate to victory, he's going to need to trash the country in every way possible in order to depress turnout for Biden.

That’s all fine by Trump because the main impetus of his every move is the sheer terror of spending his last living years in a jail cell. If he has to single-handedly unravel the country on his quest for freedom, so be it.

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Poll: Republicans clutch pearls over Biden’s age, shrug at Trump’s

Election analysts and pollsters have clued in to a stubborn fact: Americans dislike that so many of the country's powerful politicians are, well, rather long in the tooth.

Broad voter disenchantment with aging politicians is proving particularly relevant to the 2024 presidential contest, which could feature a rematch between two candidates who have each spent roughly eight decades on the planet: President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.

Pundits are also quick to point out that, broadly speaking, voters are more concerned about 80-year-old Biden's age than 77-year-old Trump's age. Here's what they don't tell you: The main difference is that the Democratic Party isn't a cult.

In this month's co-branded Daily Kos/Civiqs poll, three-quarters of registered voters expressed concern about Biden's age "affecting his ability to serve as president," while roughly half said they were similarly concerned about Trump's age.

But the main reason for the difference stems from Republican voters mostly falling in lockstep behind Trump, with 71% saying they were "not concerned" about his age.

Among Democrats, however, a notably smaller 49% said they weren't concerned about the sitting president's age.

Here's the partisan breakdown on Trump:

Here's the partisan breakdown on Biden:

When Civiqs polling director Drew Linzer and I discussed the topic on this week's episode of The Brief, Linzer explained, "On the Republican side, these voters are committed to expressing good things about Donald Trump, period. No matter what we ask about."

Almost like a cult.

But on the Democratic side, there's "more willingness to be critical" in evaluating both Biden and Democrats more generally, Linzer noted.

All that said, in a potential head-to-head matchup, concerned Democrats are still going to vote for Biden over Trump.

"It doesn't mean they're not going to vote for Joe Biden. It just means that they're willing to be critical of Joe Biden," Linzer added.

It is worth noting, however, that young Democrats are the biggest skeptics of Biden's age, with 70% saying they are either very or somewhat concerned.

Here are the crosstabs on Democratic age groups:

Here's a clip of the segment from “The Brief,” in which I also razz Drew to spice things up a bit.

Sign the petition: Denounce MAGA GOP's baseless impeachment inquiry against Biden

Kerry talks with Drew Linzer, director of the online polling company Civiqs. Drew tells us what the polls say about voters’ feelings toward President Joe Biden and Donald Trump, and what the results would be if the two men were to, say … run against each other for president in 2024. Oh yeah, Drew polled to find out who thinks Donald Trump is guilty of the crimes he’s been indicted for, and whether or not he should see the inside of a jail cell.