CNN anchor Abby Phillips expressed skepticism Thursday about one of Vice President Kamala Harris’ first economic policy proposals.
During the programme, the presenter read out a commentator’s criticism that the price controls proposals were designed to pander to “economically illiterate” voters, and seemed to agree that they were a way to get easy votes from people who don’t understand how the economy works.
“Is this just a ploy? Because it kind of sounds like it,” Phillips asked his guests, who included Rep. Nancy Mace, Democratic strategist Keith Boykin and Vanderbilt University professor Michael Eric Dyson.
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CNN’s Abby Phillips debates Vice President Kamala Harris’ price-gouging policy proposals with Vanderbilt University professor Michael Eric Dyson. (Screenshot/CNN)
Harris’ campaign announced Wednesday that if she becomes president, she would “institute a federal ban on food and grocery price gouging” to stop “big corporations” from taking unfair advantage of consumers.
Introducing the topic, Philip said, “One of the things we’ve learned about the policies that she’s going to implement is that she supports a ban on price gouging, a ban on that. Now, I think any reasonable person would ask, what does that mean, what does that actually mean, and how is the government going to be involved in that?”
She later became a writer for National Review. Noah Rothman’s criticism Proposals to support her claim:
“He called the policy ‘a total pandering to economic illiterates, of whom there are many in Congress, who understand that allowing the executive branch to functionally set prices is a foolish idea that will only hurt consumers in the long run.'”
Phillips, who agreed with the National Review senior writer, told Guest that the proposal “in some ways” sounds like a ploy by the Harris campaign.
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The Harris campaign released its economic policy plan on Friday.
This caused a disagreement between her and Dyson, but Dyson dismissed the criticism, saying: “Well, look, if you like it, it’s called good policy. If you don’t like it, it’s called pandering.”
“But is that really a policy? I mean, ‘price gouging’?” Philip asked incredulously.
Dyson’s later comments seemed to suggest that the suggestion was unrealistic: “If she can do that, God have mercy on her,” he said, adding, “I mean, maybe she’ll have to be the pope instead of president, but at least she can set the tone.”
Vice President Harris’ price control proposal was heavily criticized by other liberal media outlets immediately after she announced it.
Washington Post op-ed columnist Katherine Rampell criticized the idea in a piece published Thursday, writing, “It’s difficult to overstate how terrible this policy is. This is sweeping government price controls in all but name, not just to the food industry but to all industries.”
The author adds: “But more importantly, if your opponents claim you’re a ‘Communist,’ you might as well not start with an economic policy that could (accurately) be called federal price controls.”
The Harris campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital about Phillips’ remarks.
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