Elizabeth Warren Claps Back at CNBC Host For Lecturing Her on Harris' Economic Proposal

Tensions ran high recently when Elizabeth Warren and CNBC host, Joe Kernen engaged in a discussion about Vice President Kamala Harris' economic proposals. After defending Harris vigorously Warren seemed to have lost her temper when the host questioned the VP's promise to pass a federal ban on price gouging in the food industry.

During the Squawk Box segment Kernen stated, "If beef is too high, people don’t move to chicken because competitors don’t come in to undercut where the beef prices are. Nothing works when you try to artificially try to control prices. It’s just a supply and demand issue. It’s a flawed idea." Warren retorted, "So did you have a question here?" Kernen replied, "Yes, why would you propose a flawed idea when the real problem— if you really want to help the middle class, if you really, sincerely want to help people having trouble at the grocery store, it’s not price gouging that’s the issue, and if you look at it seriously and you really want to help him, let’s do something about it together," according to the Washington Examiner. 

Hitting back at the CNBC host, the Senator argued, "I understand if you want to do a lecture about this, but let’s just start with where have you been for the last 30 years as three dozen states have price gouging laws and they have used them effectively?" The conversation on economic policy was further blazed when the host went on to deem it a "fool's errand." "How do you decide? This is not the government’s job to decide these things. It’s a fool’s errand," he remarked. 

"And also, you’re using it to divert the real cause of inflation over the last four years. which is you had demand after the pandemic, which obviously there was a lot because [sic] reopened, and all of a sudden there are supply chain issues and the demand is juiced by all of this stimulus from the [Inflation Reduction Act] and all of the other spending that we did," he added.

Warren answered, "One of the causes of prices going up is there are companies that have market dominance that have said, 'Oh, this is a moment when everyone is talking about —'" Kernen interjected, "Okay, give me another one. Name another one. Give me an instance." Losing her patience, Warren retaliated, "Can I please finish my argument? You just want to keep talking, and you won’t let me finish." 

"The cure for higher prices is when people come in and undercut those prices and supply goes back up. This has been since 1776!" Kernen concluded as he criticized the price gouging in the food industry and its predictably low contribution to handling inflated prices in the market. He also accused Warren of being blindly supportive of Harris with 'disingenuous' figures, as per Mediaite.