Kennedy: ‘Telling’ Americans ‘not to believe their own lying checkbooks is not going to work’

Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) on Sunday said Republicans “have to tell the American people the truth” about the cost of living as his party heads into the midterms.

“As I’ve said before, Kristen, here’s my prediction about the elections. I will bet you a soda and a nice hat that the experts are wrong. I will think — I do think it will be close,” Kennedy told NBC News’s Kristen Welker on “Meet the Press,” discussing the upcoming midterms.

“I think the biggest issue is cost of living. I think we have to tell the American people the truth,” he added. “Telling them not to believe their own lying checkbooks is not going to work. This inflation did not originate in a vat. Started under [former] President Biden. It’s reared its ugly head under President Trump because of the war in Iran.”

The GOP is facing multiple political challenges as the midterms approach, with issues like the unpopular Iran war and tariffs. The Iran war has especially hit Americans hard at the pump, with the Strait of Hormuz — a key waterway for the oil industry — closed amid the conflict.

According to AAA, the average price of a gallon of regular gas for Americans was about $4.37 Sunday afternoon, with the same gallon of gas worth about $3.14 last year at the same time.

A recent Quinnipiac University poll found that 62 percent of respondents said they were against Trump’s handling of the economy.

In a separate Associated Press/NORC survey, 65 percent of respondents said the president’s policies were causing high prices , more than other economic drivers. More than half of respondents in the same poll also said the national economy, as well as the U.S. overall, had been worse off since Trump came back to the White House.

Kevin Hassett, the director of the National Economic Council, said Sunday he didn’t believe in recent polls that show Americans’ negative feelings surrounding the economy.

“Ahead of an election cycle, the fact that there’s, you know, possibly partisan pollsters telling us that the people are really, really depressed, it’s a classic Democrat move, and I just don’t buy it,” Hassett told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union.”