MSNBC's Joy Reid calls massive inflation a 'Russia-boosted crisis,' wants another large stimulus

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Polling shows the majority of Americans aren't sold on the Vladimir "Putin price hike" talking point pushed by the Biden administration to account for the soaring costs of gas, groceries and other goods.

But MSNBC's Joy Reid, one of the most loyal Democrat boosters in the media, is still holding the line and calling for another huge economic stimulus.

Commenting on a list of dramatic year-over-year price increases listed by the Washington Post's Heather Long, Reid fumed Tuesday on Twitter, "Sure would be nice if we had enough Senators who might be open to doing a second CARES Act, to help folks get through this Russia-boosted crisis."

The first CARES Act was the $2.2 trillion stimulus former President Trump signed in 2020. It was by far the largest economic stimulus package in U.S. history. Last year, Biden signed a separate $1.9-trillion coronavirus relief bill, part of an unprecedented surge of government spending over the past two years.

Three months after President Biden said inflation hit its peak, the consumer price index hit a new 40-year high, according to a new Labor Department report released Tuesday. The consumer price index rose 8.5% in March from a year ago, marking the fastest increase since January 1982, when inflation hit 8.4%. Long spotlighted that groceries were up 10% and electricity was up 11.1%, the largest increases in years.

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Reid also ripped into Twitter founder Jack Dorsey on Monday after he went after the "system" and not a particular "party" for the latest inflation report, blaming the coronavirus pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine for the price spikes.

"Yes, yes, one party openly admits that inflation is going to rise," she wrote. "The other demagogues inflation by pretending the president personally caused it, not the pandemic plus a whole war in Europe; all so they can seize power while repeatedly undermining democracy. But ‘both sides’!"

While Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February has led to a rise in energy prices, inflation was already a major issue for Americans before it began. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki warned Monday of inflation being "extraordinary elevated" in the new report, "due to Putin's price hike."

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki talks to reporters during the daily news conference in the Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House on April 06, 2022 in Washington, DC. Psaki fielded questions about the failure of a COVID-19 funding bill to pass out of the U.S. Senate. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Biden and top aides and supporters have aggressively pushed the "Putin price hike" talking point, but to little avail in convincing the public.

David Axelrod, former chief campaign strategist and senior advisor to former President Obama, criticized the White House messaging surrounding inflation and increased gas prices during his "Hacks on Tap" podcast last month.

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"They've overcorrected and so for a few days he was saying, you know, everything is Putin's price hikes, inflation is Putin's fault," Axelrod said. "People don't believe that either, they know that they had inflation before this. They know that gas prices were high before this. They haven't dialed this in quite right yet. You can't blame everything in the economy on Putin."

The Washington Post's Aaron Blake also wrote last month that the talking point wasn't taking hold.

"The reality, though, was never going to be so neat. Inflation and gas prices were already bad, and it’s a difficult task to pin their rise on a war that isn’t front-and-center for most Americans," Blake wrote, citing a survey showing just 24 percent felt the Russian invasion of Ukraine was most responsible for the surge in gas prices.

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Fox News' Jessica Chasmar and Hanna Panreck contributed to this report.