'Why are you saying they're not in effect?' House Republican waffles after pushback on CNN

In an appearance on CNN, Rep. Dan Meuser (R-PA) was pressed and accepted a correction on one of his statements from anchor Brianna Keilar after she would not accept his talking points on tariffs.

The heated interaction came midway through the interview when Keilar pressed the congressman on his potential run for Pennsylvania governor.

“You are considering a run for governor of Pennsylvania in January. Before Trump took office, you said that your vision for Pennsylvania was, quote, ‘very similar to what Trump is going to do in the USA. I think it could be done in Pennsylvania.’ Since then, we've seen a new CNN poll and other ones that have echoed similar findings [that] 59% of Americans think [Trump] has worsened economic conditions with his economic policies. That is up eight points just since last month. Sixty-three percent of independents think this.”

She went on to ask, “Do you still mean that what you said about wanting to do what you thought Trump was going to do to Pennsylvania?"

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“Well, I appreciate the question,” he stammered. “Well, first off, again, the results of perceived and prospective tariffs have not gone into effect yet.” Meuser attempted to give a lengthy answer about what he believes Trump is doing well, before being interrupted.

“Why are you saying tariffs are not in effect?” Keilar pressed.

“Because we did a 90-day pause on them and of course, with China, there is [tariffs] but we're managing—”

Keilar again interrupted, “[Tariffs] are still at 10%.”

“Most of them were at 10% during the course of the Biden Administration,” Meuser interjected before Keilar continued with her question.

“China is the biggest trading partner, that's like the big kahuna right there,” she said.

“Brianna, we have not experienced any inflation as of yet. Again, it's at 2.4% because of the perceived and some of the tariffs that have already gone into effect. I'm going to grant you that. I'm not going to argue that point, that the tariffs triggered a sell-off within the markets and certainly have sent a rattle through the economy. The president wanted to fix this problem. He got the world's attention. He's got over 170 nations already coming in to talk about real trade deals. China is waking up to the fact that they need to also come to the table.

“Now, back to your question about having a Pennsylvania first approach.”

Meuser went on to rattle off several facts about the Keystone State and what he would change before Keilar asked another tariff question.

“How do you mitigate the prices of groceries are up even though Trump says they're down? I mean, you see the there are effects of tariffs. I know you're saying there aren't any, but there are.

“I wouldn’t say there aren't any, but instead, that they're more perceived than real at this moment in time.

“Well, we are out of time, unfortunately. We're going to leave it there. They are in effect. I just don't want to leave our viewers with the impression that they are not in effect. There is a pause on the so-called reciprocal tariffs, but they're still at 10%, and China is still very, very, very high,” Keilar said before ending the interview.Watch the clip below or at this link.

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