Sununu says if he were in White House, he’d fire Yellen to help economy

New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu (R) on Sunday said he would fire Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to help the economy because she “completely misled America” and avoided informing Americans about inflation and the “bad news.”

Sununu told CNN’s “State of the Union” host Jake Tapper that he expected a recession to be coming. He said if he was in the White House, the first thing he would do would be fire Yellen for her initial downplaying last year of the economic factors that have led to some economists warning of a recession in the near future.

“I think she’s completely misled America, because she didn’t want to kind of own the bad news. But that’s part of public service. You got to own the good with the bad,” Sununu said. “You got to ease folks into it and present a glide path.”

Inflation reached a 40-year high in May. High gas prices especially are continuing to affect the everyday American consumer and are expected to be the main driver in the midterm elections this year.

Other factors complicating the economy are the stock market plunging into bear market territory and the federal reserve hiking interest rates in order to curb spending.

At the end of May, Yellen acknowledged she was “wrong” about the path of inflation in the U.S. economy, reflecting on comments she made last year in which she said inflation would be a “small risk.” The Biden administration had refused for months last year to acknowledge inflation having a staying power, instead marking it as “transient.”

Sununu on Sunday said the Biden administration has not helped the economy by initially avoiding or downplaying the topic of inflation. He also blamed Democrats for passing large spending packages during the pandemic, arguing the injection of trillions of dollars created much of the inflation Americans are now struggling with.

“You cannot add $5 trillion onto America’s balance sheet and just hope it goes away. The recession is coming,” the GOP governor told Tapper on CNN. “The price of a taco is getting unbearable for some folks, and it hits lower-and middle-income families very, very hard. And that’s just going to be the issue going forward.”