Rep. Greg Murphy, R-N.C., who sits on the House Ways and Means Committee, told Newsmax on Wednesday that Democrats on the panel showed their "tone deafness" with a now-deleted post on X that mocked Americans' economic struggles.
The post, which was later taken down, was a response to record Black Friday sales, with House Ways and Means Democrats writing, "And here we were thinking y'all couldn't afford eggs!"
"This just basically shows what the election was all about," Murphy told "Newsline." "It's tone deafness on the part of Democrats, the liberal elites, who want to tell us how to do things, as they live on their rich pyramids out there in Hollywood. No, the average American has been suffering. Look at what has now happened with the cost of eggs. You know, our groceries have gone up.
"It's now $11,000, $12,000 more per year for the average American family to get the things that are necessities over what happened just a few years ago," he said. "It's tone deafness. It's what the American people saw and resoundingly rejected in this past election. It's pretty sad that we had some rogue staffer tweet this out, but it's emblematic and symptomatic of what a lot of Democrats are thinking."
The North Carolina congressman also commented on President-elect Donald Trump's recent economic moves, which include picking Peter Navarro to be senior counselor for trade and manufacturing and vowing to block the sale of U.S. Steel to Nippon in Japan.
"I think President Trump has shown that he is kind of, as we say, the master of the art of the deal," he said. "He's looking around at avenues that he can use as pressure points, as things that he can use for negotiating tools to put America back on track, back in a good positioning environment, which we historically have had. We've done nothing in trade over the last four years. President [Joe] Biden has been totally, and his administration, have been totally awash in not doing anything in trade.
"We're being abused by so many other countries abroad," Murphy continued. "You look at what happens with the value-added tax, which happens in other countries where they add on monies to imported goods and other goods. I'm not a big fan of tariffs for the purpose of raising money, but it's part of the armamentarium that the president has to making sure that he's able to put his economic policy, also his security policy when we look at immigration at our southern border, intact in ways we need to do it. His bully pulpit is the economy and that's up to him to be able to use."
Nicole Weatherholtz ✉
Nicole Weatherholtz, a Newsmax general assignment reporter covers news, politics, and culture. She is a National Newspaper Association award-winning journalist.
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