White House says it misread threat of inflation, history of Pride Month: 5 Things podcast

On today's episode of the 5 Things podcast: White House says it misread threat of inflation

White House correspondent Joey Garrison reports. Plus, the latest jobs report may show a cooling market, it's been 100 days since Russia invaded Ukraine, reporter Cady Stanton looks at the history of Pride Month and kids under 5 may be able to get COVID-19 vaccines this month.

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Hit play on the player above to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript below. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.

Taylor Wilson:

Good morning. I'm Taylor Wilson and this is 5 Things you need to know Friday, the 3rd of June, 2022. Today, the Biden administration and inflation, plus 100 days of war in Ukraine and more.

Here are some of the top headlines:

1. Police say a man who blamed his surgeon for ongoing pain after a recent back surgery bought an AR-style rifle hours before opening fire at a Tulsa medical office this week. He killed the surgeon and three other people before fatally shooting himself.

2. President Joe Biden yesterday urged Congress to "finally do something" on gun control. He called on lawmakers to ban assault weapons and high capacity magazines after a wave of high-profile mass shootings in recent weeks.

3. The Boston Celtics surprised the Golden State Warriors in Game One of the NBA finals last night to win 120-108. Game Two is set for Sunday night.

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Inflation is at a 40-year high, and 15 months ago the White House assured Americans that high inflation would be temporary, but that hasn't been the case. White House correspondent Joey Garrison has more on what got us to this point.

Joey Garrison:

Well, there's a couple different camps on what led to this inflation. I think everyone agrees that the supply chain issues that were created by the pandemic was the number one issue. But you have another group of economists, Democrats really like Larry Summers, former treasury secretary, as well as some of the people from his camp, who also say Biden's American Rescue Plan, that $1.9 trillion stimulus last year, pumped too much spending. It created money into the economy, created too much demand out there. It overheated the economy. So there's two prevailing thoughts in terms of how we got there.

Now, in terms of what... You have some people who say, "Hey, the White House should have listened to experts who warned that this kind of stimulus in the economy would have an inflationary effect." But what also the White House didn't know a year ago, really 15 months ago, was that the pandemic really wasn't over. If you remember, March 2021, the stimulus package, American Rescue Plan, passes. Biden on July 4th of last year kind of declares independence from the virus, but then the Delta variant came a couple months later. What that did is it, again, halted manufacturing plants, particularly in Asia. So there was a smaller supply of goods out there essentially, but there was a demand that exceeded that as things started to reopen. That's kind of a long explanation there. Really looking back in hindsight, of course, and it's always 20/20, the White House didn't see some of those factors that would come.

I'll just say, the White House over the next 30 days through June is really trying to message their work on inflation. I think there's a sense that, and it doesn't take a genius to figure this out, that what they have been saying on the economy, on inflation is not resonating among the American public. All you have to do is look at the president's low approval ratings to realize that. It's such a tough task there because as long as gas prices and people drive down the highway and fill up their pump and see that they're paying nearly $5 a gallon in many states, it's tough to try to convince the public. Some of these issues weren't our doing but were going to happen no matter what. That's just a tough sell.

The president this week tried to stress that it's the Federal Reserve, really, that can control the levers to try to affect inflation. He had Jerome Powell here, the Fed chairman, at the White House where Biden said that he wanted to make sure that they had their independence to do what they needed to do, that he would not interfere with that. But ultimately, as we all know, the buck stops at the president's office, and this is an issue that, unless it starts turning around or Biden starts showing some progress in some areas, it's likely to really hurt him and Democrats in the November midterm election.

Taylor Wilson:

You can find the full story in today's episode description.

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Despite inflation issues, the US jobs market has been running red hot, but a report out today from the Labor Department could show signs of a slowdown. Economists predict gains of 325,000 jobs in last month's market. That's down from the more than 400,000 employers have added each month for the past year. The number is still strong by historical standards, though, and some economists say some cooling off is not always a bad thing. Economic Professor Brian Bethune said that the Federal Reserve wants to see things slow down as it raises interest rates to restrain wage and price increases.

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Today marks 100 days since Russia invaded Ukraine. In the months since, the conflict has taken on a number of forms. Russia's initial push to take the capital of Kyiv and other western and northern regions of Ukraine failed. But Russia has since focused its efforts on eastern Ukraine, namely the Donbas region. Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said yesterday that Russia now controls 20% of his country. His estimate appeared to include not only Russian conquests since its February 24th invasion, but also its 2014 annexation of Crimea.

In speaking to the Luxembourg parliament, Zelenskyy appealed to Europe to continue paying attention to the conflict. He said, "If the person who wants to destroy any freedom in Ukraine and Europe prevails, there will be a dark time for everyone on the continent." Ukraine also says about 35% of its gross domestic product has been wiped out. Conservative estimates show dozens of thousands of civilians and soldiers have likely been killed, with millions more displaced either within Ukraine or as refugees abroad in neighboring countries like Poland.

There was some reprieve this week, though, for many in Ukraine. The country's national men's soccer team beats Scotland 3-1 in Glasgow to reach the final playoff round for a spot in this fall's World Cup. That was the scene underground in Kyiv where a bar got around a wartime curfew by offering fans to stay until 5:00 a.m. the next day. Voice actor, Alexei Safin, said the team is a symbol of Ukraine's strength.

Alexei Safin:

I'm hoping that these guys are sportsmen, can show the strength of Ukraine, not only on the battlefield but also in sports.

Taylor Wilson:

They'll next play Wales on Sunday. The winner will be in the United States group at the World Cup in Qatar.

♦

June is Pride Month, and Pride celebrations are rooted in activism and protest. 5 Things producer, PJ Elliott, spoke with reporter Cady Stanton for a look back at the history behind Pride.

Cady Stanton:

While we think of the present iteration of Pride being centered around lots of celebrations and parades in the month of June, the history of Pride is actually rooted in a lot of activism and protests specifically around civil rights for members of the LGBTQ community. One of the most well known of these events was an LGBTQ activist event called the Stonewall Riots. June 28th, 1969, police rated the Stonewall Inn, which is a very famous gay bar in Greenwich Village, New York, and the police officers were attempting to arrest those inside. A lot of raids of gay bars across the city during that time had escalated a lot of frustration toward police and led a lot of patrons, including two famous transgender activists, Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, to fight back against police. There was lots of discussion and some historical framing around the first brick stone thrown at Stonewall and the historical significance of that. So largely activism has been a core part of the LGBTQ community since before Stonewall, but the riots in particular drew attention to the experience of LGBTQ individuals across the country and ultimately allowed for a lot more visibility and open doors towards cultural acceptance in the future.

PJ Elliott:

Let's take a look at the timeline and the growth of Pride. Can you take us through the beginning to where we're at now? How did we go from those protests to the big parades that we see today?

Cady Stanton:

Yeah, for sure. After the Stonewall Riots, in the early '70s was when the first Pride parades started to occur specifically in places like New York City and big urban areas. But those first iterations of Pride weren't all inclusive. For transgender activists, like Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, a lot of these big parades around Pride were centered around gay and lesbian members of the LGBTQ community, and a lot of trans and people of color in that community were excluded. Eventually through growing activism and acknowledgement of the role of those individuals in activism, it became gradually more inclusive.

Pride also took a pretty strong activist form in the 1980s and '90s with the rise of the AIDS epidemic and that activism around trying to get political attention to that topic and the death of a lot of LGBTQ individuals in that pandemic specifically gay men. Then alongside that, it grew further and further just alongside the cultural acceptance of members of the LGBTQ community, largely in the US but also internationally. So now some of the largest Pride parades are in New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles each year. In the modern day, while the past two years a lot of the iterations of Pride parades have been virtual or kind of abridged because of the pandemic, 2022 seems to be the big resurgence of these events and a return to their larger and fuller form.

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Parents eager to vaccinate their youngest children against COVID-19 might be able to do so by June 21st. White House COVID-19 coordinator, Dr. Ashish Jha, said yesterday that'll be the case for kids under five if federal regulators authorize for the age group as expected.

Dr. Ashish Jha:

We expect that vaccinations will begin in earnest as early as Tuesday, June 21st, and really roll on throughout that week. Now, it will take some time to ramp up the program and for vaccines to be more widely available. As doses arrive in places throughout the country, more sites will have vaccines. More appointments will become available. Our expectation is that, within weeks, every parent who wants their child to get vaccinated would be able to get an appointment. We will, of course, do our part. We're going to continue monitoring. We're going to ship doses out as fast possible. We're going to make sure that supply is always meeting demand.

Taylor Wilson:

The news comes a week after Pfizer and German partner, BioNTech, announced their vaccine for kids under five appeared to be safe and effective. Fellow vaccine developer, Moderna, also released trial data in March showing their vaccine was also safe and effective for children aged six months to six years. The companies continue to wait for FDA review in the coming weeks. For more on the vaccine options for your kids, you can find a link to a full story in today's episode description.

Thanks for listening to 5 Things. You can find us on whatever your favorite podcast app is seven mornings a week. Thanks to PJ Elliott for his great work on the show, and I'm back tomorrow with more of 5 Things from USA TODAY.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: WH admits misreading inflation threat, new jobs report: 5 Things podcast