Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi claimed on Thursday that the coronavirus pandemic and the “war in Iraq” were responsible for the soaring cost of living in the US. Pelosi’s own office corrected her statement to read “Ukraine,” in keeping with the rhetoric of her fellow Democrats.
The annual inflation rate in the US hit 8.6% in May, the highest level since 1981. Food and fuel costs have soared, with the national average gas price passing $5 per gallon this week. According to a recent Wall Street Journal poll, 83% of Americans rate the country’s economic state as poor or “not so good.”
Speaking at a weekly press briefing on Thursday, Pelosi described inflation as a problem of supply and shipping bottlenecks.
“Look we have the war in Iraq, we have Covid which has, uh … really deterred more product coming into our country,” she told reporters.
A transcript of the speech was posted on Pelosi’s website shortly afterwards, with “Iraq” replaced by “[Ukraine].”
Pelosi is not the first political figure to confuse the conflict in Ukraine with the US’ combat mission in Iraq, which began with a full-scale invasion in 2003 and formally concluded with the withdrawal of combat troops last December. Former President George W. Bush infamously referred to Russia’s operation in Ukraine last month as the “unjustified and brutal invasion of Iraq – I mean of Ukraine.”