Republicans accuse NPR, PBS of bias at House hearing; Democrats rebuke it as a partisan attack
NPR CEO Katherine Maher, PBS President & CEO Paula Kerger; Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — Republicans accused public media outlets NPR and PBS of bias at a House subcommittee hearing on Wednesday, while Democrats defended the organizations and criticized the event as a distraction from the ongoing controversy regarding the Trump administration’s use the Signal messaging app for the communication of sensitive information.
PBS President and CEO Paula Kerger and NPR President and CEO Katherine Maher rebutted allegations of bias, saying the outlets abide by journalistic standards and serve a diverse audience that includes rural viewers.
The hearing, titled “Anti-American Airwaves: Holding the Heads of NPR and PBS Accountable,” was held by the Delivering on Government Efficiency (DOGE) subcommittee, the name of which echoes the Department of Government Efficiency, the Trump administration’s cost-cutting initiative overseen by Elon Musk.
House Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., criticized NPR and PBS during the hearing for alleged liberal bias, pointing to federal funding for the outlets as the target of potential cuts.
“NPR and PBS have increasingly become radical, left-wing echo chambers for a narrow audience of mostly wealthy, white, urban liberals and progressives,” Greene said.
Minutes later, House Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-Ma., defended the public media outlets and criticized the hearing as a distraction for more important issues often taken up by the House Oversight Committee, the larger body to which the DOGE subcommittee belongs.
“I’m sad to see this once proud committee — the principle investigative committee in the House of Representatives — has now stooped to the lowest levels of partisanship and political theater to hold a hearing to go after the likes of Elmo and Cookie Monster and Arthur the aardvark,” Lynch said.
Later in the hearing, Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Ca., said sarcastically: “Is Elmo now, or has he ever been, a member of the Communist Party?”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(NEW YORK) — President Donald Trump has vowed to issue a fresh round of tariffs on April 2, presenting it as an inflection point for the economy weeks after a previous set of duties roiled markets and incited recession fears.
Trump has repeatedly referred to April 2 as “liberation day,” saying a wide-ranging slate of reciprocal tariffs would rebalance U.S. trade relationships.
Trump’s plan for reciprocal tariffs next week, however, is expected to be narrower than he previously vowed, though the plan remains under discussion, sources told ABC News this week.
The news of a potentially softer approach to forthcoming tariffs rallied U.S. stocks earlier this week, recovering some of the losses suffered earlier in March.
While key details remain unknown, new duties would ratchet up the global trade war, raising prices for an array of consumer goods and risking an economic slowdown, experts told ABC News.
“This certainly will be an escalation,” Mary Lovely, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics who studies trade policy, told ABC News. “We know the direction of travel, if not how far this will go.”
Here’s what the latest round of tariffs could mean for prices and the economy, according to experts:
Will the tariffs on April 2 raise prices? In setting tariffs for April 2, the U.S. will target countries that have major trade imbalances with the U.S., sources said.
“It’s 15% of the countries, but it’s a huge amount of our trading volume,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said last week, describing the countries as a “Dirty 15.”
Last year, according to federal census data, the U.S. had its biggest trade deficits with China, the European Union, Mexico, Vietnam, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Canada and India, among other nations.
Reciprocal tariffs could raise prices for imported goods from those countries, since importers typically pass along a share of the tax burden to consumers.
The tariffs could hike prices for furniture and consumer electronics from Vietnam, fresh fruits and vegetables from Mexico, and cars from South Korea, experts told ABC News.
“This is going to mean prices will ultimately go up,” Jason Miller, a professor of supply chain management at Michigan State University, told ABC News.
The scale of price increases will likely depend on the tariff rate set by the Trump administration, which remains unclear, the experts said.
Speaking at the White House on Monday, Trump said the reciprocal tariffs could fall short of the rate that target countries impose on U.S. goods.
“I may give a lot of countries breaks,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “I’m embarrassed to charge them what they’ve charged us.”
Kyle Handley, a professor of economics at the University of California, San Diego, said he expects consumer prices to rise enough for consumers to identify the change.
“Depending on what tariff rates they put in place, it could be pretty massive,” Handley said. “It will be a non-trivial increase in the price of imports. People will notice.”
What do the tariffs on April 2 mean for the economy? Experts told ABC News the fresh tariffs would put downward pressure on U.S. economic growth, since the additional tax burden for importing businesses and uncertainty about additional duties could deter private sector investment.
“A lot of the uncertainty about tariffs very likely has firms sort of frozen in place as they’re waiting to evaluate and see what happens,” Miller said.
Looming tariffs also risk unease among shoppers, threatening to undermine a key engine of the U.S. economy, some experts said. Consumer attitudes worsened more than expected in March, dropping to their lowest levels since 2021, a Conference Board survey on Tuesday showed.
Consumer spending, which accounts for about two-thirds of U.S. economic activity, could weaken if shopper sentiment sours, Bret Kenwell, U.S. investment analyst at eToro, told ABC News in a statement.
By some key measures, however, the economy remains in solid shape. A recent jobs report showed steady hiring last month and a historically low unemployment rate. Inflation stands well below a peak attained in 2022, though price increases register nearly a percentage point higher than the Fed’s goal of 2%.
Still, recession fears are mounting on Wall Street as businesses and consumers weather the trade war. Goldman Sachs earlier this month hiked its odds of a recession from 15% to 20%. Moody’s Analytics pegged the chances of a recession over the next year at 35%.
“These tariffs will be very detrimental for economic performance and business growth,” Handley said. “It may not take long for us to start seeing some of those effects.”
Annabelle Gordon for The Washington Post via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — Price hikes for gasoline and groceries could reach shoppers within days in the aftermath of tariffs imposed by the Trump administration, experts told ABC News.
Some products such as auto fuel and fresh produce will be hit with near-instant price increases, while others like cars, laptops and children’s toys will show hikes in the coming weeks and months, they said.
The Trump administration imposed 25% tariffs on goods from Mexico and Canada, as well as 10% tariffs on imports from China. The fresh round of duties on Chinese goods doubled an initial set of tariffs placed on China last month.
Mexico, Canada and China make up the three largest U.S. trading partners, accounting for a vast array of products ranging from everyday essentials to big-ticket purchases.
Tariffs of this magnitude would likely increase prices paid by U.S. shoppers, since importers typically pass along a share of the cost of those higher taxes to consumers, experts said.
“Higher tariffs will translate into higher prices for some products very quickly,” Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, told ABC News. “It will take longer for everything from vehicles to appliances to consumer electronics.”
In a series of social media posts last month, Trump said he would place tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China for hosting the manufacture and transport of illicit drugs that end up in the U.S.
During an address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday night, Trump also sharply criticized tariffs imposed on U.S. goods by Canada, Mexico and China.
“President Trump continues to demonstrate his commitment to ensuring U.S. trade policy serves the national interest,” the White House said in a statement on Tuesday.
The U.S. imported $38.5 billion in agricultural goods from Mexico in 2023, making it the top recipient of such products, U.S Department of Agriculture data showed. Those imports include more than $3 billion worth of fresh fruits and vegetables.
Roughly 90% of avocados eaten in the U.S. last year originated in Mexico, USDA data showed. Other products with a high concentration of Mexican imports include tomatoes, cucumbers, bell peppers, jalapeños, limes and mangos.
These products will show price increases within days because fresh produce cannot be held on shelves for an extended period, meaning imports slapped with tariffs will soon reach shoppers, Jason Miller, a professor of supply chain management at Michigan State University, told ABC News.
“That’s what you’d expect to be hit the fastest,” Miller said.
A similar dynamic will play out for gasoline prices for some U.S. drivers living in regions that rely on crude oil from Mexico and Canada, said Timothy Fitzgerald, a professor of business economics at the University of Tennessee who studies the petroleum industry.
Mexico and Canada account for 70% of U.S. crude oil imports, which make up a key input for the nation’s gasoline supply, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, a government agency.
Those imports come primarily from Canada, which sends crude oil to U.S. refineries built specifically to process the crude and redistribute it as gasoline for cars and trucks. Gasoline that originates as Canadian crude reaches customers in the upper Midwest as well as some along the East and West coasts, Fitzgerald said.
Gas refiners and retailers retain the ability to alter prices multiple times per day, meaning price hikes may have hit some drivers as early as Tuesday, he added.
“Think about a digital board at a gas station – a couple taps to a button and the price goes up,” Fitzgerald said.
A second wave of price increases will hit a wide-ranging set of products over the coming weeks and months, some experts said.
A large share of consumer electronics – such as laptops, video game systems and smartphones – enter the U.S. from China, meaning the new tariffs will filter through into higher prices for those goods, they said.
Price hikes will ultimately hit children’s toys, since many of those products also originate in China, Miller said.
Some U.S. retailers appear to have been stockpiling children’s toys in anticipation of the tariffs, but the stored items will run out soon, he added.
“You probably don’t get much of a reprieve beyond April,” Miller said.
Prices for Mexico-made beer and tequila will also rise over the coming months, as will the cost of Canada-made maple syrup, Miller added.
Canada is the top source of imported U.S. eggs, adding stress to a supply chain already decimated by an avian flu outbreak.
Egg prices skyrocketed 53% over the past year, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data showed last month.
Since the U.S. relies overwhelmingly on domestic egg production, however, a potential price increase for Canadian eggs is not expected to meaningfully drive up egg prices at U.S. stores, Miller said.
“But it certainly doesn’t make things better,” Miller added.
ABC News’ Jacob Eufemia contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Consumer prices rose 3% in January compared to a year ago, ticking up from the previous month and posing an obstacle for Trump administration tariff policies that many economists expect to raise some prices, government data on Wednesday showed. The inflation reading came in higher than economists had predicted.
The fresh data extends a bout of resurgent inflation that stretches back to last year. Two weeks ago, the Federal Reserve opted to hold interest rates steady in part out of concern regarding the stubborn price increases.
Egg prices, a closely watched symbol of rising costs, soared 53% in January compared to a year ago. An avian flu has decimated the egg supply, lifting prices higher.
Beef prices climbed 5% and bacon prices jumped 6% in January compared to a year ago, data showed. By contrast, prices dropped over that same period for bread, rice and tomatoes.
Core inflation — a measure that strips out volatile food and energy prices — increased 3.3% over the year ending in December, ticking lower than the previous month, the data showed. That gauge also sped up from the previous month.
Inflation has slowed dramatically from a peak in June 2022, but price increases remain a percentage point higher than the Fed’s target rate.
Since Trump took office on Jan. 20, he has announced a series of tariffs, which economists say could push prices higher. Tariffs on steel and aluminum announced by Trump this week could raise prices for a set of products that includes refrigerators, beer and automobiles, experts previously told ABC News.
In a post on Truth Social on Wednesday morning, Trump appeared to fault former President Joe Biden for the uptick in inflation, writing: “BIDEN INFLATION UP!”
Biden served during more than half of the month of January, leaving office on Jan. 20. Trump, however, said during the presidential campaign earlier this year that he would bring down prices “starting on day one.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
