White House chief of staff Ron Klain told CNN's Jake Tapper that "things are a lot better in this country than they were a year ago" in regard to the economy and COVID-19 — and observers ripped Klain for his assessment.

What are the details?

Klain made his claim in an interview last week on "The Lead With Jake Tapper," in which Tapper hit the chief of staff right off the bat with inflation numbers, noting that "it's at a 30-year high" and "up 6.2%. That's worse than had been feared."

Tapper also cited a Monmouth University poll saying 42% of middle class families have not benefited under President Joe Biden — a number which is "up from 33% who said the same in July." The host then ran down a list of items that now cost more — "gas, used cars, bacon, beef, chicken, eggs, furniture, TVs, kids' shoes, electricity, rent."

Klain replied that Biden's infrastructure bill would help supply chain issues that lead to price increases and that his "Build Back Better" bill "is the best answer we have to bring those costs down."

'Things are a lot better in this country than they were a year ago'

Later in the interview, Tapper cited a new CNN poll saying the "majority of Americans, 58%, believe that President Biden is not paying attention to the nation's most important issues ... the economy is the most pressing problem, followed by coronavirus, immigration, climate change, national security, and so on."

Tapper added that "even Democrats are walking away from the idea that Biden has the right priorities. Ninety percent in April of Democrats polled said that the Biden had the right priorities, now it's 75%. So, how do you how do you fix this?"

Klain replied that "I think things are a lot better in this country than they were a year ago with regard to COVID, with regard to the economy, but we have a lot of work left to do."

WH Chief of Staff Ron Klain: "Things are a lot better in this country than they were a year ago. [...] We have problems to solve, but we're solving them."pic.twitter.com/IHQRl29del

— The Hill (@thehill) 1636939860

How did folks react?

Certainly Biden has his fans among hard-core Democrats, and they defended Klain's assessment that things are better in America now than they were this time last year with regard to the economy and COVID.

But others were flabbergasted by the chief of staff — who, not incidentally, recently endorsed the notion that issues like the stalling supply chain are "high class problems":

• "You've got to be kidding right[?]" one commenter asked mockingly. "There is literally nothing that's better than it was a year ago."
• "Except if you need to eat food, put gas in your car or heat your home," another user lamented. "Otherwise everything is peachy!"
• "The national supply chain has collapsed, the Taliban occupies Afghanistan, millions more have left the labor force, and inflation is at a 31-year high," another commenter said. "Things are going great."
• "By no metric is America better today than a year ago," another user declared. "Biden voters need to stop living in denial and admit they elected an administration full of globalist retards."
• "Tell that knob that a year ago I still owned my rental property that I was forced to sell in July because the government mandated that people could live in it for FREE, for over a year, but still demanded that I pay my mortgage, utilities & property taxes," another commenter revealed.
• "Exactly what 'things' @WHCOS?" another user wondered. "Gas prices? Inflation? Cost of living? Racism? Afghanistan? World leadership? Energy independence? North Korea? Border security? The only thing 'better' (according to you) is that Trump isn't POTUS. This administration is the worst since Carter."