Democratic presidential candidates, Trump advisers offer differing views on recession fears

A potential recession was the talk of the town on Sunday. Unsurprisingly, viewpoints differed.

Former Rep. Beto O'Rourke (D-Texas), a Democratic presidential candidate, for instance, told NBC's Chuck Todd on Sunday's edition of Meet the Press that he's afraid President Trump's tariffs on China are "driving the global economy and our economy into a recession" and that they're "hammering the hell out of farmers across the country." O'Rourke's Democratic competitor South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg concurred, calling Trump's tariffs a "fool's errand."

On the other hand, White House trade adviser Peter Navarro and Director of the National Economic Council Larry Kudlow were far less concerned. Both Navarro and Kudlow said they don't foresee a recession on the horizon, with Kudlow saying Americans should "not be afraid of optimism." A few minutes later, though, Kudlow acknowledged that he was wrong when he dismissed fears of a recession in 2007 and, well, you know the rest.

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Navarro, who made the Sunday network rounds, said "with certainty" that he expects the U.S. to maintain a strong economy going forward. He shook off criticism from the Wall Street Journal editorial board with a little word play.

Another Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), took the exact opposite viewpoint, however, arguing that the economy might look rosy from the top-down, but that that picture is not reflected in the "everyday, kitchen table issues that families face."