A timeline of Jeff Bezos' messy inflation feud with Biden
Cliff Owen, File/Associated Press; Susan Walsh/Associated Press
- Bezos and the Biden administration have feuded for days over US economic problems.
- Biden said making the wealthiest corporations pay more taxes would help tame inflation.
- Bezos, founder and chairman of Amazon, accused Biden of "misdirection."
The days-long Twitter feud between the Biden administration and Jeff Bezos started last week over who is to blame for skyrocketing inflation.
President Joe Biden said making the wealthiest corporations pay more in taxes would help. Spoiler alert: Bezos, founder and chairman of Amazon and one of the richest people in the world, doesn't agree.
Things went south from there.
Amazon paid no federal income taxes in 2018 and 2017, and according to a 2021 ProPublica report, Bezos has previously avoided paying income taxes for at least two years, as well.
Here's a timeline of the spat:
May 13: Biden gets things rolling with a tweet asking, "You want to bring down inflation? Let's make sure the wealthiest corporations pay their fair share."
May 13: Bezos retweets Biden, saying the president's statement should be reviewed by Homeland Security's recently announced Disinformation Governance Board. He disagrees that corporate taxes and inflation are intertwined.
—Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) May 14, 2022
May 14: Biden boasted that the administration was lowering the deficit, thereby easing inflation.
—President Biden (@POTUS) May 14, 2022
May 15: Bezos shares a tweet criticizing Biden's claim, and says Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia "saved them from themselves" by preventing them from injecting "more stimulus into an already over-heated, inflationary economy." He appears to be referring to Biden's "Build Back Better" plan, which the administration says would be fully paid for through savings and "by asking more from the very largest corporations and the wealthiest Americans."
—Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) May 15, 2022
May 15: White House spokesman Andrew Bates blasted Bezos' critique in a statement to a reporter from the Washington Post, which Bezos owns. The Washington Post's newsroom leadership has repeatedly said Bezos does not influence their coverage. Bates implied that Bezos was angry at the White House for meeting with Amazon warehouse employees who wanted to unionize.
May 16: Bezos goes on offense, tweeting a reply to Bates' statement implying that the White House is trying to deflect attention from inflation.
—Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) May 16, 2022
May 16: Bates responds to Bezos by citing a statement from Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, a critic of the administration on the economy. Summers called Bezos "mostly wrong."
—Andrew Bates (@AndrewJBates46) May 16, 2022
May 16: Fox News reporter Peter Doocy asked White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre whether she'd be "okay" with the social media disinformation board reviewing Biden's tweet.
—NowThis (@nowthisnews) May 16, 2022
May 17: Longtime Bezos foe, Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who has long called for a wealth tax, came to Biden's defense — and called Bezos a "thin-skinned billionaire."
—Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) May 17, 2022