Harris dodges questions about her plan to handle a recession, attacks Trump's economic record instead

Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign attacked former President Trump and his economic record when asked how she would handle a potential recession that economists worry is looming over the U.S. economy. 

"What middle-class families need is steady economic stewardship, not chaotic ranting lies," Harris campaign spokesperson Ammar Moussa told Fox News Digital when asked if the vice president has a plan crafted to handle a potential recession and what those policies would look like. 

"Donald Trump had the worst jobs record of any modern president, and oversaw some of the worst days in the stock market in history while spending his presidency lining the pockets of his wealthy friends who shipped American jobs overseas. Economic experts agree: His plans would raise costs on working families by $2,500 a year and ‘supercharge' inflation," Moussa continued. 

Concerns are mounting this week that the U.S. economy is careening toward a recession, just months ahead of the highly anticipated 2024 presidential election. 

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Harris' campaign blamed the Trump administration last week for the lackluster jobs report. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Economists at Goldman Sachs this week raised the likelihood of the U.S. slipping into a recession in the next 12 months from 15% to 25%. Though the risk is still considered "limited," according to the Goldman Sachs experts, global markets plunged overnight on Monday while U.S. stocks opened lower on Monday morning. 

The stock market plunge this week comes after the U.S. jobs report for July found a weaker than expected gain, which triggered what is known as the "Sahm Rule." Named after former Federal Reserve economist Claudia Sahm, the rule has successfully predicted every recession since 1970.

Harris' campaign blamed the Trump administration last week for the lackluster jobs report that triggered the Sahm Rule. 

"Donald Trump failed Americans as president, costing our economy millions of jobs, and bringing us to the brink of recession," Harris for President spokesperson James Singer said in a statement last week. 

"Now, he’s promising even more damage with a Project 2025 agenda that will decimate the middle class and increase taxes on working families, while ripping away health care, raising prescription drug costs, and cutting Social Security and Medicare – all while making his billionaire donors richer." 

Since President Biden dropped out of the presidential race last month, critics on social media have resurrected Harris’ previous comments on economic issues, including an excerpt from the book "This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden, and the Battle for America's Future," which focused on the 2020 election. An excerpt from the book shows Biden allegedly abruptly dismissed Harris’ comments about beefing up a spending package in 2021 to include funding for "human infrastructure." 

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"Harris thought there was something missing from the conversation and she spoke up to say so. What about the rest of the investments the administration wanted in infrastructure? In April alone, the White House has laid out proposals to spend more than $4 trillion on a combination of hard infrastructure and what it called human infrastructure – the social benefits and family-support programs so dear to Democrats," the passage states. 

Harris reportedly pushed for a larger package than one Republicans would support, ostensibly sparking Biden to shut her down immediately. 

"Biden dismissed her comment immediately," the book reads. 

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"It was such a terse response, that even the Republican senators were taken aback. Biden wasn’t wrong – they would never vote for the American Family Plan – but none of them had previously seen him shut down his vice president like that." 

The vice president's previous praise of "Bidenomics" has also become a common target among critics and conservatives on social media as the stock market plunges. 

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Harris outlined an economic agenda in a speech last month, arguing Americans should have access to affordable health care, as well as child care. 

"Building up the middle class will be a defining goal of my presidency," Harris said. "Because we here know when our middle class is strong, America is strong."

Harris’ campaign website also touts the Biden-Harris administration’s "historic record of accomplishment" on the economic front, including: "bringing our economy back from the brink of disaster to create nearly 16 million new jobs; investing over $1 trillion in infrastructure projects like repairing roads and bridges, removing every lead pipe in America, improving public transit, and expanding access to high-speed internet; strengthening the Affordable Care Act and lowering health insurance premiums to save millions of Americans an average of $800 per year…" 

Harris was also asked in 2021, as inflation prepared to swell to a 40-year high of 9.1% the following year, about how she would handle inflation woes. 

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"Let's start with this: Prices have gone up, and families and individuals are dealing with the realities of – that bread costs more, that gas costs more," Harris said at the time. "And we have to understand what that means. That's about the cost of living going up. That's about having to stress and stretch limited resources. That's about a source of stress for families that is not only economic but is on a daily level something that is a heavy weight to carry." 

People shop in a supermarket in Los Angeles. (Reuters/Lucy Nicholson)

"So we have addressed it in a number of ways. One of the issues that we know is related to this is the supply chain issue that we just discussed. So on a domestic level, in terms of domestic policy, one of the approaches we have taken is to work with labor unions and to work with municipalities in opening back up and extending the hours of our ports," she added. 

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Trump has meanwhile vowed to correct the economy, lower inflation and end taxes on tips and Social Security benefits. The economy under the Biden-Harris administration has also been a frequent target of the 45th president as he works to reclaim the White House. 

President Trump listens during an event on Operation Warp Speed in the Rose Garden of the White House on Nov. 13, 2020. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

"Of course there is a massive market downturn. Kamala is even worse than Crooked Joe. Markets will NEVER accept the Radical Left Lunatic that DESTROYED San Francisco and California, as a whole. Next move, THE GREAT DEPRESSION OF 2024! You can’t play games with MARKETS. KAMALA CRASH!!!," Trump posted to Truth Social on Monday as the market plunged. 

He had noted on Sunday while Asian markets dropped: "STOCK MARKETS CRASHING. I TOLD YOU SO!!! KAMALA DOESN'T HAVE A CLUE. BIDEN IS SOUND ASLEEP. ALL CAUSED BY INEPT U.S. LEADERSHIP!"

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub. 

Fox News Digital's Brooke Singman and Megan Henney contributed to this report.