WATCH: Reporter Asks Psaki for Response to Republican Senator Calling President Biden ‘Mad Hatter’

CBS News correspondent Ed O’Keefe asked White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki for her response to a GOP senator who called President Joe Biden a “Mad Hatter.”

At Ms. Psaki’s first post-holiday briefing Monday, O’Keefe asked about President Biden’s efforts to promote his Build Back Better plan through travel to various states. Psaki told O’Keefe that “we have every intention of moving forward with our plan to sell the President’s Build Back Better Agenda” despite the Omicron variant.

“And to Republicans who say that this is something that could contribute to inflation — I think there was one Senate Republican who called him “the Mad Hatter” for pushing for this at a time when inflation is off the hook — what would you say to that?” O’Keefe went on to ask.

Psaki briefly outlined plans to move the plan forward in Congress, then addressed the criticism at length:

For anyone who’s criticizing, I would say that the way — and we saw, I would say, in recent weeks, even with the votes of Republicans — every Republican in the House went on the record, voting against steps that many economists have said would ease inflation.

What — they voted to raise taxes essentially on middle-class families, voted for higher childcare, prescription drug, and eldercare costs, despite claiming they agree inflation and costs are a problem.

So, we’re out there, Democrats in Congress are out there — many of them — we welcome Republican support, I will continue to say — taking steps to lower costs.

We know that Build Back Better will start cutting childcare costs in half in 2022; make preschool free for many families, starting in 2022; lead to the construction of additional housing units, starting in 2022.

What is the Republican plan for lowering costs, for addressing inflation — something they’re very concerned about but they don’t seem to have any solutions for?

I don’t know what the “Mad Hatter” reference is, but that feels like it’s more applicable.

Someone chimed in “It’s about ‘Alice in Wonderland,'” but it’s more likely Psaki meant she didn’t know the source of the wisecrack. The comment was made by Sen. John Barrasso on this week’s edition of Fox News Sunday.

“And, you know, for Joe Biden to say we have to spend even more money on top of inflation, I mean, to me, this is Alice in Wonderland logic. He’s the Mad Hatter out here,” Barrasso told fill-in host Trace Gallagher.

Watch above via C-Span.