President Joe Biden took to social media on Sunday ahead of the Super Bowl to criticize food and beverage companies for "shrinkflation" consumers have encountered as the companies downsize their products to compensate for higher input costs.
"It’s Super Bowl Sunday – if you’re anything like me, you like to be surrounded by a snack or two while watching the big game," Biden said in a video post on X, formerly Twitter. "You know, when buying snacks for the game, you might’ve noticed one thing, sports drinks bottles are smaller, bag of chips has fewer chips, but they’re still charging us just as much."
"As an ice cream lover, what makes me the most angry is that ice cream cartons have actually shrunk in size, but not in price," Biden said. "I’ve had enough of what they call ‘shrinkflation.’ It’s a rip-off. Some companies are trying to pull a fast one by shrinking their products little by little and hoping you won’t notice. Give me a break."
"The American public is tired of getting played for suckers. I’m calling on companies to put a stop to this. Let’s make sure businesses do the right thing now," he added.
Companies in the food and beverage industry have sought to address rising costs of ingredients and other production inputs by shrinking their product offerings in the last few years as inflation hit the U.S. economy.
Inflation peaked at 9.1% in June 2022 before gradually declining following the Federal Reserve’s interest rate hikes. As of December, inflation had fallen to 3.4% year-over-year, although that level remains well above the Fed’s 2% target rate which has caused the central bank to hold off on cutting interest rates until it declines further.
The president’s remarks come after Special Counsel Robert Hur released a report on Thursday regarding Biden’s retention of classified documents after the Obama administration and his tenure as vice president concluded.
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Hur opted against bringing charges against Biden despite his improper retention of national security documents after the president demonstrated what the special counsel characterized as memory and recall issues during his interviews with investigators.
The special counsel wrote that his team considered that if charges had been brought against Biden and the case went to trial, "Mr. Biden would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory."
"Based on our direct interactions and observations of him, he is someone from whom many jurors will want to identify reasonable doubt," the special counsel’s report stated. "It would be difficult to convince a jury that they should convict him – by then a former president well into his eighties – of a serious felony that requires a mental state of willfulness."
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The report noted that Biden’s "memory also appeared to have significant limitations" and that the president "did not remember when he was vice president, forgetting on the first day of the interview when his term ended (‘if it was 2013 - when did I stop being Vice President?’), and forgetting on the second day of the interview when his term began (‘in 2009, am I still Vice President?’)"
The 81-year-old Biden also "did not remember, even within several years, when his son Beau died. And his memory appeared hazy when describing the Afghanistan debate that was once so important to him. Among other things, he mistakenly said he ‘had a real difference’ of opinion with General Karl Eikenberry, when, in fact, Eikenberry was an ally whom Mr. Biden cited approvingly in his Thanksgiving memo to President Obama," the report said.
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Biden addressed the nation Thursday night to say that his memory is "fine" and said that he is the "most qualified person in this country to be president," as his detractors pointed to the special counsel’s report as being the latest indication he is suffering from age-related mental acuity challenges.
The White House counsel's office requested Hur revise some of the language in the report. Robert Bauer, Biden's personal attorney, appeared on CBS's "Face the Nation" and criticized the special counsel for "characterizations, factual misstatements, pejorative comments about the president that are inconsistent with DOJ policy and norms."
Fox News’ Brooke Singman contributed to this report.
