President Biden's Secretary of Transportation and economic advisers were pressed on inflation and the state of the economy ahead of the midterm elections on Sunday. 

CNN's Dana Bash asked Council of Economic Advisers Chair Cecilia Rouse about the September inflation report and the president's reaction to the numbers during "State of the Union" on Sunday.

"The price of food is part of our inflation challenge," Rouse said. "Part of the challenge for food is actually through energy, and so Putin's war against Ukraine, where he has weaponized natural gas, he's weaponized energy, shows up in food prices as well." 

Rouse also told Bash that Americans would not feel the effects of the Inflation Reduction Act until next year, and she pointed to tax credits that allow people to weatherize their homes. 

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"For example, there are tax credits for energy to help people weatherize their homes and also bring down other forms of energy costs," Rouse said. "We are focused on helping to make that transition to clean energy in a way that brings down energy costs for families." 

Fox News' Shannon Bream asked White House Council of Economic Advisers member Jared Bernstein about the high numbers during "Fox News Sunday."

"Whether it is the Inflation Reduction Act, whether it’s work in the ports, whether it's our work with energy and the release of oil from the reserves, we are doing all we can to ease inflationary pressures and we see results. It’s going to take time for those results to get into the price. Would like to see that happen a whole lot faster. We're going to try to work to make that happen," Bernstein said.

Bernstein touted lower gas prices as a major accomplishment and said the administration was doing everything they can to increase energy supply. 

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"I think the key story there is that is this administration doing as much as we can to help increase the energy supply? I think the answer's unequivocally ‘yes,’" he said. 

Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg appeared on CBS's "Face the Nation" as well as ABC's "This Week." CBS's Margaret Brennan pressed the transportation secretary on the forecast for a potential recession.

"The president said this week that the economy is both ‘strong as hell’ but also, if there is a recession, it will be very slight. What exactly is the forecast?" Brennan asked. 

Buttigieg said forecasting was "uncertain" as Brennan interjected and said "that's political spin."

"I don’t think anybody could argue that for example, our unemployment numbers are anything but strong as hell," Buttigieg said. "They’re under 4%. That almost never happens. We’re at or near the definition of full employment. We also don’t have any illusions about the challenges Americans face with prices. But that’s why it’s mystifying that as we speak you got Republicans in Congress arguing against the things we have done to give Americans a little more breathing room." 

"Voting against measures to make prescription drugs cheaper, voting against the $35 insulin cap that’s going to be especially important in the environment where you have inflation, against the energy credits that will help more Americans save on energy. We are squarely focused on making it easier for Americans to get by on their income," he continued.

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During his appearance on ABC, Buttigieg said a recession was "possible" but not "inevitable."

"And we're doing everything we can to strengthen the foundations of the American economy," he said. "And that means a lot on the supply side."

Biden said Friday during a speech that inflation would go up if Republicans take control of Congress is November. 

"Here's the bottom line. So please hear this. When it actually comes time to do something about inflation around the table, Republicans in Congress are saying ‘no,'" Biden said. "If the Republicans take control, the prices are going to go up, as will inflation, it's this simple." 

Phil McGraw, better known as Dr. Phil, hosted a verbal brawl between members of the Baby Boomer generation and Generation Z over issues like cancel culture, with one guest suggesting it is a "positive thing" that people can be penalized for offending others.

On the episode "Boomers vs. Zoomers: An Old-Age Debate," Dr. Phil asked the younger Gen Z crowd, "Why are comedians not even willing to come on college campuses anymore because they’re scared to death they’re going to say something that offends?"

One young content creator named Victoria suggested that "social repercussions have always existed," and said, "I think that just as a generation we’re becoming more aware of how bigotry, even if it’s in the form of a joke, really negatively impacts people. And so I think that while social repercussions are nothing new, what we penalize people for saying is changing. And I think that that’s a positive thing."

Another young TikTok artist named Neekolul, who helped popularize the "Ok, Boomer" meme, suggested, "Stereotypes used in comedic stand-up is just simply— just, like, not ok anymore. So you can say whatever you want, but you need to be also be ready for the repercussions of what you say."

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Conservative commentator Brad Polumbo fired back, "You’re not free to say whatever you want if you get fired for an off-color joke. How would you feel when it’s you who is out of step with the social mores of the day?" 

Victoria said to Polumbo that while canceling people for what they say is not new, now it is being done for more morally correct reasons:

"I think you’re still acting like this is something new, though. People have been fired for things that they’ve said for forever, but now we’re seeing an era where, if you’re disrespectful or bigoted towards someone, you get fired for that, I don’t see that as a bad thing."

Dr. Phil replied, "The point is, the threshold has really gotten low."

Greg Lukianoff, the president of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, explained that rates of depression among young people are skyrocketing and there is nothing historically normal about the current form of cancel culture.

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"I really want to address the idea that what’s going on currently with regard to free speech is in any way normal," he warned. "We checked our latest data on attempts to get professors canceled on campus. It’s 770. It involves over 40 tenured professors getting fired. You didn’t have these kinds of numbers even during McCarthyism. So the idea that this is just business as usual is just wrong. They’re going to be studying this in 100 years and be like, ‘What on earth happened?’"

Dr. Phil recounted how the phenomenon of wokeness and cancel culture really began to spread in America when people began to equate words with physical violence.

"Yeah, and this really started kicking up around 2013, ’14, when they started medicalizing these words essentially by saying, ‘This hurts me, this damages me,’" the host said. 

"You know, I grew up with the old ‘sticks and stones will break your bones, but words shall never hurt you.’ But that changed when they start saying, ‘This hurts me. I don’t feel safe. Now it will have to be dealt with by administration,’" said Dr. Phil.

"I feel like we’re just wanting to be heard," TikTok creator BryanTheDiamond said later. "And I don’t think that there’s necessarily anything wrong [with that]. I don’t think that makes us fragile. I just think we want to be heard."