blamed January 6th on inflation

[Ostap]

Larry Summers blamed January 6th on inflation, which is an old Clinton advisor.
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Hello, teachers. For context, I found this on the internet:

Former US Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers argued that Republicans who reject the severity of the Jan. 6 attack risk worsening inflation.

So it seems it should have been the other way round:

Larry Summers blamed January 6th on inflation inflation on January 6th.

Am I correct?

 

[probus]

I suppose it's fair to say that Mr Summers thinks inflation may get slightly worse if Republicans "reject the severity of the Jan 6 attack...", whatever that is supposed to mean. That stikes me as a non sequitur, and also the entire clip from Jimmy Dore was completely nonsensical, not to say ludicrous.

 

[Ostap]

I think the idea was that the Democrats/the President blame inflation on other things (Putin, January 6th) but not themselves. So he just confused the word order.

and also the entire clip from Jimmy Dore was completely nonsensical, not to say ludicrous

I don't know, Dore sounds very reasonable to me.

 

[SoothingDave]

Inflation is not an old Clinton advisor.

 

[Ostap]

Inflation is not an old Clinton advisor.

Allowing for unscripted speech, we know what he meant.

 

[probus]

I do not know what he meant.

 

[Ostap]

Anyway, the comma I put after "inflation" implies "old Clinton advisor" refers to "Larry Summers" not "inflation".

 

[5jj]

It does not.

 

[Ostap]

Logic does.

 

[emsr2d2]

Logic does.

Grammar (punctuation rules) doesn't. Also, "which" doesn't apply to people. For the meaning you're claiming, it would say "Larry Summers, who is an old Clinton advisor, ...".

 

[Ostap]

Yes, all I was saying was that "which is an old Clinton advisor" was added as an afterthought in unprepared live speech, where it's possible for native speakers to sometimes make mistakes. That, and context makes things clear. At least I didn't hesitate over what referred to what.