John Harwood's official job title may be CNN White House correspondent, but practically he has taken it upon himself to be a one of the frontline defenders of President Obama's economic legacy as he did once again when he joined Brooke Baldwin on Tuesday's CNN Newsroom.
The context for Harwood's latest round of partisan economic fact-checking was Obama trying to take credit for ten years of economic growth due to the 2009 "stimulus," now faced with President Trump's response. Harwood suggested this was a no-brainer.
"But in the dispute, if you could call it that, between these two men, President Obama has the high side. He made a simple factual observation that he signed the Recovery Act a few months later, the economy was out of recession. The following year it started steady job growth, and both of those things, job growth and overall economic growth, have continued nonstop until then."
Naturally, Harwood confused causation and correlation, but he wasn't done. He then criticized Trump for not being able to "leave well enough alone." Maybe, Trump can't leave well enough alone because people like Harwood keep trying to give Obama credit for everything.
Harwood then tried to fact-check Trump, "Any president would brag about this economy running for re-election. He has a solid, not great, but solid and resilient economy, that's true, but what is not true are the things that President Trump went on to say, that it was a boom peculiarly of the Trump Administration. Two, that we were headed for a major economic downturn if not for his election, and three, that we have the best jobs numbers ever. None of those are true."
At least some of them are true. For example, unemployment rates for African-Americans and Hispanic-Americans are at an all-time low.
Here is a transcript for the February 18 show:
CNN
CNN Newsroom with Brooke Baldwin
3:17 PM ET
JOHN HARWOOD: Well, the president is trying to run for re-election and Barack Obama's trying to make sure that his legacy is not forgotten. But in the dispute, if you could call it that, between these two men, President Obama has the high side. He made a simple factual observation that he signed the Recovery Act a few months later, the economy was out of recession. The following year it started steady job growth, and both of those things, job growth and overall economic growth, have continued nonstop until then. Now, President Trump simply can't leave well enough alone here. Any president would brag about this economy running for re-election. He has a solid, not great, but solid and resilient economy, that's true, but what is not true are the things that President Trump went on to say, that it was a boom peculiarly of the Trump Administration. Two, that we were headed for a major economic downturn if not for his election, and three that we have the best jobs numbers ever. None of those are true.
