The July jobs numbers came out on Friday and was better than expected, but MSNBC Live wanted viewers to know that is not good news and they should not let President Trump claim them as a success. According to host Stephanie Ruhle, the unexpected numbers were expected, while White House correspondent Peter Alexander dubbed the numbers "not great."
Ruhle began by trying to make the good news appear less good, "Peter, any reaction from the White House on the new jobs report? And we should remind our audience, while 1.8 million jobs were created, the expectation was 1.4 million jobs. So it's not like we were going to get a job loss."
According to Ruhle, this dismissal of the economy outperforming expectations was important because, "The president often likes to misrepresent what that number is."
After noting that Trump had not yet to tweet about the jobs number, Alexander also did his best to undermine the report. Apparently forgetting that 1.8 million is more than 1.4 million, he claimed, "But nothing specifically on these numbers and the biggest takeaway here is while the numbers are good, they're certainly not great and they sort of demonstrate a slowing in the recovery that we're seeing right now. The new hiring last month far less than in either of the last two months before that."
The unemployment rate also dropped to 10.2%, which was also better than the expected 10.6%, but Alexander would tolerate no good news, "The president, as you know well Steph, often talks about that V-shaped recovery. Right now it doesn't look like that." Ruhle agreed, "There’s certainly no "V." Not on the broader economy."
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Here is a transcript for the August 7 show:
MSNBC
MSNBC Live with Stephanie Ruhle9:04 AM ET
STEPHANIE RUHLE: Peter, any reaction from the White House on the new jobs report? And we should remind our audience, while 1.8 million jobs were created, the expectation was 1.4 million jobs. So it's not like we were going to get a job loss. You knew we were going to get some and the president often likes to misrepresent what that number is.
PETER ALEXANDER: Yeah, you're right. I'm checking my phone as we speak to see if he's tweeted about it. So far not yet. He's tweeted on Joe Biden multiple times, on TikTok, the ban there, on the Durham report saying he'd like to see it or retweeting someone suggesting it would come out before the election and, of course, on the coronavirus that he again refers to as the China Virus. But nothing specifically on these numbers and the biggest takeaway here is while the numbers are good, they're certainly not great and they sort of demonstrate a slowing in the recovery that we're seeing right now. The new hiring last month far less than in either of the last two months before that. The president, as you know well Steph, often talks about that V-shaped recovery. Right now it doesn't look like that.
RUHLE: There’s certainly no "V." Not on the broader economy.
