Prior to the Friday afternoon White House press briefing, CNN’s Wolf attempted to tamp down on the Trump administration’s positive vibes regarding the February jobs report, wondering if President Donald Trump is really able to “claim credit” for such a strong month.
After eight years of the Obama administration touting jobs numbers (albeit meek ones), it’s no surprise that the media have changed their tune when it comes to presidents and their policies affecting the jobs market.
“President Trump has called the jobs report, at least during the campaign, fake and phony, but at the briefing, you can expect the White House to tout the latest numbers just released today. It shows the U.S. added a very healthy 235,000 jobs in February, the unemployment ticked down a little bit to 4.7 percent from 4.8 percent,” began host Wolf Blitzer.
Blitzer introduced CNN Money’s Cristina Alesci and dropped this leading question: “[T]he administration can tout these figures but that — can they actually claim credit for the President for these good numbers?”
<<< Please support MRC's NewsBusters team with a tax-deductible contribution today. >>>
Alesci responded that it’s “unclear” because, historically, “February is usually a very strong month for jobs.” In addition, she argued that the unemployment rate has been going down for some time, so it’s tough to say Trump has had an effect on the economy (translation: thank Obama instead).
“So, this trend has been going on for quite some time. That's not going to prevent probably President Trump from taking credit for it. He actually also may point to very strong growth in construction jobs. You're talking 58,000 jobs added. That's pretty strong. Some economists say that may have been because of the warmer weather,” Alesci added.
However, she concluded that it’ll be worth keeping track of upcoming jobs reports to see if the economy continues or improves upon the number of 235,000 new jobs because “he is on track to deliver that 25 million jobs — those 25 million jobs he so consistently speaks about.”
Later during the press briefing, Bloomberg’s Justin Sink tried to suggest White House press secretary Sean Spicer broke federal law by tweeting about them not long after their release and that the administration was getting “too excited” about it. Needless to say, Sink received a schooling from Spicer.
Here’s the relevant portion of the transcript from CNN’s Wolf on March 10:
CNN’s Wolf
March 10, 2017
1:23 p.m. EasternWOLF BLITZER: President Trump has called the jobs report, at least during the campaign, fake and phony, but at the briefing, you can expect the White House to tout the latest numbers just released today. It shows the U.S. added a very healthy 235,000 jobs in February, the unemployment ticked down a little bit to 4.7 percent from 4.8 percent. Our Money correspondent, Cristina Aleschi, is here to break down the numbers for us. Cristina, the administration can tout these figures but that — can they actually claim credit for the President for these good numbers?
CRISTINA ALESCI: Unclear, Wolf. You know, you have the President re-tweeting some of these positive headlines today. But what's really important is put them in historical perspective here. February is usually a very strong month for jobs. If you look back the last three Februarys in a row, we’ve almost the same rate of growth, the same number of jobs created every February for the last three. So, unclear how much credit he can take. Also, you pointed out the unemployment rate is at 4.7 percent. Well, we've been below five percent for nearly a year now. So, this trend has been going on for quite some time. That's not going to prevent probably President Trump from taking credit for it. He actually also may point to very strong growth in construction jobs. You're talking 58,000 jobs added. That's pretty strong. Some economists say that may have been because of the warmer weather. But look, no doubt about it, it's early in the Trump administration. Some conservative economists are saying we have to see if he's able to implement some of the growth policies that he's talking about. But if he keeps up this number over the next couple of months, he is on track to deliver that 25 million jobs — those 25 million jobs he so consistently speaks about.
BLITZER: Cristina, with the latest numbers for us. Cristina, thank you very much.
