On Saturday, Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler tweeted out an attempt to criticize the record low unemployment figures cited by President Trump in his State of the Union address, claiming that it had “not aged well.” And Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) was quick to strike back.
Referring to the fact that unemployment filings have exceeded 10 million in the last two weeks, Kessler’s tweet read, “Line from Trump’s State of the Union address that did not age well: ‘Incredibly, the average unemployment rate under my administration is lower than any administration in the history of our country.’”
With this statement, Kessler seemed to be attempting to blame the president for the skyrocketing unemployment numbers, even though the widespread closures and shelter-in-place ordinances ordered by state and local officials due to the coronavirus pandemic is more clearly the culprit.
Sen. Ted Cruz came along and pointed out the fact that Trump has overseen many record lows in unemployment, and that the average unemployment rate had been continuing to drop until the pandemic started affecting businesses.
“The press HATED that, three months ago, we had the lowest African-American & Hispanic unemployment ever recorded. Now that we’re in the midst of a global pandemic - which originated in Wuhan, not the Oval Office - too many in the press are giddy with glee.”
(Cover Photo: Gage Skidmore)