Ari Melber Dismantles Donald Trump Adviser’s ‘Greatest Economy’ Claim On Live TV
MSNBC’s Ari Melber came prepared on Monday when Steve Cortes, a senior adviser for the Trump 2020 campaign, falsely boasted about President Donald Trump building “the greatest economy in American history” prior to the coronavirus pandemic.
“I thought you might go there, and let’s get into it because you’re making a claim,” said Melber. “You’re making an empirical claim that this was the greatest jobs program ever.”
Melber asked Cortes if he knew “roughly how many new jobs” were created during former President Barack Obama’s time in office.
Cortes, seeking to clarify that he meant Trump had particularly boosted the prospects of blue-collar workers, said he “wouldn’t play quiz show.”
“It’s not a quiz show, Sir, but it is a news show,” responded Melber. “We are going to play news show. That’s where there are facts and there are questions.”
“I will just tell you, because it sounds like you don’t want to play news show, it was about 11 million jobs created,” said Melber. “And let’s compare, pre-COVID, to be as fair as possible, it was about 6.7 million jobs created under the Trump administration.
“So by that standard, I wouldn’t say greatest in history, I would say less than the prior administration,” Melber concluded.
Check out the full exchange here:
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This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.
