Even within the friendly confines of the ultra-left-leaning network MSNBC, Vice President Kamala Harris cannot help being dishonest.
During Wednesday night’s interview with Stephanie Ruhle, Harris mentioned many things that were embellished, disingenuous, and not true. One such example was her comments regarding the country’s economy when Donald Trump was in office. Harris slammed the country’s economic performance under the former president, comparing it to the Great Depression.
“Well, here’s what I know in terms of the facts. Donald Trump left us with the worst economy since the Great Depression, when you look at, for example, the employment numbers,” Harris said.
To her credit, Ruhle rightfully mentioned that the COVID-19 pandemic caused nationwide shutdowns, spiking unemployment.
“It was during COVID, and employment was so high because we shut down the government, we shut down the country,” Ruhle said.
“Even before the pandemic, he lost manufacturing jobs by, most people’s estimates, at least 200,000,” Harris said. “He lost manufacturing plants. Ask the autoworkers how he lost auto plants.”
However, an analysis of the available data shows that Harris was dishonest. Unemployment information before the pandemic shows a very different picture from the one Harris told people about during her first solo interview.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the civilian unemployment rate for Trump’s first full month in office, February 2017, was 4.6%. In February 2020, the last month before the pandemic, the unemployment rate had fallen to 3.5%. These numbers are objectively good and starkly contradict Harris’s claim. The pandemic ultimately created historic levels of unemployment. However, that was uncontrollable and would have happened regardless of who the president was at the time. As such, statistics showed Harris was lying about Trump’s economy, even with her “even before the pandemic” nonsensical disclaimer.
Next, consider Harris’s claim about manufacturing jobs. Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that those jobs increased under Trump before the pandemic, and once again, she was lying.
In December 2016, a little less than a month before Trump took office, the country had approximately 12.35 million manufacturing jobs. In his first full month in office, that number grew to approximately 12.38 million. A month before the pandemic, the number of manufacturing jobs in the United States had grown to 12.78 million. The pandemic then caused the number of manufacturing jobs in the country to decline significantly beginning in March 2020.
Once again, Harris was wrong with her information and dishonest with her claims.
Lastly, consider Harris’s claim about “auto plants,” which is the automotive manufacturing industry. As before, Bureau of Labor Statistics data revealed Harris was wrong.
In December 2016, the last full month Trump was not in office, there were about 952,800 automotive manufacturing jobs in the country. In February 2017, the automotive manufacturing industry got off to a shaky start, with the number of jobs actually decreasing to 950,900. However, that rebounded the next month and ultimately grew to a Trump-term high of approximately 1.0125 million jobs in January 2019.
The number of automotive manufacturing jobs decreased again over the next year, falling to 986,800 by February 2020. However, even with this decrease, it still represented an overall growth of over 3.5% from the month before Trump took office. This, once again, shows Harris was dishonest.
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The country deserves a vice president who is honest about the country’s job performance and economic data. Time and time again, Harris has shown that she is not that someone. She’s been a steady stream of misinformation ever since her campaign began. So, too, have the Democrats who anointed her as nominee and their accomplices in the media, who regularly advance her dishonesty in efforts to purposely deceive voters and influence the election.
As much as Harris and the Democrats stress the importance of truth in politics, one would think the vice president would be honest. Fortunately, the statistics Harris misrepresented are easily accessible on Bureau of Labor Statistics websites and can be used to debunk her illicit claims.