CNN’s Daniel Dale Calls Trump Out For Attack On Biden — When Trump’s Numbers Were Worse ‘Each And Every Year’

CNN senior correspondent Daniel Dale called out President Donald Trump for a false attack on President Joe Biden and noted the data point in question — the U.S. trade deficit with China — was actually worse “in each and every year of Trump’s first presidency.”

Trump’s 100th day in office arrivedthis week amid a raft of polls showing historic unpopularity and a PR offensive that was capped off by a lengthy cabinet meeting Wednesday afternoon.

On Wednesday’s edition of CNN News Central, Dale was called in to fact-check the meeting, including Trump’s completely false assessment of Biden’s trade deficit with China — which was smaller than Trump’s:

KEILAR: Daniel Dale, take us through some fact checks on what you heard there in this meeting.

DANIEL DALE, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Well, he kind of vaguely repeated his frequent claim that the U.S. had a trillion-dollar trade deficit with China under President Biden. It did have a big trade deficit, but he’s grossly exaggerating it. It was about $263 billion last year, so he’s about quadrupling it. And while he blames Biden for letting it get out of control, that was actually a lower figure than the trade deficit with China in each and every year of Trump’s first presidency. So it did not explode under President Biden.

This may be a bit subjective, but I’m a Canadian, so I want to address it. He said in the Canadian election, he said it was the one who hated Trump the least who won.

I don’t know how to measure hate, but certainly Liberal Prime Minister Mark Carney was much harsher in his public rhetoric than his main opponent, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre. So I don’t know about the one who hated Trump the least won.

And then I thought it was interesting, guys, he did a kind of self- fact check of his own previous rhetoric. He made a comment about imported dolls, and he said, well, maybe the children will have two dolls instead of 30. Maybe those two dolls will cost a couple of bucks more. So that acknowledgment that imported products like dolls might cost a couple of bucks more is sharply at odds with what we heard him say over and over, certainly on the campaign trail, even more recently when he said it’s foreign countries who pay those tariffs. Consumers aren’t going to pay them at all.

So here, at least briefly, he acknowledged that, yes, stuff might might cost more money here for Americans.

KEILAR: Yep, and that’s the truth. So it kind of has a way of getting out there, even if you don’t want to admit it.

David, Daniel Dale, thank you so much.

Watch above via CNN News Central.