CNBC’s Kernen Confronts Trump on Firing BLS Chief: ‘Undermines Confidence in the System’
CNBC’s Joe Kernen confronted President Donald Trump on Tuesday, telling him that firing a labor statistics chief after an underwhelming jobs report “undermines confidence in the system.”
The president joined Squawk Box by phone on Tuesday where he touched on a number of topics, including firing Dr. Erika McEntarfer, the Bureau of Labor Statistics chief, following what he called a “rigged” jobs report.
Kernen told Trump firing the labor statistics individual may be a “bridge too far,” though he chalked up the criticism to other critics while informing the president that “rigged” is likely not the word that fits the situation.
“These are statistical changes based on this antiquated system. And it’s just a big leap to go to rigged. And then also, Mr. President, it makes anyone you pick is going to be, critics are going to say, hey, he’s picking a guy that’s going to give him the number, or a gal who’s giving him the numbers that he wants. So it undermines confidence in the system to some extent. You had, according to many people, all the rights in the world to try to replace the commissioner when it hasn’t gotten any better. But that is maybe a bridge too far, according to most people,” he said.
Trump launched into insulting former President Joe Biden and suggesting the former president’s economic numbers were made to look better.
He said:
She’s a very nice woman. But when they say that nobody was involved, that it wasn’t political, give me a break. Look, before the election, I had this massive, massive outflow of beauty for Biden. I mean, he didn’t know he was alive. And for Biden, the economy was roaring. It was a beautiful thing. And I said, there’s no way this is happening. It’s going the opposite direction. And two weeks later, they said I was right. But even if you look at the original, the ones from the other day, the numbers were very timid. And then they announced something that made them even more timid on top of it. On sort of a reporting day, I don’t know why, it just seemed a little bit more important than most times when they announced these numbers.
Kernen pressed further, asking the president, “Which number do you believe at this point?” He argued that though the jobs report was disappointing, it plays into Trump’s push to lower interest rates.
“So maybe we’re seeing a slight slowdown in labor, but you’re going to get exactly what you want based on these numbers. Which ones do you believe? Do you not believe the revised numbers either?” Kernen asked.
“I wanted it a year ago,” he said. “I wanted a long time ago. [Federal Reserve Chair] Jerome Powell is highly political and, I think you know, I call him too late Jerome too late Powell. He’s too late. He is too late always. He always has been, except when it came to lowering interest rates before the election.”
Watch above via CNBC.
