There was an unusual moment in the White House’s press briefing on Monday where the administration admitted President Trump said something that was not true. “I can tell you what is true,” Kevin Hassett, chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, to chuckles from the press corps.
Hassett started the briefing by showing the press pool a number of slides touting the Trump Administration’s economic successes. Most of this briefing segment revolved around Hassett insisted Trump didn’t inherit a rising economy from Barack Obama, and also that this presentation is not a response to the former president’s recent political re-emergence.
Hassett eventually faced a number of questions about Trump’s recent economic statements on Twitter, particularly this errant tweet on the U.S. GDP rate.
The GDP Rate (4.2%) is higher than the Unemployment Rate (3.9%) for the first time in over 100 years!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 10, 2018
When asked about this, Hassett initially deflected by saying “I’m not the chairman of council of Twitter advisers.” Eventually, he said it was a false claim, though its the fault of White House aides, rather than Trump.
“I don’t know the whole chain of command, but what is true is that it’s the highest in ten years, and at some point, somebody probably conveyed it to him, adding a zero to that, and they shouldn’t have done that,” Hassett said. “When the press finds mistakes that we make, we don’t like making mistakes, but we’re grateful when they’re pointed out, because we want to correct them… you would have to talk to the president about where the number came from, but the correct number is ten years.”
Watch above, via CNN.
[Image via screengrab]
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