As much as they might hate it, multiple Fox News hosts and a former economic adviser to Donald Trump have all been forced to admit a single truth: four years out from the dawn of the COVID-19 pandemic, the economy is doing well under President Joe Biden. As Larry Kudlow said on Fox Business, “I was wrong about the slowdown and the recession.”
On “The Last Word” Friday, MSNBC’s Ali Velshi opened with a clip from a conversation between Maria Bartiromo and Trump in which the former president attributed recent economic growth to people who “think I’m going to be elected.”
“You know that makes no sense at all, right?” Velshi said. “That the stock market would be rallying in February because Donald Trump might be elected in November and take office almost a year from now.”
Velshi then played a series of clips of Fox News hosts as they all grappled with economic reality. In one, a host notes that “people are outspending” and “the [economic] messaging from the RNC has been way off base.” In another, the question is asked: “Does America have the best recovery?” The answer: “Well, yes.”
To illustrate this point and poke a little fun, Velshi interviewed Jared Bernstein, a former economic policy adviser to then-Vice President Biden. After he was introduced, Bernstein joked, “First of all, I want to say it’s possible the stock market’s up because they knew I was coming on your show tonight.”
“We heard a lot of, you know, honest assessments of what’s a very strong economy right there,” he continued, “and I give kudos to folks who are recognizing that. I think it does get a little hard not to see when you’ve had unemployment below 4% for two years running. We haven’t seen a streak like that since the 1960s.”
Velshi broke down what’s happening for most Americans right now. He pointed out that at one point, inflation had outpaced wages, but the dynamic has flipped. That coupled with the creation of new jobs and low employment has meant that a lot of people feel more secure.
“They get a phone call from pollsters or interviewers at the University of Michigan, and the consumer confidence numbers start to show confidence, and then people have to talk about it,” Velshi said.
“People talk to one another about it,” he continued, “and they talk about it on Fox News, and then people realize that they’ve been hoodwinked a little bit. In reality, a year ago, there was some concern about a recession, and it was widespread. It wasn’t weird conservative talking points. But now people are understanding that the talking points don’t match the reality in the economy.”
Watch the entire interview in the video above.
