CNN 'Reporter' Takes Cheap Shots at Trump's Economic Record, Gets Ripped Apart When Facts Are Dropped

Of all the dishonest dunks high-profile media figures have tried on President Trump since the Wuhan virus pandemic started, among the absolute worst has been in their “reporting” on how Trump’s economy has taken a major hit.

There are too many examples to cite in one post, but a couple of them come to mind right off the bat.

There was the gratuitous swipe Washington Post “fact-checker” Glenn Kessler took at Trump over the millions of job losses that occurred just a few weeks after states began mandating restrictive lockdowns and business closures.

“Line from Trump’s State of the Union address that did not age well: ‘Incredibly, the average unemployment rate under my administration is lower than any administration in the history of our country'”, Kessler smugly tweeted back in April. “You shouldn’t be comparing yourself to full-term presidents before your term is up. Things can happen that make such claims appear foolish in retrospect,” Kessler stated in another.

There was also Kessler’s paper proclaiming with barely restrained glee on how “the coronavirus recession” was allegedly “exposing how the economy was not strong as it seemed”, as though the sudden drop in employment numbers would have happened as dramatically under normal circumstances.

The latest media entrant into the “let’s take a dump on Trump because of how bad the economy tanked this year” is CNN’s John Harwood, who lists himself as a “White House correspondent” in his Twitter bio but who in reality more often than not comes off as a cheap imitation of his equally self-righteous colleague Jim Acosta.

Harwood, a frequent apologist for Democrats, took to the Twitter machine Sunday to post a link to his latest hit piece on Trump, which was an “analysis” on how Trump will “leave office with a historically bad economic record.” He was really proud of his work on this piece, so much so that he tweeted it out at least 10 times if not more (I lost count):

Alone among the 13 presidents since World War Two, Trump will exit the White House with fewer Americans employed than when he started.

He will have overseen punier growth in economic output than any of the previous 12.
https://t.co/Ow69pvdOBp

— John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) December 13, 2020

He also did a segment on CNN promoting his story:

Media: @JohnJHarwood @NewDay: "In Q1, @jpmorgan says @realDonaldTrump will hand @JoeBiden a shrinking economy. #Trump has presided over the smallest economy of the 13 presidents since WWII and will be the only one of them to leave with fewer employed than when he took office." pic.twitter.com/kPkF4YO50x

— Porter Anderson (@Porter_Anderson) December 14, 2020

The problem with Harwood’s hot take, of course, is that it leaves out some important particulars:

It’s almost like he forcibly shut down state economies by closing private businesses… OH NO WAIT that was Democrat governors! https://t.co/kvqF3GqFVI

— Liz Wheeler (@Liz_Wheeler) December 14, 2020

Yeah, well China didn't drop a pandemic on the previous 12, though. But you won't say that because you work for the tankies. https://t.co/gqUeCRc0hc

— Kaiser-Elect Reuenthal (@OVonReuenthal) December 14, 2020

Oh, did something happen this year that triggered mass unemployment or are we playing dumb again https://t.co/XkV9VYPUjZ

— Rachel Bovard (@rachelbovard) December 14, 2020

One of the more dishonest articles I've seen in a while. Harwood doesn't mention the pandemic until the 9th paragraph. https://t.co/2dpCRTxm3P pic.twitter.com/OP9J8Jeedo

— Chuck Ross (@ChuckRossDC) December 14, 2020

Not surprising. I mean, millions of people are out of work because of restrictions put in place by Democratic governors for supposedly “non-essential” workers under the guise of “slowing the spread.” Businesses have had to shut their doors, some of them permanently. Even with the stimulus packages, some of the ones that are still open (but barely so) will continue to struggle until restrictions are eased and more people can get back to work.

Putting that earlier in the piece would have nuked the premise, so of course he didn’t put that info where it should have been.

The facts, as inconvenient as they are to Democrats and the media, speak for themselves. The economy was humming right along and getting stronger until the pandemic hit. Then, things went south fast and stayed that way for a couple of months.

As time went on, however, the economy started defying the odds and showed strong signs of recovery – which is in large part due to how red states like Texas and Florida chose to reopen in comparison to how blue states like New York and Michigan and California were championing (and continue to champion) lockdowns.

But yeah, the “worst economic record” story had to get filed because Orange Man Bad narratives and what not.

Now is also a good time to remind people how Harwood was caught crossing the line back in 2015 from being a supposedly neutral reporter to being an arm of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. So anything he “reports” should be automatically suspect and taken with a grain or two of salt.

It’s also worth repeating for the record that CNN is not a news network. It’s turned into Democratic state-run TV on steroids. I know the network’s “The Lead” anchor Jake Tapper doesn’t like it when you say that, which is all the more reason why it should be said over and over again.