President Donald Trump was laughed at and fact-checked live on CNBC during a wild phone interview in which he claimed the jobs numbers were cooked and he has “the best poll numbers I’ve ever had.”
The president got into a spirited debate with Squawkbox host Joe Kernen after going off-topic and repeating debunked claims that he won the presidential election five years ago, despite losing in a landslide to Joe Biden.
“But what they did in the 2020 election is grotesque… I mean, that was a rigged election, a hundred percent,” Trump said.
“I say it all the time. It was a rigged election. A hundred percent rigged.”
Kernen, who has been supportive of Trump in the past, began to laugh and pushed back against the president. “We can’t relitigate that. We can’t relitigate that here,” he said.
When the chat eventually changed subject, Trump repeated claims that he fired the commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics after a disappointing jobs report because her figures were “rigged.”
Dr. Erika McEntarfer, the nation’s top labor statistician, was axed last week after reporting just 73,000 new jobs for July, far fewer than expected, and revising the May and June jobs numbers by a staggering 258,000. Trump claimed the figures were “rigged” to make him and Republicans look bad.
He jousted with Kernen over the firing after the host asked Trump how he arrived at the notion of rigging.
“Give me a break,” he demanded at the zenith of the to and fro, when Kernen suggested that it is over the top to say McEntarfer, who was confirmed in a bipartisan vote in 2024, cooked the numbers.
“Where do you get the notion that it’s rigged, or do you have any evidence there?” Kernen asked at the top of the segment.
In a classic rambling answer, Trump called McEntarfer’s job “very political” and accused her of subterfuge.
“Just days before the election, they put out numbers that it was like the country was on fire. It was doing so well. And then they did a revision about two weeks later, and the revision was down by almost 900,000 jobs. You remember that?” he said. “They gave phony numbers, and then they revised them a week and a half later.”
“Those were benchmark numbers, though, Mr. President, that happens,” Kernen responded. As he continued to explain, Trump shot across him and barked: “The numbers were rigged.”
“They gave phony numbers in order to win the election,” he later repeated.
Kernan called it a “big leap” to use the term “rigged.” He continued by saying that McEntarfer’s eventual replacement will be under increased scrutiny, with people assuming the new commissioner is a lackey installed to give more favor to Trump.
“Well, I think when somebody says the commissioner is not involved, I don’t want to get into any arguments with anybody, why should I? She’s a very nice woman,” the president responded.
“But when they say that the, you know, that nobody was involved, that it wasn’t political. Give me a break.”
Later during the CNBC interview, the president claimed he’s enjoying the best polling of his life despite the publication of several terrible polls over the last few weeks.
“I have the best poll numbers I’ve ever had,” he said. ‘You know why? Because people love the tariffs and they love the trade deal and they love that foreign countries aren’t ripping us off anymore. For years they ripped us off, friend and foe.”
Kernen jumped in with a fact check, saying Trump gets good marks from Republican voters but not the rest of the electorate.
“I have the best poll numbers I’ve ever had,” Trump said, unfazed. “I have poll numbers where I’m 71 percent.”
“Those are among Republicans,” the host responded.
The post Trump Factchecked Live on TV on Dire Polls and Stats Boss Firing appeared first on The Daily Beast.
