Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., accused an MSNBC host of being an "apologist" for former President Donald Trump on Monday for pointing out facts that countered a talking point she was trying to make.
Pelosi, now a rank and file lawmaker, was touting President Joe Biden's record on jobs while attempting to smear Trump as having the "worst record" on jobs of any president in history. Two problems surfaced: Biden's "growth" were jobs that came back from the COVID pandemic, first lost when Trump was in the White House, a point that host Katy Tur made.
"Donald Trump has the worst record of job loss of any president. So we just have to make sure people know," Pelosi said on "Katy Tur Reports."
"That was a global pandemic," Tur responded.
"He had the worst record of any president," Pelosi shot back after thinking about it, jabbing her hand in Tur's direction. "We've had other concerns in our country. If you want to be an apologist for Donald Trump, that may be your role, but it ain't mine."
"I don't think that anybody can accuse me of that," said Tur.
It was a curious accusation by Pelosi, given Republicans accuse MSNBC of being state media for the Democratic Party, Biden, and Pelosi, the likes among them.
Factcheck.org accuses Biden — Pelosi, in this case — of "misleadingly" contrasting job growth against Trump in the aftermath of the pandemic vs. during.
"It's no surprise that Biden is touting the robust job numbers on his watch — any president would. But the comparison with Trump is missing some glaringly obvious context," the watchdog wrote in February.
Further, Biden is padding his own job numbers, according to his administration. March was the fifth straight month that the number of federal government hires set a record, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The Biden administration added 71,000 government jobs in March, increasing the number of federal employees to more 23,270,000, eclipsing the old record that was set in May 2010 due to a surge in hires for census collection.