No Democrat has been reelected president after a recession since Franklin Delano Roosevelt was in office 92 years ago, which could mean bad news for President Joe Biden as the U.S. economy slows, reports Newsweek.
Gross domestic product (GDP), the broadest measure of goods and services produced across the economy, fell by 0.2% in the second quarter after a 0.4% decline in the first, the Commerce Department said Thursday, raising fears the U.S. could be entering a recession or that one has already begun.
Biden on Thursday touted the job market, saying it "remains historically strong, with unemployment at 3.6% and more than 1 million jobs created in the second quarter alone."
But he also said it was no surprise the economy was slowing down.
"Coming off of last year's historic economic growth — and regaining all the private sector jobs lost during the pandemic crisis — it's no surprise that the economy is slowing down as the Federal Reserve acts to bring down inflation," Biden said in a statement issued after the GDP report. "But even as we face historic global challenges, we are on the right path, and we will come through this transition stronger and more secure."
Roosevelt was reelected in 1940 after the 1937 recession that saw GDP decline by 18.2%.
Republican presidents have been more successful in surviving recessions, according to Newsweek, including Dwight D. Eisenhower in the 1950s, Richard Nixon in the ’70s and Ronald Reagan in the ’80s.
Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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