Ari Melber Dismantles Donald Trump Advisers Greatest Economy Claim On Live TV

MSNBC s Ari Melber came prepared on Monday when Steve Cortes , a senior adviser for the Trump 2020 campaign, falsely boasted about President Donald Trump building the greatest economy in American history prior to the coronavirus pandemic.

I thought you might go there, and lets get into it because youre making a claim, said Melber. Youre making an empirical claim that this was the greatest jobs program ever.

Melber asked Cortes if he knew roughly how many new jobs were created during former President Barack Obama s time in office.

Cortes, seeking to clarify that he meant Trump had particularly boosted the prospects of blue-collar workers, said he wouldnt play quiz show.

Its not a quiz show, Sir, but it is a news show, responded Melber. We are going to play news show. Thats where there are facts and there are questions.

I will just tell you, because it sounds like you dont want to play news show, it was about 11 million jobs created, said Melber. And lets compare, pre-COVID, to be as fair as possible, it was about 6.7 million jobs created under the Trump administration.

So by that standard, I wouldnt say greatest in history, I would say less than the prior administration, Melber concluded.

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Check out the full exchange here:

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Aired on 8/3/2020.\n Subscribe to MSNBC: http://on.msnbc.com/SubscribeTomsnbc\n\nMSNBC delivers breaking news, in-depth analysis of politics headlines, as well as commentary and informed perspectives. 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