Maddow Blog | Tuberville picks a fight over unemployment that the GOP can’t win

Sen. Tommy Tuberville appeared on Fox Business yesterday morning and continued to express great confidence in Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. But part of the Alabama Republican’s pitch could use some work:

He didn’t appear to be kidding.

Look, no administration is perfect, and there are plenty of legitimate criticisms for President Joe Biden’s detractors to present to the public.

But as anyone with a passing familiarity with current events really ought to know, this isn’t one of them. Indeed, it’s not a matter of opinion; it’s a matter of reality.

As regular readers know, over the course of the first three years of Trump’s presidency — when the Republican said the United States’ economy was the greatest in the history of the planet — the economy created nearly 6.4 million jobs, spanning all of 2017, 2018, and 2019.

According to the latest tally, the U.S. economy has created nearly 16 million jobs since January 2021 — more than double the combined total of Trump’s first three years.

As for the unemployment rate, which the coach-turned-politician specifically referenced on the air, the Trump-era numbers were good, but the Biden-era numbers are definitely better.

In 2017, the average unemployment rate for the year was 4.4%. A year later, the average improved to 3.9%. In 2019, it improved a little more, with an average jobless rate for the year of 3.7%.

In 2020, of course, the Covid pandemic led to a recession; the unemployment rate spiked to nearly 15%; and the average for the year climbed to 8.1%.

In Biden’s first year in the White House, the unemployment rate rapidly improved, falling from 6.4% in January to 3.9% in December. In 2022, the average for the year improved to 3.6%. A year later, it remained at 3.6%.

In fact, in April 2023, the jobless rate fell all the way to 3.4% — a level unseen in the United States since before the Moon landing. What’s more, the unemployment rate has now been below 4% for 27 consecutive months — a streak also unseen since the 1960s.

If Tuberville wants to have a debate about how and why we’re seeing these numbers, that’s fine. If he wants to discuss who deserves credit for encouraging economic data, we can do that, too.

But to argue — out loud and on national television — that the unemployment rate isn’t low under Biden, and that it was actually better under Trump, is demonstrably ridiculous.

This article was originally published on MSNBC.com