President Trump on Sunday defended his decision to fire the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) following a weak jobs report, a move that has sparked broad pushback.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump in a post on his Truth Social platform asserted that fired BLS Commissioner Erika McEntarfer \u201chad the biggest miscalculations in over 50 years,\u201d portraying Friday\u2019s dismal jobs numbers<\/u><\/a> as the latest example.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The president alleged the labor official \u201cdid the same thing just before the Presidential Election, when she lifted the numbers for jobs to an all time high. I then won the Election, anyway, and she readjusted the numbers downward, calling it a mistake, of almost one million jobs. A SCAM!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cShe did it again, with another massive \u2018correction,\u2019 and got FIRED!\u201d Trump added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n White House officials offered similar arguments Sunday in defending McEntarfer\u2019s ouster<\/u><\/a>, which came hours after the Labor Department released data showing the U.S. only added 73,000 jobs in July, far fewer than economists anticipated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And the department reported stunning revisions<\/u><\/a> to labor figures for May and June, showing 258,000 fewer jobs overall than previously reported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trump\u2019s decision to fire the labor statistics head over the jobs report sparked immediate blowback<\/u><\/a> on Capitol Hill, with Democrats accusing the White House of going after the messenger<\/u><\/a> and attempting to silence those detailing a weak labor market during his tenure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cJust absolutely insane, absolutely nuts. The economy is tanking and he\u2019s terrified and he\u2019s acting like a dictator,\u201d said Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii).<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThat\u2019s some weird Soviet s\u001e\u001e\u001e,\u201d Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) added. \u201cBlaming the messenger? Nothing\u2019s ever his fault.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trump on Friday similarly claimed without evidence that the jobs numbers were \u201cRIGGED in order to make the Republicans, and ME, look bad.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers in an interview<\/u><\/a> Sunday on NBC\u2019s \u201cMeet the Press\u201d called it a \u201cpreposterous charge,\u201d noting the numbers are compiled \u201cby teams of literally hundreds of people following detailed procedures that are in manuals.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere\u2019s no conceivable way that the head of the BLS could have manipulated this number,\u201d said Summers, who served in top roles in the Clinton and Obama administrations. \u201cThe numbers are in line with what we\u2019re seeing from all kinds of private sector sources.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Summers said he was \u201csurprised that other officials have not responded by resigning themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n