White House Trade Advisor Peter Navarro said this week that comparing the current unemployment numbers to the Great Depression amounts to a “pity party,” adding, “This is not the Great Depression.”
Navarro appeared on Fox News to hit back after widespread news coverage over the weekend noted that the current unemployment figures are the highest that they have been since the Great Depression.
That figure lead the front page of most of the nation’s major papers, including The New York Times and The Washington Post. It was also a common topic on the Sunday shows.
In April, 20.5 million jobs were lost amid the coronavirus pandemic, while the unemployment rate went up to 14.7%, as IJR reported.
https://twitter.com/jcrutchmer/status/1258934837139902468?s=20
When the numbers were mentioned on Monday morning, Navarro shot back, “Let me say something about that — that was a pity party yesterday on the Sunday shows … It was a pity party. This is not the Great Depression.”
Navarro continued, “Anybody who thinks this is the Great Depression doesn’t understand either history or economics,” adding, “Here’s what we have here, President Donald J. Trump built up the strongest and most beautiful economy in three-and-a-half years and then the Chinese communist party dropped a virus on the world that within 60 days has temporarily shut us down.”
He added that “all we need to do here is focus on the mission, the original mission of Donald J. Trump, which is to bring manufacturing onshore, to have the American people make things here and we will move forward in a way where we will rebound.”
Moments later, Navarro returned to his previous point, saying, “This Great Depression pity party stuff I saw yesterday, this ain’t that. And we’ve got a president here who built up this economy once and he can do it again and will do it again.”
See his comments below:
WH trade adviser complains media comparing current unemployment figures to the Great Depression was a “pity party.” pic.twitter.com/NpWJ6kZzPO
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) May 11, 2020
Navarro has previously expressed frustration with the handling of the coronavirus and particularly with infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci.
The trade advisor reportedly fumed with Fauci behind closed doors and, in a CNN interview in early April, brought that feud into the public light, declaring himself a “social scientist.”
