Former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi criticized MSNBC’s Katy Tur, accusing her of being an “apologist” for former President Donald Trump. Pelosi, a Democrat from California, appeared on the network and praised President Joe Biden’s economic accomplishments, stating that he had “created nine million jobs during his term.” She contrasted this with Trump’s record, claiming he had the “worst record of job loss of any president” and emphasized the need to inform the public about this.
However, social media users on Twitter highlighted an alleged tactic by the Biden administration, suggesting that they were counting job growth from jobs re-gained during the COVID-19 pandemic. Factcheck.org reported that Biden was misleadingly contrasting job losses under Trump, which were due to the pandemic, with job gains under his administration.
The House Budget Committee also weighed in, correcting the administration’s claims. They stated that while the White House had tweeted about adding more jobs under Biden than any president in a single four-year term, this was misleading. They explained that nearly 72% of all job gains since 2021 were simply jobs recovered from the pandemic, not new job creation. Comparatively, prior to the pandemic, job creation under Trump was 6.7 million—3 million more jobs than under Biden’s current term.
During the discussion between Pelosi and Tur, the MSNBC host interjected, reminding Pelosi of the global pandemic that occurred during Trump’s administration, which led to job losses. Pelosi appeared astonished but reiterated her stance, stating that Trump had the worst job record of any president and that there were other pressing concerns in the country. Pelosi accused Tur of being an apologist for Trump, to which Tur replied, “I don’t think anyone can accuse me of that.”