Obama Said Job Growth Is “Doing Fine” In The Private Sector

BuzzFeed is stripping comments by President Obama at today's press conference out of context and calling that distortion of what Obama said “a gift to Republicans.”

Obama addressed reporters on the economy on Friday and said, “The truth of the matter is that, as I've said, we've created 4.3 million jobs over the last 27 months, over 800,000 just this year alone. The private sector is doing fine. Where we're seeing weaknesses in our economy have to do with state and local government.”

Obama was clearly drawing a contrast between job growth in the private sector -- which, as Obama said, has added about 4.3 million jobs in the past 27 months -- and the public sector, which has lost 550,000 jobs over the same period.

There is nothing controversial or shocking about those comments. Yet BuzzFeed is leading a media campaign to present that observation as beneficial for conservatives.

BuzzFeed declared this line, stripped of context, to be “a gift to Republicans.”

In fact, during the press conference, Obama renewed his calls on Congress to pass a jobs bill, which Republicans blocked last fall. Fabricating this “gift to Republicans” helps the GOP divert attention from their obstruction of action to create more jobs.