CNN's Candy Crowley failed to fact-check GOP Senator Rand Paul (KY) as he attempted to distort and scandalize Hillary Clinton's recent remarks on the efficacy of so-called trickle-down economic theory.
During the November 2 edition of CNN's State of the Union, host Candy Crowley interviewed Sen. Paul and allowed Paul a platform to attack Hillary Clinton. Paul attempted to paint Clinton's recent comments on the failures of trickle-down economics as a suggestion that she believes government is primarily responsible for creating jobs:
CROWLEY: But you feel this is a referendum on the president. What does it say about Republicans, because a lot of these races, about ten of them are still pretty darned close, which means that those Democrats have been able to survive in the worst of environments.
PAUL: Well, I think it shows that our country is pretty evenly divided and it tilts a little bit one way and a little bit the other way. But, I think that when you have a president and then you have Hillary Clinton saying the same thing, saying that businesses don't create jobs, a lot of Americans are scratching their heads and saying, “who do these people think create jobs if businesses don't? Do they think government creates jobs and that that's how America became great?” And I think there's a fundamental, philosophical debate in our country. But I sense a lot of people saying to themselves, “you know what, I think if we don't understand businesses create jobs or we don't understand that we want American money and businesses to come home and we want to do something constructive, then maybe we need new leadership in the country.” So I think people are ready for new leadership.
The full context of her remarks reveals that Clinton never said “government creates jobs” -- a fact Crowley failed to correct Paul on. Rather, Clinton's stated position merely emphasized the important role consumer demand plays in generating success for American businesses, and pointed to increases in the minimum wage as a potential avenue for enhancing the demand side of the economy:
CLINTON: Don't let anybody tell you that raising the minimum wage will kill jobs. They always say that. I've been through this. My husband gave working families a raise in the 1990s. I voted to raise the minimum wage and guess what? Millions of jobs were created or paid better and more families were more secure. That's what we want to see here, and that's what we want to see across the country.
And don't let anybody tell you, that, you know, it's corporations and businesses that create jobs. You know, that old theory, trickle-down economics. That has been tried. That has failed. It has failed rather spectacularly.
One of the things my husband says, when people say, what did you bring to Washington? He says, well I brought arithmetic. And part of it was he demonstrated why trickle-down should be consigned to the trash bin of history. More tax cuts for the top and for companies that ship jobs overseas while taxpayers and voters are stuck paying the freight just doesn't add up. Now that kind of thinking might win you an award for outsourcing excellence, but Massachusetts can do better than that. [Massachusetts gubernatorial candidate Martha Coakley] understands it. She knows you have to create jobs from everyone working together and taking the advantages of this great state and putting them to work.
Crowley also failed to mention that Clinton reiterated this position during a clarification of her original comments:
CLINTON: So-called trickle-down economics has failed. I shorthanded this point the other day, so let me be absolutely clear about what I've been saying for a couple of decades: Our economy grows when businesses and entrepreneurs create good-paying jobs here in an America where workers and families are empowered to build from the bottom up and the middle out -- not when we hand out tax breaks for corporations that outsource jobs or stash their profits overseas.