Bill O'Reilly Lets Donald Trump Push Conspiracy That 4.9 Percent Unemployment Rate Is A “Phony Number”
Published
Fox News host Bill O'Reilly allowed GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump to push a phony conspiracy theory that unemployment rate is really 25 percent. On February 5, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released its monthly "Employment Situation" summary for January 2016. BLS reported that the economy created 151,000 jobs, and the unemployment rate fell to 4.9 percent -- its lowest point since February 2008. Bill O'Reilly invited Trump on the February edition of his show to respond to the report asking whether we should “give the president credit” for the low unemployment rate? Trump claimed that “the [unemployment] number is 25 percent, and probably higher than that.” O'Reilly failed to push back on Trump's allegation simply stating, “Okay, so you're not going to give President Obama any credit for the 4.9.”