KAI RYSSDAL (HOST): This final note on the way out today, a word here about the labor market and this election. This weekend, on CNN's Sunday show State of the Union, an interview between Jake Tapper, the host of the program, and Donald Trump Jr. turned to the unemployment rate, about which, Trump said this.
[BEGIN CLIP]
DONALD TRUMP JR.: These are artificial numbers, Jake. These are numbers that are massaged to make the existing economy look good, to make this administration look good, when in fact, it's a total disaster.
[END CLIP]
RYSSDAL: To use as straightforward and clear a word as possible here, that is a lie. Reasonable people can and do disagree about the health of this economy and how to measure the labor market, but the idea that the Bureau of Labor Statistics manipulates the monthly unemployment report is without any basis in fact. Same thing goes, by the way, for the Republican nominee's claim that unemployment in this country is at 42 percent. This is not, to quote, as it happens, Jake Tapper, an anti-Trump position of a pro-Clinton position, it is a pro-truth position.
