Fox Business falsely accuses the Biden administration of “cooking the books” in final GDP report
Fox prepares excuses for weaker economic numbers during the Trump administration
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From the January 30, 2025, edition of Fox Business' Mornings with Maria Bartiromo
MARIA BARTIROMO (ANCHOR): Let's get some economic data just hitting the tape. The first read of fourth quarter GDP is out. Cheryl Casone with the numbers. Cheryl?
CHERYL CASONE (FOX BUSINESS ANCHOR): Came in less than expected at 2.3%. The estimate, Maria, was for 2.6%, and this is much weaker than the third quarter of 2024. That read was 3.1%. So, we are seeing a pullback in these GDP numbers.
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REBECCA WALSER (GUEST): It's interesting to me, mark my words. I know that the CEOs, COOs are absolutely assured that we're going to have more M&A [merger and acquisition], that we're going to have more activity, deregulation. But, I promise you, Maria, the official reads of data is going to come out more depressed now that the Trump administration is in, than what we had in the last year under the Biden administration.
BARTIROMO: Are you saying they were cooking the books?
WALSER: A hundred — we had the most BLS revisions ever except for the great financial crisis, so, yeah, I think so.
BARTIROMO: Wow.
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BARTIROMO: Look, we questioned it. We questioned it, we questioned it every month, John, OK? You get one number, a month later you gotta revise it. And it's always revised downward.
WALSER: Exactly.
BARTIROMO: How about all those jobs that never actually materialized and the Biden administration had to admit it?
WALSER: Over a million.
JOHN KOUDOUNIS (GUEST): That huge revision, remember?
WALSER: Yes, thank you.
KOUDOUNIS: A huge revision, and it wasn't explained. It wasn't explained.
WALSER: Exactly. Over a million. Unbelievable. Unacceptable.