'State media watch': Ron Klain gives kudos to the NY Times for carrying economic water for Biden; Updated!

Doug P. | 12:16 PM on August 05, 2022

The jobs report today contained another “unexpected” element, except this time the jobs added were better than many analysts predicted:

Huge headline number on the jobs report- up 528,000 jobs in July.

Unemployment ticks down on lower labor force participation.

— Carol Roth (@caroljsroth) August 5, 2022

Even though the economy is in what meets the definition of a recession, President Biden recently said the R-word doesn’t apply to the current economy. The media has done its part to help re-define the meaning of “recession,” and White House chief of staff Ron Klain appreciates the New York Times’ contribution to the effort:

Kudos, @nytimes pic.twitter.com/UH1PYuuGpO

— Ronald Klain (@WHCOS) August 5, 2022

There’s that media/Dem administration circle of life on full display again.

The strong jobs report was welcome news for President Biden, who has insisted in recent weeks that the United States is not in recession, even though it has suffered two consecutive quarters of economic contraction.

But the report also defied even the president’s own optimistic expectations about the state of the labor market — and appeared to contradict the administration’s theory of where the economy is headed.

Mr. Biden celebrated the report on Friday morning. “Today, the unemployment rate matches the lowest it’s been in more than 50 years: 3.5 percent,” he said in a statement. “More people are working than at any point in American history.”