Democrat VP pick Sen. Kamala Harris spread a stunning amount of misinformation about President Trump and his administration on Wednesday during her first speech as Joe Biden's running mate, but every lie was overshadowed by her egregious claim that the president was responsible for the nation's unemployment rate.
"The president’s mismanagement of the pandemic has plunged us into the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression," Harris said during the joint appearance with Biden in Wilmington, Delaware. She then charged the president with being solely responsible for the millions of lost jobs that have occurred during the Chinese coronavirus pandemic.
"[Trump] inherited the longest economic expansion in history from Barack Obama and Joe Biden," Harris said. "Then, like everything else he inherited, he ran it straight into the ground."
With no sense of irony, Harris looked into the cameras and the face of the American people and claimed that the sitting president was responsible for the millions of lost jobs caused by catastrophic lockdowns.
"Just look where they’ve gotten us," Harris said of Trump and Vice President Pence. "More than 16 million out of work."
Yes, there are millions of Americans out of work. She's right about that. But the blame most certainly doesn't lie at the feet of President Trump. The president and his administration brought the nation to the lowest recorded unemployment rate for African Americans ever and a 50-year overall low.
And that was no accident. The Trump administration added 6.7 million new jobs since the start of his administration, as the president and Republicans pushed to add industrial jobs and keep manufacturing in the United States. In the booming economy, job confidence reached record highs.
The economic shutdowns that rolled into the country because of the Wuhan coronavirus at the start of the spring cost America dearly. But the shift from "flattening the curve" and "slowing the spread" into "shutdown forever until there's a cure" was a decision of Democrat leaders in states and cities, not the White House.
The president has steadfastly encouraged states to do what is best for the people that live in them, yielding to the power of federalism provided in the Constitution. The draconian decisions of dingbat Democrat leaders operating with impunity and unbridled emergency powers have made the unavoidable economic crisis infinitely worse than it needed to be.
There is no reasonable, truthful way to blame the continued hurting of America on the president. Democrats in Congress do not push for freedom for employees and businesses; they push for more shutdowns and enormous amounts of bailout money and unemployment benefits for people out of work. They are pushing for more control, just like the leaders that are stopping America from going back to work.
Further, Biden has vowed to stop the growth of the fossil fuel industry, an energy sector with millions of jobs that powers homes and businesses across the country. Harris has promised to ban the fracking industry altogether, a venture that would devastate the American energy industry, destroy jobs, and cost trillions of dollars to accomplish. Biden has already met issues with labor unions who no longer trust "Union Joe" to support them and their employees.
"No more, no new fracking," Biden said in March. "And, by the way, on the Recovery Act, I was able to make sure we invested $90 billion dollars in making sure we brought down the price of solar and wind that is lower than the price of coal...That's why not another new coal plant will be built." Energy industry leaders have bemoaned this statement from Joe. Now that Harris has joined the Democrat ticket, the promise of further job destruction looms heavily.
"Joe Biden is really one of us. I always loved the man," Pittsburgh Democrat and union leader Jim Cassidy said last month. "He scares me now. Is he embracing the new Green Deal or whatever they are calling it? He needs to get some stuff straight."
On Wednesday, Harris ignored her and Biden's devastating plans to bow down to the furthest left faction of their party and attempt to cripple the energy industry. Instead, they chose to lean on outright lies about President Trump, who has supported American manufacturing and energy since taking office.
They also ignored the stunning and unprecedented job growth since the economic shutdown. After the loss of more than 20 million jobs in April, the country has recovered at a stunning rate under the Trump administration.
We’ve created more jobs in the last 3 months than Joe Biden and Barack Obama created in their 8 years in office. pic.twitter.com/kwk5YhL3TJ
— Mike Pence (@Mike_Pence) August 13, 2020
Voters know that no matter how Harris and Biden plan to twist the truth about Trump and jobs in order to placate their base, American workers were much better off with a Trump presidency before the pandemic and the Democrat power grab that came with it.