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CNN Fact-Checks Tim Walz Over False Claim About Manufacturing Jobs Under Trump

By Updated: ECONOMY

CNN’s fact checker delivered a blistering response to a claim made by Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who is Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate, after he made a demonstrably false claim about manufacturing job losses during then-President Donald Trump’s term. “Let‘s talk about building — let‘s talk about manufacturing. Building back up manufacturing in the United States is a focus of both campaigns. I want to play for you what vice presidential candidate Tim Walz said about this yesterday,” network host Kate Bolduan said on Monday to begin a segment.

In the clip, Walz claimed:  “We want to make sure that you‘re able to bring manufacturing, like Kamala Harris has said. We know Donald Trump lost more manufacturing jobs than any president in American history. That‘s simply factual.” After playing the clip, Bolduan asked network fact-checker Daniel Dale: “What are the facts here?”

“Well, if you‘re going to say something is simply factual, it should be factual. This is not. It’s not true that the Trump presidency lost more manufacturing jobs than any other presidency. Under George W. Bush, there were about 4.5 million manufacturing jobs lost,” Dale began. “Under Trump it was about 178,000. But there are also more manufacturing jobs lost than under Trump: under Eisenhower, under Ford, under Reagan.

“So Trump does not have the record. I think it‘s also worth pointing out for context that these Trump job losses in manufacturing overwhelmingly occurred because of the COVID pandemic. Pre-pandemic, under Trump, there was a gain of about 414,000 manufacturing jobs. Again, he ended a negative 178,000, but that was largely because we had a pandemic-related crash,” Dale added.

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