Trump campaign spokesperson Hogan Gidley’s claim Wednesday that life for Americans is “undoubtedly” better now than it was before President Trump took office nearly four years ago raised a few eyebrows on “Fox and Friends.”
Trump campaign spokesperson Hogan Gidley says Americans are "undoubtedly" better off since Pres. Trump was elected in spite of a high unemployment rate, slowed economic growth and a bungled approach to the coronavirus pandemic which "hit all of us." pic.twitter.com/x3UmRyMX5l
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) July 8, 2020
With gushing praise of the president’s performance, Gidley fended off Trump’s detractors by telling the “Fox & Friends” hosts that Americans “cannot be denied all the success and the positive things that have occurred because of this president’s policies.”
Gidley said that the president will lay out those accomplishments in a campaign rally in New Hampshire on Saturday.
“The president wants to go in there and talk about all the accomplishments he’s done in his first term and how he has made people’s lives better,” Gidley said. “It answers the age-old question: are you better off now than you were before? The answer undoubtedly is yes.”
Kilmeade cut into Gidley’s congratulatory monologue, saying that “the growth is not there.”
The Fox News host pointed to a faltering economy and the elevated unemployment rate, which at 11 percent has ravaged the lives of millions of Americans. Kilmeade suggested that “at the very least the pandemic” precluded Trump fans from claiming that Americans are “better off” than they were three years ago.
Recent polls show disapproval of the job Trump is doing as president on the rise. Nearly 6 in 10 voters gave the president negative marks amid coronavirus outbreaks around the country, according to a POLITICO/Morning Consult survey earlier this month.
The human toll of the pandemic has been vast, with more than 130,000 lives lost to the virus the U.S.
“You can’t really say that, right?” Kilmeade said of Gidley claim that Americans are better off today than before Trump entered office.
“No, absolutely, of course you can say that,” Gidley said, arguing that because the pandemic “hit all of us” he administration’s victories remained untarnished.
Gidley also took swings at Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, saying that the former vice president, if elected, will allow American cities to “devolve into this hellscape,” falsely claiming that Biden would defund the police.
With Trump, Gidley said, the economy is “roaring back.”
Correction: This post originally identified Gidley as a White House spokesperson. He has since left that position and is now a spokesperson for the Trump campaign. We regret the error.
