National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett on Sunday defended President Donald Trump’s sudden decision to fire the Bureau of Labor Statistics commissioner, without citing specific evidence.
Hassett repeatedly pointed to the revisions in Friday’s employment data to justify Trump’s firing of BLS Commissioner Erika McEntarfer, but did not provide data showing the latest jobs report was “rigged,” as Trump claimed.
“I mean, the revisions are hard evidence,” he said on NBC News, adding that there “have been a bunch of patterns that could make people wonder.”
Trump on Friday fired McEntarfer, accusing her of manipulating the jobs numbers for political purposes after the latest report included downward revisions to job growth data for two previous months.
Hassett argued that the revisions are a “historically important outlier,” saying they raise broader doubts about the data.
