A former commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics said there’s “no way” the jobs numbers could be “rigged” as President Donald Trump alleged during his shock shake-up of the agency.
Trump-appointed William Beach criticized the president after he fired Commissioner Erika McEntarfer on Friday. Trump, without evidence, said she had manipulated job numbers for political purposes.
Her dramatic removal came after a July jobs report was weaker than expected and after the BLS significantly revised down the gains from the two prior months.
Over the weekend, White House advisers scrambled to defend Trump’s decision against accusations from Democrats that the president is “acting like a dictator.”
National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett struggled to provide evidence that the data had been falsified during a Sunday appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
