Sarah Huckabee Sanders Issues Rare Apology on Black American Job Numbers

sarah sanders apologize
WASHINGTON, DC - JUNE 04: White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders answers questions during the daily briefing at the White House June 4, 2018 in Washington, DC. Sanders answered a range of questions related primarily to assertions made by members of U.S. Donald Trump's legal team regarding the investigation being conducted by special counsel Robert Mueller. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

The minute I heard of this story, I did the most common form of research available to Americans: a quaint Google search.

I typed “White House press secretary apologize” into the search bar, and was gifted with innumerable results about White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders correcting the record for a false statistic she gave.

I then looked up former President Obama’s press secretaries (Josh Earnest and Robert Gibbs) and searched the following: “Josh Earnest apologize” and “Robert Gibbs apologize.” For Earnest, the only real thing that pops up is his apologizing to Doctors Without Borders on behalf of Obama for an airstrike that hit a hospital. For Gibbs, the only real thing that shows up is him walking back an attack he made on the “professional left.”

I was curious to see how common it is for the White House press secretary to admit a mistake in public. Typically, their job is to craft a positive message for the president. Given that Obama was surrounded with his own messianic glow, I wasn’t surprised to find an explicit instance of his spokespeople actually apologizing for presenting a misleading statistic or fact.

Things are different in the era of Trump. The President’s aides will actually acknowledge wrongdoing when it happens. Case in point: Sanders apologizing for presenting a false piece of information. During a press conference yesterday, Sanders stated that Obama had created only 195,000 jobs for African-Americans. Here’s what she said:

When President Obama left after eight years in office — eight years in office — he had only created 195,000 jobs for African Americans. President Trump in his first year and a half has already tripled what President Obama did in eight years.

That was incorrect. Over 3 million jobs were created for black Americans during Obama’s eight years. In Trump’s first year and a half, over 700,000 jobs have been created for black Americans. Sanders acknowledged her mistake:

Notice Sanders’s little zing at the end? That’s perfect because it’s undoubtedly correct. Trump is currently presiding over one of the lowest unemployment rates for black Americans in this country. (RELATED: Black Unemployment Falls to Lowest Level on Record.)

And despite the ongoing vicious lies from former W.H. staffer Omarosa about Trump being a secret racist, black support for the President is rising at an unprecedented rate. (RELATED: Black Support for Trump Surges Past the ‘Danger Zone’ for Dems.)

If things continue the way they’re going, and Trump’s economic numbers continue to impress, he’ll lap Obama in terms of jobs created for black Americans.

How’s that for a sales pitch for Trump 2020?

Jim E. is a true political insider, with experience working both in Washington and outside in real America. Jim... More about Jim E

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