By Daily Mail (U.S.) | Created at 2025-01-02 15:51:43 | Updated at 2025-01-05 02:41:09
2 days ago
Morning Joe's resident economist conceded that Donald Trump was right about Democrat Joe Biden's failures on the border policy front.
Regular contributor Steve Rattner, 72, made the remarks to host Jonathan Lemire, as Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski continued their vacation.
The economist opened by airing a positive review of the US economy - before going on to admit that 'the border was not Biden’s finest moment', and that Trump 'was right' about his own presidential successes at halting illegal crossings.
To that, Lemire suggested Trump's successes in terms of the economy could be credited to his predecessor, Barack Obama, before claiming the same was happening again as the conservative retakes office.
As they spoke, a series of charts were presented on-screen - billed as a 'Year in Charts'. Curated by Rattner himself, they contained data said to have defined 2024.
On the right were several pertaining to the economy, most of them showing growth aside from one charting inflation. At the center were several dealing with crossings at the border - and how they've shot up since Biden assumed office.
After waxing poetic for several minutes about Biden's contributions to the US economy, the two took on the task of addressing the less-than-flattering figures before them, flanked by diagrams showing financial growth and increased use of AI.
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Morning Joe's Steve Rattner appeared to downplay the effects of Joe Biden's policies at the border Thursday - before conceding Donald Trump was right about failures on that front
The economist made the remarks to guest host Jonathan Lemire, as Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski continued their vacation
'Trump is not wrong when we talk about how border crossings were quite low,' Rattner said as he pointed to a graphic showing monthly encounters at the border during both terms.
'They're running about 74,000 a month when he left office,' he continued, gesturing to a spike seen in January.
'They, in fact, did shoot up. Some of it was some things Biden said and some ways that they put a moratorium, for example, on deportations,' the longtime journalist, who is also an investor, explained.
'But in fact, we did get up here almost to 300,000 a month. But what maybe people don’t entirely know, is that border crossings have come back down almost to where they were under Trump.
'They’re running at about 100,000 at the moment,' he went on, glancing over the more than three-fold increase seen under Biden.
'So we went up the hill and we went down the hill. But, unfortunately, that was pretty costly to Biden during the election.'
The rest of the talks revolved largely around what the pair painted as a unsightly regime set to take the Biden Administration's place, in a little over two weeks.
Neither of the presenters - nor any of the other guests - spoke more of the increase in border crossings, not to mention inflation, under the outgoing Biden.
The economist opened by admitting, 'The border was not Biden’s finest moment', after airing a positive review of the US economy. Border crossings shot up after Biden assumed office
To that, Lemire suggested Trump's successes in terms of the economy could be credited to his predecessor, Barack Obama, before claiming the same was happening again as the conservative retakes the Oval Office
Instead, they pointed to statistics surrounding the S&P 500, which has risen by nearly 100 percent over the past five years.
The two also fawned over the nation's GDP under Biden - up more than 2 percent - leading Rattner to again admit, 'Both trump and Biden had pretty steady GDP.' Trump's first stint in office saw the metric rise by a more pronounced three percent.
'Trump, of course, did have COVID,' he conceded, addressing how Trump, in early 2020, was tasked with dealing the first nine months of the crisis before leaving office.
'But Biden is leading trump with a really strong economy,' he continued, after it was revealed in October that the US economy has grown 12.6 percent since Biden was sworn in.
'In fact, even if you exclude the effects of COVID, Biden's performance in the GDP was really quite strong, over 2 percent growth,' he insisted. 'Going in with a tailwind.
'Similarly on jobs, Biden really has created a huge amount of jobs,' he added, now pointing to another positive graph.
'He created over 7 million jobs, about 165,000 a month during his term. Actually, more than Trump really, even before COVID hurt him.'
Prior to the pandemic, the US's GDP, the broadest measure of the country’s economic growth, grew at a stunning 33.1 percent annual rate in the third quarter - most of which was erased by drops that came with the crisis.
At the center were several dealing with crossings at the border - and how they've shot up since Biden assumed office. On the other end were graphics showing a recent rise in innovations in AI. Eventually, Rattner set out on explaining the less-than flattering figures in the middle
Neither of the presenters - nor any of the other guests - spoke more of the increase in border crossings, not to mention inflation, under the outgoing Biden, who recently took credit for a more than 10 percent continuation of a historic post pandemic comeback started by Trump
The economic comeback was nearly double the previous record set 70 years ago, after World War II.
In October, Biden took credit for a more than 10 percent continuation of this trend, as the country continues to recover.
Within weeks, Kamala Harris to Trump would lose by a landslide - thanks in part to a resounding increase of Latino voters opting for the former president
He emphatically beat Harris after being backed by 46 percent of the demographic - the most by any Republican in modern history.
That came in contrast to his meager share of the demographic seen during his loss to Joe Biden, just 32 percent.
Factors like inflation - and policies surrounding the border - are thought to be the blame, several pundits have since said.
