Jon Stewart on Monday had a laugh over conservative accusations that the Obama administration’s Labor Department manipulated the latest jobs numbers to make the president look good after a lousy debate performance. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ report found that unemployment declined from 8.1 percent to 7.8 percent, about the level before Obama took office. What could explain the drop? The Obama campaign cooked the books, conservatives claimed on Friday.
“It’s gotta be corrupt, political manipulation of the official statistics,” Stewart said. “What else would explain why, after unemployment has been steadily declining for the last year, that now, suddenly, right before the election, it declines a little more?”
“I gotta say, if you’re cooking the books, 7.8 percent unemployment is a shitty recipe,” Stewart added.
Watch the video:
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David Taintor
David Taintor is TPM’s News Editor. He contributes to TPM’s Livewire coverage, among other areas. David is from Chanhassen, Minnesota, where, yes, it gets very cold. Reach him at taintor [at] talkingpointsmemo.com
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