Fox News presenter Neil Cavuto intervened in a speech at President Donald Trump’s White House on Thursday to correct once again some mischaracterizations the president made, specifically about the economic record of former President Barack Obama, which Cavuto pointed out it was very solid.
In what was another campaign-like speech on the White House grounds, the president criticized the regulations established by the Obama administration in the wake of the 2008 recession, claiming that the former president had destroyed jobs in the process.
While the speech was broadcast live on Fox News, Cavuto interrupts himself to issue a fact check to his viewers.
“I want to clarify a couple of things that he said, that no president in history has cut regulations as much as he has. That’s true, “he noted, adding:” I think [Trump] he could have misinterpreted the regulations that were added under Barack Obama. “
Cavuto, who regularly draws Trump’s ire for his critical coverage, noted that his audience “might recall that we had this little thing called financial collapse” and that many of the regulations were put in place to prevent banks from selling risky mortgage securities, which helped cause the financial crisis.
The veteran Fox presenter dispelled the idea that post-crisis regulations hurt Obama’s economy.
“The unemployment rate, under Barack Obama, dropped from a high of 10 percent to around 4.7 percent,” said Cavuto. “President Trump, of course, sent it even lower, eventually reducing us to an unemployment rate of 3.5 percent. But I didn’t want to leave the impression that during those eight years, when Obama took office the first time and we were bleeding about a million jobs a month, that was a standard rate and that characterized the entire eight years. “
In addition, the Fox presenter said “it was not a disaster under Barack Obama,” noting that the Dow Jones tripled during the 44th president’s term and that companies did “very well.”
“The Americans did it very, very well,” he concluded. “So I just want to put that in some context here.”
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