Biden campaign official on jobs report, Trump's coronavirus response and 2020 race
Kate Bedingfield, Biden campaign deputy manager and communications director, joins ‘Bill Hemmer Reports.’
A top Biden campaign official told "Bill Hemmer Reports" Thursday that President Trump's reaction to June's better-than-expected jobs report amounted to "spiking the football on the 50-yard line."
"Let's not forget why we're in this hole in the first place," Biden campaign communications director Kate Bedingfield told host Bill Hemmer. "I mean, this is Donald Trump trying to take credit for positive jobs numbers after he spent the last four months tragically mishandling this virus, meaning that we're now in the hole that we're in."
TRUMP TOUTS 'HISTORIC' JUNE JOBS REPORT
Earlier Thursday, Trump touted the report as “historic” and proof that the “economy is roaring back” after being flattened by the coronavirus pandemic. The report saw America's unemployment level drop to 11.1 percent as employers added 4.8 million jobs in June. Nearly eight million jobs have been added since the beginning of May, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
As the coronavirus swept the nation in March, most Americans were forced to huddle in their homes to prevent the spread of the disease. The outbreak sparked a massive economic downturn, with more than 40 million people filing first-time unemployment claims and spiking the jobless rate to levels not seen since the Great Depression nearly a century ago.
Bedingfield emphasized to Hemmer that the Biden campaign is "cheering for a recovery" and "to suggest otherwise is crazy." However, she added, "We're not going to get there unless we do the hard work to get there. And that's what Donald Trump is failing to do.
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"From the outset, he has been more focused on his own political fortunes," she added. "He's been more focused on dismissing the virus, saying things like, 'It'll magically go away,' saying, you know, remember back in March when he said, 'Everybody who can get it -- everybody [who] wants a test, can get one'? That's still not true.
“He has not done the hard work to put in place the protections to ensure that our economy can reopen strongly, and that’s part of what we’re starting to see and that’s why we’re seeing people feeling a tremendous amount of fear.”
Fox News' Paul Steinhauser and Allie Raffa contributed to this report.