Friday on MSNBC’s “The Weeknight,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) said the Senate would probe President Donald Trump’s decision to fire Erika McEntarfer, the commissioner of labor statistics.
Co-host Michael Steele said, “He wants to create the narrative to fit the things that he either perceives or wants to be realized. How do you and how does the Senate, regardless of who’s controlling it, I just go fundamentally to the idea that you guys still carry weight in some of this and this indiscriminate firing, just so you can create a narrative. You don’t like the numbers. You’re lying to the American people. How do you reset the table around this level of crazy?”
Blumenthal said, “The issue that you’ve raised is a classic shoot the messenger. Donald Trump didn’t like these numbers because they cast a negative light on his supposedly big, beautiful economic achievements. But you know Ronald Reagan used to say, facts are stubborn things. And the reason those numbers were revised downward was because of facts relating to the economy. How do we deal with it now? Donald Trump trying to cook the books and imperiling the credibility of some really important economic statistics.”
He added, “I’ve begun talking to my colleagues just on the Senate floor tonight about what we can do, whether it’s worth some kind of inquiry on the part of the permanent subcommittee on investigations where I’m the ranking member, whether we should do it through one of our other committees, but make sure there is oversight so that the firing of this career civil servant doesn’t imperil the credibility and accuracy of these very, very important numbers.”
