CNBC's Andrew Ross Sorkin on Wednesday put Rep. Jodey Arrington (R-TX) in a tight spot by confronting him with data that undermined his claims that the current economy is weak.
During an appearance on Squawk Box, Arrington was asked whether he was surprised by the strength of the American economy given his criticisms of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
"I don't think it's strong!" Arrington exclaimed.
"You don't?" replied Sorkin.
Arrington proceeded to cherry pick data from recent months that he said indicated the economy was headed toward a recession, to which Sorkin simply replied, "You don't believe the jobs numbers we just got?"
"I think there's a lot of government jobs in there," Arrington replied.
In fact, government employment accounted for only 31,000 of the estimated 254,000 net jobs that were created last month, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Arrington was also reminded that jobs numbers for previous months were revised upward, indicating that the economy is showing no signs of slowing down at the moment.
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Sorkin then asked Arrington if he was surprised that the stock market has been hitting all-time highs.
"I'm not surprised, it's going to fluctuate," he said. "But it ended up lower than higher when the Fed cut the interest rates, which was counterintuitive."
Sorkin replied that, if the economy were really terrible, investors would not be pushing stock prices up to record highs.
"It's better than people predicted," the politician acknowledged.
He then pivoted to attacking Biden for the current budget deficit.
Watch the video below or at this link.
