CNN fact checked in real time after claiming Trump made ‘a recession confession’

An attempt to spin up a “recession confession” from the president found a CNN host getting fact-checked live amid praise for White House “honesty.”

(Video Credit: CNN)

Corporate media efforts to drum up narratives and misrepresent President Donald Trump’s agenda had readily fizzled under the administration’s transparency. Now, after the GOP leader sat for his latest interview with NBC News’ Kristen Welker, “CNN NewsNight” host Abby Phillip was confronted over her framing of the “stunning statement” to make it appear as though the president had taken an about face and then some.

“Trump promised to fight for the average American, but now it appears he’s pulling a Robin Hood in reverse,” tried the CNN host after sharing a snippet of the interview clip where Welker had asked, “Is it okay in the short-term to have a recession?”

“Look, yeah, it’s — everything’s okay,” Trump responded. “What we are, I said, this is a transition period. I think we’re gonna do fantastically.”

After first turning to political commentator Brad Todd, Phillip’s attempt to reiterate her claim that the president was admitting a recession was forthcoming found Republican strategist Erin Maguire cutting in.

“He did what Donald Trump does, which is, he said, ‘Yeah.’ Like, he said, ‘Yeah, okay.’ But what he — he was not affirming her point,” expressed Maguire, known to many as Erin Perrine prior to her February wedding. “He was using it as a bridge word to the next point. He said everything’s fine. He said, everything’s fine and we’ll all be okay.”

“I would not have taken Donald Trump’s statement the way the media did, which was to say he said a recession would be okay. He did not, in any definitive terms, say a recession would be okay for the economy. So, the media getting all spun up over the word ‘okay’ in the middle of a sentence, to a bridge where he said everything is fine — that was not what he was saying,” she continued. “And so I think that we need a little bit of clarity here to, like, give the president the opportunity to say that was not what he said. He did not say a recession would be okay.”

Additionally, the montage shared by the host omitted the fact that Trump had admitted in March, “There is a period of transition because what we’re doing is very big. We’re bringing wealth back to America. That’s a big thing … it takes a little time, but I think it should be great for us.”

Also left out of Phillip’s clip was how the president went on to say “No” when asked if he was worried about a recession and, “Anything can happen, but I think we’re going to have the greatest economy in the history of our country.”

Furthering her callout of the contrast between the current administration and its predecessor, Maguire slammed the propaganda that had been peddled under then-President Joe Biden’s term, where record-high inflation had been deemed “transitory.”

The strategist also applauded the honesty from the Trump White House before Adrienne Elrod, a former senior adviser for then-Vice President Kamala Harris’ second failed presidential campaign, tried to credit Biden for leaving Trump “‘a strong economy.”

Staff Writer

Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn’t researching current events and their impacts, you’ll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.

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