(Daily Caller News Foundation) — CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale asserted Tuesday that Democratic Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota falsely claimed that former President Donald Trump set a record for lost manufacturing jobs.
Walz claimed that Trump set a record for the most manufacturing job losses during his administration in a Monday appearance on “The View,” where he also took aim at Republican Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, alleging that Vance and Trump were “venture capitalists” who helped ship jobs overseas. Dale contested Walz’s point and pointed out that job losses under Trump were due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“If you’re going to say something is simply factual, it should be factual. This is not. It’s not true that the Trump presidency lost more manufacturing jobs than any other presidency,” Dale told “CNN News Central” host Kate Bolduan. “Under George W. Bush, there were about 4.5 million manufacturing jobs lost. Under Trump, it was about 178,000. But there are also more manufacturing jobs lost than under Trump: under Eisenhower, under Ford, under Reagan. So Trump does not have the record.”
“I think it’s also worth pointing out for context that these Trump job losses in manufacturing overwhelmingly occurred because of the COVID pandemic,” Dale continued. “Pre-pandemic, under Trump, there was a gain of about 414,000 manufacturing jobs. Again, he ended a negative 178,000, but that was largely because we had a pandemic-related crash.”
Walz has made numerous claims that haven’t borne scrutiny since Vice President Kamala Harris announced him as her running mate on Aug. 6. He has also come under fire after claiming he was in Hong Kong during the June 1989 massacre of protesters in Tiananmen Square during the Oct. 1 vice presidential debate against Republican Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio.
Vance accused Walz of “stolen valor” in an Aug. 7 campaign event, citing comments about gun control Walz made in a video posted on X by the Harris-Walz campaign. Walz also faced questions about the timing of his 2005 retirement in regards to the war in Iraq from the Minnesota National Guard that arose after a 2018 Facebook post by retired Army Command Sergeant Major Thomas Behrends resurfaced.
This article was originally published at the Daily Caller News Foundation.
