NBC’s Andrea Mitchell struggled to get something off her chest during Sunday’s Meet the Press, regretfully informing her fellow panelists that she agrees with “partisan” RNC chairman Reince Priebus’s claim that unemployment is far worse that the White House would have Americans believe.
Priebus had just spoken to Chuck Todd about Friday’s new jobs numbers, which saw unemployment drop to below 6 percent. The RNC head said that figure hid the true number of Americans out of work, noting that a record number have simply given up and dropped out of the labor force altogether.
“You know — I’m not echoing Reince Priebus, because he is obviously partisan, and that’s his job,” she said haltingly. “But if you look at all the reporting from the jobs data on Friday reported that participation rates are at historic lows, decades lows. Fifty-nine percent are not involved in the labor force. That’s just not a sustainable recovery.”