Vice President Mike Pence has ignited a social media firestorm after making a patently false claim about job growth that had media figures and social media users alike using words like "bonkers" and "gaslighting."
During an appearance on FoxNews, Pence claimed that the US added more jobs in three months than Barack Obama did in eight years.
Pence's claim stands in contrast to the fact that the US economy has shrunk 32.9% since the pandemic began, the largest shrinkage in American history.
But aside from that, Pence's claim is patently false whether taken in the context of the pandemic, or just taken on its face.
As CNN fact checker Daniel Dale, who called Pence's claim "bonkers," explained, the US added 11 million jobs during Obama's presidency. The US added 9 million in the past three months.
But that aside, the jobs Mike Pence is counting as having been "created" are jobs that were originally lost due to the federal government's calamitous response to the pandemic, which forced massive closures of many workplaces and layoffs of many employees as the economy cratered. Many workers also quit their jobs due to safety concerns about the pandemic.
Some of those lost jobs were then added back when local economies decided to reopen again, as former Obama and Clinton White House staffer Ronald Klain explained.
In short, "created" is a frankly farcical term to use for these jobs.
And on Twitter, people were astonished at the Vice President's audacious bragging--and provided a thorough fact-check.
Claims about job growth were not the only nonsensical thing Pence said during his appearance. He also lauded President Trump for having "seen us through the worst pandemic in 100 years."
The United States is currently the worst-hit country on Earth by the pandemic.
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