Trump says he'll pick an 'exceptional' BLS replacement, continues unfounded claims numbers were 'rigged'
President Donald Trump continues to push unfounded claims that last Friday's jobs report was "rigged" in favor of Democrats "in order to make a great Republican Success look less stellar."
"I will pick an exceptional replacement," Trump posted on his social media platform.
His post comes as the White House says Trump wants his "own people" in charge of the jobs data.
Kevin Hassett, the director of the National Economic Council, defended Trump's decision to fire the commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics during an appearance on CNBC.
"If I'm running the BLS and I have the biggest revision, really think about it, the biggest revision outside of covid in 50 years, then it's incumbent on me to explain why in a very transparent way, to show how the numbers add up, to show exactly where the revision came from and what you're doing to address it so it doesn't happen again. If you don't do that, then you create a circumstance where politicians are going to wonder," he said.
Hassett went on to say there was a need to modernize the labor data as he notes Trump wants to get "his people" into the BLS. Though, Hassett did admit the jobs numbers were slower than expected.
-ABC News' Lalee Ibssa
