Kristen Welker is a reliable stenographer for the White House. Occasionally she functions as their videographer, too, as she did in this segment.
This is the end of a much longer segment where Mercedes "Mercy" Schlapp -- apparently a pal of Welker's -- was permitted to just go on and on about things, unchallenged.
At the end of the interview, Welker finally decided she had a question for Schlapp about whether Trump would actually sit for an interview with Robert Mueller. Predictably, Schlapp referred Welker to Trump's "personal lawyers."
And then Schlapp went off to the races, spewing propaganda and lies faster than anyone can say "boo".
"What we are focused on here at the White House is what the president has accomplished," Schlapp scolded. "You look at the fact that we are looking at 4 million jobs that have been added. the fact we are seeing unemployment at its lowest for hispanic, for African-American, for women. we are seeing a success story."
HOLD ON. Four million jobs, say what? There's no way Trump has created that many jobs.
If we assume the first year of the Trump presidency is a continuation of Obama policies (which it was), then it appears that "Mercy" was taking some credit for Obama's growth.
Schlapp kept going on about God, Mom, apple pie, consumer and business confidence and Saint Donnie, but it was all lost on me, and apparently also Kristen Welker who thanked Mercy for her time and ended her show.
Fortunately for viewers and the truth, Ali Velshi wasn't willing to serve as a White House PR flack. He took the handoff from Kristen and immediately hit Schlapp.
"Credit should go to the president for optimism and for job creation and for the stock market -- trends that began on March 9th of 2009, which was the bottom of the recession," Velshi said.
"We have seen unemployment go steadily down over those years. so was stock market growth, so was wage creation," he continued.
"She is not wrong but one does have to tell a fuller story," he added.
Damn right she does. It is not acceptable for a White House spokesman to take credit for jobs created by his predecessor. Ever.
