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Scarborough credits Obama for strong economy: ‘This is not an economy Donald Trump gave us’

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Former President Obama deserves more credit for the strong U.S. economy than President Trump, according to MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough.

“Yeah, it’s a strong economy,” Scarborough told “Morning Joe” co-host Mika Brzezinski. “But Mika, this is not an economy that Donald Trump gave us. This is an economy that’s part of the seven year ongoing recovery.”

Scarborough also said this “isn’t the greatest economy ever” and that it “isn’t close to the greatest economy ever.”

“Barack Obama had more people getting jobs his last 16 or 18 months than they had jobs during Donald Trump’s first 16 or 18 months,” he said.

Job growth has been strong under Trump, and the unemployment rate fell to 3.9 percent in July, according to government numbers released on Friday. 

The economy also grew by 4.1 percent in the second quarter, a high mark that hasn’t been hit in five years, though one that was also hit during four quarters in which Obama was president.

On Saturday, President Trump declared at a rally in Ohio that the U.S. is enjoying “the greatest economy in the history of our country,” adding that a “red wave” could occur in November. 

“Throughout 120 years, whoever has the White House tends to lose the midterms,” Trump said.

“But we have the greatest economy in the history of our country. If the Democrats get in they are going to raise your taxes, you’ll have crime all over the place and people pouring across our border. I think it’s going to be a red wave.”

According to a HarrisX/American Barometer poll released last week, voters are split on whether Trump and the Republican party deserve credit for the economy.

Forty-nine percent of respondents said they believed the Trump administration and Republicans deserve credit for recent economic growth, while 51 percent of those polled said they think the economy would have grown regardless of who was in the White House or controlled Congress.

Tags Barack Obama Donald Trump economy

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