CNN correspondent John Harwood said a “nuclear bomb” had been dropped on the economy following new unemployment reports.
While reporting on Thursday’s New Day, Harwood said the United States is facing an “economic catastrophe” after an additional 6.6 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits, ratcheting up the total number to approximately 10 million.
“This thing is not complicated. It’s not subtle. We have pulled the plug out from the American economy, and the result is an economic catastrophe,” Harwood began.
“How long is it going to last? That depends on the public health answer to this situation,” he continued. “You know, we’ve talked about in the past, in the last few days, certainly when we had last week’s numbers, that the federal response, both in terms of the Federal Reserve and the fiscal response from Congress, is like relief efforts during a hurricane. This is a nuclear bomb that’s been dropped on the American economy.”
Harwood’s rhetoric echoed points made by CNN’s White House correspondent Jim Acosta on Tuesday when he asked President Trump whether he was giving the public a sense of “false hope” by maintaining an optimistic attitude and insinuated that the president downplayed COVID-19.
“It’s going to go away, hopefully at the end of the month. If not, it hopefully will be soon after that,” Trump said, later saying he’s a “cheerleader” for the country and wants to remain hopeful to the public.
A growing number of U.S. citizens approve of Trump’s response to the coronavirus pandemic over the media’s reaction.
According to a recent poll from Monmouth University, 50% of respondents approve of Trump’s behavior during the coronavirus outbreak. Meanwhile, only 45% of the public feels the media have acted appropriately during the crisis. 69% of Democrats feel the media have done a “good job” reporting during the coronavirus pandemic, but 59% of Republicans and 52% of independents believe the press has done a “bad job.”
