As Wall Street tumbled into an historically bad day today, former President Obama’s one-time spokesman suggested that President Trump will “own the fall” because has bragged about the huge increase, something the aide said Obama never did.
Good time to recall that in the previous administration, we NEVER boasted about the stock market — even though the Dow more than doubled on Obama’s watch — because we knew two things: 1) the stock market is not the economy; and 2) if you claim the rise, you own the fall.
— Jay Carney (@JayCarney) February 5, 2018
But in fact Obama never shut up about how the market had recovered under his watch.
On Twitter, former spokesman Jay Carney, now an Amazon vice president, said Obama was cautious.
“Good time to recall that in the previous administration, we NEVER boasted about the stock market — even though the Dow more than doubled on Obama’s watch — because we knew two things: 1) the stock market is not the economy; and 2) if you claim the rise, you own the fall,” he tweeted.
While @BarackObama and others would on occasion mention the stock market’s revival as part of a broad observation about America’s recovery from the Great Recession – esp during the 2012 re-elect – we didn’t boast about daily or weekly spikes, for the aforementioned reasons.
— Jay Carney (@JayCarney) February 5, 2018
Two hours later, as some started to look into his claim, he followed that up with another. “While @BarackObama and others would on occasion mention the stock market’s revival as part of a broad observation about America’s recovery from the Great Recession – esp during the 2012 re-elect – we didn’t boast about daily or weekly spikes, for the aforementioned reasons,” Carney tweeted.
A look through the C-SPAN video library, however, revealed dozens of times Obama bragged on the market, though broadly as Carney said.
“That’s something to gobble about,” he said, for example, during the 2016 Thanksgiving turkey pardoning after listing the stock market gains with other economic advances in his two terms.
Per my last tweet, should have said “only after multiple years of market, jobs and GDP growth” – and not as a boast in year one on daily spikes. Just politically unwise. By the time of this citation, Obama had been president 5+ years and Dow had doubled. https://t.co/q2mJUoejiU
— Jay Carney (@JayCarney) February 5, 2018
Below are just a few examples of the dozens of times Obama heralded the booming stock market.
At a Nov. 14, 2016 press conference, he said, “The stock market is hovering around its all-time high, and 401(k)s have been restored.”
In a July 23, 2016 radio address with Sen. Elizabeth Warren, he said, “Corporate profits are up, lending to businesses is up, and the stock market has hit an all-time high.”
In a July 25, 2015 radio address, he said, “The stock market has more than doubled, restoring the retirement savings of millions.”
Speaking to the VFW on July 21, 2015, he said, “The stock market has more than doubled, which has restored 401(k)s for millions of Americans.”
In a Feb. 20, 2015 speech to Democrats, he said, “the facts are before us. The economy kept growing. The stock market has more than doubled, restoring the 401(k)s of millions of people.”
In releasing his budget on Feb. 6, 2015, he said, “My number-one priority is to make sure that the American people’s wages and incomes are going up — since right now the stock market has gone up, corporate profits are at an all-time high, corporate balance sheets have never been better in history.”
In an Oct. 3, 2014 town hall, he said, “Stock market, all-time highs. Housing market beginning to recover. There’s almost no economic measure by which the economy as a whole isn’t doing significantly better than it was when I came into office.” He also said, “There was a report this week that showed that corporate balance sheets in America are as strong as they’ve been in history. It’s part of the reason why the stock market is doing great.”
On April 2, 2014 in Michigan, he said, “The housing market is recovering. Obviously the stock market has recovered, which means people’s 401(k)s, if they have them, are doing a lot better.”
Speaking at Dreamworks on Nov. 26, 2013, he said, “ The stock market is doing great, corporate profits soaring, but too many Americans aren’t sharing in that success.”
At an Oct. 23, 2012 campaign stop in Florida, he said, “Unemployment has fallen to its lowest level since I took office. Home values are rising. The stock market has nearly doubled.”
In his 2011 State of the Union address, he said, “Two years after the worst recession most of us have ever known, the stock market has come roaring back, corporate profits are up, the economy is growing again.”
At a May 13, 2010 town hall, he said, “And it’s great that the stock market has bounced back, but if you’re still looking for a job out there, it’s still a recession.”
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected]
