Ari Fleischer challenges Biden's victory lap on economy: He's a 'Trojan horse with a script'
'If Donald Duck were the president, you'd have the same job numbers,' Fox News contributor says
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer called out President Biden Friday for taking a victory lap on the better-than-expected June jobs report and crediting his administration's economic agenda for the strongest hiring gain in 10 months.
"The reason jobs are being created is because COVID is over," Fleischer, a Fox News contributor, argued on "The Faulkner Focus. "Joe Biden didn't end COVID. And if any credit is to be given, it was as a result of the previous administration, the Trump administration, that accelerated the production of these vaccines. And Joe Biden is the lucky beneficiary of that."
The president instead attributed his $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan with boosting the labor market's recovery from the worst downturn in nearly a century. The package, passed by Democrats in March, included a $1,400 stimulus check for most Americans and billions in funding to help accelerate the vaccine distribution.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"None of this happened by accident, it's a direct result of the American Rescue Plan," Biden said. "People questioned whether or not we should do that, even though we didn't have bipartisan support. Well, it worked."
Fleischer quipped the jobs numbers would have been the same if Donald Duck were president.
"Joe Biden is a Trojan horse with a script," Fleischer said. "Everything he talked about was a progressive liberal spending spree that had nothing to do with COVID, nothing to do with jobs. It's just a liberal wish list come true."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Fleischer also called attention to the labor force participation rate remaining stuck at an "excessively low" 61.6 percent.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
"What it means is people aren't participating in looking for jobs," he explained. "They're happy to stay at home and they don't count as part of being unemployed because they're not looking for work. Why aren't they looking for work? They don't need to in many cases because they're getting their excessive unemployment benefit check… that's a problem."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Biden argued there's "more work to do" to ensure the economy reaches full employment. There are still about 6.8 million fewer jobs than there were in February 2020, before the pandemic took hold.
FOX Business' Megan Henney contributed to this report.