Joe Biden, President Trump clash over June's blockbuster jobs report
Trump touts 'historic' June jobs report; Biden blaming the president for millions of jobs lost during the coronavirus pandemic.
"The Five" co-host Geraldo Rivera cautioned Thursday that despite an encouraging June jobs report appearing to show the start of an economic rebound, a new surge in coronavirus cases may indicate that the worst is still "yet to come."
"There's so much to celebrate," Fox News roaming correspondent-at-large-Rivera said, "but there is this dark shadow. It’s a mixed metaphor. We have the sleeping lion that wants to roll back into action, but the lion has this illness -- 50,000 new infections Wednesday alone. It is very hard to celebrate anything with that kind of number."
Earlier Wednesday, Trump touted the June jobs report during a pre-holiday press briefing at the White House. The report showed 4.8 million jobs added to the economy last month, which reduced the unemployment rate to 11.1 percent. Economists had forecast the unemployment rate to be 12.3 percent, with an increase of just three million jobs.
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"We have to celebrate this," Rivera acknowledged. "This is amazing. We have added seven million new jobs in the last two months."
However, he added, "we are looking around and wondering what the hell is going on. Fifty thousand [new coronavirus cases] in a single day. Texas just ordering mandatory face masks just in the last hour. This is very serious."
Rivera was referring to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's order that all residents of the Lone Star State wear a face covering over their nose and mouth in counties with 20 or more confirmed coronavirus cases, with limited exceptions.
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Texas also reported a new high in coronavirus hospitalizations Thursday (7,832) as well as 7,915 new coronavirus cases, down 161 from Wednesday's record-high of 8,076.
"There is a lot of good, optimistic news in this jobs report," Rivera said. "I'm delighted, but I worry that the worst is yet to come."
Fox News' Brie Stimson and Tyler Olsen contributed to this report.
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