Kayleigh McEnany: Trump’s Strong Economy a Challenge for Biden’s Presidential Bid

Kayleigh McEnany, the Trump 2020 campaign press secretary, before President Donald Trump’s MAGA rally in Grand Rapids, Mich., on March 28, 2019. Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times

The president’s 2020 campaign national press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, argued that Joe Biden would struggle in his race against President Donald Trump because of the former vice president’s history of economic moves that resulted in millions of lost jobs.

In an interview with Fox’s program, “Outnumbered,” McEnany outlined reasons why Biden would not be able to match Trump on the economy.

“For Joe Biden, for his job, we might as well call him Job-killing Joe. He oversaw and voted for NAFTA—it killed a million jobs. He wanted TPP—it would’ve killed half a million jobs,” she said. “Guess what though. The middle class, blue-collar workers had a savior come forward in the form of President Trump, who tore up TPP, renegotiated a better NAFTA deal, and brought back manufacturing.”

Former Vice President Joe Biden in front of a Stop & Shop in support of union workers on April 18, 2019, in Dorchester, Mass. Scott Eisen/Getty Images

“The numbers tell the story. When you lose 211,000 manufacturing jobs under Biden’s tenure, and President Trump in two short years has brought back nearly half a million. Job-Killing Joe, best of luck going into Pennsylvania,” she added.

Biden kicked off his campaign with a speech in front of union members in Pittsburg, on April 29. He first announced his intention to join the race on April 25, becoming the 20th Democratic candidate to run in the 2020 presidential election.

Biden held a comfortable lead over the rest of the Democratic candidates in an average of polls maintained by Real Clear Politics.

Earlier today, Trump criticized Biden for holding his first rally in Pennsylvania, saying “He obviously doesn’t know that Pennsylvania is having one of the best economic years in its history, with lowest unemployment EVER, a now thriving Steel Industry (that was dead) & great future!”

“The Media (Fake News) is pushing Sleepy Joe hard. Funny, I’m only here because of Biden & Obama. They didn’t do the job and now you have Trump, who is getting it done - big time!” Trump also tweeted.

McEnany supported the president’s statement, saying that the media does not “care about the American people.”

“They don’t care about the middle class. They don’t care about the American people. They don’t care that those policies meant that we had the worst economic recovery in modern history going back to World War II. Never mind the fact that wages were depressed. They don’t care that under President Trump, wages are growing twice as fast for low and middle-income Americans,” McEnany said.

“The numbers don’t like. This economy has never been hotter. The middle class, low-income workers cannot afford to take us backward no matter what the media says as much as they wish for Obama 2.0,” she added.

Biden appears to be counting on the support of organized labor for his election campaign. But a number of moves by the Obama-Biden administration had angered union leaders ahead of the 2016 election.

For example, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) backed by Obama and Biden received a lot of opposition by labor unions at the time. Moreover, unions also viewed the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) as detrimental to the interests of unionized workers. Biden supported NAFTA as the senator from Delaware.

The Epoch Times reporter Ivan Pentchoukov contributed to this report.