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MSNBC Host Says Trump Inherited Successes From Obama

April 27, 2017

MSNBC host Stephanie Ruhle on Thursday attributed President Donald Trump's successes to former President Barack Obama.

Ruhle's comments were prompted by a discussion of the president's first 100 days in office, and Trump's repeated claims that he had inherited "a mess" from the previous administration.

"First how frustrating is this for you, Josh?" Ruhle asked guest Josh Earnest, former White House press secretary. "President Obama was definitively handed a mess."

Ruhle was likely alluding to, among other things, the tenuous state of the economy that Obama inherited when he took office in the wake of the 2008 Recession.

"And while income inequality is a massive problem," Ruhle said, acknowledging that the country was not perfect after Obama left office. "While we've got geopolitical issues, President Trump was not handed a mess."

"The 317,000 jobs he created were absolutely on target, and he says he created over 600,000 jobs," Ruhle said, alluding to Trump's claim in early April.

The official Department of Labor estimate for Trump's first two months in office is 317,000. Ruhle appeared to be claiming that the rate of job growth was largely consistent with the job growth under the outgoing president.

"So when you look at these 100 days, does it not give you frustration, that what he touts, that much of it, much of the positives, Obama delivered?" Ruhle asked Earnest.