Steve Rattner, a regular contributor to Morning Joe, recently downplayed the negative impacts of the Biden Administration's border policy, despite the data he presented painting a rather bleak picture.
Rattner, who also serves as an Economic Analyst on MSNBC and contributes to the Op Ed page, recently published a series of charts that dissected the most significant events of 2024 in a "Year in Charts" essay.
According to Mediaite, Rattner began his segment with a positive review of the current state of the US economy, a sentiment echoed by Morning Joe host Jonathan Lemire. Lemire noted that Trump had inherited a robust economy from President Barack Obama and was now doing the same from Joe Biden, who had overseen considerable growth.
However, as the segment shifted its focus to immigration, the tone became less complimentary of Biden. Despite this, Rattner was surprisingly lenient towards the Biden administration, even though the data suggested a more catastrophic situation. "The border was not Biden's finest moment, frankly," Rattner admitted. He then referred to his chart, stating, "You can see what happened here. And Trump is not wrong when he talks about how border crossings were quite low. They were running about 74,000 a month when he left office and they, in fact, did shoot up."
Rattner went on to explain that some of the increase could be attributed to Biden's statements and policies, such as the moratorium on deportations. "But in fact, we did get up here almost to 300,000 a month. But what maybe people don't entirely know is that border crossings have come back down almost to where they were under Trump. They're running at about 100,000 at the moment. So we went up the hill and we went down the hill. But unfortunately, that was pretty costly to Biden during the election."
Morning Joe has often been criticized for not giving adequate attention to the significant increase in illegal border crossings during the Biden administration. Instead, the show has spent much of its airtime arguing about the potential threat Trump posed to the nation if he were to be reelected. Therefore, it was noteworthy to hear an economic expert like Rattner discuss border policies and acknowledge that "Trump is not wrong." This statement serves as a reminder of the importance of balanced reporting and the need for policies that prioritize national security and economic stability.
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