Many members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) refused to stand or applaud when President Donald Trump touted the historically low level of black unemployment during his first State of the Union address on Tuesday. Left-wing media, however, gleefully reported a camera shot that showed CBC members grimacing in their seats.
“Unemployment claims have hit a 45-year low,” Trump said. “African-American unemployment stands at the lowest rate ever recorded, and Hispanic American unemployment has also reached the lowest levels in history.”
Video of the African Kente cloth-clad CBC members sitting and staring unamused filled the internet with breakneck speed.
While the CBC’s official Twitter account noted that the black unemployment rate began falling in 2011, the historically low level of black unemployment that President Trump touted during his address hit its lowest level during his tenure as Breitbart News noted in real time on Tuesday night:
According to the Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, seasonally adjusted unemployment for African Americans in January 2018 hit 6.8%, the lowest figure ever posted for that statistic since it began being published in 1972. The numbers is down 1.1% from the 7.9% seasonally adjusted black unemployment rate in the last full month of President Barack Obama’s term.
Many left-wing media members cheerfully reported how the Democrats and specifically the CBC members’ responded to President Trump’s remarks.
“The Congressional Black Caucus Wasn’t Having It When Trump Mentioned Black Unemployment,” one Huffington Post headline read.
“The Congressional Black Caucus wasn’t having it when Trump made a point of citing the black unemployment rate,” read an eerily similar Business Insider headline.
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