Fixed labor report? Comey directs FBI to prove Clinton complicity

AROUND THE BLOCK

News with a Twist

Trump claims Clinton fixed good labor report

Giuliani calls for “complete and thorough” FBI investigation of Clinton bribes

The New York Times reported today that the government, delivering the last major snapshot of the economy before Election Day, reported on Friday that employers added 161,000 workers in October, a performance that suggested a healthy outlook for the months ahead.

The official unemployment rate dropped to 4.9 percent, from 5 percent. And average hourly earnings rose 2.8 percent year over year, a level not reached since 2008.

As the Times reported, Vincent Reinhart, chief economist at Standish Mellon, explained, “The main message is from the payroll report: Jobs are being created and earnings are going up.” But a report that goes “right down the middle of the fairway,” he added, “means you can spin it any way you want.”

And the Trump campaign did spin it their way.

Kellyanne Conway, Trump’s campaign manager immediately issued a statement saying, “This jobs report, from the corrupt Clinton-Obama Labor Department just days before election day, once again shows that this election is fixed and that crooked Hillary will do whatever it takes to swing the election her way.”

In an interview, Conway, expanding on her latest “crooked Hillary” characterization said, “We have heard that the Clinton campaign has given money to Labor Department officials to cook the numbers her way.”

When pressed on where the campaign heard this allegation, Conway said that it is “all over the news,” including “extensive reporting by Bret Baier of Fox and Breitbart.com.”

Trump campaign surrogate Rudy Giuliani, more apoplectic than usual, appeared on Fox and Friends this morning and called for a “complete and thorough investigation of this clearly illegal action by Hillary Clinton and her campaign.”

“I have spoken to my good friend James Comey and have demanded that the FBI open an immediate investigation into Hillary Clinton’s obvious bribing of the Labor Department.”

Giuliani ended his appearance on Fox and Friends by saying, "I told you we've got a couple things up our sleeve that should turn this around."

Director Comey, for his part, declined requests for comment but did release a letter to Congress which said in part:

“Although I cannot assess at this time the veracity of this allegation of bribery of the Labor Department by Hillary Clinton, I have directed the investigative unit of the FBI to immediately work 24 hours a day from now to Election Day to prove that it is”