Following another strong jobs report that far exceeded expectations, President Joe Biden was asked on Friday why the majority of Americans do not feel positive about the economy, prompting the president to blame media coverage. “I think the 300,000-plus people who got jobs feel better about the economy,” he told reporters at the White House, referencing September’s job growth of 336,000. He then turned to the press corps. “You all are not the happiest people in the world, what you report,” he said. “And I mean this sincerely. It gets—you get more legs when you’re reporting something that’s negative. I don’t mean you’re picking on me. It’s just the nature of things.” He went on to say that the American people know “they’re better off financially than they were before.” Recent polling shows that the vast majority of the public disapproves of Biden’s handling of the economy, despite cooling inflation and low unemployment.
