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The View’s Hasselbeck Pummels Valerie Jarrett on Economy; Liberal Co-hosts Repeatedly Change Subject

Interviewing White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett yesterday, The View’s liberal co-hosts repelled Elisabeth Hasslebeck’s tough questions on President Obama’s failed economic agenda by changing the subject and ignoring their conservative colleague’s criticism. Refuting the claim that the economy is “certainly moving in the right direction” despite dismal unemployment numbers, Hasselbeck asked Jarrett if Obama’s $50 billion infrastructure bill represents an “admittance of failure on the $800 billion stimulus bill that didn’t seem to work.” To sidestep Hasselbeck’s question, Jarrett invoked incredulity, flawed statistics, and historical revisionism: Didn’t seem to work? My goodness, to the three million people who have jobs today – to their families – I’d say it did work. Now it turned out that the economy was in far worse shape than anyone could have predicted, and so we’re not out of the hole yet, but those three million families are certainly better off. The millions of families whose jobs were saved as a result of our investment in the automotive industry, all of the small businesses. “If [the stimulus package] worked so well you wouldn’t need the $50 billion,” retorted Hasselbeck, pressing Jarrett to answer her original question. But instead of waiting for Jarrett to respond, co-host Joy Behar changed the subject to the auto bailout: “I don’t hear enough from the Democrats tooting their own horn on that one.” Delighted to be bailed out of answering a tough question, Jarrett gushed, “Help us tout it, you’re absolutely right. Not just GM, but Chrysler and Ford – all three of them are now having profits for the first time in a decade, they’re all doing well. And that’s a result of the steps [Obama] took.” And before Hasselbeck could repeat her question, co-host Sherri Shepherd changed topics again:  “I want to move it around a little bit and ask about you.” A few minutes later, after Jarrett and her liberal allies exchanged playful banter about family trips to Chuck E. Cheese and her longtime friendship with the Obamas, Hasselbeck made one last attempt to hold the Obama confidant accountable: “I think there’s trouble now that’s to be had or else we wouldn’t need to spend another $50 billion if the plan had worked.” This time, co-hosts Whoopi Goldberg and Barbara Walters jumped to Jarrett’s defense. “We could go on and on,” contended Goldberg. “We could go on and on,” echoed Walters, who proceeded to end the interview. A transcript of the relevant portions of the September 13 “The View” can be found below: ABC The View September 13, 2010 11:38 A.M. E.S.T. JOY BEHAR: He’s criticized a lot for not focusing on jobs. He focused on health insurance. Does he regret that he didn’t do it the other way around? VALERIE JARRETT, White House senior adviser: Well, let me say this: don’t you think it’s important to have a president who can multi-task? BEHAR: Yes. JARRETT: And so he did focus on the economy from day one and if you think about it, Joy, when he took office we were losing over 750,000 jobs every single month, four million jobs in the last six months of the Bush administration. And half of the last eight months we’ve seen private sector growth. Unemployment rate is still too high – you’re right, Elisabeth, it’s not nearly where we would want it to be – we won’t be happy until every single American who wants to work is working. But we are certainly moving in the right direction and it was a terrible condition that he inherited. I mean, think about. ELISABETH HASSELBECK: If I could, on that note, Valerie, because I think it’s important. With the new $50 billion infrastructure bill that the president outlined Friday, correct? JARRETT: Last week, yes. HASSELBECK: Some people are calling that an admittance of failure on the $800 billion stimulus bill that didn’t seem to work. JARRETT: Didn’t seem to work? My goodness, to the three million people who have jobs today – to their families – I’d say it did work. Now it turned out that the economy was in far worse shape than anyone could have predicted, and so we’re not out of the hole yet, but those three million families are certainly better off. The millions of families whose jobs were saved as a result of our investment in the automotive industry. All of the small businesses. HASSELBECK: If it worked so well you wouldn’t need the $50 billion. BEHAR: I don’t hear enough from the Democrats tooting their own horn on that one. JARRETT: Help us tout it, you’re absolutely right. BARBARA WALTERS: The president has talked about it. JARRETT: Not just GM, but Chrysler and Ford – all three of them are now having profits for the first time in a decade, they’re all doing well. And that’s a result of the steps he took. SHERRI SHEPHERD: I want to move it around a little bit and ask about you. You had a really interesting background. You were born in Iran, you lived in Iran for five years, then you lived in London for one year, then you came back. You said while you were out there you had no awareness of race until you came back during the 60s, during the civil rights movement. So when you were back here, what kinds of things did you experience in terms of race? 11:43 A.M. E.S.T. WALTERS: What do you call him? SHEPHERD: When you’re at Chuck E. Cheese? JARRETT: I’ve had my share of Chuck E. Cheese. It’s wonderful when you’ve got a five year old. No but when I’m out of the office and I’m just being his friend I call him Barack, but when I’m in the office I call him Mr. President. BEHAR: You’ve known him a long time and I understand he’s never gotten angry with you – you’ve never seen him get angry. A lot of people would like to see that now. We want to see it. HASSELBECK: We’d just like to see jobs. Not anger, results. JARRETT: Well I think it’s important that we have a president with a solid, steady temper. BEHAR: Absolutely true. JARRETT: Particularly during these difficult times. Don’t you think that’s important? It’s important and, you know, I don’t want a president just being, you know, emotional and sounding off. He has too much responsibility and too much power for that, but I also think last week as we’re going into this election season you’re seeing him make some contrasts between kind of the party that wants to go back to the Bush days that got us into all of this trouble – sorry Elisabeth – that we’re in now. HASSELBECK: I think there’s trouble now that’s to be had or else we wouldn’t need to spend another $50 billion if the plan had worked. WHOOPI GOLDBERG: We could go on and on. WALTERS: We could go on and on. And we’ll ask you to come back with us and we can go on and on. I’m sure the president’s very happy that you’re going to remain in your present position. JARRETT: Thank you very much. Thank you. WALTERS: And we want to thank Valerie Jarrett so much. It’s an honor for us to have you on with us, great pleasure.

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The View’s Hasselbeck Pummels Valerie Jarrett on Economy; Liberal Co-hosts Repeatedly Change Subject

Former CNBC Reporter: GE CEO Immelt Meddled in Network’s Editorial Coverage

This could confirm what many suspected all along – the corporate heads at General Electric (NYSE: GE ) would try to use their media holdings to portray President Barack Obama and his administration in a positive light in order to gain a corporate advantage. That’s how former CNBC reporter and current Fox Business Network senior correspondent Charlie Gasparino explains it in his forthcoming book, “Bought and Paid For: The Unholy Alliance Between Barack Obama and Wall Street.” According to Gasparino, GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt had “helped his company feast off of the subsidies of Obamanomics,” including the green energy initiatives and health care reform. And although Immelt is a registered Republican, Gasparino detailed how Immelt would walk around his company’s headquarters saying “we’re all Democrats” now at the prospect of government checks going to GE. But later, Gasparino explained how Immelt would use his authority to manipulate the editorial coverage of on Obama for that reason: Immelt touted his status as a registered Republican when he stated publicly and infamously among his Republican friends his support of the president, saying, “We are all Democrats now.” His friends tell me that the reasons Immelt supported Obama came down to the fact that he liked the president on a personal level and believed he was the moderate that he sold himself as on the campaign trail. At CNBC, where I worked for several years, Immelt called a meeting of top talent to discuss coverage of Obama’s economic agenda and whether the heavy criticism by on-air commentators (like me) was fair to the president. Those sentiments are similar to ones Gasparino relayed to host Bill O’Reilly on the Aug. 10 broadcast of Fox News Channel’s “The O’Reilly Factor” . “There was this issue where Jeff Immelt, chairman of GE, which used to own NBC Universal, called in some of the senior staff, and clearly was worried, according to the people I spoke to who were in that meeting, about the possibility that we were becoming too anti-administration,” Gasparino said. “This is when the Obama administration first took over … They will deny it, but from what I understand, people got called into this meeting and they were basically, not exactly read the riot act, but the question of whether they were being fair to the president was brought up.” However, Gasparino went on to say that Immelt regretted this pro-Obama stance by mid-2010. He complained abroad, calling Obama’s policies “overregulation” of the economy. And in the end the potential upside wasn’t enough. “Why the change of heart? GE may have benefited from a few government handouts, but with the economy weak, the conglomerate’s many businesses reflect the Obama-induced economic malaise caused by putting ideology, in the form of socializing health care and imposing higher taxes on entrepreneurs, before the economic well-being of the American people.” “Bought and Paid For: The Unholy Alliance Between Barack Obama and Wall Street” will be available on Oct. 5.

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Former CNBC Reporter: GE CEO Immelt Meddled in Network’s Editorial Coverage