Spicer On Jobs Numbers: "It May Have Been Phony In The Past But It's Very Real Now"

Friday afternoon, White House press secretary Sean Spicer said that the president no longer considers the federal unemployment rate to be a "phony" number. "I talked to the president prior to this," Spicer said. "He said to quote him very clearly: They may have been phony in the past, but it is very real now." During the campaign, President Trump repeatedly <a href="http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2015/09/28/trump_unemployment_rate_as_high_as_40.html">called the federal meaure of unemplyment rates a "phony number"</a> "It is such a phony number," <a href="http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2015/09/28/trump_unemployment_rate_as_high_as_40.html">Trump said about the measure in 2016</a>. "Because when people look and look and look and then they give up looking for a job, they're taken off the rolls so the number isn't reflective." He suggested the unemployment rate could really be much higher: "I've seen numbers like 24%. I actually saw a number of 42% unemployment. 42%. And it could be."