Bad News for Trump Administration - and Every Incumbent: UVA’s Lawless LIVE

Bad News for Trump Administration - and Every Incumbent: UVA’s Lawless LIVE

Newly-named Chair of the Political Science Department at the University of Virginia Jennifer Lawless appeared on GoLocal LIVE where she discussed the revelation by the U.S. Commerce Department this week that the first-quarter GDP was the country’s worst performance since the Great Recession — and what that means for elections this fall. 

“The numbers are bad because they’re worse than what economists had expected,” said Lawless. “What this means is the next two quarters become that much more important and the expectations that the administration has placed on economic grown has become that much more difficult to fulfill. So I think what we will likely see over the course of the next few weeks is tamping down on some of those expectations.”

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“It’s bad news for the administration and that’s bad news for basically every incumbent, because people are judged on whether the American people are doing better now that they were the last time they voted,” she said. 

“The White House takes the biggest hit — the President is always seen as the ‘Economist-in-Chief’ so when the economy is going well the President gets he most credit — and when the economy is tanking it’s the President who takes the most blame,” Lawless added. 

“This time around we have a President who is actually very effective at distributing blame so I wouldn’t be surprised if Congress ends up taking a hit more than they have in the past just because of the messaging coming out of the White House," she said.