After the U.S. Department of Labor released the latest unemployment claims numbers, DNC Chair and former Labor Secretary Tom Perez issued the following statement after 1.4 million more Americans filed initial claims for unemployment benefits:

“18 weeks of more than a million Americans filing unemployment. And instead of extending aid, Donald Trump is focused on sending troops to cities of his political opponents. 18 weeks, and Trump is attacking public health experts who are trying to save lives. 18 weeks, and Trump is tweeting, golfing, and, as always, lying to the American people. 18 weeks, over 140,000 dead, over 17 million jobless, and all this president can find time to talk about is his ability to remember ‘person, woman, man, camera, TV’ –  of which he only seems to care about the last two. Donald Trump’s ignorance and incompetence during this crisis will go down as one of the biggest failures of presidential leadership in American history. Hospitals are overwhelmed, small businesses are devastated, and unemployment claims actually began rising again – things are getting worse, not better. Enough is enough. We need a president who can pick up the pieces and put our nation back together. A president who treats people with dignity and respect; a president who isn’t afraid to stand up to China and protect American workers; a president who has a plan to tackle this pandemic, restart our economy, and put millions of Americans back to work. We need Joe Biden.”