DNC Chair Tom Perez released the following statement after the National Bureau of Economic Research declared that the United States officially entered an economic recession in February:

“Donald Trump’s economic record keeps getting worse. After inheriting a strong economy from President Obama, Trump has sent us off the rails. Trump’s top-down economic agenda was already slowing our economy, making it more vulnerable to the impacts of the COVID crisis. Then his failure of leadership plunged us into a recession, marking the end of the longest era of economic growth on record. Despite Trump celebrating the country’s 13.3% unemployment rate last week, 21 million Americans are unemployed, and one-fifth of the American workforce has lost work or given up on trying to find a job. Over 110,000 Americans have died; many small businesses have shuttered for good; and our nation is gripped by civil unrest that Trump has only exacerbated through violence and vitriol. Make no mistake: This will be Donald Trump’s legacy. And voters will not forget his failures on Election Day.”