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Hassett Briefs Reporters on the Jobs Report and the Tariff Record, Feb. 11, 2026

February 11, 2026 · Roll Call Factbase Videos · 0:02:39

Embedded from the source channel — never re-uploaded. Watch on YouTube

What happened

National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett spoke to reporters outside the White House on February 11, 2026, in Roll Call Factbase Videos’ recording. Hassett said the President was very disappointed that a few House members were in denial about the positive effects of his policies, pointing to what he called one of the best jobs reports ever seen — outperforming the estimates of 76 out of 78 Bloomberg-polled economists, with the best labor-force participation since 2001 and the lowest share of federal government employees since 1966, as he stated it. He said the deficit was going down because of the tariffs, and that the naysayers had predicted low growth and high inflation while the country had gotten low inflation and high growth instead.

Asked whether he was comfortable working with Secretary Lutnick after new reporting on his ties to Jeffrey Epstein, Hassett answered that Lutnick is one of his best friends in the whole wide world and that he was very comfortable working with him, as he stated it — the exchange carried here as it was delivered. On Venezuelan oil, he said Secretary Wright was working hard on ramping up sales and that a lot of progress had been made organizing the financial details, without a hard number.

Why it matters

The gaggle is Hassett’s victory-lap defense of the tariff record a year in — jobs, participation and the federal-workforce share as his headline evidence — and his on-record personal defense of Lutnick at the height of the Epstein-files pressure on the Commerce secretary.

Scoreboard watch

Scoreboard watch: the jobs-report superlatives as Hassett stated them on February 11, 2026 — best labor-force participation since 2001, lowest federal-employee share since 1966 — flagged for the scoreboard editors; the entry itself remains review-gated.

Sources: Roll Call Factbase Videos, ‘Press Briefing: Kevin Hassett Speaks to Reporters Outside the White House — February 11, 2026,’ February 11, 2026 (video 3xCH8gcCUlc); transcript via Supadata (private research store, paraphrased and attributed, never republished verbatim).