President Biden raised concerns Friday morning sounding particularly hoarse as he delivered remarks on November's jobs report, which was less robust than expected.
The first question Biden took from reporters was about his raspy speech.
Biden said it was 'just a cold' and he is tested for Covid-19 every day.
'What I have is a one and a half year old grandson who likes to kiss his pop,' Biden said.
The president seemed to refer to his son Hunter's youngest child Beau Jr.
Weeks ago the 79-year-old president had a benign polyp removed during his colonoscopy.
The physician also ran a series of tests and found that the president's frequent 'throat clearing' could also be due to gastroesophageal reflux and found that there 'were zero tumors or polyps, and his vocal cord appearance and function were normal.'
U.S. employers added just 210,000 jobs in November, well below the estimated half a million that economists had predicted.
It's a sign that companies are still cautious as the coronavirus pandemic drags on.
However, Biden touted the new report. 'We're looking at the sharpest one-year decline in unemployment ever,' he said.
The first question Biden took from reporters was about his raspy speech
Biden said it was 'just a cold' and he is tested for Covid-19 every day
He boasted about the 'incredible news' that the unemployment rate is down to 4.2%. 'Simply put, America is back to work.'
Viewers of the speech immediately took notice of his strange sound.
'The hell is going on with Biden’s voice? He sounds like Barry White,' one Twitter user wrote.
'By the sound of Biden‘s voice he’s either getting sick or just reached puberty,' wrote another.
The data was compiled before Wednesday's announcement that the Omicron variant of COVID-19 was found in the U.S.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki was on live television, doing a roundtable for MSNBC's Morning Joe, when the number dropped.
'That's a number that feels a little, what? A little off?' Co-host Mika Brzezinski asked, as economists had predicted 550,000 jobs to be added.
Psaki said she couldn't publicly comment about the Department of Labor report yet.
'Well, I know this sounds a little archaic, but I can't comment on them until 9:30 a.m., by rules because I work at the White House,' Psaki said. 'I will say what people can expect the president to continue to say today, month-to-month, is that what we're seeing are good trends.'
President Biden welcomed the news, saying America was back to work.
'Today, we have incredible news that our unemployment rate has fallen to 4.2% – a level experts didn’t expect us to achieve until 2024,' he tweeted.
'We’ve created 588,000 jobs per month on average this year – a record.'
