Welcome back. Joining me now is Democratic Senator Alex Padilla of California. Senator Padilla, welcome back to Meet the Press. Thanks for having me back. Thank you so much for being here in person. Let's start with the economy. President Trump, as I was just discussing with Kevin Hasset, his decision to fire the head of the BLS. Of course, it has prompted some backlash. You just heard Kevin Hasset defend the move. Now that the president is appointing a replacement to head the BLS, my question for you, will ...

Erika McEntarfer led the Bureau of Labor Statistics through rocky times before President Trump dismissed her after an ugly jobs report https://t.co/dAYo2qoAzR ...

What's your reaction to Governor Coogler's decision here and how concerned are you about who might replace him. I've just seen the headlines, so I am I am learning information real time, whether this was a personal choice or whether there was a feeling of a political pressure. And I'm almost, you know, hesitant to even even weigh in because I don't have the information.Anything, though, that I just as a as a overarching point, anything that makes this fed more political, that robs it of its independence is ...

The Bureau of Labor Statistics literally can’t count.They couldn’t count under Biden and they still can’t count under Trump.I have been saying this for years.The people calculating economic data have to be able to count or we need new people. ...