Steve Mnuchin: Record-shattering jobless claims 'are not relevant in the short term'

Trump Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin on Thursday appeared to downplay the seriousness of the record-shattering number of jobless claims filed over the last week.

During an interview on CNBC, Mnuchin was asked to comment on the latest jobless claims report showing that 3.3 million Americans had filed for unemployment in just the last week, and he responded that we need to look at the bigger picture of where the economy will be a month from now.

"To be honest, I think these numbers right now aren't relevant, whether they're bigger or smaller, in the short term," he said.

Mnuchin then predicted that much of the economic damage being done right now would be mitigated by the $2 trillion stimulus bill passed by the Senate.

"The good thing about the bill is the president is protecting those people so now, with these plans, small businesses hopefully will be able to hire back a lot of those people last week," he said. "They didn't know if they had protections, they didn't have any cash. They had no choice. Now, with this bill passed by Congress, there are protections. And as I said, hopefully, those workers will be rehired."

Watch the video below.