it's saturday, september 8th. we are glad you are waking up with us. we begin with the report on dismal jobs. even president obama says the jobs growth is not good enough. employers hit the brakes on hiring in august. the economy added 96,000 jobs, well below expectations. it's because many people have given up looking for work. the president tried to put a positive spin on things. >> after losing 800,000 jobs a month, business added jobs for the 30th month in a row. we have added more than 4.6 million jobs. but we know that's not good enough. we can do better. we need to create jobs faster. we need to fill the recession. we need to come out of this crisis stronger than when we went in. now i won't pretend the path i'm offering is quick or easy.

i never have. >> obama kicks off a two-day bus tour in florida today. he headlines a rally at st. petersburg college. we'll bring that to you. with 59 days to go until the election, the dismal job numbers are giving romney a chance to look at it. campaigning in iowa and new hampshire, he said obama does not know what it takes to get america strong again. he said millions of unemployed americans are paying the price. >> he said he'd create jobs, instead unemployment is still over 8% for 43 straight months. he said by now, it would be down to 5.4%. now, by the way, those numbers, 8.1, 5.4, what difference does it make? let me tell you. the difference in those numbers is 9 million americans working. that's the difference. >> romney is back out on the

trail again today. he's heading to the battleground state, virginia. president obama turned it blue in 2008. according to a poll, "the new york times" and cbs news, it shows the president with a slight edge over romney. he's up 49% to 45% over his republican rival. paul steinhauser is in virginia beach, virgin for us. paul, good morning to you. so, a tight race in virginia means residents can see a lot of the candidates in the next few months, right? >> reporter: yeah, they have seen a lot of the candidates. they are going to see a lot more of them. remember president obama when he first had his first rallies in may, the second was here in virginia. no question how important that state is. he was here tuesday before the convention. romney was in norfolk, virginia. he's back today.

overall, romney made seven trips here, the president eight trips. they both spent a lot of money. the obama campaign and related groups, the super packs spent almost $12 million on ads. it's a lot of money. what about romney? just under $12 million. they are flooding the air waves here. i tell you, randi, this state is so important. it's why we brought the cnn express bus here. we are at the military aviation museum. we are outside of it because the gates are locked. maybe next hour we'll be there. he's going to richmond later for a nascar race. you will see both of these guys crisscrossing virginia. barack obama was the first democrat to win in virginia since 1964. >> you are full of great information. both men zeroed in.

will we hear more of those themes as they head toward the finish line? >> yeah. we heard from the president using the same theme yestday as during the convention on thursday night. for the republicans, their only idea, the only thing they think can help is tax cuts, tax cuts, tax cuts. romney is using the lines he used in tampa. take a listen. >> i expected him to report, to come to the american people and say when i ran four years ago, here are the promises i made. describe why it was or was not that he wasn't able to carry on his promsz. he didn't talk about that. it was a whole new series of promises. he didn't deliver on the last ones, why would he deliver on these? >> the themes they presented, you will hear more of them other and over. yesterday, romney started in iowa, men went to new hampshire. president obama went to new

hampshire then iowa. you are going to see a lot of these. >> one day they are going to meet on the tarmac, you know it. paul steinhauser, thank you so much. now, a cnn exclusive. a navy s.e.a.l. who captured osama bin laden says the book is wrong. it's caused a huge sensation. the best seller, "no easy day." he says bin laden was shot by one navy s.e.a.l. and was lying on the floor. cnn learned the head of the u.s. special operations contacted fellow navy s.e.a.l.s to see if it happened that way. they told him no. osama bin laden was standing in the room when they shot him. a suspect is in custody for killing brian terry. the death blew open the lid on

the gun smuggling sting known auz fast and furious. they arrested him 50 miles south of the arizona border. the u.s. is seeking to extradite him. three others are still at large. border agent terry was killed in a fire fight two years ago. the two guns found were linked to operation fast and furious. >> that family waited so long for answers. hopefully, they will get more. we have much more ahead this hour. >> here is what's coming up. his killing exposed operation fast and furious. now, an arrest in mexico for the death of the u.s. border agent. sunny beaches and tan bodies, but it's the 29 electoral votes that have the candidates coming back for more. all morning, we are putting florida in focus. >> everyone wants to say save the planet except the humans.

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democrats in washington and president obama. you said i faced head winds from washington that i liken to a tsunami and people prefer to vote for somebody with questionable ethics than somebody with the washington democratic agenda. thursday night, president obama said this. >> now, i won't pretend the path i'm offering is quick or easy. i never have. you didn't elect me to tell you what you wanted to hear, you elected me to tell you the truth. the truth is, it will take more than a few years to solve challenges that built up over decades. it will require a common effort and shared responsibility and the bold, persistent experimentation franklin roosevelt pursued during the only crisis worse than this one. >> you were critical of the president two years ago.

he is changing nothing. why aren't you speaking up now? >> well, i wasn't so much critical of the president as i was of the voters who became part of the tea party. we saw the tea party tsunami occurred all over the country in which democrats were losing in double digit numbers. we lost four congressional seats. commentary about the country. >> you said the president was tone deaf and he wasn't listening to people in the states. >> well, the president is clearly listening now. i think we heard that loud and clear. he's always been listening. i think that what we heard at the convention this week from the president was an acknowledgement that progress hasn't been as fast as any of us would have liked, but we have to continue to move forward and certainly here in florida, we have seen tourism economy

returned. our real estate market, which housing is really important in florida has certainly come back. exports increased tremendously supporting our small businesses. we are heading in the right direction. >> let's talk about the top issue for most voters, getting back to work. unemployment is closer to 9% than 8%. they have stayed above the national average. can the president convince people in florida his job agenda is one to stay with being above the national average for some time in. >> he absolutely can, victor. the message we are hearing from the president's agenda is that we are going to grow our economy by supporting the middle class, broaden the middle class. this trickle down economy giving tax breaks to the wealthiest in the country and hoping they

might trickle down. they are old policies that didn't work then and aren't going to work now. we are seeing that our state, as you know, it's a state of small business people. the programs coming out of the small business administrations, supporting community banks, making loans, have seen a lot of improvement. our small business people are feeling much more optimistic and are actually hiring now. >> what we said at the top is the president is on the same path. he says we are going in the same direction. we have to be resolute. florida's unemployment rate stayed above the national average. if the argument is the same from the white house and the results have been the same from florida, how does he get them to stay with him for the next four? >> we have to remember that four years ago, florida's unemployment rate was close to 11%. so, we have actually as our own governor, rick scott touts, our

own employment rate came down faster than most other states in the country. >> he takes credit for that. >> we are headed in the right direction. >> he says his policies are the reason that happened. >> i don't think so. his policies were to turn down -- we would be doing better without rick scott's policies. he turned down $2 billion in high speed rail money. he's turned down hundreds of millions of dollars in health care funding to get us ready for the affordable health care act. last week, he turned away $4.5 million in money that would hire people to help prevent child abuse in our state. so, i would maintain that if our governor hadn't turned back tax dollars we would be in better shape. >> really quickly, you lost the 2010 race by 2,000 votes. are you looking forward to a

rematch against governor scott? >> i told everyone, i got a lot of encouragement at the democratic delegation in charlotte last week. i told everyone that's something i'll consider after this election. right now, i'm focused on doing everything i can to encourage florida to vote for the president and also to vote for many other democrats who are on the ballot in november. it will help get our state turned around and return us to a state of prosperity and fairness for all people. >> alex, 2010 nominee for the democrats governor in florida. maybe in 2014. thank you very much. >> thank you, victor. next hour, we'll hear from the other side of the argument. the head of the republican party at 8:15 eastern. randi? >> an airline bars a teenager from boarding a flight. now his parents are fighting back. >> my son is not a terrorist.

he's not going to crash through the security door into the cockpit. >> the airline says the boy was a security risk. the parents say it's flat out discrimination. people really love snapshot from progressive, but don't just listen to me. listen to these happy progressive customers. i plugged in snapshot, and 30 days later, i was saving big on car insurance. with snapshot, i knew what i could save before i switched to progressive. the better i drive, the more i save.

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take a look, this is him. american airlines says it's because the boy was a security risk, he might interfere with the pilot if he was seated in first class. the family says it is a clear case of discrimination in violation with the americans with disabilities act. >> i think the pilot was concerned that my son was going to be on file. i think the pilot felt that my type of son, my disabilitied, down syndrome son shouldn't be in first class. >> now, the family is threatening legal action. they are joining us to talk about it at 9:15 a.m. eastern. the young man was excitable, acclimated to the environment. it was not safe for the young man or others. they offered to book another

flight for the family. >> the family says he wasn't misbehaving and has flown dozens of times and normally falls asleep. the parents are going to file a lawsuit. they are coming on the show at 9:15 eastern time this morning to talk about it. do you think they have a case for discrimination? you can tweet me at randikay@cnn. we'll read your responses later this morning. a botched government operation puts more than 1,000 guns in the hands of criminals. a border agent is dead. now a suspected killer is in custody. ally bank. why they're always there to talk. i love you, james. don't you love me? i'm a robot. i know. i know you're a robot! but there's more in you than just circuits and wires! uhhh.

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it is 7:22 in washington, d.c. a live look at the capital dome. good morning, washington. remember the government's controversial fast and furious guns operation? in september 2009 they started a guns investigation by allowing guns to go into the hands of criminals. they were tracking the guns hoping to take down cartels. then the worst scenario comes true, a border agent is killed in arizona. the guns used in the shooting came from the government shooting. now, fast forward to now. mexican police arrested one of his alleged killers about 60 miles south of the arizona border. nick is here with us this morning. he's been following this. what do we know about this guy?

he's not the only one we are looking for. >> he's not the only one. he's one of five people charged in this fatal shooting against brian terry. he was shot in the shooting. he says he wasn't the guy that pointed the gun. this may be the guy that pulled the trigger. >> is he going to be brought back to the u.s.? >> there's terms of extradition. they have a mutual treaty agreement. mexico doesn't have capital punishment, they can choose not to extradite somebody in the event the u.s. justice department seeks death penalty in this incident. >> fast and furious didn't help the problem of guns south of the border, but there was already a problem there, right? >> it's a huge problem especially when you consider the gun laws in mexico. mexico has some of the most strict gun laws in the world. you can purchase a small caliber

gun but it takes a federal license to purchase the high caliber guns. they love to use them. they are the goat's horn, the ak .47. they go to the united states, pick up the weapons to bring them to mexico. in four years, 70% of weapons found in crime scenes originated from sales in the united states. >> we were going to talk about fast and furious with the new report coming out, but this is interesting time. >> it's been a bad deal for the u.s. justice department. earlier this summer, eric holder, attorney general found in contempt, congress saying he's with holding documents from this investigation. we are going to expect more high drama. we are waiting to see what the latest findings are. >> we'll be watching it. thank you. >> thank you. the fight to legalize

marijuana receives a surprising supporter, sort of. we'll explain.

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try capzasin-hp. it penetrates deep to block pain signals for hours of relief. capzasin-hp. take the pain out of arthritis. bottom of the hour now. welcome back, i'm randi kaye. >> i'm victor blackwell. here are some of the stories we are working on this morning. president obama kicks off a two day bus tour in florida.