? virtual tours? zip-file? really big files? in seconds, not minutes... just like that. like everything... the answer is simple. i'll do what i've always done... dream more, dream faster, and above all... now, i'll dream gig. now more businesses, in more places, can afford to dream gig. comcast, building america's largest gig-speed network. welcome to "inside politics." i'm nia-malika henderson. john king has the day off. new drama in the paul manafort trial as the prosecution preps the jury for the testimony of a key witness, manafort's former deputy. plus, china strikes back against the u.s. trade war, but the ongoing tit-for-tat isn't

showing up in today's solid jobs report. and in lessons from last night's tennessee primary, trump endorsements are working, but being a long-time washington insider running for statewide office, not so much. >> tonight is my 19th time on the ballot in a state that dave and i love. 18 times i came out on top. but tonight we have a different story. yes, make america great again. >> and we just want to note that we're waiting for a news conference to begin in houston where authorities will give an update on a suspected killer of a prominent houston doctor. we'll bring that to you when it starts. we'll begin with the president himself who seems to be operating from a completely separate playbook than his own administration. yesterday he instructed the nation's top security chiefs to speak at the white house press

briefing on election security. they were about as clear as they could be. russia was and is a big threat. >> our democracy itself is in the cross hairs. >> we acknowledge the threat. it is real, it is continuing. >> make no mistake, the scope of this foreign influence threat is both broad and deep. >> but mere hours later, the president went completely off the intel script at a rally in pennsylvania. >> in helsinki, i had a great meeting with putin. we discussed everything. i had a great meeting. [ cheers and applause ] we got along really well. by the way, that's a good thing, not a bad thing. that's a really good thing. now, we're being hindered by the russian hoax. it's a hoax, okay. i'll tell you what, russia's

very unhappy that trump won. that i can tell you. >> cnn's kaitlan collins is live from berkeley heights, new jersey. kaitlan, is the president an outsider in his own administration when it comes to this message on russian meddling and what should be done about it? >> reporter: well, nia, he certainly seems to be. despite the white house insisting it was president trump's idea to have those national security officials come out and brief reporters on election security and make quite clear that, yes, they do believe that russia is still a threat, you did not hear that messaging reflected in the president's speech in pennsylvania that lasted for more than an hour. instead, his only reference to russia was to say that the russia investigation, which is an investigation into russian meddling in the election, was a hoax. that just does not match with what his national security officials said during that briefing, a briefing that i should note the president's own intelligence chiefs said he still doesn't fully understand

what it was that happened during that one-on-one with putin. so it seems to be a tale of two different white houses here right now, nia. >> thanks for that reporting, kaitlan. here with me to share their reporting and insights, michael sheer with "the new york times," ayesha rasco with npr. i want to go now to texas. we have houston police holding a press conference. we'll listen in now. >> ever since this incident occurred, it's been a high priority of the houston police department to catch this suspect for many reasons. it's very rare when someone's killed and you can't even figure out a motive and they're actually targeted. most importantly, it was creating a lot of panic in the texas medical center. we all know it's a world-renowned jewel. and so these people haven't

slept. they've been looking for this man. this morning, i'll just get to what everybody is wondering, this is our suspect. the suspect is deceased. he committed suicide when he was confronted by two members of the houston police department here in the southwest division. i'm going to run you through it. we're very fortunate in this city that we work very diligently to create and build bridges of trust. we're committed to relational policing, which we believe is the number one force multiplier for our city, the community we serve. we serve everyone that lives, works, or visits the city of houston. and so without the public, we wouldn't be standing here today. as we searched through the night, and we've been searching for days now for the suspect, actually, most of the week since we identified him sunday into monday. at 9:21, the houston

communications center received a call of an individual chasing a suspicious person. at 9:25, that individual -- by the way, the individual gave the wrong address. we started responding but couldn't find where they were at. at 9:25, the individual calls and says that the suspect is near the jewish community center. the caller at that time at 9:25 said he believed that the suspect may be the suspect we were looking for. at 9:30 a.m., the caller calls back because what occurred is this reporting party works for the houston parks board. he was on duty near the bayou over here. we have a problem with graffiti. he checks that area on a regular basis to make sure nobody is

committing -- vandalizing any walls or homes in that area. i've actually talked to the witness. he said he saw the suspect there. he turned around, jumped the curb, came to make contact with the suspect, who startsed walking away. pappas was probably about 75 yards away when he yelled and said, sorry, i thought you were a graffiti vandal. according to the witness, pappas puts his arms out like this and starts walking again. the witness then looked and actually found a wallet that suspect pappas either discarded intentionally or unintentionally. we don't know. left it there where he had been sitting. he looks in the wallet and

realizes, finds the i.d., recognized the name pappas thanks to the efforts of the media who have been great partners in getting out this information and on social media in terms of twitter and everything else. he notices it's suspect pappas. he calls back and says, this is mr. pappas. i found his wallet and i.d. at 9:34, units finally, when we got a better location, arrived in the area. a solo officer patrol unit at 9:35 gets even a better address right over here behind us, where you all can see those police cars. one of our officers spots the suspect. the officer recognizes him, gets out of his police car, and at gunpoint starts ordering mr. pappas, starts giving commands. suspect pappas had his left hand up and had his right hand secreted where the officer could not see his hand.

the suspect said something about suicide, and the officer said, let me see some hands or something of that nature. the suspect has body armor on and was not complying with our officer's command. the officer actually made a tactical repositioning, repositioned himself on the other side of the patrol car to put his engine block between him and the suspect. fortunately for our officer, a back-up unit arrived in the opposite direction. as that officer started forming a "t" formation on the suspect, suspect pappas took the gun and shot himself in the head. he was pronounced at the scene deceased by the houston fire department from what appears to be a single shot to the dead, self-inflicted gunshot. i just am very thankful today for quite a few things. number one, i'm thankful that we're going to end this week with a great sense of relief in

the city of houston and the texas medical center. i'm thankful that we in this instance, the community came forward. the community was our absolute greatest force multiplier. obviously our detective, our patrol officers did not rest. our command staff did not rest until we had this suspect in custody. i'm very thankful that this suspect, although he committed suicide, you normally don't put on a bullet proof vest when you're thinking about suicide. when you start thinking about -- just based on my experience, an opinion, a hunch -- but i thank god that second officer got there when he got there because the suspect was not complying with the commands or the officer kept his strong hand with the weapon in it secreted where the officer couldn't see it. it wasn't until he saw that second officer. i'm convinced that had we not had that second officer arrive from a different angle, we might have had a shootout here. i just thank god.

i also thank god our witness who works for the parks board, i really believe when he was doing this and stopped, he's trying to get him to come up. we talked about his skills, talked about the fact he's a good marksman and actually had a holster secreted in his clothing that we found. so a very dangerous person. the other thing i want to say is we'll conduct an investigation into this shooting like we do any other shooting. the investigation will continue. this morning we've heard reports that some media outlets are putting out there was a hit list by this suspect. let me just address that quickly. when our officers, our investigators conducted the search warrant on sunday night into monday morning -- excuse me, tuesday into wednesday at

the suspect's residence, they found a very extensive intelligence file that this suspect had put together on dr. hausknecht. he knew everything there was to know. inside that intelligence file, we found one sheet with some of dr. hausknecht's information. contained within that sheet was probably, you know, a couple dozen names of potential doctors and other employees of the texas medical center. when we determined that those were potential employees at the texas medical center, we actually passed that information on to the medical center, and they dealt with it to make sure that notifications were being made as they identified those employees. again, this has been the culmination of a lot of great work by the men and women on the houston police department. a lot of outstanding leadership by the men and women you see

here behind me that have not slept. and obviously by our detectives that have not slept. lastly, i think this case illustrates that with the cooperation and with the engagement between local law enforcement and the communities we serve, this is what we get. we get resolution. we get it quickly. and we get it before there's another loss of life. with that, i'll open it up to any questions. >> chief, do we know how pappas has been getting around? >> that'll be part of our -- >> we'll go straight to cnn's ed lavandera for more. ed, talk about the extent of it manhunt. >> reporter: well, it has been rather intense throughout, really concentrated in the city of houston. police, as you heard the police chief there talking about, had found his car inside his home, and they suspected that joseph pappas left his home earlier this week on this ten-speed schwinn bicycle, the same

bicycle he's suspected of having ridn to carry out t ridden to carry out the attack and killing of mark hausknecht. really, the search for this suspect has been concentrated in the houston area simply because he was believed to have left on his bicycle. so there wasn't a sense that he could have gotten terribly far. obviously this kind of plays out to the scene because the neighborhood we're at is a little over a mile away from where joseph pappas lived. all of this very concentrated in the southwest area of houston. >> ed, thanks, and we'll be right back. liberty mutual saved us almost $800

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neutrogena®. let's return now to another one of our top stories. president trump in an apparent split with his own intelligence community yet again over russia's meddling in u.s. elections. his top intelligence officers spoke at the white house briefing yesterday on election security saying it was and is a serious problem. but the president persists in

blasting what he calls the russian hoax. here with me to share their reporting and their insights, michael sheer with "the new york times," ayesha rasco with npr, michael warren. michael, you were in that press briefing yesterday. what do you see as the daylight between the intel community and the president? >> it appears to be gaping daylight. the thing that was striking sitting in that briefing room yesterday was the number of times and the kind of overwhelming way that all of the nation's law enforcement and intelligence officials that were standing there repeatedly said what the president has refused to say, which is that russia was, is, and will be meddling in the elections. i think what's important about it is if you talk to the people charged with trying to prevent the meddling, and that's both the kind of information warfare, the facebook and the social

media warfare from russia, but also the potential hacking into the infrastructure of the voting machines and the voter rolls and the like. if you talk to the people who want to prevent that, they can do a lot, but it requires the president of the united states lighting a fire under everybody. it requires the president's moral leadership and the bully pulpit that only the president has to both motivate the private sector in the case of facebook and the other companies, and to motivate the government to really move to do this important thing ahead of the elections in 2018 and 2020. that's the thing that is so striking that isn't happening. >> his absence very much felt there yesterday when you see all those intel chiefs. and ben carden, a senator from maryland, sayis that means something, particularly for putin. >> what they were saying at that meeting is mr. putin will fill a

void. he thinks he can move with impunity and attack our system, he'll attack our system. what president trump did in held k sin i c -- helsinki and what he did yesterday calling it a hoax gives putin the green light to compromise our system of government. >> how do you think putin sees this? >> well, look, there's discord and chaos coming out of the message coming out of the united states right now. putin, that's kind of the objective if you're russia. keep everything a little off balance. keep everybody fighting each other. that's what russia tried to do with the population during the election, but now it's happening with the trump administration, which is a bonus really for putin. that message that ben cardin.

but he doesn't do it, and congress does not have the power to push him to do it because there's no real appetite from the leadership to directly cross the president with any sort of a bill that would slap new sanctions. they don't want to rush. so you've got this -- people are stuck in the middle of the road. it seems very, very unlikely that anything tangible or concrete is going to change before the midterm elections. >> and trump says his critics have essentially got it all wrong, and he talked about this last night at that rally in pennsylvania. >> i got along great with putin. a couple hours later, i started hearing these reports that, you know, they wanted me to walk up. here's a podium here. they wanted me to walk up and go like this. they wanted me to go up and have a boxing match. whatever happened to diplomacy? >> not exactly what people -- >> would have made great tv though. we can't deny that.

>> what's interesting also is it's clear that at least some folks in the intel community still don't know what trump said behind the scenes with putin, let alone what he did or didn't do in front of the cameras. >> right. this is the perfect example of the way trump perceives how state craft is done. it's don betwee between two lea. all the stuff the state department or foreign ministry have done beforehand, all of the history that backs up all this, that's less important to the president than what happens in a room one on one. but of course, that's why we have this daylight here. that's why we have this divide within the administration. it was a little odd at the briefing yesterday. they kept insisting, sarah sanders insisted this was the president's idea to have all of these people out there. that's what makes it so confusing. i sort of wonder if all of this focus on this only makes the president sort of dig in harder because he has conflated the two ideas that russia meddled in the

election and somehow that invalidates his own victory in the election. we don't know if any votes were changed. it's hard to quantify that. for the president, it seems to be admitting what everybody around him admits and tells him is the same as admitting he's not really supposed to be there. >> and it also means that the intel chief can be on one page and he can still be at his rallies talking about russia being a hoax. >> it was a really strong show of force to have all of those people at a briefing. that's really unusual to have all of those security people there. but to not have president trump backing that up, president trump is the one who's been giving them mixed messages. it hasn't been coming from the rest of the administration. really, until he gets out there and really starts driving that message home, they're still going to have questions about whether this administration is really committed to election security. >> we'll see if that happens over these next crucial weeks and months. up next, prosecutors move from

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witness, manafort's long-time deputy rick gates. gates has already take an plea deal with the special counsel, and yesterday manafort's bookkeeper testified that in 2016 manafort was nearly broke and he lied to banks about his finances to get loans. the indictment alleges that manafort asked gates to doctor those financial documents. we've got cnn's shimon prokupecz, who's been all over this case. what have we learned so far? >> another devastating day, quite honestly, for paul manafort. they just wrapped up a witness on the stand. they're now at lunch. the witness, who works at an accounting firm, said they riched out to paul manafort and rick gates in e-mails saying if paul manafort has any foreign accounts, we need to know. paul manafort and rick gates both said, no, don't worry about it, there are no foreign accounts. here again, another day of just building out this case for the

prosecution, showing that manafort was trying to hide this money, was not reporting it to the irs. really just devastating evidence. these are kind of boring witnesses. this a lot of financial documents. but this goes to the heart of the prosecution's case. >> so everything is leading to gates. he may or may not testify. >> that's right. there was some indications it could be today, could be monday. we're half a day into this case today. we know this judge likes to go late and likes to work fast, quickly. so it could happen today or, if not, monday. >> and the level of detail in this case that's been laid out so far, the documents, some of the documents laying out that manafort is having these financial documents where the actual revenue is zero dollars, but what he's circulating to bank employees is 2.4 million. he'll really doctoring these

documents. if you were watching this trial, michael, i imagine if you're donald trump, that level of detail might make you a little nervous. >> right. i think there's been a lot made about how we should connect the two investigations. the manafort case doesn't directly have anything to do with russian meddling, doesn't directly have anything to do with the obstruction of justice case. but i do think you're right. when you look at the just methodical way that the special counsel has developed the information, developed the level of detail in these documents, and bringing witnesses to testify at just the really granular level, that if you're donald trump and you're his associates, thinking about fast forwarding in your head how a trial for you might go forward, you know, you got to be worried that mueller is not a guy, and his team, they're not people that just make broad generalities. they get the details.

that's what's going to be problematic for the president should that ever get to that point. >> and i think the public part of this case as well. almost the pr side of things. you look at the way trump and his associates and other folks have been making the argument that all of these people caught up have been treated unfairly. michael flynn is being treated unfairly, paul manafort. he said earlier this week he's being treated unfairly. well, it's harder to make that case when you've got all these details that are pretty salacio salacious. the ostrich coat, jacket or whatever, all the spending going on here. manafort is not exactly coming across here as a witness -- or rather as a person who you feel sympathy for. >> and this idea that he seems to be blaming gates. that's essentially what their defense is. there's some evidence that manafort was basically creating these false documents. he would send reports to gates,

and gates would change them from a pdf to a work document and fiddle around with the profit essentially. then allegedly show those documents to the banks. >> there's a lot of finger pointing going on in general. so if you're the guy who goes on trial, you're blaming it on the little guy. but the little guy is cooperating with the prosecutors. that's what's kicking it back up a notch. you could use this as an example of what's going on in all corners of trump world right now. there's various different legal cases being built against various people that were trump subordinates along the way. trump is pointing the finger and saying, not me, it's their fault, at every turn. >> cohen, for instance. >> exactly. the most present example right now. but if those people are working with mueller's team or with other prosecutors and saying, no, actually, i was asked or told to do this through a chain of command that goes back to the big fish, that's problematic for the big fish. you're seeing that play out here in a different way between manafort and his deputy.

>> shimon, maybe we'll see gates at some point today. what would be the gotcha moment for gates if you're the defense? >> well, look, i think gates will be a big witness certainly for the prosecution. we're all looking forward to it. it's going to bring some highlights. it's going to bring some drama probably to the court. i think we're going to see an aggressive move by the defense team to go after him for sure. so it's going to be interesting. also just seeing gates. we haven't seen gates in so long. hearing from him, that is what's going to be the most interesting. it certainly could happen this afternoon, if not monday. >> we'll wait for that. thanks, shimon. and before we go to break, we want to note a milestone in the mueller probe. one year ago today, we learned the special counsel issued grand jury subpoenas related to that june 2016 trump tower meeting. on one year ago today, republican senator susan collins had this message for the president. >> the president can't set red lines for bob mueller.

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topping our political radar, in a new court filing, the trump administration says the aclu should be responsible for tracking down the parents of more than 400 migrant children being held at detention centers. most of the parents have been deported, and the aclu says although it's eager to help, the government must bear the ultimate burden of finding the participants since it was responsible for separating the families in the first place. if actors and reality show stars can win elections, why not

pro wrestlers? after years of playing a wwe villain, kain has taken off the mask and gets to play the good guy in the mayor's office. republican senator ted cruz's campaign launched its first tv ads for the 2018 election. as we mentioned yesterday, his opponent democrat beto o'rourke is catching up. a quin pnipiac poll has him jus six points behind cruz. one of the cruz ads may be sensing the closeness, attacking o'rourke. >> ted cruz, who brought home billions in disaster relief and passed emergency tax relief for those hit by hurricane harvey. >> no official, state, or federal has been more involved in the recovery of galveston county than senator ted cruz. >> when the hurricane hit, you stood up for texas.

and ted cruz stood up for you. >> in that ad, it's a kinder, gentler ted cruz, not the ideological fire brand we're used to seeing. >> he's making the case he's working for texas and he's working for local texans when they need it. the fact that we're talking about ted cruz in a competitive race, i think, is what is the issue and should be concerning for republicans who want to make sure they keep the senate. i think the fact this race has become competitive is really something to watch. and if he were to be -- to lose his seat, that would be a huge thing for this idea of a blue wave. >> it would be the blue wave in and of itself in texas. >> just a little bit of irony. in ted cruz, one of the conservatives who never wants -- >> voted against the sandy funding. >> yes. the ad saying, oh, he got all of

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a book that you're ready to share with the world? get published now, call for your free publisher kit today! the u.s. economy is a little light the energizer bunny. it keeps going and going and going. the labor department says 157,000 jobs were created in july. now, that's a little less than forecast. but when you look at those average monthly job growth numbers, you see that we've been around about 200,000 jobs a month for a number of years now. white house spokesman says credit belongs solely to the president's economic agenda. >> our economic fundamentals are strong. there is no question that because of president trump's leadership, his vision on terms of pushing forward economic

policies like tax cuts and tax reform, in addition to his deregulatory agenda, it's working. >> christina, you've looked at these numbers. what stands out to you in this report? >> well, malika, one thing that really stands out to me is wage growth at 2.7%. that's been stubbornly low. not a terrible number without context, but the context here is that we are in the later stages of a business cycle. what does that mean? that means americans who are able and willing to work pretty much have a job. so we are at or near full employment. at that stage in the business cycle, you would expect to see the wage number between 3% and 4%, not stuck at that 2.7%. so that's going to be a persistent challenge for the administration. now, that said, 157,000 jobs, as you pointed out, is actually a pretty solid report.

i think wall street probably wanted to see the number closer to expectations, closer to the average we've been getting. but again, given the stage and the cycle that we're in, 157,000, houmg more jobs can you add? i think wall street and investors and employers and companies will have to look forward and say is this the new normal, or is this just a blip and we'll continue on the 200,000 going forward? >> and today we saw china thretton p threaten to put more tariffs on u.s. goods after a similar announcement this week from the trump administration. are there any signs that either side will blink? and are we seeing any reaction in the jobs market to this potential trade war? >> so on whether either side is backing down, no. we see china hitting back, proposing 5% to 25% tariffs on

$60 billion of goods. that in reaction to the administration floating the idea of 25% tariffs on $200 billion worth of goods. look, i don't think anybody in the administration is surprised by china's response today and its rhetoric. earlier in the week, china suggested the u.s. was blackmailing it. so i don't think anybody in the administration really thought that china was going to stand down. but the reality is president trump thinks that the u.s. can inflict more harm on the chinese economy than the chinese can retaliate with. to a certain extent, he's right because the u.s. actually imports a lot more than china imports in u.s. goods. on a dollar-for-dollar basis, china can't fight back, but it can do other things. it can take other retaliatory measures, and that's the kind of thing that all businesses in the u.s. are bracing for and watching very closely. >> cristina, thanks for that report. next, a big win and a big

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neulasta is for certain cancer patients receiving strong chemotherapy. do not take neulasta if you're allergic to it or neupogen (filgrastim). an incomplete dose could increase infection risk. ruptured spleen, sometimes fatal as well as serious lung problems allergic reactions, kidney injuries and capillary leak syndrome have occurred. report abdominal or shoulder tip pain, trouble breathing or allergic reactions to your doctor right away. in patients with sickle cell disorders, serious, sometimes fatal crises can occur. the most common side effect is bone and muscle ache. ask your doctor about neulasta onpro. pay no more than $25 per dose with copay card. president trump's winning streak with endorsements is alive and well in tennessee. congresswoman, who likes to be called congressman, marsha blackburn getting well over 80% of the vote in the republican senate primary after enthusiastic backing from the president. she'll face the former governor,

phil bredesen. a much different race for diane black. she ran as a trump ally, but without his endorsement, and came in third in the gop primary, losing to a political novice, businessman bill lee. listen to the president's praise here of blackburn, versus his lackluster treatment of black. >> and finally, the person we are all here tonight to support, the next united states senator from the great state of tennessee, a very, very early supporter of ours and a really wonderful woman. she loves your state. she loves your country. she's going to win. marsha blackburn. diane black. diane, where's diane? she's in a big race.

>> just good luck, diane. congresswoman black losing despite spending millions of her own dollars and getting an endorsement from vice president mike pence. adding salt to her wounds, president trump's first tweet of the day, a total and enthusiast endorsement of the man who beat her. so is the president sort of the x factor here in these races? >> for republicans, absolutely. they need to be as close to president trump as possible. they need to be wearing those hats. they need to be saying whatever they can to say i am with trump. that clearly is what will get you over the finish line. diane black did not have that. >> she wasn't wearing her hat enough. and this is going to be a really interesting race here. you've got a race between phil bredesen, who was the governor off off of tennessee. then you have marsha blackburn, who's a fiery trump supporter.

what do you see happening here, michael? >> i would say phil bredesen is a sleeper to actually win this seat. i don't think it's a guarantee that the republicans hold on to it, even though tennessee has gotten much more republican since bredesen was in the governor's office. he's a moderate. he sort of fits the state in a way that i think not a lot of democrats in the trump era have been able to do. maybe in some of these house districts in california where they're trying to beat off republicans who won in hillary districts. bredesen, i think, fits the mold for what democrats in trump states ought to be doing. this is a race i would be watching. >> and what isn't fitting the mold in some of these states are people who are house members, not able to sort of get the ticket to the bigger job. we saw that of course with diane black. she's the fifth house gop member to run for statewide office to lose in 2018. >> right. you see people making these bids

and trying to -- the traditional path. you start in the house, try to make a bid for the senate, as we're seeing. it's kind of a crap shoot sometimes as to whether that works or not. at this point, we're trying to see a lot of women make that advance, especially when you're talking about the governor's offices. it's a difficult road and one that's going to require a lot of people to break glass ceilings. so it's a lot of different elements at play. of course, right now just the political landscape is so much different than it used to be. the traditional you paid your due, you were the insider that went all the way, just doesn't work in this environment. republicans love outsiders. >> outsiders and businessmen. >> quickly, michael, even given the dynamics and demographics in tennessee, do you want trump down there if you are blackburn

wearing your trump hat? >> i think you do, especially in smaller races where the population is more homogenus and conservative. >> thanks for that. and thanks for joining us on "inside politics." see you back here on sunday at 8:00 a.m. eastern. wolf starts right now. hello. i'm wolf blitzer. it's 1:00 p.m. here in washington. thanks very much for joining us. we start with breaking news on robert mueller and the manhattan madam. cnn has learned the special counsel's team has talked to the infamous manhattan madam kristen davis as part of the russia investigation. davis worked for and is a former friend of roger stone's. sarah murray is here working the