and now almost 25 million. clearly that momentum we are seeing on a whole different level, whole number of levels. >> and not over yet. good to see you. thank you so much, mj. really appreciate it. guys, thank you so much for joining me today. another wild ride. we are on it together. "inside politics" with john king starts right now. thank you, kate, and welcome to "inside politics." i'm john king. thank you for sharing another busy news day with us. 3.5%. that was the unemployment rate in september, the lowest number in 50 years. 136,000 new jobs added last month but there are some flashing lights when you look closer at manufacturing and other sectors bruised by the president's trade wars. plus the president insists, insisting again just moments ago, nothing wrong with asking ukraine and china for dirt on the bidens. in a phone call with china

president xi, mr. trump promised to stay quiet about the protests as long as they continued. the damaging texts suggested a quid pro quo and how the president's personal attorney was handling foreign policy questions. >> he's running a shadow state department without being vetted, without having security clearances, without being confirmed by the senate. it's outrageous that he has the ability and portfolio to do all that he has done, and i think many of those in the state department who are diplomatic are disgusted what they've been required to do on his behalf. >> we begin the hour there with the latest on the impeachment drama with a combative president trump denying any quid pro quo with ukraine despite damning texts from his own diplomats saying there was one. >> the text message that i saw from ambassador sondland, who is highly respected, was there's no

quid pro quo. he said that. he said, by the way, it almost sounded like in general. he said, by the way, there is no quid pro quo, and there isn't. >> the president also daring the house speaker nancy pelosi to call for a full house vote on the impeachment inquiry. but he says he'll leave it to his lawyers to decide whether to cooperate with house deadlines. one of those is today. the president also trying to do some major cleanup from yesterday when he challenged both ukraine and china to investigate the bidens when he acknowledged he had had presidents from both those countries to do that. today he changed the story. >> i don't care about politics, but i do care about corruption. and this whole thing is about corruption. >> let's go straight to cnn's kaitlan collins at the white house. kaitlan, what the president did yesterday was essentially confess to campaign finance violations. he seemed determined to clean it

up today. >> reporter: yeah, he wanted to separate those two today saying the trade talks with china had nothing to do with him saying yesterday that china should launch an investigation into joe biden, of course, his political rival. we should know when the president brought it up yesterday, it was unprompted. a reporter didn't ask him if he should investigate the bidens, he brought it up himself noting that the trade delegation will be in china for another round of trade talks. which is why he brought it up, because he was talking about the tremendous leverage he has over china. you saw the president once again defending that call with the president of ukraine. that text he was pointing to by sondland, that's the ambassador of the european union, and as the ukranian envoy was there yesterday, he said there was no exchange for information on the bidens, but what the president left out were the text messages

from the other person in that conversation, bill taylor, who is also in ukraine, a top u.s. diplomat, a career diplomat, who raised questions that the president's actions seemed to be tle threatening to withhold that aid if he didn't get an investigation, and also dangling a white house visit over the ukrainians and the ukranian president if they did not publicly open an investigation into the bidens. those are the questions the president is facing. this also comes as we have reporting that shows, and the president just confirmed, they are expecting to send a letter to capitol hill essentially daring nancy pelosi to open an impeachment inquiry vote on the floor, something the president doesn't think they'll get the vote for, and they need that before they'll send over any documents related to this inquiry. >> interesting as always. let us know if the president speaks when he comes back at this hour. he's going to the military

hospital to visit some veterans. >> i want to start with the cleanup. essentially when the president stood there yesterday and said, yeah, i asked president xi to investigate the bidens. yes, i asked president ukraine to investigate the bidens. so what? you could make the case -- you have to take it to the regulatory agency or to court, but that was violating campaign finance law right there, asking for an in kind contribution from a foreign government which is forbidden. >> uh-huh. and just in talking to some republican sources this morning, including those who are friends of -- allies of the president, this was not helpful. i've heard that from sort of, you know, from the top all the way down, and that's an understatement. the beginning of the week, the feeling among republicans was, let's just see if another shoe dropped. the president took the shoe and he slammed it on the ground yesterday with those comments. and now what he tried to do, clearly, is clean it up because

i don't know this for a fact, but it's hard to imagine that he didn't hear from people who care about his political future and legacy and reputation to say, okay, that's too far, mr. president. >> other than his tv lawyer maybe suggesting that those of us who read the law say what you just said. i want to come back to you on these texts. i'm sure you work with diplomats overseas in different time zones. when you saw the texts, the president said no quid pro quo, and he focused on one text. as i said on the phone, i think it's crazy to hold security clearance for political reasons. four hours later, a trump appointee, who was a donor, four hours later, bill, i believe you're incorrect about president trump's intentions. the president has been crystal clear, no quid pro quo of any kind. if that was the immediate response for a minute or two,

maybe 15 minutes, maybe the guy is busy, okay, maybe we have a disagreement here. >> it's clearly written for the record, no question about that. >> someone might see these texts someday, and if they do, we're in trouble. >> exactly. and you saw the president quote that text alone. but all the texts, if you take them in sum and read them all, they are just dripping with the ukranian government. all of these things are being held hostage from getting a statement from the president of ukraine. it's self-evident. >> i covered a lot of trials before i got involved in politics. bill taylor, are we now saying that security assistance and white house meetings are conditioned on investigations? his response, call me. >> what ukraine was mostly interested in was a meeting, and

that whatever directive president trump mayor may not have given some of these officials, his administration was clearly under the impression that a meeting with zelensky was going to be contingent on the ukranian president convincing him he would investigate these issues that the president is so interested in. >> i also think, because we had this mini argument in our newsroom this morning that it is not crazy from the ukranian side to be trying to figure out, how do i get in the room with the president? how do i have that phone call, that kind of thing. >> it's their lifeline. >> exactly. i don't think people understand the amount of aid the united states gives around the world, how much everyone has said we want to support ukraine, how much we think of ukraine as a way to backstop russia as well, that we need to have a presence there. in one way america is also playing on the fact that the ukranians and this new president really want to stay involved and keep the united states on their side. and that's just diplomacy.

>> to your point, the new president of ukranian just elected, putin is watching. putin wants him to fail. wants the united states to send a signal to putin, weav've got this guy's back. the texts, good lunch. heard from white house. assuming president z convinces trump he will investigate, get to the bottom of what happened in 2016. we will nail down date for visit to washington. i'm sorry, the president can stand outside the white house and say no quid pro quo all he wants, that's a quid pro quo. >> he wasn't just holding zelensky hostage here, he's holding our national security interests in europe hostage. this is what the president wants. he wants a weak ukraine, he wants the united states to turn a cold shoulder to the struggle there, and president trump has shown he's willing to do that by holding back aid to the ukranian

national forces. >> pick up the constitution and read about impeachment. there is no rule that you have to have a full vote on the house floor to have oversight. any committee can have oversight of any other co-equal branch of government, but the president pushing nancy pelosi and pushing hard. >> now, in the house, they have the majority. they all vote with olc plus three. nancy pelosi is petrified of them. she's afraid she's going to lose her position. nancy pelosi will lose her speakership right after the election when the republicans take over the house. >> we don't know how this is going to play out in 2020. we do know nancy pelosi is not petrified of the junior members of the white house. nancy pelosi is not afraid of them. what the president is trying to do there is keep republicans in their corner to make this partisan. especially on a day when the

documentary evidence before you is pretty damning for the white house. this is a get everybody in the republican/democrat travel corners before they read all this stuff and maybe think, oh, we might have a problem here. >> look, it is true that the custom has been, as much as you can call it a custom since impeachment is so rare, but in recent history, there have been votes to formally start an impeachment inquiry. but as you mentioned, it is absolutely not necessary. what he's trying to do is very obvious, which is to try to put the democrats who are maybe in trump one districts and others who maybe are not that comfortable with this on the record to support the impeachment inquiry so they can run more effective ads against the democrats. but it does go both ways. they are retiring almost 20 retired republicans right now who don't have any political reason to not stand up and say, we're with the democrats, and, you know, there aren't that many

moderate republicans left who aren't retiring, but there are some who might not go with the president, because they've been very quiet so far. >> i do wonder if this will fall on deaf ears, because pelosi already lost her speakership once, and you could argue that was due to principle. where this really starts to break for them is when republicans start to line up with the rest of the democrats. that is one of the few things they truly fear about this impeachment. >> will his distancing today from the campaign finance thing, will that maybe encourage more republicans to come out a little bit more? is that for their benefit, too? >> is it believable is the issue. i'm sorry, is it believable given all these texts and given what he has said yesterday and what he has said for months about joe biden. and again, almost everything he says about joe and hunter biden

just is not true. with republicans it might be a different issue as to whether anybody with an open mind finds it believable. >> i do think it gives them a little cover. the fact he came out on the white house south lawn, decided to try to clean up, give the republicans a quote to say, look, the president said this isn't about politics, it's about corruption. it gives them something to repeat, which is probably they feel a little bit helpful. >> as soon as we start saying about how he's backtracking on something and cleaning something up, he comes back and says -- >> what he really thinks. >> yes. a quick break. when we come back, more on the president's defense and the question just raised. is there any evidence republicans are cracking? including the latest movies and box sets from around the world,

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he points out is a political opponent, it is strange credulity to say it's anything other than politically motivated. he's one of the first to speak out so forcefully. iowa's joni ernst is up for reelection next year in a tough state. she said, when are you going to say this is enough, i'm not backing any of this. i can say yay, nay, whatever. the president is going to say what the president is going to do. it's up to us as members of congress to continue working with our allies, making sure that we remain strong in the face of adversity.

i would call that a punt from senator ernst. >> the silence from republicans has been fairly deafening this week. those are the two exceptions you've raised here, and i think they can do that because they're on congressional recess and they're able to skirt the press some. i think the question is whether this is a silence of consent or the silence before a mohorror movie. there is a sense in republican circles that it's hard to come out and defend the president when you don't know what's coming and they're not getting a lot of guidance from the white house. so the real test will come when they come back in ten days or so and they can no longer escape these questions and what republicans say then. and by then, who knows what kinds of revelations they'll be dealing with because this thing is moving so fast. >> i'm not sure how much romney adds to the conversation. i think we understood yesterday that romney felt a lot of things

about how trump operated were appalling. and the question that is going to be put to romney and to lawmakers on the hill is not whether trump is wrong and appalling, it's whether it's impeachable. that's the needle -- you know what i'm saying. the republicans on the hill are walking down this line that this is wrong. this is appalling. this is not something i would do. but a lot of them quickly add, it's not impeachable. >> and i think that's a great point, because where would we be if the democrats hadn't spent the last two and a half years talking about impeaching this president? if they had said they didn't like his behavior and hadn't repeatedly used the impeachment word, would they be doing this? >> some of the republicans who are quiet are also saying what they hear from their constituents back home is enough already. it's the russia hangover and it's just more of this.

we'll never know the real answer to that because we can't rewind history, but that at least is their political defense that they're starting to build if these republicans decide not to go with the democrats and instead defend the president. >> i don't know. i'm not sure. i think president trump has such a hold on the base of this party that if he maintains that, and there are some signs, at least among certain groups of swing voters that complain, some of these senate races, that that may be shifting. he has such a hold on the base of this party, and if he's able to maintain that through this process, i think it's really hard for democrats to come out, regardless of what democrats have or have not been saying. >> i think the romney tweet, because we're on recess, because there's so much silence, that tweet echoes. that means what he is setting up, and i think he knows he is doing this, that others will ask to comment on his tweet. the follow-up is, do you think what he did is illegal? but romney is causing an issue

for other republicans because he is coming out and actually saying something. >> to your point earlier about the republicans who are retiring, i want to play this. this is will herd from a tough district. he decided he's not going to run. he's been critical of the president in the past and how he beats up on the intelligence community all the time. he said, the democrats have already said this is impeachable, at least most democrats have said this is impeachable. will herd won't go that far, however, he wants some answers. >> i think this is damning, however, i want to get through this entire inquiry before we get to some answers. there are a lot of people who should be coming before our committee. >> i don't know how many there are, but to your point, there's one. there's one. >> who is not running for reelection. >> how many will at least say, send us some witnesses. or say help us tell the

democrats they're going too far with impeachment. let's get some answers and clear this up. coming up fourksr us, a bre from the impeachment inquiry. the president's latest jobs report calls it a win, but some still see a recession perhaps looming up there.

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inquiry. remember kurt volker, the president's special envoy to ukraine, was the star witness. nine hours up on capitol hill yesterday. they just released the opening statement testimony he provided to the lawmakers. let's get straight up to capitol hill. lauren, what are the highlights? >> reporter: good morning, that's right. so basically what kurt volker said behind closed doors was exactly what we are seeing here in this statement. basically, one of the arguments that volker made was that the president was very skeptical of ukraine. what he said in his opening statement was the president was skeptical. given ukraine's history of corruption, that's understandable. he said ukraine was a corrupt country, full of terrible people. he said he tried to take me down in the course of that conversation. he referenced conversations with mayor giuliani, and it was clear to me that despite the positive news and recommendations being conveyed by this official delegation about the new president, president trump had a deeply rooted negative view on

ukraine rooted in the past. he was clearly receiving other information from other sources, including mayor giuliani that was more negative, causing him to retain this negative view. that's just one of the arguments that volker made behind closed doors yesterday, john. it was also clear that volker was saying he had deep skepticism that anything about joe biden would have been true. he said that he had known joe biden for many years and that he was very skeptical that anything about what giuliani was peddling had been true. john? >> thank you, appreciate that. go around the table. i want to talk a little bit more about this, because there are things -- what we've been able to read quickly here, there are things that democrats will jump on and say, aha. there are also things in here that republicans will jump on and say, aha-ha. on page nine, the question is, was this a quid pro quo?

congress urgently tried to help the ukranian president. did the president hold it until he got an affirmative that ukraine would look into joe biden. he said, i was questioning mr. urimac and mr. giuliani. i did not perceive these instances to be linked in any way. that it is a very solid for republicans. they're going to say, no, they might have been talking about it but it's not a quid pro quo. >> and if i may, my understanding, one of the reasons republicans want to get the full transcript of the very lengthy q & a that he did, the deposition, went well beyond this opening statement is because they feel -- that volker gives more meat on that bone, that volker did say no quid pro quo, period, end of story. there was no quid pro quo. which is what the president has been saying, but to hear it from

volker despite all of theese damning texts and other things he said in here which is not helpful to the president, they believe is key. >> the text certainly suggests otherwise. mr. taylor, the other person involved in the texts, he certainly thought there was a quid pro quo and volker thought it was unusual that giuliani was involved. i heard the president constanting several times a day whether on twitter or in person, said he believes joe biden was corrupt. joe biden got a prosecutor in ukraine fired to protect his son. kurt volker told this to the committee and this will not sit well for the president. i've known joe biden for 25 years. the suggestion that he would be influenced in his duties as vice president by money for his son simply has no credibility to me. i know him as a man of integrity and dedication to our country. mr. volker said this. i've known ambassador

yavonovitch since 1998. i've always known her to be of the highest integrity. are we going to end up in a situation where some of this is highly damming about rudy giuliani meddling around, the president's skepticism, the conspiracy theories the president had that have been proven to be false about ukraine's involvement in 2016, not good for the president. but the parts about, i didn't see it as a quid pro quo from a veteran diplomat who was deeply involved -- >> it's really interesting here. it fills in some gaps here but also raises some more questions for kurt, and it would be good to see the transcript of his testimony. because on one hand, he is aware of the president's interest in corruption. and we see that in the text messages going back and forth. but in here he says the first time he heard about any connection to biden is when he saw the transcript, after the transcript comes out. i'd want to know a little more

about the connective tissue between there. clearly he is doing everything he can here to distance himself from giuliani, going as far as -- there's one other part here where he says he fundamentally disagreed with rudy that zelensky was surrounded by the united states. >> we'll be going through this weeks, if not months. this testimony is one piece, the challenges, we'll try to put it all together. when we come back, just 136,000 jobs last month. that's good, the economy continues to grow. but -- there are some buts. "it's the cheesiest" kraft. for the win win.

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fresh economic numbers showing a resilient but slowing labor market. the september jobs report includes an eye pop includes an eye poopper. the jobless rate is down to 3.5%. that's the lowest since richard nixon was president. >> john, two messages from this

jobs report. 136,000 net new jobs, a little lighter than economists had hoped for. it really shows you that job growth is still there, but it's not quite as robust as it has been recently in the past months or even the past few years. unemployment rate, 3.5% of the this is the lowest since december 1969, so a new 50-year low in the unemployment rate. business information services, health care, very strong job growth there, as usual. manufacturing, though, another 2,000 jobs lost there. you can see this is really the bite of tariffs and higher costs because of the president's trade war putting a crimp on hiring and manufacturing. a real slowdown in pace in manufacturing hiring compared with the last few years. so the pace this year, about 160,000 on average. you can see that is the lightest job creation since the great recession. so the economy is still generating jobs, but not to the pace we have seen in recent years. john? >> christine romans, appreciate

that. the president weighing in almost immediately after the report came out tweeting, breaking news, unemployment rate 3.5%, drops to a 50-year low, then adds sarcastic commentary regarding his current situation. wow, let's impeach the president even though he did nothing wrong. the slowdown in manufacturing, that's 108 consecutive months in job growth, that's good news. the unemployment rate, that's good news. if you're an american looking for a job, you can probably find one. what are the warning signs? >> this is kind of a mixed report that the unemployment rate obviously a great figure for the president, but in other areas, a little troubling. wage growth was a little bit sluggish and also you have this evidence in this and other data that the trade war is weighing on manufacturing. and, in fact, also starting to bleed over into services. >> i just want to show the institute of manufacturing index that came out and caused a lot of tremors in the market.

you can see the steady drop in the manufacturing numbers. sciutto said it has nothing to do with trade, it's all about the fed. it has mostly to do with trade, doesn't it? >> i think so. you have peter navarro on one side, on the other side you have the federal reserve, you have the monetary fund, banks, s&p and others saying trade is having the effect on the economy. meanwhile you have the administration doubling down on this approach. we had new tariffs announced on europe this week and there are further tariff increases set to go into effect in china this month and also in december. not just what has already happened but also potentially more weight on manufacturing and other sectors of the economy ahead. >> we're having this conversation early october heading into the election year, where if you're an incumbent president, this is it. this is what you want. there are some trouble signs without a doubt, but he inherited a strong economy. it has continued to be strong. in some ways they would argue

get stronger. although we're seeing the juice of some of the tax cuts are out of the economy, but the president this morning saying we're the envy of the world. >> europe is not doing well, asia is doing poorly, to put it mildly, and we continue to do very well. we're the miracle. but the unemployment numbers came out, 3.5% unemployment, and that is a tremendous number, the lowest in over 50 years, so very happy. >> to me trying to fathom the politics of the moment in the sense that the clinton impeachment during a strong economy was in his second term. this impeachment inquiry is going on. we'll see if it gets to impeachment but democrats seem to be on that track. just as we head into the election where you have a president -- again, there are some warning signs out there, but 3.5, that's a pretty good bumper sticker. a

and yet you have this giant cloud of impeachment. how is that going to play out in america? >> that's the question of the moment, isn't it? this is a fairly unprecedented situation where you have a president running for reelection under an impeachment inquiry. the economy is really his strongest argument in a lot of these suburban districts that help democrats win back the house that we talk about all the time on this show and everywhere else. those are kind of the swing voters that can make or break the election for him, and that group who don't necessarily like his tone, don't necessarily like all the chaos in washington but like how their finances are. if that starts to falter, that's a major issue for him. >> he said this before and it's been months later. he says he's confident we'll have a deal with china. we'll see how that plays out. jim sciutto confirming that

there was quid pro quo. i don't know how he'll come back with that one. when we come back, some big fu fundraising numbers for elizabeth warren.

elizabeth warren today again showing her strength in the democratic race for president, releasing her third quarter fundraising numbers, and they are big numbers. let's take a look at the top candidates in terms of fundraising.

elizabeth warren reporting in the third quarter she raised just shy of $25 million. bernie sanders leading the democratic pack in the last quarter with just over $25 million. you see how they did in the second quarter. both mayor buttigieg and former vice president joe biden dropped in the second quarter. just shy of 25 in the second quarter, down to 19. still an impressive haul for the mayor but dropping down. this is a big number for senator warren which we've seen rise in the national and state polls. let's take a look at more of the democratic candidates here, and we add in the president. he doesn't have any major challenges yet, none of them causing a problem. he's $125 million in fundraising, cory booker at 6,

mari marianne williamson, 3. michael bennett, 2.1. >> when i used to hit her, i thought she was gone. i thought she was gone. she came up from the ashes. she emerged. now we're probably going to have to do it again because i don't see sleepy joe making it, i tell you. no, i thought she was gone. >> i just want you to know for the record that was an official, tax-funded event. that was kind of over the top. but elizabeth warren does have his attention again. in the democratic race, she was the growth stock all summer long. there was no question she would have an impressive fundraising haul, but she doesn't do the big fundraisers. that's a good number. >> that is a good number, and she should have his attention, to be honest.

the fundraising numbers we were all breathlessly waiting for, in between breathlessly waiting for the poll about impeachment, it all goes in the right direction for her. right now it's all about trends. putting the president aside, if you're joe biden or if you're bernie sanders, you should be worried and trying to figure out how are you going to spend your money to get to where elizabeth warren is getting. because she is getting traction out in the world. >> he is noticing her. she was asked yesterday, senator warren was asked about the president. all that money. one of these democrats is going to emerge and the president is going to be fully loaded in terms of his bank account. he's spending weeks and months testing things now because he has so much money. he's on takfacebook and other things. she says no worries. >> if you think it's going to be about scooping up a bunch of money from rich people and buying a bunch of tv ads and that's how it is someone is going to win, then, yeah, it looks like trump is doing a lot

here, and the republicans. i just don't think that's how democracy works anymore. >> is she right? >> she's right about -- maybe she's right about ads, and maybe she's right about, you know, who he gets his money from. but what they're doing at the trump campaign is spending that money on identifying every single person with a pulse over 18 who might even think about possibly voting for donald trump and figuring out -- starting to figure out how to target those voters to make sure they get out and vote. the dnc, i'm not sure if they're there yet. they certainly don't seem to be there, and the question, as it was in 2018, is whether it is the machine or the passion and whether or not there is enough passion for a democrat no matter who they are that can overcome the very, very technical microtargeting that the trump campaign is already starting to plan. >> you do feel like the democrat will have the money.

there is a lot of money out in the field as we saw from all the numbers. elizabeth warren, i think it's important to note, has not said whether she would accept money from big donors in the general. she's not doing the primary. she may do it in the general. it's just that they'll be start f starting from a deficit. >> yes, the president does get a lot of big donors, but he has people defending him, the small donor network. the impeachment drive is helping the trump campaign. he said this in a politics op-ed piece. if the groundswell of small-dollar donations flowing into the trump campaign's coffers offer any indication, the democrats are going to pay a terrible price for indulgingly commands of their radical base. >> because he is currently the

president and he will be the republican nominee for the presidency despite all the other people running is to make a decision they're going to flood social media with ads in the way they're trying to define elizabeth warren in the way he's defining joe biden now. it gives him a leg up on all this. >> in case there was any justifiable criticism on the trump machine at this point, they haven't done a good job raising money for donors. this impeachment probe is tailor-made dollar pitches the trump campaign makes. it's a sign of not any move in the middle, but it's definitely going to be about the base. it was true two weeks ago, and more so now. thanks for joining us on "inside politics." brianna keilar starts after a very quick break. take care.

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i'm brianna keilar live from cnn's washington headquarters, and we start with president trump threatening house speaker nancy pelosi over impeachment, saying he will not turn over any documents until house democrats hold a full vote on the impeachment inquiry. >> we'll be issuing a letter. as everybody knows, we've been treated very unfairly, very different from anybody else. if you go over not