colby, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense in the trump administration, talks about a new pentagon report on china's military buildup. washington journal is next. ♪ >> good morning. on this labor day weekend, we look at the employment situation here in the u.s., the latest job numbers show a drop in the unemployment rate. nearly 1.4gust with million jobs average. the jobless rate still more than double what it was at the end of the year. which candidate you trust more to improve employment in this country? here's how to take part in the program. if you support the biden-harris ticket, (202) 748-8000.

if you support the trump-pentz political ticket, (202) 748-8001 . undecided, (202) 748-8002. you can also send us a text at (202) 748-8003. wj orocial media, c-span facebook.com/fan. the washington post headed into the weekend. put it this way. the economy, biden says it's terrible. trump touts positive job numbers. joe biden sought to remind the country that the economy remains in shambles. he is leaving the country out of the worst economic crisis since the great depression. sameifferent takes on the

economy preview the arguments both men will make on a topic that typically ranks top of mind for voters but has been eclipsed by the coronavirus pandemic. then said he will spend next three weeks contrasting his economic plans with trump. the president predicted more positive economic data in the future and a full recovery. had's what the candidates to say about the most recent job numbers on friday. saw largenths we declines in the unemployment rate. we are witnessing the fastest labor market recovery from any economic crisis in history by far. thelast administration had slowest and weakest recovery. theunited states has seen smallest economic contraction of

any major western nation and we are recovering at a much faster rate than any other nation. business confidence is higher today in america than any other g7 or eu country. highers confidence is than any of those countries. think of that. retail sales. that's a very basic statistic. it not only recovered but reached the highest levels ever. auto sales have surged during incredible 74% since their april low and are nearly back to their pre-virus levels and that's been a tremendous thing. used cars and new cars have doing incredibly well.

homebuilder sentiment reached the highest level on record indicating that more high-paying construction jobs are on the way. >> the august jobs report came out this morning. and i'm grateful for everyone who found work again, who found a glimmer of hope that brings them back from the edge. cause foris real concern as well. the pace of the job gains in august was slower than july. layoffs more temporary turning into permanent layoffs. 28 million people have filed for unemployment. after six months in the pandemic, we are less than halfway back to where we were american notlion getting their jobs back. down 720,000 manufacturing jobs. be the only may

president in modern history to leave office with fewer jobs than when he took office. i talked to a lot of real working people. ask them. they feel like they are being left behind. ask them how do they feel about the economy coming back. you will find they don't feel it. post writes that the economy has been the most potent vehicle for trump has his standing has weakened in recent months with voters consistently saying they trust the president more than his challenger on the economy. biden and those close to his campaign believe there is room for the democratic nominee to shine on the issue if his exuberance about jobs ring hollow with voters lives. a breakdown on the unemployment statistics for

august. the overall unemployment rate in the u.s. 8.4%. for whites 7.3. hispanics 10.5%. black unemployment right now 13%. in terms of those 1.3 7 million jobs, 238,000 of them were census workers. retail 249,000. more than 50% are temporary in that professional and is in this area. 174.re and hospitality education and health 147. manufacturing 29,000 jobs added in august. first call on which presidential ticket you trust more. good morning david. which ticket do you trust more on the jobs issue?

>> it's obvious trump has done a great job with the economy. host: what specifically has he done that's worked for you? taxes andtting cutting -- what do you call it -- where you have so many regulations on jobs and everything. host: what's your own situation? able to worken during the whole pandemic so it's been good for me. if we would open up, the economy would do better. it's hard to blame it on trump when governors want to open up the states. i feel it would get a lot more jobs.

host: what kind of work do you do? caller: work on appliances. have a collar the support biden line. why do you think joe biden and kamala harris are better paired to tackle the job situation? one, biden and harris tend to give more factual. you view the president saying the greatest, the most. it gets nauseating. one of the things i wanted to talk about was how trump seems -- loseuse credibility

credibility with him when he says you are going to get more test, that's why you are going to have more cases. my mom's a pediatrician and i sometimes work at her off this. you have more tests, you have a greater idea of how big this boat -- the scope of the problem is. biden understands the virus needs to be controlled. host: you've brought in the pandemic. the earlier caller talked about governors around the country. what is your sense of how governors are performing now? don't have enough knowledge in being able to understand how that works.

increasingly there was some toinformation video related -- i would like to apologize for -- host: tell you what, call back after 30 days. you can bring up another topic. we are talking specifically about which candidate you think is better on the jobs. trumpa on the support line. caller: hello. i'm supporting jim -- trump the coronavirus, unemployment was the lowest and i still remember the summer of /bidenry under obama

administration. i didn't vote for trump last time, but i am this time. show you this headline in the washington examiner. temporary job losses are becoming more permanent. what do you make of that? caller: i still believe that trump has a better chance of handling this than biden. job. has never created a host: more on the story we just talked about. permanent job losses rose sharply in august according to the labor department and its monthly report. the story in the examiner says the number of permanent job million.ord to 3.4

the vast majority of job losses were classified as temporary. workers were sent home. , returned tonario the jobs in a number of weeks. both employers and employees would be spared the disruption when it comes to the -- relationship is broken. ,hat scenario is out of reach writes the examiner. only 11.6 million have been regained. that's a story published in the washington examiner. jake heflin is the writer of that piece. next call from waterbury, connecticut. calling in support of biden and harris.

for a very simple fact, i don't the why this is a loss with rest of america. why we don't get that biden would just be a better politician for the united states. he actually gets along with governors. he seems to speak for the people. not just people in big states. all the people. he doesn't deny the issues we are dealing with. the last caller spoke about trump. like his bankt account was able to ride on what obama had already done. give him credit for keeping us consistent, but his denial of what covid has done has actually been more detrimental than anything else. host: are you working now? caller: i am not working, i have been furloughed since june 6. i work in new york city in midtown.

i'm a data analyst and i do support. unfortunately, i'm thinking that new york city we were trying to open up and my company had to close because they had been paying rent on eight floors of that they had been paying rent on. gotten any aid? i started in july. host: jim is calling from little valley. caller: how are you this morning? just a little tired of the democratic rhetoric about how biden -- i didn't

vote for obama. for eight years. trumpvoted for donald because i took the lesser of two evils and i will vote for him again because he's done more for thancountry in four years obama, bush, clinton, bush, reagan. what one or two significant things can you point to? ofler: he has brought a lot companies back to the united states from overseas in china and other places. he's a good businessman, but he's not a politician. that's why everybody on the democratic side is after him. this thing about russian

collusion, if that's the case i want the democratic party prosecuted for the russian collusion. trump, he's ignorant. if you pick on him, he's going to pick back. you insult him, he's going to insult back. thing.e same primaries,during the once he was the main candidate, if they got in they were going to drag their feet on everything and cause him trouble after trouble so he would deal lame duck president. they've tried. croaks in the democratic party and i'm talking about the lucy, schumer and biden and nadler. harris did nothing for the state of california.

i refuse to let him back out and i voted democrat. i voted republican. trump biden asking which candidate will be better on jobs. lynn writes on facebook that biden will be better, just like he helped us get out of bush's mess. biden is pushing for a minimum wage raise to $15 an hour. sam from bakersfield says i think the candidate that has actually had a job is the best choice. trump is never worked a day in his life. writes the covering of owners regulations has been huge in stimulating job growth.

forbes and usa today have put thether a snapshot of what biden and trump plans would look like. they also writes that he would spend $300 billion on new research and development primarily in u.s. technologies investing in clean energy jobs as part of biden jobs plan and registration: for by american products. president trump is touting more cuts to taxes and regulation, .mazing america tax credit possible added tariffs against china. just part of the economic and jobs proposal the candidates have put forward. pasadena,calling from

california. caller: i think biden has a much broader way of looking at it. trump is looking at it from a very narrow perspective that has benefited certain people and trump came in talking about infrastructure and this. i think this is something we seriously have to look at as a country and i think biden and harris are the ones to do this. they get along better with people. with trumpisagree trying to cut your legs out from under you. ,o work together as a country we need most of the wpa type thinking that's going to go on because before covid hit, people

were working two and three jobs to get by. they were working substandard jobs. there was so much going on, we had people working in the fields now. trump wants to build walls and we have workers in the california field smoking covid and dying. and vegetables for the whole country, everything comes from california. it's a big picture. it's a really big picture and it's going to take someone that has a big open mind who is not trump, who is not heads. -- pens. pence. it's going to take people work totogether in synchronicity

make it that are not go back on again. go forward from where we are now. int: we go to brilliant colorado springs. why do support president trump on jobs? caller: the main reason is because i don't trust his past relations with china and i feel china may have some dirt on him and hunter and i don't believe he will stand up to china to bring any of our manufacturing jobs back to this country and i don't believe he has it in him to stand up to these countries and do what's right for the american people and bring our jobs back here. is the economic situation in colorado springs and for you personally? caller: i'm doing fairly well. i'm retired but i do jobs now

and then for people. cut off sinceof the corona thing. as far as the local economy, things are picking up. go out.re starting to we have other states not opening up paid know what the science says. wear our mask, practice safe distancing and wash your hands. governors in certain states just are refusing and that is keeping the economy down now. host: how is the economy playing in the big senate race? caller: they said hickenlooper is up by nine points against cory gardner. that because about hickenlooper didn't do much for this state.

it is what it is, we are basically ran by democrats north of colorado springs and you got denver and boulder and those towns and they are the ones that control the vote here in this state. host: thanks for calling. michelle from upper marlboro, maryland. what do you have to say this morning about jobs? caller: i had historically voted as an independent. in maryland you have to register with one party or the other to vote. dem.e gop and i am voting for the biden/harris ticket because i'm an analyst and one of the things is when you are analyzing any issue, you have to look at the metrics.

you have the jobs report that comes out. everyone looks at their own situation and sees, do i have a job. that's kind of a retail metric that's out there. before covid-19 hit, we could see the economy was artificially popped up -- propped up by the tax cuts. hit and there are to the many facets impact to the economy if anyone could look at rick adelman's , he talked about facets to our state and local government and all across the to real social security estate, it was just devastating.

those are the real metrics and we really have to look at. not in any is fashion in a healthy state. i also don't trust trump to really govern. we are in this state because he doesn't govern. the role of a president is to set an environment in this country where we can thrive, the economy can boom. before covid we were propped up artificially. now i believe is a lack of governing. devastation economically. i don't trust him for the future. what's the next thing. to get us out of this place he me, i'mu stick with going to do this. you are president now and what are you doing. i don't trust him to be able to

govern us through that. host: here is the voice of larry kudlow from friday. talked about the economy. host -- >> we are in a self-sustaining recovery. high demand, increased production and manufacturing along with decline in inventories give us a tremendous momentum going into the second half of the year. quarterreckon the third will be at least 20% growth. good number.s a the whole second half and next year provided that economic policies remain progrowth. i simplylicy front, don't understand the other side wanting a $4 trillion tax

deep pandemic a contraction. i believe the vast majority of economists. i don't care if you are a keynesian or supply-sider, you don't just raise taxes by this amount. $4 trillion really picking the pockets of taxpayers who are returning to work now and need all the resources they can get. the profession should have complete consensus on that. and thinkte surprised that is a potential obstacle and people are beginning to speak about that. factually the numbers are coming in very positively. there's a lot of up missing going on. more work to be done. host: mike patton from forbes writes this. policy.s economics and

unemployment came within one percentage point of the post-world war ii low of 2.5%. one can certainly argue the economic and public health policy could have been in the past few months, the pandemic likely would have wiped out the job gains during the trump presidency no matter what policies were enacted. from hot springs, arkansas. you are calling on the trump line. biden: the only two jobs ever did was his career son's job job and his with china and the russians to make millions. those are the only two jobs that he has created and as far as hadp is concerned, he has

to fight every inch of the way to get rid of all the bad policies. promises thathis he made to the united states citizens. coronavirus was brought on by the -- we can't blame anyone but them and we cannot bailout every citizen in the u.s., we don't have that kind of money to do that. don't put any blame on trump. put the blame where it belongs. concerned --en is that's the way i stand with him. i have seen what obama and he did. he did nothing and he can even talk. host: let's move to manchester, pennsylvania.

bill is calling on the undecided line. give us your mindset. what do you do in manchester? i am on disability and fortunately i have had not to deal with the pandemic as far as financials. does, mymily that sisters are teachers and the whole family works. my opinion on it is, my problem begins abouts it when to 10 years ago couldats and republicans not get together and get the job done. then we ran into the problem where all of the financial

markets for and biden and obama took over and they had to deal with the recovering economy the whole time they were in office. trump and hemes has the previous problem where the republicans were not letting the democrats do anything and the democrats tried to do , biden and obama did not get anything done except for a bad insurance problem, then along comes trump and he brings the companiesll back and gets the job's going and takes care a lot of the international problems we were having. the main thing i am wondering about is, the last 30 to 40 years, how many american lives were lost because of oil? now trump has made america

export oil for the first time ever as far as i know. on one hand i don't like trump as a person. nobody can blame him for the pandemic, he is a person. hand, biden says he is going to do this and that and the other thing. trump is already doing it, he is not doing it the same ways he would. you don't know who to go with because on one hand you have somebody nobody likes and on the other hand you have somebody that you don't know if they can do the job or not. bill callingce of from manchester, pennsylvania. just under half an hour left in this first part of the program asking whether you think the trump or biden ticket would do

better on the jobs issue. here is a recent poll, this is their august poll conducted a few weeks ago. trump pulls a double-digit advantage as of a couple weeks ago on which candidate would do a better job handling the economy. 49% picking trump versus 38% siding with biden. the source is an nbc news wall street journal poll there. lindsey writes on twitter this morning, when it comes to deregulating everything for short-term gains trump is the choice. or a more strategic and stable outlook, biden. a usa today headline, trump biden tout contrast and economic plans, which will restore the job loss after the pandemic? act to your calls, who is better on jobs has we are under two months until the presidential election. barbara from new york, thank you

for waiting period -- thank you for waiting. caller: it's important that people are calling and not saying -- and saying everything on fox news and not realizing how what trump is doing affects us. when bush was in office he was incompetent but not corrupt. because of his incompetence, obama and biden did have to work newsto do things that fox convinced people were wrong like the bailout and other things. they were a good team, very good team, but they had to spend a lot of time on doing what bush did. unfortunately, obama got a republican senate that blocked everything he wanted to do. it was only really to help the

american people. there was nothing underhanded in anything he did. calledhould be a show just to the facts, just the truth. these people get on and they are honestly convinced that thegulating everything is answer to let everyone go to hell with these companies. no company, no job is worth polluting the water, air, or soil. nothing. the environment should come first. it's funny how we boo people that want to go into the next century with doing jobs with wind, solar, and everything. they are convinced that keeping oil and gas and all of these things, they bring jobs, but they also bring pollution. i find it weird. i live on long island and we charging five

cents for a plastic bag and there were a lot of people who rolled their eyes and got smug looks on their faces when it comes to this stuff. it's amazing to me. i am so sad. future, i don't care who you are, what you are, i don't care if you are a man or woman. i am not going to talk about hairstyles, where are we going as a country bottom line? i am a kennedy girl. where we had goals and things like this. we need to wake up and address the problems that face us no matter where they came from let's move forward and see what we can do to fix them. host: michelle calling from new york. where in new york? caller: i'm calling from upstate. host: go ahead please. how are job conditions there in upstate? upstate new york they

are good. i have stayed working throughout, my husband did lose his job because of the lockdown. host: what kind of work do you do? caller: i work at a hospital. my husband was -- [indiscernible] my issue is this. thisobs report came out weekend we are at 8.4%. i have done my research. of the biden -- the fact matter is i did research on each station when the coronavirus took place. i could see someone say something out of their own mouth and then i would turn it to the next station and the way they distorted the truth was unbelievable.

the virus is coming my way right now. let me tell you. if they would put an end to this where would our economy be? we would be off the chart right now. trumpre choosing to fight , to fight the american people in doing what is right. how can you open a business if violence is on the street? that mattersing right now. my son did three tours in afghanistan and my other son is in the navy. that he islies saying, why would they not give the jobs report. msnbc, cnn, none of them did. [indiscernible] i don't stick with any of them.

i come about my thoughts by doing my research. [indiscernible] he has put out what trump has done. he's not moving us forward. host: wayne from annapolis , maryland. caller: how quickly they forget when obama and biden inherited a terrible recession from the bush administration they spent eight years with continuing jobs gains. trump inherited an incredible economy, everything was going along pretty good although he was giving a huge tax break out of our deficit to the top 1%,

nobody else got a tax break. continuing to divide this country. was the pandemic hit, if he a competent person with a competent party, they had a credible opportunity to believe the science in it rather than just ignore it and act like it was going to go away, but they ignored it and it went on and the virus continues to multiply and they were never able to get control over it. that could have been a very good opportunity for that party to control this virus, but they ignore science, they do not want to cooperate with the rest of the world. that isre the country under a travel ban, we cannot go to these countries because we are in the absolute worst

situation with this virus. host: what kind of work do you do? caller: he's had an opportunity to solve this problem, if you think he will eventually solve it we will never get out of the covid problem with this party in power. host: wayne, what kind of work do you do? caller: i am retired. i do get a chance to see what is going on and understand the facts of this situation. it keeps getting worse and you cannot lie your way out like he continually tries to do. disparity ofve the the left versus the right. on what is actually happening in this country. host: going to move on to ray in pleasant view, tennessee. a rump supporter. what is the condition in tennessee? caller: coming along pretty good. host: are you retired or

working? i do oni am retired and jobs. back the economy coming and i see a leader. in biden i see an opportunist. started ince stuff 's biden term. started by obama, that was his game plan to divide this stuff up and get people thinking about race. people were getting along and then he comes in and he wants to change it. that is the problem with that. biden stood by and did nothing. to enrich hiswas family, which he has done well.

this pandemic we are going , we can sticknow a lot of this on biden. he went to china and made them think they could do anything they want to to the united states of america. if they thought they could get away with it with biden that is exactly why they have done what they have done. [indiscernible] withman couldn't keep up donald trump he had to. from that was ray calling tennessee this morning. more of your calls in a couple of minutes. here is the voice of don lee from the los angeles times. he covers the u.s. and global economy out of washington dc. joe biden may agree with the diagnosis that u.s. trade policy has not worked so well for americans.

the former vice president's answers to remedying the problems that is expected to be very different in at least one significant way. he intends to take a multilateral approach enlisting allies and partners in a bid to achieve u.s. trade and economic goals. ofe is a couple of minutes joe biden from friday speaking in delaware talking about the sees asort and what he a k shaped recession. >> the report reinforces the worst fears and painful truths, the economic inequities that began before the downturn have only worsened under this failed presidency. when a crisis started we all hoped for a few months the shutdown would be followed by rapid economic turn down -- and no one thought they would see their jobs shut down en masse.

that requires leadership that we did not end still don't have. economists are trying to call this recession a k shaped recession which is a fancy phrase for what is wrong about everything in trump's friend and and see. those at the top see things go up and those in the middle and below see things go down and get worst. is the factof this that trump has mismanaged the covid crisis and that is why it is a k shaped pandemic. the president's chaotic mismanagement of the pandemic is still holding us back. compared to other major industrial countries in europe and asia, during the pandemic our unemployment rate is still more than double while other nations have only gone up by

half. because the president has botched the covid response. botched it badly. i have said from the beginning we cannot deal with an economic crisis until you beat the pandemic. economic have an comeback when almost 1000 americans died each day from covid when the death toll was reached -- has reached almost 200,000 with more than 6 million americans infected with a million more worrying about getting sick and dying as schools and businesses try to reopen. we all know it did not have to be this bad. it did not have to be this bad if the president just did his job. if he took the virus seriously early on in january and february as it spread around the globe, if he took the steps we needed tok in march and april institute widespread testing and tracing to control the virus. int: joe biden on friday

delaware. eric on the line for supporters of joe biden. caller: good morning. the: tell us why you think biden harris ticket would be better for jobs. i listen all the time early in the morning. daughter all his the things they produce are made in china in places where people don't get paid much. no product that says trump on it is made in this country. and i haveout jobs not heard anyone talking about this for a long time. hypocrisy and the tax cuts have to be reversed, there is no money. everybody needs help and i think there is no help because there is no money.

i don't understand. not been said you have around this program much, have you watched before? caller: i watching all the time when i do get up. but not constantly. it is for early in the morning. host: are you retired? old from am 78 years germany and i was born in the battle of the bulge. i am doing well financially, i have a reverse mortgage on my home and i have always done ok with my money. host: how about the rest of your family? caller: i don't have any family here, my brother lives in germany. i live by myself with my dog into cats. host: thank you for calling and weighing in. take care of the pets and we hope to hear from you soon.

from baton rouge, louisiana, cj. caller: good morning. i remember a former president saying that the good jobs that america had in the past are over with, they will never come back. the only way trump can bring them back is to wave a magic wand. wand, ily he waved a think the jobs did come back. low unemployment in the black community and the brown community and even in the white community. what he said did he was going to do. like they did in russia in 1917 when the bolsheviks took over

and this is what is happening now. host: cj calling from baton rouge. missouri, justin is on the line for undecided folks. tell us about your situation. at morei am looking ,rump than i am biden unfortunately. the jobs. back --ought the jobs [indiscernible] i don't think biden can do it. it's unfortunate. i am not a huge trump fan. i don't think he can do it. host: where are you in missouri? caller: south of springfield. host: how are economic

conditions there? caller: everything seems all right. taken its toll on the small businesses. bandedmunity has together in helping out small businesses and stuff like that. host: are you working right now? i am onunfortunately disability from the military. trump has done very good for the military in stuff like that. unfortunately i don't like trump , but i think i will probably vote for him. host: what is your reaction to the atlantic story as a military saidn where the president disparaging remarks about the troops who died in wars? -- trump -- you know

has claimed to be -- promilitary and i have not heard anything like this until recently. it seems like it is convenient timing. i consider the atlantic left-wing. i don't believe it at this point in time. i would have to see more. host: thank you for calling in. the u.s. senate comes back into session tomorrow, they will begin the week with the nominees and they will take some votes this week. the house comes back a week from now, the week of the 14th. pointing that out because there are still these unresolved issues. what kind of stimulus actions will happen when they come back. forbes writes, what to expect as

congress returns from recess. democrats have proposed a package that costs $3 trillion but they are open to reducing that number by around one trillion. democrats have pushed for direct payouts with the total payments as much as 6000 per family. in comparison the $1 trillion heels act proposed by republicans as a follow-up to the cares act in march also proposes $1200 per person subject to annual income with an additional $500 per dependent. in mid august senate republicans have started circulating a new and pared down stimulus proposal which makes no mention of the secondary round of direct stimulus payments. we think a final package of past that it includes stimulus checks having a direct impact on low -- middle income americans

a week from now when they will both be back to continue talks between themselves on the hill and the white house. we will see what happens. ross is calling from yorkville, california. i think that he is a smarter guy and he seems more honest and it seems like he could do a better job and get along with people. inyou are going to be washington you have to be able to get along and communicate with people and have an open perspective on things. i am a small organic farmer in northern california and i just wanted to say in the next couple of months and several weeks coming up there is going to be a lot of numbers shown -- thrown at people. polls and statistics and remember that a lot of the big comethat we hear every day

from the wall street boys those are the guys that gamed the system in 2008 and got rewarded. donald trump went to washington, swamp"o "drain the i have a feeling these guys are pulling the big money and when things get bad with this economy they are going after your house so the swamp you are sitting on may be in jeopardy. host: what is the job situation they're in a big tourist part of the country? caller: it is going fine, we are doing ok. i definitely think there are a lot of things that need to be fixed right now and that is why -- there are all these people sick with the covid and we need a president to take care of that. it's not good.

the last three years have been horrible. host: speak more about jobs in your area. are there many closures, are there a lot of people out of work, how are you doing? caller: i work in construction, they have -- things have been fine. there have been some closures. they are doing a lot better now. them, but ialked to watch fox news and they say people are doing ok. host: joseph calling there. pat calling from georgia. hello, pat. caller: how are you? i would like to say in america right now we truly need a leader who can restore our democracy, our standing in the world, and to be a true leader. we don't need authoritarianism. a leader that sets the tone for

the nation and the president has not done that. presidentthe economy, trump began his presidency with a recovery and he gave it away to the rich for life and the middle class got peanuts on the tax bill. i have never paid taxes in my life under this administration i paid more taxes. that i ever have. a politician who has criminalized the presidency for his own gain. he has been in the presidency for three years and he is the swamp he is trying to destroy. he is the swamp himself. please open your eyes and listen to the data. forget being a democrat, republican, or independent. look at the facts. we need a true leader. he did not bring covid to this country, a leader would have handled this better. we would not have almost 190,000 people dead because of his lack of empathy. oklahoma, don, a

trump supporter. why do you think the president will do better on jobs? caller: well i just think everything -- , but most of the andstries are coming back some of the restaurants have drive through and they are doing more business than they would if they were closed. issue with your show yesterday on this thing about trump. i trust what sarah sanders said. out with thisome anti-trump issue about what he said at the same time you could tell it was all staged because

if this really happened why did they not do something about it two years ago or whenever the thing was supposed to have happened? they explained why he did not go where he did. i was really disappointed in your show yesterday where you have taken up a whole show of this hearsay stuff and i really am disappointed. i watch you and record you every day and a lot of your shows i cannot even watch all of because of your topics that you have and some of your call in i think are staged. i am a trump supporter. i got off when john f. kennedy was elected, the last democrat i voted for.

in a lot disappointed of these people that call in and say they are democrats. what is happening to this because they are letting these cities burn and not doing anything about it. in,p wanted to send troops but the democratic governors and -- and: going to let you go move on thank you thank you to everyone who called in this morning. when we come back, we know labor day weekend is the final sprint to election day. later, we look to a pentagon report about a massive

chinese military buildup including in the area of nuclear weapons. what that means in the u.s. and the rest of the world with elb ridge colby. we will be right back. >> labor day weekend on c-span, monday at 8:00 p.m. eastern. former white house chief of and mick mulvaney on how they dealt with crises during their administrations. >> always important to a president any -- and any leader, becomes extraordinarily important. you have to make sure the president is getting all of the information they need to make the right decision. >> watched c-span this labor day weekend. watch c-span this labor

day weekend. >> when you read about thomas jefferson, that he was an infidel, sounds a little reminiscent, doesn't it? the things that were said about abraham lincoln and about fdr, that he wanted to be a dictator, it comes with the territory. in trump's case, at least in the era, post-world war ii, i have never seen anything like it. >> a life to our conversation with ralph reed, whose books include his most recent, "for god and country." "in-depth" today at noon eastern. >> "washington journal" continues. host: more campaign 2020

discussion with charlie cook, politicalthe cook report. we are two months before the election day. where does the presidential race stand in your view? he was in a tough spot before the coronavirus hit. just using the caliper numbers in his first year in office, he only had an 8% approval rating, in lowest of any president his first year. in his second year, 40%, the lowest of any president -- elected president in his second year in office. in his third year, he was at 42%, the lowest except for jimmy carter, we know it happened to him. president who has never seen a majority approval rating. it is important because approval

ratings are the best way to determine whether a president is likely to get reelected or not. referenda on the incumbent. it is not like a choice election like you had in 2016 or 2008. the coronavirus hit, he was only four or five points ahead in most polling. joe biden had a lead in every one of the 20 states hillary clinton carried, plus d.c., by more than a margin of error, with the possible exception of minnesota. then he had six battleground states. michigan, wisconsin, pennsylvania, effectively settled. all three in the margin of error. north carolina, he was running

with the president slightly ahead. the coronavirus hit and everything changes. now we are looking at, in the average of all of the polls, it is about seven. 8, 9, 10 points behind. in swing states, he is behind it all six of those, and then he has got his leads in places like georgia, iowa, texas, ohio, and those leads are very small if at all. he is in a whole. he was within striking distance before the coronavirus. not a competitive race today. he is not within striking distance today. something would have to change for him to get into a more competitive situation. lineswe will separate the

for those supporting the biden-harris ticket. and those supporting the trump-pentz ticket. trump-pence ticket. before we go to calls, what do the best bit of good and bad news these candidates have gotten in the last several days? trying to think what has happened for president trump. went into the two conventions with a lead of high single digits. when you are 10 points, in polls that i have the most confidence in, you cannot get a bounce off of 10 points. you cannot get a convention bounce off of 10 points. he seemed to have

done. as for the president, i do not much of a bounce. his approval ratings moved up a little bit but he has not closed and manyetween biden key states. now, i amght hard-pressed to say what happens that makes the race more foretitive right now president trump. maybe a little better in minnesota, but he is still behind there. how about the atlantic remarksout disparaging that the president has pushed back on about the military. had dozens and dozens

of stories like this. i do not think they move many voters, to be perfectly honest. anybody who is likely to get outraged by anything president trump said, did, allegedly said, allegedly did, i think they were outraged long ago. 42% with the president, i think that is rocksolid and they will never drop. anybody expecting president trump to drop one something like this happens, you cannot. , they are not going to, because he never rose, he cannot drop. he is basically holding with his base. his ability to win over those , that has been severely

compromised by a loss of tailwind in terms of the economy. that was his best issue, losing the tailwind hurt him. seeing a slow to recognize the severity of the coronavirus and has not been effective at it. that hurt him with voters in the middle. you can roll them up into trump lovers and trump low there's, with very few in between. he has never gone after those in between and i think after the four months, his ability to win them over has been severely compromised. that is why i think he has a difficult time getting reelected. is calling from clinton, maryland. you are up first. yes, mr. cook store my

fender -- stole my thunder. i was going to ask about the impact of the atlantic story on trump selection. i would like to say, it is my trump hasat donald the wrong idea about his followers and what they look for in a president. trump speeds for 30% of the population who are racists. i am sorry to say that. theyump died tomorrow, would find someone to take his place. he has a message for those people no matter what he does or says, it has an effect on them, while he continues to espouse their beliefs. i tend to focus, you know, 90% of people who call

themselves republicans will call themselves republicans down the line and same with democrats. even of the 40% that call themselves independents, the vast majority of them lean republican orleans democrat an 80% of them vote that way. you are only talking about somewhere between 5% and 13% that are swing voters. these are the malleable people who can move around. dynamic that changes the most, it will not be atlantic articles. we have had many of these before. middle,s group in the they thought the economy was in strong shape and gave him complete credit for the economy, but a lot of these people have real questions about his character, about him as a person , his morality, his judgment,

and his unwillingness to listen to experts. but the strong economy was keeping those problems in check. strong economy and the concerns about him as a person and his leadership style, those concerns start going up. that is what changed the most. these kinds of articles, i do not think these things will move them. it is more a matter of, do i want to renew his contract for another four years, yes or no? and that is what is important. biden is almost beside the point in this race, as is normally in incumbent races. >> from franklin, new york, good morning. to makei would like

three points. the first was on inauguration day, january 21. the unemployment rate was 4.9% and it did drop under trump to around 3.9%. lifting was done under president obama and vice president biden. the second point i would like to , in the 25 weeks, 23 of the weeks, over one million americans filed for unemployment and two of those weeks, over 6 million people filed for unemployment. 56 million americans filed for unemployment insurance since march 15. that is not a good economy. it is not a great economy. that is my neighbor's children to the east of me, to the west

, this has not been a great economy for those young adults. i would like to make if you do not mind, the stock market. i think a lot of us are addicted to judging the economy by the stock market. , 10% of we thet people own 84% of shares in the stock market. that youk market surge have seen was never discussed september 19. the federal reserve began a by up corporate debt. since september of 2019, the federal reserve has brought up $7 trillion in corporate debt.

this is quantitative easing on steroids. to the numbers the last caller rod up, to what extent do they play into the biden strategy? daniel is extremely informed. terriblemy, it was in shape when obama came into office. it did get better over those eight years, very slowly. and it continued to after president trump took office. school all learned in that americans vote their pocketbooks. line fromer the old 1992, it is the economy, stupid. there is a wonderful book about i didn't -- identity politics and the 2016 election.

found so interesting all the way through george w. bush, there was a very strong relationship between consumer confidence, how people felt about the economy, and the president's approval rating. they feel better about the economy, and the approval rating goes up. then president obama came into under and under obama and trump, that relationship has almost gone away. thepeople are not voting on economy the same way they used to. they are voting culture and identity. it is race and gender, it is town do you live in small rural versus urban suburban. these things come together. that is why president trump of 50 yearsix months

low unemployment from september of last year to february of last year, six consecutive months of unemployment, and his approval rating hardly went out. -- up. when the economy went into the tank, no one thinks he caused the coronavirus or the economic downturn, but, ups and downs of the economy per se do not affect job approval ratings or elections the way they used to. it is how was he handling the job overall, and he was always within striking distance until the coronavirus hit, until he was real slow. never did fully engage with it.

i think that in the loss of the economic tailwind has made a difference in this election. it is the loss of his tailwind is what i think has heard his -- heard him. i want to read you a headline from south florida. biden is three points ahead of trump now in the first convention pull. the gap is narrowing. take us to that if you could. >> three points ahead in florida i think for biden is a good place to be. the three that settled the presidency, mischa get -- michigan, wisconsin, and pennsylvania, those were the ones that biden started pulling

up in first. florida was actually holding back and not doing well for biden. if you were going to point to one or two states where the coronavirus hurt and his handling of it hurt him more than anything else, i would say florida and michigan. you have seen biden go up in florida. 4,en never had a consistent 5, or six point lead in florida. you would have to go back to when he had the 12 point lead a year ago. is as good as it is likely to get for biden. people tortant for remember that because we have got such hyper partisanship, i mean, if you are a democrat, a republican president can do little or nothing right, and your side can do little or nothing wrong. for republicans, their president , a president of their party,

can do very little wrong, and anything a democrat does is what i amou guys get getting at. does isg is what it creates a high floor and a low partyg, that because your will stay with you no matter what, it creates a very strong floor. because the other party will be against you no matter what, it creates a very strong ceiling. that is sevenad points in the real clear politics national average, eight or nine in some of the other live television interview pulse, i think that is about as big as you could get, given hyper partisanship. a three-point point lead in florida, a state president trump carried by a point that republicans carry for the senate and governor by one point each that is president trump

running four or five points behind. i do not think biden has slid in florida at all. host: tammy. will put think biden our health back at risk with china. trump just brought back frominds of businesses overseas and plans to bring back and has broader health back to the united states from china with our medications and stuff. biden plans to undo all of that. all of the businesses have taken and has gone to

extensive remakes of businesses due to covid. new businesses started up, creating many jobs for the american people. new jobs fromot bringing health care back to the u.s. host: thank you for calling. more on the economy. , where fracking has become one of the big issues. take us to that state and how the candidates are doing. pennsylvania was fascinating on election night. in 2016 was seen the clinton campaign -- both sides spent a ton of money and attention on pennsylvania. the clinton administration -- campaign spent norma's amount of money and that metro area and in

pittsburgh, which basically said, there are not that many people, we will go ahead and let trump take that. city of out of the philadelphia with a 450,000 vote margin, more than they thought they needed to win the state by. the margins they were looking for but got killed in between. you had two different things. high shares of the vote, where there was a county or two in pennsylvania, donald trump got 80% of the vote. there were quite a few where he got 70%. it added up and the turnout in small-town, rural america, turnout zoomed in world -- in 2016 to a level it had not before. the model was basically broken. campaign, theyis will make their own mistakes.

i can tell you, they are not going to ignore part of pennsylvania that is between philadelphia and pittsburgh for sure. will not take for granted michigan and wisconsin, for that matter. he may make new mistakes but will not make the same mistakes clinton had where they thought they had michigan in the bag and that they did not need central pennsylvania. the fracking you mentioned, that were area where democrats on the wrong side of it. it has created a lot of jobs. but environmental problems [indiscernible] has helped bring back a lot of jobs. it is fracking did not start in 2017 president

trump took office. it created a lot of jobs and helped us build energy independence, something we thought was a pipedream, really. back to your calls in just a moment or two. i wanted to turn to key senate races. what were lessons learned, if any, from the massachusetts senate primary? guest: for a general election, i do not think there are many lessons. in important takeaways that campaigns matter, that joe kennedy started off with a big lead.

ed markey, who became more of a creature of washington in a very effective member of congress when he was in the house and the senate, he was able to remake him into a candidate of young people, even though he is significant old -- significantly older than joe kennedy is, captures a middle movement, all of this. he became the cause candidate. joe kennedy, who is younger and more exciting, became sort of of the older establishment. markey's campaign was effective been a 10 ord had 15 deficit into a campaign.

in the senate races overall, year,his year, late last it was probably not much better ofn a one in four chance democrats getting a majority in the senate. is reason was the senate 53.7. democrats would need a three and thee to get 50-50 new vice president would break the tie for them, or four seats to get up to 51, if president trump remains elected and vice president pence breaks the tightness senate. democrats will lose one for sure in alabama. they need to be -- win four seats and win the presidency.

in january, they only had four good shots at winning republican seats. in arizona, colorado, maine, but where are we now? were in muchhose tougher's shape in the beginning of the year. be in a competitive but not that much trouble, now, she is behind in a decent number of poles we are seeing. then we have got one more with produce, that has now become a tossup as well. one thing we are seeing is democrats are struggling in states they used to do very well

in the industrial belt. michigan, wisconsin, indiana,nia, ohio, they are doing worse now but democrats are doing better in the sun belt states where you have a lot of college educated suburban voters moving from other parts of the country, making georgia less georgian and less southern. and virginia and texas less southern, which is why you saw democrats do so well in the term election in 2018. it was winning suburbs outside of atlanta, dallas, houston, oklahoma city, richmond, virginia, so democrats were moving up in certain states and moving and dropping down to a certain extent in other states where we are seeing a realignment. whites with less than a four year college to greet are moving

more toward the republican party but college-educated, suburban are moving away from the republican party toward the democratic party. so we are seeing alignment in the country is getting small town rural or republican. we are seeing a realignment take place in this country. >> let's get a call from amy. good morning. good morning. mr. cook, i have watched you for a long time and always valued your opinion. i am thinking about the trump voter. my husband and i were in about 17 states mostly in the east. more intensity in terms of signage for trump and also ohio, we heard a woman talking

to her friend who said, i will vote for trump but i would never tell a poll or anybody. my friends are for biden, i am scared, but a lot of people i know are going to vote for trump but would never say so in the polls. >> two points. the first is, signs and bumper stickers have only been seen as a value to help name recognition. it really does not mean much beyond that. until 2016, when anyone driving started seeing a lot of trump signs, the trump campaign think it is because he has a lot of science. not really. premiumlks have put a on getting signs out there and billboards, trucks going around.

that has become a priority. back inot a priority 2016. ,n terms of the shy trump voter i do not put much credence in that. i understand why people say it. saidsay the polls all hillary clinton was going to win and she didn't, so people must have been lying to the polls. what do national to -- national polls do? they measure the national popular vote. nationalthe average of polls going into election day? hillary clinton had a lead of 3.2 percentage points. what was the national popular vote? 2.1 percentage point lead for

hillary clinton. 1.1 points difference between the average and what the total vote was. that is not much. when posters and political scientists looked and said why were they off one percentage point, they found that whites with less than a four year college degree were slightly under sampled in the polls few that -- in the polls. fewer of them were interviewed. and whites with college degrees were over sampled, overrepresented. donald trump had people of all different races, creeds, and educational levels, but among democratic roots, whites with a less than a four-year college degree was the sweet spot, his strongest group. any polling that had an underrepresentation of them would work against him. it was not that they were lying.

it is that for whatever reason, they were not in the sample. now issters are doing leadingng whites, there by education level to what they should be. in 2018 the polls were dead on. another point that posters make is, if you look at the gap that was out there, even in places where donald trump did extremely well, it is like there was not much of a difference. it was a sampling point. the thing about it is, let's just assume, ok, democrat probably needs to win the national popular vote by maybe two or three percentage points to win the electoral college. n californiaton wo by 4 million votes and new york

state by 7 million. morelican votes are efficiently allocated around the country. it democrat needs to be ahead by two or three points to start being reasonably confident that they will win the electoral college. and then let's say there is a shy trump point voters. again, i do not believe it. most posters i know in both parties do not believe it. but let's give them that. is aead above 54 joe biden real, honest to god, meaningful lead. to 10.ow, seven voter byis a shy trump a point or so, and wisconsin and pennsylvania and michigan were the three states where the polls were the most off. the only three polls nationally

that were significantly off. those states had disproportionately high numbers of noncollege whites in the posters in those states were generally not waiting by education or race. polls were wrong. if you looked at our ratings going into election day morning, lean likelyates solid democrat or republican, that when exactly how we thought. there were two states that we called tossup. they were really close. there were three states what we were wrong on. those were three states where the polls were wrong and it seems to be because of this under sampling and the posters are correcting for that. at least, the good ones are. i do not expect to see that is a problem in this election.

some of the senate races. ,ou mentioned the senate race here are some ads from it. i approve this message. >> they call me the closer. >> even i have to hand it to this market kelly dude, talking vitamins shakes. overselling sick people for rise to the hospital. need a flashing you watch? mark kelly has got that. he will do anything for a buck and say anything for a vote. >> at it again, she is -- distorting the facts and her own record. beens she has said have called ridiculous, shameful, and desperate. she spent millions on

independent fact-checks, calling them misleading and plain false. martha's games before. this time, arizona is not >> what has he been doing right? >> in this case, it is a race that is just not close anymore. kelly has got a big lead, the biggest of any democratic challenger in the country. i think a lot of this has to do , when she ran and lost the 2018, she had to run far-right to win the republican primary because she had two extremely conservative opponents, including the former chair of the county. to wined way far-right

the primary. normally, if you're republican, you run to the right and then you have to pivot back to the center to win the general election. while you are a democrat, you really have to move over here to nail down your primary and then you pivot back toward the middle to win the general election. she just kept going off to the and positioned herself so far out of the mainstream that she lost the race, then got appointed to take the old mccain seat. she positioned herself in such a horrible way, she has not been able to reposition. so she was in a bad place really before this place started. kelly has raised a ton of money. it is not even close now. she has -- she is in tough shape.

i am not saying it is over but it is tough for her. in massachusetts, a trump supporter. caller: thank you, c-span. i am a big trump supporter. i think he has done a good job. no matter who was in there, if a democratic president had been there, i think he would be blamed for the virus. this is a tough time. but president has done everything he said he would do. i appreciate the comment of your guests. i read his magazine and i think he is smart but the polls are meaningless. president trump will win. thank you. have a caller from north carolina coming up in a moment. the big senate rate with the republican, and the democrat. what is happening in that race? guest: this race is really about

change taking place in the state. in arizona, there was a piece of that. people were moving from other parts of the country and changing the state. don't think tom has done a lot wrong. it is the states changing. it is all the growth in the area of charlotte and the research triangle. becoming well-educated with a lot of people coming from with high-end jobs, making it less southern and making it look more like the rest of the country. several have been in this situation, where they get caught in a jam. if they move away from the president, if they do anything other than what is really get a lot of they flak from the right. if they do not move back toward the center, they position

themselves badly for general election. republican primaries have been, these republican senators in top states. arizona is increasingly, georgia, theye, are held hostage by a -- an extremely conservative base that will not let them adapt to the changing nature of the state. in thes no tolerance republican party right now for any criticism of president trump or much differentiating from debt for him. you cannot vote against him on much of anything, except some part that foreign policy things, without catching a lot of flak from a trump base. have been latched to him as his numbers have gone down. he brought their numbers down with them in those competitive states.

not in other states, but in competitive states, his numbers have dropped. thems sort of helped pull down with him. that caller from north carolina. biden supporter. thank you for waiting. caller: no problem. good morning. thank you for c-span. the trump supporters that call in, and say that he has brought all these manufacturing jobs back, they never name the company that comes back. i have never heard any names. but quite a few companies have gone bankrupt this past year. they are closing their stores. office depot closed a bunch. macy's, 12, cvs, 22. then there is automation happening. saw recently it scared the truck drivers. from never get an answer

the senator tillis's office. i have not heard from richard since his last facebook page posting and easter. president trump and his daughter manufacture a lot of their things in china. they bringing their manufacturing factories back here in setting up shop and paying people a living wage so they do not have to be on food stamps or section eight housing? and one more point and you can cut me off, the health insurance, where is his plan? everyone will be covered and it would be cheaper. people do not realize, he has got the department of justice arguing in new orleans to take all of the pre-existing conditions away. if you are employed and you have insurance through your employer, the pre-existing condition coverage will go away for people

who have insurance, not just for obamacare, the aca. he is a con man and a grifter. annie wants to hear details. she is obviously an informed viewer. know where trump clothing or goods are manufactured. that is not my deal. made severale, she points but 1.i think a lot of people do not appreciate, is a lot of the jobs that have been lost, and we have had incredible job losses over the last 40 or 50 years, of certain kinds of jobs. it used to be, 40 years ago, if you did not graduate -- if you only graduated from high school, you could get a job -- in the

manufacturing sector, the auto plant or whatever. you could make a really good living without a college degree. you could provide for your didn't maybe yours house have to work because they could take care of the kids, and the working class in the middle class became one of this -- one in the same. those were the kinds of jobs that took a hit in the last 40 or 50 years. ,ome of it is foreign trade where whatever was made there got moved to china or whatever. some of it was. but some were moved from michigan or ohio to alabama or south carolina, georgia, wherever. as the callert, pointed out, was automation, it was technology. what simply nobody does that assembly worker used to do.

of lumped in with trade, which has created a lot of this huge economic dislocation we have had, and people sort of sliding out of the middle class, it has been a certain kind of job. i think that is what we have got to, as a country, move back toward. creating jobs for people who are not in the technology sector. they are not writing computer code. maybe not in the health care sector. call a spade ao spade, that automation technology has cost a lot of people these jobs and created this economic angst. even back during the republican primary of to i-16 -- of 2016, if you look at where donald trump was performing against jeb bush and marco rubio and mike huckabee and the others, it typically was places where they

have had a lot of manufacturing jobs. industrial areas. those were the places that had been hurt the most. is addressinghe the anger, the fear, frustration decliningthat are in sectors of the economy, or shrinking sectors of the economy. they feel threatened and he addresses that. they see him as a speaking to or for them. it is a reason why a lot of people in the farming area, or other areas, that while his policies may not have been particularly good for them, they stick with him because they see him as speaking for them, that he says what they want said. this is about identity, it is about culture, not as much necessarily as economic self interest. host: a trump supporter. hello. caller: my issue is the

immigration, open borders on the southern border. i do not understand why most americans do not think it is common sense to protect our borders. trump had to get the mexican government to help him protect the borders. because the democrats flat out refused to do it. they were saying that caravans, hundreds of thousands coming in every year, the caravans were a mirage, that they were not real. i do not see how you could have a country without borders. democrats flat out refused to help him. host: thank you for calling and bringing up the immigration issue. the thing is, if you know an economist or find one, there is a good chance the economist will disagree with you on the issue. because americans are having

womenand fewer children, are having fewer kids later in life. we are not replacing ourselves. what economists, most mainstream economists, will tell you is that we need more people, we need more people in the country to drive growth, that there are that nativeborn, legacy americans, if you will. that is a bad term,, but they do not want. the second side, you need population growth to help economic growth. they say, if we decline in population, which is what would happen if we do not have it isation, basically,

going to stifle economic growth. and therend the idea are a lot of people, we do not want moving into the country. but most economists would tell immigration,o need particularly people with certain skills. the last couple of years, a lot of these people come into the u.s. for grad school in math and the sciences and they are not coming and a lot of them were staying here and we were benefited from having some really smart, talented, hard-working people, and we will not get the benefit of those kinds of people in the future. immigration, it is a lot more complicated than a lot of people seem to think it is. back to iowa. you mentioned the incumbent in the senate race behind a bit.

coronavirus unrest that some of the ads are focused on in this race. let's look at what the parties are putting out against each candidate and then we can talk more. >> make no mistake about it. joni has turned her back on the coronavirus. she voted twice against paid leave and even more leave for our hospital. a slush fund for corporate special interests, which would hand ceo's's control of tax dollars even as they fire workers. joni ernst went to washington and never looked back. >> another night of violent protests. >> protests are continuing across the country. >> democrats invited it. >> i do not know why there are not uprising those all over the country and maybe there will be.

>> not welcome anymore, anywhere. >> democrats encouraged it. >> when they go low, we kick them. that is what the new democratic party does. >> questions about who the minnesota freda from debt freedom fund is helping out. >> the fund offered bail to serial rapists, murderers, and other violent criminals back on the street. people.arris encouraged >> say no. a potential slip for democrats in iowa. what is happening? guest: we see a lot of this both ways. not going yourre way, you try to change the subject. are, no matter which side you are on, what are the biggest issues facing the

country? i think he would say, the coronavirus is the greatest challenge our country has faced in three quarters of one century. you would have to go back to pearl harbor and the great depression to find one of this manna to that effect many people. and the economy. the economy plunged at a rate we have not seen since the great depression. shrink inissues comparison to those two. important but there is no health care without the economy. coronavirus is health care. these are the dominant issues that are out there this year that will be framing the presidential and a lot of senate races and senate house races around the country, and, you know, a lot of times, candidates the just -- a lot of

concern and a lot of advertisements have nothing to do with the biggest issues facing the country. but that is what campaigns do, what they think will work. i think thereut are great problems with civil and racial inequality, and but you havetices, seen these things happen in relatively few cities, and writing in the streets, where the rioting and this seems to be working, is in small town rural america where there are not any riots. certain kinds of people are really recoiling to what they are seeing on tv that may be nowhere near them, and that they are extrapolating out that most cities have not seen anything

like any of this. and it is not widespread. but you do what you think will work in a campaign. >> liz's waiting. go ahead. >> good morning. i've listened to you for many years and always thought you had a good handle on the state of politics in america. i agree, basically, i think states like pennsylvania and florida that have a high percentage of people over 65 living there, i think the inclination to vote for trump will be less because they have taken a much harder hit with the coronavirus. they have had friends or family members who had a difficult time with it, or even if they escaped all of that, they had been

limited in seeing their families, especially grandchildren. i do not think they want to spend the lastly -- years of their lives trapped in the statehouse because coronavirus is not being dealt with. think this president has done of handling the coronavirus. i think biden should be able to do better. is,at, i think florida usually a lot of northern retirees that are somewhat better off financially. so they will want trump when they see the stock market up. i think the coronavirus is all-encompassing and it is hurting the 18-64 group as they go -- and more are testing positive. so they may not die of the virus but they may be left with kidney

problems for the rest of their life because of the virus. guest: thank you for your kind words. i do not think we are disagree much. you go back to the 20 16, 2017, 2019 campaign, president trump was weaker among people below or younger than the baby boomer generation. he was not a strong with the generation above the baby boomers initially. but this was his group. so this was pre-coronavirus. coronavirusere the was hurt more than disproportionately was among older americans, older people that already have health issues and they feel particularly threatened.

were taking this seriously back in march or not, they do remember hearing that it is a hoax. they do remember hearing it is not much worse than the flow. that, andber all of that is what is holding them back, and the perception the president will not listen to people who know a lot more doubt this stuff than he does. know a lot more about this stuff than he does. that is part of what has changed may. march, april, april, when president trump was only six points behind, that is why he is further behind on the coronavirus and the loss of the economic tailwind. that is the reason why he is further behind now than he was then. host: seems like we just touched the surface here. we could talk longer but we are out of time.

thank you for engaging the callers and responding to some of their concerns on the various issues. as always, we appreciate your .ime guest: i was first on 35 years ago. . [laughter] [laughter] [laughter] i want to thank the people for what they do for the country. they helped me a lot when was trying to break through. thanks a lot, everybody. thanks to the callers. host: thanks for coming home. we hope we will see you again at some point soon. we would take some time out and then take a look at a pentagon report this week pointing to a massive chinese military buildup. we will talk about what that means for the u.s. and the world colby,ty with elbridge former deputy assistant secretary of defense with the trump administration. we will be right back. ♪ >> labor day weekend on c-span. monday at 8 p.m. eastern, former

white house chief of staff to fourast fo presidents, on how they dealt with crises during their respective administrations. >> the processing of information while always important to a becomest or any leader, extraordinarily important when you are dealing with crises, and you have to stick to the process the chief has created and hopefully the president has empowered to make sure the president is getting all the information they need to make the right decisions. >> watch c-span this labor day weekend. >> you're watching c-span. your unfiltered view of government, created by america's cable television companies as a public service, and brought to you today by your television provider. "q&a the was washington post journalist talks

about her experiences covering this topic. people will talk about how they are critical of the united states or the west. that is more common than somebody say something offensive about being a woman or causing problems. , speaking verybe broadly now, more helpful to a woman than to a man. he can also take advantage -- they can also take advantage ways, but myious experience is that if they don't like something about you or if they mistrust something about you it will not be because you are a woman, it will be because you are american. >> tonight on c-span's q&a. >> you know, you read the thing that was said about thomas jefferson, that he was an infidel and an agent of the french government, sounds a

little reminiscent, doesn't it? the things that were said about abraham lincoln, about fdr, that he wanted to be a dictator. so it does kind of come with the territory, but i think in trump's case, at least in the modern political bureau, post-world war ii, i have never it.n anything like >> today at noon eastern on "in-depth," our conversation with the faith and freedom .oalition founder join in the conversation with your phone calls, facebook comments, texts and tweets. what today at noon eastern on c-span two. >> "washington journal" continues. host: turning us now is elbridge colby, the former defense deputy assistant secretary in the area of strategy and force development in the trump

administration. he is also currently cofounder and principal of the marathon initiative thank you for joining us, mr. colby. , good to be you here. host: we are talking about china and its expanding military influence. lots of stories in the papers and elsewhere in recent months. first off, what is the marathon initiative and what that do? guest: we are a small think tank focused on what we think is foreign policy, which is great power competition with china. host: how are you funded? guest: we are funded from a variety of individuals, some government camps and some corporations. we don't accept any foreign or funding. host: as we look at china, several headlines got our attention recently including this one at military.com, that says china's military has surpassed the u.s. now in ships, missiles and air defense. this is from a defense department report.

talking about conventional weapons first, what is the relative size and strength now of the chinese military? guest: it is very impressive. it is daunting, actually. one of the things to remember is that the united states spans defense.bly more in china has been closing that gap in china is a most discursively focused on its region. it is much more focused. particularly in the asia-pacific, it is shifting in china's direction. the chinesers ago, military was a relatively primitive and unsophisticated force. that is no longer the case. they are closing the gap. that trend unfortunately is continuing. host: phone numbers are on the bottom of the screen for our guest, elbridge colby. china's military influence. if you live in the instant time

202-748-8000. in the western part of the country, mountain and pacific time zones, 202-748-8001 is your number. also this headline in the area of the nuclear arsenal. defensivenews.com tells us china plans to double its nuclear arsenal. talk to us about the equation here. guest: the conventional military advances china has been undertaking are more worrying. but it's most to the nucleoside are also more concerning. it is slated to double in size to a relatively low amount. what is concerning china is increasingly able to have what it calls a second strike, the ability to retaliate against us no matter what we do. the report indicates china is considering a lower yield options and so forth.

could cast a greater shadow over american allied activity especially in the event of a conflict in the western pacific, say over taiwan or the philippines or japan. host: let's talk about what this all means. the pentagon report on china's military on defense.gov. they write this way -- the chinese communist party frames this strategy as an effort to realize long-held nationalistic aspirations to return china to strength, prosperity and leadership on the world stage. interested,ple are i co-authored a piece on the foreign affairs website with robert kaplan yesterday, and our argument is that this is primarily not about ideology, it is largely about the degree of power that china has. for the chinese communist party, it is partly ideological.

chinample reality is that is the largest state to enter the international system since the entrance of the u.s. it self in the 19th century. this is a massive solar system kind of influence that has an enormous gravitational pull. chinese interests first off are to gain hegemony over its region essentially to create a market area centered around china and for its long-term first party and security. of course, the united states can't afford that because, as i said, asia is the worlds largest , and that would greatly diminish american prosperity and ultimately freedom and security. china is basically developing a military consistent with these goals, which as a defense report -- long-standing nationalistic aspirations. host: here is the foreign affairs piece he wrote -- the

ideology delusion. this is in the current issue of the foreign affairs. america's competition with china is not about doctrine. before we get to the calls, what does this mean in terms of u.s. policy and u.s. strategy toward china and the asian part of the world? guest: sure, i would refer back to the 2018 national defense strategy done under secretary james mattis very much continued by his successors including esper.ry of defense the reaction on the military and defense side is we need to rein the focus on china and asia. china is by far the pacing threat, the one we need to prepare for. the department has begun to vector on that but without the requisite urgency and degree of revolutionary change required. at the same time, it means being much more economical in our efforts elsewhere, particularly the middle east, and also other

theaters, even europe. europe is our second priority theater, but the danger is much less severe there -- russia is weaker than china -- and our allies are stronger in europe and can play a much larger role. i think long-term you will see more focused on the asian pacific and china, and in other theaters, a throttle back. host: our guest is eldridge colby, formerly with the defense department, former deputy defense assistant secretary of strategy and force development. we have our first call from pennsylvania. go ahead. caller: i was wondering about the border dispute on the himalayas. ?hat is going on with china host: something the president mentioned at his friday news conference, mr. colby. for those not familiar with what is going on what kind of battles

has china had with india recently on that border? it is a long-standing issue, right? guest: great question, and it is really striking actually. the border dispute between india and china goes back for 50 years. in fact, they had a short border war in 1962 about it. neither side has forgotten about it. china seems to be pushing out in all directions. if china were following the old model of by your time and had your capabilities, this is their famous model under deng xiaoping, they build their strength. but instead, now china seems to be pushing out against not only the united states, but also india, vietnam, the philippines, and other southeast asian countries. there have been some pretty scary incidents up there. it is very high elevations, where hand-to-hand fighting between the chinese military and

the indian military has happened. no real resolution as far as i've seen. the indians have certainly held their own. this is just driving india further into the friendship of the united states, which is something that is really critical. i would say that two key allies if you will, partners of the u.s. in the coming years will be japan and india, in particular with australia also playing a critical role. of a me it is a bit mystery about what beijing is thinking. perhaps when you are that strong and they are feeling their oats, they are beginning to say, hey, why are we putting aside these disputes? china deserves to be respected and others should defer. host: brad in kentucky, good morning. caller: good morning. mr. colby, you have quite an impressive resume. you, when wen for

were making the decision to go , was bush misled about wmds, that would be one question i have. even on the day of 9/11, he had a real strong -- he was verbally for this to lead into saddam somehow. where does that come from? you were close, you are there, can you talk about it? calling.d, thanks for guest: thanks, brad. question.eat you may have seen in my background that i served on the commission set up to look into why the iraqi intelligence was wrong. this may be sounds like monday morning quarterbacking,

but i always thought the iraq war was a mistake but i don't acted onsident bush bad faith. i think he and vice president cheney and others seem to have believed that the possibility of a rock reconstituting a nuclear and other wmd program was enough invasion ofte an the country, and i think they were more optimistic about how it would go. and they probably also thought that it would, it would set an forple for other countries more compliance on wmd and terrorism issues. obviously, it didn't work out way. in terms of the intelligence, i would say that i don't think the president was misled, i think elements of the intelligence community generally believed iraq was beginning to reconstitute a wmd program.

the famous example i remember is the biological weapons analyst in the c.i.a. who told deputy secretary of defense paul wolfowitz that she would cut off her finger if she was wrong about the assessment. she turned out to be wrong. though it is worth remembering that there were few countries at -- in saddamwere hussein's iraq. a think they were genuine mistakes. the other thing is that the intelligence community wasn't assessing that iraq already have them, it was that they were in the beginning stages of them.ing the fear in the bush administration was that once they were sort of out-of-the-box, it would be difficult to put them back in. despite all that, it was a mistake. call. a hard host: mr. colby, take us back to china and the u.s. when it comes

to nuclear weapons. here is a look at the numbers. the u.s. currently at 5800 nuclear weapons, 3800 active, 2000 unwitting dismantlement. china is estimated in the low to hundreds. can you put that 200 number in perspective if we are talking about an increase in china. to what extent are they looking to grow out? guest: i tend to think that in the nuclear realm. make a difference -- don't make a difference. that 3800 number is not the number that is deployed or would be expected to be used. the numbers can be a bit misleading. i think china actually understands that. china has always wanted to avoid they perceive the soviet union made, which was getting in an arms race with a technologically creative united states.

they are looking to develop enough nuclear weapons, i think, that theycan be sure would be able to blow up some american targets that we really care about. in the context that we in the american people would want to fight in the asia-pacific, that is enough to cast a shadow. , prevent us to say from trying for instant nuclear blackmail. believe the u.s. uses nuclear weapons -- used nuclear weapons to blackmail them in the 1950's and so forth. i am more worried about their conventional forces. and more worried about the indications in the report that they may be considering low yield systems because these would give china potentially intermediate options that would be more plausible in the event

of a conflict in the western pacific, a limited conflict, which is almost certainly what would happen if, god forbid, a war did break out. host: we know the u.s. is in talks with russia right now about the future of their nuclear deal. talk about the u.s., china, and now, russia and how the situation plays on itself. guest: in my view, russia is a serious danger, and the u.s. has a are afoot interest in ensuring russia cannot use weapons against itself or nato. in the pentagon or elsewhere, the trump administration has lost a lot of strength in the position in europe. but i think long-term, and this is a radical do these days, my view is that we want to maximize or encourage distance between beijing and moscow. i give some comments the other day to the "financial times" in case people are interested in

more. the thing is we don't want what happened in the 1950's and 1960's, which is china and russia together. the russians are closer to the chinese than they have been since that time. i think we should look for opportunities while protecting our own interests, election security and all that sort of stuff, to put some distance between the russians and the chinese. i commend the administration for opening up bilateral discussions with russia. i think an agreement and an extension of the new start treaty would be in the u.s.'s interest in that context. we would be in a stronger negotiating position to put pressure on china on arms controls issues from that vantage point. host:. caller:. caller: from cleveland, good morning. caller: good morning. colby.rning, mr. and good morning americ, americ. mr. colby, i find you fascinating.

broke down three questions for you, and i just want to roll through them. is, what isestion the trade deficit between ?merica and china second is, if china is the enemy stealing all of our intellectual thenrty and all that stuff why are our corporations running over there doing business with them? and ruins our supply lines it is affecting our politics. americans feel for corporations that abandon them, seeking slave wages? -- what's the caveat was the trade deal about with russia?

well -- not russia, with nixon. nixon went over and opened up china, but i never knew what the deal was. and it looks like to me, we are getting a raw deal. but we seem to be loving it, because our corporations are running over there. host: a little bit of history there but a little bit of present-day. can you speak first and the economics and then pull it into this larger conversation we are having u.s. and china, deficits and tariffs. what would you say? guest: thank you for that question. i don't know the trade deficit exactly. frankly, i share your views about what happened, particularly over the last few years. i think nixon and kissinger made the right decision at the time, because that was about the reverse of what we were just talking about with russia, they tried to pull china more into our camp against the soviet union at the time, which was our

primary threat. the chinese and the soviets actually fort a border the chinese and the soviets actually fought in border war which was pretty bloody. but they work with us to balance out the soviets i think it was a successful policy. success is never final. in 1971 a good policy or 1972, doesn't mean it is still a good policy, so it is time to change. i share your point on corporations. corporations are vital for american prosperity. one of the things that i think the policydefend toward china over the last 25 years is, and this is not my area, is that. a lot of corporations benefited for a while. but these essentially became multinational corporations. they are headquartered in the united states, but they are not

always thinking about what is best for the united states. that is fine, but i think trade deals should be done in the interest of the american people primarily. things need to change. in fairness, i think a lot of corporations have sort of had it with china in terms of i.t. , and theeft stealing of market share. the indians have basically banned almost all chinese apps, they banned tiktok and that can of thing. we need to have a really clear are and not be naive. frankly, we were naive in the last 25 years, until the last couple of years. host: anthony from new jersey, good morning. caller: good morning. winky for taking my call. i was wondering, -- thank you for taking my call. i was wondering, is there any way to ascertain what percentage of the chinese budget is used

for domestic control? thank you. guest: it is a great question. i don't know off the top of my head. as i recall, there was a section on the internal. it is a sizable fraction of the chinese defense and security ending, but i think the main concern for us is that given the growth of the chinese economy, they are making leaps and bounds in their external military capability. to give an example, the report mentioned the chinese plants to to open bases in 10 countries around the region. i don't think we should let that distract from their very robust external activities. host: more from the pentagon report on china's military. they write that the pace and scope of the military

modernization and expansion provides opportunities as well as challenges for the u.s. defense relations as the prc championship military develops, miscalculation or a and increases highlighting the need to ensure the operational safety of forces operating in close proximity, as well as the need to establish crisis communications mechanisms. mr. colby? guest: i think it is important that.m certainly for it is important to emphasize that the united states -- and i have participated in these semi-official discussions, unofficial -- discussions with china at least since about ep3 incident in 2001 where an american aircraft was forced down. often, it is the chinese will haven't been particularly interested in these communication mechanisms.

i believe there are some between military commanders in the united states and china. china has to pick up the phone. miscalculation and accidents are not the problem. it is hard to find examples of conflicts that have arisen by accident. during the cold war, there were accidents, american planes that went down i believe in the communist territory without it escalating. countries usually escalate because they are prepared to and when they see an opportunity. so i think it is important, but i don't think we should focus on that too much. host: elbridge colby is a former deputy assistant secretary of defense back in 2018 and 2019. under what circumstance did you leave the administration? guest: the primary thing i worked on was the 2018 national defense strategy. that was completed and i actually felt i could make more of a difference on the outside, through engagements just like this. host: as a former defense one who oversaw issues

with the military, what do you make of this whole controversy over the atlantic story, where the president was said in the article to have made disparaging comments about dead and injured troops? guest: i mean, i have never heard anything like that. so ie no direct knowledge really couldn't comment, except to say that i never heard of the president saying anything like that. that kind of thing, it strikes me, you should have your sources pretty well locked down. i think under the trump administration, the military has gotten more funding. i think the president and this administration have made clear his respect for the troops. beyond that, it is not really the kind of thing i concentrate on, but it doesn't ring true to me, so. host: a call from howard in north carolina, good morning. caller: good morning. >why is it that you don't beliee

or it doesn't interest you what this gentleman said about our military, which we have a lot of news media collaborating and confirming -- corroborated and confirmed that what was said was true? china, out of all countries -- we have russia flying near our airspace and our pilots, russia trying to take over the north pole, russia --assinating people, russia and you want to sit here and talk about china because that is a talking point for trump. i don't understand this. you are not going to divert from what is going on. p's not going to send my family members into war and this man doesn't even care about our american troops overseas. y'all need to stop this. is this just another program like the n.r.a., like the charity fund he had for military and all of it was a hoax? next month, trump

will be voted out and this mess will be resolved, buddy. host: anything you want to respond to, mr. colby? guest: i appreciate his point of view, howard. thank you for your comments. on the strategic issue you raised them i disagree with you. russia is a major danger, but if you look at the numbers, the amount of resources russia is able to put into its military, it is a fraction of what china can do. and we have alliances with countries in asia that are directly threatened by china. if you look at it from a strategic perspective, you increasingly see that coming into the public view and i would say it is actually a bipartisan view. the russian discussion is one that is very delicate and politicized, but we have to be very careful. they have thousands of nuclear weapons. they are very dangerous.

a bit of an analog here with the 1950's, what we don't want is a highly politicized situation where we are unable to break off the second tier. in the 1950's, it was a situation where the loss of china created immense political heat and we were not able to engage with china, which was an awful state. i think it killed more of its own citizens than any country in government --vil an it will government at the time. but given this is a priority, it is another problems that helped us get into vietnam. we could have maybe gotten more room by dealing with the chinese and putting more pressure on the vietnamese, in part

because of the very, very nasty politics of the 1950's and early 1960's. today we need to be careful that while we push back and condemn russian activities on election interference or their assassination of people, we need to look at it in a strategic lens. to your point about serving in wars, my goal here is to avoid wars, but the way you avoid war is not by putting our head in the sand, you have to look at the most powerful, dangerous country in the system and focus of banned. that is certain he what i am doing -- most powerful, dangerous country in the world and focus there. that is i am doing. .ost: mike caller: m hello thank you for taking my call. question about chinese nationals but live in our country and work in our country. i have people that -- colleagues work inork with that our country that are chinese. some of them live on the border,

they live over in canada. i am wondering, should we have espionage, orout -- is there any potential concerns that we should have that worke citizens in our country, that may have access to data? guest: thanks, mike. first off, we want to be selective. we can be too suspicious. -- we wentgiven some to make sure we are fair to ,eople of chinese backgrounds who are obviously some of our american citizens and some of the most idiotic americans and so forth. americans andtic

so forth. security concern, as attorney general barr and fbi wray and others have made clear particularly in the sensitive data. i wouldn't want to contribute any paranoia on anyone's part, but the other thing about the way that it seems that the people's republic operates is widespread,nd of temper has a vacuum. we have seen that with their 10,000 talents program and so forth, in chinese out which to state governments. i think, again, i am not an i think whats, but the fbi and the department of justice and other sources have concerning.is very

for instance about some of the administration's actions on students.ionalist these are legitimate concerns but we need to balance them with concerns about fairness and equality. so it is a tough issue, but quite a real one. host: one last call from james in south carolina, good morning. caller: good morning. i have this problem with a guy named howard. i think he made a big mistake about russia. one, by mr.e clinton, that left everybody over here so they could still our technology. and also, under obama, what did mr. biden do with the $1.5 billion for hunter? thank you. host: final thought from our guest. guest: i wouldn't comment on the political stuff, but i think oft in terms of the scale

what china is doing is much more serious. actually, one thing i have heard smart people observe is that the chinese traditionally one more -- preferred to fly under the radar wears russians were more brash and in-your-face. but as in anything, you should be worried about the one who is picking his fights, staying under the radar but is 10 times the size of the brash one. that is where your real problem is. we are finally getting around to focus on the main challenge. host: our guest has been elbridge colby, former defense deputy assistant secretary and cofounder and principal of a marathon initiative. thank you for your time and insights. much appreciated. guest: thanks, everyone. host: we have about 25 minutes left on this sunday edition of the "washington journal."

when we come back, we return to the question we asked at the top of the hour that has to do with jobs. which presidential candidate would be better on jobs moving forward in this country, whether it is the biden harris ticket or trump-pe-pant -- nce ticket. the number to call is 202-748-8000 if you trust the biden-harris ticket. ticket, the number is 202-748-8001. you can also weigh in on social media. we will be right back with your calls. ♪ >> tonight on "q&a" the washington post former afghanistan-pakistan bureau chief, pamela constable talks about her experiences covering

the region. . >> sometimes people will say something that is very critical of the united states or the west. that is more common than somebody saying something offensive about a woman or causing problems. people tend to be, and i am speaking very broadly now, more helpful to a woman than to a man. they can also take and w in various ways, but generally come my experience has been that if they are not going to like something about you, weren't going to mistrust something about you, it will not be because you are woman, it will be because you are american. >> watch tonight at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span's "q&a." >> you read the things that were said about thomas jefferson, you know, that he was an infidel or frenchnt of the government, it sounds reminiscent. the things that were said about

abraham lincoln or about fdr, that he wanted to be a dictator. so it does kind of come with the territory. but in trump's case, at least in the modern political era, post-world war ii, i have never seen anything like it. >> today at noon eastern on "in-depth" our conversation with his mostlph reed, with recent book "for god and country." join in the conversation with your phone calls, facebook comments, texts and tweets. what today at noon eastern on on c-span two. >> "washington journal" continues. host: we will take more of your calls on the economy particularly on jobs. which candidate do you think will do a better job moving forward on creating and keeping jobs in this country?

has thisington post" headline following the jobs numbers on friday. one economy, two descriptions. biden says it is terrible. trump talked job numbers. here are the job numbers, 8.4% is a august unemployment rate, still more than double what it ,as before the pandemic began but dropping from the numbers in the past couple of months. jobs added, 1.4 million. more details as time goes on. let's get to edward in florida. biden supporter. tell us why you think the democratic ticket will perform better in jobs. caller: because of what obama did when he took over the economy and what trump always bragged on was unemployment and the gdp. let's get that straight about the unemployment. when obama was there, when he took over, it was 10%. it was the highest, i think.

the unemployment rate was. when he left, it was 4.7%. 3.5%,took it from 4.7% to and yet it didn't stay there very long. dropped, in four years, it 1.2%. in eight years, with obama, it dropped .6% per year. -- obama had, it was low. guess what, we still have a gdp in the low 2's. i am not counting the epidemic we are going through. the covid epidemic. when you look at where obama took over at. if you look at it as a race -- i , youadded like a race pass the baton from one president of the next. where did obama start out at?

trump compare the two, got the baton -- [inaudible] started with the baton in savannah, georgia and -- calling.nk you for from shreveport, louisiana, hey, paul. caller: i am glad to be here this morning. i am talking about jobs. they went overseas. you don't know how it feels when you lose your job. i worked for this company for 10 years and it went overseas. they went overseas for cheaper labor and it is so sad. trump is bringing them back. like china took our steel mills away. people had worked for years and years. they are bringing them back to america. it is nice to see jobs back in america.

shouldn't go to foreign countries because you make more money but you are hurting your own country. it is so sad. i have seen a whole town just go down on they take jobs out. it is said. tear for america. i love america. again.ake a great host: from indiana, jake. good morning. caller: good morning. i want to start with a rhetorical question. and all ofublicans their corporate constituents, they like to supposedly emphasize job incentives. if that is true, why do they keep them overseas like that? the answer is because they are more concerned about their intermediate profits. that is what it is. that is why i support

biden-harris. they will be more true and faithful to the people who need jobs and need to make a living. is the job andt economic situation in cartersville, indiana right now? caller: nothing to be too proud of, i would say. we have lost a lot of factories over the few years. -- a few yearsnt ,go in the connors on news there was a headline that said that we were in the top bottom 10 rather of the most depleted cities in america. host: are you working, sir? caller: yeah. work in a restaurant right now. i am having a hard time making ends meet. [indiscernible]

host: biden supporter from indiana. on to a trump supporter from maryland, jerry in oakland, maryland. caller: thank you for taking my call. i hope you will let me finish my point. some of these less people touched on it. i am a retired coal miner. i have watched western maryland, where i live, be the industrialized on policies from the both parties. they are bought and paid for. the globalists want their country back, folks. i have seen it all my life. since the early days when a nixon got the slave labor opened up. we are doomed, folks, unless we step away from the globalist propaganda. countrya man in this whose policies are working for us, and we have had that for four years. do i agree with everything he

says, no, but he is the front of the movement for the american people, and you've got one chance, don't blow it. . . the propaganda is out there the globalists want their country back. thank you for letting me speak. host: in arkansas, under the trump supporter, tim. why do you support the president on jobs? what are you seeing out there in arkansas right now? caller: in arkansas here, i am still working because i am in construction. you have the one candidate, president trump has created jobs before. he has built things. the only one in the race that the only jobsen, he provided was for his family. he got his brother a contract building homes in iraq when he never. build a home before he got his son's business in other countries. as far as his running mate,

harris, the daughter of a plantation owner, she got jobs for the prison industry by putting people in jail. we had a good economy but they couldn't run against it. so, guess what, a virus shows up . fear across the country about how bad it's going to be. remember they told us in the beginning, the experts said 20 million people might die. that is a part that was the hoax. 20 million dying. i am telling you, people need to realize who created this problem we are in now. it was the democratic governor the shutdown the first business. host: all right. tim there. from washington, d.c., a biden supporter. what is your name, caller? caller: hello. ok. my name is ginny.

biden is doing. i think they did a heck of a good job bringing the country out of the past recession. easier -- somebody was talking about passing on the baton -- when the baton is passed if you're in front, you are still going to be were to win. he passed it on good terms to the president. the economy, that is where black people, women and most other people get employment -- the gig economy -- it wasn't like they were doing special things for jobs created for black people. where were these mass of black

people employed? the gig economy. it employs massive amounts of people who hitherto didn't have jobs. so he claims he has given jobs to black people. it.e is he just walked into no president has an economy that booms within a year of them being in the white house. there is none. he actually gained from a government that was booming, that was running on full steam. and also, people have to ask, which jobs came back, and from where? back or theys came brought this much money back to the country -- it is all talk, speculation. nobody could point to any definite jobs. host: thank you for calling here in washington, d.c. we have about 10 minutes left in the program.

details on that 8.4% unemployment rate, 1.3 7 million jobs added -- the unemployment rate for whites, 7.3% in august. hispanics, 10.5%. blacks, 13 percent unemployment. that from the bureau of labor statistics for the month of august. in terms of the number of jobs, what makes this 1.3 7 million jobs, workers, 238,000 retail, 200 foot in and 249,000. business, -- they make the point that more .han 60% are temporary jobs education and health, 147 thousand jobs. in the "washington post" there is an opinion piece -- don't celebrate that jobs report just

yet. the author writes that in hiring continues at the august pace, it could take eight or nine months before all the jobs since the pandemic began are recovered. there are five reasons, and she lays them out in this piece why the rate of hiring will slow down further as we move forward. that is in the "washington post" today. mike is calling from -- for joe biden. for taking myyou call. donald trump is ruining our nation. he is taking away any hope of honesty or morals, anything like that. he gave all of our tax money to industry. he is breaking our people. when he gave us a tax break, he and the republican party said oft we would have ag gdp -- how many times have

they hit that since they did the tax breaks? maybe once. he is not amanda can be trusted. best he is not a man that can be trusted. we need it. president who is honest, who has morals, and i am afraid neither one of our candidates are that man. i say people should vote for the .reen party when people call in and say trump has brought back business to the united states, i think you have a moral responsibility to ask for the name of a company that has come back, because there are none. host: mike, tell us about the situation in oak grove, missouri. >> what part of the state is that in? caller: we are about 15 minutes

southeast of kansas city. host: how would you describe the job situation there? children, adult children have jobs. but there is a lot of people that don't. we do need jobs. the main thing we need is for people to wear masks so that we can get rid of this virus. trump,sident, donald i leti can believe "president donald trump" come out of my mouth, because i disrespect the man totally, he will not wear a mask and he is causing people not to. our economy cannot possibly recover and tell we have beaten the virus. joe biden is completely correct on that and them a trump is still trying to act like the virus doesn't exist.

we can't have a good economy without good health. donald trump is trying to take insurance from 20 million people. that is not good health. you know, thank you for taking my call. host: mike in oak growth, we appreciate it. , californiasfield sent a text. he says, i think that the candidate that has actually had a job is the best choicep trump has never worked a day in his lifep. another one on facebook -- the cutting of businesses' regulations has been a factor in stimulating job growth and tax cuts. neither would happen in a biden administration. the president has been w tweeting this morning. here is one of his most recent tweets -- the democrats together with the corrupt, fake-news -- say couldve

newsradio have launched a massive disinformation campaign the likes of which have never been seen before. they will say anything like their recent lies about me and the military and hope that it sticks. but maga gets it. "the atlantic" says that he had said some disparaging things about troops or those who were injured, as well as those who have been killed. a story that he and the white house have pushed forcefully back on. chattanooga, tennessee, cade. go ahead. caller: i just think that it is really impossible to argue against the fact that the tax cuts are not benefiting employees. i work for a large employer in chattanooga. our company gave raises immediately following the tax and regulation cuts. we are begging for employees to work.o

right now the biggest thing keeping employees from coming to work is government intervention, such as welfare and your covid payments and such. host: what kind of business is it, cade? caller: poultry industry. host: and what is your job title? caller: i am a process engineer. host: how has covid affected things in chattanooga and your particular? caller: our industry, we have people in close contact, so it first.gh at but we put interventions in place as far as barriers, we put an facemask policy and face shields. on the line, you are on top of one another, and we put barriers in place to avoid contact with one another. we have dealt very well with it, to be honest. i am impressed with the employees and how they have handled the situation. host: you mentioned tax policy

initially that you were in favor with the president's tax policy. have you heard about joe biden's tax plans? caller: yes. comments the other day talking about how the corporations would be taxed and otheramazons companies that have avoided taxes in previous years. i am not for them avoiding taxes, but, at the same time, you can't argue against the fact that these companies are employing thousands and thousands of people, and all of those people are making a wage and paying taxes on that wage. i feel like that is a part of the conversation that is left out. host: thanks for calling. dakota.smarck, north stephanie, good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call. host: you are welcome. caller: i support biden. building the backbone of the american economy is so important to me, and they think that with

where we are today and where everything is going, we need to support each other, and they think biden is coming from a place where he will be able to -- i think biden is coming from a place where he will be able to do that. i work with individuals that transplants, so having health care they can use and things they will be able to have regardless of pre-existing conditions and things like that, i think is incredibly important, and i am glad he supports things educationas well as in order to increase the job market for different jobs for people. definitely a biden supporter. host: ok. thank you for calling, stephanie. time for a couple more calls if we can get them in. mike, a trump supporter from mechanicsville, pennsylvania. go ahead. caller: yes, that is new york. host: upstate new york, i should have said. caller: i am 30 miles north of

albany, new york, in saratoga county. i am definitely a trump supporter. i have been in business for 20 years. during the obama-biden administration, my business was not very good. since trump has been in business, my business has been awesome, ok? the truth i feel that about biden is all on youtube. "riding of the dragon." it tells you how corrupt that organization is. i don't see how anybody can vote ,or biden, ok, due to the fact the foreign policy, ok, the domestic policy are going to be way off. our country is going to go into a major recession. i think trump is a businessman.

he does what is going on, all right? that is my feeling. host: what kind of business to you run, might? caller: i do a publishing business. i used to have a newspaper and a dual promotional advertising, ok , basically the advertising during the obama and biden administration stunk. host: thanks for calling, mike. andrew from bancroft, idaho, good morning. how are you sir, doing? host: fine. you are undecided. tell us why. caller: i voted for trump. i knew him in the 80's. great guy. know,k he is -- i don't he is just conceded, that conceited -- he is just conceited. he thinks his poo don't stink.

i kind of like biden too. i did support obama. , we are in a hell of a situation here. we don't need people blaming anybody for anything, we just need people that are going to kind of get together. i mean, we should get together. host: all right, andrew. anyone who called in, thank you for calling in today. we will be back tomorrow at 7:00 eastern time with another edition of "washington journal." enjoy your labor day weekend and look for some more politics on this network in the coming days, including joe biden, senator kamala harris, vice president mike pence, and president trump, all coming up in the next few days on the network. enjoy the rest of your sunday, see you tomorrow. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 20