do something about and it we don't. we need a solution. multi-tiered approach and not just political talk. >> you get my takes on my facebook page and at foxnews.com. have a great weekend. here's shep. >> up and down and the hurricane may miss us but there's historic rain falling. a massive stationer front hugging the east coast, swamping millions of people, and the damage, first looks as the rain keeps falling. as the gunman opened fire at the community college in oregon at least one hero stepped forward. the student and army veteran who charged the shooter and nearly died doing it. details of his screams amid the chaos. a father's story ahead. as the white house and the kremlin face off over syria, president obama set to answer questions from the news media. a live news conference scheduled for minutes from now. where are we? the fight against isis? the battle for syria, and the showdown with the kremlin?

let's get to it. american war planners are right now faced with a terrible choice. leave our allies in syria to defend for themes or risk an unlikely showdown with the russian military. according to pentagon sources the united states is reviewing the rules of engagement as russia continues to bomb rebel groups in sire. some of the groups the russians are bombing are the same moderate rebels the united states backs. some reportedly even trained by our cia. of course the russian president, vladimir putin, claims they're just trying tike out islamic state terrorists but a pentagon official says putin is lying again and is actually at times bombing the enemies of his body, bashar al-assad. the united states and russia have been holding what they're calling decon flictas talks.

let's define. reduce the risk of -- in an area by coordinating movements. so they're talking about coordinating the movements of flying war machines after the deployment of the flying war machines. the cart leads the horse here by a mile. with that in mind, president obama is set to hold a news conference in less than half an hour. we expect the crisis in syria to lead it up, rich edson is live at the white house. does the white house say anything bat strategy for how to deal with all of these competing interests and goals? >> well, shep, what we heard so far are more demand ford the russians to leave syria, to leave syrian air space. that's not happening. three days in a row of attacks from the russians and that's continuing, so we now defaulted to discussions how to avoid one another in air space. the white house says they imagine there will be further talks with the russians on those avoidance measures to make sure there's no problems happening

when you have two different forces operating within the same space. as to the suggestion that perhaps it's only isis targets and that the russians aren't simply out there to try to help the assad regime remain in power, something by the way that this administration is in conflict with, what the white house is saying is that they are, the russians, hitting targets they are intending to do so nonisis targets and that, says thes who, is counterproductive. >> the effect of these kinds of inscrimmage -- indiscriminal nat air strikes drives what would otherwise be moderate elements of the sunni opposition to assad, into the arizona. extremists. creating an extremist problem -- i should say exacerbate an extremist problem for russia inside of syria. >> the russian defense ministry says it has attacked several isis targets over the last few days, and the president is the first is going to be asked about it very likely at the news

conference. >> we'll have live coverage, uninterrupted. has the united states changed its tactics or plans as a result of the russian military showing up no? >> as to that suggestion, the administration says it has not -- this is a comment corn colonel steve warren -- we don't believe the struck isil targets. that's a problem. we have not altered operations in syria to accommodate new on the battlefield. this is only going on three days in one of those days, russian strikes against rebel fighting the assad regime, there were self of those. the u.s., though, going below its average eight strikes a day with only one on that day. small sample size but has been a slowdown. >> thank you very much, chris edson at the white house there are indications the russians may have struck an isis target today. that's not to diminish the fact that as they began this they clearly struck nonisis targets who were the enemies of bashar

al aside. let's bring in the former director for russian, ukrainian and eurasian affairs. now vice-president for studies the carnegie endowment for international peace. sir, thank you. >> thank you. >> how do you make decisions when all of the players have competing interests? >> well, people need to step back for a second and ask questions. is the u.s. going to be making the decisions about what happens on the ground in syria? up to now president obama has been pretty deeply reluctant to make the u.s. the key decider what happens in syria. the view has been, let's keep this problem contained. and now we have putin on the ground, creating new facts and people are scrambling. >> i don't understand the goal. >> the goal of the russian military -- >> our goal. >> their goal does. >> russians -- >> this i was not my question. it's not my question. >> air strikes are pretty effective tool to do that. >> this e that's not my question. i don't understand dish know

what the russians are doing. i don't know what we're doing. what is our best case enerio fifth we do everything the way we want to do everything, what do we want to happen? >> i think what we would like to see is that the state of syria does not completely fracture and that the winner and the post conflict will not be isis. but between those two goals is a pretty huge challenge, which is a chaotic civil war. >> and there's this -- the fact that somebody has to lead syria when whatever we do there comes to something like an expend i don't our goal is for the end there, like, if there is no more assad and no more isis, who do we want to run syria? >> i don't think well know the answer to that question and i don't think the syrian people figured that out. >> how to the then -- >> powering gasoline on the fire. it's going to get worst for the foreseeable future. >> thank you. i appreciate it. another live look at the white house there. we'll take you there as soon as the president's news conference

begins. here's the point. the point is simple. if we go in and do everything exactly as we want everything to do, and everything comes out the way we want it to come out, what just happened? in other words, we don't want assad as the leader. the president said they that. okay, poof, assad is not the leader weapon don't want isis to take over. okay, let's say there's no isis. we don't want the russians to take over territory. let's say the russians don't take over syria. who takes over syria? and what do those people do? and where do they come from? and how do they fight all the terror groups operate fog the region. what is our goal? do we have a goal here? we have military in place. we have spotters. we have people we support in a civil war that is ongoing for four years, during which 250,000 people are said to have died. we are fighting. we have taken sides, but we don't have a goal. no one has expressed a goal.

in other words, if assad is gone, who do we want to run this strategically important center of the middle east? who do we want? that would be a question i would have of the president of the united states today. we're doing all kinds of stuff. what is our goal in doing stuff? what is our goal? do we have one? now to the very dangerous situation for millions up in down the east coast. forecasters warning do not be fooled by the latest storm track for hurricane joaquin, joaquin is probably, probably -- and that's a big word -- i -- going to veer and you have not hit the united states but it too still threaten property and lives and that's because there is a huge system of water up and down the east coast, after days of rain from the separate storm, a one-two punch that has already proven deadly. forecast path has a powerful cat 4 hurricane, staying out to sea, heat into the east.

check out the soggy mess right now in the east of the united states. this is the current radar. i wish this told the whole story. we're awful getting wet here. we're talking about rain in this area right here, up to a foot and a half. and it is coming into the east coast. the southern coast of long island right now and along the jersey shore, and pounding, a massive storm system. from the carolinas to part's most, causing serious problems already and in panhandle in alabama, louisiana, east coast. a woman in south carolina drowned when the flood waters rushed into her car, and all of this before any rain at all specifically from hurricane joaquin. this storm we're talking -- that storm is still slamming the bahamas after 36 hours of category 3, category 4 winds and a storm serge now, the storm serge is reportedly reaching people's windows. the coast guard reports it's search fog the cargo ship that sent out an s.o.s.

an american flag ship with three dozen people onboard. our chief meteorologist rick reithmuth is here. there's two things going on and one is already with us. >> and the impacts of what has already been with us are going to make the next part worse. talk about the bahamas. you have experienced hurricanes in your coverage. maybe hurricane winds for two oar three hours. try cat 3, cat 4 hurricane for 36 hours. >> can't imagine that. >> can't imagine. we have no idea what it looks like there haven't seen any images. that will come out tonight or tomorrow. but the storm is now made that little northerly jog and we think that's what is going to happen. computer models are in agreement. very, very, very small chance it could curve off to the west. we're not worried about that at this point. it will stave off the shore but there will be big impacts from this, shep. for one thing, the storm across the east coast, if you have a tropical connection to it, that's tropical moisture, there's a lot more moisture in tropical moisture than in regular moisture. you have warmer air, it can hold

more water. this right here is the storm. this is another system, and the two of those things together are going to kind of pull all this moisture in across parts of the south. now, there's joaquin going away from here but you see these lines right here? that's all moisture that is still funneled in. and look where that goes. into south carolina, and this is the spot a lot of the urgency, five plus inches of rain, already big flooding. see the pictures of of spartansburg, awe then cars and now you'll get another 12 to 15-inches of rain on top of that. we have the rain still already. you can see some moisture being streamed in from there. and that is what is going to continue. eight inches of rain, another foot, 15 inches, possibly historic flooding. >> what's that thing like 800 miles southeast of joaquin? >> there is other storm, ida, and not going to impact us. what was a tropical storm. what was ida is still out there

as well. >> a lot of water. >> too much water. going cause big problems. >> rick is here all weekend. >> thank you. >> ahead the hero of the oregon community college shooting, or one of them. the first one we're getting to know. the army vet and student now recovering after he charged the gunman, we're told, and tried to save the others. coming up from the fox news deck this friday afternoon, waiting for in the president's news conference on the disaster in syria. stayed tuned. -- stay tuned. e running a busi, legalzoom has your back. over the last 10 years we've helped one million business owners get started. visit legalzoom today for the legal help you need to start and run your business. legalzoom. legal help is here. take the zantac it challenge! pill works fast? zantac works in as little as 30 minutes. nexium can take 24 hours. when heartburn strikes, take zantac for faster relief than nexium or your money back. take the zantac it challenge.

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>> you heard about the u.s. army veteran who tried to stop the gunman in the shooting at oregon himself name is chris mintz. doctors say the attacker shot him seven times. mintz survived and is in stable condition. relatives paint a picture of what was happening at the time. they talked to him and here's what they tell us. he was in the classroom next door from where the first shots happened, and he confronted the gunman, according to relatives. tried to talk him down. having a conversation with him. even as he shot, and then he put his own body between the gunman and students he was trying to protect. and all of the time talking about, gunmen, it is my son's sixth birthday. stop. >> tried to block the door to keep the gunman from coming in. get shot three times, hits the floor, looks up at the gunman and says, it's my son's birthday

today. get shot two more times ump. >> vital signs are okay. he is going to have to learn to walk again. he walked away with his life and that's more than other people did. >> alive to tell about it. reports indicate the gunman shot minimum z in the back, the stomach, the hand, and the left leg, and the right leg. his cousin set up a gofundme page hoping to raise $20,000 to pay for the veteran's medical bills and all the rest, and see the total? the goal i said was $10,000. they're at $125,000 plus. donations are still pouring in. officials say the attacker killed nine people, and that the attacker himself died in a shootout with the police. did he shoot himself? did he police shoot him? we'll know eventually said he had on body armor, six guns with him on campus and they found seven more back in his attempter elm "new york times" reports investigationors are pouring over what they call hateful

writings from the gunman. dan springer, who works the pacific northwest for us, is live in roseburg this afternoon. dan? >> reporter: more than 25 hours after the horrific shooting, police still have the media blocked about a mile and a half a. from the campus as they continue to process this massive scene. this is an unlikely spot for a mass shooting. a very rural county, timber town reeker lines on mills, and now just grieving the latest massacre, nine innocent lives taken, three more people in local hospitals, listed in critical condition. police responded quickly, arriving just a few minutes after the first 9-1-1 call which came in at 10:38. they got 00 should a shootout and:the suspect. he had six guns on him in the campus. several magazine clips and body armor. nine more guns were found at his roseburg apartment. the atf says all the guns were legal. >> they were all purchased legally, yes.

>> purchased'llly? >> not all of them. >> but they were all purchased legally by the shooter. >> some were purchased by the shooter, some were not purchased by the shooter. >> reporter: we also heard from governor kate browne, democrat, who said today i a day to focus on the community and those who are victims and also eluded to the fact that she needs to strengthen gun laws in oregon. this is a blue state politically, it's also a pro gun state and you will not got more pro gun than roseburg and douglas county where i am. >> thank you. tensions flare at these, because 15, 20 seconds ago i got this alert, lockdown in a school in el paso texas after a suspected gun on campus. tensions are high. we hope that's nothing. if that changes we'll let you know. a tough jobs report sent the dow diving, hundreds down, then the market thought but it. they thought about and it they said, this i -- isn't so bad.

now we-under. ahead and what all this means for you money and economy on a friday.

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>> another ridiculous day on wall street. invests-over reacted to a jobs report. here's where we are. this is a good jobs report. weaker than they thought it would be. unemployment stayed the same but everybody freaked out because they make money freaking out. probably. now we're up 127 points. so there's another ridiculous day on wall street. the fed report the economy add 140,000 jobs, below the 200,000

predicted and the lower revised numbers in the jobs report, win down so the unemployment rate held at 5.1%. let's bring in a financial analyst. this is all psychobasketball to me. >> it's not -- >> to me. that's white you're here. >> i'll explain in the numbers. the reason why this isn't the greatest jobs report is because of the wage growth. part of the reason why we're feel canning like we're not as rich as we should be is wage growth was 2's 2% for december, which seems okay. the federal reserve in order for them to feel good about raising interest rates, the reason why they're raising interest rates is because the economy ills getting better should have been 3.3%. so we're haveing a stagnant wage growth and it's affecting everything. when people don't feel wealthier they won't spend, there's less demand, and to make it a little more macro outlook, less demand,

oil prices don dropping, oil production starting to slow down -- >> putin is going to take care of that. he is stirring the caldron. they want oil prices to go up. >> if we birching i back domestically -- part of the problem, we're looking at unemployment numbers. when you look at oil production in the shale reserve in north dakota, overall north dakota has had compared to the rest of the united states the lowest unemployment rate because of the shale. they are employing a bunch of people on average people are make 5:hundred a week. when that oil production -- 3500 a week. when the oil production starts to slow are they won't have a job. it's cheaper now. so we want the oil prices to go back um. for dirks. >> you might. >> for the consumers, no, i don't work in the oil field but i drive. and the gas prices are going to

go up. if you look at how many people the oil industry employs, it's 9.8 million people. 5.8% of overall employment in the united states. it's a lot. >> you wonder why we can't get on to some other kind of energy you. just answered the question. >> i agree with you. we need alternate energy sources. that's a whole other conversation. >> can't push that until price go high enough. >> have to start funding elon musk, doing the solar panels. i'm on the resident greenie over here at fox news. i'm all about solar power and raising my own chickens on my roof. >> that's great do you name them or just eat the eggs. >> i do actually both. i like to grow them for meat and to make eggs and egg sandwiches and omelets. >> now we know so much. >> i'm basically homesteadsing in my apartment. >> stinky on the roof.

>> right. >> nice to see you. we're waiting to hear from the president. the schedule is that he will take questions at 3:30. and i say the schedule is -- because that and a buck-85 will get you starbucks, i know that because i stand here and wait for the president every day. they tell us 3:30 eastern daylight time so you can just kind of guess for yourself. but everybody sitting there just in case, and you can bet the press will be asking about how he plans to deal with rut vladimir putin inserting himself into the civil war in syria, and maybe they'll ask him, mr. president, if everything goings exactly how you want it to go, 100%, what would that mean syria looks like afterward inside who would be in charge? and what would it look like? bet he has an answer? i bet you he does not.

more headlines from the fox news deck. germany found no evidence of terrorism among the flood of migrants coming into the country. hundreds of thousands of people poured into europe as they try to escape the war in syria and terror in the mid east. in the u.s. four people are hurt after an explosion at a chemical plant, according to please in pasadena, texas, outside of houston. rescue crews air lifted one person to the hospital. no word on what caused the

blast. >> a dangerous trip across the globe in a very old plane. a woman took off from inningland on the first leg of a flight to australia and back and plans to make stops in 23 countries, using an open cockpit plane from the 1940s. she is paying tribute to a woman who made that trip.

bottom hour, top of the news. the president was to have begun speaking two minutes ago and the question today, how can we avoid conflict with the russians while still protecting the syrian rebels whom the united states supports, from russian airstrikes. a problem president obama and his national security team are trying to figure out. the president will no doubt face questions about that as he addresses reporters moments from now at the white house. we'll take you there the moment it begins. the military reports it's reviewing the rules of engagement in syria after vladimir putin's forces ramped up military operations.

look chat area the russians have been dropping their bombs. you can see they hit some areas which fall under the control of the islamic state group and the al qaeda affiliated is nusrafrot but some are the rebels fighting against the government of bashar al-assad that murdered hundreds of thousands his own people. let's bring in chris wallace who is with us from washington. i am still not of the understanding, if everything you want to happen happens, what is left? who runs syria and how does it work. you know? >> well, in an ideal world, the president would say, he would like the moderate syrian rebels -- there were a lot more of them back in 2011 when he civil war started then there are now -- you want them to be running the country. assad would be out and there would be in effect a coalition,

a post assad government, without isis, without al nusra, the al qaeda offshoot, and something approaching a democracy in that part of the world. that's the ideal solution, but how you get from here to there is almost impossible. >> if that is the goal, then you have to do something about what the russians are doing because the russians are targeting the ones who you just said the president wants to take over running the country in the absence of assad and the absence of isis. >> exactly. that's why i think you put your finger on what is the most important question in this news conference, which is that first of all, the president -- seems when you look ate it now extremely naively invited russia and iran in to fight isis, when clearly putin had no intentions -- >> he invited -- >> he said he did -- yes, absolutely. he said we would like to work with russia and with iran. he was saying this when russia had already put a number of fighters and a number of tanks and a number of armored

personnel carriers in syria, so kind of ratifying something that had already happened but said, let's work together to fight isis, but putin never had any intention of fighting isis. he wanted to fight the rebels rs who in the western part of the country are approaching and in fact have made some gains in assad's strongholds. so that was what was threatening the 20-25% of the country that assad, the client of putin, actually controls. now, you're exactly right, the key question is, if russia is with impunitiy go going to strike our allies, he would like to see -- obama would like to see running the country, what is obama going to do about it? we have a lot -- i was just looking at the picture, very nice shot of the state dining room but no president. putin is striking their very people we would like to see in a post assad syria, and we're allowing them to do so. when are we going to stop that?

>> what do you due to stop that? this is the same putin who said, we're not entering crimea. our people aren't there now they own crimea. the said putin who said we would never put troop thursday the east of ukraine. certainly the people we put over there their friends would never shoot a civilian jetliner out of the sky and that happened. he said if we come in, it's to help you with isis and then the comes in there and starts killing the people we're trying to protect and actually their leaders say they actually killed only civilians. that's what at the russians have been doing. how -- how can you come up with a position that is tenable here? if we're supporting these rebels who are on the ground, and they find out, well, in the russians are bombing us, why would you trust us to do anything? >> well, you know, what you would need is a president who was willing to say to the russians if you you come into that territory and bomb the people that are our allies, the people that we in fact the cia

has been training and equipping to fight eye sad, we'll defend that air space and have a no-fly zone. basically declare we're going to have a nye-fly zone. anybody what comes in there we will shoot down. >> including the russians. >> including the russians. >> well, that sounds like a recipe for -- >> how are you going to stop them? >> i don't know. >> if you declare a no-fly zone, then the question is, you're eyeball to eyeball with putin' who is glowing -- going to blink? will this president make that kind of it matetive to putin. >> and will that kind of ultimatum the right thing to do? i don't know. things have cascaded, going way, way back. these problems began long before putin lied about what he was doing in crimea. we can take it back to south ossetia and on and on and on. this -- the russian president is trying to exert influence in multiple areas, including now the middle east, and if he gets a stronghold in the middle east and then the assad government is

propped up by him, then he is in with the iranians and suddenly we have a formidable for against us. >> that's exactly right and to put this in historical context the russians basically were forced out of the middle east back in thearm 1970s -- early 190s under richard nixon and kissinger when egypt turned on them and they lost their sphere of influence they had, very powerful one, in that very important part of the world, and now because of the vacuum that president obama and the united states have left, you now got the russians potentially for the first time in four decade moving back into the very dangerous neighborhood. >> i'm sure that taking out the dictator over in iraq seemed like a good idea to somebody. like at least five people who i can point to in history, and then you get the vacuum of chaos. maybe sound like a good idea for assad to go away until you think

about the alternative, and is it possible that russia is offering -- i don't know -- something that might be of some sort of assistance? keep aindiana there to keep everything -- keep the chaos from exploding and at least you have at bit of calm in one region on crisis. >> well, except -- i mean, that's one way of putting it. on the other hand do we think the situation in syria is good at this point? i mean you have had a quarter of a million people killed, you have had four million people who have fled the country. now you have hundreds of thousands of. the overrunning europe, as refugees, and you have had the growth of isis. so i'm not sure that cementing assad with his 25% of the country is -- and trying to preserve or increase the status quo is as much of a solution. >> okay. if the solution is a moderate rebel, my understanding is we trained five of them and then they gave away half their weapons to the other side.

i understand that one of the explanations of that is that we're not willing to fight -- supply anyone -- none of these moderate rebels who refuse to say i will never back assad. we put up ground rules that are untenable to some of them. the fact remains there nor moderate rebels willing to work with us. there will five until they gave away half their junk. >> well, there are actually two sets of rebels. there's the ones that were supported and trained by the military, and you're right, that was five or nine and a complete disaster. there are some forces-although not a particularly effective force but more forces that have been trained secret i by the cia and they're the ones actually that the russians are bombing now. they couldn't find the nine folks from the pentagon. so they're going after the ones -- in fact it's an interesting thing, called the army of conquest, and it's an unholy alliance of secular, nonreligious, antiassad rebels plus some offshoots of islamic groups and they're all together

in the western part of the country, and if you want to know where they are, it's exactly where the russians are bombing. this is not isis. these are antiassad rebels opposed to assad and isis and that's who russia is taking out right now, and we're standing by. >> i'm told wore 20 seconds away. >> we're waiting to hear from the president. >> we're going to and this is the point where under normal circumstances would ask you how you feel about your crimson tide pick except that would be inappropriate so therefore i will not. here comps the the president but it got that in there. >> please be seated everybody. good afternoon. arne duncan is one of my longest serving cabinet secretaries and he has been a friend for a lot longer than that. so, it's with some regret and

sorrow i've accepted his decision to run to our home town of chicago. after more than six years of living in washington, are in the's wonderful wife karen, and they're excellent kid, claire and ryan who are also buddies of mine, wanted to move back home and that's meant in the interim a lot of time apart. so, i'll be honest. i pushed are in arne to stay -- sorry guys -- but i also know from personal experience how hard it is to be away from your family on a sustained basis0. so while i will miss arne deeply, he has more than earned the right to return home. take a look at what are in the has accomplished over the last six and a half years. he is one of the longest serving secretaries of education in our history. and one of the more consequential in just a few years arne and his team have delivered some incredible results at every stage of the educationale.

more than 30 states have upped their investment in early childhood education. nearly every state in america has raid standards for teaching and learning. and expectations for what our kids can learn. and our heightened school graduation rate is an at all-time high. we have helped millions more families afford college. and more americans are graduating from college than ever before. and that's just scratching the surface. an never has done more to bring our educational system, sometimes kicking and screaming, into the 201st century than anybody else. america is going to be better off for what he has done. it's going to be more competitive and more prosperous, more equal, and more up wardly mobile. it is -- its record that i believe no other education secretary could match. earn in -- arne bleedses this sf some is so passionate about this

work, and everybody who interacted with him, including people who disagree women if on some issues, never questions the genuineness and heart that he has brought to this job. so i couldn't be prouder of him, and for good measure, arne holds the record for most points scored in an nba all-star game. [applause] >> and he is my favorite partner in pickup basketball. the smartest player i know. even though he is very slow. and has no hop. he knows it's true. i will say, watching ryan, by the way, that the son will soon be surpassing the fire because that's young man has got game. now, keep in mind none of this change has been easy and we

still have a long ways to go the thing about education it doesn't deliver results tomorrow or the next day. this is a decade-long or longer proposition. we plant seeds now. we make changes now, and we watch each successive class benefit from reforms and it goes in fits and starts, and we have a decentralized system. that's how our education tradition evolved. so it's not easy, and it's not quick. but we are making progress. and we're not going to stop in these last 15 months. and that's why it's so important and why i think we're very lucky that even as arne steps down we have an exceptionally talented educator to step in and that is dr. john king. john is already on arne's

leadership team. he has been an educator all his life. a teacher, principal, a leader of schools, the new york state's education chief. the right man to lead the department. he shares our commitment to success in a more innovative and competitive world. he has got a great team already at the department of education of which i am very, very proud. his family is equally cool and good looking. and his equally exceptional children, and i know that together we're going to continue to be able to do great things on behalf of our kids. so arne and john, wish you a hearty congratulations and good luck now. i'll let them say a few words and then just make a few remarks before i take questions from the press. arne. >> i cried more today than i

have in a while so i'll try not to cry itch'll start with the president, and he asked to us come to d.c. and work with him. that was about a one-minute conversation. and it wasn't that we wanted to leave chicago. wasn't necessarily we wanted to be education secretary. i just wanted to be on his team and believe so much in what he was about and stood for. i have to say, seven and a half years later my admiration is only greater, and it's pretty remarkable -- it's important for folks to know that every hard decision, his only question was, what is the right thing to do for kids and challenging us to fight for kids, and also he hard political decision and that was never a factor in his passion and his commitment is an absolutely extraordinary and for me the political leadership it's the moral leadership and i just can't tell you,'re president, personally, what an unbelievable honor it was to spend time and

for those every day for folks who watched him last night taught can been the horrendous gun massacre in oregon and how preventible these are, we need that moral leadership. please keep up the fight. to the team at the white house, cecelia and dennis and valerie and others, it's been extraordinary to work with. i don't say this lightly. i think our team at the department of education is stronger than it's ever been now. never know. how those teams go and you have the b team towards the end. i think we have the a team and the combination of working with the white house, sean', sylvia, anthony this, anymore place, i'm just extraordinarily hopeful and confident what they can do together, and emma and ted and the rest of the crew. say a little bit about john and folks, this work is very, very permanent, for the president it's very personal, for me it's very personal. john is one of those of kids that probably shouldn't be in a room like this if you look at the stereotypes, and not the

easiest time going up. he'll tell you more about it. but lost his parents at early age and lived with if brother and now he is working with the president. and people often write you've kid like john. so many other kids we can reach, and while i'm deeply, deeply sad in leaving i'm extraordinarily happy and thankful and proud that john is going to carry on this work. so thank everybody for their hard work. quickly want to -- thank my parents as well. my dad, life-long educator at the university of chicago. taught all his life. my -- my -- my mother started a constitute forking program before we were born and that

changed our life. all they're life weshot kids can do when given a chance and that's why we do this work today and be able to see what she did and now have a chance in the past six and a half years to have an impact around the nation because this man gave us a chance. for my family. i can't tell you how much it means to us. and fortunately, just to my family, and i love this work. i love this team. i love the president. i love the chance to serve. the only thing i love more is who guys, and i can't wait to come home and see a couple more track meets and maybe get to coach ryan a little bit, and maybe have a few more dinners and maybe go to a movie some day. that would be pretty amazing. >> ah-ha. >> it's been too long, and so it has been an amazing journey, and feel so proud and yuck to have been part of this team. empty president, thank you for creating the climate so all of us could have the impact we did,

and we can never repay the dead of great tied for your leadership thank you. very much. and i'll turn it over to john. [applause] >> we were expecting syria, and at some point we assume we'll get syria. but we are at the mercy of the people at the white house at this moment. and for now, this is it. and at some point we're told they'll answer questions on syria. and we look forward to that. [applause]

>> thank you. arne, for very kind words. thank you, mr. president, for the opportunity to serve and for the faith you placed in me and the team we have at the department. i'm deeply honored by the chance to serve and also deeply humbled by following in arne's footsteps. arne is an extraordinary leader who i have watched demonstrate tremendous courage in fighting for kids and what is best for kids, but also being willing to listen to folks and to make adjustments and to make sure that everything we do every day is towards the goal of greater equity. mr. president, you and arne and our team at the department have laid out an ambitious agenda from strengthening early childhood education and expanding access to year childhood to raising standard are for a teaching and learning in k through 12, to ensuring that more americans have access to high, quality, higher education, to ensure that we

support our teachers and that we invest in our teachers and provide the best preparation and support and leadership opportunities for them. it's an incredible agenda and i'm proud to be able to carry it forward with an amazing team we have at the department. earlier this week, arne gave a speech at the national press club, and that speech he said education can be the difference between life and death. and i know that is true because it was for me. i grew up in brooklyn. i lost my mom when i was eight, my decide when i was 12. my dad was very sick before he passed. i moved around between family members and schools. but teachers, new york city public school teachers, are the reason that i am alive. they are the reason that i became a teacher. they're the reason i'm stand hearing today those. teachers created an amazing educational experience and also gave me hope. hope about what is possible or could be possible for me in life.

and i know schools can't do it alone. there's work we have to do on economic development and housing and health care but i know me parents spent their lives as new york city public school educators, believed that school is at the heart of our promise of equality of opportunity for all americans. that what they believe. that's what at the president believes. it's what arne believes and what i feel very privileged to be able to work on with this amazing team we have at the department. every child in the united states, every college student, every disconnect youth, every working parent, you just wants a few more credits in order to improve their position at their job, every one deserves the kind of opportunity that i had to have a great education. every child deserves the kind of opportunity that my beautiful daughters have to have a great education, the kind of education their grandparents worked to provide. so grateful to my very supportive wife, melissa. so grateful to the secretary for

the opportunity he gave me to join his team, and incredibly grateful to the president for that. i work with a wonderful group of people at the educational department to expand opportunity. thank you. >> thank you. [applause] >> thank you. [applause] >> now, two good men, doing really important work. so, i'm lucky to have them both as colleagues and friends and looking forward to seeing even more work done in the next few months. we have some other business to attend to. so, all of you, who are here to celebrate arne and job, you're

lucky enough now to have to sit through a little bit of a press conference with me. so, make yourselves comfortable. [laughter] i warranted the kids duck warned the kids. said tray not a to look completely bored. i'm going to take a couple of questions from the press but first, a few additional pieces of business weapon learned today our businesses created another 118,000 new jobs in september, which means we have now had 67 straight months of job creation. 13.2 million jobs in all. and an unemployment rate that has fallen from a high of 10% down too 5.1%. these long-term trends are obviously good news, particularly for every american waking up each morning and heading off to a new job. but we would be doing even

better if we didn't have to keep on dealing with unnecessary crises in congress every few months. and this is especially important right now because although the american economy has been chugging along at a steady pace, much of the global economy is softening. we have seen an impact on our exports, which was a major driver of growth for us particularly at the beginning of the recovery. and so our own growth could slow if congress does not do away with the counterproductive austerity measures they put in place and if congress does not avoid the kind of manufactured crises that shatter consumer confidence and could disrupt an already skittish global economy. on wednesday, more than half of republicans voted to shut down the government for the second time in two years.

the good news is there were not votes in both parties to pass a last minute bill to keep the government open and operating for another ten weeks before we can get a long-term solution. but keep in mind, that gimmick only sets up another potential manufactured crisis two weeks before christmas. this is not the united states should be operating. often time is hear from folks up on capitol hill the need for american leadership. the need for america to be number one. well, you know what? around the globe, part of what makes us a leader is when we govern effectively. and we keep our own house in order. and we pass budgets. and we can engage in long-term

planning and invest in things important for the future. that's the u.s. leadership. when we fail to do that, we diminish u.s. leadership. it's not how we are supposed to operate. and we can't just keep on kicking down the road without solving any problems or doing any long-term planning. that's true for the military, for the domestic programs. the american people, the american families deserve better, and we can grow faster and the economy can improve if congress acts with salve -- with spasm i will -- with dispatch. ill will not sign another short are bill that congress presented me with this week. keep in mind that a few years ago both parties put in place harmful automatic cuts that make no distinction between spending we don't need and spending we

do. we can revisit the hoyt of how -- the history of how that happened. if have some rather grim memories of it. but the notion was that even as we were bringing down the deficit, we would come up with a sustainable, smart, long-term approach to investing in the things we need. that didn't happen now. the cutted that have been maintained have been keeping our economy from glowing faster -- from growing faster. it's time to undo them. don't we'll have to fund our priority inside 2016 at the same level wed did in 2006. understand, during that decade between 2006 and 2016, our economy has grown by 12%. our population has grown by 8%. new threats