who have been injured will be in military parades. i'm always cautioned not to lose my temper. this may be as close as i've come in this campaign. just a marker of how deeply president trump and i disagree about the role of the president of the united states of america. you know, the august jobs report came out this morning. i'm grateful for everyone who found work again and found a glimmer of hope that brings them back from the edge. but there is real cause for

concern as well. the pace of the job gains in august was slower than july, significantly slower than in may and june. more and more temporary layoffs are turning into permanent layoffs. 28 million people have filed for unemployment. and after six months in the pandemic, we're less than halfway back to where we were with one 11.5 million americans not getting their jobs back. we're still down 720,000 manufacturing jobs. in fact, donald trump may be the only president in modern history to leave office with fewer jobs than when he took office. i talk to a lot of real working people, ask them. they feel like they're being left behind. ask them how do they feel about the economy coming back? you'll find they don't feel it. that's why i'm here today, to

thank paul and his team for hosting him at west end neighbor house here in wilmington. your continued tradition of doing god's work for this community is important. it's been around for more than 130 years. through pandemics, wars, depressions. west end has been here for generations of people. we're just looking for a chance, not a handout. just a fair shot at a good job, a safe place to live, and a better life to pass down to their kids. this is a special place for the biden family. my daughter, ashley, a social worker, was a caseworker here, helping young people who were aging out of foster care. when my son was the attorney general, beau came here, right here, to learn more about job training programs for those working toward a ged and a certificate for good-paying job.

when i was senator and vice president, there were plenty of economists i had around me to talk about every aspect of the economy, but i always think about the people who walked through the doors here, working people. white, black, brown, latino. what are they doing, are they okay? i knew if they were okay, they walk through these doors, the economy was doing okay. if they weren't okay, we weren't doing well. that's what we should be thinking about, this latest jobs report. but 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 the crisis started, we all hoped a few months of a shutdown would be followed by rapid economic turn-around. no one thought they'd lose their job for good or see small

businesses shut down en masse. but that kind of recovery requires leadership. leadership we didn't have and still don't have, and as a result economists are starting to call this recession a k-shaped recession. which is a fancy phrase for what's wrong with everything about trump's presidency. the k means those at the top are seeing things go up, and those in the middle and below are seeing things go down and get worse. it's no surprise because at root of this is the fact that trump has mismanaged the covid crisis and that's why it's a k-shaped pandemic. first, the president's chaotic mismanagement of the pandemic. it's 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. why? because the president has botched the covid response. botched it badly. i've said from the beginning we can't deal with an economic crisis until you beat the pandemic. you can't have an economic comeback when almost a thousand americans die each day from covid. when the death toll has reached 200,000. when more than 6 million americans have been infected. a million more worry about getting sick and dying and schools and businesses try to reopen. we all know it didn't have to be this bad. it didn't have to be this bad to begin with if the president just did his job. if he just took the virus seriously early on in january and february as it spread around the globe. if he just took the steps we needed back in march and april to institute widespread testing and tracing to control the virus. if he provided clear, national,

scientific-based guidance to state and local authorities, if he just set a good example like social distancing and wearing a mask. it's not too much to ask. it's almost like he doesn't care. it doesn't affect him because it doesn't affect him or his class of friends. anyone with a big enough checkbook can get rapid tests on demand. if you don't, you might have to wait in line for hours and wait for weeks to get your result, if you can get them at all. you have the kind of job where you can work from a laptop at home remotely, risking getting covid is very small at work. this job report shows that 37 million people reported teleworking in august. but if you work on an assembly line or checkout counter or meat packing plant or drive a truck or deliver packages, you're at

much greater risk. the job report shows more than 27 million workers reported that they couldn't work or lost hours because their employer had to close or lost business due to the pandemic. if you can hire a private tutor or have a live-in child care, you can balance being a parent and remote schooling. if you can't, you have to do your job and be a teacher all at once. jill and i have held briefings on reopening schools safely two days ago, asking the question we hear so many parents call and ask us, educators as well, who feel like they're in an impossible situation. what are they supposed to do with our children when the president has made it so hard for schools to reopen safely? what's the alternative when it's devastating to keep them isolated from their friends and their support system? i also said earlier this week to

the shock of many, we've lost more cops this year to covid than on patrol. it's a reminder how an already dangerous job, law enforcement, has gotten more dangerous because of trump's mismanagement. what may be just as shocking is many other jobs have also become dangerous due to covid. being a health care worker is now more dangerous than ever. we've lost hundreds of them this year because they weren't protected from covid on the job. being a meat packer is more dangerous than ever. so many have died due to getting covid at work. work for waitresses and waiters, transit workers, all have become more dangerous with so many dying of covid. ladies and gentlemen, no matter what he says or what he claims, you are not safer in donald

trump's america. you're not safe in donald trump's america where people are dying at a rate last seen when americans were fighting in world war ii. donald trump's malpractice through this pandemic has made being a working american a life-or-death work. while there's a disproportionate impact on black, latino, and asian americans in working class communities, white working class communities are being hit hard as well. opioid deaths, for example, are up during the pandemic, another crisis. but trump continues to all but ignore. in the meantime, trump and his friends have strong views about what the rest of america should do. quote, cut unemployment benefits to force people to go back to their jobs, end of quote. defund social security and eliminate obamacare in the middle of a pandemic.

reopen public schools without resources or guidance. reopen main street business without protection for workers so corporations can continue to soar. this is their plan? second and similarly, the economic pain remains unrelenting for millions of working people of every race and background who aren't getting relief they need. meanwhile, they're doing just fine, some better than ever. this divergence in fortunes is unique to any recession in recent memory. the painful truth is we just have a president who just doesn't see it. he doesn't feel it. he doesn't understand. he just doesn't care. he thinks if the stock market is up, that everything is fine. his wealthy friends and donors are doing well, then everything is doing well. if corporations see their

valuations rising, then they must be hiring. but the best economists know what i know, i have learned growing up in scranton and delaware up the road, places where folks aren't invested in the market like wealthy americans. a measure of our economic success is the quality of life of the american people. and if your stock soars, families teeter on the brink of hunger and homelessness and our president calls that success. what does that say about what he values? when you see the world in such a narrow prism, it's no wonder he doesn't see nearly 30 million americans on unemployment, one in six small businesses that are closed right now. he doesn't understand what life is like for people walking by their boarded-up shops, educators afraid that doing

their job, that job they love, will bring the virus home to the people they love. parents searching for health insurance now that the furlough has turned into a layoff. it's no wonder he doesn't see the single mom forced to wait in a three-hour food line for the first time in her life so she can feed her family because she's now part of the one in six households with children that don't have enough to eat. he wants us to believe that we're doing better, to keep it up and not notice that this remains the worst economic situation since the great depression. and our country faces historic divergence in our way of life. which gets me to my third and final point. and what the american people really need to understand. all pain and suffering stems from president trump's failure

to lead. his sheer inability and willingness to bring people together. he likes to sign executive orders, actions for photo ops, but they're ill conceived and can do more harm than good. he says protecting renters from eviction. that's what he's doing. but he's not giving them any support to pay their rent when it comes due. millions of americans will be left with a terrible choice between eviction and living in the streets or paying back rent they simply don't have when there was an answer offered and rejected. he says he's continuing to provide enhanced unemployment insurance payments, but he cut the amount that everyone on it received, leaves them on the edge when it runs out in a few weeks or sooner. he should be doing his job of calling congressional leaders together immediately, to get a

deal and deliver real results for the american people. this is the first president in the middle of a crisis i've ever seen that has called congress into the oval office. if i were president that's what i'd do and get it done like previous presidents. rentals, food, unemployment assistance, tens of millions of struggling americans, small business relief. aid to schools and state governments that are going bankrupt. as long as this pandemic and the accompanying economic catastrophe persists, no one, no one should have their water or power cut off because they can't afford to pay the bill. bottom line, mr. president, do your job. get off your golf course and out of the sand bunker. call the leaders together in the oval office. sit with them and make a deal. make a deal that delivers for working americans.

eases their anxiety and pain. in july i laid out my build back better plan for an economy that works for everyone. over the next three weeks i'll be laying out the sharp contrast my plan has with the president's nonplans. i'll be asking the american people three basic questions, who can handle the pandemic, who can keep their promises, and who cares about and will fight for working families. like the people here at west end, throughout this pandemic they found their way to keep the center open safely and provide for critical services. no one here has been laid off. they adjusted their spaces for social distancing. they started a lending program to help local businesses, hair salons and other small businesses. they continue their child care services, which is critical for so many working families. my pure courage, heart and grit

they never give up and they never give in and pursue the full promise for americans. that's the story of this community and this country. that's who we are. give ordinary americans just half a chance and they never let the country down, they'll do extraordinary things. they'll never let us down, unlike the current president. unlike the current president, i won't let you down either. that's what this election is about. helping people unite, get together, move this country back in the direction that we can be. there's nothing beyond our capacity. nothing. if we just do it together. thank you all. i'll now take your questions. i guess are you calling on people or -- i don't have a list so you go ahead and call. >> thank you, sir.

this morning in reference to that article in "the atlantic" in a call convened by your campaign, the comments demonstrated that president trump's life is a testament to selfishness and that his soul is that of a coward. you've talked about this as a different view of how you see the job as president. but when you hear these remarks, suckers, losers, recoiling from amputees, what does it tell you about president trump's soul and life he leads? >> i'm going to try to be measured in my response. if it's true, and based on the things he said, i believe the article is true, i'd ask you all the rhetorical question. how do you feel? how would you feel if you had a kid in afghanistan right now? how would you feel if you lost a

son, daughter, husband, wife? how would you feel for real? i know that's not your job to express that feeling, but you know. you know in your heart, you know in your gut it's deplorable. it's deplorable. as i've said many times and i'll say again, these folks are the backbone of america. they're the heart, the soul, the grit. that's what patriotism is about. i've probably -- i've just never been as disappointed in my whole career with a leader that i've worked with, president or

otherwise, that if the article is true, and it appears to be based on the things he said, it is absolutely damnable. it is a disgrace. >> on a somewhat related topic, what would you say to the supporters of the qanon, the people who believe in that conspiracy, what they think is true about america, that there's sex trafficking and conspiracy against president trump, and what would you say to president trump for not rejecting that conspiracy and the people who believe in it? >> i've been a big supporter of mental health. i'd recommend the people who believe it should maybe take advantage while it still exists in the affordable care act. it's bizarre. total bizarre. and now have you guys found that plain load of people in uniforms

and weapons and flying around? have you found them yet? by the way, i respect conservative and liberal points of view in the press. anybody found that plane? what in god's name are we doing? look at how it makes us look around the world. it's mortifying. it's embarrassing, and it's dangerous. it's dangerous. if the president doesn't know better, which he has to know better, then my lord we're in much more trouble than i ever thought we were. it's bizarre. you know, this is a case where, you know, i've been surprised, pleased but surprised with folks i've had political arguments with like the former governor of michigan coming out to endorse me. all the republicans are

endorsing me. they are where i am, that this can't go on, it cannot go on. it's the deconstruction of a democratic system. they know it. so i just -- i'll conclude with what you heard me say many times before. the words of a president matter. even a lousy president. it gives encouragement to people who are spouting irrational views that no one has even close to presuming or showing ever existed. it's done for a simple reason. from the very beginning he's understood the only way he can win the first time and can win this time is he fundamentally

divides the nation. puts the nation -- divides it so we're at each other's throats. that's not who we are. that's not who we are. >> thank you, sir. >> thank you, mr. vice president. last night president trump mocked you for wearing a mask and said that this is a sign that you must have some, quote, big issues. he says this even though he knows that according to scientists and public health officials wearing masks saves lives. i wonder if you worry that this kind of language that comes from the president of the united states could deter some americans who are tuning in to him to not wear masks? >> well, it's a big issue. i'm a smart fella.

i listen to scientists. this is not a game. life and death, life and death, reports that we're going to have, some reports, there's another 100,000 dead, as many as 100,000 dead, more by the end of the year. i don't -- i don't get it. i mean i just -- anyway, it's hard to respond to something so idiotic. >> okay. before my send question just quickly, have you been tested now for covid-19? >> yes, i have. >> how many times? >> i've been tested once with the deep test and i'm going to continue to be testing on a regular basis. >> could i just ask quickly about attorney general william barr saying on cnn this week, he said that his assessment right now is that china poses the most aggressive threat to u.s.

elections even more than iran or russia. do you believe him? is that also your understanding based on the intelligence briefings that you have received? >> no, it's not consistent with the briefings i have received. he's a lousy enough attorney general, but he's a really bad intelligence officer. >> it's not consistent because you believe -- >> because i believe what i've been told. and you all know it. i mean, look, you even have -- it's like facebook taking some -- look, it's just -- there are a lot of countries around the world that i think would be happy to see our elections destabilized. but the one who's working the hardest, most consistently and never has let up is russia. again, it's unfair to say to you guys, but ask yourself the rhetorical question. what is he so afraid of vladimir

putin about? i mean what's the problem? i mean nothing, nothing, it's almost obsequious. anyway, i -- i just want to make it clear, i believe any country that engages in any activity to delegitimatize or impact american elections is a direct violation of our sovereignty. if i am president of the united states, there will be a response. >> thank you. >> sir, it's been a couple weeks now since you announced senator harris as your running mate. we haven't seen her out very

much, including yesterday in kenosha. why is that, and what role do you see her playing? >> she's been on the road. she's out herself. the role is that just like when barack and i campaigned, we try to cover as much territory as we could. both of us out campaigning. she is an incredibly competent candidate. she is doing a great job. there will be times when we're together, but there's a lot of territory to cover. i talk with her almost every day. i speak with her, we work together and i have great confidence in her. there's nothing about not campaigning together, it's about being able to cover more territory. >> and just as a second question, do you know when you will have another covid test? do you have any planned, any future testing? >> well, what they're doing, they're going to do it on a regular basis because everyone on my service detail and people who have come in to the house with me, they all are tested, so i'm just -- yes, sir, show up

and put my head back when they tell me. >> you don't know when it will be, the next one? >> pardon me? >> i imagine it will be sometime this week, i don't know, but on a regular basis. >> thank you. >> thank you, sir. he asked you about another thing the president said last night. he once again suggested to his supporters that they should consider voting twice if they're in one of those states that can allow you to request an absentee ballot. fill that out and then go try voting again in person. state officials have said it's a felony in some cases. just curious what you make of it. >> it is. it is a felony. a felony here in the state of delaware. look, how many times does this president have to suggest things and say things where you all just don't write "he's a fraud."

not being -- not an opinion. he wanted to -- maybe we should delay the election. maybe we should, you know, write-in ballots are fraudulent, not a single bit of evidence. i mean it just is -- and i think it's all designed to create so much chaos that no matter what the outcome of the election is, that it's thrown up in the air. that must be his reason, because i mean he says and does things that no other president that i'm aware of in american history has ever done. and we all go, well, there's another ridiculous, illegal, inappropriate thing he said. but he says so many of them, it doesn't matter. i mean it is -- it's just -- it just undermines the legitimacy

of our democratic process, and it's dangerous. >> you said today is the angriest you've been as a presidential candidate. but you said you're trying to restrain yourself. there are a lot of people out there who are supporting you who are inclined to not vote for the president who would say why isn't joe biden angrier about all of this. >> because presidents of the united states should be presidential and should lead by example as well as make clear exactly where they stand. getting down in the gutter like the president does, saying things that i'd be inclined if we were behind a barn somewhere, it would be a different thing. but that's not the job of a president. the job of a president is to set an example. my anger is real because i must tell you, i carry, and i

deliberately didn't bring it with me today. the delaware national guard had a pin made up that's a gold star that was made up for my son, beau, who didn't die in the field. and i always carry it with me. and i didn't carry it today because i was worried that if i focused too much on it, that i would engage in some of the kind of language the president has used. i mean but i just think it is sick, it is deplorable, it is so unamerican, it is so unpatriotic. and then watching him this morning while i was shaving with the tv on, talking about he never said anything like that.

he honored john mccain. he's the reason why flags are flown at half mast. oh, wasn't that noble of him. he's the same guy that when the ship went into harbor he made the uss mccain was covered and you couldn't see it. he's the same guy that denigrated john. he's the same guy who did a similar thing the way he talked about george h.w. bush who was shot down in the pacific. i mean -- but he just stands there. it's almost pathological. i've never said anything like that. no one's been better to the military. i -- i just got to focus on what has to be done, not what he did. what i do from here, what gets done from here. >> thank you, sir. >> thank you, mr. vice

president. if i could follow up on ed's question about voting. we know the president has been attacking mail-in voting. we know russia has been trying to sow doubt about the system. are you concerned that this messaging may be working, that your supporters may give up on voting by mail because they're concerned that it may be rigged? >> yes, i am. that's why i try not to talk about it so much because we're playing -- the more we talk about it -- there's two things he wants us to talk about. is the election legitimate, and the whole country is up in flames. everything is burning. law and order. because he doesn't want to talk about anything, anything at all about the job he hasn't done. and so it is, it's a conundrum. there's a lot we could talk about in terms of the specifics that russia is doing and not doing. but when you do, all it does is

undermine what people think. what i don't want to have happen, i don't want people reaching the point where you can understand sometimes it's not worth voting. you know, it seems to me that one of the things that i keep trying to say to people is go to iwillvote.com. figure out iwillvote.com and figure out where you can vote, how you can vote, what's available to you, where you can vote early, where you can vote in person, where it's going to be safe for you, et cetera. plan now. plan now. but the more chaos that is sewn here, it's going to disincline people to show up. and in a sense every time i speak about it, i feel like i'm playing his game. i mean is that -- not that you agree with me, does that make sense what i'm saying? so i think that's all part of the deal.

>> thank you, mr. vice president. going back to the jobless report from this morning, you had acknowledged that less than half of the 22 million jobs that were lost this spring because of the pandemic have been recovered. what do you think the 1.4 million added back in august says about just the general direction of the economy? >> i think any job added back is positive. i think it matters to the people who got that job back. maybe you all were raised in households like i was where a mom or dad was losing a job because of the economy, what's going on in your community. you could feel the tension and unease in the household, just everything. worrying about whether you can

provide for your family. along the way, also look at the people who you've got a couple million people out there, close to, who are part-time workers who still can't make it, but are listed as employed. and a lot of them also are in the process of wondering whether or not -- i mean there are a lot of people lined up in food lines. they're the people, many of them, who have lost their health care. their health care provided by their employer. they're the same people that are out there worrying if this president is able to win in court and wipe out the entire affordable care act and all the 100 million people with pre-existing conditions won't be able to get insurance even if they had the money. i mean it's just the anxiety is enormous, is enormous. and look, i'm not being

solicitous. among the brightest people i've dealt with my whole career have been the press. not a joke. you all are extremely educated, you're well read, you have significant backgrounds, and the vast majority try to report the news, not just opinion. but, i can't believe that you don't feel the same -- not democrat, republican, okay? you don't feel the same anxiety because you've got a brother or a sister, a mother or a father, a son or a daughter who's going through what you're not, what we're not. we have jobs. well, i don't have a job now, but we have jobs. and so it's a real concern. and i just think that this has

moved beyond democrat/republican. i think it's moved to trying to put this country back together again so we can move. >> if i may ask, president trump has just announced a kosovo and serbia deal -- he has just announced an economic deal between serbia and kosovo. part of that deal is kosovo and israel having diplomatic normalization. you have stated that you support a two-state solution in the middle east. would you support more muslim majority countries normalizing relations with israel even though it may mean that the palestinians will lose leverage in their fight towards a

two-state solution? >> well, first of all, i'm not -- i don't know what the deal is you're referring to, okay. what i have argued relative to serbia and kosovo is that kosovo should be an independent country, not a part of serbia. i spent a lot of time there, and so i don't know how -- i assume that would reinforce that independence, but i don't know based on what's being said. i think normalization of relations among countries is by and large in almost every instance a good thing, to have a muslim majority country normalizing relations with israel in a generic sense seems positive to me but i have to know the detail of what's happening, what's going on. and i don't know that.

and it may -- you may be right that that would cause the palestinians to lose leverage in a decision on a two-state solution. >> do you support more countries recognizing israel? >> i do, absolutely i do. i do. and i think that's the thing, recognizing israel as an independent jewish state. i think that's important. but also i believe that israel has to be prepared to work toward a genuine two-state solution. thank you all very much. >> thank you, mr. vice president. >> well, joe biden in a very biden way eviscerated the president today in a way that we hadn't heard him do. and it really didn't matter the topic, but he really went deep at questioning the president's clearly character, what he believes are the president's character flaws when it comes to being commander in chief, but also really questioning the

president's patriotism and also essentially saying that some of his tactics are just outright unamerican. but it was in the collective probably and, yes, in a very biden way, may have been low key, it's not as loud as president trump, but boy, this was a -- i think a brutal takedown of president trump in a way that we had not seen joe biden do it before. in just a moment i'll be joined on the phone by nbc news political reporter ali vitali who was in the room in wilmington, delaware, where biden just finished up this press conference. with us is kelly o'donnell who was with president trump and michael cruz. kelly, let me start with you. like i said, you've covered joe biden a long time. it was a very biden way of doing it, expressing a lot of disappointment. but boy, i found him going after the president in ways i hadn't heard him do. i mean this "atlantic" article in particular really had him fired up. >> very much so. and it was interesting to see

how biden was also trying to suggest that he would not lose control of himself, wanting to define the terms of the posture and demeanor of what a president should be as he views it. to not let his anger and fury just blow, even though he might have been tempted to do so, but in a more simmering and visceral way talking about this as the father of a service member, as someone who serving as vice president and senator for so many years interacted with the military and very much so as a personal friend of john mccain. so you've got that sense of it. and the president today who said he would not apologize, no need to apologize for those remarks, joe biden saying an apology is in order. so the other thing is the vice president was very careful to say if these statements are true and then during the question and answer saying he believes they're true, so he did that cautious piece to say this is reporting, this is unnamed sources with a lot of credibility to it.

again, the careful biden, and then a more gut check joe biden saying he believes the president likely said these things and should be condemned for doing so. so it really does stand out. i have a feeling, chuck, that in what is a chaotic and lengthy campaign, this day will be one of those markers in telling part of the narrative of this campaign both for joe biden and president trump in having to deal with this issue. military issues are often important in campaigns, they are certainly surfacing this time and the character issue is what's playing out today. >> that's for sure. kelly, look, you were there in normandy for that -- for those events and there was some consternation that we seemed to identify in our coverage. what do you recall from that trip? >> so here is the issue. the president was in paris for a weekend of events commemorating the 100th anniversary of world

war i. there were a number of events. the one where he missed the cemetery visit was something for his delegation, not all the other world leaders, and he was to fly and be there for the events and fly back. there was weather and they determined they couldn't take the helicopter. then it became how do you get the president of the united states there. whether you're in the u.s. and certainly overseas, a presidential motorcade is usually the shortest possible distance because there are a lot of security risks in dealing with protecting the motorcade, getting the motorcade out if there were a problem. and you're in a foreign country where he's very friendly with that president, president macron, and to lock down for a period of four hours the roadways around paris for the president was a decision that had to be made. now, you can always argue a president can get wherever he needs to and the resources will be there, but there were issues that created a decision and they decided to send john kelly, then the chief of staff, and then

joint chiefs of staff chairman general dunford to go in the president's place. the president was asked about it at the time, said he wished he could have gone but was told he couldn't go by the secret service. gets a little more complicated than that. so that's the transportation issue. what has surfaced now and makes this an interesting and damaging story is there's a new layer of reporting that along the decision-making process whether to go to that event or not, whether to be out-of-pocket for a period of hours, did the president say these things attributed to him in the reporting from "the atlantic" first and now a.p. and "washington post" that he called service members losers. that he didn't understand why he needed to go, because he would be in essence honoring people who were killed in the line of duty. it seems so hard to comprehend that a commander in chief would say this, and that's why it's so potent now. so the issue of whether there was a helicopter visibility issue or not is really separate. that's in the background now.

the question is how did the president talk about this amongst his advisors at the time. also remember that was a november trip. we came back to the united states and veterans day was coming up. the president did not go to arlington national cemetery as most presidents do on that particular day. a week or so later he was interviewed and acknowledged that was a mistake, thaert he should have gone. so there is a mixed picture on the president's track record with veterans. he likes to talk about the things that he's done in terms of beefing up the military and salaries and concern for veterans affairs, but there is also a record of questionable comments and judgment calls about the president's relationship with service members, p.o.w.s and so forth. >> kelly o'donnell at the white house, kelly, thanks very much. let me check in with ali vitali who was in the room there with joe biden. ali, at the top here i was noting that in a very biden way, he went after donald trump probably more harshly than we've

heard from him in quite some time. >> more harshly than we've heard from him. chuck, i'm still in the gym where biden spoke. being in the room you could really feel the mood shift in here. we knew he was going to talk about the reporting in "the atlantic" and what the president said but you could feel his anger, it was palpable in this room, verbally lashing the president for allegedly calling dead soldiers losers and suckers. he did this as both a former vice president but also as a man whose son served in the military. he then pointed out while these comments are just reported, he pointed to things trump had said, openly disparaging, for example, the late senator john mccain. biden also took several questions on this saying he's never been so disappointed in his whole career, making really emotional appeals about this and asking reporters rhetorically how would you feel if you had a kid overseas or was a gold star parent. he was restrained trying not to

get in the mud with trump but still giving a forceful response at the same time, saying he's never been angrier as a candidate. chuck, this speech was billed, we should remember, as economic remarks, which it was -- >> right. >> -- but clearly there was anger over the issue with trump is what became the focal point of it. >> yeah. ali vitali who was in the room, i'm glad you shared that moment because it certainly felt that way watching. but having the firsthand account there very helpful. michael cruz, the president, loser, sucker, this is a -- these are two of his -- two of his most commonly used words and he's used them for decades. this is not something new. and there is a general definition, isn't there, to when he decides to use these terms. you're one of our trump whisperers. what do you make of "the

atlantic" piece? >> the question of whether or not he could have said these things is a question that has asked and answered over and over again many times by him. he has said things like this before, again and again. the most famous one, the one that people remember, of course, is what he said about john mccain in the summer of 2015 shortly after he started running for president. what lots of people don't remember is that that wasn't even the first time he said something very similar about john mccain. the first time was 15 years before to dan rather. fast forward to the summer of 2016 when he attacks kizr khan, the gold star father who lost his son in the iraq war, these

are things he has said. so as you point out when we hear suckers, losers, these telltale trademark trump words, we can argue the sourcing of the piece "the atlantic" but it sure sounds like president trump. >> and that's his biggest problem with this story and perhaps why they have made -- for donald trump, and i'm curious of this, michael. think about all of the controversies donald trump has created in his life. all of the ones that you've researched over the years. how often have you heard him try to deny something as quickly and as vociferously as he has on this one. it is unusual to see him desperately try to -- no, no, no, no, no, no, i didn't say it and even try to remake -- he remakes history all the time. but usually he stands by his bully stuff. >> a familiar playbook that we've seen.

yes, volume turned up, quicker in a way getting off the plane last night and saying what he said and how he said it. but we've all heard these denials and deflections before. it is unhappy staffers. it is the fake news. this is not anplaybook. i want to say something, though, chuck, about the remarks that biden just gave. what made them unusual to me, he tied together the story of today, which is "the atlantic" story and the story of certainly the year, perhaps our time, with the pandemic, and also the story of trump, which when you get right down to it is what's in it for me? the inability or unwillingness over the course of his entire life to think beyond what's in it for me is what's on display front and center in this "atlantic" piece. certainly not the first time it's been on display, but here

you could see biden knit together these threads. it is not unrelated, this "atlantic" story, to the coronavirus response of trump and his administration. the what's in it for me and what's in it for me right now, the most present person many of us have ever met. what do i need to survive and win the moment? and the coronavirus ruined what at that point earlier this year was looking like a pretty decent pathway to re-election. >> i have to say, michael, i think that is exactly what i was trying to get at with what i thought of the vice president today. and i think that's an excellent observation, and to think that he did it very nimbly, he did it sort of as you could see on the fly, but clearly this is how he's thinking about this campaign, and you could see the cohesion in that message there. anyway, it was actually, you know, he's not always the most

rhetorical campaigner all the time, but you could see that was a very nimble move by joe biden. michael, thank you, sir, as always, from politico. >> let me turn quickly to the economy. as you recall, that was the premise of joe biden's speech. with me now are a couple economists i love to check in with, jared bernstein, of course, who was joe biden's chief economic adviser for some time, douglas holtz aiken, a former chief economist during the bush administration. guys, we're a little short of time. i want to get at the nuts and bolts of this jobs report. jared, i'll start with you. unployment rate below 9%. that was a mild surprise, was it not? >> yeah, it was an upside surprise. a good number to see. i think one of the concerns that we're seeing now, this may have been underreported, is that we're seeing a shift from temporary unemployment, people on layoffs, to permanent unemployment. those shares have actually flipped in a very strong way. we're also seeing an increase in people being stuck on the unemployment rolls for 15 weeks

longer. so great to see the unployment rate coming down. the pace of job gains has slowed, and it looks like we're kind of moving from temporary to permanent layoffs and longer term unemployment. that's the downside. all of this occurring in the absence of enhanced unemployment benefits which is very problematic. >> right. douglas holtz-eakin, there was another report that said census jobs may have inflated the number. could we see an uptick again in a couple months? is this going to be artificially too big of a drop that maybe where we were headed? >> oh, i think on the whole, this is a good report. it's progress. it doesn't get us out of the hole. it was an enormously deep hole, and we're still about halfway out, but if you look at this report from stem to stern, it's a good report. one of the things in it that i was pleased about was that pay rolls, total payments to workers, the hours they worked, how many workers you had, were growing at an annual rate of about 20%. the private sector is generating

income. there is no recovery without the private sector generating income. that was a real bright spot in this report for me. >> okay. >> can i make a comment to that? >> go ahead. >> that was an interesting finding. one thing that we found when we got into the details a little bit is that there's a split between who's getting that labor income and who isn't. and those in the top half were much more likely to hold their jobs, are far more likely to be claiming that labor income. it really does have that that you talk the president talk about. >> just to echo that, jared is exactly right. if you're a highway worker, the recession is over. if you're not, you're still in it. >> and i was just going to say, what should -- you know, there's a whole bunch of layoffs that were announced in the last couple of months, certainly some airline layoffs that are coming, and i'm wondering when will we see that reflected in this, is it the next report? i think some of these kick in,

is it the september or october jobs report we should be looking to see how the overall picture absorbs those layoffs? jared, let me start with you. >> sure. you always have these cross currents. so these payroll gains, they're called net gains. they're net of what's coming in and what's going out. and some of what you're talking about will show up in future months, so i guess my prediction would be that the slower pace of job gains that we have seen in july and august, a real deceleration in the rate of jobs growing, we're positive, filling up a hole, but that hole is still 11 million jobs short, 11.5. i do think that slower pace will persist. and again, i consider that problematic and related to the failure to control the virus that biden is talking about. >> doug, you want to chime in on that? >> yeah, i think we will see this in every future report. jared is right about it being net job growth. when we had 18 million temporary

unemployments in the month of april, the real question was, could we come back quickly enough that they were only temporary and didn't turn into permanent. the answer, i thought at the time, was going to be no. it would be a long slog out. it's turning out it is no. some of these are permanent losses. now comes the hard work of finding new places in the economy for those who have lost their job in a leisure and hospitality sector in places that are deeply affected by the virus. that's a tough job, something congress and the administration should be focused on right now. >> well said. >> jared bernstein, douglas holtz-eakin, economists from both sides of the aisle, but you deal in facts and figures. i really appreciate you coming on. >> i have to say i have kind of been missing doug lately. which is a very weird thing. >> i used to see him all the time in the studio. >> i'll do my best to give you monthly reunions on zoom. these zoom reunions, doug. there you go. >> all right, guys.

much appreciated. >> i have to get the nbc election music playing here. because believe it or not, if it's friday, somebody is voting somewhere. that somewhere is the general election. it's officially under way. people are voting. the first 2020 general election ballots got into the mail today. and it's happening in a swing state. north carolina. more than 600,000 voters there have already requested absentee ballots. that's 17 times the number of requests they received at this time in 2016, and it's happening after the president's repeatedly encouraged people in north carolina and elsewhere to vote twice if they vote by mail. did it again last night in pennsylvania. josh lederman, my nbc news colleague is in raleigh. he's talked to election officials today as they prepare to send out the ballots. we're trying to build the excitement. voting is happening. september 4th. >> that's right. all records already being shattered here, chuck, as far as mail ballots being requested. and i gotta say, i expected that election officials here would be

doing a little bit more hand wringing than they are. they said they knew this was coming because of the pandemic. they're quite prepared for it. i talked to the director of elections here in wake county, home to raleigh. he said even the post office concerns he's not worried about. he knows they're going to be able to handle it. what really is rattling officials here, chuck, is these comments from the president about mailing votes twice. we have heard election officials not wanting to get into a back and forth with the president. they don't want to mention his name, but they did put something on the website, a big banner in bright orange saying double voting is illegal. saying you don't need to do what the president is suggesting just to make sure that your vote gets counted. there's actually three ways here in north carolina to verify that your mail-in vote was counted. none of them involve just showing up at the polls and attempting to cast a second vote. and that's, chuck, where you can track your mail-in ballot. you can make sure it was counted. that's kind of the latest wrinkle here.

as far as the volume of mail applications that we're seeing, we watched as they were preparing those ballots in the warehouse just behind me, all the election workers very spaced out, all of them wearing masks. getting those ballots ready ahead of time in the envelopes, on to trucks, on big palettes that are frankly taller than i am, so they would be ready to go out today. the first ballots are going out to overseas military members who need extra time to make sure their ballots get returned. from all signs so far, they're on track to be able to get all these ballots out as they need to do. >> well, and north carolina also can process their absentee ballots before election day, allowing them to count them on election day. north carolina is the first state to vote, and what if it's the first swing state we get to call? we shall see. josh lederman on the ground for us in raleigh. thanks very much. speaking of voting, this sunday we'll be kicking off nbc's vote watch week with a special edition of "meet the press" as we count dune to an

election unlike any in our lifetime. we'll focus on voter comugz, concerns about misinformation, and more. don't miss it. by the way, don't forget to plan your vote. you can get that at nbcnews.com. thank you for being here with us this hour. i hope you have an enjoyable and safe labor day weekend. please keep covid in mind. msnbc coverage with geoff bennett continues next. >> chuck, thanks for that. i'm geoff bennett in for katy tur. it's 11:00 a.m. out west and 2:00 p.m. in the east, where once again the white house is playing defense over an explosive report about president trump. this time, for comments the president allegedly made belittling and insulting u.s. service members. including those killed in battle. the atlantic is out with a new report which asserts that the president referred to a cemetery where american service members were laid to rest,