we're not sure if he's going to take questions. sometimes he holds a news conference which is essentially him speaking and no opportunity for questions. on the jobs and economy front, a person close to the campaign was just telling me to expect there to be more focus on this, a little less on the crime and safety message, because when you look at the big dump of poll numbers we've gotten the last week, the president hasn't really picked up much ground on the area of crime and safety, where the economy, while he still has a little bit of edge, if any, at least he's running neck and neck with biden on that front. the other thing that is unusual, i will note, about this press conference, it's being held on the white house north portico. that is the steps in the north entrance where you see the president greet dignitaries, or you see it during the inauguration, or the transition of power. the last time we saw the president there is when he walked out of the north portico of his brother's funeral where the casket was coming down the stairs. this is an unusual place to be holding a press conference logistically. it's not set up with lighting

and cameras, so we'll see what the president has in store by holding it at this location. >> you were speaking with veterans in lancaster in the last hour. what did he have to say? >> alicia, from the north portico to a backyard, the former vice president about 45 minutes from here. we were expecting to see him in a union hall behind me to talk to workers across the state, but he began with a small backyard conversation, a lot of folks spending this labor day with friends and family in their backyard, joe biden doing the same. he tried to seize one of the issues that has been the few in donald trump's column, which is the economy. biden talking with these union workers about his own economic plans, while criticizing president trump saying while boasting about the trade deals he's signed, he's actually seen the trade deals grow with our country across the world. he also traced everything back

to the pandemic. let's take listen to a part of that conversation. >> he has just sort of waved the white flag on dealing with covid, and all he wants to do is just reopen. but the wave of reopening is causing us to shut down. look what's happening with schools right now. if you have kids, trying to get them back in school right now, it's pretty tough. >> reporter: now, all those in the backyard there with joe biden are union workers, but they're also veterans. of course, "the atlantic" piece over the weekend the biden campaign is trying to seize on, and you heard him asking each of those veterans, did any of you feel like suckers? expect to continue to hear more of that messaging from the biden campaign as we continue along the ways. >> julia, the president has been tweeting for days about the economy. talk to us about who is going

back to work and which sectors are still struggling. >> reporter: there is still struggle across the board, because if you take a look at august, it's a step in the right direction. it also shows the ways we have to go here. the pace of hiring, and this is something that may end up concerning the white house, is slowing down markedly. we're not seeing the return to pre-coronavirus employment that we once saw. there is still a major gap, millions of jobs that have not been recovered. you also have 8.4% unemployment. it's a great step in the right direction, but it's still nearly three times what it was pre-covid. you take a look at the polling data out there, too, you see the number one issue overwhelmingly for voters out there is the economy. a lot of people are looking at this economic crisis, they're looking at their unemployment checks, which, by the way, on average are just over $300 now that the stimulus package has expired from more than a month ago, right? so people are struggling to make

ends meet. what you're starting to see on the underbelly of our economy now is a growing crisis when it comes to hunger, an eviction crisis starting to grow. eviction notices are now being held and put into place and people are being evicted from their homes. so while the numbers are certainly moving in the right direction, we do have a long ways to go here. you do see big sectors like retail continuing to improve, but also hurting major bankruptcies all across the country when it comes to some of those big names. a lot of companies reassessing, including the airlines, how they're going to be able to continue and cutting jobs. american airlines, united airlines cutting jobs by the thousands as that stimulus package, the cares act, has now expired. you do have the president issuing an executive order saying, look, i'm going to provide some supplemental unemployment for people out there to get that money into their bank accounts, but because of the way that's being deployed, it's very difficult for all states to implement that

in a universal way, so you have an uneven economy right now with the poorest and many people of color disproportionately hit very, very hard, and the prospect doesn't look to be much brighter by the end of the year. >> donna, i want to underscore a number of things that jo ling just reported there. hunger, evictions, minority communities being hardest hit both by this pandemic and by the economic fallout from that. if you are the biden and harris campaign, how do you begin messaging to that reality? >> it's really important, particularly for joe biden, to really contrast how he's part -- he was part of an obama/biden administration that actually brought the economy back from the brink of a deep recession and created jobs, turning that over to president trump. and, you know, what we haven't seen, and i think the contrast

is going to be really important for the biden campaign to make, is we actually haven't seen president trump create a new economy coming out of this depth of despair. and i think any next coronavirus relief package really has to take into consideration what's being described in the underbelly of the economy where people at the lower end of the economic sector are not recovering their jobs and they're singing deeper into crisis. you can't just have a coronavirus relief package that only deals with, you know, getting people over the hump to get to the next job, because so many other things are going on in their lives and in their personal economy, and i think joe biden and kamala harris have an opportunity in the communities that they're touching to be able to highlight these issues. >> rick, you look at this swing state strategy, joe biden starting to take more trips outside of delaware and the

early focus on states hillary clinton couldn't hold, you're going to have president trump most likely talking soon about what he believes the economic reality is. does that message matter if it does not match the lived experience that people are having in these swing states? >> it depends what people believe in the expectations. i think donna is exactly right. joe biden needs to tell his own story how the economy from 2008, when it went into a deep recession, we call it the great recession, and they built back that economy. now, that economic recovery was on a trajectory, and that trajectory continued into the trump administration. we had 113 consecutive months of job creation. that means adding jobs month over month over month. most of those jobs were added during the obama administration. this is the economy that barack obama and joe biden built and that donald trump inherited and subsequently crashed. and that's the story that joe biden needs to tell the american people, because despite all the

issues about law enforcement and race relations, these are important issues. but the number one issue across democrats, republicans and independents remains for the plurality of people is the economy. and he cannot allow donald trump to continue to say, i had the greatest economy and i can do it again. he didn't do it, joe biden and barack obama did it, and he needs to tell that story and get that story out so the people understand that it's joe biden who can build back the economy, not donald trump. >> donna, we know the central message for the biden campaign is what they see as the president's failure to respond to the coronavirus in a way that could have saved more lives. how do they make sure that the emphasis stays on his response to the coronavirus and does not get pulled into a number of the other directions that you see the president would rather talk about? >> well, what you've seen is that both joe biden examiand ka

harris have been very, very disciplined in terms of their messaging. this coronavirus is not under control no matter what the president says. people understand in their day-to-day lives whether they've been able to go back to work or a family member or friend who has been affected by the virus. and i think as long as that focus stays on the president's incompetence in delivering on a plan to really get the economy going because you've got the coronavirus under control, these are messages that i think will resonate with people because it is their experience. and then i think it's really important because biden has actually closed the gap on the economy, to keep that focus about a plan to rebuild from where we are but to build it better for those who have been left out of today's economy. >> you know, rick, one of joe biden's central arguments during the primary was his ability to not only win but win by a margin

that would bring the senate back to democrats. how do you think those up for election are doing in holding up that majority? >> donald trump is rigging a strategy to keep the senate and win back the house. from everything i've seen, they're not going to win back the house now, and the senate is definitely in play, and people are beginning to really worry about donald trump's messaging. as you indicated earlier in the segment, the law enforcement message, which was the dominant theme of his -- and it was frankly a racist theme of his convention -- fell flat. he got no bump at it whatsoever. in fact, joe biden is beating donald trump in some states on the law enforcement issue. so the trump administration or the campaign has not found its footing so far in the campaign. i'm not sure they will, and as for surprises, i think we're beyond that point. i don't think america could be

surprised by anything coming out of this election cycle. >> the biden camp talked to j, harris, talked to jacob blake's family today in wisconsin. how critical do you think this is? >> this issue of racial justice, systemic oppression in this country have become a real motivator, a segment of the electorate for joe biden to turn out the numbers. how did joe biden win the democratic nomination? it was largely on the strength of african-american voters, but primarily older african-american voters. two things, the choice of kamala harris on the ticket and also the campaign's response to these issues, biden meeting with not just jacob blake's family on his trip to kenosha, speaking by

phone to jacob blake himself, and now kamala harris following up days later having similar conversations, really speaks to, i think, a part of the electorate. the trump campaign is not even trying to reach these voters. what was the sentiment of donald trump in 2016, what else do you have to lose? the biden campaign has been squarely focused on that, making clear what they have lost and what the biden campaign would hope to restore in a biden administration. >> when you listen to what mike said about the need to retain young african-american voters, what is the outreach to them all? >> i think one is speaking to the issues of concern to them. i think mike is right, part of the reason kamala harris is in milwaukee today, which is really important, is that young black voters are really concerned, as

my young son is, about going out on the street and having a police encounter that could go wrong. these are really important issues of reform. and i think, you know, asking them for their vote, which is really important. i mean, keep in mind that the margins in 2016 were so slim that increasing turnout by 20,000 voters in milwaukee could have been the difference between winning wisconsin and not. and i think the biden campaign is focused on messages that are going to drive those difficult-to reach, difficult to motivate voters, and kamala harris is the key to making it happen. >> we'll see where the race stands with two months to go. international correspondent steve kornacki is at the big board. steve, what do you see?

>> this is the national board, the polls two months out, and there's basically about a 7-point lead there nationally, biden over trump. that's pretty steady. that's about where we were a month ago. we've had major events in the last months, developments on the ground, but it's still about a 7-point lead there for joe biden. one thing to keep in mind, though, you remember in 2016 hillary clinton led twon the po vote by a couple points but president trump still won the electoral college. look at wisconsin, pennsylvania, michigan, those were narrow wins for trump, less than a point he won those states while losing the national popular vote. he won all these states while losing the national popular vote. if you see biden nationally right now, you can expect those swing states to be a little closer. this is the poll average in six states. all six of these states were trump states in 2016.

you have biden leads right now in all six of these states, but you see it's inside that 7-point national margin. that's one dynamic to remember here down the stretch in this race. whatever trump's lead it nationally, likely it's a tick or two closer in those swing states. what does that translate to what you're looking at right now when it comes to the road of 270. this is where things landed in 2016. the direct path for biden to the presidency, it is those three states i just mentioned, michigan, pennsylvania, wisconsin, all a fraction of a point, the margin there for trump in 2016. if biden flips pennsylvania, if he flips michigan, and if he flips wisconsin, and nothing else changes on this map, that alone gets biden to 278. so the first order of business for donald trump is to make sure he shores up one of these states, one of these three midwest states that he flipped in 2016. his campaign has talked an awful lot recently, and i know you've been talking about this, about

wisconsin. still the most recent polling we're seeing in wisconsin, though, shows him trailing there. he's got to find a way to win one of these. his campaign thinks wisconsin is their best bet. let's say he pulled that out. let's say he does find a way to get wisconsin. that will get him to 270. that will get trump to 270. that is the magic number. he can go no lower, really. he could get a 269 to 269 tie. we won't talk about that, but that puts him at the cusp of defeat and then you get into arizona, florida and north carolina. these are three other states we just showed you polling from, again where trump is trailing, and he gets one loss there. if he were to lose florida, that's a pretty solid biden win. if he were to lose north carolina, again, a pretty solid biden win. what you're seeing here basically for trump is there is some margin for error here. he could theoretically lose a couple states he won in 2016 and still find a way, but there is no margin of error beyond that.

if he's losing in pennsylvania, and if he's losing in michigan, he's got to win wisconsin, he's got to win all three of these states to have these states, arizona, florida, north carolina, no margin of error beyond that. this is a president running from behind in the final two months. it's on biden on offense in the electoral college, it's trump who is playing defense. >> nothing says election season quite like steve kornacki at the big board. steve, thanks. >> thanks. we're still waiting for president trump's news conference. and which state is emerging as a new covid hot spot as colleges work to maintain safe places for students. ain safe places for students.

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. as crowds pack beaches this holiday weekend despite warnings from health experts, here are the facts as we know them. the number of covid-19 infections in the u.s. has

surpassed 6.3 million. more than 190,000 americans have died. colleges are now a focal point of concern as students head back to school. over the weekend, new york university suspended more than 20 students for breaking coronavirus safety protocols just days after in-person classes began. san diego state university issued a stay-at-home order for infected students just after they confirmed student cases. in iowa, one of the seven states at risk of surging cases. state and local politicians are blamed for the uptick. vaughn joins me from iowa state university. vaughn, what are states saying are the cause? >> reporter: already 160 individuals on the iowa state

campus has tested positive for the coronavirus. two hours away is the university of iowa. there were 147 more students this weekend who tested positive there. when you look around the country, you're seeing college towns become hot spots. we're now in our third week here on campus at iowa state university, and the issue is trying to trace where these covid cases are coming from. right now, alicia, there are more than 800 individuals who are in quarantine here on campus, and i want to introduce you to one of them, blake mcgill, up there on the second floor of the -- which dorm are we in? what is your major? >> i'm an aerospace engineer. >> what day of quarantine? >> i'm on my fifth day of quarantine. >> there are a couple hundred of you in quarantine. what is a quarantine life like for a student right now? >> all classes are virtual, but

the university has done a good job of making that very accessible to us and smooth transition to that lifestyle. >> blake, would you tell me, what would be your message to the rest of the campus here. this is just the start of week number 4. >> yeah. so i think regardless of what you think about all the new policies and rules given the times we live in now, i think iowa state has done a great job of showing great leadership and pointing us in the right direction. i think if we want to keep this semester going the way it is, i think we just need to keep following all the directives regardless of what we think about them. >> thanks so much. how many more days do you have up there? >> i believe i have four more days. >> four more days. enjoy those four days and stay healthy. >> thank you. >> reporter: alicia, this is the reality on college campuses right now. in week one at iowa state, it was about 13%. week number 2, though, it jumped up to 28%. there is a lot at play, and university officials as well as

government officials, want to keep the school open, not only for educational purposes, but there is money at hand. finances. these universities need to be able to operate and that's why there is concern of the rising cases in this town, alicia. >> vaughn hillyard, i commend you for getting that information. thank you. i want to bring in the current vice president at the bloomberg department of health, dr. weinstein. even if the best controls are in place on college campuses, students can still do what they want. what is the utmost importance of protecting students from further spread and how can schools enforce those protocols? >> well, it's really important to explain to students what's at stake. it's not just their health, which it is, but it's people in the surrounding community and the ability to stay on campus

and finish out the term and do all the things they need to do academically. there is a lot at stake. i think colleges need to provide masks, provide hand sanitizer, give really good instructions, close down common areas that would be too tempting for people to get together, and treat the kids like adults but also with consequences. >> doctor, how vital is testing on campuses right now as cases spike versus changing behavior? at san diego state university which has issued a stay-at-home order for students on campus amid outbreak, the students on campus say testing once and testing alone is not enough. do you agree? >> it's really important to have testing available for anyone with symptoms and go in and test others who might have been exposed, like that student who was just interviewed. i think the most important thing, though, is for students to follow the safety protocols, because if they're not following them, testing doesn't matter. you'll just be picking it up. you'll find hundreds of cases

and have to shut down the campus. it's most important for students to follow the protocols and use testing to back that up by picking up the cases as quick as possible. >> understandably, universities and colleges are focused on the physical elements of this virus. at the same time, when you have students in isolation, when you are telling people that they cannot socialize, there is also a mental health component to this conversation. what type of support do colleges and universities need to be providing to address the needs of students? >> i'm really glad you asked that question, because it's really important. mental health on college campuses is important even when there isn't a pandemic. kids can be lonely, it can be their first time away from home for such an extended period. it's really important for there to be not only reassuring messages but access to counselors, ways for connection even for people in quarantine. this could be a greater health threat, in a way, for some of the kids, the impact of loneliness and potentially

depression than covid. >> doctor, we just heard from nbc's vaughn hillyard. he's on a campus where mask wearing still has not bienemaeen been mandated. do you think policies could be the biggest threat here? yes, there's what's happening on campus but there's also what's happening in these states at large. >> in a crisis like this, the messaging is really important. it's not just a commentary on what's going on -- >> dr. sharfstein, i'm sorry to interrupt you, but president trump is beginning his remarks. take a listen. >> they're telling us what they're doing and we really celebrate the american worker. we are in the midst of the fastest economic recovery in u.s. history, so we have a lot to be thankful for, including this really beautiful day. that's why i thought we would do this outside as opposed to in your more normal place.

the united states experienced the smallest contraction of any major western nation, you probably know that. you look around and see how we're doing compared to every other nation, and our rise is spectacular and we're rebounding much more quickly from the pandemic. the u.s. economy added 1.4 million jobs last month. we've added a record-setting 10.6 million jobs since may, 10.6 million jobs since may. that's a record that is not even close. second place is a long ways away. in july the congressional budget office was projecting unemployment over 10.5% through the end of 2020. so they thought 2020, and maybe it would be a lot longer than that. some projections where you would go through the entire year, and that includes a lot of months in the following year, 2021.

instead the unemployment rate plunged, really, to the surprise of many, all the way down to 8.4% in august, and that's the second largest single month decline on record, and we have the first, we have both of them. so we have the two number one declines, decline meaning positive, not negative. we're currently witnessing the fastest labor market recovery from an economic crisis in history, world history. by contrast, biden presided over the worst, the weakest and the slowest economic recovery since the great depression. it was a long, slow slog and it was very small in growth and very small in every other factor you need. it was a slow recovery. my year next year will be the greatest economic recovery, i project, and some people agree

we have a v shape. it's probably a super v, and you see what's going on with the stock market where it's, in certain cases, already setting record. the nasdaq has set 17 records already, and this is as we're hopefully rounding the final turn in the pandemic. first we'll end the pandemic under operation warp speed. we're finding groundbreaking therapies reducing the fatality rate. 85% since april. you don't hear that from the press very often. they don't like to talk about that. so the fatality rate, 85%. think of that, since april. the united states has experienced among the lowest case fatality rates among any major country in the world, and we are an absolute leader in every way. under my leadership, we'll produce a vaccine in record time. biden and his very liberal running mate, the most liberal

person in congress, by the way, is not a competent person, in my opinion, would destroy this country and would destroy this economy, she had immediately apologized for the reckless anti-vaccine rhetoric that they are talking right now, talking about endangering lives, and it undermines science, and what's happening is all of a sudden you'll have this incredible vaccine, and because of that fake rhetoric -- it's a political rhetoric, that's all it is, just for politics, because now they see we've done an incredible job and in speed like no one has ever seen before. this could have taken two or three years, and instead it's going to be done in a very short period of time. could even have it during the month of october. so contrary to all of the lies, the vaccine -- they'll say anything, and it's so dangerous for our country what they say,

but the vaccine will be very safe and very effective and it will be delivered very soon. you could have a very big surprise coming up. i'm sure you'll be very happy. the people of the world will be happy. next we'll return to unprecedented prosperity through our pro-american policies. we'll pass new tax cuts to boost take-home pay. we're going to be cutting taxes very substantially. we get it back through growth. we had tremendous growth until we got hit with the china virus. we'll continue our historic regulatory reduction campaign. as you know, in three and a half years, we've cut more regulations than any other administration, no matter how long, no matter what period of time you're talking about. we'll enact fair trade deals, and we're working on seven major fair trade deals right now. and when i say fair, fair to our country, because our country is ripped off by every nation. friend, foe, it didn't matter,

every nation was ripping us off at a level that it's just unbelievable, to be honest. we're going to be expanding opportunity zones, and we will keep that going. it's been a tremendous program. i want to thank senator scott of south carolina for coming up with that whole concept, because he came up with it and i liked it right away, and it's really turned out to be a tremendous thing, especially for african-americans, hispanic americans. we'll continue to unleash american energy. we're number one in the world. and we're totally energy independent right now, and in 2021 we'll create 10 million jobs at least in the first ten months. joe biden, the radical socialist democrats would immediately collapse the economy. if they got in, they would collapse t. you'it. you'll have a crash the likes you've never seen before, the

stocks, the 401(k)s. it's the people that own these nationalistic company. rich people and middle income people, and those stocks will crash like you've never seen before. the biden campaign will start with a $4 million tax hike. there won't be growth, there will be total contraction. biden has also pledged to demolish the u.s. energy industry and implement the same policies causing blackouts in california. he wants to have things lit up with wind. he'll have to talk to china, russia, india, lots of other countries, because they're not doing that, and if they're not doing it, it puts us at a tremendous economic disadvantage and it doesn't work. you take a look at the blackouts in california. it's really rather amazing what's going on there. and that's just with a small portion going that route. that doesn't work and it can't fire up our big plants. we're going to have this great industry that we've created.

can't fire up our big plants. biden's plan for the china virus is to shut down the entire u.s. economy. he's going to totally rely on someone to walk up, yes, sir, it's time to shut down. he would be laying off tens of thousands of workers and cause countless deaths from suicide, depression, and other serious illnesses. >> let's bring back to our panel mike memoli and tech correspondent jo ling kent with a reality check on the economy. i'm also joined by democratic congresswoman donna edwards and rick tyler, author of the new book "still right." talk to us about the picture the president is painting there of the economy versus what americans are now living through. >> alicia, i want to fact check the president's claims on the economy, because i think he's

talking about some pretty critical things that you should better understand what the real deal is here. first of all, when he opened his remarks there, he just said it's the fastest recovery ever. if you take a look at the numbers, you do see a very rapid recovery back in may and june when about 7.5 million jobs were added back to the economy, but the rate of job growth since then has slowed down, especially back in august. so he's touting the august jobs report, but when you look closer, yes, 1.4 million new jobs added to the economy is a step in the right direction, but you see the slowing down of hiring, which could become very problematic for a lot of people who are trying to re-enter the economy, signalling that maybe we're looking at a major restructuring. the other thing president trump just said is that he thinks it will be a super v recovery, basically a bounce-back here, and he's citing records on the stock market. if you take a look, again, the growth of jobs continues to slow down, and most experts do not

believe that we're in a v recovery. in fact, a lot of economists i've been speaking to what lean both left and lean right are fearful of a double dip recession and a coronavirus recession turning into a more traditional recession, which is harder to dig yourself out of. now, the last thing the president said that really jumped out to me here is that this recovery could have taken only -- could have taken two to three years, but because of what president trump said he has done, it will be a very short time of recovery. however, if you hear from jay powell, his federal reserve chairman, he's already saying earlier this year that this recovery could take until the end of 2021. so people in his own administration is a poippointed the president, of course, is saying it will take a lot longer. if you look at the banks, jp morgan also saying this recovery will take at best until the end of next year. he's making some claims based on

the august jobs report and based on some old data that don't necessarily hold water when you look at that full picture, alicia. >> mike memoli, in addition to the way he was describing the economy, you also have him trying to create a contrast with former vice president joe biden. talk about the recovery that former vice president biden oversaw along with former president barack obama. >> reporter: yeah, alicia, i'm so struck as we're now fully engaged in a campaign after months in which the pandemic really obscured the kind of day-to-day campaigning we would typically have at this point. the real volley we're seeing back and forth between trump and biden really shows the battle this will be fought on. you saw president trump fight back with a law and order blistering speech in which he

called barack obama dividing this country. now he has shifted back to the economy, and he talked about all the work he did as vice president with the recovery act. he said this economy is something trump inherited from the obama administration, that they took office at the time of a deep recession and then established the longest trend of private sector job growth in american history. as he often says, just like everything president trump hasn't herd, he squandered that with a good economy. we already saw joe biden in the backyard, really mocking the

president saying he needs to get out of the sand traps on the golf course and get a solution to the pandemic so the country can reopen its economy and reopen it safely, alicia. >> let's talk about what the president said there about a potential coronavirus vaccine, f of course, emphasizing that he would like to see that by the end of october. when you have people in his administration saying there will not be widespread distribution, what do you see with this press conference? >> the white house has been trying to play up the president's response to the coronavirus in any way they can, because his poll numbers are so bad. if they are not able to shift the focus of the election to things like crime or the economy and that coronavirus remains what this election is decided on, they know they need to get his numbers up there. the vaccine is the one area they can point to where they feel the president may have some success or some -- a leg to stand on. the president just said there

that something could potentially happen even in october. anthony fauci was just asked about this last week as the president has dangled this out there. again, he said the end of the year. october was not a timeline that he was looking at. so unless there has been some development that we don't know about with the vaccine or the data or the trial, nobody other than the president is saying we could have a vaccine in october. it's clearly, though, him trying to push back against comments that kamala harris made raising questions about the vaccine, but mike might be able to talk to this more than i can. but it looks like biden has also just been addressing this issue of the vaccine and saying essentially that he would take a vaccine. so contradicting what kamala harris said. so i think that does appear to be a new story line we're going to see over the next 24 to 48 hours is the vaccine and where it stands and what role it's going to play in this election. >> julie, i know you want to

jump back in with a fact check on the economy. >> what president trump said was the economy is doing very well, even for those people who have means and those who don't, but a lot of americans actually invest in the stock market right now, and what you see is some volatility when it comes to looking ahead to the election, especially when the president has threatened what he may think of the results that come out of this general election. so looking at this, you do see some momentum in the economy. certainly good news for investors there, but you certainly have an increasing gulf between the haves and have nots, and when you look at gdp, american productivity, right, that continues to be problematic in the eyes of major banks saying we're not going to see a recovery to pre-covid levels until the end of next year. so i think it's important to point that out, when he talks about the stock market, the stock market is not the economy. >> for thoefz yse of you at hom

we're waiting to see if the president is going to take questions. he's currently replaying some of his greatest hits on ukraine, on china. donna, i want to go to you because we've heard a new line of attack on senator kamala harris, calling her the most liberal member of congress, also saying she wants to destroy america and the economy. your response? >> well, i mean, he also said -- the president also said that she's incompetent, and so i think it's really startling, first of all, that a president of the united states is running against a potential vice president of the united states, but, in fact, those things that he's saying about kamala harris are not really true. i mean, it is true that she shares the views of a lot of american public when it comes to issues around health care and jobs and the economy and around criminal justice reform, and i think that because trump has lost the ability to really

attack joe biden, he's tried all of these attacks against joe biden and they haven't worked, and so now he's throwing something up in the air against kamala harris. but i think he's going to find that kamala harris is, you know, a really tough one to attack and that she will fight back. i don't look at it as anything other than the president looking for another hook to try to attack this ticket, because thus far nothing that he has used is beginning to stick against joe biden. >> rick, we've seen the president speak out against the economy, and it's included conversation around energy, ukraine, china. i wonder what you make of the fact that there is a variety of issues that the president is currently working his way through at that podium. >> well, the president was told

by biden's campaign team that law and order is the way to go, that you could scare america into voting for donald trump. that obviously didn't work, so now they're trying to come up with a new issue, and they know the economy is strong. he's gracefully on the portico of the white house smearing the biden campaign and making things up. if everything he said would be true, people would become very, very wealthy by shorting the market with economic collapse, but the fact of the matter is the collapse has occurred under donald trump. yes, we had 1.4 million jobs regrowth last month, but we would have needed 6 million jobs last month, next month and the month after that just to get close to breaking even to where we were before. but here's what's really going on. not only does he know he's losing, polls are so solidified this early, 75% of voters have

made up their mind. they know there are very few undecided voters left, so the only thing left to do is scorched earth. that means two things, voter suppression and going negative. going negative usually makes voter suppression, anyway, but i think there are a lot of people enthusiastic about voting, not necessarily for biden but against donald trump, so he knows he's got to put a dent in joe biden by scaring people. that's all this is about. but that's why i say joe biden has got to tell a story that when he gets back in office, he will have to do what he did before with barack obama, and that's regaining a collapse economy under the previous administration. >> the panel is sticking around. we're monitoring the president's comments. if he takes questions, we'll take you back there. plus the president and his allies begin to push back against allegations that he disparaged troops. this as his poll numbers are slipping. you're watching msnbc. slipping you're watching msnbc.

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and it doesn't just drag hr down. it drags the entire business down -- with inefficiency, errors and waste. it's ridiculous. so ridiculous. with paycom, employees enter and manage their own data in a single, easy to use software. visit paycom.com, and schedule your demo today. he has asked a reporter to take off his mask saying i don't understand you with that mask on opinion i believe he's now talk about the late senator john mccain. let's take a listen. >> have to agree with him. i didn't agree with lihim on a t of things. the story is a hoax written by a guy who has got a tremendously bad history. the magazine itself, which i don't read, but i hear it's just totally anti-trump. he's a big obama person.

he's a big clinton person. he made up the story. it's totally made up. i was happy to see zach fuentes came out. i think that's unusual number 1. everybody that was there knew what happened. i was happy to see that zach came out and said it's not true. it's a disgrace. who would say a thing like that. there's nobody that has more respect for not only our military but for people that gave their lives in the military. i think john kelly knows that. i think he knows that from me. zach fuentes who worked for john. i think they both know that. zach came out as you note today, last night and said strongly he didn't hear anything like that. even john bolton said that was

untrue. what was true is that we had the worst weather, i think it was as bad a rain as i've ever seen. it was a fog you literally couldn't see. i walked out. i didn't need somebody to tell me. i walked out. i said there's no way we can take helicopters in this. i understand helicopters well. they said that's been cancelled. they would have had to go through a very, very busy section during the day of paris. they would have had to go through the city. the paris police were asking us please don't do it because they're not ready. when you do that, you need a lot of time. they take days and days and days to prepare for that. i wanted to do it very badly. i was willing to sit in car for two hour, three hours, four hours. i didn't care. i didn't matter. i had nothing else to do. i wints there for that. i had nothing else to do. it was ended because of the terrible weather.

nobody was prepared to go through in terms of paris, police, the military. they said we can't allow you to make this trip. it was a phony story just like the fake dossier. just like the russia collusion. there will be more phony stories. i do appreciate zach coming out. zach is the 15th person that's denied it. >> thank you for holding the briefing. >> thank you. >> we're seeing judges in detroit limit police ability to to use non-lethal police.

should police be allowed to use non-lethal force? >> the toughness, these are democrat run cities, all. there's no retribution. they stand there. they throw things at the people that are supposed to be protecting something and nothing happens. they throw rocks. they throw cans of soup. they threw losts of hard objects. rarely does anything happen. i've told, when we have the federal in there, as you know i told the u.s. marshals to get the man who killed another man and they know who it was and you have to arrest him. you have to arrest him after two and a half days, they didn't arrest him. the u.s. marshals went in and it ended up being gunfight and the man was killed. this is man that had a bad record and a man that killed man in the street. i witnessed it. most people witnessed it.

the u.s. marshals went in. they weren't playing games. they can't play games. if somebody is breaking the law, there's got to be a form of retribution. i watched so often, when i watch the areas we're talking about. now we have rochester. that's democrat government, democrat mayor. all democrats and it always will be. i was with the governor of texas, he looked at me and said i can't imagine how they allow this to happen. it's different. it's different. i could talk about other governors saying the same thing. go ahead. >> i'd like to follow up. we're hearing reports of groups like black lives matter leaving their home cities to riot and protest in other cities where they are causing damage. do we expect to see prosecutions or charges from the department of justice for those traveling. >> we have over a thousand people, federal, in jail. we're prosecuting many people. a big thing is when i signed the law putting people in jail.

if you knock down monuments. that was three months ago. there hasn't been a federal monument knocked down in three months. i don't think they have thought about it. that's had a very big impact. very big impact. we're going around and the nice part is you people take nice pictures of everybody. we can use the news photos. we had a photo right over there of andrew jackson, the monument, he was getting ready. the guy was up like this and showing off to his friends. he got arrested. so did a lot of other people get arrested. i would say we have the ultimate proof. in that case we got there before they ripped down the statue of andrew jackson, which is so beautiful, which is right over there. they never got it. right after that, signed an order saying you go do prison for ten years. as soon as i sign that order, that was the end of the statues coming down. they have other ideas. they have plenty of ideas. they're not at want for ideas.

go ahead. >> david spot from fox news, mr. president. thank you for taking my question. you talked a lot about the economy and touted the economy. three weeks ago i asked you why you have not called democratic leadership to the white house to meet with them. if they don't want to meet, it's on them. a lot of people are krit sidie i -- criticizing you. why have you not met with them in person? we're in september. there's no deal. fl there's no hope of a deal. >> don't say there's no hope. what do you know? what do you know? >> i know my customers. that's what i do. i know pelosi. i know schumer well. they don't want the make a deal.

i don't think they have a lot of respect for the american people. i know who i'm dealing with. i don't need to meet with them to be turned down. if they make a deal that's good for the economy and good for me for the election november 3rd. therefor, they're not going to make a deal. now, if we gave the store away, if we bailed out all of their democrat run city, we give them a trillion dollars which is the money they want. they want a trillion tlars to ba -- dollars to bail out badly run cities whether it's new york or others, they want to bail them out. we're seeing we're not going to pay that price in order to bail the city out. we'll do something to help cities but that will have to rest. why didn't you do this at the beginning? they could have done it at the gip i beginning. i know who i'm dealing with. i'm on the phone with mnuchin

and meadowmeadows. i know when it's time to meet with people. i've done well with deals. that's what i do. i know when it's time to meet. i don't have to meet them in order to be turned down in order for them to watch out to the sticks, microphones. they don't want to make a deal. they think if the country does as badly as possible, even though a lot of people are being hurt, that's good for the democrats. david, that's a bad thing. go ahead. >> shouldn't you take the high road, sir? >> i am taking the high road. i'm taking the high road by not seeing them. that's the high road. if i thought it made a difference, i'd do it in a minute. go ahead. >> david jackson, usa today. my question is about the durham report which you have talked about. you said let's see what happens. you've accused people of committing crimes against you during the russia investigation. >> sure. they spied on my campaign. if they were democrats they

would have been in jail two years ago. they would have been in jail two years ago for 50 year terms for treason. >> do you want the justice department to indict people over this? >> i don't know if it was a good thing, smart thing. nobody can complain about it. i have every right to have been very much involved. maybe some day i'll get involved in it. they spied on my campaign. that includes biden and obama. they spied on my campaign trying to defeat me. they wrote up a fake dossier that has proven to be totally fake written by christopher steel. they used that illegally in the fisa courts. if we did what they did, you would have many people in jail now. you have other than the one agent that admitted his guilt that he forged documents, we don't have that yet.