as this economic comeback in history has a perspective from a former deputy secretary of labor on this is. what the politicking on larry king president trump recently said he's launched the fast as economic comeback in history let's examine that and the current state of the a company with chris lou the former deputy secretary of labor in the obama administration he also served as a former white house cabinet secretary for president obama he is in arlington virginia thanks for joining us always good to see it chris good to see you ok do you buy that as president trump launched the fast is good moment come back in history well larry it's important to put this in context during the 2 worst months of this and demick and we should qualify we're still in it right now the u.s.

economy lost about 20000000 jobs we certainly brought a lot of those jobs back but we're not out of the woods at all just last week alone over 2000000 additional americans apply for unemployment insurance a total of $33000000.00 people are on unemployment right now those are huge huge numbers since the u.s. the numbers have come back up but there's every reason right now to think that this economy is stalling as we see states around the country beginning to pause or even roll back the reopening of california this week just announced that they're going to start closing in our restaurants and bars and gents and so we have all we have ourselves in a very big all right now and it's going to take us a long time to come out of this. a lot of people have cherished hopes of a so-called v. shaped economy bouncing back what is that. well what it means is that we got ourselves into a deep hole and as the president thinks we will be like a rocket ship and go straight up the challenge is we are not going to have a v.

shaped recovery economic recovery as long as we have a v. shape in coated cases and that's exactly what's happening right now whether you look at aces or deaths or hospitalisation things are clearly getting worse at this point right now as this fire spreads across the west and south and the important thing to understand is that the u.s. economy relies on confidence it's confidence among businesses and workers and customers and no one is feeling particularly kind at right now as we continue to struggle with this outbreak that this really horrible virus and so it till we get the public health crisis under control we're really not going to have a sustainable economic recovery. well as the president looking at this with rose colored glasses well i think it's the usual way that he looks at the economy which is he understands the importance of the economy to his re-election he prior to the

pandemic continued to praise himself for creating the greatest economy in history that certainly was not the case it was not the race is economy ever and certainly he had something to do with it but he did not have everything to do with it so he owns both the ups and he owns the downsides out of me but you know what we're going to see when we get the 2nd quarter g.d.p. numbers we're going to see a drop that we have not seen you know well ever this will exceed what we saw lightly during the great depression and so this economy is really struggling right now. as part of the care's ag out of work americans have been getting an extra $600.00 a week in on top of their regular jobless benefits the program expires the end of this month nancy pelosi said to just be extended shit. i think it should i said we have 33000000 people in this country receiving some kind of unemployment benefit

these are people who have to make mortgages or pay rent or buy groceries buy gas through their cars and that's a $100.00 makes a big difference now i know there's a big debate about whether it's too much or not but let's also understand that the unemployment benefits in many states is it greets you sleep low in arizona it's $240.00 a week florida that's $275.00 a week both of those are well below the minimum wage the federal minimum wage and so look there needs to be some additional enhancement because the truth is when unemployed people get that money they're pumping it back into the economy they're buying groceries as they said they're paying for the rent and that's good for the economy and it's good for those unemployed workers. are you optimistic go pessimistic. i think in look i think in the short term i am pessimistic because it frankly doesn't feel like we have this virus under control and as i said until we get it under control the economy doesn't really recover long term obviously am

optimistic i mean the u.s. economy is still the most resilient economy in the world that we have gone through recessions and depressions and made it through you know i worked for president obama during the great recession and until where we are right now that was the greatest downturn we have had and do a lot of hard work a lot of policies we got ourselves back out of that but you know we should expect this app anomic downturn to last the rest of this year and much of next year at the very least. present drum build says the country has no choice but to get kids back to school is that feasible that it look i think we all want kids to go back to school we understand that they learn best when they're in a classroom with a teacher but we also can't let politics take priority over public health and right now the trumpet ministration and the department of education have not laid out

a plan for how that is going to happen nor has congress provided the funding to school districts to either purchase p.-p. east or to put up barriers between students or to separate them create out for classrooms all of that cost money so yes in the abstract we all want we all want kids to go back to school but there needs to be a plan for that and right now there just doesn't seem to be one. president drum said as the phase 2 drill phase to deal with china is not under way or under consideration because relations are so damaged usually any recovery united states and china. will look the president you know has had this kind of schizophrenia relationship with china you know early in his an assertion he thought his own personal goodwill with president xi of china could get concessions from china a when that was not possible we engage in that trade or of our way too many farmers and manufacturers in this country we caught

a phase one deal that you know essentially brought us back to before we got in the trade war and punted a lot of the really hard decisions up into later that's the face too so it's not surprising the president in his effort to blame china for what's happening in the united states endemic is now taking phase 2 off the table but the truth is even before that pandemic it wasn't clear that phase 2 was ever going to happen it shews in the conflict between the united states on trade issues are far too intractable at this point. china going to be a big election issue. ino look the president wants to make it a bit election issue i'm not sure fundamentally it will be you know i think vice president biden has a 45 year record of dealing with china he understands the complexity of their relationship and that there are times where we partner with china and there are there are times when china is an adversary of yours it's a complex relationship i don't think this is

a place that the president wants down in terms of his campaign strategy because i'm not sure it necessarily helps him in any way to you is biden the clear favorite. i think at this point in the race you would have to say he is the clear favorite obviously the president is a formidable opponent and he has a large war chest that he's willing to spend. as we have seen he's willing to do literally anything to win the election but look at this point i think what is troubling for his reelection is the erosion of support that he has seen among a lot of cheap groups up both suburban women among independents even among his core base of of white males without a college education he started to see an erosion of support and i think most troubling really for him is the erosion of support among senior citizens who i think are really troubled by his handling of the coke in 1000 prices and that's

going to hurt him in places like florida and arizona. what do you make of the rick good turn over in his cabinet a senior level. well look i mean this is something we saw from really day one of this administration this is a president who proudly proclaim that only i can solve these problems and so he hasn't really valued. people not only among his white house pet but in his cabinet who are willing to say no to him or willing to disagree with him and that's a problem and we have seen the consequences of that during this pandemic you know stability experience in government matter and we take it for granted intil we don't have that and we have seen over the last 4 to 5 months really a failed government approach obviously a lot of that has blamed on what's happening at the white house but it's really kind of the top of court nation the lack of responsiveness within the federal agencies chris what do you make of the commutation of the sentence of roger stone.

well i think it's really troubling i mean let's let's not forget this is a convicted felon. who was convicted of obstruction of justice witness tampering lying to congress and what was he lying about he was lying about the campaign's a willingness and desire to seek information and assistance from the russian government from wiki leaks and he chose not to cooperate in the investigation both by mr moller as well as congress in order to protect the president so look you know pardons are problematic are certainly by this president have been problematic but when you commute the sentence of somebody who essentially cover up for you and took the fall for you that's deeply troubling outlook obviously the president has that power under the u.s. constitution up but he's really engaging in very very dangerous behavior that i think under minds the rule of law. what's it going to take the trouble to turn that

around or is he up against it. look i think at this point in terms of the election there's the lection will be a referendum on donald trump. counting on the economy picking up and it probably will pick up a little bit and i think that's one of the reasons why he's trying to force schools reopened because you understand if schools can fully reopen then people can go back to work but you can't will will away a public health crisis you can't will a economic recovery you need to put hard work into this and unfortunately what we've seen from this president over the last 3 and a half years is a premium on rhetoric and rosy scenarios instead of really doing the hard work of governing i mean when he was faced with not only the pandemic but off the racial justice protests if he had handled piece like a responsible leader hubie cruising towards reelection right now and i think what

the american people have seen is a failure of leadership in a moment of crisis look anything to turn around as they sent us a formidable opponent but he clearly is the underdog right now. chris as always thanks for your time today great thank you. more politicking right after this. the persuasion of the tick-tock users is pretty high because they have a huge mass right so it's about vamps right and so work together and make them create incredible structures because they're told the coordinated and so the tick tock ants in this case are have the ability to fake change election the outcome of . the world is driven by shaped by.

no dares thinks. we are here to ask. my team. no shots. actually. know its own. points your thirst for action.

welcome back to politicking we now continue the conversation with alex volo previously served as chief counsel senate majority leader bill frist and former general counsel for the national republican senatorial committee and a very happy birthday to you alex oh thank you larry pre-shared. let's get into it over the weekend donald trump commuted the sentence of roger stone has caused an uproar in some circles what do you make of that mo. so a couple of things a lot spend made about this and other commutations or pardons your potential pardons from president trump. any time a president commutes or pardons the sentence of someone that he knows or has a relationship with politically or otherwise he gets attention i did a little digging just to see from a scale perspective i think the president has commuted or pardoned $36.00 people

dust far that's pretty low by any modern standard. i think obama was 1500 or so bill clinton was close to 2000 people and remember and i don't mean to pick on them because i actually my own constitutional view of presidential power in this regard is quite broad but i don't recall quite this level of uproar when president clinton pardoned roger clinton his brother or rocking koski who he certainly had a political relationship with so this kind of exercise of presidential power feels pretty. pretty normal to me notwithstanding the all the attention. well basically stalin was convicted of of law for the president. that's correct and that is certainly one of the reasons that it's getting the attention in criticism that it has but again. the constitutional power

of a president in this regard is not limited to those. divorced or separated from himself there has been open debate over whether president compartment selves but other than that that authorities pretty broad what do you make of the uproar over william barnett justice department officials quitting lot of people saying that he's just a lapdog for the president. there's no doubt that trying to be attorney general in this environment is a challenge it's interesting a lot of the same voices even from the other side of the aisle were quite pleased when gen barr came in because they knew him from his past service and really viewed him as a nonpolitical not withstanding these are obviously political point appointment but viewed him as a straight shooter and as an institutionalist and i don't think anything is done is

really inconsistent with that i think that the nature of the debate right now whether it's round policies or people is such that being the attorney general at this point in time there's almost no way for him it was kate that i think he's shown strong independence and it's been a really good job late last month the senate confirmed a doll drums 200 nominee to a lifetime seen on the federal bench well the fast tracking of consumer judges be trump's biggest legacy. well lifetime judicial appointments generally are all president's biggest legacies there's no doubt that the president and people around him understood from the beginning of his presidency one of the most impactful things he could do. far exceed in his own time in office is those judicial slots and frankly. a lot of the slowdown in recent years

came to a halt with some senate rules changes and a lot of people on the other side even ones who were frustrated at president obama's inability to get his folks in were concerned at the time that some day when they weren't in power this would allow for much more rapid processing and leader mcconnell made no secret of the fact that he intended to move as many qualified judges as he could and he has done so the vacancy list which used to be in the hundreds is now effectively gone so there's no doubt it was a priority there's no doubt that it is one of those ways that this president like all presidents if they if they choose to do so really can impact policy for a long time and whether those are district court slots or others they will indeed impact the environment for a long time as of who's president. being honest about how do you know right trumps chances for a 2nd term. a couple of thoughts on on how that's going i know there's lots of talk

now that polling it advantages the vice president is going up against president trump in november. 2 things i think are true one the electorate is exceedingly volatile right now if 3 or 4 months ago we had had a conversation about all the things that would transpire between then and now i think you would have thought we were nuts and i think a lot will probably happen although hopefully less dramatic between now and november if the economy is on a good path and cove it seems like it is reasonably under control i think the president's chances are quite good again the president still even with all these challenges polls higher than vice president biden on the key metric of handling the economy and some say the president is acting as if this endemic is hurting him. and there is certainly

a personalization of the presidency that that this president engages in that's very different than others before him and in many ways may not serve him well as a messaging matter a lot of people will say that even non lard is in voters' will say they wish they'd heard more we and a little less from this president i think that's true with coburn as well where the president again personalizes things that are that are really national issues and he'd be better served to frame it in a broader context so he was late to the fence and call that what me. so the answer is we don't really know certainly you look back now not only at the things president said but that lots of people said and we all thought about where this was going to go. you can criticize those many people criticized him for

shutting down travel with china when he did it because they felt it wasn't warranted i don't know if there is a right way to respond to affect the way an unprecedented event he finally wore a mask over the past week and frankly shouldn't he have led the country when everyone else is telling it oh well mass shouldn't the president well i'm asked absolutely i was glad to see that he wore one and i think it's a silly issue for him or for any leader alternately. to fight back on it's clear from the health experts and from talking to ordinary americans this should not be a political issue about his trade war with china house as he went on a losing. so i think the answer is he's winning if the test is putting pressure on china alternately to change their policies he is the 1st

president in modern history to be willing to actually have that fight lots of rhetoric on this but the president and mr navarro and others. bob light eyes are at the u.s. t.r. have aggressively push that fight in a way that puts a tremendous amount of pressure on china frankly it's what helped us get to the phase one trade deal we have there has been some pain inflicted on us consumers and u.s. businesses as well but certainly the hope is that in the longer term it actually gives us an opportunity to address some of these issues that everybody agrees need to be addressed between us and china. you already have support from the farmers who basically helped elect trump you think they already know how this trade deal that they might go by. i think what they are concerned about is they don't want to see china use some of its ability to slow down or slow walk some of the phase one

promised agricultural. purchases in a way that has a political impact i think the president otherwise feels pretty comfortable given the pain that farmers had to endure with his response and his efforts to help but again a lot of it depends on at this point china continuing and following through on their phase one agreement for ag purchases alison you concerned about the republicans will in taming the senate. if the polling continues to go badly for the president there is no doubt it can have a negative impact on some of the state races as well. that doesn't mean that i think places like texas or senate races in places like kentucky are actually in play i think you're going to have a huge turnout mobilization effort from both sides in a presidential generally speaking the president the person who wins that is going to have some coattails whether those are massive or small i think

a lot of people still regardless of how they feel about the president understand that it's important to have divided government in is the election a referendum on trump and that. it is at the end of the day and each time you're an incumbent and you're running for reelection it is theoretically about you what's fascinating is given the issues that we're now talking about pandemics and race relations and a whole lot of other things that frankly now that this is a binary choice between trump and biden it brings in biden to the equation and it allows for a much more of a comparison between biden's record and performance on the president's record and performance there will still be ultimately a referendum on donald trump but i think a lot of those issues in the fights that we're having right now many of those would be uncomfortable for biden because they're not really where he has been for the last 50 years as a leader and as

a politician you live in virginia what did you make of some statues coming down. honestly it it's very jarring. not just here in virginia but around the country i certainly understand the anger that swelled out of the murder of george floyd and a lot of those issues it has now gotten to the point though if you want to talk about having statues removed in richmond or san francisco where i grew up wherever that should be a process we don't live in a country where you should go out and throw ropes around things and drag them down in the middle of a riot that's not that's not a way to do that i also think some of it frankly has just become rank destructive behavior when you're pulling down the christopher columbus statue when you're pulling down ulysses s. grant for example in san francisco it's clear this is not about symbols of slavery

so while i think the anger and the urgency is completely legitimate i do wish people would follow a process to have that conversation because otherwise not only doesn't it further the debate it's just a chaotic removal of history and almost by definition no one feels good about that and finally how you doing during the pandemic. we're doing well i have 6 kids and frankly the biggest challenge was navigating them through the school process only to find themselves in a summer with no camps or other things but. i feel really fortunate that we're all happy and healthy alex always great talking to you and thank you for your time thanks larry talks in. thank you audience for joining me on this edition of politicking remember you can join the conversation on my facebook page or tweet me

at kings things and don't forget to use the politicking hash tag that's all for this edition of politicking. my youngins in my view. about what members of us a bit. more about. what when and what in the fact that both of them are. seen that are going to begin but i'm before. him by the. by the imam obama.

we are segregated only by social class lower middle class people also in poverty by 1st. if you're born into a poor family if you're born into a minority family if you're born into a family that only has a single parent that really constrains your life chances people die on average 15 years younger than you born into generational poverty. the fight every day so you meet your needs and the needs of your family. seem wrong oh why don't you. just don't hold. any old belief yet to shape out disdain to become educated and in gain strength because betrayal.

when so many find themselves worlds apart we choose to look for common ground. during the vietnam war u.s. forces to neighboring laos it was a secret war. and for years the american people did not know. until now so much that is officially the most heavily bombed country per capita in appalling human history millions of unexploded bombs still in danger lives in this small agricultural country jordan i remember going to concerts happen and then even today kids in los full victims of bombs dropped decades ago is the u.s. making amends for the tragedy in los built to the people needed in that little land of mines.

hello there i'm a military man you're watching in question broadcasting from our to america's national news headquarters in washington d.c. here today's top story breaking news as we come on air go lane maxwell the longtime associate of accused sex trafficker jeffrey epstein now pleading not guilty in her trial now that that take place will get the latest from our very own john harvey plus extracting a well out of water russia now conducting a massive project based a one 3rd the country dominant in the arctic region and last but not least the u.s. has just carried out its pursed federal execution in 17 years we'll dive into the political implications of this.