we begin with peter alexander. >> reporter: tonight help wanted just when america was expected the ushern a fall season of new hires, instead u.s. job growth dropped to its slowest pace of the year with a recent spike of the delta variant and an ongoing shortage of workers holding the economy back president biden tonight insisting it is a snapshot from nearly a month ago when the covid case count was much higher >> since then, we have seen the daily cases fall by more than one-third and they're continuing to trend down. we're continuing to make progress. >> reporter: the economy in september adding 194,000 jobs a disappointing figure for a second straight month. unemployment dropping below 5% for the first time since before the pandemic with more people giving up looking for work republicans blame president biden's policies one key leader saying if this were a football team with this losing record, the coach would be searching for a new job. kaitlyn was laid off at the height of the pandemic since then she's applied for nearly 300 jobs but can only find in person work. when she feels saf

lester >> peter alexander at the white house. thank you. >>> sadly, school shootings are never far from mind, and today horror played out once again, this time in arlington, texas. at least four people, students and adults, were injured after a classroom fight turned to gunfire and then an intense manhunt. officials immediately declaring this was not a random act of violence our sam brock is there. >> reporter: from above, the picture of horror at a texas high school officers running across school grounds with long guns as students barricaded inside classrooms. >> it was just, like, bam, bam, bam, and there were three shots. i feel like i'm going to have to go to school fearing that i'm going to get shot. >> reporter: the calls coming into arlington police around 9:15 in the morning, immediately sparking concerns of an active shooter. tonight, 18-year-old timothy simpkins is in police custody after turning himself in, but not before an hours' long manhunt ensued. >> it is not a random act of violence. this is not somebody attacki

peter alexander is at the vatican. >> reporter: for president biden, a day of devotion and diplomacy. america's second ever roman catholic president having a private audience with pope francis, with whom he's built a personal bond, giving him a ceremonial commander coin and a compliment. >> you are the most significant warrior for peace i have ever met. >> reporter: president biden was later asked whether the issue of abortion came up >> no, it didn't we talked about the fact he was happy i was a good catholic. >> reporter: that has been a source of controversy with some u.s. bishops recently arguing catholic politicians who support abortion rights, including the president, should be denied communion just last month, pope francis called abortion homicide, but he's never denied anyone communion in the vatican statement, it made no mention of the highly contentious topic. hours later, president biden looked to rebuild trust with america's oldest ally, meeting with french president emanuel macron for the first time since france recalled their ambassador from washington, furious the u.s.

lester >> peter alexander at the white house, thank you. >>> in just 60 seconds, our reporter in south america where tens of thousands of migrants are gathering, perhaps soon heading for the u.s. border. >>> and the stunning backlog at america's ports. how it's impacting "the price you pay." >>> all right. we are back now with what could become the next major surge at the southern border. u.s. officials are concerned that tens of thousands of migrants amassing in colombia are set to make the dangerous journey to america. our gabe gutierrez is in colombia tonight. >> reporter: tonight, what was once a sleepy beach town has exploded into the latest choke point in a worsening immigration crisis here in necocli, colombia, there are now some 20,000 migrants, mostly haitian though there are some cubans and venezuelans. the only thing more striking than the tents lining the beaches are the mothers lining up with their children this woman who named her daughter hope is hoping to make it to the u.s. each day they cram together, passports in hand, in a desperate attempt to cross the bay. this is

lester >> peter alexander, thanks. >>> you heard the president talk about the clogged supply chain. in 60 seconds, i will take you inside the massive port of long beach, where i spoke to workers on the front lines. also the urgent warning about a room spray that may be linked to a deadly bacteria this mini majorette's gonna march her way right into your heart. -i'm sorry. can we stop? i know that we're selling car insurance here, but, you know, all the cute little animals, it's too much. define "too much." what's wrong with cute animals? -so are we doing this or what? -nah, it's over. [ sighs ] well, someone's got to break the news to mittens. [ squeaks softly ] she's a diva. [ mittens squeaking ] joint pain, swelling, tenderness. my psoriasis. cosentyx® works on all of this. cosentyx can help you look and feel better by treating the multiple symptoms of psoriatic arthritis. don't use if you're allergic to cosentyx. before starting, get checked for tuberculosis. an increased risk of infections—some serious— and the lowered ability to fight them may occur. tell your doctor about an i

peter alexander, thank you so much. george waggle, as always your insights so important to us. and francis clon, thanks for being with us today. >>> in the works, president biden leaving d.c. with a lot left over. the details of his legislative agenda still in process. how it's going to work out. we've got the experts coming up next. this is "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. this is "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. si ty, you can finish your degree faster, and for less money. transfer up to 90 college credits toward your bachelor's degree. - i was able to transfer a lot of my credits and it made it easier for me knowing that i don't have to start all over again. - definitely lowered the cost by being able to transfer those credits in. - [narrator] get more transfer credits, pay less tuition. now that's something to celebrate. apply free at snhu.edu this is... ♪ ♪ this is iowa. we just haven't been properly introduced. say hello to the place where rolling hills meets low bills. where our fields, inside and out, are always growing. and where the fun is just getting started.

peter alexander is in rome traveling with the president this morning. peter, good morning. >> good morning to you. president biden this morning spending nearly an hour and a half privately with pope pran ses. they discussed climate change, covid-19 and human rights. it's been almost 60 years since john f. kennedy was here. the president giving him a ceremonial coin. the pope gave pim volumes of papal documents and a signed message for peace. the president for this day putting on hold the lingering hesitation among some democrats about voting on his agenda at home. >> president biden wrap up a meeting with pope francis. >> thank you. >> the president appearing emotional presenting the pope with a commander counsel in memory of his son beau. >> i know my son would want me to give this to you. >> they clasped hands as commended the pope for his courage. >> you are the most significant warrior for peace i've ever met. >> after that personal visit, the president now turning to meetings with other world leaders without the political victory he has been hoping

joining us now is garrett haake, weekend today co-host peter alexander, ashley parker, and robert gibbs. garrett, starting with you on the hill. we heard from joe manchin today. what more can you tell us about where things stand on manchin watch? >> he would be the least of the problems right now. he continues to discuss what his red lines are or are not. and he put a little frame work around his top line spending number that might be useful for people to listen about. here he is talking about the scope of spending. >> i don't know for sure, we're all negotiating and in good faith i think you have to keep all options open. i think $1.5 is fair because we just did $1.9 and we did $2.1. >> there you hear a conservative democratic senator talking like a conservative about the money that will be spent here. but from our reporting today the bigger problem may not be the spending, it may be the revenue. i for the life of me cannot square the optimism that a deal come come together this week with so much unsettled about the so-called billionaire's tax that is yet to exist, or other almosts of

committee detailing the extremes then president trump allegedly went to to overturn the 2020 election peter alexander is at the white house. peter, it is the first time we are hearing some of these accounts. >> reporter: lester, that's right. this new report says that former president trump directly asked justice department officials nine times to investigate his baseless claims of mass voter fraud. one key moment, just days before the capitol riot, mr. trump from the oval office pressured the acting attorney general, jeffrey rosen and others, and discussed replacing rosen with someone who promised to pursue those election lies. mr. trump, the report says, only backed down after rosen, his deputy, even a top white house lawyer all threatened mass resignation. a house committee wants to learn more, but the former president's allies, lester, say they will not cooperate. >> peter, thank you. in just 60 seconds, did bullying play a role in the shooting in texas. what the suspect's family is saying >>> and 18 former nba players indicted in an alleged scheme worth millions >>> breaking news tonight in texa

we go to ali vitali and peter alexander ke white house.ising the debt ceiling just in time. what are members there doing to make sure we don't have yet another close call in six weeks or so? >> reporter: well, look, first, they were called back, we expect a vote later this afternoon. that will be not be a vote explicitly on raising the debt ceiling. it's what's called the pass. and time is of the essence here. what this does, though in the same way that the senate did last week, officially kick the can down the road here. there are some other estimates floating around here that maybe december 3rd isn't the exact date that the debt ceiling is hit again. nevertheless, if hit a few weeks later they could decouple the two that are happening simultaneously. because on december 3rd is the day government funding runs out. what we see is congress trying to deal with both problems at once in a larger compromise package. or try to take them piecemeal which is what we saw them try to do several weeks ago and deal with the crisis then the debt ceiling

. >> announcer: from nbc news, this is "today" with peter alexander, kristen welker, and dylan dreyer. >>> and welcome to "today," thank you so much for joining us on this saturday morning. we want to say a very hardty welcome to my friend, hallie jackson, who is here today, she is sitting in for peter this morning who is getting over a cold, fortunately it is not covid. >> nowhere else i'd rather be on a saturday than here with you. >> dylan is off this morning, on maternity leave. we'll catch up with her. >> i can't wait to see rusty and misty the other new baby. >> her new book, that will be in the 8:00 a.m. hour, we're excited about that. >>> we want to begin, we're going to talk about our top story, which is, of course, the ongoing debate around booster shots. we'll talk about, of course, what we talked about at the top, which is the shooting in houston. >>> but we begin with the fda advisory panel recommending anyone over the age of 18 who got the johnson & johnson vaccine should get a booster. in just a minute we'll talk to one of the doctors who serves on that panel. we want t

a crucial vote on that put on hold nbc's peter alexander at the white house for us it was a late night, peter, good morning. but no progress. >> that's exactly right. the democrats overnight dropped plans for that promise vote on a bipartisan bill as democratic leaders came up shy of a deal that would unite the feuding factions of the policy around a separate bigger policy plan. still house speaker nancy pelosi says they are making progress, but clearly they're not there yet. no deal this morning after late night negotiations on the hill failed to break a logjam between progressive and moderate democrats. the white house and democratic leaders from both the house and senate still trying to hammer out a compromise to make president biden's domestic agenda a reality despite the delay, house speaker nancy pelosi overnight expressing optimism. democrats still debating those two key proposals, a $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill and a larger plan that would invest trillions more into health care, education and climate programs one of the senate's key swing votes, moderate joe manch

. >> announcer: from nbc news, this is "today" with peter alexander, kristen welker and dylan dreyer. >>> and welcome to "today," thank you so much for joining us on this saturday morning. peter it's good to be with you. thinking about that william shatner story. at 90 years old, he would be the oldest person to go to space. i understand why he has a few jitters. >> think about that, he's 90 years old, which is hard to believe. but 90 or 19 this is no star ship enterprise. sounds like a journey coming up. >> it will be. we'll have fun with that later. >>> first we want to get to our top story this morning. that breaking news overnight, a federal appeals court reinstating that controversial and restrictive abortion law in texas. at least temporarily. nbc's monica alba is at the white house with more on what was a tough day for the biden administration, between abortion and also jobs, right, monica? good morning. >> reporter: good morning, that's right. the temporary ban on abortions in texas coming just one day after clinics there started to serve patients again. it's been a back and f

peter alexander joins us with more. good morning. wire for democrats. white house officials telling me they are keeping the door open for additional meetings with lawmakers and even a possible trip for the president to capitol hill before he heads overseas, literally 24 hours from now. for all the progress democrats have claimed, there are clearly two critical issues that remain unresolved. exactly what is in the final spending plan and how they're going to pay for it with democrats proposing the new set of taxes targeting corporations and billionaires. a ticking clock for president biden as he races to lockdown the most important deal of his presidency so far, ahead of a high profile foreign trip tomorrow. democrats still trying to look at the climate plan and social safety net, with a required minimum tax on corporations and the richest americans. breaking this morning, a new proposal to tax billionaires' assets. the plan could face constitutional hurdles. for weeks the president's proposals have been held up by crucial moderate de

i want to bring in peter alexander. i'm sure none of you got where do things stand on the hill. do we know even for sure if there is going to be a vote today. >> speaker pelosi continues to express a lot of optimism. she's saying she can get it done, but there's yet to be determined if it's going to happen today. this could be just another setback, but it's not failure just quite yet. house democrats are meeting as a family at 10:30 this morning. and there should be a lot of discussion about how to move forward. but what became clear after a lot of the meetings among different groups of house democrats last night is speaker pelosi just did not have the votes. there's someone to wait on the infrastructure bill until there's a lot more detail at least on this human multitrillion dollar human infrastructure bill. it was just extraordinary. there were more votes on waiting than people had anticipated. that was evident in a meeting for the congressional black caucus last night. and a meeting of the congressional progressive caucus. it was overwhelming support i'm told by my sources.

. >> peter alexander reporting for us. bring in nbc news senior capitol hill correspondent garrett haake. democrats seem to be receptive for the plan proposed by mitch mcconnell but it appears to just kick the can down the road by a couple of months where this massive question and the prospect of using reconciliation will be back on the table? >> yeah. make no mistake this was mitch mcconnell blinking a little bit allowing to are more time. earen if the deal comes together i think it will, it's a punt. moves the fight to december. mcconnell propose add two-part deal. get out of the way until december and then mcconnell says democrats will be expected to do all the heavy lifting through reconciliation at that time. democrats turned around and said, thanks for the first part of your offer. we'll go ahead and ignore the second part on the reconciliation piece. looks like we're going to have this entire fight all over again in december, with a slightly altered set of facts, altered timeline but could be potentially in a situat

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i want to bring in to discuss, nbc chief white house correspondent peter alexander, correspondent ali vitale, andly he's been talking to joe manchin and krysten sinema. >> reporter: 24 hours from the time they're going to vote on these proposals, they're still talking about the other one that is linked hand in hand with the bipartisan infrastructure bill. you and i have been using phrases like wealth tax. that's not one we're going to use today, because as you're saying, that's not what lawmakers are trying to do here. we're looking at two tax proposals that came out overnight. we're looking at a billionaire income tax which attaches both assets and income, and then we're also looking at a corporate minimum tax. they're going to touch roughly a thousand people or about 200 corporations across country. specifically on that billionaire income tax, you're looking at a billion or more in assets or 100 or more in income over three consecutive years. those are the people who would be taxed under that plan. we should say it's not necessarily clear that people like senator joe manchin whose o

. >> peter alexander starting us off with a beautiful view of uck todd is "meet the press". it's good to see you. you have a lot to talk about this morning. there's the president overseas, the legislation he hopes will get through soon. massive social spending and infrastructure bills sitting in front of the congress. democrats want to get them through. there's a huge election day coming up, namely virginia. and you have a new poll you're about to roll out. we'll let you do most of that. there was one number we wanted to highlight which was the wrong direction number. 71% of the people in your poll, americans, think this country is headed in the wrong direction. what's driving that? >> it's the economy that's driving it more than anything else. i think that is -- if you looked at everything about this poll, and it's a terrible poll for the president. let's not sugar coat it. it's not a good poll for the president or the democratic party. the only good news for democrats in there is the date it was conducted. and that it's one year from the midterms. it isn't now. it's not n.

i'll be joined by january 6th committee member congressman adam schiff, but first, let's go to peter alexander and ali va tally. you have the majority leader telling house members they're going to aim to vote on both the social spending bill and the infrastructure bill next week. the house speaker told reporters everybody is on the path in an agreement toward reconciliation. but senator manchin is saying an agreement isn't going to happen any time soon. give us a level set. there's lots of momentum and optimism. where are we really in this process? >> there is both all of the momentum and also none of the momentum to get this done on a truncated timeline. it's sort of the way it's been playing out over the course of the last few weeks. everyone agrees they would like to see a vote on the bipartisan infrastructure bill as soon as possible. the mechanism to get there has always been for progressives and the white house to move forward on this larger social spending package. it feels like in the last few days we've seen more progress on that. and it really was underscored last night when we saw t

i want to bring in nbc's chief white house correspondent peter alexander, and the one and only james carville, veteran democratic strategist. we talk a lot about the president's multitrillion dollars agenda, build back better, the soft infrastructure plan, but that does nothing for people struggling right this minute. give us the facts here, how is the president addressing the problems i just laid out? that's what people are talking about. >> you're exactly right. this is a pocketbook issue for millions of americans right now. we've heard about those supply chain bottlenecks, you might need to start your holiday shopping earlier this year so you're not out of luck. some of the country's biggest suppliers are trying to help clear that backlog as fast as they can. obviously the pandemic has had a major impact here. today the president is hosting business executives from all sorts of companies, fedex, u.p.s., target, walmart among them that have all agreed to increase their operations, especially overnight to help clear the congestion. one point on that specifically, i was speaking to t

. >> announcer: from nbc news, this is "today" with peter alexander, kristen welker, and dylan dreyer. >>> welcome to today. thapgs for joining us on this saturday morning. reunited and it feels good. a good old fashioned cold. >> nice to have you back, and you're back on a busy day. >>> we want to start with the top story, the details released last night revealing what happened when alec baldwin accidentally shot and killed the cinematographer killing the director on the set. new court documents. >> reporter: court records reveal that alec baldwin was told the gun was cold or without bullets or, in fact, the gun was loaded. the district attorney's office said it's unclear if charges will be filed in this case. but we're hearing from experts there's likely more than one person to blame for such a tragic accident. >> this morning horror and heartbreak. the film industry reeling from a tragic mistake. with more details from the tragic and deadly accident. alec baldwin seen in anguish thursday after firing a prop gun on the set of "rust" killing cinemaing to photographer, halyna hutchins

. >> announcer: from nbc news, this is "today" with peter alexander, kristen welker, and dylan dreyer. >>> welcome to "today." thanks for joining us on this special saturday morning and we are so thrilled that you are back. we won't talk about the baby monitor hidden under the desk right now. >> checking it every two minutes. i have cherished every minute with margo, it is so good to be back, though. i have missed our show. i've missed our saturdays together. >> we're going to check in with your husband, with the baby to make sure she's not hosting a milk kegger with the other kids from day care. in-studio reunion with dylan. dylan just russell, just a couple of days ago. a lot earlier than expected. so she's now home enjoying a little time with her family. we'll have much more on all of it. >> congratulations to her. we're thrilled. >>> we want to get right to our top story, the fact that there's still no deal for democrats on president biden's economic agenda. despite a pep talk from the president, lawmakers headed home for the weekend. we have team coverage this weekend. we want to

. >> announcer: from nbc news, this is "today" with peter alexander, kristen welker and dylan dreyer. >>> welcome to "today" and thank you so much for joining us on this saturday morning. we are thrilled to have joe fryer here in studio while peter is in rome covering the president's overseas trip. a busy time for peter. great to have you here. >> i am thrilled to be here. i would also be thrilled to be in rome where peter is. peter, good morning, good to see you. >> bonjour for rome one of the world's great cities. we're traveling with president biden, only been here for about 36 hours but have already had four meals. we're off to a good start. there is some real serious business going on here as well. we'll cover that in a moment. >> the pictures of you eating pasta, i'm pretty jealous. we look forward to that and the headlines you have in store peter. we'll check in with you in a moment. >>> we want to get to our top story and the potential game changer in the fight against covid. the fda giving approval friday to the pfizer vaccine for kids between the ages of 15 and 11, which mea

. >> peter alexander, thank you. >>> it is 7:12. we have a lot to get to. tom is in for craig. hey, tom, good morning. >> hey, guys, good morning to you. we're going to stay in washington because we saw where unity on capitol hill came together, senators on the topics of tiktok, youtube and snapchat. nbc's washington correspondent hallie jackson has that report. hallie, good morning. >> hey, tom, good morning. we've seen facebook and twitter executives dozens of times over the years on capitol hill, but this was the very first appearance by tiktok and snap on defense along with youtube about what they do to protect kids and teens. they're some of the most popular platforms for teens now getting a new audience, congress. >> parents of america cannot trust these apps with their children. >> you're parents. how can you allow this? >> reporter: the companies dealing with questions after facebook's recent whistle-blower. although facebook wasn't a part of this hearing, it came up plenty as the other platforms worked to distance themselves. >> tiktok is not a social network based on

peter alexander has more. >> reporter: the sales pitch for the multi-trillion dollar spending plans.r moderate versus progressive. these bills are about competitiveness versus complacency. >> reporter: but the reality check, so far the president has been struggling to unite those competing wings of his party. though their differences appear to be narrowing. progressives have blocked the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill until they get an agreement on a much larger climate and social policy package. key moderate joe manchin, who called that plan's initial $3.5 trillion price tag fiscal insanity, is suggesting he could support a figure as high as roughly $2 trillion. mr. biden has floated. >> i'm not ruling anything out. i want to make sure we strategically do the right job. >> reporter: republicans argue the president's plans will send inflation soaring. >> everybody is paying higher praises today for everything compared to when joe biden came into office. we're not going to rubber stamp the reckless spending. >> reporter: president biden bashing his critics. >> to oppose the