Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Jobless Rate Drops Below 8 Percent; Spilled Soda and Loose Seats; California Gas Prices Surge Overnight; Jobless Rate Drops; Ann Romney's Gig On ABC's "Good Morning America"; Obama Stumps In Ohio; 911 Caller: "I'm Pretty Evil"; Few Overlords, Millions Of Serfs

Aired October 05, 2012 - 14:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: The president and his supporters, they are basking in the glow of the government's monthly jobs report. It is unexpectedly good. The nation's rate of unemployment took three ticks downward, boom, 7.8 percent. That is still high, yes, but it's not political poison as in 8 percent or above. You know, September jobs creation hit six figures, 114,000.

And this part's pretty interesting here because, as it often does, the Labor Department revised its findings from the last two months. Revised them way upward. Its latest tally now is at 142,000 new jobs in August. That is up from 96,000. And the new tally for July topped 180,000 new jobs. Mitt Romney, just like the president in Virginia today as well, is saying the reason unemployment keeps dropping is that more and more Americans have given up, given up finding work and they're not counted as unemployed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And I'll tell you this, when I'm president of the United States, when I'm president of the United States, that unemployment rate is going to come down, not because people are giving up and dropping out of the workforce, but because we're creating more jobs. I will create jobs and get America working again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: And, you know, we're going to talk about politics here. But before we do that, this unexpected drop in the unemployment rate deserves a much closer look. So, Alison Kosik, let's begin with you at the New York Stock exchange.

It's 7.8 percent. What's behind the number?

ALISON KOSIK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: OK, Brooke. So the unemployment rate fell because more people said that they had jobs. That's different from the previous month when you saw the unemployment rate drop a little bit because people dropped out of the workforce, people stopped looking for work. OK, so in September, with this jobs report that we got today, when government workers called up people on the phone in this survey and asked them if they're employed, almost 900,000 more people said they had jobs in September than in August. That is why you saw the unemployment rate fall to 7.8 percent. OK. And then there's a second separate survey used to come up with the 114,000 number. Those job additions. Which, you know, in reality, was just OK, because that's not enough to keep up with population growth. Now most economists do say that that number is the more important one.

Here's a little perspective. Look at this. While 114,000 is a lot better than a few years ago, plus we've been adding jobs for two years now, there is -- the harsh reality, Brooke, is that 114,000, once again, is not enough to make up for the millions of jobs that were lost during the recession.

Brooke.

BALDWIN: OK. So now that we know what's going on economically speaking, Alison Kosik, thank you, we promised we'd talk politics. So let's do precisely that.

Let me bring in Jessica Yellin. She is our chief White House correspondent, joining me from Washington.

And, Jessica, a question. What is it that you think makes the White House happier today. Is it the face that unemployment is finally under that 8 percent mark or is it the fact that the president's tepid performance Wednesday night is suddenly knocked out of the lead in the news?

JESSICA YELLIN, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: I'm sure they're happy to be changing -- turning the page on that one, Brooke. But it's also good news for them that they can argue with some evidence that the president's policies are gaining some -- his economic policies are gaining traction with actual data to back it up. Here's what the president said at a campaign rally earlier today about these new economic numbers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's a reminder that this country has come too far to turn back now. Because of your strength and resilience, the strength and resilience of the American people, we've made too much progress to return to the policies that led to the crisis in the first place. I can't allow that to happen, I won't allow that to happen and that is why I'm running for a second term as president of the United States.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YELLIN: Now, the Romney campaign is already, you know, argued that these numbers aren't strong enough and that the real unemployment number is 11 percent if you count everybody who is not even looking for work. But the bottom line for the Obama campaign is his slogan is forward. And the argument they're making is he has been trying to dig the economy out of a massive hole. We were facing this economic collapse when he came into office, and that he has a long way to go. He needs four more years to make the difference that he's -- that we're starting to make now and that we just need to believe that his policies do make a difference. He can now point to the data to say, look, they're making that difference.

BALDWIN: So then that tells me, even though we're in such a -- you know, for so many people, the psychological number, eight. So now that we're under that 8 percent mark in terms of unemployment, do the Obama folks think we still aren't quite over the hump, economically speaking?

YELLIN: Yes.

BALDWIN: OK.

YELLIN: And they'll -- yes, they absolutely concede that and that people are still hurting and that what matters to people at home is not some number that the Labor Department puts out, but their own economic circumstance and whether they have a job, and whether they know somebody who's unemployed, and that this is all very abstract. And so people are still hurting.

But in terms of the political gamesmanship, 8 percent is an important marker because when the president passed the stimulus, one of his economists projected -- it wasn't a promise, but a projection -- that 8 percent would be -- we would not be above 8 percent with the stimulus. And because we were for so long, Republicans were able to say the stimulus didn't work, now they can say, well, look, there's evidence, you know, that political football can maybe go away for now.

BALDWIN: OK, Jessica Yellin, thank you. That's one interpretation, right, of today's number.

Let's get the other side. The new jobs report has really forced Republican Mitt Romney to alter his attack on the president. So now with reaction from Mitt Romney, here is Jim Acosta.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Brooke, after a couple of days of some very positive reviews for his debate performance against President Obama, Mitt Romney is running into some political news that may be blunting that momentum. The new unemployment report showing that the jobless rate has dipped below 8 percent is really taking away one of his key lines of attack against the president. For months, Mitt Romney has been saying the president has failed to take the nation's unemployment rate below 8 percent. But at an event here in coal country in Virginia, Romney found a new way to crunch the numbers. Here's what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: There were fewer new jobs created this month than last month. And the unemployment rate, as you noted this year, has come down very, very slowly. But it's come down nonetheless. The reason it's come down this year is primarily due to the fact that more and more people have just stopped looking for work.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Now, for much of this weekend, Romney will be campaigning across the state of Florida. It is a state where his economic message will still resonate. While the state's unemployment rate has gone down in recent months, it's still well above the national average.

Brooke.

BALDWIN: Jim Acosta for us in Virginia. Jim, thank you.

Also, we have some quick reaction from the heartland to the new jobs picture today. Iowa. Iowa is one of those swing states that really could go either way in the election. So, to Shannon Travis we go. Been talking to voters there in Des Moines.

And, Shannon, what are they telling you?

SHANNON TRAVIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Brooke, you know that Iowa voters know their issues, they know their politics, so you better believe that they're fully aware of these job numbers. I was out talking with a few of them, as you just mentioned. Take a listen at the reaction.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEN RIPPENGER, ROMNEY SUPPORTER: It's encouraging, but I don't know that it's where it's going to stay. I feel like it might go back up.

DAVID THAYER, OBAMA SUPPORTER: If the numbers are accurate, that's always a positive thing. I don't know how you can spin it negatively, but I'm sure someone will.

JOHN HANSEN, OBAMA SUPPORTER: I think any improvement in the job numbers is obviously good. And I'm glad that it's happening. And I'm glad it's happening possibly just before the election.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think that there's still a long way to go in the economy. I think that there's some commendable things the president has done. However, I think that, obviously, you know, we still have high unemployment. You know, it's (INAUDIBLE) and I think people are still struggling.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TRAVIS: Now, Brooke, I want to tell you that here in Des Moines, I also spoke with some people who are unemployed. One woman told me that she has been unemployed for about a year and things have gotten worse for her, she feels, because of President Obama. Another person, an Obama supporter, said that although he's unemployed, that he understands the situation that the president inherited.

Brooke.

BALDWIN: And we still have one more monthly jobs report before that November 6th election. Shannon Travis. Thank you, Shannon.

One expert says America's becoming a country of kings, and then everyone else. So is he right? Is the wealth gap the economy's biggest problem? I'm Brooke Baldwin. The news is now.

Faulty screws? Nope. Wear and tear? No. American Airlines blaming spilled soda and coffee for those loose seats.

Plus, a new movie about bin Laden's death coming to a TV screen near you. But the timing is raising all kinds of eyebrows.

And, he robbed banks and then he gets a full ride to law school. Why? Because of what he did behind bars.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: All right, so here's the deal today. American Airlines now blaming the beverages, talking soda and coffee, for seats becoming loose during three recent flights. A spokeswoman says buildup, specifically the buildup from the spilled soda and coffee, actually played a part in why this locking mechanism right here for the seats has not been working right. CNN's George Howell is on the story and we're going to talk soda and coffee in just a minute because I'm thinking --

GEORGE HOWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And popcorn. Don't forget the popcorn here as well.

BALDWIN: And, excuse me, and popcorn. But, first, this is -- I mean this is serious. This is leading to cancelations.

HOWELL: OK, look, Brooke, so on a regular day, today we would have eight cancellations in the system for American Airlines. But today is not a regular day. There are 44 canceled flights in the system for American Airlines today alone. Fifty just yesterday.

So, what we're seeing now, these mechanics, they're going through. They've already identified 48 of these 757 jets. They checked them before, but they're doing it again and they're retrofitting this device with another mechanism to make sure that these seats stay on the floor.

BALDWIN: OK. Hang on. Talk to me about this device a little bit more and why spilled soda, coffee and popcorn is breaking it.

HOWELL: A hybrid of responses. Let's start with the first. We talked to Delta today about this latest explanation about basically blaming the passengers for spilled drinks, for popcorn, for coffee that's spilled over and over time contributed to the wear and tear on this seat plunger, the seat lock plunger. It's basically a pin and hook system that keeps these seats on the floor.

BALDWIN: OK.

HOWELL: So that's the first. Now, two days ago, Brooke, we talked to American and they said, look, it was clamps. These clamps that were put on backwards. We've learned that was on one flight where the clamps were on backward. They've identified that jet.

And we also heard from the union. And the union pointed the finger at outsource maintenance work as the problem. Now, Delta Airlines, they did not -- or not Delta, rather American --

BALDWIN: American.

HOWELL: They deny that that is the case. But, you know, several different possible cause for this happening.

BALDWIN: But -- OK, and I understand that, but people spill on any other airline.

HOWELL: Yes.

BALDWIN: I mean, I've spilled, people spill, why is this just happening --

HOWELL: If you sit next to me it's -- yes, I'm a clutz.

BALDWIN: Why is this just American Airlines?

HOWELL: It's interesting. You know, we reached out to other airlines to find out what's happening. Well, we checked with Delta, and Delta told us they have a maintenance program where they check. It's not a problem for them. We checked with United. They said they have different seats -- different seats than the late model seats that are used on American Airlines. But none of the airlines would really tell us what would happen if drinks, if popcorn, if coffee spilled over. American Airlines says this is one of the possible reasons, part of the reason, why these seats came loose.

BALDWIN: It's frustrating. It's one thing to be delayed, another to have a flight canceled.

HOWELL: Well, their goal is to make sure if you get on row 12, you stay on row 12 by the time you land.

BALDWIN: Yes. George Howell, thank you very much.

HOWELL: Yes, thank you.

BALDWIN: And now, folks in one state have watched their gas prices jump by nearly 20 cents a gallon in a single day. One day. So what's behind this spike and will there be a ripple effect nationwide?

But first, can computer geeks fix your government? Dr. Sanjay Gupta profiles one woman who says a solution can be found in the exploding world of smartphone apps.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Everyone complains about gas prices, but wait until you see what happened overnight in California. CNN's Paul Vercammen reports from Los Angeles.

And, Paul, what happened?

PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Brooke, here in California, absolute misery at the pump. In Los Angeles alone, prices jumped 19 cents a gallon overnight. At this station, prices at $4.61. We talked to a motorist who was on his way to a new job this morning and he could hardly believe his eyes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICK LARIMORE, LOS ANGELES COMMUTER: Well, like I told you before, this is sticker shock for me. I'm kind of amazed. I actually went to three -- this is my third gas station this morning. I thought there was a mistake. And, you know, I'm -- yes, I'm here. I'm at $60 for three-quarters of a tank. I'm shocked.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VERCAMMEN: Many different factors driving up gas prices in California. There were problems with the pipeline. There were problems with refineries. All of this choking off supply. They hope to get this remedied in the future. One thing that they may do is they may go it a winter grade of gasoline earlier than expected in California and that could bring some relief, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Protesters flood the streets of Amman, Jordan. Take a look. Thousands turn out after being called by Jordan's Muslim Brotherhood to take to the streets. All of this comes just one day after Jordan's king dissolved the country's parliament and called for new elections. Jordan's Muslim Brotherhood is calling for a boycott of those elections. It's a move that could throw the country into political crisis.

Back here at home, the new jobless numbers, they look better, but are they? We're going to find out exactly what's behind these numbers today, including one surprise and what they tell us about where the economy is headed.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: As we've shown you, both presidential candidates are latching on to today's jobs report, showing the unemployment rate fell last month three notches to 7.8 percent.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I have seen too much pain, seen too much struggle, to let this country get hit with another round of top down economics.

MITT ROMNEY: There were fewer new jobs created this month than last month. And the unemployment rate, as you noted this year, has come down very, very slowly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So, what's the reality behind all this rhetoric and what's likely to come in the months ahead? Let me bring in economist and forecaster Diane Swonk. She is here to help us sort through all these numbers.

Diane, welcome. You are a chief economist for Mesirow Financial. First question, 7.8 percent. Is this a turning point?

DIANE SWONK, CHIEF ECONOMIST, MESIROW FINANCIAL: It won't be a turning point until it's gone on for several months. Unfortunately, these numbers are extremely volatile and on a statistical basis it's not actually different than 8 percent. So, it's also not different than 7.6 percent. So it can go either way here.

BALDWIN: It seems like for some people, though, psychologically speaking, now that we're under that 8 percent, it's sort of like --

SWONK: You know, there's that threshold. It's a threshold, yes. I think, you know, the most important issue is, you can't fool the American public. At the end of the day, they know what's going on. The labor market, we've grown. We're still growing, but we're growing unevenly and we're not growing robustly. We know that. I think part of the reason we've seen a comeback in consumer confidence, although it's back to the levels we saw last spring, which is still consistent with a recession, not a recovery, but it's better than it was. It's because housing prices have bottomed. And that really matters to more American households than anything else, along with jobs. And so, you know, the jobs picture is still very mixed, very uneven. This payroll data could be revised up, the last two months revised up, could be revised down. You know, you really got to take this -- no one month does a trend make. At the end of the day --

BALDWIN: I hear you. I hear you, Diane Swonk. We need several months in a row. We need several months in a row.

SWONK: Yes.

BALDWIN: But let me just tell you, we do know this, you know, in terms of unemployment among college graduates, it has stayed pretty constant in the last couple of months. But we also notice it has fallen a little bit among high school dropouts. What I was curious about is just the quality of the job. How quality are these jobs that people are now finding?

SWONK: Well, that's the best question out there. And the reality is that one of the things we saw, we saw this big increase in -- when they call up households, the household survey, which does the unemployment rate, and it's at 873,000 more people said they had jobs this month, which is huge. And it was a bit of a catch-up. It had been running a little cooler than the overall numbers before. So, a bit of a catch-up there.

BALDWIN: But?

SWONK: But two-thirds of that increase came from people accepting part time instead of full time work, when they're really looking for full time work. So this is people who are coming off of unemployment insurance. They're accepting anything they can just to get a job. And it's not necessarily earning even enough to keep the food on the table, let alone pay their rent. So there still is a clear issue on quality of jobs and even college grads today because we've had this prolonged period of persistently high unemployment. If they do get a job, they're often accepting a job out of their main field and not even at any kind of income that they're undermining their potential because they're not working in the area that they're actually qualified to work in.

BALDWIN: And I know that's frustrating for so, so many of them. Also frustrating when you look at the manufacturing sector. September jobs, manufacturing down 16,000. And that's not a good sign.

SWONK: Yes. No, and, in fact, that was one of the interesting things about the payroll survey is you get this sort of tale of two economies out there, where on the domestic economy, it looks like it's doing a little better. Retailers seem to be pretty excited about the holiday season, although I think it's a little premature from my own perspective, but they're a little excited about it and (INAUDIBLE) they did hire --

BALDWIN: Why do you say -- why premature?

SWONK: Well, because September retail sales, the early number on September were much cooler than August and July and they've not exactly been hot. Let's face it. A lot of the spending that retailers -- that consumers have been spending, they've been spending on gas, not on other things. But retailers got a little bit excited with a little bit of strength over the summer and it doesn't look like it was carried into September by the same store sales. So I'm a little bit suspicious about that.

But retailers are saying they're hiring up and they did in September. On the other side of it, manufacturers are exposed to this global economy, which is in a recession in Europe, slowing in China. Exports really matter. That's one of the reasons the manufacturing sector had a big turnaround. And to see those declines in the manufacturing sector, which had been the guiding star and the light in the U.S. economy, is disturbing. So you see this sort of -- the business sector not having as much confidence as the consumer sector and that's, in fact, because the business sector is now playing in a global arena where consumers are still here at home.

BALDWIN: You know, you mentioned the global arena. So you are a prognosticator. So let's prognosticate. You have, you know, this looming fiscal cliff. Who knows when and if, you know, they're going -- they're going to agree on something. Hopefully sometime after the election, Congress. You have, you know, what's happening in Europe, specifically the financial crisis. You know, slow growth abroad. Will any or all of that derail our recovery here as we hope for those steady few months that you were talking about?

SWONK: Well, the reality is the potential is there to completely derail it. The fiscal cliff alone, $629 billion right off the top, beginning January 2013. That would throw us into recession in the beginning of the year if we went off the fiscal cliff.

Now it looks like they're going to try to do something to avoid the whole fiscal cliff. But at the end of the day, whatever they do, unless they do something very fundamental in terms of credible deficit reduction over a long period of time, Moody's is threatening to downgrade in the first six months of 2013.

Another rating agency, a little more patient, Fitch said they'll give us until December. But these guys have not shown in Washington, a real ability on either side of the aisle to really come together and get a bipartisan effort, which is what you need.

I mean, look at Greece, they almost got thrown out of the euro many times over for good reason, but nonetheless, by just one party saying we're not going to play by the rules. We want to switch the rules that we agreed to.

You can't have one party determine something that is so important for the U.S. future and have anyone thinking that the next time somebody gets elected and the other party gets thrown out that you could overturn whatever we decide on in terms of a path, a road map, for the future.

If we have a road map in this country, we are real good, even if it has potholes of avoiding them. We don't know where they are. We're in the dark right now. We don't even have a flashlight in a dense forest right now.

BALDWIN: No flashlight. It is dense indeed. Diane Swonk, I hope to have you back in a couple of months. I hope to see the number ticking down and we can finally celebrate. We and the rest of this country, we need it. Diane Swonk --

SWONK: I would love to be. Love to be a surprise on the upside.

BALDWIN: I hope. Thank you so much.

And the wife, the wife of President Obama's challenger, here she is, Ann Romney, she is getting ready for a special role on "Good Morning America". I'll talk with someone who has recently been on the inside of these morning show wars. Don't miss this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: As the wife of a presidential nominee, Ann Romney certainly knows how to take center stage. But next Wednesday, she will walk into a totally different kind of platform, one that no wife of a presidential candidate has ever taken, that being "Good Morning America."

Ann Romney will be a guest co-host on the show. There is a vacancy as you watched. The regular host, Robin Roberts is away on medical leave. So Brian Stelter, he is a media reporter for "The New York Times," and he's been writing about this and all things TV and morning show.

And Brian Stelter, it's good to have you back.

BRIAN STELTER, MEDIA REPORTER, "THE NEW YORK TIMES": Thanks.

BALDWIN: Is this not, I mean, potential future first lady as a guest co-host, is this not unprecedented? STELTER: I come up with one precedent for it, Laura Bush once was on one of the morning shows, sort of kind of guest hosting, but I think Ann Romney will be more of a special guest.

ABC says she won't quite be co-hosting. She won't be necessarily leading cooking segments, but she will be on throughout the 8:00 a.m. hour appearing and hopefully for Romney's camp talking up Mitt Romney's campaign.

BALDWIN: So will she --

STELTER: -- a great opportunity for her.

BALDWIN: Will she be sitting alongside George Stephanopoulos during the 8:00 hour or --

STELTER: It sounds like it. You know, "GMA" for the last month has been having a guest fill in, some of them called guest co-hosts, some haven't. Stephen Colbert was on recently, the cast of "Modern Family" took turns.

It's all part of a strategy to keep viewers watching "Good Morning America" while Robin Roberts is away on medical leave. Ann Romney's name was one of first that came up when ABC started to try to think about who could we bring in, some surprise guests to keep the audience tuned.

Michelle Obama's name also came up and it sounds like ABC is in talks to have the first lady come on and be a guest, but it is not confirmed yet.

But I would be surprised if Michelle Obama didn't take this opportunity now that Ann Romney is taking the opportunity. Certainly ABC would like to have both come on and kind of sort of guest host for an hour.

BALDWIN: So, I mean, you follow all of this, we here in the TV world, we follow all of this, of course. But "GMA," I mean, they've been doing -- they've been doing gang busters recently, you know, in terms of the competition between, you know, really their biggest rival "Today" on NBC.

In fact, the number, what is it? ABC's last month, 800,000 more viewers tuned in to "Good Morning America" over "Today." You're writing a book on all of this, Brian Stelter. I mean, how much of this is journalism versus ratings?

STELTER: You know, these shows are a mix of journalism and entertainment. Each show, each of the network morning shows has a different mix, CBS, ABC and NBC.

But what "Good Morning America" has going for it now is cast chemistry. People really love the cast. They love Robin Roberts. They're worried about her. They love Sam Champion, Josh Elliot, George Stephanopoulos, Lara Spencer.

Whereas at the "Today" show, things have been rocky lately, Ann Curry's departure three months ago left a lot of viewers angry and some of them went to "GMA." We haven't had a change like this in about 16 years, which makes it very notable.

BALDWIN: So Ann Romney, next Wednesday, on "GMA." Brian Stelter, thank you.

STELTER: Thank you.

BALDWIN: Any minute, President Obama about to take the stage in a key, key swing state here. This is his first remarks since Mitt Romney responded to today's jobs report. We're watching out for that. We'll bring it to you live in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: As promised, the president is speaking, there he is, Cleveland State University. Let's listen.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: -- one of the main reasons we had this crisis was because we had big banks on Wall Street making bets with other people's money. Now Governor Romney wants to roll back the rules we put in place to stop that behavior. Don't boo, vote.

One of the main reasons we went from record surpluses in into record deficits is because we put two wars and two tax cuts on a credit card. We didn't pay for. And now Mr. Romney wants another $5 trillion in tax cuts that he can't pay for.

We're not going to let that happen. We are not going to fall backward, not with so much at stake, not now. It didn't work then. It won't work now. And that's why I'm running for a second term as president of the United States.

I will tell you. I'll tell you what we need to move forward. We got to invest in small business. We got to invest in manufacturers who are creating jobs here in Ohio, here in the United States of America.

We have got to recruit 100,000 new math and science teachers to train to make sure our young people have -- to make sure our young people have the skills that they need. We got to train 2 million workers at community colleges to bring down college tuition costs.

We got to cut our oil imports in half and create thousands of new jobs and energy. We got to use the savings from ending the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, to pay down our deficit. Put some people to work, doing some nation building right here at home.

That's the agenda we need. That's how you strengthen the middle class. That's how you keep moving forward. That's the choice in this election. That's why I'm asking for your vote.

Now, my opponent, he's doing a lot of -- a little tap dance at the debate the other night. Trying to wiggle out of stuff he's been saying for years. Doing like a -- like "Dancing with the Stars" or maybe it was "Extreme Makeover" debate edition.

But no matter what he says, my opponent, he's a big believer of the top down economics. He thinks if we spend another $5 trillion on tax cuts that favor the wealthiest, we get rid of more regulation on Wall Street, all our problems are going to be solved.

Jobs and prosperity will rain down from the sky. Deficits will magically disappear. We'll live happily ever after. Even though he's been proposing this plan for months now, he's running into a little trouble explaining how it would work without blowing up the deficit or making it work for middle class families.

The other night, he ruled out asking millionaires and billionaires to pay a dime more in taxes. He said no way he was going to close loopholes that are given big oil companies billions of dollars each year in corporate welfare.

Ending tax breaks for corporations that are shipping jobs overseas and profits overseas, he said he never heard of such a thing, never heard of it. Who knew, he said. He acted shocked. Said he needs a new accountant. His current accountant is doing just fine.

BALDWIN: President Obama, already on the attack here, what are we a month and a day until the November 6th election, speaking in a rainy Cleveland State University, talking about his opponent, Mitt Romney, accusing him of tap dancing, tap dancing a little bit.

Mentioned what we heard, Mitt Romney mentioned the other night, $5 trillion in tax cuts. Obama once again saying there's no way to pay for them. Obama saying we need to invest in jobs.

Here he is talking about jobs on the day that has gotten this fairly stunning new unemployment rate number at 7.8 percent, so three ticks down from 8.1, which was last month.

Keep in mind there was one more monthly jobs report before that all important election in November. If you want to keep watching the president speak, go to cnn.com/live. Back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Friends describe him as the quiet kid, really sweet, gentle. But in the call he made to 911 early yesterday, he describes himself as, I'm quoting, "pretty evil."

Listen to this oddly called voice identified by police as 17-year-old Jake Evans, describing what happened at his family's home in a gated community in Parker County, Texas.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED 911 DISPATCHER: OK, what is the emergency?

JAKE EVANS: I just killed my mom and my sister. UNIDENTIFIED 911 DISPATCHER: What?

EVANS: I just killed my mom and my sister.

UNIDENTIFIED 911 DISPATCHER: You just killed your mother and your sister? How did you do that?

EVANS: I shot them with a .22 revolver.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: The young man, goes on to tell that 911 operator how exactly he lured his 15-year-old sister from her room and then shot her then went downstairs and shot his mother three or four times.

Still the motive not really clear here, he tells 911 he wasn't angry with his mother, wasn't angry with his sister then he said something about not liking people's attitudes and feeling they were suffocating him in a way. But he was clear about why he used a gun.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

EVANS: I thought it would be quick, you know? I didn't want them to feel any pain that's why I used the gun. It was like everything went wrong.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Police say Jake Evans' father was out of town on business when the killings happened. Evans is now charged with capital murder and is in jail without bond. We have reached out, have yet to determine if he has an attorney yet.

Still ahead, I'll speak live with a woman running for office who threatened to drown a prominent Republican, but she did it online, part of this role playing game. We have got that for you.

Plus, one expert says he knows what the economy's biggest problem is, America's becoming a country of kings and then you have everyone else. Is he right?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Here is one little tidbit. It was buried in today's report on unemployment. The few cents more per hour, that most of us are being paid. The average hourly pay across all private jobs whether you work in health care or make widgets has risen 1.8 percent over the last year.

That is 42 cents, hardly enough to make a dent in the gap between rich and poor in this country. Last year, the rich got richer and most of the rest of us got poorer. This is according to Census Bureau estimates.

But we didn't really need a bureau to tell us that, did we? You know, everyone is feeling it. So what do we do about it? Morgan Brennan is a staff writer from "Forbes" magazine.

Morgan, welcome back. It's nice to see you here. Let's just begin with this, you know, I read this article about the wealth gap, why is there such a wealth gap in the country today? Much more so than since like the '20s.

MORGAN BRENNAN, STAFF WRITER, "FORBES": Yes. As you mentioned, the rich are essentially getting richer and the middle class are getting poorer, at least not accumulating wealth at nearly same velocity as the rich. I think there are lot of things contributing to this.

The most glaring is obviously the great recession. We still have 12 million Americans that are unemployed. For those that are employed, about 15 percent are underemployed. Income has remained relatively flat after dropping.

We still have 11 million homeowners under water on their mortgages. All of these are hitting the middle class very hard, much harder than the wealthy who have been able to sort of thwart those issues.

So that has contributed to the wealth gap. I think there is actually an underlying issue here, maybe we're not hearing enough about and that's the idea of structural - this idea of potentially structural unemployment.

It is the idea that as technology evolves, corporations can do more with less. So we have seen a lot of companies who have shed their jobs and they're not necessarily rehiring. And the reason is because technology is allowing them to do more with less.

So it is interesting because if you look at corporate profits, after tax corporate profits this year, they're actually at their highest levels in over 60 years. So they're amassing money, going to investors, many investors have money to invest first place, that's rich people, your so-called 1 percent.

BALDWIN: Let me jump in, here is a but -- because reading about all of this is like a cycle. So you, you know, have fewer jobs mean fewer Americans with even less money to then, you know, spend less means then businesses suffer.

But, you know, when businesses suffer, as you're pointing out, they're then trimming the fat, cutting the costs then the employees suffer even more. It is a cycle. How do we fix it?

BRENNAN: I think that's the million dollar question. I think there is two presidential candidates who debated on Wednesday, you know, trying to answer some of the questions that are involved there.

And I think, first and foremost, we need to get to the presidential election. I think we also need to deal with the looming fiscal cliff. I think you have a lot of companies who are hesitant to hire and make major moves until we see major question marks resolved.

And I think you need to take a look at taxes, tax reforms both on individual and corporate level. I think we also need to take a look at things like education.

Interestingly, going back to the technology, we have a lot of Americans out of work, but a lot of jobs in the technology field where we don't have enough skilled workers to fill them. Maybe we need to look at education as well.

BALDWIN: Read this quote from Henry Blodget at "The Business Insider." Here is what he said here. He said this is about our current system and philosophy. Not sustainable, quote, "Why not? Because they're creating a country of a million overlords and 300 plus million serfs, peasants."

Are you optimistic? You know, once we get a foothold on a real economic recovery, hopefully that is a win not if. You know, will the middle class start rolling, bouncing back again?

BRENNAN: I'd like to say yes, I'm hopeful. But I think it really is going to -- I think this is going to take time and I think it is going to come down a lot to policies and regulations and what our tax structure looks like moving forward. I think it will come down to the political elections as well and what Americans see for their future.

BALDWIN: Morgan Brennan, thank you. I'll go with you on the glass half full, hopefully. Morgan, thank you.

BRENNAN: OK.