45,000 jobs in november, unemployment dipped to 6.7%, but that's still around 10 million where we were pre-coronavirus pandemic. november was the fifth straight of decelerating job gains as covid-19 continued spreading throughout the country. white house economic advisor larry kudlow spoke to reporters outside of the white house on latest job numbers. >> good morning, larry. hello. >> hello. hello. good. >> you ready for the final gaunt llet run? larry: we're busy today. yes, ma'am.

you and the president were taking credit when things were going well in the economy. the president now when so many people are suffering? larry: well, there' a lot of there, i agree, ut i will also argue the economy has registered a very the g comeback from pandemic, including today's jobs a 6.7% unemployment rate. now there's still over 10 million people who are jobless, not good. that is hardship. be ay the way, that should target of any -- in any assistance package. at the peak it was 23 million. 150 million t working. and that's way up. the 10 million unemployed is way

down. i like that. i have to say, look, in terms of these numbers -- i know you are deep in the get numbers, but you still got -- on.e's a housing boom going consumer spending is strong. business and of factory production going on. t.m.i.'s 's and the were nearly 60%. that's very healthy number. at that. all that stuff looks like a v. one of wall street's top economists, ed, has his index.as tree that's growing at 29% a little cheer. i think we have much more work to do. i understand that. come a long e've way. reporter: where is the president? [indiscernible] where is the president's leadership on this? larry: i don't understand. reporter: where is the president? we're not hearing from him about

covid or economic relief or about helping these people who are unemployed? spoken on , he has the unemployed. he favors a targeted assistance package. he's always favored that. the point, number one. number two -- we are not going here, but i would say to you that he's put remarkable infrastructure in just a few onths, six or seven months, to ight covid and it's a global event. all the countries are having the same problems. will say this, his operation warp speed, which he developed you know,as produced, help is on the way. can i just say that? way.is on the vaccines are a week or two away. et 20 million-plus by the end of this month. 40 million by january. nd up to 100 million in late march, april. that's what the scientists are

estimating. companies.great his operation -- we poured billions of dollars into the vaccines. private sector and all the brilliant people developing these vaccines. that e president opened oor, we have done what takes 10 years plus. you may not agree. but i think he has done a tremendous job on this project. reporter: covid package, does the president have any views on that? mr. kudlow: we all want to talk policies, not dollars and leave that leadership to senator mcconnell and speaker pelosi. they're talking. i would say it has a somewhat more optimistic tone. but the issues here on policy is

a couple of key targeted areas that our team and the senate leadership wants. small business p.p.e., federal unemployment assistance to deal with the hardship. some liability insurance curves, which would help small businesses, small schools and local government. very hard to trace these covid breakouts. those are some of the key points. by the way, you've got roughly $600 billion that is unspent and will be reappropriated. reporter: you don't want to say -- mr. kudlow: i'm going to lead it to senator mcconnell and speaker pelosi and others. we are in touch daily right now with everybody. that includes the republican

house leader, kevin mccarthy. >> can i follow up? given the stats -- [indiscernible] >> and given the economic numbers we saw today and i know you disagree with some of the characterizations but you say it is below what economists are hoping for, how hopeful is it that a bill will be passed in a lame duck session? mr. kudlow: i have argued that targeted areas should be dealt through. and i see no reason why we couldn't have done this last summer, early in the fall, particularly small business and unemployment. and i would add to that, i know senator mccome and i think he is right, some liability insurance reforms would also help small

businesses. we want to keep the schools open and keep businesses open. and we know of specific targeted programs that would help that and $600 billion of unspent money. i'm not going to call it free money. it doesn't represent additional spending. well, i'll just stop there. we have called for that. we have wanted that for months and months and months and months. we didn't want a $3 trillion package or on other matters that had nothing to do with covid. the president has been there for from day one. reporter: the jobs numbers, -- mr. kudlow: the jobs numbers are doing sri well. c.b.o.,ke a look at the federal reserve, why they have the jobless rate at year end and

early next. least three percentage oints below where those -- [indiscernible] >> i call it a pretty good thing. the bipartisan relief package is very helpful. but also fundamentally this is a healthy economy pre-pandemic. the roots of this were full and center. the tax cuts and deregulation, better trade deals. so we are able to withstand this. take a look what is going on in europe. see contrast. take a look and parts of asia. does the president bear responsibility? i think the president bears responsibility for the positives and i know it is not common to give into that and again, i come

back -- help is on the way. vaccines are coming, ok? how me historically in science a vaccine for a major virus like this in six months. seriously. give the guy some credit. he deserves credit. he powered money into it. he lowered regulations. the f.d.a. -- i don't want to go on and on. you are the reporter and you know the stories. reporter: one of the policies you didn't mention is additional aid for state and local governments, the bipartisan framework has $1880 billion, is that an acceptable figure for the administration? mr. kudlow: i will let the dministrators work that out.

he doesn't want to deal with mismanaged states and localities. i do want to comment on it because i will leave it to the negotiation. indiscernible] mr. kudlow: i will let him speak for himself. he would like to see a liability shield reform with respect to these social media companies. and i happen to agree. there are competitors and censorship issues that no one ever intended. his pertains to the 1996 telecom decency bill. and it looks like to me in this error of social media, that needs to be reformed and section 230 is the place to reform it and i'm not going to give you

the wording but i'm just saying that liability shield has got to be re-examined at a minimum. now providing the defense authorization bill, i'm not going -- the president will make that decision, but i can tell you he continues to very much vor getting rid of this 230, section 230 liability shield. reporter: what would be the point of very toing that bill if it is going to get passed over the objections of the president? mr. kudlow: i'm not going to make forecasts on that. reporter: do you have any -- [indiscernible] mr. kudlow: not today. anything else? >> thanks, larry. > happy holidays, larry.

captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org president-elect said today's economy is grim due to 245,000 jobs added. slowest. and u.s. is 10 million jobs of the pre-covid economy. he says it doesn't have to stay that way if congress acts soon.