welch will respond live and talk to me in a moment. this whole thing comes as the romney roll continues. scott rasmussen has three polls showing a dead heat in battle ground states, hai, virginia, florida. even the liberal magazine "the new yorker" sees it on their front cover, mitt romney pulling a clint eastwood, debating an empty chair. first up, it was the tweet that was heard around the world. my good friend jack welch set off a social media firestorm. take a look at his tweet. "unbelievable jobs numbers. these chicago guys will do anything. can't debate so change numbers,

jack welch raised the question. it was his business instinct the and attitude towards this president, that came together at 8:35 and tweeted out this unbelievable jobs numbers, these chicago guys will do anything. can't debate so they change the numbers. i'll go back to what i just heard ezra klein say a few minutes ago out here in the room, that a 0.3% shift in the unemployment rate is not wild. it's conceivable. your thoughts? >> that's absolutely true. i mean, what i just heard from jack welch was about with respect, i guess was about ten minutes of absolute nonsense with no grounding in what the bureau of labor statistics actually does. he's absolutely right, that a very large jobs number in the household survey is an outlier, it's unusual. these things happen. that number has a large margin of error around it. the bureau of labor statistics are very public about that. >> these are nonpoliticians, absolute bureaucratic government surveys is. >> that's the point. it wasn't that jack welch was raising a question o

jack welch does not believe the boys in chicago changed the numbers? >> no, jack welch is raising the question for some good analyst to go look at. >> okay. good. you're raising the question. you certainly did that. jack welch, thank you for joining us at the very top of "hardball" tonight. >> thank you. >> with me not to fight with jack but to have a different point of view is jared bernstein, former chief economist and economic adviser to vice president biden. you heard that discussion. i like jack. i'm fond of the guy. jack welch has raised the question, but it was obviously his business instinct and his attitude i think towards this president that came together at 8:35 and he tweeted out this, unbelievable jobs numbers. these chicago guys will do anything. can't debate so they change the numbers. i'll go back to what i heard ezra klein say in the room, that a 0.3 of 1% shift in the unemployment rate is not wild. it's very conceivable. your thoughts. >> that's absolutely true. i mean, what i just heard from jack welch was about -- with respect i gue

but welch wasn't alone on his island of luncy. keith no, there's nothing at all curious about the last jobs report diving to 7.8% unemployment before the election. this is technically not the last jobs report before the election. a writer at the conservative "washington examiner" wrote, i doen think bls cooked the numbers. i think a bunch of dems lied about getting jobs. that would have the same effect. and then of course there was fox news, which head lined its report, is the number real? is it? yeah, it is. the jobbers need to take a deep breath and remember what we're talking about here. this is a good jobs report in a still weak economy. the 114,000 jobs we added in september, is not very impressive. we add about 100,000 new people to the work force every month. we're just getting a bit above treading water here. the revisions to the last two months which added $86,000 jobs to the total was a much better deal. these are at best good, if not great numbers. if the white house was somehow manipulating the data, don't you think th

follow jack welch at jack underscore welch. i'll be tweeting tonight. >>> up next, mitt romney now says his remarks on the 47% were in his words, totally wrong. why did he spend the last two weeks defending them and his surrogates did? keeping them honest on that. and looking to appear more moderate on a whole range of issues. we'll be right back. ♪ [ male announcer ] how do you make 70,000 trades a second... ♪ reach one customer at a time? ♪ or help doctors turn billions of bytes of shared information... ♪ into a fifth anniversary of remission? ♪ whatever your business challenge, dell has the technology and services to help you solve it. that make kids happy. and even fewer that make moms happy too. with wholesome noodles and bite sized chicken, nothing brings you together like chicken noodle soup from campbell's. it's amazing what soup can do. like chicken noodle soup from campbell's. if we want to improve our schools... ...what should we invest in? maybe new buildings? what about updated equipment? they can help, b

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you are jack welch. jack, you have to take this opportunity while everybody is listening to you to actually, say, yes, anderson, i am taking that tweet back and send a new tweet to say, i was exaggerating. there are problems bls should look into it, but throw out an accusation, that is like asking the government -- >> look at this. we had 25 economists polled before this number came out. the average number they expected was about 115,000. not one of them had a number below 8.1. >> the bureau of labor statistics, which determines the unemployment number is a nonpolitical and independent agency, by the way. >>> hundreds, if not thousands of convicted criminals could go free, all because of this chemist. the outrageous allegations about a massachusetts drug lab. >> i'm dr. sanjay gupta. meet jennifer, founder of code for america. it's kind of a peace corps for geeks. >> most people have seen that geek s have whicchanged the wor much in the past 10, 20 years, they haven't changed government yet. we get peopl

jack welch setting off a bit after firestorm this morning. shortly after the report, welch tweeted this out. unbelievable jobs numbers. he doesn't mean it in a positive way. he means it unbelievable. these chicago guys will do anything. can't debate so change numbers. a few moments later, hilda solis fired back. >> i'm very disappointed to hear that. we have a very professional service organization with top officials working in the bls. our most trained and skilled individuals. it is really ludicrous to hear that kind of statement. >> representative allan west is a florida republican and he says he agrees with mr. welch. congressman, good to see you. >> thank you very much. how are you all? >> what do you believe what mr. welch says and not what the secretary of labor says. >> it is not about believing what mr. search says. it is about studying the numbers. we continue to see these inconsistencies and revisions upwards and downwards. work force participation rate still remains at a 30-year low. when you compare this to the u6 computation whic

more about jack welch and g.e. and accurate numbers more in this show later. we have an interview with cnbc. >> we have a very professional civil service organization where you have top, top economists that work at the bls. it's really ludicrous to hear that kind of statement. >> eliot: and the always wise economic adviser had this message for jack welch. i quote love you jack, but here you've lost your mind. what a coincidence joining me now is austan goolsbee, former chairman of president obama's council of economic visors. conspiracy theories running wild, and how you generate them. what is your take on this. >> okay, the numbers come from iron fortress, somewhere in the bls. it's absolutely and totally ridiculous to say some how some political people changed the numbers in bls. it makes no sense whatsoever. look i'm friends with jack welch. he's a great guy. i have no idea what he's talking about. this is birtherrest crazy stuff. i don't know how you get--the same people saying that it's outrageous that the survey showed a lot more jobs than expected this

in retaliation, jack welch quit as a columnist. accusing the labor department of mmanipulating jobs numbers. fortune's editor-in-chief leads to the president's defense on msnbc to insist the economy is getting better. unfortunate, a writer did two nasty stories saying he laid off 100,000 people in 20 years. about as much to do with this controversy as the fact they had seen its circulation revenue hit 50% in a decade. welch quitting and going to the "wall street journal" where in an op-ed today he said i was right about the strange jobs report likened the bashing he has received to soviet russia. jack welch coming under fire from economic advisors. telling elliot spitzer on al gore's current tv that it is absolutely and totally ridiculous that somehow some political people changed the numbers. this is crazy stuff. oh, yeah? none other than the same guy himself questioned the honesty of the job numbers during the bush administration in '03 in "the new york times" writing may have been buying people off the unemployment rolls, the go

here's what jack welch, former ceo of g.e. was talking about when he talked about the tweet that questioned the veracity of the 7.8% jobs number. he was on "hardball" chris matthews. >> do you mean it's a coincidence or you have evidence there was corruption? >> i have no evidence of corruption. none whatsoever. >> so these chicago guys had nothing to do with the numbers? >> i don't know that. >> why did you say that? these chicago guys will do anything to change the numbers. you just said it in your tweet. >> i want to raise the question of these numbers. >> you do raise the question. >> because these numbers defy logic. they defy logic. >> so susan, more people from your party have latched onto this concept. is it embarrassing? is it true? is it ridiculous? >> it's shocking. when i first saw that tweet i thought he was kidding around. then to see him double down on chris matthews was frankly surprising. and i don't think many serious people take that statement seriously. that being said, it's amazing how much flack he's gett

there is another factor behind jack welch. the drop in unemployment was the greatest drop in 30 years, since the reagan recovery, and there is no reagan recovery going on out there. >> well, the libor people who were cooking the books were all people pulling down six figure salaries. they are not the government bureaucrats. >> they get six figure salaries, too. >> these are career people and i would stake whatever reputation i have on the fact they them out, in case of >>> four weeks away. who's going to win the election? >> too close to call. >> obama. >> too close. >> romney. >> romney. bye bye

welch will respond live and talk to me in a moment. this whole thing comes as the romney roll continues. scott rasmussen has three polls showing a dead heat in battle ground states, hai, virginia, florida. even the liberal magazine "the new yorker" sees it on their front cover, mitt romney pulling a clint eastwood, debating an empty chair. first up, it was the tweet that was heard around the world. my good friend jack welch set off a social media firestorm. take a look at his tweet. "unbelievable jobs numbers. these chicago guys will do anything. can't debate so change numbers, end quote. he's chase by accusing the white house of skewing the data to help president obama. earlier on cnbc, u.s. labor secretary fired back with this response. please take a listen. >> these are our best trained and best skilled individuals that have been working in the bls and it's really ludicrous to hear that kind of statement. >> here now is the legendary jack welch, former ge chairman, ceo and great friend of "the kudlow report." it's great to see you.

welch tweeted, quote, unbelievable jobs numbers. these chicago guys will do anything. can't debate so change numbers. jack welch accusing the white house of manipulating this month's jobs data so it would look better for the president. always up for a good conspiracy theory republican congressman alan west of florida concurred and wrote, quote, in regards to today's jobs report i agree with former ge ceo jack welch. chicago style politics is at work here. from there it was sort of off to the races. republican congressman paul brown of georgia, quote, september jobs report raises questions. quote, i don't think bls cooked numbers. i think a bunch of dems lied about getting jobs. that would have the same effect. that was from a senior writer at something called the washington examiner, a conservative thing online. eric bolling who is at fox news, he wrote, wow. obama labor department smarter than all 25 of america's top economists. or something far more inside ous. i don't know. then there was this from conservative talk radio host laura ingram. quote, jobs numbers from

you are jack welch. you got to take this opportunity while everybody is listening to you to actually say yes, anderson, i'm taking that tweet back. i'm going to accepted a new tweet to say i was exaggerating. there are problems, maybe bls should look into it, but the actually throw out an accusation, that's like asking the government how often do you beat your wife? >> i should have had a question mark, at the back of it. let's face it. but the facts are no matter how you want to look at this, we had 25 economists polled before this number came out. the average number they expected was about 115,000. >> yes. >> not one of them had a number below 8.1. >>> tomorrow, three suspected terrorists are expected to make their first court appearance in new york. they were extradited from britain overnight after a legal battle that lasted more than ten years. one suspect has a hook for a hand and has called osama bin laden a hero. the radical cler iic is wanted r several crimes commit against the united nations the

welch was retweeted not just by correspondents covering it. these are people on twitter, on facebook who somehow maybe are walking down the street and their neighbor says did you hearing what jack welch says, the numbers are cooked and that contributes to the toxic level where people have no confidence in anything. forget the polls because you can talk about sampling and whatnot. this is the economy. it's 114,000 jobs. it's not the goal number. let's be one of the 114,000 who didn't have a job last month, and now you have a check to put in the bank and maybe more food to put on the table and pay a couple of bills out there. those jobs count, john. >> this is a long-term trend in our culture, tamron. back from the 1960s collapse of respect for authority. we have the same accusations, by the way, when bush was president about manipulating the data. it's of a piece with the people that said, the reason we went to war with iraq was because bush lied for ulterior motives. george w. bush went to war in iraq because he believed it was in the national

joyce welch's husband lincoln lost his engineering job. now with no savings and her son's unpaid medical bills piling up, she is forced to do something she never thought she would have to. ask for help. >> so what ideally would be enough to make you breathe the most easily? >> if we had enough to pay half of the rent. i just remember sitting there going i cannot believe i'm having to do this. this sucks. we can try to find a nice word for it, but at the end of the day it just sucks. >> it's a hard time right now. >> joyce is speaking to sarah nelson the program director at the sister carmen community center. a non-profit organization that has traditionally helped low income families in east boulder county. in 2010 only 4% of sister carmen's clients were from well to do boulder suburbs like superior. but by the end of 2011, that share had exploded to a whopping 22%. so your demand went up from 2010 to 2011. the financial crisis started in 2008, why now? why are we seeing it now? >> i think especially when it comes to middle class families t

welch says he can no longer write for the magazine. some companies are using the presidential campaigns as an opportunity for new ad campaigns. 7-11 says so far obama takes the lead in its "7 election campaign," where shoppers can choose from a "romney" red cup or an "obama" blue cup. meanwhile, cabbage patch will release a line of dolls that resemble the candidates up for auction on ebay. and, pizza hut is offering free pizza for life to whomever asks the candidates if they prefer sausage or pepperoni at a town hall debate next week. still to come, with the country at a crossroads over labor unions, a new film gives us a closer look at the issues in america's heartland. but first, startups are the key to the u.s. economy, but are they faring well? that's next. o' a nationwide effort to help startup companies grow, called "startup america," brought more than a hundred entrepreneurial leaders to chicago this week. as our cover story explains, one of the things a lot of startups have in common these days is their willingness to collabora

thank you. >> now, jack welch is team romney. he's here to talk about his man and about keeping america great. he's the former ceo of ge and founder of the jack welch management industry at stray university. welcome, jack. >> it is nice to be here. >> you fled the country to south america to get away from the furor that erupted over you questioning the jobs figures. have you recovered? >> very well, thank you. very well. i was glad to get my story out there, and i was glad that media everywhere learned a little about just how those numbers are calculated and we don't have one number determining anything about this election. >> any regrets? >> none. >> were you surprised by the ferocity of the attacks -- >> particularly i was surprised when you think about the fact that they've called governor romney a felon. just about every name you can think of. when i -- look, what i did was i laid out just what that number meant and how it's derived. you know, when i went on some of these shows with people like you, i didn't go on with you, t

welch instantly assumes this is the chicago machine. it's worth looking at. >> this has been, this is really making me crazy. the federal reserve gets questioned now for politics these days. the supreme court and john roberts gets questioned. we have corroded what we're doing. we are corroding trust in our government in a way, and one time responsible people are doing, to control it. and the idea that donald trump and jack welch, rich people with crazy conspiracies can get traction on this. is a bad, is a bad trend. >> i assume david there's a number of people that believe the real unemployment report is somewhere in a safe in nairobi with the president's kenyan birth certificate. this stuff is absolutely crazy. the notion quite frankly that somebody as well respected as jack welch would go on television and single-handedly embarrass himself for the entire day of friday, by saying somehow that these statistics are made up, i agree with chuck, it's incredibly dangerous. and we wonder why institutions in this country are, the perception o

welch quit and has an op-ed bashing his bashers. accusing the obama labor departmenlabordepartment of mans numbers so fortune editor in chief weeks to the president defense. and unfortunately, a writer did a couple of nasty stories pointing out that he laid off 100,000 people in 20 years. though they have had plenty of layoffs as they can revenue 50% in a decade. and jack welch counter punches instead in the "wall street journal" liking the beating he's taken over this to soviet russia. jack welch also come under attack from former obama economic advisor saying on al gore current tv that it is absolutely and totally ridiculous to say somehow some political people change the numbers. this is crazy stuff. oh yeah? he himself questioned the honesty of the job numbers in the bush administration in '03 in "new york times" that they have been buying people off their employment rolls i and the government has cooked the books. in a counter tweet he said jack, you completely missed cited my old report, it was about those parties in congress

you have jack welch who euned to own nbc, the majority owner. he said this is unbelievable. the chicago guys will do anything to change the numbers. let's take a look at welch mareking his roumts and some at fox news picking up on the idea that they can't be trusted. >> look. i don't know what the right number is, but i'll tell you these numbers don't smell right when you think about where the economy is right now. >> there is widespread mistrust because there are contradictions. >> some report there are numbers that will come out on the eve of the election. >> you know, these are volatile figures and sometimes have to be revised. but to go and charge that the administration had manipulated this for political gain, don't you need some evidence for that? >> think it's unfortunate that jack welch who has this storied business career now appears to be stark raving mad in the donald trump category and i think this reaction is what it should have been even from a lot of people on the right and said, now, come on, you can argue about certain things but if they wanted to cook the b

jack welch is almost famous or infamous by now. jack welch, the former ceo of general electric, tweeting out that, you know, the innuendo that the bureau of labor statistics had cooked the books. that was called utter nonsense by the deputy white house spokesman. others, including jared bernstein, who is an economist here until recently in the white house, said that welch should be ashamed of himself. you know, he's sort of out there on an island, jack welch. he was on "hardball" last night and he said he wouldn't take a word back of that tweet, but he admitted he had no evidence the to back it up. again, there are people on both sides of the aisle who are rushing to defend the integrity of the people who get those numbers together every month, melissa. >> the president said the burden is now on congress. what is it that the president now wants congress to do? >> reporter: congress is not coming back until after the election. that is clear. and the first order of business at the lame duck session is what to do about the fiscal clif

welch, who i used to respect, by the way, said i didn't mean the white house. which chicago guys are you talking about? number of foreclosures have hit a record low. have the banks conspired? no. they can't stand barack obama. the numbers are numbers. >> numbers are numbers. let's deal with some -- by the way, let me tell you this. the number has been coming down from high 8s. >> they need to create in this economy to get back to where we were. 200 plus -- >> wait a minute. come on. look, you guys are engaging in this wonderful distraction and want to talk about glsh who brought it up last friday at 8:35. >> doesn't matter. you follow that down the rabbit hole all day long. let me have my point and you can have at it. the reality is this. 23 million americans tonight will be watching this debate asking, will i get a job tomorrow. 1 114,000 started working last month but the reality is that a whole lot more are looking for work. whether the unemployment number is 7.8 or 8.1, the fact of the matter is that people are not going back to work at the rate that she sh

jack welch made a lot of headlines with a tweet that said, unbelievable jobs numbers. these chicago guys will do anything. can't debate so they change the numbers without any substantiation. he was on "hardball" with chris matthews and this is how he explained it. >> i've reviewed 14 businesses this week. from restaurants to widgets. i have seen everybody with a third quarter equal to or weaker than the first quarter. in order to get 873,000 new jobs, you would have to have a g.d.p. going at 4% to 5%. the second quarter was downgraded from 1.7% to 1.3%. the third quarter is not going to be very strong. it just defies the imagination to have a surge larger than any surge since 1983 a month before the election. i leave it to you to do all the analysis. >> one of the most important ceos in america. formerly of general electric. does this ring true? >> well, it rings true to me. since it's a survey, is this outside of the statistical bounds of their survey, which is plausible but irrelevant. but you have a president who says last budget got zero votes in the last senate. z

jack welch out at "fortune." starbucks battles mom and pop store starbarks. your early morning celebrity headlines straight ahead. you're watching "early today." >>> i'm lynn berry. right now a strange story involving a boston man arrested at lax during a stop on a flight home from japan. i.c.e. agents say he was wearing a bullet proof vest, flame retardant pants, and carrying a smoke bomb in his luggage. and that's not all. this is just some of what else they allegedly found in his baggage. believe it or not, agents do not think he is a terrorist. an investigation continues. >>> well, this morning the government will issue a warning that thousands of airbags replaced over the last three years could be dangerous counterfeits. you will be able to learn f your model is at risk. just go to safercars.gov. >>> newly released images show what police hope will be a better view of a 10-year-old colorado girl missing since friday. jessica ridgeway was last seen walking to school with her classmates. right there you can see vigils were held for her last night. >>> well