288,000 Jobs Added In November; GOP Sen. Collins Considers Changing Tax Vote
TAPPER: Welcome back. The Dow and the S&P 500 both closing this hour at record highs following today's release of another strong jobs report. Employers added 228,000 jobs in November and the unemployment rate remained at a 17-year low, 4.1 percent. The report echoing other signs of strength, including the best quarter of economic growth since 2014. Let's talk about this with the panel. Robbie, some key industries have been hiring in November, manufacturing added 31,000 jobs, construction, 24,000. Isn't this what President Trump promised?</s>ROBBY MOOK, FORMER CAMPAIGN MANAGER, HILLARY FOR AMERICA: Look, this is great news, but there are two things we should keep in mind. One, this is because of the work under President Obama's administration. It's not like a new president comes in and suddenly companies suddenly --</s>TAPPER: We're -- I mean, it's December already.</s>MOOK: Yes, but these things -- these economic forces take a lot longer. But the second and the more important to me is we are passing a tax bill that gives away billions of dollars to the wealthiest people in this country to "stimulate the economy" when it's looking like the job market is basically getting as tight as it possibly can, but that income gap is widening. So we're solving a problem that doesn't exist and we're making a problem that does exist a lot worse and that is income inequality.</s>TAPPER: I mean, is it -- is it -- is that a fair criticism in this sense? What is the impetus for this tax bill if the economy is so strong and it does look pretty strong, if you want to give to the credit to President or President Obama, it does look pretty strong, at least on the surface.</s>AMANDA CARPENTER, FORMER COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR FOR TED CRUZ: And you can never be too rich or too skinny, right? Isn't that what people say? But listen, I think that Trump does gets a lot of credit even though he didn't do anything because there's such confidence in the Democrats leaving the White House and stopping the threat of more regulations coming down the pike. Trump didn't have to do anything and he gets that benefit. But here's what makes Republicans sick is that the economy is doing great. Trump was supposed to be the jobs candidate. Somehow he didn't have to do anything and he's the jobs President. They don't get any credit for it and he's still at historic approval lows. So what happens if the economy does go down? It could get really ugly.</s>TAPPER: So -- and why is that? Because this usually -- you know, as James Carville said, it's the economy, stupid. Usually if people -- if the voters feel like the economy is doing well, that's reflected in their approval rating for the President. That is not the case here. The economy is definitely improving and President Trump's approval ratings are at historic lows, they're in the 30s. Why the disconnect?</s>REBECCA BERG, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: Well, a big part of it is what the President himself is talking about and drawing attention to, Jake. Any other President given this set of circumstances, a booming economy, you know, pretty positive economic news, that's exactly what that President would want to talk about. They would want to talk about the tax reform legislation that is going through Congress and could be a major policy victory for Republicans. Instead, Donald Trump, if you take a, you know, casual glance at his Twitter, would see he is talking about none of those things. He is talking about things that make voters nervous, that upset voters. Voters we are seeing now, there was some doubt about this during the election, but there are actually still many Americans who believe a President act presidential. And on the campaign trail, I talked to even Trump supporters who said they thought as president he would become more presidential, would tamper his language. Obviously, he hasn't done that. And so you see people now disappointed in what he has -- how he has acted as President.</s>TAPPER: So, I should point out because you brought up the tax bill. Republican Senator Susan Collins who voted for the tax bill last week, she now said she's considering removing her support of it because she told a CNN affiliate she could change her vote if her proposed amendments don't make it to the final version. So it's not out of the woods yet but you still think it's probably going to pass?</s>MOOK: I don't know. I think the devil is in the details. It's a lot easier to pass something, get it to committee and then decide -- than decide on the final version. I honestly hope it doesn't. This is really bad. This is exactly what happened when George W. Bush came into office. Strong economy, big tax breaks for the wealthiest people for corporations and the economy, you know, the bubble blew up, burst and the economy crashed. This crash I fear could be worse because there are so many people who aren't doing better. And those are exactly the people who voted Trump in. So this is not a good recipe for re-election for Trump.</s>TAPPER: All right, we're going to take a quick break. I think we're going to show you some pictures of President Trump. There it is, getting ready to take off for Pensacola. There he is at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland. He's heading to Florida to rally for the candidate across the border in Alabama. We'll take this quick break. We'll be right back.