economists say there's no hints in the newest unemployment report that another recession is starting. 103,000 jobs were added to pay rolls last month. that's a stronger than expected increase. july and august figures were also revised upward as well as to show an additional gain of 99,000 jobs over the summer. the overall unemployment rate held steady at our white house correspondent dan loathian. what is the white house saying about all the numbers heading into a senate fight over the jobs bill? >> reporter: wolf, top aides here at the white house say that unemployment rate of 9.1% is still unacceptably high. they're encouraged by growth in the private sector. but white house spokesman jay carney said it's "far from good enough." they believe that the president's jobs bill is one way to get americans back to work. and that's why you've seen the president campaigning across the country and again this week holding a news conference here at the white house putting pressure on lawmakers to act and throwing his support behind a new way to pay for it all. it wasn't a full throated endorsement of the surtax on millionaires to pay for his jobs bill. but it was as close as president obama got. the approach that the senate is taking i'm comfortable with. >> reporter: the president used a big part of his roughly one-hour press conference to lean on congress to pass the jobs bill. singling out republicans for often saying no to his proposal. >> the question is will congress do something? if congress does something, then i can't run against a do-nothing congress. if congress does nothing, then it's not a matter of me running against them. i think the american people will run them out of town. >> reporter: with an economy going in reverse after showing signs earlier this year of moving forward, the president blamed europe, a tsunami, high gas prices and debt ceiling fight with a dark outlook. >> there's no doubt that the economy is weaker now than it was in the beginning of the year. >> reporter: he said ideas republicans are backing wion't create the immediate jolt that sagging job market needs and he challenged reporters to measure his plan against what the critics are offering. >> go ask the republicans what their jobs plan is, if they're opposed to the american jobs tax. and have it scored, have it assessed by the same independent economists that assessed our jobs plan. >> reporter: later, while honoring the naacp women's basketball champions in the rose garden, the president joked that the coaches practice of throwing candy to fans might sweeten his hand on the hill. >> i'm going to try that. you think that's going to work if i go to the house of representatives and just throw candy around? >> reporter: house speaker john boehner criticized democrats saying that they need to stop campaigning and start listening. he says the unemployment numbers shows a real urgency for democrats and republicans to sit down, find common ground and come up with, as he put it, common sense solutions. wolf? >> a lot easier said than done. thank you. as words pileup over the latest jobs figures offers some good but not great news. cnn's tom foreman is taking a closer look at the numbers. what you are seeing? >> it's all about context. exactly what you're talking about there. you consider all this news. this is the line on unemployment since the president came in here. back between 7% and 8% when he started. now at 9.1%. but as more important to look at the overall job growth, if you want to understand what that means. from the time he came in, we had all the down months. the stimulus came along. we had months where we were producing jobs instead of losing them. then we went back to losing some. and now we're producing some. but here's what's important. just producing jobs does not solve the problem. because we're also producing more workers in the workforce as people get older. now look at this. if you stay in this red zone, even though you're producing jobs, you're actually losing the number of people employed because there are more people getting into it. so all the green numbers that didn't crack that, we got higher unemployment as a result, even though we were producing jobs. if you get up in here, which is what we've just done this time, you're kind of in the status quo. you're not really losing. you're not really gaining. you're sort inform this gray zone. you have to get up here into the lower unemployment zone and the president would actual sli ly ho make this happen for months and months and months to make up for everything we've lost so far. so that's an important perspective to keep in mind. who's being hit by this? it's different for different people. obviously, the folks out here are being hit the worst are the african-american community, hispanic community behind that. asian and white community not so much. and it has something to do also with who you are in the culture in term of your income. before the recession began, remember, lower wage jobs were growing. higher wage jobs were growing. middle-wage jobs, $35,000 a year and up that, area, they were growing the least of all. and then look what happened. when the recession came, what actually happened here was those jobs plummeted and they've been the slowest to recover in all of these numbers that we see. these jobs have come back a bit much these jobs are not coming back at all. but these are recovering very, very slowly, wolf. so when you consider all that together, you can see why all this marginal jobs figures aren't doing much to move the needle. >> yeah. 9.1% unemployment rate remains the same. all right. thanks very much. let's get more on the politics of the jobs report as the presidential race keeps heating up as well. we're joined by gloria borger and joe johns. gloria, look, obviously could have been a whole lot worse. 100,000 plus new jobs created in the month of september is decent. but most economists say in order to see that needle going down, you need at least 150,000 jobs created every month given the number of people that were entering the workplace. >> it's like you're barely treading water to stay in place, wolf. it's very difficult situation right now. particularly politically for the president. who knows that he's got to get this needle to go down if he's going to be able to tell the american public the things are actually going in the right direction. it doesn't work for him politically to be able to say things would have been worse if we hadn't had the stimulus plan which created jobs as tom foreman showed. so it's a difficult political position for him. he's got to say things are getting better, not that they would have been worse. >> it's a gray zone, just like tom said. you know, and that means a susceptible interpretation. people in the right are going to say the fundamentals are'sound herement we still need more growth. we still need to do something about energy. we still need to do something about the trade deficit. and until you do that, we're not going to move in the right direction. the democrats on the other hand have a chance to sort of refute that argument but it's absolutely not conclusive. and that's the problem for the president of the united states a year and a month out from november. >> you know, he's essentially proposing another stimulus package by another name. >> half a trillion dollars. >> republicans are saying, you know, that is not going to help stimulate job growth. what's their plan? to help stimulate job growth, maybe deregulate to a certain degree. but does either side actually have a solution about how to create jobs right now? no. you just have to get the economy growing. >> they're creating a lot of political friction. that's what they're doing here in washington. here's our latest cnn poll of polls, the average of all the major polls on how the candidates are doing among republicans. romney is ahead. cain is doing well. everybody else in single digits right now. as you well know, these are national numbers. much more important are the numbers in iowa, new hampshire, south carolina, florida. those are the numbers that will really make a difference. but it does show a certain amount of trend. >> it certainly does. it's fascinating that romney is able to play like he's running in the general election as long as he's been able to without somebody coming from nowhere and knocking them out of the box. it's clear that there are a lot of people who think he has some very high negatives. they think when you have herman cain turning out to be the ghi is nipping at your heels, i think romney is the one. >> you think about mitt romney. he's the front-runner right now. a lot of people assume he's going to get the nomination. it's way too early to make an assumption like that. he was at the citadel on friday. delivered his first major foreign policy address. i'm going to play a little clip. he really goes after president obama. >> eloquently justified vent surrender of world leadership is not surrender. i will not surrender america's role in the world. this is very simple. if you do not want america to be the strongest nation on earth, i'm not your president. you have that president today. >> that clearly suggests the president of the united states does not want america to be the strongest nation on hearth. >> republicans, as you know, wolf, for a very long time have talked about this notion of american exceptionalism and how barack obama does not subscribe to it. he spends too much time apologizing about america to the rest of the world. but it's interesting to me that mit romney would do this because when you look at barack obama's foreign policy, when you look at the surge in afghanistan, for example, this is something that john mccain wanted. most of the candidates in the republican field want to pull troops out of iraq and afghanistan because they want to spend the money at home. barack obama got us osama bin laden, he got usu al-alawki. republicans are with him on a lot of things. >> those red lines are only just beginning. this campaign is about to get nastier. guys, thanks very much. they were entrusted with your money. prosecutors say government officials defrauded taxpayers of $20 million. plus, two republican candidates air their very sharp differences over the killing of an american citizen, the al qaeda leader in yemen. my interviews with newt gingrich and ron paul coming up. and the man behind the iphone, ipod, ipad, unfortunately passed away. steve jobs was a visionary genius. what will his death mean to apple? stay with us. you're in "the situation room." taste. ♪ delicious pringles multigrain. with a variety of flavors, multigrain pops with pringles. new splenda® essentials™ no calorie sweetener with b vitamins, the first and only one to help support a healthy metabolism. three smart new ways to sweeten. same great taste. new splenda® essentials™. new fiber one 80 calories... ...with its sweet honey taste, 40% daily value of fiber... ...and 80 calories per serving... ...you may want to tell a few friends. ♪ or all of them. ♪ i'll go get my bowl. [ female announcer ] new fiber one 80 calories. yes, you can actually love breakfast. ♪ and all we need to do is change the way we're thinking about them. a couple decades ago, we didn't even realize just how much natural gas was trapped in rocks thousands of feet below us. technology has made it possible to safely unlock this cleanly burning natural gas. this deposits can provide us with fuel for a hundred years, providing energy security and economic growth all across this country. it just takes somebody having the idea, and that's where the discovery comes from. politicians like to talk about waste, fraud, and abuse of government. now prosecutors set their sights on four men who they say carried out one of the most audacious schemes in history. they're accused of bilking the u.s. army corps of engineers out of $20 million. brian todd is in the situation room and investigating this story. what do we know here? >> we were in court for the detention hearing and picked up extraordinary detail on this case. the four men were ordered held without bond. one prosecutor told me this is one of the largest if not the largest government contracting scandal in u.s. history. a beautiful house in washington suburbs. hope you like it because you may have paid for it. that's according to an indictment filed against four defendants in a massive alleged fraud scheme. two of them work for the army corps of engineers, a government agency. prosecutors say the four men schemed to file inflated bills for federal contracting services. how brazen do you believe this was? >> i've been a prosecutor for a while. this is one of the most staggering violations we've seen. >> reporter: the lead prosecutor says they defrauded taxpayers of about $20 million. in their indictment, prosecutors say the two army corps of engineers officials kerry con and michael alexander agreed with a contractor to funnel business. in return, they overbilled the army corps of engineers by $20 million over a four-year period. that money was divided between alexander, lee kohn, his father harry kohn and an official with ei technologies. lee kohn set up shell companies to launder the money stolen by his father. all four have pleaded not guilty. jeffrey jakobovitz is a lawyer. >> we heard the government's version of the facts. obviously, there are two sides to the story. >> reporter: prosecutors say the alleged schemers were not subtle with their money, purchasing several expensive sports cars, high end watches, first class plane tickets, and 16 properties. prosecutors say this expensive house in the washington suburbs belonged to the defendant kerry kohn. kohn whose salary what the army corps ranges between $84,000 and $110,000 wrote a down payment on this house for more than $300,000. ei tech did not have to compete with other bidders thanks to special rules, rules which critics say make froud heaud ea. >> this is the stuff that happens when you allow giant no-bid contracts to very tiny companies that then hire somebody on the back end to actually do the work. >> reporter: defenders of the special rules rg that they bring contracting jobs to disadvantaged indian tribes who were treated badly in the past. now as for this case, one prosecutor told me there was a breakdown of internal control of the army corps of engineers that allowed all of this to happen. spokes people for the core and for iac tech say they don't tolerate this contact and cooperating with investigators. >> and there's been some really amazing family intrigue in this whole story as well. >> it is unreal. the father and son duo who were charged in this case, kerry and lee kohn, well they have another family member, son of kerry kohn who is in prison for drug trafficking. prosecutors say when that son heard about what was going on, he sent a letter to his father and brother essentially threatening them saying i'll go to the feds. i know what's going onment i'll go to t on. i'll go to the feds if you pay me a certain amount of money. the son charged in this case lee kohn threatened to kill his brother who tried to extort the money from him they talked about this in a phone conversation. this is part of a court document. a phone conversation between lee kohn and his father talking about the brother. "if anything like that happens, you're losing a son because i will kill that m-fer myself. he makes an f'ing peep, he's going down. i'll have to find somebody locked up to f'ing shank him in there. he's talking about killing his own brother. his defense attorney says that was just in the heat of the moment and maybe these were ill chosen words. >> i would say. >> you would figure that. >> thanks very much, brian, for that report. should president obama have ordered the killing of an american citizen and al qaeda leader? republican candidates newt gingrich and ron paul differ sharply on this issue. my interviews with both of them, those are coming up. plus, some liberal politicians are embracing the occupy wall street movement. i'll ask senator bernie sanders about the political impact of all these protests that are now spreading across the united states. [ male announcer ] robitussin, advil, clorox disinfecting wipes and...a digital recorder. i'm finally feeling better. good honey, you turn into such a little whiner when you're sick. no i don't. [ bawk! ] honey, i'm sick. i can't reach the remote. that sounds nothing like me. [ beep ] honey, i'm sick. i can't reach the remote. that kind of does. [ male announcer ] get low prices every day on everything to prepare for cold and flu season. we're so confident in our low prices, we back 'em with our ad match guarantee. save money. live better. walmart. woohoo! yes! ♪ it was the best day ♪ it was the best day yeah! ♪ it was the best day ♪ because of you [echoing] we make a great pair. huh? progressive and the great outdoors. we make a great pair. right, totally. uh... that's what i was thinking. hmm. covering the things that make the outdoors great. now that's progressive. call or click today. it's been a volatile week in the republican presidential race with dramatic movement in the top tier. and some very provocative comments by the contenders. i spoke with two republican candidates this week, ron paul and newt gingrich. first up, the former house speaker. i'd like you to respond to one of your other rivals for the republican presidential nomination, ron paul. he very much opposed president obama's decision to order the killing off of the leader. listen to what he said today. >> they asked me whether that was an impeachable offense. it is. i mean, just ignoring the fifth amendment and assassinating american citizen without due process? and won't even tell us what the rules are. oh, i bet he's a threat. can you imagine a threat? >> all right. are with you president obama on this issue or with ron paul on this issue? >> well, i wrote a newsletter today entitled obama gets one right. the fact is that congressman paul is wrong about the law much he's wrong about the constitution. if you were an active enemy combatant, if you're actively advocating the killing of american americans. there is footage in a movie of him calling for the killing of americans, we know that he was advising the terrorists who killed 13 americans and wounded 33 at ft. hood. he wasn't in american courts. he wasn't in chicago or new york. he was running around yemen plotting the killing of americans. if you do that, you are an enemy combatant. if you're an enemy combatant, you're subject to military action. you're not subject to going to court. this is not a criminal procedure. this is a war. we have a long precedent for this. you are called a traitor. if he had shown up and turned himself in, then we would have owed him due process as an american citizen. we would are tried him as a traitor. i think we would have convicted him. he has no defense if he's actively trying to encourage the killing of americans. the president was exactly right legally and he was exactly right morally in killing somebody who was a threat to everybody. >> one final question. give me a yes or no if one of the other republican candidates gets the nomination and asks you to be the vice-presidential running mate, is it a yes for you or a no? >> well, it wouldn't be a no. >> sound like a yes. anything? all right. i'll leave it at that. it wouldn't be the first time that a candidate asked somebody with more experience a little bit older president bush asked dick cheney, president obama, as you know, asked joe biden. i wouldn't be surprised if somebody else kept the nomination. i know you wanted the nomination. they turn to you and say will you join me on the ticket. so you're open to. that give me a yes or no? >> ronald reagan once said