White House: Jobs numbers conspiracy ‘utter nonsense’

>>> but these numbers are still seizing the headlines according to conspiracy theories . jobless rate down to 7.8%, the lowest since the president took office. total employment increased 872,000. that's the biggest jump in the monthly number since june 1983 . both candidates weighed in on the numbers. let's take a listen.

>> we have learned that the unemployment rate is now at its lowest level since i took office. more americans are entering the work force . more americans are getting jobs. but too many of our friends and neighbors are still looking for work or struggling to pay the bills. many of them since long before this crisis hit. we owe it to them to keep moving forward. we've come too far to turn back now.

>> do you realize that the number of people in america that participation of our adults in the workforce were the same as at the time he got elected why our unemployment rate would be about 11%. people in this country are having a hard time finding a job. people in this country are having a hard time making ends meet even if they do have a job.

>>> meanwhile the new data sparked a political firestorm. conspiracy theorists who openly suggested the white house manipulated the numbers. forward ceo jack welch led the crowd with this tweet "unbelievable jobs numbers. these chicago guys will do anything can't debate so change numbers". he refused to back down on last night's msnbc.

>> i have no evidence to prove that. i just raised the question.

>> you didn't raise the question. you said these chicago guys will do anything so they change the numbers. you want to take that back?

>> this is an assertion.

>> jimmying with these numbers. corruption here. infiltration or getting to -- it's not funnies jack. you're talking about the president of the united states playing with the bureau of labor statistics numbers. this is mixing stuff. do you want to take back the charge here?

>> i don't want to take back one word in that tweet.

>> oh, this is good. what's the word from the white house folks today on these jobs numbers? are they being cautious about them at all?

>> you heard the president be cautious. the president and his advisers and everybody on down the line is going to be very quick to add that there are millions of people in this country who are out of work, looking for work, who can't find work or working part-time when they really want to be working full time or simply have grown so frustrated they've quit looking for work all together. alex every first friday of every month there's this painful jobs report. the white house tries not to be too optimistic. one more of these reports before election day . i think the president was a little bit out further over the ski tips than he has been in past months as the reports come down the line. it was a dramatic jump relatively speaking to all these others. .3%. that's a lot. households reported a lot of new jobs as far as that side of the equation is concerned. so the white house obviously very pleased. but there is an element of being cautious when the president reacted to it. no question about it

>> yes. let's see a little more of jack welch 's appearance on "hardball" last night. listen to me.

>> do you mean it's a coincidence or do you mean you have evidence that there is corruption?

>> i have no evidence of corruption. none whatsoever.

>> okay. so these chicago guys had nothing to do with the numbers.

>> i don't know that.

>> why did you say that in your tweet? you stand behind this tweet?

>> i want to raise the question of these numbers --

>> you do raise the question.

>> these numbers defy logic. they defy logic.

>> what's the white house doing with this, michael? are they staying away from it?

>> they call it utter nonsense. that was the quote of press secretary briefing aboard air force one yesterday. basically, alex, you have jack welch along with a sometimes controversial congressman from south florida , allan west. and now evidently steve forbes , a former presidential candidate tweeting his endorsement of jack welch . then against almost everybody else in this town, a former economist on here, jared bernstein, said jack welch ought to be ashamed of himself. a former republican white house official also endorsed the integrity of the people who put these numbers together at the bureau of labor statistics . so jack welch and a couple of other people on an island on this one. really an inflammatory attack with no evidence to back it up.

>> mike viqueira at the white