- [John] Tonight, pandemic politics.

- I trust vaccines,

I trust scientists,

but I don't trust Donald Trump.

- [John] The war of words heats up

between the CDC director andhis timeline on vaccines.

- I think we're probably looking at

late second quarter, third quarter 2021.

- [John] And pushbackfrom the White House.

- I believe he was confused.

- [John] This after theremnants of Hurricane Sally

soaks parts of the American South.

- Winds were high.

It was whistling like Inever heard anything before.

- [John] Plus...

- Well we don't, we don'treally think of threats

in terms of left and right at the FBI.

- [John] New warnings overthreats to the homeland

and the upcoming US elections.

And tackling big tech's bias.

Some conservative groups

accuse social mediaplatforms of censorship.

All this and more tonighton "Faith Nation."

(rhythmic music)

- The president andothers come out swinging

over the politics of the pandemic.

Hi everyone. Thanks for joining us.

I'm Jenna Browder.

- Good evening, and I'm John Jessup.

A top Democrat in Congresscondemns the attorney general

for comparing the COVIDlockdowns to slavery,

and the case of he said,he said among the president

and one of the administration'sleading health officials.

- This as the daily numberof new coronavirus cases

climbs roughly to 40,000.

Here now, CBN White HouseCorrespondent Ben Kennedy.

Ben, the flap has to do withthe timing of a vaccine.

- Yeah, Jenna, John, you're right.

As reported on Wednesday, theCDC director expects a vaccine

somewhere in theNovember/December timeframe,

but as you guys were just talking about,

President Trump pushed back on that timing

and even reports it won't be available

to the general public.

- I don't think he means that.

I don't think he...

When he said it, Ibelieve he was confused.

- [Ben] Trump said CDC director,Robert Redfield was wrong

when he told lawmakers that a vaccine

won't be widely available until next year.

- If you're asking mewhen is it going to be

generally available to the American public

so we can begin to takeadvantage of vaccine

to get back to our regular life,

I think we're probably looking at third,

late second quarter, third quarter 2021.

- [Ben] "Not true,"

said White House Chiefof Staff Mark Meadows.

- What we're shooting for

is to try to make sure thatwe have 100 million doses

in that first tranche.

Our goal has been to have300 million doses by January.

- [Ben] Trump also suggestedthat Redfield misspoke

when he said wearing a maskis the most effective way

to fight the virus.

- It's not more effectiveby any means than a vaccine.

If you ask him, he would probably say

that he didn't understand the question.

- [Ben] The CDC releaseda statement saying,

"The best defense we currentlyhave against the virus

are the important mitigationefforts of wearing a mask,

washing your hands,and social distancing."

But despite the nation's bestefforts to contain the spread,

the daily rate of new casesincreased in 17 states

and declined in 13.

The US seeing an averageof about 37,000 daily

over the past week.

- In another day or so, wewill go past the 200,000 mark

of those who have diedfrom the coronavirus.

Millions of people infected.

It didn't have to be that way.

- And aside from the House Speaker,

Joe Biden pushed back onthe commander in chief,

saying he's using politicsto interfere with science

after Trump accused both Biden and Harris

of trying to scareAmericans over the vaccine.

John, Jenna.

- All right, Ben Kennedy, thank you.

Meanwhile, some good and badnews on the economy tonight.

Another 860,000 Americans

filed for first-timeunemployment benefits last week.

While that's a weeklydecline in jobless claims,

certainly good newsthere, 12.6 million people

are still collectingtraditional unemployment

compared to 1.7 million a year ago.

- And joining us now is Mark Hamrick,

Washington bureau chief

and senior senior economicanalyst at Bankrate.

Mark, it's always great to see you.

As Jenna just said,unemployment claims are down.

The figures though, still highcompared to even the worst

of the Great Recession.

Mark, what does thatsignal about the durability

of the economic declinecaused by the pandemic?

- Well it certainly signalsto us, John and Jenna,

that it's very much with us.

I think it was very well put

when we had Federal ReserveChairman Jerome Powell

holding his virtual news conference

that I participated in here this week

where he talked about thefact, encouraging news,

that the recovery is underway.

It seems to have gained some momentum here

over the past two months or so,

but that is not to say thatthere isn't more work to do

for the US economy.

Think about the fact that welost about 22 million jobs

in March and April.

We've recovered about half of those

and the weekly jobless claimsthat you referenced there

are an indication thatwe still have more people

who are entering in to unemployment

and are seeking those benefits.

- Yeah.

Certainly encouraging news.

One estimate though, Mark,shows 60% of businesses

that shut down in the pandemic

have permanently closed up shop.

In your opinion, Mark, havewe scratched the surface

when it comes to thedepths of the economic pain

caused by this virus?

- Well, the worst of thedownturn is behind us.

So, you know, we really praythat we will never experience

anything along themagnitude of what we saw

earlier this year when wesaw those huge magnitude

of job cuts March and April.

But the other challenge

that we're going to very much have with us

for some time to come is thepersistence of the downturn,

admittedly, less severethan what it was before,

but still creating the riskof job loss going forward.

So think about the fact

that bars and restaurants,retail, the airlines

are among those on the leadingedge of the crisis still

because of the limitationswe're all facing

related to the pandemic.

And, you know, as you led the show

talking about the urgentsearch for a vaccine,

that's one of the thingsthat gives us hope

that we'll be in a betterplace at some point,

whenever that is, but eventhen, the availability of it,

the usage of it, andit's gonna be a question

about the effectiveness ofit will be very much tied

to the performance of the economy,

our willingness to goback out into public,

and to spend money.

- Mark, you're teeing me up perfectly.

So, speaking of the virus,

yesterday, CDC director saidit would be quarter three

of 2021 before we haveenough of a vaccine supply

for Americans to returnto, quote, "regular life."

How do you interpret thatin terms of the economy

and the effects of onthe average American?

- Well I think we're all lookingevery day for a new thread

to basically hang ourhats on to give us hope.

And the reality is

is that this is a multifacetedeffort that is global,

it encompasses many companies,

and there are a lot of unknowns.

So, I wouldn't want tonecessarily make a big bet

on what the timing of the vaccine will be

because I think we don't really

fully understand that right now.

But the reality is, everyday, we get closer to it

and that means the economy will be closer

to mounting a more robust recovery.

And as Americans, Ithink we share that hope.

It's among the many thingsthat unite us at this point.

- Yeah, one thing that we've seen, Mark,

is a strong housing market inresponse to these lockdowns.

A new monthly report thoughshows US home construction

fell about 5% last month.

How do you read that?

- That's okay becausewe're still basically up

year-over-year on these numbers.

And the weakness that wedid see in this report

was tied to so-calledmultifamily construction,

meaning apartments and condos.

The single family home component

of this report looks pretty good.

All this, mind you,

is a function of recordlow interest rates.

You can thank the Federal Reserve for that

as well as the bond market.

And that has fed intorecord low mortgage rates.

Great time to refinance.

And for those who are qualified

to buy a home, to get a mortgage,

it's a good time for that as well.

Another indication of thishave and have not economy.

- Mark, Congress and Washingtonhas been at an impasse

with this next tranche ofcoronavirus relief package.

Yesterday, the presidenttweeted that he thinks that

the Republicans need to comeup with even more money.

Is it at all likely betweennow and Election Day

that we'll see any movementwith another package

on economic relief?

- Well, you know, if I hadto bet your money, John,

I would have probably said

that we would have lookedfor such legislation

to have been passed by the end of July

when many of the benefits ofthe CARES Act were expiring.

I think maybe the oddsare about even right now.

I think there's pressure onall sides to do something.

Doesn't look great, particularlyin an election year,

for members of Congressand the White House

to produce no further legislation

when we know there is a high level

of suffering and unemployment out there.

And as we know, also, thegovernment's facing the prospect

of running out of moneyby the end of the month,

so, at the very least, they need to pass

a continuing resolution to keepthe government in business.

- All right, Mark Hamrickwith bankrate.com.

It's always good to see you.

We enjoy talking to you. Thank you.

- My great pleasure. Thanks for having me.

- Well tonight, theaftermath of Hurricane Sally

is coming into focus.

The system has beendowngraded to a tropical storm

as it moves further inland.

- That's right, Jenna,and parts of Florida

and Alabama are bracing formore devastating flooding.

CBN's Dale Hurd has the story.

- [Dale] With Sally stilldumping massive amounts of rain

as the storm moved inland,rivers already swollen

could create record floodingin parts of Southern Alabama

and the Florida panhandle.

In the storm's wake,millions along the Gulf Coast

are now in clean-up and recovery mode.

At least one person was killedin Orange Beach, Alabama.

More than a quarter of a million people

still without power in Florida alone.

Sally made landfall asa Category 2 hurricane

near Gulf Shores, Alabama.

- [Reporter] I mean, justlook at the sheer damage

of this building.

A whole second half ripped to the ground.

- [Dale] Docks and marinas were mangled,

trees and power lines snapped like twigs,

and winds topping 100 miles per hour

tore off the steeple of this church.

- Evacuations could literallybe in the thousands,

so it's going to be along time folks, you know,

for us to come out of this thing.

- [Dale] Crews were rescuing

hundreds of people trappedby rising flood waters

and a life-threatening storm surge.

- [Man] We're in chest-deep water.

- [Woman] We just did not expect that.

I think a lot of people didn't realize

what this hurricane was gonna do.

- The rain was pouring throughthe cracks of the doors.

But at a point, it was just flowing in.

- [Dale] This 10-story apartmentbuilding was ripped apart,

exposing the twisted metal inside.

- The house was shaking.

The winds were high.

It was whistling like I'dnever heard anything before.

- [Dale] Massive barges broke loose,

one slamming into the Pensacola Bay Bridge

and knocking out a section of roadway.

Rising waters turnedthese streets into rivers.

- [Woman] Y'all, look at that alligator

that is right outside the window.

He is going into the neighbor's driveway.

- [Dale] Flooding hassince moved into Georgia.

Dale Hurd, CBN News.

- [John] CBN's OperationBlessing disaster relief team

is already answering the critical needs

of Gulf Coast residents.

If you'd like to giveto Operation Blessing,

you can donate to the disaster relief fund

just by calling 1-800-700-7000

or you can simply visit CBN.com.

- And joining us now is Stacy Lamb,

senior director of disasterrelief for Convoy of Hope.

Stacy, it's good to talk to you.

We spoke with you again earlier this week.

You're in Lake Charles, Louisiana.

Tell us what are you seeing there?

Have you been affected by Sally?

- We have not.

We were, as it was coming, youknow, kind of this direction,

we were wondering if wewould feel the effects here,

but we did not.

It moved far enough eastthat there were no effects,

not even a raindrop here in Lake Charles.

- So I know you haveteams in the panhandle

in Alabama and in Florida.

Can you tell us what they'reseeing in terms of devastation?

- Yeah, so we had teams roll into

the Orange Beach, Alabama area today

with a load of resources, and obviously,

they're seeing damage and destruction,

but somewhat differentthan what we saw from Laura

a few weeks ago.

A lot more flooding this time,

as we all know, we'veseen from the reports,

and so they're seeing a lot of that.

But we've got resources on the ground.

They're working with local churches

to get help to the people that need it.

- Stacy, as we just sawon Dale Hurd's package,

there's a lot of flooding,so many people without power.

What are some of the biggestneeds that you're seeing

that you're trying to meet right now?

- We're hearing water.

A lot of the water systemseither preemptively shut down

or shut down because of flooding,

so bottled water is a big need,

tarps from roof damage, things like that.

What we're hearing isa little bit different

than what we heard from Laura

is that they feel like the power

is going to be coming back on

much more quickly than what we saw here

so some of the needs area little bit different.

Not near as many foodneeds and things like that,

but more of the clean-upand those type of things.

- Yeah.

Well, out west, you alsohave teams in California

working with the fires out there.

What's the latest from yourteam's out there, Stacy?

- Yeah, so on our responseto the West Coast fires,

we have over a dozen loads of resources

either already on the groundor en route to various partners

throughout both NorthernCalifornia and Oregon

as we respond to the fires out there,

working with both evacuation centers

for people that may be evacuated

because they're waitingfor the fires to clear

or, in some cases, wherethe fires have been put out

and people are beingallowed back into the areas.

We also have church partners out there

that are helping usdistribute needed resources

to those that are going back in

and finding out if theirhomes are still there,

what their neighborhoods are looking like.

- Stacy real quickly here.

How does this season, interms of natural disasters,

stack up with others?

It seems like we're seeing more and more

of these devastating events.

- It certainly does. I mean,this has been the year.

You hear everybody talk about2020, whether, you know,

COVID's obviously thehuge thing of the year

before the disasters are.

They just keep piling up.

And one of the things, we're down to...

The hurricane season, as you may know,

in the Atlantic basin, theyallow for 21 named storms

each year and we've already done 20.

We're down to one last name.

So it's definitely been a busy year

and there's still a long road ahead of us.

- All right, Stacy Lambwith Convoy of Hope.

Thank you so much.

- You're welcome. Thank you.

- [John] When we come back,

new warnings of an attack on the homeland,

including a growing threat from within.

We explain when "Faith Nation" returns.

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- Welcome back.

Tonight, lawmakers aregetting a better understanding

of the biggest threatsto the United States

after receiving an annualassessment on Capitol Hill.

- The heads of three agencies

were supposed to testify today,

but one was noticeably missing.

CBN National SecurityCorrespondent Eric Philips

joins us now with more on that.

Eric.

- Well, Jenna, that certainlycaused some controversy.

More on that in just a moment.

But every year since 9/11,

the House Homeland Security Committee

has been holding this hearing

to try to gauge the threatagainst the homeland,

that is the domestic threathere and the United States.

And while election securityis on many minds right now,

for obvious reasons, the headof the FBI, Christopher Ray,

made it clear what remainsthe number one threat.

- Terrorism remainsthe FBI's top priority,

although the nature of that threat

has evolved significantly since 9/11.

- [Eric] Specifically,evolving to the home-grown kind

due to sympathizers of groups like ISIS

as well as domestic terrorists,

many driven by racist ideologies.

So far this year, therehave been 120 arrests

for domestic terrorism.

- Often, lone actors, inspiredby foreign terrorists,

self-radicalized online andmotivated to attack soft targets

with readily available weapons.

- [Eric] Ray said there is hard evidence

of the Russians attempting to influence

the upcoming presidential election,

and agents are working overtime to find

and prevent that from succeeding.

- Just recently, for example,

we shared threat indicatorswith both Facebook and Twitter

that allowed them totake down fake accounts

created as part of a Russiandisinformation campaign

before those accounts coulddevelop a broader following.

- [Eric] Cyber crimeskeeping authorities busy,

notably from China, hackers seeming

to always be on the attack.

- Including, I should note,

companies developing COVID-19 vaccines,

testing technology, and treatment.

- [Eric] Thursday's hearingwas to also include testimony

from Acting Secretary ofHomeland Security Chad Wolf,

but Wolf was a no-show,causing some controversy.

- It was not until last week

that the department informed the committee

that Mr. Wolf would be reneging

on the commitment totestify in anticipation

of being nominated forSecretary of Homeland Security.

I would note that, despitehis refusal to testify today,

Mr. Wolf has spoken to the media.

Friday, I issued asubpoena for his appearance

in accordance with Houseand committee rules.

Regrettably, he has chosento defy the subpoena.

That he would refuse tocome before the committee,

after committing to do so,should appall every member

of this committee.

- FBI Director ChristopherRay said that violence

against law enforcement isanother growing problem.

He says he has personally committed

to calling every departmentthat loses an officer

so that he can express his condolences.

He says he understands thatdemonstrators are hurting

and he says they have reason to,

but he wants people to realize

that law enforcement is hurting too.

John and Jenna.

- [Jenna] Eric Phillips,thank you very much.

Up next, conservative groupsaccusing big tech of bias

and the effort to stop it.

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Follow your path.

- [Wendy] Nigerian Christians

are being slaughtered- Christians in Iran

- every day.- are routinely arrested

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continue to suffer.

- [Announcer] In timesof trial and affliction,

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- One of the fastest growingChristian populations

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- [Announcer] Join WendyGriffith and George Thomas

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- [Woman] Young people are the ones

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- [Announcer] Powerfulstories of suffering and hope

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Watch "Christian WorldNews" Saturday at 5:00 p.m.

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- Welcome back.

Well social giants like likeFacebook, Twitter, and Google

may deny it, but moreand more conservatives

say they are facing censorship.

- That's right, now aneffort is coming together

to fight it.

Here's CBN's Paul Strand.

- [Paul] The conservativeMedia Research Center

announced a new alliance

that's gonna fight the big tech companies

over the censoring ofconservative speech, websites,

and people all the wayup to the president.

- If they can do it to thepresident of the United States,

they can do it to anyone, and in fact,

that is exactly what's happening.

- [Paul] This new effort,Free Speech America,

will track and report thiscensoring on its website,

CensorTrack.org.

- Mother Theresa isnow deemed hate speech.

Is this hate speech?

- [Paul] And they'll work with lawmakers

like Tennessee RepublicanSenator Marsha Blackburn,

who has also been censoredby big tech social media.

- We are no longer givingthem the benefit of the doubt,

that what we are doing isholding them to account.

- [Paul] Who do the socialmedia giants hit the worst?

- Abortion is groundzero for the far left,

and the right to life movement has no home

in Silicon Valley.

The pro-life movement couldn't advertise

the Right to Life March.

- One voice censored justthis week by Facebook

said his group's $4 million ad campaign

to keep women's sportsfree of transgendered men

had been censored, and notbecause its ads weren't factual.

- They had been removing ads

for being fact-checked tobe false or mostly false.

The new rating that theycreated was missing context,

and so whatever that means.

- [Paul] The social media juggernauts

also actively use theirpower to aid the left wing,

one critic pointing to whatFacebook's Mark Zuckerberg

might well deliver forJoe Biden on Election Day.

- An additional 450,000 votes that day

just by sending out Go Vote reminders

just to people who lean left.

- [Paul] Lawyer Kelly Shackleford

sees this effort possibly steering victims

to come down hard on these tech giants

with crushing lawsuits.

- All it takes is an attorney general

in a number of thesestates to bring, I mean...

And there are fines perincident per citizen.

And so, this could be a huge way

to really get them under control.

- When you have this kind of censorship,

you really are threatening

the democratic process in this country.

- And that's why we needconservative individuals

and organizations to reachout to us, let us know

when they've encounteredproblems with tech companies.

- Bozell says thecensorship is so widespread,

it will take years, maybe decades,

to wage this war with the tech giants.

Paul Strand, CBN News, Washington.

- [Jenna] Thanks, Paul.

Coming up, a call to worship

right outside the White House.

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- [Announcer] Christians around the world

are standing with the Israelis, but why?

In CBN's free magazine, "Friendsof Israel," you'll discover

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- Don't miss out on this brand new series.

- And finally tonight,since the 2016 election,

one group has heldprayer gatherings online

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And now the 24/7 NationalStrategic Prayer Call

is set up in front of the WhiteHouse for the next 50 days

leading up to the election.

They're calling it 50 Days of Blessing.

♪ Jesus Messiah ♪

♪ Lord of all ♪

- Organizers say the purposeis to pray for the safety

and security of our president and nation

and for the good newsof the gospel of Christ

to go out across America.

- All right, well that's gonna do it

for "Faith Nation" tonight.- Have a good night.

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