>> moderator: good evening. i'm cannot and i'm pleased to then invited to moderate this debate. we are live in the kbyu studios on the campus of brigham young university in provo for debate between candidates for the united states senate. tonight we will hear from the incumbent republican mike lee ann from his democratic challenger misty snow. we begin with each candidate making a 90-second opening statement. prior to the start of the debate it was determined misty snow will speak first. snow: all right. thank you very much. for civil on like to thank the utah debate commission for hosting this debate and thank all of you for watching this evening. my name is misty snow that i was born writer in the state of utah and lived my entire life in utah. i have a deep connection to the

state into its people and a deeper appreciation for the history and culture of the state. i am 31 pickup i'm elected, i will be the very first millennial in the u.s. senate making be a voice for my generation. i work at a grocery store. i am a working class person who understands the needs of working class people and their family. i understand what it's like to the paycheck to paycheck to understand what average people all across the nation are going to on a day-to-day basis. many people throughout the country feel that congress is out of touch and no longer represents them. i believe if we want a government that truly represents working-class people, we need to elect more working-class people to cover. as your senator i will fight to ensure that our workers have a living wage, i will fight to ensure our children have clean air to breathe and clean water to drink, i want to ensure our mothers have paid maternity leave and our women are paid equally. i want to fight to get money out of politics.

i am not a career politician. i am not a washington insider. i am so that it isn't in washington. i can somehow be a new voice in congress, a fresh voice, a voice that is needed to a voice that is currently underrepresented. a voice tha with which we repret working-class people in this country. lee: thank you. also want to thank the debate commission for putting this togethethistogether and want tou for housing to see. it's good to be back. when i ran for the senate for the first time in 2010, i promised to be a different kind of senator. i made two promises. first, i promise that i would fight everyday to protect and defend the constitution of the united states. against an increase of a dysfunctional status quo in washington. second, i also promised not only to oppose bad ideas but also to

propose good ideas, better ideas. i've kept these promises. over the last six years i have bought every single day against washington's this module status quo in all three branches of government. over the years i've held to ban earmarks, to overturn is an obama's unconstitutional recess appointments, and to end once and for all washington's warrantless surveillance against u.s. citizens. i've also work with democrats and republicans, with liberals and conservatives to develop a new reform agenda, an agenda with big ideas to help working-class families, big ideas including creating new jobs, growing wages and expanding opportunity for all americans, especially those families and communities that washington's status quo has left behind. thanks to all of you for doing it. i look forward to our discussi

discussion. >> moderator: the utah debate commission has established a format that allows each candidate 90-second for the initial response to a question. questions for tonight's debate come from students and individuals submitted their questions to the utah debate commission website. i'll begin with this question submitted by haley and the coast of ms. snow first. she says the least involved the group in politics is college age students in public the most important issue to most of them is being able to afford their education. what will you do to make college more affordable? snow: obviously as somebody who is a millennial this is an issue i actually care a lot about because this is an issue that has a big effect on my generation. many people of my generation go to college. they find that college is almost unaffordable. a lot of people, they been skipping going to college because they determined the costs are not worth it.

they know that if they go to college they might get their degree but they will leave college with tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt. i find that unacceptable. we need to make college affordable, accessible. automation benefits of from a more educated populace. what i think we should do is try to make the student loans, thus giving a lower interest rate the why is this the government tried to make money off the backs of our students wha quick we are charging about 6% interest on student loans. we are giving thanks loans farm near zero interest. why can't we give our students the same deal? for the board we have a lot of grants and stuff available for students who want to go to college. it might cost the government about $63 billion the year. but another report showed we could make state university tuition free for about the cost of $75 billion a year, a difference of about $12 billion. i think that might be a better plan that would make college more affordable and more

accessible to people who are, want to be able to choose their careers they want instead of being forced into one. lee: ms. snow and i agree in many respects of higher education i agree, for example, are better off as a country when we have will educate citizens. we end up with a bigger and better tax base. everyone prospers when they have access to an affordable high court education. i completely agree the federal government should not be in the business of making money off of this paper country of which the government parts and the rate it charges to the. my belief the federal government ought not be in the business of commentary the student industry in the first place. the fact is we create a dynamic that has resulted in tuition hikes. we've got the federal government and the u.s. department of education, the accrediting bodies and institutions of higher learning. which collectively restrict entry into this industry. when you restrict entry to simultaneously subsidize people

gaining access to the services offered in the industry. you hiked prices. what we need is to increase competition in this field, field where competition is badly lacking. i've introduced the higher education reform opportunity act. has as its purpose more competition higher education along the states to a credit on their own so that alternative provider of our educational expense whether its massive online open course or professional certification the project programs or otherwise can also participate the one thing we know about increasing competition, two things always happen. prices tend to go down and quality tends to go a. that's what my bill would do. >> moderator: ask a quick follow. agree on much of this but the follow-up is, in light of what senator lee just said how do you do for profit education which has expressed some controversy with some of them having to be closed parks what would you do about the for-profit sector of

higher education, ms. snow? snow: the for-profit colleges, they are less affordable because they're trying to make a profit and i think, when we talk about accreditation i think trying to lose standards isn't a good idea because we don't want the for-profit colleges being considered equal to actual respected institution like brigham young university. we want to the standards and i think it's important that people are going to college, education is worth the money they are paying for. lee: the fact that some for-profit schools are bad doesn't mean they are all bad. so with nonprofits. in fact there are a whole lot of nonprofit schools that are good, doesn't mean they're all good. each school needs to be evaluated on the basis of its results. by their fruits you shall know that that's as to in higher education as it is anywhere else. we need to encourage competition, and that will help

bring down under in quality of intuition to transcend the next question comes from i believe a student at brigham young university. >> i would like to know what specific actions and legislation you would take to address the issue of climate change if you're elected to office. lee: a big debate in our society about climate change. there can be no dispute that the climate is changing. climate change. it's what did you. they always have and always will. some of the greatest debates around whether and to what weight to what extent human beings are responsible for the change in climate. even more critically, what, if anything, we can do to change that. what i struggle with the most with this question is that every poll i've heard of that we're trying to put the government in the middle of a significant fix it would do little or nothing to

affect climate change but with simultaneously threatens to devastate the economy. as president obama admitted just a few years ago, if we adopted cap-and-trade, if w we have adopted any other proposals i'm aware of, it would cause energy prices necessary to skyrocket. let's think about what that means. that is effectively a backdoor in physical tax increase on the poor, the most aggressive type of expense that you can imagine. this disproportional effects poor and middle-class americans who would be stuck paying higher prices on everything they buy. and but also pay for with diminished wages, unemployment and under implement. best way we can get to a cleaner environment are meant greater efficiencies and fewer greenhouse gas emissions is through innovation and innovation is most likely to happen when we allow our free market economy to prosper. people will build a better mousetrap and a better car and a better powerpoint if we have a free market economy in place. snow: thank you very much for

this question to the issue of climate change is a very important one. despite what some of what senator lee said, i'm a change is real but even if you don't believe climate change is real, here in utah we have a problem with air quality. polling shows no state has more dissatisfied with its air quality than utah at a lot of the solution to prevent climate change are a lot of the same solutions that are needed to reduce air pollution. what i would like to propose is that a country starts making investments in two cleaner energy such as solar, wind, also greater transportation structure. the cost of not doing this is negative impacts on health of our citizens, especially our elderly, children, pregnant mothers, and the art economic cost to those health problems. out until it leads to shorter lifespan and higher health care cost. the cost of not doing something i think is too high. i don't think it would cost too

much to start making this investment. in utah we raised the price of gasoline tax by about 5 cents a gallon. most people probably didn't know that until i just mentioned it but it was well absorbed by the economy and most people didn't know that we could do something that nationwide, small tax 5 cents per gallon nationwide can well absorbed and that money could be used to make investments in solar, wind and integrated transportation infrastructure. is necessary we make these investments because the price of not doing it is i think you ought of the cost of our health and our future trends have yet engaged each other on this question so i will invite a rebuttal to the question is worded was what's the role of government in legislation or regulation. to each of you what is the role of government in fostering innovation, which you mentioned, senator lee. on the specific roles for government that you think ought to be in balance and in what ways do disagree senator lee's position?

senator lee cover it is a very important role to play. government needs to continue setting limits for emissions. in the case of utah one of the things we struggle with his oh so. one of the problems that we have is that we've got these one size fits all rules that apply to broad swaths of the country. with these unique geography that might make our situation more difficult. that's what i i do is what i support legislation that would create, increase let's build on the part of the state so they can address those geographic unique aspects of our state's. snow: obviously it's, the federal government can play a very constructive role as i said. we can start making investments into solar coming to when and again when you talk about economic and jobs go there's a lot of jobs to be great in these industries. solar energy is one of the fastest growing industries in this country. the government is trying to make investments in these industries, create new jobs and that will

help spur economic growth trends in let's go to the next questi question. [inaudible] -- or even hostile toward each other the americans have become less and less confident in congress' ability to make laws to the widespread gridlock in both houses. would you compromise with the opposition to pass laws backs. snow: i think there's a lot of issues that resonate with the majority of people. there's been a number of laws that are passed with wide bipartisan support at a don't think just because there's on certain issues that you can't find agreement on, there are a lot of issues we can find agreement on. there's a lot of critical issues that i think are very popular. such as like the need for like paid maternity leave. it's a pocket issue. united states of america is one of two country in the entire world along with papua, new guinea, that is confronting offer its mothers and maternity

leave. by 2012 poll showed 86% people in this country support guaranteed paid maternity particularly 73% of republicans. is a popular issue precisely because everybody has them by the everybody knows someone has given birth. i think we can finally ensure that our mothers in this country have access to paid maternity like every other country. it just takes some people in congress to draft legislation to advocate for it. i think we could probably pass a bill like that with wide apart the agreement because it is an issue i think the resonance with a lot of people, especially coming from a state like utah which does have the nation's highest birthrate. on a number of other issues we saw countless bills passed like 90% of the senate integrated everything we can still do that. it might be some disagreement on certain issues but on other issues i think there is a lot of agreement to be found. lee: there are as ms. snow correctly notes a lot of areas in which the parties are

deadlocked. they are just irreconcilably in conflict and they're doing this not just to be often. they're doing this because the people themselves that they represent have different opinions. people across this country have somewhat different vision. ms. snow is correct to point out there are a lot of other areas where that's not the case. this is what my favorite parts about being a center. i'm constantly looking for errors will be confined a partial agreement. it's one of the original if you just i was troubled by the fact that federal government through the nsa was collecting data on your phone calls. anyone's phone calls. the vocals of every single american. they knew you called, who called you, when you talk and along the spoke. they kept it for five years. this bothered me so i start looking for allies. i found an outlet and my friend pat leahy. ballet as a liberal democrat from vermont. and i very rarely described that way. he and i put together a

bipartisan compromise, solution called the u.s.a. freedom. initially the members of my party, the republican party, were very reluctant to go along with this. the democrats were overwhelming support of but we got passed with almost all the democrats and about half the republicans in the senate voted for it and president obama signed into law. this is a good example of where this type of conflict as possible transit i think your larger integrated editing tangibles at you would be willing to compromise with some from the other party so there's no reason to promote. rachel has our next question. >> some republican leaders have advocated a total shutdown of islamic immigration osha and the emigration from dangerous areas. what are your views on this policy? lee: as a religious minority myself, as a descendent of people who ordered extra made by the government of missouri come

on strong against any kind of religious test. .. you've got to be careful but we know who it is we are letting in and we have a good idea of whether or not they have the potential to be good us citizens, to fit in well, abide by our values, respect their fellow americans though i think every time we take someone in, particularly when taking in refugees from war-torn country like syria,

we've got to make sure we have procedures in place to make sure we know who we are taking in. this is difficult with syria because in syria, they have no established reliable record-keeping system. to the extent they had one before the civil war, it's been badly damaged and weekend so we are going to have to undertake an extra cautious effort to make sure that we have something to back that up, so we know who is coming in. >> i kind of agree with much of what mike said about religion. i don't think we should be favoring immigrants or refugees of one religion over another. it's very antithetical to the values of our nation. we shall not establish or paper run religion over another or established one religion over another and i think that should apply to when we are talking about our immigration policy as well. this is something that requires a lot of compassion. people are coming from syriaor iraq or anyone else,

these people are trying to escape a bad situation, trying to escape the war, trying to escape poverty , in many cases certain death from war that is happening there. there's a lot of different forces like from isis and other groups, honestly there's warm. a lot of innocent people caught in the middle of that and i think as a nation we should show these people compassion. i think it's okay to accept refugees from syria and elsewhere, the united states of america does have one of the most stringent vetting processes of any nation in the world when it comes to taking in refugees and their religion should not matter. our constitution protects the rights of all people to practice religion regardless of what it is and people of all faiths, i think add to the great diversity of our nation. it makes our nation what it is. >> i'm hearing you, you largely agree with each other in terms of the principle but there may be some

disagreement on the vetting process so a follow-up question, are you confident the vetting question in cases other than syria and secondarily when you support donald trump's position of an across-the-board prohibition for muslims? >> the second part of the question, no, heck no, absolutely not, never. >> that's a waist high fastball i guess . >> i can't ever support that. the other part of your question, >> not involved. >> really speaking, we do a decent job in vetting people who come here as refugees. syria is a notable exception and we need to know that isis is ms. manipulating refugee programs to carry out terrorist activities and we can't let that happen.>> missed snow, the question about vetting but also where you stand on trump's platform. >> donald trump is wrong on that issue and that's something that antithetical to our values. obviously syria is problematic but vetting process is stringent if there is for whatever reason we

have concerns. i trust our immigration services, i trust our security services. we have a lot of confidence in our government on this issue because it has been proven to be very effective, we've had very few problems with refugees coming into this nation from syria or elsewhere. >> thank you for your answers, next question is from orlo higher . >> most americans are concerned about gun violence in their communities. with the ever-increasing rash of mass shootings, many polls indicate a majority of americans favor tighter gun control laws. without theirsecond amendment rights , the sportsmen and individuals seeking self-defense, and in the spirit of bipartisan compromise, what is to be done in congress to address this problem?

>> missed snow. >> obviously this is a huge issue. we've seen several mass shootings over the past year including one of the worst in our nations history in orlando back in june i think what we need to do, when we talk about polling, a poll from august in the state of utah from public policy shows 81 percent of utah once universal background checks on all gun purchases and 87 percent of all your times would like to see people in the terrorist watchlist have a ban on firearms, these are popular ideas and because they are popular i think we could get bipartisan support on that. obviously there might be issues without the terrorist watchlist is structured but i think it does give us a good idea on what the public wants, on how to move forward on this issue and i think we can find a way to balance legitimate safety needs of our citizens without violating their constitutional rights. on the flip tide, why are we allowing people on terrorist watchlist to buy firearms, we are currently banning people who use marijuana in state laws like in california from

being able to buy firearms so i think it's a bit of an inconsistency in that we are banning people who use this in accordance to their state law to buy firearms but we are okay with allowing people who are on a terrorist watchlist to buy firearms. i don't see a lot of leadership from mike lee on this issue, i would like to see him support and do the federal prohibition of marijuana and protect the rights of legal cannabis users to buy firearms. >> senator lee. >> i agree we shouldn't let terrorists have guns. i agree that we shouldn't let convicted felons have access to guns. and i recognize the fact that polling data often results in numbers like those that you cited. we do have to remember that what we vote on in congress are not polling questions. they are legislation. we have to feed the actual bill. three years ago there was a big push for gun-control measures by a couple of my colleagues.two in the media

and people around town in washington were predicting this would pass, it would pass overwhelmingly. it would be signed into law by the president and nothing would change it. curiously, you had many if not most members of the united states senate signing onto this legislation before it had even been written, true story. this happens sometimes. i remember friday when the legislation was finally released. it had 50 or 60 cosponsors but no one had yet ready because it didn't exist. i spent the weekend reviewing it. it's a habit of mine, i like to read bills before i vote on them and what i discovered was this bill would do little or nothing at all to stop violent crime. but what it would do is dramatically restrict those who were already law-abiding citizens so every time i review gun-control

legislation i review it with an eye towards as you said respecting the second amendment and also the rights of the law-abiding and comparing what that would do if anything to protect americans from violent crime . >> equipped follow-up with each of you on this. mrs. snow mentioned something about candidates which is legal in some places butwould prohibit them from getting firearms, your response on that question . for missed snow, the question on assault weapons and other kinds of weapons you think may be worthy of some prohibition, if any. >> ms. snow: you're asking me about legalization. >> moderater: legalization of marijuana is linked to the ability to acquire firearms. >> ms. snow: this brings up interesting topics. as a matter of first principles i think it would make the most sense to allow states the option of deciding which medical treatment or appropriate in that state rather than having that decision be made by government bureaucrats in

washington. it is not the system of law we have in place. we currently have a nationwide criminal band on a number of things including marijuana so there is a debate on this, it's a debate that warrants further study but as a matter of first principles i think states ought to have the right to decide what benefits people in that state so people don't have to wait for years at a time pending fda approval. >> sen. lee: i don't have any issues necessarily, i think we should try to work with, i agree on universal background checks and maybe restricting people from being able to buy firearms before we talk about banning certain types of firearms and taking people's guns away and also it's why i care so much about federal prohibition of marijuana, i think it's created this issue where most have cannabis legal for medicinal purposes including in the state of utah where we have cannabis legal for the treatment of epilepsy. i find it problematic that a

lot of people who are using marijuana in accordance with state law are now running into issues where they can no longer own firearms . >> moderater: we got two questions for the time of one and now near the midpoint of our time tonight, we welcome you once again to this debate between misty snow and mike lee, candidates for the united states senate. you are joining us live on the campus of brigham young university in provo. this debate held in 2014 and 2016 are the group of the citizens and media outlets joining together to broadcast statewide a series of exchanges between candidates for statewide and federal offices. lessons for this debate were submitted in advance at the utah commission website. utah debate.org. the aim is to better inform you, the voter about the candidates. now back to the questions. >> moderater: the next question goes to tim anderson. senator lee first. >> what is the proper balance

between religious liberties and the rights of the gay and bisexual transgender citizens? are we near the balance now and if not, what would you advocate? >> sen. lee: thank you for your question kim, this is an important issue. today it's important to understand there are two types of discrimination in our society. one type of discrimination we might call private is what happens when two individuals interact. another type which we might call public discrimination is when government itself discriminates against its own disfavored citizens based on some characteristic disfavored by those in power. both forms of discrimination can be deadly and ugly and some of the worst things we see but between the two, public discrimination is perhaps the most dangerous. it undoubtedly is for the simple reason that when government is this favoring people based on their characteristics that government doesn't like, people don't have any choice, vacant not interact with their government. there is moreover a disparity in their power and ability to

resist because governments particularly the federal government operates with overpowering force, it's what governments do, it's why they exist in the first place so that's why we got to be careful whenever government starts to discriminate on the basis of a disfavored religious belief. i'm fully convinced that lgbt rights andreligious liberties can thrive in the same environment and what the government needs to do is take a position of nondiscrimination. it's notgoing to discriminate on people based on their religious beliefs and will treat all citizens regardless of race or regardless of their sexual orientation with dignity and compassion and respect . >> moderater: ms. snow . >> ms. snow: i believe all people deserve equal protection under the law as in the 14th amendment and that extends to lgbt people. the balance of religious rights and minorities is that

people have the right to believe in whatever religion they want, believe in whatever god or goddess they want. they believe they have the right to worship how they want and there's a lot of great cherished values of our nation. at the same time, you cannot use those rights to supersede the rights of others. religious rights, like all rights and the rights of other individuals begin. just as you cannot yell fire in a crowded theater, you cannot use your religion as an excuse to discriminate against someone. the supreme court has ruled that business for example cannot discriminate against an interracial couple based on their religion and as per the equal protection cause in the 14th amendment, they should not be able to discriminate against same-sex couples for the same reason. i think it is possible for all rights of people, i don't think it's a problem to say if you own a business you need to create all customers

equally as you would treat any other. if you would favor some customers over others, you should be able to serve only christians or white people and you should only be able to serve straight people. i think most people agree with that. you need to show equal treatment and show love and compassion to all people.as a senator i will absolutely support the equal rights for lgbt people without exception. >> moderater: thank you for your answers, would either of you like time for rebuttal? >> ms. snow: >> sen. lee: i'm fine. >> moderater: the bill called the first amendment syntax is the purpose of which is to prohibit the federal government or any of its agencies or departments from discriminating against any religious institution or individual . based on a religious belief about marriage. regardless of what your religious beliefs about marriage are, and regardless of what your neighbor might believe from a religious

standpoint about marriage, neither you your your neighbor should ever be discriminated against by government based on that belief. >> moderater: a response? >> ms. snow: absolutely. the problem with bills like the first amendment defense act is and allows pretty much legalizes discrimination in the name of religion. let's say you have a hospital owned by the catholic church. it would be wrong for the hospital to be able to discriminate against somebody who needs life-saving medical care just because they are lgbt. there's an issue where back in the year 2000, there was a man named robert eaves was a transgender man. he had varying cancer. he was denied access to 13 different hospitals on the basis that he was transgender and he did died from his condition due to discrimination by private hospitals.

>> sen. lee: i'd like to respond to that if i could. >> moderater: 10 second response. >> sen. lee: you take a look at the first amendment defense act, it does not cover what you describe. what were talking about here is protecting religious individuals and institutions like byu so the tax-exempt that is cannot bedenied. so no adverse action can be taken based on their religious beliefs . >> moderater: 10 seconds as well. >> ms. snow: i would encourage religious institutions like byu to treat all students equally regardless of whether or not they are isis lgbt. >> moderater: let's go to the next question. i would like you to hold your applause. let's go to the next question, blake ringer and this one goes to ms. snow first on the precipice of government shutdowns because we cannot pass a budget. sen. lee, you are a supporter of shutting down the government in 2013. under what circumstances would you support shutting down the government if reelected and to ms. snow, under what circumstances if any would you support that?

>> ms. snow: i don't think congressman should shut down the government. congress has a duty to government and balance the budget, that government shutdown of 2013, mike lee was a huge part of think was a shameful part of our nation's history and it was really about trying to, whether or not we should give healthcare to our citizens which, again, mike lee and other republicans didn't offer an alternative to the affordable care act, they just felt the affordable care act was unconstitutional but of course a court ruled the affordable care act is constitutional. why the government was shut down, utah lost about $30

million according to governor herbert. the federal government is the largest employer in the state of utah, it employs about 35,000 people. during the shutdown,those people were out of work. they didn't know when their next paycheck would be and people who live with them, their families, their children, they were struggling because they weren't sure whether there was going to be another paycheck anytime soon. it hurts the public employees . at utah we have five national parks, multiple national monuments, billions of acres of other public plans. there's a lot of tourism in the state, a lot of communities that depend on the national parks in places like moab, even cedar city, they depend on a lot of tourism in the community, tourism is the lifeblood of those communities. during the shutdown people were coming to their hotels or restaurants, people were buying stuff that their gift shops and that hurts those communities and shutting down the government is no way to lead and i do everything i can take the government working for the people, that's what i was sent there to do. >> moderater: senatorlee . >> sen. lee: let me tell you what happened in 2013. we learned president obama had written a 14th amendment of that without any authority

under the constitution. he said it was necessary because as he explained it, obamacare was not ready to be implemented as written. based on that explanation, i and other members of the house and senate said , if it's not ready to be implemented, let's not sign it into implementation. it was set to kick in on january 1, 2014. what we proposed was that we not funded for the first year because president obama said it wasn't ready. we know now what he meant when he said it was ready. we know now that people have seen premium increases year after year and recently one of utah's just health insurers announced yet another increase, this one 40 percent premium increase that will hit ratepayers next year. what we suggested was that we had at least two votes to fund the government, that's one of the big problems of washington to push all the questions is the one built with only a few hours or days to go. we said let's have at least two boards. there must be more than that

but let's have at least two. one on whether to on obamacare. let's have another vote on funding for everything else in the government. president obama said no. unless you are willing to put everything in government including obamacare, i won't let you fund anything. not veterans benefits, not national parks, nothing else. president obama shut down the government. you've been told otherwise by the media but they are wrong . >> moderater: a response? >> ms. snow: the government was shut down, they could have done more. the senate could have done more to prevent that. i don't think it was all obama's fault. they did put a lot of provisions in a single bill shutting down the government was such an extreme response to that we are talking about the affordable care act, the affordable care act as been good at reducing the number of people uninsured in this country. a good consumer protection

that allows people to have health insurance without being denied because of pre-existing conditions. obviously we need to do more to ensure that everybody has access to health care but obviously it's a complextopic we can't talk about in 90 seconds. >> moderater: a remodel, sen. lee westmark . >> sen. lee: it's a huge problem in washington, a little bit like what you might experience in an outlying area if you were home on work and there was only one grocery store for miles around. you have to encounter it with your bread, milk and eggs and the cashier says i can't sell you those items unless you also buy a bucket of nails and a ton of iron or and a book about cowboy poetry and a barry manilow album and you say i don't even like barry manilow and they saytoo bad. unless you buy all these items, one of every item in the store, you can't buy this. this is how washington has been pulling itself. it's wrong and it has to stop . >> moderater: the next question i will pose for both sen. lee and ms. snow, some senators have held open the

possibility of moving on a boat to confirm merrick garland for the united states supreme court before the president's warning in january. mitch mcconnell has said the newly elected president should name that next justice. justice scalia's replacement. elected would you vote to confirm merrickgarland to the supreme court, why or nine why not? who would you include on your shortlist for supreme court justices and why, sen. lee first . >> sen. lee: people talk about the supreme court vacancy and it is currently open. those who watch judge garland confirmed as justice garland are often using the talking point that senate needs to do its job, senate needs to act. the senate does act. it asked anytime this the president nominates someone. the senate passed in some cases by holding votes and voting for the person of

meaning confirming a person. the senate can also do that with both the person down. the senate acts and speaks when it chooses not to hold hearings or vote because that's the same result as voting the person down. this is the senate's prerogative and it's a prerogative taken seriously because the senate is a political body and it into the appointment process for a reason. it's a reason to become increasingly important in recent years because the supreme court is already involving itself in the process of deciding all kinds of issues that are possibly debated matters of public policy. it's decided issues ranging from the sanctity of unborn human life to the definition of marriage and everything else in between so with that politicization of the supreme court, it shouldn't be surprising to us that the united states senate has chosen to exercise the power and allow the next president of the united states to fill this vacancy left by the late justice and tony scalia. >> moderater: miss snow.

>> ms. snow: many utah ends with that mike lee isn't doing his job. 69 percent on merrick garland nominated and for whatever reason mike lee doesn't think is a good justice, he cannot do the question and if he's not satisfied he can vote him down and allow obama to nominate another justice. that is how the process is supposed to work and i think it is shameful that every day our nation is setting a new record for the longest vacancy in the history of our nation on the supreme court. when, as a us senator i would be willing to give merrick garland a hearing or whoever else the sitting president nominates. i give him a fair hearing and vote them up or down based on merits, that is what polling shows a majority of utah wants and including the majority of your time. it's also an issue where having vacancies on the court prevents courts from working effectively.

since scalia's death, we've had a number of 4 to 4 decisions which have in effect allow lower court rulings to stand and it's always had, they've always decided it for issues on face the nation, you can go back to the 19th century, go back to even early parts of the 20th century. they've always ruled on the constitutionality of laws and i think that is their purpose. i think that's how it needs to work, to confirm that nominee, to fill that vacancy as soon as possible. >> moderater: a remodel with a quick follow up, how long would you allow such. to go without a hearing for a vote if you are willing to say the senate is acting by not voting and under what circumstances would you support a nominee from an opposing party that you disagree with? you would still bring it to a vote is a question i would like to follow up on you with ms. snow, sen. lee?

>> sen. lee: that is really the decision of the majority leader. that's going to be up to the consumer in the next congress, not up to me. i'm going to be clear about one thing with judge garland area it is open season, it's a well-known fact that it judge garland will was confirmed, judge garland would reliably vote with a block of justices that includes miss ginsburg, breyer, kagan and soto mayor. if you like the agenda pushed by those judges then you would want to confirm judge garland. if not, youmight feel differently. >> moderater: miss snow . >> ms. snow: i disagree that judge garland would be as liberal as mike lee says. when he was approved to a lower court he has spoken of highly by senator orrin hatch because he is a fairly moderate justice and is the most conservative justice a democratic president has nominated in recent years. what would get to support a nominee of an opposing party, it just depends on how they

answer the questions. the most important issue would be if the justices willing to overturn citizens united. in the past we had justices confirmed with bipartisan support and i believe justice scalia was confirmed unanimously by state so it is possible to have bipartisan consensus. >> moderater: let's go tothe next question from sam williams and this will first go to ms. snow . >> will you support the transpacific partnership which aims to strengthen economic ties between partnering nations in the pacific rim by slashing terrorist trains, why or why not? >>

i find that very problematic. of our congress is supposed to vote on such bill that is important to know what is in it, there needs to be transparency. having a trade bill written by congress, was written by a corporation. the trade deal, past trade deals like the north american free trade agreement might have increased trade, and the american workers hurt workers abroad and there are no labor protections, no wage standards in those laws and in our nation workers are forced to compete with brutalized child labor, in filthy conditions and applies to a number of corporations moving abroad where labor is cheaper and we need to have fair trade

deals protecting workers and not only free-trade deals. >> senator lee. >> transpacific hardship is an international trade agreement, free-trade is good for consumers because it gives consumers access to more affordable products, good for manufacturers including manufacturers in utah, and other businesses, transact international giving them access to new markets. when reviewing this or any other trade agreement my central inquiry is how will this promote free trade? more to promote free trade than restrict it and is there any other reason? willits subject american policymaking and american sovereignty, the free will of the democratic republic? >> an international tribunal of people making decisions. with the transpacific partnership in particular this requires a lot of stuff because

it is more than 5000 pages long. i agree with miss snow that there's a problem with transparency. when i went to read it it was not public. i had to go into this bunker under the capital to review it. i couldn't take any parts of it outside the capital and it wasn't subject to public disclosure. it is out, i am reviewing it, it is 5000 pages long. if it does promote free trade and doesn't diminish national sovereignty by subjecting us law to international tribunal, my decision is not made on this point yet. >> you have been very good staying on time so we go to the next question, a 45 seconds answer. stephen jamison will ask the question. >> what is the most important message about our country that you as a united states senator would share with high school

students studying american history? snow: i would say current events, pay attention to what is happening in the country and as you get older pay attention to the political process. there's a problem currently with my generation of millennials number we are the largest voting bloc but we are not exercising our power and it is important they come of age and become active citizens and vote, that is the message i would like our young people growing up to have, pay attention to how government works. >> senator lee. lee: the most important message i would have to focus on is the u.s. constitution. this document written by the hand of wise men, for that very purpose, has fostered the development of the greatest civilization the world has ever known by limiting government power not just because we want small government but we want strong citizens.

the u.s. constitution is often misunderstood and too seldom read anymore, not even taught as much as it should be in schools. its most important features is it limits power in two ways, by keeping power close to the people and making sure the power is exercised only by their elected representatives. if we learn and read the constitution and understand it as a people we will be better off as a result. >> we are approaching the conclusion of this hour. we have time for each candidate to present a one minute closing statement. it was determined senator lee will speak first. lee: thank you very much. i want to thank the great commission for hosting this event and thank my opponent, miss snow, for being here. this has been a great discussion. today six of the wealthiest counties in the united states are in the washington dc area.

this is an area that manufactures basically nothing. it is not a technological innovation hub, it is not the home of any vast collection of natural resources. the wealth is there because the power is there concentrated in the hands of washington elites, elected officials and government bureaucrats. i am asking for your vote tonight for the same reason i asked for your vote back in 2010. to allow me to serve the people of utah by dismantling the concentration of power in washington dc and restore the separation of powers put in place by the u.s. constitution. i am running to put power back where it belongs, in your hometowns, your neighborhoods, your families and your communities. i am running so i can return

power back to you. thank you very much. >> miss snow. snow: thank you very much for hosting this debate and i think mike lee for debating with me. this has been a great privilege. i hope you understand there are some key differences between senator mike lee and i. i am a working-class person who lived my entire life in utah, i represent working-class issues with a number of issues i would like to have talked about didn't get brought up. when we talked about protecting women, i like to point out senator mike lee voted against renewal in 2013 as blocked aid which is forcing children to drink water with lead and contaminated -- i would like to discuss those issues. they were not brought up in the debate but mike lee's actions on those topics were very

problematic and we need somebody who wants to protect our most vulnerable citizens including our women and children and i will be such a senator. you have more power than you realize, you have the power represent working-class people in the u.s. senate and i encourage you to exercise that power, thank you very much. [applause] >> my thanks to mike lee and misty snow for their participation in the they are candidates for the united states senate, thanks to those who submitted and asked questions and special appreciation to the administration, faculty, staff and students for hosting this event on their campus. the next debate will be at 6:00 pm on monday october 17th from weaver state university in august, that will feature candidates, and if you would like to defend that debate featuring the third

congressional district candidates. and submitted for consideration, see the utah debate commission website, there you will also find a video archive that will contain this and all of the season's debate. we invite you to exercise your right to vote on or before november 8th. candidates of your choice, i am david mackle be inviting the live audience in joining me in welcoming appreciation for the candidates. [applause] ♪

♪ >> campaign 2016 coverage continues with live debates for us house and senate races. today at 7:00 p.m. richard burke and democrat deborah ross debate the north carolina us senate. friday night at 8:00 eastern the wisconsin u.s. senate debate between republican senator ron johnson and former democrat senator russ feingold followed at 10:00 by republican congressman joe heck and democrat catherine cortez debating for the nevada u.s. senate. watch complete campaign 2016 coverage on c-span and live on c-span.org and listen on the c-span radio apps.

>> 25 days left until election day. donald trump and hillary clinton recently released online videos on their campaign websites. here is a look. >> by so many measures our country is stronger and more prosperous. than it was eight years ago. we know the progress we made despite forces of opposition, despite the forces of discrimination, despite politics of backlash, that doesn't stop with my presidency. we are just getting started. are you fired up? >> i'm still ready to go. >> if i hear anybody say they're a vote does not matter it doesn't matter who we elect. we got to get people to vote. if you want to give michelle and

me a good sendoff get people registered to vote. if you care about our legacy, realize everything we stand for is at stake, the progress we have made in this election. my name may not be in the ballot but our progress is on the ballot. democracy is on the ballot which justice is on the ballot. good schools are on the ballot. that is on the ballot right now. when candidate will attend those things and another candidate's defining principle, the central theme of his candidacy is competition for all we have done. there is no such thing as a vote that doesn't matter. it all matters.

we have achieved turnout in 2008, 2012, i will consider it a personal insult to my legacy if this community lets down its guard and activates itself in this election. go vote. >> he extracts the most from people because people want to measure up to his expectations. he finds the right person for the right job, the qualifying person for the job put them in that position and gives them a tremendous amount of response ability. he doesn't micromanage the process. he is a mentor to so many and he is kind, something that does not get out there is much as it

should. north carolina's republican governor, pat mccrory, second term this year, state attorney general roy cooper, earlier this week, they moderated this debate between the candidates in the state capital of raleigh. >> this is the north carolina gubernatorial candidate debate. and the citizens of the state by the north carolina association of broadcasters, educational foundation. here is our moderator, chuck todd. >> good evening, i am chuck

todd, welcome to north carolina association of broadcasters educational foundation gubernatorial candidates debate, the governor of north carolina, pat mccrory and attorney general roy cooper, this is happening at a difficult time, north carolinians are without power, flooding remains a threat for so many. you are listening on the radio or screening this debate, thank you, and thank both candidates. let me begin by quickly covering the rules of tonight's debate. we begin with one minute opening statements and then i will post questions directly to the candidates. these questions have been determined by me and members of the news association of north carolina and not reviewed by the candidates or their staff. each candidate will have one minute to respond. i do reserve the right to follow up and we will conclude with 90

experts and a device will notify candidates of the remaining time. in the interest of trying to cover as much ground as possible, we adhere to the time limit so we don't have to. let's welcome the candidates for governor, current owner of north carolina, pat mccrory and attorney general roy cooper. give them a round of applause. [applause] >> i want both to know there is a live audience participating in this debate. by virtue of the coin toss, your one minute opening statement. >> welcome to north carolina. this is a difficult time for the state. i had to announce two hours ago at the emergency center we have lost 17 people in the recent floods. hearts and prayers are with those families and i am proud of our team, the national guard,

the president, emergency operations and all the state and local officials. i want to make an announcement, we need to clarify the announcement that if you below the dam you need to evacuate the area immediately because the engineers have not certified the strength of that damn and i need to make that point very clear, if you are one of the 60 holdouts please do not put yourself at risk or emergency operations people at risk. this is not the crisis i had to deal with as governor, i had to deal with many natural crises but also man-made crises, those are crises i came into three, four years ago and we dealt with those crises and solved them. we are problem solvers and we will be during the next four years. cooper: heart and thoughts and

prayers go out to the victims of flooding. over the next few weeks and months we have to do everything we can to help them. tonight we will talk about our views. for the last four years pat mccrory has taken the state back and throughout this campaign he hasn't been honest, he has failed to make education a priority. that is why we are 41st in teacher pay, he signed house bill 2, discrimination into our law and with the stroke of a pen damaged north carolina's brand costing thousands of jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars. we are on pace for twice as many layoffs this year as last year, so many people in the middle class are asking when they will see a growing economy. we need a good jobs governor, not a house bill governor, good jobs, schools are my priority. i am going to make sure we spread the word across the

country, north carolina is open for business for everyone. >> this is of canceled plans in the state. nba, ncaa have all moved from here. the basketball coach called it embarrassing, majority of voters believe it hurt the state reputation. how do you do that without repealing the law? mccrory: what is embarrassing is a very liberal mayor of charlotte with strong support from our very liberal attorney general started this bathroom mess, one of the biggest fibs in the national press or state press which the bathroom laws were made by republicans. we never brought this issue up. the mayor of charlotte with strong support from the attorney general who decided the entire

private sector, public facilities and say we will find you unless you recognize a brand-new concept of gender identity and gender expression, and major change in culture not just in north carolina but our country. it wasn't needed, wasn't called for. it was the liberals who brought this issue up but i will say this, don't care if you are in the private sector and what your breath rely and shower rules may be. it is none of our business and continues to be none of the business of north carolina but if you are in our schools including rocky mountain, where roy is running commercials from, if you are a manual go to the man's locker room, restaurant or shower. if you're a woman you go to their appropriate shower. no change whatsoever. cooper: house bill 2 writes discrimination into our law and has been a disaster for our economy. paypal, hundreds of jobs, the acc, ncaa, this legislation was

passed in one day and find in the middle of the night and pat mccrory continues to go across the state telling people this is not hurting our economy, businesses who are opposed to it, and what planet are you on? the business community together, we have to get this law repeals, and blaming it on me, president, charlotte, and to repeal house bill 2 now. >> he does not refute the claim that he and jennifer robert started this mess. it has been a swindle that embarrass north carolina. the fact is they made this new definition of gender expression, gender identity which changes the definition of man and woman

and privacy rights, if we don't have leaders stand up for the basic rights of privacy in the nation, in the state, the city, ahead of money, we are losing strong national leadership. >> i am glad governor mccrory admitted the embarrassment in north carolina. we had investors tell us they control $2 trillion worth of assets and they told us this is state government inflicted recession. governor mccrory attacked and 3 days later in wilmington, the chamber of commerce said we needed to attract more capital and more investments in north carolina. >> a standing ovation at the wilmington chamber of commerce. >> follow-ups for both of you, 30 seconds responses to respond to the other.

you declined to defend hb 2, the elected chief law enforcement officer of the state, if you pick and choose laws that defend aren't you setting an example telling citizens to pick and choose laws to follow? >> i took an oath to defend the constitution just like governor mccrory did. i told him not to sign this law, told the legislature it won't happen because it writes discrimination into the law, hundreds of millions of dollars and the governor has spent so much money and so much time and it hurt our brand, it has to stop. >> he stated he is running a multimillion dollar commercial saying he will stop talking about social issues, he wants to cover up the progress we made, lower unemployment, created

300,000 new jobs and lowered taxes. the only issue he wants to talk about is a social issue which means his commercial is a lie. he is fooling the people of north carolina. let's get off social issues, get out of bathroom politics and create jobs in north carolina as we have done. >> as a conservative, as a republican who believes in limited government, you said you didn't want raleigh getting involved in politics around the state. why is it okay for rollie to get involved in charlotte politics? mccrory: charlotte shouldn't create a mandate on business. i was the mayor for years. our line of responsibility is not to create new mandates for business and i don't think hillary clinton and barack obama should do it through the justice department either which is what they are doing in changing the definition of gender. the fact is this will be resolved in the supreme court where it should be, not in politicians hands, 21 other states, the united states of

america joined that effort to stop government overreach into this private issue. >> you used to trust local government. now he doesn't. what you have is legislation that is hurting our state and taking us back and he is the one who has been all over national tv talking about house bill 2 and how important this legislation is to protect people when we all know these are political scare tactics. this law was born in politics and now people are suffering because of it and it has to be repealed. >> it was born in politics. the official who raised millions of dollars on starting this initiative. >> the most famous changed gender is catherine jenner. what bathroom can she used legally in charlotte? i need to get you to answer it.

>> me first? this is the problem. we shouldn't be getting involved in these issues. house build them to, that is what it does. not only is it hurting our economy but it is embarrassing our state. the governor admitted earlier. they didn't have to do this. they should not have done this. there are cities all over this country that have these kinds of ordinances, should trust local governments to make these decisions. >> the voters rejected it by 61% and the most recent basketball championship was played, no objection whatsoever by you or barack obama or anyone else. where she should go is private-sector north carolina should go wherever the private

sector once because we don't want to be the private business of the private sector. if she is going to a shower facility after running around track she will use the men's shower. >> we will go to the economy. running on a carolina come back. income is on the rise. and economic performance. >> carolina come back governor, i want to be come back to carolina governor. jobs come back, the ncaa, you go ask everyday working people, carolina comes back and most of them tell you they are working longer and harder and for less money than they did before the recession and they would be right because wage growth, the

middle class is not seeing the gain from the growing economy in the governor held people, taxes are down, many people have taxes that are up. legislative leadership continues to say house bill 2 is hurting the economy, that is wrong. >> he just did a commercial saying no more social issues, he brought it up four times already. unemployment at a record 9.4%. it is worse in purdue, the governor's you strongly supported for election, 12 years of extreme high taxes, the highest income tax, highest corporate tax in the southeast, south carolina was beating us, under your leadership, it was unacceptable.

when i came to office we lowered our income tax and corporate tax and business taxes, we got rid of 2 $.6 billion debt the we owed the federal government, 2 $.6 billion. if you had been governor you would have borrowed $2 billion and we would have been $4 billion in debt, and another tax on north carolina driving unemployment up even more. this is the philosophy you followed as a state senator and fellow leaders like democrats. it has got to end. >> you promised people a tax cut, came through the corporations at the top and every day working people, and 67 different ways, governor mccrory raised taxes on middle income families and literally talking about literally from birth to death. next time you go to a movie or

get your car repaired, or you buy school supplies, look at the receipt and the taxes or courtesy of pat mccrory he continues to tax the middle-class. that is why the middle-class is hurting. >> the income tax was 7 person. now we reduced below 5%. business and corporate tax down 3% and recruiting businesses again. 300,000 new private sector jobs. if you become governor are you going to raise the income tax, raise the corporate tax? answer that question. will you raise those taxes again? you were against tax reform. are you going to raise taxes again and be less competitive.

>> we do not have to raise taxes to fix what is wrong with our economy. the problem is the middle-class is hurting, wage growth is stagnant whether you like it or not, the income tax and corporate tax cuts, mostly benefited those at the top and the statistics show leaving out the middle-class. this is why you are having trouble being honest with your record and we have seen it time and time again. >> mister cooper raising half $1 million, goldman sachs doesn't care about the middle-class. mister cooper, going to california, and francisco, raising millions of dollars the people in san francisco don't care about middle-class in north carolina, tell them where you are getting your money, their economy.

>> your question first. fixing $1000 which according to north carolina schedule the teacher with a bachelors degree making $50,000 until their 25th year of teaching or the 20th year if they have a masters degree. how can you raise teacher salaries early on you don't risk seeing teachers move to other states for higher-paying jobs. >> that is what we did. my second year as governor i put together proof of the best teachers in the united states of america, roy cooper, mike beasley and purdue's leadership have not given teachers pay raises for 5 to 7 years and we are stuck at $30,000 a year. the recommendation from teachers who said before you give pay raises to anyone else help those teachers with one to 7 years of experience, we raised the pay to $30,000 a year which is still not done but 5000 more dollars,

beverly perdue, with no objection whatsoever during all those years as attorney general, that is progress. i am the only one on stage with the teaching degree who understand what it is like to teach kids. i know how hard it is. i am proud of our teacher and giving them pay raises they deserve. >> my mom was a public school teacher. i have seen how hard they work and understand the challenges, just like his record time and time again the governor is not being honest, they are contrived and do not reflect reality. the fact is we are 41st in teacher pay and 44th in expenditure and we have thousands leaving north carolina for better pay and more respect,

teacher assistants being fired. go listen to teachers and parents and ask if governor mccrory's changes have made a better difference in the classroom. listen to them and see what they say. try to find teachers making $50,000 a year. you need to be straight with people about public education and get your facts straight and to represent your record correctly. >> another proud lawyer who became a politician is john edwards, you are fooling the jury right now and facts, not rhetoric say this is the governor that did help the teachers and there is more to do and i am extremely proud not only that they helped the teachers with pay but also 15 to $16,000 in benefits for our teachers and increased, tripled the rate of money for every school for supplies and books, something clearly missing under the administrations.

>> when i was a senate majority leader, we move teacher pay from 42nd in the country to 21st in four years. governor mccrory had four years and is 41st in teacher pay dues that is wrong for our state. what i will do is invest in education, talk about it and distort my record, embed early childhood, make sure our classrooms -- get teacher pay to the national average. >> stick to the topic, 30 seconds. you said it is still not enough. where is it? why not do it now? >> we finally have a surplus. with a surplus and rainy day fund, the attorney general recommended rainy day fund was too high. rainy day fund was too high, we

had a lot of rain lately and you were telling people we should have spend more of that money and not hold it over the side, it is fiscal responsibility. when i came into office we reduced it to 41. we reduced it to 41 and next year special pay with pay rates, 30s in north carolina. >> when you get the money you want -- where do you get the money? >> responds -- talking about disaster relief, governor mccrory, $500,000 directly out of the disaster relief fund for house bill 2. he wanted money for lawyers her house bill 2, $500,000 out of the disaster fund. what we do is make education a priority.

the governor's priority continues tax giveaways and put it at the top of the list of what we want to do for the national average. >> specific -- >> i have not spent any money on h be 2. we have not spent one dollar of disaster relief, we were approved by the legislature and made a statement we will not spend any of that money. he is being deceptive for the jury, you should know better, have a law license to not tell the truth, exactly what is wrong with politics today. the governor could have vetoed the legislation that took $500,000 after the disaster relief fund. >> still not the disaster relief fund and he spoke to a group recently two weeks ago and said

we have too much money, what if i told you don't save so much, go ahead and spend it, don't worry about a crisis in the future. if he had been governor we would not have a reserve to deal with hurricanes. >> i grew up in north carolina and i pushed through disaster relief funds for hurricane floyd. we had the foresight to make sure the surplus was there. i support a surplus and we made sure we helped people who were victims of hurricane floyd. we have to pull it together and do it again. we shouldn't take money out of disaster relief. >> 62nd responses, i will start with you. you signed two measures restricting abortion access in the state even after pledging four years ago you weren't going

to add any more restrictions. are you surprised four years later that your record is being defined as a social conservative? >> i need to correct you. if you consider having to have a doctor if they don't do an abortion after 5 months, that is not a restriction, that is the law. it requires the doctor to make sure they have a record of that. did not impact the access to an abortion and i made sure every law that passed meets the constitutional standard which texas did not do. we had two abortion clinics treating women so poorly they were not even cleaning the floor or the utensils, the tools used for an abortion, not even cleaning them in between abortions is that is so cool.

we took care of it. i made sure all rules regarding abortions protected women's health and kept to the spirit of the law. that is why there are challenges to abortion laws. >> this is another example of governor mccrory distorting his own record. the debate stage just like this one. in 2012 when he was running for governor he promised to put no more restrictions a woman's right to choose, yet he supported legislation that put state government in the exam room between a woman and her doctor. you talk about a restriction, is legislation required that a doctor says a woman's ultrasound is state government? how do you feel about politics?

we don't need state government bureaucrats revealing women's ultrasound. this is the kind of restriction he promised he would not put in place and now he is coming around trying to say that is not a restriction. you are distorting the record. >> why didn't you over 14 years, 16 years as attorney general protect the women being abused? it took the secretary of health and human resources to say these women deserve a safe abortion, a constitutional abortion, you did nothing, you stood on the sidelines while women were being treated not like women should be treated and i'm proud we took action was we reopen those facilities because that is the law in the constitution. >> this is an example of

governor mccrory putting social issues ahead of the best interest of the state, the safety of our citizens, house bill 2, the abortion issues, refusal to expand medicaid. what he continues to do is put right-wing social ideological issues ahead of the best interests of our citizens. that is where he and i. >> we will take a quick break for a public service announcement from the north carolina association of broadcasters. we will have question on policing, criminal justice reform and a little presidential politics. we will be right back. >> north carolina ♪ >> so many call north carolina home. living here puts you in prime adventure territory. residence enjoy 300 miles of pristine beaches and the most

beautiful old-growth hardwood forests and mountaintops from the coast to the mountains and everywhere in between, broadcasters in north carolina are proud to provide high-quality over the air programming that educates, informs and entertains lose the north carolina association of broadcasters leads the nation in part educating the public about the uses and values of broadcasting. the association of broadcasters, 300 radio and television members support the local community and state by connecting you to their world. north carolina association of broadcasters educational foundation is proud to make tonight's debate possible as local communities they serve. >> the governor of north carolina, the republican and attorney general roy am a start with you. the state crime lab you have overseen providing excellent

service, the average processing time 7 months, this was called excellent service. should voters be concerned? >> this is an issue about leadership, finding a problem, accepting responsibility for the problem, when i became attorney general i had 5000 dna kits guided by local law enforcement and years of shoddy investigation. i ordered the independent investigation and made sure all our scientists were certified in the lab and it is providing a good service. when talking about crime lab governor mccrory was mayor of charlotte, when they had a crime lab and destroyed governor

mccrory's time lab, destroyed hundreds of dna rape kits, many of them in open cases. governor mccrory did not fix the problem. it was still happening. i am sure just like he usually does. >> the reason charlotte had a crime lab, the attorney general couldn't do their job, not only charlotte but fayetteville, queensboro has its own crime lab. he says he is doing his job but why is oradell county, they are tired of waiting. i got one department with 16,000 employees the one of the department the governor is responsible for but if you can't handle the crime lab, how can

you handle all of state government. you talk to sheriffs, the backlog, he contracted but the contractors have backlog, any lawyer living in a dwi gets caught, no problem. it will take half a year or a year to get the blood test back, trial attorney friends have thousands of dollars, love the crime lab just as it is. >> another distortion. the charlotte crime lab started in 1969 so governor mccrory once again is trying to blame somebody else. crime labs are critical. with the north carolina state crime lab, thousands of rapists and murderers in jail and helped to clear north carolina, working hard with law enforcement every single day and it is critical we

continue the funding because more evidence continues to come in. >> has governor i asked more funding. haven't got one email requesting help from the crime lab, 14 emails, seems like if you want to prove the crime lab you would talk to the governor and to legislative leaders, help me with this crime lab. you haven't done that. no emails they we have a problem. >> may i respond? >> i will give you 30. >> we met with governor mccrory's budget director, every single time governor mccrory, always interested in the crime lab during the last few months. it is critical there will be resources for the state crime lab and they are solved. governor mccrory is not doing

his job. >> i am the governor who got the resources in developed of the western lab, just suffering because the lack of productivity from their crime lab, before that, the transfer to governor, a political appointee, political hack, people with experience not making it a political organization. >> i will stay on the issue of criminal justice reform. police are not required to do this. it does not bar charlotte police as they end up where the law took effect. don't we need more transparency?

>> we have several things we need to balance. we need to balance public interest but also the constitutional rights of those -- cnbc and fox would love to show the video -- we have a criminal investigation going on right now, and the sbi and charlotte police department as we have with others have to go through an investigation and let me correct you in your question. it doesn't deny the release but allows a third party to make the decision because politicians shouldn't be making the decision, whether a mayor or governor or da. it should be an impartial judge determining where the constitutional rights of those being investigated are seen in the video. first is the public knows what the law does, this -- we will see possible gaps but a vast

improvement. we had no rules but i am pleased it got bipartisan support, more democrats voted for it then anything. >> i am grateful to the men and women of law enforcement who served honorably and risked their lives to keep us safe and i am mindful there are so many communities who feel targeted and year and to be heard and yearn for respect, the governor will work to make sure we have that respect. part of mutual respect is transparency. we need to make sure the community trusts what law enforcement is doing. that is why i said there are significant problems with this law because i believe the records in the videotapes should be open.

clearly there are times when it should be kept confidential but the presumption should be public because the more transparency you have, the more mutual respect. >> after the law passed the express was concerned, in an interview which was recorded he was in favor of getting the endorsement of the federation of police. i am proud to have the endorsement of five police organizations because i care victims and the persons investigated and to be taken out of politics. >> 30 seconds. >> strong support from law enforcement, governor mccrory's story, what we have to do is make sure we earn mutual

respect, law enforcement needs support and resources, law enforcement needs to look like the communities they protect and serve and as governor i will be a strong law enforcement governor but we need to make sure our communities are respected and they work with law enforcement community policing in other ways to make sure our communities are safe. >> all these are 30 seconds and i will start with you. the first presidential debate hillary clinton said implicit bias is a problem for everyone including police. >> police definitely need more training. all of us sometimes conflict with our jobs, we need training, we need to make sure law enforcement has the resources that it needs and we also need

to emphasize community policing. when law enforcement officers work with communities, get to know communities, safer law enforcement and better law enforcement all the way around. >> you accept there is bias? >> there is bias in all of us. it is not necessarily racial bias, might be bias how we drink, look, the environment we might be in and those are tools for our police officers for what action to take and what we have to do, we need more training, there is never enough training. as mayor of charlotte i helped with the chairman of public safety. community policing is vital that police officers walk the neighborhood's and become problem solvers and i am a firm believer in that but police officers, the way mrs. clinton did and our president has done in his first year in office is inappropriate.

>> let me ask you both the same question, the term black lives matter. 30 seconds. >> the statement is true. we need to make sure we continue this effort to understand that many communities of color feel targeted, they feel discriminated against. they want to be heard and respected. there are many in law enforcement who would agree this is something we have to do. >> i was an admirer of martin luther king, we should be judged by the content of our character, not the color of our skin. all of us should have it. it is the hard inside that matters and we should value every human life but we have to recognize the anger communities

have, how they interact with law enforcement but we have to recognize the pressure of our police officers who every day leave their families home not knowing if they are going to come back. officers recently involved in shooting had no idea their lives were also changed. >> let me move here. a lot of national politics. you released a statement condemning donald trump's comments about women in the video from 2005. your fellow republican governors went further and withdrew their support completely. why didn't you? >> my parents took me to jamestown with my family, my brothers and sisters, i didn't say yes ma'am to the teacher. they washed my mouth out with soap. for something so minor but so important, showing respect to our teachers.

when i see presidential candidate mister trump needs his mouth washed out with soap and so does mrs. clinton because teacher says don't tell a lie and she lies about the emails, benghazi and other factors and she needs to look at a bar of soap, we have some character issues among the presidential candidates but i am voting for the candidates the represent my though i disagree with her character on issues like immigration and obamacare. a total disaster that the attorney general continues to praise as obamacare. it is a disaster for middle-class individuals. >> hard to believe governor mccrory continues to support a presidential candidate who condones sexual assault, who has admitted that he has done that, who has continued to demean

women. this is the first time i have heard you even speak up at all about donald trump. you have gone to his rallies, made jokes about house bill 2 on stage, a gold star family was demeaned by donald trump you didn't say anything. when women were demeaned by donald trump you didn't say anything. governor mccrory and donald trump are a lot alike. they both have trouble with the fact that both engage in divisive rhetoric that is not good for our state or our country. >> i don't know where that divisive rhetoric comes from. we have to make some difficult decisions. in your first years as attorney general, had to make difficult decisions, you were uneasy about many things bill clinton did but had to make a choice and balance those character traits which i have to do the same thing. a sad commentary we both had to

make those decisions. >> listen, donald trump is bad for our country. governor mccrory continues to go across the state attending rallies and continues to support him. i think that is wrong. i would call on him today to withdraw his support from donald trump, considering this type of language that is so demeaning to women and actually says he committed crimes, governor mccrory still supported. >> 30 seconds, majority of north carolinians do not think hillary clinton is honest and trustworthy. >> she is more trustworthy than donald trump and i believe the secretary will help to keep our country more safe and secure, and she certainly is not going

to be a dangerous president like donald trump who governor mccrory support. >> 30 seconds on donald trump. >> not as vulgar, verbal outburst, don't like the personal attacks. i think what makes him a role model is where he does stand strong on certain issues that need to be set especially outside washington dc. the syrian refugee situation is a disaster. i talked to one of the top leaders of the fbi and they laughed when they said they are checking the background of syrian refugees, no they aren't. there is nothing to check, no qualification. when hillary clinton says there's a vetting process of syrian refugees the fbi is not told where they are. >> moving to healthcare, bill clinton referred to the

affordable care act as the craziest thing in the world and one of the reasons he was pointing out is the issue with the exchange. in north carolina there is only one danger. is obamacare broken? >> the reason there is only one insurer on the stage is governor mccrory and the legislative leadership had a state exchange in north carolina where more people can get health insurance and withdrawn money to educate people who couldn't help encourage more insurance companies to become competitive. the worst thing the legislative leadership refused to accept the billions of dollars, paid to washington. and expand medicaid to hundreds of thousands of north carolinians.

putting social issues in the best interest of the state. >> chris christie and john kasich and mike pence, and saw expansion of medicaid, they disagree with the policy, health jobs, help private insurers, governor mccrory continued to say no. >> i have never been blamed for obamacare. nothing to do with the legislation. and many other states and us attorney general refused because you thought it would be fantastic if the united states of america, it has been a total failure, any middle-class business person, if you talk to any family, you had a nice set up with health insurance for 26 years, you talk to someone with

obamacare you out to get on obamacare, it will cost $20,000 to $30,000 a year. you have gotten used to the health insurance you are guaranteed until you are 65. if you feel so good about obamacare, get on it and get off the state system we have now. >> it is incredible to me that with this policy already set at the federal level the governor cannot accept the billions in tax money we already paid. this is our tax money that could come back to north carolina and ensure hundreds of people and take pressure off small business, take pressure off private employers who see a benefit that other states have seen a benefit in their insurance premiums but governor mccrory has to talk about it. it is okay to admit it is a failure.

it is okay. i do agree in some aspect that medicaid, we are expanding medicaid services for alzheimer's patients, those people who can't help themselves who i want to emphasize, helping those who can't help themselves and i met with president obama in the white house, in the oval office and encouraged him to allow us to have a north carolina plan, not a washington dc plan. i was extremely sad blue cross blue shield -- >> your time is up. >> we can make a north carolina plan. we can expand medicaid in a north carolina way. that opportunity is there and for him to talk about saying you are not giving health insurance to people who needed this is the

perfect opportunity with the tax money we already paid. he continues to say no for ideological reasons. >> you won't get on obamacare, you will keep your government plan you have enjoyed for 26 years in the state of north carolina. >> answer the medicaid question. >> we don't know what the cost of 10% will be for the taxpayers of north carolina. entering into something without knowing the cost, the wall street journal for the past six weeks showing all the states he mentioned, cost a greater than anticipated. i inherited a $525 million missed forecast on medicaid spending from the purdue administration and we had to fix that. >> one more topic, and idea where you stand. i want to go quickly to voter id. federal court border id law.

african-americans with surgical precision has been thrown out. do you regret signing the bill? >> absolute not. one thing i would like to consummate the attorney general on that he did years ago was sudafed. we were having a terrible, we agree on this issue of drug addiction and he passed the law requiring id when you get on sudafed. if id is good enough for sudafed it is good enough for the people of north carolina because anyone who thinks with tens of millions of dollars on the ground in north carolina if you don't think there is potential for voter fraud you are burying your head in the stand. in the history of the united states, chicago, west virginia and texas voter fraud occurs and we need to make sure it doesn't happen and if you don't look for it you won't find it. >> this is it, go ahead. >> the legislation was broader than voter id law. this was restricted, had to do

with early voting, the ease of registration. when the 3 judge panel said this law intentionally discriminates against minorities and students it was time to stop but governor mccrory uses taxpayer money to pay for attorneys, of course he lost. it is shameful for the governor to keep pushing this legislation, it is wrong for our state. >> you will both get more time in a minute for your closing statements. that concludes my questions. i have more, if you give us more time, you both get 90 seconds for your closing statement. by virtue of a coin toss mister cooper goes first. >> thank you, chuck, thank you to the broadcasters, thank you, governor mccrory, for joining me, thank you, my wife, kristin, and family, thanks to all of you

for watching the debate at home, let's all remember to keep working to help the flood victims, we disagree on a lot of things but we agree we have got to pull together to help them. some are international county where i grew up i am proud to call north carolina home, still am. over the last few years and things have changed we heard about during this debate. for decades you could travel across this country and tell people you were from north carolina and the questions would be about great universities or technology or mountains or beaches, now the question is what in the world is going on in north carolina? we can fix that. recognize the problems we face, we have to make education a priority. 41st in the nation is not good enough. we need to get at least to the national average. we need a good job governor.

the governor who will bring better paying jobs to our state instead of driving them away with discriminatory laws like house bill 2 and we need a governor who is going to restore north carolina's reputation and i plan to do that. thank you so much, god bless you. >> i concur that our prayers, i am going back to emergency operation center to work with our other team members and our prayers are with people tonight in greenville, up and down the river. it will be a tough 72 hours. we thank roy cooper for running for governor, it takes courage to do this. my family and my wife, it is extremely hard to do. only a politician like roy cooper would consider record job increases, record tax increases,

record job creation, record teacher pay raises, this is leadership like you have never seen, the we need to continue in north carolina. we cannot go back to the leadership of purdue and cooper. let's continue the great progress forward as we do live in the best state in the united states of america. >> thank you both for a very civil debate. now it is up to the voters and you. don't forget to vote. public service program brought to you by north carolina association of broadcast association and i thank them for the privilege of moderating. i am chuck todd from nbc news. ♪

♪ >> two debates on c-span to tell you about. in wisconsin democratic senator russ feingold a rematch against republican senator ron johnson who defeated him six years ago. the debate at 8:00 pm eastern friday. you can see that live on our companion network, c-span. at 10:00 pm eastern tomorrow on c-span the debate from nevada where catherine cortez and republican joe panic running for the senate seat held by harry

reid who is retiring. donald trump responded to a report in the new york times alleging he touched two women inappropriately. his remarks came at a campaign rally in west palm beach, florida. >> and so now we address the slander and libel that was just last night thrown at me by the clinton machine and the new york times and other media outlets as part of a concerted, coordinated and vicious attack. it is not coincidence that these attacks come at the exact same moment and the same time, as wikileaks releases documents exposing the massive international corruption of the

clinton machine, including 2000 more emails just this morning. these vicious claims about me of inappropriate conduct with women are totally and absolutely false. and the clintons know it and they know it very well. these claims are all fabricated. they are pure fiction and they are outright lies. these events never ever happened and the people that said them fully understand. take a look at these people, you study these people and you will understand also. the claims are preposterous,

ludicrous and deify truth, common sense. we already have substantial evidence to dispute these lies and it will be made public at an appropriate way and at an appropriate time. >> watch c-span live coverage of the third debate between hillary clinton and donald trump wednesday night. are alive debate preview from the university of nevada las vegas starts at 7:30 p.m. eastern. a studio audience at 8:30 eastern and 90 minute debate at 9:00 pm eastern. stay with us from your reactions including calls, tweets and facebook posts and watch the debate live or on demand using desktop phone or tablet at c-span.org. listen to live coverage of the debate on your phone with c-span radio apps downloaded from the apps store or google play.

>> bob asper was elected in 2013 to defeat a republican incumbent that year. later this week he debated his republican opponent in the brassica's second congressional district. >> we are hoping to have a robust exchange of ideas between the two candidates, republican challenger don bacon, a retired brigadier general, and democrat brad ashford, the incumbent congressman and former state senator from omaha. we're going to make the debate

as free-flowing as we can, but we want to give equal time to each candidate. we are asking them to keep their answers at about 60 seconds. when we ask you to move on, please do so. >> in addition, we reserve the right to ask follow-up questions. we'll give you a chance to directly respond if you're criticized by your opponent. mr. ashford, we start the debate with questions about the presidential race and your party's two nominees. as a member of the house armed services committee, you received classified briefings in right of clinton's controversial e-mail system, how can you handle your party's nominee to handle materials in the white house? ashford: first of all, thank you for putting this together. it's an exceptional opportunity for us, for both of us, and we appreciate it, and thanks. you're right, i received classified briefings on the armed services committee on the emerging threats subcommittee and also on the strategirc