tv Public Affairs Events CSPAN November 1, 2016 1:00pm-3:01pm EDT
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license you can convert your entire gun store inventory to personal use and sell it without background checks. we need to close that loophole. >> you have 30 seconds. >> i believe if you are too dangerous to fly on an aircraft in america than your two dangerous to buy a firearm. that no-fly know by was a voted on and i was the only republican to vote for no-fly know by. if you are too dangerous to be added aircraft and you are too dangerous to buy a farm in america. that kind of independence is what we need from our congressman. in the case of my opponent she voted 94% of the time with nancy pelosi, so near perfect of voting record with the people of california that sent nancy to congress. >> we move on now to closing statements. congresswomen duckworth, you go first. >> just want to thank everyone for participating in our democracy today. it's why i served in the military and why we have many women serving overseas now
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defending our rights, so thank you. i went to go to the united state senate because i want to serve the people of illinois. i know what it's like to work hard every single day and don't see you are getting ahead. that's why i believe so strongly we need a real investment in this state. we need infrastructure investment or queen need investment in american manufacturing and we need to invest in our educational system, not just because it is good to support students, but it's because it's a piece of our national strength. one of the reasons i got into public service was because i feel like i zero for all of those folks who took care of me when i was a kid and when i was hungry and not sure i could go to college or to graduate high school, but there was a high school that i could graduate from that was free and public it in my neighborhood. there was a state college i could go to so i was able to use pal grants and student loans and graduate seminar became calling and asked me to survive was ready, but if those things had not been there for me i would
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not be in front of you today running for senate. how many americans are we leaving behind across this great state who don't have that opportunity? how many senior citizens are wondering, am i going to have to work for the rest of my life? we can do better. we are better and if you send me to the united states senate i will work hard every so, they to represent each and every one of you to the best of my ability. thank you. >> curtis mclaughlin, your closing statement. >> i would say in my years as survey night that every day to fight my stroke to going to be the clue between the republicans and the democrats can be the personality that the most advantage by state. i worry about my opponent so partisan she would go to war with the office at party which is no way to get anything done. you have to not go to war with anyone in the senate. i want to make sure that my record of building bipartisan sanctions on iran is saving the export import to the united
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states-- motivates me to support between the two parties and effectiveness. >> thank you senator. thank you to our audience. thank you to the panelists for the 2016 senate debate. have a good night. [applause]. >> road to the white house coverage continues later today with governor chairman mike pence with a rally in wisconsin. polls give hillary clinton aide five-point lead. c-span has live coverage of that rally beginning at 8:00 p.m. eastern. the former secretary of state campaigns today in florida where she and donald trump are running neck and neck. she is in fort lauderdale beginning at 8:45 p.m. c-span2 will have live coverage.
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>> on election day november 8, the nation decides our next president's and which party controls the house and senate. stay with c-span for coverage of the presidential race including campaign stops with hillary clinton, donald trump and their surrogates and follow key house at senate races with our coverage of their candidate debates and speeches. c-span, where history unfolds daily. >> south carolina's fourth congressional district and u.s. senate candidates are a roundtable discussion together following their debates. they talked about how they could each represent constituents in congress regardless of political party. >> they got the memo on civility
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went to report thus far midterm grades are good. thank you all. >> is this the final exam, then to make this is the final exam. in this segment-- this is the prerogative of the congressional scholar, okay? this is what i have always wanted to have a conversation with candidates about because it's not always apparent to me that once folks get to congress they think about these things and i'm looking forward to the two of you that are already there, but in this segment i want to shift gears and talk bit about how these candidates will do their job in congress. james madison talks about the importance of a representative democracy and the benefit it holds over a pure board met-- direct democracy, a democracy where we would all registrar votes for ourselves on every single issue that comes along. one of the things that madison says is a benefits of
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representative democracy is that our representatives can gather and deliberating away that we as a country cannot. and that in that the liberty of process, they can refine and enlarge the public view. that's what i want to talk about a little bit tonight, how they view that role of representation. gentlemen, i will give you each a chance to respond to this. when you say you wanted to represent me and the people in this room in congress, what to do you mean and how are you going to carry out that responsibility? what does it mean for you to represent me? how would you do that? who wants this? >> i'm happy to start. one of the things that i think is important as any elected official is to recognize that you are a public servant and when i was appointed to the senate, one of the first things i did was went undercover as a senator. i put on some jeans, a hatch,
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disguised myself a touch, got on public buses and drove around so i could talk to everyday people, not take a poll or be a lobbyist. i wanted to hear from people and i worked odd jobs around the state. i talked to two people so i could understand what the passion in their heart really is , not what someone tells me it is. what am i experiencing. i worked at a burrito shop. i learned a lot. one of the most important things that i thought i should do is get around the state as a public servant and understand their issues. second thing i have done is every year i go on a 46 county tour to all 46 counties in south carolina.
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i sit down with republicans and democrats, libertarians and independence, old folks, young folks. folks with severe disabilities, folks doing really well. i went to have a cross-section of this state because i'm not elected to represent republicans i'm elected to represent south carolina hands in the country, so i spent the last authority of my time trying to have a listening tour. we are doing that now in the criminal justice issue and community relations. we are in a listening tour. heading towards the charleston, so we can understand and appreciate with the issues, challenges and hopes are even within the most fragile and difficult relationship, so my answer is simply to learn to listen so that you can serve them well. >> we can just go around. well, doctor vincent, i appreciate that refresher. it's been a while since i got to
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read it, so i got to back in school mode a little bit, but aside from his discussion of the discussion the biggest bill james madison was trying to warn us about was as he said it public officials pretty the interest of their faction before those of the public. and warning is very topical today because that's what sony americans have seen happen in the congress. they have seen hundreds of people supposedly elected to represent them put the interest of their factions, their party before the interest of the people. whether we are talking about six years of complete an action or a failure in the senate to do their constitutional duty and at least have a hearing or for someone that is a justice that the president nominated, we have seen an unprecedented level of inaction. what i was thinking about this i
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thought you can just put the blame on the faction come on the parties; right? because the parties are made up of individuals and its individuals to exercise their courage and their prerogative as a leader, as an elected official to sometimes say no, to say i will vote to have a hearing for justice garland even though my party does not want it or i'm okay with passing conference of immigration reform even if my party doesn't want it because it's the right thing to do and it's in the interest of the people of the public and that's all we could change, but we need new leaders to do it. >> but make it their response and then i will come back. >> i was just intrigued, that's all. >> i saw that kind of nod. >> i'm happy to jump in if you want me to. >> well, professor, one person's faction is another person's majority. i mean, that's what i keep coming back to and if you refer to factions in a couple weeks
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there's going to be a votes and either you win or i will when. it will be north of 50%, so necessarily every vote you cast will disappoint about half the people that you purport to represent, so when i hear the word faction, that's usually a phrase people use when they were in the minority and they don't like what's going on. but, if you are the representative and you are consistently voting in a way antithetical to what the majority of the people of your district want, you are not going to be a representative very long, so you ask what is it mean to represent and i want my friends here voting is a very small percentage of what members of congress do. i get that it's what the media always judges us on is how many pieces of legislation have you passed. you must be historically ineffective because you have not passed that many pieces of legislation. we have a task force now on over criminalization where we are going back and finding laws that were passed in the past that should not of impasse. , so that's an ineffective
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barometer of success. my job is to listen to people i work for, many of whom disagree with me even in my own party. most of what our staff do at a lot of what we do has nothing to do with politics. if you are someone trying to interface with your governmental social security or with veterans administration or you have a passport issue, no one in my office will ever ask you what your political issues are. no one in my office or tim's office has anything to do with politics. they are there to represent the constituency no matter what your politics are. the way i view representative, yes, you better-- better vote the way your district wants you to vote and if you firmly believe that your district may not have all the information that they are entitled to then your job as a representative is to come back and say you may want to consider this, you may
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want to consider that. chris, have to tell you my decision not to vote for conference a criminal-- conference of immigration reform was not a mistake. we will find out in two weeks, but i don't think it was a mistake to say that we need to go incrementally. we will find out. as the beauty of our republic is we have to face the voters every two years and if our position is not consistent with bears and they can send us home. >> i found it funny how you talked about who you work for, but you really didn't allude to the fact that you work for the people. i found that kind of-- a little disturbing as a matter of fact scenic you should listen to my answer because i said i did. >> best not really how it came out, but that's here nor there. in traveling in the state and interacting with people, if i
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pick and choose who am interacting with then i'm going to get the answer am looking for if i exclude certain people from my pulling, my personal conversations that i'm only going to get the responses but i'm looking for and that will feed into wherever i want to go. but, we have a very very fast array of ideas, thoughts, suggestions, ethnicity, personal backgrounds, upbringing that if we don't recall of those ideas into the our wheelhouse than we are really not going to come up with ideas and thoughts that are representative of the people. i think when we get into this party issue, especially in on not quite-- i guess i am going to say it especially with the republican party, i am going to say it. >> as long as you do it respectfully. >> i even try to step away from
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it, but i had to come back to it. but, with the way the partisan voting consistently has been there consistent, when we look at things like planned parenthood and voting against the best interest of our women. when we look at-- [inaudible] >> looking at the fact that in 2016, that $15 an hour is just barely enough for a person to live decently off of. voted against the best interest of our seniors, voting against it the best interest of our veterans, voting against all the things that will make our nation better. i don't know who you talking to, but the people i talked to become i come from a social justice advocacy background and it only started since i came out of the prison system. been there too, so i understand what it takes in order to have comprehensive prison reform because i have been there. you want to know how to fix
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prison? let's do the same way we do it when we go to the doctor. the doctor say what wrong with you and we tell them. we need to pass those that than in the prison system how we fix prison, not for some super intellectual standpoint, but all of these different things, these experiences, learned experiences with my boots on the ground as they say four years coming up in the projects of chicago, interacting with those that are violent, actually. drug dealers, drug abusers, i have been shot out. i understand how close it can be to getting killed in the streets when we sit as representatives of the people then we need to understand we represent all the people we need to do what we can to hear from all the people. [inaudible] >> it's kind of obvious when it comes to voting records that
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getting to know the people needs to be a bigger priority than just pulls one day or whatever and i understand you get to the schools to. that's well and good, but for me put it like i put it out there in the streets many times, until you get to know them he really don't know what's going on. >> rate is my cousin, salami just say this. ray is my cousin, so let me say this. [applause]. >> on happy to have this conversation, because to assume that myself or trade are not talking to the people is politically correct word is hogwash, so here's the fact. when you are looking for a classic example of a criminal justice system heading in the right direction, stay home. south carolina closed six prison
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we have 20000 folks incarcerated because in 2010 legislation passed a criminal justice reform according to our good friend the states that are leading on criminal justice reform are southern republican states. had to write down the-- what he said because you said a lot of things there. being in touch with your constituents, one of the reasons why i visited to state prisons and sat there and fed them was so i could understand appreciate what people are going through right now. what are their needs right now. how do we deal with folks right now. one of the reasons why try and myself are going around south carolina meeting in our current demographic makeup of our police and community relations, i think it is three quarters black.
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a quarter white and probably half the cops are black. it's because to pray-- trey gowdy believes the fusing the issue that is building tension in communities is so important, not only is it important in his congressional district, but as a united states congressman or he believes it's important enough to go around the entire state and around the country if necessary to solve these issues because we don't just represent a certain party or a certain race. we represent everyone. the reason why we went on the bus and visited state prisons, the reason why when i sat down and had a conversation about how to make folks safer and make sure our law enforcement officers-- the reason we sat down with the spokes and the reason we sat down with the naacp, aclu, not because they vote for me or because they support me but because it's the
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right thing to do. if you're going to be a public servant, you do the right thing, not for your factions, but for the next generation of americans. [cheers and applause] that. [applause]. [applause]. >> very well said as a senator and that's why the naacp-- naacp gave you an overall vote of f. >> there's my point, though students let me get back to what i was going to say. >> the reality is that i'm okay with the naacp not appreciate my voting record. it's not that you have to vote my way. i don't mind folks who say you are dead wrong.
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i will meet with you anyway. that's the point of not succumbing to your faction is to be interested and engaged with people who are not like you who philosophically completely oppose your position. you still sit down and have a conversation even when they give you a letter f or as naacp has referred to me as a ventriloquist dummy. i will meet with them anyway because i'm not interested in the naacp. i'm interested in the people they supposedly represent. [applause]. >> i'm really sorry that the statement took us over the civility area and i just got over talked. you visited the prisons, okay, but while you are visiting prisons did you figure out and initiate legislation in the senate that's going to than the box that's inhibiting ex- felons from out and getting work?
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did you start anything? did you get anything there that says over time here's how we are going to eliminate the thought of the debt being paid, but never is paid where people who went to prison in 1965, still can't get a job? did yeah learn about while you were in there how nobody that goes to prison really wants to come back because i was in there over three years and i never ran into anyone that wanted to come back, but those that got out because of this revolving door in the lack of opportunities when they get out as an ex- felon are not there to support them and they stay out and ultimately are making community because we are not really rehabilitating people. did you get that while you were there? >> yes, sir. >> while you were there did you
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talk with that young mother that might've been working at bose and mcdonald's and taco bell for minimum wage who the reality is that they are working those three jobs because it provides enough to put a roof over their head and food on their tables and some people like to point fingers at them when those mothers don't show up at pta meetings when all they are trying to do is survived, $7 25 cents an hour. did you get all of that out of it and if you did then why haven't you done your job? >> glad you asked that question. >> let me interrupt just a second and i'll give you a chance to respond and then i will give you to one final word because we are just about out of time. >> gosh, this just got good. >> i now. >> here's the facts i discovered in my business with the present folk. really good people there. made a tragic mistake and in their lives were altered forever. we should never look down on other people because but for the
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grace of god there you might be. the average person incarcerated today as three things in common trick they are functionally illiterate. they come from single-parent households and they are mired in poverty and are looking for ways out. so, i sat down with amazing folks. i believe it was kansas state prison has opened the door for a company to come in and start training these prisoners on how to be productive and have a profitable life when they leave. they actually have started hiring the people, so yes, sir, i have a classic example of what to do as trey said 90% of these folks are incarcerated on the state level and federal level. these programs allow these young men, mostly men, to make at least minimum wage, sometimes more and when they leave prison
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daily between with as much as 10000, the best example is $40000 in their savings account and they have been able to pay restitution and catch up on that child support and make it employed, 14 of these folks since the program started are now employed. 14. there's only been 56 through this program appeared they are not getting out as often as someone like. here is what we know about the minimum wage and the conversation around it. we know that when you go from 7.25 in our to $15 an hour and this is a good example of carrying about the issues of reverend dixon does, as i do and has been raised by a single mother who worked 16 hours a day i get this. the reality is this, that the average person stuck at a
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minimum wage job, about 17, 21% of those folks will lose their jobs because today $2 trillion of payroll can be automated. said differently, when you raise the minimum wage artificially with no production, you end up with more olive garden's with an ipad. more subways with a touchscreen. you eliminate the first realm of the economic ladder and it manifests the average person we're talking about has an unemployment rate of around 15%. the guy or gal that finishes their education while they are in prison and gets back in the workforce, you will find that person making significantly more as the unemployment rate falls to the floor consistent with reality are these facts.
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would've ident? i've created an opportunity agenda and i have been working on it for years. the opportunity agenda focuses on the most important foundation at the federal government can help build because between the haves and have-nots, education and parental parent permission, family formation. the foundation is education. work skills, in prison or not. there are programs and innovation investing in opportunities act which targets these communities. the answers are a lot of legislation. we are working on it and hopefully with a more receptive culture we will see some of this legislation become law. [applause]. >> briefly, we are officially out of time.
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>> we are lawyers. >> i have great confidence in you. >> while you were talking and he will get upset with me for bringing this up, but i have listened to him they called an uncle tom. i've listened to him having his blackness challenged. because he happens to have a different political orthodox. not by you-- >> going to say where you going with this connect not with you. i know where i'm going. i started tonight by complimenting someone who has never voted for me and never will folk for me and i will complement another man in the back, former head of the greybull county democratic party someone that i not only respect, but like. he's not going to vote for me. he shouldn't vote for me. we don't agree on the issues, but you can have civility in the way you discuss things and you
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can look for those areas where you want to be united. i listen to you all discuss education. i did not hear that much difference. you both a think it's the closest thing to magic we have in our culture and the single best way to transform a life, so i would just say this, when you are talking i thought to myself moses was go to manslaughter and david was guilty of conspiracy to commit murder and they all three went on to do great things for people can change their lives. our god is the god of second chances and i will commit myself to spend more time understanding the needs of those who are reintegrating into society and the only thing i will ask of you is that you spend time talking to crime victims who have had their lives totally unraveled by the acts of some of the people that you referenced in prison. i will do it if you will do it. >> apparently, the congressman doesn't know me. [applause].
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>> if anyone in here knows me, knows i've dedicated my life to a you are saying. .. let me just say this. i know we are wrapping it up. if that is an judgmental you to just say that you just told me what i tell people about senator scott. what you just told me,. [inaudible] >> i think because he's black is the reason he might be referring
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to that. >> okay, let's be transparent let me go back to that then. >> please do. >> the statement was made in the aftermath of your three day beaches on the senate floor. basically it went to the african-american community in a way that you've never been targeted before. sarcastically speaking i said yeah. >> it's not, i didn't call you and uncle tom. what i did. >> i've been black prolonged time. can you tell? it's quite obvious that blackness is and always just the
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color of skin. in 1998i held a meeting of the county counsel, 18 years ago, that might've been an indication that i was concerned with the issue from 2011 when there was articles done on my stop, that might've been an indication that it was an election year. [inaudible] >> i'm going to interrupt both of you for a moment. >> important to mentally have done nothing to stem overaggressive policing. i think law-enforcement officers do their jobs - your participation grades are going down gentlemen. >> okay. >> i appreciate the enthusiasm but i hope this is not the last conversation that everyone in here has. i have made a promise to get certain people out of here at an hour and we are well past it. >> i thought you set 11.
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>> i did not. >> sorry. >> i will give him one last word and if you'd derail this. >> you have to wrap this up in a way that will send them out to go have more discussion. >> i would be happy to because there seems to be one point of agreement amongst all of us are not that education is a platform of opportunity in this country. because education is at the top my prop and platform, because of something i care so deeply about , i've gone around and i've been meeting with school superintendents in this issue. one moment really impacted me from those meetings. i was meeting with the superintendent in rural county. he told me, if you get elected, please promise me you will not cut money for free or reduced school lunches. over 60% of my kids depend on those to survive. when they go home, they don't
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have anywhere to go. they don't have money to get a ride or go anywhere. they need these lunches in order to provide because if they're hungry they're not learning. if they're not learning they're not quite to get ahead. they don't have that platform. if we don't actually work on these issues that have an impact on people's lives, they will continue to see the same results. don't be surprised if they don't do as well as will her not eating. we have to get back to who we are as a nation. as long as we have congressman that vote to cut money for school lunches, that vote to cut money for pell grants, we have congressman who vote against flood relief. if we have congressman who vote against the violence of women
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act that we have a very broken system. >> i'm going to give you one last word if you keep it very quick. >> i encourage you to go watch. >> i did. >> i will never be lecturing to you about my commitment to violence against women. my chief of staff was the head of my task force. i am the first person who started one. i voted for both the house, but because of politics being what it is, the democrats had to put something in there that the republicans in the house could not. if you want an indictment, it's on politics. do not ever question my commitment to protecting women. >> at the end of the day, it comes down.
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>> you can sit down for a minute. i'm not quite done. i promise them in evaluation. i hope that you recognize that we were actually able to have substantive discussions. it is clear they don't always agree with each other on a lot of things, but i was also clear that there are some areas of common ground that could be discussed. we don't do it if we have parties wallowing themselves off. i commend these candidates for being willing to show up and have a conversation with each other even when parts of it were a little uncomfortable for them. i think you folks for your participation and for keeping it simple. i was curious whether i would have to call anyone down. you applauded appropriately and then shut up. you laughed when appropriate, you made faces at them and i
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have spent the entire evening without having to glare at anyone. your participation scores all around are quite good. thank you all and thank you candidate. >> two u.s. senate debates are coming up. a number of candidates are running in louisiana. at 9:00 p.m., they hold their final debate. the race coverage all this week on c-span. >> in new york's first congressional race, they debate the no fly, no by legislation. the affordable care act and their opinions on the black live matters movement.
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another pull from earlier this week shows congressman zelman with about a 15-point lead. >> hello and good evening. my name is carol muller i am cochair of the voter services of the league of women voters and i will be moderator for the debate this evening. before we start will you please stand and join me in the pledge of allegiance. i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america. and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. thank you. okay, the league of women voters welcome you. the league is a trusted nonpartisan political organization. we never endorsed candidates for parties but we are directly
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involved in many of the issues important to the community. we are respected for our work in sponsoring candidates debate the way we are doing tonight and for preparing and distributing educational materials on voting issues. i'm going to spend just a minute on voting issues. i hope that you came tonight and saw and picked up our educational material such as voters lied guide, including residents of the town's and a guide that will help you understand the proposition that is on the ballot in november. please remember voters, you have to turn the ballot over to see the proposition. the proposition is on changes and expansion of the community development.
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also those of you have not registered to vote, you still can. you have to have the registration postmarked by tomorrow. registration forms are in the back as our applications for absentee ballots. the absence absentee ballot is a two-part process. you have to send it in by november 1. you will get it back in the mail and you will have to get it back in the mail by november 7. there is no video or audio taping of the debate except by tv whom we have authorized to tape this debate. we will make it available in total without editing the
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importance of these two candidates, c-span has requested a copy of the tape to be broadcast on their network, several stations, the internet radio. please consult the c-span website. it takes many hands to put it debate of this sort together and we need to thank everyone who has assisted. we want especially to thank the westhampton beach school district, superintendent, administrative assistant judy mccarthy, media teacher shawn johnson in the back, social studies teacher patricia and her students and then from the southhampton youth bureau we have tracy, lisa and their students. we need to thank custodial and security staff.
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we thank them all for their cooperation. let me also introduce the others tonight. ursula lynch treated you as you entered. she and our student guests will be in the aisle to pick up, please raise your hand so you can have a card and fill it out and they will pick it up and give it to the panelists. we have joe shaw who is executive editor of the press newsgroup which publishes the southhampton press, the east hampton press and lori amberg, sitting next to joe, copresident of the leak. they will be asking the questions that have been received from you the audience
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and the students. i remind we would like the questions to be identified as having come from the audience or students when that is the case. students, please let us know what issues are important to you by submitting questions and noting on the card at the question came from the student. we also have care of the government committee of the league who will review the questions that you will be writing on the index card. the purpose of the review is not to censor or siphon any voice. this is done to identify those issues that are most important to the audience while a voting duplication. it also ensures that questions are issue based and suitable to be asked to both candidates. one of the most important people here tonight is barbara who is the timer.
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i tracked both candidates to barbara. she will be showing the signs that will be telling you how much time you have left and when to stop. most important also, cochair of the voter services committee who is in charge of in the major force behind the debate. our candidate. now to the debate format which was agreed to by the candidates prior to the exception of the invitation to participate. each of the candidates will have two minutes to make an opening statement. the candidates will then be asked a series of questions. they will each have up to three minutes to answer the questions. both questions will be asked the same question. candidates are not permitted to interrupt each other. they have three opportunity to rebut any statement in the
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course of the debate. when you use a red card, you can rebut for two minutes. as time allows, each candidate will have the opportunity to ask a question of their opponent and then the opponent will offer a response. you will have two minutes for that also. we ask if the candidates are given the opportunity that that issue also, that question is also issued. finally, each candidate will have an additional time to make a closing statement. closing statements are in reverse order of opening statements. the rules for the audience are, no taping, as i said, and no interruptions or verbal reactions and hold your applause
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until the final remarks of the candidates. there are many reasons for this. it allows the audience the opportunity to hear the response it avoids wasting time because if the audience is making noise, the candidates can be talking. it limits the information available to voters that are undecided in the candidates came here tonight to talk to the voters. that is the dialogue we would want to have. given the dissemination of the tape, we must maintain a civil atmosphere. it is important to us that the league of the concerns of the audience be addressed and we cannot know what those concerns are unless we have your question. finally, the purpose of our debate tonight is to air issues uniquely important to us. as such, we will not discuss
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breaking national news. this means we will not be discussing whether bob dylan should have received the nobel prize for literature. please remember to shut off your cell phone. >> good evening everybody. carol had a chance recognize a lot of people but didn't recognize herself. i thank you for hosting and for all of you to be out here for tonight's debate. this is what the american political process is really all about, you taking the time to be here tonight and asking us important questions about the future of our community and
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country. my name is lee selden. i was born and raised on long island. now my wife diane and raising our beautiful twin daughters, michaela and arianna. i spent four years on active duty in the army. i've spent the last time in the nine in the army reserves where i currently serve with the rank of major. i served in the senate for four years. during my time there i led the fight to repeal the payroll tax. cosponsored a nation of the to the lowest level. i will protect america's security at home and abroad, grow our economy and create good paying jobs, fight for our veterans and first responders,
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improve the quality of education in our schools, prepare our nation's infrastructure and healthcare, safeguard our environments. all of these issues are important to all of you. during my brief time, 21 months in congress, i've been able to get bills passed to help our veterans that i had introduced, two proposals of mine to stop the sale of plum island and preserve and protect it. i got my counterterrorism bill passed. my common core opt out bill was passed and signed into law as was my saved bridges act. we created a new ease done healthcare clinic for our veterans. thank you all for being here. let me remind the audience to hold your applause. >> thank you.
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hello and good evening. it's great to be in west hampton. i want to thank the league of women voters and everyone else here today for doing this. it is an election, hopefully an election of our lifetime because i hope we never go through the drama we are going through now. i want to thank the students that took the time to come out tonight because this is your generation we are talking about. we are talking about the future of this country and the many things that are at stake. many of you know me. i have had the honor of serving as your town supervisor. this is the most dysfunctional, ineffective partisan congress in the history of congress. according to a recent gallup poll, no more than 11% of americans feel that congress is getting the job done for them.
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i've devoted my work in this community, i've raised my four kids in this community and devoted my work to addressing issues around income inequality and opportunity. as many of you know i started the hay ground school and i started that school because i wanted to bring this community together. racial lines, religious lines, cultural lines to make sure that early childhood education was available to every child in this community. we brought headstart program and an opportunity to go to college and much needed social services. as your town supervisor, i led the way on managing our budgets, cutting wasteful spending, cutting deficits, getting the aaa rating and making sure the government served you in the
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most effective way and protecting taxpayer dollars. we have so many issues that are needed to be talked about. fixing immigration reform, college affordability, protecting social security, and medicare. so many issues, i could go on and on. i look forward to your questions and i look forward to a very informative meeting. thank you. [applause] okay, the first question will be addressed to mr. selden. >> who do you support for president and please explain why? >> i endorsed donald trump over hillary clinton. i have some serious issues with hillary clinton, her record, this is not just about electing a president for the next four
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years, this is also about the future of our supreme court. i care deeply about national security. i want to see our economy grow. i believe we could do a better job negotiating trade deals to help the american worker, the american company, the american economies as well. i have been a vocal opponent of common core going back to my time in the state senate. it's important to improve the quality of education and he has been outspoken on that as well. quite honestly, neither of the candidates are perfect. both of the candidates have their flaws. balance between the two of them, i have quite candidly hillary clinton has, with with the conflicts of the clinton foundation, with the fact that she mishandled classified information and had a server in her basement, these are crimes that were committed and
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unfortunately every single day we have people going to court for much less infractions yet hillary clinton is not being held accountable for the crimes through the judicial system and that is deeply unfortunate. i don't think it's any coincidence that the attorney general had a meeting with the former president bill clinton just a few days before the decision was made to not pursue any charges against hillary. again, on the department of justice tilting, it says when law and, tierney begins. the fact that hillary clinton isn't being held accountable, not only is she not qualified to be president of the united states, she couldn't get a job inside the file room at the fbi. her candidacy is a nonstarter. i disagree with her strongly on much of her positions on issues. i don't want to see my country
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be more like europe. i want to see us get stronger with regard to immigration, cracking down on illegal immigration. here in the united states, providing more opportunities for people who are here legally. there is a process. i have a lot of compassion for the person who is not here yet in the united states of america. they went to their local consulate and set how do i pursue the american dream? hope, opportunity, education because they are following the rules. they are not here yet. hopefully our substance and policy will be able to focus on policy, substance and because of the future of our country, not just the next four years defeating and tackling isys, but strengthening our military and taking care of our veterans but also making sure the supreme court and that's why support him over her. >> thank you. >> i don't see how anyone can
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support a sexual predator, an individual who disparages a gold star family, an individual who makes fun of people with disability. i don't know how anyone checks their moral compass who is in elected office and who understands what it takes to be in elected office and thinks that it is okay to support someone who is all of what i just said. on top of that, have shown in debate after debate, too big debates, and on the stump that he is entirely unqualified on every single one of the issues that face us in the united states of america today. the contrast is hillary rodham
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clinton. she made a mistake with her e-mail server. there is no question about that. she has taken responsibility for that. my opponent has said hillary clinton belongs in jail, as has donald trump. they put it very well today. only someone who thinks the law of the land is equivalent to a third world banana republic and doesn't understand the law would make a statement like this. i would remind you he is an attorney. a statement like that means you have a very simple ignorance for the rule of the law in a country like ours. you are also neglecting to understand that making inflammatory statements like
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that is untruthful and misleading. we have two candidates. one that is going to win the white house and is going to make an appointment, or several to the supreme court. one of them, hillary clinton will make sure that appointment will get rid of citizens united and get the dark money out of politics, coke brothers, etc. cetera for which my opponent is a very happy recipient. will make sure woman's right to choose is protected and we will make sure that all of the things that matter to us right here in district one, what were talking about income opportunity and tax reform, that takes the burden off of the middle class like our tax code is written today, and shifted on to the top couple of earners in this country, make sure that corporate talk taxes
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are not lodged outside of this country. immigration reform. i can go on and on. in supporting hillary rodham, she is the only one qualified to run for president amongst the two front runners. the second question will go initially. [inaudible] this is from us at the press newsgroup. >> siena college and newsday recently completed a pole of first district voters. it was a small sampling of 650 but it still provided interesting insight into the district beyond the current rate it sounds like most want a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants and think that climate change is a real and looming threat. at the same time, most want obamacare repealed. democrats are overwhelmingly in
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support of gun control and they describe themselves primarily as second amendment supporters. how can one candidate from either party truly represent such a divided district? >> i think that it is important to understand that we are a country. i got elected on a people, not politics platform. i got elected on being there to serve people, keep the politics out, find common sense and common ground solutions. i believe that to everyone of those issues, there is such a thing. we have to deal with the immigration issues today. we have somewhere between 11 and 15 million undocumented workers in this country today.
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if we don't solve that and come up with a bipartisan solution to that, i will remind all of you, there was a gang of eight plan that was a bipartisan solution that we passed in the senate that didn't make it through congress but it was a bipartisan plan to solve all of these issues. background checks, closing a loophole which means you can go on a computer today and arm yourself. you want to make sure guns are kept out of the hands of terrorists, people with a criminal record, domestic abuse, et cetera. eighty or 90% of americans have answerable saying they want to see that. i think there is a bipartisan
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solution that absolutely protects the second amendment, all of which i agree with. the affordable care act, there are two. if congress were not so mired in partisanship, the way it is today, it has common sense solutions to that as well. the number of economists have weighed in on that, talked about how we do it everyone agrees that they cannot lie or get kicked off their insurance plan until there are 26 years old. i think it could be negotiated that there would be bipartisan support for that. there's a great example of the
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kind of medications that are now fabricated. the tax dollars are staying outside of this country and we cannot negotiate we need to end the cadillac tax, et cetera. they there are bipartisan solutions to all of this. i would do the same in congress. >> thank you. >> you asked for important aspects of the question, issues that were referenced in the poll, tackling national security, the iran nuclear deal, what should we do about refugees, how do we defeat isys, how defeat isis, how do we strengthen our military, how do we take care of our veterans, reform our tax code, as simple as a postcard.
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early are mentioned common core, taking care of our environment. a former mayor said you agree with me, nine times out of 12, but for me. if you agree agree with me 12 times out of 12, see a psychiatrist. if you are looking for an example of how you can do this job focusing on local issues and making a lot of important progress, just just look at my last 21 months. people often ask me, they they say you've accomplished more in your first 21 months than your predecessor did in 12 years. now it's 1.16 billion. a bill to save. [inaudible] my predecessors time in office is why we wrote lost the mission we sold it and moved it to kansas. them i predecessor introduced a bill to stop the sale of plum
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island that he couldn't get out of his committee. i got the bill out of committee and i got it past unanimously after working with colleagues on both sides of the aisle. early on when i mention the veterans bill that got past, bipartisan bills that got past that republicans and democrats. my bill to prevent the faa from taking negative action was done unanimously and you have very local issues as well. we have local officials weighing in with specific tasks and were working with them with the army corps at the table to make sure we do get more sand for downtown montauk and work with the village of westhampton beach because 13 of 15.
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they want an adjustment made were doing what we need to to get that done in the final product. we do have to tackle immigration. what we can't do is, every combination of that in the last ten years and they haven't passed one solution for all the problems. i'm not blaming republicans or democrats, i'm saying there is so much that there is agreement that we should pass. why hold hostage what everyone agrees with in order to have a fight over what's most controversial. if you look at my record, it's been getting progress done with all sides of the aisle. >> the third question goes from a student. >> what would you tell first-time voters on the current state of politics what to expect
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>> that's a great question. i think it's great that you are here. there are so many people who are now eligible to vote who won't vote. by the way, those who are eligible to vote, that includes people who are in their 40s and 60s were not voting. what's said is going to knock on door-to-door, why are these not on the list, because the not registered to vote. get active, participate. don't let anyone ever tell you that you are too young to get involved. maybe one day you will have a chance to run for office. people say how did you start running for congress when you were 27 years old. i say go to f cc.org, it takes about five minutes to fill out a form you form you submitted and now your candidate for congress. run for your local school board. run for local town officer county or state. just get involved.
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some people decide they want to join the military. others want to be firefighters or teachers or cops or you could start a nonprofit and help victims of the domestic violence. there are many people to leave this world better than you found it, but the best way to set you want, it doesn't matter truly, when you go to the voting booth and you are circling in, way back when we used to pull a lever, the circle for whoever your preferred candidate is come you can tell people or not who participate. if you're voting for my opponents november no, i'm just kidding. november 8 is the election. make sure you're getting all of your friends involved as well. they might be eligible to vote
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in your thinking i don't want to participate. you cannot wake up on november 9 complaining about the results of any election if you didn't vote. that's my opinion. my personal opinion is you have to participate. i think when you go off to college and you get involved in the local races and you decide to take a class in political science, foreign affairs, whatever you pursue that is your interest and passion, just go after it 110%. >> thank you. >> my senses there are a lot of young people very interested in this election and really paying attention i'm a little worried about what their seeing and
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ringing some attention to this. we are seeing what's going on on a presidential level and seeing how that discourse has evolved into a referendum on whether we elect a sexual predator, whether we elect someone who chooses to make fun of people of different race or religion. i think young people are looking at that. i look at my own for kids who are all in their 20s and they are out there talking to everyone about this. not because there mom is running for congress, their use to me running for office and being in office. they are seeing a generation that is worried about, is college going to be affordable to them. are they going to be able to refinance their college loans,
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are there kids going to have access to early childhood education. are they going to be able to age and stay in place on long island is there going to be housing and jobs right here on long island and for this next generation. these are big issues at hand. this is also a generation that have seen their parents lose her job. they have seen their parents lose their homes with the mortgage meltdown that happen just in the past decade. they are seeing people lose their farms and not being able to afford their bills right here on long island. this is a generation that i'm seeing that is very red revved up to speak, vote.
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i think the bernie sanders move movement showed that front and center. i see it among my kids and other kids i talked to out there. understanding a woman's right to choose in your access to women's health care is at stake. the environment is at stake. this is the generation that is learning in school and understanding. kids are coming out and they should come out. >> thank you. >> next question how do you feel
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about the black lives matter movement? >> you can call me anna. >> movement start for a reason. we have very rich and complicated history of movements in this country. they start for reason and they start because a group of people feel a need to express themselves and feel a need to organize themselves. [inaudible] it's a black youth project 100. these are young activists, mostly african-american, but minority, latino kids concern themselves with their opportunity going into their
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adulthood, and concern themselves with feeling safe, with feeling like have opportunity, and when we see what has evolved, unfortunately into a device, between the understanding of what black lives matter is about which is wanting to have a voice and wanting to come to a table and have a conversation about how to we all feel safe, and part of that is getting guns out of the hands of people who should not have guns. 30,000 or more people die at the hands of guns in the united states of america today and we do not have common sense gun safety laws.
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he dances around this subject but this is what he has done. when we are talking about protecting the men and women in blue that is equally important. one of my biggest honors is that i decided to serve on the police department. we went through some tough times. most of you will remember that. we worked on sensitivity training and making sure this was a force that strives for diversity and community policing. that's a conversation we need to
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have on a national level. that is not what is happening in washington today. that is what i would like to be a voice for, bringing everyone together for this very important national conversation. >> same question. if anyone is unjustly and violently targeted and innocent, that is an important cause for anyone to make sure that doesn't happen again. what i don't believe is acceptable is when that motivation ends up resulting on innocent, courageous law enforcement officers to be murdered. when there is someone who unjustly murdered, and there
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should be accountability, someone should get into a lot of trouble if they broke the law and when it crosses that line of the local area that you are supposed to love and targeting innocent business owners, when you are taking a man or woman who is wearing blue, somewhere in this country and they leave their family to keep their family save and strangers as well and their family never sees them again. what's important is for everyone to come together and understand that violence is not the answer to solve the situation and we must realize that all lives in this country matter. i have voted 28 times against
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the bill from peter king to prevent terrorists from purchasing firearms according to my opponent. that's interesting because i've been at d.c. for a few weeks and a couple days ago it was 27. what you'll see in her tv ads is that's 25 times times. you don't have to take my word for it. if you look at the tv ad itself, a list 25 different bills and you can go home and type them in for themselves. applicants, democrats, congress and the president work to get it done. who would've thought that there would be a tv ad i will be aired against me at the end of the campaign where this and other bills would be displayed, saying i voted against a bill to prevent terrorists from being able to purchase firearms.
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he voted the same it that way that i did on all 25 bills. they have nothing at all to do with guns. and had no part of the process not when it was passed to the rules committee or house floor or back to the house committee. i think it's important to you that we have the ability to say not just what polls well because we want to win in an election, but we need to be honest with you and that is an outright lie. >> excuse me, are you using the card? >> yes you are, but you must show me. >> okay, i'm sorry. >> we've had several debates now
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and i think it's time we separate fact from fiction. the fact of the matter is the way it works on the floor the house of representatives, when a bill is introduced by a member of congress on anything, the majority can either vote for or against it, but as part of that procedure a member of congress can say i would like to bring on a motion because i believe there's something more pressing and i would like to bring forward a procedural vote to bring forward, in this case, peter king's no-fly, no by legislation. that has now happened 25 times before we cut my commercial, three times since, 28 times. i have the dates right here and circle. he has had the opportunity 28
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times to vote to bring forward peter king's bill on whether to prevent terrorists watchlist individuals from also buying guns. he voted no every single time. this fact, i have it right here, and yes, if you google those bills, those were different bills, but the notion was brought forward when they were voted down to preempt them on whether to bring forward the bill on no-fly, no-buy. would you vote yes or no for it if you had it today. to support his bill on no-fly, no by. >> there were one things in there that was very honest and she said those were different bills. when you look at tv yet, it was
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25 bills. it's all true that all of those bills have nothing to do with it i'm telling you to go on the internet and look at it yourself. you can look at the tv ad. you'll see those bills have absolutely nothing at all to do with guns. that was the one little nugget of my opponents answer that was absolutely exaggerated. and, if it was pete king's bill, why was it that every single time peking voted the same exact way that i did. why? because when you fight really hard against the opioid epidemic that is right here in sussex county, it's the worst county in the the entire state as far as being targeted with abuse. it's a personal issue.
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i have been to a lot of wakes myself where families are being tore apart because of it. i took this cause. i had multiple press conferences. i formed a coalition with republicans and democrats in the house in the senate to figure out how to get this bill done. just think, that bill number, because i voted for it is now one of 25 pills that has absolutely nothing to do with guns that way to be used in an attack ad to try to get you to vote for my opponent. why? i will tell you why, because it pulls really, really well. if you can convince voters that your opponent wants terrorists to be able to purchase firearms, i've been doing my part my entire life to make sure there is no threat to american security here, at home or abroad. i will continue to do my part, but it's outrageous when i fight
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to make sure there are no more that they will use an attack ad against me. that is outrageous. >> no applies please. i would remind candidates that question from a student asked for their opinion of black lives matter. both of you were discussing matters that are of interest and are important in this of election, but we are asking our audience what is important to them what they want to hear. i would ask you to try to stay within the parameters of the questions i'm going to defend myself while you have to use another red card. wasn't worth it. they. >> comedy red cards do we have less mark. >> you have a total of three, you've each used one. okay, the next question.
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>> is a question from the member of the week as well as the audience. the people would like to know, regarding obamacare, do you feel it needs some fixing, which which i think a lot of people do , specifically, what would you change. if you want to get rid of it, what are you going to put in its place specifically? >> that's a great question. we need to do something with obamacare. i would not have voted for it if i was in congress when it came up for a vote. i certainly wouldn't vote for it now. back in january i voted for legislation to repeal and replace obamacare which the president vetoed. parts of obamacare, like covering people with pre-existing conditions, allowing allowing children to be able to stay on their parents policy, those are two components, for example that liberals and conservatives, republicans and democrats, democrats, all agree upon. whether you want to keep obamacare as is or you're someone who wants to repeal and
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replace it, those are two components that are in all of the different versions that we see. we need to have more choice. in new york state we had just one co-op which went under. 200,000 new yorkers, some in the middle of cancer treatment were told, in the middle of cancer treatment that they were no longer covered. not going to be covered in the future and you're not covered now. there needs to be more features and more plants but we have to have the ability to purchase plans outside of state. we need more providers locally willing to honor those plans from out-of-state. we need to create more pretax incentives for people, there exists right now, as far as being able to have affordable childcare and reimburse a lot of different expenses related to you, your family, your spouse, your kids. we kids. we need to have more of a pretax benefit for people to be able to cover some of those expenses
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that unfortunately they don't have enough money to go get treated. as a result of them not having enough money to get treated, they may end up with a more chronic, more expensive expensive long-term element that would end up costing more. the policy as it exists right now and the lack of competition and affordability, by the way, one other thing that's really important is we have a lot of small and medium-size businesses here on long island to give them an ability to work together to be able to get a more competitive plan for their employees. right now please are telling their employees at their getting less and having to pay more. i hear a lot about higher premiums, higher deductibles, canceled policies, longer wait times, it's, it's not working. the math, on its own, obama collapses in 2017. we. we have to get something done with obamacare. whether you want to talk about fixing it, improving it, delaying, improving, replacing. replacing. the fact is in 2017 it has to get done. i have favored the repeal and
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replacement plan was vetoed by the president. i continue to favor that plan as well, but health republic as new york as the example of what happened with the business model where you put the freelancers union in charge of creating a policy. they had no idea how to do it so they rented one. when they figured out it didn't work, new york state told them no, they they weren't allowed to do it. we have to get smarter in the way we deliver it as well. >> the intention was to things. one to make sure all americans have access to affordable health coverage and quality healthcare regardless of income. and to start to reduce what are the high cost of healthcare in the united states of america. we pay somewhere in the realm of 30% more for almost every medical procedure then you do elsewhere in the world today.
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that's part of the reason this is not tenable. what i have written the bill differently? yes i would have. i wouldn't have given away the store to the insurance company which is the way that it was written today we have again, a congress that will not come together and work on this. there are so many bipartisan solutions to this fat or mitered in the partisan bickering that's going on. that is what has got to stop. when you talk about replacing repeal or repeal and replace but you don't actually put forward a replacement plan, there has been no bill, no comprehensive plan put forward under the repeal and replace so it's a lot of talk right now. so why congress doesn't get together and solve this, i think it's a big problem. today 20 million more americans are insured now than they were
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before the affordable care act. we are at an all-time low in terms of people uninsured in the united states. we are starting to see the cost of healthcare going down. we still have some very big problems. the income bracket has to be fixed in terms of where people qualify for tax credit and tax reductions in order to be able to afford their plan. we have to be able to negotiate pharmaceutical. i touched on the little bit, but i will give will give you a really frightening example of that. there is a company that is manufacturing pharmaceuticals in ireland in a tax haven. they have a hep c cure. it is something that affects veterans today more than any other population. they come back and they are infected by hepatitis c and many
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others. the cost of producing that drug is 1 dollar a pill. they charge $1000. pill. we do not have the ability to negotiate today. we have to get rid of the cadillac tax, and we have to make sure that the fraud and abuse that is in there, over $200 billion worth of unnecessary medical procedures are ordered today and they're not stopped. there is a bipartisan way to do this, and we have to do it. >> thank you. >> okay, the next question which is our six will go. >> i feel compelled that this was actually on my list when i sat down. it seems appropriate now. :
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>> domestic abuse record. let me go back to this. because it's time to stop being snowed by what he's talking about. the fact of the matter is there's a procedure that happens on the floor of the house of representatives where when a bill is brought forward, there is an opportunity to vote no on that and ask for a preemption for something that any members of covers think is more important. 28 times, and i have them right here, and just if you google them or go on his website, what you will find is a bill unrelated. but the fact of the matter is
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that 28 times as part of that procedure which is very commonly used on the floor of the house of representatives, members of congress including mr. zeldin were asked to vote on whether they would agree to bring forward for discussion and for a vote peter king's bill on no fly, no buy. mr. zeldin voted no every single time. i support of the build? yes, i do. and mr. zeldin has to start telling the truth. >> so i wasn't actually suggesting you visit my website. i wasn't suggesting you visit any website. any website at all. and by the way, if peter king, it was peter king's bill, why would you vote the exact way
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that i did every single time? because we are voting whether or not to consider, for example, the conference of addiction and recovery act. [inaudible] >> excuse me. [shouting] >> quiet from the audience. >> which bill are you referring to? >> repeat the question please. >> a proposal. >> yes. >> maybe you can explain. >> excuse me. >> is called protect america act and its legislation to prevent terrorism purchasing firearms or explosives to its legislation i introduced. to get beyond the soundbites and talk details, because if you notice that i've made a detailed discussed yet, is because there is a substantive debate if you're concerned about this issue and i don't know a single
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member of congress in favor of terrorists being able to purchase firearms. i don't know one number of congress out of 535 who is in favor of terrorist been able to purchase firearms or explosives. here's the question and you can be at either side of the. i'll tell you of my personal opinion is. deeply the burden should be on the government to show that the purchaser is a terrorist, or should the burden be on the purchaser to prove that they're not a terrorist? that's the main difference between the legislation that peaking introduced legislation i introduced. i believe the burden should be on the government to show the purchaser is a terrorist and the legislation that exists, the burden is on the purchaser to go to court and prove that another terrorist. you can get either side of the. i'm telling you my opinion is. 97% of the watch list our borders. we are talking about 3% that this debate applies to. and of death 3% i as a member of congress who has briefings on these topics with the director
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of fbi, director of national intelligence consecutive homeland security, i cannot have someone get on or off the list and why. what i do know is that people have been added to the list because the fed wants to speak to the former college roommate of the person to add to the list. there has been toddlers added, members of congress, u.s. service members, u.s. marshal. part of the protect america act is to ensure that we are cleaning the list of removing the names of people who should not have been on in the first place. if you want to use the list for new purposes and you want to say that someone can't purchase a firearm because they are on the list you need to remove from the list anyone who should not have been on the first place. of the 3% who are foreigners, some of them for completely different reasons can't purchase. so i don't of anyone who's in favor of terrorist thing of the purchase firearms or explosives. and get them asking you to visit my website. i'm asking you to visit any
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website. >> thank you, mr. zeldin. the next question and you just let the question is now we'll wl have to more questions and then the question for the candidates to ask each other. so two more questions and this is addressed to mr. zeldin initially. >> i would just like to comment that the question that mr. shaw just passed was also from the audience. it was also on the league's list. so clearly it was an issue that everyone wanted an answer to. my next question is a combination again of the ibm's and the league. and it refers to climate change, notice as a question, what measures would you propose we could balance the need for more efficient energy, environmental protection while preserving jobs in the fossil fuel industry?
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so that is sort of the combine of what was hitting from the audience and what the league was asking. >> our climate is changing your we need to do more to be better stewards of the era, the land, our water. i have supported many different pieces of legislation that helps protecting private around us here on long island. the first congressional district is unique because almost completely surrender by water. additionally, i've helped secure funding for brookhaven national lead, stony brook, arpa-e and other funding sources in order to pursue clean green alternative energy, wind, solar, water. when i was in new york state legislature i supported funds to allow people to make their homes more energy-efficient. need to upgrade the way that we're delivering power on long island. we have new plans which is more economically and environmentally friendly but you have other
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plans that are not economically or environmentally friendly but they are held primarily because the local area around the plant relies on the money to pay their property taxes. we need to be smart in the way we deliver power because we have plans that are outdated and are causing harm to the private around us. i mentioned earlier my key pieces of legislation to help save lon long island. i got $26.5 million to cover national estuary program for as you know the estuary goes deep into southampton. everything that goes all the way to the highway and around the highway. we secured $26.5 million for that resource conservation goes. the end of last year the land trust, the top pretty was to get a permanent extension of conservation easements. this allows those in the agriculture industry to play some decent on the property
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which has a more favorable tax assessment that allows the property to pass one generation to the next. the epa right now is facing out actually is getting rid of the eastern dumpsite composer correctly above our district, but there is a debate going on as far as what to do with the western dumpsite with connecticut's graduate. to improve water quality on the long island sound and it is the long island sound restoration and stewardship act with steve israel. insource long island sound goes, i believe that instead of the current plan to phase out open water dumping in the western long island sound, that when it reduced that to no more than five or 10 years. there are many different ways we can do better stewards of our vibrant, taking to the air, land, our water. i tried to cover a lot of it in two minutes but the key is to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels to become more environmentally friendly to pursue alternative energy, clean
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and green energy. the opportunities with research done right here, good paying jobs but also important research that we can lead the way for the entire country on the east end of long island. >> thanks. ms. throne-holst? >> i think it's important we recognize that science is on our side in this and it's very important to work with science and the scientific community on this. the scientific communities unequivocal in that climate change is real. and it is one of the biggest threats to our generation but certainly to the next generation. when we're talking about this that we're not just talking about a private. we are talking about the cost and economic impact of climate change. when we talk about the threat to his right here on long island but also seeing that there is a level of opportunity here, yes, we have to recognize that we are still far too dependent on
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fossil fuel burning plants. we are looking at sea level rise that is affecting the value of our properties and the threat to our properties into our businesses. during my time as account supervisor of the the when putting together a program called solarized southhampton and hope most of you take advantage of the program but if that fails tax credits in the ability to tap into lower and lower costs, solar rising infrastructure for your homes. we partnered that allows you to tap into an audit of the energy efficiency of your house and access low-cost loans where your monthly payment will be less than what the difference between your new and old utility costs are. we are so well poised right on long island, we are surrounded by water. have abundant wind and solar energy. and we have the ability to get off of fossil fuels right here and now. the of the big threat to our
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environment here is the night which and loading in our service and ground waters. we've talked about the idea of how do we do or long island. you can't sue her long island the way it needs in order to stop and mitigate the problem around nitrogen loading -- sewer. out of the way on the founding of the clean water technology center at stony brook university which is now a national holiday give you can research and develop inside to bring forward new technology to retrofit each and every one of your cesspool and septic system and start to treat nitrogen right on site. it stands to greet hundreds of jobs, and that is the kind of innovation that we need to support, programs we need to roll out. we need the federal government to show leadership in that. that's not happening right now. when we talk about -- wants to
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build a $5 billion fossil fuel plant. i don't think it's okay to deregulate like my opponent did as a state senator. the burning of fossil fuels and the impact that has. i don't think it's okay to defund the epa. >> thank you. okay. for a final question, ms. throne-holst, will address it. >> this was a question that came from the audience. we also had on our lives. what is the single biggest way that you plan to help veterans in your first or your next term in office? >> that's a very important question, and it's a very important question record suffolk county because with the largest veteran population in new york state where the largest homeless veteran population in new york state. and i don't think we do enough. during my time as town
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supervisor, i worked with the county veterans administration to make sure that we had an officer from the administration at townhall on a weekly basis so that our veterans did have to travel all the way out west to access those services. we also contracted with services for the underserved of which is a wonderful organization that provides services to veterans, and they are now operating out of our senior center in flanders. we need programs that ensures that every veteran that comes back as a job, as job training, as housing, and has access to medical care and mental health care. and we are not doing enough. we have seen reports repeatedly over the last several years how our va hospital in northport is not able to provide the service. the underserved.
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-- gets underserved in my opponent held a congressional hearing seven weeks out from this election just a couple weeks ago after having been in office for almost two years. he voted against the administration's proposed budget that slashed the proposed funding by billion dollars in which reduced for about 70,000 veterans, less costly health care. now he denies that but there is a record on all of us. and i will work tirelessly to make sure that the programs that need to be there are rolled out to ikea make sure that every veteran that comes back as a job and access to job training. there are not-for-profit that want to work on this with our educational system, with the companies on long island that want to hire veterans but need to make sure that they are trained for it.
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and roll out those programs that make sure that that happens. and protect medicare and social security because our veterans are as dependent on all of these programs. my opponent voted to create a voucher program, medicare, and wants to die social security to the stock market. for someone who's managed and municipal budget for eight years where our pension system in new york is tied to the stock market, i know firsthand how well that works. it doesn't work. and taxpayers end up paying the difference. and these are issues that again this dysfunctional congress is not coming together on, and funding is being denied by the majority of this congress. >> thank you, ms. throne-holst. mr. zeldin. >> well, at risk of spending two minutes are really important topic defending myself against a
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few different things unrelated that were untruthful i'm going to focus on veterans, but i might use this red car to get myself some extra time. we will see. my biggest personal passion as relates to our veterans is combating our veterans returning home to mental wounds of war and losing their life. in suffolk county we have too many veterans who feel isolated and alone. they don't realize that there are other veterans in their community going through exactly they're going through, that the people who they can call in the middle of the night to drop everything and come over and lend a helping hand when i was in new york state senate i created a support program. suffolk and was one of four counties in new york state, the program has worked exceptionally. the county, tom ronayne, a lot of private growth groups, vsos have done such an amazing job to get up to our veterans who need it most. it's saving lives. when we lose one veteran did a suicide it is one too many. some of these veterans like pfc.
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joseph walkup his last words were i don't want to die. it gets called suicide like he was huffing for temporary release. about a year ago introduced legislation to take the dwyer program which is now in over a dozen counties in new york state and make it national. whether you live in suffolk county new york or anywhere else, anywhere in this country we need to get to the point where our veterans know that there is a helping hand, love and support and they should not give up. that's priority number one. i've lost more friends due to suicide with ptsd than i have lost friends who have died overseas in combat. beyond that, there is, the department of veterans affairs needs to do a much better job in the way is operating its capital budget. again to the hospital project alone is a billion dollars over budget. you have executives using the relocation incentive bonus program to get themselves set up with moves that they want and then getting themselves paid $127,000, $227,000.
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and when office of inspector general for be said those cases need to be referred to the department of justice, the department of veterans affairs turned on their own inspector general. we have veterans who have, they've died on secret waitlist. we've had in several states employees have been instructed to falsify the wait time list. we are going to have a new secretary of veterans affairs in january and they have to put the culture at the va and the need to tackle these issues have done. also some laws have to change. the house passed the the accountability act which is in the senate. they are working on getting final project to pass before the end of this year. because like the albany stratton did hospital director, the va want to fire but the review board said you can't. the law is not going to allow you to find this person who should have absolutely have been replaced. improving the culture, changing some of the laws, managing money more efficiently are all very important to abide what we could have all the pictures on
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veterans because there is now in ever to ways we could better serve those who have kept us safe. >> thank you. at this point, if you would like to, mr. zeldin come hear the opportunity to ask one question of your opponent, ms. throne-holst, you have two minutes to respond to that question. and as i said at the beginning we really would like it to be issued based. thank you. >> completely issue-based. if just on a policy level, which policy positions of hillary clinton do you disagree with? >> you made the statement the other day that i supported her proposed increase in accepting refugees from syria over the proposed 10,000 limit right now. and i don't know where you got that from because i have never made that statement.
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what i have said is that i do think that we need to do absolute fair share on this issue. but in doing make sure that we have an immigration and betting system that is absolutely airtight for this. right now takes 18-24 months for a syrian refugee to even go through the consideration process. and if anyone is suspected of any kind of terrorist affinity or connection, they are tonight. but we we are looking at people being slaughtered, which is what's going on in syria today -- thank you -- i think we have to take our fair share of responsibility here. not letting syrian refugees into this country is one of the biggest jihadists recruitment tools going on today your not
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being part of a comprehensive plan to bring stability is part of what's going on today, in terms of jihadists recruitment. we have an absolute responsibility there. and i do agree with her stance on the nuclear deal. every military expert who understands this, and there are many, both on the american side of this and the israeli side of this, agreed that we had an absolute responsibility to make sure that iran did not build a nuclear bomb. and we managed that. we stopped back. >> thank you. excuse me, mr. zeldin, this is not speedy i just, the question giunta china understand speed excuse me, mr. zeldin to do you want to use the red card? >> sure.
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>> but don't direct it don't direct your comments to ms. throne-holst. direct them to the obvious. those are your voters. >> so i have two minutes? great. so first off, i would encourage my opponent just to clarify that she saying that she doesn't, the question was what policy do not agree with come at the only thing that was mentioned was disagree on refugees. so just like clarification that my opponent is saying that she disagrees with hillary clinton's position on refugees as, that would be the only, i don't want to put words in her mouth. i guess what to do if that's what she said she disagrees with. but with the available time that is left, yeah, we actually disagree on a few different things that were just mentioned. the iran nuclear deal gives up to one and $50 billion to the world's largest state sponsor of terrorism. iran is pledging to wipe israel off the map. they chant death to america on their holidays. they have financed assad in
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syria, hezbollah. to overthrow foreign governments, the houthis in yemen. we had a $1.7 billion to the iranians, money that we did not know and we had to pay it at the same exact time simultaneously in order to secure american hostages. that's called ransom. people want to call it something else, that's fine but what's important i now is that since tn we've had more american hostages that have been taken. we could call it an agreement. we could even ask for a signature of the agreement am so secretary kerry responded to be in the letter said it's an unsigned politica political com. this ideals which have not been put out between the iaea and iran at the aps report iran is possible for collecting some of their own soil samples and inspecting some of their own nuclear site. to leverage a broad array and to the table is the sanctions relief. if you want to do with any other that activities like right now while we're here, we're not
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allowed to talk about something that the news, read with iranians i do right now because of what happened with the houthis in yemen, with america, you'll see iran's aggressive behavior against us. we don't have the leverage to bring them to the table which is unfortunate. >> thank you, mr. zeldin. thank you. yes. all right. let's get some facts on the table here and separate fiction. >> since the iranian nuclear deal was implemented, and that would reduce some real facts you okay? a scoresheet on iran's compliance has been kept and agreed to by the international community and oversight agencies that are now there to oversee. they have, as required, removed and placed iaea, those of the international atomic energy agency monitors, storage
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two-thirds of the 19,000 centrifuge it used for uranium enrichment. iran has ended all uranium enrichment, a process that can be used to create the nuclear bomb. it has removed all the nuclear material from its once secret facility in fordow which was when we were worried about the most. it has reduced all of its stockpile of enriched uranium from 12,000 kilograms, 300 kilograms. and the core of a heavy-water reactor which was evident international community worried about has been filled in with concrete. in other words, they have been incapacitated from building a nuclear bomb. now, does iran need to be very carefully monitored on this? there is a question about it.
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and that was a part of the deal but i did not agree with, the oversight was not strong enough. but again, the international community, national security experts, army experts, military experts, intelligence experts on both american, international and israeli soil believe that this was the only way to move forward to ensure that. >> thank you, ms. throne-holst. mr. zeldin, we are talking about the iranian a great but, which is important, not that question was not asked. now, is your rebuttal again on the iranian -- >> that's not okay. >> well, did you have used up one more red card. go ahead. >> okay. so the iran nuclear agreement, when we had our 10 navy sailors being embarrassed, photography,
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videography and then generals are being given awards, the iranians, the russians from the north koreans, the chinese, we've enemies their testing us right now they're watching each other test us. they do not respect weakness. they only respect strength. america's foreign policy needs to strengthen by striking our relationship with our allies and treating our enemies our enemies. going back to what we call an agreement, sometimes the word deal is used, begin it is not even signed by the iranians. we would all go out and want to buy a car and you simply to give you $10,000 say no, you're going to give me $25,000, there is no agreement. there are material terms of vista were both sides are disputing. like, for example, the american said that we are going to be able to inspect the military site. before, during, and after the negotiations the iranians that you will never be able to inspect our nuclear sites. we said that sanctions relief is
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going to be phased in over time based off of compliance. the iranians said sanction relief will be immediate, no suspension. you could go down the list of material terms of the agreement where both sides do not agree. what was made worse was that certain components that they could not agree upon, by the end, was put into these deals, the verification agreement between the iaea and iran. there was more than one of these verification agreement. what brings into the tidbits of the sanctions relief. we have negotiate away the sanctions relief that is brought into the table, propping up the wrong machine. deservedly bad people. -- these are really bad people. ..
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