widows, to get thoseenefits. senator mcconnell has told you he wants to repeal to make sure we realize we have to rein in the epa but we also have to work across the aisle in a coalition, the effort to make sure that senator reid or whoever the majority leader is, listen to those here in kentucky to make sure that coal has a rifle place and youport. you and you yo and and yo hed yo youe and

as an warmin but we have to tak a balanced virgin is fighting to protect the good jobs that we have especially in this state. with the solutions that we need to make sure that we leave this world in a better place for my nieces and nephews, for the children i hope to have someday and i think that balanced approach is looked at and fighting in clean coal technology. kentucky has gone without the funding that we need to make such technology affordable. we cannot go any longer without a senator that does not have the backbone to stand up and fight for our miners and jobs especially -- isyou think technology

working and is viable and there is a demonstration of that in the united states or the world you can see in west virginia. ment isearch and develop tremendous. i will be that senator and i am proud to have the united mine workers supporting that. do you still hold the position that you are not a scientist, do you believe that we should even be discussing climate change? scientistse up until who feel that this is a problem and maybe we can do something about co2 emissions.

wrote in the 1970's scientists felt we were moving toward an ice age. the main thing to understand is the job of the united states senator from kentucky is to fight for coal jobs and this administration has destroyed 7000 of them. not surprising that the secretary has the support of the umwa. afl-cio.dent is the the senator fails to see he has a role in the jobs that have been lost and you you've been there 30 years and you don't want to take any responsibility if for loss of the jobs here in the state or the lack of the benefits that our minors an their families are having to work for. it's wrong.

>> secretary grimes, if i may, congress didn't pass. we defeated it. when your party volumed the both and the house. this is what he wor own the been there 30 years and you do not want to take responsibility for the loss of jobs or the lack of the benefits that our miners and families have to work for. >> congress did not pass with the president is doing. we defeated it. when your party controlled the house and the senate by large majorities. this is a barack obama war on the coal industry. failure -- >> we defeated it in congress. what his resume shows, the only person washington has been is not the, it minors, it is not eastern or western kentucky looking to have their economies further developed. the only person who has benefitted is senator mcconnell and his friends.

>> we started our conversation, thecolumnist and head of institute for world journalism and i have been teaching a course about you. one of their assignments was to write out a question. this is from anthony pendleton. he wrote this question. student loan debt hit a record high, $1.2 trillion. experts say this is causing people to delay getting married. what should be done to fix this problem? >> we just passed on a bipartisan basis that stabilizes the loan rates. the reason this young man has got this problem is because the economy is so poor. where in a situation here ,oung people get out of school having gone into serious debt and then cannot find work.

my opponent supports a bill by elizabeth moran which is a big tax increase and that is the wrong thing to do in this environment. until we get this economy going we will not have much of an impact. obamacare affects this. the governor's decision to , the two biggest items are medicaid and education leads to the legislature reducing the funding for education, that is passed on to the public universities and they raise tuition. health care costs are compounding the problem. >> secretary grimes? >> i think this shows the difference between senator mcconnell, senaotr of the past versus a senator of the future. he just gave you washington speak versus someone kentucky through and through. someone who wants promotion of

his party. i believe the filibustering effort that mcconnell led against the recent bill this year to actually reduce the sing-along debt facing our student is wrong. we have to have a senator that realizes we have 360,000 students been crushed by string along debt. i sat across from a woman who made the right decision and went to college and she is making student loan payments bigger than her mortgage. he will not even consider allowing debate, let alone a vote on refinancing. it is supported by countless republicans to make sure we are putting kentuckians, especially

our students and graduates first. they deserve a senator that wants to back them. >> it is not supported on a bipartisan basis at all. it passes the debt to the federal government which under the obama administration, the debt has exploded. we have added more debt than all the presidents from george washington down to george bush. what grimes is saying is let's add more. that is the biggest disservice we can do to the young people getting out of school. what we are leaving behind is threatening to their future. every generation of americans have gone to their grave thinking they left behind a better america than their parents left for him. that is now and doubt. this massive debt hanging over the future has really compromised the chances of our young people fulfilling their dreams and live the kind of lives they hoped to.

>> the massive debt we have is $17 trillion and 17 trillion reasons why not to send mcconnell. 2 wars on the nation's credit card. >> november 4 has great significance for you. but on november 5, kentuckians all over the commonwealth will get up and go to a job if they have one and pay a mortgage and try to feed a family. what i want to close with, they want to know which of you that can trust more to provide for them a decent standard of living and inequality of opportunity? >> i believe that kentuckians know my record. it is a record of being an independent thinker and putting the partisanship aside and the people of the state first. that is what my plan is all about.

a comprehensive jobs plan. i am the only one with a plan. we have yet to see ideas from senator mcconnell. it is about putting hard-working kentuckians back to work. fight for them to earn a living wage and for women not just the right but equal pay for equal work. fight for our seniors to strengthen medicare and social security and fight for our veterans and students. >> very good question. who can best look out for our state over the next six years? i think i have demonstrated that i have the leadership qualities to do that. in recent poll of congressional staffers sent out a couple days ago, they called me the hardest working member of the united states center out of 100. we have a chance to have the hardest working senator. >> thank you very much for being here tonight on kentucky night.

>> thank you, bill. you can follow is on twitter at c-span and facebook. debate.s part of the >> and the sixth circuit court of appeals upholds judge friedman's overturning of michigan's gay marriage ban, will you ask the attorney general to pursue the appeal further or let it rest? >> there are separate constitutional offices. i will wait for the opinion to

come down. that is a hypothetical but i will respect what happens in our court system and that is where the issue will be decided. >> i am waiting for the outcome from the courts. deserved to know where the governor will stand on tough issues. you may not agree with me on every issue on the issue of marriage equality. discrimination will play no part in my office as governor. lead you tot believe he has no position. this governor through his own a dispatcher band domestic harner benefits for a lesbian state employees. his choices are tough. , my running mate --

it is not only the right thing to do but it is an economic issue here in our state to discriminate against people, talented people we need to help rebuild the city is wrong. i talked to parents who have adult children who are professionals that live in other states will not come here because we have acrid policies. you have challenged, you have appealed judge friedman's decision. you are a party to opposing marriage equality -- marriage equality. >> you can watch this entire governor's debate only on our website. .ww.c-span.org x here are a few of the comments we have recently received. >> [indiscernible]

gentleman who handled the questions never went back to the fact that this then did not answer the true questions fully. he did not answer what if the backgroundt support and he didun shows, not answer fully how much money the nra is getting from the gun menu fractures and other friends . if you guys do not support -- do not present the opposite start -- stopill watching c-span. you are supposed to be the independent. i do not get that when you do not go back and say you did not answer this question, what about that? chrisfor having posted

cox from the national rifle association earlier today and it was able to get into the show. i was the first color. ast i was trying to impart the child of a holocaust survivor, the second amendment is the only thing between tyranny and freedom. people concerned with their nazi-ism, from lamism, they have to be afforded the right to bear firepower. was watching today and it amazing that you took very

few democrats calls. could you please show us where the president has said he is against the second amendment? is letting all this be spewed. this is just one-sided. thank you. whatntinue to let us know you think about the programs you're watching. us or sendemails us a tweet. twitter conversation. follow us on face book. >> the third virginia u.s. senate debate with mark warner challenger. senator warner is a businessman who was elected in 2008. mr. gillespie served in the

george w. bush administration and chaired the republican national committee. listed as races likely democrat. >> welcome to the people's debate. tonight in a race for one of virginia's u.s. senate seat the candidates will answer questions. some ground has been covered in prior debates. we will try to plow new ground. let's introduce you to the candidates. and -- joining us are the former governor democrat mark warner and his challenger tonight, republican and gillespie. onight's debate is broadcast television stations throughout virginia and can join a live conversation about the debate on #people's debate. here's a look at the guidelines.

candidates will answer questions from our panel of four enemy. freaks question both will have 90 seconds to respond. the first candidate will have an additional 60 seconds to rebut. the candidates will alternate taking the first response to each question and the signal will determine when their time is up. the candidates will have two minutes each for opening and closing statements. who goes first has been decided by coin toss. let's meet the panel. theing us tonight is president of the league of women voters of arlington. political porter -- reporter craig carper. -- anchor cheryl miller. determined that mr. gillespie will go first. he will deliver his opening statement.

toss hascoin determined that he will get to answer the first question now. let us start with opening statements. >> it is great to be with everyone here. i am running for the united states senate because they want future generations to have the same opportunities i have had. my grandfather was an immigrant janitor. my parents did not go to college. i got to be counselor to the president. we are losing that kind of economic opportunity and upward mobility as a result of the obama-warner policies. president obama says these policies are on the dollar this year, every single one of them and in voting with the president 97% of the time, mark warner has voted for every single one of them. these policies are making us less safe as a nation and making us less able to meet growing threats to our national security and public health and safety. they are squeezing too many

virginians between lost jobs, lower take-home pay, reduced working hours, and higher prices for health care, energy, and food. in virginia since the senator has taken office, 65,000 or woman have gone into poverty. for every net job we have created, to virginians have gone on food stamps and 250,000 have the health care plans canceled as a result of the vote for obama care. this election presents a big choice. we can continue down the path of the obama-warner policies or we can take a new and better direction with my five point agenda for economic growth that would create jobs and raise take-home pay and lift people out of poverty and reduce energy prices. it is a choice between higher taxes and lower take-home pay or tax relief and increased wages. or aice between more debt balanced budget. more regulations on energy that kill jobs and drive up prices or

unleashing american energy to create jobs and hold down prices. my approach would ease the squeeze and make it easier for the unemployed to find work and i look forward to debating those issues here this evening. >> thank you. see you.good to i would like to thank our hosts and all the virginians who are watching tonight. it has been a great honor to serve virginia. first as governor and now a senator. what brought me to public service was the notion that in america, everyone not to get a fair shot. everyone ought to get a fair shot. and to make sure that sense of opportunity exists. we have to make sure people in washington can work together. that is what i did is your governor. we turned a deficit into a everyone oughtsurplus and virgid the best managed state in the best state for business. i brought that same bipartisan

approach to the u.s. senate. that is why i am honored to have the endorsement of john warner who held this job for 30 years. and had more former legislators endorsing me this race than when i ran the first time. in the senate i have wrestled with issues like bringing down the debt and deficit. making sure veterans get the care they deserve, bringing jobs back to virginia and making sure young people do not get crushed i student debt. on every issue that i have worked on i always start with a republican partner because that is how you get things done. my opponent has a different approach. he spent his whole career as a d.c. lobbyist and partisan political operative. issue -- he even went out and called himself a partisan leader. the not know about you but last thing washington needs is another partisan lawyer in

either political party. the world needs a strong american. , militarily, and morally. you have to have leaders that can work together. thank you. >> thank you. we will go to the questions as per the point toss. mr. gillespie will answer first. let's go to christine goss. >> thank you both for being here. last year, the supreme court gutted the key section of the voting rights act that for decades had help you protect evil of color from discriminatory voting laws. to updaten is pending the voting rights act. so that its full protections are once again in place. presumably the bill will be reintroduced in the next congress. when you correspond -- cosponsor this legislation? >> i would look at that, i is freethat it

clarence. the voting rights act is critically important, must we enforced and this is one of the most sacred rights we have. people have shed blood in died. that the voting rights act is being enforced and we have district lines overturned and it is one example of why the federal courts are so important. it is an example why so many virginians are concerned about the recent reports that senator warner made a phone call talking about the potential of recommending the daughter of a state senator for the federal bench, a lifetime appointment. in relation to a political decision. whether or not that senator would stay or leave came in the same timeframe as the story of the governors chief of staff making a job offer. this is very serious in terms of

the federal bench has a big impact and we need to make sure that qualified people are put on the bench and i would never play politics with recommending judicial appointments and i would not raise the prospect of it in the context of a decision about expanding obamacare further in the commonwealth. >> let me answer the question. i strongly would support that legislation. we need to expand voting rights. it is remarkable that we see all around the country efforts to restrict voting rights. politicals in a posturing. i am not surprised my apartment would not be in support of expanding voter rights but let's do with the issue he just raised. i have been a friend of senator philip duckett and his family.

when i heard that philip was considering resigning from the sonte, i reached out to his joseph and to find out what was going on. during that conversation, we brainstormed about possible opportunities for his sister. his sister had been a substitute state judge. she could not be confirmed. a lot of about options. i did not offer her a job nor would i offer her any kind of position. the following day i talked to senator pocket. he decided he was going to resign. he even drafted his letter of resignation. i have been friends with them for long time and i respect the senator's decision. >> your rebuttal and bear in mind that republicans face similar accusation in this case

commits a federal investigation as well. be clear. i am talking about news reports and questions that are out there. the senator has answered the question here that i do not think is being asked. i am not saying a suggestion iat he was offering a job and understand the difference between the executive and legislative ranch. you this. the role as senator plays in the judicial nomination process is a critically important one and influential. the recommendations are made have a great aid in terms of what nominations are made. i have not seen anyone suggest that there was a job offer. there has been talk of private sector jobs with a federal contractor. even that discussion raises questions about the notion of a lifetime appointment to the federal bench in relation to a

political decision and to further the effort of expanding obamacare in the commonwealth of virginia, i do not know if that has been answered. it will address the second question starting with mr. warner. >> this year the general assembly reformed the sol's but there have not been reform since all -- no children left behind. of the currentsm system from teachers and administrators is that it does not celebrate progress made by struggling students who start from behind. what specific changes would you make to no child left behind? crexendo if that no child left behind needs to be reformed or gotten rid of. i think the pendulum has swung way too far in terms of testing

alone. i would argue that one of the things i have done that i am proudest of is what i was governor. we fixed virginia's budget and made the largest investment in public education in virginia history and we need to have that kind of approach. the challenge is going to be not only how do we reform education but how do we adequately fund it . he talks about easing the squeeze or his commitment to virginians but he has taken one ofthe most important pledges this campaign. it says in effect it is better to cut education, better to cut ella terry, better to cut support for seniors than two close a single tax loophole. i doubt with the debt and deficit. no serious person has said you have to look at both sides of the balance sheet. i know about that as a business

person. even republican members of the delegation have said taking the grover norquist pledge is an impediment to tax reform. you need education reform and a need to fund education. my opponent has already taken a pledge. to reform ore able fund education. >> this is another debate where senator warner has made a >> i have not signed pledges or the a.t.r. pledge or the pledge in terms of repealing obamacare. that said, i have made a pledge to the people of virginia that i will not vote to raise taxes on the floor of the united states senate and i will fight. senator warner has voted to raise taxes by over a trillion dollars. that's hurting our economy and

that's one of the reasons that we have the lowest labor participation rate in 36 years and nearly half of all recent college graduates are unable to find full-time quality jobs and are unemployed or underemployed. i will make a pledge that i will fight efforts to raise our taxes that senator warner. he wants to raise taxes, i don't. as for his efforts to balance the budgets. in the six years he has been ere, our debt has gone up $7 trillion. we need education reforms. you u go to my web site, can see our ajeopardya and point four is the need to reform education in a way to make more responsive to parents and students and equal opportunity. you have to have quality schools for every child.

>> again, let's go back to the pledge he took. have the letter from norquist that complyments him that says you will go and beyond the pledge. we will be to -- do you have a copy of me signing it. >> complimenting you the pledge. let's go back to what the effects of that are. you end up saying, it's better to cut education, better to cut our military, better to cut senior services rather than closing a single tax loophole. hire someone into debates with one hand tied behind their back. no serious group that has looked at us, and keags neal aa rmppmp on my efforts on entitlement reform that said you have to look at both sides.

what i have said, again, there is a clear choice between the candidates. >> third question, the president of arch arp will address this question to mr. gillespie. >> social security turns 80 next year and foundation upon which older americans rely. social security provides 50% or ore of family income for older americans. how will you protect social security for today's generation and strengthen it for future generations? >> we must protect social security for today's seniors and not only those in retirement and then we have to save it for future generations. my son and daughter are here. it's not going to be there for them. you are 47 or younger, your retirement point is 70 cents on

the dollar because of the insolvency that is looming. we need to save social security and medicare. senator warner voted to raid medicare of over $700 billion and into a new entitlement program called obamacare. we need to take a serious look at what we need to reform these programs so they will be safe and that entails a number of things that will get bipartisan support. and looking at the measure of inflation is important. looking at retirement ages, we are in the process of increasing the retirement age to 67. but we need to look at other options in terms of reforms so our children and their children will have the same benefit of a secure social safety net in their retirement that my parents have had and i will have at my

age. but not many people younger than me will be at rsk for 70 cents on the dollar. social security is one of the most important programs that our federal government has put in place. the challenge is the math doesn't work anymore. when i was a kid, 16 person was working for every one person. three people is working on one person on retirement. we have to make changes. unlike my retirement, i have laid out some specific changes that ought to be considered, change c.p.i. the idea that those folks under 35 and i talk to them, if they would be willing to wait an extra year, it would be there. ed and i were blessed to do well, maybe we ought to raise the cap in terms of income and i have said for those people who are 80 and above we ought to increase the benefit because

ey are outliving their citizens. think if that had become legislation in the midst of the financial crisis. it would have been devastation. you would have thought after the financial crisis he would no longer be an advocate of privatizing. last year he wrote that it was good for the republican party, it is the same notion if the plan was put into law. i disagree. we have to strengthen social security. >> senator warner has been a top staffer and worked for elected officials and i'm running on my platform for the united states senate and i have my own ideas and own policies and i do agree

one of the references i made to the measure of inflation is change c.p.i. and i appreciate his recognition that is a an option we ought to look at. again, let me look at social security and medicare because it is part of the broader social safety net. i met with home health care providers in virginia beach but all across the commonwealth but having their services slashed to pay for more obamacare and a lot more of the medicare population who are more sick and elderly and more poor than the broader population as a whole are going to find not having access to home health care which i know was so important to my mother and i want to make sure we protect that and not shift that money into more obamacare. >> the next question will be addressed to mr. warner asked by

cheryl miller. >> in light of news reports that did break over the weekend and points brought up in the beginning of this debate, is it appropriate for elected officials to help find jobs for other lawmakers in exchange for their support or political favors? >> let me again restate the circumstances that you refer to. i have been friends with fill and his family for 20 years and i reached out to his friend before i talked to phillip, i didn't offer anyone any job, nor would i offer any job. and that is a fact. now where do we go from here? clearly virginia has been a bit tarnished over recent scandals, and it is my hope that the governor and general assembly will come together with stricter laws.

that starts with people who are willing to work together, people willing not see every problem through the lens of republican versus democrat but have a proven record of being bipartisan. that's what i did as governor and done as senator and will continue to do if the people of virginia give me the honor of rehiring me. >> this call to an old friend, state senator's son came in the same time frame as the call from the governor's chief of staff to offer a job to the state senator's daughter or suggest a job for the state senator's daughter and just a coincidence. i do not know the woman. maybe she is qualified to be considered as a lifetime

appointment to the federal bench and maybe -- nobody is suggesting -- i realize that the senate doesn't have the ability to nominate the executive branch. having worked in the white house, senators have a great deal of influence on who is put forward to the federal bench and we know the impact that these appointments have in our country. we talked about it earlier today in one of the cases. i will not play politics with recommendations to the bench. and will be very careful about this very important role in the advice and consent process of the united states senate relative to the executive branch. and again, i don't believe that the questions that i think are out there have been answered, certainly not here tonight. and i think the people of virginia deserve some answers. >> rebuttal?

>> i agree with ed that we need to have an appropriate process when you consider someone tore the federal bench. that's what we do. we go through a lengthy process where first of all, candidates are reviewed by the bar, along with those candidates, get the highest recommendation and have a process of interviews and just recently, we recommended two candidates for a judgeship for the western district of virginia. i think two very qualified candidates and the president is going to move forward on one of them. the question goes to how do we make sure in virginia that we have stronger ethics laws which i strongly support. and i hope the governor and general assembly will come together to make that happen. but it goes to the basic trust that people have in our elected officials. they are so tired of the partisan gridlock. and that's not the way i have

operated as governor or senator. >> we'll now go to the next question from the league of women voters. >> you said you are troubled by the enormous sums of money flowing into political campaigns, what might be constitutional and effective until remedying the problems with the current system? >> one of the things we are dealing with is a bill that went through the congress that was intended to try to fix the problem of money in politics and that was the bipartisan campaign, finance reform act. at the time, i argued against it. i thought it was going to result in money going to outside groups that are less accountable than are the political parties. as chairman of the republican national committee then, i filed

a brief in the court against the law because i said it was going to have these negative unattended consequences and now we are living with them today. senator warner suggested that we take a vow not to have any outside money spent in this campaign after thinks super pac spent money on attack ads while i have not aired any commissioners aired on my behalf. it would be better for us to have laws where the parties and the campaign committees are more accountable for their election messaging than outside groups. again, this is a campaign finance reform bill that was enacted not that long ago and seeing the consequences. would i like to see campaigns and parties that have greater transparency and more accountability in the process? yes, i would.

>> mr. warner. >> i strongly support campaign finance reform. i think the supreme court got it wrong on citizens united. we shouldn't have unlimited money flowing into our system. that's not what the founders had in mind. i would be ready to get rid of all super p arch crmpsmp. in addition to campaign finance reform and i would point out when there is a challenge around super p arch crmpsmp, he and karl rove formed american crossroads and he is not willing to say citizens got it wrong but independent redistricting reform. too often right now our legislators choose their constituents. if we want to end the partisan

gridlock and get back to where there are more candidates, both campaign finance reform ought to be on the agenda. >> i did support efforts on the conservative side of the spectrum to counter what the liberal side has been doing, taking advantage of the bipartisan campaign finance reform act. and one of the things that the senator would not support is ending the practice of ending come pulse sorry union dues and put toward political action committees and political ads and attacks that they don't agree with, frankly. and one of the reasons i'm sure the a fmp l-cio, the big labor unions support senator warner why all business groups,

they are for me, senator warner is willing to say i will make sure any campaign finance reform bill will exempt unions. >> the next question will be addressed to senator warner. >> you both have said you support an all of the above approach to energy development. what should the centerpiece be, more specifically, what energy resources would you seek to most ggressively develop? >> i think one of the great success stories of the last decade has been the explosive growth of american energy. who would have thought that we would soon be a net energy exporter and that we're able now to bring back a number of manufacturing jobs because our energy costs have driven down. as much as my opponent wants to claim otherwise, i support all of the above energy

policies. including coal, including natural gas, including renewables. including nuclear. all of the above. what we need to do is to make sure that we unleash the complete potential of american energy. now, i do believe, and one of the areas where my opponent and i differ, i think we also have to deal with climate change. i've invited ed before, i still want him to come down to norfolk and see how the navy is spending millions of dollars on raising the piers because of the costs driven by rising sea levels. as a matter of fact, the secretary of defense came without with a new study today on additional costs from climate change. so we've got to get this balance right. i support that all-of-the-above approach, including coal. but we've got to find ways to use coal cleaner as part that have approach. regardless of what we do in america, china and india are going to go ahead and build 800 additional coal plants. so i do support all of the above. i think it's important for american manufacturing and

jobs. >> believe me, i haven't put 53,000 miles on the road over the past nine months. i've been to norfolk, i understand the concerns there in this area. and i've put those miles on the road. i don't charter planes, i drive everywhere in the commonwealth. and i understand those concerns. i also understand the need for to us create high-paying jobs in the hampton roads region by lifting the ban on drilling off of our deep sea coast, which has been in place since senator warner took office. when there was a bipartisan amendment on the floor of the united states senate to do just that. former democratic senator jim web stood up for virginia -- webb stood up for georgia and he voted for that bipartisan amendment. senator warner sided with harry reid against it. when there was a bipartisan amendment to move forward with the keystone x.l. pipeline, senator webb voted for it. senator warner voted to block it. when there was a chance to stand up and have bipartisan support and say that the e.p.a. does not have the authority to regulate

greenhouse gas emissions, senator webb voted for it and senator -- in that bipartisan amendment -- senator warner voted against it. this is a classic area where what mark warner says in virginia is very different from what he does in washington, d.c. and i will stand up for our coal miners and four the people who pay electric bills and put gas in their car. a price of a gallon of gas has doubled since mark warner took office, promising us that he would vote to bring down energy prices. and now, you know, when you put down $20, it used to get 10 1/2 gallons of gas, when he took office. today it's about 5 1/2 gallons of gas. that's why virginians are feeling squeezed as well. >> again, my opponent didn't give you the facts. i strongly support and have legislation for six years to allow drilling off the coast of virginia. but he forgot to include was only if virginia gets a share of the proceeds. i think virginia should get a share of the royalties the same way louisiana does. the legislation he talked about would have cut virginia out. i support the keystone x.l.

pipeline. as a matter of fact, even got protested against it in harrisburg. my opponent does have two areas around energy that he's got quite a record on. one is he lobbied against increasing fuel efficiency standards. talk about costing virginia consumers more money out of their pocket. because he didn't want to have the auto industry raise their fuel efficiency standards. and we've heard him talk about easing the squeeze. well, we ought to have him address easing the squeeze for the -- when he was the largest lobbyist for enron, where 20,000 folks, energy company, manipulated the markets, lost their jobs, lost their pensions, $700,000 he and his firm made. i'm not sure that's called easing the squeeze. >> i should be allowed to answer that question given that he raised it. > you can have 10 seconds. >> when my bipartisan firm had enron as a client, 13 years ago, they've been on the cover of

fortune magazine as the best place to work in america and were considered one of the best companies in america. that's why senator warner i'm sure was an investor in enron at that time. >> you lost money -- i lost money. you made money. >> look at the facts. we discontinued the contracts two months before when it turned out they were fraudulent. >> people lost their jobs. >> hang on. this is a very personal attack and it deserves for the voters of virginia to know the facts. and that is this. the fact is that just like he as an investor in the same company that was a client of my firm 13 years ago, i had no idea the fraudulent practices of this company. no one did at the time. this is why good people don't run for office. i don't know what happened to mark warner when he went to washington. this is classic washington attack politics. >> mr. gillespie, i'm sorry to cut you off. but there's a question to you.

the next question. >> another classic issue. for 50 years, medicare's provided people 65 and over and most disabilities with access to health care. what is your view of the effectiveness of medicare and how would you put medicare on stronger financial ground to protect seniors and future retirees from rising health costs? >> medicare is a critical part of our social safety net and, again, it will not be there for future generations and we need to save it for future generations. and get it on a more sound financial footing. it is on its way to insolvency. and we can fix that. while making clear to anyone who is on medicare or near retirement that any changes wouldn't affect them at all. although they are being affected right now and again there are over -- about 200,000 medicare advantage beneficiaries in the commonwealth of virginia who are very much at risk because of senator warner's cuts to medicare, to pay for obamacare.

over $715 billion siphoned out of this important program, again, not to reform it and save it for future generations, but to fund the obamacare program that he still supports and that i would replace with patient-centered reforms. we know, as i mentioned also, those who rely on home health care, many elderly americans on medicare want to be treated in their home, not be put in a hospital. by the way, that's also more cost-effective for the program. and it's more affordable. and we need to restore those cuts. a 14% cut by centers for medicare and medicaid services, as a result of senator warner's support for the affordable care act, obamacare, i would replace those cuts if i was elected to the united states senate. >> a charge he just made which has been recycled a half dozen times, has been called by independent political analysts totally false. the challenge is, we have to

strengthen medicare. what i've laid out are specific plans where we can strengthen medicare. to make sure it's still there. for example, combining part a and part b and trying to cut down on some of the bureaucracy. i've been a big supporter and have worked hard to make sure medicare advantage programs, particularly here in virginia, are protected. i've looked as well at trying to say, let's get rid of some of this phony budgeting with so the called s.g.r. doc fix. i think we ought to replace it and repeal that and make sure we have true accounting. the challenge, though, is if you're going to deal with medicare and entitlements, you can't deal with those and then have the positions that he's taken. privatizing social security. and taking the norquist pledge which says you can't find any tax break at all that can be closed that might allow you to go ahead and shore up medicare, that might allow you to invest

in senior services, that might allow to you invest in n.i.h., the military or education. it's a question of whose side you're on, ed. i think when we look at your policies, i'm looking forward to november 4 when i think virginians will say, do you want somebody who has a proven record of working together or someone who has taken, i believe, extreme positions, whether it's norquist pledge or privatizing social security, which will not save medicare. >> we've already rebutted this. the senator is factually inaccurate. i didn't sign any pledges. look, i'm pledging to everyone here in the studio tonight and watching on television, i will fight against more tax increases. senator warner's already raised taxes on the middle class, on small businesses that are hurting us by $1 trillion already. we don't need to raise taxes anymore. we've got to cut wasteful washington spending. and i will work to do that as well. the other thing?

terms of whose side you're on. i will be on the side of virginians 100% of the time. you have been on the side of president obama 97% of the time since taking office. i will not be a blank check for the president. i will be a check and balance on the president and i will work in a bipartisan manner to pass economic policies that will create jobs, raise take-home pay, lift people out of poverty, hold down health care costs and reduce energy prices, none of which you've done in your six years in the united states senate, despite saying that that's what you were going to o. >> the next question will be addressed to you, mr. warner. >> gentlemen. thomas eric duncan, the first ebola patient to be diagnosed here in the united states, sat in virginia's busiest airport, dell us, for hours before flying to texas where he later died from the virus. it's unknown how many people he came in contact with there. now one of the nurses who treated duncan has become infected and investigators don't know why. has the federal government failed to adequately respond to

the ebola crisis and should virginians be concerned? >> i think like every american, i'm concerned about ebola and the challenges it presents. and i think the administration should have acted quicker. a couple weeks back, i wrote the administration and said, we need to dramatically increase the screening at our gateway airports. which they've finally started to do, including dulles now. i think they should have done it earlier. i believe we need to make sure that we have better coordination between all of our federal agencies. so in effect, i believe it ought to be one person in charge. and i think we need to make sure that we train our public health officials so that they are able to spot early on the signs of ebola. at the end of the day i believe we need to rely on our health care experts, i believe it may be time to consider, particularly with a nation like liberia, where ebola has spread

so widely, doing what certain european nations have done in terms of restricting flights. but again, governing is about choices. i think i heard in the last couple of days, the head of the n.i.h. said that, but for sequestration, we might have been able to find a vaccination against ebola. we've seen cuts to public health. we've got to not have one hand tied behind our back by taking stupid pledges, if we're going to wrest well our nation's balance sheet and -- wrestle with our nation's balance sheet and finances to make sure that we can, yes, shrink government but invest in areas that are essential. >> mr. gillespie. >> the time to consider stopping flights coming in from west africa, whether there's an ebola outbreak, has passed. it's time to impose a flight ban in that regard and that's what this administration should do. and while that flight ban is in place, yes, we need to have proper protocols, we just heard the story coming out of dallas

of the nurse who has been affected. we need to make sure that our health professionals are properly trained in terms of how to approach this. we need to get more of the drugs into the production and stockpiled. the screening process, i have to say, i find not that reassuring from what i have seen. and the president, when he said not too long ago that the chances of ebola coming to america, you know, there's not much of a chance of that, he was wrong. this administration has been slow to act. and the senator voted for the sequestration he just decried ere today. in fact, that sequestration cut the centers for disease control by $345 million. it's been cut by $1 billion. one of the problems with the obama-warner policies is that under those policies, the federal government is doing too many things that are better left to state and local governments or the private sector and it is failing at too many things that it needs to be doing right. and we need to rearrange those priorities and replace

sequestration and i would do >> a lot of charges in this campaign, the last one really takes the cake. if your member how we ended up, sequestration which i called stupidity on steroids, it was because the alternative was that our nation would default. position ist ed's we should have defaulted which would have created economic chaos. the majority voted for the budget control act. all said we have to take responsible action and how we ended up with sequestration is we did not roll up our sleeves and take on what i had advocated, the simpson bowles withthat would have dealt

entitlement tax reform. too many people had taken pledges where they would not look at pledges. got a little time. the navy has given me their highest civilian award. >> that leads to my next question. learned an ugly word, sequestration. it was supposed to be impossible . the hard part is what do you do as a member of congress when there is fat, we have to and virginia installations are still hurting. how does a member of congress stand up and say there might be something superfluous in my district.

an employer that needs to trim down. >> a couple of things. in terms of sequestration. right. the delegation, most of them did vote for it. in the house they voted to replace it and that passed the house. it did not pass the senate and it whenever will as long as mark warner and harry reid are in the majority and harry reid is the majority leader which is the vote he did cast. sequestration in terms of got to stopwe have making national security priorities based on random, deep arbitrary defense cuts and start budgeting our defense budget based on our national security priorities. that is why i will seek a seat on the senate armed services committee.

it is imperative not just for our national security but here where we have been probably on the front lines of our fight for freedom and liberty and national security. were toe that if we budget according to our national security priorities rather than set priorities based on our budgets at would have a beneficial impact in virginia. it would have a beneficial impact for our national security. not sure we heard an answer on how we make hard choices. through view everything republican versus autocratic lands you do not make choices. do not take my word in terms of sequestration. the navy gave me their highest civilian award. we have made some progress.

the delegation hung together. the way we are going to get rid sequestration is recognizing that why we have $17 trillion in debt and it goes up $3 billion night we cannot keep punching. , that is 120 billion dollars. that could be spent on roads or nih. the challenge is going to be at this who has looked issue where i have dug in deepest is on finances. i am doing it as senator. you cannot do this unless you look at tax reform and entitlement reform. thatnd up with the nation

cannot compete going forward. >> because he keeps saying it does not make it true. we have heard the senator talk about for the last six years i have fought for increase our military spending even though it has been cut and balance our budget even though we are seven chilean dollars more in debt than when he took office. fought for offshore drilling. the keystone xl pipeline approved. six years, none of these things have happened. talk about being a problem solver. ask yourself, what problems have been solved? and the fact is even on the priorities he talks about, you get this and sometimes with the senator when he expresses his frustration, how it is so hard and everything that he is a

newspaper comic -- columnist or comment -- commentator. at some point you have to take accountability for getting something done or not and stop complaining. >> we're just about out of time for full questions. we have a quick question. a percent approval rating. people not happy with what is happening. do you foresee the next time one of you should be running for reelection a different approval rating, can we all get along? >> if we do not improve our country will be in pretty bad shape. i go back to where i started. ?s it frustrating up there yes, at times. the only way to get it solved is to be bipartisan. every bill i work on i start with a republican partner. everything my opponent has done

in his career has been partisan. that qualifies in solving problems. >> he says one thing and virginia and do something different and washington. we can get things done. i will fight for bipartisan support for all the agenda for economic growth in a believe i could get that support. i have a very simple test. will this bill is the squeeze on hard-working virginians and make it easier for the unemployed to find work and if it will not i will fight against it and fight for policies that do in those with get a partisan support and i will fight to get that as well. >> it is time now for your closing statements.

>> we have heard a lot of attacks from my opponent. if you spend your life as a ,artisan policy -- politician the squeeze is what happened when we had the policy he had -- advocated for. the tax cut we could not pay for. was driven into the ditch. i have been blessed in fulfilling the american dream. our -- thiss of will require to roll up our sleeves and get things done.

that's what i did as governor, that's what i've been doing as senator. and that's what i'll continue to do if you hire me. i believe in america. that we've got to get back to the notion that when you see a problem, you roll up your sleeves and fix it and move on to the next problem. you might not get it 100% right at first but you don't keep kicking the can. the only way that's going to happen in america, and as somebody who has worked in the senate, i can tell, is if we're willing to occasionally put aside republican and democrat and put our country first. that's what i did as governor. that's why i work on every bill in a bipartisan fashion in the united states senate. and when it comes, again, the finances, there's a major difference between us. i took a deficit, turned it into a surplus. when ed was working with the administration, he supported so much, he took a surplus and turned it into a deficit. going forward, the only way our country can get back to that kind of prosperity that we all believe in is if we have people with a proven record of getting things done and working together. thanks so much. >> thank you, mr. warner. your closing statement, mr. gillespie. >> thank you for this chance to

share my commonsense solutions to the problems we face as a nation. i believe they would get bipartisan support in the united states senate and that's why i' put forward my five-point plan for economic growth. so that if i'm honored to stand before you again as our senator, people can hold me accountable, for getting these things done. in the same way i'm asking virginians to hold mark warner accountable for saying he'd be an independent voice in a bipartisan vote on the floor of the senate, but siding with president obama 97% of the time and consistently voting against bipartisan amendments, as i pointed to time after time here this evening. i also want to hold him accountable and voters should hold him accountable for saying that he would balance the udget. for saying he's be a pro-business senator, but voting for job killing policy after job killing policy. including nearly $1 trillion in

tax increases. and of course for saying that he would never vote for a health care reform bill that would mean losing our insurance if we wanted to keep it and then working to pass the affordable care act, obamacare. he's not the senator he said he would be. not the senator so many virginians hoped he would be. that's why so many of his supporters are supporting me this election cycle. so many of his voters and over 75% of his -- 75 of his donors are supporting my campaign. the fraternity order of police which endorsed him last election is endorsing me he this year. most americans no longer believe we're a country where the next generation can do better than the generation that came before us. that does not have to be our path. it must be our future. and it can be with the right policies. but we cannot afford six more years of the last six years. we need to change course and we cannot send senator warner back to washington and expect to see anything different occur as a result of that. we need a new and better

direction and i have put forward policies that will ease the squeeze on hardworking virginians and will fight for them every day as our senator. host: will you give me that chance and i ask for your -- i hope you will give me that chance and i ask for your vote on november 4. >> thank you, mr. gillespie, thank you, mr. warner. we appreciate your vigorous participation in this debate tonight. i also want to thank the audience for taking part and a special thanks to our panel. thank you all for taking part in this. this program has been brought to you in part by aarp-virginia. the league of women voters of virginia, wtvr-cbr-6. thanks again to the candidates for appearing together on this stage tonight. i'd like to thank you, the voterses of virginia, and our live audience, of course, for watching and don't forget election day is only 22 days away. on behalf of everyone who

brought this debate to you, i'm bill fitzgerald. good night. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2014] >> has been more than 100 debates for the control of congress. stay in touch withric coverage

and engage. follow us on twitter and c-span. >> in arkansas senator mark pryor will face tom cotton for the second time in two days. we will have live debate coverage tomorrow night at 8 p.m. eastern here on c-span. on c-span2, the louisiana debate. the incumbent will face her republican challengers. though cassidy and rob maness. if a single candidate feels to get more than 50% of the vote the leave the runoff. the head of the cdc said medical personnel need to rethink how highly -- how infectious diseases are handled. this comes after a dallas nurse

.ontracted ebola that briefing is next. debate for michigan governor. later the colorado u.s. senate debate between mark udall and his challenger. >> here are a few of the comments we received from our viewers. the inner i -- and ra -- your who handled the questions never went back to the fact that this man did not answer the two questions fully. if thenot answer what nra does not support background checks at gun shows and he did

not answer fully how much money the nra is getting from the gun manufacturers and other friends. if you do not present the opposite viewpoint, i am going to stop watching c-span. you're supposed to be independent. i do not get that when your guy who is handling it does not go back and say you did not answer this question. what about that? hostednk you for having chris cox from the national rifle association earlier today. into the show,et i was the first color. ast i was trying to impart the child of a holocaust , the second amendment

is the only thing between tyranny and freedom. people concerned with their well-being from not see is him -ism, radical islamism, be afforded to bear firepower. >> i was watching today and it was just amazing. there were very few democrat calls create most of the people are calling are white and hit the president. would you please show us where the president has said he is against the second amendment? your host is letting all this be spewed. is one-sided.

thank you. >> continue to listen away thing. to give feedback. the head of the centers for updatedcontrol reporters on the response to ebola. a dallas health-care worker tested positive. this news briefing is 40 minutes. >> good afternoon, everyone and thank you very much for joining us. stopping ebola is hard. we're working together to make it safer and easier. yesterday we confirmed the first case of ebola contracted in the united states in a health care

worker who cared for what we refer to who we refer to as the index patient in dallas texas. our thoughts are with this health care worker. she is now being cared for and we understand that she is clinically stable. please refer any questions on her care to the hospital where she's being cared for so that only information that she and her family want released is released. the existence of the first case of ebola spread within the u.s. changes some things and it doesn't change other things. it doesn't change the fact that we know how ebola spreads. it doesn't change the fact that it's possible to take care of ebola safely. but it does change substantially how we approach it. we have to rethink the way we address ebola infection control

because even a single infection is unacceptable. i'll get into some details of what we're thinking about with regard to how to make care even safer in a minute. but i want to just step back first and outline what we're doing and what the current status is. first, before the index patient in dallas was hospitalized and isolated, they -- there were 48 potential contacts, 10 known to have contact with him, 38 who may have had contact with him. all of those 48 contacts have been monitored daily. none of them have developed fever or other symptoms as of now. this is consistent with what we know about ebola. that people aren't sick when they don't have symptoms and the

sicker they get, the more infectious they may become because the amount of virus in heir body increases. second, for the health care worker who was diagnosed yesterday, we have been discussing with her our team lead in texas has spoken with her on multiple occasions. she's been extremely helpful and we have identified one and only one contact who had contact with her during the period when she was potentially, although likely not, infectious. because it was at the very onset of her symptoms. that individual is also being monitored and as of now has no symptoms suggestive of ebola and no fever. third, is to identify the health care workers who also cared for the index patient and ensure that they are actively monitored for development of symptoms for

fever and if they develop either symptoms or fever that they're immediately isolated, assessed and tested. that process is still under way. the team worked hard through the day yesterday into the night yesterday and are still actively working today to interview each one of the large number of health care workers who might potentially have had contact with the index patient when he was hospitalized. and the thinking here is straightforward, if this one individual was infected and we don't know how within the isolation unit, then it is possible that other individuals could have been infected as well. so we consider them to potentially be at risk and we're doing an in depth review and investigation. so these are the three categories of contacts, contacts with the index patient before he was hospitalized, contacts with the health care worker who was

diagnosed yesterday, and contacts who may have also had contact with the index patient after he was hospitalized. all of them will be actively monitored and that's how we break the chain of transmission. we prevent another generation of spread of ebola. in addition as i indicated yesterday, we are doing a detailed investigation to better understand what might have happened with the infection of the health care worker. we look at what happens before people go into isolation, what happens in isolation and what happens when they come out of isolation. and we're particularly concerned with that third process, taking off the isolation personal protective equipment because if it is contaminated, there is a possibility that a worker will contaminate themselves and become infected in that process. from day one, we've had a team on the ground in dallas working closely with the hospital, the state and the local health

officials. when the additional patient was diagnosed, we doubled down and sent an additional team in place. that team has been at the hospital just about continuously since. they've been working through the night. we're not just doing an investigation. we're immediately addressing anything that could potentially make it safer and easier to care for people who have or may have ebola. we're not going to wait for the final results of that investigation. and i can go in some detail later to what we are doing in the short run, but each time we identify a process or training for equipment or protocol that can be improved there, we are improving it right there on the site. i want to clarify something i said yesterday. i spoke about a breach in protocol and that's what we

speak about in public health when we're talking about what needs to happen and our focus is to say would this protocol would have prevented the infection, and we believe it would have. but? interpreted that as finding fault with the hospital or the health care worker. i'm sorry if that was the impression given. that was certainly not my intention. people on the frontlines are really protecting all of us. people on the frontlines are fighting ebola. the enemy here is a virus, ebola. it's not a person. it's not a country. it's not a place. it's not a hospital. it's a virus. it's a virus that's tough to fight. but together i'm confident that we will stop it. what we need to do is all take responsibility for improving the safety of those on the frontlines. i feel awful that a health care worker became infected in the care of an ebola patient.

she was there trying to help the first patient survive, and now she has become infected. all of us have to work together to do whatever is possible to other he risk that any health care worker becomes infected. when we think about hospitals where ebola care can be given, really there are two different steps. the first is diagnosis. and every hospital in this country need to think about the possibility of ebola in anyone with fever or other symptoms that might be consistent with ebola who's traveled to either liberia, sear air lee own or begin -- sierra leone or guinea. that's critical so that patients are rapidly diagnosed if additional patients become ill

in this country. second is the issue of care of ebola once the diagnosis has been made. i think what we recognize is that that care is complex and we're now working very closely with the hospital to make that care simpler and easier with hands on training, hands on oversight and monitoring, and that's something that we will do any time there is a case of ebola. now, i want to just end before i turn it over to commissioner lakey with thinking a bit about what comes next, what's going to be happening in the coming days and weeks. well first, is the safe and effective care of the health care worker in dallas, and we will do everything to make sure that those who are taking care of that individual are doing so while protecting themselves and

that individual gets the best possible care. second, as i said yesterday, we need to consider the possibility that there could be additional cases, particularly among the health care workers who cared for the index patient when he was so ill. that's when this health care worker became infected and we're concerned and would unfortunately not be surprised if we did see additional cases in health care workers who also provided care to the index patient. third, we will continue to track all contacts. all of the 4 from the initial patient -- all of the 48 from the initial patient's expose wrures before he was hospitalized, the one individual who was exposed to the health care worker who's hospitalized now, and awful the health care workers who may have been exposed to the initial care of the index patient.

fourth, we'll work with hospitals throughout the country to think ebola in someone with fever or other symptoms who has had travel -- who has traveled to niff of the three affected countries in the previous 21 days. and fifth, we will double down on training, outreach, education and assistance throughout the health care system to through professional associations, through hospitals, through group organizations and individuals reaching out to health departments of the state and county levels in cities and elsewhere so that we can increase the awareness of ebola and increase the ability to respond rapidly. >> we wish the individual had not been infected and we're concerned that there could be infection infections in the coming days. what we're doing now is

implementing an immediate set of steps that would ensure the care of that individual is safe and effective why we look longer term at what this implies for to -- and with that i'll turn to over to dr. david lakey who is commissioner of the texas department of state hept ervices. >> we new it was i possibility that one of the health care work workers become infected but it is still disappoint -- we want the family to know our thoughts and prayers are with them, with the health care worker and with the staff that are working hard on her care right now. there's many components to our response here in dallas.

dr. frieden talked about in -- many of those components. our top priority now is the contact investigation. a lot of work has taken place. we pulled in additional staff from throughout the state of texas, complimenting the work of the c.d.c. and the dallas health department staff and so we're bringing in the resources to do the contact investigation from many different levels of government to identify those individuals and contact them as quickly as possible. dr. frieden talked about infectious control, obviously a critical component of this response. looking hard at the infectious control practices and making sure that they're even more stringent than what they are right now and have c.d.c. experts the best in the bill here in dallas working with us to make sure that we are as stringent as possible with infection control. the health care worker's apartment initial cleaning has

been done. additional evaluation and cleaning will be accomplished today. we're doing this with local leaders but also with other state agencies to make sure that we do that in accordance with the best guidance that's out there. one issue related to the final cleaning is the health care worker has a dog and we want to make sure that we respond appropriately and so we're working hard to find a location to care for the dog and a location where we can have the proper monitoring of the dog. finally, the work that we're doing is planning. we know the possibilities that can occur and we want to be prepared. and so a lot of work is taking place right now with a variety of health care providers, emergency managers, e.m.s. to make sure we are ready for whatever needs to take place. and at the same time following the folks that we know have been

contacted and the 48 individuals that we've been monitoring so far and the additional individuals that dr. frieden has discussed today, making sure that all of them know what needs to happen if any of them start having symptoms. and so again, a lot of work is taking place here in dallas and we continue to be grateful for the support from the c.d.c. and our many other partners many this response. and with that, dr. frieden, i'll hand the line back over to you. thanks. >> thank you very much, dr. lakey. and thank you to the team there in texas. we value the relationship greatly. before turning to questions i'll just comment that the situation is fluid and we will continue to update you as we get more information. >> doctor, you spoke about the possibility of further infections, is that because there is a known safety procedure and protocol that perhaps that was not followed?

and my follow up question to that is if you cannot pinpoint the breach in protocol, how do you move forward with education in >> if we knew that there was a specific incident, such as a needle stick, that would indicate that we could narrow it down the to health care workers at risk to those who had that specific exposure. since we don't know what the exposure was but we know there was an exposure then we have to cast the net more widely and see in terms of monitoring, monitor a larger portion of the health care workers and in terms of infection control protocols or procedures, improve every aspect of those procedures every time we see something that could be improved. so for example, our staff there now are watching as patients put on and take off all of their protective gash -- garb. they're retraining staff in how to do that safely. they're looking at the types of

personal protective equipment that are used to see if there are some times types that might be easier to put on or take off and thereby reduce the risk that someone would unintentionally contaminate themselves. we're looking at what we do when someone comes out of the isolation unit and possibly spraying them down with a product that would kill the virus if there is contamination. that was already in our guidelines for gloves, but we're looking at that more broadly. we're also looking at things that can be done within the isolation facility to reduce the risk that individuals' personal protective equipment could become contaminated with the ebola virus. so there are a sear rizz of things that are already implemented in the past 24 hours and we will continue to look at that in terms of how we can we make care easier and safer. >> hi. it's mary from cnn. you've been telling us what

needs to be done, how prepared we are for months. you've been telling us for a long time about the risks and all the things that can be done. but you just stead you're working at making care simpler and you're providing hands on training. it seems like there's a gap in what you may have thought was happening in the nation's hospitals and what actually is happening. have you thought about bringing withoutody like doctors borders which have been successfully treating patients for years? the second question i have is regarding the travel. you have said multiple times that travel ban is not helpful for many reasons but many people still think why not keep those people who maybe sick from coming into this country. can you better explain why you don't think a travel ban is a good idea. >> sorry, your first question again. >> the training -- >> training, thank you. we've worked very closely with doctors without borders.

in fact, we've replicated their training course and we have dozens and hundreds of u.s. doctors and other health care workers who are going to africa to fight the outbreak at the source, going through a c.d.c. run training program that replicates the training that m.s.f. training has done. the same are training physicians throughout the u.s. we will be looking over the coming days in how we can increase training and materials and availability most urgently for the health care workers caring for the patient in dallas, but also more generally throughout our health care system. it is worth highlighting that the single most important thing for every other hospital in the country to know is the importance of taking a history of travel. that if someone has fever or other symptoms that could be ebola, ask where they have been

in the previous 21 days, and if 's to liberia, sierra leone, or guinea then immediately place them in isolation, consult with us and we'll go from there. but that's what the health care system in general needs to really focus on. in terms of travel, we're looking at multiple levels of protection. the first is screening of people on departure from the three countries. all are screand screened with a questionnaire. all have their temperature taken. 77 people in the last two months were not allowed to board, not allowed to enter the airport even because they had fever or other symptoms. none of those were diagnosed with ebola. many of them had malaria. in addition, starting yesterday at j.f.k. international airport in new york city, we began screening people who came from these countries, also with a detailed questionnaire and

temperature check. since that was implemented, 91 such individuals were identified. none of them had fever. five of them were referred for additional evaluation by c.d.c. none were determined to have expose wrure to ebola. .o this is in place at j.f.k. thursday of this week we anticipate having it in place at four additional airports and we'll learn from that scompeer yen. also making sure doctors diagnose ebola promptly is very important. on the issue of banning travel, i understand that there are calls to do this. i really try to focus on the bottom line here. the bottom line here is reducing risk to americans. the way we're going to reduce risk to americans is do the steps i just went through and stop it at the source in africa. today, c.d.c. has 150 of our top

disease detectivives throughout e three countries and -- within the three countries helping to turn the outbreak around working with the world health organization, with the department of defense and many other governments which are surging in to help stop it at the source. if we do things that unintentionally make it harder to get supplies in, that make it harder for those governments to manage to get everything from economic activity to travel going, it's going to become much harder to stop the outbreak at the source. if that were to happen, it would spread for more months and potentially to other countries and that would increase rather than decrease the risk to americans. above all, do no harm and that's why we want to focus on stopping the outbreak at the source. and protecting americans wherever ebola may arise, even

though we know that that could e challenging. >> mystery from cbs news. texas presbyterian say relatively large hospital and still had a breach like this. do you still feel confident the smaller hospitals can handle and isolate a patient with ebola sis toms? >> we're going to look carefully at the issue of what's the optimal way to safely effectively care for people with ebola. but i would reiterate that whatever we do on that issue, it's very important that every hospital be prepared to diagnose someone with ebola. remember, there may be americans who have deployed or traveled to the area who come back, so whatever we do, we're not going to eliminate travel from these countries. >> thank you, dr. frieden. i'm michele with hospital employee health newsletter. you mentioned doing everything possible to protect health care

workers and i was wondering if you feel that you could be certain that in the presence of a patient with projectile vomitting and coughing that there could not be inhalation and whether or not you're considering changing the c.d.c. recommendations to include respiratory protection which i understand is what doctors without borders uses in west africa. >> actually the hospitals that have treated patients with ebola in this country have all used what are called palpers. that is a form of respiratory protection. that is clearly not how the individual in texas became infected. so i don't think we have concerns about the potential route of transmission, but our if lines already say that there's any concern for aerosol generating procedure such as

intubation of a patient or suctioning then absolutely we recommend ress tore wri protection. other side of the room. >> hi, aerial with the atlanta journal and constitution. two questions. first of all, can you clarify about the breach in protocol. are you deducing that a breach in protocol must have happened because of the result or have you identified any particular breach in protocol? and second of all, back in august the c.d.c. held a nference and your folks were pressed again and again by the clinicians about negative air pressure rooms and about what kind of garb is used. they seem to think should there be? kind of -- and again the c.d.c. folks came back with up to hospital policy, stuff like as for head coverings we do not specifically call this out. do you still stand by that

guidance or has anything changed? >> again your first question was? >> the first question was about the breach in protocol. >> we have not identified a specific problem that led led to this infection. we have identified a series of things where we can make the care safer and easier for the health care workers who are providing it. one of the things that's very important is that we have practical solutions that are workable. when you're taking care of a patient with ebola, you need to good in and come out multiple times, doing that in a way that works for you is very important. we're looking at what are the ways to do this most safely and most easily. one of the things that we found that sometimes health care workers may think that more is better, so they put on additional sets of gloves or additional coverings and that may actually end up making things less rather than more safe because it may be so difficult to remove those levels

or layers that it inadvertently increases risk. we don't know that that happened here but that's one of the things that we've been addressing. even before the individual's infection, we had improved some of the infection control practices at the hospital. over the past 24 hours, we've undertaken a series of improvements and we will continue to look at as we investigate every possible way to increase safety for health care workers. >> elizabeth it a tore cbs 46. my question is regarding the screenings that you mentioned are going to start thursday at heartsfield jackson. do those work? if someone is nonsymptomatic when he gets here, how are we going to stop him and we're kind of relying on everyone being honest to say that they ran did >> the airport screenings will id people with fever.

detailed ndergo a questionnaire about contact and if there's any possible contact secondary or tertiary screening by the c.d.c. public health officers at the airports. but we recognize until we stop the outbreak in west africa, there's no way toisk in the u.s. to zero. what we can do is stop its spread within the u.s. and minimize the possibility that we have other cases here. and that's exactly what we're doing. we'll go to the phones. the first question. >> again if you would like to ask a question on the phones, please press star one and record your name when prompted. please limit your question to one question. our first questions comes from evan of fox news radio. go ahead, sir. your line is open. >> good afternoon and thank you for doing this. is there any type of either federal standard or state level standards for hospital employees

to work in an isolation unit? we do have those folks and even some laypeople that get certified for things like c.p.r. and whatnot and they do that through -- they take special training and they have to take exams to do that. do they do that for isolation ward care and would that be one of the things going forward that might be helpful? >> i'll begin and turn it over to dr. lakey for further comment. there are a series of critical care nursing,th carefd many specialties in which infection control is an integral part, but in terms of specific qualifications or certifications for isolation and treatment, there is nothing there. however, but we will be doing in the coming days and weeks is doubling down on the amount of

education, training, outreach and support we provide, not just for this hospital but for other hospitals in other health care settings that are concerned are concerned appropriately about the possibility of detecting ebola and safely caring for it. add don't have much to besides what you just discussed. as far as the hospitals, they have looked at the rooms, the negative pressure rooms to make sure they are up to standard. there is general education that takes place with infection control practitioners, and a lot of education that takes place in the hospital itself. we do not have a specific regulatory certification for individuals that work in these types of environments. a lot of that education takes place at the hospital, and did those hospitals -- and those hospitals have licensure that they can perform to state guidelines.

>> go ahead. your line is open. >> i have a question for either dr. lakey or dr. frieden or both of you. late last night the louisiana attorney general said he would seek a temporary restraining order so that the incinerated waste from the apartment where mr. duncan stayed at could be disposed of in a louisiana landfill. i wonder if there is a scientific basis, and how you think, dr. frieden, that might impact the care of other patients with ebola around the country. >> we know how to inactivate and destroy the ebola virus. it is readily destroyed by incineration and environmental means. it is not a particularly hearty virus environmental-wise. dr. lakey?

>> i don't have much more to comment. we feel with the procedure, with incineration, with total inactivation of any virus and believe that the ash would pose absolutely no risk. that's where we are right now. >> in the room? >> you mentioned there were several other staff members that you guys were interviewing that had contact with the index patient. do you have a number of those people? and exactly what are you talking to them about? >> the teams on the ground are going into great detail about what type of contact people had and which kind of care they gave on different days so we can have a map of what kind of potential expose shures there were. we do not have a number of potentially exposed health care workers.

it is a relatively large number, we think. in the end, what proportion of them have actually had contact, we don't know. we cast a wide net and narrow that down. we hope that by tomorrow we are able to provide that number to you. in the room? >> miriam falco, cnn. you talked about how more training needs to be happening. there are a lot of hospitals in this country. we thought -- at least the hospital thought in dallas that they had prepared well. they had a training session the week before mr. duncan was admitted. is there a way to choose certain hospitals as ebola-designated hospitals so you know that hospital has improved or up to par training until all hospitals have that possibility? >> we are certainly looking at all the possibilities. we want to make sure that when patients are cared for, they are cared for safely.

i think the event in dallas this week shows how hard it is to do that. care for a patient with ebola requires meticulous attention to detail, and we are looking at how to make that safer and easier. one more question in the room, and then we will be done. >> my next question comes from the associated press. good afternoon. your line is open. >> could you please tell the steps that the health care workers in texas were taking to decontaminate? how did it work? you mentioned something about starting a buddy system. if you could mention what's been done up to this point. >> what we're doing is looking at every aspect of prevention of infection in the dallas hospital. that includes what is done when

people put on their personal protective equipment. that may mean looking at the different equipment that's used and seeing if there is equipment that's easier to put on or more protective. what they do when they are in the isolation facility, what they do to reduce the risk so that virus wouldn't get on their protective equipment, and what would they do when they come out on the equipment. that's where we are most concerned. because that's when you may have virus on your equipment. you need to make sure there is a buddy watching how you do it, that there is a monitor providing oversight, looking for ways to decontaminate any potential contamination. it is an ongoing process. we work through the night with the staffer there. we are implementing new procedures to make it safer and easier, and we will make it easier to do that in the coming days. thank you. >> you mentioned you are going to rethink patient care possibly. could one way to do that be the

end of life care such as intubation or other things that are sort of more invasive for health care workers? >> we will look at all aspects. we want to make sure patients that have ebola are cared for both safely and effectively. it is important for them, and it is important for all of us. when ebola patients are cared for safely, it is more likely people will come in for care. it is more likely health care workers will have the confidence that in the -- what we hope will be the extremely unlikely event they are infected, they will get the best possible care. that's where our focus is. dr. lakey, is there anything you would like to say in concluding? >> thank you, dr. frieden. we appreciate the support from the c.d.c. and our many other partners as we do everything we can to stop the spread of ebola here in dallas. i feel confident we are going to do that. we are bringing in the staff we

need to do, to do the contact tracing. we are working with, as you noted many times, to make sure that the infection control is as stringent -- stringent as possible and making sure we have a coordinated response. so again, we appreciate the work of the c.d.c. and our many other partners as we do this. and again, we are right now concentrating on the care of this individual and making sure no other texans are exposed. >> thank you very much, dr. lakey. the bottom line here is that the care of ebola is hard. we are working to make it safer and easier. the control of ebola is something we know how to do. already we have seen that the contact of the index patient so far have not had illness. we have had one case, and we hope we have no additional cases among health care workers who cared for him. but that one case does tell us

that there were risks to that individual and potentially to others, so we are intensively monitoring that so we can break the chain of transmission there. and we are assessing what more we can do, what more we all can do, to improve the care of people with ebola so that we cannot only stop it at the source but also risk the -- reduce the risk to any health care workers going forward. thank you very much. [inaudible question] >> let's go back. the question is, should the country be confident with stopping this. we are working to break the chain. we are making sure people with symptoms are rapidly isolated and cared for. we want to point out -- we want to ensure the care of patients is safe and effective.

right now we have to make sure that care is done safely and effectively everywhere, particularly in dallas where there is a patient today. we have already cared for other patients with ebola in this country without infections. doctors without borders and others, including ourselves, have cared for patients for decades without infections. so we know how to stop ebola. for the general public the key message here is, if you are a health care worker, see what you can do to help stop it by detecting it sooner or helping out, if you volunteer to do so. for the individuals who are potentially exposed to either of the two patients in dallas, you need to monitor intensively for that 21-day period. for everyone else, there is no risk of exposure to ebola unless you go to west africa. that's why we are going to west africa, to stop that risk there. we need to do everything we can, and we are doing everything we

can to both protect americans, and protect americans effectyly by stopping it at the source, as well as stopping it here. thank you. >> a conversation on women and a november elections. lyse hogue andto i russell moore. journal" is live each morning. you can join the conversation on facebook and twitter. walker isonsin, scott facing democrat mary burke. here is art of their debate from last week. >> overall, reasonable people

can obviously disagree and i am pro-life but i can only imagine how difficult it is for someone going through that difficult decision to determine whether they will and their pregnancy or not. that is why i supported legislation that would increase safety and provide more information 201 considering her options. that bill leaves the decision to a woman and her doctor. for the request you made that issue has been resolved. that was decided by the u.s. supreme court more than one years ago and that is something that does not have bearing directly on this debate. the larger issue about is seeking to protect the health and safety of every wisconsin citizen does. >> i believe it should be up to a woman according to her beliefs and with her doctor and family to make that decision on her own. when governor walker talks about making these decisions and passing this legislation that stands in the way of women being

their own health care choices, making politicians in madison the deciders on this is ridiculous. factually to talk about safety at the same time that you have cuts in funding have resulted in closure of five clinics throughout the state of that provided needed health care, such as cancer birth control and family planning services. along with mandating invasive are against at woman's right to choose. i think this is absolutely wrong should be women who are able to make these choices for themselves. walker?nor >> in terms of funding we just moved it to other areas, for example the winnebago county public health department, we one area tom another. but we've added funding, in fact thislked about it on stage, we increased funding for cancer center. we've added about