point -- all of these individuals, john mccain was incredibly vetted. mitt romney. a lot of the candidates that are running on the republican side this year have been vetted. hillary clinton certainly for decades now. naive, frankly, if you take a deep breath and put partisanship aside, it's naive to think that the opponents of barack obama, not just republicans but democrats would not want all the information they could find that negative on barack obama and he has now been president for six years. he can see the end of his run coming up in january 2017. so i think this issue of lack of being vetted now that he's six years into the job is a little overstated. kelly is next from connecticut. good morning. caller: good morning.

i'm a democrat, 70 years old that supports bernie sanders because i trust him but i'm dying to get your book. it looks like it's humorous and informative. and i believe that donald trump is holding con candy. and that's appropriate because he's fluff and hot air. but i have a theory. trump is a republican weapon of mass distraction. he's a shill. republicans don't have a policy that helps the american people so as long as trump is in the game, they can skirt around the real issues. host: thank you. . thank you very much for the kind words. there's a lot in this book including behind-the-scenes stories of covering this campaign. a lot of it is amusing. it's not just a textbook. there's some great stories from behind the scenes as well. carol has this point. jim heath could've told the obama caller that obama could have sealed his records. guest: everybody can unseal them

if they wanted to that nobody is obligated to do that. money in's talk about politics. until citizens united is revisited, there will be even more cash flooding into our system buying more influence and legislation. we would be wise to remember democracy is about the debate of ideas not the purchasing of power of a select few. guest: i feel strongly about this. i love politics. i have been around it my entire life. a lot of these folks do the best they can in an increasingly fish tank type environment with those of us in the press looking at everything that is done and said. but i do have one concern. and when i was thinking about how to end the book, i decided the epilogue should be kind of the main concern i had moving forward. attacksink for all the that donald trump rightfully has

taken in this campaign, he is absolutely correct when he looks at dark money and talks about dark money being displayed that that ising this plague endangering all of us in the political arena. when you have a supreme court decision that lifts the lid off this issue and allows individuals not just to contribute to super pac's where we can track it from a press standpoint and know who is giving what to whom and monitor was legislation is being proposed and what is being accomplished on the other side of that, but now you have the creation of dark money were a select few americans with a lot of money are dumping endless amounts of cash and we can't follow exactly who they are or where it's going or what the end result is. that is troubling and i think the supreme court eventually is going to have to take another look at this. i make a prediction in the book. it's not a question of if but when we start seeing major scandals related to all this cash that we can't track. host: your favorite story in the

book. line fors on the republicans. one. caller: good morning. i am an 83-year-old former immigrant. i came from the netherlands. i lost my heart to the united states when i actually was sent here as a student pilot. the thing that bothers me is when i heard the democrat person calling up and saying the government doesn't do enough, the republicans don't do anything for the people. well, if you know the constitution, then you also know that the government is not supposed to care for the people but the people who care for the government. because the government is supposed to just do what the government -- what the constitution states. people,rotect the

provide for navigation and so forth. host: thank you for the call. guest: i would quickly say that in my lifetime, republicans have controlled the white house about 56% of the time in my lifetime. republicans currently have the house, the senate, a majority of state legislatures in their control along with governorships. that message that you just mentioned is still very effective here at i think . republicans have been very successful on running on the constitution. the only thing they have failed at least in the last two election cycles has been the white house. host: and that is next in las vegas -- hannah is next in las vegas. the only thing i want to say is i keep hearing them talk about always say the mainstream

media, the mainstream media. and the liberal media. -- this to me seems like especially fox news and them, it's always an attack on the other stations. the stations are not really doing an attack. but there thing is constantly talking about the mainstream media and even with the radio station. most of the radio stations and runprint is now owned and by the republicans -- the right wing. and one more thing. for the love of god, i said it was my own people and this has been six years and this president only has one more year to go. can you will please refer to him as president obama. please stop saying barack obama or obama. i mean, from the time we were in school, in civics and history

and stuff, we were taught president reagan whether i liked it or not. president bush or whoever. but for some reason i mean -- i see it with my own black. s. especially with fox, if you refer to this president on their talk show or anything, if you can't say president obama -- you can't say president obama. it has to be barack. only barack or obama. give this president the same respect that these other presidents have received during the time that they were in office. guest: i don't disagree with that. we refer to president bush as bush. after you get into a discussion or writing about one of them, you revert back to the last name only. it's certainly not meant as any disrespect on my part. or presidenth obama, republican or democrat. i should ask you what your favorite part of that book is. host: you wrote the book.

it's your chance. guest: in 15 years i have never sat on the other side of the table. i was hoping to get at least one question into you. host: why did you write it? guest: so many fun stories from south carolina. hollings fromitz south carolina. i was set to go live with him at chor tosses co-an out to me. and i hear the three words that live report is dread before any other, let us pray. hissenator hollings house head and closes his eyes and i'm standing here with the microphone at the top of the interviewtrying to senator hollings with a hushed crowd people and i had to toss it back in the studio. incidents like that. was a minute to go before

the south carolina senate debate and he refused to come on the stage because one of them was standing on a wooden crate. they were scrambling behind the scenes trying to find a wood crate for the other guy because he was tired of the other guy looking taller on television. those are the sort of behind the scenes stories i put in the book and i hope people enjoy them. host: and i thought it was interesting to see the challenges of local news reporters. guest: but also an opportunity to make a difference. i devote whole chapter to my interview with mitt romney that dinged his campaign for a day when i asked him about the issue of contraception the day before super tuesday in ohio. to me and pointed out the new media age we are in. because i asked the question, he responded. he got it wrong, he had to correct his answer and that social media went crazy. you are ground zero of

something like that, it's amazing helmet social media has taken over and how quickly people get information. host: will you be writing about the political circus in 2016? guest: that would be interesting. front row seat at the circus: one journalist's journey through two presidential elections, jim hea >> on the next "washington a report on campaign 2016 in south carolina. errishill" reporter sarah f has a report on drug prices, and a look at the estimated cost of conducting the 2020 census. we will take your calls and you can join the conversation on

facebook and twitter. at 7:00 a.m. eastern on c-span. >> monday on "the discuss cyber" we security threats in the u.s. and other countries. james lewis is our guest and talks about what the u.s. is doing to avoid attacks by china and russia. security legislation passed by the house and senate. on the program, he is joined by tim sparks, these cyber security reporter for politico. obama administration had a grand mission to defend cyberspace, but they had neither the authority nor the resources. the bill in 20 of would have dealt with vertical infrastructure, probably not in the right way. the obama administration put out

a bill that imposed very light requirements. congress needs to go back and ask if that is enough. communicators" on c-span2. presidential recently marco rubio made an appearance for a roundtable discussion. he took questions from the audience. this is 45 minutes. >> good afternoon, everyone. thank you for being here with us today. i am kate, the president and ceo of state works, new hampshire. we were not expecting this full e-house. i hope you are all comfortable for the next 45 minutes. the ideas is this is a differentp to bring a

discussion to political conversation. so, we want to offer you the chance to get to know senator rubio, to find out what he is like as a person and what his political policies and ideas are. we have a number of questions, but as michael explained, we really want you to be engaged throughout the morning. we really want to thank inc. of america. we would not be here without them. -- we really want to thank bank of america. we have a hashtag -- #lifeofthepartynh. we wouldurther ado, like to invite senator rubio to join us eerie at [applause] -- we would like to invite senator rubio to join us. [applause] thank you.

thank you very much. >> senator, thank you for being here. what we thought we would do, have the moderator go around. you met kate, the ceo. >> i am the editorial page editor. i am on my own as an independent writer and can munication consultant. >> i am jessica eshelman. fundamentally i am a mom. -- cynicallyk in speaking, i serve on a variety of boards. >> i am mike skelton. i am the president and ceo of the greater manchester chamber of commerce. oard member -- your hesitation.

as you can tell, we have a full room. we have a lot of student leaders, community leaders. we have a number of questions we want to talk to you about. they are very different, i think, and what you have been asked -- mr. rubio: then the debate, yeah. >> that was what i was going to get into. this will be very different from those debates. our goal as moderators is to surpass the performance of those debate moderators getting so much attention lately. hopefully we can pull that off. how do you debates, recover from those? what is your process? are you hitting the gym? is there family time? i can't imagine what you're feeling like? mr. rubio: you are basically in an air-conditioned room behind a microphone for two hours. there are harder jobs in the world than that. most of the debates have been

indifferent time zones, so it has given us a couple extra hours. at 8nk the last one ended p.m., 9 p.m. mountain time. i don't do any thing special. i have dinner in my room, try to get to sleep. the next day we usually wake up early for television and its. that is the downside of being another time zones. -- the next day we usually wake up early for television hits. that was three hours. i almost needed a whirlpool after that one. but that was three hours. michael: i don't know how you do it. mr. rubio: it is fine. the first one, you walk up on that stage, i feel he was, i of the watching these things on tv for years and now i'm actually in one. the first one struck me that way. the first one was the one that

really impacted me. we were watching the debates for all of these years and now i'm in one. >> so fitting in with the theme for the day, we had your playlist from spotify -- where is that list from? >> i'm not sure. there is some u2 in their -- 2 is good. u >> fitting in with the theme, if you were to host a party, what like?that party look what would you eat? where would you hold it? mr. rubio: obviously i am a fan of the early 1990's western, west coast hip-hop. family friendly. tell it to people, right, but not necessarily family-friendly.

electronic dance music has grown really fast. the good thing about it is i can listen to it and there are no words. a lot of them do not have words, or they are samples of other songs. so, i like to have some of that music. maybe some of those guys can come in like tso, any of these other performers going around the world. maybe they could do part of it. >> what would you eat? mr. rubio: that's a great question. [indiscernible] something along those lines. when you are planning and doing your party thing, one of the questions we had was -- people always ask about you, what is the one politician you want to sit down and have a beer with? mr. rubio: in the history of the

world? would say non-politics. you can invite anybody to the white house in history. , maybe historical, too. who would you call up and say, i really wanted to hang out with that person? michael: maybe watch the dolphins game or something like that. mr. rubio: that's a good question. i was a huge dan marino fan growing up. i might invite him. so, i think there's a couple interesting things that are happening today. last name.ss up her , theyoung lady malala incredible courage to speak out on global issues impacting young girls. i would love to be able to talk to her. i think she's maybe 19 now? 18? she's very young now. she has put a lot of work and for 18 years of life, 19 years

of life. someone i have just spoken to once in my whole life, the former chess champion, who was also part of the political opposition in russia and cannot return to russia today. i have not met with them, but i have the chance to speak to on the phone a few days ago. he is someone i would like to spend some time with. i think he understands about the changes in russian and what it means geopolitically. those are a couple names that come to mind. before this is over i will probably think of someone else. >> so, i was thinking about this race. at politically -- on the other side you have hillary bernie sanders, and you have a guy who says openly, i'm a socialist. you grew up in a community where you had a bunch of people flee socialism. mr. rubio: in fairness,

communism. there are social democracies in europe where the government governs every aspect of your life. there are consequences to that. they fled communism. there were people in executed. but i get your point. >> you have been in the senate with bernie sanders. say, hey,r want to bernie -- take him aside. here is the real deal. mr. rubio: what i appreciate about bernie, he is not trying to sugarcoat it. it is what he believes. this is just another interview -- this is just another version free enterprise. he has said openly, i don't believe in capitalism. i don't think it works here. we should continue to be american.

but this is a debate we should have. if that is truly what you believe, and i think there are many in his party who share his view because they support bernie sanders, we are a free and open democratic society where we can have debates about policy and their implications. but i don't have a problem personally about bernie because he says what he believes in we need to have that debate and if he is the nominee, we will. cameel: one question that to mind is vladimir putin. he comes up a lot in the debates. i think it's interesting. he has almost taken on this character within american politics and society where you crazy pictures of them hunting and riding horses and wrestling tigers in these kinds of things. but there's actually some really significant and scary aspects to russia and their involvement on the world stage. how would you deal with someone

like him? mr. rubio: on one hand, he is the leader of a country that has 90% of the -- that develops 90% of the world's nuclear weapons. he is a gangster. he is virtually indistinguishable from the head of an organized crime organization. he blew up an apartment building. he can blame it on chechens and justified military intervention. thate radical jihadists are motivated by ideology, he is largely motivated by geopolitical tactics. part of his policy is to distract from the ukraine. russia on is to place par with the united states in

terms of influence. part of it is he wants to retain influence in that region and syria gives him an opportunity to do it if aside retains power. and he weighs costs and benefits and the only proceeds, usually, if he believes the benefits outweigh the costs. he most certainly did that in georgia in 2007 and 2008. he did it in ukraine. he did it now in syria. our job is to change that calculus, to ensure he realizes that the costs are higher. but you have to understand. this is not someone you will be able to find some cooperative agreement with. you have to deal with him in ways that reflect back, unfortunately, to the cold war. until such time as there is new leadership in russia and hopefully the russian people will have a better future than what they have now under potent. -- under putin. michael: i know we are going to jump around. i want to mention to the

audience, if you have a question, raise your hand so we can see it. there are microphones. let's get into some of these issues. issue,going to ask that and i think it is an american issue truly. education.igher i am financing my masters. my son is a sophomore in college. you -- i know that you have talked about addressing these issues. mr. rubio: i/o over $100,000 myself in student loans. over $100,000 myself in student loans. it is not that i did not think it was a good investment. it became -- especially early on -- it was really staggering. over $1000 when you added into

some of the undergrad that i had as well. that is why i am so passionate about it. i have approached it in three ways. i have tried to be bipartisan about it. i don't think it needs to be a bipartisan -- it needs to be a partisan issue. i've talked about income-based repayment. your lump amos, the automatic goal amount will be based on how much money you make. the more you make, the faster you pay off those loans. the less you make, the less of a burden it's going to be. to me it is a better approach than not collecting anything in allowing people to go into default, because that debt will never be discharged. it ruins your credit. it locks you out of homeownership, entrepreneurship. the plan allows individuals that instead of going the student aan route go the way of private investment group. they look at all of this and they decide whether you are a

good investment. and if you are, they pay for investment. and in return, you sign a contract to pay back part of your income. if you become financially successful, you will make your .oney back with the profit if you decide you will drop out of society and moved to australia and live in a tent, they made a best -- a bad investment. is something called the right to know before you go, which is also a bipartisan idea. what is says is, before you take schoolsdent loan, will be required to tell you how much students in that degree will be making. we are not going to ban philosophy majors. at it i think

people will make better decisions if they have access to information that informs you will beat your job cost in the new economy. >> the student investment plan was a new idea i had not heard of. many that i shared it with have the same question -- what is the between this and indentured servitude? that is what comes front of mind. mr. rubio: a student loan is worse. the differences you do not pay back the investment group. you have a contract. if you don't pay back the loan, it ruins your credit. wages.ll garnish your they will take it out of your tax return if necessary. thannk it is way better the issue of whether you want a student loan. on the student investment plan, the risk is on the investment group. if you don't make enough to pay

them back, they made a bad investment. in the student loan, if you borrow 100 thousand dollars, you all of that 100 thousand dollars until the day you die or pay it off. it and if you do not pay it off, they will take your tax refund away from you. they can garnish wages. report you to credit agencies and ruin your credit and the ability to buy a home and finance a business. if you do not pay back the investment group, they assumed that risk. it's an option. it's not mandatory. but it is way better than owing a student loan. you all that amount of money whether you found a job or not. >> that is the reality i am in. i am unable to start a business. i'm investing in my education as was the next generation. mr. rubio: the student loan debt is on a debt to income ratio. the bank says, you want a

mortgage, you will 100 thousand dollars. it's called a student loan. they calculate that into your income to debt ratio when making decisions about who to lend money to. it locks people out of loans. it locks people out of homeownership. speaking about being locked out, that is a problem that people deal with. there are bureaucratic obstacles. there are regulatory obstacles. there's all sorts of infrastructure in play in the united states these days designed to lock you out. there are hurdles. and you talk a lot about trying to break through some of that and make it more of an opportunity society. so, when you are talking to twentysomethings, thirtysomethings, what you telling people? regulations are often used by established industries

to lock out innovative competitors. if you are a big company and you control the marketplace, let's say the largest player in an agency, you hire lobbyists and .awyers and higher government why? you know that there are smart -- small startups. you comply. you see this in the sharing economy. whether it is the transportation side or something else. argue that we should not allow these companies because of public safety. but in reality they are looking at an established relation to protect an established industry. flight ithe commercial came in on was regulated. pilotse pilots are truly and not someone that slept at a

holiday inn express. but if you go too far it becomes a barrier to entry and it makes it uncompetitive globally. what i propose is sending that cap's the amount it can cost our economy in a given fiscal year. it would require agencies to -- if they want to impose new regulations, they will have to get rid of regulatory policy to stay within the regulatory budget. forcing a cost-benefit analysis of new regulations or existing ones. it would ultimately limit growth of the regulatory state, which serves as a massive impediment to a small business or startup entering the marketplace. drew: is massive organizations that suppress and keep people down -- mike have a pretty big

segment coming up about the empire, the new star wars movie coming out. you would have been nine years old when "empire strikes back" comes out. sen. rubio: like everyone else, i have my dvd collection. my kids are all caught up. drew: first of all, when you are watching these as a kid, who did you identify with, what action figures did you have? and are you excited about taking your kids to the theaters to see this? sen. rubio: i'm not sure if i had the action figures.

i think i had the death star, and it kept breaking like in empire strikes back when it blew up, the second one, where the rocket goes in the hole. that's my favorite. i used to hate darth vader, now i feel kind of sorry for him because i know what he went through to get to that point. he's probably the most fascinating character in that movie. he started out with a lot of promise, something went wrong, he went dark and nasty. it's kind of, they done a good job. they should have started that way. now i'm kind of torn. do i still hate darth vader? drew: i think we will find out in the next movie. sen. rubio: anakin, right? drew: right, you had luke, youth and inexperience, the whole world against him, everyone telling him that you can't do that, you are too young. [laughter] in your career -- sen. rubio: i think of her that.

drew: maybe not that comparison, but you have heard that complaint. this guy is too young to be speaker of the house, too young to be senator. wait your turn, man. too young to be president. you have got a bunch of people in this room who have probably heard a little bit of that when we took on positions of responsibility. so, is that -- is that an argument that you think works these days with this generation of gen x or millennial's, raised on star wars, harry potter, does that work? sen. rubio: first of all, i'm 44, my kids don't think that's very young. [laughter] the second point i would make is that this is a different political climate. the country is not just living through an economic downturn. this is not a cyclical thing that's happening here. we are living through a massive, rapid, ongoing economic transformation to the structure of the economy. this economy doesn't look

anything like the one from 15 years ago. or even five years ago. the structure is different. the pace of change is faster than ever. it took the telephone, which is an extraordinary invention -- it took the telephone 75 years for 100 million people to use it. it took candy crush one year to get 100 million people to use it. that's how fast things are changing. one of the largest transportation companies in the world own cars. one of the largest hospitality companies on hotels. it's a different economy that challenges policy. immigration in the higher education system. we have anti-property programs from the 1960's, tax policies will the 80's and 90's, the world has to radically changed in the last five years. this is the industrial revolution happening every five years. it is important for us to have leaders can understand that you can be a conservative, but you have got to apply those principles to the early 20th century. it requires rapid change in innovation and a need to modernize higher education. it is feasible that someone could graduate with a certain skill set and in an economy have to be retrained. we don't have a higher education system designed to deal with that. it was built by the fact that you graduated with a four-year degree and defend -- be secure. you might be a contractor with five different employees over that time. these skills are evolving on a regular basis. we would have to become lifelong learners. all of these sorts of things need to be confronted. back to your lesson, i think the

country is in desperate need of leaders who understand what life is like an the economy and we have too many people in washington who have no idea. they are still writing about 20th century solutions for twentieths -- 21st century problems. mike: besides star wars, we wanted to get to know you better through other personal interests. some of the things that you do as a person, where you get your

news from, what you read. i wanted to start with football. i know you are a big football guy. i know you are dolphins fan. sen. rubio: when is tom brady retiring? is that dude ever retiring? mike: you had to say that. i was not going to bring up that deflategate tweet. sen. rubio: what do you want? we are going to lose anyway. [laughter] mike: talk about football. you grew up playing, i understand, and it's something you're passionate about. what has that meant to you? you take any lessons from that? sen. rubio: i love the game, of course. i do play in them involved in that. i think it's a great teacher of life lessons. it's a sport that teaches people to work with other people. other people on the field, if one of the 11 doesn't do their job, they teach accountability. doing things you don't want to do, things that make you uncomfortable. in a way it created a traffic jam, it was my job and i had to do it for the other 10 people i was playing with.

a bad play, an 80 yard bomb, that's just the way it is. you have to be able to mentally come back from that and pretend like you are the greatest player in the world even though you just gave up a play. you cannot be wallowing in the fact that something went wrong. losing is a great teacher. that's why the patriots don't know a lot. [laughter] is a lessons i took for my time

in football that are difficult to replicate in other sports or without sports in your life. for me it's one of the reasons as an adult i try to use for paul to instill those lessons not just in my kids but the kids have had a chance to coach. mike: i had to ask that too. i'm a big football fan too. sen. rubio: season tickets? mike: yes. at any rate, i'm a parent to -- [indiscernible] [laughter] sen. rubio: we play them again in the last game of the year. maybe they will have had so many. mike: we will get to him. you had better watch out for him. but one of the discussions right now is the discussion of concussions. i have a young son. he may have an interest in football sunday and parents are asking himself -- do they want to let their kids play because of this concerned about the health impact?

do you have a feeling on that? sen. rubio: of course. number one, if your kids don't like contact, don't force them to play. you either like the contact or you don't. there are a lot of sports you can play. of the it's anything special. kids at nine or 10 are playing one sport year-round, i don't think that's good for them either. we are very strict about that. for example, not every parent can do this or you would never have a team, but i never let my kids play inside the box. i don't let them be a running back. they have to play receiver, corner, safety, but this age i don't let them play in the box. the other is good coaching. there's good coaching and bad coaching. we ensure that our kids are taught the proper technique for tackling. we spend a lot of time doing that. if you can teach the kids to use their shoulders, get their heads out of the way, primarily tackle the legs and of the upper body. there are things that you can do to minimize the risk at a younger age. there is an inherent danger at any sport where people run full speed at each other. like soccer. like stunt cheerleading. i saw catastrophic injuries in that. in la crosse, flag football.

people running full feed without any year on. i suppose that we can wrap kids in bubble wrap and say that nothing bad will happen to you but i think there is a balancing act and we try to make football safer. there is no activity in life that is inherently risk-free and football is one of them and it's a great game. i hope they don't kill it. kate: i want to go back to the book thing for a second. whenever my friends have a birthday or party, books or what we give. ramona quimby, age eight, the -- that was a book that had an impact on me. what did you recall from when you were younger? sen. rubio: it's not even a book, it's books.

my parents got me the world's encyclopedia was my christmas present. maybe some people are old enough to remember what those were. one year we lost the d book, so if i needed something that started with d, i wouldn't know it was. i was not a good student until i started paying for it in college. but i always loved to read. when i wanted to learn about something, i read the encyclopedia. every year they would update you with the look of the year or whatever. i look back at that as an example of how much the world has changed. i had to go to an encyclopedia to learn something i was that age. if they want to learn something now, you learn about it in a millisecond. virtually any topic. growing up that book had a lot of influence on me. i also read a lot of books about cuban history. i don't remember the names of all of them, but there was one

book called "cuba," it was this really thick book and it went back to their colonial days through 19 57, 19 58. those were things i was curious about and those books for that curiosity. mike: that's a great lead-in for my question -- what part of u.s. history, if given a chance, would you rewrite? slavery would be obvious, so let's may be something less heavy. sen. rubio: i think that the factors that led to the great depression could have been addressed earlier. i think that that is an arrow that people would want to revisit. i'm not sure the civil war was avoidable, if you look at the great compromises that related by a number of years. slavery, as you mentioned, was always an inherent and direct conflict and was never compatible. even the founders i think understood that eventually that institution would have to be dealt with and they took too long to do so. most certainly, even in the aftermath of slavery, the first half of the 20th century racial discrimination in america was pronounced. it's something -- my parents have a story -- they came to

america and went to new york city and they were driving down to miami from new york city. i don't remember the exact dates but the car broke down somewhere in the south. they believe it was south carolina. i can't prove that, but it was the first time they ever interacted with segregation. two ahead certain segregation. if you were not spanish dissent, you could not join the havana got club. but they didn't have legal segregation. to them -- to them that was a shocking experience. they ask an african-american lady about a movie that was playing because when the car was being fixed they were going to go watch the movie and she said she didn't know because she was not allowed in their that time from the end of slavery, the civil rights era, that lingered way too long and never should have happened. i think that's the time that we wish -- that a wish we could

have avoided and dealt with much quicker, perhaps never have happened. drew: after 2008, the election of obama, race relations were supposed to get better. a lot of people would look at it and think maybe they've gotten worse in a lot of ways. you have talked about this a little bit. is there anything the president of the united states can really do? how might you -- what could be done to sort of ease tensions and maybe make things better? sen. rubio: the things that manifest as racist and government are illegal now. certainly the president is the most important public speaker in the country and you concern the -- you can certainly call attention to major issues, but these are society -- societal issues that have deep problems to go back. the reality is that there are a significant percentage of americans, african-americans, young males particularly, who fields committed against. if they feel that way, whether

you agree with it or not, if they feel that way that is a problem. if a significant portion of your population feels like they're being treated differently, and i know people who do. it is an issue that we have to confront. there is good news and bad news. the bad news is that it continues to have lingering effect in many of our communities. the bad news is that i think that the generation that my children are a part of -- this is an anecdotal example. our team is a primarily african-american football team and i commented to one of the

parents once -- these kids don't know color. 9, 10, 11, it's probably different than when i grew up because they are used to growing up in a society where different people of all backgrounds and ethnicities are together at that age. it will be interesting to see how that manifests itself. i think it already has. even when i grew was growing up it was still a much bigger factor. over time i think that will help in that regard. in the short term i think we do need to address the reality in this country that there are millions of people feel that because of the color of their skin they are followed at the mall, they are treated differently. it's a significant percentage of the american family feels this way. it's an issue, we have to talk about it. i don't think the answer, however, is to demonize police officer, who by and large are incredible people. are there bad actors in any industry? of course there are. but i know that if we have a problem and we feel in danger, we will call 911 and a police officer will respond, respond

willing to die and take a bullet. for our safety. mike: we are running short on time, but i know we have a question from right down here. >> thank you, senator, -- thanks for being here today. this conversation lends itself to the rhetoric that those leading the polls on the republican side are going toward. could you speak to how your experience is different from the others that are, you know, talking about building walls and having a religious litmus test of who could be president. how does your philosophy and background differ from the others beating the race right now? sen. rubio: one thing i have tried to do in this campaign -- a vote for me, because you can possibly vote for someone else. everyone is accountable for their own statements, you will

make your decisions about who you want to vote for. i can tell you two things that i think are true. the first is that the presidency is the most unique political office on the planet, certainly the country. you have to bring your principles and values. i'm running as a conservative republican and if that's -- if i'm elected, that's who i will be. you're also the leader of the united states, the leader of our people. you have to act in the best interest of all of your people. including people who will never vote for you and don't like you. including people who say horrible things about you. you are in charge of serving the best interest of the whole country and you have to be up to put that stuff aside. i only say that because i think that divisive language from the president is different from divisive late -- language from a senator or congressman. divisive language for the president is impactful. it can drive wedges in a society. i think that both parties have been guilty of this. i avoid and reject any language that says in order for you to be better off, you have to give me the power to make me worse off. that the reason you are struggling or facing problems, someone else's is doing too well, that's their fault. i don't think that that's good for the country and i don't happen to believe it's true. i actually think that what unites us as a people is so much more important and powerful than what might divide us on opinions on a given issue here or there.

here is the way that i think this campaign -- you might understand what i mean when i say this -- i don't want to look back at this like a bad prom picture. the flow rate you look back and you say -- i cannot believe i wore that tuxedo, or that my hair looked like that. i want my campaign to be something that my kids look at in 20 years -- i don't want them to say -- how could you have said these things? that when they look back at this time i wasn't home they will say that i know he wasn't home, but he did this for good reasons. hopefully i win so they will

know exactly why. but beyond that i wanted campaign that i will be proud of and that the people who support neighborly proud of. whether on the debate stage here today, i want to be on a campaign stage where they are proud, proud of the way i've held myself out and proud of what i'm doing. i think our countries and desperate need of that. we have real problems but we also have asked for neri opportunities. i thank god every day because i think i'm at -- that i'm a twentieths and -- that i'm a 21st century american. but we have to act now. jessica: i have a final question about 20% three americans. your future is on the economy -- focuses on the economy. i understand that high-paying jobs are an important outcome for higher education. i have a dear friend, she lives in a half dollar home and has a very high paying job. she is unable to explain what the florida state houses, how you got there, and importantly what the difference between your rule currently in that post is. what do we do about high earning

americans who are uninformed voters? sen. rubio: one of the great things about a free society is that people can decide what they are interested in. there are topics i am not well informed on either. i don't know a lot about -- jessica: but is it more fundamental and democracy? sen. rubio: you would love for people to be more informed because we want more people to participate in the process. part of it is as a candidate giving them a message that pulls them in, it is something that turns them out. ultimately, i do think that there are more ways than ever to become informed. it's easier today than it's ever been to learn what i stand for, where i come from, what the differences are. part of it is that people are really busy. think about the life of the people on the 21st century. is nothing i read about, it's friends, my family members. you get up. it's 6:30. get your kids ready. drop them off by 8:00. go to work. when you are done with work, you rush over to get to aftercare to get them out before 6:00. then you have to hurry home and they have homework.

jessica: as a single mom, i'm very there. sen. rubio: the backpack weighs so much. then it's 10:00 in your exhausted. you have to do it the day after that and the day after that. childcare is more expensive than college and 35 out of 50 american states. so, how do you deal with that? that's a concept that people did not have 25 to 30 years ago. that all weighs on people. when you are done with this, you are kind of tired and you have to go back tomorrow and do it again. you might have brought home work with you. i understand that people are facing extraordinary strain from daily life. in some ways life has become so busy in comparison to what it once was. technology means the work doesn't leave us when we leave the office.

it follows us seven days per week. kate: unfortunate -- mike: unfortunately, we are running up against time. lightning round, we wanted to ask you bucket list items. sen. rubio: places i've never been? mike: couple things, what do you want to do? if you are successfully could take eight years. sen. rubio: one of the things i've always wanted to do is visit a free cuba. not a cuba under the control of castro's, but the ones my parents grew up in, visit the cemetery where my father's parents are buried, my mother's parents are buried. people i heard so much about as a child. these are things i definitely want to be able to do at some point. i've been to japan and south korea, the philippines, but it's a region of the world i would be -- love to be able to learn more

about. so much of the 21st century's going to happen there. a lot of growth is going to happen there. i have been to a super bowl. so -- mike: the patriots? sen. rubio: patriots eagles and they won. [laughter] i'd really like to go to one where my dolphins are playing in it. mike: might take a while. [laughter] sen. rubio: they got lucky, tom brady was on the bench. probably another tom brady out there. these are things i love to be able to do. kate: final question, today's theme was life of the party. if you had a chance to connect with the twentysomethings and thirtysomethings in this room, what toast would you give to the party, on the journey ahead, things to think about? sen. rubio: i think that we have

the opportunity to be the freest and most prosperous americans that ever lived. we have got to do some things to make that happen. if we do what needs to be done, the 21st century is going to be the greatest era in the history of this country. there are going to be millions of people around the world they can afford to buy, trade, and sell things with you. we will be the first americans ever that inherit a diminished country and beat our children worse off than ourselves. we are at a generational moment in our nation's history and we must choose what kind of moment they have and if we do what needs to be done, it will be greater than it's ever been. kate: cheers. mike: thank you. on behalf of the panel, i want to thank you all for being here and thank bank of america for making this possible. we want to thank stay, work, play, the university of new hampshire for being our host, and thank you, senator, for doing this with us. thank you very much. [applause] >> there is more road to the

white house coverage coming up this week with the republican candidates attending the sunshine summit. the event include state elected officials and grassroots organizers. we haven't live here on c-span. >> all on campaign long, c-span takes you on the road to the white house. unfiltered access to the candidates. we are taking your comments on twitter, facebook and by phone and every campaign event we cover is available on our website. >> i have learned that you can do anything you want to. they used to ask me if i thought the first lady ought to be paid.

if i get paid, i have to do what the first lady is supposed to do. but you can do anything you want to. it is such a great soapbox. such a great opportunity. i would advise any first lady who did what she wanted to do you another thing i learned is you are going to be criticized the matter what you do. criticized. been for what i did. i got a lot of criticism. you learn to live with it. you expect it and you live with it. you never let it influence you. husband's her political partner from their first campaign. she attended president jimmy carter's cabinet meetings. she even testified before congress. there are ownership on health and peacekeeping issues has

spanned four decades since leaving the white house. rosalynn carter, tonight on "first ladies." examining the public and private lives of the women who filled the position of first lady. from martha washington to michelle obama. >> here on c-span, "newsmakers" is next with a look at the refugee crisis in europe with -- europe. and at 8:00, our conversation as.h eric metax host: joining us today from the state department is the assistant secretary of state anne richard. thank you very much yo