personality driven, and i will give you an example of each of those two for your information. was too much accident prone, in 2011, i think it there was a time gap of three months that we had to work. months, thethree professor, who was the chairman ,f the high peace conference was assassinated. the follow-up of that was the lost event pakistan the promise of cooperation. it's a given more months. -- it took even more months. i thought2012 that

that pakistan may be willing to help us. at that stage, they asked us to present a roadmap. roadmap, the incorporated us. surprise, the first thing from afghanistan's side was the release of four taliban commanders unconditionally. i did not see the logic. the release of taliban commanders and the peace talk. , theyan, in response commanders,taliban which we didn't even know they were in pakistani presence.

it was a joint operation of u.s. forces in pakistan forces. they released 60. there is a demand of four, and the released 60. the 60 commanders are leading the more inside afghanistan and killing people on a daily basis. here, i am accepting the blame on that. talking about a piecemeal approach, and very , having clearty policies on where to start and where to go. that is all the past now. things are changing. , it'sthe situation changing. ,hat is different now is that after the taliban, in order to provide an opportunity to

itsstan to rebuild tarnished image internationally, the taliban are trying to increasingly get inside afghanistan. they're trying to get a hold of the geographic pocket, the political jogger fee, so they can establish there. -- geography, so they can establish there. they have been denied that opportunity. assuming that happens, that pakistan gets hold of the , they willl area establish their headquarters there, move their headquarters from pakistan to afghanistan. they will focus on their own problems.

i think that is what is going on. why we have these intense attacks of the taliban in different parts of the country. i wanted to say a few words. we can stop there and then continue the discussion after that. i like discussion. how do we seek challenges ahead, what is ahead of us? the taliban are one united group---- are not one united group. they are divided into four factions. i will explain them later if you're interested. factionsided into four , it is good news and it is bad news. the good news is for the war.

coordinated and are differences in fighting between them. this is not the first time in the past couple of months. my news is that if we want to they will be on coordinated, making the peace process even more compi lcated. presentse taliban difficulty to us, the main challenge comes from them. they're not the whole problem. emerging things we're faced with. as you all know, isis is is an

emerging threat. it is causing his problems in the eastern province. heard within the last couple of days, isis decapitated seven hostages. among those who they beheaded, there were children and women. growing in the area. limited. -- they are limited. i know there is resources in washington.

there are offshoots of al qaeda in isis and afghanistan. the of them belong to neighboring countries, such as the i'imu and etin. they all are trying to keep headquarters somewhere in afghanistan. that has become a trick for us. isis and taliban's relationship is not good. they have been fighting in some places. there may be some splinter actps of taliban that will

things.icate one thing i mention is the growing challenges we face. i want to bring that your no dispute -- to your notice. iran and russia are guaranteeing trickn afghanistan as a to their interests. the word is they are trying to enter into some kind of anti-isis nexus with taliban. if that happens, that would make our lives more miserable. to us, it sounds like the music , one country supporting one faction and another supporting another faction.

this would make life a lot more .omplicated let me share with you my expense -- experience. president obama expanded the presence of troops, not in large itbers, but in afghanistan, is welcome approach, it is good news. the interests will remain with us as long as their boots on the ground. this is welcome. ultimately, there is a need for security forces to be strengthened. to secure thet people in the country. in addition to that, we need a

cohesivestate and more stability. help, and we need the old revisiting political settlement process with the taliban. the approach that we have followed has not gotten us anywhere, not gotten any result. that needs to be re-taught. -- il come more discussion welcome more presentation. thank you. [applause]

>> at this point, i would ordinarily open the discussion to the floor. he is interested in answering your questions. because i have you as a captive, i want to ask you two questions. delicacy.a certain the united states and its allies militarysued a mature campaign in afghanistan since 9/11. theidea was to pursue taliban as hard as we could militarily.

if that process was successful, that would open the door eventually to reconciliation. if the taliban was sufficiently weakened, it would give them a fighting chance at survival. at the height of these operations, it was becoming clear that the government was getting more and more comfortable with the consequences of these operations. office, youre in talk to military commanders about the impact of these operations. today, the united states is out of the combat business. they will take the lead. why is that in the different?

the ems is going to face the same challenges. the psychological cost of s will haveerrorist the same effects in terms of resentment. in terms of the operation capabilities, they face the same kind of operational problems. why should we have reason to be more optimistic? if they take the lead down these operations compared to the nato forces. mr. daudzai: let me put it this way. lead in 2005, it

was impossible. it was an international partnership. 2009 that the idea came. they gradually became more strong. there was a mutual argument between our international that it should4 be handed over entirely, which happened. , after you an example the schedule, the transition of responsibility was supposed to be completed by the end of 2014. in practice, it was completed halfway there. it was almost in the beginning of the process.

securing thes of presidential election across the country, there were fights sped across the country. , men andl of them women went and voted. why was the successful compared to our international partners? i would just that. support, theylic supported international forces. operationstional within the afghan villages, there were sometimes misunderstandings between the government and the international forces. like i said earlier, in many when the have examples

innocents were shot. the afghan public comes forward and they start apprising in support of ansf. that makes me more optimistic. it is public support. earlier, we are a nation that is rebuilding, that is developing. our international financial support, turning support, and equipment support is needed for a long time to come. at the end of the day, is the job of the afghan national security force to secure the people. mr. tellis: is there one thing that the ansf will need in the next few years beyond money? the need for continued financial support is clear. what do they need for success?

honest, 2014to be was too early for the transfer of responsibility. we did not yet have the air force and air support completed. the international forces are providing that. support is one area of sf needs, it is your inport, air capability, both terms of support and logistics. what we might need is the resource to fix the morale of the soldiers. mr. tellis: let me ask you one other question before i go to the others. the reconciliation effort.

you made the argument towards the end of your presentation that the long-term requirement is reconciliation. it is very hard to get the public behind the reconciliation agenda. one thing i struggle with is that to make reconciliation work, you have to posit a fundamental transformation in afghanistan. as long as pakistan continues to believe that it's printable principalndia -- , to have anya significant presence in afghanistan, what is their incentive to engage in reconciliation? ,r. daudzai: when i was there

it was part of my job and also for my own research i tried to understand, what really pakistan wants in afghanistan. is it concern or ambition? let me explain the concerns. the concern is primarily about india. y are uncomfortable with the presence, particularly the security fields. that's where they are more uncomfortable. will alwaysan remain concerned about their internal cohesion within pakistan. was more intense, became more intense after 1971,

when pakistan split into two on ethnic lines. they are accusing, again, india of supporting the village apprising through afghanistan. mr. tellis: which is not true. mr. daudzai: thing a minister for interior for a while, there was nothing i saw. it was very much an internal issue of pakistan. pakistan, like all of us, they had a reason to be concerned. they were right to be concerned. tot they want from us is degrade our relationship with india. there an independent country, that should they are an independent country. in terms of our relationship

with india and their internal cohesion, some people do ask me like aer come across deer in the light. jalalabad should look more toward couple. -- kabul. things like that. i never thought they were pushing that is a priority issue. it was a list of issues. of course, they have ambitions, also. they want use afghanistan as a into asia.o tunisia we don't mind, as long as they give us the same corridor to india. but they don't want to.

what is the incentive for pakistan to help with the peace? i think incentive is not the right word. pressure is the right word. or what you can cut from pakistan to make them help you. are the kind of here when you give them one, they want to, when you give them two, they want three. so the united states needs a new strategy? mr. daudzai: they are giving millions of dollars, but i think the united states makes the help

conditional. they pushed all the terrorists to afghanistan. later, he said they can't do war and piece together. ogether. t i respect his mentor u.s. given u.s. policy and pakistan's own afghanistan, how do you assess the prospects for

something that resembles a successful reconciliation? some point and time, it is obvious that pakistan wanted to establish a takeover of afghanistan. 1994,he created them in that was what they were pursuing. they almost had taken the whole country. they were lucky. the u.s. and the allies came to the rescue. everything was reversed. understand, i that's not what they want. they are seeking, pakistan is inking taliban participation the state rebuilding process. that is the phrase i hear from them. satisfied with the taliban participation in the

coalition government, for instance. they want them in the state rebuilding process. thi mr. tellis: this participation is supposed to take place through ordinary politics? or did they imagine an extra mary solution by the taliban -- an extraordinary solution by the taliban? mr. daudzai: when i was part of the discussion, they were arguing that the taliban could be transformed into a political force. then they participate in election. at before that, they wanted revision in our constitution. constitution is in such a way that the taliban is inowed to have a big share

the state rebuilding process. that createsvision confusion. at this stage, in my opinion, is not the taliban returning to pakistan, there's an indication that they are trying to become more and more an internal issue for afghanistan. if that happens, when you're say the, pakistan will taliban leaders are not our problem, but them cents from. that may be the case. -- afghanistan's problem. that may be the case. we may need a new approach to the peace process. that should be mediated, afghan mediated, afghan participated.

process needs a mediator. you cannot have dialogue between two warring functions without a mediator. there was a taliban government, there was dialogue between the two, mediated by the united nations. they were shuttling between the two. when we started the peace process, there was the absence of a mediator in this whole process. it was just presenting the afghan state. a friendly country such as norway or germany hosting, they are not mediators.

in my opinion, the afghans should be the mediators. they should take that role. they have a traditional mechanism in the culture where , the few reputed , and we haveorward those elders in afghanistan. they could come forward and declare themselves as the mediators. they may need some adjustable support. this could be -- logistical support. edis could be support on the united nations. not possible, at least there should be a u.s. special

envoy. mediate, they could between the taliban and afghan state. we cannot ignore the role of pakistan. at a minimum, they should be stopped from doing harm to the process, harm to the process. at maximum, those under the , they could be encouraged to participate. they could close down all the safe havens they haven't in pakistan. mr. tellis: thank you. i'm going to open the floor. just identify yourself, and you can keep to the point, that would be fine. >> hello. i am tom lynch. good to see you, minister.

thank you for your comments. i am tented to ask you about the current government process. you alluded to several things that observers here have indicated. instead, i would like to pick up on the theme and ask about this piece reconciliation process, and particularly with reference to china. you talked about iran and russia and the potential with mischief with the taliban. we talked about pakistan's interests, saying pakistan did not change with a calculus. your successor testified that it was pakistan that is a problem right now for peace and security in afghanistan. the chinese have a long-standing relationship with the pakistanis. there is increasing evidence

that they have taken a more active role in finding a way first to encourage the pakistanis to disassemble international terrorist groups, particularly the east turk meccmenistan group. i wonder if you could talk about, since you finished t -- can you talk about what has changed in the chinese approach and whether the approach to try to secure pakistan from terrorist might have a prospect of assisting movement in pakistan's aims or initiative or helping the pakistan government get the peace process moving? thank you. assessment, in my china has taken an interest in afghanistan.

that it is more based in afghanistan or partly in afghanistan. this becomes one part of china's interest. government, we started the dialogue with china. ministry talk to the of interior and security. i was clearly seeing they were very much concerned about the etim and needed help from afghanistan. first meetingmy with china, i realized they were so misinformed in pakistan that the security forces is limited to kabul and not the rest of the country. when they realized that was not the case and it was a force

controlling the remotest part of afghanistan. they asked for help. there were two other reasons which was more economic. one was in pakistan and the other was in afghanistan. in pakistan, it is the economic corridor that is linking them with china. that corridor is not just a road, it is a huge area which includes roads and network of roads that will link to afghanistan and pakistan. how could they invest $46 billion in that corridor if corridor risk to the within the region of one kilometer -- 100 kilometers. interest inkeen

dissolving the taliban anth ere. the investment of afghanistan -- they already won two major contracts. one in the south and one in the north. to extract copper and ire, they need security in that region. in my opinion, that are the three main reasons for china to come in. there's ambat, but lack of sincerity in our neighborhood. no matter how much pressure or incentives come from china, there is still the lack of sincerity. china will not be able to have a huge impact. mr. tellis: yes, ma'am. young lady there.

>> thank you for being here today. my name is fatima. i wanted to ask you from your perspective, what is the impact of the iran nuclear deal on your country and perhaps you can offer some insight into how iran is thinking from a non-western perspective? mr. daudzai: thank you. asl, when i started ambassador in iran, we started thinking a new approach to our relationship. a started talking about lateral is in between afghanistan and pakistan -- bilateralism between afghanistan and pakistan. the relationship with the united states should be independent.

we were having a good relationship despite huge international -- iran participated generously. when we had problems of trade through pakistan, iran became the alternative for us which was good relief. in terms ofr, trading with india, iran was our only option because we cannot trade with india through pakistan, but we could do it through iran. as far as the nuclear aspect is concerned, we'll like all those nuclear weapons in our neighborhood -- we don't like all of those nuclear weapons in our neighborhood. india is nuclear. a is nuclear. a very problematic neighborhood.

it is a much bigger problem. mr. tellis: yes, sir. just wait for the microphone. >> i'm a political and social activist. said he likes discussions, i highlighted a few points. what is the ground reality of -- there are rumors that in government and international forces were involved intentionally. you're really involved, can you tell us the three big achievements in the involvement? for my information,

you will be running for the presidential election. should we hold room for better selection -- what will be the difference between you and the president if you are running against him? the third one which is a bit saying, whyyou were you don't want to criticize the government, you are doing diplomacy with us. thank you. [laughter] if i forgot you, remind me. never listen to conspiracy. theories. was ittually happened was a holiday. they putor three days, all of their forces in place.

usually they take holiday. symbolict is because many people go home after. taught what the taliban or its strategy to advantage of the absence. of course, there are lessons to be learned. there were weaknesses in coordination between our three forces. also, the level of politicizing taught or its strategy to advantage of the absence. of the forces are responsible. by that, i mean when you form a government, you say ministry of defense is mine and ministry of

-- is yours. it becomes two different lines of command. it becomes difficult in coordination. that weakness in coordination was an additional factor for the fall. i know the president has launched an investigation. he appointed a commission and offered me first to be head of the commission. i did not take it so be appointed another. that commission has completed its work and based on its findings, they will make good decisions. there is a lot of conspiracy theories in afghanistan. nobody wanted to take on the city. as far as the three major the president,

when i think about it, a major achievement was the national unity of afghanistan. president, if you arwere in afghanistan 14 years ago, within kabul city, you needed a visa to go from one parts of the city. om one part of the city to another. now the unity is complete. all of the institutions he built -- you look at the army, the judicial system. one major achievement, the top one is the national unity. the second major one is the scale and the quality of the

troops that have been trained. with theo start capacity 14 years ago. we didn't have enough capacity because education was disrupted 20 years before that. in the past 14 years, enormous progress has been made. like i said in my presentation, almost halfou'll mus half a million youth enrolled in education. almost 100,000 have been abroad. majors the second achievement of the time. the third one is democracy. was -- fory which many decades, now you have one

of the best constitutions. all the democratic institutions. of course, democracy does not grow overnight. it takes time to be entrenched. the list is longer but you asked for three. -- you for presidency answer it yourself. it is far too early to speak of that. that are me compared to the president, not in the context of running. i will say i weigh more than him. [laughter] i don't say why criticize the national unity government, it is because i am not in afghanistan. if you come to afghanistan and asked me the question, my answer could be different. thank you.

mr. tellis: yes. much.nk you very i'm a scholar with the john hopkins university. my focus is south asia and east asia. you talked about pakistan and peace process. is somehow a little long-term perspective of pakis arabia ands th saudi iran's involvement in afghanistan. if you recall, we have two mos ques now. both of these countries are influential in terms of bringing peace and

stability in afghanistan, especially saudi arabia. during hisouhani, -- itmonths of office happened so many times. in previous government, also the same thing because they are influential in pakistan and can help the process. looking at the long-term perspective of the involvement with afghanistan building a stronger nation, and also one thing that differentiates iraq the conflicttan is of war was not a long the line of dictatorship. if you look at the long-term involvement between the two in the middle east, how do you see that dynamic playing in afghanistan long-term? or daudzai: that rivalry

competition between saudi arabia and iran is not limited to afghanistan. it is wider. we don't have any problem. problemremember an shia in afghanistan that we have ever had. how do we deal with that? the rivalry. president dawud said my americanight cigarette with soviet matches. i think we should make good use of both of them. looking at negative to rivalry. it might be negatively affected. at how wee positive can take good advantage of the competition they have for reconstruction and economic and trade and all kinds of

relationships. we can't live in that part of the world by not having good relationships with saudi arabia because for obvious reasons. they are also our neighbor. in the rest oft the road without having a good relationship. we must find a more constructive way. take advantage of the resources and take advantage of their knowledge. iran is rich and i'm sure you must be aware in the past 14 afghans graduated universities and they are working back in afghanistan. aspect d look at that than thinking of negative aspects. mr. tellis: yes. young lady here.

right. >> thank you. at the carnegie endowment. sarah recently published a book where she argues that corruption threatens global security. been slighted by the public officials who he refused to bribe or whose sister was raped by a judge finds in the taliban an attractive option for numerous reasons, including the ability to provide an alternate worldview in strict position of religious morality, can address greed and public corruption. memos of thehe

special inspector general for afghanistan that corruption permits the political mission in all levels of afghanistan, but particularly devastating is corruption at the highest levels of government. particularly in the karzai government, among the cabinet members. which you were part of. i was just wondering if how you see, what measures you see that -- weight in place to among the top political whichals the corruption deals a blow in the process of creating sustainable socioeconomic institutions in afghanistan. mr. daudzai: well, i agree with you that corruption is a major problem and equal to that is

drugs. these are two major challenges for us. wish it was not like that. we all wish we could find an easy way to deal with it. under the circumstances we started and the way things are going on and you are building a country, afghanistan does not have a grand plan. that is also partly responsible for corruption in contracting and other things. subject we need to discuss in depth. in general, what i'm sure is they had all the right intentions to eliminate corruption. in practice, his achievement was not that significant. rouhani has the right

intentions, but his achievements have been limited. it is a major issue. in my personal opinion, the solution is not -- it is rule of law and getting ready of impunity against law. mr. tellis: the gentleman here. >> thank you for an excellent presentation. i wasentioned that karza responsible for building unity in the country. i was wondering when why you were citing examples, you cited only negative examples. a perfect example of unity government is the answer and government brought in -- the interim government. it could be interpreted the a completernment was unity government except for the

taliban and other factions. my question is in dealing with the taliban, what can the afghan government offer them in peace talks that does not compromise the rights of other afghans? mr. daudzai: good. the national unity government and national unity itself are two different aspects. often, we call it the government. qualationened is government which did not include taliban. it excluded them which was wrong. that was a mistake we all realize later and that is why we started the process of reconciliation with taliban.

way is a policy of inclusion. the taliban also included as part of the process. what we can offer to the taliban, i can only give you my personal opinion which is we should talk to taliban when we are in the position of strength. we shouldthe state, be in position of strength. is definition of conflict you have the state of afghanistan and on the other hand you have an insurgency. when state is is in a stronger position, that is when you need to talk to taliban. my personal view was we should then the negotiation can start. what could the incentive for

taliban, or how we can -- let 's say they ask for revision of constitution in such a way we have to compromise our achievements of 14 years. that would not be acceptable for the state of afghanistan. havewe could do is political parties in afghanistan. groupe a political contesting in the election. taliban should also one day become a political party. if they win majority, obviously they can form a government. that is how i would see it. they would ultimately be have to be transformed into a political force. >> mr. minister, it is a

pleasure to see you again. very quick question -- you have made in-depth comments, very wise comments about a number of pakistan's neighbors, but you have immediate neighbors to your north. do you see central asia playing any constructive role in afghanistan in the coming years? yes, not only the coming years, the past years also. buy most of our electricity from our northern neighbors. there have been alternative routes with our trade whenever we have problems with trading. we should have more options. north is an option. the central asian countries, in the past we had very good relationship. we want tore,

further build on that relationship. they feel threatened from what is coming from the south to the north in the name of isis and taliban. feel more help them secure with us. no particular problem in the north. mr. tellis: one last question. mabybe two. we will stop there and come back. >> thank you so much, minister. that was a very warm welcome. so good to see you. i'm a journalist here. correct me if i am wrong, the d ebt. if that is the case, i heard you blaming pakistan a lot. this is also what we hear from kabul officials, the afghan government blaming pakistan.

this is not the case the way washington looks at the situation. ago -- whatw weeks we heard was they were commending the role pakistan was playing in the peace process. why is there a huge difference between what afghans see and what americans see? what is it you see and americans do not see and why can't the government convince americans that pakistan is a spoiler and should not be commended for that? thank you. think --ai: well, i what you are saying, that is exactly what we have been saying the past 14 years. the problem isof in pakistan. the haven of terrorism is in pakistan. the taliban leadership, all of

them are in pakistan. i'm sure the united states has been trying to pressurize one way or the other, but pakistan knows how to handle all of that. one or two or -- the way i see it, the united states sees pakistan as an ally. pakistan is not their friend.w e ar we are their friend and want to become their ally. that is the difference between us and pakistan. what i said was, referring to what you said in the beginning that the peace process is dead -- it is suspended. it is not the old way. that way did not work. we have to restart with more afghanized way.

we have a start something within afghanistan with the help of the united states, china and pakistan. we should be the lead. we should be more innovative in our approach. that is blaming pakistan and expecting pakistan to help us -- that does not work. the result is a did not work. that is why we have to restart it in a more afghanized way. mr. tellis: this will be the last one. >> i'm a political analyst. actually i have an observation and question. my observation is it is not a side effect but an analogy. as we witnessed in afghanistan that an insurgent group raise the majority, have been fighting and ruling and back and forth

for 35 years. while comparing to taliban, they were weaker. we see the taliban right now there. they came after. don't you think -- i would expect it to remain influential in afghanistan for at least two more decades. if this is true, if they can command for two more decades while they have been in there for 35 years sharing powers, don't you think taliban will be having the same influence or a certain level of influence for upcoming decades even? if so, what is the strategic solution? peace think the high concert can resolve this situation? as we have been witnessing, there is no reconciliation and

the party has not forgotten -- theminister of defense and guy and theythe have not forgotten their own freiend. how do we expect the party or the person who is the leading member of the party will be concerned with taliban overall? it daudzai: let's look at from a different angle. there was a war. that war was between warlords. there was no right or wrong in that. state and the islamic the other was from the islamic emirate. they were warlords. called themselves -- and bring back the title they had earlier, that is just a

title. that.k there is no longer they have now transformed into political party. party -- it is no longer the party, it is a political party. it has a role in government, it has a share in government. not 100%,one, also but maybe 80% of it has been transformed into a political party. dream is that taliban also one day becomes transformed into a political party like the others. that would be the time we can have a solution. mr. tellis: on that note, i want to thank all of you for coming here this afternoon. i want to extend a very special thanks to mr. daudzai for

spending time to talk to us and patiently answering the questions. mr. daudzai: thank you. mr. tellis: thank you very much. [applause] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2015] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2015] >> all those having business before the honorable supreme court of the united states, give their attention. thered boldly opposed forced internment of japanese americans during world war ii. after being convicted for failing to report for relocation, he took his case all the way to the supreme court. >> this week on c-span's landmark cases, we will discuss

the historic supreme court case of korematsu versus the united states. after the attack on pearl harbor, president franklin roosevelt issued an evacuation order sending 120,000 people of japanese origin who live close to military installations to internment camps throughout the u.s. >> this is a re-creation of one of the barracks. they were 20 feet wide and 120 feet long and divided into six different rooms. ceilings, theyve did not have the mason on the floor. it was freezing even the daytime. heating they would have had was a potbelly stove. tos would not have been able heat the entire room comfortably. >> challenging the evacuation order, korematsu defied the order and was arrested and his case went to the supreme court. find out how the court ruled

given the war powers of congress with our guest peter irons, author of justice of war, the story of the japanese interment thes and korematsu executive director of the institute and daughter of the plaintiff. we will explore the mood of america and the u.s. governments policies during world war ii and we will follow his life before, during and after the court's decision. that is coming up on the next landmark cases live tonight at 9 p.m. eastern on c-span, c-span3 and c-span radio. for background on each case while you watch, order your copy of the landmark cases companion book which is available for $8.95 plus shipping at markcases..org/land >> veterans day is wednesday and tuesday on c-span, a conference on employment for veterans. the u.s. chamber of commerce and the george w. bush institute have teamed up to create an

initiative to help veterans and military spouses find jobs. laura bush was among those who spoke at the conference. mrs. bush: while our servicemen and women are deployed, their spouses are the one who take care of the families at home. they care for the children. they manage the finance and they pray that their husbands and wives will return home safely. rodriguez andt his wife joined us at our ranch in 2013 for the bush center's annual warrior 100 bike ride. when marlene talked about his service in the air force, she said we, i say we served 25 years. i lived every deployment with rocky. every trial and tribulation. him, i day i said yes to

did not realize the impact it would have on me. that is why it is so important to make sure while our servicemen and women receive the support they need that we care for their families as well. as we have heard this morning, employment support is the perfect place to start. studies show post-9/11 veterans face higher rates of unemployment vendors civilian counterparts. and the consequences of that unemployment or underemployment are not only financial. of course, when one family member is suffering, the entire family suffers. entireyou can see the conference with laura bush and thomas perez tomorrow night on c-span and 8:00 eastern. wednesday, veterans day, president obama laying a wreath at the tomb of the unknown soldier in arlington national cemetery.

we have live coverage beginning at 11 a.m. eastern on c-span. long, c-spangn takes you on the road to the white house. unfiltered access to the candidates at town hall meetings, news conferences, rallies and speeches. we are taking your comments on twitter, facebook and by phone. as always, every campaign event we cover is available on our website at www.c-span.org. >> presidential candidate hillary clinton this weekend saying the government should change the way it classifies marijuana. to make it easier to conduct medical experiments. she made her remarks during a town hall meeting in south carolina on saturday. [applause] >> how are we doing? glad to be back in south carolina.

aggies made some people upset with the gamecocks. looking forward to have a great conversation with you. i am the host. we have the first and only national morning show that speaks to the news of african-americans. i am glad to be here at clafin, and we are looking for to a great conversation. we look forward to a great conversation. we are live streaming this -- we are live streaming this, and we will take lots of questions. i look for to that. let's not wait any longer. let me introduce to you right now, folks, democratic presidential candidate, hillary clinton. >> [applause] ♪

mr. martin: all right. mrs. clinton: thank you. it is great to be here. mr. martin: we did not coordinate our outfits, just to let you know. mrs. clinton: i told him, you look pretty sharp. mr. martin: you know, black host, black show, black network. mrs. clinton: [laughter] you have to show me how you do that. mr. martin: my dad has taught me well. mrs. clinton: [laughter] mr. martin: let's jump right into it. the job report came out for october. unemployment dropped but for 9.2%.n-americans it is is there a need for a new deal 2.0 and a marginal plan that targets those most in need, as opposed to folks who say you can't do anything race-based, but if you do it needs-based, it will impact african-americans and latinos more than anything else?

what is your plan for those who don't have the opportunities of others? mrs. clinton: first of all, i am really relieved and pleased that overall we are making progress. what is your plan for those who don't have the opportunities of others? mrs. clinton: first of all, i am really relieved and pleased that overall we are making progress. and i have gone across this country making the point that when president obama came into office, he inherited the worst financial crisis since the great depression. and he doesn't get the credit he deserves for baking -- digging us out of that big hole he was handed when he came in. >> [applause] mrs. clinton: so it has been a long, slow effort, which thanks to him and his leadership and many, many millions of americans, we are exactly where roland said we are, down to 5% employment -- unemployment. but incomes are not rising. we have two big problems. one, we had to get incomes to go back out. and number two, we have to get more good jobs. and we do have, in my opinion, a targeted effort at people and communities that have not had the benefits of the recovery us

far -- thus far. we need, once and for all, to have a very big infrastructure program on our roads, bridges, tunnels, airports, rail system where we can put millions of people to work. number two, we need to combat climate change by becoming the clean energy superpower of the 21st century. that means putting up wind turbines and installing solar panels and doing energy efficiency work and all the work that will enable us not only to have the economy grow, but move away from fossil fuels. number three -- >> [applause] mrs. clinton: we need to start investing in small business. my particular hope is i can be the small business president. i want to focus on women and minority owned small businesses in our country. all of those things i think will make a difference. mr. martin: i want to deal with what you said about infrastructure.

you talked about crating those jobs. historically, those labor unions have frozen us out. african-americans have not been able to get those construction jobs. so what would you say to those trade unions, stop freezing out black folks and other minorities from those opportunities? mrs. clinton: i think we have two problems. where people are frozen out, or equally importantly, not sought out. i want to make sure every training program is reflective of our population. i want to provide an apprenticeship credit to companies, to unions, to others to train young people, particularly, but not just young anymore, roland. we have a lot of people who have lost their jobs were middle age and older, and they knew to be given special attention. labor unions are not the problem in much of the south because they are right to work states. so we have to make sure that anywhere we do for structure -- we do infrastructure, at the federal government has money in

it, they must be a program for recruiting and hiring and, where necessary, training people from less advantaged communities. and that is going to be my -- mr. martin: you talked about the issue of small businesses. the "wall street journal," $29.9 billion handed out for small business loans. but in the last year of president bush, it was a .2% for african-americans. the housing crisis had a lot to do with that. they are trying to improve that, but that is a perfect example. you have 1.9 million black-owned businesses who cannot get access to capital. how will you lose allies -- how will you utilize the federal government to expand as opposed to, again, getting 1.7% of $23 billion? mrs. clinton: when i was a senator from new york, this is one of the big issues i had because the federal government has a lot of contracts, but sometimes it is difficult for small businesses to know how to apply for those contracts. so i used to run a procurement outreach program, and a big conference where we sought out small businesses. and again, with a special emphasis on minority and women owned businesses. i think we have to do that all the time. you've got to have a much more vigorous effort to reach out and help people, number one, apply

for the contracts that are available. there is, and i agree with this, there is a preference and the law for small businesses that are minority and women owned. i want to make sure that preference is translated into benefits and doesn't just sit on the books. mr. martin: but also have bureaucrats who make the job -- mrs. clinton: 100%. in my administration, what i want to do is set some goals and tell the people who work for me, this is what i want you to do. and if we really measure what we are doing, we can get results and we can change outcomes, i believe. mr. martin: 2010, i him eating at the treasury department with two officials who said that black and hispanic firms outperformed everyone out on the management of funds. my follow-up question was, did they get more money? the answer was no. what you have here, you have a good old boy situation largely white from the treasury department. is there a perfect example of if you are president, you will tell your treasury secretary, you are to do what jackson did, put economic power -- political power.

i want to make sure that preference is translated into benefits and doesn't just sit on the books. mr. martin: but also have bureaucrats who make the job -- mrs. clinton: 100%. in my administration, what i want to do is set some goals and tell the people who work for me, this is what i want you to do. and if we really measure what we are doing, we can get results and we can change outcomes, i believe. mr. martin: 2010, i was meeting at the treasury department with two officials who said that black and hispanic firms outperformed everyone out on the management of funds. my follow-up question was, did they get more money? the answer was no. what you have here, you have a good old boy situation largely white from the treasury department. is there a perfect example of if you are president, you will tell

your treasury secretary, you are to do what jackson did, put economic power -- political power. what harrison did was say, no, you are going to expand those opportunities. if they are outperforming everybody else, they should get more business. you that a group or a person is outperforming everybody else, your question is the right question. are you going to reward that person or business? my answer is yes. i think that when you look at the economy, there are opportunities that we are not seizing on behalf of communities and individuals. and i don't think there is any doubt at all that we've got to do more to open doors and to rebuild those ladders of opportunity. when it comes to businesses, small business, minority and women owned, i am going to be vigilant and i'm going to drive people to get results. what i like about what you said is we are not doing this as charity, we are doing this as business. when they do well, we need to reward that. mr. martin: last seven years, 53% of black -- mrs. clinton: you talk so fast.

am i talking too fast in response jack a razor -- response? raise your hand if you think we are talking too fast. mr. martin: i've got other stuff to ask. mrs. clinton: i know, i know. mr. martin: 53% of black wealth was wiped out in the home foreclosure process. elizabeth ward -- warren said it will take two generations just for african-americans to recoup that money. one thing our government did not do -- and i will say this here -- one of the greatest failures of the obama administration has been there housing policy. will you, if you are president, forced the federal housing finance agency to write down the principle of underwater homeowners and will you modify -- push congress to modify the code so that the people who have homes can maintain those homes and not simply bail out banks and not bail out homeowners? mrs. clinton: i advocated that to back in 2007 and 2008, roland. in fact, i was very unhappy that we did not do enough to help people in their homes save their

homes. i will look for ways to, number one, stop the damage so that we don't lose more homes because people still haven't recovered. but number two, we've got to get back into the home ownership business. and a lot of financial institutions are reluctant to loan. and they are more reluctant to loan to african-american and latino -- mr. martin: -- now they are simply -- [indiscernible] mrs. clinton: and i don't agree with that. i think that is wrong. now we are starting to see some of the bad behavior coming from the folks who want to those homes. they are forcing people out. a big article today about misleading people and forcing them to turn over their home under false pretenses.

so, you are right, what happened in 2007, 2008 is just beyond horrible. 9 million people lost their jobs. 5 million lost their homes. and $13 trillion in family wealth was wiped out, most of it in homeownership, but also iras, 401(k)s, college funds. we have a lot of catching up to do, and it is not enough if just some people recover. i want to do it i can to help everybody recover. >> [applause] mr. martin: 1991, i graduated from college and i interviewed the birmingham news. all 16 editors there wanted to

hire me. but to the hr department said, no because of my credit report. there are an increasing number of people across the country to deny jobs for credit report. do you support the bill that deals with the issue of repairing the fair credit act? and -- and in most cases wiping out requirements to have folks go through credit checks when they are applying to jobs? mrs. clinton: you know, that is -- i generally agree with that. i don't know the specific of the legislation, but i will obviously look at it immediately. one, sometimes credit reports are wrong. but let's deal with that problem -- mr. martin: and her act deals with that. mrs. clinton: yes.

and that is a serious problem for a lot of people. secondly, i think a lot of credit problems, particularly for young people, have to do with student debt, have to do with credit cards that they had to use in order to stay in college, in order to be able to get their education. there are a lot of reasons why i don't think you should have credit reports following you around like some anchor that you have to carry with you. so, yeah, i want people to be responsible, but i also want to make sure you've got a second chance. and it shouldn't be that you are denied a job that has nothing to do, as i understand working for the birmingham newspaper would have with your credit score. so we need to take a hard look at that. mr. martin: last friday, you were in atlanta. there were people there interrupting your speech. some people chanted, "black lives matter." but do you fully understand the reticence of some folks when they say under your president he signed into law the crime deal that has contributed to the mass incarceration problem? he signed the welfare or bill -- the welfare bill.

do you understand the sentiment to echo and why not roll out your entire criminal justice program at one time as opposed to individual speeches? mrs. clinton: first of all, i do understand the sense of frustration and disappointment and even outrage that young people, like those that were in atlanta last week, feel because there are a lot of things that need to be fixed. and they are impatient, and they deserve to be impatient. and they deserve to hear answers from people like me running for office. i have had some very good, open, productive conversations with representatives of the black lives matter movement. i wish they had listened because a lot of what we have talked about together are part of the proposals we are making. and the reason we rolled them out -- and this is an interesting point to make to you as a leading member of the press -- as you get more attention paid to them. if you put them out one day, it is a one day story. so we have been rolling out, starting with the very first speech i gave in this campaign back in, i don't know, march or april about criminal justice

reform, and we are going to keep doing that because i want people to look at what i am proposing. we are going to reduce minimum mandatory sentences. we are finally going to reduce the difference between powder and crack cocaine, which has been a terrible, unfair burden. we are going to ban the box and let people apply for jobs. and only at the and come if they get to that at be end, if they get to that end, they can talk about whatever record they have. we have a very robust agenda, and i feel very committed to this trade and i particularly want young people who share the inpatients and the disappointment -- and, you know, i think we should talk about going forward, but i will say

back in the 1990's, that bill was in response to a horrific decade of crime. and leaders of the communities of color and poor communities were in the forefront saying, you must do something. and it was done. and it did have a lot of positive, but also negative unintended consequences. that is why we have to take another look. that is what a democracy should do. mr. martin: we are going to go to questions, but you mentioned mandatory minimums. why not get rid of all of them and allowed just is -- judges to have discretion to echo you have some folks -- discretion? mr. martin: well, we want to get rid -- mrs. clinton: well, we want to get rid of the nonviolent offenses as a way of going into jail. but this is like everything else. it cuts both ways. if you reduce the mandatory minimums, i believe then we can see does it reduce discrimination?

and discrimination can be on both sides because what happens right now is that african-american men are far more likely to be arrested, to be charged, to be convicted, to be incarcerated for doing the same things as white men. so we want to reduce those minimums, but we also don't want to open the door to a different form of discrimination. we are looking hard at how this would be a pride in the real world. mr. martin: questions? >> secretary clinton, thank you so much for being held this afternoon. i have elderly parents, a 16-year-old these and nephew preparing for college. but my main question is: what is the plan of accountability for companies for disparities in pay between men and women? and how can we as women in short that we are receiving equal pay for the same work?

mrs. clinton: amen. amen. you know, i have to tell you, i do not do a town hall anywhere in america without being asked this question. and for all those republicans who say this is not a real world problem, i wish they would come to my town halls because i don't know who they are talking to because it is. and i think -- i think there are several things we do. number one, just talking about it. making sure people can't ignore it or diminish it or pretend it is someone else's problem.

but then we have to force the laws -- enforce the laws that are already on the books. this is not just a women's issue, this is a family issue. and the other thing is one of the things -- and you got right to it -- one of the things that stands in the way of knowing how widespread this is is the fact that in many businesses you can be fired for asking somebody else in the business how much they are paid. so a lot of women don't know they are being paid less than the men that they are working beside, doing the same job. that is what happened to lily, the woman in alabama who had worked in a big factory for years. she got promoted ok. she became the first woman foreman, i guess, or woman forewoman, and it was only by accident that she learned although there were four or five men during the exact same job, she was being paid less. so i want to remove any doubt that transparency is acceptable, and if there needs to be changes in the rules or the laws about businesses so that they cannot retaliate, so that you can find out how mature are being paid so you can compare your pay to other workers in the same situation, i will tell you a really quick torry, a young man came up to me in new hampshire

and said -- he was in his mid to late 20's -- he said his first real job was working at a cashier at the same store his mother worked in. he was 17 and he was so proud because this was like his first job, and he got it because his mother introduced him to somebody. he comes home with his first paycheck. his mother looks at it and her face falls. she tells him you are making a dollar more an hour than i am and i have been there for years. so he went to find out. and the manager said, well, yeah, you are a young man. we think you have a lot of potential to go up in the business. so we are going to tackle this and we are going to end it once and for all. >> [applause] mr. martin: another question here. go ahead. >> roland, first of all, thank

you for all you do. i appreciate it. madam president. >> [laughter] mrs. clinton: your lips to god's years, right? -- ears, right? >> we have a problem here and most of the southern states and throughout the united states -- with guns. and we know the nra is just adamant about not doing anything to do away with these guns. but what we need to do is to find what will you do to get rid of all these guns that are on the streets that are in the homes that are inadvertently killing youngsters in their homes? what will you do to help us out with that? mrs. clinton: this is an issue that i just think we have got to address.

i understand how politically challenging it is. 90 people a day die in our country from guns. homicides, suicides, and avoidable accidents, like what the gentleman was referring to. and it is imperative that people make this a voting issue. i know we can balance the legitimate rights of gun owners with the right to be safe going to school are going to church. the right to have control over what happens in people going to stores to buy guns who shouldn't have them. so here is what i am proposing. number one, we need universal background checks for real. we need to close the gun show loophole. we need to close the online loophole because people are buying guns and ammunition online. you have no idea who they are, and we know some of the mass murderers, that is how they got what they used to kill people. we need to close what is called the charleston loophole. the charleston loophole is, unfortunately, what enabled that young man to get a gun he was

not entitled to. he was a felon. he had a felony conviction. but under the rules, three business days is all you get to find out. and the information hadn't been shared between two jurisdictions, so after three days, he went and he got that gone and he went to mother emmanuel and he murdered those nine wonderful people. and then we need to remove the immunity that gun makers and sellers have. they are the only industry in america that we give blanket immunity to. gun makers should be required to apply technology that currently exists so that guns owned by responsible adults cannot be operated by children, or if they are stolen, cannot be used by criminals.

and what i am just appalled at the numbers of young children -- i'm talking toddlers -- to go into a closet or go under a bad or open a drawer -- bed or open marriage or an there is a gun. and they kill themselves, they kill their siblings, they kill their friends, they injure people. that is crazy, my friends. i know the nra are powerful, but i think the american people are more powerful. and the right to life is the most powerful of all. mr. martin: we are on the campus of an historically black college. what is your hbcu plans? because we talk about black doctors and black lawyers and black engineers. and will you reverse the obama administration's loan change that led to 15,000 students not coming back to hbcu campuses, millions of dollars lost?

will you reverse that policy and what is your plan to assist? mrs. clinton: i have what is called, roland, my new college compact. it would affect both state and class in this way. if you are going to a public college or university, you will not have to borrow money to pay for tuition, and you will be able to use your power grant, if you -- pell grant, if you get one, for living expenses. we are going to make it possible or young people to go to college, finish college, and graduate without that that. that will help the public hbcu's because they will certainly be included. i have a special provision of a pot of $25 billion for hbcu's, including private institutions, the cousin i agree completely with what roland said.

these are the places that mrs. clinton: yes. first of all, my plan will mean that it is not necessary. but for those young people who dropped out, we have to figure out how to get them back in. we have to reverse the facts that led them to drop out. [applause] mr. martin: question. >> good afternoon, secretary clinton, and thank you so much for coming to south carolina and orangeburg. i have a two-part question for you. as you know, we have lost a lot of textile jobs here in south carolina over the past years, and my questions are: do you think your husband was right in signing nafta into law? and the second part of my question is what will your , administration do to bring back industrial base jobs to south carolina? mrs. clinton: i know how controversial trade has been in south carolina, and south carolina is a classic case of

winners and losers because of trade. the biggest losers have been a textile firms. because a lot of those jobs, not , just through nafta, but through differences in cost of production went to asia as well. so i don't feel we can blame the loss of the textile industry on nafta. i think it was broader than that. nafta may have opened the door more widely for jobs to go to mexico, but textile jobs were under global pressure, even without nafta. now, what does that mean? because the other side of the equation is that south carolina has attracted a great number of car companies, more advanced manufacturing companies. so it is kind of a news-bad news story. what i want to do is make it possible to recruit internally within united states and externally from abroad more jobs -- and i'm not sure we can get

textile jobs back unless they are more sophisticated, requiring higher levels of expertise in the dying and the printing and whatever else is required -- but i do think we can get more advanced manufacturing jobs back if we provide more tax credit and more tax support. if we do what i said at the very beginning, have more apprenticeship programs so we are training our workforce right here at home. the community college system is one of our biggest advantages in any measurement of how we can be successful. and i have been to a good community college outside of charleston, which is doing these apprenticeship programs. in advanced manufacturing. but let me just say, we are not going to get those jobs back unless we have skilled workers to be able to do them. and that is where education comes in. because we have still too many people who don't have the skills that are required to do the

advanced manufacturing. so i want a nationwide effort , but the focus on poorer states, like south carolina, to do more in a kind of, as you are saying, a new new deal or training program so we actually take seriously the idea we can get and keep these jobs. it is one of the reasons i came out against the transpacific partnership bill because we have to trade. we are 5% of the worlds population. we have to build things and sell things to the other 95%. people who are against trade no matter what i think are kind of missing the point. we need smart trade and fair trade and affective trade. and we need to mix it with taking care of our own people. so if you open the door to , trade, which i am all for, you have to make sure that you have people in your own country who are able to compete for those

jobs. the republicans are not for job training, they are not for preschool education that will prepare kids, they are not for rescaling the workforce. they don't want to spend any money on that. and i'm holding out to say, ok, we can do trade, but we can only do trade that is going to benefit the american people across the board if we invest in our own people and we give them the skills and opportunities to be successful. mr. martin: question. >> [applause] >> hello, my name is elaine cooper. and i am from columbia, south carolina. i have a question. if you would address the voter id bill here and voter suppression, and how our lines are drawn. i think a lot would help the situation with one comment that was brought up at the forum last night, and that is automatic

registration of all 18-year-olds. automatically when you turn 18, you would be a registered voter. could you please comment? and how you would go about doing that? mrs. clinton: actually, i propose that. i was the first person to propose that when i gave a speech about voting rights at southern texas university. and the reason i proposed it is because i believe strongly that young people should be registered when they turn 18. for legal reasons, they can opt out of that, but i don't think the vast majority would, and i want to see young people registered at 18. you raise a much bigger point. you know, when the supreme court -- and these are my words -- gutted the voting rights act, by rejecting the congress reauthorizing it, and i was in the senate to then, we voted to

reauthorize the voting rights act. the supreme court was basically sending a message to political leaders that they could begin to try to find new ways to interfere with the right to vote. that may not have been their intention, but that has been the result. and so, all of these photo id, we did not have a problem of any magnitude whatsoever. our problem is not people illegally trying to vote. our problem is that legal folks are not doing what they should to vote to make sure their voices are heard. i have been taking on this issue, and i am going to keep taking it on, and i think the supreme court was absolutely wrong. there is legislation now being proposed in the congress to undo the damage. but in the meantime, we need to have political action, litigation, mobilization against these efforts to suppress the vote. you ask yourself -- why are they

doing that? pretty simple. there are some people they don't want to vote. alabama passed a voter id bill. and if they said, ok, one of the voter ids you can use is a drivers license with your picture on it. i don't believe they are necessary, but ok, you can use a voter id that way. then just a few months ago, they passed a bill and the governor asked to shut down the motor vehicle offices in the county's -- counties that have the biggest black populations. i spent 18 wonderful years in arkansas and i learned a lot. and one of my favorite philosophy lessons is this: if you find a turtle on a fence post, it did not get there by accident. and so i went to alabama and i said, look, nobody can believe this. you don't close the offices in the counties with the biggest

african-american vote and it is a coincidence. so people have got to stand up , against this. i think it is time that therapy an outrage, an outpouring from communities across these states that are doing this. it will be one of my highest priorities. i will do everything i can to help get people registered to make sure people understand they meet whatever the requirements are, and they then turn out to vote. because we need to have a big turnout in the 2016 election. mr. martin: we conducted a poll of black parents and we asked , them a question about charters. 74% of black parents said they were interested in enrolling their kids in charter schools. 79% favored school vouchers. we are in the state where brown versus board of education got its start. 61 years, black folks are still waiting for education to get right. do you support the expansion of charter schools and school vouchers?

black parents say they are not satisfied with what is happening in traditional schools. mrs. clinton: i have, for many years now, about 30 years, supported the idea of charter schools. but not as a substitute for the public schools, but as a supplement for the public schools. >> [applause] mrs. clinton: and what i have -- what i have worked on through my work with the children's defense fund and my work and education in arkansas and through my time as first lady and senator is to continue to say charter schools can have a purpose, but there are good charter schools and there are bad charter schools. just like there are good public schools and there are bad public schools. mr. martin: so let's get rid of all the bad. mrs. clinton: but the original idea behind the charter schools roland, was to learn what worked , and then apply them in the public schools. here is a couple of problems. most charter schools -- i do want to say everyone -- most

charter schools don't take the hardest to teach kids. or if they do, they don't keep them. and so the public schools are often in a no-win situation because they do, thankfully, take everybody. and then they don't get the resources or the help and support that they need to be able to take care of every child's education. so, i want parents to be able to exercise choice within the public school system. not outside of it. but within it because i am still , a firm believer that the public school system is one of the real pillars of our democracy. and it is a path for opportunity. but i am also fully aware that there are a lot of substandard public schools. but part of the reason for that is that policymakers and local politicians will not fund schools in poor areas that take care of poor children to the level that they need to do.

and you could get me going on this because the corridor of shame right here in south carolina, you get on their and you can see schools -- there and you can see schools that are literally falling apart. i have been in some of those schools. i have seen the terrible physical conditions. that is an outrage. it is a rebuke to who we are as americans to send any child to a , school that you wouldn't send your own child to. and so, we have a lot of work to do to make sure that public schools serve people, but that doesn't mean we also provide options within the system so that parents can find what they think might work best for their kid. mr. martin: we have a question here. do we have a question? graduating from university, our first thought as a senior as that we have two avenues, grad school or the workforce. the workforce is mostly to pay back loans and staff that we

have as students. you are threatening to lessen the gap between minimum wage and the top payers. my question is, we also put a cap on the top or will the waterfalls keep going upwards yet -- you sen. clinton: i want to be able to refinance everyone student debt and save thousands of dollars. the amount you have to pay back will be manageable for you. because, what is happening now is young people graduate with all of this that, and you obviously have to go into the workforce, because you have to pay it back. i want to put an end date to the debt. there has to be an end date. i also want to give more young people to go into income contingency repayment programs like i had and my husband had. we had loans that we had to pay them back as a percentage of income, not as a fixed interest rate. we will get the cost of student debt down, but the other problem is we need to get the pay of

people who are in the workforce up. it is not going up. that was one of the first point i made. we have recovered a lot of jobs, millions and millions of jobs. we are down to 5% unemployment. but, hey has not yet been rising. so, we have to do more to get pay to go up and there are obvious things to do like raise the minimum wage. then, that usually has an upward impact on wages going up the scale. i want more companies to engage in profit sharing, because their employees helped to create the profits and i want to see it go not just to the top. we're going to close loopholes and we're going to make sure that people were making huge salaries pay their fair share in taxes. we're going to go after the problem of wages, not rising, so that you can get your debt down in your income. mr. martin: question right here. >> in 1989, we pass legislation

by congress to ballot the savings and loans. the president bells out the banks. in 1989, we said that the banks had to create community reinvestment, which is an expansion of that legislation. as i listen to martin talk about what things have done in terms of collecting those profits -- since the payout -- tell out we have seen very little done to do reinvestment. what will you do to get these banks back moving to invest back in our communities? sen. clinton: great question. i believe in the community reinvestment program. again, it is something that democrats have had to defend against republican attacks for decades now. there are good examples of it working, but increasingly in later years, it has not.

there are two approaches, one, the treasury department and the bank regulators need to ensure that banks are meeting their obligations under community reinvestment. there are a lot of good programs that we can point to. and they do not know what to do, we can show them what to do and what will work to create economic opportunities. secondly, you mentioned a bank that i worked with in arkansas to start the arkansas development corporation. because, i think that in addition to getting conventional banks to do what they can, we need some more of these development banks like south shore, and what we did in arkansas has had a real after-the-fact. the final thing i will say about this -- there's a big fight going on in washington about the dodd frank bill and the rules that it placed on the banking community, primarily aimed at the biggest banks, that were contributors to some of the problems that we have, let the

mortgage and other problems that we were talking about earlier. a lot of community banks say that those rules fell on us, too. we are just a small community or regional bank. i want to -- without giving any relief to the big banks, because i do think that they need to be regulated so they do not get us in trouble again -- i want to provide some opportunities for community banks to be able to once more, be partners and community reinvestment. those are my approaches. south shore when out of business during the recession. >> i'm a junior here at the university, with more states legalizing marijuana for recreational and legal use, what is your plan of attack on the federal level? sen. clinton: i believe that states are taking this step. there is that great phrase attributed to i think roosevelt,

that states are the laboratories of democracy. i want to see how it works before we do it a national planet from the federal government, because i think there is a lot for us to learn. when i do want is for us to medicalresearch into marijuana, because a lot more states have passed medical marijuana than have legalized marijuana. we have two different experiences, or even experiments going on right now. the problem with medical marijuana is that there are a lot of anecdotal evidence about how well it works for certain conditions, but we have not done any research. why? it is considered a schedule one drug, so we cannot do research in it. i want to move it from schedule one to schedule two, so that researchers at universities and national institute of health can start researching what is the best way to use it? how much a dose does somebody need? how does interact with other

medications? we are going to have a lot of states setting up marijuana dispensaries so that people who have some kind of medical need are getting marijuana -- we need to know what the quality of it is, how much should you take, what you avoid if you are taking other medications? that is how i'm currently thinking about it. >> speaking of science and research, if you are president, we push for a dramatic increase in federal funding for a cure for sickle cell anemia? sen. clinton: amen. yes i will. sickle cell anemia -- how may people here know people with it? oh, yes. it is a devastating disease. i have several -- i know several people. in fact, the other day, well actually it was last week, i was at the naacp banquet in charleston, and a young woman in ,igh school, gave a tribute then she came over and she talked to me. she was diagnosed with sickle

cell anemia when she was a very young child. she has been in and out of hospitals, and she now goes to the medical center in charleston to get transfusions. every month. i have another friend, a young lawyer, who has sickle cell anemia, and she is really, really martin works really, really hard, and the chance to go to the hospital. this is a devastating disease. so yes, i think we need to put more money and more time and more effort into figuring out how we're going to finally sure and and -- cure and and sickle cell anemia. >> good afternoon, mr. martin and secretary clinton. when i had the pleasure of meeting you a few minutes ago, you mentioned you were a girl scout. what did you learn while scouting that you would use to be a successful president? sen. clinton: such a great question. let's give this young man a round of applause. [applause] sen. clinton: i did.

i told him that i was a scout. i was a girl scout through high school. i learned a lot. in addition to the little merit badge things that you earn, which he has some of his merit badges on his uniform -- i learned about teamwork. i learned about cooperating with other people. i learned how important it is that when you say you're going to do something that you do everything that you can do keep your word. and do it. i learned about how scouting has for so many decades now helped young women and young men learn things that they might not have otherwise learned. my family was not a camping family. we drove every year from chicago to pennsylvania to see my grandparents, and we slept in the car. we were not into the forests and the woods and all of that. so i learned specific things as well as general values and character traits.

that i think are really important. bigting has made a difference and. mr. martin: since he has a uniform on, if you're are a veteran or in the military, we stand up. [applause] mr. martin: stay standing. a few weeks ago, you are doing an interview and you talked about the v.a. scandal not being as widespread as it was reported. president when the appoints a secretary of veterans affairs, it is one of the last appointments. i believe that if we care for our troops that we will make agt just as important as an or defense secretary are secretary of state. what is your commitment to ensuring that the department of veterans affairs is the best hetero agency, and will you make

that be a fundamental priority if you are president of the united states? sen. clinton: the answer is yes. what i said a few weeks ago is that there are certainly systemic problems with vba, and they need to be fixed, and nobody should tolerate them. anybody hasrage if been either mistreated or left untreated by the v.a.. but i also believe that the v.a. has done good things. the republicans are always trying to privatize everything. privatize education. privatize social security. privatize medicare. and yes, privatize the v.a. i will fix it and i will appoint somebody with proven management provenryans who will -- management experience, and to will weed out who should not have been there in the first place. take what is good about the ba and make sure that it is available to all of our veterans. that is our goal. [applause] mr. martin: i have always said that broke is broke whether you are broke white or broke black. have anteresting when we

discussion in america about poverty, it is always a black face. if you are president, how will you lead or drive a conversation to get white america, who is broke, to understand that your education and your health and your lack of economic access is the same as african-americans and others, and how do you see it happening? same committees have the fundamental problems as inner-city communities, but they somehow think that they are totally different. sen. clinton: that is a fair point. mr. martin: i don't think anyone else last that question. sen. clinton: it is a fair point. because, poverty is debilitating, no matter where it happens or who it affects. there is such a lack of understanding in our country about the number of poor white

folks, and we just had a steady whiteut that said, poor middle-aged americans, without a high school education, are dying at a higher rate than they have ever done before. addiction, alcoholism, suicide. poverty is poverty. there is a great idea that congressman clyburn has the 10, 20, 30.ed 10% of federal funds would go to communities where 20% of the people are living in poverty and have done so for more than 30 years. thirds of those counties are republican counties. sen. clinton: and predominately white. as this was described to me, this would be a recipe for dealing with poverty everywhere, based on the numbers. if you are living in an

impoverished generational help.ion, then you need the government should not be turning its back on you. i'm in favor of empowerment. one of the programs that my husband put into place, the new market tax credit, was used to help build up poor, rural communities, to provide economic opportunities. it has been allowed to lapse by their public and congress. there are tools at our disposal. is, the point that you make an especially important one, we need to be talking about this, so that the caricatures and stereotypes that are too often flooding the media, are for once and all retired. for a sport. mr. martin: what would you do about those communities? what kennedy did, going to the delta, gave a different view. it brings into those a