lasts. that recovery is not in a what, it's in a who. is name is jesus christ. we had to figure out this book right here was not a self-help book. this is a got help book. and this is -- get people back to. we also have a residential home in rockford, illinois. i just got the statistic today because this problem of heroin is not just here. we have a men's home, 42 men in our home stayed, 17 are there because of heroin addiction. . we have 28 ladies in our lady's home and there are eight that are there because of heroin. 17 men because of heroin, eight ladies because of heroin. we have local chapters filled with people and i could give you tms from now until two or three days from now of people that absolutely found freedom

through jesus christ. there's workers here and pastors here that works. here's what i like about this area. here's what i like what i heard so far today. it's going to take some meekness for us to get this problem solved. paul said, the servant of the lord must not strive but be gentle onto all men. have to teach patience in instructing those that oppose themselves. that's who we're trying to help, the people who are opposing themselves. then he says this, if god -- you see, we got to bring god into the picture. we're made of tricot my of body, soul and spirit. but it's never that way in the scripture. it's always spirit, soul and then body. we much so much emphasis on the physical, we put so much emphasis on the psyche. everything else lines up when you approach it from a spiritual standpoint.

it's amazing and that's what we're finding in the r.u. class and the r.u. program. and we're just excited to be here. and here's what the verse says. if god per venture would give them repittance to the acknowledging of the truth. they got to be faced with truth. we got to acknowledge the truth. and when that happens, there's a transformation that begins. amen. and then they may recover themselves. you see, they have to have a part in this too. the addicts got to want it. faith-based isn't for everybody because they don't want it. the ones that do, thank god we can work with this was like this one and people across this country that says, hey, we'll court order people to you and then we'll put them in jail. we have people right now in our homes that have to be there. ru homes.org. there are communities across america that are fwacing the

same thing you guys are facing and you can't leave the faith-based alternative out. pull them in. work with them and you will see the same kind of incredible success that we're seeing. i'm talking about 86% success ate. jesus always work. men. [applause] >> now, we have a couple questions for our roundtable. please, some are directed and please chime in. so first, families are very frustrated with how difficult it has been to navigate the system and get help for their child. what would you say to these families and what steps would you take to ensure there is more support for families who are struggling to find help for their child before it is too late? i'll pass the mic around.

becky. becky: no, you're absolutely right. part of the problem is because this has not been treated like the medical issue that it is. i think as we move forward with more and more people having insurance and our new parody regulations that require this to be treated along with mental illness in the same way, we will begin to see better resources. i always tell the story of the mother who saw signs of diabetes in her son. she was a good mother. she had tried to protect him and prevent this and he had made some bad choices in terms of lack of exercise and diet but she recognized that she knew what to do. she could talk to the doctor about it. there were support groups. there was all kinds of help for her to intervene and take care of her son. unfortunately, on the other side the way things have been, another mother, just as good a mother, who tried to think about prevention of drugs but like as been said here, a lot of times the parents don't have

the tools to talk about prevention beyond just say no. so what happens, again, again, this son made some bad choices, ended up with this disease. the mother is beginning to see but doesn't have a support group, doesn't know who to talk to, is embarrassed because many people blame the parents when this happens and so the child does not get the help they need because of the situation. as we move forward, and this is part of everybody's insurance card, whether it's medicaid, whether it's other types of insurance, no matter what it is, and people begin to realize, oh, this card is good for hypertension, this card is good for addiction and this card is good for mental illness. i think we will begin to see how the system works better, people with get the help they need but it will take everybody having the attitude that this is the disease that it is so

, at people can get the help so that we reduce the stigma for people getting treatment. and so my goal is that every child is touched by prevention and that treatment is available on demand. appropriate treatment. the good news about treatment is there's not just one way. there's no wrong door. many people do get well in some fabulous faith-based organizations but other people need other types of treatment. and so other people get well from accupuncture. we need to make sure all modalities are available, ondemand when they need it just like it's the case for every other chronic disease. [applause] >> if i could add one thing to that. just shortly before my daughter passed away, our insurance company actually used the phrase that it wasn't a matter of life and death. so she wasn't covered. we have no way to hold them

accountable for that but we didn't know what to do and i'm sure there's a lot of families in new hampshire that are in the same boat that we were not knowing what to do and just running up against a brick wall and i don't know if the insurance companies have the first person there to rebuff you, get you to go away. when you google there's nowhere that tells you, how do you deal with your insurance company when you have a child who's egging for help. >> what we're seeing in a.a. is we're seeing 23 and 24-year-olds who have this insurance now until they're 26 that have gone through 11 treatment programs and it's almost like they do it to get a rest so they go rest in a treatment program that gets paid for because they are now on their parents' insurance until they're 26. now, a.a. is not a -- we're not user friendly in a sense. by that i mean we believe

people have to be left to hit bottom. you have to leave your kids to hit bottom. you have to -- you cannot continue to have your child come home. you cannot continue to support your child. you cannot -- your child will find -- and they can't keep going back through these revolving doors of these treatment programs. that's not helping and we're seeing that. i go to a lot of meetings and i have a gentleman that i'm very close to that was my sponsor nor a while. -- for a while. he's been sober for over 30 years. he handles treatment in the greater jacksonville area. he's the executive director of gateway which is all of our detox, a number of treatment centers and he want going to come up here and couldn't but wanted me to address this issue that you got to let these kids hit bottom. >> [inaudible]

they got to find a way to get there. >> at the partnership, we you google when this problem you don't get any good answers. so we've developed a lot of tools for parents on our website to help them with the difficult conversations when you find pills in your kid's room, when your child gets arrested, when you're struggling to get your child into treatment. but one of the things we realized is people need to talk to another human being about this and too often because of the stigma, they're not doing that as much as they would with another disease that would affect their child. and one of the great things about this presidential election is that people are speaking about the very personal toll that addiction has taken on their lives and thank you for the courage to do that and you and your fellow candidates have done amazing work to chip away at the stigma. but one of the things we've done at the partnership is create a toll-free help line for parents.

855-drug-free, where they can talk to a licensed social worker to get concrete ideas where they can turn in their community, write questions to ask. is this treatment program going to be a good fit? do they work with adolescents? etc. we have coaches who have been there and we have a slightly different take on the hitting bottom. we try to help parents love their child through the problem because, you know, i'm a mom and when my daughters have a problem, i want to hold them and i want to bring them close. i don't want to push them away and have them figure this out on their own. and when a child is struggling with addiction, that's oftentimes the parent's first instinct as well so we help them with the tools to be able to do that effectively in a scientifically proven effective way so that we're helping them come up with different tools and different ways to cope with this.

>> i promised the senator i'd get him out of here. he's been here, has more engagements to get to. so if you could excuse him i'd really appreciate it. we kept him longer than -- [applause] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2016] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [applause]

>> does this one work? i just want to thank our roundtable participants. i think this underscores how important it is to look at this as a comprehensive issue and we need to have every single sector engaged and not leave everyone away from this table as we work on this epidemic together. so thank you so much. [applause]

>> hey, senator cruz, we're still praying for you. >> thank you for signing my son's constitution the other day. >> i'd like to --

>> thank you. we're praying for you. >> i just really appreciate you sharing your story. >> thank you, senator. >> seven years of nightmare. that's all i can say. it's an absolute nightmare for a family to go through and that's what my family experienced. i'd like to tell you another story briefly. my best friend for 35 years, we had our babies at the same time. she had danny and rosemary.

danny, i don't know if anyone knows brockle -- danny was a blond, 6'6", black belt in karate and he got into drugs. danny -- my kids separated during the teenage years. danny got heavily onto drugs, got put into jail, couldn't drug. th the oxycontin e hung himself on a bridge and dropped. smart, tenlt and the withdraw from oxycontin killed him. my son has been through four rehabs. he's been on heroin. he's been on meth. and the only thing i can say is god truly does bless us in many ways because i found out he was on heroin and i basically grabbed my son and went up to oregon in the middle of nowhere

and i went through withdrawal with him, which is an incredibly ugly experience for any person, parent. the tv cannot demonstrate the pain and the suffering that you go through when you're going through heroin withdrawal. two days later a bad batch of heroin went through sacramento. you don't hear anything on the television. you don't hear anything on the media. that heroin was through my son's dealer. 17 of his friends dead. and we don't hear enough about it. it's a stigma. i've been told over and over again, you're just a bad parent. you just didn't know what you were doing. i'm sorey i led a christian life. my family went to church every sunday, and it had to do with their friends and the fact that i had the pills around and now i represent safer lock. and i am a chief executive officer but i'm the volunteer. i do not get paid.

i do everything and i have samples -- saferlockrx.com. i'm all about prevention, preventing those teens from getting those first drugs. i can't tell you about if you just lock it up, your kids are good. they don't want to disappoint you. but you know what, they go there and they take two or three pills at a time because they know that you'll never catch them. you keep it locked up and they're not going to -- and they're not going to take them because they would not want to disappoint you and you're going to save lives. thank you very much. [applause] >> thank you, deborah. i hope you all take a moment to really look at this. this is an advancement that we all need to have in our homes to make sure that we are securing our prescription medications that can harm our own family members. it's a diadvice and it is an

example of our business partners, our corporate leaders really coming together to be a part of this solution to really address this epidemic. i wanted to invite to the stage now congressman tom rooney. thank him very much for being here with us today. congressman rooney is here on behalf of marco rubio and took the time to be with us and come up from d.c. and we are so grateful for your presence here today. mr. rooney: thank you. i can't believe that everybody's left from senator cruz to a congressman from okeechobee, florida, but i'm proud to be here to represent marco. an old friend of mine. on anted me to come speak his behalf today. i'm the lead sponsor of a bill

to try to curtail the spread of fentanyl and its reaches in this country. we have the largest -- in my district, we have the largest fentanyl distribution in the country. so he asked me to speak on his behalf and he was in the town hall meeting earlier today speaking about painkiller addiction, heroin, fentanyl and the like and basically what senator rubio has laid out is a two-track problem/solution. and i was listening to the panel here before and a lot of it had been spoken but really it comes down to law enforcement and then treatment. nd what marco has talked about is with law enforcement, who are the -- trying to figure out who are the bad guys? whether they be the drug cartels that we talked about who are trying to supply some of these drugs illegally through various channels, whether it's across the borders

or in the case of florida as we saw these pill mills with doctors who were prescribing copious amounts of painkillers. people were driving from all over the country down to my state. you go to these pill mills and you literally see license plates from all over the country, in canada, because how eyesy it was to get oxycontin in florida and the like until we crack down. our law enforcement, our attorney general and our government, our legislature went from being -- having the top 10 pill mill distributors in the country to having none. so there is a role for government and there is a role for law enforcement in trying to figure out who the bad actors are and how to stop it. marco has talked a little bit about this also with regard to the legalization of marijuana, differentiating between medical and recreational and how that may come into play as far as

other drugs are concerned and why he's been probably a little tougher than most when the trend seems to be going towards legalizing recreational marijuana and what implications that could have on the things we're talking about here today. but the other more important part and i think one that's more personal to me deals with the other half of this issue and that's who the victims are and treating people that become addicted to painkillers, heroin and fentanyl not as criminals but as victims and how we're going to give them the help that they need. again, here again is where the government has a role. and deals in large part with allowing some of the programs that have been very successful to be able to have the adequate funding that they need to be able to address this problem.

i'm an appropriator. i sit on a committee which basically dolls out your tax dollars -- doles out your tax dollars to programs like the ones we've heard about all over the country. and you can't just bury your head in the sand and say, well, i'm a conservative and these things will be worked out without the help of the government. if there are -- if there are men and women and children who become addicted to this problem, it affects the entire community. it's a community problem. [applause] and the community has a role in helping. i saw this recently. my son plays football. he's in eighth grade. he's a quarterback. they won the county championship, i'll just put that plug in there. about halfway through the season he broke his nose and we went to the emergency room. he's 13 years old. and i was a little bit shocked that when we were leaving there the doctor in the e.r. gave us a prescription for perk set and she told me -- percoset and she

told me to give this to him. i had back surgery so i know what these things do to you or how they make you feel. i'm just thinking to myself how easy it was for him -- for a broken nose. he's going to have to deal with it and deal with some pain but, you know, eventually like everybody else -- i just don't remember growing up when we go to the emergency room for the things that we go to the emergency room for, my mom or dad giving me a painkiller that was going to alter the way that i felt and the way my brain worked. so certainly there's a lot of responsibility to go around but i think at my level in the -- at the federal level and even at the state and local levels we need to have a serious conversation, a serious look about what is considered just ok to do. needless to say, i did not fill -- his coach showed up too. he's like, you're not filling that prescription, are you? absolutely not. he's going to take advil.

and i know this and this is what i wanted to share with you if i could briefly is my family deals like a lot of families with addiction. and i have six brothers and sisters and three of them have had struggles with painkillers or alcohol to the point where they don't do those things anymore. including my father. so we're like every other american family. where i have siblings that have gone in and out of rehabs, have been fighting addiction for their whole life, my one brother who i just texted before i came on here today and asked him if it was all right if i used him as an example and he said it's no secret and that's part of the recovery process. he'd been in and out of over 30 rehabs for addiction. and when i think about my children and our children, where does it start? when does that onset, when does

that light go on? is it the first percoset that you take? does your body say this is something that i need to live or is it something that just helps with the pain for now and when the prescription runs out i'll be done with it? because if, like with so many people, it happens immediately or within that first prescription. then you're going to have to go get another prescription. and then when you can't and if a doctor says, ok, you're done with the prescriptions and people are addicted, what do they do then? well, they got to go find it from somewhere else and that's when we have, as you all know -- i don't need to preach to the quire here, but that's when -- choir here, but that's when we get into the illegal part of it, trying to curb it through heroin or illegal painkiller distribution and the like. so i -- i just worry about what is our role at the federal level in trying to change the

culture of an e.r. doctor giving a 13-year-old a prescription of percoset to the point where my son, who is 13, could turn into my brother in and out of rehabs 30 times. he didn't want to be there and certainly living the life that he's probably wasted over 30 years of his life because of a -- you know, a drink that he took when he was younger. came home for me to understand that it just took a certain amount of alcohol and a certain amount of painkillers for them and their body to feel like they needed it all the time and not just something you could do casually, occasionally and then when a prescription runs out or when the party's over you can just stop. and my dad reminds me, just because you're 45 years old doesn't mean he was out of the yet. 're out of the woods

he had been casually up until my age. his is an ongoing issue. we as republicans and democrats, as politicians, as moms and dads have a responsibility to find out what we can do with that e.r. doctor, who are the bad actors. and that e.r. doctor wasn't doing anything illegal, but it's a cultural, it's a moral and it's -- it's -- as we are in this building, a place of worship a religious obligation that we have as americans to try to solve the problem. and on behalf of marco, i know that part of his new american century that he talks about, it's not just looking at the bad actors. we can build the wall as high as we can, try to stop the bad things coming in from mexico and elsewhere, but we have to help the victims and not treat them as criminals and shame

them into going into the shadows in this next new american century. so i will say just two other things that, you know, we are working on at the federal level and that deals with veterans. i'm the chairman of the caucus for invisible wounds which deals a lot with posttraumatic stress disorder and terminal brain injury. i can't tell you how many veterans come home and they have serious brain injury or other injuries and need probably help at a psychological level or medication that doesn't necessarily reinvolve around pain but guess what, -- revolve around pain but guess what, a lot of these people are being prescribed painkillers because of mental issues. and that's why you see the rate of veterans committing suicide higher than it's ever been in this country's history. that's a cultural problem and that's something that needs to be addressed as we move forward as a country. and we're trying to do that on

our committee. last thing i'll just say is this and, again, i thank you all for staying and listening and hopefully some good comes out of it, but i have been around addicts and alcoholics and people that are addicted my whole life. in my family and my friends, as have you in the audience. and there is one common bond. and i'm a catholic. i know this isn't a catholic church but there is one common bond that i do see with a lot of people that beat their disease and that is the recognition that there is a higher power and that there is something greater than themselves that's helping them get through their troubles. if i meet somebody that's an addict, they got clean just on their own, i would say that's a very, very small, small minority. most of the people, including my father, who have become clean, almost drive you crazy

with not just the 12-step program but their reliance on faith and the fact that god is leading them away from the things they were addicted to. so all these things are important. not least of which is god. so i think that all this is important. i was glad to see and read how many presidential candidates are talking about this issue. especially new hampshire. i know it's hit here especially hard. but this is an issue that's not going away and this is an issue that needs to be addressed now. and so thank you very much for letting me come speak. [applause] jessica: thank you. we have former state senator eddie rooney here on behalf of

dr. ben carson. i'm glad you're able to share us your personal story and experience on the damage addiction can cause to a family and thank you for taking time and staying. eddie: i want to clarify. i'm not a former state senator. i ran and lost. i wish i were a former state senator and won. it was my first election, 2014. it's a pleasure to be here on behalf of dr. ben carson. but i am also a former police chief. i was a local police chief and was in charge of the state liquor enforcement division for the state. as you know new hampshire does a very good job selling alcohol. it's all over our highways. in fact, we're the only state

that has liquor stores on the highways. so my focus, along with dr. ben carson, is several. i've had personal addiction in my family. so from a personal standpoint and from a professional standpoint, i've seen this my entire adult life and childhood. my father died from crack cocaine when i was a young man growing up in atlanta, georgia. my father was a marijuana dealer. he drove tractor-trailers for a living but also sold marijuana on the side. he engaged in crack cocaine usage. ultimately losing his life. my older brother, who's also entered the drug arena, sold drugs, used drugs, also became a pimp. is now in prison second time for murder. first time was attempted murder. so my mother has a son who's a

convicted murderer and a son who was a former police chief. we come from the same family, same source. when i entered public service, i entered through the united states military. very proudly served my country and served my state and my local community. [applause] and i have to say, after listening to some of the comments today and being with dr. ben carson, one of the things that we lack in leadership is moral courage. you know and it's very disappointing to say the least that we have people seem to care about those who suffer some substance abuse, those who suffer from mental illness only at the time when they're running. dr. ben carson, his faith guides him. like most of our faith guides us and so when you realize that

you realize you have a moral obligation to your fellow man and in our state of new hampshire, if you talk to the commissioner, ben renn, new hampshire commissioner of prisons. 80% of our population is there for mental health and substance abuse. 85%. we spend over $200 million on our prisons. $200 million in this state here. new hampshire -- you might be surprised to know this, but new hampshire has the fastest growing prison rate in the united states. 8% growth in our prison rate. 8%. and so while i certainly appreciate law enforcement. it's been my passion, it's been my career. this is a medical, public health issue. it is not a law enforcement issue. and to use a law enforcement tool, the only thing we have in law enforcement is to arrest you and put you in prison. now, there are pieces of

legislation being worked on right now and our state is going to spend an enormous amount of money fighting this issue and we'll spend a quite a bit of money enforcing it. i am not advocating taking money away from enforcement but i'm advocating let's do something different. let's put a lot of money into prevention and treatment. putting more money into prison -- and i have to tell you, i visited my brother twice in prison. the first time he got eight years in prison for attempted murder. the second time he got 15 to life. i don't know any person that's been to prison who said, i'm not going to engage in criminal activity because you move the sentence from 15 years to 30 years. that's just an extended cost onto taxpayers. it's not solving the problem. if we were to put more money into preventing this problem from happening, it would cost us less on the other end. and while we look for the bad guy, who's the bad guy? 90% -- sorry, 75% of all

first-time heroin users now started with prescription drugs. the bad guy is not some creepy guy hanging around the corner look my brother and my father. this is a guy or a woman wearing a white robe. why? because the pharmaceutical companies in the late 1980's started promoting drugs directly to consumers before the pharmaceuticals promoted drugs to doctors. your doctor prescribes your medication. now they go directly to consumers. this is all about money. if you look at the amount of money being spent on advertisement, i think it's close to $4 billion spent on pharmaceutical drugs. we are actually engaged in selling sickness to people. so we think we're going to solve this problem by saying, let's put more cops on the street, more prosecutors and build bigger prisons. that's not going to solve the problem. and meanwhile, we have the doctors who are getting away with this, the pharmaceutical companies are getting away with

this. 90% now of heroin users are white. 90%. young white men and women aged 23 average. average age 23. we are just starting to destroy our youth, our children. and shame on us. shame on us for letting people pass legislation that says we need to put more emphasis on arresting people and incarcerating people. i don't think we should let people not, you know, advocate for not holding you accountable for your actions. you should be held accountable for your actions but we should be smarter about this. i picked up a "life" magazine from 1970. there was a heroin epidemic in new york city, two grams a day, 1970. now what their approach was to solve the issue? let's arrest more people. this is about prevention and treatment. and when people say, let's take away the stigma, most people are embarrassed to say that.

most people are embarrassed to say they have a drug addiction, they have a substance abuse problem. i talk about this. this is personal to me. i talk about it because it was my profession and i can tell you as someone who has enforced liquor laws in our state, i was what they call a d.r.e., a drug recognition expert. to look at ople recognition. the state liquor commission in this state spends close to $3 million on advertisement. something you have no other choice because -- go to the state to buy it. we spent $3 million on that. we spent roughly $100,000 on prevention. we reduce our prevention to a commercial once a year around prom and graduation season and a couple posters and the drug -- the dare program, that's not prevention. not when you're up against $4 billion in advertisement. it's not prevention. so it's no wonder we keep having the same problems. i really hope that in our state

of new hampshire and with folks like dr. ben carson, i hope we begin to make a difference in our country and we can do it right here in new hampshire because we have a citizen legislature. so you can contact your state senators. you can contact your state representatives and hold them accountable. do something different. spending millions of dollars on the same problem in the same way is wrong. just in 2014 we had an epidemic because young people were overdosing on synthetic marijuana in concord and manchester. we had a chance to change it then and we didn't. in 2015 we have an epidemic of heroin. and we passed more legislation. in 2014 we passed more legislation in 2015. in 2016, let's do it dimple. thank you, again, for your time. [applause] jessica: thank you everyone for joining us for the roundtable

discussion today. we appreciate all the great participation by our panelists and our speakers, for our presidential candidates that were able to stop by today, including senator cruz, surrogates for dr. ben carson, senator rubio and secretary clinton. we're so grateful for all of your time and we will post the videos and information and more info on addictionpolicy.org. thank you. [applause] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2016] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]

>> and a bit of news after the iowa caucuses "the hill" writes

saying "the des moines register" is calling for a complete audit of the democratic caucuses there. the editorial board writing, once guenther' laughing about iowa about missing caucusgoers. they write, we can't stomach is even the whiff of impropriety or error. hillary clinton beat bernie sanders by .2%. a margin of error, the register says, would trigger recounts in other states. the results were certified by the democratic party tuesday morning. and the sanders campaign calling on the party to release the raw vote totals at each precinct as is the register which endorsed secretary clinton. you can read more at thehill.com. meanwhile, a former president of the naacp says he'll be endorsing bernie sanders, giving the vermont senator an influential african-american voice of support ahead of the south carolina primary. cnn reports ben who was naacp

chair for five years will start campaigning with sanders in new hampshire. senator sanders trails hillary clinton by 30 points in south carolina. in an average of recent polls by real clear politics. he's behind in nevada by 20 points. the democratic caucuses in nevada are february 20. the south carolina primary is february 27. and tonight at 7:00, live here on c-span, we'll be joining one of the republican candidates, jeb bush, at a new hampshire town hall meeting in derry. he will be joined by his mother, former first lady barbara bush. >> the citizens of the greater states are not easily won. it is a hotbed of political discussions. s, towns and cities, they bitter snow and leet to cast their vote.

>> thanks to the people of new hampshire -- >> good to be back here in new hampshire. >> first in the nation's primary. >> naffer. >> new hampshire. >> new hampshire. >> new hampshire. >> new hampshire. >> hey, he's from new hampshire. >> it's great to be back in new hampshire. >> one reporter has called new hampshire's primary the most cherished of american political tribal rights. ♪ [applause] >> governor, thank you so much for coming to new hampshire. [applause] >> this is a place where you can observe a candidate in the heat of a dialogue, in the heat of getting tough questions about their positions on the issues. it's not just a place where there's a scripted speech. >> new hampshire takes its first in the nation primary status really seriously. >> this is one of the whole series of town hall meetings that we're going to be having. >> this is my 20th town hall meeting. >> welcome to our 115th town

hall meeting here in new hampshire. [applause] >> and before we get back to our road to the white house coverage, here's a look at some of today's hearing with subpoenaed former c.e.o., martin sckreli, who was indicted recently for fraud. he was asked about hiking the price of a drug that treats h.i.v. before a house hearing. >> you didn't provide the committee any written testimony. do you wish to make an opening statement? mr. sckreli: on the advice of an sel i will not be giving opening statement. mr. chaffetz: what do you say to that pregnant woman who ight have aids, no income, she

needs deraprim in order to survive? what do you say to her when she has to make a choice? mr. sckreli: on the advice of counsel, i invoke the fifth amendment and respectfully decline your question. mr. chaffetz: you were quoting to saying on fox 5 in new york, if you raise prices and you don't take that cash and put it back into research, i think it's depictable. i think you should not be in the drug business. we take all of our cash, all of our extra profit and spend it on research for these patients for other patients who have terrible life-threatening -- life-ending diseases. did you say that? mr. sckreli: on the advice of counsel, i invoke my fifth amendment privilege and respectfully decline your question. mr. chaffetz: do you think you've done anything wrong? mr. sckreli: on the advice of counsel, i invoke my fifth amendment privilege against

self-incrimination and respectfully decline to answer your question. mr. chaffetz: i'd like to yield time to congressman gowdy of outh carolina. mr. gowdy: thank you. do you pronounce it shkreli? mr. sckreli: yes, sir. mr. gowdy: i want to make you understand, you are welcomed to answer questions and not all of your answers are going to subject you to incrimination. do you understand that, don't you? mr. sckreli: i intend to follow the advice of your counsel, not yours. mr. gowdy: i am just making sure you get the right advice. you do know that not every disclosure can be subject to the fifth amendment assertion, only those that you reasonably believe could be used in a criminal prosecution or lead to evidence -- mr. sckreli: i intend to use the advice of my counsel, not yours. mr. gowdy: do you also understand that you can waive

your fifth amendment right? you gave an interview to a television station in new york where, if i understood you correctly, you couldn't wait to educate the members of congress on drug pricing and this would e a great opportunity to do it so do you understand you can waive your fifth amendment right? mr. sckreli: on the advice of counsel, i invoke my fifth amendment privilege of self-incrimination and respectfully decline to answer your question. mr. gowdy: well, mr. chairman. i'm vecksed. he's been willing -- vexed. he's been willing to answer one question. that didn't subject to him to incrimination. i don't think he's under indictment of the subject matter of this hearing so the fifth amendment doesn't apply to answers that are not reasonably calculated to expos you to incrimination -- expose you to incrimination and even if does apply he can waive it. i listened to his interview and he didn't have to be prodded to talk during that interview. doesn't have to be prodded to

tweet a whole lot or to show us his life on that little webcam he's got. so this is a great opportunity. if you want to educate the members of congress about drug pricing or what you call the fictitous case against you or we can even talk about the tang se of a -- is it wu clan, is that the name of the group? mr. sckreli: on the advice of counsel, i invoke the fifth endment privilege of self-incrimination and respectfully decline your counsel. mr. gowdy: mr. speaker, i don't think this could subject him to incrimination. chef chef well, the gentleman is correct -- mr. chaffetz: well, i understand gentleman why is correct. he's under indictment but not to ask him questions about that topic. mr. gowdy: so if i understand it correctly, we're not going

to ask him questions that are going to be in the subject matter of his current pending criminal charges and if we were to get close to one in the gray area he's welcome to assert his fifth amendment privilege there and if we stay away from the subject matter of his indictment, some could argue has a legal obligation to answer under casgar vs. united states but certainly has a right to do so in the television interview and he does quite frequently on social media. mr. chaffetz: correctly. >> mr. chairman, may i be recognized for a moment? mr. chaffetz: no. you're not allowed to. under the house rules you have not been sworn in. >> i understand. he's making -- mr. chaffetz: you are not recognized. you are not recognized and you ill be seated. the gentleman from south carolina is correct. we were trying to have a candid

conversation about drug pricing. we now recognize mr. cummings for any questions he might have. mr. cummings: thank you very much, mr. chairman. mr. chairman, let me state for the record that i completely support your decision to bring mr. shkreli to make sure he asserted his fifth amendment right before this committee. normally democrats on our committee have accepted the assertions of a witness' attorney that his or her client is going to take the fifth. ut in this case, mr. shkreli made a number of public comments himself raising legitimate questions about his intentions. honestly, i did not know whether he was going to show up today, so it's nice to see you. but now that he has invoked his constitutional rights, of course i will respect his decision.

to mr. shkreli, since i have you in front of me, after trying to get you in front of this committee for so long, let me say this. i want to ask you to -- no, i want to plead with you to use any remaining influence you have over your former company to press them to lower the price of these drugs. you can look away if you like, but i wish you could see the faces of people no matter what she says who cannot get the drugs that they need. and by the way, it's the taxpayers -- somebody's paying for these drugs. somebody's paying. it's the taxpayers that end up paying for some of them. and so those are our constituents. people's lives are at stake because of the price increases you impose and the access --

the access problems that have been created. you are in a unique position. you really are, sir. rightly or wrongly, you've been viewed as a so-called bad boy of pharma. you have a spotlight, and you have a platform. you could use that attention to come clean, to right your wrongs and to become one of the most effective patient advocates in the country and one that can make a big difference in so many people's lives. i know you're smiling but i'm very serious, sir. the way i see it, you can go down in history as the poster boy for greedy drug company executives or you can change the system. yeah, you. you detailed knowledge about drug companies and the system we have today and i truly

believe, i truly believe -- are you listening? mr. sckreli: yes. mr. cummings: thank you. -- mr. shkreli: yes. mr. cummings: i truly believe you will be a course of tremendous good. all i ask is that you reflect on it. no, i don't ask, mr. sclelly, i beg that -- shkreli that you reflect on it. there are so many people that could use your help. may god bless you. thank you. i yield back. mr. chaffetz: the gentleman yields back. mr. shkreli, it is -- it's your intention to decline all swers to the questions and invoke your fifth amendment right? mr. shkreli: yes. mr. chaffetz: i ask now that the committee excuse the witness from the table. without objection, so ordered.

we'll pause for a moment as mr. shkreli is escorted out. >> you can watch that hearing on prescription drug prices in its entirety tonight in primetime. we'll have it at 8:00 eastern. that will be on our companion net york c-span2 or you can look at it anytime online at c-span.org, including a number of other witnesses there called to testify before the house oversight and government reform committee with chair jason chaffetz and congressman trey gowdy as well as others. new jersey governor and republican presidential candidate chris christie held a

town hall meeting in new hampshire yesterday. he spoke at the milford fire department school street station. he was joined by hewlett-packard c.e.o. meg whitman who introduced the governor. he outlined his plan to fight drug addiction, improve the economy and strengthen the military. [applause]

>> with welcome mr. christie to the lovely town of milford. we all have a great opportunity every four years to do job interviews for the next chief executive for the united states of america, so we take that job seriously. as someone who has been in the state senate, i know the difference between someone who says, oh yes, i voted to do this or that, versus a strong

executive who actually did that. i voted tomight say be strong against terrorism, and then we have someone who actually is strong against terrorism. [applause] in a great thanks to the milford fire department. thank you all for the flexibility. [applause] mr. bragdon: and now i would ultimately ituced will eat us in the pledge of -- lead us in the pledge of allegiance. i pledge of allegiance to the flag of the united states of america. and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under god,

indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. thank you. [applause] we actually have a couple of special guests this evening. the ceo of hewlett-packard, meg whitman. [applause] ms. whitman: thank you, thank you. first of all, we are thrilled to be back in new hampshire. new hampshire has a very special place for me. was a little girl i had a close relationship with my dad and every summer we would come up for a week hike in new hampshire. it was one of the things that stands out most clearly from my childhood, so i have an incredibly fun spot for new hampshire. i am delighted to introduce my friend, chris christie.

we got to know each other about six years ago when i was the ceo of ebay. then when i ran for governor of california as a republican, which might not have been the smartest idea, chris came out and was a great mentor and we got to know each other incredibly well. so when he announced he was running for president of the united states, i was one of the first people who was on board. why is that? i'm from california? much about care so someone from new jersey? terrorismng abroad, am a the economy. grew less corridor at .7%, that will not create enough jobs for your children, your grandchildren, and a strong economy will rebuild the funding of our military.

without a strong economy, everything else becomes more difficult. field, ied across the said, this is the fellow with the tenacity, because this, and the experience to do this job. i run a large company and i've spent my career leading organizations. the united states government is the largest, most complex organization in the world. you can training possibly have his governor of a big state of new jersey with a legislature that is not necessarily of your party. you have to have a toughness, you have to say what you mean and mean what you say, and stand up and be counted. that is chris christie. you also need a big heart. you have to have empathy. what chris christie has is a most fabulous commendation of a spine of steel and a heart of

gold, and that is what chris christie offers our country. [applause] so it is with great pleasure that i introduced the next president of the united states, chris christie. [applause] mr. christie: thank you, thank you very much. thank you very much. i want to first thank my good friend meg. she was among the first people who climbed on board when i said i wanted to run for president, and i will tell you, it is a wonderful thing to have a great friend like her -- who by the way is one of the most accomplished his list -- accomplished business leaders in the country. it is incredibly gratifying personally, but also professionally do know that someone who is as strong and as

successful as meg looks at me and thinks i have the skills and abilities to be next president of the united states. so, thank you my friend, i appreciate it. [applause] mr. christie: i think all of you for coming. so, we have six days to go. about right now, polls will be an about their final hours and everyone will be getting ready to see results that nobody can quite predict. for two reasons. one, because this race is incredibly close between six people who are competing incredibly hard in new hampshire for your support. and also because of new hampshire. you all are taking your time. we went and not on 11,000 doors last weekend, and our guys came back and told me 50% of the people said they were still

undecided. i love you people. so, we are going to work very hard until the very last day to earn your support. talk about one issue. this is my third town hall meeting today. one of the things you will know if you come to multiple meetings is you don't hear the same speech over and over again. i tell you what is on my mind. while i am setting up there listening to make introduced me, i'm thinking to myself, ok, what do i want to tell these folks tonight first? i don't repeat speeches again and again. no matter how good it is. know it is really good and you really like it, i think you people need to know from your nott what you are thinking, what your staff thinks, because in the end when you are president of the united states,

staff can only tell you so much. you are the one sitting in the chair, you are the one they look at quite late you have to make the decisions, and it is ultimately what is in your head and heart that determines what happens, not anyone else's. celebrity to you what is in my heart tonight and what i'm thinking about. i had a woman come up to me today at a town hall event that i held in oh, new hampshire. she grabbed me by the arm and she had tears in her eyes as i was leaving, and she said to me, governor christie, you are great can't believe that no one asked you about the awful, horrible drug problem we have in new hampshire. said,he looked at me and i am so concerned and worried about it, and i am really concerned that people were talking about it a lot before but not lately, so i'm salaried

-- so uncertain you didn't call on me because i would have asked the question. dealing person who is sorry is me because i didn't call on you today. but don't worry, i have another townhome meeting later and i will talk about it for short. -- for sure. people in new hampshire are suffering from the scourge of the heroin addiction. and it is an issue and a problem that america has tried to confront for three decades. and we haven't confronted it will -- well. the beginning, we started off with the best of intentions. nancy reagan in the 80's started the just say no program. that is a great thing, it is still a good message. then the congress and the president decided to pass all sorts of strict laws on drugs.

minimum mandatory sentences and all the rest. so we started a three decade parade of throwing everyone involved in jail. we have some of the messed aggressive drug laws across this country. i am not someone who is a prodrug person. -- i believe marijuana should state legal, and those who are pushing recreational use are wrong. i think it is bad for our society, bad for our kids, bad for productivity. i am not a pro-drug person. for severalsecutor years, i threw a lot of people in jail who were involved in the drug trade. those use violence to support that trade, they will always have a jail cell and a christie administration, whether that is

a state governors position or the president of the united states. [applause] but what we also must recognize is that there is lots of people in jail who are only in jail because they are sick. they commit nonviolent, p crimes to support their habit, and they are in jail because they have a disease. they are addicted. and, we have lots of people who are dying every day because they are addicted. now, my mother was addicted. my mother was addicted to nicotine. she was a smoker. my mom son smoking when she was 16 years old, and back then it was 1948. she was 16 and everyone smoked, it was cool. look at movies in the 1940's and everyone was smoking.

it was the cool thing to do and no one knew it was bad for you your by 1964 we knew it was bad for you. i watched her struggle so many times. she tried the gum, the patches. at one time she even tried hypnosis. this was good for us because it mellowed mom out, which was respect, butn one it didn't do anything for the smoking so she stopped. seemed, at it almost 71 years old she was diagnosed with lung cancer after 55 years of smoking. when my mom was diagnosed, no one told me, "don't treat her, she is getting what she deserves. she knew smoking causes lung cancer, she made a choice to keep smoking, she is getting what she deserves."

no one told me that. they all pray for her and hope she got better from her treatment and all the rest. i was not ashamed to tell people that my mother had lung cancer from smoking. i didn't think it looked poorly on me or my dad or my brother or sister. i thought it was just a fact of life. if i would have felt that way if my mother was addicted to heroin. would everyone have rallied around us and said get her treatment and help her? when i have spoken to friends and business colleagues and told them, "hey, mom is a heroin addict but we are doing the best we can to try and help her." i suspect not. because somehow with heroin, we had made a moral judgment. hooked arewho are

morally deficient. we are wrong and we keep it quiet as there is a stigma about it. a stigma this is don't talk about it. for those who are addicts, and there's sober moments, they are ashamed. they don't want to tell folks and they don't want help, even when they think help is available. we note that this disease can affect anyone. it doesn't discriminate. it doesn't discriminate at all. but yet we think it does. people who are drug addicts are uneducated, they are from broken families and urban areas. that is not true, you know. we note that this disease does not discriminate. i will tell you another story about a friend of mine.

, i am ao law school recovering lawyer, i'm sorry. anyone who is in this room and is a lawyer, you don't have to admit it. but you know in the first year of law school, almost everyone put together a study group. a small group of people you would study and compare cases with, and deal with your fear. those people got to know you and hadyou at your worst, and i this group of six people i studied with in law school. one of these guys i studied with, he was the smartest of all of us here at he went to an ivy league school, undergrad, went to our law school. he was the first guy to get a job out of law school at a really big law firm in new jersey. he was the first guy to make partner in his firm.

he married a beautiful woman who is a doctor. they have three beautiful daughters. he not only was successful in making a lot of money and all amongst, but worst yet, the group of us, he was the best looking. we hated him, we really did. [laughter] mr. christie: he also was a great athlete, and he was running 12 to 15 miles every week. runs, heone of those hurt his back. he needed to be on his feet, he needed to be working. he went to the chiropractor he went to the orthopedic surgeon them a no one could give him any relief so he went to a pain management specialist. they gave him her cassette.

i got a call from his wife and she said, listen to me, he is in bad shape. i had to kick him out of the house because he is addicted and now he is drinking too, and i had to kick them out because he can't be trusted around the girls. you guys need to help him because he won't admit he has a problem. so i got the five other folks together, and we went to his mom's house where he was staying. we tried to do this intervention, he denied it. he didn't have a problem, his wife is crazy, we are crazy. but in the meantime, you could look at him and see something was happening. eventually, we got him to go into treatment, and that started -- started and odyssey of 10 years where he was in and out of treatment. job,uld relapse, back to a

then get fired. florida.ew jersey and and, almost two years ago now, on a sunday morning, we got a call that we had been dreading. they found him in a cheap motel room in new jersey with an empty quart ofd an empty vodka and he was dead. he was 52 years old. those 52 years, his wife had divorced him him a he had lost the right to see his girls, he lost his house, he lost his driver's license, he lost his car, he lost his practice to practice law. that heost every dime had, including his retirement money. in the end, he had to borrow money from a friend to pay for that hotel room. by every way we measure success

in society, this guy had it. great education am a great job, great wife, a house, nice car. great athlete, great-looking guy. by every measure. but drugs didn't discriminate. we have to understand this is a disease, and when i went to his funeral, as the governor of new jersey, we started off 30 years earlier, exactly 30 years earlier as too scared -- two scared college kids starting law school. i'm governor and he is a casket. and i'm sitting by his wife and his daughters, and i will tell you what went through my head. there but to the grace of god go i.

we had similar background, similar experiences, similar education, similar families. and he paidd choice for it with his life. we need to intervene and stop this scourge, and that is why in new jersey three years ago i advocated for a law and pass it that any drug dealer who is -- iolent and we need to try and treat these gave more this year i money to the state budget. we have trained all the emts and police officers in how to use it. we have used at 7500 times in new jersey. we saved 7500 lives in the last 18 months.

our prison population is down 10% to our crime rate is down 20%. where we doing now that our prison population is down? we have closed a state prison. and we arebbing it going to turn it into a residential drug treatment facility. in other parts of their prison system, if they had a drug problem, we take them out of that prison and into this one where they will get certified drug rehabilitation. they will get the tools they need to get rid of their habits so they don't come back. it is a disease and we need to treat it. that is not being soft on crime, that is being smart. we need to move the whole country towards that, and if i'm president that is what we are going to do. to move from incarceration to treatment,

because guess what else? in new jersey cost of $49,000 per person per year. i can treat to people for every one person i incarcerate. it is not soft on crime, it is smart. one less thing. i am pro-life. if you are pro-life, i think you have to be pro-life for the pro-life, not just the nine months in the room -- in the womb. it is easy in the room. out, that is why gets complicated. that is why gets interesting, right? [applause] my 42-year-old friend with the bad back and the addiction, i am pro-life for him too.

both of their lives are just as much a precious gift from god as the life in the womb. for those of you who are pro-life, i hope you have expanded your definition of that for the whole life, because that is what we need to do as a country. life, if life truly is part of our founding document. liberty,it of life, and the pursuit of happiness. life. if it is, we have to treasure that life at every stage. we are doing that in new jersey. we don't have this be, believe me don't by a longshot. for the first time we had overdose deaths go down, not up. so we are making a lot of progress. much time here, this is my 68th day here. i've seen a lot of news here in new hampshire, read a lot of

your newspapers and seen the reports of the deaths of people both young and old from this problem. so, when i thought about what i wanted to start off talking to you about tonight, i wanted to pay tribute to that lady at the last town hall meeting in boat -- beau. now you know where i stand on this issue and what i will do as president. more than anything else, you know what is in my heart, and what is in my heart is based on what i have experienced in my life. we need to get the stigma lowered, we need to talk about it more, we need to get people help and let them know we love them, even when they have fallen down and disappointed us. that is the first step in getting them back home. that ishave a country more compassionate, but a country that works better too.

strongs that are more and intact because we have dealt with this problem. so, now we get to the fun part. [applause] now we get to the fun part. you get to ask questions and i get to answer. this will be different from most couples that you go to. this is not a drive-by townhall. begin give substantive answers to serious questions. we do not repeat our 62nd sound bite that he will keep -- here in the debate. if you want a candidate will do that, i can recommend one for you. [laughter] no, you ask: questions and i give answers. i give a full answer. sometimes i get an argument about it, that is what this is supposed to be. and i am looking forward to it tonight.

before i do that, i want to introduce someone to you. i've spent 68 days appear. here.e has spent 51 days [applause] mr. christie: i want to tell you a quick story about here. in one of our firsters to new hampshire, we stayed in a hotel and we came down early to start our day. she said she was going to get a cup of coffee, and the manager of the hotel came over and introduced himself to me. he said, good luck in your campaign and i appreciate you something our hotel. he came back 30 seconds later and said, "by the way i want to take something. you can tell a lot about a

person by how they treat others." i said, "i agree with that." here and waity for your young aide to get your coffee -- [applause] mr. christie: true story. started,ow rumors get i said, "she is not my young aide. that i came down with first thing in the morning. she is my wife." she loves when i tell this story because she is referred to as the "young" aide. i said i would a time to tell a story, but in return she would have to do at least one think that a young aide would do in a circumstance like this, which

is, because i need to take my jacket off, she would hold my jacket like a young age would. -- aide would. do we still have a deal? [applause] mr. christie: all right, raise them up, let's get to work. hello. i am curious, your plan for how to deal with the drug problem in new jersey is interesting. as president, how would you expand that and how would you thought it without stepping on the 10th amendment. mr. christie: first off, it would only apply to federal crimes. each state has to do their own thing, i can't impose my approach in each individual state court. like to do is set

example at a federal level. for those people, i would like to have a drug court option in federal court. it is so much cheaper than sending them to jail. what i would do is lower the corrections budget and take that money and moved to the treatment budget. you can treat to people for every one person you can incarcerate. it would not only be a net even in terms of actual spending, it will be a big bonus on the back and because when that person gets out of jail, they will come back into the system again. maybe they are getting a job, maybe then they are taking -- paying taxes, they are supporting a family. all that stuff will be good. also, this is about rebuilding families. we know it is good for us to rebuild families. it is better to have these people be back and be good mothers and fathers, sisters and

brothers. i would not impose this on the state. this would be at the federal level. our results were good, a lot of states would follow suit, like we have done in new jersey. new hampshire has some interesting ideas. after i started talking about this, my staff said with a talk about how to do this? so i think it will gather momentum. i want to be able to talk about it the way i did. hopefully to bring people out of the shadows. make them understand we are not judgmentmake a moral on them. i pray every night my children don't try drugs. we know for all of us, none of avoidedmade, have

making a bad decision. i know i have a list. a few pages. that's just the past week. [laughter] i would love to take some things back. know if it involved to drugs, we might be in a different circumstance. but give them hope. president, it will be less. >> thank you. governor, my daughter goes to a city in new orleans, that is still struggling from hurricane katrina. we hear about flint michigan and the horror that has on on.

certainly there have been times when you have been challenged in your state. what would you do as president to help cities like these that are struggling to recover and don't have the support or the finances, the infrastructure, and where government has failed? secretary carter: it's a good -- mr. christie: it's a good point. let's deal with a couple of examples. on flint, it sounds to me, and again, i have not spoken to the governor about this. i'm basing this on what i have read in the news. having been the subject of some of those reports. the most important thing in a

situation like flint is to get information out early. never forget your first and most important job as a leader is to protect and serve the people who have elected you. it seems to me governor steiner is asking for help. state governments will help the folks in flint. it was a challenging city. what we need to do is help those to have thelso higher levels of government, state and federal, go in aggressively and take over the recovery. katrina is a different story gone throughg sandy, i can tell you the money wasted in new orleans, alabama,

and mississippi is breathtaking. breathtaking. we got a fraction of the money they got in katrina. with many more citizens and almost the same damage. there was so much waste. and so now it is a failure of the federal government and the state and local governments not to have done more with all the resources that were given. and then people get reluctant and say i've got to pay more? because you messed it up? when we were managing hurricane sandy relief, we were conscious of the rules placed on us and being careful to comply with those rules. i think it has largely been a success, with some mistakes no

doubt we made along the way. we were informed by katrina. the problems in new orleans existed before katrina. some problems now are you existing with katrina money. it is not going to work. the school system in new orleans is performing so much better because they got a chance to start over, putting charter schools and choice and it has been a boon to the students and family. we should learn from that. as far as going forward, that would be something from the federal perspective i might say we have given tens of billions of dollars and i would want to see what the state and local governments were going to do to get people on their feet. [applause] that is really important.

i can tell you from my experience dealing with sandy, dealing with the federal government is frustrating. not only for me as a governor, but for individual citizens. it was awful. i will also tell you it is an you need to put people first. i was in an awful spot. i'm the first major governor who endorses mitt romney for president in october of 2011. [applause] as i recall, i did it in new hampshire. governor romney asked me to come up to the debate and i did it in the afternoon and watched the debate. to 26 states between

october of 2011 and 2012. other than paul ryan, there was not another elected official who .orked harder for mitt romney i loved doing it because i love mid romney. he is a great guy. he would be better -- our country would be better off if you were president right now. eight days before the election, hurricanes dandy hits my -- hurricane sandy hits my state. people i called was mitt romney. i was supposed to leave on monday to travel with him for the last eight days of the campaign and i told him the situation. he said i don't want to to think about me again. i know what it's like to be governor and manage in a crisis. he said don't worry about me.

i will finish the campaign. do what you need to do. so i did. and what i did was put my people first every day. i put politics aside. that hurt. i had invested a lot in that campaign. , did everything i could to make him the president. what he knew, my job was to be with my people and doing my job meant working with the president, which has bothered some people. has been the subject of some campaign advertising. see it, nobody can ever hug. you hear about it. let's talk about it. a hug of the president. i did not hug him. as you have learned, i hug

everybody. it was a disappointment for him. i did shake his hand. which is what civilized human beings do. [applause] when he did nice things i told him thank you. thank you. on behalf of my people. some people are so political they can't get around themselves. they are still talking about it today. it was three and half years ago. i remember one conversation i had with the president on the day he came. he said, governor, you have been gracious. i appreciate it. i said i'm doing my job and you're doing yours. that is what we are supposed to do. he said you are right. there was an awkward silence.

somethinge there was i needed to say because of that. i looked at him. we were surveying damage on the jersey shore and i said you know i'm not voting for you, right? [laughter] to his credit, he said safe assumption. in response to your question, i want you to know what kind of president i will be. i will put the interest and the safety of my people ahead of politics. every day. i will never apologize for it. one last thing. a lot of people have had things to say. people who have never done a thing of consequence in their

life, let alone rebuild a state. the only person who has never asked me for an apology, mitt romney. because he was the governor. he is a man of accomplishment and he knows he would have done the same thing. so when you are deciding who to vote for, deciding what president you want, you want one that will put politics ahead of everything or one who will put people first? the rightoking at guy. i proved it under fire. you got to see it. thank you, governor. i work for a major defense company. we protect those who protect us. mr. christie: i know the company. >> i worked there 33 years.

over the past 16 years, the president says he decimated the military. nephew who is flying an aircraft who is older than he is . what will you do to build our military back up? [applause] mr. christie: i gave a speech on this in may. i came to the naval yard to talk about the military. all the reasons we needed to rebuild and i gave specifics. it's on my website. you can see it for yourself. things we need to do. right now we are at the smallest army since 1940.

the smallest navy since world war one. the smallest marine corps in decades. and the president is in the process of cutting the air force by 50%. if i know these numbers, vladimir putin knows them. the president of china. around righting us now because they know they can. not only because we have a weak link in the oval office who can't make a decision for himself. capacity.t have the i have said no fewer than 500,000 active duty soldiers. ships in the 350 navy. we are down to 260. 185,000 active-duty marines and 2600 aircraft ready to go in the air force and we need to

modernize the submarines so our nuclear capability, the submarine base, is modern and ready to go. you know what the nuclear triad is. right? [laughter] some people running for president don't. i'm glad you do. another fun night on the trail. [laughter] what those levels have done to our fighting men and women, not only to have your relatives flying in an aircraft older than he is with modern equipment, but also it has increased the number and length of deployment for men and women which puts them in

physical harm's way, and also affects them psychologically. send peoplemore we into warfare, the more they are at risk physically and psychologically. that is unfair to the volunteers who serve our country. militaryeasing spending and personnel not only so we can be stronger to fight and defend our country, but also defend the men and women who serve so they don't have to go on these long deployments. [applause] how about that young man? go ahead. >> ok. i'm only 16. so i can't vote. mr. christie: come to new jersey. we can work something out.

>> my question relates to education. i wanted to know your view on common core and if you are or if you're it against it. that has been important with me and i've seen tests that have been taken and thrown out. it is important to me. mr. christie: i'm glad it is important to you. giving you a hard time after the question? good question. is that your mom? be nice to your mom. common core. i tried it. it was being instituted when i became governor and i let it continue for four years. it did not work. parents did not like it. teachers did not like it. students did not like it. that is tough.

0-3, you've got a problem. last year we asked in the commissioner of education to get rid of common core and to come up with a new set of new jersey standards that would be determined by new jersey educators with input from teachers and administrators and can be newit jersey-based standards that we can match. the original idea of common court was not a bad one. it was about standards and it morphed into curriculum and went south because local folks don't want the federal governor telling us how to teach our children. [applause] so that is the answer. all right with you? good with him. we've got to get you to new jersey and get you ready to vote. ma'am. threet are the first

things he will do to fight isis? mr. christie: we must raise homeland security through the intelligence operations inside this country. this president has degraded that operation. on intelligence, he has cut made ournd he has also intelligence officers feel like criminals. putting out this ridiculous report with the senate democrats criticizing officers doing things in the aftermath of 9/11 authorized by law. now of the sudden because he from throwingself stones at george w. bush, he wants to criticize those officers. if they committed a crime, indict them. go ahead. don't do what you are doing. don't indict them through the press. he used -- use the justice

system. we need to enhance their more e, numbers, and tools. senator cruz and senator paul voted to take away powers from the national security agency to collect metadata to connect the dots before these folks attack. i would restore those authorities to them. [applause] on law-enforcement, this president has consistently refused to give our officers the benefit of the doubt. consistently. it is wrong. the fbi director said it is putting a chill wind through law enforcement. they are pulling back because they are afraid of thing criticized, ostracized by the white house.

i spent several -- seven years in law enforcement. any officer who operates outside the law is prosecuted, like anyone else. 99% of our officers don't do that. they will have a commander in they will keep us safe. froms weakened us preventing the regular everyday street crime. officers need to be empowered to do their job and i will do that as president. [applause] we need to get to work overseas. we need an alliance with our nato allies. the president needs to go to each one of them and say you have skin in this game.

we have dead folks in turkey, jakarta, dead folks in san bernardino, california. all of us have skin in the game. i want an alliance of nato ,roops and sunni arab troops saudi arabia, qatar, jordan, and say we can't do this on our own. it would not be successful if we did it on our own. let us work together so isis can't say it is the great state coming to get us. violence to impose your religious believes on others is wrong. it is unacceptable. the president does not get this. did you hear the state of the union? i watched it. he said isis is a bunch of guys with beards with guns.

i don't know who wrote that for him, but that guy should be fired. or the president, if he believes that, should go to paris and say it in the face of those families who lost their loved ones and fly to san bernardino and save these are a bunch of guys with beards with guns. the problem is he does not understand terrorism because he was never involved in fighting it. i spent seven years fighting terrorism. the job i accepted on september 10 was different the next day. we spent the time and the seven years george w. bush was president with us as u.s. , you know what happened? domestic terrorist attacks.

what happened since barack obama has been here? what we do on isis. that gentleman. thank you. one of the biggest problems we have in the country economically is we do so much trade with china and china manipulates its currency. i want to know what your solution for dealing with the chinese government is. mr. christie: i agree with you. tell you, we've got more problems than that with the chinese. they are engaged in cyber warfare and stealing america's secrets, including my fingerprints and social security number. i'm not happy about that. and 4 million other people. they are building islands in the south china sea to intimidate our allies in the pacific.

we need to take a comprehensive approach to this. it is time to have a long conversation with the president of china. i was asked today our approach to china and i say it is time for the united states to sit down with the chinese president and say what relationship do you want to have? mes going to have to tell and show me because by the way he needs to put a leash on that lunatic in north korea. [applause] we all know. we all know the chinese can control him, if they want to. of anuestion is part overall set of problems and we need to negotiate together. issues,conomic terrorism, cyber warfare, north

korea. island building. military aggression. my approach would be i want to have a good relationship with the chinese. he will know the limits of my patients. we need to sit down and have that conversation. i'm not in favor of tariffs. i want to be clear on that. tariff.uld put a 45% that would be destructive. i will tell you from having spent a lot of time in iowa, most of the soybeans go to china. iowa, driven a lot in there are a lot of soybeans in iowa. [laughter] lots. almost as many as there are corn. it is a horse race.

the agricultural economy of our country is dependent upon that trade. we want to be careful. it is theis difference between knowing how to do things and just talking about. we can't elect someone who talks. go to seen many people trump and ask, how? like he is going to make the mexicans pay for a wall. how? 45% tariff? how? what is the ramification? he said i never said that. because he knows it's not going to happen. were 12 million people watching all of a sudden the language changes. saturday night, you're going to watch the debate. questionk the same

saturday night, you will get a 60 second version of what i said. i won't say something different. i tell you what i believe whether you like it or not. we need somebody who is going to do that. someone wille know draw the line and enforce it, we will do better because they need us more than we need them economically. we will work it out. [applause] there you go. they are giving you a microphone. >> nice to see you again. i have a question about the second amendment. i have read your position in a number of publications. mr. christie: how many versions? >> plenty. it has made me confused. whatyour lips to my ears,

is your position on the second amendment and where do you stand on conceal and carry? withhristie: we will start the general question. here is what i think. i am a former prosecutor and i have learned most of the gun violence is committed by criminals. not by law-abiding people. so the focus in terms of first checking violence should be on enforcing the laws against those people. we've got plenty of laws already. second offense, 10 years no parole. in charge of the justice department, i did hundreds of those cases a year. to take felons off the street who possess firearms. it lowered the violence rate and sent a message to others because you you do federal time,

don't get sent to the local jail. away where noar one can visit you. it is a tough, lonely time. we spend too much time talking about new laws that apply to people who follow the law. most criminals don't go into walmart. they bite their guns on the black market or they steal them and get rid of serial numbers and when they get too hot, they dump them or they pay straw gun purchases. none of the laws are going to change anything. i live in a state that is anti-second amendment. all of those laws were in place when i got there. lawsegislature is passing all the time to restrict gun rights. i have stood against them. so they wanted to lower magazine capacity. iv toad it.

they wanted to ban the 50 caliber rifle. it.toed they wanted to require smart guns be sold in every gun store. they don't exist. i vetoed that. that was a law on the books from 13 years ago, signed by a previous governor, who said, once smart gun technology is available they're the only guns that can be sold in new jersey. i'm just trying to give you a taste of the environment i operate in every day. what i've also done is for any folks who have legally owned a gun in another state and they come through our state and get pulled over for a traffic violation or anything else and get arrested because of their possession of a gun, that in our state it's illegal but legal where they were, i've pardoned every one of them.