i just like him and i don't think he should be getting all that notice. all he talks about is other people. and mean things about other people. it was so refreshing to hear rubio and i was so pleased to i was looking through my channels and this is the only when i could find that did not carry him. please tell me why he is on everybody. is he buying it or what? host: donald trump? he has been winning so far. caller: that's why he's winning, he's on everything. donna in macon, georgia on their line for republicans. caller: this is something i want people to think about.

unless you want donald trump to be president, we have to get behind one candidate. i am behind marco rubio. i want to respond to these gentlemen -- we help the cubans. we also helped the african-americans and the thing of it is, this is a highly intelligent young man. he made the right choices. the government provides grants for everybody. he made the right choices. he is a highly intelligent man, made the right choices. he will make the right choices in the white house. please get behind marco rubio. if we don't, we will have trump in the white house. donald trump and chris christie. just think about that.

oneave to get behind candidate and we have to do it now. unless they want donald trump as president. host: donnie, you will get the last word this go round. super tuesday this coming week, march 1. is the democratic primary in south carolina with hillary clinton and bernie sanders .ompeting there we will have live coverage tonight at 7:30 eastern time with the results of that race, the speeches from the candidates and your chance to weigh in and get your reaction to those results. join us on c-span this evening as i wrote to the white house coverage continues. as it does right now. senator ted cruz was at the national religious broadcasters convention in nashville yesterday. we will show you that event now.

[applause] ted cruz: welcome. so great to meet you. terrific. please have a seat. it is so wonderful to have you here. you are wearing cowboy boots. are you from texas? thank you for being with us. you are in front of an evangelical christian audience. don't be scared, some of them are very nice. we are also evangelical christians. too.nk you may be one, i met your dad yesterday who is a pastor. here,s nashville, we are close to the buckle of the bible belt.

for whom faith is extremely important, people who understand that faith is not just an interesting hobby, but something that is at the very heart of what it means to be an american. we are coming up on super to give youwe want 7-8 minutes to tell us about your self come if there is anything we don't already know. feel free to do that, seated or standing. ted cruz: thank you, eric. let me say thank you to everyone for being here. [applause] and thank you for having me. i'm honored to join you and so grateful for what each of you does. broadcasters come as christians speaking through the medium of the radio, speaking to the medium of television, speaking to believers.

you are unbelievably important in going around the lens of the mainstream media. in going around the censorship that anyone for whom a relationship with jesus, a personal relationship with jesus, the media views as a strange thing, as almost otherworldly. the voice that you all collectively have of speaking the truth, going around that filter is unbelievably important. there are many things we can talk about and i'm sure we will get into it in a minute, a lot of topics. i wanted to take a couple of minutes to focus on one issue. scalia'st of justice passing just over a week ago. justice scalia was a lion of the law. someone i was privileged to know for 20 years. i was at his funeral just this past weekend.

the vacuum that is left by justice scalia's passing cannot be overstated. it underscores the stakes of this next election. we are not just focusing on one branch of government, we are focusing on two. this supreme court, we are one liberal justice away from losing our fundamental rights. as many of you know, before i was in the senate, i was the solicitor general of texas, the chief lawyer for the state after him -- and from the u.s. supreme court and most of my career has been litigating cases before the supreme court. we defended the 10 commandments monument that stands on the state capitol grounds in texas. we went all the way to the u.s. wpreme court and 15-4 -- and on 5-4. we are one liberal justice away from the supreme court ordering

the 10 commandment monuments to be torn down in state and courthouses and public parks all over this country. we brought together a coalition of states before the u.s. supreme court, defending the federal ban on partial-birth abortions. 5-4.e won awaye one liberal justice from the supreme court striking down every state and federal restriction on abortions and mandating unlimited abortion on demand up until the moment of delivery, partial-birth with taxpayer funding and no parental notification. one justice away from that. the most significant majority opinion that justice scalia authored was heller versus district of columbia. i'm very familiar with heller

because i represented 31 states and the heller case, defending the second amendment right to keep and bear arms. 5-4.e won once again, 5-4. you notice a pattern. we are one liberal justice away from the supreme court erasing the second amendment from the bill of rights. isn't that ansay exaggeration? erasing it seems a bit much. the decision was not that some gun control provisions are acceptable sometimes. the position of the florida was that the second amendment does not protect any individual right to keep and bear arms whatsoever. that it only protects a collective right of a militia which is fancy lawyer speak for a nonexistent right.

it would mean the government can make a criminal offense for every person in this room to own a firearm. and none of us would have any individual rights to challenge that under the second amendment in court. the second amendment effectively goes away with one justice. let's take another issue near and dear to everyone here. which is free speech and religious liberty. case,t the hobby lobby where i filed an amicus brief supporting hobby lobby come a tremendous victory for religious liberty. 5-4 that thecluded government cannot forsake russian company to violate its faith in the belief of its founders. 5-4. one liberal justice away from the supreme court saying everyone of you, the government can force you to choose between

violating our faith or succumbing to the mandate of the government. case many of you all are familiar with, little sisters of the poor. devotesic charity that their lives to caring for the poor and elderly. the obama administration is mitigating against the little sisters of the poor, tried to force the nuns to pay for abortion inducing drugs and others. i've often joked, here is a good rule of thumb. if you are litigating against nuns, you probably done something wrong. little sisters of the poor case controlled by hobby lobby. justice awayberal from the supreme court ordering the little sisters of the poor, you make your choice, by late your commitment to protect life

or face millions of dollars in fines and be shut down as a christian charity. to understand the scope of what you need to look no further than the oral arguments in the gay marriage case last year. asked the obama solicitor general, if your , is the nextails step for the irs to go after and colleges thatan believe in the biblical teaching of marriage as the union of one man and one woman and denied them their tax-exempt status? tot question applies equally christian k-12 grade schools and charities. or to christian radio stations.

from the obama justice department in the open court of the supreme court of the united states was yes. that is a very real possibility that the irs will come after you . air and says go on the bible teaches that marriage is defined by god as the union of one man and one woman to mirror the relationship of jesus christ and the church, that you risk the federal government yanking your fcc license. that is the threat we are facing. they are not hiding from this threat, they are saying it in open court. we will use the power of government to go after and target those who speak against us. , theieve this election entire direction of the country hangs in the balance.

when you look at the supreme court, democrats get supreme court nominees right almost 100% of the time. every nominee they get on the court puts exactly how they want. left knee-jerk activists in almost every case. republicans have been unbelievably bad at supreme court nominees. [applause] ted cruz: many of the worst activists, the author of roe versus wade was a republican appointee. this, wea reason for should not think republican presidents are not very good at it commitment be they don't know how to nominate justices. there is a reason and you can delve down and figure out how you get it right and how you get it wrong. if you look at the justices who

honor their of and are faithful , people liketution antonin scalia and clarence rehnquist,william every one of those spent years and decades of standing and fighting for conservative principles and the constitution criticismndured harsh and did not waver. i'm most interested in how someone behaves when they are taking heat. it's easy to say the right thing when there's no price to it. the media is criticizing you, do you stand or do you fold? [applause] ted cruz: here is what happens. it's not that republican presidents secretly want to put liberals on the court. i don't think that is the case. we keep electing republicans who don't give a flip about the court.

it is just not a priority for them. it is not important. so, what happens, if you nominate a principal proven conservative, the democrats get the joke and they will fight tooth and nail to stop a proven conservative from getting on the court. you will have a bloody confirmation battle because the democrats understand the stakes, they're using the court to fundamentally change this country. what happens is republican presidents, their staff come in and say we have the perfect candidate, stealth nominee. he's never said or written or done anything in his life to prove he is a conservative. but secretly, wink wink, nudge nudge, he is. if you've lived 50 years of your life and you've never said or written or done anything to prove you are a conservative, you ain't [applause] .

-- you ain't. [applause] miracle you by some , maybe the supreme court of the united states is not the best place to find out. night, asns -- last people across this country were looking at that debate stage, the stakes of this election, people are asking who do i know? who do i know beyond a shadow of thedoubt is going to spend political capital to go all in and confirm conservative constitutionalists we can count on to defend the bill of rights? that is one of the clearest stanchions. theistinctions among candidates. if you spend your life fighting for these issues, nobody has afterrown a backbone

arriving at 1600 pennsylvania avenue. it doesn't work that way. [applause] i give you my solemn commitment, that if i'm elected president, i will invest every ounce of political capital to nominate and confirm principled to the u.s.alists supreme court will vigorously protect the bill of rights for my children and yours. [applause] eric: thank you, senator. thank you. [applause] eric: folks, it is not over. please take your seats. we're not really going to grill senator cruz. book --: it's with your

you need to read it. it's wonderful. [applause] ted cruz: it was given to me first by a friend. i did what i do, stuck it on the bookshelves and it was given to me a second time by my mother. my mother said you need to read this and i took the fact that two people give me the same book as a pretty powerful sign i needed to read it and i'm thrilled that i did. it is truly wonderful and inspirational. [applause] vote.now, you have my [laughter] [applause] eric: you said that with such conviction -- whatever it takes. yesterday was a free-for-all. we watched that debate on that

screen and it was pretty crazy and very entertaining, you have pointedly described donald trump as an entertainer, he is very entertaining. but he is a big question mark. the biggest question mark i have , the hair. i know we are not supposed to talk about that, we are supposed to be serious. you been up close, within inches -- i know we can count on you to launch an investigation into planned parenthood. i know that. would you be willing to launch an investigation into the pelo del donald trump? eric: there are some things that are too big to uncover. [laughter] [applause] but i will confess, standing next to him, you do leanan incredible urge to

over and rubbed his hair. a curious thing. jfk: it makes the assassination conspiracy look like nothing. someday, we will unravel it all. hiscruz: i was told that hair was on a grassy knoll. you are bringing this in a terrible direction. eric: you're right. let me bring up one thing before we get too substantive, please. there was a news report this , a policeom telemundo report that they found in the fox theincente severed head of his chihuahua. have you heard about that? ted cruz: i have not. i will say, i did find it rather priceless hearing donald last

criticize vincente fox for using coarse language. ofhipped to the side because lightning was going to strike, i did not want to be standing too close. eric: i think that moment will be replayed. there were many moments in the debate yesterday that were a bit surreal. a number of us were sitting up your watching in those moments, the sound got garbled. has there ever been a presidential debate in your asory where the moderator let it get that crazy? i was a little concerned. ted cruz: i think it was a good debate last night because he started to see some sharp contrast. the decision tuesday, super tuesday will be the most important day of this entire election. one of two things is going to happen.

donald trump has enormous momentum. he has won three of the first four states. if you powers through and wins everywhere on super tuesday, he could easily be unstoppable. a gravethat would be mistake for the republican party and the country. i don't think he is the right candidate to go up against hillary clinton. [applause] ted cruz: and nobody has any idea what he would do as president. including donald. i don't think we can roll the dice with the future of our kids and grandkids. i hope and believe that super tuesday will be a very good night for us. ,f you look at this campaign there is only one campaign that has beaten and that can be donald trump -- beat donald trump.

i would urge everyone to come together behind our campaign -- our campaign, we are very strong in my home state of texas, running neck and neck with donald and states all throughout super tuesday, all throughout the south. i hope and believe we will have a strong night on super tuesday. if we come out of super tuesday with a significant chunk of delegates, i think this race becomes a two-person race. points,donald by 16 56-40. we have to get to a two-person race. is thenald wants opposition to him fractured. if there are folks here who like if you thinktes -- donald trump is the wrong candidate, there's only one campaign that can beat donald

trump on super tuesday and that is us. let's come together and get that done. [applause] eric: well said. carson if youen minutes ago. -- john kasich last night spoke directly to chris matthews and said i will win this nomination -- said it was a sounding -- astounding. you have two outliers were not getting out. it is obvious that rubio is not getting out and trump has benefited from the fractured anybody but trump vote. in the meantime, let me ask my friend and colleague who is with urban cure to ask you the first question. >> thank you for gracing the nrb with your presence. the national religious broadcasters come here to nashville annually to convene so

that we can refresh and provide and reach millions as christian leaders. since the passing of your friend, justice scalia, the 5-4 challenges. which we have faced for a long time. there is one challenge that has not been mentioned that i would like to ask you about. imminent domain. steadfast for conservative principles. he dissented in the 5-4 decision in 2005 where the supreme court interpreted the constitution's imminent domain provision to allow government to confiscate private property and give it to other owners to promote economic development.

he equated the decision to the dred scott decision where the supreme court ruled that blacks are not human our property and cannot become american citizens. he equated the decision to the roe v wade decision to legalize abortion on demand. yet, regarding the decision, your presidential opponent donald trump told fox news "i happen to agree with the decision 100%." 2005, overecision in one million house on tap and evicted by the government action. 32% are household in poverty. where do you stand on private businesses using government power to take private property? eric: thank you for that question. ted cruz: you and i have been friends for many years.

to really understand that in america, anyone can achieve anything. you have a powerful voice and i'm grateful for everything you do. [applause] i may be wearing boots, but star's boots are way cooler than mine. i'm categorically opposed to the decision. it was disastrous and wrong. really tapsdecision into two important themes. number one, the fidelity of the constitution. the constitution requires that private property cannot -- can be taken for public use and only with just compensation. but the court did is read to the and said itrovision

no longer has to be public use, it can be for private gain. we need justices who actually honor the constitution and don't erase parts of it they disagree with. it is a symptom of a broader problem we have in government. government being used as a tool of giant corporations and the rich and powerful to target the powerless. justice sandra day o'connor opinion, everyis motel 6 can be condemned to build a ritz-carlton. because you had a woman who had her family home for decades that the city of new london, connecticut wanted to condemned for a big parking lot pharmaceutical company and the supreme court said no problem there, you can condemn it to build a parking lot. donald trump's record on this is not just abstract and theoretical.

atlantic city, there was an old lady named kobe who lived in her family home for many years. home because her he wanted to build a parking lot for the limousines and his casino. he went to his buddies in atlantic city and convince them to try to condemn her home, to bulldoze her home so he could build a parking lot for casinos. she fought it for years and ultimately beat it. she was able to beat donald trump's efforts in court. it is a great example of how government gets abused. we need eminent domain for roads and for schools. roads and schools are a public use. government does have the power of eminent domain to build a freeway. that is a very different thing from government being used as a tool to help the rich and

powerful against those who are more vulnerable. principle, government could take away your radio give it to another bigger and wealthier radio station because they consume -- country music generates more money than christian broadcasting, so let's take all the property from the one and give it to the other because they give us more campaign contributions. washington are the result of corruption, a corruption of both parties. both democrats and republicans far too often are willing to ask for the big money interest in washington at the expense of the people. we need a president who will stand for the property rights and liberty of the american people against the bipartisan corruption in washington. [applause] beck, you have a question.

roy: last night, there was a bit of talk about immigration. you had a comment that was lost in the shuffle. i want to read part of that comment. you said the people they get forgotten in this debate over immigration are the hard-working men and women of this country, millions of americans, and legal immigrants here who are losing their jobs, seeing their wages driven down. this gets into the issue of compassion, economic fairness. evangelicals like most americans have difference of opinion about different parts of this --ion issues, on on this issue there is no group in america more concerned about economic fairness than evangelical christians. they pulled the highest, saying the government should not bring

in new foreign workers, new whenrants, to compete there are americans who can't find jobs. after seven years of the obama recovery, the government says there are 15 million americans who want a full-time job and can't find one. what kind of values and priorities are you proposing to deal with in the limit -- legal immigration program? thank you for the question. another issue. i was mentioning on eminent domain how you have washington, where career politicians in both parties are listening to the big-money interests, and there's an unholy alliance. the democrats view illegal immigration and amnesty has more votes. they want to let as many people into this country illegally, make them citizens because they believe they will vote. there is no politically correct

-- there is a new politically correct term for illegal aliens, undocumented immigrants. it's not complicated why chuck schumer, president obama, and harry reid want more illegal immigration. is problem with republicans there are too many establishment republicans in washington who listen to wall street and the big money interests on k street, and their view is, it's cheap labor. the more cheap labor, the better. bring it in. night aned last article i know you are familiar with in "the wall street journal." ago puta couple years in some very strict laws going after illegal immigration. they were condemned all over the country as being heartless and cruel. state were boycotting the of arizona for doing this. the effect of those laws is a whole bunch of illegal immigrants left arizona. they went elsewhere.

this "wall street journal" article was talking about is the effect it has had. public expenditures have dropped hundreds of millions of dollars, the money arizona is spending on prisons, health care, education. all of these have dropped with the illegal immigrants leaving. hundreds of millions of dollars available to provide education and health care to care for the actual citizens of arizona, the americans who are there who are being denied that coverage, denied that care. had a quote from one business owner who had a pepper farm trade he was complaining, when the illegal immigrants left, i had to pay higher wages. he was really upset. this is terrible for me. it really captures the voice from washington. what do you mean, i have to pay higher wages? i had to go out and invent a device to help pick the peppers.

i don't think his name is peter piper, but -- he described how he then went to the community college and was paying community college graduates much higher salaries to operate this new farming tool rather than having unskilled illegal immigrants taking it. it described how employment for americans is dropping, how carpenters and construction workers are seeing their wages going up. i think arizona is a great example where in this debate, the people getting left behind are the hard-working men and women of this country. and it's also the legal immigrants, people who come here inlowing the rules, standing line, waiting in line. they are the ones seeing their wages driven down as well. when it comes to immigration -- i think our immigration laws should put americans first. [applause] doesn't the idea that so many

illegal immigrants fled arizona -- does that not argue for the trump,t forth by donald called self deportation -- if to begin very seriously enforce deportation, enforce these rules, that many people will quickly vote with their feet and leave? senator cruz: there's no doubt we can solve this problem. i have laid out a detailed immigration plan. it's on our website, tedcruz.org. it lays out chapter and verse how we saw this. we will build a wall. i've got someone in mind to build it. is it vincenzo a fox or donald trump? it will be donald, but then he can try to build the ship.

we will put in place a strong e-verify system at the work place. in place a biometric system so you cannot overstay your visa. 40% of illegal immigration is people coming on a legal visa and then not leaving. we will and sanctuary cities. you cut off all federal taxpayer money to any sanctuary city. and we will and welfare benefits for those here illegally. -- end welfare benefits for those here illegally. [applause] one of the biggest lies the media tells us is we can't assault this problem. what utter nonsense. they say, a wall doesn't work. if you don't think a wall works, travel to israel. when you are trying to stop hamas terrorists, you have a

wall with enforcement. it works. spot someone doing attempted incursion and it ate that hard to spot someone carrying -- ain't that hard to spot someone carrying an 11-foot ladder. it's not that we don't know how to do it. what is missing in washington is the political will. itocrats don't want to do and far too many republicans don't want to do it. donald trump has made illegal immigration the core of his campaign. there is more than a little chutzpah in that, given that donald trump, his record on illegal immigration is terrible. $1 millionp had a court judgment against him for being part of a conspiracy to hire illegal aliens to build his hotel. in florida,sort

which trombones, it was reported hundreds ofrings in foreign workers and by and large won't hire americans. there was a striking interview on cnn last night. donald was saying, the reason i bring in foreign workers -- no americans want to be waiters are waitresses or bellhops. what complete nonsense. >> i saw that and i was stunned that he said that. senator cruz: "the new york the 300eported that of americans who applied for those jobs, donald hired 17. go to a tgi friday's. you're telling me no americans want to be waiters? you don't think people want to be waiters at a swanky hotel where people are going to tip in $100 bills? big business wants foreign workers because they can't leave. you can pay them less, they have no choice. they are often like indentured servants.

this is the person who's claiming he's going to be the champion of the working man and woman. whetheral donald does, it is using illegal immigrants to build trump tower, the people who get hammered are the working men and women. he gets rich, and everyone else bag.ft holding the the difference between me and the other people on that stage is when i say something, i'm going to do exactly what i say, and we are going to secure the borders and and illegal immigration. >> i want to move on to star parker. >> thank you. another place that working men and women of america are concerned is on the war on poverty, and poverty rates. the $22 trillion war. a quarter of the budget every year, $900 billion. thearch and data shows

correlation between single-parent homes and poverty. to the brookings institution, in 2009, the poverty rate for children in homes with married parents was 11%. the poverty rate for children in homes headed by a single mother in that same year were 44.3%. giving birth outside of marriage has become increasingly a part of the american culture. seven percent of american children lived in a home with a mother who had never married. today 48% of american children live in a home where a mother has not been married. my question is based on a gallup poll from last year that shows 61% of americans say giving birth outside of marriage is morally acceptable. do you think it is a problem that more and more americans, particularly young americans, think having a child outside of marriage is acceptable? if you think it is a problem, what would you do as a president to restore traditional marriage

and return fathers to homes? of us know thell deterioration of family in recent decades has been one of the most heartbreaking developments in our society.. the challenges facing single moms, for me it's personal. i come from a family with a lot of single moms. aunts were single moms. my sister was a single mom, and e, my mom wasof tim a single mom. kfully my father was saved and came back and reunited our family. [applause] is no harder challenge anyone faces than being a single mom. up prayers need to lift single parents who are raising kids. raising kids is hard enough with two parents. with one alone having to work, it's unbelievably difficult.

poverty is a for secure two-parent home with a mother and father caring for those children. [applause] issues aref these not going to be cured by government, any presidential candidate who says, i'm going to magically wave a wand and fix this, is not being honest with you. many of these are issues for the church, for the community to work and encourage and build strong marriages as the foundation of the family, of the community, of where we live. i do think government policies can be changed so they are not attacking marriage, so they are not undermining marriage. there's a powerful bully pulpit outhe presidency to speak of the virtues of fathers, take responsibility and care for your children. [applause]

>> i'd like to follow-up with that with regards to the role of government. the american people are being forced to send $900 billion to washington or less than $.20 on the dollar reaches the home that we say we are trying to help. president bush attended a faith-based -- attempted a faith-based initiative, which in some people's estimation was not the best approach. paul ryan is proposing to allow for more -- federal government to get out of this business and allow for the states to take up a little bit more flexibility to try to help the problem closer to community. where would you find yourself in these two different ways of approaching this dilemma from a public policy standpoint? senator cruz: on virtually every issue i'm a support -- i'm a supporter of sending as much as possible back to the states and local government, having accountability from the people.

[applause] to welfare reform, we need to have creativity and innovation. faith-based approaches make and norm's differences because if you're going to change someone's heart and mind -- when i was in college i wrote one of my two junior papers comparing government welfare to charitable and church efforts at caring for people. the church that i attended growing up was a church that had a very big food pantry in ministry with the homeless and the poor in houston. i spend a lot of time interviewing our pastor, a lot of people who work in the food pantry. the incentives are all very different. if you are raising money in a church or charity to provide for people in need, you are not interested in wasting that money. if you see a young, healthy man come in and say, i need help, you will give him some groceries and help him.

if that same young man comes in the next week and the next week and the next week and it's just like the grocery store, there comes a point where you say, listen, son, we are not going to feed you the rest of your life. what are the problems you are facing? do you have a job? no? why not? let's work with you on training. do you have drug and alcohol problems. -- problems? my sister, who was a single mom, wrestled with drug and alcohol addiction her whole life and ultimately passed away from an accidental overdose. these are challenges people are facing. so often the answer is, did you know that jesus christ is your lord and savior? that that can transform in a way that 1000 government programs can never touch? [applause]

and so i think as much as we can be empowering faith-based berations as much as we can sending it to state and local level, the better. philosophy should be that the social safety net should be a travel lane and not a hammock. trampoline are not a hammock. my dad spent much of the last couple of days with you guys. [applause] dad came to america in 1957, he was just 18. he couldn't speak english. he had $100 sony into his underwear. -- sewn into his underwear. he paid his way through school. i try to think of every

challenge facing this country, every domestic challenge from the perspective of my dad, how it would have impacted my father. if my dad were washing dishes -- if he was making $.50 an hour, if there were an illegal immigrant willing to come in and wash dishes for $.30 an hour, my dad would've lost that job. he was vulnerable. i've also said many times, thank god that some well-meaning liberal didn't come put his arm around my father and say, let me take care of you, let me make you dependent on government, let me give you a check and sap your self-respect and individual dignity. while i'm at it, don't bother learning english. much,ect your culture so i will lock you out of the professional and educative classes in this country. it would have been the most damaging things you could do to my dad. awould rather you have taken

two by four unbroken his legs. that would have healed faster than his spirit. goal of welfare ought to be to get every able-bodied adult off of welfare. >> we have a final question from roy. to follow-up on our earlier discussion, talk about the millennials, these are the people forming these households, having the babies. will the men take responsibility? one out of every three millennials today is not working. everything you are saying there. it seems to me that your policy -- i read all the singlespaced -- you do call to in and of chain migration, where people bring in their extended family,

and the visa lottery, both of which bring in disproportionately people who compete directly with people getting on those first runs. is, i wantn really to know what extent you are and in what that, way you would form the legal immigration choices. who should come to the united states? senator cruz: if you look at illegal immigration -- you have legal and illegal. legal good, illegal bad. sometimes the reporters find that confusing. >> isn't that a little too black and white? ofator cruz: i'm reminded the great interview sonny bono did a few years ago where they ask, what is your view on illegal immigration? he said, well, it's illegal, isn't it?

it shouldn't be that complicated. not servingde is the interests of the american workers right now. we need to focus our immigration system. it is one of the great strengths of this country that there are millions and millions if not billions of people across the globe that want to come to america. it is a blessing to be a beacon of hope to this country and it is a strength of this country, but we should use it in a way that benefits us. legaluld reform our immigration system so it is more of a skilled basis that is bringing in people. we have a shortage of doctors. we have a shortage of doctors estimated up to 50,000 fewer will need towe care for the aging baby boomerers. -- boomers. we need doctors straight they want to be here, let's plug it together in a way that actually cares for the needs and provides

for the needs of american workers. >> have we never done that in our history? it shifted so that we get far more of immigration right now is to not on skills, but it is based upon chain migration, based upon one person here who brings another family member, and also, many of those are low skilled workers. the low skilled workers, if they are coming in in large numbers, have the effect of number one, but driving down wages for everyone. at the high skilled level there can be abuse as well. visas, that is a program that in theory i support, the idea of bringing in high skilled workers that will produce jobs and economic growth. but we have seen and practice the h1b program badly abused.

for example, we have seen companies like disney, name brand company, bringing in not very high skilled workers, but bringing in medium to low skilled workers, i.t. workers, into this country, then laying off vast numbers of americans. to add insult to injury, forcing those americans to train the foreign workers that were just rot in to take their jobs -- brought in to take their jobs. that was not the purpose of the h1b program. i pledge as president to impose 180 day moratorium on the h1b program to institute a comprehensive investigation and audits of every company that has brought in h1b visas. if they are abusing the program, they will be suspended. if they violated the criminal laws, they will be prosecuted. with the ind

introducing legislation to reform the h1b program, to require an advanced degree. if we've got engineers and computer scientists that are high skilled that are going to produce economic growth, that's terrific. that's beneficial for americans. that's the program that ought to be operating, but it should not be taking the jobs of americans who need those jobs. we need to reform that program. note that program is very similar to the program that right now today donald trump is using to bring foreign workers in rather than to hire american workers. if you want to ask who has the credibility to actually get this done, i'm the only person on that debate stage who has led the fight on this and will continue to lead the fight on this. >> we have a couple of minutes left. obviously most of the people here are people of serious christian faith who take very

seriously not just their faith, but the idea that the bible and the judeo-christian faith and ethnics has been at the heart of the ordered freedoms of the united states of america, that you can't really pretend there's any way to achieve this level of freedom, whether economic or other, without that basis. the only people who will govern themselves are people who have the effort to govern themselves and say, i want to serve god, i want to please god. self-government is that idea. we are at a time where religious liberty is being attacked. we need to be making the case that not only is religious freedom going to benefit everyone in america, but a robust expression of faith has historically benefited everyone in america. c, i thinkuz: eri

that's exactly right. when it comes to religious liberty -- for me it has been a lifelong passion. i've spent the last 20 years of my life fighting to defend religious liberty. it was interesting in the question last night, hugh hewitt asked the other candidates about their views on religious liberty. i will defendaid, religious liberty. but missing from that with any statement about anything he had ever done in over 60 years of living to actually defend religious liberty. not only that, moments later, he said, well listen, we need someone who will be with a dealmaker and compromise with the supreme court justices. i don't what a president who will work out a compromise with harry reid on who's going to go to the supreme court because that will take away our fun mental liberties. -- fundamental liberties.

the media belittles the threat to religious liberty. one of the things i've tried to do is we have hosted two very large religious liberty rallies, one in iowa, one in south carolina. we brought in heroes who stood for their faith who have been persecuted. and ordinary people, a t-shirt salesman, a baker, a florist, a soldier, a fireman. their stories, and their stories are powerful and moving. one of the great things about religious liberty is that it applies to everyone. it applies to christians, jews, muslims, and atheists. we are a country where everyone of us has the opportunity to live according to our own conscience, and that is a principle that can bring us all together. the media tries to caricature and a christian running for office. i'm not running to be pastor in chief. as a public not

official to preach the message of salvation. that is the role of the church. i am running to be commander in chief and to defend the constitution. but i will tell you this, i'm also not going to hide my face. the word tells us if you are ashamed of jesus, he will be ashamed of you. one of the things i've had the opportunity to tell a number of times traveling around is to share my own testimony that i mentioned we flee. when i was a little boy, my parents were living up in canada. you may have heard that. and they weren't christians. father left. my they were both tricking a great deal and my father went down to houston. seven months later my mom and i moved into an apartment just the two of us. she was a single mom. several months later, a

colleague from work invited my father to a bible study. and he heard the gospel. at the end of the bible study, they were having prayer time. there had problems. he remembers one woman who described how her son was beating her to get money to buy drugs. yet what my father could not understand is that even with the problems, everyone there had what the word calls a peace that passes understanding. my dad could not get it, but he knew he did not have it and he wanted it. when he left, they gave him a little booklet, the four spiritual laws. they said, what are you read this and come back next week? the next week he came back. they said, did you read the booklet? my father said, it can't be that easy. questions.bunch of i said, our pastor is coming

tomorrow night. why don't you come tomorrow night and asked the pastor? my dad was young, brilliant, scientist come atheist. at 11:00 at night he asked the pastor, what about the man in tibet who has never heard of jesus, what about him? and the pastor wisely just said "raphael, i don't know about the man in tibet. but you've heard of jesus. what is your excuse?" my dad said that hit him like a time of bricks, he fell to his knees and devoted his life to jesus. he went back to my mother and me, reunited my family. months later, my mother became a christian, i became a christian, and it changed the course of our

life because one believer was willing to spread the good news. that's the impact we can have. [applause] whicht a perfect note on to end. we are out of time. thank allnk the nrb, of you for coming and most of all, thank you, senator cruz, for being with us. god bless you. [applause] >> c-span's campaign 2016 is taking you on the road to the white house and today is the south carolina democratic primary. i live coverage begins at 7:30 p.m. eastern. we will also get your reactions and phone calls.

today for live coverage on c-span, c-span radio, and www.c-span.org. presidential candidate ben carson also spoke at the national religious broadcasters convention. of the statesne voting on super tuesday. this is about an hour. [applause] >> welcome. have a seat. hereve some water for you and for me there and i like you so much, you can drink my water. i think you heard we are going to let star parker and roy beck ask you some questions but first we wanted to give you an us whateverto tell

you want to tell us about why you're running for president. withu know, you're sitting an audience mostly of evangelical christians, we are jesus freaks. we fly our flag proudly. we are straight out of the us and we don't care. nuts and straight up we don't care. we think that issues of faith are not only important but essential to the existence of this republic. heart ofeally at the why we wanted to invite you here and we have the rest of the hour to ask you questions. intention: i had no of actually running for president. i was looking forward to retirement after 15,000 a very satisfying

career in pediatric neurosurgery. then i got an invitation to -- 2015 national prayer breakfast and i said up to.hat are you then i found out one person did it twice. then i was really suspicious. i said what do you want me to say? down righting stuff up until the day of the prayer breakfast. concerned the white house and the organizers, they said you want going to say anything to embarrass the president are you? i said me? i would never do that. that morning, it was so clear what i was supposed to say and it resonated with people across the nation.

peoplet thing i knew, are clamoring for me to run for president. i said i will just ignore that but it didn't go away. everywhere i went to, people with signs and i started getting all these petitions, 5000 petitions a week. i had hundreds of thousands of petitions. notnally said lord, this is on my bucket list but if you really want me to do this, you will have to open the doors because all the political pundits come all the experts say it's impossible, it cannot be done. push thedon't want to doors open but i will walk through them as long as you keep them open. it has been interesting learning about what runs this country. at thek under the hood

engine that runs washington, d.c. and your immediate response is to close it and run away. it is so corrupt. it is unbelievable. since i've been in the process, the people trying to corrupt me and make you this deal and that deal and some of the billionaires who call. all of these people say if you do this and we will do this and we move this person over here and i tell them all the same thing. i don't except special interest money, from billionaires who want to influence the process because this country was people."around "we the the people are supposed to be at

the pinnacle and the government is supposed to be there to facilitate life, the bertie, the pursuit -- liberty, the pursuit of happiness. the government now dictates to us and most of us know we are heading in the wrong direction. we are about to go off the cliff but we happily just ignore that. a good example at the debate last night, if you can call it a debate. it remind you so much of the roman colosseum. ancient rome, they were so strong, there was no way you could bring them down from the outside but as they begin to deteriorate interior lake come all people wanted to do was go to the coliseum and see the or a lie and gore come out and tear someone apart and not even recognizing what

was happening to their society. we have a society eating torn apart by division. -- being one apart by division. the war on women, racial wars, income wars, wage wars. we have a nation that has a fiscal foundation that is being destroyed by carelessness. it's like we don't even care. we have a nation where we are absolutely refusing as the pinnacle nation and the world to take a leadership position in the world, which is producing nothing but chaos. we have a nation where we are allowing education to deteriorate and why is that such a serious problem? our founder said our freedom and ar system is dependent upon

well-informed and educated populace. if they ever become anything other than that, the nature of the country will change. people would be easy to manipulate. andcould tell them anything away they would go. i think you recognize that in our society today. the real question is is it too late? have we already gone over the cliff? is it possible for america to be saved? can we bring back the values and principles that made us into a great nation once again or are we willing to give them all away for the sake of political correctness? that is the question and it will require everyone who is a person of faith, who is a person of

values not just to be content with that, but to go out and preach to everybody in their sphere of influence about what is happening to our nation. we must get everyone for instance to understand in 2012, 90 3 million people who could have voted -- 93 million people who could have voted did not and 25 million so-called evangelicals did not vote. i'm not sure a lot of people included in evangelical are evangelical. you have to be someone who christ is the center of your life and that is the way you live your life. [applause] dr. carson: it doesn't just include going to church once a week and acting like the devil

the rest of the week. anyway, so many of those people did not vote. a lot of people in the conservative group didn't vote agreee somebody didn't with them on 10% of things and he listened to the progressives saying few conservatives are so worthy of praise because you have such a high value and you want to vote for someone if you don't agree with them on everything and then they go home and laugh because they know they have the election in the back and we have to stop doing that. it's that are to have someone you agree with 90% of the time then someone you disagree with 100% of the time and if we get someone like hillary clinton in wo to four gets t supreme court picks, america as we know it is gone.

you can't do that. [applause] it's going to be necessary for us to look at the big picture, get out of the entertainment mode, and get out of the mode of allowing pundits and the political class to dictate who are leaders are supposed to be. the choice of what kind of nation we want to be is ours and even though president obama said we are not a judeo-christian nation, he does not get to decide, we do. thank you very much. host: thank you. thank you so much. [applause]

host: it's not over. i thinkear you speak, "this guy should think about running for president." i forgot you spoke at the national prayer breakfast twice. if they ask me to speak a second time, do you think that means i should run for president? dr. carson: sounds good to me. host: the center of everything for most of the people in this room and i know for you is our faith. officially, we are not a judeo-christian nation but when you look at the founders, there is no question every single one of them including benjamin franklin and thomas jefferson said "yes, we are." but when you paint this picture, it does seem so sad and difficult to surmount these things. what is it that gives you hope? the polls right now would not give you hope.

what gives you hope? why are you still running for president at this point in the game? dr. carson: because i have millions of people who encourage me not to drop out and continue to support what we are doing. two days ago, we had our largest fundraising 24 hour period since the campaign began. the people are saying stay in. [applause] dr. carson: i would not have run had it not been for the people but the same people who told me not to run are the people who are saying get out and the people who said do run are the people saying stay there. when we look at the people who are running and you have to ask yourself, do they really represent the values of america

or are they politicians? when i say politicians, i me an on either end of the puppet string. are they people who truly are interested in the people, or are they interested in their own political ambitions? that is the reason god gives us that if youecognize just look at polls themselves -- i was atmonths ago, the top of the polls. nothing has changed about my message. the only thing that change was a secular progressives thought of looking at the polls and the head-to-head and they realized i was way ahead of hillary and we have got to find a way to destroy this guy and they try very hard but i'm still here and that frustrates them.

iey will continue to try but believe that our timing and god's timing are very different and as long as i continue to receive support from the people, i will continue to fight for them. [applause] host: that's a wonderful answer and i just want to say in the natural that it does seem fair to say that anything can happen. we don't know what tomorrow holds. obviously, mitt romney floated this semi-crazy idea that there is some bomb hidden in the tax returns of trump but the point is we don't know what tomorrow will bring. i think john kasich last night was sounding extremely positive about his campaign, similar to where yours is. i think there's something beautiful about the fact it doesn't have to end just because people say it does. i want to turn over the

questioning to my friends roy beck and star parker. first -- always ladies first where ladies i come from. i want to give you an opportunity to ask a question of dr. carson. star: thank you. thank you dr. carson for gracing us with your presence. is as you know a place where we come to refresh as christian leaders in the country to revive so we can go do the work of the ministry internationally. it am bella's people in radio, -- itsion, print media includes people in radio, television, print media. anti-poverty programs now represent a quarter of the budget, and hundred billion

dollars a year. my first question is about research and data showing the correlation between single-parent homes and poverty. according to the brookings institution, in 2009, the poverty rate for children in homes with the married parents was 11%. the poverty rate with children's in homes headed by single mothers alone was 44.3% of the same year. yet giving birth outside of marriage is increasingly a part of our culture. in 1970, only 7% of american children lived with a mother who never married. today that number is 48%. president, ins 1980 come 18% of american babies are born to unmarried mothers. today, 43% of american babies are born to unmarried women. my question based on a gallop

l i came out last year, 67% of americans say giving birth outside of marriage is morally acceptable. dothink that's a problem -- you think that's a problem and if you think that's a problem, what would you do to restore traditional marriage and return fathers to homes? dr. carson: many of our adversaries, articulately socialists, -- particularly socialists, has said our faith and family are the strong pillars of america and if you want to bring america down, you have to attack those two pillars. i look at that situation that occurred because of our government. the 1960's, when lbj declared a war on poverty, it's not the

government's job. $19 trillion later, we have more poverty, 10 times more people on ,ood stamps, broken homes crime, incarceration. everything is much worse. the african-american community, 73% of babies are born out of wedlock. that usually ends that woman's education and sends that child into poverty at a rate four times greater than normal. how do we resolve a problem like that? i've had the opportunity to -- well,a lot of actually, they are privately-funded organizations that support women who are pregnant through the pregnancy so they don't get an abortion.

organizations provide child care so she can go and get her ged, her associates, bachelors, masters, learn how to take care of herself and teach that to her child. that's the way you break the cycle of poverty. otherwise, we continue the same cycle. that is something done by the private sector because that way, you can put people in these centers who can begin to tell that woman she is valuable. jesus died for her. she doesn't have to turn herself over to the first guy who comes along and said she has pretty eyes. because many times growing up, she never heard that and develop the type of self-esteem that would allow her to resist that situation that ends up destroying her life.

host: let's turn it over to roy beck, who am guessing may have some kind of question related to immigration. roy: star and i did not discuss what we are going to ask but i will follow up on this. there is so many reasons why these terrible statistics exist. say when of the reasons there are so many children born without fathers in the home is because these young men don't have jobs that give them a sense that they could take responsibility. it's been a really hard time for young men, especially those without college educations. americans working age and legal immigrants already here are not in the workforce. a lot of those people have good

reasons not to be in the workforce but that's way too high. 15 million americans seven years into the obama recovery according to the government still want a full-time job but cannot find one. disproportionately less educated . at the same time, our government brings in one million legal immigrants every year, find people doing the right thing. but our government gives out one million lifetime work permits to these immigrants to compete directly with the 15 million americans that can't find a job. a lot of people ask if that makes sense. you put out a plan last month that added to what you said before. he said "i will thoroughly reevaluate the number of legal permit to be resident accepted into this country each year."

my question is what kind of values and priorities would you use and reevaluating how to set that number. dr. carson: basically you look and see what you need when you're bringing in people as immigrants. you take the people that will strengthen your society versus the people who will take away from your society. one of the things we have to be careful about with the visas is we still have people who graduate with technical degrees, engineering, various things having trouble finding a job, and when we bring in someone from elsewhere, they take that pay them less. that's problematic and needs to be examined and looked at.

our entire immigration policy must be examined very carefully in light of the fact there are radical islamic extremist terrorists who are dedicated to destroying us and that means we have got to revamp our whole immigration policy to make sure that we are not making it easier to import people into this country who want to do us harm. thank you, roy. thank you, dr. carson. [applause] host: before i go back to star i want to ask a question. most people in this room have on their hearts and minds the issue of religious liberty that we are not teaching the fundamentals of american civics in public schools. i'm sure many of the

homeschoolers are getting it and they are my secret hope they will take over the world someday. [applause] host: but if americans don't understand the basics of how america works, they can't possibly understand the idea of ordered freedom, the role that religious freedom plays and how it is a linchpin that if you don't understand it and begin to start talking about freedom of worship which means nothing -- if you don't understand that faith plays a central role in the strength of all americans. and i don't mean coal or's faith coerced face. what would you do to help americans understand this. laws butthrough

through the pulley pulpit of the presidency. how does one help americans understand these things for no matter where they stand on the religious spectrum, religious freedom helps them and not just christians. dr. carson: it's a matter of education once again. being an informed populace and recognizing that the first amendment gives you the right to live according to your faith without being harassed. a lot of people will ask and they will say the first amendment's separation of church and state. that is not in the united states constitution. [applause] dr. carson: it was a supreme court ruling a few decades ago. it actually entered. the fact of the matter is, we must preserve the right of

people to live according to their faith and when our system dos things that in fact impinge upon a person's ability to live by their faith, the government has the obligation to rectify the situation. that's why we have separation of powers because our founders recognize that one branch or another might go off the rail and make a wrong decision. certainly, our judicial supreme court has made some very bad decisions in the past. act.s like the dred scott ruling on gaye marriage. way out of whack. es i --\ing to i would encourage them

come up with legislation that protects the livelihood and the freedom of people who believe that marriage is between one man and one woman. there's no reason those people should be persecuted in our society. we also recognize why this is for theimportant ruling advocates of gay marriage. bible is pretty firm against their way of thinking. [applause] dr. carson: if you can negate that, you can negate other portions of the bible as well. camel's nose under the tent to undermine the christian foundation of our nation. [applause]

it seems to me that you are clearly saying that western values, judeo-christian values is not the result of liberal policies but the specific intention of liberal policies. is that what you mean? there are: i believe a group of progressive individuals who have intentionally been trying to ,ake over our school systems and variouse media areas where they through their undermine the principles that made america great and substitute them with their principles and they have imposed political correctness so you can't even talk about it

while they change the fabric of society. that is why we have changed so quickly and that is why if we don't do something about it, we will end up with a very fundamentally changed nation. [applause] last night, a bunch of us watched the debate. by two things. i was shocked by trump saying what he said about planned parenthood. it's one thing to have a moderate or a confused view of the issue. it's another thing to on a gop stage say that i think planned parenthood really does a lot of good stuff. i'm against the abortions and that only 3% of what they do, which is like saying baseball stadiums, 3% of what they do is hot dog sales.

he's so out of touch. governoro shocked that john kasich said that ship has sailed. if you are in the business of commerce and someone says do you need to photograph my lesbian wedding, you kind of have to shut up and do it and pray for them. i was shocked by that. what do you make of it? dr. carson: i make of it the fact that many people have been mesmerized by the secular progressive movement and they have come to accept it almost by osmosis without recognizing what the implications are. i have not. i know fully what they're doing but that's because i do a lot of reading. i read conspiracy books, all kinds of books.

read communism books. i know about some of these plans they have a lot of people say you are a conspiracy theorist. no. you can look and you can see what they are doing and how they had taken over the education system so they can basically change the thinking of our young people and that's why they're sold on a roll to someone like -- so vulnerable to someone like bernie sanders and they have no clue what that means. understandy should their future has been severely compromised by our financial situation. not only the $19 trillion but the 200 trillion fiscal gap. the linethe ones on

for that. you are just accelerating the following the financial cliff. isy just think socialism caring about other people. they have no idea what is going on. host: thank you. it is frightening. star, what is on your mind? i'm glad you brought up planned parenthood. been 60 million plus legal abortions in america and the 40 years since rovers is that becameme national law. some 40% on the offspring of women of color. concern in theng

african-american community that 79% of planned parenthood abortion facilities are located in black or latino communities, increasing the desire to know if planned parenthood is specifically targeting minorities to control her birth rate. margaret sanger spoke often about controlling the birth rate of those issue declared human weed, which included in her words, the negros. knowing what we now know today about fetal development in the womb, to you believe roe versus wade should be totally overturned? an carson: i have been opponent of a planned parenthood specifically because of margaret

sanger who believed people like you and i shouldn't exist. there is no way i am going to sanction anything she has done. [applause] dr. carson: she was an admired figured into nazi germany. when hillary clinton comes along and says margaret sankar is one of her heroes -- sangar is one of her heroes, it makes me wonder what kind of person she really is. i believe planned parenthood should be defunded and dismantled. [applause] dr. carson: this is a culture of life. at least it should be. more and more americans are starting to be pro-life as they learn more about what is going on in the uterus.

but what they did with selling body parts and dismembering fetuses i believe is criminal activity. [applause] dr. carson: we would investigate that very strongly. i believe those people should be in prison and we should be doing everything we can to make sure we don't encourage that and in terms of judges who are appointed, i would be looking life,ople who believe in not people who believe in death and the way you find that out is by looking at their lives. , what i was referring 7:20.matthew

you look at all the food they had born -- host: in the new testament, it implies asalad. just to be clear. [laughter] host: when you bring up planned parenthood, last night, i couldn't fall asleep so i was flipping around and i saw on fox news, dana talking about what trump said about planned parenthood. i was shocked by this. she was saying that according to what she knows, 70% of americans believe planned parenthood is doing good work and it was politically wise of him, especially for the general election, to say what he said. i couldn't give him that credit in the sense i think he said it out of. ignorance. i think he's surrounding himself feeding him --re

they're talking about china and mexico and walls and not planned parenthood. stunned me.ay that what is your sense of the conservative movement? it seems there are many on the gop side who do not share the values of the people in this room. our chance sense is for helping them see some of these things, which to us are absolutely obvious? dr. carson: a lot of people on the conservative side have been compromised. by the media. and the media's definition of morality, which is very different than god's definition of morality. consequently, even though they call themselves conservatives, they are much more interested in the generaled by

group of media people and that means that you have to compromise some of the values that are traditional christian values. i recognize that and i recognize there are a lot of people in the media who are not going to like me because i don't compromise on things i find in the word of god. i would much rather be in good shape with him then be in good shape with them. [applause] host: yes. have i mentioned that i like you? [laughter] host: roy, i know you have at least one more question. roy: evangelicals are divided minds of many of the issues.

however, on the issue of priorities that his economic fairness, which is certainly a theme that runs throughout the bible. on that question, evangelical christians more than any other demographic group say that they feel that each country's government's primary priority should be to the struggling people of the community. one out of every three millennial's is not working. first jobs they would be getting ordinarily are the ones that happen to be filled most likely by people who overstay their visa's and are here from other countries illegally. i know you addressed these issues. to try to you do

protect those millennial's ability to get those jobs as opposed to those jobs being filled by those who should not be here. dr. carson: when i talked about re-examining our immigration and visa procedures, i would tighten that up considerably, maybe using some of the biometric measures, making sure they check in more frequently than they are now. i would make it every three months instead of every six months. once they have overstayed their become one day, they guilty individuals at that point . what i would do is look at the countries they are coming from. i would penalize the countries they are coming from because that way, the countries they are

coming from with the interested in what they are and when they are coming back. we put them on the hot seat as well. the more people you have a skin in the game, the more likely you will be able to enforce things but when it comes to the millennial's and the job situation, the real reason we are having such a tough time of thebs is because regulatory environment in this country. last year, 81,000 pages of new regulations. that is absurd. every regulation cost money in terms of goods and services but you look at the kind of things regulations do like the employer mandate. it used to be you started a new company, you were excited. that is the very backbone of

economic growth in america, small business. [applause] you look at small manufacturers. the average regulatory cost per employee for a small manufacturer is $34,000. how are they supposed to be able to compete with people and never countries? we need to be looking at all these regulations. you look at the clean power plan the president has put forth. the epa says if you implement every aspect of it, it will lower the earth's temperature by 0.05 degrees fahrenheit in 85 years. the cost will be billions of dollars and millions of jobs. sweater.ter get a allow the: when we elegy to drive policy instead of evidence, this is the kind of

thing we get. roy: if i could just follow up for a second. you put out there are so many theiers that are harming environment for our young adults. i'm hoping it will help pay my social security. where would you stand on requiring the businesses to use e-verify to ensure the jobs go to people they are supposed to go to? dr. carson: of course that's a good idea. what i've said particularly about illegal immigration -- first of all, i've spelled out -- and please go to benc arson.com to read about this. one of the things you have to do

thatrn off the spigot supplies the benefits. if there are no benefits for coming in here, it decreases the incentive for trying to get here. [applause] dr. carson: to me, that's just common sense. also, the people who are here illegally, we need to incentivize them to get registered so we know who they are and where they are. if they are working as guest workers, they should be working legally. working in only be the sectors where we need them, not in sectors where they are competing with americans and they should not have voting not haved they should citizenship and if they want to become american citizens, they have to go through the very same process as anybody else.

andlso must be practical recognize -- i've spoken to farmers this summer in south dakota, iowa, who have these cute 10,000 acre farms. they say they cannot hire a single american at $11 an hour to do the work there. if we were to grab all those --ple and exported them which, first of all, i don't know where you will exported them. let's say you magically had a way of getting rid of them. you will be absorbing the prices for the tomatoes and lettuce. you will be paying much higher hotel rates. we need to take that into consideration. the other thing i've said -- we have to look at things that work. we have american companies developing millions of acres of

incredibly for the land -- land, providing jobs, teaching the agriculture business and making a norma's ormous profits. that's the kind of aid we should be giving to people so they won't feel the need to come here. and makes a lot more sense to do that than to borrow money from china and pay the interest on it and drive up the national debt. [applause] host: i just want to get the spelling clear. encarson.com. .c-a-l-m?

star, i think you have a more substantive thing to say. i thought i would ask questions of substance. social security. many political insiders are proposing an increase in retirement age to save the system. fore this might sound good white-collar workers like professors or politicians, tookcollar workers like drivers and waitresses working until they are 75 is a concern for some of us would advocate on behalf of low-wage american workers. my question is if you had a choice between raising the social security retirement age or allowing younger workers to divert their payroll taxes away from the irs and toward a personal ira, which would you choose and why? you will see i

advocate both of those things. you have to recognize that social security is scheduled to go broke in 2033. that's not that long from now and when we put social security in place, the average age of death was 63 and now it's 80. it has changed quite significantly. it was never intended that social security was supposed to your retirement. it was supposed to be a supplement for your retirement. thati've advocated is or below thege 50 gradually you start raising the age of retirement. it would take about 30 years to get to age 70. that is how gradual it is.

nothing 50 and above. that's too close to the age of retirement. for people under the age of 30, they have the opportunity to direct where the funds are going. they don't have the ability to take it out but over the course of the next 40 years, they are going to accumulate a lot of money. it brings up another important factor and that is because we have a $19 trillion national has policies. they have to depress the interest rates because the debt service would be so high that nearly zero interest rates for .he last decade if we let the interest rates rise to a normal level, it would be $1 trillion or more. they have to keep it depressed.

what is the implication? a used to be joe the butcher what every friday and put 10% of his bank in a savings account and watched it grow over the next 30 years and was able to retire with or without social security. that part of the american dream is gone. becausenger can do it there's no interest to be made on a savings account. even haveeople don't savings accounts anymore. the same thing with the bond market. the only people who can make risk are those who have tolerance and can put money in the stock market. who are those? upper income people. and the income gap grows. along comes hillary and bernie to say it's those people rich people and if we just take their money, that will solve the problem. but it's the government that

keeps driving our debt up and destroying the american dream. follow-up would be so you would trust that same government -- the supreme court --is that what i'm understanding you to say? and 50-year-olds should work a little longer to recover those deaths knowing that this age? dr. carson: you have to make it impossible for anybody to take money out of the system. that has been the problem in the past. if the system had never been this, we wouldn't have deadline we have now. the system will be distorted if we don't do something and there

will be nothing for anybody so what is going to happen to those people is irrelevant. they will not get one penny so we clearly have to do what is necessary to rectify the situation. code and maketax it completely fair so that it once again encourages entrepreneurial risk-taking and fortal investment, fuels the most powerful economic engine, and get rid of the unnecessary regulations, are ouromy will explode -- economy will explode and we may not need to do anything to social security but if we continue along at the pace we are now with these kinds of policies, we clearly have to make alterations. how many minutes do we have left?

five minutes. great. in that case, i get to ask a question, which has to do with the political situation. do you think, dr. carson, that it is possible if donald or to win the nomination that he could the office of president to some extent? do you think it's possible that is just his nature to seal the get the nomination? what is your sense? you've spent time with him. he's been relatively kind to you, which is remarkable. except when you got close to him and then he snapped. we know. that's the standard model. what is your sense of whether that's possible for him given your time with him? dr. carson: i do think it's

possible for him to surround himself with the right kind of people. particularly if he wasn't .nterested in doing it himself but getting the right kinds of people to actually do things, i think that's a real possibility. i don't think it's a hopeless situation but i do know that it tohard to get a leopard change his spots but the leopard will be interested in reserving itself. not be a total disaster that we anticipate if he's willing to get the right kind of people to help. host: you think narcissism could work for america? [laughter] dr. carson: let's pray that it can work for america because if we end up in a situation where we have a choice between donald

trump and hillary clinton, first of all, that a horrible situation to be in but if that does turn out to be the case, i would go with the donald over hillary. frankly, i hope we don't get to that situation but what will determine whether we get there or not is the american people. the american people have to wake up, they have to recognize that strength is not determined by the volume with which you say something, but is determined by the life you have led and we need a very strong president who has led a life that demonstrates the ability to put together complex teams, accomplish things that have never been done before , but you don't have to yell about it. you just have to do it. [applause]

are you suggesting for example that abraham lincoln would not call stephen douglas a choke artist? dr. carson: abraham lincoln was a soft-spoken guy. so was george washington, so was eisenhower. so was teddy roosevelt. well, i have to say it means a lot to me personally that you would be here. it means a lot to me to hear you say what you just said because i think we all know that your humble but for you to reveal it by saying if trump is the to go with need whomever the gop picks because we know what will will get with the other side. is better than a

sure negative and i find it encouraging you seem to think trump might possibly grow into the position because we are at a point where we are having to think about these things and you are if nothing else a wise man and to hear you say that means a lot. let me thank all of you for coming and let me thank you, star parker and wrote deck -- with us.eck, for being and thank you, dr. carson, for being here and everything you are doing for your country. we are so grateful. dr. carson: thank you very much. [applause]

>> c-span's campaign 2016 takes you the road to the white house. it is the south carolina democratic library. live coverage begins at 7:30 p.m. eastern speeches from the candidates, hillary clinton and bernie sanders. we will also get reaction from your phone calls and tweets. join us for live coverage on c-span, c-span radio, and c-span.org. >> on wednesday, republican presidential candidate donald

trump was at regent university in virginia beach to take part in their presidential candidate forum. he made remarks and took questions. this is about 45 minutes. gentlemen please , welcome mr. donald j. trump. [applause] mr. trump: thank you everybody. thank you. thank you very much. [applause] so nice. thank you very much. please visit down. we had a very exciting evening last night. i went all around. you know the word caucus, it's a little complicated. you don't know how it's going to work out. they say it's hard to poll.

but we really won big last night. we ended up getting 46% of the vote. during the day, i saw all these people, they are all saying donald, we love you donald. but you never know what is going to happen. and as soon as we turned on the tv, it was obvious from the beginning. we had an extraordinary night. one of the things that made me so happy is, as you saw, we totally won with evangelicals. we were big league with evangelicals. it was such a good thing. we worked very hard. i am presbyterian, protestant. i was going to talk to pat, who is a great gentlemen. i have watched him over the years. the job he has done is incredible. i have to tell you, it's an honor to be with pat. i look forward to having him grill me. he will probably be grilling me. [laughter] but he is a great man and a great guy. last time i was with him was about 4 years ago, getting an award. the boone pickens award for entrepreneurship.

i got to know pat a little bit. it was really great. the reason we are doing well in the polls, leading by a lot with almost everybody, is that i talk about what we have to do for our country. our country is in deep trouble. we owe $19 trillion. most people don't even know what $1 trillion is. how many hundreds of millions is in one trillion. it is such a number. 10 years ago you never even heard the word trillion. but we owe $19 trillion, a bad budget was passed about four weeks ago that will add at least $2 trillion to it. we will be of essentially $21 trillion. at some point it is difficult return. you need someone that knows what they are doing. when it comes to business, i know what i'm doing. it has been amazing for me.

my two sons are backstage. maybe i'm allowed to bring them up, because i'm very proud of them. maybe i will bring them on. [applause] [cheering] mr. trump: good, that's beautiful. this is don and eric and they were with me for the last week. they go around making speeches. they do a better job than me. i go into the room and watch television. [laughter] they say, the trumps are making a speech. say hello don. don: it's great to be here to be a proxy for him. we know what he feels about this country. we know the values he has instilled in us growing up -- education, family, work ethic. all these things that are often lost on children of similar fortune. you don't read about many children that came from the kind of wealth that we were able to be brought up with. i won't talk about myself that

way, but i will talk about my brother and sister that weight. those of the things that you don't see when he is the father, when he is now a grandfather to my five children. he is really incredible. he talks about business, and he's phenomenal at that. if you knew the real donald, you would see something special. he's an incredible guy. we are thankful he's doing this not only for ourselves and our children, but for everyone in this country. he will do a phenomenal job. [applause] eric: to reiterate, he has been our best friend, our mentor. he is the absolute greatest. we worked across the table with him for 10 years, building hotels and golf courses all the way over the world. everything he touches turns to gold. i said it all the time. that is the touch that this country needs. that will be no better commander-in-chief. i said it 3-4 months ago we were going to win this thing.

i think we really are. he will be such a great president. we are proud of you pops. we love you to death. we will give it back to you. [applause] mr. trump: thank you. so a lot of times people asked me to speak about success, friends of mine. they make payments and we give it to charity. so often i will say, the really successful people are those not those with the great wealth, but with great families. great kids and wife and husband. those of the people that are the happiest. i don't know if i'm speaking against myself here. the fact is, the most successful people in the world, i deal with them all the time. i know them very well in many cases. these are not the happiest people, generally. a couple of them are happy, not top many. no matter how successful, they always want more more more. they are never satisfied. i guess i get guilty of that

also. the fact is the happiest people , i know are those with great families. something i talk about during success seminars. a lot of times the people running for seminar don't want to hear that. that is not exactly what they want to hear. but i have to be truthful. i have 2 really great boys. i have five children altogether. they are all fantastic. you know ivanka, who's going to have a baby in about a week. we have been waiting. we thought iowa, we thought new hampshire. [laughter] we thought south carolina. we thought vegas would be an place to have a baby. a much different deal. but she probably would like it during the next week or two. she will have a baby and she's been spectacular. i have tiffany -- they are all good kids. hopefully they will stay that way. where is wood, i think i should knock on wood.

is anybody superstitious? oh, that's real wood too. that's the real deal. [laughter] they are good kids and it's really great. the reason we are resonating is because we have to strengthen our trade deals, they are horrible. with china we lose in trade, $500 billion a year. what kind of deal is that? with japan we lose hundreds of billions of dollars. much smaller than china, but hundreds. we owed japan $1.6 trillion. we owe china 1.7 join dollars. an amazing thing, right? they take our money, and we owe them money. they take our factories, and you have no many have closed up. i have great relationships with china and japan. i have great relationships with mexico. but mexico is killing us at the border and in trade. you read the other day carriers were moving into mexico.

did anybody read that story? the ones that make air-conditioners. they release 1400 people. summary had a cell phone going, which i'm sure kerry was not thrilled with, because it went a little the world. the executive was standing up, saying we're going to move. all the jobs are gone, we're going to move to mexico. i said to myself, how does that help us? they are going to make air-conditioners, sell them across the border. probably have illegals walk them in. nobody checks them. [laughter] every illegal gets an air conditioner. walks across. ford does the same thing. ford's building a $2.5 billion plant. they will have illegals drive cars across the border. [laughter] it's very sad. it's so bad that sometimes you have to laugh you can't believe it. ford is building a massive plant. nabisco is moving from chicago

into mexico. mexico is literally the new china. they are taking our business. they are becoming the car capital of the world. a car was scheduled to be built in tennessee, and boom, they took it. last moment they decided it was going to mexico. we have to do something. we have to have borders. if we don't have borders we don't have a country. people can come into our country, but they have to come in legally. they can do what they are doing. we have 179,000 criminal immigrants. that's like filling up yankee stadium 4 times all of the country. these are criminals. this is not just -- these are people convicted of a crime. we are going to be strong on the borders, very strong with trade. we are going to be strong on protecting our second amendment. we are going to get rid of common core, basically education through washington which is a , disaster.

you understand that. we are going to get rid of obamacare. it turned out to be a total disaster. [applause] and it's really hurting our country. you have so many part-time jobs because people don't want to register under obamacare. everybody has part-time jobs. you look at these people that never had a part-time job in their life. all of a sudden, he's reporting them on part-time and they have to get a second job. it is an unfair thing. so many plans, whether it is the health care savings. we have to get rid of the lines between the states. all of these politicians that i'm running against are taken care of by the insurance companies. they are taken care of by the oil and gas companies. taken care of by everybody. i'm the only one that is not. i am self funding. i don't know if that is smart or not so smart.

[applause] but as a big contributor, i have been one over the years. i understand what it takes. we have a situation right now with drugs. the u.s. is the largest drug buyer in the world, drugs to make you better, pharmaceuticals. and we don't did it out. -- don't bid it out. a friend of mine that is a doctor came up to me and said, why don't we? once i found out what he was talking about, i knew exactly why. the pharmaceutical industry takes care of all the senators and congressmen, they have a very strong lobby. they don't want to bid out drugs. if we do that, we could save $300 billion. and we don't even do it. we are going to do it. if i'm there, they will be safe, donald, you can do it. trust me they can't do it , because they been given millions of dollars. i guess it's called legal corruption.

you don't know how corrupt it is. whether it's the timber industry, anything. i will do the right thing. going to be great to the timber industry, to. bigger than that is military. the military -- they order a plane that they don't want or missile they don't want because the company making a missile has more political influence. they are ordering things that generals don't even want. they are ordering too much agreement, for the wrong equipment. those days are over. we are going to make our military bigger better, and , stronger than ever before. the cheapest thing we can do, and nobody is going to mess with us. i don't want to use it. i didn't want to go into iraq. that was one of the worst decisions ever made. we lost $2 trillion. thousands and thousands of lives. we have wounded warriors all of the place. iran is now taking over iraq. when you think of how iran is doing lately, we give them $150

billion and get nothing for it. we should have gotten our prisoners back long before we started negotiating. say listen, we are not negotiating until we get our prisoners back. they will say no, and then you leave the room. they never, they just stood there. kerry, the worst negotiator i've ever seen. he never left the room. you say, we need our prisoners back. this was four years ago, they started the longest negotiation i have ever seen. we have to have our prisoners back. the persians are great negotiators. it's tough. you don't want our prisoners, your people don't even know they are there, we need them. and we will make a better deal because it is easier. they will say no, and we will leave the room. we'll say bye bye and double up the sanctions. within 24 hours they will call and say you get your prisoners back. you go in for seconds.

you say, listen -- my father was a good negotiator. he thought i was too rough. he used to use the expression, he'd say son, take the lumps out. if i didn't have my father i would have said this "we're not giving you the $150 billion." they would be angry, you probably never bring it back. "we're not giving it to you." i learned so much my father. so i take the lumps out. now i say listen, we have a , problem. in the meantime, prisoners, i say, did our prisoners land yet? yes, they just landed on american soil. now i saw fellas, we have a big problem. we have a country not doing well. we owe $19 trillion, essentially we are bust. we have no money. we just had a budget approved

for $21 trillion. we have no money. fellas, we can't the $150 billion. they are going to go crazy. one day. [laughter] [applause] i'm sorry, i want to give it to you so badly, you have no idea, i'm dying to give it to you, but we can't, we don't have any money. that's better than saying "we're not giving it to you." right, do we all agree? the some effect, except they recover faster. no way i would have given them hundred $50 billion, in a million years. and the money is gone. two days before the money left. who reads "the art of the deal?" everybody reads it. i always say the bible is much better, no contest.

not even close. do we agree? we agree. [applause] but "the art of the deal" has been a great book. obviously kerry did not read "the art of the deal." probably did not read the bible either. [laughter] it's a sad thing, that whole episode with iran. 2 days before the money you sent, they capture 10 beautiful young sailors. they put guns to their heads, they rough them up at least mentally. they were devastated. they humiliated our country, humiliated the 10 people. 1 women and 9 men. that is what we are dealing with. not going to happen anymore, folks. we're going to be the smart country instead of the dummies everybody laughs at. we are people that don't know what they are doing. we get bowe bergdahl, a traitor,

they get five killers that they coveted for 9 years. those killers are back on the battlefield. or soon will be. but these are the ones they wanted, these 5. so we knew he was a traitor before we made the deal because it we had a general end date co el whoeneral and a colon knew him before they left. six people died looking for him. 5 definitely, probably 6. they went out looking for him, trying to get him back. he left. that's the way we negotiate. they get bowe bergdahl, they get 5 great killers. for them, the people that they want. not going to happen anymore. i tell these stories and i meet with crowds. far bigger than bernie. bernie is heading down now. looks like hillary will be protected from the e-mail scandal by the democrats. can you believe it? so many people for doing much less than she did are imprisoned and are devastated.

think of it. [applause] for doing less than she did. and she looks like she's just going, boy did you ever see somebody so nice to the president? oh, the president is wonderful, she says. you know why she's doing that? i know why. boy oh boy, she's become like a marshmallow. thursday he does, -- everything he does, oh, it's wonderful. man, her life cannot be so easy. but what she has done is so wrong and so unfair. it looks like she will be the nominee. it looks like nothing will happen. but it will be discussed, i promise you. it will be discussed often often often. [applause] so with that, i think we are doing well. we have a great trend and have

tremendous support. we have amazing people in this country. one of the most amazing people in the whole country is our great friend, pat. would you come out here pat? [applause] one of the great people. pat: thank you. it's good to have you here with us. you inspire us all. mr. trump: good morning to be here. supposedly i got lost. no, we had a great evening. pat: you are working on a project in washington after the old post office building. everybody wanted this, but you got it. "the art of the deal" -- what did you do?

mr. trump: it's an amazing building built in the 1880's. walls that are five and thick, made of solid granite. today they use like plastic, right? one of the most beautiful buildings in washington. for years it was a post office. i always say to people if you , can get a post office in the city, you always get the best location. they are always there first. this was the one for washington. they put it out to bid. it was one of the most hotly contested projects ever in the gsa services, the big landlord for the government. they chose us. it's a great honor because we were chosen in the obama administration, which is sort of amazing. a lot of people did not think we were not able to get it. we want to make sure it gets done. we have a great track record for this stuff. we're building a hotel, 300 rooms. i think it will be one of the great hotels of the world. we are a year and a half ahead

of schedule, even more than that. it's a little unusual when you talk about government. but we are 1.5 years under budget, and it opened in september this year. it was supposed to open up in september 2 years from now. we really have a great team. eric and don are working on it, ivanka is in charge of that one. she has done an amazing job. i think it will be one of the great hotels of the world. pat: you run the table. about a year from now, and you have your hand on the bible swearing your oath in front of the chief justice in front of the united states, and then you are president. at that point, you're in. [applause] there's a little office underneath the capital, and by the stroke of the pen, you can cancel a great many of the executive orders.

you don't need congress. what would you do? mr. trump: we expect to cancel many of the executive orders of the past. obama has not been able to run things the way you're supposed to run them. you are supposed to get the congressman in the senators in. they made deals during reagan, and they liked each other. i have been involved in politics for a long time, all my life. i've gotten done tremendous zoning changes. i have done politics over the world. we have a lot of jobs going all the world. but i've never seen division like you have now. used to go to a restaurant in washington, you see republican having dinner with a democrat and they are best friends. you don't see that anymore. there is hatred. the country is so divided, whether it's african-american, white, congressman, democrat, republican -- i mean, it's like we have a whole divided country.

i've never seen anything like it. i used to be part of it, democrats and republicans having dinner together with their families. it was a nice thing. pat: sure. mr. trump: there would be combat the next day, but they would get along. so today we have a president that can't get anything done. he signs executive orders. one one of the first ones i would knock out is his executive order on the second amendment, where he is chipping away at it. the other one is the one on the border, basically he wants people to pour into the country unchecked. the courts have been following that one. amazingly we have a couple of good decisions so far. it's still out there. the legal fees, i would knock it out very fast. i know you believe in this, we have to have strong borders. you saw the pope came out against me. he was very nice. the next day he issued a statement. pat: they have a pretty big wall

around the vatican. [laughter] [applause] mr. trump: pretty big. he was told, oh you have this man named trump that wants to build a wall. of course you have to build it. drugs are coming across the border, we don't even have a country. you don't have a border, you don't have a country. he was a little bit strong. it's interesting because it was the day before the election. i said to myself, oh no. my people came to me and said, mr. trump, the pope just made a statement about you. i said, good or bad? [laughter] we had the election the next morning. good or bad? they said, not good. i said oh, this is a disaster. [laughter] and he talked about the border. he did mention the wall. but i have seen the vatican.

that's the most incredible wall. it goes up to the ceiling, right? i think he took a little heat. he was actually very nice the next day. nobody explained to him about the crime or drugs pouring in and the economy. he was actually very nice. you don't want to hear it the day before the election that the pope says something unkind about you. [laughter] pat: we have a massive deficit. we are running a deficit every year. wasteful spending is out of control. there was a commission, senator vincent -- got together and gave a very reason proposal. have you adopted anything like that? we have to have some way of cutting the spending. mr. trump: i think i could add to it a lot, because we needed jobs back in the country. our country has been stripped. we have rebuilt china. i like china, it's wonderful.

i'm not angry at china, i'm angry at our representatives for doing such bad deals. not just obama, this is just not now. obama has been horrible and others have been also. i'm not upset with china. i have one of the biggest bankers as a tenant in manhattan. i sell millions of condominiums to the chinese. i can't be angry at them. same thing with mexico. i have great relations with mexico. in all cases, both countries, every country is killing us. we have political hacks that are negotiating trade deals that know nothing about it. they have the smartest, sharpest people that they pick up when they are practically three years old. they go up this pyramid jane and they pick them at very early. --pyramid chain and they pick them out very early.

it.people cannot deal with many business people endorse me, the great ones. we are going to use our greatest business people to negotiate trade deals. we won't be losing this kind of money. we have horrible deals with japan. and everyone else. pat: there was a law passed, sarbanes-oxley, and the number of ipos since then have been drastically curtailed. now we have corporate conversions, and people put their headquarters in another country. and yet our tax burden on corporations is the highest in the world. mr. trump: we have the highest taxes in the world in the united states. deficits like this and yet we have high taxes. i'm cutting taxes substantially. we are going to bring jobs back. china is one of the great currency manipulators in history, ever. there is nobody ever like them. japan is really good, but china is even better.

they have done a number on us with manipulation. in the meantime look at caterpillar, they can even sell their tractor. us, they no fear of have no respect for us anymore. in the south china sea, they are building this massive military complex. they are not supposed to be doing it. but they don't respect our president. he gives them state dinners when they come over. we have a lot of power over china, we just don't know. they are taking so much money out of our country. it's the greatest robbery in the history of the world. we have rebuilt china. they've taken so much money out of us. we have to stop it. we have to use our power, and we have to use it because of trade.

we can get them to do things like solving the north-south korea problem. you know it better than i do that is part of the world that , you look at. you know they don't exist without china. china says, we don't have that kind of control. they are just toying with us they have total control. , the other one that does is iran. when we meet our deal a month ago, why did not we insist they take care of this? instead of going over with planes and dropping bombs. i have buildings in south korea. they make a fortune. i buy television sets from there. we don't make television sets anymore. i would like to make them. we used to make them. sylvania, rca, but those days are gone. we aren't supposed to be talking about these brands, it shows as were not as young as we used to be. [laughter] we have an economic behemoth in

south korea. we have 28,000 soldiers between north and south korea. that is a dangerous job, by the way. 28,000 soldiers. we get paid peanuts. they make a lot of money. they are good people, everything is good. they have to take care of us. we are not in the position to be the policeman of the world. there are a lot of things we can do. pat: how would you specifically go after the north? they claim they have a thermonuclear weapon. mr. trump: i would start with china. china has absolute power. the stuff comes through china. i would have done iran. i don't think you're going to get anywhere with iran because they are a hostile nation. they took our money, they spend it. bought 118 airbus planes instead of boeing's, so the money goes to europe instead. they bought a lot of things in italy, all over europe.

they bought a lot of missiles from russia. they gave us nothing. we gave them $150 billion. they spent a lot of it. nothing goes to the u.s. i would have been very strong in the negotiation. i would now be very strong with china. again, we have a lot of power over china. china takes out so much money. i said before, $500 billion trade deficit with china. you can't do that. how long are you going to have a country when you do that? i hate to tell you, you need somebody like me. i'm good at this stuff. [laughter] [applause] the politicians don't even know what it means. they talk about free trade. i am a free trader. you have to have smart trade, too, intelligent. like kerry, they are going to make air-conditioners, sold them for nothing. they are going to lose 1400 jobs.

they employ mexican people which , is fine. they make air-conditioners and sell them. here's the story. this is the only thing you can do to stop it. if you make air-conditioners, we wish you a lot of luck, enjoy yourselves. but every time you put air-conditioner into this country you have a 35% tax. , they are not going to move. [applause] there are people that will say, oh, you're not a conservative. i'm the most conservative guy in many ways. you have to be smart. if everybody moves, we won't have everybody left. you can have thousands of factories that close in our countries. pat talked about corporate inversion. they are moving companies, not only because taxes are too high, but out of the u.s., like pfizer. they are a great company. they are moving to get money.

there is $2.5 trillion outside of the u.s. and yet the democrats and republicans agreed to bring it in. if you are obama, within 10 minutes you can make a deal. this is the case where everybody agrees. pat: why hasn't he done it? mr. trump: i could not tell you the story. [laughter] i like that example. $2.5 trillion. i think it could be $5 trillion. could be more than that. the government has no idea. if they say $2.5 million, it's probably much more. here is a case where democrats and republicans are in total agreement. they disagree on all these other things. we get it, it is tough. here's something they all agree on. we want the money back in our country, what is not to agree on? it should be 10 minutes to solve that problem.

they agree here, agree here. the money is going to come back and. they have agreed now for 3 years. that is leadership. if i was president, i would get done in an office and say fellas -- folks, because we have a lot of women, and that is good, -- folks, we have to make this deal. i would have it on and a half hour. you need leadership. you cannot fly to hawaii to play golf on a boeing 747. [applause] he talks about the carbon footprint and then gets in a 747 to play golf. he comes back a long time later. it was not like you came back the next day. he played a lot of golf. you have to get people into an office and make deals. pat: one last question. i know we have some from the audience. scalia just died. he was a dear friend here at regent and a great justice.

the court was in a conservative mode, 5-4. now the next president, there may be 3 judges. what criteria would you use? mr. trump: we have judge alito, who is terrific. we have judge thomas, who is a great guy. we have some who do not work out as well. if you look at justice roberts, he could have killed obamacare twice. senator cruz is the one that most wanted him. he wrote editorials, saying that you have to have roberts. justice roberts was a terrible justice. he approved obamacare when

everybody said it was going to be terminated. he was the one that kept it. he had a second time at it, and he passed it then too. some of the other judges on the conservative side -- rumors are that some would not even speak to him. what he did was terrible. he was a bush appointee. the one that pushed him harder than anybody was senator cruz. senator cruz gave us obamacare in a sense. [boo] mr. trump: oh? [laughter] mr. trump: no, in fact you have right now, they had editorials where he actually wrote papers called "why you should be the one chosen" -- signed my ted cruz. no matter what he does, he has been a disastrous judge. obamacare is killing everybody. pat: one more question. in your selection as president, what criteria would you use to pick somebody? mr. trump: pro-life.

[applause] very conservative, very smart. alia, he was like a perfect, a perfect representative. i've always said that justice thomas does not get enough credit. he is a wonderful man. he's a wonderful guy. [applause] i think judge alito is terrific. in that realm is what we're talking about. pat: we have some questions. they have come in from all around. i will turn this over. >> hello, good to see you. here is a question from the simulcast room, because this is huge. we haven't overflowed room. i thought you would like to know that. -- we have an overflowed room. mr. trump: i see some people

upstairs. >> that is right. they are everywhere. here's a question about israel. support of israel, essential for maintaining peace in the middle east? will you emphatically stand with israel? mr. trump: yes, very simple answer. [applause] they have been our most reliable ally, especially in the middle east. you look at what is happening with israel. they were so against this horrible iran deal. obama was thet, worst thing that happened to israel. you can look at it as he's not a good president. you look at bibi netanyahu and what he's gone through. you can see the level of exasperation on the demand is. the most basic things, they weren't winning anything. why would they make a deal like

this? and they look at us, they have no respect for us. they can't believe themselves they were able to get this deal. i don't get it. there are a lot of theories. this will be studied for a long time. this will prove to be a very bad deal. this will lead to nuclear proliferation 100%. all the money we gave, everything we gave, leaving the keeping of the hostages. ultimately they released them for $150 billion. it looks like ransom. 100%.ith israel pat>> this also from the simulct room, as president, what will you do to restore adherence to the constitution by all of whatever might? mr. trump: i'm a very strong constitutionalist. i feel so strongly about it. i think you could say not giving a lot of thought, with all the executive orders, that's not a

constitutional thing. [applause] we have a president that goes -- he'll spend three minutes on a talk show, he goes and signs executive order and says hey, five years later the courts will decide. the good thing about a thicket of orders is that the new president can immediately void them that is the one good thing. [applause] >> here is an interesting one from here in the studio audience. from bernard, during this campaign there has been a lot of tough language among the candidates. can you forgive and forget to put it aside to join together, and also a key choice from one of these people? mr. trump: i can forgive. i am pretty good with that. every once in a while, somebody will have gone too far and i won't like it. you have a set of the last few

weeks. things were said that were lies, frankly. i won't mention it. persont to be a good today, at least for the next hour. [applause] [laughter] there have been many untruths told. just knowing, like what happened to ben carson was horrible. "he left the race, come on over and vote for me." i think i would have won iowa if that had happened to me. but we got second and first, so i'm not complaining. happened to ben carson was horrible. that isce violation, like a fraudulent document that was sent. there were bad things happening out there. nigel people real estate is really tough and you meet tough people. these politicians are not such good people. [laughter]

trump, the audience, mr. there are some say that in the past have supported democrat liberal views. how can voters be sure that you will truly hold and continue to hold republican ideas and values? mr. trump: it is interesting. one of the magazines said with all jump is a world-class businessman. i am all over the world. and i deal with all politicians. i never thought i would be doing this. i just got exasperated. i would have done it four years ago. i looked at it with romney. i have a lot of of jobs going. my children are younger and how they can do a great job. this is not something i was going to do or really wanted to do. i loved what i was doing. the fact is, as a businessman, you get along with politicians or you have a problem. so i get along with democrats, liberals, conservatives, republicans. i get along with everybody. because that was my thing. it was very important. i saw bob in the audience.

where is he? [applause] a fantastic person. you know that. [applause] he is a fantastic person. i get along with everybody. i tell ypeople, they say, it's true. but as a businessman you want to get along with republicans and democrats. that has been used on me. but once i explain it, most people understand. >> ken from in the audience wants to know, assuming you will be the nominee of the party, one of the most important qualities you will look for in a vice presidential candidate? feel free to name some names. [laughter] that was my part. mr. trump: there are some names

that have been around. we are now down to 5 from 17. some of the people i've dealt with, i have a lot of respect for. the main quality that you want is somebody that can be a great president, if something happens to you. don't you think? that has to be number one. i would want summary that could help me with government. most likely that would be a political person. i am business and very good at what i do. i'm also very political. when you can get zoning on the west side of manhattan to bill demong 6000 units of housing and have to go there new york city politics, that is tough. i don't see israel-palestine, but it's as tough a deal. [laughter] anybody can make that deal. we are going to give it a shot. a lot of good people have gone down try to give it a shot. the most important thing is you

have to have somebody that can be a great president. after that, you want somebody that can help you with legislation, etc. i would say, without thinking about it a lot, i just want to get over the line. i want somebody that is political, because i want lots of great legislation. pat: he's had a busy day. you came to virginia, it is a big deal. hillary -- if you were president, would you instruct the attorney general to indict her for what she is done in relation to the e-mails? mr. trump: it's an amazing question. there is a six-year statute of limitations. it might be five, but probably six. i would instruct them to take a look at it. it's not really our call to say

indict. but you certainly have to take a look at it. you look at general betrayers, he suffered greatly. -- you look at general petraeus, he suffered greatly. they wanted to take his rank away from him. this man suffered enough.why don't you focus on beating isis and leave general petronius alone? [applause] i would instruct my attorney general to look at it. there seems to be a lot there. we read from experts in the field. how often do you see somebody saying that she did nothing wrong? but they are protecting her because she's the number one runner. she is a saying how wonderful obama is. every single thing he wants to

do she is saying great. she is doing it for that reason. pat: i want to thank you. i think the audience really appreciates and loves you. [applause] i want to ask you, after the election, who will you please come back as president trump, and give a presidential message here at regent? mr. trump: we will do it again. great pleasure. [applause] >> stick around everybody. [applause]

>> tomorrow, republican positional candidate donald trump speaks at a rally in huntsville, alabama. li coverage begins at 5:00ve m eastern. -- live coverage begins at 5:00 p.m. eastern on c-span. >> today, it's the south carolina democratic primary. our live coverage begins at 7:30 p.m. eastern with election results in speeches from hillary clinton and bernie sanders. we also get your reactions from phone calls and tweets. join us for live coverage on c-span, c-span radio, and c-span.org. >> now a conversation with green party presidential candidate jill stein. she was a guest on this morning's "washington journal." this is about 45 minutes. >> our guest is dr. joel stein. -- dr. jill stein.

running for president of candidate under the green party banner. thank you so much for being here. tell us a bit about the green party. what does it stand for? dr. stein: the green party is the only national party that does not take corporate money. we are a party that is truly of and by the people. and we stand up with those things that people are really desperate for. that is good jobs at living wages. we talk about not only the right to a living wage, but the right to a job, the right to health care, the right to education, including higher education. this election, many candidates are calling for free public education. certainly bernie sanders is. we have been on that for at least a decade or more. furthermore, we call for canceling student debt. we be allowed to the bankers, it's time to be left the students. they are the victims of that

waste and abuse on wall street. -- we bailed out of the bankers, it's time to bail out the students. we want a medicare for all system, that will save us enough money to cover everyone comprehensively. for call for a foreign policy, believe it or not, based on international law human rights, and diplomacy. in addition, we call for greeting our energy system. -- for greening our energy system. we call for a new deal type program that will put everyone back to work like we did during the great depression. we are calling for a green new deal which will not only solve the crisis of the economy and jump start the economy, but will also transform us to a green economy that turns the tide on climate change. the spinoff is that is that it also allows us to pull back on these wars for oil, which has been so catastrophic and disastrous. it has cost the average household $75,000 by the time

this war cost is paid off. the war of the past 15 years, which shows no sign of success and no sign of abating. in fact we are plunging headlong into more, if we continue to send troops to nigeria. terror is only creating more terror, creating field states, making terrorist groups stronger and creating a massive refugee migration. i should also say up front that we call for creating a welcoming path to citizenship for those hard-working undocumented americans who are actually in major -- a major part of the vitality and diversity of both our economy, culture, and community. and wes of the crisis, do have a crisis of immigration, the most critical thing that we can do is actually stop causing it.

so many of the immigrants who have come here, who have wanted to the u.s. -- have flooded into the u.s., as well as of the middle east, we are seeing massive refugee migration. 60 million people in the last year alone. that is crisis proportions. but if this is in response to the wars we have created. in south korea -- in south america, it is the coups and death squads that we have actually trained here in the u.s., as well as the cia supported coups, which have destabilized governments. in addition, the war on drugs -- which hasated killed over 300,000 people in mexico alone. nafta put over one million farmers as well as workers out of work. we basically forced people to become refugees and then criminalize them when they get here. >> you mentioned i wide panoply of issues. most people associate the green party with environmental issues.

it sounds like you guys have broadened far beyond that. dr. stein: far beyond. for those that came into the green party on the common environmental issues, we quickly saw that you cannot create environmental justice unless you also have economic justice. how can you talk about the climate crisis, which may be decades off, it's getting closer all the time, but for most people the crisis is how to keep a roof over your head. how do i get my kids through school? a school that is being privatized enclosed right and left. and our younger generation is held hostage by this outrageous debt. these are things we can fix. the green party has become a party of democracy and justice. if you had to say what our motto is, you could say is that we need a world and in america that works for all of us, and that puts people, planet and peace over profit. right now we have a profiteering economy and a set of

profiteering big political parties that are getting their money from predatory banks, from fossil fuel giants, and from war profiteers. >> you mentioned the green party does not accept any corporate donations. where do you get funding? dr. stein: from everyday people. strugglingks who are to keep their heads above water. we are largely a tiny donor campaign. largely through the internet and through our website. host: we want to let our viewers know they can join in the conversation with dr. joel stein. here is how we break down the phone lines. republicans-- . if you're a third-party voter, any third-party voter, you can call us at (202) 748-8003. you can send us tweets, on ontter, @cspanwj, and

facebook as well. we are speaking with dr. jill stein, she is one of the president of candidates within the green party. can you tell us a little bit about yourself, and about your platform within the green party? guest: great. i am by training and by profession a medical doctor. and now, explain to people, i'm basically practicing political medicine. after decades in clinical medicine. the reason for that is that politics is the mother of all illnesses. what i have discovered as a doctor in the clinic is that we are seeing these absolute epidemics of things we shouldn't be having. -- i work in a college clinic for most of my career. i saw people at the transition of childhood and adulthood. seeing things we never saw before and young people. an epidemic of cancer, of learning disabilities, asthma, the skyrocketing rates of asthma.

heart disease, high blood pressure. you name it. emphysema, we have a public health epidemic. i didn't feel good giving people pills and pushing them back out to the things that are making us sick to start with. everything from a sick food system the mostly gives you food that's not healthy for you, that's what we subsidize and we make it very expensive to eat healthy food, and by we, i mean our political parties that are basically in the pocket of the agribusiness food industry. homelessness, air pollution. these are the drivers. so i went to work with communities to try and fix things upstream. and i discovered even when we had great solutions like jobs, including renewable energy and insulating our homes, things that would create far more jobs than what we have right now and pay people good wages, in a way that's healthy for workers and

for our communities, still the legislature wouldn't move on it. so i became part of a move to get money out of politics. this by voter referendum, because the legislature certainly wasn't going to do this. even in so-called progressive massachusetts. , but the we passed it legislature did, which was 85% democratic, they turned around and repealed this clean elections law, which would have allowed public funding, so doesn't force politicians to go into the hands of big money. and incur debts to be repaid, which is what our political system is all about now. into the political fray, basically. i got tricked into it, is what happened. back in 2002, i was not a political person. i really share the kind of disdain for the politics that we have from the political parties.

i didn't know that was a politics of integrity out there. the green party came to me and said would you run for office? do what you are doing, continue the fight for good jobs and health care, and for a healthy environment around us. host: you ran for several public offices in massachusetts, you are also the green party presidential nominee in 2012 as well. i want to get in some callers comments and questions now. the phone lines on fire right now. our first caller's charles from wisconsin on the independent line. go ahead. caller: good morning. make thented to statement, ma'am, the donald trump is the only one who is really address the problems since it started. the big money in this country is investing in china, and they're getting things made for pennies on the dollar. and this is the reason why all the jobs of lush.

it's not regulation and all this other stuff they're talking about. something has to be done to address the trade deficit. and he is really one that talks about it. plus, i would like to say, want to listen to hillary and when i -- these people when they are campaigning, talk about the police injustices, donald trump is really one that is sticking up for our police departments and saying good things about them. soundy and then make it like every time a police car drives through black community, everyone runs, because the police are shooting at them. guest: thank you, charles. you raise a number of issues. i would remind you that trump is one of those people who has taken his business is off shores. he is one of these big businessman, he is part of the big-money that is investing offshore. that enhances his bottom line. and although he is not taking money from other billionaires, he is one of e