warner, reporter, and erika will kick us off. erika: thank you for being with us. hillary clinton wrapped up with a big win in california these past days, but there are a lot of committed sanders supporters across the nation. what does hillary clinton need to do to get those people enthusiastic about their campaign? rep. becerra: more of what she has been doing, reaching out, showing people how she will be the president that will bring real change, meaningful change, deep change, where no longer will we have to wait for a congress that is gridlocked and essentially asleep at the wheel, but we will actually improve options for the affordable care act, we will make sure that our foreign affairs are the things that we want to see our nation be involved in, not things that get us into battles. we want to make sure that as

president she has the support of the american people to help with wages and decrease the debt burden on students that go to college. i think there are many things she will be able to do between now and november. it is all about convincing the american people about there was someone who wants to build bridges and opportunities, not walls. christina: what do think is the possibility of elizabeth warren and ticket?n all woman rep. becerra: i think the secretary has a good number to choose from, including her vice president running mate. you mentioned elizabeth warren

and it would be a one-two punch, very effective one-two punch. my sense is that the secretary will have an opportunity to make a selection based on what she thinks is best. i have total faith that she will look this over carefully and her decision will be like many of her decisions, a wonderful one for the american people. erika: do you want the job? rep. becerra: there is a lot of talk that the house of representatives could be in play and democrats have a chance to gain the majority. i have been working for quite some time at that. i would be fortunate if i could see democrats reclaim the majority of the house and if they reclaim the majority of the senate. working with the president clinton, i would be looking for it to working with her as a member of congress, hopefully in a leadership position, but let

me tell you, it is an opportunity that we all of forward to having a good november. the most important thing for me is a good november. where i am, my thinking is i will hopefully be an effective member and house of representatives and that is what i will work toward. greta: following up on leadership in the house -- erika: we have the top three democratic leaders that have been in place for some time now, does that lead to you and others somewhere to rise with new blood at that top of the democratic ladder? rep. becerra: there are many ways to express yourself in congress. i have been strongly supportive of other democratic leaders, like nancy pelosi, she has been a phenomenal leader, certainly for democrats in the house. as long as she is interested in being a champion for working

families, i think she will have strong support in the democratic caucus. my opportunities come from being in a position to help manufacture real opportunity for a lot of americans. what the opposition that is, i cannot tell you right now, but come november, i hope there will be a space for someone like me. christina: you mention in near-term term, the chair expires at the end of this congress. what could be next are you in a path for leadership as the top three members are not going anywhere? rep. becerra: you are asking a guy who is the first in this family to go to college, probably never dreamed growing up that i could be a member of congress, let alone helping the next president of united states get elected, so when someone say what is next, i am an optimist. i have an education that cannot be taken from me. i have a wonderful family that has been supported through the

years. the sky is the limit and i want to make should that when the window opens, i can jump and i intend to do as much can to be a leader for the country wherever the opportunity presents itself. i have an opportunity to do something there. when, how, we will see. erika: i wanted to ask about the senate race in california. we will have to democrats competing against each other, kamala harris and loretta sanchez, you have not endorsed. why would you have not endorsed a latina in the race? isn't there time for a latina leader in california with such a large percentage of hispanics in the population? rep. becerra: it certainly is important to have someone like loretta sanchez, who is qualified and capable leader who happens to be latino.

it could easily be stated -- said the same with harris as well. we are beginning to get these capable leaders who happen to be people of color and opportunity. i think it is going to be a fantastic contest. we have a good choice to make between the two candidates. i look forward to that debate and campaign. i have not made any decisions as of yet to endorse, but i am thrilled that we have two capable leaders that are competing to be california's next senator. erika: what do you republicans in california are going to do? there is suggestion that it will get behind sanchez. what do you see on that? rep. becerra: that will be interesting. that is the dilemma that they face quite honestly throughout the country. the party of lincoln -- where did they go on the senate race? i hope they make smart

decisions. i hope they do not feel like they can sit this out. it is important to have all californians participate. whether you are a democrat, publican, independent, i think it is important for them to take a close look at candidates. i hope people in california will look closely and feel comfortable making their election. christina: going back to when you see yourself as being member of the house rather in another coalition, will you put your name out there and project that democrats will win the house this year with trump essentially being a drag on the republicans? rep. becerra: i am willing to put my name out there on a lot of different things. in terms of this election, i would say that i put my name out there and say that democrats will do very well in november because i believe americans will see that there is a real contrast between the party of

trump in the particular clinton -- trump and the party of clinton, who is about creating jobs, increasing wages, give better health care opportunities, fight for students who do not want to be burdened by debt, and in the end of the day, i feel comfortable saying that november is a good year for america and i believe democrats will reflect better what america lives for and we will do well. i tell you today that that means the congress will flip and become democratically controlled. i hope so and i will work really hard for that, and we have phenomenal candidates that i can tell you right now, the supervisor in santa barbara county, just a go-getter to replace lois in congress and did way better than any expected. i believe he will be the next member of congress because he has worked so hard to read he happens to the democrat and a very talented guy. that is the quality of candidates democrats are putting forward. they give me hope that this is going to be a congress that wants to work with the president and not get in the way.

greta: should senator sanders be the vice president's pick? rep. becerra: i think he has earned an opportunity to be considered, but that decision is totally, totally to the person who worked very hard and earned a nomination, so secretary clinton has earned the right to make that selection. i have total faith that she is going to make a really good selection. i have confidence that her decision will be great for america and one of the most important ones that she will make will come early with her selection of the vice president. greta: what should be the role for senator sanders going forward in the party? rep. becerra: big, influential, active. i hope he is as animated in november as he has been throughout the primary process. he has awoken many folks, he has made young people believe, he has given democrats an

opportunity to bring in to our party so many different faces. i thank him for all he has done, but i don't to say for all the is done because he still has a lot to do. his voice will be important out there because he inspired people that began to distance themselves from the electoral process and our government needs to have people wanting [indiscernible] greta: think back to when this all started in the primary season. do you think you would have ever said that senator sanders has a big role to play in the democratic party? rep. becerra: no, no. you know what? this is america. that is the beauty of america. who also would have said that the republican party would become the party of trump? you never know. if we do not have active participation, we could go in different directions. i think the two parties are

going in different directions. the party of lincoln is becoming the party of trump. the party that fault with -- that was fought for with ,oosevelt and kennedy and obama now look at clinton and in whatever capacity he wishes to have and she lets them have, we will continue to show people we are the party of opportunity. erika: back to the house agenda, speaker ryan has been rolling out an agenda for the future. one of which this week was around poverty programs and instituting particular new work requirements for some of those programs. what we are thoughts on that, is there any value to that? rep. becerra: it is hard for me to go beyond what speaker ryan said about donald trump. listen to him about what he says about poverty because he has

endorsed donald trump. he has claimed donald trump has uttered racist comments about the constituency community in america that has worked very hard. and i say this like the judge, who donald trump has attacked in a racist fashion, i like the judge. i am the son of immigrants as well. of mexican heritage. i worked very hard. i would hate for someone to say that simply because i have mexican heritage that all of a sudden i cannot be a member of congress. when someone like this because the house of representatives, second in line to succeed should something happen to the president, that our candidate for the white house has uttered racist remarks and endorsing them for the white house, it is hard for me to believe that paul ryan can believe that with donald trump as president, we will tackle poverty the right way. it was donald trump who said in

2007-2008 that he was looking forward to the wall street-driven economic crash that caused millions of americans to lose their homes. why was he looking forward to it? because it would give him an opportunity to purchase these homes at cut rates and make a lot of money. you can talk to me all you want about policies, but if you are supporting the guy he wants to make money off of the desperation and difficult economic circumstances of millions of americans, it is hard for me to believe they will have a good anti-poverty stands. -- anti-poverty program. christina: speaker ryan announced that starting with the next appropriations bill, amendments will be limited and members of either party will not be able to offer what they like anymore, and democrats have said that is critical, but at the -- that is hypocritical, but at

that same time for republicans took over the house in 2011, democrats also planned down on appropriations bills, so is it fair for democrats to bring those charges against republicans now when they did the same thing? rep. becerra: it goes back to what i was saying about trying to believe what speaker ryan is saying about poverty when the guy he supports was happy to make money off of people in desperate economic straight. in this case, it was speaker ryan who said we would have an open democratic process when it comes to moving the bill to the house of representatives and for the house to debate, and now he is saying, that is gone so he is blocking that open debate that he said would be the marquis of his speakership. am i surprised? are we surprised that things are being blocked in the house of representatives? this has been the biggest graveyard for good ideas that we have ever seen in this democracy, where time after

time, whether it is job push, improvements to the affordable care act, the house of representatives, republicans, congress have locked that progress, so i'm not surprised that now they are trying to block open debate on the house floor, but i just said, it is not so much whether you have full of debates but it is getting things done. i think most of america would say, if you could get meaningful things done, they could accept that. the problem is, you are upset enough debates and not getting things done. it is the worst of all worlds. greta: what is your production or what could happen later this year legislatively in the house? working republicans and democrats come together? rep. becerra: [laughter] that is the answer. there are not that many opportunities, unfortunately.

most of the president's are puzzles have been blocked. most of what we see being put forward in the house is not something that is really going to get the presidential signature in law, and we are seeing more and more being done to the official challenges -- channels of the house of representatives for political -- are political campaigning that we are actual policymaking that helps people know that their wages will not go up or that their children can afford to go to college or that we will not get into a war that is unnecessary, so we are already hearing that republican leadership is telling us that we are going to skip out of town, out of washington mid july and be out until september. obviously, we cannot do much work if they are already going to miss the week of the fourth of july, and the only have a couple weeks left in june.

in september, have to at least accomplish the job of getting the budgets done, which republicans have not been able to do happen to work that should be done by now. you can see how little time will be left to get meaningful work done. greta: does that mean congress is heading toward another [indiscernible] rep. becerra: that has been the mode of operation. you wait to see the clip, you fall over, you panic and try to do something at the last moment so here we are. wait, wait, wait and then we start to panic and them before we rush out to finish campaigning, we try to get this done, probably patched together a temporary budget. greta: i should explain that a package of spending bills is altogether. rep. becerra: yes. erika: one important bill that did pass this week was bipartisan majorities and it was the puerto rico rescue bill, attempting to help puerto rico

get out of this massive debt. you voted against it. why? rep. becerra: i respect the work that was done on that bill. it was a bipartisan bill. actually, it was voted for and against. quite honestly, it needed to see more work done like that. this is the difficulty for me. my state of california updo years back was in a very difficult economic situation with its budget. we had a budget deficit the size of most state's entire budget. their budget, not the deficit. we were going to have a difficult time. when i want to tell the people of my state that the way to fix our economic crisis is to slice the working wages of the lowest income californians by nearly half, when they had no role in this hedge fund driven debt crisis, what i want to see

californians be told that the people who would stall the restructuring that has to go on in california to get us out of this economic difficulty would be people from outside the state of california? i cannot accept that. at the end, as much work as an of that a lot of people put into this, i am not going to tell the american citizens in puerto rico that someone else will determine how they govern themselves and how they get themselves back into economic prosperity, nor am i going to tell, for sure i am not going to tell hard-working puerto rican to make a little more than the minimum wage that they will seek their wages slashed in half because that is one of the provisions that some members of congress think have to be included to get puerto rico out of the economic crisis. they did not cause this and i'm not about to tell american citizens in puerto rico or in my

state of california that they have to see their wages sliced in half to fix a problem they did not cause. with respect to the housing crisis and the 2000 eight wall street-driven economic crisis that we face, a whole bunch of americans lost their homes. they had little to do, if nothing to do, with the crisis and they paid the biggest price. how many wall street bankers went to jail? i think we are still trying to find out. erika: isn't that letting the perfect be the enemy of the good? rep. becerra: no because no one will say that we were looking for perfection and knowing what to you that this bill was perfection. what we are looking for is something that works. i cannot tell the american citizens in puerto rico that i think this works better than what with at least have excluded the slicing of the minimum wage for american citizens in puerto rico, and certainly a fair way of determining what the next

steps are. if puerto rico will get itself out of the crisis, it will be puerto ricans who do it. it should be a solution that they come up with great i am concerned that this board that will govern and determine all these things could essentially for all the people who had no role of connection to puerto rico, and i would not want up for californians. i would not other folks in other parts of the country to tell how california could get ourselves out of the mess we are in and i would not tell californians who are making minimum wage that they would have to cut their salaries in half so the problem could be solved because of what hedge fund managers and others did. greta: we had time for a couple more questions. christina: if hillary clinton were to win the presidency, what policy do you think she should

push forward in her first 50 days? rep. becerra: i believe you will almost immediately see her actions to get more americans a chance to get better jobs. she has talked about making investments in some of the projects that we have not watched as congress support, fixing our roads and bridges, including our schools. the things that we know we have to do, but we have been putting aside and waiting for the day that the bridge collapses or the school has a leaky roof, so she is saying, we have got to do it. that's do it now. let's put americans to work. americans who may not be college graduates but they may get a decent wage working in construction, and it gives them a chance to buy that home or send their kids to college. i believe she is going to work as vigorously as she can to find a bipartisan solution to immigration. she has said that already that she would introduce a bill and

work with congress. she knows what she is talking about there. i do believe that she would try to tackle this looming debt crisis almost immediately because it cannot wait. my eldest daughter is about to start college in the fall. i am fortunate my wife and i both have professional degrees, but there are a bunch of families like my parents, a construction worker and clerical worker, they make tough decisions on it their child can go to college. issue not have to worry that debt will prevent the child from going to school. christina: you mentioned infrastructure, immigration, reform, which of those three do think she should prioritize? erika: and his immigration reform in the realm of possibility with republicans leading the house? rep. becerra: i believe secretary clinton can walk , to gum -- walk and chew gum

and do good policy at the same time. i do not believe she will say i can only work on making sure we are improving our roads and schools or we need to fix the broken immigration system and not worry about anything else. fortunately, she has multitasked really well. when you have a system where you have a cabinet secretary and the congress, he should be able to handle quite a few balls in the air. i don't think she will wait to say, i can only do one at a time. we have to make sure that she has success, but i believe -- and she may have a different priority. i just told you three things that i know she has talked a lot about, that she is passionate about, that i believe are worthy of being tackled. but immigration, as difficult as it has been, there are votes in the house and in the senate, bipartisan votes, democrats -- i don't think there is any question.

every democrat is ready to vote, but i know that our republican members are ready to vote but it is that republican leadership has not permitted democrats and republicans to vote or this. it is coming, and those who try to resist it, they are playing on a team that will lose. it is time, not just for security and our economy, it is time that we fix this broken immigration system. greta: congressman, we have to leave it there. thank you so much. we are back with that reporters eric of warner and christina. let's begin with what you heard play out during our interview there with xavier becerra when it comes to strategy and how democrats are going to talk about this presidential election and policy up on capitol hill. erika: i think that mr. becerra's answer about paul

ryan's poverty agenda tells you everything you need to know. he pivoted to ryan's endorsement of trump and what becerra said was given that endorsement and the fact that they're linking arms, he is not going to really listen to what paul ryan is proposing on poverty or any other topic. that is going to be the playbook from democrats for november. greta: christina, is that already happening on capitol hill? christina: it is, normally, that bill passes wide bipartisan majorities. this week, it passed party lines because there is a provision that would reverse the decision to stop using the word "illegal alien" in their subject setting and they argue that they are the ones who have been enabling

[indiscernible] greta: talk a little bit about what you heard going forward for the democrats? how they come together and let hillary clinton will do and how she will views congressmen like -- how we should you -- how she will use congressmen like congressman becerra to her advantage going forward as she matches against donald trump? erika: we know hillary clinton's own approval ratings are nothing to get very excited about. fortunately for them, they have trump. we will hear that time and again, going to what trump said about the judge and becerra referenced his own mexican heritage and latinos will be 10% of the electorate, much higher

in states like california, and that will really resonate with someone like becerra talking spanish on spanish talking networks and i have a feeling we may be hearing more about what trump has done with positive agenda for the rest of the election. greta: what do you hear from lawmakers themselves and they have watched senator sanders evolved into this phenomenon on the presidential trail? christina: they are hoping they can lure him back to the full by saying, look, you can come back to the council. you have more influence ever done before. before, he was used on the left and now he'll be viewed among other senators commanding the millions of voters who are passionate about him during the primaries, so they will still be

watching what bernie sanders as much as closely than before. erika: it has been a remarkable evolution as christina was saying. senator sanders is someone who is not a member of the democratic party -- evolution as christina was saying. senator sanders is someone who was not a member of the democratic party, kind of a one-man band, not leading a major committee, not commanding a lot of major legislation. that could really change. he has the opportunity to potentially depending on on the health committee, education and pensions, in the next congress would be a great forum for a lot of his passions and he would take on a much larger role. greta: he met with senator reid in the capital. have you heard or are those negotiations starting? is he leveraging what he is able to do in the presidential election? erika: certainly, and at this moment in time it is a two-way

street as democrats try to ease him toward formally dropping out and endorsing hillary clinton, which he has not done, and not alienating him and his legions of fired up reporters -- supporters. the conversations of what can we do for each other? what would make sanders happy and what can he do for the democratic party. they can help each other. greta: congressman becerra, when asked if he would consider the vice president job -- where is he on the list? christina: he has been a top surrogate for her the last several months. he has a very important constituency. he seems to feel he is more likely to stay in the house. in general he is on these lists, but he is not one of the more

top picks like, say, senator warren. greta: thank you both for being part of "newsmakers" this week. appreciate it. >> this is amazing for the family story. perpetrated,lty the empire is increased, great love affairs. fathers kill their sons. sons collude in the murder of fathers. a discussion of the romanoff's about the dynasty that ruled russia for over 300 years. >> all the girls and children were wearing their own bulletproof vests. and hundreds of

diamonds. they could have money in case they escaped. they spent months selling these diamonds in. when the bullets came, these made the execution and agony much longer because the bullets bounced off diamonds, the hardest substance known to man. c-span talks with democratic senator tim kaine of virginia about growing up in kansas city, his moved to richmond, his early career, and his tenure as governor of virginia. also his work in the senate and his future. this is 45 minutes. somebody born in st. paul, minnesota, raced outside inkansas city, end up

richmond, virginia? sen. kaine: i grew up in kansas city. paul. got a job in st. after a couple of years, they were homesick. they moved back to kansas city. i was raised in the midwest. harvard law school. i met this beautiful virginian. i learned what a great negotiator she was. we have been in richmond for 32 years. >> let's talk about growing up in kansas city. the oldest of three boys. brothers,: two great a pediatric cardiologist. he operates on the hearts of newborn babies.

brother pat, he and his wife have a law firm. they are both wonderful guys with kids. my parents are 81 and still alive and my brothers live close to them. they do like visiting virginia. earlyead that you were up on saturday mornings, worked at your dad's iron shop? sen. kaine: my dad had a company called iron crafters. it was an iron working in welding shop. -- iron working and welding shop. it was largely a shop that would make things -- icicle frames, or not -- bicycle frames, balconies.iron work

classic midwestern manufacturing business. up early to try to work before it got hot. my dad was a great business guide and he taught us his business acumen what his school. kids through it was a wonderful place to learn about hard work and not cutting corners. you have to be a team if you're going to be successful. about iron you learn work? sen. kaine: years later, when i was at harvard law school, i took a year off to work with missionaries in honduras. i landed there, taking a year off of school, they said, ok. harvard law school has zero relevance to what we are doing.

something your dad do in the trades? so i ran their vocational school. whocruited the successor followed me when i went back to law school. i learned a lot about life values from my dad in the business and the little bit of iron working i learned was enough to add that curriculum into the school and teach kids some of the basics of welding. >> what were you like in high school? nerdlyine: kind of a student. i love learning. especially reading. if you asked teachers or asked people i was with, they would say iowa's that my nose in a book -- i always had my nose in

a book. i was active in student government and in the student newspaper. we had a great athletics program. the main thing i remember about high school, taking off intellectually. it was a jesuit high school. the jesuit order of the catholic tradition in social justice and they tried to teach you to measure your life by the effects you could have on other people's lives. experience was fantastic. >> was a transformational for you? ways, ite: in some started a transformation. my parents are great, fantastic

irish catholics. iowa's joke about my parents, if we got back -- i always joke , if we got back sunday night from a trip to kansas city, they would always know where the 8:30 p.m. mass was. my parents did not talk that much about their faith. preach the gospel, use words if necessary. the high school was played -- high school was the place we started doing a lot of talking about faith and spirituality and that me and a seeker mode. -- it led me to take this year off and go to honduras and it has continued to lead me.

part of my was a key transition into an adult life. instead of just accepting the answers of my parents or others, i've been a person who have wanted -- who has wanted to go out and find the answers on my own. and the jesuits get credit for that. i do what i do because of spiritual reasons. everybody has motivations in life. almost feel like i am always -- whatever i'm doing, i have an inner dialogue going that is a spiritual dialogue. what is the broader significance of this interview? what is the broader significance of the vote i am taking? i am only thinking about the momentary reality and the way it connects with the bigger matters of what is important in life. i try to approach my job that way. and be upfront with people about

it. not because i want anybody else to be me. i sort of feel like sharing my motivation with others is a good thing and if i do that, i hope others will share their motivations with me and that is how i can learn and get to be better at what i do and better as a person. useve a spiritual phrase i -- it was written by george foxx. in 11 words, it conveys a spiritual philosophy. walk cheerfully over the earth answering that of god and everyone. -- in everyone. walk, move the active. cheerfully, the upbeat. -- p upbeat. -- be upbeat. answering, you cannot answer if you don't listen.

spark in eache person. that is my discipline i try to use and what i do as a person. >> i want to talk about honduras. he went to the university of missouri and you initially started in journalism. sen. kaine: i came of age during watergate and crusading journalists made a huge impression on me growing up. i will tell you would joke. i started to work on the student paper and everybody who was there like me, they were too cynical. man, i cannot believe how cynical these folks are and if i hang out with them, i will not be fit to live with. i decided to get out of journalism and i went into the uncynical worlds

that -- careers of lawyer and politician. i had a great gpa and i did well on my law school boards and i remember going to talk to my advisor in the economics department, talking about going to law school. he said, have you thought about trying to go to harvard or yale or stanford? with your scores, you could go anywhere. that thought had never occurred to me. i applied to a bunch of schools and i got into harvard and i decided to go. i have never stepped foot on campus until the day i showed up for campus -- for classes.

i met my wife there so that was worth triple the tuition. it was an amazing experience. are in law school for one year and decide to take a break. why honduras? what did you do? sen. kaine: i had gone through college in three years. when i started at harvard at age 21, i might've been the youngest person in my class. all of these people i met, they worked as journalists, they had traveled around the world. i remember thinking, why am i rushing? , i don't really know what i want to do with my life and everybody else seems so sure. they were just better actors than me. what if i took some time off? the high school i went to had a

connection with a jesuit mission in honduras and i had been once in high school in 1974. this is now 1980. is there something i could do to really take a step away and learn and then decide on my path in life? when i was in honduras, i always thought i could come back and volunteer one day. i decided to write to these guys. i got a letter back from there and they said, yes. i marched into the dean's office and i said, i want to take a year off. i remember their reaction. they checked to see if i had unpaid bills. they checked my grades. really confronted that. i knew i needed to maybe step away from the treadmill a little

bit to figure out what i wanted to do with my life and i felt like going to honduras and spending that year helping and learning. it was all that and much more. there in 1980 and 1981. most of the missionaries were spaniards, some americans, and hondurans. when i came back, it's me on a path and my wife and i -- it to put me on a -- it path. my wife and i went back for our 20th wedding anniversary. was ash wednesday in 2015. i asked john korman -- senator

cornyn from texas, president obama wants to make a big investment in central america. with wasnity i worked at the heart of this. said, come to mexico and talk about energy reform and i will come with you to honduras to learn about this issue. at the mainass parish in the central square. unbeknownst to me, they reached out to all of the jesuits who had been there when i was there and ask them to celebrate mass. center, he had been my roommate for a while, and he was now a priest in guatemala. he came back from guatemala.

they were part of the jesuit community. doing great work. they all came up the aisle as the professional happened. i think i know those guys. it was a very moving experience. we went back and visited the school. when i was there, 25 kids. when i left, 60 kids. and now it is about 200 kids. and then we went to the graveyard on the hill where a lot of our friends are buried. it was a really special visit. >> when you were there in the early 1980's, what did you learn about the people of honduras? and what did you learn about america?

sen. kaine: this would be an hour and a half. -- what was the second i learned was happiness is not that correlated with wealth. correlated with are you a giving person or not? -- ihad the opportunity learned from them that happiness is spread around the human condition. i learned the power of faith to deal with and understand adversity. i learned -- i was getting tired of the catholic worship i was used to, big suburban parish, 45 minute mass because you had to

empty the parking lot. was 2.5 hours long and it was so vibrant and chaotic and fun. strong spiritual life can help you deal with the challenges we all face in life. i do not think you can understand the things about your own culture until you step outside of it. you take things for granted. honduras was a military dictatorship. the jesuits were persona non grata with the military. i lived with people who prayed for the day they could vote for anything. but i was living in a country where voting turnout was low.

it really made a believer in me about our system. the rule of law is a whole lot better than the iron fist people still live under all over the world. if you are in a society that gives you the privilege to participate, you have to take advantage of it. the pictures of my friends waiting in line with big smiles on their faces because they could finally participate. you see those pictures from all around the globe. it taught me about things we take for granted. physical things we take for granted, opportunities. -- havingovernment the opportunity as a regular person to participate in choosing your leader, that was a lesson to me about her own -- about our own culture.

>> how did you meet your wife? sen. kaine: my wife and i are the same age. for three weeks of the year, she is older than me. andhad gone to princeton because i've gone through college in three years, i started law school a year ahead. i came back, we both were involved in a clinical activity at harvard or they would send law students -- where they would send law students out to do disciplinary hearings and to test yourself on your feet. ann was really involved in this organization. she was supposed to recruit new members. this guy is coming back, can you make an effort to convince them to come back and work? she claims she was trying to convince me to come back and was trying to convince me to pay

attention to her and we were in classes together and she made chocolate chip cookies once for a study group. her side of the story, from the day of those chocolate chip cookies, i was a goner. we started dating in the middle of that year and we've been together ever since, married 32 years this november. she is my public service hero. she has been a legal aid lawyer and a juvenile judge. and now she is secretary of education in virginia. she is a public servant and mother and sister and wife. she juggles all of those roles and makes it seem so easy. thomas jefferson's daughter

virginia'serson was second governor. patsy was the wife of a governor. my wife is the only person to have lived in the governor's mansion as a child and then as an adult. memory of meecial becoming governor in 2006 was at the end of the long day of being sworn in an inaugural events, we go back to the governor's mansion and they say to me, governor.me, and they say to my wife, welcome back home. she had told all the kids about the tricks they used to play on people. she wishes she had not.

we had a remarkable time as governor. a huge honor to have the job. being able to be back in what had been her girlhood home and have her parents, who had been tram assortment of -- transformative leaders at a difficult time in virginia, to share that experience with us. >> what is your father-in-law like? sen. kaine: my father-in-law, the first elected republican governor in virginia. he is my political hero. he came back from being a -- ininer in world war ii the first election after he got back, 8% participated. it was a one-party state. he came back and said, i have

been fighting for democracy and i am coming back to a one-party state. i will try to build up a competitive two-party system. he built up a republican party that was the progressive alternative to the segregationist democrats. in 1965 andovernor lost. all the while building the party. naacp submit them, organized labor supported him. supported him, the organized labor supported him. when he integrated the school, it was an act of courage and principle and he was frozen out of electoral politics in virginia. governor 48-year-old ex-

who tried to run for the senate. people were really mad at him about what he had done to try to bring about a better day in virginia. now he is 92 years old and people look at what he and his wife -- because his wife was his partner in all of this, they look at what they did, that was a guy who had a tough time, had to make it tough call, and he made it the right way. he changed virginia. for that reason, he is my great hero. he gives me a lot of advice. when i am smart, i follow it. >> let me ask you about the picture up there. sen. kaine: it is very unique in american history. it was on the front page of the new york times when the school busing integration order came down and he decided, we are not

fighting it and said we will in -- we will embrace integration, the best way to do it was that his own family would participate. the governor's mansion is in the heart of the city enrichment. -- in richmond. if i'm going to say that school integration is a good thing, my kids should go to the neighborhood schools, which were almost completely african-american schools. education is important and kids should be able to sit down together regardless of race. that is my father-in-law and my wife's sister walking into kennedy high school on the opening day of school and it was on the front page of the new york times. a lot of southern governors -- pictures of southern governors

blocking the schoolhouse door trying to keep black kids from sitting next to white kids. only one picture of a southern governor escorting his daughter into school saying, integration is good. and it is not just for other people. that influence has been on -- been so powerful on me and on my wife. in my career fighting for civil rights in virginia in the area , andusing discrimination in my work as a mayor in a very diversity, and as my work -- in my work as governor and senator, his work is the one i try to take inspiration from. >> how did city council prepare you for serving in congress? sen. kaine: being in local office is the best training for

being in any office. partisanship was not important. i have always been a democrat. i became a democrat the day i realized my parents were republicans. people -- it was about results. this in ship was not important -- partisanship was not important. if people did not see the tangible effects of what you did, you are not getting reelected. in local office, you are accessible. people will stop you in the grocery store. i once had a woman rear end mike kupchak on broad street -- mike pickup truck on broad street. that i just run into the mayor?

there is the zoning issue coming up in city hall next week. you are really up close and personal. you can make people happier and starting in that place where partisan was important and relationship was important that to me has been the base of everything i've done in government since. >> you then went on to be governor. how did you approach that? >> i was lieutenant governor to a longtime friend. matt warner and i met at harvard lawsuit. he was a kid in connecticut. and i was a kid from cost city. i reconnected with him when he was in the governor's campaign in 1989. and then we were friends.