we have to move onto another event. final thoughts? guest: i think that is what terrorists want to do. they want to scare us. politicianshave using that same rhetoric of fear , the better off the terrorists are. brill contributed this to the atlantic. are we any safer after 9/11? things were time this morning. at the national press club, an event taking a look at the topic of terrorism and national security. former senator bob graham who will be speaking on classified information that was held after the 9/11 terrorist attacks that have recently come to light. he was pick about what the information found and what he thinks of it. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2016] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> more transparency into the worst terrorist attack on united states soil. senator graham is the co-author of "america, the owner's manual:

you can fight city hall and win ." he is also a former two-term governor of lord of. since leaving the senate in 2005, graham has been the chair of the congressional commission on weapons of mass destruction, proliferation, and terrorism, a member of the financial crisis inquiry commission, and cochair on the presidential commission on the bp oil spill. a phi beta kappa graduate of the university of florida and harvard law school. senator graham will offer some remarks and will turn to questions. i will call on you and ask that you identify yourself. you may also submit questions to questions@press.org.

senator graham, the time is yours. fortor graham: thank you the opportunity to come back to the national press club. on july 15,said, after some 14 years, the chapter of 28 pages from the final report of the congressional joint inquiry in the 9/11 was released. i want to recognize the role that a number of american journalists have played in achieving this objective. i will just focus on a few, but there were many who continue to bring to the attention the thatc -- to the public they did not have the full information as to what had transpired from one of the most horrific days in american history. lucy morgan of "the tampa bay hope of "the new kept a regular

reflection on reminding people that these pages were missing and their potential significance might be. tony summers and dan christiansen, journalist and blogger with "the florida bulldog" broke the story on sarasota, which i will discuss in a moment. finally, howard rosenberg was the producer of the "60 minutes" segment that was come in many ways, the end of the withholding of the 28 pages. the release of the pages received a variety of interpretations. there were some who said this to thes the saudi link 9/11 hijackers. the foreign minister of saudi said the matter is now versions castds at saudi arabia for the last 14 .ears will end

i believe there is a different interpretation, and that is that this is removing the court from the -- cork from the bottle. there is a significant amount of information, which like a 28 pages, has been withheld, and that it was necessary to get this first block of material to the public in order to build the support that will be necessary for the balance of the material to flow. the unanswered questions still remain largely unanswered. did these 19 people, most of whom did not speak english, most of whom had never been in the united states before, most of whom were not well educated, did they carry out this sophisticated task alone, or did they have some form of support while they were in the united states? if the answer is they had some support, who provided that

support? a couple of contextual facts about the 28 pages. one, they were written in the fall of 2002. we know a lot more even in spite of the stringent efforts to withhold than we did in the fall of 2002. second, most of the information in the 28 pages was derived from three of the 19 hijackers, the three who lived in san diego. the other 16 hijackers lived across the country, primarily in places like florida, virginia, .ew jersey there were investigations conducted in each of those, and other places, which have also been classified and withheld. open,at the bottle is what is likely to pour forth?

i think there are three casks into which the liquid will flow. pages, written28 but a fall of 2002, number of instances were not completed. we were under a mandate to submit our final report before the end of that session of congress, which meant by the end of december of 2002, and there were some issues that had not been taken fully to ground. then example, the role of long saudi ambassador of the united states come in the 28 pages, it is disclosed that in the book of one of bin laden's closest operatives were the telephone numbers which were otherwise unavailable to his

aspen, and to his bodyguard, here in washington. there was also information about the fact that both he and his wife had been involved in money transfers which appeared to go and protectors of the three hijackers in san diego. was that where that money flow ended, or did it end up supporting the hijackers? that is the kind of questions that were raised in the 28 pages, but i hope we will now get information to close those loops. second, there has been a number of developments since december 2002. of 2011, and author, anthony summers, and the

journalist dan christiansen disclosed the fact that there had been three hijackers who had lived near sarasota, florida while they were taking their flight training. , who wasluded mohammed thought to be the leader of the 19. while here, they had significant contacts with a prominent saudi which left the united states after six years of residence in sarasota, for saudi arabia under what was described as urgent conditions. a new car left in front of the house, food in the refrigerator, clothes in the close washer -- washer. when that story surfaced, the fbi's response was in a public statement, that it had done a complete investigation of the situation in sarasota, had found

no connections between the hijackers and the prominent saudi family, and that all of that information had been made available to the congressional joint inquiry and the citizens ./11 i was quickly able to determine that the third statement was incorrect. we searched the records of both the 9/11 commission and the congressional joint inquiry, talked to the leadership and chief staff of those and found they had never received any information about the situation in sarasota. happened to have the opportunity to look at two of the investigative reports written by the fbi agent in charge of the six months investigation, and he said there were many connections between the three hijackers and the saudi family. subsequently, in a release

document, through the freedom of information act, that report is now publicly available with the statement that there were many connections. and second, that the investigation was not complete, that there were other leads that had been suggested by the agent in charge which were not pursued. there are other examples of information like this that will be available when the investigative reports from andes like falls church southeast florida and paterson, new jersey become available. will be judicial. the families of 9/11 have been litigating to try to establish the relationship between the kingdom of saudi arabia and hijackers.nd the 19

those efforts have been frustrated, with the support of the u.s. department of justice and state, which has sided with the saudi's on this issue. and interpretation of a 1970 sovereign immunity law has been effectively raised by the saudi's to not only cause there to be the dismissal of actions against the kingdom, but against many of the entities within saudi arabia. there is currently legislation in the congress, it passed the u.s. senate unanimously, which would provide an exception to that 1970's law in the circumstances similar to 9/11, where there was an alleged foreign government involvement with a terrorist organization that resulted in harm to americans on u.s. soil. that matter is pending in the house of representatives and i hope that it will act during this session, ideally for the

15th anniversary of 9/11. the question was raised, why are you doing this? 15 years later, what difference does this make? get a life. i was told that by the deputy director of the fbi. the answer, i think, is threefold. one is justice. these almost 3000 american victims and their families deserve justice. they deserve the right, in a court of law, to present the evidence they have gathered which is voluminous that will link the kingdom and other entities of saudi arabia to the 19 hijackers. the second is national security. these are the facts. thesaudi's have heard

message from the united states, including the defense that has of itsovided by two major executive agencies, department of justice, department of state, to dismiss the suit against them. how have they interpreted those facts? i believe they have interpreted them as immunity. if the united states government will not take action in a case as serious and severe as this, the word is overused, but was a transitional event in history of the united states, what else will it take for saudi arabia to do before the united states government will be involved? i think the response that has come from that answer is we will ,ontinue to fund, as we have the major terrorist organizations, and we will continue to fund mosques and

madrasahs which are training the next generation of terrorism. the two things that any terrorist organization depends on is a consistent flow of money and recruits. saudi arabia is providing both of those. but i think the third reason why this is important is our democracy. there was a recent report from dartmouth college of a study of what is the impact of secrecy, particularly focusing on the 28 pages, to the american people? the result is cynicism and suspicion. the american people are losing confidence that their government is abiding by the essential compact of democracy, that the people will give their respect to the government, and the government will give its respect to the people by letting them know what the government is doing in their name. this is not the only factor that

is leading to a decline in confidence in government, and i think we are seeing it in full color in this presidential election. , and one other facts that relates to the book that chris hand and i have just americans is that have lost the sense of their personal ability to affect government. when benjamin franklin walked out of the con to touche not -- constitutional convention, a resident of philadelphia asked the question, mr. franklin, what have we got, a monarchy or republic? franklin responded, a republic, if you can keep it. and the that he founders gave us a republic is no assurance that we will always have it. i believe that one of the

essential elements to retaining a republic is to retain the concept that the role of the citizen is central, that it is the citizen for whom the republic was established, and for whom it will be accountable. today, too many people are dropping out. we had an important election yesterday in florida. early reports are less than one out of three, maybe one out of four, people took the time to less peopleuch getting actively involved. we are developing a democracy of spectators who think their role is to sit in the stands and watch the game of democracy, not be a direct participant. i believe our democracy is in trouble. until people begin to feel that they have a personal ability to bookt change, this "america, the owner's manual: you can fight city hall and win

out dozens of examples where citizens have gotten involved and made a difference. they did not just have to rely on selecting the right person to office, they did it themselves. and it provides the skills that are necessary in order to be an effective citizen. believe the linkage between the cynicism of government by its people and the suggestion that one of the ways to overcome that cynicism is to motivate, provide the skills for the citizens not to be tacit, but the active participants in their democracy, is one of the most important anecdotes. thank you very much, i appreciate the opportunity to return to the national press club and will be happy to answer questions, except from larry lipman, who asks nasty questions, which i can certify.

>> thank you, senator. thank you, senator. we will turn to q&a now. please identify yourself and your news outlet when asking the questions. you start toou if give a speech or start to stack the questions. let me start off with a couple. you allude to this quite often in your speech. is the united states government protecting saudi arabia, and why? yes, it isham: protecting saudi arabia, and i believe the reasons have varied over the years. one of the key reasons early on , atthat president bush said the site of the world trade center, that we will follow

these heinous people to the ends of the earth to bring justice for those who have lost their lives. we immunity decided the ends of the earth were in iraq. it was rather embarrassing than to have information flowing in to the intelligence agency that actually iraq had nothing to do with 9/11, but it appeared as if saudi arabia had a lot to do. so how do you square that difficult circle? i think the way, in part, was to submerge and suppress the information about the saudi involvement. is the another factor long relationship that the united states has had with saudi arabia going back to franklin roosevelt, his agreement with the king that we would provide them security, they would provide us oil. that relationship has been a to enter intoiage

a serious discussion as to whether may be separation or divorce is going to be required. reason moreher recently has been all the turmoil in the middle east. we have enough disturbance in thats like syria and iraq we do not need to add another one in saudi arabia. i believe, to go back to the marriage example, the way that marriages or any human relationships remain strong is honesty. that you share with each other and work through the difficult times. i think this is one of those times where our relationship with saudi arabia -- we are not going to have a positive, fruitful relationship with a country in which there is heavy suspicion that they were a facilitator in this horrific

event against our people. it took 14 years for the government to release 28 redacted pages. how confident are you the u.s. will release thousands of more pages of investigatory material when it took 28 pages 14 years? senator graham: we will have a task today which is how much news comes of this press conference that points out that the 28 pages were not the end, as the foreign minister of saudi arabia had said, but just an opening to massive amounts of additional information. to give you one example going , after the sarasota case the fbi released that statement ,hat there were no connections investigation was complete, they turned over information about this, then there were a series

of freedom of information ask initiated. incidentally, i learned one thing throughout this. have any of you been involved in a freedom of information act? i think the law should be amended. the amendment should be to require that, at the time you file your freedom of information, you also have to statement fromd an actuary as to what your life expectancy is. [laughter] thes just incredible tactics of delay and obfuscation that make the ultimate objective of letting the american people know what their government is doing become reality. let me use the sarasota case. fbi tost response by the the freedom of information act was, we are protecting privacy, we cannot release these 28 pages. the judge asked the obvious

question. the hijackers are all dead. the saudi families are back in riyadh. whose privacy are we protecting? the fbi did not have a good answer to that so he rejected that argument for non-release. the second defense was, we don't have any record. we conducted a six-month , interviewed scores, if not hundreds of people [no audio] sarasota investigation. this one judge with a couple of young clerks in fort lauderdale now has had this as his roommate , these boxes, for over two

years. i am hopeful that soon, to answer your question, that he will begin the process of ,eleasing the documents building on the drumbeat that will come out of this press conference with that hard information that the case will begin to move forward again. a foiabody who has outstanding for about five years, i understand your question. we have a microphone being passed around, so please wait for that. >> thank you for hosting this for him. senator graham, congratulations for what you are doing, insisting that the fax from 9/11, out. as you point out and as the media points out, the 28 pages points out, there were meetings, facts. in san diego, the meeting of the religious director with at least three of the hijackers, and 15

of the 19 were from saudi arabia, and there was money paid from the princes account. those are the facts. but it seems american policy is to hide an office gate. why? -- obfuscate. why when they admit they did not have a problem and then go forward on the basis of honesty saying that now we are fighting terrorism together. is it a matter of democrats and republicans pandering to saudi arabia? i don't understand why we don't take the facts and move on from there. senator graham: i thought i had answer that question earlier, but i will answer, no, this is not a partisan issue. in the house, the effort to pass this jasta legislation that will andfy the saudi defense, prior to that a resolution urging the president to release the 28 pages was led by a

republican, walter jones from north carolina, democrat stephen lynch from massachusetts. this had strong bipartisan support. thenything, it is more of executive branch versus the people of america. it has been the executive branch , through not only justice and state but treasury and intelligence agencies that have largely been the barrier to allowing this information to be known by the american people. let the american people that form a judgment. what do they think we ought to be doing in this relationship with saudi arabia? >> next question in. please identify yourself. >> jeff steinberg, executive intelligence review. senator, former and -- navy secretary john lehman, who was a commissioner on the 9/11 commission, said there was never a complete investigation by the 9/11 commission.

you have already said the joint inquiry was limited by time and resources. now, 15 years later, we have the 28 pages. as you indicated, lots of facts a report a -- there, written by the commission on your staff who were following up on the saudi leads. they listed 22 officials that have direct contacts with just the san diego hijackers. what do you envision as the next step, can there be a new investigation without the time restrictions and other problems, and do you support that, how would you envision moving forward from here in addition to the lawsuit which we do hope will be reinstated against the saudi's for discovery? senator graham: in addition to the request of the national release the custodians of the citizens 9/11

papers, to release those sections of its report which have been withheld, which relate to following up on the leads in the 28 pages. pages, is there a ar that about prince band pursues the leads outlined in the 28 pages? that will be one. second, there will need to be more freedom of information act. is there anyone here under the age of 40 that has the chance to be around -- [laughter] cia.the fbi and the another thing would be the president. i can understand why george bush acted the way he did. i cannot understand why barack obama is acting the way he is. this information is going to be is 2016 orher if it

26 or 36 or 46. like the pentagon papers, eventually it will come out. i think the legacy of barack obama will be stained when the people recognize how much information was under his that he made the executive decision to continue to restrict from the american .eople those are, i think, the principal lovers. -- levers. the american people care about knowing what their government did in this particularly egregious action. if so, will they put enough political pressure? the political candidates, they were both leaning toward releasing the 28 pages, have

they continued to be sequestered . maybe now they should be asked a different set of questions. i am not intending to do your , if yousm for you, but are the net president, will you release this other information for which the 28 pages are the indicator, but not the last word? >> you have endorsed secretary clinton. have you made it a part of your endorsement or conversation with the campaign, the focus exactly on this issue, and said i would endorse you if you do this? are you pressing her campaign to do that? senator graham: given the choice that we are going to have on november 8, there is hardly a strongthat would be

enough restraint against the other candidate to vote for donald trump. honesty,ot, in all even if she answered it in the way that i did not want her to do it, that i would not support a vote for her. >> question in the middle. andrew craig. justice integrity project. senator, you have mentioned, a few moments ago, if the american public puts enough pressure, maybe good things will happen on this issue. probably your book addresses how . i wonder if you could say to the audience listening on c-span and elsewhere, what can an individual do, based on your extensive knowledge of politics, to make something happen on an issue like this? what practical steps should or

could somebody do? senator graham: the most immediate thing is to contact your member of congress and urge he or she to vote for jasta. that bill has had a roller coaster existence over the last four or five years. it seems to be closer to reaching its destination today at any time in that period. the key is will the house take it up? my daughter happens to be a , secondf the u.s. house congressional district of florida. i asked her about this. she says, since the 28 pages were released, they have been ,etting more and more mail e-mails, contacts from constituents in support of jasta . that is where the pressure needs to be until that important task is accomplished.

jason. independent journalist. -- ifwas involvement there was involvement by the saudi government, what was the motive? we have seen immobilization by the u.s. government against really brought the issue of islamic extremism to the forefront. what is the reason they may have participated in this? senator graham: we are asking that question in the timeframe 2001 and the11, .eriod proceeding that some of this was laid out in a recent article by "the new york on the history of the saudi kingdom, what its motivations are. i think the underlying objective of the saudi kingdom is survival. they come out of a desert

tradition of antagonism at the tribal level. that is still a permeating concern. believe, after the 1990's first persian gulf war, that the saudi's felt very threatened, legitimately, because saddam hussein, if he had moved more quickly, could have invaded saudi arabia. felt that their relationship with the united states had been compromised because the united states had been previous to the invasion assisting in iraq and its military comeback -- combat with iran. so they were looking for other sources of defense. one of the things they did was start buying military supplies from particularly the british rather than from the united

states. but is a speculation, think bin laden, who had been exiled from saudi arabia, had gone to afghanistan, had been a major figure in the rejection of the soviet union from afghanistan, and had put together an army of 30,000 war hardened troops, went to the kingdom and threatened civil insurrection unless it would help him in a plot. i am not suggesting that he necessarily gave the details, but it was clear he wanted to do something big in the united states that was going to be adverse to u.s. interests, and needed help. the saudi's have people in the united states that have the capacity to render help, people like the man in san diego,

, associatess family of this family in sarasota. we don't know that yet. agreed to make these people available. but again, that is speculation. released,formation is information that is available not just on three but all 19 of the hijackers, that we will have a better and more fact-based answer to your question. mark meredith. nbc tent. you mentioned you felt stonewalled even by the deputy director of the fbi. did you ever feel like your life was at risk, your security a concern for you as you pursue this? senator graham: i never felt that, but i was disappointed, it appeared as if the fbi was

moving from a cover-up, which i consider to be a passive withholding of information, to aggressive deception. in the case of sarasota, which is one of several examples, they rewrote the narrative. we finished the investigation and have found no connections, when in their own files, written by their special agent from the tampa office incidentally, they had contrary information. continued,and have to withhold the information other than the 80,000 pages. from the public. i consider that to justify the categorization of being aggressive deception. wong.stina the hill.

what is the mechanism for the release of the investigations on the other hijackers, are there foias out? why would the fbi suppress those investigations? what role are the families playing? senator graham: you asked several questions, if i don't answer all of them -- the reason the fbi is doing it, one, it is not doing it on its own. the pattern of behavior from the fbi, cia, state department, justice department, treasury department has all been consistent. i think the message has gone out from the white house that we do not want any information relative to saudi arabia to be released. there was a very interesting and important book written several - with "they phil -

new york times" who had written a book about the investigation into 9/11. he pointed out the number of times information about the saudi's role was aggressively suppressed. this is not a new or unique to the fbi -- venture. do you believe -- you mentioned coming out from the white house -- didn't start from the bush white house and continue to the obama white house? senator graham: yes. >> the question before, have those requests on the other hijackers been foia'ed? i have beenam: involved in florida, and they have been in florida. incidentally, 13 of the 19 hijackers spent most of their

time in the united states in southeast florida. we have enough issues. don't take that into account as to where you are going to take your next vacation. i assume they have all left by now. i am not sure whether a foia has been filed in falls church, which is incidentally not far from here, if somebody wants to take that one on, or paterson, new jersey, two of the other places where numbers of hijackers lived for significant periods of time. >> lastly, what role are the families playing in getting increasing public pressure? their primary role -- senator graham: their primary role is to help the passage of legislation. firmsare very able law involved in this matter. much of thef

investigative work they have already done. channels of information about the saudi role, what will come out in that litigation, if it is allowed to occur, because sovereign immunity defense, will be astounding. canal plus french tv. is there any other channel that you are using, are you in contact with any other group, for instance wikileaks, or any other organization that would be able to help that issue be more , in a more scandalous way, so that people are forced to read and act on that? , you ared question is

asking for the house to vote on jasta. you are asking them to allow to sue afamilies foreign government in u.s. court. how confident are you that this will not open the door for other the united to sue states and as for reparations for other things that have been done? senator graham: first, use the word channels. i will state, i have not contacted and will not contact release ofo secure this information. i think the american government needs do it, not the subterranean manner. one thing that has impressed me is how much interest there is internationally in this. because i have,

participated in some of the production, there are programs, itv, the british commercial principles station will be issuing a documentary on this subject the week of september 11. there is a french and german documentary that has developed. and the australians are producing a very deep documentary on the whole suppression of information on 9/11. support is becoming international. has not just engaged itself in u.s. matters, going back to that "new york times" article of last week. they have had a very negative impact on making islam a much more rigid and reactionary religion in places like western europe and indonesia, and

it had been in the past. your second question was -- >> [inaudible] i know that is an argument against jasta. one of the frustrations here is there is another channel and it has been used many occasions. there has been some news coverage recently of the event that occurred 25 years ago when a pan am jet was blown up over lockerbie, scotland. the families, the victims did not go to court to get compensation. they went to their government. their government went to the libyan government and negotiated a settlement of some $2.5

billion, which was then distributed amongst the families of the victims. through two administrations there has been an unwillingness to negotiate with saudi arabia. was yourhat we know involvement. do you want to enter into diplomacy to determine the appropriate compensation of these american families? if the answer is we refuse to do so, and the reason i have been given is because the relationship is too important to even suggest to them that they may have been involved. well, i think it is a little presumptuous for the rest government to say on the one hand of these families, we will not enter into diplomacy like we did with lockerbie on behalf of the families of the victims, but at the same time, we will aggressively resist your ability to use our court system as a

means of getting justice. to be very argument unsatisfying. >> can i follow up on something about secretary clinton? are you concerned about anything that came out of her e-mails, do you feel there any e-mails involving secretary clinton that have not been released? senator graham: the answer to the second question is i don't know. believe, asor me to one, who for 10 years, had access to a lot of classified information, that any secretary -- certainly not knowingly -- but either by inadvertence, assisted in making classified information available .

documents that flowed through her computer, did only a few exceptions, not have any indication on them that they were considered to be .lassified by the to use her words, this was an act of bad judgment. she should not have done this. but i do not think it is a national security threat, or that she should be criminally indicted for this. >> thank you. many rob lowe, rt america. your experience dealing with the fbi tried to get more information about the saudi connection. withyou been in contact any officials in saudi arabia,

and if so, what has been the outcome of that inquiry? senator graham: some of the answers to your question i cannot discuss publicly. riyadh in 2011, 2012 , and had conversations on this issue at that time both with saudi and u.s. persons. gote was some information i that i think would tend to be a reinforcing of my relief -- belief that there was a relationship, but i cannot go beyond that. >> celia wexler. who, what, why, and online news organization. about whate clear

you are saying about saudi involvement. do you believe that saudi involvement is at the highest level of their government, or is it saudi officials, saudi individuals, or all three? senator graham: again, that is precisely the kind of information that is knowable, just not to anybody outside of a small group of people in the agencies who have control of the information. that itelief is involves layers of the saudi society, in part, because of the nature of the saudi society. the saudi society is a medieval monarchy where the king can literally do no wrong. other entities within that kingdom are reticent to act, particularly on something that would be as sensitive as being

duplicitous to your closest ally without some signal of clearance. i think there is an interesting part of the suits to date against saudi arabia. i mentioned it is not just the kingdom that was listed as a defendant, but also a long list of other saudi entities, banks, foundations, nongovernmental organizations. they have also claimed the same sovereign immunity that the king has claimed. and the courts have accepted that. , the assumption is, every institution, from the of ae to the back-office financial institution in saudi arabia is considered to be worthy of the protection of sovereign immunity, which says they must, in some way, be responsive to the kingdom which

holds that sovereign immunity. >> one follow-up. you were pretty much harassed by the fbi when you try to go further in your inquiries. since you went public, have you heard of anybody else who had that kind of treatment from the fbi? senator graham: no. situation which occurred in 2011, as all this information about sarasota was starting to come out. my wife and i flew up from miami to dulles to have thanksgiving with our daughter who lives in great falls. we were met at the airport by two fbi agents. they said an official with the fbi wants to talk to you about the sarasota situation. feeling maybeed, some of the questions we had

been asking were going to be answered. so we drove with the agents to s which theat dulle fbi has. my wife was put in one room. she was given as entertainment the fbi training manual. if you want to know some arcane aspects of fbi training, she is fully prepared. i was taken into another room with the deputy director of the female fbi agent, and a middle-aged lawyer from the department of justice, and essentially, the message was, we have done this complete investigation. everything that is known is known. you need to get a life. what he did not know was that i had actually read two of the investigative reports by their agent which

contradicted which they had said publicly and what he had just said to me privately. he said, you don't understand, one, that was not a very good agent. has there been an investigation by the fbi in its history that was as important to the american people as full knowledge of 9/11? and the very fact that they would say that they sent to head an investigation into what i think was an important component of the total picture, someone that they declared to be less than a fully capable person, was itself revelatory. then he proceeded to say, we have other information that puts what you read in context, and you will see that, in fact, what we have said is true. i said, fine, could i see the

information that would put it into context? he pointed to the young female agent and directed her to assemble the files. we arranged a time to meet at the fbi office for the district of columbia. a few days later, i showed up for our meeting, prepared to read these files. the deputy director was there and he said, the meeting is canceled. we are not going to reschedule it. knew who the agent was who was described as less than competent, and i had called him to try to have a telephone conversation -- he said, i know that you have been calling agent x. stop calling him because i have told him to stop taking your calls. of anys the last official character meeting i had

with the fbi. >> time for two more questions. >> i work with a tv station, a u.s. station based here. question is something that a lot of people in the middle east are asking, especially the moderate people, the anti-wahhabi people, the anti-sharia law people. arewe say that the u.s. sacrificing the 9/11 cause and its dignity as a superpower in order to keep oil supplies in the energy market? billion to keep the $7 anymerican banks and avoid economic crisis in the future.

this is why the americans are dealing peacefully with the saudi's. senator graham: if those questions are being asked in the middle east by people who you describe as being constructive, nonviolent individuals, that just underscores that releasing this information which would provide answers to questions like that, and not just personal speculation, is not only important for the american people, it is important for our global reputation. questions,swer those other than to the degree i have speculated on it earlier. i think it is important for the -- maybereputation this comes under the category of our national security. people respect us to be honest with what we know about the relationship with saudi arabia to 9/11, and begin that series

discussion of what our future will be, in terms of the relationship. earl,name is bill communicator with the national press club. i lost my godson in the 9/11 attacks. the 9/11 attack was really the second attack on the world trade center. saudi-connected and funded terrorist group bond the parking garages the world trade center. my question is, should it a look back be to the complacency of the u.s. government, going back as far as 1993, and then leading up to 9/11? senator graham: as a general proposition, i would say yes. in fact, there were some ties. one of the two people identified as being one of the principal protectors of the three people in san diego was a man who had

been peripherally involved in 1993.irst attack, back in there may be some evidence from that as to the relationship of saudi arabia to the perpetrators which may start the trail of information that would lead to their involvement in 9/11. again, that is the kind of information which an open thatssion with materials have been withheld, made available, could possibly answer. >> a couple of quick announcement before i ask a question. a few upcoming programs. chris murphy of connecticut will discuss his efforts to secure new gun-control legislation.

also, greg walden will be here to discuss efforts to keep and build on the gop house majority in the time of donald trump. september 15, ash carter will speak. , beforequestion to you we go to the book signing, which we will do in the room next door -- the senator has a few minutes. as the former chair of the senate intelligence committee, what do you think of donald trump now receiving classified briefings? senator graham: i think it is not only in the tradition of recent years, but it is very valuable that a person not show up on the first day of the job as president of the united states ignorant about what the conditions in the world that affect the security of the united states might be. as you might recall, when harry truman suddenly became president on the death of frank when

roosevelt, apparently, he did not even know the atomic bomb was under development. .e was a fast learner in the complex world in which we live today, having a person assume that ultimate commander in chief responsibility ignorant that were thenns operative, i think would be very much adverse to our national security. i am pleased that he is and iing these briefings assume that he will be careful treat them for the sensitivity that they for the sensitivity they represent. "america: the owners manual." thank you very much. [applause]

[captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]

>> this news conference and all of our coverage available in its entirety on c-span.org. senator bob graham talked about the turnout yesterday in primary holding its along with arizona. first, a focus on presidential politics coming up at noon eastern. hillary clinton will be speaking at the american legion convention. donald trumpcover speaking there tomorrow morning at 9:00.

this afternoon, with college getting underway across the country, george washington university law school hosting a discussion on the boundaries of free speech on the college campus. jeffrey rosen of the constitution center will be participating in that talk at 4:00 p.m. eastern on c-span. day.d trump, a very busy he's fund-raising in california, then to mexico city to meet with the mexican president who tweeted today that that meeting .ill remote mexico's interests then donald trump to phoenix tonight for the anticipated speech on immigration policy. we will have that for you at 9:00 eastern and follow that with your tweets as well. now on to the primaries yesterday. congressional primaries held in arizona and florida. this is the headline from the "miami herald" -- a big win for debbie wasserman schultz.

showing her arriving at the restaurant in sunrise, florida where she made these comments. representative schultz: i want to thank the best volunteers, supporters and constituents in america. much.you all so thank you for your love, support, your friendship, knocking on doors, making phone calls, practically living in our campaign headquarters. but really, most of all, i want the people i've had the privilege of serving for nearly 12 years in congress and 24 years as a public servant in this community, giving me the greatest national privilege of my life.

the chance to be able to be our community's voice, to stand up for the principles and values our community stands for, this is a community with an incredibly progressive heart and helplifted me up me to be able to shout from the rooftops the idea that you can use government as a catalyst to improve people's lives. [applause] it is what our people here in broward county and miami-dade county believe in. and today, i'm so proud to be the democratic nominee from florida. [applause] thank you so much.

[chanting "debbie, debbie"] my supporters and friends who have been with me all of these years, there are thousands and thousands and thousands of doors i have knocked on, ball fields i have stood on, publics that i have shopped in. we spend a lot of time running around this community and i want to thank most of all my incredible family. all of you know my amazing husband, saint steve. who i have been married to for 25 years this year. buying credible children, shelby startedwins who just their senior year, and my amazing parents who are the ones

that raised me to believe a little girl in america could grow up and be anything she wanted to be and that around our family dinner table, the idea of our faith and tradition of repairing the world and helping to make the world a better place when we are fortunate that it's our responsibility to make sure we can uplift others, that's what my parents taught me for my whole life. [applause] my dad gets mad when i make him cry. [laughter] what i did so many years ago was made ithose al use and a career choice. in the 80's when most of my friends in college were going down the corporate path and

making as much money as humanly possible, i saw another way. was lit by thet idea that i could devote my life to making other people's lives better, that i could be in there swinging every single day and be the voice of people who have no voice, to amplify the voices of others. to go to the state capital than the nations capital to make sure to make sure we have people standing up for the idea we can have an economy that works for everyone. to reach thehance middle class, have a good job that pays them well, not just a pittance that the republicans are willing to throw the crumbs that. our families across this community should have a chance to send their kids to college and that they are not having to pay for it into their 40's and 50's. eclipses credit

card debt in the united states of america today and that's .bsolutely unacceptable we have got to make sure we go back to washington. forced to vote in washington 64 times to repeal the affordable care act or dramatically change it. enough is enough. as a breast cancer survivor, as someone who has faced my own mortality before the afford will care act became law, i can ensure you the 129 million americans in this country who live like i do with a pre-existing condition are not going backwards to the battle days when insurance companies could deny us coverage. whoonderful constituents can keep their kids on their insurance until they are 26 your old are not going back to the battle days when i have to worry that her young adult child did

not make enough yet to decide to pay for health care. because now, they can make sure they can stay on their parents health care. seniors, it has given me the greatest joy to represent them. they deserve better than a doughnut hole that they have to ask the pharmacist to score their pills and break them in half. the affordable care act is closing the doughnut hole and saving millions of dollars for seniors on a fixed income. that is what public service is all about. going to bat for people to make they are focused on them and that's what i will do every single day. have a general election, right, broward county? [applause]

tomorrow, we turn to the general election, not just in florida past 23rd district but at the national level. we know in broward county how to put up pluralities that will carry hillary clinton all the way to the white house. as florida goes, so goes the nation. countyit that broward will carry hillary clinton for the white house. she will win florida. .hank you all so much thank you for your incredible support. i love you all and can't wait to get back out on the trail the day after tomorrow. [applause] thing.one more important incredibleof my staff past and present, there

were so many of us who have in here with me over and over again. have had former staffers come back, former staffers flight in, we have current staffers have come from all over. it was just amazing. this is the best professional public service team any public servant could ever ask for. please join me in thanking them. thank you all so much. [applause] and i want to single out to -- where is jody?

[chanting "jody, jody"] [applause] i think everybody in this room and practically everybody across the district, as much as i am known as just debbie, jody is known as just jody and she has been the most remarkable, loving, get it done, s campaign coordinator you could ever have. he has two beautiful girls of her own, a husband we could call st. john, thank you from the bottom of my heart.

and the other one i want to thank is the remarkably -- remarkable fun galley, steve. thank you. [applause] this is the other steve in my life. this steve has been amazing. we have an together all 24 years and have been involved in many campaigns together. a feeling we will be involved in many more. thank you all so much. [applause]

>> debbie wasserman schultz celebrating her victory in the 23rd district. this headline -- she prevails, beating back the primary challenge from tim canova. nbc six in miami -- debbie wasserman schultz tops tim canova. of canova had the backing senator bernie sanders. one more headline from the tampa bay times -- wasserman schultz needs tim canova and will face republican joe kaufman in the november 8 election in her heavily democratic district. up next, we will show you the

concession speech from tim canova after his loss last night. : good evening. good evening, everybody. [applause] it's so wonderful to see everybody here. of theewhat aware itction return and i know isn't over until it's over. i will start right now by saying i'm not quite ready to concede yet. [applause] gather, a lot of the absentee and early votes have been cast and we are down by about 6000 votes. today by awin landslide and need to overcome the 6000 vote deficit. i am in wait and see mode.

areink a lot of folks here going to wait and see. words about few what we accomplished. we came out of nowhere. whether we pull out some kind of if we win by what looks like will be long odds, andgeneral election begins i will get to sleep tomorrow. [laughter] obviously if we don't pull it i will get some sleep tomorrow. it has been a long road. january 7 is when i jumped in. my own money of that i threw into this and a lot of folks said we didn't have a prayer. we had a lot of faith in ourselves and in the grassroots and i kept saying to grassroots will be there for us. help will be there along the way. there were a lot of tough times during these past eight months.

ira member waking up to find the president of the united states had endorsed my opponent. booing] day you wake up to realize the president is against you. ira member saying it was going to be a good day and it was our best fundraising day of the campaign. [applause] it was our best fundraising day because grassroots all over the country were upset. they were upset because they saw what was at stake -- the contest between a career politician who .wims and -- who swims in money this campaign has always been of the people, by the people, for the people. [applause] baracky said to me that

lost his seat and then when the senate seat two years later. i'm an educator. i have been teaching for over 20 years. i have several posters in my office framed. of the posters is of sir michael. sir michael jordan. i started the shaving my head when i realized i wanted to be like mike. [laughter] he says in this poster, michael jordan says he missed 20,000 shots, he's lost 10,000 games -- i don't remember the exact statistics. 150 times i had the ball with one second left and i shot and i failed. each time i fail, and that is why i succeed. everyone gets knocked on their butt a lot.

the test of character is getting back up on your feet and this movement has been knocked off its feet time and time again. roo fighting for american democracy. this is a rigged system and everyone knows it. i refuse to shy away from that word even if donald trump likes to use it. inn you have a primary day agost -- i heard months that they chose august 30 because it was the day most likely to have a hurricane. turnout,t want a high they don't want to have debates, they don't want to have discussions. if we had the election to her three months ago, we would have lost this race by 20 or 30 points.

let's see what happens the rest of this evening. my guess is it's going to get tighter, but if we don't close the gap and we do lose, look how far we came out of nowhere. [applause] to thanka lot of folks for this. i first and foremost thank my family. was runningi against the head of the democratic national committee, i thought they were going to tell me i needed to relax and stay down. every single one said you should do this. you've prepared your whole life for something like this. [applause] i think my mom and dad, where are you? shelley. [applause]

.y brothers, i see ted where is tom? i think tom is still counting votes. i love tom and ted. my cousins are here. my childhood friend richie -- he opened up for field offices and did so much. consultants. people who have lived here for ages and wanted to challenge the establishment and many of them believed in us. outve to give a huge shout for all of the people wearing the blue tim canova t-shirts. house race inest the united states of america. [applause]

the greatest field operation, and i remember i was a college graduate and went overseas and backpacked around for a few months. i'll -- i came back to the u.s., still not sure what i was going to do with my life and it was october, 1982. i went to see who was running for congress in my local race. we walked door-to-door and it was a heavily republican district. i remember that election night, there were a lot fewer people in the room then we have here. a lot more drunken people there. i might have been one of them. [laughter] decided i was going to move to washington, on capitolet a job hill. i worked for a couple of years for a u.s. senator.

point i'm making is 70 people stepped up over the last few months on this campaign. at some point, scattering to the wind, i suppose. you don't know how this campaign will affect everyone in this room and where they will go from here. i just want to say i love you all. [applause] on and the fight goes on to reclaim democracy in for country, to reclaim it has boughthy that our politicians who are no longer accountable to the people , and that is why you see a growing inequality in the distribution of wealth and income.

this is why you see such high levels of hidden unemployment. hopelessness, a lot of stented dreams. are unable to who find jobs and living at home with their parents into their 30's. these are issues we talked about time and time again. it goes beyond inequality of income. policy.beyond it goes beyond the quality of our drinking water. when you don't have drinking water, what can you do? this campaign is about progress for all. ofs about the presidency

john f. kennedy and the movement of martin luther king junior. decadesn dormant for and god bless you all, we are going to go out fighting tonight. all for being here. let's see what the election results bring. no matter what it rings, fight on. -- what it brings, fight on. [applause] ♪ >> one more note on the florida house primary race -- longtime congresswoman corrine brown, ranking member on the veterans affairs committee lost yesterday

to state senator al lawson. a 22 counting federal indictment and a redrawn district. she becomes the fifth house incumbent to lose their primary this year. losing to state senator al lawson. coming up on c-span, we have more road to the white house coverage coming up. about half an hour from now, we will take you to cincinnati to hear hillary clinton speaking to the national convention of the american legion. donald trump will address the group tomorrow. later, discussion on the boundaries of free speech on college campuses. that is at 4:00 eastern. donald trump today will be speaking about his immigration policy, laying out making more clear, his immigration proposals tonight at 9:00 in phoenix. we will follow that speech with your calls and opinions. ahead of that speech, donald trump tweeting about the -- some of the things he will say.

watch tonight at 9:00, eastern. we will take a look at the race in arizona, the senate race in arizona, with john mccain and kelly ward. here is the arizona central headline, john mccain beating kelly ward in the primary. his daughter weighing in on twitter, congratulations dad, i am so proud of you, thank you to all the team for all the hard work. senator jeff flake, a colleague congratulated him. victory for john mccain, last night by a margin of 52%. here is his speech. [chairing] --[cheering]

>> thank you. i hope everybody can hear me. let me try this. there we go. thank you all for being here. i am humbled and grateful for our success, and for the honor to be the arizona republican party's nominee for election to the united states senate. thank you to the interns who sacrificed their evenings and weekends. i just ask our interns to raise their hands, thank you and god

bless you all. they sacrifice their evenings and weekends to make our campaign stronger, and they cap cindy and me very young. thank you to the many coalitions who are here, latinos, our iranian friends, asian-americans. coalitions,h to our and it is hard for me to single out anyone, but we have kind of a special relationship with our vietnamese-american community. would you guys raise your hand? thank you. our iranian friends. [cheering]

someday, we will celebrate next nexte statue in the square to the statue, where she was murdered by iranian thugs. i thank you all. i think my wife and our children. campaigns can be as hard on a candidate's emily as they are on the candidate. we have been through a few of them. this one has a ways to go and it is not going to get easier, but i could never have gotten this far without their love and support. thank you for all of you. thank you to every arizona and who voted in the primary, those

who supported me and those who supported one of my opponents. to the former, your support is a privilege. i promise to work as hard as i can to deserve it. to the latter, i promise to work as hard as i can for you and to fight for policies and principles that i believe are essential to building a better america andna, and making the world safer for our shared values. there is a lot of stake in this election, the matter who wins the presidency. that offersconomy the dignity of honest work and a fair chance to prosper, no matter where they started in life. jobsconomy that creates and produces more and grows more than all other nations on earth. oldfer world, where we face adversaries with strength and

wisdom and new threats with courage and confidence. a world where those who slaughter the innocent in the name of a religion they pervert are defeated by the power and values of the greatest force for good on earth. [cheering] nation that is secure from external and internal threats and controls its borders with smart and safe immigration policies and enforces our laws and reflects our values. a health care system that delivers what obamacare has not and won't. affordable, available health care that manages risk without communities,tire like what has happened in patel county.

veterans health care that prompt that keeps our promises to the men and women who sacrificed everything to keep their promises to us. biggest, some of the though not the only issues at stake in this election. to make real progress, republicans must be willing to put forward smart, common sense, effective policies and we must be able to resist from a position of strength, ideas coming from the next white house, whoever occupies it and would take the country in the wrong track. it is imperative, republicans maintain our majorities in congress. it is important to america's future that we have a say over the next president's appointment to this united states supreme court. [applause] it is important that we offer alternatives to policies that doubled down on the mistakes of

past administrations that reinstall -- reinforce failure or create new sets of problems. it is important that republicans can fight for the resources our military needs to allow the men and women of our armed forces to continue doing what they do , defendingng us safe our interests wherever they are threatened, and exemplifying the values we believe all humanity is entitled to. that ourt as important national security policies are grounded in hard learned lessons and informed by recent experiences, not mired in failed doctrines or the easy comfort of wishful thinking as has been the case in recent years. i have served my country all my life, in war, peace, uniform and office. i have acquired a lot of experience along the way and a little wisdom, and i made my

share of mistakes and i think i have done some good, but believe me, i've never made the mistake of not appreciating the extraordinary privilege i have been given by you, the people of arizona. you have let me live a life in service to the great and good nation we call home and to help it make history. tonight, you have given me a chance to continue serving arizona. thank you, from the bottom of my heart. [of laws] --[applause] go win one more time. [cheering and applause]

>> john mccain standing by his wife and senatorial colleague, winning the primary by a margin of 52% to 39%. the front page of the l.a. times , senator mccain wins primary contest and never xoma beating former state senator kelly ward. here is her comments after the loss, last night. [applause] i did not get a chance to see everybody, so i hope you're not planning on leaving. i hope you plan to stay here and listen to the band a little bit more and have some fun, and stick around, because you are all amazing people in this was an amazing race.

tonight, we conclude an amazing chapter in our lives. my family has -- i don't think we can make up the vote. i want to fight until the end and wait until every single vote is counted and 80 when we wake up there will be a miracle, we will see. way, we have met literally thousands of amazing people, many of you are out here and a lot of you have sacrificed incredible amounts of time, talent and treasure to help me step up and speak out in support of the conservative values that found and sustained this nation. sadly, the establishment seems to have won this battle by spending untold millions. they call me liberal, dangerous, some other things and senator

mccain said it should not be beyond us to refrain from substituting character assassination and mean-spiritedness are spirited after running a slash and burn campaign devoid of any actual ideas. i hope the senator can rest comfortably with his conscious as he continues to lecture others about civility. the republican party cannot win at the national party if we keep dominating unprincipled career politicians whose only objective is perpetual reelection. [applause] confident there are people of every age, every race, every nationality here. we are all americans. i am confident that our movement to save america will continue. those of us who believe that liberty ought to be the direct and of government as patrick

henry wrote. as the philosophical and -- founder of conservatism said, nobody a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he can only do a little. we fought a good fight. we finish this race and kept the faith. this battle may be done, but the war for america's soul will continue. this is only the beginning. i think all of you. stay here and have fun. make sure we get some pictures. do not be sad and ejected. -- and dejected. i'm not sad, we fought an amazing battle. something that everyone else was afraid to do. we took on the beast. do not give up. the day is not over.

election, itis simply is an election and i will say this again and again, i built my life on my faith, my family and my profession, things that cannot be taken away and we have to be fearless. we have to operate our lives in faith and we have to be fearless if we want to make change. thank you also much. -- thank you all so much. [cheering and applause]

>> here on c-span, we will resume at about 15 minutes, we will take you to cincinnati, the american legion holding its annual convention, other clinton addressing the group, noon eastern and the associated press saying she is expected to talk about american exceptionalism during her speech. we will have it live on it starts. later on this evening, without trump returning from mexico city, meeting with the president of mexico, and will be speaking about immigration policy, that is it not a correct eastern and we will follow that with your calls and comments. on c-span2, an update on the zika virus, on the research and live at 1:20 eastern on

c-span two and this afternoon, the president making his way west into china for the weekend g20 summit is in lake tahoe with the environmental summit, joined by senate minority leader harry reid and california governor jerry brown and others. we will have coverage of that at 4:30 this afternoon over on c-span2. more primary coverage. rubio, easily winning yesterday by 72% to 18%. primary andwon the spoke to supporters afterwards, talking about the race ahead against congressman patrick murphy. ♪

>> thank you. thank you. thank you very much. thank you very much, it is great to be with all of you. i really appreciate it. us, thisox is up with man has an incredible future. i am so grateful to him for being with us and my friend for over two decades, we are old enough to know each other for over two decades. thank you all for being a part of this. i want to begin as i always try to do and should always or member to do, to think my lord and savior, tsipras -- lord and savior, jesus christ. i take great solace in my teachings that he will come back

and that ultimately gives purpose to my life. i would be remiss if i did not think the people who have been with me every single time i have done this, and that is my family. upfront, we have to leave pretty quickly as i want to see as many people as i can, but they have school, tomorrow. they will be there. roadhas been an unusual back here. after my race ended in march for the presidency, i was prepared to become a private citizen, and i was excited about what that meant. time with our family and other opportunities. i just cannot be at ease with the idea that we were going to potentially lose a senate seat, but lose the power -- lose the balance of power in the senate

at a crucial time. with all the issues facing america, and i am grateful now that i am back with you with the support that so many people have given us. thousands of people who called and supported us and helped us along the way, i am grateful for this opportunity. 70 percent of -- of republicans in the state have returned me as the nomination for u.s. senate. in about 70 days, the people of florida will choose, and they will have a clear choice to make. politics are at its best when it is about clear choices. this election will present florida a very clear choice for the future of our country. i'm proud of my service, i'm proud of the things we achieved in my time as speaker of the florida house. i'm proud of the fact that i sponsored, wrote and we passed the the a accountability act --

the va accountability act so that people who are not doing their jobs serving our veterans were fired from those jobs. we passed the toughest sanctions ever on a terrorist group hezbollah. i'm proud that i wrote and we passed a bipartisan law that goes after human trafficking. i'm proud that i wrote and we recently passed the foreign aid transparency act so we have more accountability and transparency over how your taxpayer money is being spent. i'm proud of the fact that i led the effort and we got rid of the obamacare bailout fund so your taxpayer money cannot be used to bailout private insurance companies. i'm proud to have left the effort -- led the effort and we passed after far too long to for arecognition segregated unit of our armed forces who bravely served our country and waited far too long

for the recognition they deserve. on issue after issue, i am proud of the work we have done. the way weoud of supported our constituents and helped so many people who have come to our offices. over 40,000 people have come to us and we were able to help them, including 5000 veterans. i'm asking the people of florida to return me to the senate so that i can continue this work on your behalf and so that we can have a senate that returns to its proper role under the constitution. , for thisfrom day one nation has a supreme court vacancy and it is the senate that must confirm the next justice and it must be someone who will apply and interpret the constitution as intended, not any way they want it to mean because of the constitution means whatever you want it to mean, it means nothing at all.

the democrats and their hand-picked candidate will be our opponent. to all of florida understanding the differences. patrick murphy will have to justify why his candidacy is the right one for you to vote for. he has tried to do that in the past by talking about how successful he has been in the private sector. the problem is, it is not true. it would like to say he has dual degrees from the university of miami, but they say it is not true. a he has years of experience as a cpa. cbs news found he has not worked a day in his life for the cpa of florida. he likes to say he's -- started a successful small business. he started no business and never got a single contract to clean up the gulf. he will not be able to run on the promise of everything he has succeeded at as a private individual. he will have to account for his

four years in congress where he was rank as one of the most ineffective members of congress to that is a hard thing achieve in a congress as an as this one has been in the last war years -- four years. he will have to answer for his liberal record. he likes to call himself a moderate. murphy is an enthusiastic supporter of the nuclear deal with iran. of it,till a supporter even after iran got $400 million in ransom. even after they took three more american hostages after the deal was finalized, even after they capture 10 american sailors and try to view millions of -- try to -- tried to he really ate them -- to humiliate them. patrick murphy wants to close guantanamo bay and would release these terrorists or bring them

to america. patrick murphy is a supporter of the export import bank, a bank sponsored by your taxpayer money in which all the loans go to a handful of politically collected -- connected companies and offered an amendment -- he voted with barack obama 94% of the time. patrick murphy is nothing more than an old-fashioned liberal and his ideas that he stands for -- you may ask yourself how can patrick murphy, who has done nothing in his private life to be successful and do nothing in his four years of congress, how can someone with that record and he can be elected to the senate? the answer is he has a sense of entitlement because when everything you have ever had in your life is given to you, you think you deserve it all. i understand that in parts of the world, people come from

families that are politically connected and influential, they dominate government, but not in america. here, we are entitled nothing to the liberties -- we are entitled to nothing but the liberties god has given us. patrick murphy wants to be a u.s. senator, and it does not matter how politically connected earn ite will have to by beating the son of a bartender and maid. laws] --[applause] i look forward to this debate because the best ones are the ones they give you a clear choice. -- everything he has ever wanted was given to him before, that is not the way it is going to work, not for the u.s. senate, not that this state and not at this

critical time in our history. this is no ordinary time. america once again finds itself at the proverbial crossroads. we have been here before. the truth is that for over two centuries, each generations -- a generation of americans have stood where we are. choice is a fundamental question of what kind of country do we want america to be. what kind of country will america be when anthony and dominic and my children and your children are our age? there are only two ways forward. my children and yours will either be the most freest and prosperous americans that have ever lived, or they will be the first americans that inherit a country that is worse off. the road we are on will leave my children and yours is the first in a ration ever who inherit an america worse off than the one that was left for their parents. that is the road we are on right now, and that is the road that

patrick murphy will lead us on if he is our u.s. senator. i believe in a different path if we do what needs to be done. , ife rebuild our military ,e re-embraced free enterprise if we re-embraced all of the things that made america special and open the doors of opportunity for all americans, the matter where you started out in life or what your parents did for a living. if we do those things, i believe our children and grandchildren be the freest and most prosperous americans that have ever lived. that is the road i choose. that is why -- what i have always been about. that is why i will -- that is what i will continue to be about if i can be honored to serve you as a u.s. senator. i look forward to the opportunity for doing that.

this is an exciting time to be in public discourse, and in the debates before us, for i believe opportunities are greater than the problems we face. we have to have the right people who don't just believe these things, but have done these things. who aren't just on the right side of the issues but if -- but have been able to show how they can get those things done. i have, and patrick murphy hasn't. i hope that we will fully embrace this exciting opportunity so we can have a senate that takes its role in our constitution right, a senate that will act as a check and balance on the excesses of the executive branch. whoonly person in this race will not be a rubber stamp for the executive branch in this election is me, and that is what we need in the senate, more than ever before. i am privileged to stand before you today.

as i was walking into this gathering, i walked through the kitchen of this hotel and i rented some of those folks that were breaking down what looked like a pretty good party that happened earlier. it reminded me of me and where i came from. i think this speaks that just to me but to our country. rooms like this were where i thought -- where my father worked for 40 years, as a banquet bartender behind a little rollaway bar. that is what he did for a living. he stood behind a bar like that all these years so i would have the chance to be anything i wanted. all my parents wanted in life was for their kids to have the opportunities they never did. i know had they gone anywhere else in the world, the could not have achieved it. they came here with nothing, barely spoke english. barely educated, formally, anyway.

somehow they were able to own a home and retire with dignity and leave all of their children better off than themselves. that is not just my story, it is our story. who we are as a nation, as a people. we did not become that by accident. we became that because they went -- men and women who stood before us did what needed to be done and the time has come for us to do what needs to be done. we can leave for our children what our parents left for us, the single greatest nation in the history of mankind. >> incidents or marco rubio winning 72% of the vote in the republican primary. rival,challenged his patrick murphy to a series of six debates before the november election. patrick murphy beat alan grayson bio --eeting yesterday, ru

coming up shortly on c-span, we will take you to the american legion national convention, a live look at cincinnati and hillary clinton will be speaking to the group shortly, talking about american exceptionalism, arguing that donald trump has rejected the concept. donald trump will speak to the group tomorrow beginning at 9:00 eastern on c-span two. we take you back live to cincinnati, when that gets underway. a look at a tweet from a political analyst for abc, talking about -- we spoke with new york times media columnist tim rutenberg about the issue of the campaign press and access to the candidates. pla r