they do not to talk a lot about it. you see this in the very large amount of transportation changes that have occurred in the doneays, what they have around the suez canal, and so on and so forth. that is all good. what i'm talking about is i am trying to find a way to couple that, in other words, building a larger economy. if you listen to president sisi, he will tell you i need to build a larger economy to satisfy the app's rations of our people. what i acted that is while we do that, because we have gone through a political change in the middle east, it is important to make sure everybody seems that they are a stakeholder in the process, and as you take the right steps in implementing projects, you need to develop a culture of public engagement in politics and the ability to have different points of view as long as they are within the constitution of the other

country. it is a challenge. television watching in egypt, and they were showing these six tunnels they had built under the suez canal. all of them -- the general manager of one of these tunnels was 62 years old. you could not do that in egypt five years ago. thiswe need to respond to in particular and we need to get some real work done. it cannot be all talk, but talk is important in order to provide direction. >> time for one more question. i wanted to go back to what you were talking about the identity crisis in the arab world, particularly my sanity versus tradition. can you talk in egypt how that has altered since the start of

the arab spring, where we are now? how would we gauge where education kind -- egyptian understanding of this issue? this has been going on for 200-plus years, that i would be interested in what you say. good question. if i had an answer, i would not have raised it. i will give you an example of why i raised it. in 2011, 2013, you would hear people of my age talk about what the youth did and what they want . 2005, you would have heard the same people saying, what should the youth doing in following our direction? there is a clear understanding today that we are going in a different direction, that the tonger generation wants define success or failure. it is our role to provide an

opportunity to do that. people will say, you keep talking about public policy and putting forward scenarios. young kids -- i made mistakes when i was young, and i succeeded in different things. i want to be able to provide the different opportunities, different scenarios, and the ability and give them direction, but is is ultimately their choice. i'm worried that with the frustration that exists in the middle east today, be they deficits of frustrations and the different challenges, they may be driven toward extremism. that is why there is this role for the enunciation of public policy, that also important, as you said, it cannot all be hot air, there needs to be concrete evidence as well. >> last question right here in the front. >> thank you. welcome. i was wondering about the

regional fragmentation that you spoke about. in the last decade or so, the center of gravity of the air world has moved from the centers of cairo and baghdad and damascus into multiply -- mostly the gulf region. to doave this resources that. some in positive ways, some in negative ways. my question is, now that the isf region's money declining, where is the center of gravity going to shift? it is going to shift back to egypt, and with egypt being a relatively weak position, how will it maintain that kind of force? mr. fahmy: the centers of gravity are not theoretical. they are real, a real effect. if you do not play a role,.

create something on the ground, it will shift somewhere else, and that is exactly what you said it has shifted to the gulf. i am not sure their money is drying up. whe itre will go will be defined by what we do. we cannot argue when the arab league was an established in cairo, there were six countries. telling ourones countries to get out of european colonialism, but because we did that, we had more stakeholders and more shareholders in the arab system. it is quite logical that the arabs system becomes more complicated to do with because there are now 22 rather than six members. nobody is going to give us back our role. you need to gain it. it should not be the same role ishad in the 1950's, but it a role that should be consistent with multi-stakeholders, with

leadership. so again, when i have these debates back home, i look at my egyptian collect and say let's get our work done and then if you do something that is good enough, others will logically want to emulate these parts of it. if we do not, what is the point anyway, because you cannot gain your role. role, positively or negatively. i prefer egypt as a centrist, modern society and our role as positive. if we want to regain our role because we are the beginning of the end, that is a different scenario, but not one i want to contemplate on frankly. >> i will try to exercise my music in leading the group -- my expertise in leading the group to thank you. [applause]

[captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2016] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]

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trump today. in the meantime, the campaign for president goes on. hillary clinton meeting with supporters today, former vice president al gore will join her 3:00ill be in miami at p.m. a panelill take part at discussion looking at the social postednomic issues live, by the american enterprise institute at 5:30 eastern gary johnson and green party jill stein will appear separately to talk about their campaigns an interview or calls and tweets. gary johnson will be with us beginning at 8:00 p.m. eastern and jill stein will be with her running mate at 9:00 eastern tonight on c-span. our campaign 2016 coverage

begins with live debates on u.s. house, senate, and governor races. today at 7:00 p.m., north carolina governor's debate. 8:00 p.m., utah u.s. senate candidate -- debate. 12:15 p.m., the pennsylvania eight district debate. 8:00, thenight at wisconsin u.s. senate debate between ron johnson and former democrat senator russ feingold. that is followed at 10:00 with masto.k and democrat watch online at www.c-span.org and listen on the c-span radio app.

candidates for arizona's u.s. took part in a debate. the topics over the next hour include donald trump and hillary clinton, health care, supreme court appointments, veterans care, terrorism, and the iraqi war. our c-span campaign bus is >> good evening and welcome to this special u.s. senate 2016 election debate between john mccain and ann kirkpatrick. this is a joint effort brought to you by arizona pbs and the "arizona republic." i am ted simons and joining me to moderate this debate is yvonne wingett sanchez. we are broadcasting to you live

in the downtown arizona state university campus. we are also joined by radio listeners. and tonight's debate is also being broadcast by kuat tv in southern arizona on a to z central and on facebook live at cronkite news. viewers across the country are watching too on c-span. you can also join the conversation on twitter. tonight, we will hear from candidates competing to represent arizona in the u.s. senate. this debate is an open exchange of ideas, an opportunity for give and take. as moderators, we will try to ensure that all sides get a fair shake, but there are a few ground rules. once we ask the candidate a question, they will have 90 seconds to answer without interruption. the other candidate then gets 45 seconds for a rebuttal without interruption.

then will have up to an additional two minutes on that topic. at the end of the debate, each candidate will have one minute for closing statements. topics were chosen by journalists from arizona pbs and the "arizona republic," which include azcentral.com. we will also include questions from you, the public, via social media and the public insight network. let's now meet the candidates. john mccain was elected to the u.s. senate in 1986 and is seeking to his sixth term. he was first elected to congress in 1982. he was a republican party nominee for president in 2008. democrat ann kirkpatrick has represented the district since 2013. she also held the same seat from 2009 to 2011. she previously served in the arizona house of representatives from 2005 to 2007.

earlier, we drew numbers to see who gets the first question, and that honor goes to senator mccain. >> senator mccain, you have complained about congressional gridlock. congress has failed to consistently pass a budget in recent years and more than 75% of americans disapprove of the job congress is doing. you have been part of this congress for many years. why do you want to return? senator mccain: i want to return because there is so much to do, whether it be unlocking this gridlock in congress, as we have on the armed services committee. i am the chairman. we almost unanimously put out a bill to protect the men and women serving in the military. and it is almost always unanimous. we need to do a lot more of that. we also need to reach across the aisle more often. everybody knows that. we know sequestration is harming the men and women serving this country. most of all, i am running on my

record and my service to the state of arizona and america. i have led on national security, in taking care of the problems and issues that confront the state of arizona, whether it be a fish hashery or the crossing down in yuma, or whether it is keeping the air force base. i have contributed and it is not an accident that i am reviewed as one of the foremost leaders in congress, not only on national security, but for the good of the state of arizona. so i am proud of my record. and i will continue to be known as the maverick, and i will continue to be fighting my own party when necessary and also to try to form the coalitions i have done as the chairman of the armed services committee, and on many other issues i have been involved in. i have a long history of a college men's and i am running

accomplishments. yvonne: thank you, senator. congresswoman? representative kirkpatrick: i get asked that question all the time. i think we should have three two year terms and two six year terms in the senate. that is a total of 12 years. if you do those back to back, that is a total of 18 years in washington. that is enough. we need to clear the way for new ideas, new relationships so that we can bust through that gridlock. if you think about our technology, what we were using 12 years ago is obsolete. what we use now is going to be obsolete in 10 years. let's have term limits. tim: thank you, congresswoman. senator, this question is from erica in tuscon. how will you work across the

aisle to make sure policy is passed and we stay out of stalemates? senator mccain: first, on the issue on term limits, the voters determine term limits. at one time, i think they term limited congresswoman kirkpatrick, and she came back and many people are glad she did. but the most important thing is you have to have the knowledge and the background to make things happen. i have the years of experience in the military. i have years of experience in traveling all over this state, from yuma to different parts of our state of arizona where i know the people and i know the issues. we are going to have a mine in superior thanks to language i put in the authorization bill, which will then provide 25% of america's copper supply and hire thousands of people. the reason why the a10 is flying

in combat in iraq and syria is because we were able to make sure the air force cadet retire them. it is experience and knowledge that leads to effectiveness and you have to have the respect of your colleagues. tim: but the question was working across the aisle. senator mccain: on the armed services committee, we have always turned out a bill for 53 years now. that is the only bill that authorizes that gets through the congress. republicans and democrats work together for the men and women serving this nation and for the good of the country. that is one of my proudest accomplishments, is our ability to help the men and women serving to defend this nation. and i am very proud of them. yvonne: congresswoman, how would you envision working with a president trump? representative kirkpatrick: i was born and raised on the white mountain, apache nation. my mother's family were ranchers and my father's family were

democratic businessman. it made for interesting get-togethers. but at the end of the day, we were all family, all arizonans, all americans. i have a unique ability to find that common ground and i am sure i could find that with the president to get things done. the big story in arizona is, as you know, i lost my election in 2010. we were both reelected in 2012 after redistricting. and we came together and we said let's put our divisive history behind us. let's come together and work together to get things done for arizona. and we have a very good working relationship, a democrat and a republican. but that is so rare in washington, d.c., that they call us arizona's odd couple. tim: the presidential nominee of your party is deemed untrustworthy.

why do you trust hillary clinton? and why do you support her policies? representative kirkpatrick: i think she is the most experienced, knowledgeable candidate we have had for president in years. but i don't agree with everything in her policies. for instance, i have been fighting against the epa for our coal fire electrical plants. what i want to do is not shut them down overnight, but eventually transition into alternative energies. they are located in small towns where people need those jobs. we need a plan to do this transition so we don't lose any of those jobs. tim: a 45-second rebuttal, senator. senator mccain: hillary clinton has told lies after lies. hillary clinton has disqualified herself to be president of the united states. i was good friend of the man named chris stevens, the ambassador to libya. and i knew him and met him. i went to andrews air force base

when the coffins came home, of those brave americans were murdered. hillary clinton spoke to one of the parents of one of those dead young americans and said, i will get the guy who made the hateful death. we now know that, according to her messages that she was sending, her e-mail, that she knew at the time that it was a terrorist attack. i don't know how you can lie to grieving parents, standing next to the flag-draped coffin of their son. for me, that did it. yvonne: given her high number of unfavorabilities and the high number of people who do not trust her, in part because of this, do you think your support of her damages your credibility? representative kirkpatrick: i don't think so. and look, my heart goes out to the families who lost loved ones in thing got the. there were at least seven

congressional investigations, and they came to the conclusion there was no wrongdoing. but the majority leader of the house, kevin mccarthy, actually said they only did that for political reasons to embarrass hillary. tim: senator, again, the benghazi situation has been politicized, some say to extreme measures, and some say not enough. where do you stand on this, and how do you associate congresswoman kirkpatrick with benghazi? senator mccain: i don't associate her with benghazi. i associate her with hillary clinton, whose stewardship of the state department and was a decision-maker after gaddafi was killed, we walked away. lindsey graham and i and joe lieberman wrote a piece in "the wall street journal." you can't walk away.

but the point is that benghazi has been lied about and lied about and lied about. we know that from the e-mails and tragically, we now have a director of the federal bureau of investigation that has destroyed the credibility of the fbi by allowing servers of information to be destroyed, by taking actions which have nothing to do with his responsibilities. we now have, yes, there was plenty of investigations of benghazi, and there should have been because of the needless deaths of these brave, young americans. at the same time, there has been a cover-up, the likes of which i have not seen, and i believe that the facts someday will come out, that this was not an accidental, unprovoked demonstration. it was an act of terror that took the lives of four brave americans. and it was covered up by the white house. yvonne: referencing the e-mails

you spoke about, senator mccain, do you agree with the way hillary clinton's e-mails -- representative kirkpatrick: no, i don't. but i take objection to the senator's disparaging remarks about the fbi. i worked my way through the university of arizona and earned a law degree and started my career in flagstaff as a prosecutor. i have worked with the fbi. they do a lot of the investigations on tribal land. and we have wonderful fbi agents. i have a very good relationship with law enforcement in this state. senator mccain: could i just say, i respect the fbi a great deal, too. but james comey has established two standards. when general petraeus revealed classified information, he paid a penalty. secretary clinton was on a

private server, access to all kinds of classified information, and she paid no penalty. tim: a double standard, congresswoman? representative kirkpatrick: no, she admits she could've handled it differently. there has been so much on the e-mails, when we really should be talking about, what do we do to stimulate our economy? what about talking about a major infrastructure project? i sit on the transportation and and infrastructure committee. we were hoping to be able to pass a package about a six-year national infrastructure package. it would create hundreds of thousands of good-paying jobs. that is what we should be talking about. tim: senator mccain, the presidential nominee of your party has made controversial remarks about women, mexican immigrants, muslims, disabled people, and prisoners of war, including you. over the weekend, you withdrew your support for donald trump. one of our social media questions has come in. this is from dave in northern arizona. he is basically asking, what took you so long?

senator mccain: first of all, i agree with congresswoman kirkpatrick about the importance of infrastructure. that is why i was able to get i-11 into the highway bill, which will go all the way from our southern border into canada. i appreciate congresswoman kirkpatrick's support for that amendment in the bill. i'm in the arena. if somebody wants to say something disparaging of me, i understand that. i don't understand it when it is said about other men and some women who have been imprisoned. i did not like it. i spoke out strongly against it. i spoke out strongly on several other issues where i thought that mr. trump was absolutely wrong. i have not been shy about it. the son of the kahn family, a man who literally sacrificed his life to save others as he approached an ied, all of those things i thought were very wrong.

but then when mr. trump attacks women and demeans the women in and our nation and in our society, that is the point where i just have to part company. it is not pleasant for me to renounce the nominee of my party. he won the nomination fair and square. but i have daughters. i have friends. i have so many wonderful people on my staff. they cannot be degraded and demeaned in that fashion. and so i believe i had to withdraw my support, just as i cannot support hillary clinton. tim: a 45-second rebuttal. representative kirkpatrick: i have been asking that same question for over a year john mccain has been supporting donald trump. over 60 times, he has endorsed him. it was not enough when trump insulted the kahn family, a

gold-star family, who called on john mccain to renounce trump. it was not enough when he made fun of a disabled reporter. and the whole disabled community called on john mccain to denounce trump. but, no, he wouldn't do that. he even made fun of veterans suffering from ptsd. no, john mccain would not renounce them. he has been trying to run from trump's disparaging remarks for the last year, while at the same time endorsing him over 60 times. senator mccain: i wonder, since i have renounced my support, when congresswoman kirkpatrick is going to renounce her support for hillary clinton, who has continuously lied, lied to the families, the parents standing next to the coffin, flag-draped, of their son, saying, "i'm going to get the guy who made the hateful video," when we know she was e-mailing her daughter and others, she knew that it was a terrorist attack. she has lied about her lies

about the server. it is not an accident that most americans do not trust her. yvonne: can we expect any sort of un-endorsement from you? representative kirkpatrick: no, you don't. yvonne: going back, do you think your credibility has been sen. mccain: the people of this country and the people of arizona know me. that is why there is a wide disparity in the polling data. the people of arizona know me and my character and my integrity. i just worry frankly -- and this probably has nothing to do with the debate, but i worry about the future of the republican party. we are going to have a lot of work to do after this election is over. tim: so, if i take your previous answer correctly, you are equating what hillary clinton did regarding messages and benghazi -- sen. mccain: no, lying to the family of the slain, young man, who is a victim of terrorism lying to them when they are , standing to the coffin. the other things are bad enough, but lying to the grieving family.

that to me is not unlike mr. trump demeaning and degrading women. tim: as well as muslims, disabled people, prisoners of war, mexicans. sen. mccain: all of those things. when a person legitimately wins the nomination of the party, obviously, it deserves that support. i have expressed my disagreements, . i have expressed my disagreements with ronald reagan when he sent the marines to beirut. i said george w. bush had to fire his secretary of state when we were losing the war in iraq. i said i would rather lose a campaign then lose a war. there is no doubt about my criticism when i see there is something that is wrong. tim: who are you going to vote for? sen. mccain: i think i might write in lindsey graham. he's an old, good friend of mine and a lot of people like him. seriously, i cannot vote for either one. yvonne: moving on to immigration.

rep. kirkpatrick: can i say one more point about that? john mccain has been running away about answering whether he trust donald trump's finger on the nuclear button. senator, i just want to ask you -- you trust donald trump's finger on the nuclear arsenal? yes or no? sen. mccain: isn't that a nonsense question? i have said i don't support him. so why would i? yvonne: do you trust his finger on the button? sen. mccain: i do not see a scenario where the finger would be on the button. do you support hillary clinton's finger on the nuclear button? rep. kirkpatrick: i do. .en. mccain: no, i don't rep. kirkpatrick: but you still haven't answered the question. sen. mccain: i just answered the question. no, and if you want to continue to support somebody who has continuously lied to the american people about her server, the person who had the reset button with the russians, remember that? everything was going to be great. look at the world the day that hillary clinton became secretary of state and look at the world today.

you will see a failed policy and threats to the united states of america and attacks on the united states of america. our director of the cia says they will continue. that is part of the leadership team hillary clinton was an integral part of. tim: really quickly, did you support the idea of donald trump's finger on the button and until this past weekend? sen. mccain: i did because i was supporting the nominee of the party. i will continue with the nominee because there comes responsibilities and there comes authorities. we have seen many times, you could go all the way back to harry truman. the office has made the person. but this is an academic discussion, my friend, because i no longer support donald trump to be president of the united states. yvonne: moving on to the next question. this is on immigration. there are 11 million undocumented immigrants living in limbo, waiting for congress to implement a comprehensive immigration reform plan, which has not been done since 1986.

you both agree reform is needed. congresswoman kirkpatrick, you are an advocate for immigration reform. but when the democratic party control both chambers of congress and the white house, immigration reform was not enacted. why should voters expect anything different if they return you to office? rep. kirkpatrick: let me just say as a former prosecutor, i'm all about enforcing the law, but we all know this law is broken. it is an economic issue because it hurts business. it is a moral issue because it is tearing families apart. i have been a consistent supporter for comprehensive immigration reform, which includes the dream act. i have an immigration working group that meets periodically. it is very broad-based. it is faith-based and businesses and dreamers. we start our meetings with the stories of the dreamers and what has happened to their families and how this is just a tragic situation for them.

so, i introduced legislation that would allow dreamers to work on capitol hill. because i think if dreamers were working on capitol hill, and people like senator mccain could hear their stories, we would pass comprehensive immigration reform in a heartbeat. we think right now we have got the votes in the house to do that, but senator mccain's leadership won't bring it up for a vote. sen. mccain: i am really glad that you mentioned the fact that in 2009, when barack obama was elected president of the united states, they had 60 votes in the senate and an overwhelming majority in the house. do you think that barack obama or congresswoman kirkpatrick did brought up immigration reform? no, they wanted to bring up obamacare. it is what congresswoman kirkpatrick says she is most proud of, but former president

bill clinton said it was the craziest thing we have ever done. so, instead of that, they did the stimulus package. they did obamacare. they did a whole bunch of other things which were very damaging to the country. then, i was able to get immigration reform through the united states senate. that is the very big difference between having working groups and talking about it and having legislative accomplishments. and i promise you the dreamers were part of immigration reform, but we also have to have a secure border. and that border is going to be secure with legislation that i was able to get through, including the use of drones and towers and increasing the border patrol. by the way, the border patrol have endorsed me. i am very proud of their endorsement. tim: we hear about securing the border. what does a secure border mean? when do we know that the border is secure?

well, you can have. mccain: various statistics that could show that. in israel, they have towers. we are constructing these towers now at about $3 million each all along our border. i got in the defense authorization bill a requirement that the drones would also be used to patrol the border. we can do it with technology, and also additional border patrol personnel. i have worked very closely with the border patrol, and that is why they endorsed me. that is why i'm so proud to have their endorsement along with law enforcement, who also endorsed me for reelection. there is another big issue now lurking out there and that is manufactured mexican heroin. it is getting across our border and killing people. that means we have to do whatever is necessary to secure that border. yvonne: on that point, we have a social media question from mesa via the public insight network.

he says, one major problem i see on the streets i live on are drugs. it is widely reported that these come from across the border. how would you go about stopping this? congresswoman. rep. kirkpatrick: let me first address what it means to have a secure border. we have tribes that are on the border. i visit with them. i have friends who are ranchers down there. the border will be secure when they feel secure and they don't. this is the very reason we have to pass comprehensive immigration reform, so the border patrol agents can focus on the criminal activity there. and we have got to get this done. yeah, i have zero tolerance for the criminal drug trafficking, the sex trafficking at the border. that is why we have to have comprehensive immigration reform. yvonne: going back to his question, how do you stop it? rep. kirkpatrick: by focusing our border patrol agent's attention, time, and resources on the criminal element.

sen. mccain: could i just add? right now, it takes 18 months for a border patrol agent to apply and become border patrol. that is wrong. any military member or the veteran should be able to make that transition immediately. it is tough on the border. in 115-120 degree heat, we should be providing those border patrol agents with hazardous duty with incentive pay. there are lots of them who would like to be in a nicer environment. it is tough when you're sitting in a vehicle in this kind of heat. we need to provide them with the incentive they need. we need to supply them with the support they need. we need technology, which is a major, major factor. again, i could not be more proud of the border patrol agents, who i have such a good relationship with, have endorsed my candidacy and are supporting it. by the way, i also fixed their retirement system.

yvonne: moving on to our next question about illegal immigration. senator mccain, you criticized president obama's action that expanded protections to dreamers. what would you do with these young, undocumented immigrants who were brought to this country as children who were raised american? sen. mccain: i would pass the comprehensive immigration reform we passed through the united states senate. that was a major group of us that got that passed. obviously, it has got to be part of comprehensive immigration reform. terrible things are happening right now to young people from guatemala, el salvador, honduras. they are being transported by these coyotes and being mistreated terribly on the way. some of them are dying. we have to have them taken care of in those countries of origin where if they have a humanitarian issue, go to our embassy, so they are not subjected to this ride. some of them are on the top of

trains and fall off of trains. and it is a requirement for all of us to have a secure border. right now as we speak, baghdadi is sending people into the refugee flow. it was caused by barack obama's failed policies. sooner or later, they will try to get across our southern border. it has now become a national security issue. yvonne: thank you, senator. congresswoman. rep. kirkpatrick: nearly 15 years ago, john mccain did introduce the dream act. but when it came up for a vote in the senate, he voted against it. i just recently talked with the business community down there, entrepreneurs who are bringing economic development to the area. they said trump's idea about building a wall at the border is bad for arizona, but deporting 12 million people, that is personal. sen. mccain: could i just rebut that? i voted because it was not part

of comprehensive immigration reform. everybody knows that. yvonne: congresswoman, going back to these executive actions, you supported them. the court has found those actions are unconstitutional, and yet hillary clinton said she would go even further with those protections. do you agree with that stance and which type of protections would you support? rep. kirkpatrick: i support the and dacca. of dopa right now in arizona, we have so many people now with the fear that they might be deported because of the supreme court's action. this is why we have to have a full supreme court. john mccain, right after justice said weassed away, should not fill the supreme court for a year because i think the next president should be filling the position and he was supporting donald trump. we need to have a working

supreme court. the decision is an excellent example of that. tim: what do you think, senator? what is going on here with the supreme court and waiting so long? sen. mccain: number of years ago when the situation was reversed, the vice president of the united states, then senator joe biden, went to the floor of the senate and said we cannot have a vote. we cannot consider this. let the american people speak. this is too important. let's not have this. let's not have any consideration of the supreme court justice until the election. i want joe biden, joe and i disagree on a lot of things. but let the people decide. this vote is one of the most important in history. on this issue, the courts are more and more deciding that barack obama is acting unconstitutionally. barack obama said i have a pen and i have a phone. this is not the first time on

these immigration issues. he is violating his oath of office and the constitution of the united states and i do not say that lightly. yvonne: going back to the justice appointment, do you trust either of the major party candidates to appoint a supreme court justice? sen. mccain: the constitution says the president proposes and the senate disposes. i have confidence if we can keep the majority in the united states senate, we will scrutinize and be very, very studious about who we vote for or vote against, but the worst thing in my view is a hillary clinton presidency and a majority of democrats in the senate. america could not afford that. it would be tough times. rep. kirkpatrick: i'm not surprised that john mccain support somebody from washington after he has been there for 33 years. here is what the arizona people

are saying -- john mccain, do your job. do the job your taxpayers are paying you to do. confirm a supreme court justice. john mccain once voted for merrick garland. now he won't even meet with him. we are tired of that kind of obstructionism in washington. sen. mccain: i do my job. willow beach now has a fish hatchery i got the money for. i-11 which will be a corridor from our southern border to canada. one of the world's largest copper mines in the world. 25% of america's copper supply will be a result of that copper mine, which i got done. the f-35 is now at the air force base. every foreign student that flies the f-35 will be trained at luke air force base. so i kind of think i can make an argument i'm doing my job. ted: but we still have only eight supreme court justices.

sen. mccain: we only have eight supreme court justices. i would much rather have eight supreme court justices than a justice who is liberal in the keeping of the practice of ruth bader ginsburg, elena kagan, and liberal in my are view, not in keeping with the constitution. their actions, in my view, are not in keeping with my interpretation of the constitution. this is what makes this election a very serious election. ted: next question involves health care. congresswoman, next year is shaping up to be a challenging year when it comes to health care in arizona. it appears there will be just one health insurance company offering exchange plans in 14 of the state's 16 counties. only pina county will have two health insurers. you have called your vote for the aca your proudest moment in

congress. do you still hold onto that assessment, considering what we we are seeing now with the aca? rep. kirkpatrick: yes, but i've always said it wasn't perfect and we need to work together to fix it. i can to the health care debate with over 20 years experience as a health care lawyer. i started my own law firm in flagstaff. i represented a medical center, the emergency room doctors, many other physicians, so i have a good understanding of what is involved. it is key to having insurance companies in the marketplace. when i first heard about the possibility that we would only have one carrier, i contacted the director of cms and said we need a plan to make sure that everybody has a choice. when i heard that aetna was pulling out of the county, i talked with blue cross blue shield and they agreed to go in and provide coverage. this is in example of something we could have been doing the last six years instead of

continuing to repeal obamacare. over 60 times. we should have been working to fix it. john mccain's plan would add $187 billion to the deficit, and it would make health care more expensive for women because it would take away coverage for cancer screening and contraception. he even cosponsored a bill that would allow an employer to fire a single woman who got pregnant. ted: 45 seconds rebuttal. sen. mccain: nonsense. the point is now congresswoman kirkpatrick wants us to work together to fix it. the problem is that for the first time in history, a major entitlement reform was rammed through the congress of the united states without a single vote from the other side. i fought for weeks and weeks and weeks against obamacare and they would not allow us an amendment. there was not a single amendment allowed. no input from the minority

party. we were then in the minority. now congresswoman kirkpatrick wants us to sit down and work together. here is how we work together. we repeal and replace it. right now it is so bad that the former president of the united states, bill clinton, said it was the craziest thing he ever heard of. obamacare. so, we can fix the health system , but it was based on a flawed premise, and that was we would take money from healthy young americans and spend it for the health care of less well, older americans. by the way, there is 14 of the 15 counties in arizona that have only one health care provider and that is the one that barack obama and congresswoman kirkpatrick said, if you like your policy, you can keep it. if you like your dr., you can keep it. ted: ok. we got your rebuttal time. congresswoman, response. the idea -- it's got problems, repeal it, get it out of there, replace it.

rep. kirkpatrick: i was at a wedding not long ago and the father of the bride pulled me aside, tears streaming down his face, and said, you know i am a republican. you know i voted against you because of your health care vote. he said i would not be here today to walk my daughter down the aisle if you had not voted for health care. i do not want to go back to the days when somebody with a pre-existing condition would have died and not been able to walk his daughter down the aisle. but we do have to fix it. no question about it. we need to address the increasing cost of prescription drugs. sen. mccain: can i just mentioned that according to a gallup poll the majority of americans do not approve of obamacare and 29% say they have been harmed by obamacare. so i know you meet nice people at weddings, but the fact is the majority of the american people have resoundingly rejected obamacare and as far as

pre-existing conditions are concerned, we could have risk pools to take care of those people. nobody is ready to abandon them. yvonne: to that point, thousands of people have been insured because of the affordable care act, but many are paying much more than they used to for the same care or worse care. so what is your message to them? rep. kirkpatrick: i just heard from a man the other night who had ha private insurance. and his insurance rates this year were going to be $3650 month and he said thank heavens he was able to get insurance through obamacare and his premiums are about $500 a month. sen. mccain: blue cross-blue shield has announced they are going to have a 65% increase in their charges. 65%. the co-pays and the deductibles are skyrocketing out of sight and that is why 21 million americans were predicted to have

been part of obamacare and only 9 million americans have. the whole thing is collapsing like a house of cards. ted: would the whole thing had collapsed like a house of cards as you described it if congress, instead of repeatedly trying to repeal the aca, worked to try to improve it? sen. mccain: we would be glad to try to fix it, but because it was based on a flawed premise i described to you, we had to scrap it and start over. it was based on the wrong idea that we were going to penalize young people. those young people would rather pay the fine. by the way, i have legislation that if there is only one health care provider, as there is in 14 of 15 arizona counties, they should not have to pay a fine. there is no choice. there is no doctor they like the they can keep. it is a scam. the problem is the cost is becoming prohibitive and we have got to change it and fix it. tim: we move on to our next

question regarding the economy. senator mccain, this is for you. since the great recession, the u.s. has seen some recovery but the rebound has been sluggish. what is your plan to accelerate job growth? what is your plan to accelerate the economy? sen. mccain: regulations and regulations and regulations. the tens of thousands of regulations that have come out of the obama administration, whether they call arizona having navigable waters and washes and dry gulches. shutting down our power grants. -- our power plants. our coal-fired power plants which was incredibly expensive to literally regulating just about every aspect of our lives. when you look at the regulations that have been an issue of her over obamacare, they are about this high. how many hours they can work, how many they can't work, whether they would be eligible for this are that, it is

micromanagement. let's turn the government back to our governor and legislature and let's let the state decide these issues rather than it be a flood. 25,000 regulations have come out of this administration. since they only have four months left, i am going to tell you, you ain't seen nothing yet. ted: 45 second rebuttal congresswoman. , rep. kirkpatrick: i was raised in the mountains, at that time there was a thriving timber industry. when that collapse, it nearly plunged into poverty . it has been my vision for arizona to build a strong, diverse economy. we have gone through too many boom and bust cycles. we cannot have that kind of economy and so we first build a world-class education system here and we pass apprehensive immigration reform. sen. mccain: let me just mentioned to issues and choose

that determine the future of arizona. fire and water. 25% of our forests have been consumed by fire and last year. we need to thin our forest. we need to make tough decisions on water. i am glad to work with congresswoman kirkpatrick and anybody else and with our governor and others. we have to work together because the issue is going to determine the future of our children and grandchildren and i am proud to work with jon kyl on a number of indian water settlements, which are critical to the supply of water in arizona. talked about less regular sins, but how do we avoid the results we saw in 2007 of the bush era of less regulations and tax cuts? sen. mccain: the collapse of 2008 did not have a lot to do with government regulation. it had to do with the housing industry as we know. that is one reason why arizona was so badly hurt and that is why we were some of the slowest to recover because we allowed the housing industry to go completely out of control and

obviously the stock market went with it. arizona suffered a great deal the measures we had to take were very difficult. the reasons we have not recovered sufficiently as we have from other recessions is because of this government caused micromanagement of the economy and the government regulations that have stifled -- let me give you an example. if you cut the number of hours per week that a person can work and also not be eligible for obamacare, then you're causing the employer to do things which make it difficult to really get -- make a profit and hire additional individuals. ted: the idea that regulations and tax cuts were not a factor in the 2008-2007 recession. do you buy that? rep. kirkpatrick: i am not buying that. i saw so many families really

suffer in the housing crisis. i remember taking a walk in my neighborhood in fiv flagstaff. an entire cul-de-sac, every house was being foreclosed on. it really hurt families. it did not hurt the people on wall street who made more money. i mean, donald trump said it was an opportunity. a business opportunity for him. there was a day when john mccain was a maverick and would stand up to his party, but now he has taken more money from wall street than any other sitting senator. he gave them the bailout. i have always opposed the bailout. sen. mccain: there's a reason this is the slowest recovery in history. there is a reason for that. that is because the stewardship of the economy in the last eight years. it really isn't a lot more complicated than that. yvonne: we are going to mix it up. knowing people can go to your websites for details on this, one word answer. arizonans are going to be asked whether they want to increase

the minimum wage to $12 by 2020. yes or no, do you support? sen. mccain: no. rep. kirkpatrick: yes. ted: that worked pretty well. not we would have to rain you in, but you did well. thank you. yvonne: moving on now to the v.a.. it has been in turmoil and has been for years regardless of what you have done through massive reforms to try to fix the myriad of problems. a recent auditor general's report, we wrote about it extensively in "the arizona ," it is critical of the agency and have found patients are unable to get to their appointments in a timely manner. you have not fixed the problems, congress has not fixed the problems. why not and how do you fix it? rep. kirkpatrick: i was the first member of congress to ask for an independent investigation at the phoenix v.a. when i first heard about the allegations of what was happening there. i worked to protect against retaliation. so my whistleblower protection

act just passed the house. if those brave people have not come forward, we would never know what is going on at the a. -- at the v.a.. i just finished around of visits to all three of our va hospital's -- prescott, phoenix, tucson. veteranst, i did a roundtable because i wanted to hear their experiences with the veterans hospital and administration. when i was in tucson, having my veterans roundtable, john mccain was on the radio blaming the veteran service organization for the problems at the va. that is not going to fix the problem. we need to work in a bipartisan way for our veterans. they have already paid the price. we need to fight for them with all of our might. sen. mccain: i have been honored by every veteran service organization that they can provide.

after what happened here in veterans dying on a waiting list, i was asked to work with bernie sanders, then the chairman of the veterans affairs committee. we worked hard. it was tough. from out of it, we made some significant reforms, among them are the choice program. veterans, under certain conditions are able to go out and get health care from a provider. so far over 5 million appointments have been made. that was legislation that senator sanders and i worked on and was able to get through congress. there is a terrible problem in america today and that is veteran suicide. 8000 veterans in america commit suicide every day. 22 every day. i passed the clay hunt suicide prevention act thanks to the family members of clay hunt, a young man who committed suicide. we are working on this issue. by the way, i am proud of the city of phoenix for not having

homeless veterans. ted: that is your 45 second rebuttal. congressman kirkpatrick, the idea of a new director at the phoenix va hospital is not unusual. we have had seven in the past two years. your thought on that appointment? rep. kirkpatrick: i recently had the opportunity to meet her. i know as a woman how difficult it is to rise up in the ranks in any kind of organization so i welcomed her to arizona. i want to give her a chance. ted: you want to give her a chance, senator? sen. mccain: i'm afraid so. it is more of an indictment of the system, my friend. to have seven heads of the va here in phoenix in three years? no organization can function when you have three heads in three years. i think she has a great deal to prove and i am willing to give her a chance also but frankly, the whole system cries out.

look, in denver, colorado, the th v.a. tried to build a hospital. they still haven't built a hospital. think how many veterans could be treated with that kind of money and finally again, i want a veteran to have the same choice that someone on medicare does. get care at the v.a. or go to their physician or health care provider of their choice. anotherwe want to get question that the voters care deeply about. this is related to terrorism and national security. senator, over the past year we have seen terrorist attacks on u.s. cities from coast to coast. how do you propose keeping arizonans safe from attacks inspired or sponsored by isil? look at a map of the world in 2009 when barack obama came into office and looked at it today. and itld is in turmoil is on fire. wefar as terrorism, as

speak, baghdadi is giving people encrypted apps i told you about. there is also the self-radicalized ones. the young man sitting on these internet right now being self-radicalized. he is willing to go out and take his life to take the lives of others. first, we have to go to raqqa. we can do it with a small number of americans. second of all, there is an ideological struggle we are involved in to try to stop this radical islam, which the president of the united states refuses to call islamic terrorism. we are going to have this fight. the problem is, due to barack obama's failure, leading from behind, isis is metastasizing throughout the world. north africa, malaysia, indonesia, other places because when america leads from behind, some other really bad people lead from in front. we need a leader who will lead. yvonne: thank you. congresswoman. rep. kirkpatrick: we have to

keep our country safe. isis has to be destroyed. it is a two-prong approach. we have to take out their leadership and we have to prevent them from exporting terror. john mccain's solution is to send in more troops anytime there is a crisis. send in more troops. i don't want to send in more troops in until we have a plan to bring them home and a plan to take care of them once they get home. sen. mccain: i was the one who said we were losing the war in iraq and we had to have the surge. i wanted the secretary of defense fired. that was with president george w. bush. thanks to inspired leadership and service and sacrifice, we won. then barack obama pulled everybody out. the rest is history, as al qaeda became isis and went to syria and morphed. it did not have to happen. ted: where those troops pulled out as prescribed by president bush? lie mccain: no, you see the

that is being told is that somehow we had to pull them out. it is not true. i was in baghdad with lindsey graham and joe lieberman. they were ready to stay. but obama said that they needed to have a status of forces agreement. now we have 5000 american troops there. where is the requirement for the status of forces agreement? it is not there and not necessary and we are doing it incrementally, which is a lot of us that know a little bit about warfare, it is called mission creek. ted: congresswoman, you want to see more troops back in iraq? sen. mccain: 5400 there now. they are in syria as well. they are gradually increasing and escalating. the same iraq that barack obama said we are leaving behind the freest, safest, and most democratic iraq. ted: do you want to see more troops in iraq? sen. mccain: what you need is 100,000 person force because

americans have special kinds of capabilities, including air support and others. go in and take raqqa. you can do that in a short period of time. right now, they have no strategy. rep. kirkpatrick: john mccain is just not been truthful about the withdrawal from iraq. it was george w. bush and john mccain knows that because in 2010 he put out on twitter, congratulations to president bush for the pullout and how happy he was that that had been accomplished. he is not telling the truth. sen. mccain: the fact is i wrote pieces and i argued on the floor and predicted what would happen. he did not pull them all out. they were not all pulled out until barack obama became president of the united states. ted: congresswoman? rep. kirkpatrick: it interesting that we have spent so much of this debate talking about the national issues. it doesn't surprise me because john mccain is still running for president.

i am running to be arizona 's senator. i would like to talk about things that are important to arizonans, like jobs. ted: we did talk about the economy to a certain extent earlier on. right now, we are simply out of time. it has been a lively debate. it is now closing statements. earlier we drew numbers to determine the order of closing statements. representative ann kirkpatrick won that draw. she will give the first closing statement. they would beck: an honor to serve arizona as your next senator. my arizona roots are deep. on both sides of my family, we have been here 100 years. i always put arizona first. what is remarkable is that i, like hundreds of thousands of other arizonans, once voted for john mccain. but i am disappointed. he has changed since he has been in washington for 33 years. you see, he once authored the dream act and then he voted against it.

he supported comprehensive immigration reform and now he has campaigned on build the dang fence. he once fought the corrupting money in politics. the mccain-feingold bill. now, he has taken more money from wall street than any other sitting senator. it would be an honor. arizonans have a choice in this election. i would be honored to have your vote. thank you so much. ted: thank you. now with the final closing statement, senator john mccain. sen. mccain: thanks for this. it has been a delightful evening. thank you for your professional questions. congresswoman kirkpatrick is right, i have changed. i understand the issues and challenges facing arizona. i've traveled everywhere. i have the endorsement of 52 mayors in arizona. you know? that does not mean i have left, it means they trust me and i

trust them because they are the people i talk to where i can understand the challenges. look, i came here 35 years ago and i have made a home and a family. i have been so blessed by the people of arizona who have taken me and my family in. i've been blessed to be able to serve this nation and arizona in the most noble fashion because i believe serving a cause greater than one's own self-interest is the noblest of all things that one can do. i say to the people of arizona, thank you. i'm very grateful. i hope you will send me back. ted: thank you so much. that is it for now for this special u.s. section of the 2016 debate, brought to you by the arizona pvs, and the arizona republic." thank you to the thank you to the candidates. thanks to the members of the public who sent in questions and thank you for watching. i am ted simons. please stay tuned to arizona pvs

for continued coverage of the 2016 election. have a great evening. ♪ [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2016] >> while you have been watching this debate and the only debate between senator mccain and his challenger representative kirkpatrick, donald trump has commented on senator john mccain. donald trump responded to the criticism own how the presidential nominee is running his campaign,. very foulmouthed senator john mccain back for my support during his primary. i gave, he won. then drop me over locker room remarks." lighter note,oade republican pete olson of texas, pictured here in this crossing uniform, with a sign saying font if you love our crossing guards.

here's more but the state races we're covering. campaign 2016 coverage continues on c-span with live debates of u.s. house, senate, and governor races. north carolina governor's between pat mccrory and roy cooper. mike lee and misty snow debate for the utah u.s. senate. on thursday just afternoon, the pennsylvania a district congressional debate between republican ryan fitzpatrick and democrat steve santos euro. and deborah burr ross debate for the north carolina u.s. senate. on friday night at 8:00 eastern, the wisconsin u.s. senate debate between ron johnson and former democrat senator russ feingold followed by joe heck and catherine cortez masto debating for the nevada u.s. senate. complete campaign 2016

coverage on c-span, online at c-span over, and listen live on the c-span radio app. >> a look at the state races continues with the candidates in debate as they seek the governorship of vermont featuring sumitra, republican phil scott, and liberty union candidate bill lee. >> live from the studios of vermont pbs in call chester, the vermont vote debate. 2016the candidates for governor debate the top issues in this important election season. here is moderator joe monroe. moderator: good evening, everyone, and welcome to tonight 's debate for governor. i will be moderating tonight debate for the three candidates on the vermont ballot who are vying to become vermont 's newest governor. let me introduce them to you now. first, bill lee, an independent party candidate.

democrat sumitra is from waterbury. republican phil scott is from vermont. i would also like to introduce bureau chief of the vermont press bureau. the format tonight is relatively straightforward. me,tions will come from from new york, and later on in the portion of the program, from the studio audience. questions will be introduced to all candidates, each having one minutes answer. there may be a follow-up and rebuttal time devoted to each topic. at the end, there will be closing remarks with a one minute piece. welcome, candidates to you all. first question -- if you are elected on november 8, you are going to have less than two months before you are sworn in. two months to assemble a team, set your agenda, and you will legislator and new legislative

leadership as well. how are you going to hit the ground running? what is your top priority and how are you going to get to it, mr. lee? lee, he drove me and for the winning run of the vermont state championship could i have a lot of friends that i take advice from and i believe that they will all help me out. i did not come here seeking this job. it was pressed upon me by the liberty union party. they came to me and said you have to run. this is an open seat. we need change in the state and we need change. i'm the guy who's going to lead you out of the woods because i'm a gun hunting, right-wing, but i'm also one with a liberal heart. i do the memory cafe in montpelier. is answern the state the phone and help people out. i believe i am the best candidate for that because i am neither a democrat nor a republican, and i am not your

problem, i am your solution. moderator: next up? ms. minter: i am going to begin by pulling together a strong team of leaders because that is what i do well, bring together teams, set up our challenges, face our challenges, establish goals, and achieve those goals. what i know is i am going to bring a team together to focus on the budget and on our mission, which is to create jobs and economic opportunity for vermonters to support middle-class families and their kids and give them the opportunity to live, work, and stay right here in vermont. this is a critical time in our state. too many vermonters are struggling, just to make ends meet, because wages are not keeping up with the cost of living. women in this economy work 43% who work women full-time still cannot meet their basic needs. we need to change this story. i am going to be a governor with

a great team, leading us forward for a better future. moderator: mr. scott, how are you going to hit the ground running? gov. scott: by doing just that. the first day is not a day for vacation. it is a day for getting to work. i've been working my whole adult life. i have spent 35 years in business. during that time, i bring people together. i look for talent. i look for team chemistry. that is something i have done with my race team, bringing people together, consensusbuilding, facilitating a team that will work together in order to rise to the challenge, the challenge we face, of course, our economy. this crisis of affordability we face in vermont is real. it is going to take a lot of us pulling in the same direction in in order to accomplish what we need to accomplish. that is really focusing on the budget, trying to develop that, in a short period of time, and i will be bringing together a lot of talented individuals. they have already shown interest

in trying to bring vermont forward. moderator: the two of you have mentioned the budget already. by all accounts, the budget you will have to be facing is a $40 18llion deficit for an fy budget. if we have to raise taxes or fees, to cover this deficit, what are they going to be? if we have to cut something, what is it going to be? question for the three of you, a $40 million budget deficit, mr. scott. gov. scott: i have already said we do not have to guess at this. i will not propose or sign a budget that grows faster than the economy did in the previous year. or wages grew in the previous year. this is been something that has been a problem over the last seven years. the legislature has adopted a method of being overoptimistic in their growth expectations, and during that time, they have raised taxes and fees and raised

the spending limits to about $700 million over the last seven years. i propose that we look back to last year. we do not have to guess at this. we look back at last year, see what wages grew, and with the what the economy grew, and if it grew 1%, then we cap the growth of the budget to 1%. it is as simple as that. we'll find efficiencies. we will modernize state government. we will find the will to get through this without raising taxes and fees. moderator: no specifics at the time? mr. scott: i have all kinds of specifics. you can go to fill scott.org and see all those with my economic plan and my budget and monetization. moderator: $40 million budget deficit. ms. minter: i have managed a $600 million budget, balanced that budget every year, as i ran the transportation agency first as deputy, then as secretary, and i know what it takes. we had every year changes in whether the federal dollars were going to come or not, and i know it takes scenario planning, i

know it takes choices between what we spend and what we don't, and how we prioritize, but i want to say one thing that is important because phil has not mentioned what he is planning to cut. we know last year, when the budget was presented and the republicans in the house presented how they were going to balance the budget, they proposed cuts to childcare subsidies. cuts to affordable housing. cuts to college tuition payments. cuts to our state colleges. they even cut the commission on women. those are not the way that i think are going to support middle-class families and grow our economy. mr. lee: i think our biggest problem is the fact that the whole paradigm is wrong. we have got to many big farms, bst, all of these pollutants being sprayed on our field, more cancer, more disease in this state, and i believe we have got

to go small. i believe we have got to get out there and be more multidimensional. take our large farms, make them small. we are the bread basket of new england. with global warming, we are able to raise grapes on every southern exposure. you put your solar panels with your grapes and everything else, and you look at the northeast kingdom, we are doing well up there. why are we doing that? we got out of the box. we are starting to get breweries up there. we have the best cheese. we have pizza greens. -- pete's greens. and you know, that is, they can serve 1000 families. if you get 100 firms like that every year in six years, you can feed everybody in vermont for a reasonable price and you're going to be able to feed them the right way. you are not going to have additives in your food. how you get it, you get taxes. he tax the bad stuff and you eat better so they are not in the hospital, not in the doctor's office and they are strong.

moderator: let us stay with the budget. you are going to be entering office if you win with at least a $40 million budget gap. if you do not cut anything, excuse me, you will have to raise revenue. if you're not planning to cut, what will you raise and how will you raise it? ms. minter: we know that our revenues are not keeping up with the projections, but we are, we have a long way to go between now and january. we have to see how the next quarter revenues come in. i have seen extraordinary fluctuations, having watched how the transportation fund has gone up and down. i'm not going to put anything on the table until i know exactly what we are coming up with, and i do know, it changes with every quarter. i think it is important to be saying, "what is going to happen at that time?" what i do know is, what i will not raise, is new sales or service taxes that are going to hurt the middle class. you know, i looked at phil's economic development plan, and

what i saw were tax breaks primarily for corporations and the wealthy. i do not see any way he has to pay for them. moderator: we will get back to texas shortly. governor scott, you proposed a plan to save one penny for every dollar spent in state government. as you know, there are contractor obligations that the state has for salaries, for health care, things that you will not be able to save a penny on, of which focuses the burden on other areas. knowing you cannot cut a penny from every dollar, which dollars will you be looking at and which programs will you be looking at? gov. scott: that is a goal. we look at it in our own daily lives. we can save a penny for every dollar spent. i'm sure we can find savings in state government as well. we are just not looking hard enough. we cannot tax our way out of the situation we are in. that is what has been happening for the last seven years. sue has proposed a tax on services. sue has proposed a carbon tax.

sue has proposed a way of this cap and trade scheme. that is not the way to get ourselves out of the situation we find ourselves in. we are in a hole right now and we should stop digging. we should tighten our belts, and find some savings and efficiencies within government, and we are going to work our way out of this, but we cannot tax our way out of this. that is not the way to grow our economy. minter, youecretary did embrace the idea of at least looking at the sales tax and extending it to services. it was based on the blue-ribbon tax commission report that came out a number of years ago. since you mentioned that you were interested in looking at that report, you have put out more specifics, saying you would not tax any service that is used by the middle class or largely by the middle class. you have you have mentioned things like limousine rides, airplanes, things like that.

there are not a lot of airplanes registered in vermont. what kind of savings could you see from expanding the tax base to some services? what is the realistic goal here? what i've explained is that we do need to think about our future and what are the taxes that hurt middle-class vermonters and how can we actually build our economies to support the programs we need? i have made it very clear and i will say it again, i will not add new sales or service taxes that hurt middle-class vermonters. what i will do is look for those loopholes that are benefiting wealthy people, such as exemptions for lobbyists. exemptions for limousine rides. the interest payment for second homes. are those things that are going to help middle-class vermonters? what i also want to point out is that phil and his friends in the republican party have been claiming falsely that i have proposed a carbon tax. it is sounding more like

national republican talking points. i want to make it clear that i have a strategy to look at climate change, to address our carbon emission, to build on a very successful program called the regional greenhouse gas initiative. moderator: we are going to move right to transportation. lee, on the budget and taxes, if you would like to have a closing comment. mr. lee: raise the minimum for people working. if you go by mcdonald's, they say they're going to jump them to $10. they are not going to survive on $10. tax the trash that mcdonald's throws on the side of the road, and bud light, if you want five cents or one cents, raise the tax on the cans to $.10 because every trail that i go skiing on, when that snow melts, there's nothing but bud light cans all around. drink locally and think globally. raise them in which a part, people think they will make more money and taxes abound.

pay people what they are worth. that is a problem on this planet. we have not done that and we have got to start doing that. you do not expect trickle down from reagan. reagan did not work. none of that work. trickle down does not work. that is a prostate disease or something like that because i am telling you, you have got to tax the 2%. bernie was right. bernie has always been right. i knew it when they were throwing cans at him down on the street. moderator: let us talk about transportation. i do not think anyone would argue that vermont's infrastructure never seems to get the maintenance and the maintenance dollars needed for repair and . upkeep. furthermore, collusion, climate change concerns, relatively carbon emissions is always an issue. with the gasoline tax, and uncertain income, how do we pay for our transportation needs going forward? mr. lee? mr. lee: use the militia. use all these guys that have got the tanks and everything and you

take them out. do not send them to iraq or iran like rumsfeld said with weapons of mass destruction. rumsfeld had the receipts for them. you do not send vermonters out of this state to fight wars. i had to bury two of them up there, and every time damn religious rights groups came up there with the american flag, fighting for our lives. you take the people in the state. you joy in the militia, keep i your guns, and you go out there and fix the roads. everybody fixes the roads because they are falling apart. go back to the old way we fix roads, with granite. make them the way they used to be. let us make vermont the way it used to look a long time ago. moderator: senator, transportation. ms. minter: i have been working on balancing our transportation budget for the last six years, a $600 million budget. we have been having to work on improving maintenance. when i was in the legislature in 2009, we had to find out that

bridges were closing in emergency all around the state. we actually did a study and analyzed that we had 20% of our bridges were structurally deficient. we worked bipartisan to come up with a plan. we passed the transportation and infrastructure bond fund. i had the opportunity to manage the agency and focus on innovation and efficiency. we created a new accelerated its bridge program. we were building bridges faster, cheaper, and smarter. we have gone from having 20% of our bridges structurally deficient to now just 7%. i know how to make government work because we have to make sure that we do not let our bridges fall down ever again. moderator: mr. scott, the topic is paying for transportation. gov. scott: this is part of what drove me into politics to begin with. there was the raid of the transportation fund of about 20 years ago to the tune of about 50 something million dollars

every single year that was used for other purposes. that is when i decided to step up to run because i thought that we should do better. our roads and infrastructure was failing. during that time, i'm pleased to say during my years in the senate, we were able to reduce that from $50 million down to a $15-20nageable million. i think that was a step in the right direction. if you think about it, that was done, that rate of transportation fund was done over a 10 to 20 year period. if we then invested be if the structure at that time, we would not have that problem today, but i do not believe we should be taxing our way out of this. we do not need to raise the taxes on already burdened vermonters. at this time, we cannot afford to and they cannot afford to. we are going to have to look for a federal initiative to solve this issue. moderator: the future is different, is looking very different with less gasoline used, electric cars, etc. is it time for a mileage tax? is it time for some alternative

tax to help transportation needs? mr. scott: on the national scale they need to start talking about something different. but they can be doing something different from the rest of the country. ms. minter: i'm very focused and has met -- have been for the last few years on this matter. to help vermonters and americans get out of their cars by focusing on public transit. ridesharing. getting people to walk. having sidewalks and bike lanes area that's what i've been working on. increasing the use of public transit. we are going to need to change the driving behavior of people and get more people into electric cars. this will make in a norm is change in how we reduce carbon emissions. you know what? transportation is 46% of our carbon footprint here in vermont.

that is why i propose the plan to build on the successful regional greenhouse gas initiative started under governor douglas to build transportation initiatives. so that we can work together as a region to reduce carbon emissions and reduce the amount we have to rely on our cars and really move forward to address climate change. mr. merone: mr. lee? mr. lee: in venezuela we have a system where everyone who needs downe puts their finger and for money you jump in the car and you go as far as he goes on that same road. when you have to get out and fingercars, you put your down for the minimal amount and you get a ride. sometimes the guys will see the long hair in the beard and then they know it's me and i won't hurt them. thisve got to get out of

gas glut we are in. it's down now. it's as low as we are going to be. it ain't going to last forever. we are the 49th dog in his nation. we are that big. only wyoming is smaller than us. if gas is as cheap as it's been, do we have the ability to adjust the taxes? mr. lee: yeah, it's not going to be low forever. don't go to florida. if you retire, don't go there. in when guy who retired to their and three months later he was dead. stay up. . a little thing, a

break or something like that, but we have got to get off the gas blimp. i was a hitchhiker, you know? people picked me up. i'm not jack reed reacher, but i wish i was. mr. scott: vermont has been discussing the return of passenger rail. if elected governor would you commit your administration to pursuing rail and completing the project? scott: we have been working on this for a number of years and we have been working on this with the federal delegation. congressman welch was on transportation with me when we started talking about this, started trying to bring the montrealer back. some of the border concerns are what prevents us from going further.

going from burlington to montreal, that will held in all kinds of different ways. from tourism to trade and freight as well. that would be something i would focus on and it is something we have been focusing on for a number of years. absolutely -- ms. minter: absolutely. for the last six years we have been working hard and our team has increased grants and investments in the western court or program. we are 12 miles away from getting rutland, from rutland to the queens city. this is going to make a huge difference and it is going to build from there. on the eastern side i'm so excited about the progress we have made. for the last three years we have been negotiating with quebec.

believe it or not, we have to negotiate with the province, the state of new york, the state of massachusetts and connecticut, because we are all in an agreement with amtrak. we have made huge progress and i am so ready to be the governor to actually get it done. i have been in these negotiations. we have made huge progress on downtownacilities in montreal so that people can go straight from the border across. mr. merone: mr. lee, train transportation. mr. lee: i cross the border all the time. i'm lucky, the mayor loves me. he wants to bring back the expos. on the federal level we've got to have a pact that we can go up there anytime we want and come back anytime we want. that hassle that you have to come back, it's just

embarrassing. i feel so bad about it. with the red sox going up there, they have to pass through there. the yankees have to pass through the western side of the state. all of this money has the potential to come through our state and head over to montreal. i've always been a train guy. i ride trains all the time. i wrote them down to spring training. romanticnothing more than taking the train across canada and seeing the end of your train come by twice on a curve. it's like -- go there, take a train, get rid of your car, shoot your car, shoot your television. thank you. you have yet to clarify your position on the carbon tax. ms. minter: i do not support it for vermont. i've been building on the work in the transportation agency, working on other states in the region.

we had initiative to actually work as a region. and it takes strong leadership to actually build successful policy, regionwide. that's why i want to continue the work i have been doing on expanding the regional greenhouse gas initiative. the program that was started broughtvernor douglas $10 million to vermont to invest in energy efficiency and renewable energy. what we can do when we build the transportation sector into the greenhouse gas initiative. to be the leader that it takes to work collaboratively across the region. mr. merone: mr. scott? sounds like she supports carbon tax. i am not in favor. if the carbon tax came to my

desk as governor, i would veto it. ms. minter: i'm so sorry you don't understand policies that relate to reducing emissions. the greenhouse gas initiative is actually a cap and trade program where in a state like vermont that reduces initiatives -- emissions receives benefits, just like on the electric side, we have received over $10 million in investments. we will be able to receive investments, not taxes, for alternatives to the single occupant vehicle. helping us get the rail back, our transit. this is what we can do when we work together to reduce emissions in vermont. the states that go above will actually have to invest in what we need. transferring our energy economy to a non-carbon-based economy. mr. merone: final word. in california it

costs them $.11 per gallon. sounds like another tax increase. it sounds expensive to me. we are already overburdened by taxes as it is. we don't need anymore. phil is being supported in this election, one point $2 million funded by the national republican governors oilciation and the billionaire koch brothers. do you know why they have been opposing cap and trade in california for the last decade? do you know why this is such an issue? about what's happening. we cannot let out-of-state oil tycoons by this election. philsurprised to find scott telling the national talk aboutline to climate change as if it is not a problem. we have to come together around this problem. climate change is real, it's

happening right here in vermont. think about last winter. what happened when the snow machines didn't come to the general stores? what happened to the snowplow drivers that couldn't actually what happens when we lose our winters? this is serious. we need leaders who will address this critical issue of our time. mr. merone: mr. lee? mr. lee: those of us who lived in the kingdom kind of liked it. i had to shovel my driveway four times and i go -- wow, that's unbelievable. done for us?y they have wrecked the ridge line, sent the credit down to connecticut because of the koch brothers, you are right about that, but you have got to get it with the gas dependency and the fracking and stuff. you are ruining your water. these are all symptoms of problems. the problem is the fact that we are ruining our environment. we are just killing it.

you never see geared down by the river anymore, running through the pasture. they go through there because they are on fire. they only eat up in the high pastors these days because that's the only food that hasn't been sprayed or anything else. we have ruined our rivers, our dairies, shot our cows anin the and you arensanto eating it and it's killing you. that's the problem. mr. merone: thank you very much. it's 8:00, this is the vermont gubernatorial debate. we have another hour to go in this debate. next week i would like to invite you to come back at the same time for the lieutenant governor's debate right here on vermont pbs. ,s mentioned in your opening folks, college, i heard it once or twice. vermont has a high rate of student high school graduation

but a low number of students who actually go on to college. one of the lowest in the country. 84% of respondents don't think that education beyond high school is affordable. is being said about free tuition this year. is this something that can be addressed on the state level? can actuallyt we do, or is it campaign talk? we certainly want affordable education for our youth that could come in all kinds of different ways. i think it is something we should really take a look at. i'm a product of the vocational program at spaulding high school. i did my afternoons in vocational training and my mornings in college prep before going on to you vm. then i wanted to be a tech ed teacher. i don't believe that we focus enough on the trades and that in our school systems we should

reinstitute industrial arts, more maker space to tap into the creative minds of youth. i think the trades are going to be the future. the service technicians of the future are going to need some training. two years would be enough in some respects, but we should also make it affordable by cutting down on the cost of borrowing more than anything else. my daughter went to school in rhode island. she came out with debt. the sallie mae of the world came in with a 9% interest rate after she obtained financing. can we offer free college tuition? ms. minter: i have made college affordability a centerpiece of my campaign. why? because right now two thirds of the jobs of the 21st century require some kind of education and training beyond high school. here in vermont while we do a

great job getting kids to high school, we do a week job getting them beyond. four out of 10 vermont high school graduates are not continuing. that is why i promote -- proposed vermont promise. two years of tuition free community or technical college to get the next generation the opportunity to qualify for livable wage jobs with economic security. because when i'm traveling and talking to the businesses of the state, they cannot find qualified workers. it's the biggest challenge. we need to invest in students to make the workforce to grow our economy. is my vermont promise. i am committed to this and yes, we can. mr. merone: can we offer free tuition? mr. lee: yes, at first it was no child from behind -- that's ray catholic of me -- very catholic behind byo child left

the bush administration, which was terrible. all of a sudden it was race to whichp by the democrats, is not right. you have to be diversified in your education. without jobs at the end, what good is your education? our kids are leaving the state. you've got to be more diversified with jobs at the end be more multidimensional. be a generalist, not a specialist. that's what's wrong with the educational system. they try to make you special when you need to be general. i'm a bonded locksmith. i pitched for 14 years, still doing it today, still pretty healthy, i do a lot of different things. i dig my potatoes by hand. i hate the lawnmower, i hate weed wacker's, i hate all the things the blow leaves around. then we worry about education. mr. merone: is there a price tag , ms. mentor -- ms. minter?

be minter: yes, we will raising funds through a large bank franchise fee. afford not to't do this. right now with four out of 10 kids not going beyond, we see the growth of generational poverty. have a to be enough to high school diploma, but it's not anymore. that's why we have to be thinking about the future. 43% of kids coming to kindergarten not ready to learn in vermont. four out of 10 not going beyond. what does that mean for the future of our vermont? our economy? we must invest in the students. when you get an associates degree you get $12,000 more per year. with a bachelors you get on more per year. that is what the people of vermont need. and education, qualifications, and great paying jobs so that

they can live, work, and stay right here in vermont. does anye: mr. scott, part of that plan interest you? gov. scott: nothing is free. somebody has to's -- has to pay. be a feeoing to increase for the big banks and they don't have a magical bank account that that's going to come out of. inare going to pay for it some way. somebody has to pay. nothing is free. having said that, we need to make college more affordable and attainable for those that want to do it. but having something free doesn't necessarily make it so. i was able to give the commencement address couple of was so inspired by what i saw as i walked across to receiveor them

their diplomas, some of them with children who were grown up at their side. you could see it across their faces, the sense of appreciation they had for the education they had earned and worked for. response?mr. merone: why big banks? first of all, they have a commitment to reinvest in communities and over the last 10 years have had a lat line in terms of how much they have invested into the general fund. paide last decade they 10.3 million. looking at 10.5 million in the next year. has anyone else's property tax than flat? i don't think so. i think the banks can pay their fair share so that our students get a fair shake, so they actually have a future with kids who have a job and economic security so that they can be participants in the economy and use the resources of the banks. it surprises me when i hear no

plans for college affordability but all i hear is that we can't do anything. we have to take this on. we have to commit to the future generations. what else do we have for our future if we aren't supporting our kids? if these are people who is -- who have to go on. and it isn't free. they will have volunteer mentors to be their champions. mr. lee: we have a follow-up on -- mr. merone: we have a follow-up on this topic -- oh -- mr. lee: we go after the banks, that's where the money is. they are the guys that have it all. they keep it. they lend it out to us like it's freaking gold or something like that. people can't get money, they can't get it because of the banks. look at "the big short." if it had won the academy award, you know, bernie sanders would be president of the united states. what happened?

"spotlight" one. the catholics. they are always going after the catholics. : what about other ways to reduce student debt, and exchange for students agreeing to stay and work in vermont? sorry, i wasn't paying attention. mr. goswami: debt forgiveness for service. mr. lee: sure. you should donate two years of your life to the state. i believe in what kennedy said when he started -- actually, it was his brother-in-law that started the service where we went out professing the united states was the best, going out there to do everything. now what do we do question mark we go to nations and we throw drones at them and everything else. it's an embarrassment. i'm so upset with the way this country has headed over the last

20 years after the freedom of information act went down on us. i will give you forgiveness. everybody. i will let everybody out of jail and i will let them work on the roads and fix the ridges. we put them in there because we created a society that made them criminals. eugene debs, look it up. mr. merone: debt forgiveness? ms. minter: we need a revenue source for that, too. i would prefer not to let our kids go into debt and let only those kids who can actually manage to get into the process -- let's just talk about it -- kids decide in sixth grade whether or not they will aspire beyond high school. we need to give them hope. we need them to have the volunteer mentors that my promise program will have so that they can actually going to college. to cost the same, but it is only going to help those who have the capacity to get in, fill out those forms and actually believe that they can do it.

our kids, there is a whole generation of kids who aren't going beyond high school. if we want to break the generational cycle of poverty, grow the economic opportunities for the next generation, we've got to give them a chance. that's my vermont promise. you're going to pay for it either way, i would rather give it to them up front. mr. merone: debt forgiveness and the scott administration? lt. gov. scott: the real problem is the demographic issue in the state. the population is stagnant. we are losing this category from 25 to 45. 30,000 people since the last census. those are the folks who utilize services and pay taxes. that's what we need to rebuild. we have fertile ground here. 10,000 college students every single year here in this state that graduate. shoulde the ones who we be asking -- what will it take to keep you here? they will tell you they want opportunity, a formal housing,

they want to live here in afford to live here. doing right now, when you hear these schemes of raising taxes and fees and spending more money, we are not focusing on the opportunity in order to have them be able to stay here and be able to live here. it's the affordability crisis that is the real problem. have thee: we also court -- declining enrollment in vermont state colleges. the recent murder go far enough? lt. gov. scott: we will see. i think that jeff spaulding has done a great job so far as chancellor. it was a good move to merge them. we will have to look at other opportunities, but again, if we can make a better vermont so that we can have more opportunity, i think we will have more economic opportunity as well for higher education institutions. they are an important part of our economy as well. mr. merone: colleges?

ms. minter: i think my plan does exactly what we've been talking about, helping to keep young people here and putting more students into the state college system. the studentst beg to stay, we need to create great communities. that's what my investor vermont is all about. great communities, livable wage jobs, affordable housing, just like we did in very where we put $19 million of public investment into that downtown, leverage of $45 million in private investment. we can do that around the state. that will bring young entrepreneurs to stay here. you know what? i have the plans to do this. we are talking about cutting taxes. i don't have see how -- i don't see how that is anything but a republican talking point. i have real plans to make this work. i want to bring young people here. i have an outdoors plan.

let's build on the great recreational assets. that's what young people want to come here to do. to recreate, to be great parts of the economy, we can do that. mr. merone: let's switch over to health care. 97%ou don't know it by now, of our citizens are covered by act 48, one of the best incentives in the united states. for mont health connect, the system it created, has been roiling with problems, i'm not telling you -- telling you anything you don't know. under your administration, simply put, where do we go from here on health care, mr. scott? lt. gov. scott: first of all, we have to pull the plug on vermont health connect. it's simple. we take a look at what's been happening over the last several years. toled promises along the way show off this dysfunctional i.t. structure that has never worked. we get calls every day in our office from people and having

,roblems accessing the system getting changes in the system. after spending over $200 million on his failed initiative, you have to have the will, show the courage and the leadership to say that enough is enough. if you are in a hole, you stop digging. we are still digging and what we need to do is transition to something else. whether it's a federal exchange or going in with another state, connecticut or hawaii or somebody else, there are other alternatives to what we're doing . we have a custom-made structure that no one else has, thank heavens, because they can't afford it. you've got $200 million into the game and you just tweak it a bit, keep it going, you know? take a lot of buses, like bernie said, go up to montreal and i will get you an $18 x-ray with my orthopedic guys. i've had for operations up there.

i have implants after getting hit with a line drive. i pay out of my pocket. i know use my insurance. i go up there because it's a quality job and everything else. i will drive the bus. let's go up there and get whatever it is. all this stuff that you need, all these high-priced drugs, we will get them for $.10 on the dollar. the system down here is broken and we think we are going to fix it, this little state? we are not. we don't need orders. that's a problem on this planet. too many borders, we've got to get rid of them. you make this with new brunswick , harness the energy right there from the tides going up and down and i tell you, we won't have any problems. get regional. mr. merone: health care? ms. minter: i will say, it is the rising cost of health care that is really breaking the banks of our families, our

school budgets, and rising property taxes, and our state budgets. what we need to do, first and foremost, is address the rising health care cost. that is why we need to reform, to continue on the health care reform agenda. moving away from the current system of incentivizing more fees, more visits, more pills and procedures, instead focus on investing in healthy outcomes. that's the kind of reform i'm looking forward to moving on. with respect to for mont health connect, look, this has failed many vermonters. i want to say that it is undermining our faith in government. i have overseen large i.t. projects. i know that it is not simple to cut the plug. we have to have a plan. if we cannot make dysfunctional -- and i will look at the independent assessments,

understand the opportunities, but we need a plan that doesn't kick people off health care. if --rone: what do we do if we scrap it with medicare beneficiaries? i'm saying that we can't just scrap it unless we have a plan to do so, precisely over 24it will cost million dollars upfront -- those are state dollars, not federal dollars -- and i understand that 17,000 people will lose their health care benefits. simpleue is -- if it is to jump to the federal exchange. our programs in vermont actually some or so many that the federal exchange won't cover. if i learn that we can't make the system work, i will come up with a plan that is thoughtful about not allowing people to lose their health care coverage. i actually directed that to you, mr. scott.

of all, 30,000 people in vermont tell you it's not working. we need to pull the plug, it's as simple as that. 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, promising that we could fix it, but it hasn't been done. it is time to say that enough is enough and move on to something else. there aremedicaid, other initiatives. connecticut can handle it. hawaii had the same contract that we did and they moved to the federal system. they kept a portion of what was for medicaid. we could talk to them and i'm sure that they could give us some opportunities and some ideas for transitioning to the federal exchange without losing any one off dedicated. this is going to happen overnight, but it is just something we need to transition

into over the next year. have a plan for doing so. i'm absolutely positive we can do it. if elected, would you support universal health care or in extent -- extension kids. dinosaur, allowing to stay on that program for children? and if so, how would you pay for it? it seems to be an expensive endeavor. mr. lee? get your key out at -- get your kids out at the younger age. you get them out, you run them. quit eating the junk that we have here and we would have a much healthier environment. david reed is on his deathbed in greensboro. on mount sir a bocce and he's 92 years old. i showed hands with him and i

bought the acres on his farm. about thearrassed baby boomers and what we have done on this planet with medicare and everything else. to be taking any benefits from this federal government. these are the guys that did it. when my father was on his death had an laying there, psychiatrist came in and said that how you feeling? he said -- i feel great. he always had a great attitude like that. i look at the bill. $475 for saying i feel great. that's what's wrong with america. ms. minter: what i am focus on for health care reform is reducing the costs in the system. this is what i saw at cathedral square, a senior housing development in burlington, they are using innovative programs that i worked on supporting as a legislator. providing health care to seniors in their homes when they need it most. regular routine wellness care.

you know what they have demonstrated as they discuss the outcomes in the costs? providing care for seniors in their homes when they need it is actually reducing, significantly, anybody's use of hospitals, which is of course the most expensive care. they have demonstrated $1500 in savings per patient per year. but what we can do when we think differently. that is what we need to be thinking. do we provide more resources for prevention and community-based health? how do we actually incentivize that? the system we have now incentivizes morbid people going to the hospital and treating them there. mr. merone: mr. scott, final word on health care. lt. gov. scott: everyone deserves access to affordable health care. that's a common goal that all of us probably share. but we have seen health care lasting go up 20% in the

six years, in part because we spend a lot of time on experiments that just don't pan out. as i talked about before, transitioning from vermont health connect to something else was a first step, structurally. talked about dr. dinosaur. the rand corp. is doing a study on that at this moment. i'm looking forward to the results. it something the legislature asked for but i'm concerned about taking that portion. when you look at the overall population in vermont, that's part of the problem. we have an aging demographic. less people are here, less of our youth. when the healthy youth -- that's what drives down the cost because they don't use them as much. we need more youth in the state to do that. if you take that portion out for dr. dinosaur, you elevate the cost for everyone else, from 26 to 65. mr. merone: we are going to debt -- we are going to take a very short break right now and when

we return the members of the studio audience will have questions for the candidates. you are watching the gubernatorial debate on vermont pbs. >> we will return to the vermont votes debate for governor right after this short rake. -- break. welcome back, everyone. this is the gubernatorial debate here on vermont pbs. the candidates are here for another half hour. we have members of the studio audience who are going to question them. first up, richard from essex. richard: for all of you, your positions, please, on universal background checks for gun ownership in vermont. mr. merone: we will go left to right, first. a. lee: give them psychological test, too. guns don't peel -- don't kill people, bullets kill people. reduce clip size. i believe everybody is entitled.

i won't hamper the second amendment rights, but if you read it right a well armed militia, so you've got to join a militia. will run it, you come to me. i will not send you into a foreign war. we will increase hunting rights, we will fix the highways. i'm a firm believer of allowing people to get out there and shoot. warmer.ng to get i will reintroduce pheasants. there's nothing better than a from betweenng out your legs, on your pointer being on him, you knock him down and that dog brings it back and drops it at your feet because we are all hunters and gatherers and i've got to continue that. i'm a firm believer. i would check everybody. if you want a gun, you don't deserve a gun. ms. minter: i'm a strong supporter of the second amendment and vermonters rights to own guns.

i'm part of a hunting heritage here. but i do believe that it is time for commonsense gun safety and i support background checks for all guns. why? because we have a national epidemic of gun violence in this country and, sadly, we are not immune in vermont. i know what's really happening, because i've been told we don't have a problem, but i've seen the problem and it's often behind closed doors. domesticng about violence. the majority of homicides in vermont are domestic violence majority arehe with guns. in states that have background checks for all handguns, 46% fewer women are shot to death by their intimate partner. so, i say yes, i'm going to stand up for gun safety. i'm going to protect women behind their closed doors and i will stand up to the gun lobby. mr. merone: mr. scott? vermont has one

of the lowest crime rates in the nation. i'm not advocating for changes in the gun -- gun laws. i believe that we do it right here in vermont, enforce the laws we have, but i'm not advocating for changes. sufficient answers? thank you. next up, from milton, kate. kate: what is your plan for the struggling farm economy? especially the conventional dairy farmers, where their only option for survival is to become organic. how could we help them transition into that? mr. merone: let's go from right to left. certainlycott: we have to recognize that the dairy industry in particular is one of the most important industries, part of our traditional heritage and something that we need to protect. when people recreate here for tourism and so forth, they rely on the farmers, the dairy

farmers in particular to have those views and so forth. we have to work hand-in-hand with them. we cannot rely on -- we cannot paying.em into i know we have talked about water quality here in vermont and cleaning up lake champlain, but we can't put it on the backs of just the farmers. we are all in this together. we need to work together, we have all benefited from the farming community over the last couple of centuries. we need to protect them as well and recognize that they are an important part of our economy. ms. minter: farmers in the strike -- in this state are struggling. and there are additional requirements being placed on water quality that i will support as governor. i know that the dairy farmers need technical assistance, support and best practices to

ensure their management. i agree that there may be some who if they can transition to organic, where the prices are much higher, that might be a sustainable option for them. as secretary of agriculture i will be looking to support those conventional farmers, but also to help with that transition. i also have a program called , looking tomont drive innovation in the four key sectors of our economy. one of them is the farm, food, and forest economy. talking about those great , the exciting innovative farm and food industries in the northeast kingdom and elsewhere, we have jasper hill cheese and incredible dairy products. this is the future of vermont, this renaissance of our great agricultural economy. mr. merone: mr. lee? mr. lee: talking about a cheese company? mr. merone: you are up, sir. mr. lee: organic, you've got to go organic.

quit killing our kids and everything with all of these high-tech foods going into it. we've got to eat close to the vest. we've got to go back to the hex and a double dating technique in indonesia, where you can feed twice as many people on one acre of land. once you start adapting, this will be the bread basket. we will be fine in this state, getting farms smaller, we will sell to all of new york, boston, montreal. everyone will buy it. but we've got to get on it first. we've got to get out there, get the markets, get 1000 chickens at the most, all organic. be diversified. have ducks. let's go back to the way vermont used to be. , how they do?te all right. next up, garrett sullivan. after garrett will be frank from burlington. as they work their way up i

would like to remind folks that this is the first of four thursdays in a row here for debates. next week, the candidates for lieutenant governor debate had 7:30, then the candidates for the u.s. house after that on the 20th. that one starts at 8 p.m.. finally, all the candidates on the ballot for the senate will be here thursday the 27th at 7:30. mark those down, please do join us. garrett? garrett: thank you. this is to all the candidates. what would you say to win over who feel jaded, disenfranchised, and on trusting of government? starting in the middle this time. ms. minter: i have given my whole adult life to public service and i think that our government is something that we need to believe, trust, and feel confident in. that's why i have worked hard in my public service to focus on

being accountable to taxpayers. we really have lost faith in our government. i want to make sure that we know that government can function and is there when we need it, just like with irene. we had over 500 miles of roads damaged overnight. we had to pull together. i was at the transportation agency, the emergency operations were flooded out. it was up to us at the state agency for transportation to pull together, to innovate, to partner, to do what no one thought possible, actually reconnect to the roads and bridges in less than four months . that is what government can do as it builds great partnerships. that is what we are therefore. i want to be a governor that helps to make sure that we are providing great service to the customers, great accountability to the taxpayers. mr. merone: to decide, mr. lee? first, quit watching

cnn and fox news. that's the start, only watch this channel. only listen to this radio station. it's the only thing. good friend of mine. i go way back to common cause, fair share, the government is not the problem, the problem is the special interest groups, the koch brothers, the guys who are propagandizing in saying everything is bad, the sky is falling, the skies falling. i thought it was a beautiful day. thank you. mr. merone: mr. scott? issuev. scott: it is an right here in this state, a lack of faith and trust in government and across the nation. when we see what's happening on the presidential scale, it really is alarming. what we can do is act appropriately. didn't have a political bone in my body. didn't have an interest in politics. but i started complaining about what was going on and unclear

and i stepped up. i've been in the minority my entire political life but i've always been able to get something done because i've been able to reach across the aisle and bring consensus, bring people together and look to what we should be doing. we should be public servants, not politicians. that is what we need to do, just act appropriately. when i was put in a position of leadership in the senate by then senator -- congressman welch, it wasn't because we agreed politically or philosophically. we trusted each other on a hand-to-hand basis. it was as simple as that, you know? faith and trust is what we need to rebuild. garrett: pretty good, thank you. mr. merone: frank from burlington is up next. i was glad to hear you

speaking about the balanced budget this evening. we talk about that every two years. i also heard that the deficit andbeen rising every year that it continues to grow and grow. i think i heard tonight that it was $40 million. i have thought i read 120 million dollars. i've not sure which is which. i heard that it is so bad that the budget is in a deficit like that. but the sky hasn't fallen. what i see around vermont is that life looks wonderful. i have to make a reservation to get into restaurants in burlington. is it such a bad thing if we have the deficit we have? all right, let's go right to left this time. lt. gov. scott: it absolutely is problematic. i know that here sometimes things look pretty good. but you need to travel around. get to rutland, get the

brattleboro,attle up in the northeast kingdom. there's problems throughout the state. some of the deficits we are a result of now are being over optimistic and expectations in terms of how much the revenue in the economy will grow. that one been basing like 3% and growing it by another 2%, thinking it's going to grow 5% every single year about 1.5% torows 2%. there's a deficit in between. year, the year before, the year before that, after the budget is passed one month after, it's a revenue downgrade. bringing in the emergency board, they cut, so what we need to do is be realistic upfront about what it is that we can afford and not have this over optimistic expectation. mr. merone: ms. minter. ms. minter: i want to clarify,

it's not a budget short fall -- it's a budget shortfall. we have to make that up. it's different from going into debt. which we never do. in fact we are one of the states in the daschle movie only states in the country that doesn't require a balanced budget, but we always present one. but we do need to talk about growing the economy. that's why i have invest and innovate vermont. creating more opportunities for entrepreneurs, for housing, just like we did in very common in saint albans. just like we did in my town, waterbury. pulling together, setting up a plan, building economic opportunity and growth. we will also innovate around for key sectors. advanced manufacturing, high-tech, the green economy. and the renewable energy efficiency economy. i have plans to help grow the

economy and get livable wage jobs for the future. mr. merone: mr. lee? mr. lee: with hair like we've got, we don't have to worry about a thing. [laughter] is, i'm leaving my doctor's office, they didn't take my blood because they said there wasn't a technician. i get on the road, my physical is 11:05, i want to eat something. i'm following this logging truck with quebec plate. on it there were 43 of the most beautiful maple logs with small hearts. to add insult to injury i had to follow that truck at 50 miles per hour all the way up or team as it past my house and went into canada to be milled. that's our problem. everything has left this state. we've got to do stuff ourselves. we have to get small saws, the best forests, the best land, we have the best of everything.

nothing is going to happen. deficit? what deficit. we ain't going to have a deficit. we are the greatest state on this planet. i picked this state. actually, it picked me. i've been here longer than anywhere else. follow-up? frank: no, i don't. thank you. mr. merone: valerie is next from south burlington. valerie: i want to hear what you are going to do with women's issues in vermont? and regarding the bobble head, i know you don't coordinate, but who would be our second female governor? it was insulting as a woman to see an advertisement with her with everything that peter shumlin said. do you believe that? it's notscott:

something that we can afford and eight. when we were accused of coordinating with them and others on some advertisements, which we were not, that was dismissed. the are careful not to coordinate in any sense of the word. valerie: but do you agree? lt. gov. scott: i don't agree with that. this is my ninth campaign and i've never run a negative campaign. valerie: it rubs me the wrong way as a woman to see that. lt. gov. scott: man or woman it rubs you the wrong way. we cannot coordinate in any way with anybody. and sue cannot either. is that the koch brothers? who is running that? valerie: that's a good question. who is running that? you don't know who is running that ad? lt. gov. scott: it is by the rga or somebody.

valerie: so, what would you do for women in vermont? mr. merone: that's the question on the floor for all of you. we will start with mr. lee. ms. minter: mr. lee: equal wage -- mr. lee: equal wage, equal time, equal pay. put more money in the economy and the deficit goes down. -- my aunt isen in the hall of fame. she taught me -- her mother broke her leg sliding into second at 47 years of age. my grandfather played. i was raised with strong women. my great grandmother had three husbands over four things giving back in the 1800s. that doesn't happen all the time . so, you know. my grandmother said -- billy -- give me a strong cup of children's coffee and a box of shotgun shells and she would go out and say -- shoot dinner. that was my life. [laughter] thank you for

raising the question. we know that 43% of women who work full-time in vermont still cannot make their basic needs and there are many issues that particularly affect women. women who are predominantly more , morehead of household and more falling into poverty. there are many things that we can and will do. we will increase the minimum wage. we know that one of the challenges is that women are predominantly in low-wage jobs, like childcare and elder care providers. we need to actually help improve young girls and young women's occupational opportunities. that's part of my vermont promise, to get more kids, including women, into those livable wage jobs. we also need to promote them, with more childcare. i will be pushing for more paid family leave so that women can have children. you know, i was the secretary of

transportation and under my leadership the number of women in maintenance doubled and we created new lactation facilities for young moms to be able to work and have their care given. despite what you might hear on some of the ads, i'm a moderate pro-choice vermonter who supports heritage equality and equal pay for equal work. and i believe -- i'm the father of two daughters, very independent, very proud of my daughters. i want the best for them. i want opportunity for them. if we are going to grow this economy we are going to have everyone pulling in the same direction on any basis. my mother was the strongest person on the face of the earth. she inspires me. we want to do better for women in vermont.

i want to find equal opportunity for everyone. valerie: do you want guns out of the hands of domestic abusers? lt. gov. scott: absolutely. valerie: i know it seems i'm picking on you, sorry, i'm from spalding. lt. gov. scott: even if you aren't, it would be fine. valerie: thank you so much. by merone: $10.50 per hour 2018, i believe that is where the minimum wage raise ends. what will you do about it when you take office, if anything at all? lt. gov. scott: and my first again? ok. -- am i first again? ok. i was in the senate 10 years ago when we had the debate on minimum wage. i remember it quite well. sold to many of us to

raise the minimum wage and then , to theto the index cost of living and that we would never ever have this discussion again. we will have to raise it again. it will just rise naturally with the cost of living. that's what's in place today. in fact, there was an issue a couple of years ago that would raise the minimum wage up far the federal standard. i'm concerned about those small businesses. if you raise it, they will just cut the hours and cut jobs. i think that there should be entry-level jobs and i think that teaches our youth something about structure. mr. merone: minimum wage, ms. minter? ms. minter: i support an

increase to $12.50 per hour and more than that i want to make sure that we get more vermonters qualified for livable wage jobs. this really is the opportunity gap. as we discussed earlier, we have too many people struggling to make ends meet because wages are not keeping up with the cost of living. to deal with this affordability challenge, we need to get more into those jobs. we need to connect the dots between our businesses and our students. with internships, apprenticeships, certifications. that's my vermont promise program. it's also about workforce development strategy. windham county where they came up with a terrific plan, they have a whole consortium of institutions for higher learning. the ccv, the vtc, the school for international training, marlborough, landmark, and i'm forgetting number 6 -- sorry --

but they are working in consortium with a group of whatesses who want to know kind of courses they need to have to get to those jobs that the businesses need. connecting the dots. mr. merone: mr. lee? it's got to go up. you need more money to pay more taxes to go for all the services everybody wants. i want a lower class and middle class to make more money. longl tell you, there is a in all -- there is a log albany, 30 feet long, off the ground, not rotting. a spoon goes for $30. i bet you there is a million spoons in that. got to do.ou you got your natural resources here. use them. all the artists. ernest k becker, "denial of death." live hard, die quick.

you know, leave a beautiful corpse. that goes along with working. diversified like that, make more products, we don't have to worry about a dang thing. this is the best place to live. when will you push for $12.50 question mark ms. minter: 2018 -- $12.50? ms. minter: in 2018. mr. merone: mr. scott? lt. gov. scott: i'm all for raising the minimum wage, but nobody in the company that i own makes less than $12.50 per hour. those that make $15, if it's raised to that they are going to who to make 18 or 21, those get 21 are going to want 24. it's just going to raise the cost of living and it's got to come out of somebody's pocket.

what we need to do is focus on the economy. if we really want to focus on something, let's focus on the economy, where there is more opportunity for everyone. mr. merone: i think if you ask those who are graduating, the 10,000 students graduating every year, whether it is a $15 an hour minimum wage that is going to keep them here i would say no. they are looking for more opportunity. more affordable housing. more opportunity in jobs. that is what we should be focusing on. growing economy so we can attract more youth and rev up our economy. we are faltering, we are missing the mark and we have been missing the mark for the last seven or eight years because

we're not focusing on what we can do to help ourselves. we are artificially raising everything to take care of it. ms. minter: it can help it people off the services they want to be independent and self-sufficient. i worked very hard a secretary of transportation to make sure the folks on the front line, the folks who are there are working hard and are dedicated to making sure your roads are safe in the winter and safe in the summer. i wanted to make sure they had a higher wage. we were able to increase their wage without having to bump up every other part of the business so i think this misses can do like we have done in government.

let's make sure we do not have such a huge disparity between people at the top and people who are giving their work daily. i have been so inspired by the folks that actually give of themselves stay after day, believing in keeping our roads safe and i am thrilled i was able to help them increase their wages and earnings. >> you have to be more creative. take 200, put them in a box. put the box around the side of your house. ain't it black. put in solar panels. it will heat up the whole dam house will stop we have to think outside of the box. you sure head. be more diversified will stop you will make more money. but the vermont label on it. get out there and sell it. this state is a gold mine. it is a state of mind it is a place where people come.

people will come in. i just got to get the -- in montreal, that is what i am hoping for. moderator: think you all. number one, mr. scott. mr. scott: thank you for having us. i made it a fact to live my life the way i want to be treated. the importance of leadership. we have a deficit of faith and trust here and nationally. it is incumbent upon us to act appropriately in our own deck yard and inspire others to do the same. it is about instilling that date and trust that has been lost across the nation. make this a more inviting place for working families and jobs. our ability to grow the economy.

make the state more affordable, give our kids the best education possible. this is all tied to one common element, leadership. it will take strong, courageous leadership will stop to change the economics and vermont. there will be difficult decisions regardless of who is elected. it is essential we tell the truth. always, always follow through with a promise. mr. lee: i always had a good follow-through. it cap may lose, get me going. i tell you something, thank you pbs. this is the only station i ever watch because it is the only place you can gain knowledge. in nebraska, the end stands for knowledge. i see everything rosie. i see no problem.

what i hear is people are upset with the government. you are looking at the only guy who has his hands in his own pocket. i have only taken $20 and that was from a 91-year-old in wisconsin. i told him, sir, i do not wait your money. i do not believe in money and politics. we have to get rid of citizens united. we have to do that or none of what we say here today will be a help. you have to get rid of the big problems to save this little state. thank you. ms. minter: i am looking for solutions. vermont is a real choice in this election. there are differences between us. i have plans to create livable

wage jobs and affordable college. some plans give tax breaks to corporations and leave the middle class behind. i support a woman's right to choose. and like 89% of vermonters prefer background checks for all guns to keep vermonters say, which bill opposes. i am optimistic about our future. i believe in you want and i'm asking for your vote to be governor so that we can move vermont forward and build an economy that works for all vermonters. with bill lee, -- moderator:: thank you very much. thank you all candidates. thank you audience for taking part. next week, the candidate for lieutenant governor at 7:30 right here on vermont pbs.

thank you for joining me. see you next week. ♪ [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> coming up live in about 20 minutes, former vice president outdoor is campaigning today with hillary clinton. we will take you live to coverage of their stop at 3:00 eastern time. about theiscussion problems facing white working-class americans. ,e will hear from two authors hosted by the american enterprise institute in washington, d.c. then c-span hosts a conversation with the third-party presidential candidates, gary johnson and jill stein. they will appear separately to

answer questions and viewers calls and tweaks. -- calls and tweets. all of that tonight on c-span. 's live coverage of the third debate between hillary clinton and donald trump on october 13. our live review starts at seven: 30 p.m. eastern. the briefing for the debate studio audiences at 8:30 p.m. eastern and the debate is at 9:00 eastern. stay with us for viewer reaction, including her calls caught tweets and posts. you can watch live on your desktop or tablet on c-span.org. you can download it from the app store or google play. >> more poll numbers are starting to come out after the second presidential debate stop

-- second presidential debate. we took a look at the presidential campaign trail and the second presidential debate, along with what to watch for in the coming weeks and the key house and senate races. this is from today's "washington journal." >> "washington journal," continues. is heresh kraushaar from the "national journal," here to talk about campaign 2016. what do you think was the impetus of paul ryan going to the republican base in the house, talking about the actions he was about to take? guest: public and numbers of congress have just about had it with donald trump and the release of that video was essentially the final straw for a lot of his public and members. they've seen pulling in their district and they know the trump is deeply unpopular in many suburban districts. paul ryan has really tried to

thread a very tough needle right now, which is trump supporters who may not vote for republicans if he distances himself, and says i can't support trump or endorse trump at all. but also reassure some of the more moderate suburban constituencies that they are not going to be taken down with this trump tornado. host: is this about how seats possibly up for grabs? cares about the house, republicans are feeling very optimistic about we go about their ability to hold a narrow majority in the senate. panic aboute in these very close races all of a sudden tipping more towards the democrats. host: we have heard a lot of fronts about republican infighting over many issues. do you expect that same kind of infighting about these recent actions over donald trump? guest: republicans come all the way back to when trump won the nomination came with this formulation that they would essentially support trump, but

not enthusiastically endorse him, especially in the swing state races and key races in the house and senate that are going to decide the majority in both chambers. has said overmp the intervening several months, they still stayed together as a team and said this is horrible and we don't support what he said, but we still support trump. paul ryan said what he said was racist, but i still think he is better than hillary clinton. over the weekend, when the nonstop news coverage was developing over this video from 2005, the did look at polls, all of a sudden it was the weekend and they were in their home states and home district, in a state of abject panic. a republican senator decided to do with a car was in their own best interest. some of them, like kelly ayotte said they can't support donald trump anymore. saids, like marco rubio what they have been doing all along. it actually looks like the

republicans who have stuck with trump in his awkward formulation -- the worry that republicans that they can't support company more is that a lot of the trump supporters won't vote for them down ballot. a lot of the trump supporters only care about trump. they were going to hesitantly vote for the republicans down ticket. the worry that a lot of her public officials have is that some of these trump supporters devoted all down ballot, and supportersn-trump may not show up to vote on election day. host: these actions coming before the debate on sunday night. guest: it's pretty amazing, the two supporters may not show polls that were doe showing clinton now leading by double digits. it was a separate poll that was just released this morning sponsored by politico, which debaterump after the with a deficit of only five points. any poll that was done over the

weekend is going to be the low point for donald trump. i think you stabilize, his debate performance was enough to reassure enough base republican supporters that he is still there nominee. there's not going to be a lot of panic going forward, at least, not publicly. trump is a very tough challenge to win this election. but for republicans, it's all about saving the senate majority. host: here is the "wall street journal," result of that poll. includes terry johnson and jill stein. our guest is here to talk about all of these events in the weeks of to election day. -- democrats, call (202) 748-8000, republicans, call ,202) 748-8001, independents call call (202) 748-8002. you can post in our facebook page at facebook.com/c-span.

can you talk about the electoral college? i've seen stories saying even if donald trump did so many votes by people, the electoral college still favors hillary clinton. is that true? guest: i am skeptical. you hurt a lot, that even if he can win the popular vote, he has a trouble with the electoral college. if he was not connect as he was through four weeks ago, you would see states like ohio and nevada, ororida and actually leaning in his direction when he was narrowly closing the gap with hillary clinton in the polls. when she had the momentum, clearly the states, including a lot more trump friendly straight -- states like ohio are moving in hillary clinton's direction. there is rust belt math for donald trump. if he was running a better campaign, you would certainly see the electoral college map that would be possible for trump votes.200 70 electoral

he's doing so badly in the popular vote that a lot of these states are moving away from him right now. host: third-party supporters, if you want to call, (202) 748-8003 . donna lives in hampton, virginia. republican line. you were on with our guest. though ahead. caller: -- go ahead. caller: i had a comment about the first part of the show. paul ryan is going to lose his seat. host: ok, let's start with that. guest: house speaker ship, he is going to win reelection to his house even his district. but if the house flips the democrats, and very skeptical. gerrymandering limits the number of competitive seats and self sorting them is the number of competitive seats that have been in play. come until recently, have been actually pulling money out of these suburban districts. a lot of these potentially competitive districts that would

be necessary for them to retake the house. we will see if the video changes things. the other thing is, even the most bullish polls that were conducted at his lowest point showed democrats with a seven-point advantage on the generic ballot, which is very good. if that holds, it's very likely the democrats retake the senate. havenk democrats need to nearly a 10 point advantage on the generic ballot to really have a chance to talk about taking back the house. host: the headline from "washington post," house democrats view the possibility of a powershift. guest: i am skeptical. there were polls that were taken before the video, and one that came out of the weekend in long island, a swing district, with a freshman house republican showing the republican up 15 points, even in a district where donald trump is not particularly popular. ,ou see this all across the map

this minnesota area district that republicans -- the democrats really thought they could contest the seat of erik paulsen, and a lot of money is leaving the district. suburban sees the democrats need to put in play that are not in play right now, it's hard to see how that genetically changes. ,ost: in pennsylvania independent line. caller: i'm upset the paul ryan another republicans are pulling away from donald trump now. i am in independence, i wasn't to stray was going myself over to the democrats or republicans. nominee,oning your even though he has had a video brought out about him is wrong. i'm afraid it was going to nominee, even though hehappen is donald g to get elected and then all of them republicans are going to want favors. i hope you doesn't give them to them. bitt: there is been quite a

of anecdotal evidence that in the wake of certain republicans saying they can't support donald trump, the trumpet base has been very upset about it. saturday in the midst of all this controversy, joe heck, the senate candidate in nevada who was leading in most public polls in a big swing state race was booed at a campaign appearance when he said he couldn't support a donald trump president. paul ryan at unity rally that was supposed to feature donald trump, when he was talking about his worries about what trump done, he was also booed by quite a few people. this is the dilemma the republicans face. trump is very popular, but that 35% base, they are not only -- they are not party guys. they are not people are going to say well i may like trump, but i also like a lot of republicans. they view republicans in the senate and the house as part of the establishment. they don't have a lot of desire to support these guys. once these members of congress are starting to say i can't vote

for trump, the risk is that some of their trump voters won't vote for them. host: from west virginia, democrats line. tom. caller: do you know why donald trump stood behind mrs. clinton at the debate? host: when you tell us -- why don't you tell us? guest: he's got to be center of attention. he can't stand her being on camera and him standing way off he had to do it. not because of politics, not because of nothing. he has to be center of attention when the cameras on him. guest: i think that much is true , but the interesting thing about the town hall format is that a lot of these town hall withes have to do as much body language as to what the candidates are saying. it was so negative and over-the-top that even the awkward -- when trump was pictured standing behind hillary

clinton, it was a very inopportune moment for trump. a lot of the debate content is what people will react to. host: do you think the appearances of women from bill clinton's past will show up? guest: trump is indicating that will be the case. he was campaigning and spent an awful lot of time talking about bill clinton and his scandals and saying hillary clinton defended bill clinton during that time. republican operatives will look at the polling and they will understand why he is using this tactic, because they think it is a base only strategy. if trump wants to win the presidency, he needs to win the suburban women. it is certainly rallying the base and i think his performance at the debate reassured a lot of the wary republicans. it was maybe his core supporters that were really taken aback at what happened over the weekend. they're back on board and more

reassured by the debate performance. host: let us hear from jane in annapolis, maryland. go ahead . caller: i think personally -- i am an immigrant and i'm voting for trump and i'm a woman. i'm absolutely disgusted with the republicans who are now scared of their own personal benefit in reelection. i've got to say it has nothing to do with what trump said on friday. it has everything to do with their lack of leadership over the course of four or six years and now they are scared for their own reelection. now they're are using trump again to excuse themselves for people failing to vote for them or staying away from them and not voting for them. i believe that americans are much smarter than the media. media is running this reelection

and the selection. the media is telling the voters who to vote for. they've been doing this since the clintons in the 1990's. i would call all the listeners to read the judicial watches and court cases, to buy the clean house book that talks about all the scandals and violations of the freedom of information act that voters do not know. the media is pushing out their own agenda and hillary clinton moveder for her to her own globalization policy. host: a poll found that democrats advantage on the question of which party should control congress was up a percentage point from three points last month. guest: it is very likely that they will retake the senate even if it is closer to zero.

they still have a fighting chance given how closely divided the senate is. at the same time, the house and the republicans would lose 30 seats in the house. it is still probably safe. paul ryan does not have to worry that much. that is also at the worst moment in the trump campaign. as far as the comments, she is sort of reflective of a lot of these trump supporters that make y punish down ballot republicans. they stood with donald trump despite his insults. listed with donald trump despite the fact that he insulted miss universe. he has said some of the things that were beyond the pale that people found disgusting, but they still stood with him. it was a 10-year-old videotape that pushed him over the edge? it is not really pass muster and that is why republicans were nervous about much of the coverage over the weekend and decide to belatedly ditch

themselves of donald trump. i think they will make tend up more of a political price than the one to stay the course. host: do you think this blows over? guest: i do not think this blows over. i think this will enrage a lot of college-educated voters, a lot of women, and it will certainly for trump's standing, before this video came out, the races had republicans leaving 7-10 points and the momentum with republicans. all the sudden, the dynamic is in flux. host: here is catherine from staten island, new york, independent line. go ahead. caller: good morning. i am exactly like the lady before. and i'm notendent going to vote for any of the republicans.

what business do they have to tell the people to vote for trump? who supports those people? the people vote, ok. they should go after clinton the way the democrats got after trump. why don't they do that? because they do not like the way and they do not like what trump is going to be doing and they like the way things are going so they can keep the democrats the same way it's been going on for years. the e-mails they have for her -- why does nobody talk about them? the nephew of the bushes works there. that is why. they want trump out of the business. catherine.s, cap it's another trump

supporter taking out their anger on congressional republicans of them their own nominees problems. it's a dim dynamic republicans are dealing with. if you're talking with republicans privately, and very few of them support donald trump, but they feel that they becausesupport them there are more supporters than trump skeptics. you have the bush party and the trump party and they are operating in coexistence. host: from kentucky, democrats line, lewis. caller: i am lewis from kentucky. i'm a coal miner, a union coal miner. i've had jobs taken away from us. that theyabout it is have filed bankruptcy and they made over $12 trillion and now they are taking my insurance

away. at the end of the year, i won't have no insurance. this was a written contract. paul ryan says we were a bunch of welfare people when they voted on this. mitch mcconnell did not vote across the board so would not get voted for. that is not right. i voted for trump. us -- thatat door to we have next door to us are not right. all they do is talk. they are not standing up for the working person. i'm talking about the working person, not the rich people, but the working person of this country. we don't need someone running making trillions a year. we need someone for the working person paying their bills and the insurance. uest: that's part of the dilemma for this voter in kentucky.

it used to be a heavily working-class area that was five or six years ago heavily democratic, but it has now moved heavily republican. and have these new voters part of the coalition that are very angry and disaffected, but they are i dogs with the business oriented leadership that the party has had for decades. the party is bigger than it's ever been, but they are at war with each other. the area he is from, it used to be a very working-class democratic vote. it was a big part of the clinton coalition and 92 and 96. were trumpese supporters, but they are making the republican party's life miserable as a balance between the bush and paul ryan supporters and the trump supporters. host: on twitter, all the ship jumper republicans have one thing in common -- they are all part of the establishment. guest: establishment is an interesting word. it discuss people that were once

conservatives that a lot of the more conservative elements once like. paul ryan was a hero of the conservative right not long ago and now you hear talk show hosts like sean hannity describing him as a traitor. you kind of get whiplash looking at who is in good standing with the conservative movement. ted cruz was remarkable at the convention. even after losing the primaries, he still had high approval ratings from conservative republicans. the second he decided not to support trump, his numbers plummeted back home in texas, which forced him to do a flip-flop and endorse trump later on. this is the dilemma republicans are in where voters are at all to their leadership. host: is ted cruz still sticking with trump? guest: yes, he is not withdrawn that endorsement. if you did, that would be three or four different flip-flops in the matter of a few months. host: he is with "the national " and joining us on a

conversation on campaign 2016. stock is up next in baton rouge, louisiana. caller: good morning. the videos that were brought out the other day about trump, i would rate that about a one because no one was hurt in that . other people go around raping and groping people. i rate that a 10 on a scale. for some reason, the media does not want to talk about that . not only that he didn't, but the fact that his wife tried to cover it up and belittle the ladies like it was their fault. this country has turned upside down what is good. what was good is now bad. what was bad is now good.

what a world. what a world we live in. host: that was doc in louisiana. guest: here's the problem with that voters argument -- voters care about that video. voters care about what donald trump said on the scene. it is responsible for the payment. even the polls that have come out since show a deep loss of support from women especially and among men. a lot of suburban college-educated men have lost interest in trump in the short term in the wake of the video. we are a divided country where a lot of callers make sure that viewpoint, but it's making it very difficult for him to find a path. host: in our first 45 minutes, we heard a lot of female supporting trump. those who are going to stay with him, but what about the undecided? guest: it doesn't help trump with the undecided.

ked onf them have part or gary johnson's spot. right now, republicans are focused on the senate and to a lesser extent the house. there are very few republicans who feel trump has a pathway at this point. host: ron, hello. caller: how are you doing? listen, c-span, you guys are just the greatest. you guessed, i'm very honored to speak with you, sir. bill clinton -- i don't really want to see him. i'm a democrat and i do not want to see him back in the white house. he is not going to be running the shebang. hillary is. hillary protecting her husband and everything, she did not do anything that any wife wouldn't do for her cheating husband if she found u out.

i feel my wife would do that if i were to cheat on her, which i would never did. donald trump -- i hate to say it, but he is kind of like a high and slumlord for seemingly his whole life. i knew from the time he got into the republican party that he was going to split the republican party in half. i've known this for over year and i've been telling my friends and family. i've been laughing about it because i know. you are talking about the latest video release. that is exactly what it is. it is the latest video release and i'm sure you can expect more because donald trump has had years and years where he has gone on to these radio talk shows like howard stern and all these other shows. he has shown just what kind of person he is. trump is not going to get elected in this election. there's just not that many people that are going to tolerate his type of behavior.

he is just not going to be the president. i do not for see that happening at all whatsoever. hillary clinton -- she has some problems with benghazi and e-mails, but all that is really getting old. for americans died him in gazan compared to the tens of thousands that died after bush sent us to iraq from weapons of mass destruction that didn't exist. that kind of pales in comparison. host: ron, thanks. guest: it is interesting that even though most voters before ,he tape viewed trump as sexist misogynistic, but it's funny that the tape actually -- it's a most like a lot of voters have not been paying attention to the election for months before the tape came out. trump had been on the howard stern radio show and has been on

audiotape saying awful things, but it is this videotape that panicked republicans and change the dynamic of the race with less than a month ago. my hunch is the numbers will stabilize a little bit. trump is certainly behind, but the poll numbers that came out that we ca weekend when republicans were running away and the media coverage was hot, it is tough to salvage. he will not be down 10 points, but he will be down six or seven points when the dust settles. host: there was release of e-mails from wikileaks. what has been the impact on hillary clinton? guest: it has been muted because of trumps on problems. if anyone was running against hillary clinton, this would be a serious issue. the point made during the debate is that with some of these e-mails, the issues she has in private are at odds with the public position on the campaign. this is her biggest weakness.

democrats and bernie sanders supporters view her as being too close to wall street and the wealthy. a lot of these e-mails released underscore that image. the trump video has gotten so much attention and traction that it has virtually drowned out a lot of the scrutiny that hillary clinton otherwise would have received. host: lynn up next in tennessee on the republican line. caller: good morning. how are you? host: i am fine thanks. caller: i like to say that it is sad that so many people would leave trump over this with all that has gone on with hillary. i think as paul ryan does not want to vote republican, then all republican should not vote for him. that is my comment. thank you. guest: like i said before, after controversy, paul ryan did not say he was going to endorse trump.

he said he would stay by him although he was critical of what he said. i find it surprising that republicans are so put to run away in the immediate aftermath, saying they did not know who donald trump was. republicans may sickly bait a cynical bargain with their voters. willbasically said we support trump, but we will not endorse and. we will not defend his comments, but we will make this argument that hillary clinton is even worse. that argument and strategy fell apart this weekend. that is why republicans are trying to pick up the pieces and figure out a path forward with less than a month ago. host: any chance of them coming back and softening their positions? guest: not likely. you may see some of the republicans who ditched trump tried to suddenly reach out to their supporters and remind them of why they should be voting for their own candidacies. lot of very mad trump supporters who may take

out their anger on some of these down ballot republicans. host: bonnie for maryland, good morning to you. you are calling on the republican line. you are on with our guest. caller: first of all, i'm 72. i have voted republican since i was 18 and i've never missed. this time i will put a right in and let me tell you why. are you there? host: you are on. go ahead. caller: i will tell you why and please don't cut me off. first of all, i remember when his first wife made a comment. he sued her because she said something. he has a nondisclosure with all of his wives, his children, his staff, and everything. if they say anything, he sues. second of all, as far as his paid ahic, he has never decent wage in his life. from theom day one

ones that built his first hotel, he paid them for dollars an hour and then she did them out of that. i did construction years ago. i was the first woman in marilyn to do construction. -- in maryland to do construction. all the subcontractors and i lost. i quit because i've been there 18 years. the company came back because it was incorporated. they went and bought the property back, finished it out, and all the little people losing money. this is what trump does. he never pays anybody. host: we will have to leave it there. guest: we are seeing something of a realignment wear longtime republicans are perhaps while for hillary clinton

old-school democrats who may use to vote democrat a decade ago are actually supporting donald trump yo. you look at the class divide in this election and its remarkable. mitt romney lost college-educated white voters by 12 points. they have carried every election in the century since goldwater lost a johnson. he is actually winning blue-collar white voters by a bigger margin than romney did over obama in 2012. as far as the white vote goes, if your caller educated desk college-educated, your -- if you are college-educated, you're voting for clinton. host: as far as the next few weeks, what do you expect from trump and clinton campaigns? guest: trump is trying to pick up the pieces and stop the bleeding.

his campaign event in pennsylvania suggest he is just playing for the base. all he is doing is tried to get his most hard-core supporters to the polls and energize them. even some of his surrogates are suggesting they should -- i think trumps another tweet this morning critical of house speaker paul ryan. this divide is growing within the party and donald trump is showing his sign of trying to papered over. as for hillary clinton, she understand she has got a lead. early voting has begun in many key states. she does not want to make any mistakes or gaffes. what is interesting is there's a report out this week that there is a super pac backing hillary clinton's campaign. they may start spending money in the senate and house races that they feel so culpable about their standing in the key swing states. they may transfer or use that money to air senate absence to the presidential at. if that starts happening, you will know this race is all but over.

host: this is one for our guest this morning . caller: i'm calling because you know what? saddened to mym men that we have

this is the dilemma -- he is not popular. it has been hurting his favorability numbers throughout this campaign. the challenge is the 30% of base republican voters, nothing is effecting their perception of him. they are voting for trump no matter what and punish republicans were being disloyal, but the majority of voters, swing voters, independent voters, they are all either voting for hillary clinton or a third-party candidate. donald trump is going to struggle to hit 30% of the vote, which will be a historic marker. host: what are hillary clinton's favorability numbers? theer: this -- guest: second worst in history. the e-mail server -- the high point for donald trump was prosecuting her, challenging her face to face about her mendacity when it came to talking about server.onal e-mail

it's almost as big a vulnerability for her as trump's sexism and misogyny is for him. ultimately, trump voters are trending in a downward direction and hillary clinton's numbers are getting better. host: next, we will hear from tom in densely on the republican line. i'm definitely voting for trump and i will tell you something -- all the financial money coming in for hillary clinton as well as jeb bush, it all comes from the same puppet masters. jeb, you are helping them. if you vote for hillary, you are voting for the same people. trump is independent and they are scared because he's going to clean out washington and the rats nest and all of the stuff from the taxpayers -- we are not going to put up with it anymore. i'm voting for trump, all the way. guest: he certainly has strong

views and you have the constituencies in both parties -- bernie sanders one 40% of the vote despite no one taking him seriously at the beginning of the campaign. you have republican and the democratic party divided along lines of trade and immigration and class. host: a viewer on twitter says i don't even call them supporters, more like groupies. guest: we learned from the primaries that nothing can really affect their view of him. performances were subpar, he still retained that 30% or 40% of support and they stuck with him during the general election. it's not enough to win a campaign. he need to expand your appeal when you move on to the general election and donald trump has done absolutely nothing. tell us what you are closely watching in the weeks ahead.

guest: the dynamic between donald trump and leadership on capitol hill is going to be interesting. -- he wase pence say debating whether to stay on the ticket saturday and he gave a speech where he was effusively praising him and we can all heal. the senate is hanging in the balance and republicans, after moving away from trump, are starting to realize they can't afford to do that. the calculation republicans make this week is going to be fascinating. there back in their home district and will hear from their constituents. on the democratic side, what is the message democrats use on the campaign trail in the senate races, i was in new hampshire before the trump video exploded. privately were saying the trump attacks were not working when they were trying to connect. it was not the most effective line of attack, but that has changed in last couple of weeks.

but can they continue to go all trump all the time or do they focus on other issues? host: you have been listening to josh across our joining us to talk about campaign 2016. thank you for joining us. >> we have been keeping an eye on miami-dade college where a campaign rally has begun that will include former vice president al gore campaigning with hillary clinton today. they are expected to focus on combating climate change and laying out what is at stake in this election. the campaign stop coming just ahead of this battleground state's voter registration deadline. a federal court extended voter registration to tomorrow at 5:00 eastern time after hurricane matthew florida coast late last week. secretary clinton and al gore expected to discuss rising sea levels in miami as well as the historic drought out west while they are here at miami-dade

college. ♪ ♪ >> while we are waiting for

former vice president al gore and secretary of state hillary clinton to take the stage, take a look at some of our conversation from earlier this morning on "washington journal" taking a look at the campaign. media matters for america, he serves as her present. tell us about your organization. guest: media matters was founded in 2004. we are a progressive media watchdog and we look at conservative media. we get there at 5 a.m. in the morning, read the local and national newspapers, monitor national and local news, online and broadcast, and we take a fact checking perspective from a progressive point of view. host: why is that important? is larger than it has ever been. people are consuming news not only through a nightly newscasts , but online and bad information can travel quickly. we think it's important we have a fact-based media.

how would you characterize campaign 2016? guest: unprecedented. everyone would agree this campaign has brought a lot of firsts. donald trump has brought a lot of challenges for the media and while lately they have been good about trying to hold him accountable, donald trump was a media created and fueled candidacy. we monitorho primarily, created his candidacy. 2015 through 2016, we looked at the amount of coverage they gave to the 17 million republican candidates running and they covered donald trump with about 50 hours, double with what they covered everyone else. candidacymp bosque was promoted by right-wing media, by fox news, and mainstream media allowed it to grow in such an area where he is the republican nominee. much scrutiny is

on donald trump compared to hillary clinton? guest: hillary clinton has faced a lot of scrutiny -- she was a candidate even before donald trump. first, the benghazi -- for a while come you could not turn on the news where there wasn't some new inkling of something happening in benghazi, which was a tragedy but a fact less media environment. conservatives would state -- would say there was a standdown order. we didn't know where the president was. all of the things that were absolute myths. second was the e-mail controversy, which she apologize for very early but media, as soon as there's an inkling of new information or just a rehash of something, it would dominate news coverage. third has been the clinton foundation. the trump foundation is under investigation from the new york attorney general and have had problems with their donation to

the attorney general in florida. the clinton foundation is rated five stars at we saw more coverage on the clinton foundation than the trump foundation and that is a travesty. that coverage, is it particularly from conservative media or is it on all fronts? guest: absolutely on all fronts. of course this is a campaign cycle that has originated at a breitbart and the alt right movement. and that is who is leading donald trump's campaign right now. mainstream media decided very early they would give hillary clinton a more thorough vetting than they did in 2008 -- think they focused a lot on very little. host: our guest is with us for about a half an hour to talk about coverage of campaign 2016 media coverage.

undecided voters -- the previous guest this weekend talked about donald trump's tape versus the new wikileaks and the found a disparities, and a big one. guest: it could be a disparity, but for the last two years, we had various minute e-mail things that come out and we think we should treat them as big moments and i think the false equivalency of this is not always accurate. donald trump's tapes were apparent. people were offended. you have the front page of the wall street journal today where paul ryan is saying he may want to run away from him. depth oflook at the those tapes and what is on them and a few benign e-mails in a wikileaks, in which a foreign actress trying to influence our

democratic election, i don't think they should be treated equally. treat the issue based on the set of facts and the set of facts with trump is astonishing. host: our first call is from brian in washington state. he's an undecided voter. thank you for being on the show this morning. i wanted to speak to the previous guide more so but i am glad to speak to you. issue go down on super tuesday in idaho when ted cruz was there. his minister that lead the , there wasis rally an attempted assassination on the minister the next day in the church parking lot and we watched it on the sunday local news. we watched it on the monday local news, but we never seen it on national news until thursday of that week. breakinglly phoned

news hotlines for msnbc, nbc and cnn. crickets.x and i talked to family on the west side of the state josh -- just goose eggs and crickets. asked what they thought of the ted cruz minister shooting in idaho and they were clueless. i know very little if nothing about the issue that you just race but in terms of our media environment in general, one thing that is better now than even five months ago is that through social media, every day citizens can call things to alert to newsmakers and that is an important thing. we still have a news from a top-down approach but there is a grassroots involvement now and these reporters, as you know,

you read your twitter feed and want to see what is going on and call your attention to thing that is happening and that's an improvement in our media environment. mike in florida, a supporter of donald trump. morning.ood i have to take issue with you. you showed your hand when you said you look at the media from a progressive viewpoint. to look at viewpoint news rather than the objective reporting of the truth. glossing over of facts about hillary clinton, let me tell you where you have an done so. you mention that e-mails but you did not mention she had her staff destroying with a hammer their personal devices. e-mails reported

-- why didion -- i'm they do that? number two, your organization, founded by george soros, with a $1 million grant donation, i would i would implore everyone to look into what is stated goals for america are and you decide for yourself. number three, you want to talk about the tractates -- trump tapes? how about the rape victim, kathy shelton -- are going to leave his conversation. we take you live to miami-dade college by remarks from hillary clinton and former vice president al gore. ♪

♪ hello, miami-dade college! it is so great to be here with all of you, and i want to thank

everyone for gathering and in particular, i want to thank all of the elected officials. thanks to congressman patrick murphy, who i hope is the next senator from florida. debbieto congresswoman wasserman schultz. thank you to mayor philip levine of miami beach. mayor phyllis of south miami. thanks to all of the others who were part of the program. as we were coming in, we heard lots of energy coming from this crowd. and i was told as i was coming but there is an overflow they could hear us in the overflow, and we are so happy that you are here as well. so, thanks to the overflow crowd.

aboutat i am most excited is to be here with one of the for most on climate change, al gore. [applause] ms. clinton: about a decade ago, al made a movie called "an inconvenient truth." maybe some of you have seen it, but if i -- if you have not hope you will watch it tonight. it does not have a lot of special effects, but it does have a lot of drama. and here is the main message -- climate change is real, it is urgent, and america can take the lead in the world in addressing it, right? america can develop new clean energy solution.

we can transform our economy. we can rally the world to cut carbon pollution. and above all, we can fulfill our moral obligation to protect our planet for our children and our grandchildren. say --t me just [crowd chanting "hillary"] so, so, let's remember what's at stake. i'm running against a guy who denies science, denies climate change, says it is a hoax created by the chinese. something that al

gore has been working on for a really long time. and i want you to know how far back he goes. it was in 1982 when he held the very first hearing on climate change in the house of representatives. famous climate scientists, jim hansen. hen when he became a senator continued to raise the alarm and look for solutions. and as vice president, he led america's effort to negotiate the protocol to cut greenhouse gas emission. [applause] you take all of us together, those their years of ofdership -- 30 years leadership, let outdoor to be awarded the nobel peace prize in 2007. [applause] ms. clinton: i was very proud

because he had been determined in the facent, and of a lot of people in public life, in business and allows elsewhere who were trying to diminish the importance of science. he never wavered. and in the years since, the climate challenge has only grown more stark. -- it isl type of this one of the most important issues thisake -- i will tell you -- it is one of the most important issues at stake in this election. our next president will either step up our efforts to address climate change, to protect our planet, to protect our health, and to create good jobs that cannot be outsourced by growing our clean energy economy or, in the alternative, we will be dragged backwards and our whole

future liquid addressed. futurely have to get -- will be at risk. we really have to get this right. if you need further convincing, just remember what happened this week. hurricane matthew killed more than 26 people in our country, more than 1000 as far as we know right now in haiti. dealingrolina is still with serious flooding and will be at least for the rest of this week, if not longer. we all need to support each other as our communities put the pieces back together and begin the long road back from this disaster. that is why i have encouraged everyone to give what you can afford to the florida disaster team rubicon, it veterans organization working to respond to hurricane matthew. or to unicef, helping children and families on the ground in haiti. some will say we have always had hurricanes, they has a live been destructive, and that is true. was likelyne matthew

more destructive because of climate change. right now, the ocean is at or near record high temperatures, and that contributed to the torrential rainfall and the flash flooding that we saw in the carolinas. sea levels have already risen foot, in foot, one much of the southeast, which means that matthew's storm surge was higher in the flooding was more severe. plus, as you know, the impact of climate change goes beyond extreme events like hurricanes. it has become a daily reality here in miami. you have streets in miami beach and in short rest are flooding at high tide. the ocean is bubbling up through the sewer system. sometimes people call 311 because they assume a water main

must have broken when actually seas a -- it is the rising around them. if you need proof that climate change is real and it is costly, there you go. -- at this rate friend --te, my focusend, please, let's really important in this election and in your future and the future of our country. [applause] because this is what i want you to hear and understand. at the rate we are going, one in florida could be underwater by the end of the century.

and when kids like that adorable young boy over there and -- on his dad's shoulders are that isents, we believe more than $400 billion of property in florida at risk. nationwide and is more than $882 billion in property at risk. there is also health consequences. mosquitoes that carry diseases tickshe zika virus, and that carry lyme disease are expanding their ranges. summers and longer pollen seasons are making allergies and asthma worse, which is especially bad for our children. and look at what has happened in california -- a brutal five-year drought. wild fires that burned more than 9 million makers in our country last year. 9 million acres in our country last year.

it is also about security. the pentagon has identified climate change to a threat to our national security. u.s. atlantic's is based in virginia and because of rising sea levels, the base is frequently flooded even when it is sunny. that is why the pentagon is looking at how climate change will affect readiness and operations medicine nor folk, but in all of our military bases around the world. if youlook at the facts, listen to the science, that even the most committed climate skeptic would say ok, i agree, something is happening here and we need to take it seriously. but unfortunately there are still too many people in washington, on the campaign trail, who will not face what is happening right in front of us. , quote, not as big believer in climate change.

, you know, as i said, he said it is a hoax created by the chinese. in our first of may 2 weeks ago he tried to deny saying that. debate he tried to deny saying that. but his tweet is there for all to seek him and i would wish that. would actually listen to people here in florida, like miami beach's mayor and others who are doing incredible work to address the floods. or maybe he would listen to miami beach commissioner john elizabeth. is's a republican but she supporting out in pain because she knows america cannot afford a candidate who does not accept climate science. [applause] or maybe donald would listen to our military leaders who say climate change

threatens our national security. or what about the rangers in colorado where the mayor's in arizona or the community leaders in alaska whose faith our lives and jobs are being affected. together as acome country and do something about it. we cannot risk putting a climate denier in the white house. at all. that is absolutely unacceptable. [applause] we need a president who believes in science and who has a plan to lead america in facing this threat and creating good jobs. and yes, saving our planet. here is what i want to do. first, we need to do a lot more with clean energy. in clean energy superpower's the 21st century is probably going to be either germany, china or us, and i wanted to be us and i want you to be part of making it us. [applause] and we need to

accelerate the transition to a clean energy economy, create high-paying jobs, building and installing more solar panels and wind turbines. modernizing our electric grid. retrofitting buildings. building resilient 21st-century infrastructure. and we have to make sure no community is left out or left behind. not our inner cities or are small towns or our immortal -- areaemote rural reas -- you would not know its. -- areas. know if you only listen to my opponent. he has such a dark, divisive view of america. but that does not tell the story of what is going on. it is actually pretty exciting. in red states and blue states, local leaders are stepping up. rural electric co-ops are investing in solar power.

and you see that across america. union workers in michigan, union workers in michigan are getting ready to build electric chevy's in a plant powered by clean energy. iowa is already getting a third of its electricity from wayne, wind her -- from wind. renewable energy is already the fastest growing of new jobs in america. source of new jobs in america. i think that is so exciting. there are nearly 2 million people already working in energy efficiently. in south carolina, a project is taking ansis old landfill and turning into a solar farm. a blight and aas health threat. it was 250 feet away from a residential neighborhood. now that same land will generate enough clean, renewable

electricity to power 500 homes. so this is what we can do. and i think it is time washington should backup and support doing more of that. i want to see 500 million more solar power -- panels installed across america by the end of my first term. and let's generate enough renewable energy to power every home in america within the decade. make our buildings and factories more energy efficient and cut our oil consumption by one third. we can get there by investing and supporting in cutting-edge keep developing cheaper and better clean energy technologies, investing in clean energy infrastructure and invest manufacturing, winning big

partnerships together between states, cities and rural communities. we can do all of this and create millions of good paying jobs as we do. so i'm hoping that these good jobs will offer security and dignity while we produce the clean energy that will power the economy of the future. areclean energy solutions being developed right here in america. we want themeath manufactured in america and installed in america and putting people to work in america. [applause] and while we do that, let's make sure that our communities are ready for the impact of climate change that are coming right at us. -- invest in resilient infrastructure. sometimes that might mean building a sea wall. more times we need to be creative, like in new york harbor where we are replanting oyster beds to form national --

natural barriers to storm surge. sometimes we will overhaul and outdated sewer system to deal with flooding from heavy downpours. in philadelphia, they are trying something else. roofs, first payment, curbside gardens to hope absorb stormwater. and here is something we do not talking about -- let's make sure our hospitals can stay open and operational in any kind of disaster. [applause] because sadly, i saw what happened in new york during hurricane sandy. newborns who had been on respirators had to be evacuated down nine flights of stairs in wonder your hospital. --ause the electricity stairs in one new york hospital.

because the electricity went off. i love nurses. nurses were carrying those babies and manually squeezing bags of error to keep them breathing. -- bags of air to keep them breathing. is.know how important it you have retrofitted the hospital with foricane-resistant shell this reason. every hospital in the country should follow your lead and build and more resilience. lead thewe have got to world to confront the climate shout. if we do not do it, no one will do it. we must confront the climate challenge, there is no doubt about that. let's move on with the kind of leadership that the world, as well as our country, deserves. when i was secretary of state i work with president obama to make climate change a top diplomatic priority. we fought to get china and india and other major polluters to

agree for the first time in history to be part of the solution. in fact, we had to crash a secret meeting in copenhagen, denmark. slip past the guards -- it was awkward and dagger, -- it was all cloak and daggert. but because of that work, 195 nations signed onto a global agreement last september. it is called the paris agreement. [applause] ms. clinton: i am not exaggerating when i say it is our last best chance to solve the global climate crisis. what does donald trump want to do? he wants to cancel the paris agreement. you know, he does not care what it would do to the planet. he does not care how much that would damage american leadership. he does not care what it would do to the future we leave our kids and our grandkids.

we do, andcare, but that is why this election is so critically important. [applause] because on the bout it is not just my name, it is every issue you care about. it is our values as a country. climate change needs to be a voting issue. we need to elect people up in delhi bout at every level of government would take it seriously and are willing to roll up their sleeves and get something done. please, we cannot keep sending climate deniers and defeatists to congress or statehouses, and certainly not to the white house. and you know, if you claire senate races, your also really important, and i will tell you why. , it is anceptable unacceptable response for marco rubio, when asked about climate

change to say i am not a scientist. well, why doesn't he ask a scientist? maybe then you would understand why it is so important that he, , beesenting florida committed to climate change. that is why i hope you will elect patrick murphy to the united states senate. look, we need leaders who can get results. it is not enough to protest, we need creativity, we need hard work. when it comes to climate change, we do not have a minute to waste. easy to get cynical, especially about our politics, i get that. but this election matters more than any has in a really long time. as strong as i can that we have to address this issue for our safe come out children, our grandchildren.

it is so critically important when you think about how leadership and make a difference. just look, if you will, look at the difference between your state, the sunshine state, which has less solar energy than new youey has right now -- and know why? you have a governor who has ordered a state government to never use the word climate change. this is a big deal in this election. and it is going to be a big deal for our country and our world. there isnot anybody, not anybody who knows more, as dunmore, has worked harder -- i know he was in miami just last year training and educating people to be climate change activists. i cannot wait to have al gore advising me when i am president of the united states. [applause] so please join me

in welcoming our former vice president, a climate change leader and an all-around great guy, al gore! [applause] mr. gore: thank you. thank you very much. thank you. thank you. thank you so much. thank you very much, secretary clinton. ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for the warm welcome. i appreciate those kind words very much. i want to acknowledge all of the elected officials and distinguished guests who are here. i want to say a special word of thanks to president eduardo petrone of miami-dade college.

i understand you have got a pretty good women's volleyball team here, so go lady sharks -- is that what you say? two verytoday with simple messages. number one -- when it comes to the most urgent issue facing our country and the world, the choice in this election is extremely clear. hillary clinton will make solving the climate crisis a top national priority. very important. [applause] her opponent, based on the ideas he has presented with take us towards a climate catastrophe. that is my first message. the climate crisis is and must

be regarded as a top national priority, and a top global priority. here is my second message -- your vote, really, really, really counts. a lot. [applause] mr. gore: you can consider me as an exhibit a of that truth. [laughter] mr. gore: for those of you who you mightr than 25, not remember the election of 2000 and what happened here in florida and across the country. for those of you older than 25, i heard you murmuring just now, but take it from me, it was a very close election. election --

"you won"]ting point -- iere's my do not want you to be in a position years from now where clinton andhillary say, actually, you did win, it just was not close enough to make sure that all the votes were counted or clinton whateve. elections have consequences. your vote counts. your vote has consequences. election, the future of miami and cities up and down the west coast and east coast of florida are on the ballot as

well. indeed, the entire state of florida and its future are on this ballot. so is our economy, our health, our national security. the common thread that binds all of these issues together -- what we decide to do about carbon pollution and its damage to the ecological system of the earth. i do not have to tell you here in florida that the climate crisis israel. it is true that some of your elected officials have not recognized that it is real. but every single night only bookision news is like the of revelations. you look at the float and the drought and the mudslides and the fires and the incredible downpours. as secretary clinton just mentioned, hurricane matthew just recently.

it spun up from a tropical storm into a category five hurricane in just 36 hours. that is extremely unusual. the reason that happened is the climate crisis is trapping so much extra seat in the earth -- heat, will be the equivalent of 4000 atomic bombs going off every day. it is warming the oceans more than 90%. caribbean, where it spun up into a category five so quickly, was much warmer than normal because of that. and the gulf stream is way normal this way warmer than normal for this time of year for the same reason. all thens also that water vapor coming off the ocean into the atmosphere is brought over the land. in so we get his record

downpours. just in the last year, we have downpoursn 1000 year in louisiana, west virginia, .exas, maryland in houston, in 112-month -- in one 12 montgh -- ony had as much water dumped them as would have been put there by 3.5 days of the entire flow of niagara falls. this is not normal. normal,coming the new which is now a set of conditions that we have created with all of global warming. secretary clinton also mentioned the sea level rise. -- some ofn already you who are a little bit older may remember hurricane andrew --

absolutely. when hillary and i were first campaigning together in 1992, hurricane andrew came through. just since hurricane andrew, the sea level and the waters around florida have gone up three inches since hurricane andrew. in every vertical inch of sea level rise means four to eight feet of the water going inward. and the storm surges on top of that. and in high tides, there are now sometimes fish from the ocean swimming in the streets of miami beach and delray and fort lauderdale. ,he rainfall in carolinas secretary clinton mention what they are still dealing with. they got 17 inches of rain because the warmer oceans not only make the wind speeds much stronger that has been in the

past on average, but it also water on thet land. and she mentioned the role it plays in health. water on the land. just yesterday there were six more cases of zika announced in dad county. these tropical diseases has spread so quickly partly because of airline travel and the transportation revolution, but the change in climate conditions change the places where these tropical diseases become endemic and put down roots. the mosquitoes mature faster and then the virus in the mosquitoes incubate much faster in the bike more often because they're cold-blooded and when the temperature goes up, their metabolism goes up and they spread the disease way more quickly. -- these havemany

many other consequences, including the fires at west as secretary clinton talk about. they're really wake up calls for us. mother nature is giving us a very clear and powerful message -- we cannot continue giving 110 millions tons of global warming at -- pollution into the atmosphere every day as if it was a sewer. we have got to stop it. we have to wake up and recognize the need for change. [applause] so, most people know that we have to change this, but here is the really good news that more people should know. change this. we now have the ability to change this. it is going to be a long, hard fight. we have a long way to go. but we now have the renewable energy technologies and the

efficiency, improvements and electric vehicles and sustainable and organic waysultural -- the other of changing a lot -- our lives for the better that can sharply diminished the amount of global warming pollution we are putting up there. and the secretary clinton is exactly right, that we can create good jobs in the process. outsourced --be be outsourced. she is also right that either china or germany or some other country other than the u.s. could become renewable energy superpower of this new century. one day last december, germany -- which is much higher in latitude than the u.s. in pretty cloudy at that -- one day they got 80 -- 87% of all their electricity from wind and solar and renewable energy.

we can be on track to do that as well. and china -- yes, china is the biggest polluter now, but they have begun to change big-time. their coal use is going down, their overall emissions are going down, and they have just announced that next year in 2017, they are adopting a nationwide cap in trade program and they're taking other measures to reduce and to create those jobs in china. and in paris, the paris agreement is a big deal. yes, it is not enough. yes, it needed to do more. but it is by far the biggest that forward the world has ever taken to solve the climate crisis. -- i nation in the world think they were three or four little ones like nicaragua who did not -- but virtually every nation in the world to phase out

-- world agreed to phase out greenhouse gas emissions and go2net zero emissions early in the second half of this century and to begin that process now. it's a powerful signal -- that signal is being received. we hear news every single day of more businesses making that shift. so, the question in this election -- this comes back to my first message -- is which of these candidates is going to continue the progress and actually increase the rate of progress? with hillary clinton, we will build on the progress made under president obama with the paris agreement. and she will seize the opportunity. [applause] after all, solar electricity and when electricity is now way cheaper than it was years ago when some of us started sounding the alarm's

about this crisis. hillary clinton knows this very well and she has worked with president obama since the beginning of the obama because of wind electricity has come down by half. solar is down by 64%. 94%.own by [applause] mr. gore: we have seen you seen electricity from solar increased 30 times over. , if you look at all of the new electricity generation that was added last year, what percentage of it to you think was solar and wind? 71% virtually 0 from coal. and it is already creating millions of jobs and it continues to get cheaper and cheaper every single week.

world records are being broken every month now as it continues to get cheaper. now, hillary clinton knows this not only because she has studied , not only because she has worked with president obama, but will work in the senate emphasizes this. her work on child asthma and air pollution and helping to improve children' health -- children's health. her work helping to call attention to the fact that it is the poor people and myra gordy communities -- and minority communities that are almost always victimized more than the rest of us by these environmental crises. she has proposed a terrific plan to install -- she has said herself and i will not repeat all this, but i will say this. half a billiont

solar panels by the end of her term in enough renewable energy to power and riggelman america, i look at that point very carefully. and i will say to all of you, you will hear a lot of candidates for office who will worriesplans who have you are not even sure what they might mean because the words -- there are ways to put things. i went to that with a fine toothed comb. that herl tell you plan on solar panels and read -- and expanding renewable energy, it is right at the limit of what we can do and that is exactly the kind of ambitious goal that we need from the next president of the united states of america. [applause] mr. gore: almost 100 years ago, america's most famous inventor, thomas edison, said these words,

this is an exact quote. i would put my money on the sun and solar energy. what a source of power. i hope we do not have to wittily oil and coal run out before we tackle that. until the oilt and coal run out before we tackle that. i want to say a brief word about something else that all of you can do. you can elect patrick murphy to the united states senate considered a climate denier. but here is something else you initiativeote no on one on your ballot. [applause] hillary mentioned that there are fewer solar jobs in the sunshine state, florida, then there are in new jersey. florida also lags

behind massachusetts, which is even farther north. despite having three times the population of massachusetts, florida has less than half of the solar jobs that have been created in massachusetts. massachusetts installed more solar energy last year alone than florida has installed in its entire history. it is ridiculous, that is exactly right. the head of one of the fossil fuel-burning utilities here actually said last year, yes, florida is the sunshine state, but remember it is also be partly cloudy state. well, they are trying to cloud the truth by putting forward a initiative that sounds like protects solar. it does not protect solar. the things they claim to protect protections you

already have. they are trying to fully you into amending your state constitution in a way that gives them the authority to shut down net metering and do in florida what they do in nevada and kill the solar industry. -- our a question democracy has been hacked and the fossil utilities here has spent more than $20 million to try to pull the wool over your eyes. buy a lot ofan wool. would make it harder for homeowners to go solar. let me close by returning to my second message. elections in this simply could not be higher. hear people from

podiums like this one say something like that at election time. i know, i have heard it. i have even said it before. to those of you here and those of you who can hear my voice by whatever means -- this election really matters. the world is on the cusp of either building on the progress and solving the climate crisis, ourtepping back, washing hands of america's traditional role as the leader of the world in letting the big polluters call the shots. the choice is that clear. is that start. the consequence is not just for our children and grandchildren and future generations, but for all of us, are really quite significant. so, because of that, please take it from me -- every single vote

counts. every single vote counts. [applause] if you are not registered to vote, do so today. if you are not -- if you are on the fence about whether to vote, remember what is at stake in this election. and if you think your vote does not matter, take it from a, your vote can make all the difference in this election. vote early. vote early. and do not let your friends sit this election out. early voting begins here in dade county on october 24 and and several other parts of florida begins on october 24.

if you have any confusion whatsoever about where you vote orwhether you are registered whether you are going to the right polling place, visit i will vote.com. say it with me. i will vote.com. one more time. i will vote.com. you want to be really in touch with this election process and get really involved in taking other people to the polls , if you like to text, then text 47246 andclimate" to you will get updates. you will get the updates you need. on election day you will get updates on your polling place. text climate to 47246. say it with me. 47246. ah right, now, enclosing, i have

made -- in closing, i have made two points. the climate crisis must be a top priority. we must have a president who gets it, who cares about it, who has internalize it, who is passionate about it, who is determined to lead our country and with our country to be the world at the gmail we really have the opportunity to solve this climate crisis and make our country stronger and more prosperous at the same time. my second message is -- you know what it is -- every vote counts. that is why i am here and that is why i will vote for hillary clinton -- i know, i know. [applause] mr. gore: i know that my vote counts. i know that your vote counts. i hope that you will consider carefully the future in making

your decision this november or beginning when early voting starts when you go into the about box. together, we have the opportunity to look back on this nationsa time when our finally chose to answer the alarm bells on climate crisis and went into action to solve it. i know that there are still some who doubt in their hearts that we as human beings and we as the ability to bring about such a big and important change. do we have the capacity? i will remind you that the will to change in build a brighter future is itself a renewable resource. let's make hillary clinton in ex-president of the united states of america -- the next presidents of the united states of america.

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>> at a rally for hillary clinton in greensboro north carolina. we have that at 6:00 eastern.

that will be live on c-span 2. we are coloring -- covering donald trump's rally. our coverage on c-span2 at 8:30 p.m. eastern. a couple of tweets from tony, panama city beach florida gets ready for trump rally tonight. trumpr one, "women four wait for tonight's panama city beach rally." c-span2 atis live on 8:30 p.m. eastern time. the live coverage, she's been giving you a chance to hear from the third-party presidential candidates. gary johnsonominee will answer viewer calls and tweets 8:00 eastern and a conversation with green party nominee jill stein and her running mate at 9:00 p.m. eastern.

we will be taking your calls and tweets. brought to you as a service by your cable or satellite provider. next, a look at perceived media bias against donald trump during the 2016 campaign. this is from today's "washington journal." graham coul good . good morning to you. tell us about the center and the perspective you come from. guest: we were founded in 1987, almost coming on 30 years now. we basically monitor the national news, starting with the television networks, also some print, still some newspaper analysis, but mostly focused on television news. we are recording all the time, all the networks, cable, broadcast, and then trying to analyze those and study some patterns and be able to talk to people about how much coverage

there is of things and how much there is an of things and the general tone of things. host: with those things in mind then, when it comes to campaign 2016, talk about what you are seeing, particularly after the offense over the weekend with the release of that tape about donald trump. guest: the first thing we would say is how many men's is the story getting -- minutes is the story getting? we were up to 167 on cbs, abc, nbc. that's an enormous story since friday. we have been comparing that to other clinton scandals, which generally get started off in a very slow fashion. they never take off like this. this is more equivalent to, for example, the chris christie bridge story where you have counted 88 minutes in the first 48 hours. that is the kind of thing we do to say that the media is going full bore on this. the media saying this is something that is an enormous and a crisis.

whether or not that is true, they are certainly making it or creating it as a crisis. host: if that many minutes have been applied to donald's tape, how many minutes have been applied to the release at the same time of hillary clinton's e-mails? guest: far less. we're just a little over 10 minutes. this happens all the time. democratic scandals, democratic problems or issues, the leaks, the fbi issues, the e-mails -- they all get less attention. the tone of the story is obviously different as well. i think that there is not a ton of crisis when they report on hillary's e-mails. there is a tone of poor hillary, so embattled by these people who will not let her be. it's just a different tone. obviously that's a little harder to analyze than a minute. there has clearly been a different in the minutes. donald trump over the last two years has dominated the news. in the republican primaries, he dominated the news.

the general question is if it is good friend. -- for him. there's an idea now that it's not great for you in the general election. host: would you say there is a bias against donald trump and the coverage? guest: i think the news media has been very plain. when a have an essay on the front page of "the new york times," they say the election is too important for us to be evenhanded. the coverage on the networks and on television basically has the whole flavor of this man is some sort of epic threat to the country and has to be stopped. we are not seeing objectivity. i think that matches what we're seeing now in the public opinion polls were trust in the media is at an all-time low, especially on the republican side because republicans look at the media and say these people right now, the whole talk is the republican party is going to explode and fall apart. is that wishful thinking? i don't know, but the media keeps talking about it, so they

are setting the stage. whatever they talk about is what we have to talk about. host: our guest is with us until 9:00. if you want to ask questions about coverage of the candidates, (202) 748-8001 if you support donald trump. if you support hillary clinton, (202) 748-8000. .ndecided, (202) 748-8002 tim graham from the media research center is here to take some calls. let us start with kerry in north carolina. you're on with our guest. uri donald trump supporter. -- you are a donald trump supporter. go-ahead. bias, inn the media the first debate, hillary mentioned that obama inherited a remember ise last i that -- are you still there? host: we are on.

go ahead. caller: i'm sorry about that. control incrats in 2006. they say barack obama inherited a mess. if that is true, george w. bush it too.d this is where bill clinton's affair comes into play. mine on thes economy instead of monica lewinsky, we would've never had to go to iraq. guest: i think it's interesting in a sense and that is congress never really gets blamed for the economy. we have a tendency when we talk about the economy in the news media that's really the president issue. that isn't fair no matter who the president is.

obviously the economy is a very big thing, but i think a lot of times we would argue that the news media excuses the democrats from things. they certainly were not going to blame the collapse in 2008 on the democrats in congress. when it comes to 9/11, i'm not sure 9/11 could've been prevented. we can easily tell you from the media coverage at the time that the news media clearly thought with thea bush scandal attacks themselves and never really one to investigate how did president clinton do in preventing the spread? threat? even in the 9/11 commission, that was not really a story. they were not interested. they were really not on his watch in any way. the assignment of blame is one of those things that you look for in the tone of news coverage. i would tell you that i think bill clinton has never really been blamed for being weak on

terrorism. host: from hendersonville, nevada, darrell, a supporter of hillary clinton. caller: hello, how are you? host: fine, you are on with our guest. go-ahead. caller: i think there is media bias against trump. trump needs to be exposed for all the things that he does. trump has ties to the criminals. trump has asked putin to hack our e-mails. the media has not been as tough on trumped as it has been on hillary clinton. host: thanks, caller. guest: this is again where i think minutes count. has the news media done an adequate job of investigating trump?

i would say that this is still happening. you would look right now at "the washington post" and they are doing a whole series of things on trumps foundation. they have done an entire book on donald trump. book "washington post" reporters did on hillary clinton? they did not do a book he has there not interested in trying to warn humectant people on hillary clinton. that one ofstory them is on the front page saying we have to defeat donald trump in the news pages and the only one is only writing books about donald trump and how he needs to be exposed. regardless of whether you like donald trump or you don't like donald trump, and as we know, there are a lot of republicans that are not fans of donald there is no mistaking the news media is trying to make sure he loses this election. i don't think that is a question at all. host: what would you say about

coverage of hillary clinton's e-mail server use or the leaks that came out? there has been coverage of that, but are you saying there is not equal coverage as given to donald trump? guest: there is no way equal coverage and there is a notion of let's move on, he is excuse. the fbi did not prosecute. the cleanse have always use the strategy of if we are not indicted or on trial, we are innocent of everything. even the fbi director said that mrs. clinton was extremely careless. what people now are missing is that the networks are not really covering why did they grant so much immunity to so much of hillary clinton's aides? even coming came out not to prosecute. that is a story that the media is not doing. when donald trump says onstage that you'd be in jail, the country does not know what he's talking about. host: this is mary from bakersfield, north carolina. caller: mi on?

host: you are on. caller: i'm a christian and i am for trump. christianity is under attack like donald said. the constitution is under attack. i walk up to people and i come right out and ask them, are you a trump supporter? everybody i asked is a trump supporter. there is very few that is not. i asked at the doctor's office. i asked the nurses. he has got support. a lot of the cushions are voting for him. doctors, cops, everybody is voting for trump. we need to secure the borders. he has got the mindset and i believe he's going to win this race no matter what.

all they got on him is his past. it is truly true when it comes to the trump tape and you're hearing it this morning that whatever he said in 2005, he obviously wasn't thinking like presidential candidate. that works for them. the funny thing about bill clinton is that -- and i think iss is the complaint, too, that there's a lot of things that bill clinton didn't just say but that he did. he was charged with sexual-harassment and was charged wit accused of sexual assault. host: your recent post taking a look at this, you could set up the rest saying that there was 115 mins for trump papers, versus 16 seconds of paula jones debut in 1994. was abche 16 seconds

and the other two did nothing. they decided we are not going to do that. last time i checked, we were up 267 minutes on this. there's a difference between an allegation of sexual harassment. the paula jones story -- he exposed himself and told her to perform a sex act. this is nothing like that. i do not approve of what he said, but it's different from what clinton did. its like the networks trying to say this will upset religious supporters more. clinton supporters do not get upset about what he did. host: from john in trenton, new jersey, a supporter of hillary clinton. go ahead, you're on. that mr. want to ask tim graham that if obama had said half the things that donald trump is saying about women, if obama had did that, if obama had said different things about what

people, would he be president? i want you to be honest. with you be president -- would he be president? wise it soaks up for donald trump to say these things about muslims, black people, retarded people? if obama had said half those things, would he not be indicted? would republicans not want to impeach him? host: sorry, did not need to cut you off so fast. tape: there are clips of that conservatives and republicans would have wanted them to talk about, but they did not want to talk about them. it's starting with the whole question of reverend wright and his sermons. those came very late in the primary cycle in 2008. when they did, the media came to it a very protective way. awaycame to try to explain why barack obama would go to this man's church, where he cheered on 9/11 as the chickens

coming home to risk. should that have been a problem for obama? i think so, but the news media decided would not be a problem. i did a special report on how the news th media tried to say that most americans just don't understand what is said in the black churches. it is somehow normal to cheer 9/11 and black church and that we should all understand that. and that is completely normal and somehow acceptable. again there is this whole notion right now that it is bizarre for a christian system support donald trump -- to support donald trump and it was bizarre to say in 2008 that a christian wright was.erend white host: brian pearson is saying, wasn't bill clinton's sexual misconduct talked about for a full year in the 1990's? guest: yes, in 1998, and it came

because paula jones suit him. -- sued him. he went into reelection in 1996 with nobody talking about it. it was only after the election that somebody said, wait a minute, it sounds like she has a case. a lot of these things, conservatives republicans often question the timing. there is a question on how long has nbc been sitting on this piece of tape?? i would suspect for a long time. it's an 11-year-old tape. they might have known about this in 2015 and sat on it until october. i would not put it past the news networks to have october surprises. host: do you think more tape is coming then? guest: it is possible. the question is once you have heard one of these, is the second one going to the more outrageous than the first one? it really reminds you of the

planned parenthood tapes like the first video with the sale of body parts were shocking, but the second tape, the news media was like moveon. host: tim graham is joining us talk about media coverage of campaign 2016. let's hear from john in indiana, supporter of donald trump. caller: thank you, c-span, for being here for the public. i too am a christian and a trump supporter. the fact that he shook up washington, d.c., trying to get the american people to see what has been going on for years. untilan avid democrat bill was in office and the democratic party backed him. knew what wasey being said and what was done was true, and they have done the same with hillary. it is like everything washes off their back. benghazi was a total disgrace.

to me, she has no respect for the military. i served during vietnam. , like for donald trump to let the people know -- i would like for donald trump to let the people know where bill clinton spent about a year going to a university in russia on his deferment from the vietnam war. again, i thank you all for your honesty. you are the only channel -- and i scan them all -- that seems to be honest. thank you and god bless america. guest: well, i believe that clinton spent a week or two in russia. he was in oxford. he was differing the draft when he was in oxford. that was the controversy back in the day. we have done a number of books on the subject that the clintons would not be where they are today without a lot of , firstive media coverage

by the idea that there is bias by omission where they refuse to do stories. when stories actually happened, they actually go after the accusers with more ferocity than they do the candidate for president. host: indianapolis, indiana, supporter of hillary clinton, betty, go ahead. inler: i am betty mitchell indianapolis, indiana, and i support hillary clinton. i am a human being and i fear god. christian i will not use -- i will say supporter and disciple of god. we all say and do wrong things. we all have skeletons in her closet. the question is who is the most competent person to be president of the united states? from foreign policy to everything that protects our nation, everything that we hold dear to us, you have to be

knowledgeable. you have to know what you're doing. donald trump clearly, even though he says he's a good businessman, he clearly doesn't know anything about politics. he is not willing to sit down and listen and get a book and maybe have some people surrounding him that could teach him. if you want to be president, you have got to put in the work. you cannot just talk the talk. you have to walk the walk. thank you for listening. this is the first time i've watched you channel, but it has a lot of good information on it. guest: i think there is always a presumption in the media that hillary has massive experience. they are running around with this thing that barack obama said that basically she has more experience than any presidential candidate ever. this kind of hyperbole is just said on network tv without political looking into that. they count her years as first lady of arkansas as somehow

political experience. they count her years as first lady of the united states as lyrical expense. -- political expense. i think we all understand republican wise but that is never the case. morelican careers has much difficulty than clintons has. wife cannot have a law career, but somehow they could have a foundation taking funds from foreign governments and we have a media that slept through the entire think. g, . the question on the media is where were they? they were violating their own pledges that they were not going to take money from these foreign governments. host: beverly, you're on with our guest, tim graham. caller: i think if nothing else during this election, and we are all hoping that trump woman, but

we have learned a lot about the media that we were not aware of. we tended to trust what we were hearing and i think we learned we just cannot do that anymore. we have to do our research because we are hearing clips of soundbites. as far as this new recording on trump, i think a lot of people forget that if you go back and look at what happened with johnson, johnson was probably our most bolder president. -- voelker president. he also give us rights, medicare, medicaid. we know about kennedy in his affairs. we go to roosevelt and the know about where his mistress went to. i'm an independent. i voted for clinton until he shook his finger at me and said i did not. i was thinking about voting for obama, but then i went on and i researched and was sent to the

sermons. we had ted kennedy, who i think was a great person in the senate, but we also know about what happened with him. i think we tend to forget that there is some good presidents and get people that have done wonderful things, but they also have these indiscretions. that did not make them not a good president. i think we fail to realize that. i think the media fails to go into things that are important when it comes to past presidents and their indiscretions. but they do great things . host: thanks, caller. guest: there is this whole notion. cliftminded of eleanor where the excuse making for bill clinton is that the sexy presidents are the best presence. is that kind of excuse making that we write down and put on the internet. there are a lot of americans who

would like a president whose marriage you can respect. with this president, if you are conservative, you can say he has a marriage you can respect. that is not the case with the clintons. george w. bush had a marriage we could respect. it did not really matter much at that time. we have seen the news media celebrates the clintons marriage far more. last eight lat eigh years, they have used the term royal family of america. when they have a grandchild, it is treated like a royal baby like prince charles or prince george. it is british royalty so i forget. host: debate moderators -- what did you think of the performance of them? guest: terrible. host: why? guest: they have all their aggression for one side. it's the questions they chose. this is what bothers me about

town hall debates. the question i hate the most is say something nice about the other person. that is wasted time. if you care about the issues, you don't ask that question. i think especially what really bothered me was anderson cooper basically saying and suggesting to donald trump, are you still talking like this about women now? you would never ask bill clinton , are you still cheating on your wife now? they would never ask hillary clinton whether she was still being insincere about her e-mails now. there was just an aggression there that a lot of people felt. martha ratted seem seemed to be a debater instead of moderator. a lot of people are offended by that whole idea. host: the whole fact checking idea ? the fact that guy cannot get a sentence out without you jumping down his throat. whole idea that he lies, but she lies, too, and

they do not take exception to that/ nobody interrupts. host: here's a clip from sunday's debate that features anderson cooper. [video clip] >> ok, donald, i know you are into diversion tonight and anything about your campaign and its exploding and republicans leaving you. let's focus on issues that people care about tonight. >> we have a question here from ken about health care. >> i like to know, why anderson aren't you bring up the e-mails? athas not been finished it all. it is nice -- one on three. guest: that question was a good question. that is a question i conservative would ask about obama care. the story we have not seen done isn't how obamacare is collapsing.

they have rarely talk about obamacare this year on network news. that is just a story they are not interested in. that is the interesting thing that you can say on coverage of trump. whether your liberal or conservative, they are covering don stuff and stuff. for them saying donald trump is a non-substantive candidate, guess what? that is what the news media likes. they would rather cover yelling back and forth rather than trade policy. host: she was asked about the e-mail leak from wiki links in the basket of deplorables. guest: i'm not saying that they did not ask a few questions. they are more focused on punishing trump and the voter looks at these and say these are stacked in rigged debates.

host: let's take one more call from terry in illinois/ . caller: i look at it differently. we talked about the clintons on, but what about the trump foundation and his legal doings? taking other people's money and his legal dealing during the embargo. this right-wing talking points about media bias -- wait a minute. this on the president, put it right where it lies with you, my tives and friend, you are one of the problems that cause our country of dollars in debt by pushing right-wing

ideological trickle-down economics. never been giant tax cuts trump talk about that bush did. where did it take our country? we had zero jobs, in fact, highest amount of jobs time was g that 800,000 jobs a most. host: thanks. again, if we all get our civics textbook, all originate in the congress and the president signs or vetos. that under doubt this president, debt has doubled gone up under this president. the congress passed the spending bills. is one reason people are frustrated with a republican majority in congress. a republican majority should be working harder to force the president to spend money, no doubt about that. a lot of conservatives certainly feel that way.

but again, this whole notion risenhe national debt has to historic proportions, not a story they want to do. is like obamacare, the story, if you put the news, i think we this, put the word "deficit," in the network it was not-election, something, they were not interested in talking about the in l of the national debt the presidential campaign. host: tim graham, >> "washington journal" continues. guest, bradley beychok, media matters for he serves as the president. tell us about your organization. 12-year t is a presidential watch dog in the media. simpler way of putting that, we in the e at 5 a.m. morning, read the local,

national newspapers, monitor news, online local and broadcast and take a fact checking perspective from a fact-checking point of view. host: why do you think that is important? is larger than it's been. peeper are consuming through media, internet. a fact-filled media 5 a.m. to midnight real time. applyingt do you think to campaign 2016, how would you it?racterize guest: unprecedented and this campaign has brought firsts. donald trump has brought a number of challenges for the media and i think while lately pretty good about holding him accountable, donald rump was media-created and fuelled candidacy and fox news, we monitor primarily, created candidacy. over the course of a year from we of 2015 to may of 2016, looked at amount of coverage they gave to each of the 17

candidates blican and found they covered donald trump 50 hours, double what they covered everyone else. i think donald trump's candidacy media, byy right wing fox news and some ways to stream media allowed him grow to such an area of where he's a republican nominee. previous guest says here is more scrutiny for donald trump than hillary clinton. would you agree in guest: i would not. has face bad raj of scrutiny. thanas a candidate earlier donald trump. irst is benghazi, for a time period, you couldn't turn on the news there was some new inkling of what happened in benghazi, it was a tragedy and conservatives stand-downhere was a order or we didn't know where the president was that night in the oval office and secret e-mails, the things that were myths.

i think that was the first. e-mail ond was controversy, she apologized for early. soon asn, the media, as you say there is new information or just a rehash of something, coverage ominate news and then the third has been the clinton foundation, the trump foundation is under the new york by attorney general, has had roblems with donations in florida with the panbondy. stars charity rated five by charity navigator. we saw more coverage about the the on foundation than trump foundation and that is a travesty. coverage, particularly -- icularly guest: this originated in the movement, alex jones of the world. really, that is who is leading donald trump's campaign now. aside, mainstream edia decided very early that

they would give hillary clinton more thorough vetting than in 008, i think they focused on very little. host: our guest with us for about half-hour to talk coverage of campaign 2016, media coverage. questions, to ask lines are the same. 202-748-8001 if you support donald trump. 202-748-8000 if you support clinton. 202-748-8002 for third party and undecided 202-748-8003. the previous guest this weekend donald trump's tape versus wikileak and he cited disparity. you wouldn't agree, either? guest: it could be disparity, again, for the last two years we've had various minute e-mail things that come out and think we should treat them as big moments. balance or false false equivalency of this is not

accurate. trump's tapes were abhorrent, he apologized for them. you have the front page of the "wall street journal" where paul may want to run away from him. when you look at depth of the them and a at is on few benign e-mails in wikileaks, a foreign actor is trying to affect the election, you treat the issue based on the set of facts and the facts astonishing. host: first call is brian, who is in washington state. voter. undecided you are on with our guest, bradley beychok, go ahead. brad, thanks for being on the show this morning. i wanted to speak to the previous guy. so, but glad to speak to you. runner-up. caller: we had an issue in idaho super tuesday. cruz was there.

his minister that led the prayer rally, there was attempted assassination the next lot.n the church parking we watched it on the sunday local news, we watched it on the local news, we never saw it on the national news until of that week. breakinglly phoned the msnbc, nbc, s for cnn -- guess eggs, crickets. i talked to family on the west wednesday, 72 te hours later, they are tied to social internet, the news, they don't miss anything, asked what they thought of the ted cruz minister shooting were clueless.ey host: thanks, caller. guest: sure. know very little, if nothing, about the issue.

i think in terms of our media in general. one thing that is better about the media now than it was five years ago, 10 years ago, even five months ago, through social media, everyday citizens can call things to alert for reporters, producers, news important that is an thing. we used to have the news from a op-down approach, there is grass-roots involve sxment certainly reporters and as you know, you read your twitter feed is going on. you can call your attention to things happening. medias improvement in the environment, we get information rom a larger variety of sources. host: from mike, safety harbor, florida, supporter of donald trump, hi. caller: yes, good morning, c-span c-span. mr. beychok, you initially howed your hand when you said you look at the news from a point thereview tlt is no viewpoint to look at news,

objective the reporting of the truth. you glossing over facts of hillary clinton, let me tell you where you haven't done so. mentioned the e-mails. you didn't mention that she had staff destroy with a hammer their personal devices. honestly were emails reported in the fashion were, u're claiming they , why did theysure do that? one. soros, with $1 donation, i or would implore everyone watching look into george soros and what his stated goals for america are and decide for yourself. that is number two. number three. if you want to talk about the how about the rape victim kathy shelton?

that more, nto because you gloss today over and want to talk about the tape. host: you put three points out, we'll let our guest respond to them. the fact don't hide we're a progressive organization, we're proud of the fact. point, on -- i may a loss -- host: george soros funded. funding from ived george soros before. he didn't fund media matters, is publicly available, culook n. terms of emails and what hillary clinton or didn't do has been relitigated by the media over the f.b.i. in and found no wrongdoing and i'll stick with what the f.b.i. of closure terms for the email issue. host: supporter of hillary susan, st. petersburg, virginia. hi. caller: hi. wondering, everyone seems to be talking about bill clinton,

running for ary president. end? is that going to guest: great question. i think secretary clinton has a fabulous job campaigning. i think the reason we've heard last bill clinton in the seven days is because donald trump is in a really awful campaign and his they've decided to sort of launch tabloid dumpster diving want to they relitigate or rehash things that were brought up in the '90s and saw donald trump perform what many and even on the onservative side said is unprecedented stunt before the last debate by bringing out the a r women and hosting facebook live. i think if the republicans and media want to nd focus on things that happened in to hold and want hillary accountable for these things, it is an unfortunate one we'llronment, but deal with. host: freddy up next, maryland,

of donald trump. hi, freddy, good morning. caller: hi. american and i'm so hocked that americans are just blind, blind looking at on.rything going i heard this lady come out talking about bill clinton. she knows how hillary clinton treated all these women that have been raped husband and she doesn't care about it. it is just brainwashed. clinton, youhillary see what her foundation did to haiti. they took money from all over world, all these countries, 10% of the money went to haiti. is covering that. the whole country of haiti is so about that. -- their president is in jail people like f hillary clinton. you see war all over the world. you want, how

clinton foundation is global, anybody, just a group of people trying to make money. there is no help. is a crooked group. eyes need to open their and understand what is going on. this country is going to hell if keep going the way they are. i voted for barack obama and hat was the biggest mistake ever. host: caller, thanks. guest: look, i think the clinton has been rated as a five-star charity. it is obviously well respected world, a very large charity and looks like they will wind it down as hillary takes camp in the seat. so i don't have much more to add comments. host: politico has a story about brock.under david who is he? guest: former journalist that the clintons out in the 1990s and had ransformation into progressive liberal after a book in the early 'niepts called "blinded by

rie right," and -- host: and correct the record, is that? guest: correct the record is campaign.linton after citizen united, political groups take unlimited amount of sort of 527 group in terms of tax status. orrect the record is pro-hillary clinton super pac. host: is there a -- between media matter? guest: no. he would d brock said pay for tapes from the apprentice or pay legal fee want ary getting them, i to see if that is skewed as far as your organization efforts at matters? guest: david brock is chairman of a number of different groups, in terms of media matters we are independent media watch dog f. david has other groups partake electoral e activities, he's free to do so, them.e no part in host: bradley beychok, our guest

org.a matters dot if you want to see what the organization is about, what kind f things do you put on the website? guest: posting things that happen, i agree with one thing the prior guest said, in some to talk about what the news media is talking about that day. now and the ween end of the year, we'll be talking about the next debate, checkers in thet debate and chris wallace is probably going to be the hardest target in some ways, he said he doesn't believe there is a role or fact checkers and they shouldn't play referee in the debate. we feel it is important piece. a great and martha did job sunday night during the ebate of providing facts for the media and for the audience because donald trump has been the most untruthful presidential candidate by independent fact checkers that we have. we'll be looking at hopefully to hear more questions about lgbt rights, gun

ofety and less on the optics the campaign on the personal attacks and more about the thees and we'll be pressing media and moderators to focus in this last debate. james, supporter of hillary clinton from newark, new jersey, with our guest. hi. caller: hi. i want to speak about, i hear a ot of people throw the word "christians" around, if we want to be politically correct, jesus prosecuted by the christians. ku klux klan were christians. they are just using that as an excuse. most is dealing with race. are dealing they with, they are not dealing with being real. hillary, you ike don't like hillary. trump is despicable. that, y you are not about then you don't vote for trump and you don't vote for hillary. '50s nt it like it is the and '60s, i'm sorry, people, it

more.t like that no host: media coverage of twenty16, do you have a direct that?on about caller: yes. him,ted to know, again, to i love that he was speaking because the guy that was on speaking the truth about as far as trump getting all know six e months ago, three months ago, was trump, speaking about trump 24/7 and everything they didn't go into his background, nothing dealing ith his organization, nothing about the rape allegations he has pending, but talk about clinton. stuff pending, paides in the past, he has for they can't say nothing because he paid these people to do that. ost: caller, you got that out, we'll let the guest respond. guest: i think as the caller donald trump got very good coverage from media in

the build-up, you know, cbs news says donald lie trump may not be good for america, but has been good for cbs. admission, in many ways because trump was getting ratings, they covered higher pace, cut into things, you turn on your t.v. any point in the day and felt a trump were watching rally in a big stadium. he has been built up by the is a little it step back, a little reality of, he could be your president and i voters, i don't think media's job take notice of that now and take a look at it. with the caller on a number of points. illinois, is third-party supporter. paul, good morning. caller: good morning. having me. i want to say, i mean, we have flawed candidates. any other year, hillary would losing terribly,

coverage ely, media has simply the essential has simply been replaced by the trivial, in modern media. o that being said, there has never been a time we needed to hear the views of third, fourth fifth-party candidates, so i guess that is my question. things being said about the two parties, where is third-party of the candidate? i've seen jill stein talk. energy erned about policy, which i think everybody should be. and there's nothing in the media covered about that. so i'm just curious why there by it is media to allow third-party candidates to debates orome of the be heard at all. i think the coverage of candidates has probably been about three to 5 percent of total media coverage. just my hat is question. host: paul, before we let our

know go, i want to let you 8:00 tonight we will feature gary johnson and jill stein on our program. ask them a chance to questions, hear about their position, hear about their 2016.htos campaign that starts at 8:00 tonight on c-span, you can see it on c-span.org, and the radio app g. ahead. the caller.ee with voters deserve to see all the candidates. seem it has been the cycle. you have seen less coverage of the third-party candidates, that is probably as a result of the edia obsession with clinton scandal or donald trump's rise and people like to watch a train wreck n. many ways, donald trump provided moments for people to see that. i think that is coming at a cost third-party candidates and coverage they receive. lionelle , huntington, west virginia. voter, hi. caller: how you doing? i have a question about the

media. media covered $6 billion hillary clinton cannot in her budget as secretary of state? clinton s the foundation so great, why haven't missing red $7 billion from the earthquake relief fund? and why don't you tell the out there about the bible that the progressive by rals and yourself live ca called for the financial destruction of the united states of america. thank you. host: i think you have heard a lot of coverage about the foundation. guest: i'm not familiar with as secretaryillary of state and not familiar with the bible you refer to. of a southern jew, not many me. host: from twitter, someone asked about debate coverage and moderator, richard says this, because you talked about it previously k. debate be moderated effectively if the moderator is preoccupied with

fact checking? i think so. lester holt is a good example of this. did, he used fact wasking sparringly, when it issue of great importance, donald trump supported the iraq injected r holt himself. i don't think it is the role to at every them juncture, but the iraq war, lester holt did a good job. would point to yesterday, martha did a wonderful job pointing out of difference between mike pence's view on the syrian issue and nothing hould be do syria and whether or not that conflicted with what trump was debate.during the that is important distinction when you distinguish from the presidential nominee and vice nominee.tial should be used sparingly, but a tool in the tool kit. what we ask chris wallace has in the debate next week. debate, it was used sparingly toward donald

trump, the idea of interruption then? sunday's debate, town hall format ended up being more of back and forth between the them, two moderators and candidates, with voters interspersed. it may have been more on sunday than we've seen in the first holt. we'll have to see in the third. i didn't think that it was i think both d candidates were rightly followed moderator, ts by the i know that the trump team and trump himself loved to say he unfairly by the media or moderators and it has him his strategy to attack in advance. it will be interesting if he only place news, the he's appeared in the last month. host: one thing you pointed out, matters, stanch the bleed whenning it comes to use of the term. the headline of media carry the water for trump say he stanch the leading despite losing the debate. you expand on that? guest: sure.

the edia wants us to be, closer the race, the more people will follow it. at the post-debate polls, survey cnn had secretary clinton won the debate over helmingly with undecided voters. i think trump had disastrous 72 weeks, d last couple they were quick to say, he stopped the bleeding because he got up there. hillary should be put in jail if he gets in office, he he never paid income taxes in last number of years, he had a rough night, the media say, trump is back, we have a race again. the data didn't necessarily rovide that. host: hear from georgia, nancy, supporter of donald trump for of guest, bradley beychok, media matters. caller: good morning, mr. beychok. morning.od caller: i want to emphasize trump thinks -- should be prosecuted, the term s put in jail, he means prosecuted, not thrown

automatically in jail. want to ask you if you remember what because of what comcast k said, when ge, on record at the justice department, about confusing their entertainment with news rogramming, which is governed by different rules. i think if you go, you will i don'to find snow, and watch that reality stuff, much ess comcast, playboy and all that jazz. guest: sure. i think you are right in that media propertys and we've seen conglomeration of media properties take precaution separate entertainment and the news division and we think that is important thing. want to be getting my apprentice, certainly after listening to the tapes last week. supporter, d party hi. caller: yes, hi.

thank you for having me on. the e a question for gentleman, let me tell you first ow i feel about these two candidates. bothl like, you know, they have been on the same team, whether you realize it or not. the gentleman, he knows about candidates and can blame debt and probably explain the these two p between candidates, past relationship, for example, exchange of money. know, we never seen a candidate act the way donald an election,essary in a major election, never seen that. candidate er seen a like hillary come into election with so many baggage and somehow to the top, that is why the american people are so upset and confused. two candidates are on the same team. hat i would like the expert to do is explain past relationship campaign in new york for the senate, explain that so

both sides, both followers of the can we're going to take you live to discussion on the social and economic issues facing white working-class americans. ce ofll hear from j.d. van the issues facing working-class whites in america and author charles it is just getting underway at the american enterprise institute on c-span. peopleatched what thought and how the owners treated customers differently. bookss he began to read .bout social policy