maintaining those essential health benefits like maternity care and protecting people with preexisting conditions and the elderly. and it does all this while making sure that costs do go down for our families and preventing insurers from double dipping and getting the benefit of both that cost reduction and higher premiums. and if there are ways to do this even more to make sure patients come first and insurers can't have their profits, i am, as i know senator alexander is as well, open to that. now, chairman alexander just took some time to lay out the policies we are putting forward in this legislation, so i want go into those details. but i do want to take a few minutes to focus on what this legislation would mean for the people. we are all here to

sanders: the administration is working tirelessly to help fellow citizens recover and rebuild. with themand throughout this process. have a letter from the president i think you will enjoy. this is from mckinsey of dalton, georgia. she is in the second grade. she wrote i am writing to tell you how much i appreciate what you are doing. i voted for you in my school election. my mom is bringing me to d.c. this spring break and i'm excited. everything. to see i'm excited to see the white house. my mom said we have to ask someone to come in and i hope we can. if you could meet me or see your office it would make my day. i would love to shake your hand.

you are our leader, a hero, and a great man. yes, if you would like, i can bring something to eat. i've always heard that brings people together. i have the opportunity to share your letter with the president. he would love for you to visit us. i will give you a to her personally. if the president is here he would love to meet you. you are right about five bringing people together. the press staff would like to invite you to have lunch here in the west wing. we look forward to your visit and hope you will be in touch to make sure that happens. on a more serious note will have had a lot questions come in, i addressed them yesterday, today it might be more appropriate to have the chief of staff address some questions specific to family's.o gold star

he will address questions on that topic. if you have other questions the press staff will be here happy to answer those later. >> thanks a lot. it is a more serious note. i wanted to make more of a , thenent than explanation what amounts to be a traditional press interaction. most americans don't know what happens when we lose one of our soldiers and marines or coast guardsmen in combat. let me tell you what happens. up inbodies wrapped them whatever passes as a shroud, and sends him home. their first stop along the way is when they are packed in ice, typically at the airhead and flown to usually europe.

and are packed in ice again flown to dover air force base. remains,es care of the in bombs them, meticulously dresses them in their uniform with the metals they burned, the emblems of their service, and puts them on another airplane with the casualty officer escort that takes them home. a very good movie to watch is taking chance. , it is done in a movie worth saying that if you never have. while that is happening, a casualty officer typically goes to the home early in the morning and waits for the first lights to come on. he knocks on the door. mom and dad will answer. wife.

wife this is happening in two different places. officer precedes to break the heart of a family member. untiltay with that family -- for a long time, even after the internment. who are these young men and women? they are the best 1% this world produces. most of you don't know them. many don't know anyone who knows any one of them. they are the best this country produces. they volunteer to protect our country when nothing seems to suggest self service to the nation is not only appropriate but required. who writes letters to the families? commander,he company

regimental commander, secretary of defense, the service chiefs, and the president. typically the only phone calls a family receives are the most important family -- phone calls, from their bodies. after my son was killed, his friends were calling us from afghanistan telling us what a great guy he was. those of the only phone calls that matter. the letters count to a degree but there's not much that really can take the edge off what a family member is going through. some presidents have elected to call. all presidents have elected to send letters. if you elect to call a family it is about the most difficult thing you could imagine. there is no perfect way to make that phone call. , and talkk this job

president trump about how to do it, my first recommendation was he not do it. because, it is not the phone call parents are looking forward to. he asked about previous presidents. i said i can tell you president obama, who was my commander in chief, did not call my family. that was not a criticism. that was simply to say i don't believe president obama called. that is not a negative thing. i don't believe president bush called in all cases. i don't believe any president, when a casualty rate is high, that presidents call. i believe that is right. when i gave the excavation to our president, he elected to

make phone calls in the case of four young men who we lost in niger this month. then he said how do you make these calls? if you are not in the family, if you've never worn the uniform, if you have never been in combat , you can't imagine how to make that call. i think you very bravely does make those calls. question that he made yesterday, or day before yesterday were to four family members of the fall in. there is a next of kin designated by the individual. if he is married that is typically the spouse. theot, that is typically parents. the point is the phone call is next of kin only if

the next of kin agrees to take the phone call. sometimes they don't. . pre-call is made someone would like to call your will you accept a call? typically they accept the call. he called for people the other day and expressed condolences in the best way he could. he said to me what do i say? i said, there's nothing you can do to lighten the burden on these families. let me tell you what i told him. .hat my best friend told me he was my casualty officer. he was doing exactly what he wanted to do when he was killed. he knew what he was getting into joining that 1%.

he knew what the possibilities were because we are at war. casese died, in the four we are talking about, he was surrounded by the best men on this earth, his friends. that is what the president tried to say to for families the other day. i was stunned when i came to work yesterday morning, and brokenhearted at what i saw a member of congress doing. a member of congress who listened in on a phone call from the president of the united states to a young wife. in his way tried to express that opinion. man, he knew what he was getting himself into because he enlisted. and he was where he wanted to be , exactly where he wanted to be

with exactly the people he wanted to be like -- be with. that was the message transmitted. it stuns me a member of congress would have listened in on that conversation. absolutely stuns me. i thought at least that was sacred. up ai was a kid growing lot of things were sacred in our country. women were sacred. looked upon with great honor. that is not the case we see anymore. particularly life is sacred. that is gone. that seems to be gone as well. all-star families. that left in the convention over the summer. the selflesst devotion that brings a man and woman to die on the battlefields, i thought that might be sacred. when i listen to this woman, what she was saying, what she

was doing on tv, the only thing i could do to collect my thoughts was to go and walk among the finest men and women on this earth. you can always find them in arlington national cemetery. some of whom i put there because they were doing what i told them to do. i went to the dedication of the office in miami. it was dedicated to two men killed in a firefight. grogan almost retired.

he got in a gunfight and they were killed. three other fbi agents were there. they are now retired. a brilliantve memorial speech to those fallen men, to all men and women of the fbi who serve our country. there were family members there. some children that were there were only three or four years old when their dads were killed. three of the men who survived talkedht were there about how they gave their lives. congresswoman stood up and in the long tradition of empty barrels making the most noise, stood up there and talked about how she was instrumental in getting the funding for that

building, how she took care of her constituents. she call that president obama and he gave the money to build the building. and she sat down. we were stunned. stunned she had done that. even for someone that empty a barrel, we were stunned. none of us went to the present criticized. none of us stood up and were appalled. we just said ok, fine. i still hope as you write your america,i appealed to let's not let this last thing held sacred in our society, a young man or woman going out and giving his or her life for our country, let's somehow keep that sacred. it even wrote it a great deal yesterday by the selfish

behavior of a member of congress. we will take a question or two on this topic. let me ask you this. is anyone here a gold star -- parent or sibling? does anyone know a gold star parent or sibling? if we could take this a bit further, why were they in niger? they were not in armored vehicles. what are the specifics about this incident? why were we there? >> there is an investigation. is, youngf the matter men and women who wear our uniform are deployed around the world in the tens and thousands. , in north korea.

and ok now i. in oka naloxone ready to go. all over the united states. they are all over latin america. they do mostly drug intervention. there are thousands. my son back in the fight for his fifth two or against isis. europere thousands in acting as a deterrent. in africa, they are doing their nation's work. not making a lot of money doing it. they love what they do. why were they there? partners,working with all across africa in this case, working with partners, teaching them to be better soldiers, how to respect human rights, how to fight isis so that we don't have to send our soldiers and marines

there. that is what they were doing. there is an investigation. unless it is a very conventional death there is always an investigation. that operation is conducted by africana, who works for the secretary of defense. i talked to jim mattis. he made statements, the investigation is ongoing. it doesn't mean anything was wrong. it doesn't mean heads are going to roll. the fact is they need to find out what happens and why. at the end of the day you have to understand these young people, sometimes old guys put on the uniform, go to where we send them come to protect our country. sometimes in large numbers to invade iraq was sometimes in small units working with

partners in africa, asia, helping them be better. at the end of the day they are helping those partners be better at fighting isis to protect our country so we don't have to send large numbers of troops. who knows a gold star fallen person? >> thank you for being here today. there has been time -- talk of a timetable. the soldiers who were killed, can you walk us through the timetable of when they will release that information? that a beacon was pending had to do with a release of a statement? was it concerned that it might jeopardize soldiers? highesty: we're at the

level of the u.s. government. the people who will answer those questions will be people at the other end of the military pyramid. , am sure special forces group i know they are conducting an investigation. acom.fr e auspices i am not going to tell you. there is an investigation being done. countryand women of our that are serving around the my sonwhat the hell is doing back in the fight? he is working with iraqi soldiers who are infinitely better than they were a few years ago to take isis on directly so we do not have to do it. small numbers of marines, working alongside those guys.

that is why they are out there. we don't want to send tens of thousands of american soldiers and marines to go fight. i will take one more. someone who knows. >> when you talk about niger, what is your intelligence tell you about russian connection to them? mr. kelly there is no russian connection. [inaudible] thank you very much. as i walk off the stage, understand tens of thousands of american kids mostly are doing the nations bidding around the world. when i was a kid every man in my

life was a veteran. these young people today, they don't do it for any other reason than the simplest sense of selfless devotion to this nation. we don't look down on those of you who have not served. you will never experience the wonderful joy you get in your heart when you do the kind of things our servicemen and women do. not for any other reason than they love this country. i appreciate your time. >> did the president authorized the mission? authorize the mission? [inaudible chatter]

>> when i first went in, it is a long story, but i was barely able to get back to the surface. a bunch of them jumped in, there is a picture i am sure you will show of them pulling me out of the lake. you can see my arm is broken. of course, once they put me out, they were happy to see me. i just finished bombing the place. we've gotten pretty rough. my knee again.rt look. i don't blame them. we're in a war. but at the same war anden you're in a you are captured by the enemy you can't expect to have tea.

capture,rs after his john mccain talks about the impact of the vietnam war on his life and the country. >> this evening, paul ryan is at the annual announcement in new york city for catholic charities . we are expected to hear from speaker ryan live here on c-span , and the free c-span radio app. before that barack obama on the campaign trail for the first time since he left the presidency, competing for ralph .orth am we will have that at 7:00 eastern on c-span. right now, the candidates for new jersey governor meeting for their final debate before the election.

they are answering questions about property taxes. the state public employee public system, legalization of marijuana, and other issues. this is one hour. live, uninterrupted, the new jersey gubernatorial debate sponsored by cbs 2. north jersey.com, and william paterson university. here is your moderator. >> good evening. coming to you live from the campus of william paterson university in wayne, new jersey. the final debate before the election, this is sanctioned by the elect, they new jersey election law enforcement