cable satellite corp. 2018] we take you live to lynchburg, virginia where u.s. senator tim kaine and his challenger, republican corey stewart, will hall, hostedtown by liberty university and hampton university. ♪ >> good evening and welcome to tonight's u.s. senate town hall between a democrat, senator tim challenger, corey stewart. events like tonight's are extremely important as we head into a crucial midterm election. member, the vote is on november 16. tonight's townhall will focus

primarily on domestic issues. the next townhall, at hampton university, will focus more on foreign policy and national security. we are live here at liberty university. executiveevens, director of communications at liberty university. spain.'m mark we will bring the candidates out one at a time. each candidate will begin by answering questions from me right here. co-moderator, len stevens, are the only two who have seen these questions. after that q and a, we will send it to you. len: i will be with dozens of liberty university students who hail from all over the country. they will be able to ask questions directly of the candidates. when that segment has ended, each candidate will have one

minute to make a closing statement. have thoughtvoters a lot about the issues. they are ready to go. mark: we want our studio audience to refrain from cheers and applause during the question and answer segment. it is ok to applied when we welcome the candidates on to the stage. please welcome corey stewart. [applause] >> it is good to see you again. we interviewed with each other several weeks ago, so it is our last time in the past several months or so. we've got some important issues to get to.

the nomination of judge brett kavanaugh to the supreme court is under fire. dr. christine blasey ford alleges that kavanaugh sexually assaulted her 40 years ago. you've called the investigation "a bunch of crap." you say democrats are just trying to derail his nomination for political gain. what is your message to women voters especially in this "me too" era. mr. stewart: thank you. i would like to thank the university and thank you, mark. how many times have we been through this? the 11th hour. whether you are a republican, democrat, liberal, conservative, that all this time goes by and, on the week the committee is set to vote, then this comes up. i find the timing highly suspect, and i'm not the only one. then you've got senator feinstein.

she knew about this weeks ago. why didn't she come out with it back then? why did senator feinstein not inform the fbi or other law enforcement officials? why did she do nothing. why did she sit on this allegation until the week the committee was set to vote on it? frankly, it has become very typical of the left to do this. at the 11th hour in a very dirty trick to try to take down a very good man who even the dean of yale law school, not exactly a eminenttive, said is an scholar, lawyer, judge, and is qualified for the supreme court. mark: should the fbi do an investigation? mr. stewart: i think it's time to vote. i think americans are frustrated with all of these. it's become a circus. they are tired of republicans and democrats bickering, these

dirty tricks. they just want an up or down vote. mark: along the lines of the court, with judge kavanaugh, if he makes it through this process , there is some thinking that roe v. wade could be gone by the wayside. is that something you would like to see happen? mr. stewart: yes. i will tell you why. it was wrongly decided. at this point -- let me say this. earlier this year, senator kaine, who, when he was running for governor -- i don't know what happened to him in the meantime -- when he was running for governor, he said it was a moral imperative to limit abortions in the late term. suddenly, he runs for vice president and something happened. now, he wouldn't even vote for a bill to limit abortions up to the ninth month of pregnancy.

senator kaine knows it's wrong but, for political expedients, he's willing to allow abortions up to the moment of birth. i find that morally reprehensible. one of our jobs, the most important job we have whether we are representing people on a state, or federal level, is to protect the lives and the rights of the citizens we serve. mark: the guatemala pro -- the mueller probe is looking into russian interference in the 2016 election. president trump calls it a witch hunt, so do you. it has already led to five people connected to donald trump pleading guilty to federal charges, and a number of charges including two dozen russians. why and it? mr. stewart: if you are really looking for voter fraud, why don't we have the department of justice looking to some of these

precincts where there were more votes than voters. if you are looking at corruption in our voting system, we have some of it going on here in virginia. yes, we require voter id when you go to vote we don't require proof of citizenship when you go to register to vote. every vote by someone who is not authorized to vote, who is not a citizen or not 18 years old, every single time somebody votes twice or is not authorized to vote, that is a votes stolen from an american citizen. that is a much bigger problem than all of these unsubstantiated claims. the russians have been spying on us since 1917. mark: you know that a number of intelligence agencies say they were involved. mr. stewart: yes, but not a single agency has said the russians actually had an impact on the national election. the census bureau's annual

report on income and poverty shows that, among those who hold bachelors degrees, about 3.6 million or 4.8% were living in poverty in 2017, up from 3.3 million in 2016. bachelor degree recipients with the only education group to see the number or share of those in poverty rise among their ranks. have you reversed that trend here in virginia -- how do you reversed that trend here in virginia? mr. stewart: i want to make some changes. we have a problem with debt. liberty has an excellent track record of making sure their graduates have jobs in the field in which they study. not all colleges and universities can say that. it is not just the amount of money, not just the student debt , it is something no one can ever give back to them, and that is your time.

you spent the prime of your life studying and, you can't find a job, or you can't find a job in the field you received your education. there's a way to fix this. since the early 1970's, the united states department of education has been in charge of accreditation. if you want to go to a university or college and get a student loan or a federal grant, that university or that school needs to be accredited. it's time to take that power away from the federal government and give it back to the states. the states are better positioned to work together with industry, with business associations, with chambers of commerce. what is it that the workforce needs? what is the training, what is the education that you need as a business? only by doing that and accrediting specific courses can we be in short as students, as

canadians, that they will have a job waiting for them. say that every illegal immigrants should be deported, no questions asked and that if you are elected, you will oppose any form of amnesty. millione roughly 12 illegal immigrants in the country and many suggest -- and studies suggest many of them here for 10 years or more. if you get a chance to sponsor a bill, what would it look like? mr. stewart: we need to base our immigration system, as we once did, on merit. if you want to come to the united states, we welcome you. you can't have a criminal background. you have to be able to support yourself and your family. you need to be able to become a full-fledged proud american. right now, we have chaos at the

border. people coming across the border. here's the big problem with that. themve no way of screening . past,one for a terrorist we have no way of being sure they don't have a criminal past. they come into our communities and they murder and assault right here in virginia. the latest example, of course, the most famous example is in iowa, mollie tibbetts murdered by an illegal immigrant. it was 100% preventable. what i've done on the local level is this. immigrationrybody's status once they are arrested.

we don't care what language you ethnicity, if you are here illegally and you commit a crime, we have you deported instead of released. it has -- 8000 criminal illegal aliens in prince william county alone. you have been critical of gun free zones in schools. whether they are school resource officers to help them defray the costs. teacherssupport having carry weapons if they have the training. say do you say to those who is a bad idea to arm teachers? mr. stewart: you know it is a bad idea? the system in place now. have you ever seen a gun free zone in front of a bank? better that we are protecting our kids with signs.

we are protecting our money with guns and our kids with signs. you know what a gun free zone sign is? invitation for someone to shoot the place up and not be confronted by another gunman. what we did in prince william county. after the sandy hook massacre, we put -- out of 95 schools in prince william county, we put armed school resource officers who worked together on school issues and helped to build trust between the police and students. what we want to do is make that all over to all of our schools. not all communities can afford it.

that's when the federal government should come in to make sure all our kids are safe. time for us to take a quick break. when we return, liberty university students will have a chance to ask questions directly. you are watching the town hall brought to you by liberty university and hampton university. ♪ [applause] >> as they take a break in tonight's live coverage from virginia with democratic senator tim kaine and republican corey stewart, we will take a look at some of the campaign's political ads. sen. kaine: in the senate, i worked to keep all virginians safe. i helped grow our navy and increase troop pay. corey stewart said this about that budget. mr. stewart: just an absolute nightmare and a disaster. i wish the president had vetoed

it. that would hurt virginia and threaten our security. i support this message because keeping america safe has to be a top priority. and the far left, they are turning violent. who is their hero? tim kaine. kaine supported -- attended an anti-ice rally. he opposes trump. on our side, corey stewart. strong, unafraid. standing with our president and us. mr. stewart: i'm corey stewart and i approve this ad. >> our coverage continues tonight out of las vegas with president trump campaigning for republicans in nevada. foran, your primary source 2018.

len: it is now time for our students at liberty university to pose their questions directly to mr. stewart. let's get to it. i'm going to call out the name and the topic. tim is a junior from pittsburgh, pennsylvania. the topic is your candidacy. tim: thank you for being here. tam and i'm the president of the college republicans at liberty. in my experience, with those in my generation, i found that many republicans are hesitant about your candidacy and rest -- and rhetoric. the polling shows you down significantly to senator kaine. how do you plan to win republicans over at you will need our support to win this election? mr. stewart: thanks a lot. something that not everybody

knows is that i am currently elected, and not just in a solidly conservative part of the state. i'm the at large chairman of the board of supervisors for prince william county. it's almost a half million people. it is the first majority-minority county in virginia and i been elected and reelected there four times. i've done that because i've been able to work together across party lines. i've been able to work together with people of all different backgrounds. at the end of the day, that's what people want. i'm not afraid to stand up to my values. -- for my values. i saw what was happening on illegal immigration with crimes committed against citizens in my community and i did something about it. i got something done. what i want to do in the senate. it's ok that we have differences but, at the end of the day, i think we can agree that we have

something in common as well. inot of these problems -- washington right now, it's broken. republicans are talking to democrats, democrats aren't -- republicans aren't talking to democrats, democrats aren't talking to republicans. we have a divided media. we don't all think alike but we can focus and concentrate on the things we can get done together. nathan, aup is first-year law student from ohio. the topic, the national debt. nathan: would you vote for a spending bill that increased the national debt in the senate? we have to address the national debt. but, to get there, there's a couple things we have to do not. one is this -- we have to

acknowledge. one is this. what reagan did in the 1980's was lower taxes. it is possible to grow your way out of debt by becoming a more wealthy country. a lot on the left have criticized the tax cut that was proposed by president trump. that was put into place by the republicans in the senate, the republicans in the house. in the short term, there was an increase to the deficit. but what this has led to now is the highest rate of economic growth in decades. we have the lowest unemployment rate in this country. we are only eight months in to this tax cut and already we have the lowest unemployment rate in 52 years. wages for working class, blue-collar americans are rising at the fastest rate in 22 years. this is because of the trump tax

cut. you can go into the short term, not the long term. the short term, you reduce taxes and that actually makes the economy start rolling as it is now. we have seen growth rates that we haven't seen in this country since the 1950's. as that continues, we will willnue to grow and debt become more affordable to our nation. >> there's certainly a lot of economic progress but are you concerned that the white house office of management and budget has revised this number upwards in terms of our debt? mr. stewart: the problem isn't that our taxes are high enough. the problem is that we are spending too much. we have republicans and democrats spending too much. they are not willing to tackle the things that are driving the deficit. an unreformed medicaid system developed in 1965 that is

breaking the budgets not just of the federal government but of the state governments as well. as that happens, we are crowding up funding for everything else, including education, transportation. these things need to be addressed. if we can do it together, work together as republicans and democrats, and put the politics aside and say, look, let's reform the medicaid system and lower the cost for the federal and state governments, we will be able to address the national the same time improve the quality of health care in this country. len: let's get to emily from north carolina, a senior. her question is on lgbtq rights. we have about five minutes. emily: according to a pew research study, 61% of young republicans support lgbtq rights. how do we protect religious

liberty well avoiding discriminating against people based on their identity? mr. stewart: so, you've got to remember what our constitution does. our constitution prevents the federal government and now, by extension, the state government, from discriminating against its citizens. the thing that is -- think about our rights in this country. they are listed in the bill of rights. first and foremost -- and the founders placed these in order. the first amendment is not just the freedom of speech and expression, but we also knew it was fundamental to a democratic government, freedom of religion. -- as long as it is not the government that is doing it, we cannot ensure that

the government will infringe on someone's religious beliefs and force them to provide a service based on your sexual orientation. we have to stay true to our constitution. a senior from woodbridge, virginia. your question is on minority support. >> my question is, how do you plan to gain the support to protect american rights of minorities, especially after events that happened like in charlottesville virginia and continuing with woodbridge as well? mr. stewart: from woodbridge, lake ridge? nice to meet you. i believe in talking to the other side. yesterday, there was another arum, the radio one richmond, minority events. i know many democrats were there

and they wouldn't expect that i would say yes. they probably thought i would face a crowd that had some tough questions for me. i did. i think we have to talk with one another. next week, i've accepted an invitation to appear in front of the naacp of fairfax county. i know they will have some tough questions but that's ok because we are yelling at each other in this country. we don't have to have the same believes but we have to be able to talk to one another. that's what i'm going to do. i've been able to work with the other side and i know i want to go to the and double it -- i know, when i go to the naacp in fairfax, it is going to be an important moment because we can work together. len: i believe that is going to be our last question. you do get one full minute to make your closing remarks. mr. stewart: thanks. i want to thank again the

university, each and every one of you, all of virginia. and i want to thank all of those who voted for me in the primary for giving me this opportunity to represent all of virginia. i've got very strong beliefs and i'm not afraid to express them. i think you all know that. but i can also get things done. see i see in washington, i two sides that are not willing to work together. i see two sides that are bickering. they want to say get things accomplished but the republicans won't let us. i see the republicans saying the same thing. person, somebody who has had to represent a big jurisdiction, if i had that same attitude, i would have been fired. i'm going up to washington not because i want to keep it the same as senator kaine does, but because i want to change it. i want to rile things up but also get things accomplished.

i'm willing to work to do that and i ask for your vote. thank you. [applause] thank you for being here. mr. stewart, again, thank you so much for being here. our town hall is going to continue right after this break with senator tim kaine. ♪ >> take a break in the town hall in virginia between senator tim kaine and public in corey stewart, debating domestic policy and the economy. while they are in this break, we will take a look at the candidates' campaign ads.

fared up with tim kaine's left anti-trump record? check out corey stewart, a winner. won five times not by selling out the liberals. stewart cut county taxes, the lowest in the region, and kept them below inflation. aaaart's county bond rating . he triedim kaine when to stop the county crackdown. stewart was the first in virginia to eject kids by putting retired cops in schools. by puttingct kids retired cops in schools. to seat stand by trump the courts with judges. the man we should have run last year. let's run him this year.

mr. stewart: i'm corey stewart and i approved this ad. >> i spent two years in the coast guard. >> i spent two years in iraq. >> both my parents served in the army. >> finding jobs for veterans is tough. when tim kaine heard that, he promised to do something about it. >> he passed a law making it easier for veterans to find work. >> i'm a republican and i like that tim kaine is able to get republicans and democrats to work together. sen. kaine: i'm tim kaine and i approve this message. i want toto keep a -- keep virginia a leader in research, technology, and good jobs. i helped create the virginia tech research campus here in roanoke. it is now a major employer that saves lives with cutting-edge research. we follow -- we are falling behind china and research. centers like this can change that. i approve this message because

medical research creates jobs, improves local economies, it makes health care better. are alive campaign coverage continues tonight from las vegas livepresident trump -- our 2018 campaign coverage continues tonight with president trump from las vegas. more from the campaign trail tomorrow with texas senator ted cruz and his democratic challenger beto o'rourke in dallas, a debate at 7:00 p.m. eastern. will return to virginia where senator tim kaine and republican challenger corey stewart are participating in a town hall. len: our town hall continues with the man who wants to keep his seat in the senate. everyone welcome senator tim kaine to the state. [applause] [applause]

sipe enthusiastic supporters. judge, let's talk about judge brett kavanaugh. you met him. you said you diligently studied his record of economic writings and judicial opinions and yet you determined he cannot be counted to serve as an independent check on the president and you're not voting for him. now we have an allegation of sexual assault from nearly ho -- 40 years ago. what more needs to happen before the senate apoints on this lifetime appoint? -- appointment? sen. kaine: first of all, thanks for having me here. this is a really important one. blast important is that a serious charge has been leveled and task charge that's essentially a sexual assault,

even could be construed as attempted remain and we need to get to the bottom of it. this is a vacancy that just opened up on july 31 when justice kennedy retired. we're seven weeks into this the .comheld a vacancy open for 14 months for political reasons. if we care about sexual assault, if we think that it's serious then we should do everything to get to the bottom of this and that would obviously involve hearing from dr. ford and judge kavanaugh, clearly but there are a couple of witnesses who have be -- who have been identified. one mark judge, who the allegations say was in the room when this happened. why wouldn't we want to hear from these witnesses? the f.b.i. has already done a background investigation. why wouldn't they we open it? we should take the time in this i differ from my opponent. he calls the allegations "a bunch of crap." he tweeted what's next,

somebody will tweet judge kavanaugh if you would pigtails of a first grader? you cannot equate pulling the pigtail of a first grader with two 17 yeerlsdz allegedly barricading a 15-year-old in assaulting her. she took a lie detector test and passed it. the person in the room, mark judd has talked about a history of drinking in high school. we have to get to the above out. >> are you concerned with a judge kavanaugh on the high court that roe v. wade is in gem by? sen. kaine: i am. i certain -- concerned about that and other testimony as well. e said roe vs. wade was subtle

law but when he testified he said it's only subtle law until it'sover turned. there are three people on the court now who want to overturn it. what happened that mean? we would go back to what the law was before. that the state could use the criminal law to crms -- criminalize, prosecute and jail women for making their own reproductive health care decisions. that's what it means and i don't think that's what we should do many this country. it's an important moral issue, obviously but i think women can make their own moral issues about their health care, including reproductive health care. -- he was hex it was more transparency. you want to protect robert muller and his investigation with legislation.

why is that level of protection needed after this investigation has already cost the american taxpayers roughly $26 million? sen. kaine: it's important to protect the integrity of our elections. there have already been over 30 indictments and guilty pleas of individuals as part of this investigation. my opponent says it's a women hunt and should be term named but this is an investigation with extremely serious allegations and the guilty pleas and the indictments thus far have demon statemented it. i think we need to protect the investigation and let it complete and when all the facts are out on the table we will know a, if individuals are cull panel and should be indicted or charged but probably the most important thing that we need to know is how to stop a foreigned a verpsare from ever doing this again. when i was on the ticket in 2016, my son was deployed as

u.s. marine infan rye commander on the border with russia trying to protect our allies from arben interference. why would we do that but then suggest we're uninterested in getting to the bottom of what russia did to our election system. mark: you said americans will be stuck with the painful consequences of the tax cuts for years to come and the economy is booming. the president tweeted recently that the g.d.p. is at 4.2% and we will do much better than this, we've just begun. were you wrong? sen. kaine: no, i'm glad that the american economy is strong but of course it performed better in the last 18 months of president obama's term than it did in president trump's. president trump is taking

advantage of inherited wealth. here's why i voted against the tax bill. mark: ladies and gentlemen -- sen. kaine: here's why i voted against the tax bill. was the president right that we needed tax reform? absolutely. haven't done it since 1986. when president reagan said we're going to do it, make it bipartisan. 10 months of hearings produced a 97-3 vote and it was a good bill but the reason i voted against in bill, the priorities were all wrong. deep permanent tax cuts for corporations. tiny temporary expiring tax cuts for people add $2 trillion to the debt over 10 years. i offered an amendment on the floor the evening they let us have one-minute amendments to make the individual tax cuts permanent but not have the

permanent corporations and no republicans would vote for it. mark: health care and the affordable care act. you voted against repeal and replace, partial repeal and the so-called skinny repeal. the president calls democrats like yourself obstructionists. are you one? and you and senator michael bennett are calling something called medicine care acts. you say it won't increase the department of sit or taxes by a penney. some would say if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is sen. kaine: i proudly worked with my democratic colleagues and three republicans and virginians to stop the republican effort to repeal the affordable care act. it would have taken health care away between 20 million and 30 million people. 400,000 virginians are going to get health care, many for the first time in their life.

it would have blocked that and i was proud to vote against that repeal because i had virginians flooding my offers and talk to me about the fact that ann an cents some of these medicaid funds, their child wouldn't have a wheel chair to be able to go to school with. my opponent wants to repeal the affordable care act. it's a nonstarter but i do want to improve our health care system. i've written this bill with michael ben knelt from colorado. he would offer -- we would offer an insurance policy on the exchange that anyone could buy if they wanted. to it would cover the obamacare essential health benefits. medicare doesn't have to get a get taxes, pay salaries. if medicare offered this policy, it would be significantly less expensive than what private insurance

would offer but they'll recover a premium for it so it's not going to raise the deficit or taxes. we wouldn't force anybody to buy it. it would be available in every zip cold in the united states. americans need more choices and lower cost and that's what medicare x would do. mark: you were governor during the virginia tech massacre so you have a unique perspective on this. after the shootings in parkland, florida, and a lot of other school shootings, there's been passionate debate about reigning in teachers to keep schools safe. they voted to arm teachers because they can't afford to hire more school resource officers. what do you say to voters who say that may be ok for them but here, this is what we want, we want to armour teachers.

sen. kaine: i do not tell lee county school board or principals how to secure their kids. if they have a strategy they think will work for them, i'm not going to tell them otherwise. as a mayor of richmond with my kids in the richmond schools, we put officers in to try to keep schools safe. but the area that was so criminally important was the painful day on prim of 2007 at virginia tech. a deranged young man who was mentally ill but his high school teamers and counselors and parents knew how to help him succeed with medication and treatment walked onto a campus where nobody knew anything about him. his mebletal health declined. he was ajeweled capetted mentally ill and dangerous, thus it was illegal for him to have a well. but watch because of weaknesses

in the system, he was able to buy a well and 32 beautiful people lost their lives. and families suffered to this day. the painful thing i learned through that loss is hey, there's a solution. if there's universal background checks where every time a gun is bought or transferred, the person doing it has to make sure that the recipient isn't prohibited from having a weapon, we can reduce these crimes. we'll never elimb neither highs creams -- crimes but the test is can we reduce crime and keep people safer? if we're unwilling to learn after we watch kids get gunned down in you foun or concert gorlse in las vegas, if we're not willing to do something, shame on us. there are universal background checks that i think would do

the most good. mark: thank you. we must take a break right now. when we come back, the students will have an opportunity to speak with you. you're watching the town hall ere at liberty university. >> as they take a break in tonight's live coverage from virginia with democratic senator tim kaine and earlier, republican corey stewart, we'll take a look at some of the campaigns' political ads. >> in the senate, i work to keep all virginians safe. i'm tim kaine. i helped lead efforts to grow our navys of 355 shims and increase troop pay but corey stewart said this about that budget bill -- >> an absolute nightmare and a disaster. i wish the president had vetoed it.

sen. kaine: that would hurt virginia and threaten our security. keeping america safe has to be a positive top priority. >> the far left, now they're turning slinlte. who's their hero? tim kaine. last week we deaded sanctuary cities. no surprise there. he raised taxes, supported abortion. destroyed jobs and opposed trump. on our side, corey stewart. senate, strong, tough, unafraid. standing with our president, standing with us. mr. stewart: i'm corey stewart and i approve this ad. >> and our live 2018 coverage continues tonight from las vegas with president trump campaigning in support of republicans in nevada at 10:00 p.m. eastern. we'll have that here on c-span, your primary source for campaign 2018. back now live to the virginia senate town hall. mark: welcome back. let's gets right to our group

of liberty university students and their questions for senator canle. let's begin with victoria, a soft mar from cranston, rhode island. a question about immigration. >> thank you for being here. a 2013 you were advocating system based on a point system. you recently have voted against reentry stop illegal act and protect americans act. it seems you have turned away from the cause you pad haad passion for in 2013. why is that? sen. kaine: very good question. immigration is very, very important. it's in the declaration of independence. i continue to support very vigorous immigration reform, including boarder and public security. for example, most recently i worked with lindsey graham to draft a bill that would have

permanently protected the dreamers, as president trump asked us to do and also would have provided $25 billion in border security for the united states. we put that bill on the floor of the senate with eight democrats and republicans in february but the president came out against it. both were things he had campaigned on. he came out against it and then no other republicans would join the bill. i think the answer is comprehensive immigration reform. like tax reform, we haven't done it since 1986. i was proud sponsor and voted for the comprehensive bill in 2013 that passed the senate but then no action was taken on it in the house and it was everything. it was border protection, helping employers figure out the status of employees, visa reform, protections for dreamers, pass the citizenship but the protection for deepers was a huge portion of it. it will house didn't acts but

it is my home the house will act after november and we'll have an opportunity to punishment that bill on the president's desk. the security issues are very important but visas and dreamer protection are very important too. mark: a first-year law student from raleigh, north carolina. >> in june of this year, 11 gang members, 10 of whom were illegal immigrants were charged to life in prison after being convicted of the depths of two virginia teens. hat will you do for crime? sen. kaine: i dealt with crime a lot as a mayor and governor. sadly, when i was elected first to the richmond city council, richmond had the second high -- highest homicide rate in the united states. tough, tough situation. over the course of my time in office we were able to bring

down violent crime and homicide by more than 50%. when i was governor we achieved a recognition that virginia hadn't achieved for a very long time, if ever. we got virginia into one of the 10 safest states in the country. now, we didn't do it -- do it by cracking down on immigrants generally. instead we focused only the bad guys. if there's a general crackdown and you get your law enforcement to start to focus on people's immigration status, you can dilute your effort to battle crime. that's why the head of mill state police when i was governor said don't make us don't be immigration law enforcers. let us fight against the crimes of the kind that you just mentioned. we should always go after bad guys. bad men and women. and should have tough law enforcement against them but if

we wage our war against illegal immigrants generally, we'll keep our eye off the ball and make americans less safe. >> senator kaine, it seems that many of our historical monuments are being destroyed. what do you plan to do for the preservation of american history for future generations? sen. kaine: great question and this is an important one. in virginia we love our history. i was the mayor of richmond and let me tell you what i did when i was a city councilman and mayor in richmond. we preserved some statues and put up some new ones to recognize heroes whose voices and stories had never been told. when we had to take down bridges that were obs lets that were named after civil war generals, when we put the bridges back up, we named them after civil rights heroes. one of the reasons was that

there were so many other buildings and streets and jarius in virginia named after some of the same civil war heroes. what i learned when i was mayor and i continued to do as governor when we inaugurated the civil rights statue on the capitol grounds in virginia, what i basically believe is you need to listen to your communities and need to make sure you're telling the full story, not just a part of the story. when mouse. avenue in richmond was only civil war generals, that was not the only important thing about richmond so we put up a statue of richmond hero, athlete, scholar, civil rights activist arthur ashe. so that's the way i approach these issues. mark: i know the issue of abortion has come up. abby close, are you here? she has a question on this

topic i think is valuable. >> hi, thank you for being here. it has been demonstrated throughout the ongoing traditional appointment procedures that your party has a litmus test against pro-life apoints. why should someone who is pro-life vote for you? sen. kaine: i'm going to skim the litmus test part of it because i don't think that's quite the case. let me take your question. i'm a catholic. my church has a very strict teaching on abortion that it's wrong and i encourage every one of you up here, i encourage everyone here, live your faith, live your convictions. that's what i do but i don't think the job of an elected official is to slate my catholic church's doctrine for everybody to follow, even those who aren't catholics or have different points of view. you live your faith and i

certainly live mine but there are a lot of people who practice religious that have a different view about abortion than the catholic church do and there are a lot of people who don't go to church but have ethical, moral points of view. i think using the criminal law to criminalize, prosecute and even jail women and doctors from making this decision is exactly the wrong thing to do. i believe that women can make their own moral decisions about their health care including their reproductive health care. mark: your opponent said earlier that you support abortion up until the moment of vote. sen. kaine: there was a vote on something called the payne capable act that came up before the senate and it would have allowed -- barred all abortions after the 20th week.

many courts have considered that exact law and found that law unconstitutional. many courts. state courts, federal courts have said that violates roe vs. wade and the casey decision that came after it. i take an oath that we all take in public offers. i swear to uphold the constitution of the united states. i don't swear to a president or the flag. and that bill that was before us had been resumed unconstitutional by virtually every court that had taken it up. mark: tim johnson, woodbridge, a question about opioids. synthetic nvolving 720% between es 2013 and 2007. what will you do to address the epidemic? sen. kaine: fantastic question. i'm proud that two days ago we

passed out of the senate -- i think the vote was 99-1 an opioid response bill that i played a significant part in writing. the health and finance committee where senator warner sims. there was a whole set of sfradges around research, prediction, treatment, interdicting fentanyl and we've got then bill done and i think it will get to the president's desk and i'm confident he'll sign it. >> all right, how about a big hand from our students. [applause] senator kaine, you have one minute. sen. kaine: thank you again for inviting us tonight and pairing with hampton. i know it will be a great discussion in a couple of weeks. started my time as a public servant when i took off from law school to be in honduras helping teach carpentry.

i've been honored to represent my city, my commonwealth and my country. my campaign is about what my life has been about, a virginia that works for all. it's about virginia. solving virginia problems and bringing virginia solutions to the forefront. it's about work. the dignity of working people. fair wages, a fair tax code, sills skills, training, immigration reform but finally it's about those last two words in the pledge of allegiance for all. we need people who will stand up for all. we don't have to accept the politics just for a few, for some or for me. we don't have to accept devivepness or anger. we need people who will stand up for those last two words in the pledge of allegiance. that's what i've done and what i'll have the honor to do if i'm re-elected. thank you. [applause] >> senator kaine, everybody.

dd >> we hope this has been informative for all of you. mark will join me again and close this out but we hope everyone has had a wonderful time and that this has been informative for each and every one. >> did you learn something about each candidate? that's what this is about. and this wraps up tonight's town hall forum. we thank you again for watching. >> our next events is wednesday, october 3 at hampton university's convocation center from 7:00 until 8:00 p.m. mark: we want again wants to thank hampton universities for partnering with us. the october 3 town hall at hampton is going to focus primarily on foreign lellingses -- relations and military issue. -- issues. it, too, will include a panel

of students asking questions of our candidates. len: election night, tuesday, november 6. make sure you go out and vote and let your voices be heard. mark: how about a round of plus for both hampton university and liberty university. [applause] len: and how about the students and their questions, ladies and gentlemen. [applause] mark: very proud to be able to work them into tonight's event the way we did. thank you so much for watching. thank you so much for joining us. again, have a great night. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2018] >> with the control of congress in question this election day, see the competition for yourself on c-span. watch the debates from key house and senate races.

make c-span your primary source for campaign 2008. >> tonight, president trump is in las vegas hosting a campaign rally in support of republican incumbent senator dean heller as well as other g.o.p. candidates. live coverage begins at 10:00 p.m. eastern right here on c-span, your primary source for campaign 2018. >> this weekend on book tv, saturday at 4:15 p.m. eastern, book - woodward's new "fear: the trump white house." >> someone who's in office right now called me and said everyone knows that what you have in this book is 1,000% correct. >> then at 9:00 p.m. eastern, former independent counsel ken starr discusses his book,

"content: a memoir of the clinton investigation." >> what i'm saying is we learned from our history as a free people and impeachment was not the wise way to go. >> and on sunday at 9:00 p.m. eastern on afterwards, former secretary of state john kerry discusses his book "every day is extra." he's interviewed by c.e.o. of the wilson center, jane harmon. >> john and i were flying to kuwait on an airplane. we didn't know each other very well though we were seated next to each other by sister -- seniority but it brought it together and we had a conversation into the night talking about annapolis and his father and grandparents and his own family and time in service as a prisoner and he wanted to learn more about what happened with us and how we fought and what it was like and so forth and we pledged to each other right then that the country was still too divided over the war.

that we thought we needed to find a way to not just make peace with them, make peace at home. >> sunday night on q&a, cbs news chief white house correspondents major garrett talks about his book, "mr. trump's wild ride." >> it's not just about partnership. i think it transcends party. i describe mr. trump as bigger than partnership because this there's this emotional dynamo that he spins within people. he does its intentionally. sometimes he doesn't even know he's doing it but its influencing every aspect of american life. politics, and in ways you've deteched, the way journalists

interact with >> tonight on c-span from a campaign debate in the new mexico governor's race. discussed supreme court nominee brett kavanaugh. in new mexico, to members of congress are running for governor. democrat michelle lujan grisham and republican steve pearce. it took part in the debate posted by q tv station k q ari -- kqre. krqe your local election headquarters. this is a 2018 gubernatorial debate. >> good evening and welcome to the news 13 studio.