c-span and c-span.org or listen with the free c-span radio app. virginia senator tim kaine and his republican challenger, corey twoart, held the first of town hall events, answering questions from virginians. they focused on domestic issues of the economy, hosted by liberty university and hampton university. good evening and welcome to tonight's u.s. senate town hall between democrat senator tim kaine and his republican challenger, corey stewart, brought to you by liberty university and hampton university. events like tonight's are extremely important as we head into a crucial midterm election. remember the vote is on november 16. tonight's townhall will focus primarily on domestic issues. the next townhall atlantic university will focus more on foreign policy and military. in the beautiful

concert hall at the center for music in the worship arts here at liberty university. at libertytevens university. mark: and i mark spain. thank you all for being with us. tonight we will bring the candidates out one at a time. each candidate will begin by answering questions for me for the first half of their appearance. i am my co-moderator are the only two who have seen these questions prior to tonight's event. after that q&a, we will send things over to you. len: and that is one things will get much more interactive. i'm going to be with dozens of liberty university students who hail from all over the country. they will be allowed to ask questions directly of the candidates. when that segment has ended, each candidate will have one minute to make a closing statement. i know these voters have thought about the issues and are ready to go. mark: they are. let's hope the candidates are

ready for them. we want to remind our studio audience from refraining -- to refrain from applause. it is appropriate to apply when we welcome each candidate on stage. ladies and gentlemen, please welcome corey stewart. [applause] mr. stewart: my pleasure. [applause] mark: good to see you again. mr. stewart: great to be here again. mark: we interviewed with each other several weeks ago. this is our second time in the last month or so. mr. stewart: we planned the whole thing out ahead of time. that's a joke. [laughter] mark: we have got some important issues to get to fi. the nomination of supreme court judge brett kavanaugh is under fire as you know. allegesstine blasey for

he sexually assaulted her years ago and you called the allegation of bunch of crap. you say the democrats are trying to derail his nomination for political gain. what is your message to women voters especially in this me to era? mr. stewart: thank you. first of all, i like to think the university for hosting this event yet again and thank you, mark. look, how many times have we been through this? and the 11th hour, whether you are a republican or democrat or liberal or conservative, all an on thegoes by week of the senate judiciary committee is set to vote, then this comes up. i just find the timing highly suspect. i'm not the only one obviously. i think most of you do too. senator feinstein you about this weeks ago. why did she not 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 judiciary committee was set to vote on it? frankly it's become very typical of the left to do this. at the 11th hour and a very dirty trick to try to take down a very good man who even the dean of yale law school, not , he hasa conservative said is an eminent scholar, eminent judge, and eminently qualified for the supreme court. mark: should the fbi do an investigation? mr. stewart: i think it's time to vote. americans are frustrated. it's become a circus up there. they are tired of republicans and democrats bickering with these dirty tricks at the latest hour. americans want to move on. 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 would, and i will tell you why. it was wrongly decided. at this point, let me just say this. kainer this year, senator , who when he was running for governor -- i don't know what happened to him in the meantime, but he said there was a moral imperative to limit abortions in the final term, to limit abortions in the late-term, but suddenly he will run for vice president and something happens. now senator kaine would not 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 is willing to allow abortions

right up to the moment of birth. i find that morally reprehensible. in fact, the most important job that we have whether we are representing the people on a local or state or federal level is to protect the lives and the rights of the citizens that we serve. mark: the mueller probe is looking into russian interference in the 2016 election. the president calls it a witch hunt. so have you. you are for ending this investigation that has already led to five people connected to donald trump pleading guilty to federal charges and a number of indictments, including two dozen russians. why end it? mr. stewart: if you are really voter fraud or people who have tried to influence elections, why don't we have the department of justice go look into some of these precincts where there were more votes than voters? why don't we look into that? 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, but we don't require proof of citizenship when you go to register to vote. that's a massive loophole. every vote by somebody who is not authorized to vote, who is citizen or not 18 years old, every single time somebody votes twice or is not authorized to vote and they vote, that is a vote stolen from an american citizen. that is a much bigger problem than all of these of substantiated claims about what the russians did. 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 intelligence agency or any law enforcement agency in the federal, state, or local government has ever said the russians actually had an impact on the national election. mark: 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 were the only education group to see the number or share of those in poverty rise among their ranks. how do you reverse that trend for college grads here in virginia? mr. stewart: i want to make some changes here. we have a problem with debt. liberty is a great university. liberty has got a very excellent track record of making sure their graduates have jobs in the the fields 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 that the students are facing after they graduate. 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 when you get out of the school, for many of the schools, you can't find a job or

you can't find a job in the field you are trained in or 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. in other words, 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. here's why. the states are better positioned to work together with industry, with business associations, with chambers of commerce. what is it? ask them and work together with them. what is it that the workforce needs? what is the training, what is the education that you need as a business? and only by doing that and accrediting specific courses can as studentssured that they will have a job waiting for them once they

graduate from the institution of higher learning. mark: you say that every illegal immigrant should be deported, no questions asked, and that if you are elected, you will oppose any form of amnesty. there are roughly 12 million illegal immigrants in the country and data suggests many of them here for 10 years or more. you are in favor of a merit-based immigration policy. if you get a chance to sponsor a bill, what would it look like? mr. stewart: very simple. we need to base our immigration system again 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 need to be able to support yourselves and your families. and you need to be able to become a full-fledged proud american. right now what we have is this. we have chaos at the border. people coming across the border. here's the big problem with that. we have no way of screening them.

let alone for a terrorist past, we have no way of being sure they don't have a criminal past. and many of them do. they come across the border illegally and they already have a criminal past. they come into our communities and they murder and assault right here in virginia. there are many examples of that. the latest example, of course, the most infamous example is in iowa, mollie tibbetts murdered by an illegal immigrant. here's the real tragedy about that. it was 100% preventable. what i've done on the local level is this. we target that you legal immigrants who are here committing crimes. we check everybody's immigration status once they are arrested. if you are arrested, we check your immigration status. we'll care what race you are. we don't care what language you speak, what your ethnicity is. if you are here illegally and you have committed a crime, we have you deported instead of released.

that saved lots of lives in prince william county. it has led to the deportation of 8000 criminal illegal aliens in prince william county alone. that's what we need in all of virginia. that's what we need across the country. mark: you have been critical of gun free zones in schools. you leave all schools should have armed guards whether they are school resource officers or retired officers and that the heddle government should help them defray the costs. you also support having teachers carry weapons if they receive training. what do you say to those who say is a bad idea on the number of levels to arm teachers? mr. stewart: you know what is a bad idea? the system in place now. have you ever seen a gun free zone in front of a bank? think of how ridiculous that is. why is it any better that we are protecting our kids with signs? we are protecting our money with guns and protecting our kids with signs. you know what a gun free zone sign is? it is an invitation for someone

to shoot the place up and not be confronted by another gunman. what we need is what we did in prince william county. i get things done. that's my job as a local official. that's what i'm going to do in the united states senate. after the sandy hook massacre, we put -- out of 95 schools in prince william county, we put armed school resource officers , which by the way work together with the students on discipline issues and help to build trust between the police and students. virginia inirst in making that all over to all of our schools with retired police officers. not all communities can afford it. that's when the federal government should come in to make sure all our kids are safe. that's regardless of the community that they live in. mark: 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] mark: welcome back. it is now time for our students at liberty university to post their questions directly to mr. stewart. i hope you're ready for some tough questions. 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. my name is tim 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 rhetoric. the polling shows you down significantly to senator kaine. with this in mind, how do you plan to win hesitant republicans over as he will need our support to win this election? mr. stewart: thanks a lot.

appreciate it. something that not everybody knows is that i am currently elected, and not just in a solidly conservative part of the state. i'm in northern virginia. 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 northern virginia and i been have 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 for my values. i've got very strong values. i saw, for example, what was happening on illegal immigration with crimes committed against citizens in my community and i did something about it. i had to stir things up. but i also got something done. that's what i want to do in the united states senate. it's ok that we have differences

. that's fine, but at the end of the day, i think we can agree on this. that we have a lot in common as well. a lot of these problems -- in washington right now, it's broken. people are talking to each other. republicans aren't talking to democrats, democrats aren't talking to republicans. we have two completely different sides of the media. we have cnn and msnbc over here and fox over there. we have become a divided country. we do have the all think alike, but we can focus and concentrate on the things we can get done together, the common things we can accomplish. len: next up is nathan, a first-year law student from circleville, ohio. the topic, the national debt. nathan: thank you so much for being here. would you vote for a spending bill that increased the national debt in the senate? mr. stewart: thanks a lot. we have to address the national debt, but to get there, there's

a couple things we have to ignore knowledge. -- we have to acknowledge. one is this. what reagan did in the 1980's was that we had to lower taxes in the 1980's in order to have that economic growth. 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. and yes, 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 even cnn has acknowledged it's 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 right now. we are seeing growth rates that we haven't seen in this country since the 1950's. as that continues, we will continue to grow and debt will become more affordable to our nation. len: if i may ask real quickly about that, there's certainly a lot of economic progress, but are you concerned that even the white house office of management and budget has revised the number on this upwards in terms of our debt? mr. stewart: the problem in our country isn't that our taxes are high enough. the problem in our country is that we are spending too much. we have republicans and democrats spending way 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. and as that happens, we are pushing out and crowding out funding for everything else, including education, including transportation. these things need to be addressed. they're going to be tough, but if we can do it together, if we can work together as republicans and democrats and put the politics aside and say, look, let's reform the medicaid system and make it a better system for the people who are on it and let's lower the cost for the federal and state governments, we are going to be able to address the national debt, but at the same time, improve the quality of health care in this country. len: let's get to emily from fort bragg, north carolina, a senior. her question is on lgbtq rights. we are kind of running out of time with about five minutes to . emily: according to a pew research study, 61% of young

republicans support lgbtq rights. how do we protect religious liberty while avoiding discriminating against people for their identity? mr. stewart: 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 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. in the first amendment is not just the freedom of speech and expression, but they also knew it was fundamental to a democratic form of government, to a republic, was freedom of religion. you might not like it if someone treat you differently because of their beliefs and sexual

orientation, but as long as it is th 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 simply because of your sexual orientation. we have to stay true to our constitution. seniorrus trust is a 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: good to see you. from woodbridge, lake ridge? >> woodridge. mr. stewart: nice to meet you. believe in talking to the other side. yesterday, there was another forum, the radio one richmond, a

minority event. i know many democrats were there and they didn't expect that i would say yes. they probably thought i would face a crowd that would have some tough questions for me. and they did, but i went there because that's what we need to do. we need 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're going to have some tough questions for me, but that's ok because we are yelling at each other in this country. you don't have to have the same beliefs, but we have to be able to talk to one another. that's what i'm going to do. i've been able to get things done because of this. i've been able to work with the other side and i know, when i go to the naacp in fairfax, it is going to be a very important moment because i want to let them know that even if we have differences, we have a lot more in common and we can work together. len: i believe that is going to be our last question. we knew that time was going to go by very quickly so now you do get one full minute to make your

closing remarks. i will let you do that now. mr. stewart: thanks. i want to thank again the university. i want to thank 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. and what i see in washington, i see two sides that are not willing to work together. i see two sides that are bickering. i see one side with the democrats saying they would like to get things accomplished, but the republicans won't let us. then i hear the republicans saying the same thing that they would like to get something done , but the democrats won't let us . as a local 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 arrival things up, yes i do, but i also want to get things accomplished. i'm willing to work and willing to work with the other side to do that and i ask for remote november 6. thank you very much. [applause] len: thank you for being here. len: mr. stewart, again, thank you so much for being here at tonight's event. our town hall is going to continue right after this break with senator tim kaine. len: our town hall continues with the man who wants to keep his seat in the senate. everyone welcome senator tim kaine to the stage. [applause] sen. kaine: enthusiastic

supporters. [applause] mark: let's talk about judge brett kavanaugh. you said you diligently studied his record and academic writings and judicial opinions and yet you determine he cannot be counted on 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 40 years ago. what more needs to happen before the senate votes on this lifetime appointment? sen. kaine: thanks to liberty for posting this. i was last with you on veterans day went liberty hosted a veterans day parade. this is a really important one. what is important is that a serious charge has been in level and a charge let's essentially a sexual assault, even could be construed as attempted rape, 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 are seven weeks into this. the gop majority held 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 it would also involve hearing from witnesses. there are a couple of witnesses who have been identified. one is mark judge, who the allegations say was in the room when this happened. why wouldn't we want to hear from these witnesses? the fbi has already done a background investigation. why wouldn't they reopen it to look at this particular charge? we should take the time to get this right. in this i differ from my opponent. my opponent called the allegations "a bunch of crap." my opponent tweeted out, "what's next?" somebody says judge kavanaugh pulled pigtails of a first grader?"

you cannot equate pulling the pigtail of a first grader with two 17-year-olds allegedly barricading a 15-year-old in the room and assaulting her. you cannot minimize this charge. there's enough corroboration to it that she sought counseling for years ago. she took a lie detector test and passed it. the witness alleged in the room, mark judge, has written about lack out drinking and partying in high school. we have got to get to the bottom of it and there's no reason to rush a supreme court nominee through. mark: are you concerned with a judge kavanaugh on the high court that roe v. wade is in jeopardy? sen. kaine: i am. i'm concerned about that and other precedent as well. i read many of his opinion. was settledv. wade law, but when we finally got documents from the white house, he says it's only settled until the supreme court says otherwise. there are three people on the court now who want to overturn it. what would overturning roe

versus wade mean? that is what my opponent wants to do. i want to overturn roe versus wade. what would that mean? we would go back to what the law was before. that the state could use the criminal law to criminalize, prosecute, and jail women for making their own reproductive health care decisions. that's what it means to overturn roe versus wade, and i don't think that's what we should do in this country. it's an important moral issue, obviously, but i think women can make your own moral decisions about their health care, including reproductive health care. mark: the molar probe -- the president declassified materials over the warrant monitoring his campaign. he said it was for transparency. you want to protect robert mueller 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.

that's why we need to protect the investigation. there have already been over 30 indictments and guilty pleas of individuals as part of this investigation. my opponent says it's a witchhunt. my opponent says it should be terminated, but this is an investigation with extremely serious allegations and the guilty pleas and the indictments thus far have demonstrated it. i think what we need to do is protect the investigation and let it complete. and when all the facts are out on the table, we will know a, if individuals are culpable and should be indicted or charged , but probably the most important thing that we need to know is how to stop a foreign adversary from ever doing this again. when i was on the ticket in 2016, my son was deployed as a u.s. marine infantry commander on the border with russia trying to protect our allies from russian interference. why would we deploy our young people halfway around the world

to protect our allies but then suggest we are uninterested in getting to the bottom of what russia did to our election system? mark: you voted against the republican tax plans, saying the senate let down the people we served and that americans will be stuck with the painful consequences for years to come. but the economy is booming in the white house said americans have the 2016 election to thank for that. the president tweeted recently that the gdp is at 4.2% and we will do much better than this. we've just begun. were you wrong? i amkaine: no, mark, look glad the american economy is strong, but of course, the economy performed better in the last 18 months of president obama's term than it did in the first eight months of president trumps. mindednt trump has not taking advantage of inherited wealth before any's taking an image of it now. here's why i voted against the -- and he's taking advantage of it now. 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. last time we did it, 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 reform and we needed to do it, but here's the problem with this bill and the reason i voted against it. 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 for one minute amendments after handing us the 800 page tax bill to make the individual tax cuts permanent but not have the permanent corporations and no republicans would vote for it. we should have a tax code that treats workers and people as well as corporations. mark: health care and the affordable care act. senator kaine, 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 pushing something called medicare acts. you say it won't increase taxes by a penny. you say want increased the deficit. -- it won't increase the deficit. some would say if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. let m sen. kaine: let me talk about both halves of the question. 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 insurance away between 20 million and 30 million people. it would've blocked our general assembly who just did a medicaid expansion whereby 400,000 virginians are going to get health care, many for the first time in their life. i was very proud to vote against that repeal. i had virginians flooding my office and talking to me about the fact that absence of these

medicaid funds, their child would not have a wheelchair to be able to go to school with. --roposal to take help health insurance away from millions, that is what my opponent would do. my opponent wants to repeal the affordable care act. , but that is what my opponent wants to do. i've written this bill with michael bennet from colorado. 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 collect a profit. medicare doesn't have to get taxes, pay salaries. medicare doesn't advertise on the evening news. this policy,ffered it would be significantly less expensive than what private insurance would offer, but they were not recover a premium for it. it's not going to increase the deficit or taxes. if you qualify for an obamacare subsidy, you could use that subsidy to bring the cost down

just as you would with private insurance. we would not force anyone to buy it. it would be available in every zip code 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 number of other school shootings, there's been a lot of passionate debate about training and arming teachers to keep students safe. the lee county school board decided to armed teachers because they can't afford to hire more school resource officers. what do you say to voters who say that what happens in northern or central virginia may be ok for them, but here, this is what we want, we want to arm our teachers? sen. kaine: i do not tell lee county school board or principals how to secure their kids. if they are going to have a strategy they think will work for them, i'm not going to tell them otherwise. i know as a mayor of richmond

with my kids in the richmond schools, we put officers in to try to keep kids safe so there's not one-size-fits-all strategy, but i will tell you the area that is so critically important was the painful lesson i learned on the worst day of my life in april 2007 at virginia tech. a deranged young man who was mentally ill, who his high school teachers 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 mental health declined. he was adjudicated mentally ill and dangerous. thus it was illegal for him to have a weapon, but because of weaknesses in the background check system, he was able to buy a weapon he was prohibited from having and 32 beautiful people, students, faculty, grad students lost their lives. many were injuries and families of these interests kids -- and

her kids suffer 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 sold or transferred, the person who is doing it has to check to make sure that the recipient isn't prohibited from having a weapon, we can reduce these crimes. we will never eliminate crime, but that's not the test. the test is can we reduce crime and keep people safer? if we're unwilling to learn after suffering, if we are unwilling to learn after we watch kids get gunned down in newtown or a club in florida or concertgoers in las vegas, if we're not willing to do something, shame on us. their answers that would work and the universal background check is the one that i think would do the most good. mark: thank you. sen. kaine: thank you, mark. appreciate it. mark: 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 here at liberty university.

len: welcome back. let's gets right to our group of liberty university students and their questions for senator kaine. let's begin with victoria, a sophomore from cranston, rhode island. a question about immigration. victoria thank you for being : here. during your speech in 2013, you are advocating for an immigration framework that was premised on a merit-based point system. showing the world that we are a country of laws and enhancing border security. you recently have voted against the stop illegal reentry act and protect americans act. it seems you have turned away from the cause you had passion for in 2013. why is that? sen. kaine: very good question. immigration is a really, really important. it's in the declaration of independence. it's an important part of the system that we have. i continue to support very vigorous immigration reform, including border 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've 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. things he hadre campaigned on. he came out against it and then no other republicans would join the bill. i'll tell you what i think the answer is. the answer is comprehensive immigration reform. like tax reform, we haven't done it since 1986. i was a proud sponsor and voted for the comprehensive bill in 2013 that passed the senate but , 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, path to citizenship,

but the border protection piece was a huge portion of it. we passed it through the senate. the house didn't act, but it is my hope the house will act after november and we'll have an opportunity to put that bill on the president's desk. the security issues are very important, but the other issues like visa and dreamer protection are very important too. mark: a first-year law student from raleigh, north carolina. her question is about crime and gang violence. sen. kaine: is it reagan? >> in june of this year, 11 gang members, 10 of whom were illegal immigrants were sentenced to life in prison after being charged and convicted in the deaths of two virginia teens. what actions we take in congress to combat this type of crime and how does it relate to illegal immigration? sen. kaine: first on the crime side, i don't with crime a lot as a mayor and governor. sadly, when i was elected first to the richmond city council, richmond had the second 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%. 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 by cracking down on immigrants generally. instead what we did is we focused our attention on the bad guys. one of the challenges is that if there's a general crackdown on immigrants generally and you get your law enforcement to start to focus on people's immigration status rather than whether they are rapists or murderers or arsonists, you can actually dilute your effort to battle crime. that is why the head of my state police when i was governor said don't make us go be immigration law enforcers. let us fight against the crimes of the kind that you just mentioned, that these ms 13 members perpetrated. we should always go after bad guys -- bad men and women.

we should have tough law enforcement against them, but if we wage a big war against illegal immigrants generally, we will take our eye off the ball and make our cities less safe. len: stuart martin is a junior from no note has a question about american history. >> 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. and may be as important as virginia as anywhere because we love our history. i had to grapple with this during my time in office. 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 statues to recognize heroes whose voices and stories had never been told. when we had to take down bridges that were obsolete 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 we did is there were so many other buildings and squares and streets in virginia named after some of the same civil war heroes, but people who battle for civil rights and equality, their stories were told. 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 community and you need to make sure you are telling the full story, not just a part of the story. when monument avenue in richmond was only civil war generals, four years is not the only important thing about richmond. we put up a statute of richmond hero, athlete, scholar, civil rights activist arthur ashe. that's to say richmond has got more important and more monumental people tha than just those between 1861 and so that's the way i approach 1865.

these issues. len: 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 judicial appointment procedures that your party clearly has a litmus test against pro-life appointments. why should someone who is pro-life vote for you? sen. kaine: i'm going to skip the litmus test part of it because i don't think that's quite the case. let me just take your question. i'm a catholic. my church has a very strict teaching about abortion -- that it's wrong. i've lived my church's teachings through my entire adult life. 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 legislate 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 not a lot of people in this country who practice and religions -- and religions 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 their moral thinking -- they are moral thinking, ethical people with moral points of view. i think using the criminal law criminalize, prosecute, and even jail women and doctors from for 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 birth. sen. kaine: he dramatically misstated a vote i cast recently. there was a vote on something called the pain capable act that came up before the senate and it would have barred all abortions after the 20th week.

he said i was allowing abortion into the night month. this would have 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 office. i swear to uphold the constitution of the united states. i don't swear to a president or . i don't swear to a flag. i swear to the constitution of the united states. and that bill that was before us had been ruled unconstitutional by virtually every court that had taken it up. len: i want to get in one more quickly. tim johnson, woodbridge, a question about opioids. sen. kaine: woodbridge is well represented. >> deaths involving synthetic 847%ds increased nationally between clay 17 and 2013.

-- 2017 and what will you do to 2013. address the epidemic? sen. kaine: fantastic russian. i'm proud that two days ago we passed out of the senate -- i think the vote was 99-1 an that i played a significant part opioid response act that i played a significant part in writing. they came out of two committees -- the health and finance committee where senator warner sits. there was a whole set of strategies around research, prevention, treatment interdicting fentanyl and we've problem andkle this in a bipartisan way, we got this buil bill done and i think it will get to the president's desk and i'm confident he'll sign it. len: how about a hand real quickly for our students for asking great questions? [applause] senator kaine, we will go right into your closing statements. 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. i started my time as a public servant when i took a year off from law school to be in honduras helping teach carpentry.

since then, i've been a civil rights attorney. i've been a teacher in the city of richmond and for 20 years i have 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, 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 that is for a few, for some, or for me. we don't have to accept divisiveness or bitterness 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 that's what i'm going to do if i have the honor of being reelected. thank you. [applause] len: senator kaine, everybody.

[applause] len: we hope this has been informative for all of you. mark is going to join me over here again and close listening out, but -- this thing out, but we hope everyone has had a wonderful time and that this has been informative for each and every one. mark: did you learn something about each candidate? that's what this is about. good. and this wraps up tonight's town hall forum. we thank you again for watching. >> with the control of congress and 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 2018. our debate coverage continues

tonight on c-span two. governor bruce rauner and his democratic challenger faced each other earlier this week in chicago. they are joined on stage by other minor party candidates. you can watch this full debate tonight at 9:00 p.m. eastern on c-span two. that is followed by barbara comstock and democratic challenger also on c-span2. you can find both debates online on c-span.org and listen with the free c-span radio app. president trump is on the road today. this afternoon while in las vegas, the president is planning to sign legislation appropriating funds for energy, water, military construction, the v.a., and the legislative branch. we will have live coverage starting on c-span at 2:00 eastern. c-span2 will be live with president trump rally in support of senate republican candidate josh holly. watch that at 7:30 p.m. eastern. the c-span network -- your

primary source for campaign 2018. saturday, to retiring members of congress, republican senator bob corker of tennessee and democratic congress wan woman niki tsongas, talk about their experience in congress. >> it's important for us to be a beacon to the world and conduct ourselves in a manner that represents the best. when we stoop to uncivil discourse, we stoop to pettiness, we have to remember what the entire world looks to us. they do. >> i'm deeply concerned. i'm deeply concerned by our president on many levels, on policy. i think he has not been helpful with long-term relationships across the globe. you can read about that on a daily basis.

long-term allies who question the support of the united states. he said just that we in the united states can go it alone. i don't think that's the case by any means. we have extraordinary power in and of ourselves, but we need partners around the globe in order to achieve the goals we seek. >> join us for our conversations with senator bob corker and congresswoman niki tsongas saturday at 8:00 eastern on c-span and c-span.org or listen with the free c-span radio app. illinois governor bruce rauner and democratic challenger jd pritzker faced each other in a debate last night in chicago. they were joined on stage by the libertarian and conservative party candidates. over the next hour, the answer questions about term limits, calling cabinet, immigration -- calling cabinet, immigration, and spending. >> decision 2018 -- the race for illinois