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>> former president bill clinton campaigned on behalf of presidential nominee and vice president kamala harris in albany, georgia. during the multi-day swing he attended a service at the mount zion baptist church and spoke to volunteers at a campus to got the event. president clinton visited albany as part of his 1992 presidential campaign and democrats returned to the area in 1996 to turn out democratic voters in his reelection bid. vice president harris's republican rival donald trump was ahead by just under a point in the 538 average of georgia polls on the day of this appearance.

and former state representative calvin's miry -- we've all been

together, we started then. calvin served 48 years and the georgia legislature. i will date myself. that is one less year than i have been married. we had our 49th anniversary this week, hillary and i. i set how my doing and she said you're getting better. [laughter] vern horton, thank you for the 1 -- reverend horton, thank you very much for the wonderful sermon. you have great gifts and you have used them well. that is what we are all supposed to do, isn't it? this is a very strange time.

georgia has long been a close call. i won here in 1992 by 13,000 votes. the decisive event of the georgia election was a rally at a high school football stadium on the weekend before the election. attended by the then governor and then senator sam none. my great friend hank aaron. he just passed a few years ago at the age of 86. he is the sort of leader i think we need more of. he never tried to bring attention to himself, he did not

brag, he just hit more home runs than anybody ever did. nt did not need any pills to help him, either. he just kept himself in shape, got up, played with the rules, and won the match. he shows up at this rally, there were 25,000 people in the crowd. i carried georgia by 13,000 votes. for the rest of his life, every time he opened his mouth he told me he made me president. [laughter] i say that because in his life, billy remains a friend of mine, we used to be happy warriors. we used to be willing to meet each other on the field of

argument and reason. today nobody believes anybody else anymore. nobody knows what is true were not. everybody makes all these claims. i saw the other day after that terrible storm hit our neighbors in north carolina congresswoman greene said that the deep dark state had found a way to make tornadoes hit only read areas. and leave the blue alone. i thought that is pretty cool.

unfortunately some things are still in god's hands. [applause] some things are beyond human understanding. that is what she said. last night one of those television comedians was making fun of this, saying that a person he was pulling for was running against senator cruz in texas, colin allred, a former nba player, he said i think we found the answer for him to win. he should just run ads saying i can control the weather. the last time we froze out senator cruz ran to cancun, mexico. i can control the weather. [laughter] we are laughing about this but

this is not bad and maybe we could win the election. i remember a time when politics was about argument and feeling and trust and we were slowly working towards playing by the same set of rules. that is all on the ballot this time. i want to plead with you. i don't know if this will be my last election or not. i met the pastor's mother and she told me she was 96 years old. you never want to accuse a lady of lying about her age. that was hard to believe.

she made me feel young again. [laughter] like i might have a future. i am out here working in georgia and i'm going to north carolina and all of these swing states for my three grandchildren. when the pastor's handsome grandson came up to sit with me make sure the old boy would not get lost i wished i had my grandchildren here. that is what i think about. every election is important but this really does belong to them. no less than president eisenhower, a republican, said

at a time when he was in office and very discouraged about the influence the first of the great blamers, joe mccarthy -- he said there were communists everywhere and we were all going straight to hades in a hand basket. eisenhower said i don't know if we can keep this democracy going. it requires so much discipline. so much faith, so much consistence -- so much resistance to the kind of stuff that flies around. that is being tested now. there are the builders and the blamer's. there are the uniter's and the dividers.

i could fill this whole sanctuary the studies that have been done for decades showing that cooperation beats conflict and that diverse groups with different lives and different experiences, different knowledge make better decisions than loan geniuses or people who are all taught to think alike and march in lockstep and get in line. here's what i can tell you. you gave me the chance to be president. i get up every morning and still thank god i had it. i love doing it. it is a good thing they had the two term limit or they would've had to carry me out in a pine

box or you would've had to beat me. we do. the rules are there for a reason . i support the two term limit. even people who love the job but have a limit to it. that is what keeps -- even people who love the job should have a limit to it. that is what keeps democracy working. now we have a choice between a remarkable woman who hillary has known for 30 years and i've gotten to know well over the last few years, with a fascinating husband whom i like and has been a good friend of my son-in-law, and governor walz makes me feel like my high school science teacher. [applause] and who has given his whole life

to education. we've got a choice between them and not just president trump but his idea of a young leader is someone who is just always a yes-man. what you want, master? what do you want me to say. in this church, we do recognize that ever in human history there has only been one person that was without any flaws, without any sin, deserving of total loyalty. [applause]

when you see somebody in politics telling you the only thing that matters to me is total loyalty, if i say 2+2=6, you say yes, we have to ask ourselves is that consistent with the scripture most americans say they tried to follow? i can tell you that there are many practical issues here. can we get control of inflation and still keep growing the economy? all i can tell you is based on a lifetime of experience as a governor and president i think

that kamala harris's plan is half as expensive and twice as good. it will do twice as much. [applause] on health care, we still have a lot of -- first, she worked through the inflation reduction act that president biden sponsored to get insulin prices for people with diabetes down to $35 a shot. to get drug bills for people on medicare down to $2000 a year.

and now has plans and set aside funds to provide those benefits to everyone. that is a big deal if you know anybody with type two diabetes, which is rampant in much of the country. that is important. other side wants to repeal what they divisively call obamacare, affordable care act. i think it matters. we are the only country in the world with an advanced economy that lets people charge poor people whatever they want for medicine. every other country has some sort of system for making sure the drug manufacturers can get the money they need to keep doing work and researching and finding their drugs.

but protects people that have to have a medicine to stay alive today. that is a huge difference. it is a big difference in the environment. one candidate says all of the old energy companies, if you will give me $1 billion i will get rid of everything president biden has done. look at these last two storms. look at all of the fires out west, the wildfires. this climate is changing and we have to stand against it. we have to recover the earth. [applause] whether it is jobs or education, housing. kamala harris has a plan to help people move in to houses and

give them a $25,000 head start on their down payment. why is that a big deal? when we were in covid and all of these businesses closed down there developed a housing shortage because people thought things would be bad. she has a plan to give people incentives to build more housing and then help people move in. the other side has a plan to give people in my income group and up another tax cut. we do not need it. [applause] i live in a county outside new york city, pretty high property taxes. we also have the highest amount

of green space of any more county in america. and i like the fact that all of the poor working people who can never afford a vacation can go to a park in our county and take their children and see the seasons change and get out there with the wildlife and do all of that. the rest of us who can pay due. that is the way the schools work. we should get over ourselves and stop pretending we do not need to do this together. what does all that have to do with you? all of the experts in both parties say this election is coming down to seven or eight states, one of which is georgia, and starting on tuesday, october 15, you have early voting.

i love seeing all of these young people and not so young people come up and join the church. for the next few weeks we have to follow the scriptural admonition to render unto caesar the things that are caesar's. we have to show up. i am just telling you, this whole election and the future of the country is turning out to be what people who were sort of on the fence about voting are going to do in the next three and a half weeks. it is the greatest thing i have ever seen. you may not think it is bad. if you are one of them, don't feel guilty, but the whole

future of the country is on your back. if you wake up wanting to sleep in on election day so you do not have to go vote you will have to live with that. since it is on your back you might as well make up your mind what you want to do. [applause] i am pleading with you about that. if you can vote early vote early. if you have friends or family members or coworkers or neighbors who have not decided whether to vote, talk to them about it. ask if you can help them. america is the best positioned country in the world the next 30 or 40 years. i thought about it again. having that beautiful drive down here from columbus. it is pretty, isn't it?

there are still a few little tufts of cotton you can see in the fields. i thought, we are so lucky. to those to whom much is given much is expected. we've got to stand and deliver. america, we are going to get by this inflation thing. that happened because when covid happened it shut down all of the supply chains. it happened in every country. happened here. 27 states raised the minimum wage so people could have enough money to buy food. it is a good thing they did. it did not lower prices.

then we had a president and a vice president did not want americans to have to wait as long as we did after the crash in 2008 to get back to full employment. that will not lower prices either. however, we did have lower inflation that almost every other country in the world with a rich economy, the whole time. and now we have had over a year in which prices have gone up less than income. over a year. finally, the federal reserve has lowered interest rates which will take down all kinds of payments, car payments, college loans, you name it. we are going in the right direction.

we are going to be at 2% or less inflation. when president biden leaves office he will have presided over the largest amount of job growth in any four year period in the history of the united states of america. [applause] i am just telling you, i hear all this doom and gloom. we ought to be happy and we ought to say we've been given a chance to make a new future. to create what kamala harris calls an opportunity society. that is what we want. just give us a chance for goodness sakes. play by the same rules, give everybody a chance. intelligence and a willingness to work are evenly spread across

race and region and income. the opportunities are not. we still have to close the opportunity gaps. it is not close. uniting people and building, being repairers of the breach as isaiah says. those are the things that work. blaming, dividing, demeaning may get you a bunch of votes at election time but they do not work. you know it and i know it. your country needs you. your state needs you, your community needs you, your family needs you, and my grandchildren need you. i hope you will be there. god bless you and thank you. [applause]

[cheers] pres. clinton: wow, thank you. it is great to be back in south georgia. and i want to thank everybody who has been here -- sanford bishop and i have been together since he ran for congress and i ran for president. and calvin smiley was right there with him. he just completed a couple of years ago 48 years in the georgia legislature, longest

serving legislator in the country. senator sims county chair, joyce barlow, former lieutenant governor mark taylor. you gave a good talk there, man. you, i think you still got it. former mayor dorothy hubbard and bishop sneed. and i want to thank the band. look, when i volunteered to help kamala harris and tim walz, i told them, i said send somebody else to the big places, somebody that needs the tv coverage. i said, send me to the country. i know where i belong. [applause] look, this is in your hands.

our adversaries are clever. for example, i was just talking about it. they could have contested more races down here, but they didn't do it because they want your turnout to be low. they want you to go to sleep to think you don't make a difference, and you may make more difference than you ever have. raphael warnock is a senator today because of the turnout in south georgia and you know it. in jon ossoff, you made his career -- and jon ossoff. you made his career. all the other votes are important. but look, there are seven swing states that are going to determine the outcome of this election and it's disgusting and hard to understand, but they're all tight as a tick.

and if you show up as you did in 2020, we will carry georgia. and if you don't, we probably will not. you know it, i know it. don't feel the pressure. just go out and empower people. there is what i want you to know. the congressman said some nice things, but we did set an eight year record for jobs in america. we did have the only period since before world war ii when the bottom 20% of the electorate in income had their income go up in percentage terms even more than the top 20%. that did not happen. everybody said, oh, inequality was getting worse. it was except in the when you 1990's let me have a chance to build the economy from the bottom up and the middle out.

now, since president biden and kamala harris have been there, they're going to give you the biggest number of new jobs in four years in american history and and our republican friends say, well, you should ignore that because of inflation, you got to vote them out because of inflation. trump was there, we had no inflation. well, it's kind of hard to have inflation when the economy collapses. covid broke the economy. you remember covid? he said it would never reach america. then he said, oh, it will just be here for a day or two and it will be gone. no big deal. and then a million people died , or or less. -- more or less.

this is a choice between going back and going forward. that's true. but it's also a choice about how we live and how we think. if you want somebody who's great at blaming and dividing, we can't compete with trump. i mean, it is all blame, brag, and divide. right? the sun came up this morning, i made it happen, only i can make it happen. then this horrible storm hits our neighbors in north carolina after florida. but because of the time he got -- but because of the time it got to north carolina it hit where they normally never hit in the western part of north

carolina, hurting asheville, a place i love. asheville is a democratic town. the counties around it are heavily republican. it did not take even a date before a republican member of congress claimed that the deep state had figured out how to take control of this terrible storm and make sure it only hit the areas where they have. i thought we wish. right? i mean, give me a break. just because they would do that if they could does not mean we would do that if they could. nobody believes that. but they have to do it because it's what they do, they blame and divide and build resentment.

kamala harris wants to turn the page and give us an opportunity society that we have to build together, that required us to work together, that requires us to be fair to each other, to treat each other decently. so we can take advantage of this. i am telling you, i have spent a lifetime now working on economics. it took me 10 years when i was governor to help my state get over the farm collapse in the 1980's. but when i ran for president and every month we were first or second in the country in job growth. but i did not do it all at once and i do not do it alone. we worked at it. you know, most things that are worth having require working for. and i don't care what anybody tells you.

cooperation is better than constant conflict. building is better than constant blaming and resentment and revenge never amount to much. i'm not a kid anymore in case you hadn't noticed. and i think very little about the people that i beat. but i think a lot about the people i work with to lift people up to create jobs, to start businesses, trauma promote peace -- to start businesses, to promote peace, to give children a better chance. that's what this is about. i'm telling you, hillary has known kamala harris for 30

years, but i've only gotten to know her well in the last few years and i've gotten to know her husband well because he's a friend of my son-in-law. he is a world-class guy. i believe, and i would not be here if i do not believe it, i believe she has the ability to be a really fine, effective, transforming president. and we need to give her that chance. [applause] tim waltz is easy for me to identify with. he reminds me of half the teachers i had in school. but it's important not to make too much of the caricature. this man was a significant congressman when he became the second democrat since 1892 to win his district. and then when he became

governor, he made a real difference in education and gun safety and health care. he is a consequential governor. he got things done and he was working all the time to make sure that everybody was helped, that everybody could go forward together. now you look at what we're facing. let's take health care. one party with their 2025 project still wants to get rid of the affordable care act and get rid of the protections for people with pre-existing conditions. i don't know if you saw that memorable vice presidential debate. a lot of people were gagging when mr. vance said he never advocated taking away a woman's right to choose. but the real whopper he told was when he said that donald trump stabilized the affordable care

act. he didn't stabilize it. he put it on life support and he tried to put a stake in its heart. and that's why nobody remembers anything. just back in 2018. remember that was only six years ago. the democrats won the biggest midterm election in percentage terms, 8.5%. in 100 years, because they try to take away the protections we have for people with pre-existing conditions, now they want to do it all over again. they would get rid of the $2000 a year limit on what seniors on medicare have to pay for drugs. they'll get rid of the $35 a month cap on diabetes medicine, on insulin. that's a big deal because it affects so many people.

kamala harris and tim walz, they want to extend the $35 cap and the $2000 a year loss to people in all health programs at all ages. [applause] now, look at inflation. i know a little something about that. remember i gave you the first balanced-budget in 30 years in the first -- in 30 years and the first three surpluses in 70 years. so i know how to be tight with the dollar. but the truth is if you look at the economic plans, the trump plan is more than twice as expensive as the harris plan. and it will help less than half the people because most of it goes to very rich people and big corporations. so for less than half the money,

she helps more than twice as many people. $25,000 could help pay a down payment on new housing to try to get the housing market going again, increasing the child tax credit. when we doubled that, when i was resident and moved 7 million people out of poverty, and that was 30 years ago. you can only imagine what it is going to do now. she has very specific plans that we know will work that are focused on you. now, trump says things that sound good to you. -- trump says things that sound good until you think about them. really, they do. vote for me and i will put a 20% tariff on everything. well, here's the deal. it's a good thing to put a

tariff on something that you can produce here if we're getting worked over by our competitors. so we needed the chips act that president biden sponsored and passed. we needed the infrastructure bill that both biden and trump promised but only biden delivered. let's not forget that. but if you put, if you put a verifone everything, you're just adding 10% of the cost of everything you buy that is not gonna immediately be made in america. so all the surveys show that rich people will get richer under trump's plan, but the average family will pay another

couple of thousand dollars a year in what is effectively a sales tax. i'm telling you, i've been doing this a long time. her plan is better, it will help more people, it will not add as much to the national debt. it will spark more growth. we will be better off. it's far better for the environment. and if we haven't learned enough from these two deadly storms, are beyond help if we do not think we have to do something to reduce the pressure of climate change. [applause] and in healthcare, hers is better than a country mile and i haven't even talked about him and this is a sneak attack on a woman's right to choose on this whole 2025 thing, and don't you believe otherwise. one thing you have to give to our friends on the far right,

they never give up. and they're depending on you to give up. you have the numbers. you know you can win this election. you know you can, but you have to show up. and i'm telling you with all my heart, i believe that kamala harris and tim walz are worth going up for and you will be proud of it for the rest of your life. so we got a lot of hay in the barn, america. with all of this inflation, we are still the best positioned country in the world for next 20 or 30 years by far, is not close , and inflation is coming down. the federal reserve has finally lowered interest rates. they're going to lower mortgage rates and borrowing rates generally.

and one of the problems we got is when people kept telling you that inflation was down, you couldn't tell at the grocery store or the pump. there's a reason for that. the economists say that food prices change so much and fuel prices change so much, we can't put them in core inflation because there's no trend. it will be up one month, down another. but here's why it affects you. maybe you've got a locally owned grocery store here that you shop at and they do the best they can. and if they are charging you more than you think you should pay, it is because they are having to pay more for food wholesale. but most of the grocery market now is heavily concentrated in a few big owners, the whole foods and the other chains and all that. they earn a surprisingly low

profit margin, but they're selling to a zillion people, right? so if i'm selling something to a million people and my normal margin is 3%, if i get to charge 4%, i'm a rich person. that is what is going on with the food. it is not like the profit margins have gone way up. they don't have to go way up. so this problem has largely been left to the states for 100 years. it's called price gouging. that is if i can control the price without selling less, if i can raise the price without selling less, that's called price gouging.

that belongs in state law, historically. kamala harris is the only candidate who has said that with so much concentration in the grocery market, we have got to have a national price gouging law so the justice department can look at it because if it's inflation they cannot avoid, that is fine. we don't want to put them out of business. but if they're trying to put you out of business, that's not fine. and that's just one example. now, still most people don't know that. that is a big deal that she is the only candidate with any plan that will actually give us a practical way to deal with this grocery problem without sticking it to honest people doing their best to run a grocery store and selling you food at reasonable prices. and we should be jumping up and down. but why aren't we jumping up in down? because we live in an area era dominated by social media when

all that matters is a 10 second hit job. i'm telling you, i've been doing this a long time. you will be proud if you vote for her. i believe she will be a very positive, good president. i believe tim walt will be successful and i believe that there's a lot of people in south georgia that will never forgive themselves if they do not show up and vote and they allow georgia to go the wrong way. we need you. i'm pleading with you. you can do it and think how happy you will be on election night. god bless you. [applause] ♪

[captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2024] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> with one of the tightest races for control of congress and clinical history, stay ahead of c-span's comprehensive coverage. c-span rings access to the top house and senate debates across the country. debates from races shaping your state's future and the balance of power in washington. follow campaign 2024 coverage from local and national debates anytime online at c-span.org/campaign and watch tuesday, november 5 for real-time election night results. c-span, your unfiltered view of politics powered by cable.

>> later today, republican congressman kelly armstrong faces off against independent michael coachman and democrat merrill peppercorn in a debate among candidates to become north dakota's first governor. watch live at 8:00 eastern on c-span, c-span now, or online at c-span.org. >> do you solemnly swear that in the testimony you are about to give will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you god? >> weeknight, watch our encore presentation of our 10 part series, congress investigates as we explore major investigations by the house and senate. we will stay historic footage from those pinto -- from those periods.

tonight lawmakers from 1973 in 1974 examine events surrounding 1972 break-in at democratic headquarters at the watergate hotel in washington, d.c.. the investigation led to the resignation of president nixon. watch congress investigates tonight at 10:00 eastern on c-span2. >> u.s. house is in recess until after the november election. government funding fires december 20 so lawmakers when he to take up federal funding when they return. congressman don beyer says the house will also have a day focused on ai during the lame-duck session. he outlined some of the bills at the center for strategic and international studies forum on ai. >> the good news is just a two weeks ago we met before the recess ended and identified 14 different bills we believe the -- we believe can pass the house and the senate.

all 24 of us endorsed all 14 bills. we were cosponsors on all of them. we are planning an ai week sometime after the election. many of them passed the senate already. we are trying to see the opposite of what we did on social media, which is to say nothing. in 25 years the only thing we can take credit for is making it impossible to sue them, and all of the problems that come from that. some of the things i am most excited about, one of the things is the create ai act, very bipartisan. it sets up an alternative to the four large language models out, the four generative ai, openai, etc.. part of this came from the head of research at ibm who said ibm is too small to compete with these guys. now that elon musk has raised $6 billion for this sixth one we

are talking about how do we create one that is accessible to university researchers, academics, students and businesses. the so-called democratization of ai. also to the extent possible deals with a lot of the bias problems that are natural in any ai database. we know you cannot get all bias out of anything. going in there with an open mind about how to deal with gender bias and raised bias will be really important. the owner of this new ai act is the natural finance situation. sam altman has bragged that gpt four was created by scanning all 6 trillion words off of the internet. we do not know that all six words are true. one of the other important bills

comes out of all of the deepfakes, and not just political deepfakes like donald trump hugging anthony found she or joe biden telling people -- hugging anthony fauci joe biden telling people not to vote in new hampshire. there was your book photos -- taylor swift, the most famous victim of the deepfakes on sexual material. it turns out alexandria ocasio-cortez, it happened to her and she worked with a lot of the experts to put together the defiance act, which passed the senate unanimously in july, one of the first bills we will take up in november. before now it is not illegal to do a sexual deepfake of a classmate or a friend or your ex-girlfriend or ex-boyfriend.

this additional protection is very necessary. >> congressman bey saying thee house will debate artificial intelligencer legislation. current federal spending expires december 20. you can watch live gavel-to-gavel to coverage of the house on c-span. 20 24 republican vice presidential nominee senator jd vance campaigned at a rally in johnstown, pennsylvania. after delivering a speech, he took questions from reporters, including ones about the january 6, 2021 attack on the u.s. capitol and if he believed 2024 republican presidential nominee donald trump lost the 2020 election to joe biden. this is about 45 minutes. ♪

pennsylvania where senator jd vance is speaking to supporters. >> thank you, thank you, thank you! well, -- [ "] sen. vance: i have to say it is great to be in johnstown, pennsylvania. and in only 25 days we will turn the town red, pennsylvania read and take back the country and make donald trump the next

president of the united states. so, i want to say a few things here -- first of all, some words of gratitude to special people joining us today. bill from jwf industries. you gave us a great work. you have your grandson here. a great family and a great american company. we are appreciative that you are here and all you are doing for our troops. i love it. we have the ambassador here. stand up and say hello. she has somewhere. we have the great carla here and we appreciate her being here. we have congressman john joyce. thank you, man. we are in john's district and he told me that we will get the votes we need and this district

to win pennsylvania so john, i will hold you to that. we have congressman guy schaller . i met guy's parents. great people. and we have congressman gt thompson. thank you. i know we have some other elected officials here. thank you for joining us. i want to give a special shout out to amy bradley. amy, stand up. and amy, i'm proud to endorse you along with donald trump so we are thrilled to be behind you. so i love pennsylvania. and as a lot of you know i grew up in a part of the country, southwestern ohio similar to southwestern pa and i know bethlehem steel really built

this town in a lot of ways and like my hometown lost a lot of jobs over the last 30 or 40 years thanks to bad leadership. and i want to promise to those watching at home and you and this room that donald trump and i are committed to american manufacturing, american workers, and we are committed to making things in the united states of america and this town will thrive because of donald trump's policies. now, before i got up on the stage, will and bill showed me around these great vehicles they are building for the next generation of our war fighters and i imagine we have some of your and boy he's here today. i'm so proud of you guys. the craftsmanship, skill, these unbelievable vehicles that will not just save a lot of american lives but they make us proud. they make us proud of what american workers are able to do

and they will save the lives of a lot of our troops. thank you for what you do and thank you for building a great product here in the united states of america. now, there are a few things i want to talk about before we really got started to the meat of my remarks and after we will take some questions for some of the reporters. the first and most important thing and i will tell you a little story -- one of the things i've noticed on the campaign trail is i will talk to 100 people that plan to vote for donald trump into their credit 95 of them actually voted for donald trump in 2020. it is not like the other five changed their mind or donald trump did something to piss them off but something came up on election day. their kid got sick at school and they had to take care of their kids or they had to take their mom to a doctors appointment unexpectedly or they had to work late that night and by the time

they showed up to the polling location it had already closed we have to swamp the vote in pennsylvania to make donald trump the next president. and what i would ask everybody to do is go to this website -- write this down if you need to -- swampthevoteusa.com. on that website you checked your polling location and make sure your registration is up-to-date and i would encourage you to get nine of your family members to go to that website. a lot of people planned about but mayb theye have not checked their registration and it is not up-to-date. and i don't want you to just vote ones but 10 times. what i mean vote 10 times in a legal way which is get yourself and nine other family and friends to the pole. let's get out there and vote, my

friends. we have got to do it. we have got to do it. now, here is the crazy thing about running against kamala harris. she basically just takes everything that donald trump says and pretends she agrees with it. i see a few of you have red maga hats. kamala harris is dealing so many of donald trump's ideas that she will show up to our next rally in a red maga hat because she realizes no one wants to vote to defund the police or banning fracking. kamala harris is on video showing that she supports the end of fracking. she came in to office promising she would open the american southern border. and no one wants to pay thousands of dollars per person in higher taxes and yet kamala

harris has explicitly promised she will get rid of the trump tax cut which will raise taxes by an average of 25 hundred dollars per person on pennsylvania families. kamala harris said all that stuff and there are video clips of her saying that stuff but now she pretends that she got religion and she doesn't support all of the crazy ideas that she's rooted during her career in public office. a big part of what we have to do in the next 25 days as remind our fellow americans at kamala harris is not who she pretends to be. kamala harris is who she has been in government. a tax and spend san franciscan liberal that wants to open our borders. are we going to give kamala harris a promotion to president of the united states? hell, no, we are going to tell, harris that you are fired and we are voting donald j. trump

to be our next president. now, you all probably have noticed that kamala harris has been doing some more interviews lately. have you noticed that? she went from doing zero interviews to doing four or five. the problem is they are not tough interviews. she is going to friendly outlets to do the interviews because she cannot stand up to the scrutiny of a tough interview. she is doing softball interviews instead. the problem with a softball interview is that you still have to be able to hit a softball. and as we have learned from kamala harris over the last couple of days, she cannot even do that. and if you noticed, there are a lot of folks and not just me or the president out a lot our camping staff and we are feeling excited about the campaign and part of it is because we are

getting down to the final stretch, in part it is because we feel the momentum of pennsylvania and other critical states but a big part of it is every time kamala harris opens her mouth we gain about 100,000 votes. and we don't have a tv in here. i should have queued it up beforehand. i will have to remember off the top of my head what kamala harris said earlier in the week during her interview with "the view." a few of you decided not to have the nightmare fuel of watching kamala harris on "the view." i do these things as a way to sacrifice as the person that wants to be your next vice president. her argument for her campaign is that she is not going to be like joe biden. you would be forgiven to think that kamala harris had never met

john -- joe biden. and we know she casts the deciding vote on trillions of dollars in new spending because a vice president often has to cast the tie-breaking bow and she reich about being the last person in the room during the disastrous afghanistan withdraw. now she wants to run away from that stuff. she will stand up at rallies and say something like -- on day one we will tackle the affordability crisis affecting pennsylvania families or on day one we will get serious about the southern border. anyone with a lick of common sense would say, day one was 1400 days ago. stop talking about doing your job and go actually do it. but, she blew up the whole

narrative of her campaign in this "the view" interview because they asked her -- you have been the vice president, what would you have done differently than joe biden? and she said, nothing comes to mind. so she just -- for two months she try to tell the american people that she was going to be different from joe biden and now she shows up and openly brags in her own words, "well, nothing comes to mind." i told the trump campaign senior staff, you know jason miller, a good guy. jason calls me earlier in the week and tells me about the interview and i watched it and said, it is worse than you said. we ought to take the clip and add on the end of it, i'm donald j. trump and run it in every battleground state in the united states of america.

and it is amazing, that is exactly what they did go on my social media and you will see kamala harris in her own words does -- destroying the entire narrative of her campaign. i know you will be shocked to hear me defend kamala harris. when she said -- nothing came to mind -- that is probably inaccurate characterization no matter the topic. unfortunately -- there is a famous saying that a political blunder is when a politician actually tells the truth. well, kamala harris just accidentally told the truth. we can joke about it and joke about the fact that she runs away from everything that isn't a softball interview but we have to be honest. i grew up in a family where we suffered when politicians did not do their jobs. we have real suffering in pennsylvania because kamala harris is not doing her job.

so as much as we can joke about what she does in an interview, this is serious business. let's recount some of the ways in which kamala harris' failed leadership has made the great people in pennsylvania were soft. pennsylvania has the worst grocery price affordability problem in the entire country meaning groceries have gone up in pennsylvania more than in any other state in our country and i think that is a disgrace. and as a person that was raised by a grandmother who would sometimes negotiate with meals on wheels to try to get a little extra food. you have to think about the people suffering when, thanks to kamala harris' policies, groceries go up by 25%. that is the legacy of her leadership. another is we have almost 10% credit card delinquency rates. he wants to go out and brag about how great the economy is. the -- is the economy doing well

for pennsylvania workers and families right now? of course, it is not. that is why we have 10% delinquency rates on our credit cards. we have another big problem and it is not just economic but a crisis at the southern border. and more than any other person in public life in the last 30 years, kamala harris has encouraged the wide open southern border. she wants to give medicare to illegal aliens which would bankrupt that program and throw our seniors into poverty. are we going to ally kamala harris to give it a care to illegal aliens? are we going to elect kamala harris to give social security to illegal aliens? here is our message to the millions upon millions of people that kamala harris has led into this country illegally -- in four months, pack your bags because we are sending you back home.

and here is the thing the media doesn't want to talk about but it is an important part about what is going on in this country. and you let in 25 million illegal aliens that dries up the cost of housing. if you have millions of people that shouldn't be here, we have to house them somewhere and things to kamala harris we have bedridden's sleeping on park benches and under bridges but we are giving illegal aliens first-class hotel rooms. here is the donald trump approach to american housing and the way we will make the american dream more affordable for american citizens. the american dream of homeownership is american homes ought by rights to go do american citizens and not to people that don't have the legal right to be here in the first place. and because, unfortunately, we haven't listened to donald trump's wisdom in the last three

and a half years and because kamala harris is in the oval office, pennsylvanians are paying $1400 more a month to afford what they could afford three and a half years ago. it is an unbelievable record of failure from kamala harris. she is lying to the american people at her rallies and she talks about how she wants to make groceries more affordable or close the southern border that she opened. all i can think about is if you really believe those things, camera harris, you are welcome to vote for donald j. trump for president because he got those things done and will do it again. here is the final point i want to make and i know i have beaten up on kamala harris a little bit but that is probably why you came here -- it is ok to beat up on kamala a little bit, right? here is what bothers me most about kamala harris' leadership. it is not just that she has been

bad about the policies but she has the audacity, the golf to call the american people -- the gall to call the american people do how about opinions about her record. but she and tim walz are doing is going around the country telling everyone who is pissed about her open border is that they are racist, xenophobic and bad human beings for daring to have an opinion about what is going on in their own country. even if we disagree with you on a given issue, we will fight for your right to speak your mind in the united states of america because we believe in the first amendment. and you know, my message to kamala harris is the border is open because of you. inflation is higher because of you. americans can't afford groceries and housing because of you.

kamala harris, if you want someone to call a bad name, start making the country better. i'm going to stop here in a second but i want to leave you with one final thought and i will repeat myself and i apologize for doing it. i'm going to repeat myself because it is important. i want you to think back to 2020 and if you were like me, you went into the election in 2020 and of course, we voted for donald trump. i will be honest -- i believed the fake poles and the fake media. i didn't think we would have such a great chance. and then the returns started rolling in. remember how it felt tuesday night around 9:30 p.m.? he did it again and we actually voted him president again and then things went in the wrong direction. here is a way to prevent that from happening.

one, i have a job and the rnc and the party have a job to do. we have to vote for integrity. we are making real changes to fight for election integrity. but here is what you all have to do -- you have to make the margins so big in pennsylvania that it doesn't matter what shenanigans democrats pole at the last minute. and the only way to do that, we will never have the fake media or the democrats telling the truth we do have our own voices and our own networks, our friends and family. that is the people power that is going to make donald trump the next president. i'm sure every single one of you are on facebook, x.com, or whatever social media you are on or maybe you just have a lot of people in your address book that you can text, call or send an email two. we have to get everyone to the

polls. i'm going to a pre--- and when to repeat this website. if we make our voices heard, were going to take this country back and make donald j. trump the next president of the united states. we have 25 days to go. let's do it my friends. let's work our reruns often make this happen. god bless you guys. thank you, thank you. [crowd chanting "jd"] sen. vance: we are going to take some questions from reporters but first we have some beautiful babies in the crowd. how old is she? if we were democrats, we would try to get them to vote. i want to thank you all for

bringing your families and not just beautiful kids but also well behaved kids. we made at this whole time without anyone complaining. abi should trade you my kids for a couple of weeks and you can some sense into them. anyway, let's start with local reporters first. and then we will move on to the national folks. >> harris supporters continue to say that trump is going to enact project 2025 if he gets in office. can you reassure people whether or not that is going to happen? sen. vance: i think you heard the boos from the crowd because look, love donald trump or not, does anyone speak for donald trump but for donald trump? no! it is funny because they kamala's harris campaign has nothing to run on. they are taking a 900 page report from a conservative nonprofit organization and say somehow that organization speaks

for donald trump. i don't know if you have noticed but donald trump speaks for himself and project 25 has no relation to the trump campaign, it doesn't control what we do, no one controls what we do on the trump campaign except for the man at the top of the ticket and that is donald j. trump. what i find so weird about this accusation that donald trump is going to implement some mysterious agenda instead of his own policy plans is donald trump was already president and he did a damn fine job without project 2025. so -- just remember the record, we had 1.5% inflation, we had the fastest rising take-home pay in 40 years in the united states of america. we had a secure southern border and world peace at a level we have not had on this planet in a generation. donald trump speaks for donald trump and he will govern

according to his own plans and his own wishes and because of that, i think the american people are going to be more prosperous and the world will be more peaceful than it has been for 40 years and that is a great thing. and nobody else. certainly project 2025 doesn't speak for donald j. trump or for me. >> with pennsylvania being a big battleground state, what makes you want to come to communities like johnstown where it kind of swings fluid or read. -- or red. sen. vance: one thing i've learned as i try to make sure that i call pennsylvania a commonwealth. the commonwealth of pennsylvania. i don't want anyone to run me out of town because i say the "state." one thing i will say about

johnstown is i love this community. when i was coming in here, you come across the bridge and go over a beautiful river. there is a view you get where you are driving up to a factory and you look behind you and you see a church set against the mountains. the mountain is on fire with the colors of fall and i think to myself, what a beautiful town johnstown, pennsylvania is and you all must be proud of it. i'm proud to be here. but it also says to me or represents at the greatness of america and frankly what happens when american leaders screw up. as much as we are proud to be standing in this great facility, johnstone has gone through tough times because a generation of american leaders, let's be honest, republicans and democrats, decided that we didn't need to make in america anymore and johnstown bore the brunt of that failure of

leadership just like it bears the brunt of kamala harris' leadership. to me what donald trump's presidency represents more than anything is we are not leaving behind the communities like johnstown anymore. we are going to build them up, invest in them and everyone will prosper when we do that. >> do you or do you not condemn the attacks on the capital from the last election incited by donald trump? [crowd booing] sen. vance: do i condemn the riot at the capital, sir? do i think that as the media pretends that the riot at the capital four years ago is a bigger deal than people not being able to afford groceries? i do not. i think people not being able to afford groceries is a far bigger

problem in the united states of america than what happened four years ago. and do i concede the point that was implicit in your question that donald trump was somehow at fault when he told people to protest peacefully? absolutely not. go back and look at the tape or the record that has come out and the last few weeks. donald trump asked people to protest peacefully and he had every right. and the fact that a few knuckleheads went off and did something they shouldn't do, that is not on him, that is on them. that is on them. >> you mentioned veterans -- pennsylvania has the fourth largest community of veterans in the country. a significant portion faces homelessness. the federal government announced grants for services directed to help veterans with housing.

if elected, will the trump administration continue to prioritize these efforts? >> $17 million is not nearly enough to meet the challenge of the homeless veteran population in this country. think about this, these guys went off to war and some of them came back with, some wounds you cannot see but all of them came back with the pride that they served their country and did what their country asked them to do. how disgraceful is it that millions of our veterans are getting left behind in some form or another and thousands are homeless when we are housing illegal aliens and first-class hotels? it is a disgrace. and it drives home the entire agenda of kamala harris -- she hides behind her slogans and she hides behind -- she says she is

joyful but i don't think she is feeling joyful this week after her interviews. but she hides behind these fake attacks on project 2025 which has nothing to do with donald trump's campaign because she cannot answer for the fact that her government has given hundreds of billions of dollars to illegal immigrants when our own citizens suffer and our veterans are at the top of the list. a big difference between donald trump and kamala harris is donald trump wants to put american citizens and american veterans first. he thinks the government of the country exist to serve the people of the country and not people that should not be here in the first place. it is one of the biggest differences between donald trump and kamala harris. >> good to see you, senator vance. one question, who is going to potentially replace you in ohio if you become vice president? and the second question is, a lot of supporters of yours i've

spoken to in western pa, i'm based in pittsburgh, have asked me when is senator vance going to endorse the proactive or some kind of act to protect the right for unions to organize nationally. will you support this legislation? sen. vance: on the first question, i don't know if you agree with me, but i'm superstitious so knock on wood we will worry about who will replace me after donald trump and i are elected president and vice president and until then, i'm not going to think about it. first of all, one of the things we are very proud of on this campaign is if you look according to the teamsters own pole, 65% of pennsylvania's teamsters support donald trump for president and that is something we are very proud of because these people built the country and make it run and we are thrilled to have their support. you asked about the proactive. the problem with the proactive

is in some ways it doubles down on a lot of the failed things we have done instead of looking at american labor policy as something that will be better for the 21st century then it was in the 20th century. and look, i believe in the right of workers -- workers to unionize if they choose to do so but private sector union participation went from 33% when my papaw was a union steelworker, 33% to know about 7%. we have to act ourselves, what public policies have we and acted that have driven private sector union participation so low? i don't think we have doubled down on the failed model. we have to think about a new model for the 21st century that will be better for american workers, american companies and it will mean higher pay for people that work hard and play by the rules and that is what donald trump and i are all about. >> senator vance, thank you for

doing this and for taking time to take questions from the press. no matter who wins after the election is over in november, do you commit to a peaceful transfer of power? sen. vance: yes, of course. of course we do. look -- this is very simple. yes, there was a riot at the capitol on generally six but there was still a peaceful transfer of power in this country and that is always going to happen. donald trump is committed to it and so am i. here is what is a little odd about the question. under the leadership of kamala harris we have more -- in our community then we have had before. americans cannot afford groceries, young people cannot afford to buy a home, credit card delinquencies are through the roof. that is what i'm focused on and that is what the campaign and media should be focused on.

how do we solve america's problems rather than focus on a fake issue from four years ago when donald trump said -- protest peacefully. all right. >> senator, -- sen. vance: i love western pa. we are going to hit the road in a little bit. >> in pittsburgh on thursday former president barack obama admonished black men for not -- for being hesitant about voting for kamala harris. i was wondering if you could contrast your approach to has a tent voters and how you tried to earn them over. sen. vance: first of all, whether you agree or disagree with me or donald trump, i do

not believe in hectoring voters but in persuading voters. support is not something i'm given or owed it is something you have to work for. i don't like the tone -- look, the better question for barack obama or anyone to ask is not why black men or how dare you not vote for kamala harris -- it is, maybe they are thinking about voting for donald trump because they are sick of being censored, told what to do and not being able to support the american dream. maybe that is why we are getting a lot more black voters then we have in the past. the last point i want to make -- i have to say and, newsflash, i've defended kamala harris once and i'm about to defend barack obama. >> [indiscernible] [laughter] sen. vance: said to the side the

hectoring and tone of barack obama when he talked about black voters. whatever, i just criticized that. when i was watching him talk i thought to myself, agree or disagree and i disagree with about 99% of what he did and when he was in office, he had substance and kamala harris does not. he had thoughts in his head while kamala harris repeats slogan after slogan after slogan. i am offended, not as a person running to be your vice president but as a fellow citizen. i am offended that a person so substantive -- it is a disgrace. what does she want to do about israel and the middle east? she will give you a slogan. how does she want to lower the price of groceries?

she will give you a platitude. a person like that has no business being near the oval office of this country and we cannot let it happen. and i would ask you -- i mean, do all of you out here, this is one of the things at. i imagine or i hope that you are thinking about voting for democrats in the future but we cannot reward this kind of politics where they switch joe biden from the ballot two months ago without a single vote being cast. she runs from the basement. she does a few softball interviews and we think that person is tested enough to be president of the united states? it is insulting to american voters and we have to reject it on november the fifth by voting for donald j. trump. >> you can watch the rest of this program on c-span.org. we will leave you here and take

you live to a news conference with army secretary christine warmath. you are watching live coverage on c-span. >> moving around the room please wait for those before asking for a live stream and transcription. we are limited on time so questions will be limited to one and a brief follow-up. please direct your questions towards one of our panelists, not all three. when asking a question please offer your name and organization. i will tur over to the panel for any opening remarks. >> thank you roger. thank you for being here today. we had a little bit of excitement in the opening ceremonies that was a little unexpected but the spotlight -- it spotlights our great democracy. i'm pleased to be here. i'm very lucky to serve alongside them.

a great leadership team so glad we are all here together. i want to thank all of you in the press for reporting on us. as i've often said to some of you individually you shine a spotlight on us and that helps keep us accountable. i think you also help us get our story out there and i am struck that one of the things you are reporting on quite a bit is all of the work they are doing alongside fema and others to help with hurricane recovery. we have over 1800 active-duty soldier's right now who are working across the southeast and more than 7000 army national guard soldiers doing great work so that's just one example of the kinds of things your reporting helps bring to the put to attention of the american public. i do want to break a teeny bit of news this morning. which is to announce a new benefit the army is going to be providing to our soldiers pride

it is called operational deployment pay. what this is going to do is for soldiers who are deployed for more than 60 days, they will receive $240 a month during the time of that deployment. that is both to recognize the hardship of being away from families but also the rigors of deployment and that could be something that could be officially implementing retroactively to october 1 of this year. and then i also want to thank congress of course for working with us to provide the appropriations to fund that operational deployment pay. with that why don't i turn it over to general george. >> i would also like to thank you all for being here today. it's a day off. so we appreciate pray i don't think there's a better place to be than right here spending it with the army but i know i am biased. i also am really proud of what

our troopers are doing and i'm looking around here some of you here with all of our troops are doing whether it's supporting to hurricane relief out in the eastern flank in europe right now right now in the middle east we were just out in the pacific but everywhere i go around the world seeing what they are doing , so i was kind of the new guy here last year and we will talk a little bit about this tomorrow. but excited about what our troops are doing out there. i am very focused on their war fighting mission and we talk a lot about being really focused on building lethality and becoming more cohesive of the team and then also learning from the modern battlefield and that's a lot of what we will talk about here over the next couple of days. what we need to do to make sure we are transforming and continuing to adapt to the battlefield and i know we have several panels and things on that. and we will talk about that in a

lot more detail but again we are happy you are here with us and look forward to your questions. i will turn it over to my battle buddy. >> i was new last year also. so thank you for reminding of that. we have a busy three days but it's been a busy year and the demands on the army to the chief and the secretaries points are just increasing. you will hear a sense of urgency and i think you heard that from the secretary speech already. and you will hear that theme throughout the next three days. so i look forward to your questions. >> thank you distinct panelists. >> this is for either the secretary or general george, whoever wants to tackle this. the u.s. announced yesterday it is sending a battery to israel. can you say where is that going to be coming from and more

broadly can you talk about the strain on the army air defense, soldiers and systems and where you think this is going and how the army can address this. >> i will start. the fad deployment will have about 100 soldiers who will go over to israel. so that is not a very large number of soldiers so it's adding a tremendous run of additional strain broadly to the community that as you know the air defense artillery community is the most stressed, they have the highest of any part of the army. i think what we are trying to do to manage that is really two things. one is modernizing our integrated air and missile defenses trying create more capacity. that's why mentioned in my speech this morning the fact that we are moving to have the radar work with the system. that's going to greatly increase the capacity of the patriot

force we have. and that will do some on your soldier -- and the other thing we are doing is constantly trying to be as disciplined as we can and give the secretary the information he needs to accurately assess the strain on the force when he's considering future operational deployment. we have to be as choosy as we can be about what we take on but of course in a world that's volatile, sometimes we have to do what we have to do. >> this is our most deployed formation and everybody wants u.s. air defense forces. we've seen them every time we've gone out after we've seen them around the world, i've been very impressed.

and i was laughing a little bit i saw in the middle east and the only thing they asked me for was a gym to work out while they're over there. so they are staying very motivated. what we owe them and we've done this with recruiting, we are well over 100%. there's one we are monitoring very specifically to grow that capability and look at growing continuing to grow that capability in the next couple of years. what we need to do is with ibc yes, what we are doing is working to see how we can pull all of that left so we have prototypes out there, there's a lot of software work that's involved with that so i think those are the kinds of things need to do besides growing the capacity and seeing what we can do to transform them as well to help alleviate some of that burden. >> and where is >> it coming from? >>i don't think we will comment on the operational details this morning.

>> mike stone from reuters. boeing announced significant layoffs. how has the company help the army understand how its helicopters and munitions programs will be impacted and how is the army working to support the trouble defense contractor. >> we've been pleased with the support we've gotten from boeing on things like our chinook fleet. and to my knowledge we are not expecting the layoffs the company has announced. to create difficulty for our programs. our assistant secretary for acquisition in very good contact with the industry partners and to my knowledge we haven't heard any concerns being raised. >> thank you all for doing this.

i wanted to follow up, i know you said didn't want to comment but just in case. can you give any expectation of when those soldiers should arrive in israel? does this raise concerns for you all about drawing u.s. soldiers into a conflict more directly given they may be at greater risk of injury or harm being on the ground there. >> i'm not going to comment on when they are going to arrive. for security for force protection purposes i don't think we want to go into detail on that. i think to your broader question i would say this isn't the first time we have deployed to israel. we sent that in the week of the hamas invasion into israel year ago and if i'm not mistaken i think we also had them go over for exercise purposes in 2018 or 2019.

we are, i think we should view this deployment as for what it is which is another visible statement of our commitment to the security of israel. as it deals with everything that's coming out from hamas and hezbollah. and lebanon. >> right here in the front. >> thank you. this is a question for your -- when we talk about transforming combat, a lot of that ultimately rests upon the ncos who are skilled in electronic warfare drone operation and the army is moving more and more towards those types of systems. i imagine we will eventually expand past. do you have any concerns about attracting, retaining those types of very highly technical skilled soldiers and really any of your thoughts >>.

concerns first off it's good to see you. concerns i think we have to have concerns. it's very competitive market out there. we have a lot of capability to keep those soldiers. they want to do their jobs. we see that chain -- we are seeing that soldiers getting to do things to get the opportunity before. we talked about it and they are now doing it. we are hearing from the other brigades of when we will do that. trying to figure out how we will do this faster, that sense of urgency i referenced. as far as retention, i watch it daily. every two weeks in detail a specific list and a lot of them are high technical mos because we know it is not to get simpler, we are getting more advanced so the professional military education piece, you

will hear quite a bit about that from me. putting a lot of emphasis in that. leading that technical capability is tough. so absolutely watching it. >> just a quick separate follow-up. the army is putting more and more into tracking that way technical means. could you speak about any of those efforts and where you see that going? >> wearables. i was wondering where you're going with that. we are working it. that squad competition wrapped up with the 10 miler and for 18 days straight we put wearables on them. a couple different ones but it nests completely with our holistic health and fitness. again that's part of transforming also. that is our number one platform. i love all of our things, don't get me wrong to our industry partners but our people are definitely the priority so i think you will see a bunch of

that. interesting to listen to youngsters on the squad talk about i can't believe how any calories i've earned. did you see years -- a sleep score. that is a good thing as cultural change for better fitness all around. >> as i say i do not need a ring to tell me how my sleep is. [laughter] >> what we've seen is retention has gone up. i think they know that that technology is out there, they are part of the change and what you seen firsthand that they are helping us adapt our army and it is our ncos out there that really understand how all of this fits together at a tactical level they're helping us lead to some of that change. >> right here upfront and then we will move around. >> i wanted to ask a follow-up

on the thad battery. how does that impact the assessment on israel potentially buying back the iron drone -- iron dome capabilities and can you say more about where that is in >> the process? i do not have anything to add about that. again i don't think this deployment significantly changes israel's calculus about how they are thinking about buying back iron dome. >> secretary, what is the current cost per soldier of the army calculates now and can you say a bit about how rising personnel costs are impacting the overall budget? what does that mean for the affordability of the army of 2030 and will you have to look at some kind of a process again

somewhere in the future? >> i do not have a cost per soldier off the top of my head but what i can say is 53% of the army's budget which is about 185, $186 billion a year goes to taking care of our soldiers, families and department of army civilians. paying benefits, health care, mw our programs. it is more than half of the united states army's budget. it is a very significant piece of our budget. we do have to be constantly monitoring that balance. and trying to be good stewards of our resources. as i said in my speech it's fundamentally the united states army is about its people we are much more about defined by our

soldiers rather than being defined by our platform. that investment makes sense in terms of taking care of our soldiers and families. but we cannot let that to be too much of our share of our budget. or crowd out the very important focus for the army right now. and we also have to fund our readiness. so the chief and i are constantly looking at the different programs and again trying to make decisions that are data-driven so we don't inadvertently allow the resources we are spending to crowd out the modernization. at this time we are not contemplating another night court. i would argue this is my fourth era secretary and my fourth budget cycle we are of course gearing up, we are going to

present obviously the budget to congress in the spring and we are starting to look at palm 27. every single year we have been doing that, we have been scrutinizing where do we need to continue, what programs do we need to end like shadow and raven. we're doing a lot to consolidate our ip -- i.t. programs. doing a lot of that in the service of creating fiscal efficiency. >> given those rising personnel costs, do you think the army of 2030, we see so many ideas on display, is this an affordable -- is the army on track to be able to afford what it is looking for? >> i think if our budgets remain flat we will continue to have to make hard choices. >> can i jump in on that because that is an important aspect. this is something we spend a lot of time talking about. i wasn't here -- but just like

you do in your personal life i think everybody has to make tough decisions about what they stopped doing and what they stop spending money on. we have the best troopers out there in the world and worth every penny, but there's programs we add things it seems and what's really hard is what you decide to stop. there is a requirements process, we a flip that around and now we are calling it cora, deciding what things we will stop doing and looking at requirements. i can give you a lot of examples where previously we were buying equipment, vehicles, radios, extra stuff that can now be done on an app and that's a lot cheaper. so i think it's a combination of

all of those things we will have to take a look at as we move forward. what we are trying to do is when i remind my parents back in a very small town in iowa and tell them what our budget is they are like holy cow that is a lot of money. we have to spend every dollar and get value out of every bit of it. i know our soldiers are the highest on that value chart. >> i was curious for you to share more information about what you mentioned, specifically to 40 regardless of rank, by month, how was the decision made and what went into it? >> it is a flat 240 per month. we did have discussions of this and i think our view is all

soldiers of all ranks are sharing the rigors of deployment the same and they are all the way from their families while on deployment so a flat rate made sense to us. it is going to be oriented around operational deployment so things like for example taking a brigade to fort irwin in fort johnson, you are knocking to get odp for that. it is going to be things like the brigades and battalions for example that have gone over to europe as part of the reassure mission. >> is this just a time-based, the next six months or year until you are the neck sec. decide to change that. >> i don't know a lot about new benefits, so i think our view is this will be something we will

offer to our soldiers for the foreseeable future. >> part of the other decision is if you get jump pay and everybody's doing jump pay it's the same as for everybody and i know it's come out and there's different talk about it. everybody's doing exactly the same thing. we sat down and talked about this. >> for general george, on transformation and contact, what are some specific technologies successes that you've seen since that kicked off and what are some of the institutional challenges you are still working through and how do you expect that initiative to grow over the next year? >> to the last part we will talk about that a little bit tomorrow. i do think we need to grow every formation we have. it's can and need crude systems inside it.

we are going to talk about how we will do that and again it will be not doing some other things that i think will help us figure some of that stuff out. what's been really good is if you go out to formation. we have our negotiation that happening in january and that's can happen in europe and we are doing it, we've done one that's just finishing up in the pacific. got one down in fort johnson because we are running different things in different environments. also things are moving very fast. we've even had some updates with some of those systems. what i think we've learned something across what we know. what i did not list out was the network. the biggest thing for osprey to talk about this a year ago because i've lived in all those formations for my whole career was getting after fixing the network and so i think what we have seen these pretty big nodes

shrunk down to very small and some of you were in here as an example when we were at joint readiness training center they could not find it. it was the observer controllers and they could not look for it. they were in a pretty bad location out in the middle. they promoted all their c2 notes. they had no signature whatsoever. that's the modern battlefield. i think we are constantly learning and evolving and i've been really happy with all of these units are sharing their lessons so that two to five actually picked up, we got them sharing, they picked up where 210 one left off and we are really proud of that fact. >> anything you want to preview ahead of this. how can we see the outcomes of transformational contact so far

reflected in the upcoming budget? >> we've already been talking about this. we had this conversation about what we needed to do across these areas we've been having this for quite some time. we have in this upcoming budget request we are good to be focused on that and you heard the secretary talk about this morning to hear me talk about it tomorrow. we've been very clear with this on the hill as well is what we need to do in the world, all of this changes in three weeks or three months is how do we become a little bit more agile. and how can we change with it. you talk to a lot of these companies out there, the tech companies paid i have a panel with a couple of them in the next few days. they will tell you things are going to be completely different. we want to buy a modular open system architecture systems.

but we can put any different kind of sensor on. i think that's can help with the money problems as well. and that we can continue to adapt. we should be after this last formation we will probably talk in the spring about what our overall lessons learned are and exactly what the formations will look like. tomorrow i will talk more about how we will expand, what our initial concept. so transforming contact 2.0. >> both the secretary and chief spent a lot of time messaging congress about the importance of passing the 25 budget on time. can you provide any examples now that once again continuing resolution how it's affected any specific modernization

initiatives. are there new starts, are there things that are tangibly affected right now by this continuing resolution. >> it varies sort of weather we see a three month continuing resolution for example or whether that winds up going longer. when we've come across these various programs is more than $8 billion worth of projects and programs that are being slowed down by the continuing resolution. we have 23 different new starts for example but we aren't going to be able to make they are various things we would like to do in the greek routing space for example. we do not have the flexibility to do some of that in terms of marketing that we are purchasing because of the continuing resolution. it also affects things like military construction for

example and other sort of renovation and modernization process. there are a lot of different impacts. sadly the army and the other services are pretty used to operating under a continuing resolution. six months or longer it would really be an impediment. >> could you provide any specifics of the new starts. >> we can get that for you. >> i will give you a quick -- being able to, we wanted to make some adjustments to coyote missiles and increase the production and we weren't able to do that. that's counter ua asked, it's hard to adapt. all of you have a good appreciation for how rapidly things are changing it just takes away her flexibility to be able to adapt to that to the environment. >> either the secretary or the

chief can answer this. you all of talked about flexible funding for fy 26 with ua asked, counter ua asked. i'm wondering if you have conversations with members on the hill about that. and just sort of based on positive or negative feedback how that's can a shape your strategy for flexible funding going forward and if there were other procurement programs you would want to take a similar approach if this goes positively in the next year. >> both the chief and i have talked to a number of different members particularly appropriators and authorizer's and i think there's considerable support. i would say i'm cautious about how much progress we would make in this area when the chief and other started talking about it. in my experience appropriators in particular are leery of what they see as slush fund's.

just given the dangerous environment we are in and the recognition by everybody that technology is evolving as rapidly as it is. more openness to this. we have been talking to both members but also clerks and psm's on the appropriations committee about how we could have perhaps consolidate budget line items into fewer pools and be able to move money around. but i think there's openness to it. i think of part of why there is openness to it is because we are targeting to you a.s., counter-ua as an electronic warfare. you're not trying to eat the whole elephant all at once, we are trying to start with a whole pilot approach, see if that

works, and if the members and staff feel like they can have the oversight and transparency that they need to have to do their jobs, we may in the future be able to expand it. >> a quick follow-up, general george, you mentioned with the integration, you said you were trying to move it to the left. how quickly we do anticipate accelerating it, in the next year or so? the testing schedule, does that really allow for that? >> one of the things that you've heard us talk about, there's been a lot of things that we would send forward to prioritize , but they are also much better incapability. so what we don't want to do is wait a year, send it out to some test range and then get everybody on board. you've seen us send either high-powered microwaves, very

similar to that concept, that is what we are looking at any couple of locations. and what ended up happening is you get it out to our soldiers, jr. leaders, you get feedback immediately on what it is, and just looking at the prototypes, they are much more capable as it is. so i think that we could also increase our capability while we are added. so that is what we are trying to do. kind of some transforming of contact. >> one of the key systems for transformational content, are you not deeply involved in the acquisition, but you can following it broadly. what is your overall feeling

nascent to connect the israeli air defenses? >> zooming out, we want to get our soldiers the very best night vision capability possible. and we want to move to the comment about wearables, we want to move to wearable technologies. we've gotten a lot of feedback from soldiers, we actually ask the ranger regiment to work with that this summer, and we are still sort of working through that feedback, so we have made final decisions about it. we have opened up the program, so i think you are probably aware microsoft is brought in -- to work with them on it, and i think we are going to be looking at that and working again

through some of the most recent feedback before we decide how we are going to go forward. >> i think for all of our air defense systems, anywhere we are going to go in the world, to your point that is exactly where we want to go with their systems. in the big reason we are really focused on the network and a big reason we are focused on all of these aspects, i do know that that will be a great increased incapability to help tie that whole picture together. >> exercises with israel and a couple of other ones in the past, in terms of disintegration, is there only diverse exercises? >> this is where we exercise with our partners everywhere that we do this around the world. it makes a difference, you get

personal interoperability getting to know each other. doing that around the world, really. it makes a big difference. fighting with our partners and allies. >> to follow-up on that, 100 filters going with this unit, will there be additional filters going to man other systems, or is this sort of the starting point to open a conversation? >> we are not announcing any other additional deployment that this time, ashley. >> and on supplemental spending as you have a higher up-tempo, if there sort of a date that you were going to need more supplemental spending to continue operations, or are you sort of curtailing exercises and things already to stretch the dollar? >> we are not curtailing exercises right now.

there's certainly talk of a supplemental. there's been talk obviously dealing with hurricane recovery, and i think looking ahead, certainly ukraine is going to continue to need assistance to fight russia. so i think there have been broad discussions about supplementals but right now we are not having to curtail activities. >> hi. general george, you mentioned a culture of change and increasing fitness among soldiers. researchers say that the number of obese soldiers is double from 10,000 20,000 since the end of the pandemic. what are you doing to address that and are you taking any lessons just with obesity?

>> great question. we have noticed that and that is why we are having some of the challenges i think with recruiting people and future soldier prep course. the anecdotal feedback i get from a lot of them, it is really good that i turned in my phone. we give it to them for an hour a day. i'm sleeping better, i'm needing better. all this stuff that we wouldn't find surprising, this basic stuff. i think what is good about that future soldier prep course, you are less active, we are also trying to reduce injuries because you can't just go from zero to 40 or 50 with that. but it is a combination of things. we've also made the decision to invest a lot more in health and holistic fitness. so we have a nutritionist, the physical therapist, occupational therapist, strength coaches that are down there.

make sure that we are focused on having fitness centers that they can use and build, and i think that that is making a difference. we see matt and everyone of our formations, is it is increasing performance, it is increasing how people perceive themselves, it has been good all the way around. so we pumped that extra. i don't remember what we did, our only challenge right now is hiring everybody as fast as we can. we're trying to hire all of those folks to come on, but it's obviously something that we are going to have to be focused on i think for the near future at least. >> you doubled down on it. we are at 66 pervades right now trying to get the 111 in fy 26 because it is that important to your point. and now it is how do we extrapolate that throughout guard and reserve teammates who have a challenging environment,

but they needed also. we are trying to figure all that out. the money question, it takes money. those 22 experts that the chief was referencing, it is not about the kettle bells, it is not about the racks, the sandbags into the subject matter experts that come with each to have our what i think our soldiers, especially noncommissioned officers, they are really falling in love with his beer teaching them how to fish, not just giving them a fish. >> the last thing i would add as we are trying to change our strategy for our soldiers to the part i was just at fort jackson recently to see the future soldier prep course, and i saw one of our dining facilities that have been kind of changed to offer much healthier, both healthier food but also sort of morph on the go options, different hours.

and we are really trying to spread that out across the army. so we are seeking some exceptions to policy right now in terms of how you need it or not, we have these cards that govern what we can make, and we can only buy food from certain vendors, and we are sticking exceptions from that to allow us to offer more appealing, more nutritious food, because frankly i think we are already paying for soldiers to eat and live in the barracks, at least, and if we made the food more appealing and healthy, that would be good in terms of their physical health, but it would also mean hopefully they stop spending out-of-pocket money on hoover eats more popeyes or other things that are particularly healthy. [indiscernible] >> we do have some of those

options. we have neil that are kind of ready-made that soldiers can bring. and i've been impressed with the air fryers i've seen, and a surprising number of soldiers who live in the barracks are actually wanting to make some of their own food where they can. >> meal prep is pretty popular in different places. it's also part of the new barracks standard. as we invest every dollar into barracks, adding those cajun areas for them to be able to actually buy food, store the food and prepare the food. >> we have time for one more question. >> thank you for taking my question. kind of going back to the air defense, if there anything the army is doing to kind of help decrease some of the pressure with the time between deployments? >> they are definitely outside

of the desired limits for dwell time. i don't have the exact ratio right off the top of my head, but they are busy, which is part of the challenge that we have. and like i said earlier, i think what we're trying to do is to make it as clear as possible when a combatant commander comes in and says i need another patriot here, ukrainians want another patriot, for example, we try to lay out for secretary often and deadly secretary hicks what exactly that means both in terms of the strain that it put on our soldiers and their families, but also what it means in terms of readiness and our impact on modernization. what are the biggest concerns we have? one of the biggest points of tension we have is that when we are able to replace the legacy patriot radar with cameras connected to iv cs, we actually

gain 360 degree awareness, which increases the capacity of our patriot batteries. but if we can get them into depot and get them into the modernization window to reset, we can't do that. we need to be able to do that. we're trying to lay that out for secretary austin so that he can weigh those risks, especially current versus future risks as he makes recommendations to the president about whether to send a patriot here or there. >> and is there anything you are doing on the recruiting side to get more soldiers interested in air defense missions? >> i don't remember every specific. we have a list that the secretary and died, when they come in, we take a lot of recruiting briefs which you wouldn't be surprised by where we have the top 16 and they move and we are doing fairly well in

14 serious, just what that is for air defense, and really trying to press hard. the other thing we are looking at, they talk about this all the time, about retention and what are we doing also to retain them, even given that high up-tempo? what kind of letters to be have, because they are very good, but obviously deploying for a year, coming back for a year into pulling a year is tough to do for anybody, but especially for some of these young troops were starting families. i think we are looking at every possible lever, and some of that is growing, some of that is also the technologies that will change, you get an increase in capability that actually requires less people, so we will be able to grow capability which is why we are trying to pull all of that left and things a little different. >> thank you very much,

established panel, we are out of time. if everyone would stay in place for just a moment while the panel departs. thank you. >> ladies and gentlemen, if you need anymore assistance, come cs and the media operations room at 103 -- v. thank you very much, this concludes the press conference. announcer: this afternoon we will bring you a panel discussion on women's leadership in the army. watch live at 1:30 p.m. eastern on c-span, c-span now, or online at c-span.org.

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casey and his republican challenger dave mccormick, 2024 race to represent the stone state in the u.s. senate. this debate both by abc 27 and newsnation is about an hour. >> it's detective night in pennsylvania. ♪ face to face, debating for the very first time, you'll hear from the two candidates fighting for your vote. seven bob casey. -- senator bob casey. >> he should go to the grocery store in pennsylvania. he spends most of his time in connecticut. >> and challenger, mccormick. it's a critical seat in a battleground state that could decide control of the senate and the white house. the issues that matter most to

the voters will make all the difference. >> i'm voting for integrity. >> prices to come down. >> our economy. >> aborg. >> tonight you get to decide which candidate will earn your trust. which one shares your values on the social issues and your dreams for our future and will earn your vote. live from your local election headquarters in harrisburg, this is the pennsylvania u.s. senate debate. good evening from the nation's capital. i'm your host leyland from news nation. it's detective night and the salt lake city are high. not only for the ski stone state but the country and the balance of power in the congress takes center stage. our moderator is dennis owens. we're broadcasting tonight's debate across the country on news nation as well as on stations that reach all 67 pennsylvania counties from philadelphia to harrisburg to

erie. let's review the debate rules. mr. casey, mr. mccormick, you'll have 60 seconds to answer a question. if there's a follow-up question, you'll get 30 seconds to respond. each rebuttal also gets 30 seconds. a digital clock will clock down toe zero and dennis will move things along when time is up. each candidate will also have 90 seconds for a closing state. now live from the abc 27 studio in harrisburg. detective night in pennsylvania. >> now, it is time to welcome

candidates. first, republican dave mccormick. former hedge fund c.e.o., west point graduate, arm of higher education. next, democrat bob casey, a three term u.s. senate incumbent, former state army general and treasurer whose father was a former governor. gentlemen, we thank you very much for being with us tonight. good luck. and with that, let's get started. current headlines lead us to begin with the middle east. this week, your bond launched nearly 200 missiles at israel, after israel puts simpson lebanon until hezbollah leadership, all as we approach the one-year anniversary of the hamas attack you have both expressed support for israel. mr. casey, are you willing to put american troops on the ground in the current conflict? you have 60 seconds. >> i want to thank you and abc 27 for this debate and they also wonder which happy new year to all of our friends across

pennsylvania celebrating rosh hashanah. this is a difficult time for the israeli people. almost a year ago to the day, 400 israelis were murdered by a terrorist organization, hamas, murdered in cold blood. young people, older israelis killed by a terrorist organization. we've got to continue support israeli efforts to take on and 50 hamas and also to take on other threats in the region, including the threat posed by hezbollah and the iranians. i think now that iran has launched missiles, against the israeli people, you've got to stand with israel and fight for them. >> does that involve troops on the ground of the moment?

>> not as we have a declaration of war in the senate and house. is there a redline israel can cross to losers? you have 30 seconds. >>-a strong supporter of israel every year i've been in the u.s. senate. over and over again across the country, supported me. they know my record. i think they also know that my opponents record is one of the lifting of adversaries. as a hedge fund manager, he was managing money for president xi of china, increasing those investments by 108,000 percent, lifting our adversaries instead of supporting america. >> mr. mccormick, are you willing to american troops on the ground in this current conflict? you have 60 seconds. >> israel is in a fight for its life. my wife and i went to israel and saw firsthand the brutality that hamas brought to the jewish people. we have a fight here at home in a fight abroad.

and the original sin with the funding of your bond that senator casey with the deciding vote. gave iran's $100 billion of sanctioned money that has been used to underwrite terrorism. that is were all these mrs. are coming from. and now that we are in a fight, now that israel is fighting for its life, it is because of that weakness, that encouragement, that lack of strength and standing up against all proxies in the region. i would send troops on the ground right now. what president biden has done, and i haven't heard senator casey speak out on this, is he has started to put red lines and place on what israel should and should not do. we need to stand with israel. senator casey has been weak. >> is there a redline israel could cross to lose your support? you have 30 seconds. >> it is the closest ally in the middle east, one of the closest in the world. the problem is that we haven't been standing enough with israel. we also have a fight home.

senator casey has been week. he's got is antisemitism bill which is a good bill. he hasn't been able to get a vote on the senate floor, and this is a career politician. he says one thing, doesn't want to irritate or upset the radicals of his party or anti-semites. more courage to stand up against iran and anti-semites at home. furthermore this debate you will each get rebuttals on each of the topics. you have a 32nd rebuttal. >> when it comes to moral clarity, here's what my opponent did. with his own money, invested his own money, millions of dollars in a website that platforms hate, holocaust denial and anti-senators and. that is his money and he is making money off of that. at least $100,000 is made off that investment. the second thing he did is to invest in a chinese weapons manufacturer that had ties to

iran. those weapons made their way to hamas. so who is supporting israel? >> 32nd rebuttal. >> you're going to hear throughout this, when you don't have a record to run on a senator casey does not, you attack your opponent. his voice is primarily attacking people. for your viewers tonight i have a website that has been established. you can go and see the actual facts by third-party sources of all the things he is saying. they will be live throughout, but you should ask yourself why is this center within an 18 year track record and should be able to run on his record running his entire campaign with a negative set of attacks on me, most of them lies? >> turning to the issue of immigration, according to u.s. customs customs and border protection, at least 10 million migrants across the border since 2021. mr. mccormick, donald trump trump has stated if president, he wants to deport others across illegally. do you support those mass deportations and if so, how

would you go about doing that? you have 60 seconds. >> the border crisis is a direct result of the weakness of joe biden and kamala harris and bob casey so work. running an ad on how tough he is on the border when he voted against one patrol. humana ads in front of a wall that he voted against. he voted for federal benefits for illegal immigrants, and the phantom christ has come across our border is a direct result of the weakness of bob casey not standing up to these terrible cartels. so this man has very little that he can say with credibility on the border. we have an enormous crisis. we learned just recently the 25,000 convicted murderers of come across the border. absolutely we need to send them home, need to deport first and foremost was convicted criminals. we have hundreds of people on terrorist watch groups. we have made americans less secure. we made our country less secure, pennsylvania musick eric because of the weakness of bob casey and the democrats on this issue.

i will be strong on this issue on day one. >> 15 second clarification, how would we do that? >> you speak a lot about where you go. -there more times than the center and the porters are. -- the border czr. it's going to be very hard to track him down. it's going to be an enormously just a challenge but we have to do it to break the incentives of people coming across. >> i want to turn to mr. casey. president biden has green tree always sees similar to donald trump's that have reduced border crossings. you support the continuation of the former president policies, you have 60 seconds. >> i absolutely support those policies and those numbers are coming way down, but here's a problem. we don't have the resources of the border that we need. if we want to build border security company got to invest in it. invest in hiring thousand more border patrol. that is in the bill that i voted for twice this year. the bill that my opponent opposes the leader of his party

said don't support it because it might help us politically not have problems. that same bill is supported by the portal union, so i guess mr. mccormick knows more about border security than the border patrol. i don't think so. that bill also would provide the investment we need in the technology to find and screen fentanyl. this is a vehicle problem coming across the border, often driven by american citizens. vehicles packed with fentanyl. we cannot allow that to continue. my opponent unfortunately is a hedge fund ceo who invested millions of dollars in the largest producer of fentanyl. >> mr. mccormick, 32nd rebuttal. >> senator casey is rich with his strength on the border when he has time and again voted against the measures necessary to get our borders. very clearly when president trump was president, he said we don't need a walker border security. it's a tragic crisis, it's

gotten out of control under senator casey, and this is something that we need leadership to go across the board around take on those cartels. senator casey showed up not bear recently as a strong advocate for the border he convincing. >> talk about leadership. leadership would be a republican candidate for the united states senate talking about border security. leadership would be taking on the leader of your own party and anyone else answer the bill. that would be leadership, and that would be strength, not weakness in the face of that pressure. >> the problem we have border is one of a lack of investment and the strategies that we know work. higher more border patrol help. he doesn't want to do it because he doesn't want to take on the leader of his party and they also remind you when he was running a hedge fund invested in the largest fentanyl in china. >> blair county sheriff blames you for the fentanyl data for son, saying you have not done enough to secure the border. what is your response to that?

>> i've met so many families across this state, and whether it is the sheriff in blair county or imam in allegheny county, who talked about her daughter briand i, this is an awful, awful tragedy for those families. that is why we need to invent in the strategies that we know work. he won't do that because he is weak in the face of the political pressure from his own party. >> is laughable that he taught about independence. he couldn't make of a single

thing. it is a bad bill. not a border security bill, and is the bill. it was a bad bill and i made my own choice. senator casey in the elements, the privacy 15 seconds. >> not true, and that was fact-check. mr. mccormick made a decision as a hedge fund ceo of the largest hedge fund in the world living in connecticut to invest in that company. he made that decision. the allegation he made against me was fact-check and it was shown to be a false charge. >> quick, the pittsburgh post-gazette editorial which says that nonsense bob casey speaks of.

>> every poll has shown that the economy of the number one issue for pennsylvania voters who agree that prices are just too high. mr. casey, you've let efforts to target company for so-called greedflation. critics, government press controls. can you share an example of where press controls of work to benefit consumers and not hurt businesses? 60 seconds. >> prices are too high, especially when you go to the grocery store to buy food or household items. items that people need every week or at least every other week. and these big corporations take those prices and jack them up to levels we've never seen all while they are getting record profits. that is greedflation, we can take it on my price badging -- price gouging bill. i will argue with your premise. is press controls, it investigating companies were engaged in price gouging. you have to go to court and prove it, and they can rebut the

arguments you make. that has to be proven. here's the difference. i'm taking on this corporate greed. i want to pass a price gouging bill and they want to roll back as big corporate tax breaks. he's defending them. over and over he has defended these big corporations and said we shouldn't have price gouging legislation because he wants to support the upper tax breaks. so he's perfectly fine with having price gouging. i want to take them on and hold them accountable. >> to follow-up, he were also targeting shrinkflation, companies targeting more for less product. have you investigated any of these pennsylvania companies for shrinkflation? >> i don't think i can necessarily conduct the investigation. we did a report on translation which covered a lot of companies around the country and if that is happening with regard with pennsylvania company or any other company around the country, they should be held accountable when they take a product, shrink the contents of the product or what is in a bag

and don't shrink the price, that is deceptive. that is ripping people off. people know this. go to the grocery and they see it. it might not be in connecticut but it is happening here in pennsylvania. >> to those companies expect investigations? >> if we can pass legislation to have the same power at the federal level that attorneys general around the country have, yes. do all those companies accountable, we should do that. he won't do that, he's against that. he thinks they should just be able to engage in shrinkflation or price gouging. he doesn't want to hold them accountable. >> cap donald trump were to win, -- >> i need to respond to that. you spent your entire life in public service in elected office, you are like a hammer looking for a nail. the cause of inflation is the policies. bob casey voted 100% of the time for that $5 trillion spending. the experts of a time, larry summers, the san francisco fed,

this has been tried in america. >> you are going to have a rebuttal but i do have a question want to ask. if donald trump were to win, one of your first votes as senator would the expiring tax cuts. critics say those tax cuts mostly benefit corporations and the wealthy. how would you vote on extending tax cuts and why? 60 seconds. >> ib in favor of extending the trump tax cuts. they are middle-class tax cuts as well. it is a $2500 tax increase that would happen under bob casey. there's already been a 20% tax increase under bob casey because inflation is stealing money at the pockets of working families, and i would also want to add additional dollars per tile -- child tax credit. i want to add money for fertility tax credit, which i propose. but yes, extend those tax cuts and the corporate tax cuts are necessary to ensure that america continues to be competitive. bob casey doesn't understand how the economy works.

that's why he's trying to do others economic food with price controls. >> a follow-up for you, the national debt is at 35 trillion dollars, just went past that this week and growing. conventional boss -- but add trillions more to the dead. how do you justify increasing that debt by extending those tax cuts? >> if you look at spending, republicans and democrats spent too much. it is a hockey stick. $5 trillion of new spending. bob casey confidently said no, this isn't about the cost of inflation, it has cost record high inflation. that is the main cause of inflation. we have a problem. you have $1 trillion in interest payments, it is a problem. the first thing you need to do is rollback all these ridiculous subsidies for ev buses and charging stations.

>>. >> you just hurt his plan. his plan is to double down a dead explosion. we already had a dead explosion under the 2017 bill, now he wants to double down and support a bill in 2025 that will jack up the debt by $4 trillion at least. some people believe higher than that. you know what happens when the plane goes into effect? social security and medicare and medicaid are on the chopping block. we cannot allow that to happen. if we are going to have tax reform in 2025, it has to be a cut for the middle class. >> 32nd rebuttal. >> the reason social security and medicare, debt is spiraling out of control is because of biden, harris and k.c.. $2 trillion more spending, and press control that bob casey is promoting. as a senator, and casey has lied about this as he lies about most things, i would support and

standby social security, standby medicare. i wouldn't accept any changes to those programs. senator casey is lying if he said anything to the contrary. >> the topic of abortion, 2022 primary debate in this very studio. you said you believe in on the rare exceptions for abortion when the life of a mother is in danger. however now you say you support additional exceptions. can you clarify where exactly you stand on those exceptions? >> this is an extremely polarizing issue. as you know i have six daughters so this is something we spent time talking about. i believe states should decide. pennsylvania has a law that has been supported by democrats and republicans alike. it was signed into law by governor casey. i support the three exceptions. i would not favor and abortion ban of any kind, legislation to support national abortion ban. senator casey has voted subtly, no senator has flip-flopped more

than senator casey. senator casey has signed legislation that would allow abortion up until the due date and has government funding supporting him. and the thing that i said in that debate, i did say it and they also said before and after that i was in favor of the three exceptions. you can find that on my website, my video recordings of my positions in my position hasn't changed and senator casey's position has changed and senator casey of lying about this because he wants to polarize the issue. >> we have a follow-up are you on this. you said you do not support national abortion ban, but are you concerned that women in other states don't have the same rights as women in pennsylvania? you have 30 seconds. >> it's important voters decide. different preferences, different desires. that is why i say states rights. in addition we should talk more extensively about reflective rights, it is usually expensive. right now only wealthy people

can afford fertility treatment. we need to make fertility treatment much more accessible -- accessible. senator casey is banging the drum. >> thank you. we were first elected to the senate as a pro-life democrat but after roe was overturned, you voted to protect abortion rights. what do you say tonight of voters who supported you based on that pro-life position? you have 60 seconds. >> in a 2022 when the supreme court overturned roe v. wade, i think everyone had to make a decision including senators. i made a decision to support the women's health protection act. i don't support republican efforts to ban abortion across the country. but just remember what mr. mccormick just said. he talked about his position on abortion, but it is different than it was just two years ago when you asked that question. your question was very specific. what exceptions do you support,

and he said life of the mother, not an exception for rape or incest. his words now are a big change. but when the decision is made to overturn roe v. wade, his reaction was that that decision made him very very happy. so that is where he's been on this issue. and when you talk about elle fanning in other states, a woman in florida hemorrhaging before she had to go on a ventilator for life was saved. i don't think we want to see that in pennsylvania. >> should there be any restrictions on abortion? >> i support roe v. wade. roe v. wade with the consensus across the country. it would allow reasonable restrictions, that is what i support. >> mr. mccormick, 30 seconds. >> do you see that, no person has changed. senator casey said he wanted to overturn roe v. wade. he was only for one exception.

now he is saying he also just signed legislation that allows a version up into the ninth month. different than what he just said, and he supports government funding. i'm not going to take any preaching from senator casey on my position on abortion. and it's something that we need to get past and let people in all these states decide what is best for them. >> denis, we heard a couple of times tonight about telling lies. look, probably the biggest lie told in this whole election that probably most pennsylvanians have never heard a bigger lie was the lie would my opponent said he lived in pennsylvania he was living in connecticut. the associated press on august 14, 20 23 did a story that proved that he was living in connecticut after telling people all throughout 2022, all throughout 2023 that he lived in pennsylvania. he lied about that.

>> first, i want you to respond. to the residency question which is played your life. >> listen, i'm a seventh generation pennsylvanian, i was born in washington county. i went away to west point, served in the military for nine years, came back to pittsburgh, created 1000 jobs or helped create 1000 jobs is one of many people in the team. so listen, i've spent the majority of my life in pennsylvania. i did have a firm in connecticut when i said i was living in pennsylvania. senator casey is once again lines of the fact that he got some reporters at the associated press to validate his lies does not mean it is true. some people need to know that senator casey is line, nyse line? because he doesn't have a track record as a u.s. senator. >> i think most people know that now. he also lied about being a farmer.

he said that while he was a candidate. he was a farmer, he was a hedge fund ceo. by the way, he is still benefiting from the hedge fund. he still benefited from that hedge fund. >> mr. casey, last week vice president harris said she would support ending the filibuster to codify roe v. wade. do you agree that lowering threshold from 60 to 51 vote in the senate to legalize abortion nationwide? >> dennis, i've been on record for a good while now supporting lowering the threshold for a whole variety of matters to come before the senate. right now, the filibuster asked as a block to make progress on background checks for commonsense gun legislation, to make sure that we have background checks in place supported by 85% of the american people. that is blocked because of the filibuster. women's rights are blocked, voting rights are blocked, workers rights, protecting workers rights to join the union. all of those blocked by the filibuster.

so i would support it and my opponent will continue to support a blocking of this using this arcane rule to block get really as an excuse to not vote on major issues of the day. i think when people elected to public office and elect a president and the senate, we should vote on big issues and fulfilled the wishes, the aspirations of those >> who voted for us. you said you do not support ending the filibuster. why shouldn't a simple majority in the senate be enough to move inflation forward? >> i would support not limiting the filibuster regardless of the party in the majority. imagine a world were kamala harris and bob casey are in the majority. you heard her speak. she wants to ban fracking, she wants to have mandatory gun buyback. she wants to give citizenship to illegal immigrant. bob casey is a 99% vote for biden harris, in 99% vote for harris-walz. it is what you're dealing with, a career politician who is too

weak and too liberal to stand up against his own party. that is why i would vote against it. shouldn't have extremes on either side. the senate was meant to be the place where he would bring wisdom and reserve, enter senator casey's and the majority can kamala harris as president, they will be a set of policies that are completely out of step with pennsylvania, completely out of step with the country, and it will be irreversible. >> rebuttal on filibuster, 30 seconds. >> this is a bullet should be changed. most americans believe that, that progress should not evolve blocked on basic issues. but he's not going to support it because he doesn't want us to make progress on those issues. he doesn't support the voting rights act, the john lewis legislation. he doesn't support the women's health protection act. he doesn't support legislation that would protect unions and he also doesn't want us to talk about his own record as a hedge fund ceo where he made a lot of money investing in china and her pennsylvania doing it.

>> listen, we talked about my business career, but bob casey is not only antibusiness, is anti-success. the funny thing about it is we were very successful investing about 3% of investment in china and around the world. it is working toward teachers, firemen and policemen. but when he with the treasurer, who sat on the board of the teachers pension plan right here in pennsylvania and he approved bridgewater, said it was a great firm. he approved all these investing strategies. so now he's running against me, trying to come after me? he is antibusiness, anti-success, and he is a liar. >>: the blanks about what your hedge fund it in china. companies have made bombers and missiles and aircraft carrier that helped china. invested in china's largest producer of fentanyl, invested in chinese oil and steel companies. >> i appreciate it.

we got to move to another topic. can i get 15 seconds? >> bob casey approved and $31 million investment in china he was the treasurer. he's taken lobbyist money from chinese drug companies. this is the kind of career politician lying. i don't want this to be a tennis match but i've got to give you time to respond to that. >> we're supposed to believe this person who like to people about where he lives? how do someone telling why the people of the state he seeks to represent? >> gentlemen, next topic. fracking, natural gas industry are critical for pennsylvania's economy. mr. mccormick, how do you plan to balance supporting the industries while also protecting the environment? >> what the democrats have done and bob casey has voted for has been the most idiotic energy policy have ever seen. first of all, we constrain our national resources to fracking around the world in pennsylvania. you don't have to ban fracking

to ban fracking. essentially, what has happened is we've lost our ability to be energy dominant we've heard ourselves in terms of creating these great jobs. it's not losing jobs, we had fourth largest national gas reserves in the world and this natural gas is the way to a clean environment. because of fracking we've reduced carbon emissions by about 20%. exporting our natural gas around the world and replacing coal plants in india is the path to reducing carbon. i'm an environmentalist and a conservationist. i also want to be secure. bob casey has made us more dependent on china because these huge subsidies for ev's and solar panels, we have to buy them from china. 70% ability and batteries and solar panels come from china. i can't think of a more stupid set of policies and am anxious to hear about it. >> how do you plan to balance supporting the gas industry and protecting the environment? >> my record is pretty clear. i supported legislation just two

years ago that made the greatest investment in clean energy in american history, allowing us to combat climate change and at the same time, i supported and all of the above energy strategy for pennsylvania. we have natural gas, i've already supported it in the extraction of it. the same guy who lies about where he lives has been lined out my position on fracking. i voted against a fracking ban. he won't say that because he doesn't want to talk about his own record as a hedge fund ceo. investing in china's oil companies, managing money for saudi arabia's oil companies, investing in the rise of china. so may pennsylvania jobs were lost because china was cheating, and he was helping them while they were cheating. investing in china hurting pennsylvania over and over and over again. the only common denominator here is when he made investment that her pennsylvania, the only commonality is a lot of money went in his pocket. >> senator casey keeps coming

back to my record because he can't defend his own. he's been in the senate for 18 years. ask yourself why he is not up on china? that is what happened. my mom is from punxsutawney. punxsutawney bob tries to act like he is doing things. he said that president biden, you know what he did to stop that? he sent a stern letter. that is what we have. a guy who keeps his head down, pops it up for political benefit and get nothing done. >> mr. casey, your rebuttal. >> i think the record of his investments are pretty damming. and when you look at the investments in those chinese entities, whether it is chinese weapons manufacturing ties to iran, why would you invest in a chinese weapons manufacturer but ties to iran and then the weapons found their way to hamas?

the idf found them after hamas attack the israelis in the prosecution of that war. why would someone do that? it's because he wanted to make a lot of money to put in his own pocket. >> constellation energy and microsoft announced a plan to restart your reactor on three mile island, the side of the worst nuclear disaster in u.s. history. mr. casey, do you support the reopening and the use of federal dollars for nuclear projects? >> when i said i am for all of the above, i include nuclear. we got a strong nuclear base in pennsylvania. i'm glad to see activity there at that site. we have to know more about what they are asking for. if they asked for a loan guarantee, we are not the department of energy. but when we have as opportunities, we should take them to have investment made in her energy infrastructure and energy resources. but again, i will go back to the same point. mr. mccormick doesn't want to talk about his investments

because he knows that people get a little uncomfortable when you've invested in an adversary and made money off of it. over and over again, he's invested in adversaries and made a lot of money off, and i don't that is the kind of senator lee want because it seems like the same guy who spent time as a ceo prioritizing china now would go to the u.s. senate and prioritize those billionaires. because billionaires are paying for more than half of his ads. a smaller group of out-of-state billionaires supporting a candidate with living out-of-state. >> do you support realty three mile island, and would do approved federal dollars for such a project? yes, in favor of all forms of energy but i'm not in favor of hundreds of millions of dollars of subsidies for clean energy projects that are driving inflation across their economy and across our country and making us more dependent on china. senator casey has a record of being a photo of the energy

industry. he has been for a program that has set up prices. regional gas initiative that would have raised prices. this is a senator who now says he wouldn't ban fracking, so they now have synchronized flip-flopping. this is not a guy who has been a strong front of the energy sector and the natural gas sector. he said you can't drill your way to success. he said he is introduced six pieces of legislation, because it fracking legislation but it is anti-fracking legislation. he's contributed to the red tape that essentially bans fracking without banning fracking. so the senator wants to have it both ways because he is a corrupt politician. i am for fracking but i'm going to stand in the way of actual fracking. >> do you have any concerns about a private company, in this case microsoft rating in nuclear power plant to serve its own needs? >> i do have concerns about that. that is why they got to make the case to me and to any federal agency, but i'm happy that there is activity at that site, so

that we have some activity for the energy sector. let me just a back to my opponent just said. the same guy who claims to know more about border security, border patrol is now claiming he knows more about my record than the energy workers who support me. i got the support of the building trades in pittsburgh and philly, the united mine workers. all those folks, the boilermakers. every union in energy, they support me, not him. rebuttal for 30 seconds, doesn't concern you about a company creating its own nuclear power? >> we need to have appropriate regulation but we need to bring in private capital to get the sector back on track. senator casey brought of the border again. i say we have gone to the border. i don't think you have to be a genius to know that 25,000 big -- convicted murderers coming across the border is a problem. that is the weak liberal career politician bob casey who has been behind that.

this is about accountability. even in the center for 18 years. bob casey would have you think he is nowhere to be found. >> u.n. president biden both grew up in scranton, you are one of his closest allies in the senate and right up until the day he dropped out, your supporting his candidacy. kamala harris has replaced him. from your perspective, with the better candidate for pennsylvania, biden or harris? >> vice president harris is running a strong campaign, it's going to be very close, just like the senate race will be close. but she's running a strong campaign, but the people of their state have to make those co-basic decisions in this and other statewide races. they have to decide in the presidential race and in our race, and this race is very clear. as clear a contrast as you can get. on the right-hand on fights that a lot of working families want us to engage in. a fight on health care, whether

or not we are going to have met her and medicaid cuts or whether we are going to have investment in our families. whether or not we are going to have investment in our family for the child tax credit in the middle-class tax cut, or we're just going to give this away again. as he wants to do it is planned to give billionaires the same because they got before, and to jack up or reduce the taxes on big corporations. >> in your view would biden or harris have been better for pennsylvania? >> we will never know the answer to that. the voters are going to make a decision. >> mr. mccormick, you've criticized mr. casey for siding with president biden. can you give us one example when you don't agree with donald trump on a specific position? >> sure. he recently said he wanted to get rid of the ban on salt taxes which senator casey supported. that is a tax break for millionaires in new york and california at the expense of pennsylvania taxpayers. i wouldn't support that. senator casey stood next to joe

biden when he could hardly finish a sentence. this office on the debate stage. he's ready to go. then senator casey says, harris is great, you're going to love her. in the last few years she said she wanted to ban fracking, legalize illegal immigration, take away our guns and defund the police. so she has flip-flopped on everything in bob casey is standing there by her, and he will be a sure book. he is a career politician. he has shown weakness from each strength. he is a 99% vote for this party. he has shown no independence, it adopted a set of extreme liberal policies that are truly taking our country in the right direction so he and i is a big contrast between the two of us, a political outsider and a businessman. >> mr. casey, you have a 30 seconds rebuttal. >> he wants to talk about his business record, he's been investing as a hedge fund ceo living in connecticut when he said he was in pennsylvania but as a hedge fund ceo making

investments in china, which is an adversary. making investments and managing money for the salaries. managing money for president xi jinping of china. all while helping china rise when our workers were getting screwed. when china entered the wto in 2000 one, that is where it began. our worker started to lose jobs because china cheated in pennsylvania losing jobs. >> i would remind you, a lot of pinocchio here. the bottom line is ready percent. everything you have in your home is made in china. bridgewater investor 3% in china. senator casey, as the treasury oversaw bridgewater before i got there, approved all of these investments, so he is a hypocrite and a liar. this is an important question about what the future holds. he is antibusiness, anti-success. i've had accessible as his

career, served our country in iraq. i'm an outsider, he is a career politician. >> former president trump imposed tariffs, said he would like to increase them especially on chinese products. most economists say this will lead to higher prices. do you support this? mr. mccormick: i understand senator casey is running an ad where he worked with president trump on the terrace. there are certain industries we have to bring home, cannot have them in the hands of china or anything else. pharmaceuticals, semiconductors. for the rest of everything that betrayed for, it has to be a fair deal. he did that with steel. the biden-harris-kc team cap does tariffs in place. i am supportive of using tariffs strategically to make sure american workers get a fair deal and i think that is what he will do when he is president and i will support him when he does it. >> you urged and applauded the biden administration for increasing tariffs on china. are you saying the former president was right on that?

sen. casey: he was, and i said so at the time i supported the tariffs on steel and aluminum. when you use tariffs in a targeted and strategic fashion, you can help our workers and level the playing field, at least try to, help our companies. i will continue to support it. again, my opponent, he's trying. to have it both ways. he talks about tariffs but he will not talk about a plan he outlined tonight to double down on those tax cuts for big corporations and wealthy americans. that automatically puts not only these, but especially these, social security, medicare and medicaid on the chopping block, all to give another tax break to the biggest billionaires on the planet and the largest corporations. they are the ones that are funding his campaign. that is his payoff to them. he is bought and paid for by these big corporations and billionaires. they are paying for his ads.

>> time is up. 30-second rebuttal. sen. casey: it is so funny how bob casey is outspending me by $75 million. whoever his friends supporting him, bob casey has more money than me. so i am the underdog. it is because they know he is a sure vote. chuck schumer knows that we cannot lose bob casey, a sure thing 99% of the time. bob casey is anti-success, antibusiness. if you get him in the senate for six more years you will see more , of the same. >> mr. casey, you have a 30-second rebuttal. sen. casey: he will continue to brag about his record as a hedge fund ceo so let's talk more , about that. i talked about those investments in china. he also silenced women from making allegations about sexual harassment.

he silenced women at the same time that he was doing that, i was passing legislation with pat toomey to get tougher on predators targeting minors and also passing legislation to make it more difficult for anyone to commit the crime of sexual assault on campus. >> time is up. all i want to give you 15 seconds to address that. mr. mccormick: i have a track record of over 25 years in business of mentoring and creating great environments for all workers, including women, minorities. my track record is beyond repute. when we are talking about sexual predators, they are coming across the border as we speak. >> last year, pittsburgh-based u.s. steel announced a $41 billion sale to japan's nippon steel. mr. casey, you called on the biden administration to block that trade. the company has pledged 1.4 billion dollars into the pennsylvania plant. why do you believe the government should block a private business transaction?

sen. casey: the key for me are those steelworker jobs in the valley and in pittsburgh. not steelworker jobs but u.s. steel jobs. i want to make sure at all costs that those steelworker jobs stay here. they are union jobs. i don't like what i have been hearing from u.s. steel, talking about moving those jobs to arkansas, a non-union state, but that is my prime concern. my concern about nippon, it would be a foreign-owned steel company buying the iconic u.s. steel business and putting at risk those union jobs. we cannot lose those jobs. they would be devastating for the valley and i think it would be devastating for pennsylvania. >> mr. mccormick, perhaps you agree on this, because you have also said you would fight to block the sale. why should the government be intervening in a private transaction? mr. mccormick: generally speaking, my view will be let's not have the government get too involved, but in cases of national security, where the domestic steel industry is

important for america's future, you have to intervene. in this case, even though japan is an ally, nippon has operations around the world, china, iran, russia and elsewhere, and this does pose national security issues you would have to work through. i'm a pose for that reason. this is a beautiful question because u.s. steel was actually going to invest billions of dollars in the mann valley, but instead it took a new plane to nt to arkansas because the allegheny county government blocked a new project on environmental grounds. if i was the senator from pennsylvania, i would be standing on that desk trying to get those jobs here. this is the kind of failure of leadership that is taking pennsylvania in the wrong direction. this is the kind of we have a senior senator who keeps his head down and does not fight for pennsylvania. sen. casey: he was in connecticut when that was going on.

let's be clear about that. running the baggage -- biggest hedge fund in the world. he doesn't understand what he talks about what should have been done in pennsylvania. you hear what he just said, he favored the outsourcing. he is an expert on outsourcing, by the way. outsourcing those jobs to arkansas. union steelworker jobs would not be in pittsburgh. that is the difference between us. i will fight for those jobs. mr. mccormick: what you said is the opposite of what i said. i said it was because of regulations that those jobs left. you should have been a leader in breaking through those regulations and those bureaucrats and red tape to allow that investment to come to pennsylvania. we lost those jobs because of you. your failure and lack of leadership, a pattern. show me a place where you stood up. you are a weak senator, a liberal senator, a career

politician who wants to have it both ways. pennsylvania deserves better. 15 seconds. sen. casey: why don't you show some strength and support the border bill? the border patrol support it. number two, he's talking a good game about u.s. steel. this is the guy that bet against u.s. steel, bet on chinese steel companies, non-american. >> you both have 92nd closing statements. u.s. surgeon general says the mental health crisis among young people is an emergency and social media has emerged as an important contributor. mr. mccormick, you called for a social media ban for kids under 16. how would you enforce that and what penalties would you enforce on social media companies that don't comply? mr. mccormick: this is one of many possible contributors to a mental health crisis and i know social media companies are beginning to think about how to have approvals and buttons that

allow parents to be more involved in turning off social media and there's evidence to suggest this poses a problem to mental health but there's a bigger mental health crisis than social media. it's happening in our schools and across our country and with veterans. since senator casey has been in office, there's been 20 years of 22 veterans a day killing themselves. this is unthinkable and indefensible. if i get to the senate, i will focus on veterans benefits. there is a huge crisis with veterans mental health. making sure the veterans have the care they need so that 22 a day are not killing himself. this is part of the reason we have a public problem with veterans. it says a lot about the country. the way they treat people who have served. >> your colleague, senator blumenthal, supports similar legislation on youth and social media. do you support any restrictions

on children using that? sen. casey: i do, and i just voted for the bill. thank goodness a bipartisan bill in the senate to protect kids and their privacy. i want to mention something that mr. mccormick said about veterans. i commend his service to the country. at the same time, i also have a strong record of supporting v.a. health care every time he comes up for a vote, and also one of the senators working to pass the pact act. helping those veterans that served in their those toxic burn pits. it's a great achievement. on social media, though, here is the difference. i voted for that bill but here is the difference. this is a candidate who invested his own personal money in a website that platforms hate, holocaust denial and anti-semitism. that's not good for anyone of any age to look at and there's no question that young people see that. it was a bad investment. i don't know why he continues to make money off of that kind of a

platform. >> time is very tight. you will each now have a chance for a closing statement. mr. mccormick, we will begin with you. mr. mccormick: this is the most important election of our lifetime. our country is in trouble, our commonwealth is in trouble. we have wide-open borders and a weak economy. america is going in the wrong direction. skyrocketing prices are putting enormous pressure on families. i'm a seventh generation pennsylvanian political , outsider, businessman, west point graduate and combat veteran from iraq. i am running because i want to make sure the america i love is available for all my children. bob casey is the problem. bob casey is a weak leader. bob casey is a career politician. bob casey went to the senate to change washington and washington changed bob casey. bob has voted for borders being open and for not funding the border patrol.

he has voted for federal benefits for illegal immigrants all these wild spending bills , under biden and harris, which have led to an increase in prices for working families. he has been soft on crime and on china. he has voted for tax hikes for middle-class workers in pennsylvania, voted for tax cuts for millionaires in california and new york. bob casey actually voted for biological males to be able to compete in women's sports. let's face it, bob you are a , liberal and this is not the bob casey you elected for office 30 years ago. we need commonsense leadership that will secure the border and get the economy back on track and keep america safe. our commonwealth deserves change. i would be honored to get your vote. >> mr. casey, you have 90 seconds. sen. casey: thank you for this opportunity. every day i have been a senator, i have gone to work for the people of our state, fighting for working families, seniors, workers, people with

disabilities, veterans, and i have a strong record on all those issues. i have also fought to lower cost, invest in strategies that will secure the border and invest in the middle class. that has been my record. while i was doing that and working on behalf of the people of our state, this guy was running the largest hedge fund in the world, investing in china. he increased investments in china by 108,000%. he invested in china's military. he invested in a company in china that made 90% of the fentanyl in china. he invested in chinese oil companies. he managed money for president xi and saudi oil companies. all of those investments hurt pennsylvania and continue to hurt pennsylvania. the voters in the state have a very clear choice. they can vote for a candidate who will vote against union rights, women's rights and workers rights and voting rights or they can vote for me, who is

going to protect those rights and win like i have. i am grateful for the opportunity. i respectfully ask for the vote of the people of pennsylvania on november 5. >> we are grateful both of you joined us. that concludes our debate. thank you both very much for being here. we want to remind viewers election day is november 5. , polls in pennsylvania are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.. this has been debate night in pennsylvania. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2024] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> with one of the tightest races for control of congress in modern political history, stay ahead with c-span's comprehensive coverage of key state debates. this fall, c-span brings you access to the nation's top house, senate, and governor debates from around the country. debates from races that are shaping your state's future and the balance of power in washington. follow our campaign 2024 coverage on local to national debates any time or online at

c-span.org/campaign and watch tuesday november for four live real-time election night results. c-span, your unfiltered view of politics, powered by cable. >> later today, republican congressman kelly armstrong faces off against independent michael coachman and democrat merrill pet more in a debate among candidates to be north dakota's next governor. watch live starting at 8:00 eastern starting on c-span, c-span now, our free mobile video app, or online at c-span.org. >> do you solemnly swear that in the testimony you are about to give will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth so help you god? >> watch our encore presentation of american history tv's 10-part series congress investigates, as we explore major investigations

by the u.s. house and senate in our country's history, authors and historians will tell the stories. we will see historic footage and examine the impact of the legacy of key congressional hearings. tonight, lawmakers from 1973 and 1970 four examine events around the 1972 break in at democratic national committee headquarters at the watergate hotel in washington, d.c. the investigation led to the resignation of president richard nixon. watch congress investigates tonight at 10:00 eastern on c-span2. here is a recent headline from the pew research center. in a tight u.s. presidential race, latino voters references mirror 2020. one of the authors of that report, mark hugo lopez, with us this morning. he is the race and ethnicity research director at pew research. before we dive into the various parts of that report, latino, let's start there. define what it means to be latino in america today and is

that word interchangeable with hispanic? guest: by the federal government, it is. there is a definition that defines who is part of this group. if anybody can trace their roots to spain or spanish-speaking latin american countries. hispanic and latino are used interchangeably and that is a standard omb used for government documents. however, it is going to about 65 million people, almost one in five americans by the way. many people.have different viewpoints on this some people prefer hispanic. some people prefer latino. some people prefer other terms like latinx, which are terms used to describe the community. people have different choices. at pew research, we use them interchangeably. host: one in five americans are latino or hispanic. what is the turnout rate for the latino population in america compared to other ethnic populations? guest: yes, estimates from the

census bureau the turnout rate for latinos at 50% to 55% depending on the election. by comparison, for black americans, you will see a turnout rate of 65% to 67%. similarly for white americans. asian americans are about the same turnout rate as latinos. interestingly, among latinos, the turnout rate is higher among those that are immigrants compared to those born in the united states, yet it is those born in the united states that make up the bulk of the voter pool of latinos every election cycle. host: why is that? why are immigrants more likely to vote? guest: they have taken the step to become a u.s. citizen. there is a lot of hard work. also, if you other things as well, but voting is part of the motivation for some people to become naturalized citizens. host: the headline of the report, latino voters preferences mirror that of 2020. where do the voters fallout in

terms of who they are likely to be picking at the ballot box? guest: vice president harris is leading among latino voters this year. this is a poll admittedly from september but 57% at the time said they would vote for kamala harris if the election was held today versus 39% saying the same for donald trump. what we have seen here is these numbers particularly for trump are not much different from what we saw in 2020 when he won about 36% of the latino vote. the reason i am saying it is similar is because we cannot distinction between whether he has made some gains or not statistically. more recent polls from the new york times or others do show a very similar race with donald trump doing at least as well as he did in 2020. host: when you say the preferences mirror 2020, are we talking but the top issues in the minds of latino voters? guest: the democrats have leads. biden won a majority of this apartment from has not lost

ground among them since 2020 .what are host: what are the top issues on the mind of voters? guest: prices of food. something they will consider in determining their vote. but it is interesting because when you look at the brink of issues by trump supporters or harris supporters among latino voters, among trump supporters, the economy is the top issue, 93% say that will be the top tissue, followed by violent crime and immigration. that is interesting because the top three issues for latino harris supporters, 80% say the economy but that is followed by health and gun policy. immigration is much further down the list so we are seeing a different set of issues based on who they are voting for. by the way, that is the same for the american voting public. host: immigration one of their

top issues. going through this report this morning in this last 30 minutes of "washington journal" today. mark hugo lopez our guest with us. a special line for latino voters. that number, (202) 748-8003. especially want to hear from you in this segment. otherwise, phone lines as usual split by political party. republicans, (202) 748-8001. democrats, (202) 748-8000. independents, (202) 748-8002. what are the other topline findings from this report? guest: when you take a look at how strong the support is among latino voters for trump, 70% of latino voters tell us their vote for trump is a vote for trump, not a vote against terrorist. when you look at latino harris supporters, they see the boat is against trump and not simply a vote for harris. this again mirrors 2020. if you look at where it was in

2020, half of the voters said they were voting for biden. host: do you find that is different for latino voters than other ethnic groups on this question? guest: it looks very similar. it is interesting we talk about latino voters as a group, but in some ways they are not distinct from the u.s. general public. host: the question that we begin our program with today, focusing on the tina voters here, but it was donald trump's gains among black men specifically. you follow all of these topics at the pew research center. what do you make of that, that donald trump is doing better with black men -- that kamala harris is doing worse with black men than joe did against donald trump in i think we need to see what happens on the election day. but certainly the polls are showing that kamala harris is not doing as well as say joe biden when it comes to black men. there's a number of possible issues print everything from black men but other men as well

feeling as if the democrats, critically harris and biden haven't necessarily paid attention to the issues that are important to them. such a stomach sent it may feel up being ignored. it may also be about the economy. men have had some challenges in the economy particularly if you don't have a college degree. those groups are overrepresented among black and hispanic americans. that may also be part of the story driving some of the gender differences. guest: do you think it's because of where the battlegrounds are whether it's focus on black voters in a state like michigan, latino voters in arizona. guest: those accentuate what we just talked about as it may be a challenge around the working class and those particularly you don't have a college degree. >> latino voters is the focus of the segment of the washington journal. we have that line for latino voters. 202-748-8002 --202-748-8003. alex's on that line out of brooklyn.

good morning you are on. >> good morning. things were taking my call. it's interesting that you have the segment of black voters and now hispanic voters. i read the new york times article yesterday about black voting it was interesting how any black men disagree with the polls and are supporting harris. but at the same time i think it's very wrong in thinking hispanics that are voting for harris are not concerned with immigration. if you're hispanic and don't see a lot of the problems with immigration it might not be an issue. a woman with four or five kids in a shelter not too far and hispanics are concerned about immigration. and i think, when i look at

where we are just listening to republicans speak yesterday about the denial of so many things and hispanics still voting for donald trump, it just gives me pause and concern. here's a man talking about immigrants eating pets, his vice president pick saying he is lying about hurricane relief, you have people talking about controlling the weather. i think no matter what happens we've pretty much lost because you have people who cannot see reality. host: let me pause there. guest: great points about immigration. let me be clear about immigration and harris supporters. 51% of hair supporters in our survey said immigration was important to determining their vote in the election cycle. it is important to both sides of the aisle. latino voters have told us they

are concerned about many aspects of immigration policy in recent years. in the january survey we found 60% of latino boulder -- voters said it would be better if we had more judges to adjudicate asylum cases. one third said it would be better if those who are in the country illegally were deported. a number of different points of view and that's what's important to realize this year is theirs a diversity of views. >> good morning. >> good morning. my question is geared towards two things. one is the economy. my family came here in the 60's and one of the reasons they came in was for work and making a living. today as a child, we are very industrious people but the problem is as you said earlier the prices of everything is going up.

so how much do you think that will determine whether we vote democrat or republican? my second question is more what percentage of the latino vote makes up the electorate? we know it's been growing over time so what percentage does it make up of the electorate. >> those are really great questions. there are 36.2 million latinos who are at least 18 years of age. that means they are eligible to vote. that makes up about 14.7% of potential voters pretty of course as i mentioned earlier in the show latinos have lower rates than groups. if you look in 2020 among voters only 10% were latino all among those who did not vote, a 20% were latino. we were overrepresented among nonvoters but underrepresented among voters. that is the top issue latinos have been pointing to for some time. interestingly latinos are also

split on whether or not trump or harris would be better at taking care of the economy. so when you talk about the economy for latinos, prices, inflation and housing costs have all been top of mind for latino voters in this election cycle. >> we can put the numbers on the screen about the eligible voter population and the expected makeup of eligible voters. the last point here lightly more than half of latinos are eligible to vote. how does that compare with other groups? >> you have more than 70% of black and more than 70% of white populations eligible to vote. typically because they are older with fewer immigrants among those paid and if they're born in the united states they have u.s. citizenship. for latinos and asians you'll find significant shares. are ineligible to vote. because they don't have citizenship. >> this is reina in texas. reina, good morning.

are you with us? go ahead. guest: thank you -- caller: thank you. i am from cuba and i came here legally. and my concern right now is the immigration and of course the economy. and all the other issues that are happening now with the democrats. i am voting for trump because i am tired of being just segregated because i am spanish or cuban. and i have never received any handouts, i follow all the legal rules, vaccinations, everything, you name it. and yes i am very pro-trump with the ones that come in illegally and getting all the benefits. i'm concerned with the schools. everything that's happening with the schools. so if i vote for kamala, what it means to me going back to what cuba was or is.

so that's the comment. >> thank you for the comment and it's important to note we are in a moment with a number of immigrants living in the country illegally has been rising in recent years. if you follow what's been happening at the border you know there's been record numbers of encounters at the border with people coming to seek asylum. still the number of immigrants in the country illegally remains below the peak that we saw in 2007 and many of those are in the country have protections to be in the country for example many have temporary protected status which is a status offered to those who came to the country perhaps illegally but because of a disaster in their home country. you also have others who are here and protected because of asylum or many other reasons. you look at the population of those in the country illegally it has grown. you also see many americans expressing your point of view which is immigrants are, to the

country illegally appeared to be receiving more support than perhaps even those who are living in the same communities where those immigrants are. >> c-span viewers familiar with the candidates talking about immigration on the campaign trail. two recent events per donald trump in pennsylvania speaking about immigration and the economy and then we will follow that with kamala harris at a forum for latino voters sponsored by univision talking about immigration as well. [video clip] >> so i gave you as you know the largest tax-cut in the history of our country and the largest regulation of companies that hire so many people. we had the biggest employment numbers in the history of our country. everybody was working whether they went to the best schools and colleges and got doctorates and or whether they couldn't graduate from high school. men, women, the black community, the hispanic community.

the asian community. every single group, not one was left behind. and the best ones in terms of proportionately were low income people, they did the best. >> can watch the rest of this program online at c-span.org. we are going to take you live to a panel discussion on women's leadership in the military featuring remarks by the u.s. army surgeon general. >> since the revolutionary work, -- revolutionary war, women have all entered in faith he served

in -- have volunteered and faithfully served in the u.s. army. while some of their stories of courage, sacrifice and commitment are documented in the history of our nation, there are many more stories yet to be told. the united states army women's foundation and quartered at 40 reg adams, virginia is committed to ensuring the history, incredible talent, resilience and creativity of all army women to remembered, honored and celebrated. today, the foundation connects and supports women veterans of all back rounds to share their unique experience is and empowers their futures through

scholarship, whole of name recognition, -- hall of fame recognition, mentorship and educational programs. through the past 55 ears, the army's foundation has stood with army past, present and future to guarantee service women are honored, empowered and connected. let's stand together to ensure we can continue to preserve and tell their stories for the next 55 years and beyond. [applause] >> please welcome the executive director of the army men's foundation. -- army women's foundation. >> i'm the former assistant to qatari of veterans affairs and a

proud army vet -- former secretary of veterans affairs and a proud army veteran. thank you, army women and guests. we would like to welcome our special guests starting with the highest ranking woman veteran ever in the executive ranch. the deputy secretary of veterans affairs. would you mind standing up? [applause] go army. the principal executive secretary for the assistant -- excuse me. assistance of the army of man power and affairs. ma'am. [applause] our many other distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen. welcome to the 2024 emmons army foundation leadership some of the -- leadership symposium.

we appreciate that you have a time to be here with us at the very best event this afternoon. i may have ad-libbed. in addition to sponsoring symposia such as this one, the army women's foundation tells the story of women who have served in the active army, the reserves and the national guard. we provide scholarships to army women and their descendants and we induct women soldiers into the army men's foundation holodeck army women's hall of fame. we support and partner with the u.s. army women's museum at fort reg adams. we are partnered with the female entry and morale program which you will see. we closely partner. you will see a lot of information in the back about them. as part of highlighting the service of women in the us army, we are proud to have highlighted a world were to battalion comprised entirely of black women.

[applause] black women served with distinction in were to. in 2016 they were inducted into the hall of fame. annually we give a scholarship arguing the six triple late. i went to say that to point out the new movie starring kerry washington will premiere in select the others on december 6 and be on netflix later that month. enjoy that. if you don't already follow us on social media, we have brochures he said somewhere -- she said somewhere. pick one up or scan the qr code and please follow us. we have a lot of exciting things coming up. sign up for a monthly newsletter today. today we are partnering with optimum search to present a panel for enhancing health for army women for knowledge and care. our moderators today will be

lieutenant general patricia patty araujo, us army retired. the chief strategy and information transformation officer for optimum health and the strategic oversight for optimum serve. she was the first woman surgeon general of the united states army and commanding general of the united states medical command. [applause] our second moderator is my west point classmate and dear friend brigadier general retired and mcdonald. us army retired. i said retired twice. the president of the army women's foundation. she graduated from west point in 1980 in the first class to include women. [applause] and served 31 years in the army as an aviator. she serves as a senior mentor for the army war college. take it away.

>> thank you very much and what a great day. if, what a great view. -- from this perspective, what a great view. we have a relevant topic. our panel will share professional insights and experiences focusing on army women, their health and opportunities that lie ahead. we are grateful for our partnership and to be here with this incredibly talented group of leaders. women have served in the revolutionary war or -- i just heard this on the video. women have served in the army since the revolutionary or and we say that often but what a profound statement. today, with all military patient specialties open to women,

increased opportunities for leadership and advancement, opportunities to challenge themselves physically and mentally, access to educational benefits and health care, the army has become more attractive for women to serve. women now account for 19% of the total army force and we have nearly 2 million living women veterans. with that, let's get started and introduce our panelists. please lead us off. >> it is my distinct honor to introduce lt. gen. izaguirre, the u.s. army commanding general of the us army medical command. the 46 surgeon general of the us army overseas the health and readiness of our soldiers and families ensuring world-class

care across the globe. she has earned a duck of -- a doctorate of osteopathic medicine, multiple advanced agrees and has served as the commanding general of the medical command east and the commander of triple army tickle center with the military service decorated with numerous honors. please join me in welcoming lieutenant general mary kay izaguirre. [applause] and a mother of five. >> it is my privilege to introduce. brigadier general taycan, the director of the defense health network for the national capital region under the defense health agency. she oversees more than 12,000 staff members serving active-duty service members, their families and try care beneficiaries. she holds a phd in biomechanics and a doctorate of physical therapy. she is the dod lead for

therapeutics during operation warp speed should choice me -- during me in welcoming the brigadier general. [applause] >> i have the honor to introduce laura stick well. it is my privilege to introduce her. she is the director for the center of veterans at the u.s. department of veterans affairs. as the primary advisor to the secretary of veterans affairs, she responds -- she is responsible for programs that impact the lives of women veterans. she served in the u.s. air force as a critical care air transport team member and has worked with team rubicon. her dedication to service both on and off the battlefield into news to improve the lives of veterans nationwide should join me in welcoming her.

[applause] >> it is my honor to introduce colonel brown. she began her distinct army career as a private first class in 1991 rising the ranks to become the first ever can american female to command the transportation battalion an ordinance brigade at fort greg adams. it. two times symbian of the rocks incorporated bobby berk of order, she hold two masters degrees and has led soldiers in critical assignments including deployments to iraq. colonel brown leadership to mentorship continues to expire the next in a ration of army leaders -- next generation of army leaders. the founder of the female mentoring and morale program colonel brown. [applause]

>> it is my distinct pleasure to introduce sergeant first class elizabeth marks, a decorated paralympic swimmer and comeback medic who -- all those medics out there, army medicine should be loud and proud. sergeant first class marks joined the army at 17 years old following her family's legacy of service to after sustaining serious injuries to her deployment -- during her diploma to iraq, she discovered a passion for swimming quickly rising to become a world-class athlete. sergeant marx has competed and earned 10 metals, two gold in three paralympic names making her the most decorated athlete in army world-class program history. [applause]

abductive, -- please join me in welcoming sergeant first class ellie marks. [applause] >> let me give you a quick overview of the agenda and what you can expect. we are going to have one hour of moderated discussion followed by 30 minutes of audience question and answer. we will return to the panel for final pots from our panelists and wrap it up. we will be using the term army women throughout today's conversation. when we say army men, this is meant to encapsulate all women in the army who are currently serving in the form and women who have served and make up our veteran population. i will begin with the first question. is first will be for all of you

-- this first question will be for all of you. what are the most critical issues facing army women today? we will start with you. lt. gen. izaguirre: first of all it is a fantastic opportunity to be in room with so many friends and family. i look out and see many of you who are making such a different in our army today and i am just inspired. thank you for the opportunity to have this perch. as far as the critical issues in the army today, i have thought about this a lot and i recently had an experience to spend some time with some amazing women in home base in boston. one of them is in the crowd here. major jack and casey clark. my discussions with them shaped my answer to this question. there are medical issues that

are anatomy specific but there are cultural issues, social issues. that is where our discussion went. where women in the military today as general mcdonald engined have more -- mentioned, women have more opportunity. demands on their talent. there are also a lot of areas where they still want to do all the things we have enjoyed doing before. it is finding these trade-offs in these areas, the spaces that impact women's health, their physical health, their mental health, their emotional health. how do look at -- how do we look at serving at the highest levels, bringing talent of women to bear in the army while also technology the successes, joy and roles they play in their community and giving them permission to have those

discussions? i think when we talk about the health of women in the military and in the army we have to acknowledge those roles and how do we take steps as is and as a -- steps as leaders and as a unity to -- as a community to bring those discussions into the daylight so we can address those issues and address the trade-offs in a way that is healthy for ourselves and our community? >> i will pick up where you left off on that because i would love to expand on the idea of the power the women ring to our us army. when you look at the literature for women leaders, it is interesting especially when we talk about people first leaders. when they analyze the 360 analysis of leadership traits that make leaders successful,

women tend to outperform men on teen of those 17 traits. when you look at -- the last 10 years, the mckinsey organization has done analysis of women in the c suite and what they found is when there are more than we women in the suisse -- the c suite, those companies outperform other companies on the fortune 500. the reason i bring that up is often times of the disconnect between what we want to do in community and what we are doing at work sometimes feels we might not doing enough or able to give our all and i want to make sure women leaders know in the army who are doing enough and you should give yourself a little bit of grace. the data supports when you have men and women together leading organizations, the organization does better. to me, that grace is important as we talk about the overall health and well-being of women leaders in our army.

>> first of all thank you for having me. i don't know if you can hear me here. i don't have the army loud voice you guys always have. so couple things i inc. are critical -- things i think are critical issues. one of the biggest hurdles we have seen within the population is the lack of self identification. for women to not self identify as a veteran leads to a gap and a disconnect and us being able to connect to services they have earned. not just deserve but they have earned it by nature of them actually serving their nation. part of the reason for the lack of self identification is trust. there is a lack of trust for a variety of reasons. part of it is internal. part of it is external. how society treats, recognizes interviews women's contributions. finally one of the other things we have been working on in v.a. is not only to build but to

rebuild the trust. the v.a. we have here is not the same v.a. we had 10 years ago. it is not the same v.a. from five years ago or three years ago. there is so much legislation that has come to pass including the path act, service act that serve to empower and increase women veterans services through the health care system. the other i think is one of the critical issues that still plague many of the services is having the proper gear for women to be able to serve especially protective gear. muscular skeletal issues is the number one claim women veterans come to us for an part of that is because of the lack of proper gear that it's them to not only properly protect them but for them to have a longer retention in the service they could have with proper equipment. >> most critical issues facing army today.

>> such a great question. i will tell you as the female morale program goes out and we receive information from the field on what problems and issues women are dealing with military and civilian in the formation government offices, there are three areas that stand out to us. i cannot do more than enough to support everything they have all stated. some of the issues that have been brought back our equality means acceptance and acceptance means a quality. in our offices, are we truly accepted? are we truly equal to our counterparts or are there still some of those stigmas, some of those military cultures that exist? the army is not where the problem exists. it is individual. we have individuals where we have to change that culture and mentality of thought process. when we say equal, people for strategy, we have to truly exhibit that on a daily basis.

being accepted which means you will truly be equal. the second one is when to have a family. when do people have families? how do you plan a family in the military if you want to be that strong leader that happens to be a woman? how do you plan a family? i will tell you and this is not what i recommend for anyone, i had my first child after my my platoon leader ty. what i recommend that for anyone else? absolutely not. when you believe you would like to have a family with your significant over. how do you want to have it? time it for what makes sense to you. i was letting uncle sam to date when my family started. i have a six year gap between my children. i was married to uncle sam. i hate to say that because i told my husband you might be my side piece. [laughter] uncle sam gets my hundred percent but i had to rethink

that. how do i mentor the next generation? when you get that flag that says thank you for your service, who is going to be receiving it with you? the final thing is how do we measure up to unattainable standards? i say that because the unattainable standards are when they keep raising the bar. we need a bar to keep raising the bar. that goes back to the first one. you have people in your offices in your formation that say we changed the army pt program for women. we made it easier, but did you? really? i would say we are doing what the army told us to do and until you stop saying we are changing things to fit you, you will understand we are going to do what you tell us to do. if the army tells us to make 600 points are the army tells us to make whatever we have to, we are going to attain it. set a standard and stop blaming us for having to change it. those are the three main things

we see in our formations and government offices separate from what they are talking about. they are my heroes. i just want you to know i'm going to take notes too. those are some of the main things we hear in formation. >> thank you. most critical issues facing army women today. >> my answer is incredibly simple and complicated in that it is trust. . i have the distinct pleasure and honor working with ill, sick and wounded service members. a number of that committed and i get to mentor now. i would say the overarching issue we are having is trust and confidence in our forces. >> each raised critical issues. what i would like is can you talk a little about what is occurring to address these four what should happen to address these? i'm going to start with you. >> i think we talked about that

tension between your performance in the profession and performance in the community and your family and you talked about that timing of when to have children because the fact is there is a huge overlap between when you serve in the military and when you may want to have a family. whether that is a short window or a broad indo but there is an overlap there. some of the army's ways to address these have in areas that address that. we will talk a little in the next questions regarding reproductive support and how do we ensure there is access to all different options to help people address what you talked about as far as being open to timing. there are some of the parental eve policies that acknowledge it is more than six weeks is helpful. i will tell you i have the

chance to have several children with a six-week policy. that i had the chance to have a child with a 12 week policy. it makes a big difference. [laughter] it makes a big inference. when i have the six week policy, i was the one who thought i had it all together at five and half weeks. i went to leave the house and i realized when my bare feet hit the concrete floor of the garage i probably needed shoes in a dish and to everything else. there is that piece. there is normalizing and integrating. whether it is rooms with breast-feeding, making pregnancy and postpartum pt to us, not having these other but this is normal. it is part of life. and then the mentorship programs. one of the things women do incredibly well is coming together and discussing and we learn from one another and just because i'm learning from you does not mean i am right, you are wrong.

it means we can have shared experiences. that allows us to build upon that. i think places like the mentorship program we talked about and combined with some of the policy solutions, combined with some of the medical solutions addresses the issues. it does not mean it is easy. it means it is navigable. we can navigate get that together and their options for us to do that. >> so how do we navigate that? and so i have the distinct pleasure of work for the director of the defense health agency. she has given us clear -- [applause] our job is to make it easier for you to access your care and actually make sure you as a health care system meet you where you need us to be met. what does that mean in the national capital region? in the last year we have opened up an additional 12,000 primary

care appointments a month we did not have a year ago for behavioral health, 4600 more appointments a month we have. where we are going next which is very exciting and i will you to think -- i want you to think for a moment. when you have a health care issue no matter what it is, what do you really want when you call that number? i bet it is not an appointment. it is a solution. he actually trained you very well that when you call because you have a health care need that we are going to give you an appointment on the other end. in d.c. that means you get on the beltway and you drive to see us which is no fun. what she has challenged us with is to get out there and leverage technology, figure out how we can meet you where you can be met, improve how we do virtual care so when you need a health care need, that first call we are giving you a resolution. how do we get rid of the steps that are not all you added to you so you are getting the value

you need because when you talk about navigating work life, you talk about all the role women have in addition to being an army soldier and officer. it all takes time. we become more efficient in how we can meet your needs. we allow you to excel in your job in the army. that is what you're going to be doing. we are going to roll this out. we started rolling it out in the national capital region. it is going to continue to improve as we put you at the center of what we are trying to do in military health care. >> thank you so much. there are quite a few things v.a. has been doing with regard to addressing some of these critical issues. one of them i wanted to highlight was in the v.a. health science search development, we have a network called the women's health research network whose primary purpose is to conduct research specifically geared for women veterans to

understand the unique needs and challenges they have raising not only as they transition some of the trends they have been seeing while they are in service but as well as how do we as v.a. become agile and responsive to those changing needs? another thing we have been working on -- special marks talked about trust. we have seen it as one of the biggest hurdles. . we have increased multiple -- outreach and advocacy to regain and rebuild the trust for women veterans at everywhere. so much so that between 2023 and 2024, we had the highest number of women veterans enrollment in the history of v.a. 53,000. [applause] just over two million women veterans were getting connected to the services they aren't.

need everyone of you. we cannot do this alone. v.a. is not the panacea for everything. we are not everywhere but you all are. you are in every town, every community, every village, tribal territory. and so we cannot do this alone. to make sure we are able to reach and spread the word of what those benefits and services are and how to access them. we need all of six id -- all of society to partner with us to do that. the last thing i wanted to address is just that one thing we have been working on internally is making the v.a. a more welcoming environment for women invite ash for women veterans. how many of you have into the women's health clinics in an eva? great. it is not the same clinic we have been in and him did not even have a women's health clinic before. one of the things we have been doing is making sure we have a

space and a place for women veterans to go to make sure they are in an environment that is welcoming to them. the v.a. has over 156 medical centers across the board. five are named after women should four are named after women veterans. you are probably thinking, ok, that is not a lot. if you look at the numbers of the years of it happened, between the first and second, there over 12 years in between. between the second and third, there are 40 years in between. the third, fourth and fifth renaming started in 2021. 21, 22, 23 we had a clinic renamed after a woman veteran. . by the way, that means congressional authorization. i'm just saying the push we have not only internally but from all of society and all of you to recognize the services and contributions of women veterans

is significant. to get those types of actions and activities to happen, it is a testament to what you are doing out there in the community to recognize the contributions of women veterans. >> so how are we addressing these issues? the female around program -- female morale program is a grassroots organization that is we want to hold the army leadership and that start at every echelon. for every thing we are working whether it is veterans, whether it is through the medical field, we have to have our leaders that support our soldiers so they can take care of these issues. trust. we have to trust our leaders. our treaters have to be trustworthy. how do we do that? we have to provide a safe environment where women are able to come to us and say, how can i get some help? how do i address concern without

the stigma behind a complaint? a stigma behind addressing an issue where i have a concern and someone is not listening. in order to address it, we bring this to the leadership to say if you are truly committed to a people for strategy, if you are truly committed to where we are as far as getting it of the army three harmful behaviors, how do you support the person coming to you? we have to build that trust hypermedia leadership involved. we will explain later on about the fmp. the leaders have committed to saying i will not only lead this organization but i will be the conduit to ensure receive support and care you have asked us for, you have committed yourself to receiving from the army because you committed yourself to giving your life to us and from there, how do i

ensure you have the mental support, the psychological support, the physical support that is going to make you be the best fighting soldier but the best mother, best wife, sister, niece, whatever you are out there. that starts with how we are caring for you. we have the leadership that takes on the roles and responsibilities of care for our soldiers. that means truly caring for them. >> thank you. >> i think everyone at every level can help. trust, it starts internally. can you be trusted? can i be trusted? when i was injured, i was angry and i felt very alone and when i went through the your transition battalion, there were a few service members and leaders on that path who helped lift me up and made me believe i was worth something. it was not necessarily the entire process or experience but incurred me to stay and fight and say i could be that for someone.

people deserve you. people deserve your leadership. and if no one cares, i do -- if you think no one cares, i do. hearing them speak about the initiatives and everything we intend to put our weight honey, don't forget you have just as much area of effect as these large initiatives do. you never know what that private is going through. being someone who can be relied on as the first step in rebuilding trust. at helped rebuild my trust with the military. [applause] how[applause] -- [applause] >> now that the military operational -- are open, what changes in total health or any patterns of injuries are becoming more apparent for army women? i would like this question to go

to general taycan with your experience as a physical therapist. >> on any given year, over half the soldiers will get injured and have muscular skeletal injuries. that is twice as much as any collegiate or professional sport. it is also true on the growth data that women have more injuries than men but that is not the true story. you have to dig deeper to understand the nuances in that data. first, women, you do a fantastic job in general seeking care early. what we know from the literature is when you have a muscular skeletal under -- injury, the sooner you get care and sooner you return to duty. so please do not stop doing that. men tend to delay when they get their care. that data is a little bit slower to come up. the other thing that is

interesting in the data if you peel the data back more is if you balance the data for fitness levels, the entry-level starts to look similar. what do i mean by that? historically, women tend to have more aerobic endurance but less strength and power. i think h2 f is a great equalizer in that space because now we have equipment out there for you and it pt -- for unit pt, we can start to close that gap. we have an opportunity ahead of us. we are going to talk about the program in minute for the pregnancy postpartum and we will unpack that a little more. the other thing that is interesting as we roll this out across the army is before, a muscular skeletal injury was treated in the physical domain. would see me as a physical therapist. now what we are seeing especially with some of the

stories coming out from the health and fitness adjective is because they -- fitness initiative, because they have all the coaches that represent all five domains, they are getting all five domains as part of recovery and that is speeding up recovery and getting back to duty. the last thing is the equipment. i believe when you were the surgeon general you got to put on the first flak vest made for a woman instead of women wearing equipment aid for men. and so i think that will help decrease injuries as we get more equipment like that to include the center for military training where they have done a couple year study on sports bras and what type of sports bras do we need to excel in our roles and responsibilities? it is different than athletes because it has to be flame resistant and retardant because of where we are at and what we are doing. there is a unique need and we

are learning from the australian defense force on what that looks like for a military version of a sports bra. all of those things will help end up decreasing injuries as we go forward. as you see in the v.a., hopefully we will change those numbers as we move forward. >> that is a beautiful sight way and i would like to ask what are you seeing in the v.a.? >> there are quite a few things we are seeing. we talked a little bit about the muscular skeletal injuries. that is the biggest and the number one claim claimed by many women veterans. another one is intoxicant exposures. we have seen an increase in numbers of veterans overall seeking toxic exposures to cleaning especially with the opening of all mls two genders. this has the ability to open up the exposures to all genders as well. with that, there have in -- there have been several

reproductive cancers. depending on where they have been deployed, the exposures have led to the increase in claims for not only toxic -- but reproductive cancers. one of the things we have seen is the increase and encouragement in self-help behavior. there is a lot of mental health as we know, there is a lot of mental health needs our particular population has especially because of the various experiences and exposures we have had during our timeline during when we are a servicemember. one of the things v.a. had is the vet centers. the vet center allows any servicemember to be able to yet support -- to get support for a

mental health standpoint without jeopardizing some of their -- because there is a firewall between that support. finally the other thing i would say is because there is an increased recognition there is a need for mental health support, there is a lot more of those peer-to-peer support happening only in the veteran community but also what i'm seeing in the military community. the closer collaboration between the military and the veteran community of how do we help each other not only extend our journey through our service but also how do we then have a better process and have a better journey when we become veteran? >> thank you very much. we are going to pivot a little bit on topics. we are going to move into reproductive health so what i

would like to do is ask what are the barriers that are being broken and what policies have changed for army women around maternal health, pregnancy and postpartum? when i came on active duty in 1982 were actually 1983, just shortly before that they changed the policy that when you got pregnant you could stay on active duty. prior to that you had to leave. it has been a transition for many years. i would love to know what is new. let's start with our surgeon general. >> what a great segue because it really has -- think about that. within that short time, we have gone from you had to get out to you became pregnant to working on seeing pregnant the as part of what we expect during this time of our life. you talked about earlier it is a natural overlap. what has the army done? a few things.

first of all, the parental leave, i mentioned maternal and parental leave in passing earlier but i want to let that sit with us. our secretaries put in place that policy around parental leave acknowledging it is not just the birthing parent job to care for the child. it is not just the birthing parent that is the one that is important in that child's life. that is huge. we should not let the significance of that get lost on us. that allows what we talked about earlier as women look to make those trade-offs with their families. it gives those families choices and it acknowledges those realities. i think that is a huge one. there is also as we are part of the military health system, how do we ensure that we minimize the barriers women face when it comes to --

the walk in contraceptive clinics available across the military health system so that it is a way to ensure across the board our soldiers have access to those forms of contraception so they can plan their family. and then there is -- once someone has a pregnancy, identifying that is not an illness. so again, -- [laughter] i know, right. people can be pregnant and still be soldier athletes? absolutely. so the fact that -- there was a time when we believed women could not run marathons because they were not fit. . now we understand -- our understanding has been increased. we get to integrate that. the fact that the pregnancy and postpartum pt program integrated into h2 f as part of the norms.

one of my previous aides had a baby in company command. part of her post pardon see program before she delivered and she is excited to get back into it. instead of having to not look people in the eye because you are pregnant but you can celebrate it not only with your family about your unit. i think all of those are wonderful milestones. [applause] >> you know, what i look to is first of all acknowledge that yesterday we went from women can't run a marathon because we don't have the health to do so to breaking a world record yesterday. a woman went below a 10 minute marathon yesterday in chicago. a great milestone yesterday. [applause] i want to unpack pregnancy and post artem physical fitness program. it was developed a few years ago

with the idea of how do we safely allow women to exercise while they are pregnant and today it is how do we allow women to thrive? when the general was the third in general, we had good data that showed two thirds of women who felt because the program was in place they could return to their units after delivering and pass their pt gas -- pt test. it gave them hope they could stay as a soldier in the army. isn't that fantastic? a program that delivered exactly what we were hoping it would. [laughter] what is great now that has fallen under holistic health and fitness is it is taking a whole other level. i would like to share the story. i was at fort bliss. it is early morning. they are doing pt programs. there were women on maternity leave still coming in because they wanted to be part of that community. they felt like the coaches out there at h2 f were there to help

them through their journey. they felt the coaches were helping them holistic we deal with pregnancy in the postpartum phase. they were having their spouse or significant other be with the children so they could come in and continue on the road to recovery so when it is time for them to return, they would be ready for -- ready to return. . the also one of the community created by that program. they wanted to ask questions with other women in their postpartum period because we are not having families in our hometown. . we are having families multiple hours away from our hometown where we don't have distant relatives able to swoop in and help us. by creating a sense of community while they go the pregnancy, they are more optimistic they can actually have a emily and also serve. i am pretty excited about that. the second thing i want to bring up. really in the last years is about health after pregnancy.

specifically dealing with things like incontinence and realizing those are muscles that get stretched out during the delivery. and the best evidence in as a cold therapy is in the pelvic health region and helping treat incontinence postpartum and making sure people are able to get back for activity. just to normalize this, almost three fourths of all gymnasts have incontinence because of the power required to be a gymnast. think of all the requirements it is to be a soldier. then you add post pregnancy on top of that. having pelvic health physical therapist to help you on the journey to recovery is important. . we have gotten a lot of evidence on the value of that over the last decade. >> i want to highlight what she just stated. where we have come from in our journey is important to

understand where we are going to go. we have to make sure women understand can't be afraid. you can't alone. you can't be ashamed of your pregnancy. it is not a disease. it ends in nine. it really does. and you -- ends in nine months. it really does and you can go back to who you were if you work at it. for all the health and information we receive as soldiers and individual health we have to hold the leaders responsible for ensuring we get that health. we get that care. some of our women are afraid to tell and i had a conversation last week with a young lady who said i did not want to tell anyone i was pregnant because i did not want to be judged differently. the challenge is if you don't tell them you are pregnant, you're going to try to all the things you're supposed to be doing as a nonpregnant soldier. . risking yourself and your baby. you are risking your own health. you are causing mental stress of trying to prove to them you can still so up but you are -- still

soldier up but you are going into a different state of your body. for health care we have to ensure leaders don't make women feel they are now a pariah. for your wego -- or here we go. is pregnant and now i cannot use her. i am a digital person -- a visual person. when someone rolls their eyes like a commander says here we go, i read everything they just said. they wrote me off. they said i can no longer be viable for whatever opportunities are going to be there for my counterpart. that now stresses out the soldier. that stresses out the woman. she is going to feel ashamed. how do we as leaders provide that environment that says not only am i happy are pregnant, you are producing our next soldier in the united states army. how do i do that? [applause] so we have to encourage if you want to start a family, let me help you do it the right way. that starts with the leader

saying make sure that person is in the right physical training classes, going to do their medical appointments and you cannot be a single point of failure in your office. . if you have to take a knee or you have to go, someone is going to take over for you. we have to prepare our soldiers for that as well. our leaders have to understand they have to promote that. understanding what are the barriers? the barriers sometimes can be our own internal barrier but also our leaders without knowing it can cause barriers of facial expressions, body language or stereotypes or just their behavior that shares a -- that makes a woman not want to share this she wants to be a mother and hope will he give back productive human gangs to our society. -- human beings to our society. >> the v.a. actually has been doing quite a few things with

regard to reproductive care as well. . some of the things we have been doing is including comprehensive care. that means the cycle of the reproductive phase. prenatal delivery and postpartum. just to clarify, we don't do the delivery. we do that to community care. provide the full comprehensive care for women veterans. the other thing i will add is since 2023, the postpartum care expanded from just a few week 21 year. -- few weeks to one year. maternal health is an important part of this journey. we cannot address maternal health to ensure not only for our women veterans to come back stronger after their delivery but also to go back to who they are much like what she was talking about going back to becoming a soldier, our veterans feeling as if they are a

productive member of society as well after their delivery. with that, some of the other things we have been working on is increasing and expanding our telehealth and tele-mental health services. that addresses not only the geographic constraints but some of the physical constraints. if someone cannot go physically to their mental health appointment, we provide tele-mental health support as well. finally from a reproductive health initiative standpoint, we have several particular services we are continuing to expand to be responsive to the needs for women veterans and ensure we are being agile to new challenges we are seeing. one from a fire tele-to standpoint -- from a fertility standpoint. we provide assistance and intervention in the case of pregnant ciena complications. we also provide family planning whether a person is a veteran,

in same-sex or any other particular status they have. we make sure we are there as a trusted partner for women veterans through this phase of life. >> thank you very much. i'm going to address this to iz aguirre. you both mentioned about h2 in some of your comments. holistic health and fitness. if you can tell us a little more, how it can help women to control their health, fitness and their well-being. >> i think h2 f is a fantastic example of a program we can see its impact on soldiers across the board. just to center us all, h2 f health and holistic fitness has five pillars. based on the conversations we have already had, you can inc. of where each would apply to our female soldiers. mental, physical, nutrition,

spiritual and sleep. sleep is near and dear to your heart. and so as look at how does that impact women soldiers, i share with you a story. this was published in women's health just this last month and i was so curious after hearing it i called this soldier. specialist cindy kent. specialist kent experienced something we may have experienced as female soldiers. after having an injury, she said she felt like she was being placed in bubblewrap. at the medical community was expecting much less of her than she had goals for herself. she had a very significant injury. it is understanding -- understandable from a medical standpoint where they were going. she said something.

i may family for the shin by trade. her words conflicted me a bit. it may be that health and holistic fitness in her unit with addressing those areas is exactly the place she should he addressed. she said my doctors, my physical therapist, my nurses in the hospital said let me know how we were going to address my injury. my h2 f team asked me what my goals were for myself. as a soldier and so again, her injury was significant enough. she was wheelchair-bound. they were talking about her being able to walk again. she said i not only want to walk again. i want to be the soldier i was before. i wanted to be the water treatment specialist that was able to carry the equipment. that was able to be part of my team. and so they helped her address those physical areas with her treatment, with physical

therapists, physical therapy assistant, strength and conditioning coaches. they talked about how it ate her feel -- how it made her feel to be part of the team that now she was seen as we have to handle her with gloves. she said i don't want to be handled with gloves. it comes back to the expectations we talk about. you have to be a -- do you have to be a superhero? she also talked about how that community give her a space to discuss what it meant to be true to her recovery and to her team and true to herself all at once. and i am thrilled to tell you that specialist kent is out there doing her treatment water mission, carrying heavy things. she told me her goals moving forward. she said, i don't want to have

any limitations. if i want to go out and do this marathon for this activity are take on the next challenge of being a tech, you know, where she wanted to go. to being it was incredible to hear that story not only addressing the physical from that soldier's perspective and giving her a safe space. the other thing that our discussion as a medical provider, she said, medical people ask me about myself, and all of a sudden it felt very personal, very fast. i needed time to get to know them. and h2f allowed the space. the power of not limiting as soldiers care and recovery just to the medical organization, but of bringing that into the formation, i think, is very powerful. and specifically is a great fit for our female soldiers. >> general? >> when we think of holistic

health and fitness, we think of it being anything. i like to step back a minute and it really started in 1996. it was rangers going up to the battle and let the table he decided he had an injury and would go to medicane, they were getting mad boarded. so we turned the first physical therapist in the ranger regiment in 1996. it took a while for people to build the trust to get care early on. once you got it early on, you could mitigate the risk of chronic diseases. then we went to the special forces community. put the first physical therapist in special forces. then we rolled out the performance fired in 2014 under the army. we just sleep activity, nutrition, and now it is h2f .

it is about that trust general is a giver talked about that is so critical that happens when we push critical sources of to the unit. folks that have h2f -resourced units say they are 40% more to see a physical therapist, 63% more likely to see an occupational therapist, and 88% more likely to see a registered dietitian, because they see them every day in your unit and they feel trust. they can go and get help and that the team is there to encourage them on their journey. that is the secret sauce. it really is about creating those relationships with medical so that you feel the trust to seek them early so we can help you earlier in the process. because all health conditions are much easier to treat earlier on. >> so as we continue our conversation with h2f

, i would like to direct this to miss marks. you have had an incredible journey. he joined the army at age 17 and today you are, i would say, all services, the most in the history of the world class athletes program. tell us about your story, how you got here, and what are you doing today? >> so i know that we are running out of time, i will try to make this as brief as possible. [laughter] to give some context to what i so in the military, i have to give you two different resumes. the first resume is that from the top down, i had multiple brain injuries, a back injury, a lung injury, hip injuries, and amputated left limp. i was in have ptsd, more specifically, survival guilt. my other resume is that i have 10 medals, 14 world records, 23 american records, an espy, and i

was inducted into the army hall of fame. two different people. i was injured in iraq in 2010. i had an influential limb amputation in 2017. throughout this journey i have had three separate experiences with military medicine. as a combat medic, i took them very hard. when i was injured in iraq, i didn't feel like i had enough support. everyone told me all the things i would never do again, like you mentioned. i was angry. i called my father who was a vietnam veteran and i said, dad, i want -- i don't want to get out of the army. i'm not ready. he said, make them keep you. and we did. throughout the journey, with the people to my left and right that helped me stay in, the master sergeants who were in the transition battalion who helps me understand how to navigate. it was the retired surgeon who was my cat's who helped lift me

up when i was being told it was selfish to stay. i stayed because i wanted to be that for someone else. i just happened to accidentally become an athlete along the way. assuming was a way for me to continue to show that it was physically fit. then i found out about a thing called the warrior games. they saved my life. i was mightily. well. i was stuffing -- i was mentally very unwell. i was stuffing things down because i didn't want to be perceived as weak. in the warrior games, i found a network, a cohort of my forever family who allowed me to be weak and to be stronger for it. now i have had the privilege of mentoring and advocating for adaptive sparkles through -- adaptive sports through the service, due to the help of the fisher house foundation. my journey has been colorful. i will keep it as brief as that for now, but i want to tag onto the end of that -- through every

situation, it was different. when i came off life support, the world class athletes program wrapped their arms around me and told me, you will heal, you will be better, and we would be here with you. because of them believing in me, do you have 10 medals. there is no more concrete proof that being there for people and believing in them when they don't believe in themselves is the greatest superpower we can have. so there is a piece of my story. [applause] >> now, no! [laughter] [applause] >> i have had the privilege of

watching sergeant marks just recently in action and a have to tell you, one of the strongest, humblest soldiers and women i have ever met and had the privilege to serve with. so proud of you. >> thank you. >> so, as we transition, which is a hard transition -- [laughter] -- from a story that is just amazing. i want to have carnal perch brown talk a bit about the female mentoring and morale program -- colonel prichard brown. it's a very powerful program that her and her sister has started. if you could tell as a bit about it? >> absolutely. as a matter third, this is a great segue from her, the feeling she just had and explained to you is why we do what we do. i started the program in 2020 when i had 13 women, and asked

me for mentorship, all at different times. there was no way a good mentor 13 women at different times, i didn't have enough bandwidth to do one individually, so i said why don't we come together. so i am sure that what i say to one will resident with the other. during the session, there was a captain that pulled me aside and she told me she needed help. i will not go to details of what you needed help with, but i explained to her, i cannot adhere this. what you need help with, i will take action. because pfc pridgen brown didn't have a colonel prichard-brown to call on. now colonel prichard-brown is hearing someone call up on her. how do i help? that individual got my full attention. but i now expand not to say, the program is specifically for

those individuals that need that help, the hands wrapped around them. those 13 women turned into 45 the next time we met, then into 79 women saying, i just want to have someone i can share something with. how did you become a colonel? with that, the program has expanded from that one chapter in 2020, tara now 58 current and future chapters that have already started. as a matter of fact, on thursday, we launch to the cadet command chapter. cadet prichard-brown didn't have a program she could come to and say, i need this explained to me. so we as the female and morale program, we are all inclusive. yes, you hear the word "female" first, but it is for men and women to come together. i always explain, for every husband, son, father, uncle, nephew, brother who has a family

member that wants to join the army and be a part of something bigger than him. if they can see is that i have been denied an opportunity, someone said something inappropriate to me, heaven forbid, someone put their hands on them, what would you want to do that was your mother, sister, wife, girlfriend, niece? you would probably want to take action. everyone in unison came back and said, absolutely, i would call someone's commander, i would call the leaders. i said great. with that, some that works for you, has a husband, son, nephew, uncle, brother, and they are someone's wife, daughter, sister, aunt, niece. . the reason you are so important in this as a man to this program is yes, we are still writing our ra policies. [laughter] as we are continuing to break barriers, we need that support.

the female mentor and morale program is to provide mentorship. lieutenant general retired ganey , when a lieutenant prichard-brown first came up and said i didn't see anybody that looks like me to tell me how is a woman, as a young girl, because that's where i was at that time, i could be a soldier. how did you get to be lieutenant colonel? every time i see her i say, ma'am, had it not been for you telling me what you went through, how you get through it, just being a cheerleader to say "you can do this," and might not be here. the program gives back by saying we're going to help you. not by giving you the answers to the test. i don't want you to go through what i went through. so we have monthly sessions from the executive board. of those women are in this room, some are here. we also have a man in our

program who is not only a strong advocate for the program, but says, how can i make it better for my sisters in arms? in the program, we are not only involved in army regulation and policy, but we are focusing on the women's initiative team where they change policy for the trade environment. also for the army women's leadership team who we partner with because of her sisters in arms, and gentlemen, who are making a difference and changing policy for the army. our key focus in the program is to have chapters around the army. because colonel prichard-brown, as much as i want to be there for everyone, i can't. who should we hold responsible? the local leadership. i am honored to say that we have leaders that are at the commanding general level. one of our biggest supporters is a general who is now retired. general retired mcconville.

this is an army endorsed program to where we sat with the secretary of the army and explain what we needed. she explained to us, not only do i want to help support this, but how do we encourage the next generation of women to join the army and continue to contribute as both men and women work well together, as you already heard. when we work well together, we produce a great product and a great army. so if you had an opportunity, you will see our pamphlets outside. you will find us on hopefully soon to be every installation, but quite a few installations. at the commanding generals levels. i am honored to be chief of staff for the first theater sustainment command. it allows me to go practice what i preach. as a staff officer, how do i provide a safe platform for men and women to come together and address concerns that helped men and women reach their full

potential? thank you. [applause] >> we have heard a lot today about the heavy load women carry in the multiple rules we have. especially female service members. i would like to have each one of you will talk frankly about how we are doing as women. women in the army. women serving. women who are retired. even veterans. i will start with general izaguirre. >> when you talk to any group that large, you will have a whole variety of answers. so i think we have some folks who are thriving and who are reaching what they see is their greatest potential and success. and some folks are really struggling. what i think is different now, is that we do have a little bit

more permission. hopefully we can continue to increase that permission, to either share your victories and enjoys and not feel shy about those successes, because that can also be something that women labor under. and also to share where you have challenges and to feel that there can be stranded in the vulnerability. i like what sergeant first class marks said, the ability to be vulnerable and strong at the same time. being vulnerable doesn't mean you aren't strong. it can be more difficult to be vulnerable than to shut off. i think we are at an exciting time. there are those options to support both of those who are experiencing external success, and those who are working to find their success, whether in the professional or personal or sometimes both. we can have those hard conversations to normalize that. that we are outside of where we

are the only one. i think where we will see victory is when we stop having to say, she is the first. [applause] so, being the glass breaker is one thing. being the trail maker is another. and so after you break the glass, sweep it up. and then let's make sure that trail is built so that others may follow and we will all flourish because of that. [applause] >> general? >> you know, there is a lot you can answer for that question. when i think about the challenges that i have heard from other females in the military, i think what we're doing now in the space of mental relatedness and h2f is incredibly important.

really thinking about the entire landscape. everything from virtual coaches and online resources to help with how do you manage life stresses and challenges that you are facing as you go into a new phase in your personal and professional life, to preclinical resources that are out there for you. whether that be chaplains who are now trained for counseling. whether that is military one source. or if you get to the point where it is clinical that we are opening up the door to not just have face-to-face and group appointments, but now a lot more virtual appointments. to me, whatever your challenges we go through, the solution the arm has been running out, that is a very holistic way of looking at building resilience, mindfulness from a prevention standpoint, to opening a suite of services for when you are having challenges, i think

it's a good place to be in. hopefully we will soon be above the 20% mark of women in the army. the secretary of the army's initiatives that you put in place to make it easier to have families and also be in the military, i think it will be a good source. >> very nice. >> there is a lot to unpack. depending on which slice of pie you look at, you have a variety of answers for that. but one of the things that we see particularly with women veterans, a couple of areas where there is an increase in demand, and demand in education and awareness. i can't tell you how many places i have been to, how many town halls and compasses i have gotten to where they say i wish i would have known. or they didn't really cover this when we were going through the program. there is a lot of demand for education and awareness. also a demand for community building. it is very isolating when you are in a, say, tap class and he

are potentially the only woman there and then your unique needs and unique questions sometimes don't get answered, because you are in a sea of other males, so then your question is not looked at as of importance. the other need with you demand for's recognition of service. we talked earlier about that 19% of the service population are women. a little pop quiz, how many airports do you think are named after women? just in general? i got two. one .5. [laughter] the reason that i bring this up is that this is not just a

veteran -- i look at the veteran community as a microcosm of society, and how our society looks at the contributions of women, has not been on par with how we look at the contributions of our male counterparts. it is what it is. and it is certainly not because women have not contributed to the aviation industry. you can just look at hidden figures, the movie, to see that. it's also the same thing with the contributions of women veterans. so how we are doing, we need more recognition of the services of women veterans' contributions. why is that important? because when there is a demand and a recognition that there is a will to actually address the issues that are unique challenges for the population. the other thing that i would say is that, with that increase in demand for both the community-building, is also an increase in the community and

willing to step up for that. not only in the military community but so close of the veteran community. we have partnerships with the military memorial, with the library of congress, as well as, we just finished our v.a. summit a few weeks ago where we had the largest number of women veterans participate in, over nine hundred in participation. it just goes to show the appetite for community building within our population. covid has produced an environment where it is really easy to just get on a zoom call. but we are humans. we create connection. it is hard to build trust and a square, in front of your screen. it is so much easier to build a human to human connection, and build that trust. this is why that v.a. has the center for women veterans. it's also why that v.a. has

expanded its efforts and endeavors to increase outreach to women veterans and also to be more of the services that are available for service members. what i would love for people to understand is that the v.a. is not just for veterans. some of its services can be there to not only increase the professional development of service members, we are also there to increase family stability through not only the g.i. bill, but the v.a. home loan. we are also there to increase resilience to maintain your service members in the fight through our vet centers. we are not to stare through the end of our service members' journey, but through the lifecycle, to make sure they are building resilience and you can keep them in the fight. >> thank you. bring it home. >> we are getting into question time now. we're the only one concerned

about time right now. it is very stressful. [laughter] >> now, you are not the only one. [laughter] i feel cautiously optimistic. i have had the honor of having wonderful mentors, both males and females, all soldiers. i believe that moving forward, it is important to remember that words matter. the things we say murder. i am not a female soldier, i am a soldier. i am not the most decorated female athlete, i am the most decorated athletes. i will share a short story. i was standing next to one of my peers who is also an amputee and happens to be male. the verbiage we use sometimes a subconscious. i had a gentleman come up to both of us and he said to my dear friend, of my gosh, what happened to you? he shared his story. then he looked me up and down and he goes, what did you to

yourself? words mean things. these small things that we grew up with sometimes are not our fault. it doesn't always come from a place of malice. but be conscious before you speak. sometimes i feel cautiously optimistic. i don't speak for all the women in the military but as a consumer of the military and a member, i feel very optimistic about our future. >> i have to tell you, i know we could continue this conversation for hours, but now we would like to hear from you. we have 30 minutes sets aside for questions and answers. this is how we will do it. we have two microphones and we have runners. if you would like to ask a question, raise your hand, or hand, the runner will come to you, and we will ask first that you identify who you want to answer the question, then ask

your question. and afterward, if you have any context, provide that at that time. who do you want to answer the question? what is the question? and then context. >> we have a little less than 30 minutes, ma'am. [laughter] >> please ask your question in the form of a question, and make it brief. stephanie will have one of the mix. zori, will have the door on that side. >> first question is, because october is best cancer awareness month, this is for the surgeon general, what conventions are being put in place for diseases and conditions that affect women? >> thank you for that. i mention this is an exciting time to serve. some of the areas where there has been quite a bit of effort put in going forward is funding. it takes resources to take action. 500 million dollars for female health research to address health disparities faced by

women. while both men and women can get breast cancer, it is disproportionately in women. so that is one. the presidential executive order on advancing women's health research also helps open up doors. then the military women's health research program at america's medical school, i want to make sure people tell dr. woodson that i said that, when we are on the federal tomorrow. [laughter] the uniform health service university, there, as well. those resources that are going towards researching, getting ahead, because the fact is that female soldiers are part of our u.s. society writ large, so we can print solutions -- print solutions that apply both to the military, and outside of the military. >> so, i have two questions.

it is going to go to both of the generals here. general izaguirre, and general teyhen. first, what are we doing to include the guard and reserve a this overall program? -- the guard and reserve? it seems very focused on the active side. we don't want to forget about all those services that are just as critical on the guard and reserve side. second piece of it is, i know we are looking at recruiting very young. but as we get towards the end of our careers, what are we doing to start having those conversations about perimenopause and menopause? [applause] [laughter] >> alright, thank you for those fantastic questions! [laughter] first of all, did my chief of staff -- >> i had the same two questions! [laughter] >> did my chief of staff, major

general joe ferris, who has done more to educate me on the guard and reserve since i was a baby colonel, put you up to that? so what [laughter] i heard you ask is how are we addressing the total army force? i take those considerations, and ics and for total army force. i have the surgeon general and, general of medical command have deputies in the reserve and guard. that is their job. to make sure it we look at the solutions, we are absolutely working towards ensuring that any of our solutions they get put forward have that litmus test. and on your second question really quickly -- perimenopause -- gosh, i forgot. because. [laughter]

i believe i had a clouding thought. [laughter] so, we absolutely are women's -- women's health across the spectrum, you can imagine the number of hallway conversations that myself and my fellow general officers, not only my female general officers, but my general officers who have spouses that are also experiencing that season's time of our lives. we have education on that, we ensure that our formulaic should reflect the options and ensure that we have education on the current information, because that has been a challenge. at again, near and dear to my heart, myself and a couple of colleagues did a presentation on modern menopause at one of our conferences a few years ago. so absolutely, awareness, and with my partner in crime,

ensuring that the military health system brings the best care for all our beneficiaries at all the stages of our lives. [applause] [laughter] >> hi, ladies. my name is amanda, i may soldier, active duty. i have two questions. they are both kind of different, but lieutenant general izaguirre, i will direct them to you. i represent people who were impacted by the water crisis in hawaii. as it stands today, my family of four, my kids were one and four at the time. i want to thank her for her advocacy and what she does, because if it were not for her, i would not be here today.

my question around toxic exposure and how we can be more proactive with toxic exposure. specifically, i've had a tough time being an officer, to my fellow warriors in front of me, having access to occupational and environmental medicine, because of a being in the way. i've had a tough time for him i have known toxic exposure, getting access to oem. i'm concerned when there are events like red hill, or even our soldiers in north carolina right now, when they have a known toxic exposure. may i say that we raise our right hand come and we know there is an inherent risk in everything we do. i firmly believe when soldiers are exposed, we have an obligation to take the best care of them, and that starts with access to oem. it also starts with having event oriented medical moderating. my second question, again, very different. i told you before i landed, two

of them, actually, i'm concerned, because if it were not, and i hope this does not come as a slight, if it were not for adaptive sports, i do not think i would be where i am today, healing and recovery from the mental impact from what we experience that red hill but also the physical injury. i'm concerned, going through a medical board, and my participation in adapted sports and army warrior games, being a member, that has been used against me in my medical board. and again, a huge proponent of this community, but it is not just before bellmore -- the fort

bellmore, i want you to be aware that participation of these things are being used against not only at warrior games but also when they apply, so i hate to throw to think that you, but i would appreciate a response. lt. gen. izaguirre: that's ok. thank you for your question. great to see you again. i learned from my first and then wrote down again, adaptive methodology. so first of all, what you are really talking about, the exposures, those come back to the trust that sergeant first class marks talked about. that we are listening and understanding to how all of these different events impact our soldiers and their families, so the records as far as the event monitoring, we need to learn from each one, right? we need to learn from red hill, we need to learn from exposure.

this is where is partnering with the v.a. is really important to ensure that we can understand, record them and then be able to learn more later, so there may be exposures we don't know about the impact of the later on. that is absolutely a discussion that happens in the pentagon. that is everything from policies to operations and implement them back down the road. as far as the warrior games, i'm not aware of where your game participation being used against you, and i would be happy to learn more, understand more about that. if you can see the team on the walls who can update your information, because that is not the intent. i do not understand warrior games, until i attended a couple of years ago, and that was transformational for me. i did not come into the army as an athlete. that was not part of my identity. so to see soldiers read gain that identity and regain that

community and build community and connection and ability is, like you said, nothing less than life changing and life-saving. i've heard that phrase so many times. i will not say too many, because i think it is a good thing to hear. if there are barriers that participation, that is what i need to understand. so appreciate your question, and we will sit down and make sure we understand more about that. thanks. >> hi. i retired 11 years ago. when i was in, we focus on alcohol in regards to conduct, but not alcohol in regards to health. so as you are looking at the holistic piece, are we also having conversations on the impact of alcohol in the body? it is that part of the conversation they are having now? i hope that they are. >> did you want to address that, it -- was i directed toward -- >> sorry, the surgeon general.

lt. gen. izaguirre: i did not want to take all the questions. [laughter] but we are. we are having those conversations, and this is where both the individual service and the military health system works to gather, to identify how are we with the units, and identify what alcohol may be a proxy for. we still have embedded behavioral health in the unit. we have military lifestyle force that provides counseling and contact outside of the medical records, and we also have programs for when people self identify, they can get that treatment prior to it becoming a. conduct issue. -- becoming a conduct issue. so, yeah, we are having the discussions and addressing not just the event that everything that lies behind it. >> we did the first holistic

health report, which looked at the overall health of every service member across the army come and what was really interesting as we unpacked that data was the difference in how people leverage subsidy versus mental health, and that connection there and that relationship, and folks that may often self-medicating instead of seeking care, versus getting them to seek care earlier. and i think what has been great is all the resources that have been put into that preclinical state, to hopefully destigmatize seeking health care, so we can have less people trying to alcohol as a way of addressing whatever their challenges are instead of actually talking to someone who back and help them on the journey to a better state of health. so i think it was really eye-opening in 2014 when we did that first health report, that disconnect, that there is this cohort of population that actually went that direction, seeking mental health care. >> good afternoon, ladies.

and major dent from the maryland national guard. this question is for general izaguirre and also ms. tiglao. as we expand and make services more accessible, specifically to females, is it taken into consideration the ethnicity of the females and genetic diseases our ethnicities are prone to? lt. gen. izaguirre: if i can start with that, i think that goes back to us understanding the research, and it is not a one-size-fits-all anymore. we want to look at both sides of that coin, because medicine has tendencies in the past of certain ethnic groups, to say i only think about blood pressure in this group, cancer and the screw, and whatever. we are looking at the

evidence and make sure we don't over classify one way or the other, but we are continuing to have researchers across the spectrum look at the have about our entire force. ms. tiglao: likewise. in areas of the v.a., we've been looking at intersectional identities of women veterans, looking at the impact of the race and ethnicity on how disease processes progress, for example, when we are looking at maternal mental health as well as maternal mortality, we are seeing different levels of prevalence of mortality with regard to delivery. so there are reasons for why that happens, but we are looking at those not just from a one dimension but from a multidimensional lens. steve: greetings, ladies. steve weber, proud air force

veteran could even prouder veteran spouse. i want to thank you for what you're doing for the women here, and i want to thank you for what you do for me as a man. you have made my wife stronger, you have made me a stronger person. my question will be for colonel prichard-brown and sergeant first class marks. we took our daughter to the promotion ceremony of lieutenant general west. they made a big deal about that being the first female black lieutenant general, first or third class of west point. they mentioned the first class of west point attendees there, female west point graduates. my daughter, who was 10 years old at the time, turned to me and said daddy, why didn't girls want to go to west point before 1980? [laughter] my question is about that glass ceiling, thank you for breaking

it, and thank you for paving the way. i will ask the junior members, how is that glass ceiling now? is it still as strong? is the path being blazed? and how would you comment on that? col. prichard-brown: thank you so much for that question. thank you for being a great spouse to a soldier, not only that, thank you for listening. and thank you for sharing what you are experiences are with your daughter, because that is how it starts, how do we bring the next generation of? the glass ceiling, the glass ceiling continues to be broken throughout the different branches, throughout different portions of the service. it is a fully broken? absolutely not. because as we continue, the reason there's a glass ceiling is because there is someone there keeping that ceiling there. someone is keeping that mentality of "you don't belong in this area," and "why do we need to bring you in?"

has it gotten better, yes. look at our history. the main question of why it is so impactful to -- the fmmp is so impactful to so many is the women who have gone before us. i'm the "they" now. i used to be, "what are they doing for us?" i'm the "they" now. how do i help break the glass ceiling? how do i partner with organizations like the army women's foundation, a phenomenal foundation we are honored to be a part of, because as we become veterans, guess who gets to bring them in? the army women's foundation. but our main focus becomes, how are we helping each, army national guard, active reserve, army active duty. we are going joint. but the point behind that

becomes the glass ceiling has to be identified first, and someone has to be willing to break it. so we have tons of women that are willing to break it and are currently breaking. it is a getting better? absolutely. do we have a long way to go? absolutely. in the female mentoring and morale program, being all-inclusive, it is all of our responsibility to help continue to break those glass ceilings. thank you for that question. sfc marks: at the beginning of your question, you stated that our surgeon general is implying we stop saying "the first." i don't think that is the intent of her response. we'll have a problem saying "the first." the need is that there -- the hope is that there will no longer need to be the moniker of "the first," it will just be "the" or "a." i think our colonel covered more than i was going to cover, but i

think that was the intent, correct, surgeon general, is to say that the hope is we no longer have to say "the first." lt. gen. izaguirre: that people aren't laboring under the pressure of the first, that they can just be out there doing an outstanding job. >> thank you so much. and at this time, we will have one last question from the panel. >> ok. we got to be quick. >> we are running over. >> this is the last question. >> [inaudible] but thank you for your inspiring talk today.

in my question is, if something goes to automation -- [laughter] lt. gen. izaguirre: well, if i can address that, have you heard of women, peace, and security? we have a representative, there she is right there, raising her hand, that yardley young lady who stood up -- that lovely young lady who stood up, women, peace, and security. how will we help other countries, not just branches of service, how do we help others see what we do? we all know americans are very bold, right? and so we have to help others stand our ground. it is not just an american thing, it is a gender issue.

and so for every other organization come every other country, you are experiencing the same thing. so it is a sisterhood across the world. we do have international women's day that is recognized. how do we come together, not just make it a day, come together and help each other? so i would say organizations like women, peace, and security, there are a number of organizations out there. meet with one of us, connecting, and we will talk with your command. >> if i could weigh in on that as well, the v.a., we have also engaged with other countries with regards to how to address needs of women veterans as they leave the military, so we are also engaged on the others of that journey. >> thank you so much for your questions, and as we get ready to wrap up this afternoon, we want to ask our panelists one final question, and that is,

what is the one key message or lesson you want everyone to take away and apply? we will start with sergeant first class marks. sfc marks: of course we will. [laughter] one key message. my hope is that we all recognize how much we are struggling, and that we take the initiative to be the difference within our ranks, remember to recognize the confidence within you. >> colonel prichard-brown. col. prichard-brown: you know at the bottom of your emails, you have a quote in there. i made my own quote. what we do with ourselves guys with us, but what we do for others lives on as our legacy.

what is your legacy? it is a drug to help someone. i've never had alcohol, and i've never done drugs, strangely enough, but it is a drug to help someone. it is a drug to have someone that says had you not gotten involved, thank you for this. how can i help the next person, because i want to be the person where they don't have, someone doesn't have a person to call on. the women we've been involved with, the men we've been involved with, these ladies on the stage, they committed themselves to helping, and that because our legacy. when we decide to hang up this uniform, who is going to take the reins and run with it? thank you for giving us the opportunity to talk to you all about what our thoughts are. that is what i would leave them. what is your legacy? brig. gen. macdonald: thank you. ms. tiglao? ms. tiglao: so i talked a little bit earlier about how v.a. is working hard to be a trusted

partner not only to our veterans but also to our service members. and so with that, one of the ways we are trying to work on that is actually through cultural change. you heard sergeant marks' story, the transformative power of storytelling is extremely important. within the library of congress that it is over 100,000 stories that i only 10,000 of them are women veterans. with over 2 million women veterans that are living right now, why is this important? because the power of that story is going to pave the way for the next generation of women veterans and service women who are going to bear that nation's cloth in defense of our nation. you cannot be what you cannot see, so let's help those young ladies, those young girls, those young women see what they can be in the future. how we treat our women veterans, our veterans is going to be what they look at when they look to potentially wear our nation's

cloth, so it is imperative to get that right. so for all of you who are currently serving, who have served, share your story, so that is no longer, oh she is, the first or she was the only one, it is, "when did you serve?" "where did you serve?" brig. gen. macdonald: general taking. -- teyhen. brig. gen. teyhen: whether you are a male or female soldier, we want you to be the best possible, whether you are serving or ad-libbing mother, father, sister, brother, right? what i found interesting is one of our installations, when he rolled into his insulation, she decided to partner with one of the partners, and that coach comes to his office every friday

for 30 minutes and helps become a better cg for that installation. why i bring up that story is no matter where you are at, you have the brigade physical therapist, you have invented physical health, you have chaplains, military one source, and those that have resource units, you have that full suite. find a person that you can trust , and have someone help you on your journey. early identification equals early intervention equals early return to duty. we stand here to help you on that journey, and we are excited to partner with you on that. i just asked you to find someone you can trust, just like that cg did at one of the installations, and really find out whatever it is you want to work on, i can tell you there is an aspect of military medicine that would love to partner with you on that journey. thank you. brig. gen. macdonald: surgeon

general izaguirre. lt. gen. izaguirre: thank you. we talk about so many different aspects of women's health and wellness today, and they all have one thing in common, is that the way we address that is through a lens of culture. so we talk about trust as one of those elements, but i would leave you with, challenge you on is what sort of culture are you going to be part of? because whether you intend or not, your actions, your words, but really your actions daily impact the culture, be it in a way you like or in a way you don't like. so how can we be intentional with that culture, and very concretely, it depends on what you resource and how you define excellence. so be intentional about that, whether you are leading an entire command or whether you

are leaving yourself or unit, but decide, what is the culture that you want to have that helps all of our soldiers experience their greatest success and allows all of their talent to be brought to bear in defense of our nation? brig. gen. macdonald: all right. i want to thank everyone from our extraordinary panel of inspirational army women. [applause] thank you to auction serve, and of course anne macdonald. i want to say really quickly a special word, for my friend and mcdonald donald command some news come after eight amazing news as president of the army women's foundation, anne is stepping down this year for a

well-deserved rest. she has been extraordinary, building resources, financially, personally -- personnel wise, dragging essential programs to honor army women. i want anne to come up here, let's give it out for the remarkable anne macdonald! [applause] brig. gen. macdonald: thank you. thank you. that is unexpected, and i have to, i want to rewind the clock a little bit. i have to go back and comment about how phenomenal this panel, this session was, how phenomenal you all are. and i have to tell you, the emotions, i laughed, i cried, thank you for your honesty, thank you for your transparency.

this is the beginning of the conversation. we hope to be able to be back here, we hope to continue the conversation next year. thank you so much, opt to serve, thank you patricia horoho, debbie, eileen, carrie, what a blessing to work with you. it has been a blessing to work with you the last few months under which it has been, to put this together with you, and also shout out to the army women's foundation board of directors. you do so much with so little. god bless you. thank you so much for what you do. i appreciate you. and finally, we have an announcement to make, and that is i would like to announce our new leadership for the army women's foundation, sioux falls

and from our next executive director, sue fulton. [applause] and then the new president of the united states army women's foundation, lieutenant general kathleen m gainey. [applause] thank you all for coming. ladies and gentlemen, this complete our program. please enjoy and connect with others. [indistinct conversations] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2024] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] announcer: our life campaign2024 converge continued this afternoon starting with remarks

by 2024 democratic vice-presidential nominee and governor tim walz, in green bay, wisconsin. he is being joined by wisconsin governor tony evers, and michigan governor gretchen whitmer. watch live starting at five eastern on c-span2. then republican presidential nominee and former president donald trump speaks to supporters at a townhouse in pennsylvania. governor kristi noem felt the greater is the moderator. it was the event live at 6:00 eastern here on c-span. finally, democratic presidential nominee and vice president kamala harris, speaks to supporters in pennsylvania live starting at 73010 eastern on c-span2. you can watch all these events live on c-span now, our free mobile video app, or online at

c-span.org. ♪ announcer: friday nights, which c-span's 2024 campaign trail. a weekly discussion on how the presidential, senate and house campaign efforts went through the week. reporters join us to discuss the events in driving political news, and to take a look at the week ahead. watch c-span's “2024 campaign trail.”. friday nights at 7:00 eastern on c-span, online at c-span.org, or download as a podcast on c-span now, our free mobile app, or wherever you get your podcasts. c-span, your unfiltered view of politics. ♪ ♪ [gavel bangs] >> the house will be in order. announcer: did see at c-span's 745 years of covering congress like no other. since 1979 we have been your primary source for capitol hill, providing balanced, unfiltered coverage of government. taking you to where policy is debated and decided, all with the support of america's cable companies.

c-span, 45 years and counting. powered by cable. ♪ announcer: and now in an unusually competitive race for the maryland u.s. senate, gop former governor larry hogan participated in a debate with democrat angela alsobrooks. former governor larry hogan was questioned on his relationship with former president trump in light of his criticism of the trump administration. democrat angela alsobrooks was questioned on her acceptance to the tax break which she didn't qualify for. the result of the maryland u.s. senate race could determine whether democrats or republicans get control of the senate. the nonpartisan cook political report rated the race as likely democratic. it was hosted by maryland public television. this is about one hour. ♪ good evening and welcome to the 2024 maryland senate debate.

from the irene and edward kaplan production studio at maryland public television. we are excited to bring new tonight's debate presented by nbc news, nbc washington, wbal tv 11, and maryland public television. good evening, i am chuck todd, moderator for tonight's debate between the democratic candidate angela alsobrooks and republican candidate larry hogan. let's begin by quickly covering the rules for today's event. the debate will last one hour and begin with 90 second opening statements from each candidate. then our panelists and myself will pose questions directly to the candidates. nbc news and our panelists have generated the questions. each candidate will have one minute to respond and he candidate answering the first will get an additional 32nd rebuttal. as moderator i reserve the right to follow-up as needed. and finally he will conclude with one minute closing statements from each candidate.

there is a timekeeper who will notify candidates of their remaining time and when time is expired. in the interest of trying to cover as much ground as possible, we ask the candidates to adhere to these time limits. now let's cover our panelists. tracy wilkins is an investigative reporter. deborah weiner is an anchor at wbal tv 11 in baltimore. and jeff so can is an anchor right here at maryland public television. and now of course the candidates. republican and former governor of maryland larry hogan, and democrat and the current prince georges county executive angela alsobrooks. with that, we begin with the debate. county executive alsobrooks has the first opening statement. ms. alsobrooks: good evening. first of all i would like to thank our hosts for having us tonight. i want to thank former governor hogan for being here as well, and everyone for tuning in. i am angela alsobrooks, the proud democratic nominee for u.s. senate.

like many marylanders i am also in member of the sandwich generation. i am the proud mother of a 19-year-old daughter and the proud daughter of a retired receptionist and a newspaper your deliveryman. i grew up in maryland and spent my entire adult life in public service, beginning my career as a demo to violence prosecutor where i stood up for our families and held violent offenders accountable. as the elected prosecutor, i also lowered violent crime by 50%. as county executive i have been one of the top job creators in the state of maryland. we have built 10 new schools and we are breaking ground on an additional eight. in the united states senate, i will stand up for our values, creating economic opportunity for every maryland family. i will also fight for our freedoms like a woman's right to choose, contraception, and ivf. i will also fight to make sure that we are ending gun violence in america. i will work also to hand a majority to my friend and mentor, president kamala harris, to ensure that she will be

successful and effective as president of the united states. thank you so much and i look forward to answering your questions. mr. hogan: thank you, chuck. i want to thank maryland public television, nbc and its affiliates in washington and baltimore. it is a real pleasure to be here. i want to thank all of you for tuning in tonight. i just want to start by saying that i like and respect angela alsobrooks. we got a chance to work together while i was governor. we accomplished a great deal together for prince georges county, and she has got a great life story. i just happen to believe that right now, the reason i am stepping up to run is not to run against her try to defeat her. the reason i decided to run for governor -- senate. the reason i ran for governor is because i was fed up with the taxes. i decided to step up and run for senate is because i have never

been more concerned about the direction of our country. what we see today is nothing but divisiveness and dysfunction in washington, where nothing ever seems to get done. our country is being torn apart by the extreme voices on both sides. we are not going to solve any of the terrible problems facing the country with more partisanship, and one more party-line vote. or just continuing to do the same thing we have always done. the only way we can make a difference is if we find strong, independent leaders who are willing to stand up to both parties and try to bring about common sense bipartisan solutions, which is exactly what i delivered as eight years as governor. >> i want to start with both of your political identities. you and your party have been campaigning against governor hogan by singling out his party affiliation, almost solely more than anything else. is his major disqualification for this office simply that he is a member of the republican party? ms. alsobrooks: first of

>> first i have to tell you that the stakes of the stakes of this election couldn't be higher. we are facing an election where the future of our country and our freedoms are at stake. what we recognize is in this election is that a woman's right to choose is on the ballot. the former governor is a person who vetoed abortion care legislation, and also vetoed important legislation that would have created a simple ban on ghost guns, and would have disallowed long guns, created awaiting period. it the republican party has declared war on women's reproductive freedoms. we recognize that this party of chaos and division that is led by donald trump is one that cannot lead our country, and also has severe consequences for marylanders. unfortunately, former governor hogan accepted an invitation by mitch mcconnell to run in this race because they want to give republicans a majority in the senate. doing so will control supreme court justice nominations, it will also control cabinet appointments over president

kamala harris. i do not believe that having majority-controlled by republicans is in the interest of the state of our country. >> mr. hogan? >> you will hear a lot about this kind of talk all night. i can tell you that that's not what i will do. you will hear nothing but red versus blue. i care a lot more about the red, white and blue. i have been leading voice in my party, standing up to some of the things we are talking about and everything you just said , your entire campaign is based on multiple things that are completely not true. i will support and will sponsor codifying roe, i have said that from the beginning. when i was governor, i promised to support women's access to abortion, and i delivered on that promise for eight years. that bill that you are referring to is about protecting women, because it was rolling back and making it less safe for women to get access to abortion. a loving medical professionals

-- for you to lie about something as important as this issue is insulting. >> miss alsobrooks. >> first of all, i have worked across the aisle. in fact, i worked with the former governor again, $400 million to invest in prince george's county, causing the former governor to call me the best county executive he had ever known. his father was a county executive, and i was the best he had ever known. the thing we know for a fact is that the former governor vetoed abortion care legislation and then refused to release the funding to train abortion care providers, and said that donald trump deserves credit for his incredible supreme court justices after the overturning of roe. just unrefuted facts. >> i want to follow up with something. i use my discretion here. let's talk about your independence. and you are going to be a political independent. these tv ads are paid for by the nrc, by the republican party, can voters believe you will be an independent, if the republicans are paying for your tv advertising?

> the voters of maryland know me and i know my proven track record of standing up to donald trump, to mitch mcconnell, and to the republican party. i have probably stood up more than anyone in america. i have been on your show multiple times. i am one of the harshest critics. the people know that i was a bipartisan governor who got things done by working with a 70 percent democratic legislature, and we accomplished a lot by reaching across the aisle. i am not a maga donald trump, , mitch mcconnell person as my opening would let you believe. >> miss alsobrooks, is there anything in the democratic agenda that you will fight against? >> i support the democratic agenda to codify in federal law a woman's right to choose. i support banning assault weapons. i support middle-class tax cuts. i support the democratic agenda. let me just say this. i stand up to my party. when president biden looked like he was waffling on the fbi, i marched right in there and fought against him, tim kaine and mark warner to get the fbi

headquarters located in maryland. and i won. >> thank you. deborah has the next question. mr. hogan, along these lines of your criticism of former president donald trump, given mr. trump's vow to seek retribution if he wins, could your relationship with him end up hurting maryland? >> look, what we need desperately in washington are people that are willing, that have the courage to put country over party, and to put people over politics, and to stand up to the leaders of their party. i don't think there is anyone in america who has done that more than me. i have never been afraid. and i will never back down. i am one of the only ones in my party who can say that. i just don't think we are going to fix anything by talking about how we will jam things through. everything has to be republican or democrat. i am just down the road from washington and was able to get a lot done by just doing the opposite. we set an example for what

exactly needs to happen in washington by working together. i was happy to work with county executive alsobrooks for eight years to get the spi, and after she became executive, we continued to work together. buy and build a hospital in prince georges as part of the cancer moonshot initiative. we founded the blue line corridor. we have worked together well. i work with people on both sides, that is one of the things i am known for. >> me and the former governor at work together very well. but the fact of the matter is, if he wanted to be an independent, he should have run as one. he did not up to run as an independent. he opted to accept mitch mcconnell's request to come in. mitch mcconnell bragged about his ability to recruit the former governor because he believed that he would give a majority in the senate to republicans, which has huge consequences. the fact is i believe the governor when he said he would like to vote for a roll. but the fact is if the republicans have a majority in the senate, there would be no

vote on roe. we have seen how republicans refuse to allow barack obama's vote on merrick garland. we understand that they would also hand over that gun laws to the nra. we know that no matter what former governor hogan saturday, he would empower a caucus of people who will take our country backwards. putting lindsey graham over the judiciary committee. putting ted cruz over the science committee, who's a science and climate denier, it is that he would empower caucus that is against our values. >> mr. hogan? >> sometimes one voice standing up can make a difference. we don't need more partisan politicians who will be rubberstamps for their party. what we need are people willing to stand up and work with both parties, or criticize both parties when they are wrong. i was governor through three presidents. i worked with president obama, and trump, and biden. when we disagreed, i strongly set up and said i disagreed. i stood up to my party, i will stand up to either party. i think we need mavericks in washington that aren't going to just do exactly what the party bosses tell them to do.

>> tracy, next question. >> this alsobrooks, prince governor hogan and his allies have attacked you for claiming tax credits meant for seniors. they claimed that those tax credits make you untrustworthy for maryland voters. what is your response. >> thank you for giving me a chance to clear it up. i have always paid my taxes, always. and i also stood up for my grandmother. when she needed to leave her house, i took over her mortgage, paid the mortgage until i sold the house until six years ago. i never knew she had a senior tax credit because i never applied for a. when i learned about it, i reached out to the d.c. government. i paid back the amount that that tax credit and i'm working to pay off the interest. i thank you so much for asking that question. >> mr. hogan, your response. why should this matter to voters? >> i am not sure it should matter i think county executive alsobrooks has said she didn't

apply for the tax credit. she said she paid off her grandmother's mortgage. but she also took out her own mortgages and swore an attested on the documents that it would be her primary residence, which it was in. she did get a tax break that was meant for low income seniors. . she is not a low income senior. it was a rental property, not her personal residence. i don't know if people should make a decision based on that. i just think she should have an opportunity to explain herself. >> ms. alsobrooks, he said you are working to pay it back, is that all? >> i paid back the tax credit. again, i never applied for the tax credit and was never notified that i had the tax credit, but when i learned about it, i paid back the amount of the tax credit and i'm working to pay off the interest. >> jeff has the next question. >> umbc released april, this week that found that 89% of marylanders are concerned about inflation. a three-part question on this.

who gets the blame for the the wave of inflation that we had? who gets the credit for bringing down the rate of inflation and how do we prevent this from ever happening again? >> mr. hogan? >> affordability, inflation is a huge problem. as i am out on the campaign trail talking to people, every single day, it's the one issue to hear about, the cost of groceries and housing. a single mom trying to put groceries on the table. a young couple trying to buy their first home that has been priced out of reach. inflation is out of control and there is plenty of blame to go around. this is one that republicans and democrats can both take the blame for because they ran up the dead and continue to cause these problems. i am not sure that when you say it has come down -- the average person does not feel like it has. that is why i ran for governor. i was frustrated that things weren't affordable and my focus was on making life more affordable. i cut taxes eight years in a row by $4.7 billion for hard working marylanders, for low income

marylanders. the earned income tax credit for small businesses. and for retirees, we fought for eight years to eliminate retirement taxes and we finally passed that in my last year. my opponent wants to raise taxes on social security, which is not going to make things more affordable. >> ms. alsobrooks, you have a minute. >> let me just, say, i also have heard from many marylanders, the concern that i share. as the daughter of a receptionist and a car salesman, i understand how the cost of groceries that have gone up 25% since the pandemic affect everyday families. huge corporations who are receiving record profits right now, are doing so and paying fewer taxes than average hard-working citizens. i attribute that to the rising costs. we also know there is a lack of competition. we are going to have to make sure we are holding big corporations accountable, causing them to pay their fair share of taxes. i will cut taxes for the middle-class. and by the way, i don't propose

raising taxes and anyone who earns under $400,000. we will have to save social security. for people like my aging parents, it is a lifeline. by 2025, it is due to run out of money. raising that cap for those earning over $400,000 to save social security is going to be really important. >> mr. hogan. >> this is my main focus. it is why i ran for governor and what i was focused on for eight years and it is why i think we had more success than anyone in america. we took a terrible economy that was the 49th out of 50 states. we had a $5.1 billion deficit and turned it into a surplus and we made like more affordable for average, hard-working folks by cutting tolls. by cutting taxes -- by cutting tolls. >> deborah has the net next question. >> ms. alsobrooks, you are running for the seat long-held by senator ben cardin staunch , a supporter of israel who presided over prime minister

benjamin netanyahu's address to a joint session of congress. senator chris van holland, on the other hand, refused to attend the speech and joined seven other senators in asking president biden to, quote, use all levers to pressure israel over gaza. when it comes to israel and the now one year old war, are you a ben cardin democrat, or a chris van hollen democrat? >> i am neither. i am angela alsobrooks. and i will represent myself in the senate. i have been really fortunate to have the support of both senator van hollen and senator cardin. we have a tremendous delegation who i have worked with for many years. but when it comes to this issue, i will be angela alsobrooks as a senator. let me tell you what i believe. we recognize the horrific attack that occurred on october 7. we have an obligation to make sure that we are getting those hostages home to their families and that we get to a ceasefire, making sure, as well, that we get aid into gaza for the palestinians who are suffering

. and we have to get to a two state solution so that we have peace and security in israel. peace and security and self-determination for the palestinians in gaza. long-term, it will be important that our multilateral relationships with the uae, saudi arabia, jordan is going to be necessary for us to isolate iran. to have the long-term stability that we need. but i support israel and the right to defend itself, and i will continue to support that alliance. >> mr. hogan? >> i will be a strong supporter of israel, as i always have been. i will be like a champion for israel, like ben cardin, rather than trying to equivocate or follow chris van hollen, who is probably the most anti-israel member of the u.s. senate. i disagree with my opponent, who was calling for cutting off military aid to israel and demanding an immediate cease-fire.

just this week we celebrated the tremendous loss of life -- the largest loss of jewish life since the holocaust. we remembered those victims and their families and those hostages still being held. it is moments like this people have to stand up and be counted. we, as a country, have to stand with our allies. and israel is our most important ally. we have to stand up to our enemies. i don't think you can walk down the middle of this issue. i think there is no question we have got to back israel. >> ms. alsobrooks, to follow up, would you have attended the speech if you were senator, with prime minister netanyahu, do you believe he is an obstacle to peace, or an ally for peace? >> i would have attended the speech. first of all, i support the u.s.-israel relationship. i have been to israel. i have been very clear on my support for israel and the right to defend itself. senator cardin, who is

supporting me, said he is ashamed of former governor hogan and how he has politicized this issue and tried to use it as a way to divide us. when we speak of allies, the republicans in the senate has shown they do not respect our alliances, including nato will back out of their leave ukraine to fight for itself. i support our alliances and will continue to support both israel and ukraine. >> we are going to do a couple of foreign-policy questions. let me start with a fresh one for you, mr. hogan. when it comes to tensions between taiwan and china, should the united states guarantee the security of taiwan, even if it means putting american boots on the ground, or essentially indo-pacific? >> i think it is very important for us to stand up for our allies and to our enemies. i believe in peace through strength. right now we have fires around the world. the whole world is basically a tinderbox. . and we are dealing with ukraine and taiwan and china and iran threatening the middle east. the reason i got into this race,

the final straw for me was when i watched republicans and donald trump and mitch mcconnell take the bipartisan deal that was going to secure the border, provide funding for taiwan, for ukraine, most importantly, for israel. they work for those things and then they were told to change their vote. and i decided that night that i would go down to washington and try to do something about it. i think it is important in times like this for us to have people that are focused. we have allies around the world who wonder if they can still count on us or still trust us. and we have enemies that wonder if they should still fear us. >> you didn't answer directly, is taiwan's security so important that if china wants to take it over, it's worth american troops to help fight to -- side-by-side with taiwan? >> well so closely it will not get to that point, chuck. but china threatening taiwan is something we should definitely be concerned about.

>> would you support boots on the ground? >> i do not agree to put boots on the ground. >> ms. alsobrooks, do you support men and women on the ground? >> i do not agree with putting u.s. men and women of the grant for this conflict. the problem the former governor will have is his party does not believe in these alliances. today wanted to back out of nato. they have refused to give ukraine the help that they need . we do not stand up to vladimir putin, who is a dangerous dictator who invaded ukraine. china will invade taiwan. the first thing we need to do is shore up our alliances with nato and our multilateral relationships, to act as a deterrent to china, who is watching. they will see what the united states does with respect to ukraine to decide whether to go into taiwan. we know that vladimir putin's not done. if we don't stand up for ukraine, he will continue to go across eastern europe. poland will be next. our alliances across the country will be important. and the republican party does

not agree with this. they would let ukraine fail. >> would you increase support for ukraine, keep it as is, or is there a point you would decrease support? >> i support ukraine. the amount of it, i agreed with funding ukraine -- will have not asked us by the way, they are a democracy, they have never come to the united states and said put men and women on the ground. they just want the tools to defend themselves. i just want to make sure that as an ally, we support them in defeating vladimir putin. because, again, he is not done yet and he sends a horrible signal across the world. the republicans have not supported ukraine and will let them fail. >> mr. hogan, i know you support ukraine. would you go as far as supporting ukraine's membership to nato? >> here we go again with the republican-democrat thing. i criticized democrats and republicans, who wouldn't support israel and ukraine, and to stand up for our allies.

there are plenty of people that are isolationists in both parties, and neither one of them has a lock on what we should do to keep america safe and keep us as the leader of the free world. when we send aid before the united states data, we sent it from the state of maryland. we needed to be stronger in support of the allies. we have got to bring an end to this conflict. we will be putting boots on the ground if we don't stop putin now because we have to defend a native country. >> would do support ukraine into nato? >> i would support it. >> would you support ukraine going into nato? >> it's a complicated question and i think it should be explored. >> just have the next question. >> ms. alsobrooks, a number of influential democrats are talking about expanding the supreme court from 9 justices to 13. the idea is that if a democratic president could appoint 4 new justices, there would be a majority of democratic appointees on the court.

is that something that you would support? >> first of all, i am very concerned about the supreme court. i think they no longer represent the will of the people. i support reforms. one of them would be to have term limits. i also agree with the notion of expanding the supreme court. i think we will have to do something to reform the supreme court. , again, looking at the decisions they have made, everything from overturning roe, there are ethical problems with the supreme court. this is the place where me and mr. hogan disagree because the supreme court, i think, is awful. he went and said he thought donald trump deserved credit for his appointments to the supreme court and called the supreme court justice who had been appointed incredible. i think they are out of line with the will of the american people and, again, whoever controls us and it also controls people like lindsey graham, will

control appointing further supreme court justices. the supreme court needs to be reformed. >> a quick follow-up. i didn't hear a yes or no on what used to be called packing the court. >> i agree with either increasing the number of justices, or term limits. yes. >> a follow-up for mr. hogan. on the trump nominees to the court in particular, how would you have voted? i think justice kavanaugh got through with no votes to spare . he>> is just adding an additional thing. >> i think, if there is one thing we should not be for politicizing, it is the supreme court. yet it has been politicized by both sides. i think trying to change the rules to jam things through on the party-line vote is not the right way to go about it. i probably have more experience about in this than most people in the senate. i appointed 190 judges when i was governor including six

members of our supreme court. every single one of them, three republicans and three democrats, two african-american women. the most diverse and most inclusive appointments in history. every single one of our supreme court justices was unanimously confirmed by republicans and democrats. in washington they can't even get one vote. both sides are trying to change the rules. what i did was find the most qualified judges regardless of what party they were and that's why we found it -- if you can't find one person to cross over and vote for a democratic judge or a republican judge, i will not support them. >> justice kavanaugh passed with one vote. what would you have done? >> i stood up and called out mitch mcconnell and sent the should have a full and open hearing. i called them out when they were trying to jam through the barrett nomination right before the election which i thought was

wrong. >> how would you have voted? >> i don't know how i would have voted. >> ms. alsobrooks? >> i think he said he would have voted. he said the trump's, quote, deserves credit for his accomplishments in office, including the incredible supreme court justice is that he nominated. i disagree. i would not have supported those supreme court justices who overturned roe. who overturned the bump stock decision. who decided the immunity decision. who decided that chevron decision that will hurt our climate. they are awful supreme court justices, and i would not have voted to confirm them. >> tracy. >> you said your opponent and her party can't be trusted on abortion. he said personally you are opposed to abortion. but now you say you support roe. please detail what abortion access you are prepared to champion in the senate. >> might open it has been, her

entire campaign is based on lies. i said this earlier, i have been a guest -- the first day in the race, she said i would be the deciding vote for an abortion ban, which i have been a guest since 1990 two. when i ran for governor, i promised to provide access to abortion. i would do nothing to change the lung. i delivered on that for eight years. everybody in maryland knows that. when it was overturned, i thought it was a wrong decision. i said when i got to the senate that my first bill was to codify roe. so, no, i don't understand. it is completely false. and back to the thing about the incredible justices. i was in a jewish coalition event where i was very critical of donald trump. i said there are things i agree with him on, and then there was a decision that just came out before that event that was about not discriminating against jewish students when it came to scholarships to go to private schools. i thought that was an incredible decision.

but i have called him out on other bad decisions. >> ms. alsobrooks? >> i believe the former governor when he says he disagrees with trump in person. but he does agree with his policies. this issue is one that is very personal. . as the mother of a 19-year-old daughter, she is facing a world where there are fewer rights than that of her mother and grandmother. when the former governor had an opportunity to stand up for the women of maryland, he didn't. he vetoed abortion care legislation. he doubled down and refused to release the funding to train abortion care providers. this was two years ago. when the supreme court overturned roe, he complimented them. the republican party has declared war on the reproductive freedoms of women. contraception. its mitch mcconnell, ted cruz, rick scott, they all say they would like an abortion ban, and i believe him when he says he has had a