>> we know that limited government and free enterprise and a strong national defense is a better way forward for you, for me, for us, and for the united states of america.

this is an msnbc special town hall with senator marco rubio from florida international university in miami. here is chuck todd. >> and good evening and welcome to the msnbc town hall with republican senator marco rubio of florida. we're here on the campus of florida international university in miami, home of the fiu panthers. let's go, panthers. [ cheers and applause ] >> don't tell my friends a little north of here what i just said. anyway, the question, and this is a critical moment for senator rubio today. he's won just two contests out of 24 in the race for president which makes tuesday's primary right here in his home state of florida absolutely critical to his chances. so let's get started and welcome the senator from florida, marco rubio. [ cheers and applause ] >> thank you.

>> all right. are you happy when you're home? >> yeah. home home. >> you teach here, all that stuff. >> some people got some a's in here looking around. >> are you a tough grader? >> no, they're voters. >> the real trick. always get the professor who is running for office. >> let's get started with stuff that you probably don't want to talk about. it was a tough night last night for you. >> yeah. >> you've only won two contests out of 24. you have a lot of even friends of yours that are saying they're not sure why you're going to keep going, so what do you -- >> i haven't heard that from anybody. i have heard that from the press but, look, bottom line is this, first of all, running for president is tough. it shouldn't be easy. second of all, i would say to you that it is true we haven't done as well in some of those states as we wanted to but it's going to come down to florida for me and it always has in the presidential races. florida is going to award 99 delegates all at once. that means you can win more delegates in florida than you

can across five or seven states in an apportionment process, so it always was going to be a priority. even if i had done really well in all the previous states, if i had not done well in florida, it would be trouble for our campaign. so we need to win here. we're focuses on it like a laser and we're going to win. we feel really good about it. [ cheers and applause ] >> you have said -- if you're in the state of florida a vote for ted cruz or john kasich is a vote for john trump. >> i'll telling new florida -- >> shouldn't that be -- >> i'll let kasich say that in ohio. i'm just saying to you in florida the only one that has any chance of beating donald trump is me. [ cheers and applause ] >> if you like donald trump, that doesn't matter, but if don't want donald trump to be the nominee, even if you're a supporter of ted cruz or john kasich, you vote for marco rubio because a vote for anyone other than me is a vote for donald trump. i'm the only -- almost a million

votes are already in. i'm the only one that has any chance to beat donald trump in florida. if he gets florida's 99 delegates we have a very different conversation next wednesday. >> do you think you're struggling in florida because you're retiring from the senate? that there's a lack of -- >> no, i just -- >> -- a sense of urgency. >> it's a big, big state. that no one that can run a six-month full time presidential campaign and also be running one in north carolina and other states we are invested in. it's a state that's largely been operating off the national media and the national media has given donald trump ten times as much coverage as every other republican candidate combined and part of it is because he says outrageous things and part of it is because he knows how to manipulate the media. but it's had an impact. i've been in tough races before. it's an election. you have to earn these things. let me tell you, running for president is not nearly as hard as being president. >> you know, the other thing i'm wondering about is --

[ cheers and applause ] >> as much as the personality of donald trump gets into the way, there isn't an ideologically difference -- you have two different definitions of conservatism. his is an older version, less intervention, tighter board e e. you look at america as a world power, sort of being at the center of the world, a little more open to intervention. obviously a little more open to immigration, a little more open to trade deals. is that really the debate inside the republican party that perhaps republicans are just want to go back to an older definition of conservatism and not yours. >> i think you give donald trump too much credit in terms of ideological stand and it's largely about an attitude -- >> but he's consistent on one thing. it is on protectionism. if there is one thing he's consistent on -- >> except for his own businesses where he makes everything overseas. i'm a ronald reagan conservative. i grew up in the era of reagan,

so my view of conservatism is shaped by that experience, and it is not an interventionist position. it is the belief that the world is a better place when america is the strongest country in the world. look, in the absence of american global leadership there is no other nation or institution that can play that role and the result is chaos and the evidence of it is every sector of the world today faces chaos. the absence of american leadership in the asia-pacific region has led to the chinese taking over the south china sea, north koreans increased aggression. it's led to nato's reduction in capability, inviting vladimir putin to be more aggressive. the lack of american leadership in the middle east resulted in the vacuums that exist in syria, iraq, and increasingly in libya. there's a condition squens for it's lack of american leadership and you're seeing it all -- >> some might argue it was too much intervention that created -- that suddenly created these things. >> i have heard that in some cases but it's not accurate. in the case of libya, that uprising was caused by the libyan people.

gadhafi was on his way out and was it six months or two years. protrekted conflicts lead to inviting jihadists in. in the case of iraq, that was the withdrawal -- premature quaul by barack obama that left maliki in charge, allowed him to go hard after the sunnis and the sunnis welcomed isis in as liberators. not anymore but they did initial initially. >> let me move to something. you have been awfully harsh on donald trump. in fact, we put together a montage of the clips. let me play it for you? >> i've been harsh? >> i will go anywhere to speak to anyone before i let a con artist get ahold of the republican party. i mean, he's so thin skinned and so erratic to think you're going to make xhun like that commander in chief. the problem is donald trump is not really a republican. he's not a conservative. donald trump basically has policy positions that are indistinguishable from democrats. do not give to the fear. do not give into anger.

do not give in to sham artistings and con artists. and what he's trying to carry out is a scam to take vocontrolf the office of the presidency of the united states. >> they like what they heard. i guess my question is how can you support a con artist? any regret on the idea that you will support donald trump as the nominee? you're calling him a con artist -- >> and i think it's indicative of how bad hillary clinton would be or bernie sanders to even contemplate that but let me say because i can't vote for them -- >> you think con artist? >> i think bernie sanders is a socialist which he admits and i think hkt is unqualified to be president of the united states because of the way she handled the e-mail server and treated the family -- >> is donald trump qualified -- >> look, bottom line is i don't want him to be our nominee. the fact you're even asking me the question tells you why this is a problem. if anyone else, do john kasich was where donald trump is now, if jeb bush is where donald trump is now -- >> everybody would be uniting. >> the race would be over.

>> i would say would you be out of the race if -- >> that's the point. no matter what i say about supporting or not supporting the nominee, there's a significant percentage of republicans that are not going to vote for donald trump and that's why he will get destroyed in the general election. that's what will happen. >> it's one thing to say you will support him. should we assume there's no way you could be on a ticket with a con artist? >> when you put it that way. >> well, you are calling him a con artist -- >> i'm not running for vice president. i want to be the president -- >> can you be shermanesque about it. if he offers it, if donald trump offers you the slot, you will say no. >> i'm not interested in being donald trump's or anybody else's vice president. that's not what i'm aiming at. >> you didn't answer the question. >> no, i don't want to be the vice president of the united states -- >> if donald trump asks, you'd say no. >> by the way, i am not running to be anyone's vice president. i'm not looking to be anyone's vice president. i want to be the president of the united states or i'll be a private citizen. there's nothing wrong with being a private citizen, so i love public service, but it's what i

do. it's not who i am. >> any thought, there's been all these people trying to get you and ted cruz to fuse together as a ticket to stop donald trump. are you open to that at all? >> you know, i said that in an earlier interview. that's kind of "house of cards" stuff. it looks good on tv. do doesn't ever work that way. this process will play itself out. we're focuses on florida. don't be surprised if we don't do other states on tuesday because we're not there. we're here. we'd like to pick up delegates in other states, but we're focused on florida. my home state, 99 delegates. we do well, we'll talk wednesday about the state of the race. i feel very positive about it. >> on that note, let me get some students involved in a couple questions here. we got a lot of them. jose andreas coma cho. >> how are you doing, senator. >> hi. >> my question is, how can you sacrifice basic christian principles like loving your neighbor as we saw with recent

verbal attacks on trump. you justified this by saying if anyone deserves it, it's him. the bible says we deserve hell yet we still receive grace. as a christian as well, this question is important to me. >> on the policy issues that doesn't violate my faith because there's something called righteous indignation. we're talking about the presidency of the united states so you're going to elect the next commander in chief, someone with a real impact on the future of our country and they're representing someone as who they're not, i think it's appropriate in a campaign to point those things out. in terms of personal stuff, yeah, at the end of the day it's not something i'm entirely proud of. my kids were embarrassed by it and if i had to do it again, i wouldn't, but not on the other charges. not on the other things. when it comes to the fact he's portraying himself as something he's not and done this before throughout his career this, time the stakes are not a worthless $36,000 degroo he at trump university. the stakes are the greatest nation on earth and on that i think i'm well within my

faith -- >> let me button that up. you regret the school yard stuff. >> do you know why? because in the end -- first of all, i think he had to be stood up to. i really do believe that, but that said, that's not the campaign i want to run. >> it took a toll on you. you didn't look comfortable doing it. >> look, he needed to be stood up. this a guy who has basically offended everyone for a year. he mocked a disabled journalist, a female journalist, every minority group imaginable on a daily basis. it becomes -- used profanity from the stage. that said, yeah, i don't want to be that. if that's what it takes to be president of the united states, then i don't want to be president. i know it's not what it takes. it's not what we want from our next president and if i had to do it again, i would have done that part differently, but not the did you have about his record on business. i think that is legitimate and the people need to know that what they are electing is not who he says he is. >> let me bring up -- thank you. let me bring up adrian.

>> thank you, senator. thank you, chuck. my question for you, senator, is you received money from hedge fund managers like paul sanger and mega corporations like the geogroup, a private prison corporation. how often are you influenced by money from hedge funds? >> none. i'm the only candidate that has an extensive agenda online. i also have an extensive agenda laid out in my book. when someone gives money to my campaign they're buying into my agenda, i'm not buying into their agenda. it's there to be held accountable for. everyone in this race has contributors. every issue has money on both sides. even donald trump has loaned his campaign $27 million which means he expects to be paid back by contributors. you have to be willing to say here is my agenda and because of my agenda there are people that don't support me. i had $40 million of attack ads run against me. that was not $50 contributions. these are multimillion dollar

checks written and used to try to defeat me in the campaign. ultimately i take a clear position on issues. you can told me accountable to where i stand and people either support my agenda or oppose it. there are people that support it and there are people that oppose it and in america you have a first amendment right to participate in the process that way. >> in addition to that, i'm sorry, chuck, candidates like bernie sanders they don't receive any money from any interest groups unless it's the people. people like sitting in this room. so how would you compare yourself to bernie sanders -- >> there's no comparison. bernie sanders is a socialist and if you want to live in a socialist country i think if someone -- if you want to turn america into a socialist democracy, you're going to have to win an election. if you want to live in a socialist country there are dozens of countries around the world you can move to. i'm going to fight every day to keep america a free enterprise society. >> very quick before we go to break. if you could change one thing

about your campaign finance system after going through all this as a candidate, what would you change? >> i don't know to be honest with you. >> do you think it's broken? >> look, there's a lot of money in politics but here is the bottom line. there's -- if you looked at what's happened in this campaign, the dominant feature of the trump campaign has not been he ran a bunch of commercials. it's been he's been able to dominate the media. you had the head of cbs saying i don't know if -- may not be good for america but he's good for cbs because of ratings. i think that's true on every network. there are millions and millions of dollars of media that's out there and the other point i would make is every time we've tried to run a commercial all these media outlets charge us. so we have to raise money because you guys keep charging us to run commercials. >> that i hear you. there's no magic wand you would wave here. >> the first amendment is pretty broad, it's so broad it allows people to run ad that is are lie being me. >> speaking of television ads, i'm going to have to run a up canal here. take a quick break. when we come back, we'll do immigration, health care, some

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welcome back to the msnbc town hall. we are here with senator marco rubio, and we're going to dive into an issue that comes up pretty much at every debate, immigration. we have our next question. >> how are you? >> do you recognize that the underlying cause of illegal immigration from central america is a lack of security? what are you willing to do to help solve that problem? >> it is in both el salvador, guatemala, hon dour ras, there's a terrible security situation. a breakdown of government. there's an effort, alliance for progress to be done. as chairman of the western he

hemisphere we've worked to figure out what we can do. the model is clol bee ya. it was on the verge of being a failed state. because of u.s. assistance and some incredible choices made by the colombians and contributions made on their part and the work many, they were able to turn around the security situation in colombia. i think the situation in honduras and guatemala is even tougher than what was faced during that time. but we should work with the countries to build up the infrastructure, the law enforcement, and judiciary to deal with the violence that is driving people out of those countries and seeking harbor in the united states. >> thank you. >> thank you. [ cheers and applause ] >> how much of our immigration issue or the perceived -- first of all, do you believe we have an immigration crisis? because net migration is down. so is this more of a perception problem that we have -- >> net migration will fluctuate. there are years there are not a

lot of jobs so people go back. the question is whether we have a system in place today in which an uncontrolled number of people are able to unlawfully either enter the country or overstay visas and what that does is as long as that exists, as long as that is problematic, we can't make the legal immigration system work. it makes people reluctant to improve it. irrespective of the net numbers, you still have a substantial number of people entering illegally every year andover staying. you're seeing that with cubans who instead of coming on rafts are going to mexico and crossing the border to get in. people crossing the border from mexico are no longer just from mexico. it is a problem. it is a serious problem. visa overstays are a problem in miami and in florida and it has to be dealt with. until that is dealt with, i don't think we'll be aible to make progress on anything else on immigration. >> you have said that on day one you would eliminate the dhaka order. i know that doesn't mean it's everybody's deported on day one. there is a difference -- >> it means they can't renew their permit. >> right. >> but when the permit expires,

do deportations begin? >> i think you always prioritize dangerous people for deportation. deportation is the final process in a longer process when someone is in this country without status and here illegally. that's not the way it's reported sometimes it makes it sound like you have these hit teams out there rounding people up. that's not the way the process works. my preferred outcome would be that we bring illegal immigration under control. we prove it to the american people, and then we're able to move forward on the rest of it. i honestly believe if we can prove to people that illegal imgra gration is under control, the american people will be very reasonable about what do you do with someone who came here when you were 3 years old -- >> you want to deal with the dreamer order so why rescind the order? >> because it's unconstitutional. >> this specific order you believe in. you just believe it's unconstitution unconstitutional? you believe -- >> no, i believe that we should do something to accommodate young people who are in this country who were brought here through no fault of their own but i don't think you can do that in an unconstitutional way. i would love to cut taxes but if the president ordered the irs to stop collecting a certain

percentage of taxes, i would be against it because you can't -- if you undermine the constitution, you lose your country. we have to do this -- we have to solve this but through a constitutional way. it can't be by the president doing whatever he wants. >> how quickly of a priority is it for you? >> it's an important priority. >> is it first 100 days type of priority? >> enforcing the immigration laws has to be. >> if you're going to rescind the order don't you need to immediately have a basically some dreamer legislation ready to go? >> i don't think you can pass anything until you first prove to people that illegal immigration is under control. it's not going to happen in six months or a year. that takes time. we tried it and it's been tried three times in the last ten years and it fails every time. you sa i to people this law requires a fence, it requires more border agents and they say to you we don't believe it. we don't think the federal government will do it. we've heard this promise before. if you do it and you prove it to them, i think it unlocks the door to the rest. >> how do you ever prove it then? >> yeah. >> you're moving goalposts here and i'm not saying you but everybody is. >> i think when you can see the 700 miles of fencing and walls

have been completed. >> you think we have to physically -- >> across 700 miles. >> you wouldn't do the entire -- >> no, what you want to do is funnel traffic to areas you can control and that's why -- that's the purpose of fencing. it's no ensure that any traffic -- we have legal traffic that comes over the border. we have trade. we have people that come back and forth to shop and do business. so the point is but you want crossings to happen in an area that is controlled and monitored and right now you have porous areas and it's inviting trafficking groups to bring people across the border. >> let me go to daniel bray with the next question also on immigration. >> senator rubio. how are you, chuck? if you were to institute your merit-based immigration policy wouldn't be shutting out your people like your parents? >> well, you wouldn't shut them out but it's a different process no doubt. my parents came in 1956. the world is a different place from 1956. when my parents arrived in the u.s. in 1956, my dad had a fourth grade education maybe. my mom had about the same. if they came today under those

circumstances, they would really struggle to succeed because in the 21st century economy unless you have a certain level of skill or education, it's very hard to find a sustainable job. so we always change policies when times change. and immigration policy is no different. and so today in the 21st century immigration policy has to be primarily based on merit. that doesn't mean everybody is a ph.d.. it does mean before you come in you should be able to prove what skills are you going to bring to the u.s. it also, by the way, would open up more green cards for graduates from our universities who are graduating at the top of their class in sciences and technology and other fields and then they can't stay. that doesn't mean there won't be a family-based component to it. there will be but the priority and the base of the zm needs to be merit based. absolutely. it's not the same system my parents came across because nothing looks the same as it did 630 years ago. >> disney brought in a whole bunch of people on visas and made some americans, put them

out of work -- >> it's wrong. i'll tell you how it's happening. it's like saying i want to get rid of handicap parking stickers because i saw a guy abusing the ticket. >> there's a lot of abuse of it. >> here is how they're doing it. disney or other companies they hire an outsourcing agency like this company tata. these companies control an inordinate number of visas. you're not even hiring the workers. you're hiring the company. the company is then bringing them in as contractors. they don't even work for disney. they work for the company. that's how they get around the h1b requirement that you're not replacing americans. there have to be reforms to limit the number of visas but also require a stricter enforcement on whether you are hiring people to replace american workers. it is illegal to use h1b to -- >> we're driving down wages from really good jobs and the wages might be pretty good, 1 $150,00

goes down to an 80 -- >> but that's illegal now. it's illegal under the law now, and so that's a process of more enforcement. of catching companies doing that using the consultancy group and the outsourcing loophole and pishl them and say if you do it once, you will face a stiff penalty. if you do it again, you will be prohibited from using the program again. >> politically, do you accept your work with the gang of 8 has been made your campaign more difficult? >> i tried to solve a problem. i told people when i ran for the senate, i told people that i was going up there to do two things, to stand up to the obama agenda but also to offer an alternative. so in 2013 i was a member of a senate controlled by harry reid and there was going to be movement on immigration, and i said i'm going to get involved and try to make it the best possible legislation as conservative as i possibly can becaused way the process works is even if the senate passes a law, it has to go to the house

controlled by conservatives and they're going to make it better. that's what i was saying at the time. it's not what i'm saying now. it didn't work that way. the house never took it up so the senate bill is the only thing that happened. i never believed the senate bill should be the final law. >> do you acknowledge you may be out of step with where your party is right now. >> look, the problem is worse today than it was three years ago. in essence we continue to have an illegal immigration problem, we still don't have a fence, still don't have the 20,000 new border agents, still have 12 or 13 million people here illegally. i argued we had to do something. it's a messy process. at the end of the day -- >> doesn't it have to be done bipartisanly. i cannot imagine one party being able to jam this through. >> well, i think if i'm president of the united states it's not going to look like the senate bill. it's going to be our way -- i was very skeptical even at the time about being able to do it comprehensively and i'm very clear when i'm president of the united states -- >> you don't believe in comprehensive anymore. >> i don't think you can pass it. i really don't believe the support is there and at this point after two executive orders and a migratory crisis with minors on the border, i don't

think comprehensive has any chance of passing anytime in the near future and we're wasting time. >> speaking of time, take another break, when we come back, health care, the economy. we'll be right back. thanks man. imagine if the things you bought every day... ...earned you miles to get to the places you really want to go. with the united mileageplus explorer card, you'll get a free checked bag, two united club passes, priority boarding, and 30,000 bonus miles. everything you need for an unforgettable vacation. the united mileageplus explorer card. imagine where it will take you. people are taking charge of their type 2 diabetes with non-insulin victoza®. for a while, i took a pill to low my blood sugar. but it didn't get me to my goal. so i asked my doctor about victoza®.

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rubio. six days before the kriscrucial florida primary. it's always about florida. i take it as a badge of honor as a floridian. the lanext question is on cuba. >> as a cuban american business owner i'm curious to know would you roll back all the changes obama has made regarding cuba or keep some of them? >> probably all because i think they're illegal. relations between -- we have to get back to this idea of rule of law in this country. relations between the u.s. and cuba are regulated by law. the helms burton act, the u.s. democracy act. these are laws that regulate any sort of changes and it outlines how there can be a change between relations between the united states and cuba. it requires reciprocal measures on the part of the cuban government. so i ask why couldn't we have gone towards cuba the way we did towards myanmar or burma. if you look at the opening

towards them, the u.s. made diplomatic recognition, economic openings and in exchange the government there allowed a political opening and today the opposition party is the majority in their legislative branch. by no means am i arguing they're new zealand or canada or australia but they're a lot better than they used to be because it's a requirement. we made no requirements in cuba of any political openings or freedom of the press or respect for human rights. the result is the situation in cuba today for human rights and democracy continues to deteriorate on the hopes that somehow american business and american tour simple going to lead to a political change. it will not. it will just provide more resources for a dictatorship to carry out a transition and become permanent. i will roll back those changes and then i will say if there's going to be a change in u.s./cuba relations it must be according to the law as written by congress and it will be reciprocal. >> what do you roll back? the travel bans, everything back? >> first of all, cuban-americans have been allowed to travel to cuba for a long time. the problem we have now is

people are going -- the problem you have now is this. you have people copping from cuba and they say hear here coming as exiles and then travel back to cuba 42 times a year. so the question is if you're an exile why are you going back 42 times a year. how does that -- >> you're not an exile anymore. >> number one. you have people living in cuba that came to the u.s. a year and a day later become u.s. residents, qualified for all sorts of assistance from the u.s. government and are living in cuba and the check is being deposited in a u.s. bank account, the relatives are taking the money and wiring it back to cuba. that's an april because of the system and an abuse of our generosity. that's what this has opened the door to. >> what's the better solution? rolling back what the president has done or do we get rid of wet foot/dry foot? do we reform so basically cubans have to be under the same immigration -- >> first of all, i would say to you we need to close this loophole that allows people to come into the u.s., claim residency, and then live in cuba and get -- >> so you support the legislation that would change it. >> it's my legislation. that's why i support it.

the other point i would make is i have always said that the cuban adjustment act is endangered given the current patterns that we see. there are people in cuba that are legitimately fleeing oppression. and those people we should continue to receive them. and then there are people abusing the system. that's why i think the cuban adjustment act should be revisited. they're saying if you land on u.s. soil, you get to stay. if they catch you at sea, they send you back. that's the way they're applying the law. >> do you buy the argument that the obama administration makes that says doing what they are doing with cuba improves relationships with the rest of latin america and has helped to isolate venezuela in a way they couldn't -- >> venezuela is isolated because they're run by a crazy guy and they have no money. they have no money. that's why they're isolated. >> but if cuba is closer to the united states, the farther cuba is away from venezuela.

>> venezuela has no money. they're bankrupt. they destroyed the economy. they didn't care about being friendly. they wanted the oil. they wanted cash because they needed to survive and they needed it for subsistence. as far as the rest of latin america is concerned, i don't know. our relationship with argentina improved because they elected a better president. our relationship with colombia is solid. our relationship with honduras and guatemala is good. our relationship is el salvador is mixed. our relationship with mexico is largely unaffected by our relationship with cuba. the only zirchs when we go to the summit of the americas we don't have to hit through a 30 minute speech about get rid of the embargo but -- >> it's not a small thing though, is it? >> it's a small thing. in terms of public policy, all those countries still want to of a good relationship with the united states. >> we're going to move on. brandon rodriguez, you have the next question. >> thank you both of you for being here and hosting the town hall. i have to say i'm a strong advocate for maintaining and

advancing america as an energy super power. however rising sea levels have become a concern for many citizens in florida as well as citizens of other states in new york, california. what are your views on that and what will you do as president to assure us a habitable future. >> first of all, if you're lafg flooding and we have had flooding for a long time, i remember sweet water, they used to have massive flooding 20 years ago before they but drainage in. i live in west miami which is basically waterfront property 25 years ago anytime it rained. we always have flooding issues because we happen to live in a swamp that's been filled in. if it's rising sea level, i'm in favor of mitigation program but i think you're getting at a broader question. what public policy can we pursue? i want to lead the world in every norge oil resource. i want to lead in solar, biofuels, i want to lead in all of them. i want the u.s. to be number one in every source of energy, have the most diverse portfolio possible and allow the market to choose which one makes sense.

but as far as what impact it's going to have on the cloo i mat, not even the most stringent advocate could tell you you will see a measurable difference in sea level in our lifetime or mine. if we pass laws that will mandate things in our economy there will be a real economic cost associated with it. innovation and technology is already basically driving us in the direction people concerned about sea level drive wants us to go. >> where are you on climate change? >> that's a measurable thing. first of all, the climate is always changing. this notion that the climate used to be the same for 1,000 years and now it's different -- climate is always changing. what man's contribution is to it, you know, that's what people argue about all the time in terms of most scientists say man has contributed to it. they can't agree at what percentage but i can tell you this, none of the laws they want me to pass would do a thing about it. >> but you believe it is still your responsibility to deal with it? >> look, if you have flooding on miami beach, you have to deal with it. we have had flooding in west miami where i lived 15, 20 years

ago, we dealt with it. >> is south beach overdeveloped? are we risking too much of the economy by developing to the point where if a small flood could create too much damage. >> we're developing in coastal areas because people want to live near the water. whether it's overdeveloped or not, it's too late now. >> should those folks help may por the mitigation? >> what are you going to do? roll back miami beach 100 years. it's an artificial island. it's there now, it's a key part of our economy. we're going to protect it. we want to protect it. we want it to continue to be a vibrant place to live. it's there, wee node to deal with it. >>ed a rihanna rodriguez. >> thank you for being here. my question for you is earlier last month the florida house approved a campus carry bill that would allow handguns on college campuses. what is your view on this policy and how would you regulate it to make sure students and

professors are safe? >> well, i think if you have a law, law-abiding people will follow it and criminals will ignore it. if god forbid this afternoon some lunatic or someone who has a mental illness or a dangerous criminal decides they want to come on the campus of this university god forbid and harm someone, they're not going to care it's illegal to do it. they're criminals. they're going to voile late the law. the only people that follow laws are law abiding people. i'm a gun owner. if the law says i can't do something, i'm not going to do it. it is already illegal to shoot up our communities so they don't care if it's illegal to bring a gun on campus. they will bring it on campus because they're criminals np here is why it's difficult. think about it this way. i'm a gun owner and i like to drive in my car and have a gun in the car for my protection. but i have to go to fiy's campus whap do i do when i get to southwest 107 avenue? do i drop the gun off in the bush and park my car and come back out and pick it up after class is over? you can't. that's why those laws are justified because you want

people to be able to have -- be able to protect themselves to and from work or to and fro school. it's not just on campus. it's being able to not have to throw it out. that said, it is illegal to use a gun in the commission of a crime and criminals don't care because they're criminals. >> all right. thank you. we're going to sneak in another break. when we come back, a little more in depth on the economy and housing. at safelite, we know how busy your life can be. oh no this mom didn't have time to worry about

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we are back. welcome back to the msnbc town hall. i'm here with republican senator marco rubio. six days before the florida primary. we're going to talk about an issue that is pretty big here in south florida when it comes to all things having to do with the economy and what happened with the financial collapse and vincente has the next question. >> good evening, senator. good evening, chuck. my question is the financial crisis of 2008 was caused in

part by the irresponsible actions of banks and lenders. although we currently see economic recovery, experts say most problems were simply thrown under the rug. as president, what course of action will you take to prevent another economic meltdown? >> it's a good question. first of all, i was personally impacted by it. i bought a home in 2005 in miami. anybody who bought a home in 2005 bought at the peak of the market, and a year and a half later i did nothing wrong. in fact, i improved the moment, but it was worth less than the day i bought it and my neighbor went into foreclosure because he died of an illness and -- or his family went in foreclosure and that reset the prices in the neighborhood again. again, none of us were in trouble, none of the homes had been foreclosed except for that untimely death and less our home was worth less a year and a half later than the day we bought it because of these actions. i think there were a lot of culprits here. the federal reserve is a big part of it. the federal reserve understood there was an overheated housing bubble and they kept interest rates low artificially nonetheless. they kept goosing up the housing

market despite the fact that they knew or shouf known that interest rates were too low. banks created and lending institutions created exotic packages for lending and sold them as tradeable goods, and then add to all of that a law that basically required these banks to create these sort of packages because we wanted every american to hoown a home and th result is the housing crisis. the best way forward is twofold. to have a rules-based system for our federal reserve. the federal reserve is not supposed to run our economy. it is a central bank. it is supposed to maintain the stability of our currency and it should have very specific rules that trigger when interest rates go up and when they go down or when they stay the same. two, simple rules to regulate banks that have a clear capital requirement of how much banks need to hold in reserve. clearly delynn nated so every bank has enough on reserve but it's not so complicated that local lenders and regional banks

and community banks can't comply. it's not a coincidence that after dodd/frank local banks, regional banks, small community banks are being hurt. they're disappearing while big banks are bigger than they've ever been because complex laws help big industries at the expense of small ones. >> you know, a lot of the fervor behind trump and sanders is people feeling we got the shaft. nobody went to jail. do you think that's a problem. >> if they committed a crime they should go to jail. >> but the attitude has been unffeu unfortunately there was no law on the books that what they did was technically illegal -- >> i don't think it was right. just because something is legal doesn't make it right. so there are penal that probably did things that were immoral and wrong and they cashed out knowing their practices were unsustainable but that doesn't make it illegal. it makes it negligence, irresponsible, it makes it immoral but tt's different from saying illegal. if someone committed a crime,

they should go to jail. they shouldn't be protected because of who they are or what influence they might have but it has to be a crime. >> one of the things miami is sferchsing is something some other major cities experienced it, washington spernded it, new york city is experiencing it. foreign money comes in raising property values to the point where average middle-class residents in miami can't afford to live here. >> that's right. when they're paying cash. >> it's good for property values -- >> it's good for the seller, bad for the buyers. >> and it's not good for average working people who are looking to to own a home. what do you do? >> largely the answer to that comes from local government through a combination of things. number one is, you know, this is going to get complicated but i did a lot of zoning work early in my legal career and part of it is the density requirements. for example, the highest and beps use of a waterfront property is not going to be, you know, affordable residential housing. it's going to be high rises with good view that is are expensive but in other communities you have to have zoning and comprehensive planning laws that make it feasible to create

workforce housing and family housing for a developer who is only going to take on the risk of a project if, number one, they can get a good rate of return per square foot, and number two, if they can quul fi people to buy. i still think rental stock is important. not everyone is at a stage in their >> so you also have to make it cost effective for rental housing and rental apartments and so forth to be cost effective. but a lot of that is a function of local government. it's in the a federal issue, other than the banking and interest rates and things of this nature. >> david neighbors, i think, has a question. >> i'm an aspiring law student. >> my condolences. [ laughter ] >> issues pertaining to our federal judiciary are of particular importance to me, but i feel that a lot of people, especially people my age, don't fully grasp the importance of those issues. last month our country suffered a loss with the passing of justice scalia, it seems the

next president will be in a position to appoint multiple justices to the supreme court. can you speak of the importance of that and what specific qualities you would look for in potential candidates? >> people say conservative and i believe that. the constitution is a document that is supposed to be applied. the job of the court is not to change the constitution, the job of the court is to apply it. there's a way to change it, it's the amendment process. i'd like to see term limits on congress, term limits on the court. i'd like to see a balanced budget, but i don't think a court can impose that. irrespective of the personal views of a justice, their job is not to be a policy maker, their job is to apply the constitution as originally meant. i think it's important for people to understand, if the constitution means whatever you

want it to mean at any given time in our history, then it becomes meaningless. it limits the power of the federal government, reserves most of governmental will power to the states. we need more judges that understand that and do it that way. that's the kind i'll appoint. >> what would you make the term of a federal judge, 20 years, 25 years? >> i'm open to whatever it is. >> but you believe there should be a limit. >> i don't believe anyone should be in a position in perpetuity. one of the arguments in favor of it, it makes them immune to pressure. if you're on the court -- >> and people didn't live at long back then. do you think that had something to do with it? >> i guess. but life expectancy was quite less than it is now. but my point is, term limits are good. whether it's eight years, 12 years in the legislative branch, but i think it's good. our system was built for people that were not in there for 50 years. it was built for people with

some real life experience, that come in and go back out. >> let me ask you about a litmus test, overturning rowe v. wade, would you ask that question? >> number one, i'm going to make sure they have the intellectual capacity to defend their views and their ability to express it. one of the things that made scalia effective, he was an excellent communicator of his positions. >> you believe that matters? >> he's able to express and the clerks do a lot of the work, but i think it's important to have someone with the intellectual capacity to express their views and also that influences the others, which scalia was able to do. and the ability to understand complex issues, number one. number two, i want to make sure it's someone that has the view of the constitution as i do. and i would like to see a record of having believed that way. as far as how they would rule on a particular case, no nominee

will answer that question. no president -- >> so does justice roberts not have enough of a record to make you comfortable? >> i wasn't involved in the nomination process. >> that's come up in this campaign. >> i haven't looked at his record. >> you want more of a track record? >> i want someone with a proven record, whether in academia or on the bench of defending or applying the idea that the job of a supreme court justice is to apply the constitution according to his region meaning, not to reach policy conclusions they'd like. >> we'll be right back with more with marco rubio, new york, miami, florida, on the campus of florida international university. [ applause ] "day to feel ali"♪ ♪jake reese, "day to feel alive"♪

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admiration for him and i still do. >> you said something in your victory speech when you won the u.s. senate seat. you said, washington is a place that changes people. and within a short period of time, they forgot why they even ran. six years later, is there some truth to that with you? >> not with me. i'm running today for the same reasons i ran in 2010, only the stakes are higher. five years later, we see many of the things that made america a special country in a lot of trouble and i say both parties are to blame for that. we have to remember why we're exceptional. it's the one place on earth where where you're born, it doesn't determine how far you go. they understand that here in miami and especially at fiu. we have the potential and i want this to be country where parents can do for their children what my parents did for me. we have another four years like the last eight, we're going to lose it. i don't think either party is doing enough to stop the erosion of the american deream and thats why i ran for president.

>> thank you, sir. that will be it for all of us. big thank you to our friends here at florida international university, a wonderful host here in miami, florida. keep it tuned in here, msnbc, the place for politics. have a good night. >> won't fight dirty. >> go and tell people what you're for. >> he sticks to the issues. >> we cannot elect somebody that doesn't know how to do the job. >> yet his rivals have prevailed. >> what has happened to the conservative movement? >> and now ohio governor john kasich's presidential ambitions hinge on a victory in his home state. >> we are going to win the state of ohio. it will be a whole new ball game. >> this is an msnbc special town hall with governor john kasich from lima, ohio. >> good evening, welcome to a special