that's the rubio way. right to rise usa is responsible for the content of this message. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> this sunday on "close up," on the campaign trail with criticism of the man he hopes to replace. senator marco rubio is in studio. we talk about the threat from north korea and gun laws in america. another presidential hopeful has harsh words about president obama' s executive actions aimed at curbing gun violence. what rand paul plans to do to derail the proposals. i am adam sexton, in for josh mcelveen.

for a new direction for u.s. foreign policy. this week, claims by north korea that it detonated a hydrogen bomb brought those issues to the forefront of the campaign. senator marco rubio joins me. thank you for joining us. we should point out that it is undetermined whether this was a hydrogen bomb or not that it is a reminder that north korea can turn the table upside down if it wants to. sen. rubio: a reminder of what i' ve been saying for years, it is governed by a lunatic. he happens to possess not just a nuclear capability and potentially a hydrogen bomb, which is more capable than a nuclear weapon. and increase capacity intercontinental missiles, some believe they have a range that can hit california. i' ve said we need to return them to the list of state sponsors of terror. we need to sanction the leadership, who have assets abroad. we need a missile defense shield for the u.s.

have a presence in the asia-pacific region, not just to counter north korea but also the expansionism that is going on with china and the south china sea. adam: feels like we have been seeing headlines not just with kim jong-un but his father for so long. could we be stuck in this for another 50 years? how do we break out of the cycle of him throwing a temper tantrum and having to respond? sen. rubio: the dynamics are bizarre. it is a regime that does people, they have death camps. our responsibility is to ensure they cannot do anything to the u.s. they are increasing the capability of long-range rocket spirit we' ve never had a time in the world where a lunatic possesses long-range missiles and a nuclear warheads capable of striking the u.s. we need to act with urgency about having the missile defense systems that are necessary to prevent that from hurting our people.

s game plan with an idea. north korea launches conventional missiles and south korea and japan, potentially tens of thousands of lives lost in china and the u.s. have to essentially decide what happens next. what does president rubio do #sen. rubio: any attack by north korea or south korea will be met with disproportional results. south korea has established a rule of engagement where if they get hit by one rocket, they respond with 4. you could see an escalation in the form of a nuclear attack on south korea. that is why it is critical for the united states to have naval assets in the region. along with the japanese, who are capable, to neutralize that. if north korea would start an all-out war, it would be the end of the north korean government. we how the capability to bring that to an end. in the process, they could get off on attack of nuclear proportions on some neighbors and potentially, if they have a long-range rocket, the u.s. this is a very unpredictable

i do not say that is lightly, the guy is not well. he is dangerous. we need the assets in the region to respond. our response is established by protocol, it would involve the elimination of that government. they would be gone in terms of our response militarily. but we have to have the naval assets to be able to do it. and we may not if we continue with defense cuts that even some of my opponents support in the republican primary. adam: we' ve seen another possible attended attack in france on the charlie hebdo anniversary. how do we prepare for the threat of north korea and a conventional or nuclear war while maintaining presence that has to do with micro threats from islamic terrorism? sen. rubio: they are not micro threats. the case in paris -- we have five major challenges and we talk about them consistently. the lunatic in north korea, the chinese making illegitimate claims in the south china sea and hacking and all the things they are doing, russia and their

vladimir putin. 2 apocalyptic movements that believe they are going to bring about the emergence of the hidden imam, the messianic figure of islam. and they are going to trigger that. one is the shia government in iran and the other is the sunni movement called isis. what happened in paris we need to know more about. in essence, the guy with the knife is potentially part of a broader issue, radical jihadists carrying out attacks on an individual basis, other people they have infiltrated into the west or people that are radicalized while being citizens of the west. it is a new threat and we need to increase our intelligence capabilities. we have to re-examine our immigration programs to ensure we are keeping america safe in terms of people coming in. adam: let' s shift to the domestic. a constitutional convention to restore limited government, this sounds kind of like government by other means. how does this not become a lobbying bonanza or a second

sen. rubio: it cannot. it will be a convention of the states, not a convention where you open the constitution. it would be a convention of the states called by the states for a defined purpose. they cannot deal with anything not in the call of the convention.this is an existing movement called convention of the states. they already have 29 states voting into it, they are missing a handful more. they would do things in the constitution that would limit government, not expand. for example, in the movement' s term limits for congress. i support that, term limits for the judges at the federal level and a balanced budget amendment. from congress. i encourage people to go on conventionofthestates.com and on. it is not about opening up the to that. as president, i will put the full weight of the presidency in

adam: is it is for creating limited government, how do you get buy in from liberal fans? it seems like this would be george washington telling thomas welcome. sen. rubio: this is not politicians, this is individual people pushing their state legislatures to ratify and pass it to get a number of states to call the convention of states. we do not need anything from congress or harry reid are chuck schumer, you need nothing from president obama. all i said is when i am president, i' m going to people i am for this. citizens. people through the states taking control of their government from a runaway federal government. adam: why would you expect the dynamics to be different for washington? sen. rubio: it is going to be driven by the states and not the federal government. it is going to be driven by a specific call. they will do the things that i outline, term limits on congress and judges, a balanced budget, or they will do nothing.

already in the existing call. once this takes hold and people learn about what it is, i expect the groundswell in america, especially to those who get appointed to the convention, each state will have one vote and more than one representative. i think you are going to see a majority of the states vote for these sorts of things. adam: last week we saw president obama take executive action on the gun issue, not popular among republicans. the president claims his hand was forced by in action in congress. was there a legislation that could have passed and dealt with the gun issue? sen. rubio: the president gave an emotional press conference in which he talked about horrific gun violence in america. i agree these are horrific instances. the problem is, what he is proposing would not have prevented any one of them, you are proposing a solution that would not have solved the problem you say lead you to do this. the president only focuses on

violence part of the equation. right. if you are going to infringe on that, the standard as high. you have to prove that what you are doing is necessary. what they are doing is not going to prevent gun violence. criminals carrying out the attacks, the mass shootings, all background check, no matter who they bought it from. habitual criminals and gangsters shooting at each other, they do not buy guns from retail outlets and gun shows or individual collectors. they get guns from the black market and they do not care what the laws are, they know they are not going to pass a background check. they would never try to buy one from someone who conducts a check. these things are going to do nothing to prevent gun violence. we need to focus on the file and spirit all the money they are going to spend to enforce the executive order should

people who are selling guns to those who do not pass the background check, prosecuting that. we should enforce existing laws instead of making new ones. adam: let' s shift to new hampshire. a lot of other republicans jockeying for position. when i talk to other campaigns, they are always like marco rubio did not put enough time in a new hampshire early on. what do you say to respond to that criticism that you were not here as much as other candidates? sen. rubio: candidates are going to say whatever they think gives them the advantage it we have been here basically every other day for the last month and a half. our bus has been here and we are going to be back again repeatedly. we are excited and we are going to continue to work here today, tomorrow,. i feel good about it. i think people in new hampshire understand as the first in the nation they has an important obligation in selecting the right nominee for the party.

committed, as i am, to reversing the damage barack obama has done. i am getting rid of everyone of his executive orders. everyone of his illegal and constitutional orders. we are going to re-embraced free enterprise, not government takeover of our economy. we going to deal with immigration, no amnesty, sanctuary cities will lose funding,, we will build a border wall and add new agents, we get rid of obamacare and rebuild the u.s. military. adam: the question mark, you are in an enviable position in the polls, getting around donald trump, what can you do to upend his position? sen. rubio: i would say voters in new hampshire, you are the first in the nation and your voice is important. it is important that we have a president frustrated with the direction of this country. the economy is not working, we are not safe and not dealing with jihadists.

made us great. it is important that our president is frustrated and i am, that is not enough. our president must be someone that knows exactly what to do about these things. and no matter how much we may like how donald trump has shed light on some issues, he has not proposed or shown what he' s going to do as president and i think that is a serious problem. you cannot elect someone to the most important political office in the world if they have not detailed for you exactly what they are going to do but how they are going to do it. if there is any state in the country that holds an important role in examining and flushing that out for the candidates it is iowa and new hampshire. i hope people will look at our record and the specifics of what we will do and they will find a difference between donald trump and myself. adam: senator marco rubio, thank you. see you on the trail.

(donkey noise) (elephant noise) (mic feedback) there's a big difference between making noise, (tapping sound) and making sense. (elephant sound) (donkey sound) when it comes to social security, we need more than lip service. our next president needs a real plan to keep social security strong. (elephant noise) hey candidates.

give us a plan. adam: welcome back to "close up ." presidential hopeful rand paul has been critical of government intrusion into americans' private lives as well as what he views as violations of the constitution. he views the recent executive action by president obama to

sean mcdonald sat down with senator paul to get his take. sean: we are here with rand paul, thank you. it is a busy time of campaign. sen. paul: glad to be with you. sean: president obama talking about taking an executive action to expand background checks. what do you make of the announcement? is this the right thing to do? sen. paul: if he were here today i would familiarize them with the constitution. the constitution says laws are supposed to be written by congress, not the president. he' s acting unconstitutionally and when i am back in washington i will do everything i can to stop him. i have legislation that will define to this executive order and say no money will be provided for it. that is not the way our government was intended. it was supposed to be congress, close to the people and elected every two years, is supposed to write the laws. legislature right the laws and not the president. sean: we' ve heard about so many mass shootings, the president

what would you do to curb some of this? sen. paul: we are frustrated by it, i have kids and i cannot imagine dropping them off at school and then being shot at school. we are emotionally affected and would like answers. i think gun control has not worked to stop them and many of these cases the guns have been bought legally with background checks. california has the most strict gun control laws in the country and those guns were bought legally and the shootings still happened. one thing that is common to the shootings is it tends to become most of the mass shootings, have mentally troubled. are defenseless. one thing we could do is try to ensure that schools are defended and make an announcement to the country that if you are coming into a school, it will be defended and that means allowing

possible and having armed security guards. one thing that protects people' s houses is people put up signs saying security alarm. when people see something, they tend not to go there. one thing that has not happened, we have not seen mass killings at police stations because they know they will be opposed if they try to shoot anyone there. adam: is there a worry if you bring guns into a school you could create more violence? sen. paul: only if you think teachers are shooting each other. i' m not talking about having students being armed. if you have the money, armed security guards. we have that in some schools. a lot of high schools across the country have a policeman there. i think having awareness to people who want to perpetrate crimes that they are going to be opposed does act as a deterrent. sean: do you think as part of the solution it would be more background checks, expanded background checks? sen. paul: we already have background checks.

95% or 98% of guns are bought that way. there' s no evidence that unregistered guns are committing these acts. most of the mass shootings has been done with legally purchase guns that have background checks. most criminal affairs are actually done through a legal purchases of guns. -- through a legal purchases of guns. people think if we have more gun control we will not have crime. criminals do not care about fines. if it is a suicide bomber, they are not going to be committing more crimes than they do not care about the penalty. a lot of suicide bombers, it is their first attempt so the background check does not work either. i am not saying it is not a problem, i' m saying there' s not an easy solution and we should not easily give up our second amendment and let president do something that is unconstitutional. it' s illegal and unconstitutional. sean: let' s talk about the campaign. in the final weeks before iowa and new hampshire. you have lagged in some polls, donald trump has done very well.

sen. paul: i think i' m the only fiscal conservative in the race. on the on the one willing to balance the budget by holding the line on spending on all spending. many people on the right say we' ve got to increase military spending. that bankrupts us as much as those in the left who want to increase welfare spending. the real problem in washington is the right wants military spending and the left wants welfare spending and they get together and we spend more on everything and the taxpayer is stuck with a built. i' ve introduced three budgets that balance the budget in five years. a lot of republicans give lip service and they say i am for a balanced budget amendment and they vote for it. when you give them a budget that balances, they will not vote for it. i am the fiscal conservative and i am somebody who believes in privacy. the government should not be collecting records. i stand out because i am not eager to get involved in another war in the middle east. i do not think there is an end

m not willing to send young men and women over there. sean: are you worried some of the supporters of donald trump are making a statement against sitting politicians? you are a senator. sen. paul: i have a lot of complaints about the way washington works, that is why i ran for office, i was upset with republicans not doing their job. republicans sided with president obama and raised the debt ceiling. republicans put a $1.1 trill ion spending bill and no one read it. the difference between trent and myself is i' m a committed conservative. he is a narcissist with no real philosophy other than give me power and i will make things better. we will be alarmed if people succumb to that. voters are smarter than that and when push comes to shove and people vote, people will find out that the polls have been inaccurate. sen. paul: we will find out on

how important is the new hampshire primary? sen. paul: we' ve spent a lot of time and we' ve done a lot of town house. we talked to individual voters. we are working hard. we have a lot volunteers in manchester making phone calls. we have the largest leadership list of anybody running for president in new hampshire, over 500 people. this is something candidates have traditionally done is gather their leadership together and we have more on our list that any other candidate. sean: one of the things we pride ourselves in in new hampshire, you can go up to these candidates. what are you hearing from people? sen. paul: most things i hear from republicans are we elected you to stand up to stand up to the spending and debt and the spending and debt continues. i think they want us to do more. that is why i has been outspoken on how unhappy i am with republicans who have increased

sean: let' s go international. you talked about not wanting to police situations. how do we defeat isis when so much of it is overseas? sen. paul: quit arming them. we' ve been putting arms to the allies of isis four years in syria. we have people on both sides of the aisle, hillary clinton and marco rubio, saying they want to topple assad. who would take over syria then? i think isis. we have to think through the situation. his regime change -- is regime change a good idea? middle east regime change has led things to be worse. was a mistake. we have chaos in iraq and iraq is aligned with iran and russia. in syria, who takes over? probably radical islamists. libya, hillary clinton was a cheerleader for getting rid of qaddafi. libya is a failed state and a third of libya pledges allegiance to isis. do you want a candidate who will

of our lives fighting in the middle east trying to make the middle east like us? or do you believe in someone who wants to defend america with peace through strength but not getting involved in another war? sean: thank you, that does it for us. adam: we will be right back with

john: welcome back to --

here with the john distaso, the master of the new hampshire primary. describe what is going to go on with five weeks to go? it is the home stretch and we have all these candidates. people are candidate shopping. john: is the time when granite staters start to make their decisions per the first week after the new year, the rush of candidates is incredible. it is going to ramp up. i think the goal now is for the candidates to close the deal, move people away from other candidates. number one on the republican side, the goal is to bring down donald trump if possible. if they cannot bring down trump, it is to bring down some others in the race with them, other politicians in the race, so they can emerge eventually as the alternative to donald trump on election night. john: there' s a circular -- adam: there' s a circular firing squad on the establishment side. they could end up harming

john: interesting to watch who is attacking whjo om. you have jeb bush' s superpac attacking marco rubio, rubio attacking christie, christie trying to take the high road and saying he is the person who everyone should unify behind. i think it is a little far-fetched for anyone to think that there' s going to be unity right now. it is really a matter of who is going to break out and we have not had that primary moment yet that we usually have cared i think something is going to what it is. whether it is another world event or it is some politician or even mr. trump himself making a gaffe or doing something that could turn things in someone' s direction. adam: as mr. trump noted last week, i can say anything i want and he pulls go up.

bernie sanders could win in new hampshire but after that it looks pretty bleak, doesn' t it? john: that is the new hampshire momentum. let' s say he does win here. it is a massive upset of hillary clinton, she' s been campaigning here for 25 years and has all the establishment on her side. i think it will get a lot of notice. she would still come out as the favorite for the nomination. it would be like how she took barack obama all the way almost to the convention. continues on and on if bernie sanders were to win here. adam: in particular if he chooses not necessarily to play for the win but changing the be a goal. john: he mentions that all the time, he thinks he can win but he wants to lead a political revolution and change the party, bring out more voters and change u.s. it is a fascinating thing to

bernie sanders a mirror image on the other side in some ways. adam: john distaso, you have 10 primaries you have covered? john: this is my tent. i was in high school. adam: go to wmur.com/politics. thank you for joining us. that wraps of this edition of "close up new hampshire." week.