you compare it erik paulsen to white wall. let's see that. -- you compared erik paulsen to a wall. let's see that. mr. phillips: i am dean phillips. you have heard about how my campaign for congress is all about having a conversation. this is a wall. it's kind of like erik paulsen. it's a nice wall, but you can't have a conversation with it. it's like gun violence. erik voted 21 times to let people on the terrorist watch list get guns. even domestic abusers. i approve this message. how about you? moderator: ok. what is behind that? mr. phillips: i believe representation begins with listening, and i have done that for 18 months, driving my old truck around the district and i listened to people. the most common complaint and conversation i have with people is the lack of congressman paulsen's accessibility. he had not had a town hall meeting in seven years until this very campaign. he does not appear in public. this is one of only three debates, closed environments, not willing to get in front of people. i think it's a core responsibility and duty of members of congress and candidate

republican erik paulsen has represented the third district in congress since 2009. his democratic challenger this year, dean phillips, is a businessman. this is his first run for office. there are no formal debate rules in play. we encourage you, fellas, to jump in. congressman, let me start with you. immigration. sanctuary cities. the president is talking about sending the military to the southern border to intercept the honduran caravan coming in. in broad strokes, what are your feelings about immigration? mr. paulsen: we need an followsion system that capital. if we are going to continue our growth, we have to have low high skilled folks filling those jobs. patrol agentse can do their jobs, as they should. many in dean's party want to abolish ice, and i think that would be a mistake. immigration is important if we are going to continue growth. toigned a discharge position force some votes to make sure family separations were halted, as well as the daca fix. moderator: do you support abolishing ice? mr. paulsen: i don't. i think we need well-trained people and at

erik paulsen really exists.ost: professor david schultz, that is one of the ads that puts that race on the map nationally. what was your take when that came out? guest: that is a very effective at. because erik paulsen and jason lewis have avoided town halls. that has become an issue locally for both of the districts. what is song -- interesting about that ad, it is humor and satire. those are hard ads to respond to. when someone does this kind of satire or humor, where do you come back in terms of a counter add and say i am not bigfoot, i am not in fighting? those become very hard to do. it was a very creative at. in a state we should concede that many years ago we had paul wellstone doing creative ads in the 1990's. jesse ventura 20 years ago, very creative ads. types of adsese are very effective. what is interesting also about race is that the ads are quite negative. but what i've seen, which is really interesting with eric paulson, is his campaign is actually doing a lot of those attack ads on dean phillips.

they've been trying to make the case that erik paulsen is closely aligned with president trump. that president trump endorsed paulsen. he gave a softer response, saying he wishes the president would support him on certain things but didn't necessarily say he was glad to have the endorsement. for his base voters, the base republican voters that he needs to come out, this could matter. it could also turn off a lot of these suburban independents like the ones you spoke with. >> i want to talk about some of the other races we have going on in minnesota. you also have two senate races, which is kind of an unusual situation because of the al franken resignation. at this point, are you expecting democrats to carry those seats easily, or what's the dynamic? >> well, democrats have been up in both of those races. amy klobuchar seems to be cruising toward at re-election. in the other race for that seat that al franken used to hold, tina smith, the appointed senator, is up slightly. the republicans think there's an outside chance that will close, but amy klobuchar is seen as someone who may

goes erik paulsen's ad using the word shady.uest: in this district you are not hearing all that much of a difference in policy issues. a little bit on health care but more on personal attacks. the attack on philips is that he is a shady businessman. host: georgia. gwen is next. hello. caller: i am calling because i keep hearing people calling in saying the president, the republican party plans to go after social security. i don't believe that's true. i have listened -- i heard the president say he will protect social security. and medicare. i don't know where these things are coming from. in addition to that, i want to remind people it took the republican party, along with the democrat party, for almost 30 and allow ourack jobs to go all over the world. now you have someone in the white house who is finally trying to clean this mess up. they are not even working with him to do that. it is not something that can be done overnight but at least he is trying to do it. i think he should get some support. host: thank you. guest: socia

. >> i'm erik paulsen and i approved the message. >> joking about not paying his taxes. he repeatedly didn't pay his taxes and claim a tax credit on his houses at the same time. he'he supports an energy tax tht would raise gas prices and he even said he was disgusted by middle-class tax cuts calling fothem awful. he doesn't pay his taxes and wants to raise yours. >> why was this important? >> he has a record of not paying taxes on time whether it was on his businesses or personal taxes including the exemption for two of the multimillion dollar mansions, but personal and business taxes is a pattern when you want to raise taxes and vote against the bill we want to point out is a part of that ad. >> i do pay the taxes and i call that awful because it doesn't include the benefi benefits to e middle income americans. we had an 89-dollar interest charge in 2013 and in 27 i hate my property tax bill five days late because i get a fraud alert on my bank account and that's why i was actually joking i don't know how they got the video in my campaign office but i was joking about t

did erik paulsen really exist? >> the most likely place to find him is at a big pharmaceutical company. so take it from me, big foot. erik paulsen really exists. >> i mean, it's good. . i think it's funny. it's well done. >> it's well done. it's very clever. the problem is i never really had big foot for a conspiracy theorist. to be honest, i don't believe him. i don't think the congressman exists. >> the ad's weird for a couple of reasons. you make an important point. they're trying to say here's an incumbent who's down with special interests, but it's big foot who is pushing the conspiracy. >> yes, yeah. to be honest, hey, listen i get what they were doing. from a comedy standpoint, i think it's, you know, okay. from a political standpoint, i'm not sure. i'm not sure if you get the point. >> you're not sure if they landed it? >> i like it because you're in the pocket of big interests, right, or special interests. it's the thing we hear all the time. it's a talking point that's heard from both sides honestly, and

republican erik paulsen has represented the third district in congress since 2009. his democratic challenger this year, dean

it is currently represented by erik paulsen. dean phillips is challenging to seek.hey haven't seen a democrat in 1961 -- since 1961. how it is leaning blue. welcome and thank you for your patience, sir. dean: great to be here. david: we just heard at some length from the president of the united states about this new deal that will replace nafta. he says it is the most modern trade agreement of the world and it will be great for all parties. let's talk about the dairy farmers. he is made some progress he said with getting some access to dairy prices into canada. how will that play in minnesota? dean: i think it will play well. as somebody who tried to sell gelato and was terribly disappointed that nafta precluded us from doing so at a competitive price, i celebrate the opening of the dairy market to some of our farmers and i think that's thoughtful negotiation and i am pleased to see it. david: does it take an issue away from you as you challenge the seat? dean: i don't look at it as an issue of taking away are giving to someone else perfect as fact and truth is trut

can you start with erik paulsen's race? guest: this one is the most watched race in our state it more than 50 million -- $15 million spent in this race. it is a suburban district of the twin cities. it has the lowest unemployment of any district in the nation. people are very comfortable in this district. erik paulsen has been there for a number of terms. he has survived some tough races. i think this is his toughest one yet. dean phillips is a democrat who is wealthy, basically the heir of a local liquor company. he is really hitting a number of issues, taking money from pharmaceutical companies. and tying into the president is his main agenda. because the district voted for clinton. trump is not popular in the district. recently, the president, surprisingly, endorsed erik paulsen in the race over twitter. that was immediately jumped on by his opponents, saying they are one and the same, and voters should see that as well. this is one where democrats see their best chances to flip a seat. host: would you say erik paulsen h