Lives at sea in the history of this maritime nation. Some of the survivors are still alive today and many of course more to those who died and was kept secret at the time for reasons of wartime secrecy, and i think it is appropriate to do in this house of commons to them all of those who survived and those who died and their families who still mourn them. Here, here. Order. Views been watching prime ministers questions. Question time is live every wednesday at 7 00 a. M. Eastern cspan2 and reairs here on cspan. You can watch anytime at cspan. Org. Like many of us, first families take vacation time, and like president s and first ladies, a good read can be the perfect companion. What better book than one that peers inside the personal life of every first lady in American History . First ladies, president ial historians on the lives of 45 iconic american women. Inspiring stories of fascinating women who survived the scrutiny of the white house, a great summertime read, available from Public Affairs as a hardcover or ebook. Monday night on the communicators, cochair of the congressional privacy caucus texas republican joe barton on the recent fcc regulation rules and the issues with privacy and cyber security. Representative barton whose information is it . Is it automatically in the Public Domain because i choose to use a mobile app . You know the way these things work, they go into the cloud and all that. Can i use it and still have a reasonable expectation of personal privacy . If you take the latter view, that it is personal, and changes the way you regulate and the way you legislate. If you take the position, i am, by act of being a part of, i am by participating by using the app, im forgoing my right to privacy. Thats a different issue in its entirety. Monday night at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on the communicators on cspan2. Coming up next, some of cspans road to the white house coverage, beginning with our recent interview with republican president ial candidate ted cruz. That is followed by Carly Fiorina speaking at this weekends faith in freeman summit in washington, d. C. Our conversation with stephen puyleo. Texas senator ted cruz became the first person to officially enter the 2016 president ial race in march when he announced his candidacy to a crowd gathered at Liberty University in virginia. We recently sat down with senator cruz to talk about his family, his record in the senate , and his decision to seek the republican president ial nomination. This is among the series of interviews with declared president ial candidates with part of cspans road to the white house coverage. Its just under an hour. Senator ted cruz, we want to talk about the politics and policy that has shaped your life. I want to talk about the first. How did you become such a good debater . I guess as a young kid. I like debating. My parents were very different people, and both of them really shaped me. My fathers story, he fled cuba as a teenager. He was imprisoned and tortured and came to america with nothing. That had a big impact on the at home. In terms of being engaged in the political world. I remember some years ago, my wife and i were having dinner, and they said, when did you first get interested in politics . I said, i dont know. I dont remember a time when it doesnt. When i was 3, 4, 5 years old. Im not sure why that is. Heidi begins laughing. You know how sometimes you are will see things about you that are blazingly obvious, and you are too obtuse to see it . Heidi says, no wonder. Think of your family. Ive always said, its an incredible blessing to be the child of an immigrant who came here seeking freedom. In our house, there was always an urgency to politics. It wasnt just, picking up the newspaper and saying, thats interesting. It is understanding that having principalled people in office is how we protect ourselves from tyranny. Debating comes from speaking from principal and with genuine passion. Did anyone along the way teaching the skills, and if so who . Sen cruz in high school, i got involved in a group called the Free Enterprise institute. It was a small nonprofit in houston. What they did, they had students study free market economics. We would read Milton Friedman and hightech hayek, and then we would give speeches on freemarket economics. Later on, we formed a group called the constitutional ground breakers. It was five high school students. We spent hundreds of hours reading the federalist papers, the antifederalist papers, the debates on ratification, and we memorize the court the constitution in a short form. We toured the state of texas speaking on it. We would go to a rotary club. While you were sit in having lunch, we would set up five easels, and each of the high school students, we would write the entire constitution from memory in a shortened, pneumonic form. Then we would write a definition of socialism, government ownership of the means of distribution and production in the economy. She dont know what it is, you cant identify when you have it. Finally, we wrote a quote from Thomas Jefferson. If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, it expects what never was and never will be. In four years of high school, i gave roughly 80 speeches all over the state of texas on freemarket economics and the constitution. What the Free Enterprise institute would do, they would pay you 50 or 100 for each speech. I was earning scholarship money. That training i have to tell you, to be 13 or 14 years old and standing in front of several hundred business people, giving a speech and doing q a, it was a lot more terrifying than standing on the floor of the senate, but it was an incredible experience. That played a really formative part in learning the skills of how to give a speech, how to answer questions, how to think through fundamental issues, and then when i was in college, i was very active on the debate team, and the debate team was wonderful training experience. You learned how to formulate arguments, how to respond, and how to persuade. Why do you think the constitution still works today . Sen cruz the constitution was an extraordinary act of political genius, and it started with two revolutions in america. We had one that was a bloody revolution of guns and bayonets, but we had another that was revolution of ideas where, for millennia, men and women have been told that sovereignty originates at the top. That kings and queens have all sovereignty and power, and any rights we have are given by grace by the monarch like crumbs from the table to be taken away at the win of a monarch. America began with a revolutionary concept, and its reflected first in the declaration, that our rights come not from a king clean, or president , but they come from god almighty. Sovereignty resides with we the people, and so the declaration famously observed, we hold these truths to be selfevident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator. As a revolutionary words. That led directly to the constitution, but the constitution was not a monarch granting rights to the people. Rather, it was a sovereign people establishing a government. As Thomas Jefferson put it, the constitution was to serve as chains to bind the mischief of government. That was an extraordinary understanding that the key to Liberty Madison in federalist 10 writes about factions, and he writes about we would call them special interests. The frameers understood human nature. They understood avarice and greed were part of human nature. They sought to divide power between the branches between three branches of government the legislative, executive, the judiciary, and between federal government and the states and local government. Madison explains that the whole purpose of that is, if power is divided, no faction or special interest can seize the entire government. Its all if its on unified unchecked power means it can be abused, and what the framers understood was, checks and balances was designed for each of the federal governments a to fight each other. Gridlock in washington was part of the design. Gridlock is a way of slowing down the attempt of one government of one branch of government to expand its power. It underscores right now one of the profound dangers of the obama administration, which is president obama, i believe, is the most lawless president we have ever seen. He has claimed the authority to unit what unilaterally ignore laws, change laws. We are a nation that was founded on rule of law, founded on the understanding that no man is above the law, especially the president , and one of the things that i think is front and center in this 2016 election is whether we the people will reign in an outofcontrol president who is refusing to follow federal law for the constitution, whether we will get back to those checks and balances that at the end of the day protect our individual liberty. If you have the chance to go back in time and ask one of the Founding Fathers a question what would you ask them . What intrigues you the most about the constitution . Sen cruz thats a terrific question. I dont know that i have a good answer. I would love to sit down with James Madison and just pick his brain, listen to him think listen to him think about how we established institutions establish institutions that will persevere. If you think about it, the United States has very much been an anomaly in history. Philosopher Thomas Hobbes said, the experience of man is nasty, brutish, and short. That has been the condition for most of history, that men and women have been oppressed, that weve been peasants ruled over by tyrants, and the United States of america i believe powerfully in american exceptionalism. What our framers designed in crafting the constitution is a brief exception from virtually the rest of the history of mankind. To create a land where everyones rights are protected or where anyone concerned with nothing and achieve anything, that was extraordinary. The danger how you check against the abuse of power, the natural avarice for power that has been the state of nature for the history of mankind, and the framers endeavored to do so. You know what we are saying now . It would a deeply troubled madison, franklin. It wouldnt necessarily have surprised them. They understood the lust for power, and they were designing a nation and a constitution to rain that in. One of the things that i think they didnt count on is that congress would be so submissive. Part of the reason the president has been able to usurp some of power is congress has rolled over and taken it. Federalist 10 was based on the branches checking each other. What weve seen, weve got Senate Democrats who uniformly are unwilling to stand up to the president , even when he ignores the law and the constitution. That is unprecedented. We have far too Many Senate Republicans that are likewise willing unwilling to stand up to the president. Our system doesnt work if the branches dont check each other and that component, the bipartisan corruption of washington i dont think the framers anticipated that it would get this bad. They anticipated that human nature, but what we are seeing right now in washington is corrupt. Its both parties. I think we need fundamentally to get back to the framers vision to the free market and constitutional principles that made our nation great. Have you had the chance to sit down and talk to the president . Sen cruz briefly but not at great length. One of the strange things about president obama, he doesnt deal with congress. He doesnt talk to members of congress. He certainly doesnt talk to republicans. He doesnt even really talk to democrats. When democrats talk privately one of the things they vent about is the president largely ignores members of congress, senators. He is fond of saying hes got a phone, and hes got a pen, and hes ruling in. Sleep. Its a very hes ruling imper iously. Hes come over a few times and has lunch with Senate Republicans and democrats. As a practical matter, he has very little interaction with congress. Its one of the reasons why so little has gotten done. The Harry Reid Senate was a donothing senate. President obama has been so partisan that he spends his time vilifying and attacking the opposing party rather than trying to find common ground. You told your story so often about your father, cuban, and your mom, american born. Can you walk through how your relationship with your dad has evolved from a young child to an adult . Sen cruz my relationship with my dad, he was always my hero, and he was larger than life. At one point, he left. Sen cruz he did. When i was a very young child we were living up in canada. My parents had moved up there to calgary in the oil and gas business. This is when i was three or four years old. Neither of my parents were christians at the time. Both of them were drinking far too much. My father, when i was three years old, left us, and he flew back to houston and decided that he didnt want to be married anymore, and he didnt want to remain in the home and be a father to his young son. He spent a number of months back in houston, and a colleague from the oil and gas business invited my dad to a bible study. He came to a bible study at the home of an Insurance Agent in houston, and he sat at that bible study. My dad said one of the ins that struck him the things that struck him was the piece he saw on the christians gather their. Scripture refers to it as a peax ce that passes understanding. One woman had a son that would beat and steal from her to pay for his drug addiction, and yet she was emanating gods peace. He was flabbergasted. He was confused. He couldnt understand how that could be. That night, he kept asking questions. They said, our pastor is coming by tomorrow. Why dont you come back and keep asking your questions . Fishing back the next night. He spent a number of our hours arguing with the pastor. My father is a very, very intelligent man. Hes an application and Computer Programmer and a selftaught geophysicist. He was convinced he could prove the bible wrong. They argued into the night. Finally, my father said, what about the man into that in tibet who has never heard of jesus . This pastor very badly did not take the date. He said rafael, i dont know about the man in to debt, but youve heard of jesus. What is your excuse . My dad has described that hit him like a sledgehammer, and that night, he fell to his knees and became a christian, ask jesus to save him, to come into his life. It transformed him. He drove to the airport. He bought an airplane ticket, and he flew back to calgary, my mother and me. Do you remember that . Sen cruz i dont. I was three years old at the time. I dont have recollections of it. I know the story, because my parents have told me the story. I can only assume that during that time my mother was probably drinking even more, but i dont have any recollection of that myself. What i do have a recollection of is, when he came back and they got back together, my mother became a christian, as well. I was raised in a home where faith was integral. In my family faith literally saved our family. I wouldve been raised by a single mom were it not for my father giving his life to jesus. You talk about faith and prescription abuse. You lost a halfsister. How did you and your family get through that, and what happened . I have two halfsisters, mary and roxana. My father was married when he was young men and had two little girls relay. He and his first wife divorced. They divorced when mariam and roxanna were about six or seven years old. Then he and my mother got married, and i was born. My sister is particularly mary and the eldest took her parents divorce very hard. My sisters would live with their mom during the year. During the school year, i was an only child. During the summers, they would come live with us. During the summers, i was a kid brother with two older sisters in the house. Miriam was bright. She was pretty. She was full of life. Also, her parents divorce really infected her, and she was angry. She was perpetually trapped as an angry teenager, and she proceeded to make a series of bad life choices. She had a serious drinking problem. She had a drug problem. She made decisions. She got married to a man who had been in and out of prison and was physically abusive. She had a son who unsurprisingly the man she married left her and so she was a single mom raising her son, and her addictions got worse and worse. I remember i was about 27, and i was a young lawyer. I just started practicing law, and miriam took a serious turn for the worse. She had been in prison, and she had met a guy who was a hardcore drug addict. When she cannot imprison, she went to a came out of prison, she went to a crack house, and she was living at this crack house with this boyfriend of hers. Her son joey was in sixth grade and his mom wasnt come completelwas completely incapable of caring for him. I remember my dad and i both left our watches and our rings and our wallets, we left everything in my apartment. We were driving to a crack house. He didnt know if we would be shot or robertbed. We picked up miriam and took her to a dentist. My dad and i sat down with her trying to talk sense into her, and she was angry. Daddy, why did you leave us . Kid brother. Our aunt was imprisoned and tortured in castros jails. And yet my aunt raised my cousins baby. As a single mom. We had a lot of strong women in my family and i said miriam, i am sorry that your parents got divorced. Life is sometimes not fair. I am sorry that your father missed a swim meet. Look at what our aunt went through. You have not been imprisoned and tortured but you have a son. Joey needs you. Miriam was at a point where her demons and addictions that argument would not move her. We struggled with what to do. I had just started practicing in a law firm. I had about 100,000 in student loans. My parents were broke. They had declare bankruptcy a few years earlier. I took a cash advance on my credit card for 20,000 and i used that cash advance to pay for joey to go to a military school at valley forge military school. It ended up that he went and lived there. It provided a safe place with order and discipline for him. For a year. He desperately needed. At the end of the year, miriam was doing better. She was not doing great, but she was no longer at the crack else. She had righted her life somewhat and so joey went back with his mom. A few years ago, miriam passed away. She had an overdose which the coroner ruled was a next dental overdose. She had gone to sleep after taking a bunch of pills. She went to sleep and never woke up. You have really seen this gerd the scourge of addiction firsthand. Ted cruz it is a terrible disease. Everyone sees the ravages of life. We have had more than a few irish drunks in our family. My grandfather, my mothers father drank way too much. He was a mean man. He was not physically abusive to my mom but he was emotionally abusive. He was a mean drunk. He would yell at her. My mother is a quiet person but she has a spine of steel. She is strong and she stood up to her dad. She became the first person in the family to go to college and he did not want her to do that. He did not think there was any reason for women to be educated. He certainly did not think that his daughter should be the first person in the family to go to college. She ended up getting accepted to rice university. One of the best colleges in the country. At the time, life rice had no tuition. Every student went for free. He dealt with the ravages of being an alcoholic and his son my uncle eddie, was in a and alcoholic at age 11. He could not work. He was emaciated because he had drank so much that he had destroyed his body. He lived with his parents until he died. He died a relatively young man but he looked much older. It was an addiction that consumed him. It is a very difficult thing when anyone ever deals with it. Had did you pay for harvin . Harvard . Ted cruz my parents went bankrupt. That was a hard challenge. They had started a Small Business in houston. There were a few good years, but in the 1980s the price of oil plummeted and when that happened, they went out of business here in when. At age 17, i found myself financially independent involuntarily. I did a number of things. I had earned a fair amount of scholarships. Giving speeches was one way that i won scholarship money. I won a scholarship from the vfw. I won a scholarship from the Washington Crossing foundation. I participated in competitions where i was scholarship money. I took student loans. When i was at princeton, i had two jobs. I worked those jobs. To help pay my way through school. That was challenging. Princeton, both princeton and harvard were worlds that i did not know. I did not come from a wealthy family. I had gone i graduated from a small Christian High School in houston. There were 42 people in our class. No one in our family had ever gone to an ivy league college. That was something that we were one generation from being removed from having anyone that had gone to college. It was pretty intimidating when i got there. There were people there that were part of dynasties that had gone to these School Generation after generation. I remember one of the people in our class that i did not know was a princess. Princess olga of greece. She was listed in the student rectory under o for olga of greece. That was not a world that i knew. It was a wonderful experience. I certainly learned a lot. You got one of the plum assignments. How did your time with chief Justice Rehnquist come about . Ted cruz coming out of law school i had applied to the Supreme Court and chief Justice Rehnquist hired me. That was an unbelievable experience. He was an extraordinary man. William rehnquist was brilliant and was a staggering intellect. He was deeply principled. He also had a humility that was the most startling aspect of him. He was unbelievably downtoearth. I am convinced that William Rehnquist would not have interacted with any be if people any differently. He was born in milwaukee. When he was 18, he went to new york. He was in north africa in world war ii. He was an enlisted man, a sergeant. What a wonderful statement about our country. The chief justice the United States was an enlisted man. One of his colleagues, lewis powell, had been a colonel in world war ii and powell used to get him and say i outrank you. The chief would say not anymore. He was just a wonderful man. I interviewed him. The interview was very short. It was 17 minutes long. The chief he had been a law clerk at the Supreme Court. He clerked for robert jackson. One of the most exceptional justices to have ever served on the court. He would typically interview 12 to 15 law students and to get the interview, it had to be at the top of your class in law school. You had the have a very strong recommendation. He was so smart that the chief did not need law clerks. I think that the interviews he was looking for three people that he would not mind spending every day with for a year. You spend a lot of term time with your law clerks. The interview is getting to know you. The toughest question he asked if i would be willing to play tennis with him every week and the chief played tennis every week with his clerks and i said absolutely it sounds like a lot of fun. I should tell you that i am not very good. He laughed. What he did not know at the time was that i was unbelievably horrible at tennis. It was the single thing most daunting to me about the clerkship, that i would play tennis every week. I took tennis lessons getting ready for the clerkship. It is interesting. In the course of the interview. At the end of the interview, as we were walking out i said mr. , chief justice, i am a little bittersweet about being here. He said, tell me what you mean. I said, we are in the nba finals and the Houston Rockets are getting ready to sweep game four and we will win our second back to back championship. I had tickets to the game. And i gave them up to come here. He laughed and said, i think you made the right decision. Im convinced today the only reason i got the clerkship was that i made the chief justice laugh. He was just an incredible friend and mentor. Steve i had read that you wanted to be a guard for the Houston Rockets. Ted cruz im not sure i could even be a water boy. I have some talents, but athletic talent is not among them. Steve two daughters. You met your wife during the bush campaign. How did that come about . Sen. Cruz i was doing domestic policy and she was doing Economic Policy and we were both in our late 20s and she came along and she was beautiful, vivacious, a blonde Southern California girl. She was in her second year of Harvard Business school and i was completely smitten from day one. I took her out to dinner to a place called the bitter end. We had a four our dinner. I said, tell me the history of your family starting with the birth of your grandparents. And i listened and got to know her. Heidi is an extraordinary woman. She is the daughter of missionaries. She lived in africa. A couple of different times. Her parents were christian missionaries, her dad is a dentist and a dental hygienist. Her grandfather had been a missionary in africa for over 30 years. She is exceptionally strongwilled. It is interesting. One of the things that resonated with me her family is seventh day adventists. They strictly observe the sabbath. Her parents had both gone to adventist schools and they very much she wanted to go to claremont and mckenna. Her dad did not want her to and she battled with her father. Heidi started her First Business when she was six years old. She started her Bread Baking Company and she and her brother would bake bread every day after school. On sunday they would sell them. She sold thousands of loaves of bread. She had saved 15,000 from her bread baking. She said dad, if you wont pay for college, i will pay for it. She used that money to go to claremont mckenna. That story resonated with me. With my mothers background standing up to her father to go to rice, that was something i admired about heidi. Her dad is a wonderful man. He is strongwilled. He climbed mount everest. You want to talk about an intimidating fatherinlaw, try one who has climbed mount everest. One of the things that led me early on to fall in love with heidi she has a steel backbone. Like my mother. There are a lot of similarities in terms of their powerful dedication. When they set their mind to something, nothing can dissuade them. Steve when your daughters want something, do they ask you or your wife . Sen. Cruz i am the pushover. Heidi is a lot tougher. My girls have me wrapped around their finger. They are the loves of my life. Caroline is seven. Catherine is four. You have four kids . As you know, every child is different. Catherine, the baby, is just sweet. She crawls in your lap and she hugs you and she is a sweet girl. Caroline is a rascal. She is fiery and opinionated. They have both grown up with me running for office and especially caroline is not impressed at all. She is like, yeah, whatever. She said, not Everyone Wants to be on tv. As you know, when i was doing the obamacare filibuster, one of the things i remember from that time is that i read green eggs and ham. The reason for that is it was the girls bedtime. Normally when i am home, i read them bedtime stories. Our team told the girls to turn on cspan. They flipped it on, and i was reading green eggs and ham as a bedtime story. I have a picture on my wall of the two in their pajamas utterly amazed at watching their daddy read them green eggs and ham on television. When i came home, caroline was five. She is a cynic, tough to please. She had her arms crossed and she said, ok, dad. That was kind of cool. That was a nice personal victory. It is not easy to impress your kindergartner, but i was glad to have done something that earned me brownie points. Steve you said at the beginning about your own ideology. You are a conservative. You talk about ronald reagan, one of your heroes. He was able to get things done. Immigration. Tax reform. At one point does ted cruz stick to your principles and to compromise with democrats . Sen. Cruz my attitude is the same as reagan. What do you do when someone offers you half a loaf . You take it. Then you come back for more. I was asked the same question and i say, i am happy to compromise with democrats, libertarians i will compromise with martians, if they are willing to shrink the power of government, expand Constitutional Rights, fight for liberty. The problem is far too many republicans, compromise going backwards in a way that makes it worse. It makes the problem deeper. You dont get an 18 trillion debt without bipartisan compromise. You say, we will spend for your project and your project and your project, another 1 trillion and you are done. The people that lose are the taxpayers. I have been happy to work with democrats and some of the legislation that we have passed. There on the wall was hanging a bill last congress that i introduced. When the nation of iran named as its ambassador a known terrorist who participated in Holding Americans hostage. In the late 1970s. It was a slap in the face. Everyone in washington is saying this is terrible. I introduced that legislation that barred other known terrorists from being admitted to this country. It passed the senate 1000. It passed the house 4350. President obama signed it into law. That is an example, repeatedly ive been able to work with democrats. Beneath this is a resolution that i introduced when hamas was raining rockets on israel, i joined in a resolution condemning hamass use of human shields as a war crime. That resolution passed unanimously. I joined with new jersey democrat bob menendez that the state department would give a 5 million reward for information leading to the capture of the murderer of a dual israeliamerican citizen. That passed the senate 1000. There have been a number of events were i have sought out and worked with democrats. For 2. 5 years i have worked closely with kirsten gillibrand. She and i disagree on a number of issues but she has been heroic in fighting to combat Sexual Assault and rape in the military. She has introduced reforms to change the decision of whether to prosecute a Sexual Assault case, from a Commanding Officer to an impartial prosecutor outside the chain of command. I have worked closely with her on that. We have an obligation protect the men and women of our military, to ensure that they are safe. With that we have the majority of the senate. It has not been passed yet. President obama is fighting to stop it. There are a lot of democrats and republicans fighting to stop it, but it is the right reform. It is the reform that we will see enacted because it protects our soldiers but also offers good discipline. If you have a military unit where servicemen and women are afraid of Sexual Assault, not confident that the military Justice System will protect them, that undermines the effectiveness of our military. We have an obligation to protect our soldiers. Steve as you know, you have not been without criticism. Sen. Cruz i hadnt noticed. Steve when john mccain referred to you as a wacko bird, what was your reaction . Sen. Cruz i like john mccain and i respect john mccain. My approach has been consistent. If others choose to throw rocks, i will not reciprocate. What we endeavor to do is take the high road. In my time in the senate, to my knowledge, i have not spoken ill of any other congressmen. When john mccain said that i went to the senate floor and rose to give a speech in praise of john mccain. It happened to be the 40th anniversary of his release from the hanoi hilton. I spoke about, what an incredible privilege to serve with a patriot and hero like john mccain. He served his nation. He was imprisoned and tortured. Who was tortured being in my family, being imprisoned and tortured is something my family and door, too endured, too. Not at the level that john mccain did, but most extraordinarily, john mccain was offered Early Release and turned it down because he believed it would be dishonorable. I said, none of us have face that. I have never been in prison and i have never been tortured. All of us hope we would make the same decision as he did, but not one of us knows for sure. I said, what a privilege to serve with an American Hero like john mccain. Every word of that was heartfelt, but it was also very conscious. I am not going to respond with an attack. I will note behind you on that bookshelf is a baseball cap, when i came back to texas, grassroots supporters printed up baseball caps with daffy duck that say wacko birds. In the grassroots people make tshirts saying i am a proud wacko bird, and i say if standing for the constitution and liberty make you a wacko bird, then count me of proud wacko bird. Steve why does ted cruz want to be president . Sen. Cruz the country is in crisis. This is not an ordinary election. The stakes have never been higher. We are bankrupting our kids and grandkids. Our Constitutional Rights are under assault. America has receded from leadership in the world. We have abandoned our friends and allies. Radical, islamic terrorism is on the rise. This is a fork in the road. There are times that elections are major turning points. 1980 was a major turning point. I believe that 2016 is going to be an election like 1980. Reagan said, the way that we win is we paint in bold colors, not pastels. If we continue on this road, we risk doing irreparable damage to the greatest country in the history of the world. I am running for president , because we are fighting to get back to the free market principles and the constitutional liberties that made america the greatest country in the history of the world. I want my daughters to inherit the same, exceptional nation the same blessings of liberty that you and i were fortunate to inherit. We cannot do that if we continue bankrupting this country undermining the constitution and the bill of rights, if we continue receding from the world. This election is about a choice. How do we bring back and reignite the promise of america . How do we get back to that fundamental ideal . Steve let me conclude with a couple of points. Ted cruz facts. You are a videogame junkie . Sen. Cruz indeed. Steve favorites . Sen. Cruz i remember christmas when the first game we got was pong. My parents gave me that for christmas. Then we had nintendo. I played computer games. I collected computer games. Now, i mostly play on my iphone. I dont have a console, because if i did, i would use it. But i play candy crush, plants vs zombies and a star wars game i just downloaded. It drives my wife crazy. She cannot stand it, but my girls love it. We play plants versus zombies, caroline has it on her ipad. We play together. When we take the girls out, one of the favorite things to do we go to the aquarium and play carnival games there, but we. Also take them to chucky cheese i tried to get brownie points with heidi. But she says, you have more fun than they do. I dont get brownie points for it, but i enjoy playing nonetheless. Steve the role in sound of music and you cannot sing. Sen. Cruz one of the great banes in my childhood, in high school i was very into acting. In high school i thought i would drop out of school and go to california and become an actor. My parents were not fans of this plan. Im glad i did not. That was not my calling. But one of the banes of my existence is in high school you do physical theater and i cannot carry a tune to save my life. I guess i came upon it honestly. Neither of my parents can sing. My mother, in grade school, the choir teacher asked my mom please dont sing. You are throwing the other children off. I inherited that. In seventh grade i was cast as rolph in the sound of music. I sang on stage, you are 16, going on 17. My guess is that i did not hit a my mother, in grade school, the choir teacher asked my mom please dont sing. You are throwing the other children off. I inherited that. In seventh grade i was cast as rolph in the sound of music. I sang on stage, you are 16, going on 17. My guess is that i did not hit a single note. It was only very tolerant parents of junior high kids who endured this kid butchering the song. Subsequently, i did the sound of music again in high school. I played max. He has one line where he says, one little girl in a pink coat , but the rest of the lines were spoken. My Campaign Team was horrified a couple years ago. I was speaking at First Baptist church in dallas. I was talking about the history of the declaration of independence, and the constitution, and protecting religious liberty and i observed that i am a graduate of second baptist high school. I said, there are things you discover going to second baptist high school. Some good. Some not. One of the things i discovered is Amazing Grace and the theme from Gilligans Island are interchangeable musically. Amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me was blind but now i see was blind but now i see within minutes the Political Team was saying he is singing on stage, the political career is over. But i survived. Steve i dont think that i can top that. You went from the who and pink floyd to Country Music. How did that evolve . Sen. Cruz i grew up listening to classic rock. I saw pink floyd in concert. It was an amazing concert. I saw the police in concert. Emerson lake and powell. But my music tastes changed on september 11. It was a strange thing. I mentioned this in another interview and people on the media thought it was a strange political thing look, when september 11 happened, heidi and i were living in washington d. C. South of the pentagon. A good friend of ours was on the plane that crashed into the white house pentagon. Heidi was in the white house. She is actuated, when the evacuated, when the first plane hit, a secret service told everyone to stay where you are. She was working at that u. S. Trade Representatives Office and when the second plane hit, the secret Service Began running through the hallways saying, get out. Dont walk, run. Heidi sprinted out. They would not let her get her car so, she walked home. In her bare feet, across memorial bridge. I remember that next night, we put together a prayer service. It was an interfaith prayer service. Christian and jewish friends. We sang hymns. I did not lead the hymns. We came together and prayed together. One of the consequences in the aftermath i liked how Country Music responded. Alan jacksons song, where were you when the world stopped turning on that september day. That song moved me powerfully. Toby keith, the way that he responded. That was powerful. It was an emotional reaction that these are my people. These are people who share my values. Intellectually i find it odd that your music taste would change because of 9 11 i still enjoy classic rock. I think the who is fabulously talented. I saw Pete Townsend saying, i hope i die before i get old. It was amusing. He was in his 60s at the time. But now on the radio i listen to Country Music. Every morning when i get dressed, the radio is on Country Music. It was that emotional reaction that the way Country Music is bonded resonated. Steve thank you for your time. Sen. Cruz thank you, i have enjoyed it. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute,which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] on the next washington journal ron paul look. And, howard rosen, executive director of the trade Adjustment Assistance Coalition talks about the program. The Program Provides aid to u. S. Workers who have lost their jobs as a result of foreign trade. As always, we will take your calls and you can join the conversation on facebook and twitter