Transcripts For CSPAN Key Capitol Hill Hearings 20141021

I have spent time with the parents of children, who suffer from seizure disorders. Last year when we voted in the senate to allow those lawabiding citizens and folks who care so much about their children to have access to that cannabis oil treatment, i was proud. I was disappointed that the gridlock prevent it from taking place and would like to see better leadership at the time. I do support that and will 30 to do so and would gladly signed legislation. With respect to marriage, i believe in religious liberty and personal freedom and i do not believe that anyone should tell a church or religious organization who can be married, but i do believe the government when it calls to doling out right should do it equally. I take an oath to the constitution and would certainly continue to apollo to the constitution as long as it remains valid under the law. Your turn to answer a question ask a question. During the report and primary, you agree to make your recent income tax available but you have yet to do so. Do you still intend to do so and when . I believe mr. Carter has made the same commitment and is not made his income tax available. I intend to make my tax returns available like ive done previously. Let me just say, ive seen senator carters ad about my business was done this a typical illustration of how some liberals look at private enterprise. They have this thing for people to make a business start. We work with the business for over 2 decades, meeting weekly payroll. I do not agree with the proposition that the government may our business successful. I turned it over to a blind trust when i became a governor, a National Company wanted to buy our business and we agreed to sell. Unlike the liberal context where georges have built businesses from scratch, i want to tell you, is not the government that made us successful but those of us who worked to make our companies successful. Mr. Carter, i will give you a chance for rebuttal. This the business governor deal was using to make better. It is a practice. The taxpayers have been on the hook. There are 3 million coming out of our pockets to deal with this governors cover up of prior issues. Id will tell you. When i think about these facts we see, i think we deserved more of a response than liberal namecalling. I am going to let you respond. Yes. With regards to any taxes that may be owed by the copy that about our company, i have led a neutral judge make the call and we will collect every cent. The allegations about ethics charges is something senator carter has related. That affix commission heard the charges against me and dismissed them as being of no merit whatsoever just as the charging against him has been dismissed as well. Sandra parrish, your question. Two years ago, georgia ranked 50th in an ethics report. We have not only performed the ethics rules especially tightening them down, it is greatly improved our status in terms of ratings. We have in my administration that almost 250,000 into the Ethics Commission to update their Computer System and give them the authority. It should not take anybody 2. 5 years to determine a case against a candidate as no valid merit whatsoever as was the case with me. I want to make sure that we have reforms and that is why i have recommended we make reformed fear to include all three branches of government making equal appointments. The debate about the miss functioning of that commission has been primarily the inability of staff to coordinate their activities. If we have independent members who do not vote on charges that come against individuals from the government that has appointed them, we will remove any doubt. Another question from the public. This is from ashley mcdonald. This for all of you. In regards to the Affordable Health care act, how do you plan to help middleclass families who make too much money to qualify for assistance yet who struggles trying to pay for health care . Mr. Carter . Right now the federal government has 36 billion dollars of our money and the governor has fought to keep that money. It does not make sense for our people and for the 600,000 georgians who would have health care it not for the governors decision. There are 35,000 jobs that would come and our Health Care Sector if we took the federal doctors that are ours. That is what looking for solutions looks like. The governor has played washington politics repeatedly on this issue and decided to bring his experience in congress here and say the most important the is partisanship. I believe we have to solve problems. Our rural hospitals are in crisis. There are five that have close. We must charge forward on this issue and as governor, i will do it. Ensuring georgia gets its fair share. First of all, i think you should know the fact that george and taxpayers georgia taxpayers support the current Medicaid Program at both the state and federal level and if we expanded, it would cost 2. 5 billion dollars over the next 10 years. I simply do not think we can afford to do that. It is not money where paid in post. Much of it is money the federal government does not have. Where paid some 351 million and is much it to come into compliance with the Affordable Care act. I think we have to be responsible with taxpayers money and make sure we do what idea with an executive order in regards to rural hospitals. Allowing them to cut back to the services they can provide. Mr. Hunt . Where a Major Health Care crisis where most people cannot afford to get services. The problem is the rules and regulations there. We need tort reform. We must get down the legal costs costing our provider so much and neither of the attorneys running against me will bring that. I will make sure we get toward reform and reduced 20 of our medical costs through this one avenue. We must have a Free Enterprise system where people are not forced to buy insurance but can go indirect relationship with doctors through medical coops that have been proven other states to reduce the cost. That is what we need. Free enterprisebased solutions, less regulation, and tighten down on the lawyers, who are in your insurance policy. Every time you pay your health insurance, you are paying a lawyer. I skipped Christopher King so we will pick up. Each of the candidates have mentioned and talked about a little bit before and this question is for all of the candidates. As you mentioned, georgia ranks sixth in the nation for job creation. It still has the highest Unemployment Rate and the country. The same state Labor Department puts the jobless rate at several point i percent 7. 9 . It is much higher than the national average. What would you do to reduce unemployment and create not just lowpaying jobs but wellpaying jobs . I would definitely and both my job Powerhouse Program and we can drive within my term, drive unemployment less than 5 and that is what we need. A better job environment and the better the pay. Eight would be done in such a way that only fulltime jobs paying 11 an hour or more our reward. It is for every town, every city. We have 2 of the highest poverty cities and the country. Or do you want to give in to this . You get to choose who you buy your services from. Jim galloway . This question is for all three gentlemen. In 2003, the Legislature Passed legislation should the state of georgia take the next step and criminalizing this activity . That is an excellent question and what you have to look at is maybe we are doing too many regulations. Maybe you should allow a little bit of money to come to these impoverished players. Lets rethink the whole thing and make that would have done liberty and opportunity for people. Lets have a has a they can make a reasonable amount of money. It make it so that can make a reasonable amount of money. We need to clean up our sports indeed to every system that is fair to the player as well as to the college. That is where we need to put our money and have a so the players can get some money and wealth a much better system. First of all, maybe we should see more enforcement all the law that we have. I think more importantly than anything is we need to see some fairness in the ncaa and players being true to it fully for the same kinds of accusations. The state of georgia is trying to play by the rules, but we are seeing other stadiums across the country playing individuals who may be have done at the very same thing that one of our players is alleged to do. It is a serious problem and requires everybody be treated fairly and equitably including the players and families and schools. This is certainly something i thing left to be cautious about legislating on. This is always been within the promise of the private sector, those who regulate athletic activities in our colleges and universities am a but i do believe with a enough public pressure we can change their attitudes to make sure that our people including tom is treated with fairness. Mr. Carter . I think you have a lot of georgia fans up here. The short answer is, yes. I think the folks out here praying on these athletes and making money on them should be punished. I will to you what i think about would we look and consider what is happening at the university of georgia. We have undermined our Public Institutions of Higher Education that it is on believable. If the cost of college in this day is rising higher. Is another way that georgia has reached the bottom. We have to sure we are making education our first priority. I believe if we do that, we can control the cost of college and expand the hope scholarship to ensure middleclass families are able to maximize their access and right now, when the look at the university of georgia and how excited we are about our football team, we want to be excited about Higher Education and their ability to afford. Sandra parrish . The mayor of houston ask pastors to turn over sermons and term of a case. Do you support antidiscrimination laws over freedom of speech . I believe freedom of speech is important and the government cannot legislate within that spectrum. I believe there are certain types of hate crimes their rights to the level of being more than speech. As a general matter, no, i will not support legislation that would restrict peoples rights to freedom of speech. I believe we can strike appropriate balance. I think we have to allow people to move forward and be free to speak if they wish. Would you want to hear response from the other candidates . Sure. I think that is one thing that senator carter and i can agree on. You have to be careful when you and trued and to special freedom of speech. You never know what the unintended consequences might be. But, it is not the province of government to regulate and contain that except when you scream fire in a movie together. Movie theater. Those extreme situations that jeopardize the health and safety of individuals and has generally been the guidelines in which we have allowed statutory intervention to occur. I believe it is a pretty good example of where we need to draw the line. We do not need to react to every popular opinion that comes along. Mr. Hunt . We have had two excellent answers so far. What i will address is that i am a strong constitutionalist, the way it was written and not the living document they reinterpret over the year. I am very strong on the First Amendment, but all of the amendments. We are having our liberties and rights taken from of us. Every law passed is taking a more freedoms away from us. Thats what we need to have in our state. If i am governor, what i will like to see, if you pass a law, i want to see where you have to scratch three or 4 off. Yes, we do not want to hurt other peoples desire that is the edge of liberty when you inflate harm on others. Thank you. Christopher king, your question. It is on k12 education. The state budget is about a billion dollars on k12 education. According to the budget institute, the state would need another 700 billion to fund schools. Would you increase funding for the schools and by how much . First of all, let me point out that the Quality Basic Education formula that has been an place since 1985 has never been fully funded. What i have done is to appropriate a greater percentage of general state revenue for k12 education than any governor since sanders in the 1960s. This year, the largest single appropriation as our economy was rebounding was in this years budget. My colleague here, senator carter, saw fit to vote against it. I have indicated i would put in place individuals who will come together and study our funding as will desire delivery mechanism. It is time we revisit and make it more appropriately allocated to the needs of todays Education System. We have are ready brought on board one of the best local superintendents and he is working in the office of planning and budgeting. We will continue that. Mr. Carter . Governor deal has to look back to the 1960s to justify his educational policy. We have to fund for this century. What you have seen and our state is though worse underfunding and worse contraction and the history. Teachers are suffering as students are suffering and our states economy, the very foundation, is crumbling. That is how we end up with the skills gaps we have now. 2 3 of our School Districts have had to cut instructional days. We are not doing the job at the state level we need to. Not only that but when the governors budget half past because of its cuts, 91 School District have raised their property taxes just we are getting less education and more taxes and no one wants that. I have a plan to change the way we do the educational budget. Mr. Deal, your 30 seconds to rebut. You have 30. If you support Public Education, you shouldve voted for the large and increase in k12 funding in seven years. The statistics you cite are in accurate. I am not reaching back to the 1960s. I am saying a portion of revenue, with have felt 4 highest years since any governor some 50 years ago. You say you support education but your votes a do not support that. You are in a distinct minority in voting against. Every democrat in the house voted for it. 2 3 of your colleagues voted for this budget. Mr. Carter, your rebut . Governor deal, you know and i know that my record is clear on Education Funding. You have underfunded this year by 750 million and i could not vote that. The process is broken and i am the only candidate who has a plan to fix it. You can throw statistics out over and over again, but walk into your local schools, walked to the schools that have 26 kids in a kindergarten class and ask a teacher. No one and this date believes were properly funding education. Mr. Hunt . Our Education System is completely broken. The u. S. Spends more per student on education than any other nation and the world yet we rank 25th. We need to look at how these better countries are doing it less expensively than us. We do not have to increase the budget. We have to do better. We need school choice. We need savings accounts where the money follows of the child. Take the money and let the parents choose what is best for the education of the child. Lets have a so whatever variety of school types and blended schools, stem schools, vocational schools. A range of different education. Bring it into Early Childhood and support hope through the end. If there is one way to end the cycle of poverty, it is education. Some people say they want a more charts schools in this years budget family put a small increase versus hundreds of millions for other. A question from the public of again and it is picking up on a question previously asked by our panelists on employment. Directed specifically to mr. Deal from mrs. Haywood. Governor nathan deal, in the previous debate i was taken aback by your comments, people who work are better than people who do not work. There are so many in our state still looking for jobs. As a student, i worry about getting a job after graduation. While youre at parade georgia as being the number one state to do business, it is hard to ignore george does georgia leads unemployment. It is safe to say you inherited a failing economy, but so did the president and 49 other governors. Why is georgia under your leadership lacking behind the rest of the nation in its rate of unemployment . First of all, Unemployment Rates are only good for political advertising as a general rule. Economists and businesses do not Pay Attention to them. This a look at job growth. Right there in athens, georgia, we have a great example of our economic development. Caterpillar brought a plant and they came to the state of georgia and they are creating hundreds of jobs in some that has been our focus. With a eliminated the marriage tax on couples. We have to eliminated the marriage tax on couples. We have focus on job creation. We eliminated the sales tax on energy so manufacturers could grow and we have seen that the growth from the caterpillar plant to baxter making a 1 billion Investment Capital to do it would be the largest single investment in this States History since kia came. We are making substantial strides. Job creation is what is important for those in college. That question was directly specifically to you so will pick up with our panel. I do not want to seem like i am beaming up mr. Deal. I would like to hit the other candidates on this. For the first time and state history, voters cast ballots on a sunday. Many will do so next sunday. Mr. Deal, you said you will be open to legislation that would close down sunday voting. I think the voting policies of our state should be uniform. I think that is what the Generals Assembly will look at first of if all counties were allowed to have sunday voting, that is fine with me. As my wife says, republicans can vote on sunday to as long as they go to church first. I think all of us want to see as many people as possible who are registered and qualified to turn out and vote. I think we should do whatever is important to turn out for the voters. I would encourage everyone who is washington i to be sure you either early vote was watching to either early vote or vote on november 4. We have to open of voting as much as we can. We have a historically low rate of voting. The majority of people are just sat are dissatisfied with the 2 major parties for. You have a choice. Do not stay at home because youre acquiescing that it is ok. We want to make it easy for people to register but we want voters and we want to notice a trail we can look at and see that your vote counted a can be recounted if it has to be. Our current machines cannot provide that record. We need to have a printed, written record of every persons vote so we can go back and verify or some other current electronic verifications like we have for our monetary transactions. These do not exist with our electronic Voting Machines and it is a shame we do not have such an honorable system. Jason carter . I am glad that governor deal of change his position on the fairness of sunday voting. Right now, any county was to vote on sunday is allowed to do so. It is fantastic. It helps people get engaged and help working people get to the polls because they do not have to take time off jobs. Ive always been in favor of expanding the right to vote and ensuring we have a fair system. That both counts every vote and register every voter. And i think of making it as convenient as possible helps us all. We have time for one more question from our panelists. It is either directed to one candidate for 60 seconds or all of the candidates and each will get 30 seconds. Sandra, you get the last question. Into directed to mr. Deal. With the legislature of past is gone legislation allowing per meters to carry guns to church. Do you support of allowing guns in churches on sundays as long as the churches opt in . We are going to give everyone 30 seconds to reply and will start with you, mr. Deal and go to jason carter and mr. Hunt. I believe the beauty of the bill that passed was we gave churches the choice. That is always a better option than the stated dictating to them and i trust congregations and the leaders of the churches to make those kind of judgment calls. I think we have given them that flexibility and they will exercise a privately. Mr. Carter . I agree with the governor deal it is important to give local communities and congregations a choice in this matter. I fought very hard in respect to this bill and brought people together to ensure the choice that the churches were given was a real one. That is the kind of leadership i provide, bringing people together on difficult issues. Mr. Hunt . I am a strong constitutionalist so i support gun rights and i also support the right of private land owners whether individual or organizations. Each entity should be able to determine what is allowed on the property or not. Government should not be saying you should allow it, it is your property, you get to decide. Government should not say you cannot do this on less it is hurting other people. That is liberty. That is all the time we have four questions. The candidates will have 60 seconds for a closing statement. Jason carter makes the First Closing statement. Thank you so much for spending your time and watching this debate tonight. I believe this state has everything it needs to be an absolute powerhouse. If we put our mind to in this state and educate our people and invest and them and open up the doors to our colleges to give people the skills they need for the future and if we invest and Pay Attention to the middle class and to the Small Businesses of this state, we will have the ability to have a dynamic, growing forwardlooking economy that innovates and expense for the future. Right now, we are not getting that economy. People are getting left behind in our Education System. We can succeed. I ask for your vote. I ask for your vote for the future of this date and i would be honored to serve as your governor. Thank you for listening today and i am honored to have served as your governor for these past 4 years and i asked for your votes i can do so for another 4 years. We have put in place many reforms that are putting our state forward. And we are going to continue to see that grow. We are putting money into our k12 system and Technical Colleges and colleges and universities and we did so this era because our policies were working and our revenue was growing. With also made reforms in our criminal Justice System, something will not had a chance to talk about tonight is. It is revolutionary. We already lead the country. We have been recognized as such. We are saving millions of dollars and saving lives is a wilson our africanamerican population in our prison system and drop by 20 and we will break the cycle of crime by educating those who have no skill so when they get out, that will not commit crimes again. Mr. Hunt . David pinto at 10 am many people have endorsed me pennington and many other have endorsed me because i am the one that will bring Cost Effective solutions and freedom and fairness for all of us. It is a very night and day choice here. I am very different. I am a small businessman, a phd in engineering. I have about 50 patents and i want to put that to work for you. I want to work for you. We could have a better way forward. I have 1 or less of the money they do. You are going to be seeing lots i have 1 or less of the money of ads run by them. We have the views off old that have been supported by, the special interest groups. If you want to support me, you have to talk to other people. I am asking for more. I am asking for you to tell other people and them to hunt for hunt on at the ballot. Thanks to the candidates here this evening and to our panel of distinguished journalists for thank you very much. And we will like to thank of the of ads run by them. Atlanta press club. Remember, this election is on tuesday, november 4 and early voting has already begun. We urge you to cast your ballot. The Atlanta Press club Loudermilk Young debate series is made possible by a donation from the i am brenda wood. Have a good evening. You can see this debate and others at cspan. Org. Once there, you can watch some ads from around the country. Here are some running in georgia. Senator jason carter claims he will put education first, but he voted against the largest increase in Education Funding in seven years. Nathan deal increased education by 538 million this year. We have seen the worst contraction of Public Education in the history of our state. You have 9000 fewer teachers. You have 45,000 people leave our Technical Schools and have not contraction of Public Education come back. I worry we will reap what we sew from that destruction of our education. When im governor, we will have a separate budget for education, and we will protect that not just in the good times, but all the time. I wrote the law to stop illegal aliens from receiving taxpayerfunded health care, and i voted against obamacare. Liberals will not like it when i empower local Law Enforcement to deport illegal aliens. Illegal aliens are costing georgia taxpayers over 1 billion every year. My concern is you. Negative ads from nathan deal. The truth . Jason carter is a fiscal conservative who never voted for a tax increase. He will Fund Schools First and put an end to paying for politicians pet projects with education dollars. Today we have 9000 fewer teachers, 45,000 fewer Technical College students. Nathan deals shortchanging education, and our kids are paying the price. Theyre looking to replace deval patrick. Live coverage here at cspan. We arety new bringing you more than 100 debates. Follow us on twitter and my guess on Facebook Like us on facebook. Conferencehe big 12 on the state of athletics. A panel of university officials, athletic directors, and Sports Reporters discuss the money involved in college athletics. A discussion on whether student athletes are employees of the schools for whom they play. Here are just a few of the comments we have recently received from our viewers. Ive been battling my local Cable Provider in new jersey for over 18 months to start offering cspan in high definition. I have never done anything like this before but i thoroughly enjoyed this program. I like the History Channel where i live in naples, florida, and i thought this was absolutely magnificent. I just sat glued to my chair and i will continue to turn back to this program again. I want to start off by allowing cspan2 know that cspan to know that i do not allow watch any selection on my cable aside from this. Want to show my appreciation for this. Your ability to keep it mixed up and lively. Continue to let us know what read about the programs what you think about the programs you are watching. You can send us a treat. Weet. Ea now, the third debate between the candidates for governor in maine. Incumbent paul lepage, democrat mike michaud, and eliot cutler. The Cook Political Report lists the race as a tossup. Good evening, and welcome to the Augusta Civic Center and the annual meeting of the chamber of commerce and the first televised forum for the governor of maine. Lets meet the candidates. The independent is eliot cutler, a former staffer. He has never held elected office. The republican is paul lepage, who is seeking reelection. The democrat is mike michaud. He is finishing his sixth term in congress representing the second district. Is a former president of the Main State Senate and a former paper mill worker. Please welcome the candidates. [applause] over the next hour, i will be posing questions to the candidates. We will not be running a stopwatch, but if things run long, i will step in and keep things moving. They will be able to engage each other and respond to claims. This should allow us to have a substantive discussion on as many issues as possible. Candidates will be given the opportunity to pose a question to each opponent later in the hour. Each man will have one minute for an opening statement. Lots were drawn, and wouldnt you know it, it came out alphabetically anyway. Lets begin. We are about to hire a leader for maine. Eliot cutler, although you have run before, your something of a mystery. I am not sure that you have managed anything in the last five years that they can identify easily. Why should you be next governor . First, thank you to the state chamber for having this debate. I appreciate the opportunity. I have spent a career in both the Public Sector and private sector managing businesses, starting successful businesses, working in the white house for edward muskie, helping to write americas environmental legislation and helping to manage 160 billion of government spending. I understand management. I understand politics. I understand public service. And i understand the state of maine. I grew up in bangor, and my parents and my grandparents are in bangor. I think the next governor needs to have a vision for the state, a plan and a strategy. I have written a book called state of opportunity that explains what i do and why i do it. We need someone that can take maine into a 21stcentury economy with 21st century ideas. Governor lapage, people have come to know you over the last four years. One thing they know is that you can be highly partisan. Given that, why should you be the governor for the next four years . I think my critics say that. And, unfortunately, we need less critics and more role models. In the last 49 years lets take the last two years. My opponents say that i do not work well with others. When you have good public policy, i work with you. If you try to get me to do bad public policy, it goes in the garbage. I do not have time. In the last two years, when the democraticcontrolled with the democratic controlled legislature, 80 of the bells across my bills pentagon across my desk i become law. Two thirds of those were sponsored by democrats. On the other hand, of all of the bills that i ascended to legislature, 54 died in committee. Who is working with who . Mike michaud, you have no executive experience to bring to the job. Why are you the man to lead the state . Thank you for having us here, and i want to thank the main state chamber as well for hosting the event. As most of you know, i am not the most entertaining orator. I am more of a listener. The reason that i will make a great governor is that i have a mission, i have experience working in the legislature and in the senate, and the 12 years in congress. I know how to bring people together. If we are going to solve problems here, whether working with the legislature, republicans and democrats and independents. Or whether it is working with special interest groups, we were able to get the issue solved in the legislature. So i would be a better governor. I would just like to say that, in the last 12 years as a congressman, you have voted 93 the way nancy pelosi in the Democratic Leaders have asked you to vote. That is not working both ways. If you look at what is happening in maine, as much as you say that i do not work with others, two thirds of the bills that went into law, your party brought up. Congressman . I am very glad that pelosi and my colleagues in college have accepted ideas that i brought forward so i could vote for the bill. You look at the Affordable Care act, that was legislation that i was not comfortable with until we took care of the reimbursement rates of the medicaid population. The cap and trade legislation. When of the issues i did with the cap and trade legislation, we were able to enhance what maine has been doing for quite some time. It is about working across the aisle to get things done, not headlines. Mr. Cutler . Do you want four more years of this . [laughter] really . If we keep arguing with each other in this state of 1,000,300 people, the size of buffalo, if we keep arguing with each other which party is doing this, which is doing that, who was a better partisan than the other . If we keep doing that, we will not pull ourselves out of an 11 year nosedive that the economy has been in. Last word. In the last four years, i have reduced structural damage 60 . Largest tax cut in maine history. We have created 22,000 jobs, i wish it had been 60. I could not budge one area, that is energy. The Democratic Party is stuck in not reducing energy costs. Beside that, we paid off a debt due hospitals, 750 million. We never had to raise taxes. The last two years, we balanced the budget. We close the year with a surplus. And incidentally, this last year, 94 million surplus. The tax increase generated 90 million. We did not have to take 90 million out of the mainwe people last year. You say that you want to focus on jobs that pay 50 an hour, not minimumwage jobs. As you brought and a dollar an hour jobs to the state have you brought any 50 an hour jobs to the state . Absolutely worried we brought many doctors to the state that make more than that. Just in the last week, the last 12 days, we have had over 12 ribbon cuttings. Hundreds of millions of dollars invested in here. We are currently working on some jobs that are going to be paid exactly that. Congressman michaud, youre virtually ignored cutler in the earlier debates. What issue you must defer with eliot cutler in what issued to you most differ from eliot cutler . I will be a better governor of the night fellows on the stage because i have the experience i mentioned earlier. The thing he does not talk about is that, because he is not accepting the expansion under the Affordable Care act, hospitals are actually going to lose from 75 million 200 million. I differ with mr. Cutler because i do have the experience of being able to work across the aisle. Does not have a voting record, i have a voting record and i have that experience. When the governor talks about given the largest tax cut, when he is not mentioned is that when i was in the main legislature, we did the largest tax cut me state history. The difference is that we actually paid for it. They put cost back into the municipality. When mike michaud was in the senate, there were no tax breaks. In 2012, there were tax cuts given. However, right after the election, governor angus king repealed them, so they never took effect. Mike, i am sorry, that is not true. Number two, when he says off budget, i do not understand, we have corrected him several times. The text that came in the 2011 budget, mike. We paid it with revenues that we knew we would get in future times. I do not understand the credit card i will ask you one question. If you were going to pay with cash, or would you have gotten the cash, number one . Eliot cutler wants to get on this. The question was about him. [laughter] i would like to go back on the medicaid expansion. We will. Mike, im glad i do not have your record. Me too. You have crossed a lot of aisles. You voted over 17 years, 19 times in the legislature, against equal rights for all mainers. The last time, you were the only democrat to join four at republicans in voting no. Is that an example of crossing the aisle . That deserves a response, i think. I want to respond first to the governor on the budget. [laughter] he does not understand what the governor did is he did the huge tax cuts in one budget cycle. The effect of the biggest part of that tax cut went into effect outside of the budget cycle, so he did not have to pay for it at that time. He eliminated Municipal Revenue sharing. That is a cost shifting. I can understand that you might refuse to understand that, because he has refused to submit a supplemental budget. Lets get back to eliot cutler, because he is talking about you changing your position. How do you respond to that charge . When i started in the maine legislature, i was 27 years old at the time. 24 years old at the time. Growing up in a large family in the rural part of maine, at that point in time, the reason iran was because of the jobs i ran was because of the jobs, the economy, and the environment. I was not focused on the social issues. Since then, i have had an opportunity, particularly in congress, to hear the personal stories of women who had to make a personal choice. Whether you have an abortion or not. Those stories were heartfelt stories. And yes, i have evolved on that issue. But what is wrong with evolving . You look at the lgbt issues. When they did a 30 Year Anniversary in bangor, i went back they were going to interview me. And i went back and read the newspapers at that time, and the Bangor Daily News actually editorialized on the Charlie Howard murder. It insinuated that he was asking for it. You look at the stories during that timeframe. And yes, the legislature did pass legislation, and i voted for that legislation. At that point in time, the legislature, we thought we were moving forward in a progressive way, and we found out that we were not. Mr. Calder is upset because of equality maine and hrc, planned parenthood. They look at my history and i received their endorsement, because they know that i am the candidate for governor that will run the state is efficient way for the next four years. Is it bad for a governor to change his mind . Im glad that he has changed his minor women and core issues, but he is not being honest. He is pretending that he cast those votes when he was 24 years old. The fact is that he cast those votes when he was 24, 34, 44, and even 54 years old. It took them nearly 30 years to figure out why women feel so strongly about their bodies and about their rights. And he says he is the only person on the stage he said before when we are on the same stage who is ever cast a prochoice vote. He is the only candidate with a record. Well you know something . He is also the only person who is cast 27 years of antichoice votes. He is the only person that voted to deny abortions for poor people when it was legal for others. He is the only person on the station who voted to give a zygote personhood in the eyes of the law. He had to go to washington to learn that he was wrong . Women did not come to him in augusta during those years and years and years when he was in the legislature . I have to interrupt, we want to move on to i have a question for you. You have criticized your opponents for taking money from special interests. But your law firm took in lobbying fees for special interests like monsanto and dow chemical. I was the money you earned as a client different than the money that they are receiving for campaigns . I did not earn that money, because when youre a council, a senior counsel, you receive a salary. I never lobbied for any of those clients, never did any work for those clients. This is a law firm of 900 people. What mike was doing and what paul has done is take their money and then go vote for them. Governor . Im sorry, you did not vote. You did not vote. [laughter] are you beholden to special interests . Absolutely not. This year, someone was going to do a big fundraiser, and they asked me to do something, and i said, i am sorry but i will not do that. I am only beholden to one conscience. It is the one inside of me. I am not beholden to anyone. I have a great, senior staff, who give me great advice. I take it most of the time, although there are times when i just say no because it is the wrong thing to do. Let me tell you how i look at things. Wrong is wrong, no matter if people are telling you to do it. Right is right, no matter if no one is telling me to do it. Congressman, over the course of your years he over except in money. How is it affected you . It has not. I have always focused on what is right for the people of maine. When i first ran for the legislature, that was to clean up the river. I felt strongly about being able to clean up the river. As far as money that you mention, monsanto and some of the money that they gave, i do not have the means to write my own check to run a campaign. So we have to do a lot of fundraising. That does not mean that i am going to vote the way that those individuals want. For instance, on monsanto, that is a good example. Im a cosponsor of the gmo labeling bill, which monsanto is absolutely against. My focus continues to be and will always be focusing on what is right for the people in the state of maine. Mr. Cutler, is there an you can give of him voting for special interests . In 2002, you began taking thousands of dollars from monsantos pac. Then you voted for a bill that wouldve been the label that allows that says no artificial growth hormones, because monsanto did not like it and had re sued them in boston to get rid of that language had already sued them in boston to get wouldve that language, because monsanto makes monsanto makesth hormones. Becae artificial growth hormones. Last word. The congressman made a comment and i have to hold him to it. He said he makes he casts his vote for the people of maine. However, the people of maine have enormously high energy costs. He for a second time voted thatst hr 1900 claiming which would have expedited energy, he voted against it twice and during that vote he claimed he did it because there eminentt to name domain issues. It is not even about Eminent Domain. People. Against maine i am glad you brought that up. You have no energy policy. Secondly i believe in natural gas is a good transitional fuel and you are correct, and that legislation it does not talk underEminent Domain but the legislation and said they have to approve or deny the permit and by doing so what it allow anis issue and outofstate corporation to use Eminent Domain or that pipeline emma that under current law, it was not in the legislation but under current law and that is one of the things when you look at legislation you have to look at what might not be in the law but the effect that it has outside the law and the governor is using this as a diversionary tactic a cousin of the governor s and ability to work with the new england governors to do with the expansion of the pipeline in the state of maine. We will have that pipeline. This is going to surprise everybody. Theyre both wrong. The license gives them Eminent Domain authority. Under number two is it gives theregulatory commission at end of the day the authority to make all the environmental we need to move on. This is trying to streamline the process. Why is that the most important thing if someone may be hospitalized with an Infectious Disease in the state . My concern is this. When there are three types of ways that a person can come to countrya foreign legally and there is, we know the ones that are illegal. You can come over as a primary refugee, secondary. Im very refugee and the secondary have medical assessments so we are we already know their medical anna smiley an know. , we do not not everyone in maine is here legally. As the good congressman will l you create he is against he favors my position of not providing ga to illegals. Any contagious outbreak like this one is a real cause for concern. You look at what is happening in west africa, they have a lack in their health care system. Main cannot solve this problem alone but maintained lay an important role. That has ebola patient shown up at the dallas hospital with a 103 degree fever at the hospital, because he had no insurance they gave him an aspirin and sent him on his way. Contact with had other individuals. The virus does not take and choose who is infected. Our health care should not pick and choose who we care for. The fact that this governor has vetoed not one but five times expansion on the Affordable Care act, that is reckless, it is wasteful and it leaves us vulnerable. You look at the whole ebola issue the reason they are turned away, they had no insurance. I do not think any of us here are worried about a particular individual. It may be that there was a was not a good Health Assessment made of this particular person. Was or was not a good Health Assessment made of this particular person. The question is if the state of maine is prepared to deal with problems like this, whenever and wherever they occur. According to the department, we are not ready. Governor . Which department. Homeland security. I beg to differ. We are in contact with the federal government, neema and cdc both. If they have said that, you are the only one to have set it to rid they have not set it to us, because i been working with them on a daily basis. To go back to mr. Michauds comment on medicaid expansion, folks, we myself, my staff, and the commissioner of the hs, have been trying to tell the main people for a year now that not everybody qualifies for the expansion. We have a letter from the cdc, and i had an enlarged for the camera. A prop. [laughter] i would like to camera to read this. Parents between 100 and 133 who could be enrolled in the new adult group cannot be qualified as newly eligible and the newly eligible fmap is ineligible inapplicable. Everybody says that we are leaving money on the table. The fact of the matter is, there are only about 20,000 people of the uninsured that can qualify for the 100 . The other people, the majority of them, do better above 100 , qualify for the exchanges. This opponent, this opponent, they tell me that we are leaving money on the table and hospitals will go broke. If they get insurance on the exchange, they get commercial insurance, subsidized by the federal government. Which is a much higher reimbursement rate than medicaid. So if they go to the exchange and we work at making sure that people at 100 or greater than the federal poverty level, then people will have insurance. There are 70,000 aminers were denied access mainers who were denied access, including veterans. Hospitals give up, over a 10 year time frame, 30 billion. Eliot cutler, quick response. The hospitals want medicaid expanded. The hospitals want you to take the money. These are your friends, the people whose that you paid by selling the liquor business. Whose debt you paid by selling the liquor business. No, we brought the liquor business back in. Whatever, you know what you did. When you see the hospitals go back in the red, you do not have another business to sell. There has to be a reason that the hospitals, along with thousands of maine people, want us to take the expanded medicaid assistance. We need to take a break. We will be back with coverage of the 2014 race for governor from the Maine Chamber of commerce. Maine chamber of commerce. Welcome back to our forum. Were coming to you from the Augustine Civic Center and the annual meeting of the main chamber of commerce. We want the candidates to take over the questioning. I have a question for the governor. One of your tv ads boast that you have recovered 100 million in welfare fraud. That is great. I want to talk about corporate welfare. You made a deal to give millions in tax credits, state tax credits, so they would invest 50 million to save jobs and create new ones at the mill. Your press secretary called it one of the most significant achievements of your administration. 11 months later, the mill closed. More than 200 people lost their jobs, Great Northern is bankrupt again, hundreds of maine businesses are out millions of dollars, and taxpayers are on the hook to write checks to the louisiana investors for 60 million in tax credits that you give away 60 million in tax credits you give away for improvements that were never made. Where is all the money . Are you afraid to ask where it is . You not want to know do you not want to know . Are you afraid to take on corporate welfare strongly as other welfare . The answer to your question is that i am not afraid to take on corporate welfare. We are investigating the whole thing, going back several years. But that may just answer one of your questions. 16 million. One thing you are wrong, they invested into the plant, the plant infrastructure is more valuable than it was. But that is not where the real money is. Were the real money is, 40 million in payroll where the real money is, 40 million in payroll, when he Million Dollars in the supply of wood, all the wood cutters. 20 million in the supply of wood. Was it a good deal . No. When i do it again . Would i do it again . Yes. The benefit is just short of 20 million. 200 million. I was there in september, and i cannot find anyone that things it was a good deal. Governor, do you have a question for your opponents. Boy, i have so many. It is a question that goes to both candidates, and it is this. There is a rumor and i am not sure it is true, i will ask eliot. I am told that the Democrat Party asked you to run as a democrat before mike michaud announced. My question to you is, is it true . Yes. To mike, how do you feel about that, mike . [laughter] i am the democratic nominee for governor, so they chose me. Congressman, you have a question for your opponents . Thank you very much. This question is for the governor. Someone who is watching us right now is going without lifesaving medication because of your five vetoes for the expansion of the Affordable Care act. Governor, would you be able to look in the camera until that person why you felt that they were too costly for care . The only bill i ever vetoed dealing with medication was to bring back the people getting foreign of poverty, pensions about 45,000. And having the state pay for the medication 100 . At no time is there a person in the state of maine today that needs to go without medication. Either candidate will say, do not expand medicaid. The expansion of medicaid i have been trying to extend to them that getting, explain to them at that getting commercial insurance is better than medicaid because it does not cover the cost of medication, of offices, or hospitalization. Ultimately, he was tough minimums and get signaling more prosperous, 12 of the poverty level. , and the very morning, and think that if you are not getting medication, call my office. Had a question for all of you, eliot cutler. Here we have the third highest rate of Food Insecurity in the nation, up from seven, with one in five children. How was your administration going to address this . Is it your administration going to do this . Number one, and if on the side of the food bank months ago. If there is a surplus quantity of food in maine and there is a food kitchen or pantry that needs it, there is no database with common access that allows them to share that information so that food can be moved around the state. We will create that. Number two, maine used to have millions of acres of land under cultivation. Most of that is not growing goldenrod. We need to have twice as much land under cultivation in the state of maine, and we need to use the food we grow in our schools. We are providing free lunch to an awful lot of kids because they do come to school hungry, and they cannot learn, and we need to do a better job of providing mainegrown food to those kids. Finally, if they cost more money to make this work, i promise the people of this state if it costs more money to make this work, i promise to people of the state that we will find it. I agree that there are kids that go without proper nutrition, and i will tell you, i was one of those kids. I understand poverty because i lived it. And what we need to do we can have all the software in the world. Folks, we need to do is we need to get the per capita income in maine up. We have to get prosperity up. There are three major issues that we have to conquer. I am going to tell you, i go to they went down right at the feet of the Democratic Party. In the last four years, every single bill that we sent up to lower the cost of energy, which is one of the biggest problems in attracting new companies to maine, and i hear a daily. Here it daily. I see somebody in front of me who sold the business, and a month or two down the line, went to oklahoma. The big issue was energy. I hear it all over. Energy is number one. Our tax structure needs to be revamped. We need to look at ways that we attract investors. Investment capital will go where it is welcomed. And stay where it is appreciated. Congressman, how do you address the issue . First of all, maine is a 50th on the forbes list for places to do business. We have not moved on economic development. We are leaving 10 million on the federal level look at children getting food during the summertime. When it comes to children getting food during the summertime. On day one, i will be working with the department of health and Human Services to grant a waiver, which is governor has chosen not to extend the snap beyond the free lunch. What we are on the table is 15 million. You look at hunger in the state of maine, we have more children living in poverty than we ever had. More homelessness, up 26 . According to the food bank, the good shepherd, maine is losing out on 50 million a year for snap benefits 15 million a year for snap benefits. They will have to provide another 5 million meals a year because of the lack of leadership under the governors administration. Your response . My responses this. You might response is this. You cannot help mankind permanently by doing for them what they could do for themselves. That was said 150 years ago. What i am saying here is very simply this. We have people in maine who want to work, who want to do better, but we, the government, we, the main government, is inhibiting them on energy, inhibiting them on the way we treat our small business. And i will agree, 25 years ago, there was 150,000 acres being grown, now there is 49,000. Why . Because we make it impossible for the small, family farm to survive. We need to look at the bigger picture. With children, this is what happened last year. I vetoed a bill that said that the governor of maine will eradicate hunger by december 31, 2014, with existing resources. So i vetoed the bill. It is what it was saying is, all of the schools in maine will open in the summer because what it is saying is, all the schools and men will open in the summer and feed the children. Problem is, they do not have the money. The governor is half right. The problem is half improving. It is. [laughter] god help us if we give you four more years. The governor is right that it is about the economy. But wherever i go, when i asked Business Owners why you cant expand your business, some of them talk about energy. Not very many. Some talk about taxes, not very many. But everything to one of them says that they cannot find a healthy, trained, and educated younger workforce. That is a challenge in the state of maine. Governor, you say that you have created 22,000 20, 20 2000, the number is changing and i do not think it is going up. Writing jobs every day rid we are adding jobs every day. That one places are closing their it not when places are closing. We are last in the number of jobs created since the recession ended. It is like saying the red sox had a good year because they won 71 games. Governor . I just had to say one thing about that, you are dead wrong. We are number one, or in the top four, and having the largest percentage of our population working. Secondly, we are number eight in the increase in wages in the state of maine. If we use a percentage, we are number five. If we have recovered about two thirds of the jobs lost before the recession, and we did not have enough jobs before that, what is it that you can do, what is the most important thing that you can do to improve the climate to draw good paying jobs . The number one priority is energy. Number two is right to work. The number one issue is to fire the governor. He is the biggest debtor into job growth. I did not get a chance to respond when we were talking about Small Businesses. The legislature voted on a bond issue, question number three on the ballot this fall, that actually will help Small Businesses out with the problems they are facing with capital. This governor had vetoed it. Think on, the legislature was able to override the veto. Bank god it, the legislature was able to override the the dough. We will grow by focusing on Small Businesses. The Main Technology institute says that if you look at the job Growth Potential in maine, the area is in clean, renewable energy, good paying jobs. The governor has given the way for offshore wind and solar. Top priority without question is education. I am a parent, like many of you. I want every kid in the state of maine to be trained and educated so that he or she can have a job, take a job in a growing and expanding business or a new business in the state of maine. And were not doing that today. Too many of our kids are graduating from high school and going nowhere after that. We have to change that. It is he single most important job we have to do. If we are here, four years from now, still talking about the governors efforts to get hydroquebec to sell us cheaper energy, we are going to have the same kind of economic record we have today. Two things that i must respond. Number one is, i have got a program, a pilot program. We have been trying to work with the legislature. We have one of the greatest programs going on in the state of maine without the help of the legislature. We have got 24 kids that graduated from high school, and one had finished a year and a half of college, 17 finished their freshman year in college, and six out of the 24 got one semester of college. We have programs that can work. The problem with maine, not enough money of the education budget goes into the classroom. Too much goes to union bosses, too much to the administration, not enough to the teachers and students. As for as renewable energies, i have to respond to this. Mike, i love renewable energies. It is not ready. For the next 10 or 15 years, we have to have an interim. We have to go to natural gas. You say that your party is all about offshore wind and solar. Now, if you take rock mountain, it has 26 turbines up there. In order to replace only the power that is their right now, 290 megawatts, you need to put up 27 of those mars hill mountains, at a cost of 2. 3 billion. We are nearing the end of our time. I want to get in a few more questions that require a yes or no answer. We will start with eliot cutler and go around. Can you see yourself supporting the legalization of marijuana for Recreational Use . I can see it, but im not ready to do it. For a referendum, yes. I have a concern with it. Would you sign a bill requiring businesses to provide mandatory sick . Time . No. Yes. I would do it is a part of an insurance pool. Do support background checks for the sale of guns . If there is exemption for family members. I would not exempt family members. I am not sure i understand the question. Private sales of guns, should there be background checks . We have to change the maine constitution, and i am willing to do that with a referendum. When the congressman says family members, if it is immediate family members, yes, but distant of the members, no. Would you increase the governors pay . Not mine, but i would increase pauls. [laughter] i think the governors salary should be elevated, and i will say one more thing. The Senior Management of the state of maines salaries ought to be increased. It is difficult to find capable and seasoned executives. Congressman, a pay raise for the governor . Future governors. [laughter] not myself. Would your Administration Support the building of a Nuclear Power plant . Yes. No. Not get a happen. If there was ranked voting, which candidate would you support . I would leave it blank. I would write in my wife. [laughter] [applause] we will do closing statements. We start with eliot cutler. They would like you to believe this is about republican versus democrat, it is not that simple. For those that love he said as much as i do, whose love is greater than the love for one party or another, there is much, much more a state. This is about jobs at stake. This is about jobs, whether your kids will be a living work in the state of maine the able to live and work in the state of maine. All of the assets we need to succeed are available. I will be a leader with 21st century ideas. I will be your governor, not bound to special interests. I will not be obligated to them, i will only be obligated to you. Whether youre a democrat or republican or independent, i am offering you a better way. Not left or right but forward. I ask for your vote. The republican is the incumbent paul lepage. Liberals are good at talking. Im a businessman and i like to get it done. This election is very clear. You have two liberals, and one conservative. We can go backwards to the last 40 years and continue down that road, or we can continue to move forward and reinvent tomorrow. Because every man, woman, and child in the state deserves to carve out their piece of the american dream, as i have been so fortunate to do in the state and i will take you this. Estate. And i will tell you this. You do not become one of the best fiscal managers in 50 states by not understanding economics. In the last 10 days, 12 days, we have been too many, many job openings. And ribbon cuttings. You know, maine voters, i am not asking for all of the votes, just yours. But remember the major difference between my opponents and me. They believe that every day is april 15. I believe it is july 4. Finally, the democrat, congressman mike michaud. As you are seen tonight, there is a very different vision for maines future here this evening. You have a clear choice. You can continue with the same divisive, partisanship under our Current Governor of has cap made at the bottom of the forbes list as far as businesses, 45th economic development. Or you have a choice, a choice to move forward in a positive way, focusing on our strengths as a state with Small Businesses, tourism. Clean, renewable energy. A stable budget process. These are our strengths. And i asked the voters for their vote on november 4. Thank you to all of the candidates for taking part tonight and for the Maine State Chamber of commerce for hosting us. Over the next two weeks, we will bring you forums for the candidates in the first and second districts were congress. For congress three of good good night from the Augustine Civic Center. Augusta civic center. On cspan. Org, you can see debates from across the country. Heres a look at the wisconsin governor debate, or scott walker is facing mary burke. I am on record as saying that it should be a misdemeanor. Right now, there are not enough consequences for the first offense. We have to make sure that there are consequences. Not only is it 185 deaths, it is 5000 crashes that are alcoholrelated. This is costing us, costing our society a lot of money along with this type of personal injury that causes. We have to take a tougher stance on this. I have been endorsed by the Wisconsin Professional Police association, and i will work with Law Enforcement to make sure that we have in place what we need to cut down on the number of fatalities, to cut down on the number of crashes. And also work to make sure that this does not overburdened the Justice System by having alternative methods to address this. We also have to make sure that people who have addiction problems are able to get the treatments in order to do this. Right now, we do not have tough enough consequences that are going to make a difference in really addressing this. We have not moved the needle enough, and it is time for wisconsin to join the rest of the country and realize that this is something that is important to ensuring safety on our roads. This is one of those tragic issues out there, and one of the biggest problems, years ago, when i was first a state representative, one of the most heartwrenching cases we had to talk about was a country family from our area who had lost a son because of a multiple repeat offender. Increasingly done, and even more so now, the problems you talk about or not just the numbers, but the numbers of people who have been out on the road multiple times committing drunk driving. That is something we have to crackdown on. I agree with the two attorney general candidates that first time offenders, criminalizing that is not the answer. It is going after repeat offenders, toughening up the penalties. I think this is one of those issues that republicans and democrats can come together and work on. But for me, if im going to work with Law Enforcement, i have the endorsement of the men and women of the Police Department here in milwaukee. Any wisconsin troopers association. And the wisconsin troopers association. Your rebuttal . Governor walker has had for 10 years to address this. The fact is that you would avoid repeat offenders if youre a tougher consequences on the first offense. People need to know right off the start, before they get into those habits of greeting and driving, that there are real consequences that come from that drinking and driving, that there are real consequences that come from that. I was just at the conference on traffic safety, and i am pleased that with the good work of Law Enforcement First Responders and others across the state, we have seen traffic accidents go down and the safety factors improve over the last year or so. Were going to continue to build on that, and the way to do that is to crack down on repeat offenders. Show that the consequences are serious, particularly for those who continue to go back on the road after they have been pulled over. Cspans 2014 coverage continues tuesday with the w governors debates. Stantec to their coverage by following us on twitter and like us at facebook. Com. A discussion on gun control efforts this election cycle on the state and federal level. Our guest is chelsea parsons. We hear from former utah governor and former hhs secretary Michael Leavitt who will talk about the administrations response to ebola in this country and how federal agencies work with state Health Agencies and hospitals. Washington journal is live every morning at 7 a. M. Eastern and you can join the conversation on facebook and twitter. Next, a discussion on the Media Coverage of events in ferguson, missouri after the shooting of Michael Brown. Abouthomas perez talks issues facing workers. Later Dennis Hastert and former minority leader deck gephardt. Cspans 2015 student cam competition is underway. This competition will award 150 prizes totaling 100,000. Create a five to seven minute documentary on the topic the three branches in you. Videos need to include cspan programming, show varying points of view and the submitted by january 20, 2015. Grab a camera and get started today. A townhall on how the media covered events on in ferguson, missouri. This is two hours. Good evening. Use feedback, we need feedback. Good evening. Thank you. Oferve as the president [indiscernible] are excited to partner with this program. This is our fifth town hall meeting we have sponsored here regarding the aftermath of ferguson. I will be attending a meeting with the Regional Chamber to talk about some Systematic Community things that need to happen. We are excited to partner tonight and were looking forward to the dialogue that will go on that will have impact in our community. We look forward to a great program. Good evening. I am the president of the greater st. Louis association of lacked journalists which is one of the partners for tonights town hall meeting. I am here to be very brief and introduce you to our monitor moderator and get is underway. This is mr. Bob butler who is president of the National Association of black journalists. He flew all the way here are this event from california. He has been in the industry for 20 years where he works as a reporter in san francisco. Bob was truly is her mental in the ferguson coverage as far as helping journalists on the ground, he immediately released a statement on behalf of of our organization, and helped in any way he could in making sure that journalists on the ground would have their rights protected, essentially. I am pleased to welcome him, and i hope you will welcome him as our moderator this evening, mr. Bob butler. [applause] thought i heard my name. Thank you. We were back there kicking it, thats why are did not hear my name. Good evening, and welcome to this town hall meeting, this is on how the media has covered ferguson following the shooting death of Michael Brown, it is being brought to you by the st. Louis association of black journalists, and the National Association of black journalists, my name is rob butler, and im the president of the nabj. A couple of housekeeping notes, we do have a twitter, you can write your questions to us, we also have cards if you question of the end, and we will go to the panel and then we will go to your cards. I want to introduce our panel. To your far left is mariah stewart, she is a ferguson fellow, with huffington post, she started covering ferguson right after her graduation. [applause] next to mariah is christopher, he has been is to mental in directing coverage from the Government Regarding the shooting from the government the shooting of Michael Brown. Next to chris is bill, and he has had an awardwinning career tom career, this is bill fry google freigle. Next to bill is patricia bynes. Bradley referred rafford, and his photos have been shown on national television, mr. Bradley rayford. And some of you may have already known our last panelist, her social media reports really drove the Media Coverage, not just locally, but nationally. How many followers did you have on twitter at that time . First i started with 1500. And now i have 13 30,000. 13,000. Twitter really does work. I knew britney before the situation, and she covered ferguson wallcovering while planning for her wedding. The wedding, by the way, i was not invited to. You could have come. [laughter] well, ok. We have had a lot of town Hall Meetings here, talking about police, talking about city leaders, talking about voting, talking about not voting, to let me ask you each, your perspective. Maria, i will start with you. I suspect the media did do the best we could, well, i know i did, and i know a lot of the people appear did. You were out there. You have probably seen some of the coverage of ferguson, did you see any of the coverage, you were out there a long time. Yes, i did to the coverage. The only thing i would have to say meet say negative about the Media Coverage was the view of Public Officials when it came to press conferences or meetings, some of the reporters, cameramen, were nasty. But as far as overall coverage, i think we did a decent job. Chris, you actually directed some of the coverage, but the results of the protests, what you think . Well, i think in many ways, the jury is still out on how the media, how we, covered the ferguson situation. There is a wide and evergrowing range of issues. This wasnt just about an officer and an 18yearold, certainly it was a fatal shooting, it was an incident it may have been a crime it was something that may have been a reaction to that, but then what happened, in my view, oh by double all kinds of deeper issues in my view, opened up all kinds of deeper issues, and is fascinating to look at the ways that reactions very, depending on background. Everything from the use of proper use of force amongst police to the proper way to handle when there is a protest, which is a constitutionally protected right, why the way, to assemble and to the titian, and to protest, and all the way to disparity in sentencing, to find, to criminal fines, two small legal matters, this crazy system you may not be familiar with here. There is Something Like 80 Different Court system in systems in st. Louis county. It is crazy. It is a crazy, unfocused, authorized balkanized system within the state. I cant get to all of the issues, but i can get to many of them. And it is certainly important. What you think about your coverage of ferguson . Whenever we think how well the media has done, it is clear that most people in st. Louis think that the media has done badly. There was a survey the other data shows about 70 of people thought the media had made things worse rather than better. Now i would not necessarily agree with the majority sentiment there, but i agree that some of the things that christopher just finished pointing to our ways in which the media has really helped, this includes local, but the National Media has really helped to focus on issues, like the balkanized core system, police profiling of africanamerican citizens, the need for court system, police profiling of africanamerican citizens, the need for equality, but the most important issue, the conversation about race. This town never really has quite actually had, i think. Those are way in which i think the media has done well. To answer your question, i mean, i have said in some of our stories what a great job the post dispatch has done, theres photographers have brought for just a amazing images, and they are very brave in the way they have covered the story. I have been pretty critical of some of the parachute journalism, there was a new republic reporter the first week who went into a barbecue place and interviewed about five white folks who had very negative feelings about africanamericans, and that was her story about what was going on in st. Louis. The New York Times had a story the second sunday of the covers, and i think it was called the circle of rage, in that st. Louis was encircled by these segregated suburbs, and it didnt really quite get things right. For example, they portrayed ferguson is having as being a segregated community. At a person i know out of stanford actually pulled out the census statistics that said that ferguson is one of the most integrated communities, if you look at the entire boundaries of the city. I thought that some of the citizen journalist did a really good job, i dont really know if that is even quite the right word, patricia is probably one of them, antonio did a very excellent post, i thought, and they all had a point of view, but they were reporting from the scene. I quoted in the journalism review, i quoted a Young Journalist named ryan schuessler, who was working for al jazeera america, and he was very put off by the way journalists tended to make the story about themselves. Cameramen making jokes about where Michael Brown had die, cameramen who were yelling at people in the community to get out of the way, chris hayes, the msnbc guy, who was out there with the people, but he was actually behind a wrought iron fence, so i thought he had quite a number of good points there. I want to go to britney, and bradley, so bradley. I am one of the least experienced guys up here. Say that dont say that ok, it was fascinating to watch an International Story enfolded front of me. I have never seen so many journalists in one spot in one time. What kind of bothered me a little bit is that we were becoming the story. The actual story was being overshadowed by how the police were arresting journalists, by how journalists were getting in the way sometimes, so i think it is important from now on that we learn from the situation and that we learn to report the story and not become the story. I think, like bill said, there is a mixed review from citizens in the area about Media Coverage locally, and i do believe that the best was done with the resources that they had. With a situation, things can be done differently but the story was unfolding at such a high pace, it was such a difficult thing to please everybody. However, like i said, things can be done differently, so i hope this will be a learning situation, not only for the police, but for the folks in the journalist industry to learn and do things to philly. Do things differently. So britney, you are out there early. Tell about how you were one of the first people on the scene, right . It is really funny in a bradley and i sit next to each other, and he was the photographer taking my and my photographer was taking my engagement photos, and he said wait a minute, what is this going on . And my fiance say, you are not leaving, and i said i think i am and so bradley and i story covering the story, and i think that you hit it straight on. I am not one to really pick sides or anything, but i know it was tougher me not to stay out of it, because i am a reporter, and i can emotionally remove myself from situations, any situation that i cover on a daytoday basis. But a lot of people thought i was trying to become the story just because i was putting out so many instagram posts, because i was out there in the mix. So my station is a very brand driven station, we are always watching out for you, we are always watching and trying to be an emotional brand, and when you put that brand into what was an extremely emotional national case, it almost becomes like i am the emotional reporter, so you have to take a look and i have to take a look at myself and how i was covering and how i needed to step back as far as our brand had just, you know, i absolutely was reporting, and the people said that reporters were trying to become the story. And to forget, there were reporters who were trying to take this as a claim to fame. I have seen vendors out on the street trying to sell tshirts, so they are out there trying to make a profit as well. How did the media cover this, did we get it right . It is such a broad question, there are so many media outlets, and i have never seen anything like it, as well. Or both of us, it was the biggest story that we have ever covered in our entire careers. I can only look in myself and how i covered it, and what i think i did good and what i think i can improve on, and go from there. Patricia, youre out there in the middle of a, and you are doing double duty, not just as a public official, but also you were blogging about what you were seeing. So when you look at the National Coverage, and also, there is also a difference between National Coverage and local coverage so from your perspective, how did things go . I have always been a news connoisseur, i have always been keeping up on what is going on. I tweet, i am patricialicous, and because i get such a diverse view of the news, i read the local, i read the nationals, i look at the international pages, i think it is cute to see you guys been so hard on yourself, but there are so many types of ferguson stories that were covered, and some of them were done well, and some of them were not. I deftly want to give kudos to the local coverage of that was here, because i know, just like from myself, that i had to school on a lot of the National Media on how st. Louis worked. They did not know that. I know that the crisis situation, people just kind of jumping, that i would like i would certainly hope in the future, any crisis situation, when the National Media comes in, they have to do some homework. That way they can start getting the story right. I had some people report, and i had to say, no, no, no, you dont understand. They have the state police in a county police mixed up. There is a huge difference on what was going on, and it changed the entire cone of the story, and as the coverage continues to go on because it is not over you can tell which kind of news organizations were reporting, and who was trying to get a right. Who was asking the tough questions, who was doing their homework, who was doing the deep digging. As far as coverage of the story, i think that i mean, i think there were people who are trying to become part of the story, but i think the ferguson story is a violation of First Amendment rights. If they dont care about how they treat the media, imagine what they are doing to the people who actually live here. So what is considered being in the way to the police versus to the media versus to the people, and i think that was important. . Up please unlock up National Reporters and have them talk about that experience just so they can get a taste of what they are dealing with in this county and what the Ferguson Police are really like. There may have been some people who projected themselves, but what has really come out of it is some really eyeopening experiences and whoa, what is going on out there . What is all of this anger all about . And it became not just the shooting of a young man and leaving his body out in the street for foreign a half hours, it became the unders for four and a half hours, it became more than that. It became st. Louiss dirty laundry