Transcripts For CSPAN Key Capitol Hill Hearings 20161024

Moderator thank you to our candidates. If you have not received your ballot in the mail, expect to get it by this tuesday, october 25. New Washington State voters have until october 31 to register in person. Dont forget to vote by november 8. Ballots must be postmarked or dropped in an approved box by election day. 8 00 p. M. Onose at election day. Goodnight. And please vote. [applause] thank you to our lead sponsor microsoft. Supporting sponsors, the bill and Melinda Gates foundation and the Henry Jackson foundation. Debate sponsor pemco insurance. And the empowered voters campaign. The executive producer for the Washington State coalition. Production Services Provided by david and john birch. I am Austin Jenkins with the northwest news network. Thank you for watching and good night. Now the debate for u. S. Senate in connecticut between Richard Blumenthal and republican state representative, dan carter. Topics include health care law, tax policy and gridlock in washington. This is an hour. Eyewitness news presents campaign 2016 the u. S. Senate debate. Thank you for joining us. This will be one hour and there will be a live stream. We welcome your comments. Each candidate will have two minutes to answer the question and one minute for rebuttal. Welcome the candidates. Blumenthal will be asked the first question. We will begin with that now. The responsibility of the next president will be to nominate someone to the Supreme Court. If President Trump or clinton came to you and asked for suggestions to a potential justice from connecticut, who would you choose and why would your choice be better than your mr. Opponents . Mr. Blumenthal thank you for having us and thank you for the opportunity to speak to the people of connecticut. I believe that Merrick Garland is a supremely wellqualified candidate. Most importantly, this has to be a decision by the president of the United States as to the best qualified in the country. I can think of a number of candidates in connecticut. The United States attorney is one. I also believe that the senate must do their job before the end of the year and have a hearing, hold a vote. It is a constitutional duty. The failure of the Supreme Court to do their job is because of the obstructionism of the republican majority. I was a United States attorney and i have argued cases before the court and i have reference and reverence for the court. We need to fill the seat. 44 deadlocks are damaging to the country. This is why i am fighting to confirm the next justice for the Supreme Court. The 44 deadlock on the court infects that branch of government with the kind of gridlock we have seen too often in the legislative branch. The Supreme Court should do , hold a hearing, and nominate Merrick Garland. Carter i appreciate having this in the open and it is important. With respect to the Supreme Court, we get the question of the Supreme Court. I do not think anybody should be afraid of hearing and the republicans should have hearings. I would advocate hearing the case. Whether or not garland is one we should put up, i dont know how you make that case before the hearings. That said, it is important to provide the court with the ability to do the job. Difference can fourfour make a difference . I want to look for somebody who is not a judicial activist on either side of the aisle. We take a look and we can find that they are not biased, one way or the other, and that is important. I think it is important to the citizens of the United States and connecticut, because we have seen gridlock. Frankly, it is not the Supreme Court. It is definitely legislature. We will talk about this over the next hour. That is my answer. Mr. Blumenthal i think that the next justice on the Supreme Court should be a mainstream thinker who believes in the rule of law, regardless of partisan differences and has respect for past precedents. The next justice should be someone who has experience as a litigator, perhaps as a prosecutor, but handson. The decision should be made on the basis of the merits. Merrick garland is a mainstream thinker with experience as a prosecutor and he fits the profile of somebody i think should be confirmed. At the very least, the senate should do their job and have a hearing. The job of a u. S. Senator is to look at your states interest and bring home federal dollars. People are unhappy with the high cost of living here and the population is declining. What would you do to make the state more affordable . Mr. Carter this is an important thing a senator should be focused on. Ladies and gentlemen, we have had financial ruin here. We have lived through to large two large tax increases. Some people are getting jobs outofstate. We all know friends and neighbors who are leaving in droves. Making changes to the tax code, looking down the line, we have to make it fairer and flatter, reducing the brackets and the loopholes. We think it would be important, in order to bring corporations back. Other countries are bringing in companies to stimulate their economy. I dont understand why the United States is not an tax haven. At the end of the day, we have to get these corporations back and get United States jobs to the folks that live here. Number two is control our spending. Part of the problem has been out of control spending. It is the same at the federal level. When you have almost 600 billion in deficit every year 20 trillion in debt, it shows were not spending wisely. We need to support balanced budgets. You have two minutes to respond. Mr. Blumenthal thanks for that important question. Here is what i am doing to create jobs in connecticut. The federal government should do more to help. I am focusing on investment in national defense, bringing jobs. Investment in our roads, bridges, rails, and infrastructure through the transportation bill i helped to lead is bringing construction jobs to connecticut. People need the skills to fill the jobs that exist now. There are thousands of more jobs to be brought to the state by those investments. Of course, lowering taxes, tax credits for investment in research, development, new capital, machinery, lowering the medical device tax, all of this is accomplished through my advocacy and i will fight for tax credits to bring jobs home and stop the rewards and special rights for companies that bring jobs overseas. This is part of the bring jobs home. Rather than tax rates for oil companies, billionaires, lowering the cost in connecticut involves roads, investment in defense, and skills training to provide the workforce we need to attract more companies to connecticut. Mr. Carter it strikes me that the answer to improving the economy is spending more. Im not going to argue about the crumbling infrastructure. We need to work on this, federal and state, to make that happen. I do not think the answer is to spend money on every different program. At the end of the day, we need to spend more wisely. With respect to the bring jobs home act, it does not team lies penalize companies. It is not a big change or benefit to anybody and it does not help us. We need structural change in the way that we do business in washington. It is open. It is time to fix it. The people who have been there for 30 years have to fix it. The next question is about gun legislation. Here in connecticut, some of the toughest gun laws have been passed. There is now an effort to pass in congress. Nofly, no buy, do you support this . Mr. Blumenthal i strongly support the law that would prohibit people who are too dangerous to board airplanes from buying a gun, along with other sensible gun measures and taking guns away from domestic abusers who are under a court order. I have been working on this issue and i was at the sandy hook firehouse and the church with families, Holding Hands and working with loved ones of the victims. This is a Public Health emergency, a crisis or our a crisis for our country. These measures must be passed and Congress Must cease to be complicit with the gun lobby. My opponent and i have a disagreement. He voted against the ban on domestic abusers having guns and he received an honest grade from the nra. That maybe the reason. I think the nra and gun lobby have enough friends in washington. I am going to continue to fight for these commonsense measures, including the ban on terrorists buying guns. If 33,000 people were dying in we would deem it a Public Health emergency. We would take drastic action. That is the way we need to regard our gun violence problem in this country. Mr. Carter obviously, there is a thing we agree on. We have a gun problem, with people dying on our streets every day. The question is how do you get there . Let me explain where i stand. After sandy hook, i propose universal background checks, ways to look at continuation training, so people understood not to be complacent with firearms. I addressed one of the important challenges in keeping firearms out of the hands of those with mental illness. None of that was looked at. Politically speaking, the only thing people need to do was try to ban the gun that was used in that single shooting. The bill i voted against would have done nothing to friend to prevent sandy hook from happening. I believe my legislation would. My opponent does not get to corner the market on compassion. I understand how divided people are on this issue. I will tell you that people want to solve this and the way to do that is looking at illegal gun trafficking in this country and provide resources to keep those guns off the street. There were a lot of good democrats in hartford who voted against the bill. The reason people voted against this bill is because they understand that the bill does nothing to protect lives. I say to you, my opponent, why is nothing getting done on this . Everybody is focused on one part of it, trying to make the nra the boogie man. We have a serious prom to go after and they are raising money off of it, exploiting it, and using it for their campaign coffers. It is time to get out there, do not ground checks. Checks doround background checks. It is important to not have people who are labeled a terrorist being able to get a gun. We need to look at guns falling into the hands of the wrong people. Senator blumenthal, you have one minute. Mr. Blumenthal congress has been complicit because of the nra having congress in their grip. They give grades. We need to break that grip. In connecticut, a strong, bipartisan majority voted to put connecticut at the forefront of this effort to stop gun violence. Connecticuts law is only as protective as the weakest state law. This is why we need a national law. It will not be easy. I am going to work for the bipartisan majority just like we had in connecticut involving a ban on illegal trafficking and strong purchases, a Mental Health program and school safety. Senator clintons email problem has been in the news and could be fallout from it, even if she is elected. What should be the punishment for somebody who does this . Mr. Carter that is a big question in this campaign. I dont think every Public Officials should worry about whether or not they are on a private or public server. We have certain Public Officials who have access to classified information and that is the issue at hand with secretary clinton. I was in the air force and i had i handled classified information along the way. I was trained and i understood it. The question is, should somebody with the access to that information be using a private server . Probably not. The fact is, this has been controversial and it goes to a question of trust and honesty in washington and it is a thing we should be focusing on. The fact that we talked about Supreme Court hearings. We should have hearings on the Supreme Court because transparency is more important than ever and that is why i asked my opponent to have this opportunity to answer these questions. People do not trust the politicians in washington, because they go to washington to do one thing and they come back here and Say Something else. As far as classification, if it as far as classified information goes, if it is ever proven that she had classified information, she should suffer the same punishment that any of the rest of us would. Mr. Blumenthal there are private servers that never have classified material. We get and see classified material, but only in a special buildinghe capitol that is designated for the viewing of that material and we are barred from taking Electronic Devices into that. Into that area. This is important, in light of the potential of cyber warfare, cyber attack increasing the threat to National Security and the United States should have stronger policies to deter those cyber attacks, which are a danger, even to the classified systems. The department of defense is fending off attacks from russia hackers from around the world who seek access to that system and deterrence has to be strengthened. We need a policy on cyber. We need to respond inkind and deter these attacks, which are a threat to all of our servers. I have advocated that our electoral system should be considered, along with utilities and our financial system. Mr. Carter, one minute. Mr. Carter it is easy to go after providing resources for cyber terrorism. With respect to clinton, it is important that we handle classified information appropriately and i think they should investigate and find out more information about the emails. If she did something wrong, we would challenge her on that. I dont think the electoral system is in jeopardy because of what is happening. We have a lot of venerable people and good people running these elections, doing these operations for the elections individually, not hooked into a big mainframe. I am not worried about cyber warfare yet. We will Pay Attention to the news. It is a twopart abortion question. Many states require parental notification for girls to get an abortion. Connecticut is not one of those states. Why shouldnt parents be told, if their child is getting an abortion . 12,000 abortions were performed in connecticut, 31 a day. Do you consider 31 a day to be rare . Mr. Blumenthal abortion should be safe, rare, and legal. The law of the land is that these decisions are to be made by women, in consultation with clergy, family, and others involved. It should be their decision, not the government interfering. These Health Care Choices are vital, as a matter of constitutional law and public policy. I have been a staunch advocate of a womans right to health care, right to choose, right to reproductive rights since my day as a law clerk on the United States Supreme Court. I have helped to protect the clinic and helped to write a that embodies the the standards of roe v. Wade. A woman makes a decision on whether she wants to consult her parents, if she wishes to do so, without the government telling her what to do. Womens rights are under siege in washington and i have led the effort to protect them, just as i did as attorney general. They are under siege in state legislatures, which is why a why i wrote the Health Protection act. There are obstacles that are being presented to stop access to reproductive rights. Mr. Carter, you have two minutes. Mr. Carter this is an important choice and i recognize the right to choose, as protected in the 14th amendment. I do not think we should go after that. There is no question about that. We should decrease abortions. We want fewer people to go through that. The way to do that is through education. We talk about a woman talking to her clergy and people who are important to her. It is important for her to have all the Information Available. I want to make sure that people have all the Information Available about Adoptive Services and that it is done on an even Playing Field. My opponent is on the money when he says that he does not want pretend, trickery or things being treated as equal. Too often, that happens in washington. When we have these issues, we need to make sure we are handling in a very fair where very fair way. Mr. Blumenthal, you have one minute. Mr. Blumenthal this issue goes to the core of what i tried to do in washington, which is stand up for people when special interests try to get their way and women are entitled to make these choices about contraception, having a child. Every time planned parenthood is under threat, and it has been five or six times, i stand with planned parenthood. Planned parenthood provides education, contraceptive services, enabling women to avoid pregnancy, if that is their choice. In fact, only a tiny part of what planned parenthood does is abortion. We want abortion to be safe, legal, and rare. I think some are frustrated by gridlock in washington. Those bills that are raised, many do not get debated or voted on. What would you do to be more productive and make congress more productive . Mr. Carter everybody is frustrated with washington and it is a huge issue. One of the problems is the different bills and things thrown out there and you just mentioned planned parenthood, a good example. Recently, we spoke about the zika virus crisis and we were talking about this coming from gridlock in congress. They were putting money out there and the democrats took a hold of it and they said, we are not going to give money to planned parenthood. Instead of finding a way to give this money to the Public Health channels, they blocked it. I support planned parenthood. They made it a planned parenthood issue. This gets us in trouble. You say you support something. My opponent talks about equal pay for women. They put the paycheck fairness act in front of Congress Since 1997. It was filled with poison pills on the other side. It is called a message bill, giving people something to run on back home. That is ridiculous. I crossed party lines and i support a bill that prohibits employers from talking about their wages and puts in a statute for women to be able to sue, if they think they have been infringed upon. I abandon party politics, whenever i can. Senator blumenthal, you have two minutes. Sen. Blumenthal this job gives me the opportunity to fight for the people of connecticut in the face of gridlock. Too often, the special interest at their way and my job get their way in my job has been to stand up to those special interests, consumers who are ripped off, women who want equal pay, and for the veterans, who deserve Quality Health care. And, for all the people of connecticut, who simply just want a fair shake. Special interests are anonymously donating and have virtually unlimited access to the political process and they are responsible for the gridlock that gets there. I make no apologies for opposing a bill that would defund planned parenthood as a price for meeting the zika crisis. The initial bill had a strong bipartisan majority, without the poison pills. We can do better and i have reached across the aisle on measures, like an act that cuts regulatory burdens for pharmaceutical companies, when they develop new drugs for antibioticresistant strains of viruses. One act has gone through the senate and has been used by a Connecticut Company to create new drugs and jobs. Mr. Carter the bill they are talking about did not defund planned parenthood. That is not true. Planned parenthood did not qualify for medicaid at that point. It did not defund planned parenthood. We have been talking about special interests. Lets talk about special interests. My opponent has millions in his campaign fund. Does it affect every vote . Probably not. But with respect to taking care veterans, he singlehandedly blocked a bill. I dont think he is putting veterans first. How do you account for blocking an act when veterans are having the toughest time ever . We are running out of time. Term limits comes up. Senator leahy has been in office for 41 years. There are members of the house that have been there for decades. Do you support term limits . Sen. Blumenthal we have term limits. They are called elections. Some of the best have served a long time and the biggest area where we need reform is campaign finance. The existence of dark money, with no accountability, no reporting, anonymous donation through super pacs, this is the greatest threat to the integrity of the system and i really have not supported term limits. I think the democratic process should work. The people who have exhausted the patients of the electorate and failing to do their job should be ousted. I want to just correct the record on something my opponent just said. I oppose the marco rubio accountability bill. It was not constitutional and would help nobody in accountability. I supported an alternative bipartisan bill that i crafted with johnny isakson. We put together this bill on accountability for caregivers and we created a bill that you eliminates bonuses for poor performers, removes wrongdoers, and protects whistleblowers. I hope to see this will become law. Mr. Carter speaking of term limits, we have a race with a powerful incumbent with a lot of him, itand time behind is tough to challenge. This is the first opportunity i have had a debate. Trump got three. Im ok with that. We could do term limits. If the United States senate and Congress Want to do a constitutional amendment, i would be supportive of that. People do not trust washington and i think it is important to consider term limits and it may be time to not have the same people going to washington, year after year. I will also say this, if you veterans,hard for our how can we still have so many problems with our veterans . It becomes a punchline, when the politicians talk about veterans and nothing gets done. I think i made my answer clear. In legislature, we talk about veterans all the time and we all want to help them. By the way, i do not think that blumenthal doesnt want to help veterans. We all say it is a priority. We come back and we say we do. Senator, you made a career out of fighting for the little guy and it feels like you are fighting the little guy. I think it is time that you give somebody else a shot. Blumenthal, now you have a minute for rebuttal. Thank younthal susan. Let me thank my opponent for his service, as i do for every veteran. I respect that service and i have worked in the senate and before i went to the senate so that this country could keep faith with its veterans. Two of my sons have served and i have a special affinity for this problem. That is why, in the wake of this arizona debacle, i created a choice bill to allow people to go outside. I wrote a measure with john because 20 veterans in this country take their lives in this country every day and i will continue to advocate for this bill. In five states, the choice to legalize marijuana will be on the ballot next month. Including neighboring massachusetts, four states have thoughed it even federal still has not. Do you think the federal government should legalize marijuana . Mr. Carter this is interesting. In the legislature, i have had this question posed to me a number of times. I realized the medical marijuana shows promise for people and it can help with the bill attending conditions with debilitating conditions. The use of Recreational Marijuana is a struggle. I do not think we have the ability to regulate this in a way where we understand the implications on people who operate machinery. And Police Officers how do we handle that . I also think that, if we support recreational use, anyone who is under 25, is proven to cause a problem in your development. That is a real problem for a policymaker. There is a libertarian streak in me that says, why are we regulating a plant like this . Why are we putting people in jail for this . This is another issue we have to handle. From the federal government side, we should handle the Law Enforcement activities, but not let the drug dealers off the hook. I am openminded to listening to hearings and i think this is something we have to face. We have real problems with marijuana. Sen. Blumenthal dennis, we are in the midst of the greatest opioid abuse and heroin epidemic in this nation and we need to act more aggressively and robustly to save lives. I have held roundtables and they were heartbreaking. I would listen to stories of young people in recovery who started on opioids, prescribed to percocet, vicodin, or oxycontin. I sued the maker of oxycontin general forttorney inadequate labeling. I won. I came up with a report with specific recommendations, including guidelines on Pain Management to prescribers and caregivers. And use of Law Enforcement to crackdown but Law Enforcement officials told me that we will not arrest our way out of this crisis. We need more treatment and investment. But i also heard in these roundtables was that a legalization of marijuana will not solve this crisis. It may only aggravate it. Much as i wan the i approve the use of medical marijuana, i think this nation needs to do more to save the lives of people. We need adequate funding. Mr. Carter with respect to legalizing marijuana, it doesnt sound like we are far off. With respect to opioids, it is a plague in our country. It is know that and that we need to do more than strongly worded letters and roundtables. We need to make sure that we put things in place that address this issue. In my years in the legislature, i have been behind the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program in the state to make sure that we go after people who are doctor shopping. My opponent talked about suing somebody. I believe that we need to work with stakeholders and not create adversarial relationships with business. Badss they are truly a actor. Moderator many are saying that obama care needs to be improved to survive. Some say it needs to be replaced and others say it needs to be repealed. What action should be taken . Sen. Blumenthal i advocate improvements to the Affordable Care act, not that it is repealed. We cant go back to a time when millions of people were denied coverage under Health Care Policies because of preexisting conditions or women being charged more because they were women and they faced discrimination from insurance companies. There was a time where children could not be on insurance policies and they now can be, 26yearsold. This enables people to get effective coverage. Im not going to throw those people out of health insurance. There needs to be improvements. The cost of medical care should be reduced, as does the cost of drugs. I advocate reducing the cost of pharmaceutical drugs by allowing medicare to negotiate. Right now medicare is barred negotiating. Negotiate, medicare cannot. Another example is seeing the increase of epipens. That is astronomical. I have asked for an investigation and want to continue the pressure on mylan to reduce the cost of epipens. Needs to be more competitors in the market and lowering costs for Small Businesses is a major goal. We must provide support and greater subsidies, so that people can afford it. Mr. Carter there is a lot of debate about obamacare being replaced, repealed, or what to do with it. The problem is we know it is collapsing and we need to change it into something that works. With respect to preexisting conditions, we understand that. We want to make sure that health care is affordable to everybody. We know that. Lets make sure the system works. Lets take some of the fixes that were proposed, that blumenthal voted against, which cost money to our hospitals. We know how it has been for hospitals especially under our governor, we know how difficult it is. We need to make sure this Program Works and create something that looks more like feeforservice, with decisions being made between a patient and a provider. We have watched Small Businesses and families and go through the roof and it does not have to be that way. I do not know why there is so much gridlock in washington. Both sides say that we need to fix it and we have not. It is interesting to me that senator blumenthal supported obama care, mandated going to every school in the country and where were you when the epipen cost went up . We should be working with them all along. We dont do this through something heavyhanded. Not coming out with, im going to sue you. You have a minute to rebut. Sen. Blumenthal i supported these improvements in the Affordable Care act from the time i came to congress and the votes have been about repealing, completely eliminating, the Affordable Care act time after time. The votes have been to repeal theecause that is what republican majority wanted. They did not want to improve this. This has to be the goal. I will continue to champion efforts to keep down the cost of pharmaceutical drugs. They need to be made available why i was a leader in providing them in schools. Epipens can literally save lives and i will continue to advocate for them. There is a concern that Many Companies find it affordable to either relocated their headquarters or labor overseas because of that. Do you support punishing companies that do that . Mr. Carter yes, jobs are moving overseas and we have to find a way to keep them here. It is not entirely because of labor costs. We know that, if we lower the tax costs and removed loopholes, creating a tax structure and a Regulatory Environment that was reliable, predictable, and something they could count on, a lot of companies would come here voluntarily. Be our own tax haven. Punish. T need to senator blumenthal talked about the bring home jobs bill. Companies see a better tax rate and it is not like they just go and move over there. What they do is they build facilities and do construction. We have to make it reasonable and that will help us. We talk a lot about corporate taxes, which only bring in 10 of federal revenue. Why are we so focused on this, when it could be something that helps bring people back. We also have to get people back. We need to remove barriers. We have tried for many years to get something where you can go to a restaurant and you can take home a 64 ounce of draft beer. Otherwise, you couldnt get draft beer. We got that removed and it added 2 million to the state in taxes and it allowed new revenue to the state. Sen. Blumenthal addressing that question directly, susan, our tax code is riddled with loopholes, special breaks, giveaways to corporations, special interests, and sweetheart deals. One of these concerns is moving headquarters overseas to tax havens in the netherlands. Ireland. Epipen, mylan, was one of the companies that moved overseas in this way and they move jobs overseas. It is a different kind of loophole and Companies Moving expenses and profits overseas. I propose they bring them back at a lower tax rate and that they have to invest in an Infrastructure Bank to invest in our roads, bridges, and rails. There is ways to close loopholes. Economyubs, drive our forward. Those are only a fraction of the ones that should be closed. The deductions for the big oil companies, the write offs for the companies that give bonuses to their executives, the kinds of loopholes that basic and basically deprive taxpayers of what we deserve. And dont benefit economic progress because a lot of companies are paying much higher taxes. We should reward investment, broaden the tax incentives, as i have advocated. We need to extend wind and solar. You have a one minute rebuttal. Mr. Carter i dont think the senator knows how to create a job. This is all talk. What i see at a federal level is a lot of gridlock and a lot of loopholesking about not really acting on it, too busy working on other things. I think that the american people, this is part of the trust issue we have in washington, d. C. It is easy to stand here and support things and not find out whether or not there in a bill. Act weing home jobs farce. About was a total were talking about major loopholes. Back to some of the formal questions. We want to have rapidfire questions. Blumenthal, who is the best u. S. Senator in connecticut history . Sen. Blumenthal the best u. S. Senator in connecticut history . Bably abe i will follow up. Do you think the number of abortions in connecticut is rare . Sen. Blumenthal you are asking me this question . I think the number of abortions isnt the measure of the effectiveness of constitutional law. It is the individual exercising the right to choice that is important. By the way, i will fight to bring jobs home. Mr. Carter no, not rare. Do you support the tunnel . Mr. Carter i would have to see all the details. Its a big deal. Sen. Blumenthal it is infrastructure that should be seriously considered. Whether it is Cost Effective should be determined. Who do you look up to . Sen. Blumenthal i look up to role models in this country and abroad. Mr. Carter james earl jones. He overcame a speech impediment. Do you think the mascot is offensive . Mr. Carter it is not offensive. They should not change it. Sen. Blumenthal they should change it. It offends some people to have native american images and identities as mascots. I advocate the redskins change their name, as well. There are several colleges named after slaveowners. Yale. Alhoun college at mr. Carter we should not be renaming buildings. We should look forward and handle important issues. Renaming buildings is not going to accomplish that. Sen. Blumenthal the decisions have to be made by the individual institutions. I dont think a broad rule can be made. In certain instances like Calhoun College i think they would be wise to rename it. Is donald trump a racist . Sen. Blumenthal he is many disqualify him from the presidency. Racism is plausible. Mr. Carter you know, i dont necessarily think somebody is a racist. I think it is about character. My opponent talked about vietnam service. I dont think that makes him a racist. What do you do in your free time . Mr. Carter for me . I love spending time with my kids when theyre around. I have a dog, who is a rescue. I like to read. I would like to fly more but since i left the air force i havent had the time or money. Sen. Blumenthal i like spending time with my wife, who is here tonight, and our children. They are the pride and joy of our lives. Is clinton a liar . Mr. Carter she is dishonest. Sen. Blumenthal no. She is not a liar. Moderator do you have it a gun license . He is working hard and has a tough job. Sen. Blumenthal i think malloy has definitely nailed the state. Drugs do want the number to run for a third term, mr. Blumenthal . Sen. Blumenthal natixis decision. I hope the people of connecticut will choose me. Shouldter i think you run again because i think it will be a strong year for republicans because he is not done and hopefully to support early voting . Sen. Blumenthal i do. Mr. Carter i do. A reminder that to election day is tuesday, november 8, just two weeks away from this tuesday and we want to know, who do you think won this debate . Would like you to go to our Facebook Page and take part in our online poll. Have a great rest of the weekend. Thank you for joining us. Announcer cspan brings you more debates from key senate races. Evening, then this pennsylvania u. S. Senate debate. On wednesday night, a debate for the florida u. S. Debate. And thursday night at 8 00 eastern, republican senator and democratic governor debate for the New Hampshire senate seat. Day,ntil the election follow key debates on the cspan network, cspan. Org, and on the cspan radio app. Cspan, where history unfold daily. Joining us is David Wasserman who is the house editor covering house races across the country here in 2016 and some of the headlines were seeing in the us couple weeks or so are that democrats are seeing some bright spots in races. What are the numbers democrats have to get in order to take the house . Republicans have the largest majority they have held since the great depression. Our estimate is they will pick up between 10 and 20 c. There has been a lot of curiosity among democrats after trumps meltdown as to whether if house could be in play Hillary Clinton wins by a large margin. Ae democrats have gotten student in the polling metric. Of bumpsame amount that Hillary Clinton has received in the president ial race. Our best guest is that the momentum has swung in democrats favor. The majority is still a reach for democrats. Host what does that ask of respondents . Guest if the election were being held today which candidate would you vote for in your district . Lead of sixve had a points in recent weeks. Thats pretty good for them. Its also not up to where they were in 2006 when they ended up taking back the house. What we see across the country right now is republicans have such a structural advantage. It takes democrats winning the possible vote for the house by seven or eight points just to have a chance of winning control host how long have you been covering house race . Guest almost 10 years. Host have you ever seen it move like this . The movement we are seeing is not explosive movement for democrats. This is a very polarized political environment. You had a caller that said Hillary Clinton does not live in reality. There is a feeling among republican voters. Seeing a dip in enthusiasm among the hardcore Republican Base. What has been driving hillary has been white color welleducated suburban voters particularly women who may have wanted to support the change donald trump represents but really peeled back after the behavior towards women. Those voters are some of the highest propensity voters in the country. They are likely to turn out no matter what. They are the likeliest to know who their candidates are and be willing to split their tickets. We heard a lot of top of the packet voters voting one way and then voting another way for congress. Whats happening in 2016 is the opposite. We are having a lot of partisans who are comfortable with congress but have a lot of hesitance voting for donald trump. David wasserman is with us to talk about the state of the house races across the country. 202 7488001 republicans. 202 7488000 democrats. 202 7488002 all others. This week you talked about some of the ratings changes. The headline is about barbara comstock. Three weeks out the House Landscape is bifurcated in welleducated suburban districts. Barbara comstock goes into your tossup category. We would love to hear how the house races are going in your district. Heres the open seat. That is now leaning democrat. Congressman from california. This is now a tossup. Whats going on . Barbara comstocks district is one of the best educated seeds in the country. She has run a terrific cap pain. She has distanced herself from donald trump. To because this is a district thats changing. Loudoun county virginia has experienced rapid population growth in the past several decades. It now accounts for half the electorate in her district. She has long had an advantage in the district that was drawn to favor republicans. From the d. C. Line into the shenandoah valley. Newre seeing a lot of voters in the Loudoun County suburbs in high density said who may be recent voters to the 10th district. They are a diverse welleducated socially liberal set of voters that is going to come out against donald trump. He could record historic loss is interms of the vote margin loudoun and fairfax counties. A lot of them dont have a personal relationship with their member of congress. Shes running for her second term. Guest she was a delegate. Those Loudoun County voters a lot of them dont know her and maybe voting for the democrat a in californias 10th district you have a latino electorate that could exceed about a quarter of the vote. Thats up from what it was in the past. We are seeing a Voter Registration strike and latino communities. In North Carolina hispanic Voter Registration has gone up while almost 50 since the last election. Democrats are running a really dennoitting against standing next to donald trump helping trump broker a deal in the post office building. Obama carried this district twice narrowly. It looks like Hillary Clinton will carry it again. Barbara comstock gets the Washington Posts endorsement this morning. Shes the one republican they endorsed over lou and benefit luanne bennett. A lot of voters are looking at places other than daily newspapers for information on how to vote. It is significant that the Washington Post which is a pretty liberal Editorial Board has endorsed a republican. Its not unprecedented. They have picked in the past republicans who are less than full throated conservatives. Comstock has attempted to portray herself as a Constituents Services oriented republican. Mike on the independent line. Good morning. Caller ive got a couple questions. A couple opinions. As far as congress is concerned i personally think they are doing a very good job and they have been doing it for years. Their whole branch of the government was designed to be inefficient and very slowmoving to begin with. I would guess there is a very High Percentage of people that are in congress but also attorneys and or lawyers or Something Like that. Thats what you should have making the laws. Judges and lawyers would fit in good there. Even if they are crooked. They could do all right in congress. Becomesd trump president will only be the second time i know of a private citizen has become president. The first time was george washington. Partythat it got into a thing. All about going up the ladder in congress will make you a good president or qualified to be one. I suggest from now on we dont elect anybody. We probably wont get that many takers because its a really big job and demanding job. We would do better if we could. Host what about the makeup of coming in and challenging incumbents in tough races . E talks about lawyers what do we know about individual candidates . Guest i have been wondering for years who these 15 of voters in the gallup polls are that second like when congress is doing. I think we have an example on the line. The parties were gearing towards finding candidates with nonpolitical backgrounds for these races. Legislatord a state what we are finding is that increasingly opponents can cherry pick from and a legislatives heading and use that against you in a congressional race. We have been noticing for the last 10 years and rinse like in the number of his dispute land people who can say they are coming from outside politics to run in races. In the south we have had an array of doctors who have come into office. Be a new member from louisiana you almost have to have been a doctor who has railed against obamacare. Theink that has helped make House Republican conference a bit more conservative. It was a precursor to what we saw in the president ial primaries this year where you had a field of 15 politicians and one nonpolitician or reality tv star who came in. Even if hes trampling democratic doors right now really blew up the race and was able to appeal to that republican primary electorate. Caller i attend a very diverse evangelical church. Donald trump on that access hollywood tape. The most disgusting part assigned to the grouping of the women was the about hes a married man. His wife was at home pregnant and he was bragging about how he tried to sleep with another married woman. We treasure our marriage. We treasure manning woman. For him to boast about that at his age and throw it off as locker room talk our people started to have a negative view of him. Disgustinge most part. Host we have seen a few of these in the local race. Here is what the advertisement looks like. Donald trump says he will defund planned parenthood. David young voted to do it already five times. In donald trump says about women who have abortions has to be some form of punishment. David young has already voted to make abortion a crime. Though donald trump brags about sexually assaulted assaulting young women, david young supports him for president. Now we understand why. In south carolina, discussing his disgust and here, Donald Trumpsed to and his views. Guest democrats have shifted more toward tying republicans to trump as his poll numbers have fallen. We see more republicans focusing. Way from the top of the ticket emphasizing that the legislation and the problems they words on during the time it. The caller mentioned trump passes problem with religious voters. That is an increasing problem with republicans. In the final days of the republicans staying home would be a big concern. If a number of republicans are turned off by the nominee and do not show up, that would be a big problem for House Republicans. Utah, we see a close president ial race at the top the ticket. A searching independent in part because highly religious voters are turned off by Donald Trumps baggage. Tying Hillary Clinton in a republican ad, here is what the ad looks like. Coverups, for Hillary Clinton, a pattern. Kim myers school board had a pattern of increasing property taxes to cover the budget. The pattern included voting eight times to increase our property taxes. Hillary clinton and kim myers, a pattern of tax hikes and covers up coverups. Talkingvid wasserman about house races in 2016. From to florida to hear lucy. I am from middle east christian. I vote republican and always have. Hillary is very bad. The muslim brotherhood. They destroyed the infrastructure. You go to libya. Hillary clinton under obama killed gadhafi. Host a call from florida. Florida is one of the. Attleground states on washington journal, north iowa,na on monday, pennsylvania, florida, and friday, ohio. David wasserman, looking at the looking at the tossup, the 18th district and open race, who is running their and wise of a tossup . Guest we have 19 races in tossup. Only two of those are seats currently held by democrats. Nebraska is second. It is one of two districts. You have a competitive president ial election within the district. Maine and nebraska are two districts that allocate their vote by the district. Republicans, donald trump, he twice in hopesne of stealing that vote. , brad is a freshman who came to congress because there is a really unpopular republican there in 2014, an unusual circumstance. He has developed ties with the business community. Somes endorsements, unusual for a democrat. Race. S a very competitive the other democratic seat in jeopardy is floridas 18th district. Democrat Patrick Murphy is leaving the district to run for senate. Democrats have a disaster recovery, largely self funding his own campaign. Democrats love they dont have to throw their own money at the district. Republicans have a disabled war veteran who has conservative following around the country. Both candidates are wellfunded and it is a competitive race. Showed you democratic tossups and republican tossup numbers. 17 . Incumbentsepublican and three of those are longtime republicans who served in the house for over 10 years. One but themselves to blame for the political circumstance here. A lot of republicans know he was the House Oversight committee leading increase. He is a hardcore trump supporter and a district that is hostile to trump. To adapting and changing to political realities in his district. Had been struggling to find a challenger for years and years. Deadline, afore the diamond in the rough. A young candidate named stephanie murphy, a business professor who has an National Security background. Immigrant and a suburban mom. She looks like the favorite in a district that is changing demographically. A lot of puerto rican voters. Host she does not have a political background . Guest she has been active in politics before, but never sought elected office. She worked in the defense while. Ent for a her family immigrated from the annan, fled vietnam, when she was six months old. She has a compelling story to tell and there are a lot of immigrants in the orlando area and she is seeking to make that connection. Sinceas been in congress 1992. Has not had a competitive race in recent years. The big factor was the redistricting, Court Ordered in florida. What is interesting is this district was the sight of a lot of tragedy recently. The Trayvon Martin shooting, and right across the street from the pulse nightclubs shooting. One reason she got into the race was she cares about the gun issue. John accepted an nra contribution shortly after the pulse nightclub shooting, which she has criticized in the race. Democrats line. Sally. For cspannk you radio. I listen to it religiously almost. I wanted to promote our congress joe for against kathy rogers, who has not been very effective. Generally, it is pretty conservative. Forgs people are looking and also have compassion and wants to work for the people. Thank you. What can you tell us about that race . Washingtonss fifth contract congressional district. Rogers is the only woman in the republic leadership in the house. It is very important for republicans to keep considering 87 of House Republicans are currently white men. They have an image problem. Fortunately for them this is one of their safer districts. Like kathy will win another term. Caller thanks for taking my call. Give me a minute here and i heard so many things. Gerrymandering of congressional districts, we all know 400 and 35 of them in the house, a handful we are talking about this morning, very competitive. I went to last week, chamber of commerce in pennsylvania or a longterm republican in the house is facing the challenger that was a retired navy admiral im sorry, captain. I asked him at the Chamber Meeting what would be the priorities in the congress. , which surprised me, it would depend on who the president was. It seems to me there was really toleadership in the house as what the priorities are for the american people. It would depend on who wins the presidency, democrat or the republican. ,hat i would like to hear is congress, they are all the same, republicans and democrats, one giant party for 435 people working for their own specific who call themselves republicans and democrats but you do not see a difference in outcome or performance. Question, isnt that really what is going on . Where theylly matter are, north, south, east, west . Guest i can understand why the caller may say that. There is an unusual circumstance where you have the republican primary challenger who is now turning around and running a general election as a democrat trying to hit him from both sides. Of the more unique circumstances of 2016. It does matter who the president is for the purposes of what they want to achieve for 2017. If democrats cut paul brock paul ryan passes majority in half, 15 seats, only half of what they need to get the majority, paul ryan still has to the House Freedom caucus, the numbers between 35 and 40 members, he will have a ,ot less margin for error particularly if Donald Trump Blames paul ryan for his defeat after the election as he signaled he may do. Torepublicans were loyal trump and decided they were not back paul ryan for speaker, is it possible he could be forced out or to rely on democratic wins for the election . Back when paul ryan was drafted into the speakership, he was not anticipating that trump would be the nominee. He anticipated there might be a more mainstream cash candidate who would become ever a candidate he could work with and have a Good Relationship with. Host we saw house House Speaker ryan out this past week. Guest he has been very active in trying to secure his majority and prevent his members from being dragged down by the top of the ticket. Speaker ryan sees this as a dangerous time for House Republicans, particularly in a lot of swing districts. We have seen in the past several weeks, the congressional leadership fund, affiliated with paul ryans team, go into a lot of races that we were not necessarily expecting republicans to spend a lot of money on. Where they have a 10 point advantage and we wonder why republicans are very cautious. They want to make sure they have a firewall in place so if tim have a late surge before election day, they could stave off that momentum. Host two philadelphia, this is ronald on the democrats line. Caller it amazed me the Republican Party, donald trump is the candidate who sit around and told us we would lock up the woman doctor, we had a guy who raped a woman behind a dumpster, we let him go in todays. But you lock up the woman, the baby, and the doctor and you sit around and talk about veterans alking about, never been in war, never seen a war, never heard the click of a gun pointing at his head, never disarmed anybody, and you tell me, the Republican Party still wants this guy . Complaining about the media being biased. What about the rest of us . Host lets hear from frank in greensburg. In pennsylvania, the republicans have a 135 advantage even though more in 2012 voted for democrats to be president. Isnt it true that gerrymandering is the sole reason again this year with a generic ballot, democrats are holding a lead . Isnt it true that gerrymandering is the sole reason and an antidemocratic reason, why republicans will continue to hold the house . Host give us your definition of gerrymandering. A manipulation of political boundaries for partisan or other aims. Caller points to a commonly held misconception about the did conception about the districts. That the only reason for a republican advantage is gerrymandering. That is part of democrat problem, but i think it is a myth that it is the only problem. The biggest problem is their voters are clustered like never before. President obama won the election winning 62 of the electoral vote, getting massive majorities from the inner cities like philadelphia and to berg. Democrats are concentrated in the residential patterns and it hurts them when it comes to winning congressional elections. Their winning pittsburghs district with exorbitant margins. Those are wasted. If you winmatter with one vote or 100,000 votes. Where they are not winning anymore is rural areas and outer. Uburbs like pennsylvania is it asked if they are only if they always vote straight ticket . Guest we have seen straight ticket voting on the rise in the last several decades. Climb more to do with the decline in local news readership and viewership because voters have less and less information to differentiate the top of the from the people running at the congressional level. Inhave noticed an increase straight ticket voting. A rise because we have unusual president ial nominees particularly on the republican side. Host john on our republican line, mississippi. Caller good morning. I want marco to get back in there to back the republicans. I need to ask why the fbi has not investigated the things that it happened to donald trump. The Republican Party, they do not care or what. We are focusing on the house elections with the 2016 cycle. We saw this week in the wall street journal, it began in house seats. The former chairman of the House Democrats campaign are saying it is indisputable that we will pick up for more seats. Texas. About the race in why is it a tossup . A republican, former cia agent elected by a very narrow pete whoer democrat was a freshman democrat at the time. This is a pingpong ball seat. Few tend to vote for democrats and president ial election years and tend to vote for republicans midterm years. Called these timeshares. This is a huge timeshare because it runs all the way to san expensive district to campaign and advertise in. Democrats really want the seat back. Campaign, did everything that could been could have been expected in a rematch. Spikes as arnout result of donald trump on the ballot, a president ial election year, that could be the advantage. Host teresa on the independent line. Have listened to the news and a lot of programs, watching everything going on. Saidw donald trump accusers, saying he had touched them in properly, what bothers had beenn has known, proven that he has women,ed women, raped and yet she is running for the white house saying she cares about children and women. Is the same thing as a pedophile being taken to the white house. Nobody has run out his past. She is dragging him with her because he is an expresident. Why is not all of this going into the media . About theme ask you money going into the campaign. Large amount of money. The postfolk is this morning on the money coming into the Clinton Campaign. Clinton shifts to a new target, the house and the senate. Write that the Clinton Campaign is pouring 1 million in indiana and missouri, not because she thinks she can carry those reliably republican states but has she believes with and extra push, democrats could win this and it and governor races there. Is part of the money impacting house races . Money clearly, the extra going to indiana is going to the senate, trying to bolster democratic majorities there. Arizona, the state that was not competitive but where Hillary Clinton does have a chance at the top of the ticket this time, democrat efforts to pour money in places like arizona could have the effect of securing chances in the first congressional district. Is from North Carolina. Concernshose kinds of with the basees but not with a large number of independent voters. It may play well in union county, North Carolina, but overall, democrats look good in north airliner. John host john in silver spring, North Carolina. At the when you look polls, it is about the lowest number of the history of the united dates. United states. We complain every direction about it but we bring the same people who dont do nothing for the district nor the country. They sit there and do nothing. People we hire, two terms. If you do not cooperate with other parties, do not work with other party. You will not be elected again. The country comes first. Kind oft have this congress, badmouth each other, and do nothing. Im an immigrant to came here 30 years ago. Together, isy sit they go to watch together, but i cannot understand the callers who have a heyday guest Hillary Clinton or a hate against bush. We are americans and our country comes first for politicians. Before politicians. Have the other side of the coin, voters who are very unhappy with congress to their there is a common complaint that members are just do nothing politicians that come to washington and enrich themselves when they come out. Whereare certain cases members do not do anything to dispel the notion. In my conversations with i findtes and members, people who come to washington with the best intentions and care about a certain set of issues and want to get something done, otherwise they would not run. We have massive structural anythingpreventing from being done because of that intense part partisanship. Members of congress would love to work with people to address big problems. If they do so, theyre at risk of in two years. Losing the primaries. We have record low primary turnout. 14. 6 of eligible voters, a record low. Has given license to 7 of people on the far left in the far right to elect more than 90 of the members of congress. Currently over only 38 districts. You wonder why nothing gets done. It is because of that dynamic. It is up to more more americans to hold those accountable for cooperating with the other side. California in in california and the 18th district. Want to show you the reason yourtisements to give you flavor of the Advertising Campaign going on. Securing millions of taxpayer dollars for his own business, making a rich man even richer. Need the battle gate, a retired colonel tough enough to take on the mess in washington. Four applegate, it is country first. Your thoughts on the tone . We flagged this race as one with potential. The district takes in a part of orange county. Darrell did not back away from trump. He introduced trump at a rally in may and was recently named to trumps National Security advisory committee. He ran an advertisement featuring rudy giuliani, a higher profile trump supporter. This district is changing fast. You have a lot of socially liberal independents and ends who may not surprise subscribe to that ran of politics. Applicant is trying to take advantage of the dynamic and the race is one that has moved. He is the wealthiest member but it does not get the guarantee he will run a good campaign. Connecticut, linda is on the democrats line. Not my question but my funny bill is clinton has his wife is running but no one mentioned much about where heumps case made the insult toward the mexican judge. At us right after the election. That could be serious. My question to you is how many Percentage Points can the top of the ticket affect the down ballot . How do you calculate that . 36 a great question but the answer is there may not be a direct delineation between how well Hillary Clinton does and how well a democrat will do in a given district. A good rule of thumb is every point Hillary Clinton gains, democrats might gain down the ballot. It is partially a foot a function of turnout and partially of the republican brand. Host they listed 201 seats of being solidly in control of republicans, 46 competitive, the democrats are paying playing defense. They write from a historical perspective. Democrats have 256 heading into the election about what the gop has now. Reportber, the identified a whopping 105 democratic seats as being in play while republicans were vulnerable only in 15 p are back in 2006, the gop defending a 232 majority, 66 republican seats in play compared with 19 by this point by october. The general consensus is the house was going to foot sides and most agree the gop will probably continue maintain control of the chamber. Words, democrats are playing a much smaller field. Right. Democrats would need to win the lions share to take back the house. The narrow Playing Field is partially attributable to redistricting and the fact that we have had fewer and fewer competitive seats, part of it is this is an era of tremendous geographic polarization. Red areas are red and hard for democrats to break into. Blue areas have already gone to democrats in a lot of places. A landscape where democrats are making a play for a few suburban seats in the fifth district, and democrats in moreng a harder time culturally conservative districts where they would really need to break through to take back the majority. New york, franklin, North Carolina. John on our independent line. I am a retiree down here in florida. The Federal Reserve has cut my income in half. Most of my friends are getting burned by this and no one is even talking about it. Donald trump mentioned the Federal Reserve in passing one time but that is all ive ever heard about it. Host we are talking about house races this morning. Ralph on our democrats line, go ahead. Caller good morning. Good to see you. Bill, youre one of my favorite posts. , would like to ask your guest i am a member from upstate new york, and i want to ask if you kept track of the union , meaning onee member of the household is a union member and i thank you. Plenty of former Union Members in the house. Not a majority, but there are quite a few. Massachusetts, upstate new york, a lot of members oh their election to strong support from labor unions. Something you played earlier in the 22nd congressional district, this is one of the closer contests between kim myers and claudia. It is one of the areas where donald trump is doing well. Akron when Hillary Clinton first ran for senate in 2000, she promised that things would get better. A lot of upstate new york is struggling economically. Andis really unpopular republicans are taking advantage. They are doing well in house races. District, there is a wild factor in the race, which is the only independent who has a shot of winning in the country, a wealthy businessman who is pulling close to 30 of the vote in the district, that is a confounding factor in the party. Host and he is running as an independent. Guest he is advertising heavily in fairly cheap media markets. That is putting him in the game. Asks clyde suites and about the issue, gerrymandering is not having as much affect as clustering. What does that mean . Voters are migrating to places where the vast majority agree with their political values. Increasingly the party of urban areas and college towns. Republicans are increasingly the party of Rural America and small towns. That has given them a structural that democrats have a hard time competing with. Lets hear from bill on the republican line. Caller thank you for taking my call. I think we need a candidate who has not endangered the lives of our families or risk the securities of our nation and the security of our country is surely the most important issue, surely the most important issue in the country and one of our candidates has been extremely careless with our security. Thank you. Lets talk about the top issues we are seeing in house races across the country. What is the National Security rate . Of republicans run advertisements attacking democrats over support for the deal. That has been a question for republican candidates. Democrats answer by talk about how the nominee seems to discount the view of security agencies to say there is russian involvement this election. It cuts both ways. In the closing days of the campaign, it is fair to expect republicans to try and make that more of a centerpiece and turn the person away from trump and onto democrats positions. Host tony is on the independent line. Good morning. Caller how much of a ballotding variable, questions in the Congressional Senate races, especially in certain states . Host did you have a question . Guest did you hear the question . Are is aping there particular ballot question that draws them out and that is more favorable to their viewpoint and their opponent. That is less of an effect when turnout is already really high. States with right to work questions. Think the impact will be large. The last caller was from texas. One interesting potential switch in the election is Hillary Clinton could do well in texas. Some of her reach states are arizona, georgia, and those are the states where she has a chance of winning. We are noticing a race where states or audibly chiefly red states. Welleducated whites, could be closer than it has been in the past eight years. It stop for you in terms of, it will be november 7, your last preelection poll . Guest we are consumers of a wide variety of data. Most is privately done for the party and the campaign. You think that must be biased when that tends to be the parties are making strategic decisions. The final poll tense to be 10 or eight days in advance of the election so they could make the decision on where to allocate for the final week of the campaign. Of theers who are weary phone lines being burned up band ofarly in that races, it probably be in a week or so. This is an advertisement from the national and Campaign Committee in florida. Here is that. Lobbyistss not have and his parents are not risk. Shot. Ds need a fair not profiteering politicians like randy perkins. He worked for billions of dollars in government contracts. Accused then company of sheeting local schools, resulting in a sixfigure settlement. Imagine what he would do in congress. The Republican Committee targeting randy perkins. What do we know if his background and who is the republican candidate in that race . Perkins in the past message of it plenty of money to democrats and republicans running for various offices, especially the state office. Many have accused him of pay to play. His efforts to cozy up to statewide officials in order to company,acts for his he defends his Business Record as a by the bootstraps story. Mammoth himself into a he has a lot of personal wealth to put into the campaign. Even democrats wonder if he is the democratic trump. It is a weird race for sure. Host republican caller, go ahead. Areer these people that clothing, or Illegal Immigrants being allowed to vote, will their vote be counted during the election . Host we will talk about voter fraud in the next segment so hang on to the question. Democrats line. Caller lets use common sense fair one thing we have not talked about is for years now, weve had a democratic president and Republican House and senate. , what harrydeadlock truman called a donothing congress because republicans have blocked almost everything the president has tried to do. To vote for a republican congressman is just saying you want nothing to happen and you want total deadlock. For the next four years. Her, you picked her because of the issues she says she is for. The only way it could work is if she lets people that the back her up. I do not understand people who a deadlocknt to have situation. It makes no sense at all. The caller raises a legitimate point, which is divided government has generated gridlock that some voters appreciate because it means Neither Party is going too far in getting everything they want what it also left us with a point where it is difficult to a major problems in the country. An issue for Hillary Clinton, she could be the first democratic president ever, not to bring along a House Majority with her when she leaves office. That could leave her with far thanpolitical capital president obama when he came in in 2009. Whenially at a time republican face in mass media is at an alltime low, it has really driven a lot of the Republican Base into the arms of conservative media sites and the , hotbeds for Conspiracy Theory is, like oh raking donald trump has mentioned and like the caller has raised without merit. 2017, if of republicans have a majority in congress, we could be talking more about potentially investigating voter fraud and elections, then really addressing major problems in the country. Job like ons your november 9 . Where do you turn your attention . Guest a good question fair we can be a pretty late looking at Election Results. I am crunching the numbers on Election Night and i consider it ,he highest honor to do that higher than being in front of the camera because im a geek for the data. Of races,ve plenty 2018, a big consolation prize for the losing side in the president ial election could be a good midterm year in 2018 and that could set up whatever party that is for redistricting in 2020. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions Copyright National able satellite corp. 2016] captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption contents and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org on elegs day the nation decides the next president. Stay with cspan for coverage of the president ial race includic Campaign Stops with Hillary Clinton, donald trump and their surrogates. And follow key house and senate races. Cspan where history unfolds daley. Daily. President obama was in las vegas campaigning on behalf of Hillary Clinton. He also took the opportunity to talk about the u. S. Senate race in nevada and the role of the media. Heres a portion of his remarks. If you care about Immigration Reform you can vote for a candidate who sees immigrants as rapists. Or you can vote for the granddaughter of an immigrant who believes that everybody deserves a chance to contribute o this country that we love. If you care about criminal Justice Reform and disrupting the pipeline from underfunded schools to overcrowded jails and helping people who served their time become productive members of society you can vote for an outstanding prosecuter and attorney general who has used her power to make the Justice System fair and our people safer. Or you can vote for the other guy. Heck no. Actually, theres one other difference between the candidates. Katherine never supported donald trump. She never said she had high hopes that he would become president. Never said she would trust his fingers on the nuclear code. Now, i understand joe now wishes he never said those things about donald trump but theyre on tape. Theyre on the record. And now that trumps poll numbers are cratering suddenly he says, no. I dont im not supporting him. Too late. You dont get credit for that. Im being serious here. I want to make a point here. I know a lot of republicans. Ive got republican friends. Ive got members of my family who are republicans and they dont think the way donald trump does. I understand that. So im not generalizing about all republicans. But heres the thing. For years republican politicians and the far right Media Outlets have pumped up all kinds of crazy stuff about me. About hillary. About hairy. They said i wasnt born here. They said Climate Change is a hoax. They said i was going to take everybodys guns away. They said when we were doing military exercises that we were doing forever, suddenly this was a plot to impose marshall law. This is what theyve been saying for years now. So people have been hearing it, well, maybe its true. And so if the world that theyve been seeing is that im powerful enough to cause hurricanes on my own and to steal everybodys guns in the middle of the night and impose marshall law even though i nt talk without a prompter, they s it any wonder that end up nominating somebody like donald trump . And the fact is that there are a lot of politicians who knew better. There are a lot of senators who knew better. But they went along with these stories because they figured this will help rile up the base, it will give us an excuse to obstruct what were trying to do. We wont be able to appoint judges. Well create gridlock. It will give us a political advantage. So they just stood by and said nothing. And their base began to actually believe this crazy stuff. So donald trump did not start this. Donald trump didnt start it. He just did what he always did, which is slap his name on it, take credit for it, and promote it. Thats what he does. When now now now suddenly its not working and people are saying, wow, this guys kind of out of line, all of a sudden these republican politicians who were ok with all this crazy stuff up to a point suddenly theyre all walking away. Oh, this is too much. So when you finally get him on tape bragging about action that is qualify as Sexual Assault and his poll numbers go down, suddenly thats a deal breaker. What took you so long . What the heck . What took you so long . All these years, all these ars youve been idealizing Ronald Reagan and suddenly your president ial nominee is kissing up to vladmir putin, a former k. G. B. Officer, youve got a romance with him, that was ok. Youre a republican. Youre a republican official that says you love the constitution. Says that hillary and i are engaging in unconstitutional behavior, power grabs, executive actions. But you then are ok with a president who says he would silence reporters in a debate says he will jail his opponent without due process. Wants to deport whoever he wants. Apparently has not heard of the first, fifth, and 14th amendments. Why would you support him . Why didnt you offer him your pocket constitution like captain cannes father did if you care so much about the constitution . All these years you said you stand for family values. Im sure thats what joe heck said. That he stood for family values. But why didnt you walk away months ago when you heard your nominee for president , the guy you are helping could become president , call women pigs, ogs, grade them not on their character or their intelligence but on a scale of one to ten . You dont have to be a husband or father to stand up for women. For our daughters. Ou dont have to be you dont have to have a disability to say its wrong to mock somebody with a disability. You dont have to be a muslim to stand up for our fellow citizens who are just as patriotic as we are. You dont have to be a democrat to think theres a problem with that. You just have to be a decent human being. I mean it. Now the excuse theyre using is maybe we didnt support trump but you should vote republican anyway because well check hillarys power. Well be a counterweight. No. Listen, theyve been in charge congress now for the last six years basically. And what have they got done . How have they helped you . When we tried to pass minimum wages they werent for that. They werent for Immigration Reform. They are not willing to support Early Childhood education initiatives, havent built infrastructure. We could be putting guys to work right now and gals back to work right now, got their hard hats on, building nevada, creating jobs all across this great state. They havent done that. Ive asked them. So a vote for them is basically more gridlock. Thats their argument. Hats not a good argument. On issue after issue Katherine Cortes masso is going to be on your side working for you. Er opponent is going to have Koch Brothers on line one and trump on line two. Im sure joe heck will be on there giving interviews. Even after resinneding his endorsement of trump he said i want to support him, i really do. Really . So how does that work . Youre for him but youre not for him. But youre kind of for him. What the heck . You cant object to the thing that is trump says and what he stands for, where he starts undermining our democracy by saying he may not even accept the ruments of an Election Results of an election. Dont boo. And then say that you wish you could stick with it. Thats not leadership. Thats cynical. That means youll say anything or be anybody just to get elected, depending on what is convenient at the time. Thats not what nevada needs. Thats not what america needs. You need somebody who stands for principles. Like katherine. You need members of congress with principles like jackie rosen. Like ruben thewin. And if you want that representation then go to i will vote. Com and early vote because theres only one way to lose this election. If you fold your hand and dont vote. Youve got the ace underneath. Ut if you dont turn it over youll lose. So youve got to vote. My first time voting. Good. Im proud of you. Firsttime voter right here. We need some more firsttime voters and we need some secondtime voters, third, fourth, fifth, six. Do it big. Dont leave any doubts. We dont want to leave any doubt. Donald trumps already talking about how the games rigged. Ive got to say, that means hes losing. If you start making if youve ever played a basketball game and like halfway in the middle of the game suddenly somebody starts saying the refs are making me lose and im going to walk off the court, that means youre losing. And by the way, it means that you dont have to what it takes to do this job because theres a bunch of times where it gets tough. There are a lot of times when things dont go your way. And youve got to be able to just hang in there the way hairys hung in there, the way hillary will hang in there, the way katherine will hang in there. And in terms of this whole rig thing. Look, i dont have to tell you this but i will tell you anyway. Your governor is a republican. Youve got republican governors in almost all the swing states like florida, ohio, North Carolina, georgia, iowa, youve got republican governors in texas, arizona, in every polling place there are democrats and republicans watching how the ballots are filled out and how theyre turned in. There are republicans and democrats watching how they are counted. If this is rigged, boy, it would be a really big conspiracy. And those folks the republican governor is not going to rig an election for Hillary Clinton or rig an election for katherine. So forget the rigging talk. You know what is going to win this election . You are. We have made so much progress. Despite the forces of opposition and discrimination and the politics of backlash. We have made progress. We havent gotten everything done. Weve got more work to do. Theres still folks out there who are struggling. Weve still got roads and airports to build. Weve got people to put back to work. Weve got young people who need more help going to college. We have Early Childhood Education Programs to set up. Weve got more clean energy to build. Weve got immigration laws that need to be changed so were a nation of laws and a nation of immigrants. Weve got work to do to bring together our outstanding Law Enforcement officials with those who want to make sure that our Law Enforcement is color blind. Weve got so much work to do. And so progress does not stop with my presidency. It doesnt stop when harry reid retires. Were just getting started. Were just getting started. But weve got to make the right choice. Progress is on the ballot. Stability is on the ballot. Tolerance is on the ballot. Justice is on the ballot. Equality is on the ballot. Democracy is on the ballot. Y name is not on the ballot. Thats ok. Thats ok. But if you want to give me and michelle a good sendoff then i need you to join us. If you want to give harry reid a good sendoff, weve got to have a good turnout. I need you to work just as hard for katherine and just as hard for Hillary Clinton and just as hard for ruben and jackie as you worked for us. I need you to knock on doors. I need you to make phone calls. I need you to talk to your friends. I need you to vote early. And if you do that we will elect Katherine Cortez masso to be your next outstanding senator. We will elect Hillary Clinton to be the next president of the United States. We will show our kids that we are still the greatest nation on earth. And were just going to keep on Getting Better because of you. God bless you, vegas. Thank you. God bless you United States of america. On the on the on is campaign trail today in manchester. Live at 12 30 eastern here at cspan. Later in the day journalists, pollsters, and Campaign Advisers discuss the race at a law forum hosted by georgetown niversity. A discussion on perceptions f muslims. This is 90 minutes. Candidates about islam. This is 19 minutes. Welcome, everyone, and thank you for joining us. Im fred kemp, president and ceo of the atlantic council. Im delighted to have a packed house today of great turnout for todays discussion on the widespread implication of islamophobia. What we want to do today is debunk myths and encourage a good conversation. Much healthier conversation on this topic than we think is actually occurring at the time. Its a topic of crucial importance thats gathered significant attention in the United States and europe, and around the world. Enormous thanks to our partner in todays event. The Vice President of the aden foundation. Ill invite her to join me on stage in just a moment, but this is characteristic of the sort of cutting edge work and thinking youve done throughout your career. We have panelists comprised of leading experts in the subject. Thank you all for lending your time and expertise to todays discussion. Ill introduce them later as we start the panel. Since social media plays an important part in buttressing and dismantling racial and religious bias, i encourage you all to take this discussion to twitter under the hashtag, beyondislamophobia. But let me start by introducing vuslat. And its important to note that this discussion takes place just before the opening on saturday of the art of koran exhibit at the smithsonian. Last night there was a gala to open this. A special showing. The dohan group is also sponsoring that exhibit which fits into this whole effort to debunk the myths of islamophobia. Vuslat is publisher of turkeys leading newspaper. Throughout her impressive career, shes advocated for societal change on a range of issues. From ending domestic violence, an issue on which she led a campaign that led to important legal reforms, to gender equality. A cause for which she championed a platform that nearly doubled the number of women in the Turkish Parliament in 2007. One of the greatest testaments to the respected and trusted position that vuslat holds in turkey is that through snen turk, one of the entities in the independent media conglomerate she sees that president erdogan delivered his facetime message to the public during the military coup earlier this year spreading awareness and rallying the turkish public at a moment of Severe Threat to his democracy. Youve been instrumental in carving out a space for issues that have gone under the radar and shifting the Public Perception and debate. Its been an honor to work with you so closely on this event, and i hope this is just the beginning of an effort to take on this