Steve two daughters. You met your wife during the bush campaign. How did that come about . Sen. Cruz i was doing domestic policy and she was doing Economic Policy and we were both in our late 20s and she came along and she was beautiful, vivacious, a blonde Southern California girl. She was in her second year of Harvard Business school and i was completely smitten from day one. I took her out to dinner to a place called the bitter end. We had a four our dinner. I said, tell me the history of your family starting with the birth of your grandparents. And i listened and got to know her. Heidi is an extraordinary woman. She is the daughter of missionaries. She lived in africa. A couple of different times. Her parents were christian missionaries, her dad is a dentist and a dental hygienist. Her grandfather had been a missionary in africa for over 30 years. She is exceptionally strongwilled. It is interesting. One of the things that resonated with me her family is seventh day adventists. They strictly observe the sabbath. Her parents had both gone to adventist schools and they very much she wanted to go to claremont and mckenna. Her dad did not want her to and she battled with her father. Heidi started her First Business when she was six years old. She started her Bread Baking Company and she and her brother would bake bread every day after school. On sunday they would sell them. She sold thousands of loaves of bread. She had saved 15,000 from her bread baking. She said dad, if you wont pay for college, i will pay for it. She used that money to go to claremont mckenna. That story resonated with me. With my mothers background standing up to her father to go to rice, that was something i admired about heidi. Her dad is a wonderful man. He is strongwilled. He climbed mount everest. You want to talk about an intimidating fatherinlaw, try one who has climbed mount everest. One of the things that led me early on to fall in love with heidi she has a steel backbone. Like my mother. There are a lot of similarities in terms of their powerful dedication. When they set their mind to something, nothing can dissuade them. Steve when your daughters want something, do they ask you or your wife . Sen. Cruz i am the pushover. Heidi is a lot tougher. My girls have me wrapped around their finger. They are the loves of my life. Caroline is seven. Catherine is four. You have four kids . As you know, every child is different. Catherine, the baby, is just sweet. She crawls in your lap and she hugs you and she is a sweet girl. Caroline is a rascal. She is fiery and opinionated. They have both grown up with me running for office and especially caroline is not impressed at all. She is like, yeah, whatever. She said, not Everyone Wants to be on tv. As you know, when i was doing the obamacare filibuster, one of the things i remember from that time is that i read green eggs and ham. The reason for that is it was the girls bedtime. Normally when i am home, i read them bedtime stories. Our team told the girls to turn on cspan. They flipped it on, and i was reading green eggs and ham as a bedtime story. I have a picture on my wall of the two in their pajamas utterly amazed at watching their daddy read them green eggs and ham on television. When i came home, caroline was five. She is a cynic, tough to please. She had her arms crossed and she said, ok, dad. That was kind of cool. That was a nice personal victory. It is not easy to impress your kindergartner, but i was glad to have done something that earned me brownie points. Steve you said at the beginning about your own ideology. You are a conservative. You talk about Ronald Reagan one of your heroes. He was able to get things done. Immigration. Tax reform. At one point does ted cruz stick to your principles and to compromise with democrats . Sen. Cruz my attitude is the same as reagan. What do you do when someone offers you half a loaf . You take it. Then you come back for more. I was asked the same question and i say, i am happy to compromise with democrats, libertarians, i will compromise with martians, if they are willing to shrink the power of government, expand Constitutional Rights, fight for liberty. The problem is far too many republicans, compromise going backwards in a way that makes it worse. It makes the problem deeper. You dont get an 18 trillion debt without bipartisan compromise. You say, we will spend for your project and your project and your project, another 1 trillion and you are done. The people that lose are the taxpayers. I have been happy to work with democrats and some of the legislation that we have passed. There on the wall was hanging a bill last congress that i introduced. When the nation of iran named as its ambassador a known terrorist who participated in Holding Americans hostage. In the late 1970s. It was a slap in the face. Everyone in washington is saying this is terrible. I introduced that legislation that barred other known terrorists from being admitted to this country. It passed the senate 1000. It passed the house 4350. President obama signed it into law. That is an example, repeatedly ive been able to work with democrats. Beneath this is a resolution that i introduced when hamas was raining rockets on israel, i joined in a resolution condemning hamass use of human shields as a war crime. That resolution passed unanimously. I joined with new jersey democrat bob menendez that the state department would give a 5 million reward for information leading to the capture of the murderer of a dual israeliamerican citizen. That passed the senate 1000. There have been a number of events were i have sought out and worked with democrats. For 2. 5 years i have worked closely with kirsten gillibrand. She and i disagree on a number of issues but she has been heroic in fighting to combat Sexual Assault and rape in the military. She has introduced reforms to change the decision of whether to prosecute a Sexual Assault case, from a commanding officer, to an impartial prosecutor outside the chain of command. I have worked closely with her on that. We have an obligation protect the men and women of our military, to ensure that they are safe. With that we have the majority of the senate. It has not been passed yet. President obama is fighting to stop it. There are a lot of democrats and republicans fighting to stop it, but it is the right reform. It is the reform that we will see enacted because it protects our soldiers but also offers good discipline. If you have a military unit where servicemen and women are afraid of Sexual Assault, not confident that the military Justice System will protect them, that undermines the effectiveness of our military. We have an obligation to protect our soldiers. Steve as you know, you have not been without criticism. Sen. Cruz i hadnt noticed. Steve when john mccain referred to you as a wacko bird, what was your reaction . Sen. Cruz i like john mccain and i respect john mccain. My approach has been consistent. If others choose to throw rocks, i will not reciprocate. What we endeavor to do is take the high road. In my time in the senate, to my knowledge, i have not spoken ill of any other congressmen. When john mccain said that i went to the senate floor and rose to give a speech in praise of john mccain. It happened to be the 40th anniversary of his release from the hanoi hilton. I spoke about, what an incredible privilege to serve with a patriot and hero like john mccain. He served his nation. He was imprisoned and tortured. Who was tortured being in my family, being imprisoned and tortured is something my family and door, too endured, too. Not at the level that john mccain did, but most extraordinarily, john mccain was offered Early Release and turned it down because he believed it would be dishonorable. I said, none of us have face that. I have never been in prison and i have never been tortured. All of us hope we would make the same decision as he did, but not one of us knows for sure. I said, what a privilege to serve with an American Hero like john mccain. Every word of that was heartfelt, but it was also very conscious. I am not going to respond with an attack. I will note behind you on that bookshelf is a baseball cap, when i came back to texas, grassroots supporters printed up baseball caps with daffy duck that say wacko birds. In the grassroots people make tshirts saying i am a proud wacko bird, and i say if standing for the constitution and liberty make you a wacko bird, then count me of proud wacko bird. Steve why does ted cruz want to be president . Sen. Cruz the country is in crisis. This is not an ordinary election. The stakes have never been higher. We are bankrupting our kids and grandkids. Our Constitutional Rights are under assault. America has receded from leadership in the world. We have abandoned our friends and allies. Radical, islamic terrorism is on the rise. This is a fork in the road. There are times that elections are major turning points. 1980 was a major turning point. I believe that 2016 is going to be an election like 1980. Reagan said, the way that we win is we paint in bold colors, not pastels. If we continue on this road, we risk doing irreparable damage to the greatest country in the history of the world. I am running for president because we are fighting to get back to the free market principles and the constitutional liberties that made america the greatest country in the history of the world. I want my daughters to inherit the same, exceptional nation the same blessings of liberty that you and i were fortunate to inherit. We cannot do that if we continue bankrupting this country undermining the constitution and the bill of rights, if we continue receding from the world. This election is about a choice. How do we bring back and reignite the promise of america . How do we get back to that fundamental ideal . Steve let me conclude with a couple of points. Ted cruz facts. You are a videogame junkie . Sen. Cruz indeed. Steve favorites . Sen. Cruz i remember christmas when the first game we got was pong. My parents gave me that for christmas. Then we had nintendo. I played computer games. I collected computer games. Now, i mostly play on my iphone. I dont have a console, because if i did, i would use it. But i play candy crush, plants vs zombies and a star wars game i just downloaded. It drives my wife crazy. She cannot stand it, but my girls love it. We play plants versus zombies, caroline has it on her ipad. We play together. When we take the girls out, one of the favorite things to do we go to the aquarium and play carnival games there, but we. Also take them to chucky cheese i tried to get brownie points with heidi. But she says, you have more fun than they do. I dont get brownie points for it, but i enjoy playing nonetheless. Steve the role in sound of music and you cannot sing. Sen. Cruz one of the great banes in my childhood, in high school i was very into acting. In high school i thought i would drop out of school and go to california and become an actor. My parents were not fans of this plan. Im glad i did not. That was not my calling. But one of the banes of my existence is in high school you do physical theater and i cannot carry a tune to save my life. I guess i came upon it honestly. Neither of my parents can sing. My mother, in grade school, the choir teacher asked my mom please dont sing. You are throwing the other children off. I inherited that. In seventh grade i was cast as rolph in the sound of music. I sang on stage, you are 16, going on 17. My guess is that i did not hit a single note. It was only very tolerant parents of junior high kids who endured this kid butchering the song. Subsequently, i did the sound of music again in high school. I played max. He has one line where he says, one little girl in a pink coat , but the rest of the lines were spoken. My Campaign Team was horrified a couple years ago. I was speaking at First Baptist church in dallas. I was talking about the history of the declaration of independence, and the constitution, and protecting religious liberty and i observed that i am a graduate of second baptist high school. I said, there are things you discover going to second baptist high school. Some good. Some not. One of the things i discovered is Amazing Grace and the theme from Gilligans Island are interchangeable musically. Amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me was blind but now i see was blind but now i see within minutes the Political Team was saying he is singing on stage, the political career is over. But i survived. Steve i dont think that i can top that. You went from the who and pink floyd to Country Music. How did that evolve . Sen. Cruz i grew up listening to classic rock. I saw pink floyd in concert. It was an amazing concert. I saw the police in concert. Emerson lake and powell. But my music tastes changed on september 11. It was a strange thing. I mentioned this in another interview and people on the media thought it was a strange political thing look, when september 11 happened, heidi and i were living in washington, d. C. South of the pentagon. A good friend of ours was on the plane that crashed into the white house pentagon. Heidi was in the white house. She is actuated, when the evacuated, when the first plane hit, a secret service told everyone to stay where you are. She was working at that u. S. Trade Representatives Office and when the second plane hit, the secret Service Began running through the hallways saying, get out. Dont walk, run. Heidi sprinted out. They would not let her get her car so, she walked home. In her bare feet, across memorial bridge. I remember that next night, we put together a prayer service. It was an interfaith prayer service. Christian and jewish friends. We sang hymns. I did not lead the hymns. We came together and prayed together. One of the consequences in the aftermath i liked how Country Music responded. Alan jacksons song, where were you when the world stopped turning on that september day. That song moved me powerfully. Toby keith, the way that he responded. That was powerful. It was an emotional reaction that these are my people. These are people who share my values. Intellectually i find it odd that your music taste would change because of 9 11 i still enjoy classic rock. I think the who is fabulously talented. I saw Pete Townsend saying, i hope i die before i get old. It was amusing. He was in his 60s at the time. But now on the radio i listen to Country Music. Every morning when i get dressed, the radio is on Country Music. It was that emotional reaction that the way Country Music is bonded resonated. Steve thank you for your time. Sen. Cruz thank you, i have enjoyed it. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute,which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] at 8 00, the biggest planetary unveiling in a quarter century. New horizons is doing a flyby of pluto. We will get to see images of that icy planet. At 10 00, a hearing on the power of immigration enforcement. Homeland security this weekend on cspans road to the white house two Major Political events from iowa and where the only place you can watch these in their entirety. We will be at the iowa hall of fame dinner. All five candidates will share the same stage. We will be live in ames, iowa. This will be on cspan and cspan radio. Democratic clinton will work to build an economy that benefits everyone. She spoke for 45 minutes at the new school in new york city. [applause] ms. Clinton thank you so much. Thank you very much. And thanks to everyone at the new school for welcoming us today. Im delighted to be back. Over the past few months i have had the opportunity to listen to americans concerns about an economy that still isnt delivering for them. Its not delivering the way that it should. It still seems to most americans that i have spoken with that it is stacked for those at the top. But i have also heard about the hopes that people have for their future. Going to College Without drowning in debt. Starting that Small Business they have always dreamed about. Getting a job that pays well enough to support a family. And provide for a secure retirement. Previous generations of americans built the greatest economy and strongest middle class the world has ever known. On the promise of a basic bargain. If you work hard and do your part, you should be able to get ahead. And when you get ahead, america gets ahead. But over the past several decades that bargain has eroded. Our job is to make it strong again. For 35 years republicans have argued that if we give more wealth to those at the top by cutting their taxes and letting big corporations write their own rules, it will trickle down. It will trickle down to everyone else. Yet every time they have a chance to try that approach, it explodes the National Debt concentrates wealth even more, and does practically nothing to help hardworking americans. Twice now in the past 20 years a democratic president has had to come in and clean up the mess left behind. [applause] i think the results speak for themselves. Under president clinton i like the sound of that america saw the longest peacetime expansion in our history. Nearly 23 million jobs, a balanced budget and a surplus for the future. And most importantly, incomes rose across the board, not just for those already at the top. Eight years later, president obama and the American Peoples hard work pulled us back from the brink of depression. President obama saved the auto industry, imposed new rules on wall street, and provided health care to 16 million americans. [applause] now today, today as the shadow of crisis recedes and longerterm challenges come into focus, i believe we have to build a growth and fairness economy. You cant have one without the other. We cant create enough jobs and new businesses without more growth, and we cant build Strong Families