To demonstrate a policy of a universal basic income, andrew wang is sending cash to ten American Families. How would his proposals affect your pocketbook. 1,000 a month makes us strongier, healthier and less stressed out. Andrew wang is here for an exclusive interview here in moments. Hello, im jake tapper in washington where the state of the union is watching the fallout. The Democratic Candidates are back on the campaign trail after a debate that seemed unlikely to knock the three frontrunners out. Leading in the polls, joe biden is facing renewed personal scrutiny after his sharpness and vigor and pledged to release his medical records before any votes are cast. This after former housing secretary Julian Castro appeared to question his mind and memory and perhaps the most consequential exchange of the debate castro said his comments were not meant as veiled attacks on bidens age, 76, but the moment created an opening for other candidates to take on the sensitive topic and in the wake of the debate were learning that castro is now losing one of his three congressional endorsement, Vicente Gonzalez of texas told me hes pulling his endorsement from castro and giving it to Vice President joe biden. Gonzalez said it is time for democrats to narrow the field. Well, i think at this point in time we need to narrow the field and unite as democrats to defeat trump in november 2020. And that is why i believe im moving my support to Vice President joe biden. Were going to air more of that interview later this hour. Joining me now, democratic president ial candidate south bend mayor Pete Buttigieg. Mayor buttigieg thanks for joining us. We appreciate it. Good to be with you. I want to start on health care. You know that key moment between Vice President castro Vice President biden and Julian Castro and whether their plans would enroll anyone. You support medicare for all who want it but you have not released a full detailed plan explaining it. Would anyone be automatically enrolled under your proposal if they lost their insurance because they lost a job or any other reason. Yes. And youll see more on that in the forthcoming plan. We need to have a vision to make sure everybody is covered. My vision of medicare for all who want it versus the Sanders Warren is i think we cannot order the public on the alternative. That medicare for all who want it is better than all of the private plans i just trust the American People to make that decision for themselves and vote with their feet rather than ordering them to switch plans when they dont want to. When are you going to release the medicare for all who want it plan . Soon. Soon . A week or month. I dont have a date for you. What do you make of the criticism of people like you or others who dont support embracing medicare for all from people like Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren who say youre ignoring the biggest problem which is we spend all money on health insurance, more than any other industrialized country because the Insurance Industry is out for profits, not more making people better. That is just the point. So if a private plan just cant be as costeffective because the profits are being sucked out of it, then the public plan is better. If it is better and we give people that choice, people will choose it. If theyre that confident in the superiority of the public plan why would they find it necessary to command americans to adopt it instead of just putting it out there. It is a difference in the extent to which we trust people. I do believe we have to look at more than just making that available to them. So the other big issue right now is affordability. And we have to make sure were addressing that, whether it is prescription drugs, or the Health Care System overall and as you see our plans continue to unfold. Youll see a lot on that too. Lets turn to guns. Your fellow candidate fellow 20 candidate beto orourke raised eyebrows by saying, hell yes, were going to take your ar15 and ak47 and chris coons of delaware responded by saying this, quote, that clip will be played for years at Second Amendment rallies with organizations trying to scare people by saying democrats are coming for your guns. Do you agree . Did beto orourke Say Something that is playing in the hands of republicans . Yes. Look, right now we have an amazing moment on our hands. We have agreement among the American People not just for universal backgrounds checks but we have a majority in favor of red flag laws, highcapacity magazines, banning the new sale of assault weapons. This is a Golden Moment to finally do something. Because weve been argue being this for as long as ive been alive. When even this president and even Mitch Mcconnell at least are pretending to be open to reforms, we know we have a moment on our hands. Lets make the most of it and get these things done. I want to ask about afghanistan because during the debate on thursday night you said, quote, if there is one thing weve learned from afghanistan, it is that the best way not to be caught up in endless war is to avoid starting one in the first place. You said that is the one if there is one thing to be learned from afghanistan. Do you think that the United States started the war in afghanistan . No, of course not. We went into war in afghanistan because we were attacked. What im saying is one lesson from just how endless that conflict has been is how hard it is to end a war, any war, in the 21st century and we need to bear that in mind when you see things going on like what is happening with iran right now. That could lead to a new conflict breaking out. September 15th is a very important day in my life, that is the day i left afghanistan. That was five years ago. I thought i was one of the very last troops turning out the lights. Were still there. And were still arguing about how to get out. Three of your opponents running for president now are expressing concerns about joe bidens sharpness and his ability. Take a listen. Are you forgetting what you said two minutes ago . Are you forgetting already what you said just two minutes ago . There is a lot of meme who are concerned about joe bidens ability to carry the ball all the way across the end line without fumbling. There are definitely moments when you listen to joe biden and you just wonder congressman tim ryan told a reporter that biden was, quote, declining and didnt have the energy to win. We should point out that booker and castro has since tried to walk the comments back suggesting they werent talking about his sharpness but do you share any of these concerns . I think i trust voters to figure that out. Look, as the youngest candidate in the field im obviously a believer in the power of generational change. I also believe that a candidate at any age, depending on who they are, can be a great president. But we have to talk about right now is vision. My concern about the vision from the Sanders Warren approach is it could polarize americans when we have other solutions without dividing the American People further. My difference with the Vice President is that i also dont think that promises that well go back to normal is a message to hit people well, certainly where i come from in the industrial midwest. There are people who voted for the kurpt president not because they think hes a good guy but because normal wasnt working for them and they were ready to vote to burn the house down. If all we have to offer is lets dial it back and go back to what we were doing, if it feels like were looking to the past, i think that message will come up short when we get to election day. A senior Obamabiden Administration official told me, quote, bidens strength has never been his clarity of message or delivery but watching his longwinding answers that dont make sense in recent debates has raised the question as to whether that has gotten worse and whether he is up for this. This is your frontrunner. This is the person that as of right now has the best chance according to polls of becoming the nominee. You dont have any concerns youre willing to voice . The frontrunner in september before an Election Year is almost never the nominee. This is a moment when people are evaluating decisions and the field is finally winnowing and we should be able to compete on our own message. I should not have to poke personal holes in anybody else in order for my message to get through and to be convincing if i want to win and if i deserve to win. Well lets talk about the substance of one of the things that Vice President biden said at the debate when asked about the legacy of slavery and he suggested using a record player at home for minorities to teach them how to be better parents to be part of the equation. Take a listen. We bring social workers into homes with parents to help them deal with how to raise their children. It is not they dont want to help. They dont know quite what to do. Play the radio. Make sure that the television excuse me, make sure you have the record player on at night. The phone make sure that kids hear words. I saw a lot of people, a lot of progressives and prominent africanamerican commentators talking about the substance of that answer and being horrified if not as well as offended. What is your response to it. It was a wellintentioned answer and it is a bad answer. The reason were seeing racial inequity in this country is it was put into place on purpose. And im not just talking abo about slavery beginning 400 years ago, im talking about policy decisions within living memory excluding black americans from fully accessing the gi bill to labor protections. These have consequences. The vp is interested in i think he was trying to get at the issue of how many words infants hear as children. Interesting issue. There is a much Bigger Picture here. And it has to do with inheritance and the wealth gap and the fact if you are black in this country as a consequence of systemic racism, you start out with less. In the same way that if you save a dollar, it compounds over the years and becomes more and more. Same is true of a dollar stolen. And that is happened to black americans through generations. It is why ive proposed a douglas plan. As ambitious as the marshal plan that rebuilt europe but this time we have to invest right here in america. Criminal Justice Reform is important but that is not all there is to the black experience in this country. We have to be lifting up black entrepreneurs, making sure that federal texas spending and i propose a 25 target is going to businesses owned by those who have been systematically disadvantaged in the past and investing in hcbus training what could be the new class of black millionaires and of black middle class of professionals in education, law enforcement, medicine. We need systemic answers to deal with this issue and we need to confront the legacy of discrimination. Mayor Pete Buttigieg. Thank you for your time. Good luck on the campaign trail. A Top Republican called senator rand paul a big loser on twitter this weerk. At least it wasnt President Trump. Senator paul will join me next. Stay with us. And 2020 candidate andrew wang is about to give ten families 12,000 each. Ill talk with him about that plan coming up. I switched to miralax for my constipation. Stimulant laxatives forcefully stimulate the nerves in your colon. Miralax works with the water in your body to unblock your system naturally. And it doesnt cause bloating, cramping, gas, or sudden urgency. Miralax. Look for the pink cap. Our mission is to provide complete, balanced nutrition for strength and energy whoohoo greattasting ensure. With nine grams of protein and twentysix vitamins and minerals. Ensure, for strength and energy. And twentysix vitamins and minerals. You want a freshsmelling home, but some air fresheners use heavy, overwhelming scents. Introducing febreze one; a new range of innovative air fresheners with no heavy perfumes that you can feel good about using in your home to deliver a light, naturalsmelling freshness. Febreze one neutralizes stale, stuffy odors and releases a subtle hint of fragrance like bamboo or lemongrass ginger. To eliminate odors with no heavy perfumes, try new febreze one. Brand power. Helping you buy better. A book that youre ready to share with the world . Get published now, call for your free publisher kit today welcome back to state of the union. Im jake tapper. President trump didnt even take part in the nastiest political fight on twitter this week when senator rand paul of kentucky criticized liz cheney of wyoming over her support for, quote, endless wars. And accused her of not being supportive of President Trumps goal of pulling troops out of afghanistan and cheney tweeted back called pauls big loser whose motto is terrorist first. And joining me now senator rand paul. Senator, good to see you. Youre the author of an upcoming book, the case against socialism that comes out next month. Congratulations on that. Well have you back to talk about it. I want to start with this feud between you and congresswoman cheney because i assume you think this is about more and about something more important than just two members of congress bickering. Yeah, i think this is a big issue. Whether or not we should stay in afghanistan. I cant meet a general that could clearly tell me what our National Security interest is in afghanistan. Most of the military, over 60 of the military who served in iraq or afghanistan think both of the wars should come to an end so i think the president is right to do this but we have to call out the republicans preventing him. This is the Bolton Cheney wing. Dick cheney to this day still thinks the iraq war as a good thing. The iraq war President Trump said was the biggest geopolitical blunder of the last generation and destabilized the middle east and increased the strength of iran and tipped the balance toward iran and dick cheney, liz cheney and john bolton are still advocating for more regime change in the middle east. The back and forth between you and liz cheney went even further when you took the fight to her home turf. You called into a wyoming tv station, let me ask you, there is an open senate seat in wyoming next year and people are talking about cheney running. Would you prefer a different republican fill that senate seat . Well one of the reasons we called into wyoming is there are two state representatives who wrote an oped that we ended up retweeting and sending about and in the oped they criticized liz cheney for always criticizing the president when he wants people to pay more at nato and less troops overseas or less war. Liz cheney criticized him every time. That is the main reason for calling in. But, yes, there is a senate race and im supporting Cynthia Loomis who is a conservative congressman. That is the only person i know of in the race at this point. Houthi rebels took credit for a drone attack on saudi arabia royal facilities temporary wiping out half of the Saudi Arabia Oil production escalating a conflict in the region. Secretary of state mike pompeo blamed iran and Lindsey Graham tweeted, quote, it is now time for the u. S. To put on the table an attack on iranian Oil Refineries if they continue their provocations or increase nuclear enrichment. Your response to graham and pompeo. I think an escalation of the war is a big mistake. This is from the em the yemeni civil war and the houthis are supported by the iranians so it is back and forth but the answer is trying to have a negotiated ceasefire and peace in yemen and bombing iran wont do that. And irans military spending is about 17 billion. Saudi arabia spends about 83 billion. The gulf sheikhdoms around saudi arabia spend another 50 billion and so really the saudis and allies dwarf the spending of iran and this is a regional conflict there is no reason the superpower of the United States needs to get into bombing mainland iran. It would be a needless escalation of this and those who love the iraq war, the cheneys, the boltons, the kristols, they are clamoring for another war in iran and it is not a walk in the park and you have to tell that to the 4,000 or so soldiers who died in iraq that are we going to send more to their deaths in iran for something that in the end when you topple the regimes you get more chaos and terrorism and not less. Lets turn to domestic policy. Yesterday was, quote, guns and gods day, a day dedicated to gun rights and christian principles and opposes any any restrictions on guns and their touting of your effort saying we encourage participants to be prayerful about returning our nation to god as the only solution of the hatred and mass murder plaguing our blessed nation, unquote. Do you believe that returning our nation to god, no change in policy, is the only solution, the only way to stop Mass Shootings in the u. S. . No, i think part of the problem is culture and losing the sense of right and wrong. That is not the only answer. I think we should do something and look at each of the killings and say what went wrong and the consistent theme here is not always but white teenage boys in the middle teenage years to mid20s but the other consistency in the shootings, almost every one is sending off signals, many of them are committing crimes that we sluff off and were not prosecuting. The boy in parkland was said to have committed 23 crimes. The sheriff down there is more interested in talking about gun control than doing his job