A group of National Security experts, military Intelligence Experts issued a very concerning statement about senator sanders vus on Foreign Policy and National Security pointing out some of the comments he has made on some of these issues such as inviting iranian troops into syria trying to resolve the c conflict there, asking saudi arabia and iran to Work Together when they cant stand each other and are engaged in a proxy battle right at this moment, so i did think questions have been raised and questions have to be answered because when New Hampshire voters go on tuesday to cast your vote, you are voting both for a president and commander in chief and there is no way to predict what comes in the door of that white house from day to day that can pose a threat to the United States or one of our friends and allies an i think this is a big part of the Job Interview that we are all conducting with the voters here. All right. Senator, 30 seconds. Two responses. I fully, fully concede that secretary clinton who was secretary of state for four years, has more experience. That is not arguable, in foreign affairs, but experience is not the only point. Judgment is. And once again, back in 2002 when we both looked at the same evidence about the wisdom of the war in iraq, one of us voted the right way and one of us didnt. In terms of iran and in terms of saudi arabia, of course they hate each other. Thats not great secret, but john kerry was i think doing a very good job has tried to at least get these people in the room together because both of them are being threatened by isis. Let me just add that ive said this before and im very proud of it that when it comes to judgment, having run a hard race against senator obama at the time, he turned to me to be secretary of state. When it comes to the biggest counterterrorism issues that we faced in this administration, namely whether or not to go after bin laden, i was at that table i was exercising my judgment on what to do on iran and russia and china on a whole raft of issues because i know from my own experience that you have to be ready on day one. There is just too much unpredictable threat and danger in the world today to try to just say, wait, ill get to that when i can. That is just not an acceptable approach. Secretary clinton, at the last democratic debate senator sanders called for moving as aggressively as we can to normalize relations with iran. Your campaign has criticized him for saying that. Now that hes standing next to you here on the stage can you explain why the u. S. Shouldnt try to normalize relations with iran in your view . Absolutely. I did put together the co lash to impose sanctions. I started the negotiations that led to the Nuclear Agreement sending some of my closest aids to begin the conversations with the iranians. Im very pleased we got that Nuclear Agreement. It puts a lid on the Nuclear Weapons program. We have to enforce it. There have to be conventions attached to it. But that is not only our problem with iran. We have to figure out how to deal with iran as the principal state responsord terrorism in the world. They are destabilizing governments in the region. They continue to support against israel. A lot of the work that we have to do is going to be incredible hard. Im prepared to do that work, but i believe just as i did with imposing the sanctions, you have to get action for action. If we were to normalize relations right now we would remove one of the biggest pieces of leverage we have to try to influence and change iranian behavior. The president doesnt think we should, i dont think we should. I believe we have to take this step by step to try to reign in iranian aggression and their support for terrorism and other bad behavior. Who said that i think we should normalize relations with iran tomorrow . I never said that. I think we should move forward as quickly as we can. They are a sponsor of terrorism around the world and we have to address that, but a number of years ago people were saying normal relationship with cuba, what a bad and silly idea. Theyre communists. Theyre our enemy. Please dont suggest that we normalize relations tomorrow. We dont. I would like to see us move forward and hopefully someday that will happen. When you ran against senator obama you thought him naive because he thought it was a good y had to talk to our enemies. I think those are exactly the people you have to talk to and you have to negotiate with. Senator, let me correct the record if i can. 30 seconds, madam secretary. As i certainly recall the question was to meet with without conditions and youre right, i was against that. I was against it then and i would be against it now. Okay. Part of diplomacy is trying to extract whatever concessions you can get in giving something the other side wants. Of course you have to try to make peace with and work with those who are your add va vaer, but you dont rush in and say here i am. I think president bottom had the right idea and the bottom line is that of course there have to be conditions, but of course it doesnt do us any good to not talk with our add va series. We worked hard to get them established and to be enforced and then we talked. All right. Thats what i did with the president. So he and i were on the very same page. And just to set the record straight, i very strongly supported the agreement which makes certain that iran does not get a nuclear weapon. As commander in chief, senator sanders, you have to priorize potential threats to the United States. Three countries, north korea, iran and russia how would you rank in in order of threats right now. Isis. Im talking about these three countries, how would you or ent our National Defense posture. North korea is a strange situation because it is such an isolated country run by a handful of dictators or maybe just one who seems to be what somewhat paranoid and who has Nuclear Weapons and our goal there is in my view is to work and lean strongly on china to put as much pressure china is one of the few major countries in the world that has significant support for north korea and i think we have do everything we can to put pressure on china. So i were very much about an isolated country with atomic bombs. I think we have to work closely with china to resolve the problems we have and i worry about putin and his military adventurism. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter this week picked one of those three and he said russia is basically the national do you worry with his decision . No, i dont. I worry very much about an isolated country. Thats what makes me nervous. Russia lives in the world. China lives in the world. North korea is a strange county because it is so isolated and i do feel that a nation with Nuclear Weapons n, they have toe dealt with effectively. Secretary clinton, what do you think of secretary carter. Hes putting them as the chief nasht defense right now in here is kwha i would think hes planning. We do have the Nuclear Weapons agreement with iran. Thats an enforcement consequence, action for action, follow on. We have a plan we will watch them. He will be vigilant. We do have to worry about north korea. They continue to develop their Nuclear Weapons capability and theyre working on their ballistic capability. I know those plans could lead to a missile that could reach hawaii if not the west coast. We do have to try to get the countries in the region to work with us to do everything we can to confine and constrain them. What secretary carter is looking at is the constant pressure that russia is putting on our european allies. The way that russia is trying to move the boundaries of the post World War Two europe and the way that hes trying to set countries each other and beginning to explore whether they could make some inroads in the balticks. We know they are engaged in supporting assad because they want to have a place in the middle east, they have a naval base and air base in syria. They want to hang on to that. And i think what secretary carter is seeing and im glad he is is that we have to get nato back working for the common defense. We have to do more to support our partners in nato and we have to send a very clear message to putin that this kind of testing of boundaries will have to be responded to and the best way to do that is put more armor in and put more money from the europeans is. Secretary clinton, i want to ask you about a National Security issue that is closer to home. There are thousands of veterans over 100,000 veterans living in the state of New Hampshire. Either one of you nominated you will likely face a republican opponent in the general election who wants to privatize or abol issue the va. How will you win the ashrgumentn that issue given the problems that have been exposed in the va in the last few years . First of all, i am absolutely against privatizing the va and im going to do everything i can to build on the reforms that have been passed to try to fix whats wrong with the va. There are a lot of issues about wait times and services that have to be fixed because our veterans deserve nothing but the best, but youre absolutely right. This is another part of the agenda. They have tried to convince americans we should no longer have specialized care for our veterans. I will fight that as hard as i can. I think we can enlist the Veterans Organizations because lets fix the va, but we will never let it be privatized hand that is a promise. Senator sanders, you as a congressional leader youve worked with in a bipartisan way is that the right contour of the fight . As the secretary knows, i have the privilege and the honor chairing the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs and it is interesting to me republicans give speeches about how much they love veterans. I work with the american legion, the vfw and virtually every Veterans Organization to put together the most comprehensive piece of veterans legislation in the modern history of america and i brought it to the floor the the senate. Every democrat voted for it. I got two republicans. We ended up with 56 votes and i couldnt get the 60 votes that i needed. That is pathetic. This was legislation supported by all of the Veterans Organizations addressing many of the Serious Problems that the veterans face in health care and how we deliver benefits to them. So republicans talk a good game about veterans, but when it came to put money on the line to protect our veterans frankly they were not there. What i did next, rachel, is i had to retreat a little bit. I had to compromise. I did work with john mccain. I did work with jeff miller over in the house and we put together not the bill that i wabtd, but probably the most comprehensive va bill. Secretary clinton is right there is a group of concerned veterans of america. They want to destroy Social Security, medicare, medicare, every Governmental Program passed since the 1930s. I had a hearing. I had all of the veterans groups in front much me and i said to them tell me when a veteran gets in to the va, understanding there are waiting lines and real problems, when a veteran gets in to the system, is the quality of care good. Without exception what they said, good, excellent, very good. Very to strengthen the va. We do not privatize the va. Were going to take another break and talk about Social Security and some other issues when we come back. One crest 3d white smile. Is all it takes. To turn the tables. Crest 3d white toothpaste. Removes 5 times more stains. Than the red box. For a smile like that, crest 3d white. Is the way to whiten. We are back. Were going do get into a little bit of election politics. The Iowa Democratic party has declared Hillary Clinton the winner. Today the Des Moines Register has an editorial calling for the audit of the results saying what happened at the Democratic Caucus was a debacle. Senator sanders, do you accept the idea that Hillary Clinton won iowa or do you believe the caucuses are still an open question . I agree with the Des Moines Register, but lets not blow this out of pore portion. This is not a winner take all thing. I think where we stand you have 22 delegates, i have 20 delegates. We need 2,500 delegates to win the nomination. This is not the biggest deal in the world. We think, by the way, based on talking to our precinct captains, we have at least two more delegates. What the Des Moines Register said there were half a dozen coin flips, a fairly chaotic type situation. At the end of the day it will break roughly even. I love and respect the caucus process in iowa. I dont have to say it because they voted already. I love New Hampshire too because you havent voted, but i think people are blowing this up, but i think we need improvements in the process by way results are determined. Secretary clinton, will you participate in some sort of audit if thats what the party wants to do . Whatever they decide to do, thats fine. Thats fair enough. Good we move on. Were happy with that. Senator sanders, in 1964. Oh word. See, when you are old, then they go back all these years. In 1964 i heard that the republicans nominated Barry Goldwater who was far to the right of most that party in 1972 the democrats nominated george mcgovern, but he was to the left of his partys main stream. Both of those parties made activists excited and they got destroyed in the general election. Even democrats who love you worry about your fate in a general election and i know you have good headtohead polling numbers against republican frontrunners right now. We know that, but do you have a general Election Strategy that is different than the way youre running right now to get the nomination . General election is different than a primary and caucus process. But let me say in terms of where we are right now as you mentioned in a number of national and state, including New Hampshire, for example the last poll i saw there may have been a new one, the last one i saw here in New Hampshire had me defeating trump by 19, the secretary defeating him by one. There were large margins in iowa and wisconsin. Heres where i think i will be if nominated the candidate. Democrats win when there is a large voter turnout. When people are excited, when working people, middle class people and young people are prepared to engage in the political process. Republicans win when people are demoralized and you have a small voter turnout, which is why they love voter suppression. I believe that our campaign up to now has shown that we can create an enormous amount of enthusiasm from working people, from young people who will get involved in the political process and which will drive us to a very large voter turnout. If there is a large voter turnout, not only do we retain the white house, but i think we regain the senate, we win governors chairs up and down the line. I believe if you want to retain, the white house, if you want to see democrats do well across the board, i think our campaign is the one that creates the large voter turnout and helps us win. Secretary clinton, your campaign and people who have endorsed you have suggested that or even said that if senator sanders is the nominee that democrats will suffer nationwide and the chances will go down of the Democrats Holding on to the white house. With him here standing next to you can you tell us whether or not you believe he would win the general election if he were nominated. I can only tell you what i believe is and that is i am the strongest candidate to take it to the republicans in november. I say that with great with Great Respect for the campaign that senator sanders has been running. I personally am thrilled at the numbers of people and particularly young people who are coming to support your campaign. I hope that i will be able to earn their support. They may not support me now, but i support them and well Work Together, but what im concerned about is the views of Many Democrats who know their states, who know how hard it is to win a general election. And it also will put whoever the nominee is into the spotlight. Ive been vetted. Theres hardly anything you dont know about me. And i think its fair to say that whoever is in that position, senator sanders or anyone else who might have run, will face the most withering onslaught. So i think i am the person who can do all aspects of the job. I think im the person best prepared to take the case to the republicans and i think that at the end of the day its not so much electability, it is who the American People can believe can keep them safe, can get the economy moving again, can get numbers rising, can build on the progressive accomplishments of president obama. And i think that the coalition that president obama put together to win twice is a coalition that i can put together and add to and thats what im prepared for. Thank you both. Were staying on this topic with secretary clinton, just like some democrats that question senator sanders ability in the general election, many democratic voters that our reporters have been running into in iowa and New Hampshire, they say over and over again theyre worried about the email issue not