President ial debates and the endnd of the state legislative session. Marco rubio. The republican senatorrom miami knows that he has to win florida tuesday, or his campaign over. At least, thats what the conventional wisdom says. I spoke with rubio a short time ago. And joining us now which satellite is senator marco rubio. Senator, good morning, good to see you. Good morning, michael. Good to sese you. Mike senator, you have been campgning nonstop around the state. Youve had enthusiastic audiences i know. But heres the question. The polls say that you cannot win florida. That you are far behind. Whats your feeling . Can you catch up . Can you win . We will. Im confident of that. I already told another journalist earlier, on wednesday have to make an explanation why they were so wrong. Place. Weve said an under dog. Were an unusu year. Were running into this electoral phenomenon. I hope people watch what awaits us if hes our nomine hes obscene and aggressive and vulg things that he says on a regular basis. Hes ripping ourarty apart at the seams. We cant solve problems if we discourse. We can disagree on issues, but not violently. We havent seen this since the 1960s mike not since george c. Demonstrations and violence. Donald trump says hes not responsible for the violence. Is he responsible . There are consequences. When you go around saying lets beat up the protester and ill pay the legal fees. When your Campaign Manager is under investigation for saulting a female in florida. When you have someone sucker punching someone at an event and when theyre released from jail and they say next time were going to kill them, he is responsible. Some people hear this stuff and is insights them to go further. I think hes responsible for look, yesterday he gave a rally and repeats this crazy story how some American General 50 or 60 years ago dipped bullets in pigs blood thats just not true. Of stuff and starts to cheer. First of all, that would have been a war crime. And second of all, its not we as a nation would ever do. What kind of leader goes around spreading a lie like that, as if its a glorious thing we should think about doing. There are consequences to this. Were saying it play out before our eyes. Mike senator, on wednesday night at the debate here at miamidade college, jake tapper asked donald trump about this. And he went into kind of an elaborate explanation. But he said i dont condone this. And i dont want my supporters to do this. But it seemed frankly kind of tepid. He did not say this is wrong. Are you waiting for him to say that . Yeah, but hes not going to do it. He got into the position that theres angry people in america. Instead of saying heres how were going to fix it. Hes decided to make them angrier andore frustrated and saying the reason this is going wrong for you, its japan, china, mexico, muslims, you fill in the blank, its their fault. Give me the power and well go after them. Its dangerous and were leading to like. And people need to wake upp and put a stop to this. And we are all i mean all of us are going to pay a terrible price for what is happening. Mike senator rubio, i think the idea of the coursening of the political discourse didnt start with donald trump. You told a Washington Post reporter that president obama bears responsibili. What has president obama said that is nearly as radical, as ive never said its nearly as radical in terms of violence. But ive seen this president in the past basically imply if you dont agree with him on medicare and medicaid that you dont care about the elderly. Ive seen him say if youre pro life, youre waging a war on women. If you dont agree with the healthcare plan, you dont care about sick americans. Hold on, let me finish. Ive heard him say if youre a supporter of the Second Amendment and dont support his gun laws, that you didnt care gun violence. So he has chosen to be divisive. Events. This is new since we havent seen since the 1960s. Its dangerous and im deeply concerned about that. Mike senator, on friday, i spent the day covering a visit Deputy National security advisor, who is really the architect of this initiative, this opening of relations between the u. S. And cuba. Ben rhoades said over and over again, the president is going to meet with ssents, with pro choosing. Thererwill be ten to 15 of them. Hes going to meet with them and give them his support and hear their concerns. That would be a good thing, wouldnt it . Sure. The problem is first of all, lets see the list. Second of all, a meeting is good. But a meeting is not going to cover up for the fact that the images are going to be around the world are the images of the u. S. President socializing and have a good ol time with a dictator. The mesge that sends is this whole thing about changing government in cuba, hats not a priority anymore. Were not really focused on that. Weve accepted this as thehe legitimate leaders of this should. Sure well give lip service to democracy. But a meeting with dissidents and democracy actors on the island is not going toe able to make up for the fact that the president and the images the world is going to see is that of the american president with his arm around and basically socializing with and sending a powerful image that we accept theastro government on the island. I think thats going to be devastating that is going to have longterm consequences fo the democracy on the island. Mike let me go bk to the point where we began, and that is florida. You are feeling confident that you are going to win on tuesday, just as in a sense as Bernie Sanders upset all the pollsters and the conventional wisdom in michigan. You won there. You think youre going toull it off here. I do. Of course, if people come out and vote. If people watching on a sunday afternoon you can vote early today. Because tuesday is going to be a but i need everyone to c ce out and vote. I need their help. I can win florida if the people go out and vote for me. Mike can you go forward if you dont with inon tuesday . Yes, because this is not a traditional year. Donald trump will have to win 62 of the delegates remaining in order to be the nominee. I dont know how he does that. And ted cruz would have to win 75 of the delegates. Theres no way he does that. So we areln chartered territory. But this is unique. If anybody else was the front runner, if it was jeb bush, the race would be over. But its donald trumpnd hes unacceptable to 2 3 of the Republican Party. So well after florida, this will be going on. Florida will be very important. If i win, it will be an enormous boost. We won in washington yesterday. Ill never give up. Mike senator rubio, thanks for your time. Well see you tuesday night in your home town. Thanks, michael. Glenna up next, two south florida lawmakers are in the house to tell us what they accomplished in tallahassee the stay tuned. The future is whats going to make us even greater. This Convention Center hotel alleviates the problem of traffic. All of which are gonna help the citizens and 1,40jobs, less traffic on our roads, and no new taxes. It is a win for everyone. You cant think about today. You have to think about tomorrow. Vote yes for our new Convention Center hotel. So hankies dropped after two months of bill crafting and horse trading. Mike its governor rick scott who may need a hanky. He didnt get what he wanted with little dissent, legislators passed an 82 billion budget. Money for worthwhile things and also turkeys. Glenna rodriguez is the representative well introduce him in a minute. But at the center of it, a republican from southwest miamidade, what chairs the Senate Judiciary committee. His actions killed the open carry and gun bills this session. The democrat from miami, one of the more vocal opponents of the governors tax cut that was cut just about in half. Welcome. Both of you. Mike great to have you both. Representative, you are part of the minority p pty up there. But all but one democrat voted for the budget that the senator and the republicans proposal. This was just, you know, a moment up until last year where you guys couldnt agree on anything. What was different . Guest there were two things that brought the legislature across party lines and the senate and the house. One, the governor has been so extreme in terms of his governoring style that its forced the chambers to work together. The district rulings have remapped the senate map and were seeing the dynamics are related to that. I voted for the budget because of two things. As a vice chair, it was a great year for the dade delegation. Guest but we got a lot of things done in policy and budget. The more important thing, i thought it was a great year for the budget. 286 million went to paying down went to our local schools to say pay down what would otherwise be more local property taxes in our sool system. The trajectory, the state pretending theyre cutting taxes mike the budget that the governor proposed put the onus on local taxpayers. Guest thats true. Ive been harping on the same thing is the trajectory to reverse that. Its dangerous trajectory. What this budget did this year is responsible tax relief because it helps pay down otherwise local property taxes. As you said, the governor wanted to be majority local property tax. Funds. Thats a very dangerous thing. Glenna as s ng as you brought up education, senator, in the education bills that passed, theres a lot of concern that so much money has been diverted from Public Schools, especially in the capitol pot to the charter schools, not o oy siphoning money out of Capitol School pots, but also there was a bill that would sort of tell the people involved, no profits are supposed today go to the people building, the developers. Lets keep the money in the schools. But that didnt pass. So didnt Public Schools really take a hit ts time . Guest well, no. I think we made a lot of progress in education in terms of capitol funding, in terms of Property Tax Relief for everybody, local Property Tax Relief. We have record funding for education. Can we do more . Absolutely. And we can. You want to talk about is whats been done for special needs kids in our state. And i think that was a very, very important prerogative of the president of the senate. We were able to accomplish that. In terms of what youre talking about, which is the profits for the private developers of charter schoolu, you know the Senate Position was a strong one against that. Mike it was the house that beat that down. If i can, im on record, so its no surprise to say, i have complimented you publically. Let me do it again, for stopping the opencarry and campuscarry bills that appeared to be on their way to perhaps passage in the senate and the house. Now, why did you do that . Im glad you did. But why did you do it . And how much pressure was there from the n. R. A. And gun supporters . Guest well, i stopped session and this session. Airportcarry. And yeah, there was pressure. You know, the n. R. A. Put a lot of pressure. You have to remember, the opencarry bill was a bill sponsored by senator don gates, president. Mike a lot of clout. Guest a lot of clout and a lot a pressure. Mike excuse me. What was your reasoning . Why didnt you think it was a good idea for opencarry . A number of other states do it. But particularly campuscarry, wherat State College universities, kids who are 21 or over and have a concealed weapons permit could have brought guns on campus. Just not a good idea, was it . Good idea. And ive been quoted saying its not a good idea to give every 21yearold a concealed permit safe. So if theres a concern and there is a concern about campus that. Its not by giving every 21yearold a handgun. Glenna theres as much news abou things that did not pass that did. One of the big losers was Enterprise Florida, the governors Big Initiative to put 250 million into job creation. But representative, what the governor said was without this, 272 business deals that would have created 50 jobs, might not happen. Is that ringing an alarm . Guest no. If i can touch on the gun bills very briefly. Mike of course. Glenna sure. Guest i would say two things. One thing we have to thank again is the Fair Districts amendment that dealt with jerrymandering. Guest while the senat was consistent for campus carry, while a little bit on the opencarry and i want to call you out on the stand your ground law that the senator did vote for. It was a significant rewritef stand your ground that would have given we all agree that if somebody uses force or kills somebody in selfdefense, they should have an opportunity to prove it. But this would have made the prosecutors have to prove that. And that was dangerous mike hold on just a minute. I wantt to give senator a chance to respond to that on stand your ground. Guest ill tell you, look, you want to talk about killing or stopping bad legislation. And i not only was one of the people who participated in stopping opencarry or campus or airportcarryt i led that charge the fact of the matter, theres a reason why t league of women voters honor me as one of three legislators to get their working democracy making democracy work award. And thats because of the positions that ive consistentltl taken over the years. Mike on stand your ground, did you support the bill guest on the issue of stand your ground, there was i did vote for a slight modification in committee, but ultimately, thats not something we ended up supporting, and it didnt bece a priority of the senate. As you can tell, theenate has always led and ive been one of the leaders in the last five or six years in the senate to have a moderate common sense approach to legislation. Mike its more moderate in thee senate. The house is fairly conservative. Youre not. But we understand that. Glenna we need to take a quick break. Mike we need to take a well be right b theres a big difference between making noise, tapping sound and making sense. elephant sound donkey sound when it comes to Social Security, we need more than lip service. Our next president needs a real plan to keep Social Security strong. elephant noise hey candidates. Enough talk. Glea we are back talking end of session with the senator and the representative. And right before the break, we started talking about one of the failures of the session, Enterprise Florida. Governor. He was out there, he had those campaigning. Guest what the governor hundreds of millions of dollars invested in the private sector under the guise Economic Development. The governor wanted to reduce oversight and multiply by five how much the public i invests. In the house there was significant opposition. I worked with a group of republicans and a small group of democrats to block it from the finance and tax committee. The policy component of what the governor wanted. And ultimately house leadership was effective against it, and it did not get funded to that tune. Im happy about that. I think its unfortunate we didnt have a realistic conversation what it means to do Economic Development. But i think putting more money with less oversight into the slush funds the governor has is not the way to use the publics money. Mike senator, i think one of the arguments against the funding was in the escrow Enterprise Florida millions and millions of dollars that havent been paid out. Guest correct. 143 million that is sitting that. Thats a significant amount of money. I want to Say Something about economic devopment that is important for our community in Miamidade County. Miamidade did very well in the bubuet in terms of projects and local projects that go to the heart of the Small Businesses and Economic Development in our community, including the 1 million that i got for miracle mile, refurbishing of miracle mile. Mike and the underine beneath the metro mile, theres 2 million there. I dont know what the governor will do that with. Guest thats a Game Changing project. I worked closely with that. So thats a terrific Game Changing project i think for Miamidade County in terms of inviting Economic Development in our community. That really, really work to stimulate job creatatn in our community. Thats a common sense approach to Economic Development. Guest i agree and i think again it was a great year for us in the dade lealdelegation. The miamimiater cleanup. The miracle mile. Id hate to say bringing home the bacon, but that is part of our job to make sure we get your share. And we tend not to get our share. Glenna a are you able to say broward counun . Did Broward County fair as well . Guest not as well as miamidade. But Broward County did well as well. You had a session where there was a lot of harmony. I this i the senates moderate moderating t te over the last six years has definitely contributed to that. Senate contributed to that. Andy and his style of leadership to empower the Committee Chair to say make policy decisions. Temperature. Mikik it worked. Representative, one of the, i of the session of the legislature is that floridans, especially in south florida i know, upset that nothing has been done on amendment one, passed in 2012 to protect the environmentally fragile ever glades and springs around the state. But you passed a bill that sets aside 250 million for 20 years to implement amendment one. Tell us about th. Guest so as people know, more than 70 of the electorate voted for amendment one, which is making sure our water the problem was that that wasnt just violated last year. It was brazenly violated. You look at what the money was used for. Mike nothing to do with what the people voted for. Guest its asking for a lawsuit. So i worked with representative harrol in the house to take the funds and designate them to everg