And now governor bill weld, a republican coming to speak to you. Weld thank you very much. I have 20 minutes. Im going to speak for a while and then have a q a. I need to learn more from you. Twoterm governor of massachusetts back in the 90s. We had a good run. I almost ran for president in 1996 and i thought about it before. Ive been a longtime student of the conduct of the office of the presidency. I knew mr. Reagan, both bushes. I was involved in both of mitt romneys campaigns, so not a stranger to the general precincts here, i have a lot of domestic experience, a lot of International Experience which i will tell you about but im not running because i think im the only person who can make a difference, im running because im troubled by the situation of our country and i think we are at something of an Inflection Point and i think the most urgent duty facing the next president is to seek to unify the country as opposed to dividing it. [applause] gov. Weld there are a bunch of things you can do there. One is to do what Ronald Reagan did and the bushes and certainly eisenhower who i dont really remember, but a past generation wanted to make all americans feel good about being americans and thats not what the Current Administration is doing. So part of whats being is lack of unity is washington is trying to divide this as opposed to unifying it starting with religion with the muslims going onto race with the mexicans being murderers and rapists and an effort is made to have us be resentful about people from other countries and even resentful about other groups of americans and that is not the way to go. I think a start in achieving this objective of unifying people is to realize that in our country today as a result of a lot of things, the rich are too rich and the poor are too poor and thats not good for social cohesion. So i do think effort has to be made to make the federal income tax burden on the poor less heavy than it is now. It is really not fair and im not one of those who say we are going to give everyone a guaranteed basic income it regardless of whether theyre willing to work, that is not my cup of tea. When i was in office i put in a work requirement for welfare and welfare rolls immediately dropped in the state of massachusetts. That begin the model for the federal law. I think we need to increase the earned income tax credit for the working poor to make sure the door to the middle class is not slammed in their face of the working poor. That would again be very bad for social cohesion. We are all one country and we should feel that way, we should not spend all of our time listening to someone try to persuade us that some brown person is going to come across the southern border, the Mexican Border and take our jobs. Further kindling economic insecurity or harm or wife or children. It is demagoguery of the firstorder. I think it is a move may i say on taxes, ive never met a tax cut i didnt like. I cut taxes 21 times in my years in massachusetts but never raised them and the result was that the Business Community got the confidence to build a plant next door, to increase employment, to invest in a plant or equipment and that helped unemployment. In my first term we went from the highest Unemployment Rate in the industrialized states to the lowest. So that is number one. Unification of the country. Number two, i dont think we should seek to divide people by generation. The current policies are really disfavoring millenials into gen xers, they will pay the bill for all these excessive things being done in washington. They will pay the bill for the 1 trillion a year in deficit spending. It will pay the bill for the 9 trillion added to the deficit by the president s last budget. Its going to be the millenials who are now the largest voting bloc. They will also reap the whirlwind from any failure to make any effort to reduce the Carbon Emissions of our country in order to prevent the polar ice caps from melting in the relatively near future. Climate change may be something of a misnomer, because climate does go back and forth and this plays out in geologic terms, but it is not a misnomer to say that if we make no effort to reduce co2 emissions between now and 2040, 2050, that polarize cap is going to melt if we go up two degrees fahrenheit every year. The result is a huge storm surge on our coast. Rearrangement of our coastline. A lot of shore run just shorefront property that isnt now that doesnt want to be. The melting of every Mountain Glacier around the world which is the sole source of Drinking Water for 300 million people. We have to get more realistic than a one word platform. The right is having oneword platforms. Wall, hoax, you dont have to argue the issues because he doesnt have a deep bench so to speak in terms of being able to debate big on that. [applause] host those were 8 gov. Weld those were a couple of issues. Politically, my strategy is to trying get more people voting as opposed to less. No more voter suppression. [applause] gov. Weld get more people in, get more millenials voting, get more women voting. I dont just mean suburban moderate women, i mean all women. If i were a woman today i would be plenty exercised by the statutes that have been passed recently saying if you are raped, you own it, you have to go bear the child and support that child. I would like to see a 99 year sentence not for the doctor who performs an abortion, but for the rapist who doesnt support that child. [applause] gov. Weld other issues i think we need to Pay Attention to, obviously the deficit spending, cant have a trillion dollars a year. Unfair to the millenials. I was ranked the most fiscally conservative governor in the United States when i was in office. I kind of think it might be mr. Trump who is the rhino, the republican in name only, because he is not a fiscal conservative. He doesnt believe in conserving the environment. He doesnt believe in free trade , he doesnt believe in all of the things the Real Republican Party used to stand for. Im unapologetic about challenging him here because i dont think he is a real republican. [applause] gov. Weld im going to fight in those states and go to some friendly states, back to the midatlantic states, when i only when i almost ran before i concentrated on new jersey and new york and there are plenty of electoral votes to begotten. The last bridge to be crossed will be the rust belt states were mr. Trump won the election. Now we know a lot more about mr. Trump than we did the day after the election last time. And if this was just early 2017, i wouldnt be standing in front of you saying im challenging mr. Trump for reelection, because we didnt know enough. It was just one speech, now it has been backed up by two years of action, steve bannon says if trump is reelected you will have four years of uninterrupted payback. Payback for what . The truth is they will continue to lash out at people and i really cant sit still with that kind of approach to the government of the United States. So that is why im running, that is what im going to focus on and i would love it since i have to get to know you in order to have traction in iowa, i would love it if you ask me your questions. Sir . What kind of spending cuts do you have in mind to control the deficit in the out years . The answer is nothing can be sacrosanct. Entitlements cant be sacrosanct, the military cant be sacrosanct and doesnt really need to be. On the military, i believe in a robust engagement. I think it is mr. Trump who is the isolationist. On the other hand i dont believe that boots on the ground to go into another country every time we see something we dont like. [applause] gov. Weld in terms of entitlement programs, and other cuts, what you have to do is what i did massachusetts which is zerobased budgeting. You have to assume every account in the budget starts at zero unless it can prove that it did good work the previous year. In washington they assume anything other than last years appropriation plus 5 , they call it a cut. What happens is the ds want to raise social spending and the rs want to raise military spending. So they decide to raise everything 10 . And the president , this president is absolutely not only sitting still for that, but he is cheerleading it. My motto when i was in office and to this day as there is no such thing as government money, only taxpayer money. It is not government money. Believe me when i tell you, those members of congress and in the administration think it is their money, they dont think it is your money. It is your money, that will be my approach in cutting the budget. Ive reduced spending my first year in office. Cut absolute dollars. I didnt know there were sacred cows littering the landscape. I didnt even know there were cows. I was able to do that and i would bring that to washington. What do you think about the trump plan to zero out the refugee and Asylum Program . Gov. Weld its another inhumane example of the inhumanity of the trump administration. If an countries have different approaches towards asylum, i might not go all the way to france which has this unbelievable asylum and refugee tradition, but we can do our share and pull our weight. Thank you for mentioning Climate Change. 40 of our electric is done by wind. 2000 jobs in the solar industry. What you think about a 100 Renewable Energy economy . Gov. Weld i think we are heading in that direction. We are heading for the electric economy, we are definitely heading for a renewables fuel economy. I think wind and solar and in my part of the country hydro, we want to have all of that. The one place where i get off the boat from the Green New Deal terms of the composition of the element of the grid is i think we should go back to nuclear and im not talking about huge nuclear people say why dont they invent something that has zero Carbon Emissions and can produce almost limitless amounts of energy and power . The answer is they did a long time ago, it is called nuclear. Im well aware of the primacy of the wind industry in iowa and i would be in your corner in making sure the window would be as incentivized as possible. [applause] gov. Weld i was sharing with some of you earlier that when the gis who fought world war ii when they came home, they were two sets of needs paired education and health care. Congress took different approaches. Educationally passed the g. I. Bill, which means anyone could go to any college they want and it was a voucher system and it worked perfectly. Probably the most successful Domestic Program in history. For health care, Congress Went the other way. The government has to control everything, im on the libertarian side of the Republican Party. I want the government to control as little as possible. I want to maximize individual liberties, which includes choice, not just freedom of being enslaved. My view is better and should be able to go anywhere they want with their health care and not have these waiting periods and difficulties in care. [indiscernible] gov. Weld the burden of cancer . One thing i can say is that may that may sound trivial is that the pain that is associated with cancer can be treated with cbd, which is an ingredient of marijuana, but it is not hallucinatory. It is pretty harmless. It has been legal to study cannabis in israel for a long time. They have essentially been running a human trial of 20,000 people for the last 30 years. We know what it can do and cant do. It has been illegal to study in the United States because it of reefer madness. It cuts pain of Cancer Patients by 90 . When cbd is introduced with cytotoxins, which are the tumor killing agents, their efficiency is doubled in cancer victims. And that is not palliative. That is not just addressing the pain caused by cancer. That is curing cancer. Killing the tumor cells. Yes . Becauseyou invest in you cannot talk about Climate Change without talking about trains. You put 5000 people on one train. You take one train a day to springfield. What . Come on. Gov. Weld i am a highspeed rail buff. I went all the way to japan and , it is the train of the future. You do not even know you are moving. You are going 505 kilometers an hour. Im afraid it is awfully expensive in the u. S. I ride the Commuter Rail to work every day. If you live in the south shore of massachusetts, you pretty much have to. I have long been a rail buff. The only question is expense. They have i35 over here and gov. Weld i know, i get it. Of things that will phase out we are going to an , economy of electric vehicles, it is the electric society. If you look at the projections of fuel consumption, even over the next decade, they are projected to go way down. So our highways will look very different not so long from now. Electric vehicles and driverless cars. Yes . What do you think happened to the rest of republicans like you . You do not see them around much. Gov. Weld you might call them new england republicans. We are people who are fiscally conservative, worried about taxpayers money, but socially we are embracing and welcoming. And i said you know, i was invited to address the Republican Convention in houston in the early 1990s. I was a sitting governor. And i summarized my political philosophy as being i want the government out of your pocketbook and out of your bedroom. For this, i was bood at the convention. So maybe that was a sign of things to come. But that is what i think. I think there are a lot of them still out there. Particularly in New Hampshire. So i have high hopes for that state to launch me past mr. Trump in an arc. There are a lot of people i know, old friends of mine in the senate, and washington, who are keeping quiet because they think it is not in their political interest to stand up just now. And i am not rubbing their nose in anything and saying louis, how can you . Dont you remember the good old days . Because i do not ask anyone to do anything that is not in their own political interest. But once i get traction and movement, i will increasingly be making news about where the other folks are here. As i say i think if they do not , stand up and be counted, they will be defeated. What is your stance on assault weapons . Mr. Weld assault weapons, there are 300 million rifles out there in private hands. My stance is not to have a supercharged background check on everybody every time they buy a gun, because i do not think that is where you reach the shooters. The el paso shooters. I think the red flag laws, coworkers, family members say this person has been making threats, had a list of people he wanted to kill since high school, has violent behavior, is exhibiting neurotic behavior, yeah, get that person in front of a judge. You do need to have a due process protection for the accused. But i think that would be a giant step toward preventing the Mass Shootings that we are talking about. And you can do research. 90 of mass shooters grew up in a household without a father. A very good predictor of Mass Shootings is previous violent behavior. Give the fbi more money to scout out these instances with the help of people who can talk about it. But i hate to say it, it may disappoint some, but the idea of universal background checks and trenching on someones rights to own a gun i have been a gun owner and a hunter my whole life. Banou would not semiautomatics . Gov. Weld i would not ban a five shot automatic. What about magazines . Mr. Weld no, that is different. That is getting into an automatic weapon. It is already the law that you cannot own an automatic weapon. Unless you are a federally licensed firearms dealer. I would not allow them to become freely salable at all. Thank you so much, everybody. [applause] [background chatter] great speech, governor. Gov. Weld thank you. Keep talking. Good to see you. Thank you for coming down. Looking forward to seeing you. Great remarks, sir. Absolutely. Gov. Weld hi, everybody. Any questions . This is your first trip to iowa . Gov. Weld no, it is my first trip on the cycle. As a president ial candidate. Why should iowans take your president ial run seriously . Gov. Weld the proof of the pudding will be in the eating. Obviously they will not be able , to take my candidacy seriously unless i am here and i meet them. So we will do whatever necessary to be a plausible contender in the caucus. If you mean why should they take it seriously because mr. Trump is massively popular among the republican structure in each state, i would say that is because the republican structure in each state is the trump organization. So of course they are not going to get out and salute me. But i am going to keep talking to people about what i think needs to be done in this country, and what im going to do and they can make up their own mind. American voters are very smart. And over time, im hopeful that what i will sketch out is going to sink in and i am also hopeful that it will sink in that mr. Trump is getting more and more antic in his striking out at people and do people really want that in the white house . But not to beat a dead horse, everyone is aware of those aspects of mr. Trumps very public wrestling with his own demons. The main thing is what do i want to do . Or 20cussed that f minutes here. You dont have to buy my dog food but im hopeful over time, people will. The only republican block has a senator has retired. Now there is only one member after next year. Does your party have a race problem . Gov. Weld absolutely. Trumps not racist gov. Weld ok, great. Remind me. I said in detroit that the naacp on july 24, he is an extreme racist. And if the Republican Party in washington, i think the states if the Republican Party in washington does not disavow his racist tirades, they will go down in massive defeat in 2020. I saw this happen in the nixon year when a lot of people, very honorable republicans who engaged in the draining effort of defending Richard Nixon all year long and then it turned out when the tapes were released he had been lying to the American People about everything, they all lost. No questions asked. One of them was from iowa. That will happen next year if they do not disavow his racism. My answer to your question is yes, he is a racist. The first thing i said when i heard about will heard is i hope he can hang onto scott. You talked about how people are keeping quiet. Who are you talking about . Say, itd i will not will come out when the moment is right. Frankly, it will depend on me getting some air beneath my wings in terms of publicity and electoral progress at the national level. But then, i will. I am not just going to get out too early and advance my interest. How responsible is the president for people taking up arms and shooting americans . Gov. Weld i hold him more responsible for that than most people do. Because im so surprised by his ranting and raving. I dont expect to see that from the oval office. But when he in the Campaign Last , time, beamed out images of the founder of the american nazi party, i knew why he was doing it. Most people did not know that he founded the american nazi party. But they knew what they were doing. The president and steve bannon, his number one political strategist, set on a plan to divide the country every which way they could, fill people with resentment, with hate. It is the opposite of the direction we need to go in. On the el paso shooting recently, the president retweeted two hours before the shooting, Katie Hopkins who is lonelynt, very antiimmigrant, rightwing , congressman in britain, he retweeted her with approval two hours before the shooting. If you read the manifesto, the shooter was guided by, it is torn right out of the trump playbook. So yes i am specifically linking , him to the el paso shooting. More broadly, to the climate that produces all these shootings. What do you say to yourself running for Vice President about your fellow republicans who have stood by the president , where does that leave the party in terms of identity . Gov. Weld it leads the party to lose unless they change their tune. I think next year is going to be a disaster for the Republican Party unless they create or allow open water to develop between them and the president , who i think is behaving outside all bounds of conduct that is appropriate in washington, d. C. , which is the home of iffy conduct. Governor why do you think so , many republicans have fallen in line behind President Trump . What makes you think any might leave him . Gov. Weld i do not know. I think a lot of people think that the president creates the economy. President s and governors probably get too much credit for economies in good times and too much blame in bad times. There may be people who have done well in the stock market and who identify that with the president and think, im going nowhere. I am actually afraid there may be quite a few of those people. Reason i talked about efforts to cut into the vast gulf between the poor and the rich in this country. I think that needs to be done. Income inequality is the phrase and it may sound like far left, but it is no longer far left. It is no longer a luxury to be able to attack that. It is an idea whose time has come. Would you consider a thirdparty run . Gov. Weld no, i said i would not return to libertarian if i am not the republican nominee. Trumpd not support mr. After everything he has done under any circumstances. How are you going to win . How are you going to win . Gov. Weld i would start with the six new england states, the first new england states, then go to more libertarian states alike oregon, washington, i think that california would be hospitable to me. I think that you will not release his taxes, which i will do a couple weeks after labor day. And of back to my native new york and pennsylvania, new jersey, the states i concentrated on when i was looking to run earlier. I am not yet ready to be activated, but have some governor networks from former friends of mine in a number of critical states, so i will not be starting from ground zero in pennsylvania, for example. So the main thing is a speaking the truth, not lying, not being ignorant, not trying to set people against each other. And i think the truth about what mr. Trump is now doing it has been doing will set in. It will sink in, sooner or later, and that will be the turning point in the election. What you think about him dismantling obamacare . Romney,d that was mitt not me. Um, so i do not think that we need to repeal the Affordable Care act. I think there is too much government in it, by far, governors deciding everybody must have a cadillac plan, deciding every operation and it saying it has to be immediately available. That drives up the cost of health care. They did add 20 people to their rolls, which is good because it does lower health care, but i think that health care should be far more in the hands of the individual, which is what i think about everything. The individual should be making decisions. I think we should have Health Savings accounts, so people can put aside money with a big tax advantages, like a 401 k or a retirement plan. Against thenuts winter and make their own decision. I want this kind of plan, not a cadillac plan. People do it every day. Some people want a bigger deductible because they do not want to pay upfront, other people know they are struggling to put food on the table at the end of the month, so they cannot take a hit. They have to have no deductible, so they pay more upfront. Let them make those decisions. That is the direction i would go and more than tinkering with the Affordable Care act, but that is a profound analytical tool. If it goes in the direction of that is my first instinct. Something nicey and greasy at the fair. Do they have fried dough here . Staple diet. Thank you, everybody. Thank you. We were wondering if we could get you to commit to going to the aclu convention in South Carolina . Gov. Weld i did get a very nice invitation. Good. Gov. Weld i recently appeared before the aclu in New Hampshire and that used to be a member, when i was a younger man, and i am going to rejoin. That was me. I was always wanting to say yeah, so finally i did. I am going back. I resigned when joe became head of the aclu, and he announced it was going to defend the constitution, except for the second amendment. He hated them so much, he said we will not support the second amendment. I quit. I think it is up to into predation. They give for coming by interpretation. Thank you for coming by. I wish we had a sunnier day. Gov. Weld i am used to it. I am a new englander. I love rain. I worked with a phone company for 45 years gov. Weld you are up close and personal with it. Rain meant money. Thank you, governor. Gov. Weld i appreciate the hat. Thank you. Nice to see you. Are you having fun . Gov. Weld i am having fun, against all odds. I appreciate it. I will get a picture of you. I was trying to stay out of it. You are out of luck. Thank you for coming to iowa. Gov. Weld not a bit. Thank you. Gov. Weld i did not think people would sit still. For some reason. Thank you. Gov. Weld i think that the but its moving apart, began in the 1994 election. [indiscernible] leader was a minority [indiscernible] when he becameg speaker he did not forget that. Thanks a lot. Thank you. Can i get an autograph . Gov. Weld absolutely. Do you have a pen . I do. Gov. Weld there you go. It is official. Thank you. Gov. Weld how are you . Ou will getou think y support in euro party, given how much has changed . I think that i am standing for decency, that still exists. It is just a matter of a matter of whether decent politics is still in this country and i think that people can speak up and articulate what is going on, and it will be. Delete republicans have enough do you think that republicans have enough respect for you after you ran in a Different Party the last time . What you see is what you get. [background chatter] [indiscernible] thank you, governor. Good luck. Gov. Weld thank you. Governor, talking about the growing Public Health crisis. We have an aging population, we need caregivers, what are your thoughts . Gov. Weld i do not think it is that far away. [indiscernible] what about research at the National Institute for health . Gov. Weld absolutely. The i was governor, i had same priorities i would as president. [indiscernible] thank you. Gov. Weld thanks , sir. [indiscernible] what did you make of the president read tweeting the Conspiracy Theory about Jeffrey Epstein . Gov. Weld i have not gotten a look at it. If therely have not used,rope in the cell he is that what he reported . The president was tweeting gov. Weld very much in character. A wellknown historical figure noted president . Gov. Weld not a president . Governor, we are on with msnb c. Donald trumps Approval Rating was 90 or more in the party, what role does your version of republican having this party today . Gov. Weld i will tell the truth, that way i do not have to remember what i said, and we will see whether people agree with it. I think the Current Situation is somewhat artificial, people may be equating the stock market with the donald trump. So we will see. I think he has a lot to answer for. There will be an iowa caucus, what does your Campaign Look Like over the next five months . Gov. Weld doing what you have to do to be competitive in iowa. And also in New Hampshire. Folks say donald trump has unfairly been called a racist, they feelherefore like that is reflected on the voters. What about those voters who feel like they are being targeted . Gov. Weld he is the most obvious racist that i have ever seen as a public figure. Ok, thank you. That was governor bill weld. [indiscernible] who do you admire who is not a president . Gov. Weld a lot of people. People who could not quite be president. Anybody in particular . I mean say weld yeah, i would general dorsey marshall g eorge c. Marshall, author of the marshall plan. Why do you why him . Gov. Weld he said what needed to be done, he had a plan. I can see myself having a similar plan to deal with the huge impact that Artificial Intelligence and robotics and Machine Learning will have on the workforce and what needs to be done in the way of education. That is coming up. Voters are not even thinking about it. Thank you so much. [indiscernible] that was fun. Gov. Weld yeah. Governor, can we get a photo . Gov. Weld yeah. You stay with me until we stop. We have to keep moving. Yes. Gov. Weld we will not be far. Where are we going . [indiscernible] gov. Weld yeah. [indiscernible] [background chatter] [indiscernible] gov. Weld did mccain even compete . No. [indiscernible] [indiscernible] gov. Weld i hope i am Getting Better looking. [laughter] doer your senate bid you remember that . They dug them out. Gov. Weld not my choice. It was mcganns. I saw those recently. I thought, that is a memory. Gov. Weld i still have them. That was a fun time. That does not happen everyday. There,ld well, i was right . What about your race against Mark Roosevelt . Gov. Weld [laughter] tough one. Politicalens first activity, that reelection. Right. He lost. [background chatter] where were those millennials . Right here. Oh. Gov. Weld ok. Lets do it. Right here. Gov. Weld perfect. Thank you. Gov. Weld i was talking with the head of [indiscernible] unless trump shows up. Thank you, guys. I would love to talk to somebody on your team. Gov. Weld thank you, zach. How is it going . Gov. Weld good. After you. [indiscernible] the scene from des moines, iowa, the state fair. Joining us is the former governor of massachusetts, republican candidate for president , bill weld. Thank you for being with us. Gov. Weld it is a pleasure. What do you think so far . Gov. Weld the people are so nice, so friendly. I have been here before when i worked for Ronald Reagan, i was in charge of the federal prosecutors, so we went around a lot. It is not quite like the northeast. People here are very open and welcoming, very friendly as their first instinct. Clear glass of water. Is there anything comparable to the baystate here . Expositionthe big e. In the western part of the state is our answer to the iowa state fair, but it is nowhere near as big. So we make do with what we got in massachusetts, but this is something else. All of this fried food and nobody to prevent me from digging in, it is really great. Host enjoy that. You have spoken to reporters about the president being a racist, you called him a raging racist earlier this month. What does that say about his supporters, are they racist as well . Gov. Weld you know, i have warned that if the Republican Party in washington, as opposed to the states, in washington does not step aside from the president s rhetoric that they will be viewed as the party of racism and they will not win an election if that perception takes root. So i have cast that morning. Other things being equal, i would rather talk about what i want to do in terms of unifying the country instead of criticizing the president for wanting to divide it. Host he still has a lock on the republican nomination, and it still has the support between 42 40 7 of americans overall. 47 of americans overall. Gov. Weld that is a true fact. They have seen to that. That is not where i would go hunting for support. It would be by trying to make as many people vote as possible, xers, students, gen millennials, the largest single voting group. Less than 50 of them voted last time. I want to persuade them that they are looking at a failure to take Carbon Emissions is seriously, from a failure to rein in spending so there is a 1 trillion deficit every year. They will pay the bills for that and it is not fair. I was speaking with some millennials here, they get that. They say i am the reason they are still in the Republican Party, which is flattering, but he much of people tell me that. So i will do what needs to be done to build a contrast between my approach and mr. Trumps. And let the people make their judgment. It will not happen in a day. Six months is forever in politics. We are just about at the six eriod before the elections really start rolling. That is forever in national politics. Host there is a piece available online. This is the headline, what does bill weld actually believe . Tell the audience who you are, your ideology, and why you are running for president. Av. Weld i am bill weld, former twoterm governor of massachusetts. I believe the essence of democracy is individual rights and liberties should dominate and of the individual should never be put in a corner. I want said i want the government out of your pocketbook and out of your ofroom, that is a statement my philosophy. I am running because i think the current ministration wants at the opposite mother first instinct is to attack individuals and attack groups of americans, set them against each other. It would be to their political benefit. Otherwise i cannot imagine why somebody would inject so much unpleasantness into the national discourse. So i am running to reverse that, reverse the president s policies in terms of divisiveness domestically and taking environmental protections electric, taking the vehicles and electric society of the future seriously, in terms of its implications, what has to be done in terms of education for people who will lose their jobs to automation. Complicatedugh issues and the president does not seem to get to them. Ll likes saying hoax and wa and oneword slogans. That is why am running and my platform will be artwork, rolling up our sleeves, absolutely institutionalizing across the aisle behavior, as i did in massachusetts, meeting with democrats once a week, rain or shine, and is starting a bipartisan cabinet to make people understand that it is no longer ours. Host mildred is on the democrats line. You are on with the governor. Caller i did not see people of color, you need to work to get them on board. Host ok, we will get a response. Governor . Daysweld i did spend two in palo alto and San Francisco i. And machinea. Learning, so i will return to that as a topic. Theerms of people of color, detroit,onvention in on july 24, people thought i did at least as well as anybody else. A couple days ago i was at the National Association of black rence in miamionfe along with cory booker and bernie sanders. So i am getting some airtime with the democrats and the media seems to be coming around to the view that, there is a republican primary, whether the president wants to acknowledge it or not. He doesnt. He tried to abolish of the first of the nation primary in New Hampshire, although that failed. Host will there be debates before the New Hampshire primary . Gov. Weld if i had anything to say about it, there will. Obviously, the president said he will not debate bill weld or anybody else. I may be reduced to challenging alec baldwin to debate, who plays the president with an wig onweek on saturday night live. I think i could hold my own, although he has had a long career in show business. I think he might be willing to serve the National Interest to at least have a go at it. The president would understand that. Host we will be there if it happens. Lee in florida. Caller good afternoon. Mr. Weld, i want to get in touch with you but i do not have a computer because i cannot see computer screens, how does a person do you have a Mailing Address or telephone number . I called the number and it is blocked. The telephone number. Gov. Weld we have a website. It is weld2020. Org. It should answer all of her questions. Caller i do not have a computer. Gov. Weld ok. Host is there a phone number or another way to reach out to your campaign . Gov. Weld yeah. I would look in the phone book under weld for president , boston, massachusetts. Boston,ess street, massachusetts is the Mailing Address. Host the next caller. Caller i have been unaffiliated as a connecticut voters since i started voting, and i have never participated in a primary or anything like that before. I never really had a desire, but i do vote often in the elections. Anyway, when you declared your candidacy, i went down to my register of voters and a registered as a republican, and i will be participating in the republican primary, and i will be voting for you. So i do not know what will happen as far as the president ial election, but as far as the primary i hope that many other voters do the same thing i am doing. Host eileen, stay on the line. Gov. Weld thank you. That is actually part of my message is to democrats and unaffiliated voters is they can vote in republican primaries if they are not satisfied with the job that President Trump is doing, they can vote in the republican primary, that vote for me would come out of the total for mr. Trump, then vote for whoever they want in the final election. Then they can vote for a democratic nominee if they want. It amounts to voting against mr. Trump twice. I am getting a lot of traction with that on the ground, all over the country people are saying, huh, twice i never thought of that. It is illegal and i encourage is legal and i encourage people to do it. That is how we could get a more sane result in the primary. Host why not President Trump, what is your reasoning . Caller i mean, i just do not like President Trump at all. This was a protest about. But honestly, if there wasnt somebody else running against donald trump, i am not sure i wouldve done this. I think i wouldve just sat back and voted for whoever the democrat was who was running against him, but because it was governor weld, i felt comfortable doing it. A person whosay ran against donald trump the first time who challenged him in the republican primary. I do not know if i would have done this. Again, because it is the governor, i am perfectly comfortable doing it. Host thank you. Gov. Weld thank you. Does it surprise you that you are the only candidate at the moment challenging President Trump . There was talk perhaps Governor Hogan of maryland or governor kasich would challenge him as well, but that is not the case. Gov. Weld i have been in touch with john kasich, an old friend, and it larry hogan, who is a new friend, and i encouraged them both to get in, but they have other fish to fry. I think they want to see it now, before committing to get in. I do not need that. I spoke recently with my friend, mark sanford of South Carolina, who is taking a 30 day look at possibly getting in as well. And i think that would be great. The more that people can break the ice, break the logjam and have a real competition with a real primary, the better. Host we will go to bob in california on the democrats line. With the governor weld on the cspan bus in des moines. Caller yes, i am a veteran of the vietnam war. And it looks like we have a war starting. I think all the candidates weuld unite and say should look at the lesson we learned in vietnam, because there will be casualties, a lot of people will get hurt, including families. So i was wondering if the governor had a plan to do something for veterans, because there is a lot of things that are being left out, and there are 3 million of us out there. Thank you. That and ii do know you very much for your call. I will tell you two things i would immediately do for veterans. One, let them go get their Health Care Needs attended to at the governments expense wherever they want to go. No one disputes the dedication of the men and women working in the va hospitals, but nobody can look you in the eye and say you always get the best service for any operation at the va hospital. The private sector well, because of funding in history it might be better equipped to take care of many instances. That would be number one. Number two, and you may not agree, but veterans commit suicide because of ptsd and depression in this country every single day. And it is a national disgrace. Part of it is the pain that many of them feel from ptsd. And yet, the current federal rules is that they cant have recourse to cbd, which is a perfectly harmless ingredient of cannabis, although cannabis is still classed as a class one narcotic in washington, which is ludicrous, that is supposed to be for drugs with no medical utility whatsoever. And i think the suicide rate of veterans, which is alarming, i think about 20 a day, would go down if we would relax that rule someeterans would have solace for their posttraumatic stress syndrome. Devon is joining us from petersburg, virginia. Caller hello, mr. Bill. Thank you for taking my call. Just trying to figure out what is your outlook on Recreational Use of the marijuana through all 50 states . Host thank you, which is an issue we just talked about. Quick comment . Gov. Weld i favor states rights approach in terms of that. Im not going to tell the state of alabama that all 50 states have to do the same thing. If they do not want to legalize, thats fine with me. But i think the states that do want to, the federal government should respect those decisions. Incidentally, that was the position that candidate trump took on the campaign trail in 2016. I would like to see him follow through on that one instead of changing direction as he has so many times on other issues. Host the last call comes from your home state in wilbraham, massachusetts. Republican line. Bill, you are on the air with governor weld. Caller thank you. Governor weld, i moved to massachusetts in 1991. I thought you did a wonderful, great job. Im not sure if it was all due to you because it was also the year i got married to a wonderful spouse. Gov. Weld [laughter] caller your Senate President at the time had a brother who was on fbis most wanted. Gov. Weld i invited him. Caller you would have to work with corrupt politicians. I think that you are a perfect fit for washington. You can get your point across without ranting and raving and namecalling. You just sound so much more intelligent than other candidates i have heard. Gov. Weld thank you for that. One thing i would do if i get elected is start out with a bipartisan cabinet, which i always had in massachusetts. In massachusetts, my cabinet of 11 consisted of eight women and three men. I picked them as i saw them and tried to get the best available athletes, so to speak. I also institutionalized going across the aisle by setting up weekly meetings, nothing other than coffee and cookies. But once a week myself, my republican Lieutenant Governor and the democratic leadership in the house and senate. We just would tell jokes. It was not always substantive. But having that meeting once a week makes it harder to go to the press and say mean things about the other guy, or grandstanding. That sort of thing. So we had seven years of very civil relationship between the democratic legislator and the legislature and the republican administration. We got a great deal done. I think we should institutionalize that kind of social interaction in washington on a weekly basis. Come what may. Rain or shine. Crisis or no crisis. Kind of like Lyndon Johnson and speaker sam rayburn in the old board of education meetings. It is not quite the same because they were all democrats but we should do that across the aisle and that would do a world of good and washington, d. C. Host as you know both parties , are very polarized. The democrats moving further to the left, the republicans further to the right. So why is it so broken today . Why is that so difficult in washington, d. C. . Gov. Weld i think both parties have gone to the extreme because they want to stir up their base to get political contributions so they will have enough money to get reelected. They are all obsessed both , parties, with being reelected. They like the perks in washington. They do not view taxpayers money as being taxpayers money. They think it is their money. They think it is government money. My slogan always was there is no such thing as government money. It is all taxpayers money. People are hooked to that misapprehension in washington. It is going to take both parties to change. And one way they could or you could make them change in one fell swoop is to elect me president of the United States. Host governor, the New York Times lists the iowa state fair as one of the 1000 things you need to do before you die and also talks about the food vendors. As you leave the cspan bus and walk by the 200 plus food vendors, what are you looking for . Gov. Weld im looking for fried dough, which is a commodity i know from the east. And we will see. If it is not that, it will be fried something else. It will be very unhealthy. And there is no one here to stop me. Steve governor bill weld joining us onboard the cspan 2020 bus in des moines, iowa. We thank you for being with us