Cspan. Watch anytime on cspan. Org and listen free wherever you are using the free cspan radio app. Democratic president ial candidate and former maryland congressman john his life,lked about his career and why he is running. Or president congressman, youre the earliest to announce your candidacy. What is a surprise about the process and for you personally . Thank you for having me and it is great to be here with you. What a surprise me. What has surprised me is that the voters in the early states really do take this process very seriously. So that has been a very positive surprise in terms of the engagement of the voters in the early states. I think of other americans could see that, they would be much the comfortable with process we engage in. What surprised me on the negative is the fact that it seems like kind of a social media primary has been inserted ahead of the iowa caucus and the New Hampshire primary. In other words, this race got very nationalized very early. So there is no invisible primary . Mr. Delaney thats right. To some extent, historically, the early states really where the first indication, in terms of what voters are thinking, but things like what the dnc did with the debate rules, requiring candidates to have a certain number of small donors and all that, that encouraged the creation of this, as i save social media primary. Would you say the process by the dnc is unfair for you and others . Mr. Delaney i would not say it is unfair because they were very clear what the rules are. But it is a process designed to help candidates running more to the left. Why do you want to be present . Mr. Delaney because i think the central issue facing the country is how divided we are and i am running at the end of the day on that, restoring the notion of common purpose that we are all in this together. Because we are not, be able to solve the problems facing so many hardworking americans. We have to solve them together. That is why want to be president , to be the person who restores the sense of common purpose. That is not me we we agree on everything that does not mean we agree on everything. But we deserve to live in a country where our leader works hard to unify us not to divide us. And to create the kind of environment where we can get things done that matter to hardworking americans. Howd you get there. Bill clinton, george bush, barack obama, they have all talked about the same thing. And all have failed on that front. Mr. Delaney i would not say they have failed. Our system of government has been designed to make it hard to get things done. I know president obama and present clinton wouldve liked to gotten a lot more done. But i would not city failed. I think at this moment in time in particular, we need leadership in the white house. Leadership that is going to tell the murky people the truth. I think you murky people can tell the American People the truth. I think the American People can handle the truth. This president for leadership in washington have been telling you murky people the truth. The parties have been pitching to the base things that are fundamentally not true. We want to grow the economy, a goal as a president in any position of leadership, we have to create the environment or the private sector and the Nonprofit Sector and the government sector work well together. That is how you get good economic outcomes. That is the truth. A lot of people do not say that print we should have a form of universal health care. But we should not come up with universal health care that makes private insurance illegal. That is the truth it we have to be gazing international we have to be engaging internationally. Nationalism is the wrong answer. Thats the truth. A lot of people are struggling out their preferred percent of our citizens cannot afford basic id saturdays necessities. They do 90 need partisanship and ideology. Theyay you come up with do not need partisanship and ideology. The way you come up with solutions is to find common ground. Complete the sentence, President Trump is what . Mr. Delaney unhinged. I do not think he has a policy perspective. I do not think he has core policy beliefs. Noti think on style he does do what president s have historically done, which is to actually listen to experts. Listen to advisors. And to deliver a consistent message to the American People. So how do you or another democrat defeat him in 2020 . Mr. Delaney by winning the center. I believe the 2020 election is byng to be determined independent voters. I think the president is going to turn out his voters in record numbers. Democrats turn out in record numbers. No matter who our nominee is. The reason i say that with such confidence, is i look at the 2018 midterm elections. Where we democrats took back the house of representatives. We had record turnout all of this country. It almost did not matter who we put up. For a house race. That person had record turnout. Whether they were far or moderate, young or old, socialist, blue dog, man, woman, white person of color. Did not matter. We had record turnout. Why . Because democrats understood what was at stake. And that is what is going to happen in 2020. If you look at the world and say republicans are going to turn out in record numbers, democrats are going to turn out in record numbers, the races fought in the center. We lost infinite voters in 2016. That is how trump won we won the back in 2018. That is how we flip the house. The question is, we going to put up a candidate in 2020 the left , turn off as independent voters, and put trouble on a glide path to reelection . That is what we did with dukakis, mondale. Great people who ran in a way that was out of sync with murky people. With the American People. Someone who can whip when the center. That is what a bark obama did. Someone who can win the president. Someone who can win the center. Ukraine story unfolding, is he a damaged candidate . Mr. Delaney i would not say the crane story makes him a damaged candidate. The crane story makes him a damaged candidate. I do think all of our top three candidates, whether the Vice President , senator warren or senator sanders are vulnerable. There are vulnerable for differ reasons. I thing senator warren and senator sanders are running on policy positions that are out of step with the center. And the Vice President hasnt put forth some new ideas which the American People are desperately looking for. We need new ideas as to how to do it health care and climate. There has to be some excitement about things that can be new and better and different in the future. And i do think a long history of public service, which the Vice President had and he should be admired for it. It does create an opportunity. Or this president i think what we need in our next nominee is someone who can win the center, who has new ideas that can excite the American People. How does john delaney breakthrough . Mr. Delaney in iowa. At the end of the day, my campaign is premised on the notion that voters in iowa, at the end of the day, and voters in New Hampshire, ultimately break from the National Narrative and do their job. Which is to find people that may not be focused on so much nationally. People they think is novel and the right person to be the president , but who can be trump. You can beat trump. People who can beat trump. It be backrtant is on the debate stage . Mr. Delaney it is better to be on the debate stage, no question about it. And i would like to be back on the debate stage. At the end of the day, what is more important to me is how well i do in iweb. In iowa. What you hear. What are voters telling you . Mr. Delaney they do not talk a lot about impeachment the way they do here in washington. When they do talk about is the stuff that affect their lives. Health care. That is the numberone issue. Farcical prices. Cost of health care. How is affecting them and their families pharmaceutical prices. The cost of health care. I had been to 99 counties in iowa. You hear well my kids have opportunities in these communities you hear, will my kids have opportunities in these communities. I have four daughters and i hope one day they all live near my wife and i. That would be great. That is their decision. But we want them to have opportunities in our communities. And in so many of these small towns have shrunk in size. The Public Education and care systems are declining, because of all the pressure the shrinking and aging publishing puts on them. And they have been hollowed out. That is the number one issue. Im the only candidate that ashley has an agenda for bringing jobs back to the heartland enroll america. They talk a lot about that and publication. They talk a lot about that. And Public Education. They care about their job. Their pay. What is going on in their schools. Health care. And opportunities for their kids. Those are the Kitchen Table issues you hear from every voter out there. Did somebody grow up in new jersey and up representing maryland . Mr. Delaney i grew up in a bluecollar family, my dad was an electrician. Neither my parents want to college pit i went to club a university. College. I went to Columbia University because my dads Electrical Union gave me a scholarship. I came down to washington to go to law school at georgetown. It was the best thing that could have happened to me, i met my wife a polite law school. My wife april, at law school. Electriciansa, the son meets the potato farmers only in america, the son of the electrician meets the daughter of a potato farmer. Aprils interest in moving is nonexistent, so we stayed in the d. C. Area. I became an entrepreneur and started two businesses, creating thousands of jobs per day were both headquartered in maryland. We moved to maryland to raise our family when the kids were young. That is how i and up in maryland. I thought of my life as a third learning, third earning, and third serving. At about 10 years ago, my wife and i decided to dedicate the rest of our lives to public service. She had been doing it for some time. She runs the Washington Office of a group called common sense media. She has been very active in nonprofit commute occasions work, particular lee run kids and the media. We decided particularly around kids and the media. A commitment make to public service. That led me to rent to congress run for congress. I met her in the first week of school. I was in my last year of law school and she was in her second. We were out with friends. Town, we talked for a while. We had mutual set friends we had mitchell friends. We had a nice conversation. The next day i saw her at the law school at georgetown. She was picking out her classes. Your member, you had a big buck and you would flip through and fill out that you had a big book and you would flip through it and fill out the form. We started chatting it i was the are older than her so i helped her pick her classes. I had already been through my second year and she was think about what classes to take. She filled out her schedule and went to register for classes. Then i waited an hour. I had are ready i had already registered. I dropped most of my classes and registered for the classes that she had ruptured four. That she had registered for that is how our relationship started. And he still graduate on time . Mr. Delaney i did. Bid, what is her reaction and the reaction of your four daughters echo four daughters . Mr. Delaney i would not be able to do this without her pair she has been very supportive. Without her. Shes been very supportive. She got involved with Communications Law and developed expertise around kids, particular young girls, and the effect the media has on them. She as a National Leader in the field and that is the work she does. Why four daughters are supportive too. Two differing degrees, some love it, ones a journalist and she cannot have anything to do with it, obviously. One of my daughters is in law school. So she is getting more in tune with the process now. It is a great time to be a law school in many ways because you are learning a lot about how the constitution works in front of your eyes. Is 12 and she loves going to iowa and New Hampshire with me. Im very blessed, they are all very supportive. My daughter who is a journalist is very interested in politics. She focuses on local news. Im very proud of her. She works in new york. She covers local news stories in the ark for a local network. York for a local network. I do not know if i see any budding politicians. But my daughter went to college to be a musical theater major and now she is in law school. And she loves it. Six years ago, i wouldve never thought she was going to be a law school and loving it when she was think about being a broadway star. So as we know, people change. Inlets talk about issues the campaign. First and foremost, health care. What if your companys was what . Mr. Delaney one of my companys provided loans to small and midsize health care companies. Provided bank loans to healthcare operators having a hard time getting loans from traditional banks. We had a focus on role hospitals and rural operators rural hospitals and rural operators. We should have a universal Health Care System. I thick it is a human right. I think we can afford it. I think it is a human right. We can afford it. Too Many Americans are shackled to their jobs because of health care. If we had a universal Health Care System, there would be more economic mobility. But unlike some people calling for universal health care under the medicare for all proposal, meaning the government is the l. A. Pair, i want a mixed model. The government is the only payer. Wherent to mixed model everyone gets health care as a right of citizenship. But they have the option of having private insurance or submental plans. To be that crates a healthier Health Care System. Dot that creates a healthier Health Care System. I dont think anyone else running for president understands as well have a Health Care System works. Government programs, medicare and medicaid do not pay the cost of health care. If we only had those as our pair ther payer, reimbursement rates are too low to support the operations of the hospital. Private insurance effectively provides a cross subsidy to the government programs. To make sure they are sufficiently there are sufficient reimbursement levels to keep the Health Care System working. People who are calling for a singlepayer system, like the medicare for all proposal [inaudible] so i just have a more pragmatic approach. Every president through barack obama has tried to address this debate wise it so complicated . Mr. Delaney it is the largest part of our economy. Most 1 5 of the u. S. Economy. If the u. S. Health care system where its own country, it would be one of the largest countries in the world if it was measured by gdp. People think about health care very simply. But it is actually not simple. It is thousands of sub industries. Like the longterm Care Industry , which provides care to people at the end of their lives is entirely different from the pharmacy to glendas tree. Which is from the pediatric care, which is entirely different than the medical device industry. These are all incredibly different. They get dumped under this thing of health care, but they are very different subsystems of medical care delivery systems. It is very hard to just with the wave of a wand six the u. S. Health care system. It is big, complicated, byzantine. What the Affordable Care act did, which was tremendous progress, is it took the health ine system a step forward improving access to care by creating exchanges, expanding medicaid, and protecting things like preexisting conditions. Thats the way you reform the Health Care System. You dont do what the medicare for all folks are saying, throw the whole system out, because of people, and start again because of people because upheaval, and start again. That is not practical. Your grandchildren will inherit 23 billion in debt. How big a concern for that be . Mr. Delaney it is a big problem, but not for the reasons people think. The United States of america is not greece. A lot of people say, we are going to be like greece, we are going to be in default. We are never going to default on our debt. The United States is the greatest credit worthy nation in the world. We have the wealth to handle the debt that we have as a nation. The problem is if the debt levels are too much, the Interest Payments become so big that they crowd out other priorities. It is like a household who allows their credit card bills to get so big, they may be able to afford them, but the Interest Payments are so high that they cant invest may be the education they want for their kids, or Something Like that. That is the situation we face in the future, which is the debt levels are really big. They are masked right now because Interest Rates are really low. If Interest Rates are 1 , it almost does not matter how much debt you have. Expenses arerest returned to the levels they have been historically, which will happen none of us know when or how then the interest expense will go from 6 or 7 of our budget to 15 or 20 . That means anything else you care about in the federal budget , department of defense, National Institute of health, infrastructure, educational programs, those things will come under pressure. Kidsds and everyone elses and my grandkids and everyones grandkids, they are going to face a federal government that will be constrained financially because of what we are doing right now. I think thats immoral. Let me turn to Foreign Policy. How do you think our closest allies view the United States today . Mr. Delaney i think there are very nervous. I think they dont know what happened and they are hoping it is a blip. Is themean by that historical u. S. Model of Foreign Policy since world war ii has been based on engaging globally with our allies to try to do things to make the world more peaceful and more secure. That has been the historic u. S. Model of Foreign Policy. It hasnt always worked. We have made some really big mistakes, the iraq war being the biggest, but in general if you look at the world since world war ii, it has become safer, more prosperous, and billions of human beings have been lifted out of poverty. Our model works. It was predicated on building these alliances and working with them and valuing them and thinking about them in the long term. Trump has thrown all of that out the window. He doesnt care about our alliances. He views them in a transactional way. He almost looks at it the way china looks at its relationships. China is very transactional. We will give you the money to build a port, this is what we get and what you get. It is all a business deal. That is what trump wants it to u. S. Here historically foreign was valuesbased, based on the notion of building a world order, because that was good for the United States and america. What the heck happened . They are in some ways holding their breath and waiting until 2020, and if trump loses and we get a president who recommenced to that historic model of u. S. Alliances, i think they will take a deep breath. And if he wins . Mr. Delaney they are going to say everything has changed and the United States is not the partner that we have come to rely upon and we need to think about things differently, and the world will start getting reorganized as a result. Thats what russia wants, thats what china wants. Like iny dont many ways, what the United States had prior to this a l wase this upheava eight of the largest economies in the world were our allies. Thats a pretty big advantage. With regard to china, the president would say we have never had a fair deal with china, that they have been taking our event our intellectual property. With nato, the president is saying, we are paying too much, europe needs to pay its fair share. Does he have a point . Mr. Delaney he has a point with china, but the way he is handling it is wrong. With nato, i think he is offbase. Nato is the most successful alliance ever created period. It was our idea. We would have done everything nato is doing on our own, but we thought it was better to have alliances. Obviously as president , i would like those countries to put as much money in as possible. About to question an alliance somethingur idea that has been the most successful alliance of all time is a huge mistake. Nothing he says as relates to nato in my opinion has merit. Of course you should get them to pay more money. Thats part of diplomacy. But to put it into question is dangerous. Lets talk about china. The president is right we have a big problem with china. It was understated by prior leaders in the United States. But his diagnosis of the problem is wrong and the way he deals with it is wrong. The problem is what you said, intellectual property theft. They have acted like pirates, stolen everything. They steal islands, intellectual property, everything. The president thinks the problem is the trade deficit, which is a problem, but not that big. The way the president proposes to deal with china is a usdemark a trade war, going it alone against china. The way that resolves is by china agreeing to buy more soybeans to level out the trade deficit. And i bet he will surrender the high ground on intellectual property. The way to deal with china on intellectual property under a Delaney Administration is different. The first thing we do is compete with china. You get back in the transpacific partnership. I am the only person running it is amazing i am the only democrat running who supports the transpacific partnership. So that we can compete with china. 12 nation economy, that was the tpp. Day one back in the tpp and we start competing with china. The second thing is i start working with our allies. Back to what i said earlier, bringing unified pressure to china around intellectual property and forcing them to change. Lets turn to politics. Whats your path to the democratic nomination . Mr. Delaney to me, the Iowa Caucuses are about expectations. If the expectations for you are high and you do below expectations, the whole country looks at you and says, must be something wrong with your campaign. The flipside, if the expectations are low, which they are for me, and i do well in the iowa caucus, then people say, hey, maybe there is something here. Expectationsr than , everyone around the country pays attention. That creates the momentum i need. If you are the nominee, what type of running mate would you look for . Mr. Delaney someone that is equipped to be the president , because that is the most important decision i am making with respect to a running mate. God forbid something were to happen to me, i would want the person i choose to have my full confidence that they could be the president. They need experience. The notion of electing people who have never served in government to president or Vice President is crazy. The second thing is i would want someone i can work well with. My approach from my business days, running my companies, i was the only ceo of a Public Company running for president , is i would get people around the table and work things through together. I want the Vice President to be part of that team. Thirdly, assuming i could get the first two criteria, which i can with lots of people, i would want the president the person to represent a step forward for the country. For me at this moment, that means a woman. Thats how i think about the decision. So you would look at a woman first. Mr. Delaney absolutely. Because i am certain and there is obviously many possibilities of someone i would work well with who is qualified to be the president do you want to name names . Mr. Delaney no. It is countless. Hypothetical, you are the president. How does john delaney make a decision . What is the process for you . What has been the toughest decision you have ever had to make . Mr. Delaney lets talk about the decisionmaking process, then i will think about the tough decisions. The decisionmaking process for me is consistent with how i make decisions all the time, which is i get the best people around the table and listen to what they have to say. I listen to people with opposing views. And were making a decision we had three people around the table, i would say, you make the argument why we should, you make the argument why we shouldnt. [indiscernible] mr. Delaney i might be biased a certain way. Everyone is biased on every decision a certain way. What you need to do is hear what the person who thinks your instinct is wrong you want to hear what they have to say. The first thing i do is i get people around the table and i hear what they have to say and i engage in collaborative decisionmaking. But then i got to make the call. You listen, reflect. You think about your values. And you got to make the decision. Some decisions are much harder than others, like sending troops or making a decision to deploy military force, which is the most sacred decision a president makes. I think what a president should do is listen to their advisors and experts, of course. They should think about it. But they probably should also scoot over to Arlington Cemetery because theynd, may be in the future calling someone, a mom or dad or husband or wife or daughter or son, and saying that my decision caused that person to be buried at Arlington Cemetery. You have to really believe that this is the decision you are making as clearly as possible. I think it depends on the decision. Obviously the most important decision you make in your life, at least for me, was my decision to marry april, which wasnt the hardest decision. In many ways it was easy, but it was the most important. I have had some hard Business Decisions to make in the middle of a financial crisis. I was running my company. We had 15 billion assets. We were lending money to 5000 companies, all of which depended on us financing that money. Financed s we their lines of credit. The financial crisis was happening and large Financial Institutions were collapsing. I made a decision to raise a lot of capital for my company, and i took excuse my language, but i took a lot of crap from the market to do it. My investors were furious with my decision, because it was a rough time in the market and we were raising capital at a relatively low price, because all companies stocks had gone down. But i really felt the financial crisis was going to be much more difficult than people thought at the time, and we didnt have a choice. That was a tough decision. I was thinking about the 5000 Small Businesses around the country, my 1000plus employees, and i was like, this is painful but it is what we have to do. It turned out we needed every ounce of that capital to get through the crisis, and we thrived afterward. Making the decision to walk away from the private sector and run for office, which is something i wanted to do, but you are putting yourself out there in a way i never had to. Those were tough decisions. Let me conclude with one political issue because you have been involved in gerrymandering. You served in the house of representatives. The argument is that democrats and republicans are talking at each other, not to each other. How would you fix congressional districts . Do you think that would make our politics less toxic . Mr. Delaney yes. It is one of the most significant issues we face, and i led on this issue in congress, and i introduced a bill called the open our democracy act. It does things like make election day a holiday, but at its core what it does is require independent commissions, meaning state legislatures cant draw these maps, which is how you get gerrymandering. They have to be drawn by nonpartisan, independent commissions. What about iowa . Mr. Delaney let states do it and you get better results. There are issues that have eroded our democracy. Too much money in politics, no question. Too much corporate influence, no question. But those are not the only issues. If you think about our failure to do comprehensive Immigration Reform, all the money in politics and all the corporate interests were pushing for Immigration Reform and we didnt do it. If you think about the attack on Womens Health care and reproductive freedom, all the money in politics, corporate money, is supportive of womens reproductive freedom. People gloss over our problems in politics and to quickly say it is corporate influence and there is too much money in politics, which there is, but gerrymandering, the creation of these onesided districts where the only thing that matters is the primary, where a very small number of people vote and they tend to be activists, that is as big an issue as money in politics and corporate influence. Any agenda to get washington working again has to address money in politics and gerrymandering. When you are away from this, what does john delaney like to do . Mr. Delaney spend time with my family. April and i have been married 30 years. I have four amazing daughters. When i am not doing that, i like to stay fit and exercise. John delaney, former congressman, democratic candidate for the presidency, thanks for stopping by. Mr. Delaney thanks for having me. 2020, watchampaign our live coverage of the president ial candidates on the campaign trail and make up your own mind. Cspans campaign 2020, your unfiltered view of politics. Democratic president ial candidate and businessman tom steyer sat down with cspan to talk about why he is running. He also discussed some of his policy priorities. Isjoining us from new York Democratic president ial candidate tom steyer. Let me begin by asking you to walk through the process of your decision to seek the nomination. Mr. Steyer let me say this, i joined this race very late, and i joined because i was listening to the debates and i was worried no one was