Was the voters in the early states take this process very seriously. That has been a positive surprise in terms of the engagement of the voters in the early states. If other americans could see that, they would be much more comfortable with the early state process we engage in. What surprised me on the negative was that it seems like a social media primary has been inserted head of the iowa caucus and New Hampshire caucus. It got very nationalized, very early. There is no invisible primary. That is right. To some extent 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 testimony of truth 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 president . 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. All the issues we are facing are solvable, but 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 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. How do 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 say they failed. I think at this moment in time in particular, we need leadership in the white house. Leadership that is going to tell the American People the truth. I think the American People can handle the truth. I do not think this president s in washington have been telling the 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. 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. We have to be engaging internationally. Nationalism is the wrong answer. Thats the truth. A lot of people are struggling out their. 40 of our citizens cannot afford basic necessities. They 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. And i think on style he does not 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 2020 center. I believe the 2020 election is going to be determined by independent voters. I think the president is going to turn out his voters in record numbers. Democrats turn out in record numbers. Record one 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 over 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 rac is fought in the center. We lost independent 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 that runs very far to the left, turn off independent voters, and put trump 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 with the American People. Someone who can whip when the center. Someone who can win the center. Thats what obama did. With the ukraine story unfolding, is biden a damaged candidate . Mr. Delaney i would not say the ukraine 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 ent 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 do with 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. For this president. To pick at things. 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 break through . 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 not only the right person to be president , but people who can beat trump. My focus has been on iowa. How important is it be back 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. In iowa. What are you hearing . . Whatevers telling you . 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 it is affecting them and their families. I have been to 99 counties in iowa. The question you hear is will my kids have opportunities in these communities . They want their families to stay near them. I have four daughters. I hope one day they live near me. We want them to have opportunities in our community. In so many of these small towns, they have shrunk. They are aging. The Public Education and care systems are declining, because of all the pressure the shrinking and aging publishing population puts on them. And they have been hollowed out. That is the number one issue. I nearly candidate that has an agenda for bringing jobs back to the american heartland. They talk a lot about that. The talk about Public Education. What do they care about . Their job and 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. How did somebody who grew up in new jersey end representing maryland 6th district . Mr. Delaney i grew up in a bluecollar family, my dad was an electrician. Neither my parents want to 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 at law school. , april,only in america, the son of the electrician meets the daughter of a potato farmer. I was thought i would move back to new jersey. I would describe her interest in moving as nonexistent. She wanted to move to the west coast. 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 ended up in maryland. I was thought of my life as a third learning, earning, and a third serving. Thirdand 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 Communications work, particularly around kids in the media. We decided to make a run at Public Service for the rest of our lives. That led me to 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 we second. Were out with friends. We met at a bar in town. We had mutual friends. We had a nice conversation. The next day, i saw her at the law school at georgetown. She was picking out her classes. Back then, you had a big book and you would for through, fill out a form and bring it to the Registrars Office. We started chatting. I was a year older than her. I helped her pick her classes. I had already been through my second year and she was wondering which classes today. She went to easter for classes. I waited an hour. I had already registered for my classes. I went to the Registrars Office and dropped most of my classes and registered for the classes she had registered for. That is how our relationship started. And you still graduated on time . Mr. Delaney i did. What does she think of your bid and what about your four dollars . Daughters . She has been very supportive. I would not be able to do this matter. 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 is a National Leader in the field and that is the work she does. She has always been a big supporter of me being engaged in public policy. My four daughters are supportive too. Differing degrees, some love it, todiffering 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 in law school in many ways because you are learning a lot about how the constitution works in front of your eyes. My youngest is 12 and she loves going to iowa and New Hampshire with me. Im very blessed, they are all very supportive. Anybody politicians . Elaney 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 new york for a local network. I do not know if i see any budding politicians. 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 thinking about being a broadway star. So as we know, people change. Lets talk about issues in the campaign. First and foremost, health care. One of your companiess was what . Mr. Delaney one of my companys provided loans to small and midsize health care companies. Bank loans to Healthcare Bank loans to healthcare we provided operators having a hard time getting loans from traditional banks. We had a focus on rural hospitals and rural operators. We should have a universal Health Care System. Everyone should have it is a basic human right. I think we can afford it. Its also smart economic policy. To many people are shackled their jobs because of universal health care 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, which is a singlepayer system, meaning the government is the only payer, i want a mixed model, Something Like what germany has, which is where he forgets universal Health Care Thanks to citizenship, but it is a mixed system with private health care plans. To me, that creates a healthier Health Care System. I dont think anyone else running for president understands how the Health Care System works. Government programs, medicare the and medicaid do not pay the cost of health care. If we only had those as our payers, and most of the hospitals would close because the reimbursement rates are too low to support the operations of the hospital. What happens in our Health Care System is private insurance effectively provides a cross subsidy to the government programs. To make sure they are 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 which in it, is embedded a provision which says medicare rates will stay the same, they are saying they want hospitals to close. I just have a more pragmatic approach. Every president through barack obama has tried to tackle the healthcare care debate. Why is it so complicated . Mr. Delaney it is the largest part of our economy. It is almost 1 5 of the u. S. Economy. If the u. S. Health care system were 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. The longterm care industry, which provides care to people at the end of their lives is entirely different from the pharmaceutical industry, which is entirely different from pediatric primary care, which is different than the medical device industry. These were all incredibly different. They get lumped under this thing of health care, but they are actually very different sub systems of medical care delivery systems. Hard, with a wave of a wind, to fix the u. S. Health care system. It is big and complicated and byzantine. What the Affordable Care act data, which was tremendous progress, was it of the Health Care System, and it made a step forward in 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 because complete upheaval, and then start again cause complete upheaval, then start again. That is not practical. Your grandchildren will inherit 23 trillion 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 creditworthy 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, maybe, in 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. But when interest expenses are 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. My kids and everyone elses kids 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. What i mean by that is the 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 be, where historically u. S. 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 recommits 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. Because they dont like in many ways, what the United States had prior to this a this upheaval was eight of the largest economies in the 10 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 intellectual property. And that we need to hold the line on trade. 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. Weston but to fundamentally question and alliance that was our idea from the getgo and create uncertainty around something that is the most successful alliance of all time, it 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. And thats part of diplomacy. But to put it into question is really dangerous. So lets talk about china. The president was right, that we have a big problem with china. It was probably 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, they have 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 of a problem. The way the president proposes a tradewith china is war with oldfashioned tariffs, us going it alone against china. The way that resolves is by china agreeing to buy more soybeans and boeing airplanes 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 entirely different. The first thing we do is compete with china. The way you compete with china, you get back in something called the transpacific partnership. I am the only person running it is amazing i am the only democrat running who supports president obamas trade agreement in place, so that we can compete with china. 12 nations, us at the head, 40 of the global economy. That was the tpp. I get us back in the tpp day one and we start competing with china. The second thing, working with our allies. Back to what i said earlier, working through alliances and bringing unified pressure to china around intellectual property and forcing them to change. Thats how you deal with china. Lets turn to politics. If you do well in the Iowa Caucuses, then wahhat . 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. So if i do better than expectations, everyone around the country pays attention. That creates the kind of momentum we 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 of the United States. 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. So they need experience. The notion of electing people who have never served in government to president or Vice President is crazy. In my opinion. 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. Very collaborative. 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 person to represent a step forward for the country. For me at this moment, that means having 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. I mean, it is countless. Hypothetical, you are the president. How does john delaney make a decision . What is the process for you . And 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 specifically listen to people with opposing views. If i were making a decision and we had three people around the table, i would say, you make the argument why we should, you make the argument why we shouldnt. So you want dissension . Mr. Delaney absolutely. 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. So the first thing i do, 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 have to listen to what they have to say, and then you have to reflect on it. And you have to think about your values. And you have 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 of the United States 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 and walk around, because they 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. That just felt right from the beginning. I have had some hard Business Decisions to make in the middle of a financial crisis. I was running my company. It was large. We had 15 billion assets. We were lending money to 5000 companies, all of which depended on as financing them money. The companies we financed, each week they called us to get access to 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. Specifically with gerrymandering, 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 that we face. And i led on this issue in congress, and i introduced a bill called the open our democracy act. It does several things. Make election day holiday, stuff like that. But at its core, what it does is it requires independent commissions, meaning that state legislatures cannot 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. This is a key issue. There are certain issues that have really 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, in my opinion the attack on Womens Health care and reproductive freedom, all the money in politics, corporate money, is supportive of womens reproductive freedom. So people gloss over our problems in politics and to o quickly say it is corporate influence and there is too much money in politics, which there is and i am not trying to diminish that. 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. And so 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. We have a great relationship. I have four amazing daughters. I like to spend time with them. And 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. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2019] campaign 2020, watch our live coverage of the president ial candidates on the campaign trail and make up your own mind. 2020, yourmpaign unfiltered view of politics. Live coverage from the George Washington university gets underway at 3 p. M. Eastern on cspan. You can also watch online at cspan. Org and listen with the cspan radio app. A new poll shows that americans toport a variety of changes how states conduct elections. A small majority agree president ial candidate should be required to release their recent tax returns to appear on the 26 of while only republicans agree three quarters of democrats and 57 of independents support the idea. There is greater partisan consensus on passing laws the poll indicates 78 of americans support such voter id laws. This includes significant of republicans, democrats and independents. Majorities of americans also favor making election day a national holiday, randomizing the word and which candidate names appear on the ballot, automatically registering all citizens to vote, and allowing people convicted of felonies to vote after they have served their sentences. You can dive deeper into the numbers at cspan. Org