We welcome those watching nationwide on cspan tonight. The next hour, the candidates will face questions from nebraska journalists. The rules are fairly simple. Each candidate will have three minutes to respond to the question with 30second rebuttals if needed. We will begin with questions on domestic policy and then we will transition to Foreign Policy. Before the debate, we held simple coin tosses with the campaigns to determine the order of different parts of the debate. As a result, the first candidate to present an opening candidate is mr. Janicek. Mr. Janicek ready to go. I will start off with a personal story. It is very personal to me, and that is the reason i am in this race. My father died of a heart attack when he was 54 years old. His father, my grandfather, died of a heart attack when he was 58 years old. My greatgrandfather dropped dead at age 60. When i turned 50, guess what . I had a massive heart attack. I had been to the doctor just a week before because i was afraid that this might be happening, and it did. I was rushed to the hospital, basically dead on arrival. Shed to the hospital, basically dead on arrival. But the doctors at the Emanuel Medical Center in omaha saved my life, and to them i am grateful. But the real fear and the real nightmare started when i had to pay the bill. You see, i was uninsurable because i had preexisting conditions due to family history. Health carestrophic plan for my business. It had limited coverage. I was responsible for over 60 of my medical bills. Hundreds of thousands of dollars. Of thousands of dollars. It bankrupted me. Inody, and i mean nobody, the state should have to go through that because of medical bills and the lack of Proper Health care. It was a nightmare. Bill collectors calling, thousands of times a day. Dozens of times a day. Liens being threatened on my home and car. And the guilt, i know i cannot pay the hospital that saved my life. This has to be fixed and it has to be fixed now. We cannot continue. That is why i want to be or senator. Health care is my number one partake. Take my half staff. I have a fourthgeneration cancer survivor on the staff. I have a mother who has a son with type one diabetes. I have a two time cancer survivor on my staff. Unacceptable. I am currently on the Affordable Health care act here in nebraska as millions of americans are here in this country and in nebraska. When i speak with Small Business people, farmers and ranchers, a lot are on the Affordable Health care act and those not on obamacare pay 5000 or 6000 or 7,000 per month in health care premiums. Im sure you have stories like night and we have to get to the bottom of this and get health care for the people. I do not have all of the answers. I am not a health care specialist. But i am a health care user specialist. Wehave plans in place that are willing to work on. But we have to go with rules of engagement. Have to concentrate on health care and not keep kicking it in 2014,ator sasse, promised health care for all the baskets and all americans. He voted over and over to take Health Care Away in the last sears. Take away protections for preexisting conditions. Payments toler medicare for our seniors, to reduce coverage for people that are poor, on medicaid. Your time is up. Think you, dennis, waverley, colleen and fred for serving as moderators and guide. To net, thank you for hosting the debate and bring about the policy and clinical issues to the people. I have never been a politician so i ran five years ago. I am one of eight people in the u. S. Senate who had never run for anything before running for the senate and i complement my opponent for being a Small Business owner and reading jobs and serving his community and not having spent his life in politics as well. Creating jobs. I were deciding to do it, we went on a campaign trail and lived off a campaign bus. We did hundreds of events across nebraskas 93 counties and went off quick as a broader part of storytelling, that we wanted to displace some political weirdo from seeking the Nebraska Senate because our politics are too often driven by people who act like if you are interested in politics it should be her whole life, the center of your identity and you should try to find community and antipolitics, meaning trolling people on the others of the political aisle is often a core part of the identity of people engaged in politics and that is not what the american tradition was supposed to be and thankfully that is not what most of raskins believe in. Im a dad, i am a husband. Im a churchman, a cornhusker football addict and i am an american, i do raskin and a conservative and other identities. Being a polished shortterm calling like it and i want to be involved in politics to represent the kinds of nebraskans who think most import things in life are not about politics. Politics matters and im excited we are going to get to discuss a lot of things the future of work and applications and the evocation for job disruption. Health care should not be the kind of issue lose when you change job or geography. The future of work, the future of war, american civics and whether or not we are passing along an understanding of the First Amendment to the next generation, none of those issues should be primarily an ideological spectrum from right to left. There should be a whole bunch of overarching civic and american cultural and economic they we toieve in before we get policy fighting that we believe in, before we get to the policy fighting. One of the reasons i decided to seek reelection is the problem we talked about five years ago of a politically addicted small to act american who want like washington, d. C. , should be the center of life, and this is both parties, theres a small set of people, political weirdos, who want to displace normal nebraskans from a healthy adult level engagement with politics and im glad we get to sort through a lot of these issues tonight. Thank you for hosting at thank you you to those that home for tuning in. I would like to ask a question of both of you about your relationship with your respective political party. Mr. Sasse, you have been critical of President Trump. The president endorsed you in a tweet last year and last month said you have quote, on rogue again and called you a rino. Your past criticism of President Trump has drawn criticism from then your party. You once told jake tapper of cnn inc. About being the gop every morning and thing of yourself as, an independent conservative who caucuses with republican. So the question is, what to the statement it to Republican Voters about how you would represent them and what is supported to them . The questionfor and im glad we get to talk about this today. I do have an interesting a complicated relationship with the president of the United States and i will fully acknowledge it. In my primary, from last summer through may, i got to hash that through with a lot of nebraskans , the raskin republicans across 93 counties. I think nebraskans get at. Cnn does not get it. Blue checkmarks on twitter do not get it. The way i approach politics and my party i think make sense to the vast majority of regular people across nebraska. Peers how i think about it. I have been a republican that i have been conservative my entire life i was fighting for conservative issues when donald trump was bankrolling nancy pelosi and Chuck Schumers campaign, long before he thought about joining the Republican Party to run. When i believe in a certain set of issues and campaigned on the in 2013 and 2014, attic slain to voters what i believe, i hold those positions other Donald Trump Holds number not. So when president holds them or not. So in President Trump decided to adopt positions on a number of issues i was cited to welcome him to the conservative movement. But not issues where he does not align with where i believe or things republicans have traditionally believed or things that are good for nebraska, i those differences as well. It seems to meet National Cable political news act like youre supposed to fall into one of two camps. You want to shine present from use all day every day, are you have to hate him and scream about how he is the devil. I think there are issues where we agree and when we do i glad to fight for him. And i went oneat the Judiciary Committee to fight for judges and we have that an alltime record with the number of judges can firms in the last years but on another set of issues when he talks about a mexican judge or tax free trade that nebraska farmers and ranchers need, i explained to him usually in private, we have a lot of healthy wrestling in private, i explain why i differ. On a subset of issues we fight about in private, i believe. The vast majority of nebraskans and americans understand the distinction between having to sign someone shoes all day everyday or think they are evil and scream you think there people, that phone choice. I do not believe that stuff. I do not think nebraskans do. So i slain where i differ. I fight with him where we i explained where i differ. I think he appreciates that we wrestle as much as we do and i think nebraskans understand it and are comfortable with it. Thank you. Mr. Janicek, the Nebraska Democratic party says they do not want you as their candidate and they plan to back a writing canada. The state party asked you to quit the race after you sent sexually explicit Text Messages about a female staff member. What you say to democrats and women voters about what you admitted to doing and what it says about your ability to fairly represent all people . Thank you, glad you asked that question. I want to address the text message first. I made a mistake. It was wrong. I also apologized in person. For Nebraska Democratic party is not 70 who i work for. I do not work for the rest Democratic Party chair. Im asking to go to work for the people of nebraska. Republicans, democrats, and independents. Held. Dust mite number one stance is health care and that include. My number one stance is help care the women and children and everyone in this country. I have apologized for the text message and my apology was accepted. In no way was that message sent with any type of intent, harm or to do disservice to anyone, to maim a reputation. It is time we move on i have received lots of support from the democrats. At a lot of republicans have a lot of independence in this race. Was talking about getting along and not getting along with trump. Back to health, President Trump has wanted a Health Care Reform policy as he took office four years ago. The senate fails to work with him on this. Senator trump park senator sasse has failed to work for the people of nebraska on health care. He has had the time to write book. But he has not have the. So we he has not had the time to write help your policy for nebraskans to write Health Care Policy for nebraskans. Im not going to let five minutes of my life doing everything i have done for womens rights and childrens shelters previous to that happening. Work as a country together. We need to show unity come together, and stop of partisan politics. It is , and that is not being done in our senate that is not done in our house. , to goking for your vote to washington, d. C. , and go to work for the people, thank you. From our panel of journalists. The United States has reportedly the has number of cases and deaths from covid19 of any nation in the world. What do you think of the National Response so far . What would you do to improve it . The National Response so far was that we dropped ball back in january, february, and march. There was an intelligence is ong which mr. Sasse that panel in january she felt to attend. That was which he felt to attend. That was the first morning this pandemic is coming to the United States and we had better prepare ourselves. When for two april, 2020, senator sasse, voted against relief a bill because he said it was too generous for 40 Million People lost their jobs. He held up the senate floor for six or seven hours arguing that case. The bill passed without his. The pandemic has now taken 185,000 lives as of this week. We still have tea Million People unemployed. We are facing an economic ruin now with a lot of businesses including my. We still have 18 Million People unemployed. 22 of restaurants in this country have closed permanently. What we can do to fix this immediately is to test and test. And test we have to do a federal mask mandate for everyone to stop the spread of the disease. We have to make Testing Available in schools, and businesses to reopen. We have sporting events shut down, the School System shut down, retail shutdown, restaurant down. President working on a vaccine. And we have the cdc involved they have something on the horizon. That is going to be another huge thing that present prevents this virus from being transferred so we can stop and try in its tracks. We have to do trials and to make it available for everyone. Those are the issues i would address. There is nothing we can go back and do with things we do not join the first place, we have to start today move forward. This administration has a problem addressing that we actually have a problem. We do have a problem and if we want to have a safe america, and an america that is not infected, we have to do what i suggested. Thank you. Mr. Sasse . The american response for covid has been in out of and a whole bunch of ways in adequate. Mr. Janicek said things that are inaccurate about legislation passed. Threevid legislation point oig support, there were many pieces inside it that were less and poorly thought out big bad unintended consequences. The legislation i did support includes a vaccine accelerator fun, which is fund which is one piece of what is working. Five u. S. Pharma companies have covered vaccine clinical trials. Sometimes you hear reported there are three. Three companies are doing trials in the u. S. And a fourth is in europe and offense in asia n a for u. S. Company in asia. Best pharmacological Vaccine Development in the world the United States. Normally if you are a drug company and think you may be fourth or fifth in the race to a back, you might start backing off the accelerator because your make more and more investment and you might not get the ineluctable property benefits intellectual property benefits after the is developed. My colleague from antenna took the lead from montana took the lead. We decided to make sure the other four pharma companies, after a vaccine is developed, when one of the companies wins the race the other four companies will be reimbursed for all of their cost 10 , which all Fire Companies and u. S. Animation is the best in the world, continue running, and that is probably why we will that an alltime red the timeline to the development. That said the total number of deaths in the u. S. Is too high. Our public liberation and public trust about how we got where we are, is yet again a consequence of americans screaming tribal politics rather than constructive problemsolving. Lets think about lockdowns and the mask escutcheon. I think a National Mass mandate is a terrible idea. Lots more americans should wear a mask indoors. We should be able to use the federal government. There should be public trust. We should have the president can go to the bully pulpit and ask wayne white masks indoors explain why masks indoors are a good idea. I am in a plane every week, i live in nebraska and our home not is where we are on weekends we are not in states doing fieldwork and mondayfriday i fly to d. C. When i get back, i might carrier without symptoms. Indoors i should wear a mask. There are places all of the country where people are trying to wear masks 50 yards from everyone else outdoors. We should have had more first ration about mass unless economic down less economic lockdown which has caused harness carnage. Next question, cully. Co lleen. Emergency coronavirus aide costing trillions of dollars. At 27. Federal debt now trillion is projected to exceed the size of the entire u. S. Economy in 2021, and milestones not reached since world war ii. What should be done about the growing National Debt . Do you favor increases in taxes or decreases in entitlements like cuts to Social Security . Or Something Else altogether . An important question that we do not talk about enough. This week setting the alltime record for the debt to gdp ratio. Overall u. S. Debt will be bigger than the u. S. Economy. We have not had a ratio greater than 100 the 1940s when we were at war. We have never before done this when we were not at war. Here, both parties need to have big targets painted on their backs. I really did believe republicans were more serious about our kids and grandkids this go future. Since i have been in washington, d. C. , i have learned both parties are dominated by politicians who care more about their own incumbency than telling the American People the hard truth. Our problem is not that we do not tax enough, our problem is not that we are spending too much on military and National Defense if you look at it as a share of gdp, we are lower than we were in world war ii or through the entire cold war. Our problem is not wasteful Discretionary Spending though there is lots of Discretionary Spending that is wasteful. Each of those issues, National Security and discretionary to mystic spending, are less than 15 of federal spending. Spending isal entitlements, medicare, medicaid, obamacare, Social Security, and interest on the debt. Our problem is that our entitlement programs are unsustainable and politicians have moved them off the books so we do not have to tell the American People the truth about them every year. We need to do a budget reform process that does to your instead of annual budgeting so we do not get to a fiscal cliff and a down every september 30 where the only choices available are spent 0 of last year, shut down the government, or spend 102 of last year with no accountability as if all governmental programs are equally thoughtful and effective. What we need to do is admit our spending as off the rails. When we set our retirement age at six to five in the 1930s, Life Expectancy was 62. It was a program for unusually long lived widows. Today our shared Life Expectancy is 81 years of age. 2011 ands born in she hasg to cdc tables, a 5050 statistical chance to see age 100. That is great news everywhere except a world devoid of political leadership. There is zero chance of my kid playing 35 65 and years of golf. We need to get seriously and get away from rhetorical nonsense when we need market reforms that lead to Health Delivery system form. With mr. Sasse on one thing, we need to reform the budget. Lets look at a business budget or home budget. We are spending more money then we are bringing and we have to curtail spending. mr. Sasse listed five things. Medicare is paid in by the work in class and working people and funded by payroll deductions and medicaid is also part of the deduction that we pay. Social security benefits is a separate deduction and also part of that, that we pay into that system. We cannot defund medicare and Social Security, because those are lifeboats for people that retire and have medical needs as they get older. The obamacare, Affordable Health care act, that should be fixed to where it works. We have had that in place since 2010 and i pay a premium every month for my health care coverage, or attacks. That tack or a tax. That goes up or down based my income. If we could expand that we could get the program to pay for itself. We can also bring on the price of pharmaceutical drugs and hospitalization costs. These are all things that can be worked on to bring these entitlement costs down to where they are profitable or do not drain the federal budget. Sasse voted on a tax cut for corporations. 83 of the benefit went to 1 of the population. A 1. 7 trillion drop in tax revenue. Year, and thes onemonth, weight spent 864 billion in one month in federal spending. That exceeded what we normally spend in three months. Thateficit, the debt was 27 trillion and i was going to talk about it being 24 trillion but that must have been a couple of months ago. We have to get on top of spending. As a Small Business owner, i know how to control costs, how to take a product and price it accordingly, how to manage people and payroll. That is what the government has failed to do. We cannot keep passing it on to one party or the other party. The parties have to start working together, to attack the deficit. We are on a highway to bankruptcy. Other mr. Sasse, under senator sasse, Government Shutdown four times in the last six years, one the longest Government Shutdown, december through january, and that was on his dime. They cannot manage the money and we need to get someone in there who can, thank you. The final journalist on our panel. Police departments receive millions of dollars in federal grant money. In light of minneapolis, kenosha and rochester, what stipulations should Congress Place on those funds to enter police are held accountable for their actions . Thank you for that question. That is so important as to what is going on in our country now and in the cities he mentioned. This boils down to black lives matter. It boils down to Police Department etching funded and doing the wrong thing. Antiplace antipolice. I am not for defunding the police. I think Police Officer should be paid more for what they do, and government money helps police stations in states and cities, by training them, by hiring the best people, by doing diversity training. We have a few bad Police Officers now that are making everyone look bad. We need to work on getting the right people into the job. We need to make sure there is better qualifications for people who become Police Officers, and we need to t in order to have better care. Are tired are sick and tired of being sick and tired. They have anxiety when they walk black. They have anxiety when they drive black. They have anxiety when they shop black. Waking up every morning being black is anxiety. We see the police getting blamed for what is going on now with riots and protest and that is not fair. There are a few bad Police Officers who need to be addressed. The funding that goes to the Police Departments may be should be allocated better, and that can be a government and a local interaction when they work on that together. But we have to take accountability for the bad Police Officers causing a lot of this trouble now. If you look at the big picture, what is going on now with the military intervention, and the Police Departments getting the blame for everything, it is always a white and black issue. You know, white people sometimes do not even get arrested, and black people get shot and murdered. That is a huge problem in this country now. That is why i am all for keeping the funding going so we can address these issues and make people feel safe in this country. We need some big and bold policy moves. It boils down to making everything equal. Equality. I do not live in a black neighborhood and im not black. But i understand what black people are going through. It is time we addressed it and it has to be fixed and if more funding is what it takes, i am all for it. Mr. Sasse. Sen. Sasse thank you for your important question. First, lets admit this happens against a backdrop of way too many tragedies. In the case of george floyd, Breonna Taylor, eric garner, there have been too many places where americans are not living up to the american creed and what we believe. Your specific question is what can the federal government do . I believe there are some things. We also need to talk about things that are not about federal politics, policy and dollars. What can be done, tim scott the republican senator from South Carolina led our Police Reform group. Six republican senators worked on this after the tragedy of the eight minutes and 46 seconds in minneapolis. Body cameras is one of the most fundamental things that needs to happen. Mr. Janicek is right about the training levels. When you see the range of issues that they have to intercede on i was on an overnight ride along with the Police Department a month ago, and a number of Domestic Violence cases that our men and women in blue have to tackle, showing up in circumstances that are scary and confused, they are some really amazing police. The majority of them are heroes, and when their wives or their husbands send them out at night if they are working in second or third shift, they are scared about what they will encounter overnight. Those people need to be applauded and celebrated and thanked. Yet it is clearly true, and the police will tell you this, that they have too little training for the range of issues they have to tackle. I am a smallgovernment guy, third most conservative member of the u. S. Senate by voting record there is not many places where i think we need money, but we need more money on police training. Lots of that is a local issue, but federal dollars should flow to help with that and i am proud of the work that tim scott and i, and our broader Police Reform group tried to do. Unfortunately, it got caught up in the partisanship of congress. There are many people who would rather have an issue than a solution for the American People. Lets recognize that america is the most glorious nation in all of Human History because it believes this anthropological truth as the starting point of who we are as a nation. We believe in limited government precisely because we believe in the limitless rights and godgiven dignity of 330 million americans. And when you see something happen like what happened in minneapolis, or what happened to Breonna Taylor in kentucky in , her own home, those issues of over policing scream out a brokenness in our system that violates our own creed. I know we are at time now. I will not make them shut me up, but there is a lot more i would like to say about what we should be doing to live up to the american creed in the face of each of those tragedies. Mr. Kellogg we will try to get one more question on domestic policy before moving on to Foreign Policy, but because we are short on this segment, we will say 60 seconds for the answer to this question. You have both described big problems in the health care system. You have talked about your aspirations for how to make it better. I would like to ask you each for a couple of specifics on what can be done to make Affordable Health care more available to more americans. Sen. Sasse 60 seconds. Let me give the lightning round. I will go fast. In the 1980s, we had a Pension System that didnt work for a world with shorterduration jobs. People used to have a defined benefit that they had in their job that they would take with , them into retirement. That didnt work when people started changing jobs a lot more. I was born in the early 1970s. In the 1970s and 1980s, an average breadwinner served on a firm for 26 years on average. Today it is about four years on a farm. We switch from definedbenefit to defined contribution. That is what we need in health care. People need to have applicable premiums that they can take with them across job and geographic change so you can have a Health Insurance policy and you dont become uninsured just because you move from omaha to council bluffs. God help you if that happened to you. If you move from nebraska to iowa, you shouldnt become uninsured. If you change firms, you shouldnt become uninsured. Right now the government is way too heavyhanded in its regulation, which makes it impossible for people to buy the Health Insurance policies they walked, and want to keep. Senator sasse nailed it. He said the government is too involved in regulation on people being able to buy health care and use it to cross state lines. The Affordable Health care act was created to make health care affordable, and yet the republicans and a lot of the democrats failed to fix it and make it better. We have three plans that my campaign and i have come up with. We can expand upon the Affordable Health care act and make that better and make more people get more people on the plan and more people paying into the system to bring costs down. Number two that is being tossed around is better Health Care Policy. It is a good idea for urban areas. In rural areas, hospitals will be shutting down because of the amount of cash flow that will be delayed, it will shut down overnight. Number 3 would be a singlepayer Health Care Plan, a public option where everybody can pay into a system. For instance say you made 40,000 a year and you pay a 5 tax. That means you would pay 2000 into a Health Care Plan and you are covered across state lines in the entire country. You dont pay any more premiums. Mr. Kellogg we want to thank everybody for joining us for this debate for the candidates for the u. S. Senate from nebraska, republican ben sasse and democrat Chris Janicek. Am the news director dennis kellogg. We transition now to Foreign Policy. Waverle monroe has our first question, and mr. Janicek will answer first. Mr. Janicek, tensions with china grow as washington alleges that Companies Like huawei are using their products to spy on americans. The Associated Press reports the u. S. China trade deficit hit 63. 6 million in july, almost 20 higher than junes deficit. What specific changes would you make to improve our relations with china . Mr. Janicek that is another great question, what is going on internationally with trade. We have to sit down with china and we have to negotiate and come to terms where it benefits both countries. We buy more from china than they buy from us because we are nation of consumers. We are a nation of consumers and disposables. China fits that bill. Right now, the chinese government, which is a communist government is working to , undermine the United States, to undermine our intelligence, to in fact our election process and sway peoples ideas. That is all part of the intelligence agencys responsibility here in america n government. I agree with you that trade is unfair and it is something that has to be worked on, but one thing we dont want to do is put that burden on companies and farmers and ranchers here in nebraska. I will talk about nebraska in the tariffs that are on their trade. My grandfather was a farmer. I grew up on a farm. He would get up of the crack of dawn and get on the field. We would run lunch out to him because he wouldnt come home for lunch because he didnt want to lose any time. At dinner time we would talk about our day. He loved the land. He planted that seed so he could have a crop to grow during the summer months. No matter what the weather was, no matter what machinery broke down, those were all risks involved, but he wanted a harvest in the fall that he could sell and provide for his family. We dont need government interrupting our trade policies with china and with other countries especially with our agricultural community. We need them to work with china, we need them to work with the trade associations on an international level. Mr. Sasse, one of his big things is the intellectual property. We have a department for that, and that department should be funded and be taken care of. China is a problem with american trade. I dont know everything about it, but i know i will not do things the same way that the Current Administration is doing. Because it is not working for us. It is not benefiting our country, especially people in nebraska, in the agricultural industry. One thing we have to understand also, agriculture makes up 25 of nebraska business. If we dont have a market to sell, we will lose a lot of that. One out of every four dollars that comes into the state comes through our agricultural communities and our farmers and ranchers. So that has to be addressed with china, intellectual property has to be addressed with china, the trade deficit has to be addressed with china, and those are things i will work on and learn more about when we get to washington, d. C. Mr. Kellogg mr. Sasse. Sen. Sasse you asked a very important question. The Chinese Communist party is 2, 3, 4, 5 of the longterm National Security threats we face as a nation. If we look 10 years into the future, the world will be Chinese Communist partyled, or the world will still be americanvalues led. We lead in every major domain, but the rate of closure is all on the communist partys side right now. Lots of that is because of intellectual property theft, but a lot is because the u. S. Is in not serious enough about the magnitude of changes in the future, and the Chinese Communist party is deadly serious. When we look at the major domains of new technology in warfare you mentioned 5g, in , addition, i would add a. I. , machine learning, robotics, biotechnology quantum computing. , when we look at the technology that will affect the future of war, chinas growth rate is much faster than ours. We are not on a path to winning the longterm battle with the Chinese Communist party. I want to distinguish the two because our enemy is not the 1. 4 billion chinese people, it is the leadership of the only 90 millionperson communist party, only 7 of the citizens of china are involved with the communist party, that oppresses and holds down their own people. The uighurs right now are undergoing genocide, forced abortion, forced removals, forced sterilization happening across the province right now. After world war ii, the world said we will never forget and never again. It is happening now in china, and the world is not nearly serious enough. Our allies across the pacific understand that the future of the world not just in the pacific, but the Global Security space is going to be u. S. Led, or it will be Chinese Communist party of chinaled. They all prefer the u. S. To lead but they doubt us right now. What we should be fighting for is free trade, open navigation to the sea ways, human rights, transparent contracts, the rule of law. The things that america should stand for on the global stage should not be doubted. If you were in hong kong today, you have lots of regret about having trusted the American People and the american government. If you are in taiwan right now, you are scared. The truth of the matter is the u. S. Needs to lead into the future. We need our allies to believe we understand the values of our word and the importance of a robust Foreign Policy that makes commitments and keeps commitments to our allies, because we are for freedom, for contracts. We are for human rights. And the Chinese Communist party is for surveillance states. They are against freedom in their trading relationships. They are against human dignity, they are for forced sterilization. We need to come together and understand the stakes. Right now, washington is not nearly serious enough about the magnitude of the problem we face with the Chinese Communist party. Iserator our next question directed to mr. Sasse. We will be going to twominute answers for this session. Agriculture is a Global Enterprise for nebraska farmers and ranchers, and our producers face extreme global pressures. We have new trade deals in place with our major foreign partners. In addition to economic concerns, Climate Change is expected to impact agriculture worldwide in ways such as more frequent and violent weather extremes. As a u. S. Senator, what are your recommendations to help farmers deal with these and other challenges and help put them on the best path for success . Sen. Sasse we are blessed to live in the breadbasket of the world. The brassicas 93 counties nebraskas 93 counties are filled with farmers and ranchers who are the most productive in all of Human History. I am a historian by training, and usually there is a lot more continuity than discontinuity in the world. When you use words like unique or unprecedented, usually are wrong. In this case, it is true about nebraskans. Nebraska is the most productive farm and ranch land in the world and the most productive farm and ranch moment in all of Human History. What does that mean . It means that we grow so much more food than we could ever conceivably consume here. We need export markets. Tying your question back to we averlys and what we do with china, china is one of the few places where we have to admit free trade has never been free because of the way china cheats. So we need to be growing every other freetrade deal we can in the world because we need to create a counterbalance to what the Chinese Communist party is trying to build. We should seek as much ag and industrialcommoditybased trade with china that we can, lower we but we need to decouple our Digital Economy from chinas. We will continue to experience bumps with china. We need Something Like a revamped or more robust Transpacific Partnership that has the United States convening allies like south korea, japan, canada, australia, new zealand, vietnam. We should be pulling in people like the uk as they do their brexit, potentially israel as well. But we need to start with the core countries of the old tpp and add to it technology standards. N. A. T. O. Is the most successful military alliance in the world, and n. A. T. O. And american will ultimately won the cold war. The cold war we face with the Chinese Communist party is every bit and more acute and dangerous, and we need to lead an alliance that looks like n. A. T. O. Plus for the pacific. Mr. Kellogg mr. Janicek. Mr. Janicek thanks for the question, colleen. It goes back to what i was talking about, the farm economy and the importance to nebraska farmers and ranchers. Senator sasse was talking about a verygain, and its important market, but it is hard to compete in the market when the market is shutting down the market and putting tariffs on food and negotiating better prices for the food and commodities we need to trade. The u. S. M. C. A. Trade agreement, previously n. A. F. T. A. , was just signed off in july of 2020. That opened the markets for free trade in mexico and the United States and canada. We upped our dairy interest in canada because of the u. S. M. C. A. That is a start. But we have to in mind that our farmers are suffering from our ranchers are suffering due to these trade and tariff disagreements with china and other countries. To bring it home real quick, we have the big four producers in this country tyson foods, smithfield foods, jbs and cargill. They are manipulating prices and cause a monopoly. We used to have 12 producers, then eight producers. Now six producers. I have learned this by talking to ranchers and farmers in western nebraska, who do all the work, raised the cattle, keep them on their feedlots, feed them, than when it comes time to go to market, they dont get a good price for their beef. It costs them more to raise the cat all than they can sell it for. Then the big four manipulates of markets. The price of meat has skyrocketed. They keep all the profits. That has to come to a stop. Most of our Agricultural Commodities here are having a hard time just supplying enough beef and food for our country , let alone for foreign countries, but the government cant keep writing checks when they ruined the trade negotiations with foreign markets. Mr. Kellogg up next, fred knapp of net news. Mr. Janicek will answer first. The United States currently has troops deployed in countries ranging from syria to niger, based on the authorization of use of military force act enacted following the 9 11 attacks. Has Congress Fulfilled its responsibility in approving these deployments and if not, what will you do to ensure it does . Mr. Janicek that is a good question. Mr. Sasse probably knows more about this than i do, but here is what i know. We have to keep our country protected. If these countries you mentioned are a threat, then im all for keeping our troops there and making sure they are taken care of. I am not for troops on the ground and putting young lives of people in the military from our country in danger. In this modern age of technology and drones, we can monitor conditions like that. But again, it comes to sitting down with these countries and talking, and talking about peace. I know a lot of them dont have the United States best interests at hand. That is why we have a military, and that is why our military is funded so well. That is one of the reasons government exists, to protect the people of this country. I have never served in the military, but i have people in my family that have, and this is of utmost importance to them. I have a lot of friends and Business Partners that were former military that came back and started their own businesses, and it was a concern to them that they didnt have the support of government when they were overseas. That would be one of my number one priorities, to make sure the people we send overseas, our Service Members and military people are protected and taken care of. Congress and the senate and the president Work Together and i think we have great protections right now except for the fact that the Current Administration wants to pull soldiers out of germany. This has set a fire alarm all over europe because we need that security there to protect our european allies and our n. A. T. O. Allies in order to protect our american citizens. Governments role is to protect this country with the military and it receives the most funding out of any of the programs available to the country. So i am all for government involved in the military, and i think congress is doing a good job with keeping them there for our protection. Mr. Kellogg mr. Sasse. Sen. Sasse thank you for the question, fred. First of all, i would like to begin by acknowledging another point of commonality with mr. Janicek. He is completely right that removing troops from germany is a very bad idea, and i hope that the administration continues to be forced to reconsider that bad idea. Fred, your specific questions about the authorization for use of military force in 2001. 3. One of the Things Congress consistently does well is when the authorization of use of military force act is passed every year. Every year we update the Funding Priorities and the Human Capital development, Weapons Systems priorities for the pentagon and the broader defense agencies. We should be updating the authorization for use of military force with that as well. First of all, to your core question has the congress adequately done its job in this space . The answer is no. But it is also the case we need to explain to the American People why things like pulling troops out of n. A. T. O. In germany is a better idea. One of the most important and most rewarding pieces of my job is that i show up at Troop Deployment and troopreturn ceremonies across nebraska, to thank the troops, and frankly, as importantly as the troops, the families, the husbands, the wives, kids, parents, people at the ceremonies sending their families off for months. These folks understand what they are doing is important, that what they are doing secures the world not because we do it just out of the goodness of our heart, although good allies do make good friends and good friends and Good Neighbors ultimately make the world a safer place, but we learned as an American People after 9 11 that it is much easier to destroy groups like al qaeda in afghanistan before they get to the World Trade Center than trying to respond to it afterwards. Right now, there are many men and women tonight whose heads will be on the pillow somewhere abroad rather than return to be home with their families on labor day. Mr. Kellogg thank you. We are moving to closing statements. We begin with mr. Sasse. Sen. Sasse thank you to the viewers all across nebraskas 93 counties. It has been a great honor and privilege the last five and a half years to represent you in washington and frankly to work alongside you. I mentioned that many times politics seems like it is dominated by the 5 or 10 of folks who want to scream most about politics. One of the great rewards of my job is when i get to work next to the nebraskans, loving your neighbor, putting bread on the table and fulfilling their calling. Yesterday i got to ride the back , end of a nebraskan garbage truck. One of my favorite things to do. 7 00 in the morning. Nobody is ever mad at you when you show up to haul off their trash. When youre with a nebraskan out in the field and you hear them talk, they dont think politics is the center of the world. They think washington, d. C. Should do a small number of the most important things and then get the heck out of the way. Again, politics matters, but it is like fifth or eighth on anybodys list of what is important. Their family, their neighborhood, their Small Business, their church those are , the central institutions in their lives and they want washington to do a smaller number of more important and more urgent things. And it has been my great privilege these last five and a half years to be able to represent americans with a commonsensical approach to government mattering but not being the most important. We need more politics of gratitude in this country and less politics a grievance. Both of these two parties are consumed by people, a small number of people, but they are the loudest screaming voices that want to tell everybody america is broken and our best days are behind us and it is not fixable. Nebraskans dont believe that. They dont think washington is the center of the world but they think americas best days are in front of us. They believe that for themselves, and more importantly, they want to believe that for their kids, and i am honored and grateful to have represented nebraska the last five and a half years. If it is your choice to the people of nebraska, i would be honored if you would choose to what for me on november 3. Thank you for your time tonight. Moderator thank you, mr. Sasse. Now a closing statement from mr. Janicek. Mr. Janicek thank you to the panel for all the Great Questions and thank you, net television, for all of this. As i started my opening statement, we were talking about the importance of health care. I just want everyone to know that you heard my story on health care, and it is the same story you probably have, the same story have heard from friends and family members. Health care reform must be addressed, and it must be addressed now. Mr. Sasse, in the last six years, has voted over and over to take Health Care Away from people. Mr. Sasse voted over and over to take away preexisting condition protections for people. Mr. Sasse voted to reduce medicare for our seniors. Mr. Sasse voted to reduce medicaid for the poor. Mr. Sasse found all the time in the world to write books, but he did not make the time to write Health Care Policy that affects all nebraskans. Nebraska deserves a senator who cares. My name is Chris Janicek and i do care. And i am listening. And i want everyone to know that this election that is coming up, this is not about republican ideas and moving things for the right, and this is not about democratic ideas and moving things further left, this is about ideas for the people to move our state and this country forward. I am a Small Business owner, a baker. I learned that from my grandmothers on both sides of my family, and i turned that into a business. My civic duty now, because of my own health care problems, has led me to run for the u. S. Senate. This is so important to me. What we have here is a complete lack of representation in government. Senator sasse has said over and over and over tonight that government could have done this or could have done that, but, sir, you are in charge, with your other senators, and you have failed the American People and i dont think the American People should vote to put the same people back in office. Another thing mr. Sasse ran on was term limits. I am not a career politician. I will do my six terms and find a fix for health care and it i will will make that happen and go back to a happy business, where i get to celebrating weddings with my cakes and my baked goods and graduations and birthday parties. This is not a career thing, this is not what the Founding Fathers intended. They intended for people not to make a career out of politics, but to get in, do something for the people, then get out. I guarantee you, that is what i will commit to you right now. My name is Chris Janicek, and i am asking you to take a chance on me and to vote for me in this upcoming election in 2020. Thank you. Mr. Kellogg that brings us to the conclusion of tonights net news nebraska u. S. Senate debate. Thank you to mr. Sasse, mr. Janicek, our panel of journalists. Our live coverage on cspan, dr. Anthony fauci talks with Judy Woodruff of pbs newshour about the Science Behind the covid19 pandemic and frontline response. Live coverage begins at 1 00 eastern. Doctors, academics, and Public Health officials discuss whether we are at a turning point in the pandemic with a vaccine say for public distribution. You can watch that at 2 00 eastern right here on cspan. Coming up this evening, President Trump goes on the campaign trail to winstonsalem north carolina. Watch his comments live beginning at 7 00 eastern. You can also catch it live online at cspan. Org or listen with the precspan radio app. Bidens record is a shameful rollcall call of the most catastrophic trails and blunders in our lifetime. He has spent his entire career on the wrong side of history. Our current president has failed in his most basic duty to the nation. He has failed to protect us. He has failed to protect america. My fellow americans, that is unforgivable. President ial debate between donald trump and former Vice President joe biden is tuesday, september 29, at 9 00 eastern. Watch live coverage on cspan. Watch Live Streaming and ondemand at cspan. Org, or listen live on the precspan radio app. Now two former counterterrorism officials and an investigative journalist once held captive by the taliban discuss the justice departments mission. They talk about the agencies work and how they intersect with politics and president s agenda. It is hosted by the center on National Security at fordham law. Theoday, washington and country seem embroiled in controversy and chaos. It seems very much at the department of justice are in the headlines about what is going on in the country, if not the protest in portland or kenosha, if it