Transcripts For CSPAN Campaign 2020 Minnesota 7th District House Debate 20240712

Running mate senator Kamala Harris campaigning in arizona, the day after the Vice President ial debate. Watch live coverage beginning at 5 00 eastern on cspan, online at cspan. Org, or listen on the free cspan radio app. Republicans need to pick up 21 seats in the november elections to win a majority in the u. S. House. According to a report, 91 of those races are considered competitive, including minnesotas seventh congressional district, held by Collin Peterson, first elected to the house in a 1990, running against former republican Lieutenant Governor Michelle Fischbach. Good evening. Welcome to north dakotas coverage of election 2020. This is the debate between the candidates for minnesotas seventh street congressional seat. Based on the coin flint, Collin Peterson will go first on his opening statement. Thank you, and good evening. Fornt to thank aarp sponsoring the debate. I think the voters and the people of the seventh district for giving me the opportunity to serve them in the congress over these number of years. I have been there long enough so i was able to move up to the head of the Agriculture Committee on the democratic side. Beenn 2005, and i have chairman twice i think i am probably the only person that has ever done that. We have been able to do some good work. We have kept the committee bipartisan, which is important to me. The most bipartisan member of congress, and we kept the committee that way. We have been able to 2018, we got the usmca trade agreement done that people were concerned about. We made that happen. We had a good democratic vote. Look forward to going back to congress and continuing the bipartisan work i have done over a number of years. Michelle fischbach . And prairie to aarp public for putting this together. I served in the Minnesota Senate , first female president of the Minnesota Senate, Lieutenant Governor for a short time. I live with my husband, and we have two children and five grandchildren. And i really have enjoyed campaigning across the district and getting the opportunity to talk to people. Although the covid shutdowns slowed us down, i stayed on the phone for a couple of months and made a lot of phone calls and reached out that way, so very happy to do that. I think people were happy to get the phone calls because they were at home, too. Though i want to make sure that we look to the future and the minnesota and the seventh district and that we make sure that we are making this a place where people can live, work, and raise their families and make sure that we move things forward and we work on the economy. I appreciate the opportunity to be here tonight and looking forward to the discussion. Is covid19. Schools are starting to open with hybrid learning and things like that. Many people are getting back to work. The issue has become political. I want each of you to talk about first the u. S. Response to the crisis, specifically President Trump, and also talk about the governors response within minnesota. An issue thats affected us all. I talked a little bit about the shutdowns and how it affected our campaigning. But i do think that in minnesota we tried to put a onesizefitsall policy on the entire state, and it did not work for rural minnesota. We have really done some damage in the ag industry, the businesses, and we need to make sure were getting the businesses back open and are moving forward on that. Depending on that, the economy, making sure we are opening back up. Businesses, particularly in rural minnesota and the seventh district, understand what it will take to keep their patrons and customers safe, and they are able to follow the cdc guidelines that let them get back to work, let them get people back to work. On a national level, the president has made sure that we shut down travel as soon as he could, making sure were moving forward on a vaccine. So i appreciate what he has done on the covid relief, and we need to make sure that we move things forward and open the businesses back up. Collin peterson, response . Unfortunately, we are not out of the woods. When you cannot keep the president of the United States safe, an environment where they are testing all the time and doing that sort of thing, you know this of ours has not gone away. It is a serious problem. The people that work with the president , dr. Redfield, and others said the most important thing is to wear a mask, keep socially distanced. Wash your hands, and do not get in big crowds. Unfortunately, we keep sending mixed messages from the federal government. And i think it is a problem. We have more cases and deaths in this country per capita than just about any country in the world. We need a federal response that is clear and sends a signal to people that this is what we need to do to stay safe. In the state, i talked to the governor a number of times. I think it was a mistake to have onesizefitsall for the state. I think in this part of the world, alongside north dakota and south dakota, we could have had different regulations, but the governor decided he wanted one regulation for the whole state. Wrinkly, i think it was a mistake. Michelle fischbach, response . I dont think so, no more. Next issue is the stimulus package. A second stalled about stimulus package. We may not have anything until after the election. What are your views on a second stimulus bill and the proposals that are out there . We passed a bill in the house and may that i thought was overdone. I thought it was too much money, but the speaker accepted our agriculture stuff we worked on in committee, and because of that, i kind of held my nose and supported it because i knew it was not going anyplace. Now they have come up with another bill where they dropped the price tag down to 2. 2 trillion. They cut back on some of the ag stuff. But i just think that we had to focus on what the really important things are not just be giving out money to people. We have to pay this money back sometime. So in agriculture, we have money for the populating hogs and turkeys, helping with packing plants, helping ethanol, things that are promises right now, and i think this bill should focus on what is a crisis and where we can actually help. So this last bill i voted against because i just do not think it hit the mark on what we needed to do. End of the day, it will have to be an agreement between the president , senate, and us, and i think it will be less money than what we have been talking about. Frankly, it should be. Response . The heros one and he was two act, the heroes one act, the congressman voted yes for it, and it was about 3 trillion worth, and much of it was not focused on covid relief. There may have been some great ag stuff in there, but if it is not going anywhere, the agricultural provisions can be wonderful, but if it is not going anywhere, and that he rose one and heroes two, those two bills, are at a dead end. Nancy pelosi and dfl leadership, democrat leadership, pushed it forward without negotiation or even talking to the president , without talking to the senate, and these are dead ends. They are not going anywhere. Theyre not really trying to make sure the American People they are putting together liberal wishlist bills, 3 trillion, now over 2 trillion, including things like planned parenthood money and money for illegal immigrants. What they need to be doing is actually getting to work and focusing on the covid relief that the people need and talking to the president , talking to the senate, and moving it forward. The senate has not come up with anything realistic either. The president has been back and forth. Right now talks have gone on with munition and pelosi, trying to come up with a solution that everybody can support. But i would just have to say that when youre working on these big bills and you get what you want in the bill, pretty hard to say, ok, youre giving me what i want, so now i will vote against everything else. I knew this was not going anyplace, so at the end of the day, the people that really need this help, the hog farmers, turkey farmers, packing plants, ethanol plants, they are going to be in the final package, and i think they will be because i stepped up to the plate that first time. This last time i had a long discussion with the speaker and told her that this was a mistake, what they were doing. It was not going anyplace. It was partisan. The wrong thing to be doing at this point in time. I really do think what we need to be doing is stepping up, and if the senate has not come up with anything, then the democratic leadership in the house need to be moving forward and talking to the senate and trying to get these things done. The ag provisions are still going nowhere because those two bills are not moving. You need to make sure that congressman peterson, in the opening, you talked about being bipartisan, than maybe what we need to do is move forward and be bipartisan on the senate bill and talk to the senate and the president. Response . We are bipartisan. Every republican on the committee supported what i did. You know . I do not know how you can be more bipartisan than that. I had a very tough discussion with the speaker that she did not like. I told her what i thought, and that is how it works. Michelle knows that. She was in the legislature. These days, you cannot have everything exactly the way you want. It so we have been bipartisan. At the end of the day, i think we will be successful. Last word. I think the last word is that there is nothing happening on covid relief for the American People. Those two bills the most recent, heroes two, is not moving forward, and right now we have no covid relief for the ag sector or the American People. Next topic is the Supreme Court vacancy brought on by Ruth Bader Ginsburgs passing. Representative peterson, you have introduced a constitutional amendment that would state only nine justices can serve on the court. There has been talked that if Vice President biden is elected, there would be a court packing. First, talk about what you proposed this amendment, even though Michelle Fischbach will go first. And do both of you feel the nomination should be delayed until after the election or should go forward now . First of all, i do appreciate the legislation not to pack the court or resolution not to pack the court, because that is not something as a port nor want to see. But i absolutely support the president moving forward with the nomination and the Senate Moving Forward with the confirmation. It is the constitutional duty to make sure that they do that and move forward and make sure that that vacancy is filled. And i think it is an important part of their duties, and they should do it. And i appreciate Amy Coney Barrett and think she will make an excellent Supreme Court justice. You know what, we were working on this bill before the Supreme Court issue came up. So the representative and i that worked on this bill, we had it ready to go and introduced it. There is this talk of packing the court or trying to jury rig things as a mistake, we have enough problems in this country, and if divisions in this country to not be doing that. So we introduce this constitutional amendment and hope we can get support for it. I think nine justices have served us well for a couple hundred years, and there is really no reason to change that. In terms of this nomination, there are people that are upset, but the president wants to move it. His prerogative. The senate currently has the votes, there prerogative. Prerogative. That is the way things work. A followup on this, what is the difference then between this situation and the mayor curry led situation four years ago land situation four years ago . I would just say every situation is different. When there is a Supreme Court vacancy, and i believe that it is a constitutional duty for the president to go ahead and move ahead, and it is their prerogative, and they should handle it. Both the president and nation it should handle it. I think there is a fair amount of hypocrisy going on here because you have people that took one position, republicans in 2016, and now they have a completely different position. Having said that, again, the president has the prerogative to do this. They apparently have the votes we will see. You know, i am in the house appeared we do not have a vote in this fight. Anything else . Lets move to ag policy, big issue in seventh district. Can you comment on how the trade and tariff war in china is impacting nationally and in the seventh district . Nothing positive. We are trading at about why 5 of where we were before we got into this in agriculture. And the secretary just said yesterday at a meeting he was at that they are not going to hit the phase one targets that are set up. It has been a problem. These prices, they have come back a little bit. My biggest problem with what is happening i mean, china is a bad actor. I voted not to let them in the wto, voted not to let them in the most favored nation status, and that was the right vote. Because we knew at the time they were going to do what they did. If we had done the right thing back then, we would not be in this predicament. I do not disagree that maybe we need to do something to try to rein them in, but i think these tariffs have been a huge mistake. They have not worked. They have hurt not only farmers but hurt manufacturers. They have hurt a lot of other folks in my district. And they have not solved the problem. Your response . Shutdownso the covid and the pandemic, President Trump was making headway with china, and we all do know they are bad actors. They are bad actors, not trustworthy, but they have been ripping out the farmers and industry for years. So President Trump took that step forward and started to deal with those things, making sure that we were going to be getting at least a fair deal and a decent deal, so he did make that, and people understood that. People understand that china, particularly now after the covid outbreak and all the things that have been going on in china, people understand that china is not a good actor. But i think the president has been making headway in making sure that we move forward with those negotiations. In addition to that, with the tariffs, the ones that are hurting the farmers are retaliatory tariffs from china. And that is where theyre coming from your it i do understand that congressman peterson is going to talk about the tariffs and blame them on the president. But do understand he is trying to do what he thinks is right to make sure we get a decent deal from china. And we do need to continue to expand our trade partners, whether it be australia, vietnam, japan. Continue to move forward and expand our trade partners across the world. Collin peterson, response . I am not blaming this on the president. The president is among the put the tariffs on. If you know anything about trade policy, you knew the chinese were going to retaliate. The question is who they would retaliate against. What people need to understand, it is not farmers that were hurt over the 20 years we have been trading with china. From thely benefitted trade going on, because when the jobs and we lost manufacturing in ohio and other places, the people in china they moved to china, and the people in the country went in and took their jobs are these to be in the United States and they were paid four four dollars, five dollars a month, paid 100 a month in china. People moved and used to be farmers. Then we sold farm goods to make up for the loss that happened because of that. So we have benefited. It is hard to put any kind of spin on this that this is somehow a win for agriculture. I think if we continue through, negotiations will continue and the attempts to make the chinese creative fair trade deal will continue. I do think that President Trump understands what it is doing, and he did create the program to help farmers through with the tariffs. I want to get to another ag issue. Crossman congressman peterson touts that he has been chairman of the ag committee. How, if you were elected, would policy or try to move up the ranks of the committee chairmanships, things like this, how would you approach ag policy for the seventh district . I did serve in the Minnesota Senate, and i did serve an area that had ag. Createve continued to those relationships with the farmers, they farm groups coming continue that. We have already started an Ag Advisory Committee that i deal with weekly in order to make sure that we are hearing what is going on in the field. I think the most important part is making sure to continue the conversation. We have a farm bill coming up in 2020, and we need to start the conversation early and learn what is important to the farmers and what they think is working and what they think they need, not just someone in washington, d. C. , telling them what they need, but understanding better what is going on with them. I will continue to make sure that that conversation continues after i am elected. Agwe are the fourth biggest district in the country. Agriculture is this district. Here in the valley, the sugar industry is a huge part of our economy, all through the whole situation. Because i have been able to be in congress for a while, i have become the head of the committee, and that is a big deal in terms of getting things meeting doesthe not start any ag meeting in washington or the house does not start until i get into the room, and it ends when i leave. And the secretary calls mail the time and talks with me about what he is doing. He has people call me, run things by me. They ask my advice, i give them advice. That is something that does not happen with the rank and file member. First 10 years, i was ignored basically. But i kept learning, working up the ranks, and eventually i got into a position where i could do something. What i am most proud of what i have done in congress as i am respected across the country, by all of agriculture, both sides of the aisle, and find anybody that will not say i do not do a good job. Response . Let me follow up with ethanol policy and how that plays out. Certainly, i have always been a supporter of ethanol and in my time in the Minnesota Senate did make sure that we supported ethanol and did what we could help them. But i do understand that small refinery exceptions have been a problem in the 10th circuit has recently found on the biofuel side and so i think you were going to be seeing that taking care of and i will do everything i can to make sure the smaller exemptions are not abused. But i will say degree new deal and some proposals out of the democrat side you to hurt the ethanol industry than anything. That would in eliminate a lot of the fossil fuel and there would not be anything to blend ethanol with. I want to be sure the federal government does not do anything to hurt the ethanol industry but i will do whatever i can to make sure the small refinery exemptions are dealt with. Its not going anyplace so thats a debate we dont need. The speaker helped us to get the stop and what it says is we should have 15 billion gallons of ethanol blended into gasoline in this country. Gallonst 12. 5 billion and one of the reasons we are in jeopardy is because we had a collapse in oil prices and people kept driving because of covid. You put that together with these exemptions and you have put this industry in jeopardy. I was in the room when we had to take this amendment that allowed them to have these waivers and we objected to them at the time. We set this would only be small refineries used in emergencies and thats what it was until 2013. It has not been that way since Trump Took Office and it has hurt significantly. Out why theygure got these exemptions and they would not tell me. Another thing was that it was required the administration gives us that information in the future. We just need to get back to following the law. I understand. Exemptions have been an issue and we continue to work on those but we do want to mention one thing that is overlooked a lot of the time was andided for yearround use that is something that has moved things slowly that i understand we do whatever we can to help the ethanol industries. Unlessneed to understand we get the infrastructure to get out there, it does not do a thing. You cannot sell the current gas pumps. Youve got to get underwriting and the epa and all these other people to sign off before you can sell you 15. But it isp marginally not any kind of solution. All we need is to follow the law. We had that, this industry would be fine. Bill, how willm each of you approach this one . We are going to start next Congress Working on it and have hearings throughout the country. We will have hearings in d. C. And what i insisted we do back again8 and what i will do as chairmans have this developed at the subcommittee level. We have all kinds of new members on both sides of the aisle and the way to get those people to understand the issues is to get them to work in smaller committees where they have the opportunity to get involved and thats a lot of what we have been doing. Start in the next congress and these hearings in to into it in 2023. Its going to be tough because farmers have gotten so much ad hoc money from this administration. We dont have that kind of money in the ad committee. Its going to be a difficult thing to do a bill when they have been expecting billions and we have no money but we will figure out something. Michelle . We need to start early and we need to make sure we are talking to farmers and understanding earlier what they need and want. And make sure we are looking forward and out what is going to help us in the next 30 years and how we can bring in new and Young Farmers and make sure we have opportunities for them to and reallyarming move the agate Industry Forward and make sure we talk to people , working outside the box and open to new ideas and new things that could happen. Are, like we said, moving act forward. Ag forward. We have done significant innovation in the farm bill. When i started a local food subcommittee about people thought i was crazy at the time but organic agriculture has a and so we havee done that. We have the farm and Ranch Program which has been a huge success. We have done a lot of Little Things to move in a different direction on the Committee Without forgetting commercial agriculture. What runsrt, thats this economy out in minnesota. Push will just continue to those things forward in the future. I will say 2023 comes faster than we think we need to make sure we are working on it now. Lets move onto a question from our cosponsor Social Security is a program half of all seniors rely on. If elected, how will you ensure benefits are not cut as part of deficit reduction . Its very important we protect the recipients receiving Social Security now. But i think as we look into the future, we certainly can make sure we have tax policies that encourage savings for retirement, that we are educating Younger Generation that making sure they save for retirement and any kind of changes certainly need be so thatan and phasedin people have time to prepare but i absolutely believe in protecting the current recipients and what they are receiving because its not something we are just giving them. Of checks overt time and so we need to protect the. Protect them. Funding is different. Different people will give you different names and there is concerned. So i would not support any kind of cuts or any kind of increasing of age or any of that. We also have to make sure the medicare system is solvent. Medicare, the 1. 65 tax applies to all of your wages. So if you make a million dollars, you pay on that million dollars. Because of that medicare is probably now a little bit better funded and better for the future we have to make sure we dont let costs get carried away. That we have preexisting conditions covered. In terms of Social Security, there has been a cap and when you hit that cap, you quit paying tax which is four point something percent. There are talks of taking it out completely and that is probably too much but there are ways to address the top cap to extend the trust fund significantly and i think we should look at that. I will just add about making sure medicare is there for people is very important for the elderly. People rely on it and we want to make sure that remains a benefit. What i do not support is the medicare public option and most recently, i believe nancy pelosi and centre tina smith have come out in support of that and those reimbursement rates which would be coinciding with that public option plan would be harmful to our rural hospitals so that is something i would not support. I support the public option i dont support the public option as well and did not vote for it. The bigger threat to Public Hospitals is not the option, it is what they are trying to do in critical access hospital funding. Back in 2003, bill thomas asked me to work with him on his medicare bill. I said if you dont help if you help me with critical access , i will help you. So he went to work he put 38 billion at the end of that bill for rural hospitals and critical access. We have reimbursement set at 100 of their cost. Not be here would today if we had not done that. The problem is the administration and others in congress are trying to cut that 101 down to 90 and that is the biggest threat to these rural hospitals, bar none. Do you have a response to that, and also the medicare age . I would just like to address, i absolutely support the tickle access hospitals and believe those need to stay there. One of the things that has been difficult for rural hospitals and has really hurt them was was thealtzes governors shut down. They werent able to do any of the procedures or receive the reimbursement and that has made read for the. That puts them at risk as well. But as you take a look at the medicare, we need to make sure it stays solvent and we do provide those. So whatever kind of changes, they need to be bipartisan. I will give you the last word on this one. We have a good system. It works, it save these hospitals and is now under attack by certain people to cut back that funding. I think the governor went overboard with some of what he did. But that is the state and we dont have any control over that. I told him what i thought and he listened and didnt do much about it but the biggest threat is the cut in these reimbursements. Hospitals are not making a huge profit away it is. Ofeven though the death george floyd did not occur in the seventh district protests engulfed the nation. I want to ask each of you for your response to these protests. Social justice and Racial Disparity discussions and how each of you feel about Police Funding or defunding the police. I am proud to be endorsed by the Minneapolis Police officers association. I got that endorsement because i support the police. We actually need the police come and without that we have got big problems. Protests problem with if they are peaceful and organized, then that is fine. But what went on in minneapolis was not a peaceful protest and i am opposed to the looting writing and other things that happened and how that got out of hand, i dont know, but the people that represent that area i feel sorry for police needing to have to deal with that. I am for defunding the police. I am for supporting the police. I think there are instances when you have some bad actors that maybe need to be called out but i think they are in the significant minority. So i am one that does not appreciate some in our party calling for defunding the police. I think it is a huge mistake. Writers, and summary of those instances, there are not peaceful protests. And the riders positively need to be dealt with and stopped because they are looting writing and burning down businesses and that is against the law and we need to enforce law order. I apsley support the police and the proud to be endorsed by the fraternal order of police. Police andte, i with appreciated their efforts in the vast majority are good and decent people and i have been a strong supporter of police. If you really want to make Law Enforcement better, we need to increase funding and make sure they have the equip they need in the training they need. Officers inh police the Minnesota Senate to make sure we could move those kinds of proposals forward. What do youup, think of racial discussions westmark is there systematic racism in this country . Racial discussions . Is there systematic racism in this country . I think it varies based on where you are. It is not accessible. Is very small minority but it has caused lots of problems. We have to get to the bottom of that and have Police Departments that can get to the bother in a way that is fair to everybody. Everybody has got to have their due process and not string them up. I am just disappointed in the leadership in these areas where they have been having these because if i had somebody in my district where this was going on, i would be there myself, doing whatever i could to make sure the stopped. It stopped. Make sure it stopped. And for police vermin, increasing the help, the help they are given in those departments would certainly help route that out and make sure they are dealing with a properly. But it is absolutely the riots that are problem right now because that is their response to what they considered racism in writing is not the way to address the issue. The epa had been mentioned earlier and i want to get back to that. To each of you get back airport that trump told epa to ask to reject a finery standard. I am not completed familiar with the you are talking about. Claiming y are you talked about this in the debate, i believe as well. Youare talking about know, you talked about this earlier, i dont know exactly what President Trump knew or didnt know what i will say i did not support the use of those small exception small refinery exemptions. Is hard to know what will actually happen out of this because this is all happening because we have republican senators that are in trouble because of what the president did these waivers. Joni ernst is a primary example in iowa. This has been a huge issue. Finally, the president said he would do something about this not until after the election. And i hope they actually do something. Inope they rain these things back to what it was supposed to be. And that is only in very limited circumstances. There has to be a valid reason for it and it has to be small. They gave exemptions to exxon mobil. Thats not a small refinery. And so i hope the president does do something about this, but he orders the epa to do this the way they should be but we will have to see because its not going to happen before the election. Epa overreach has been a big issue with the republican party. How would you approach that . I do think the overreach of those departments is getting out of hand. If we need specific legislation to do that then we need to but making sure those departments are not overreaching with overregulation and i think that is part of what the 10th circuit found. I have been trying to rein in these agencies along with john kasich, rob portman going back to when they were in the house. Job to rein those folks in because of the way the law is written. They actually have the ability to legislate. They have set themselves up into a situation where it is hard to get at them. There clearly aligned on some of the stuff. Issue is thegger allied service. Those people are out of control shutting off drainage to peoples farms, causing roads to be washed out because they wont deal with going on in the land. Problem and ige have had meetings with top allies two times in the district and have got nothing out of it so far. These agencies are out of control doing things i dont agree with. There taking permanent easements and buying land. That 30 years is plenty long on any kind of easement. I have been doing what i can put it is a tough job. Another question from our cosponsor. Americans pay the highest Prescription Drug prices in the world. If elected how to fight to cut prescription prices . And how would each of you approach Health Care Policy if elected in regards to tweaking or eliminating the Affordable Care act. First of all, the Affordable Care act is not perfect and i did not vote for it. But once it became law, it covered preexisting conditions, a huge problem. Those one good thing it did. There have been attempts to repeal it. Becauseot support that nobody has come up with a credible plan to address the preexisting conditions and the other problem is getting Affordable Health care. Its a system i dont think is the greatest in the world but i dont see an alternative at this. And until i can see on alternative where people can buy something affordable and cover their preexisting conditions, i think we should improve the system. Wheel. To reinvent the i do not support obamacare i would have supported immediate repeal of it. For preexisting conditions, of course i support coverage and i will tell you that my work in the Minnesota Senate, minnesota had a program that was working butover a high risk pool obamacare illuminate that and made us get rid of that and go into the obamacare model. And so that program was working and serving people was eliminated. Obamacare, a claim it would cut Health Insurance costs and things like that and it did not do it. This obviously needs to be repealed and we need to start over. Dore are things we can things to make sure Association Health plans that allow people to come together whether it be Small Businesses for the selfemployed come together and that they are able to use them. Make sure there is transparency and costs so people know what they are paying for for health care. The procedures they are going to have. Another simple one, just making sure that individuals buying on the private market take pretax dollars for that Health Insurance just like people who get their insurance through an employer can you. There are things we can do to improve on what we have. Though i did not support continuing obamacare i think we should eliminate it. The Affordable Care act is not perfect. Clear publicans and congress have not come up with, turned at this point. Im not going to vote to get rid of it unless there is, tentative that i understand and that i think and work. The terms of the cost of the system what you mentioned about drugs, thats a big problem in the whole medical system because the drug costs are out of control. Their unaffordable for a lot of people. Billy thing i can see to get things back in line is to get the only things people can see to get things back of my is to get them from order over the border because thats what they do. There may be an issue with buying drugs at the border because we dont know what they are getting and if they are operably looked at. We at the fda here who handle those things. I be concerned about allowing people to purchase drugs across the border but i will say President Trump done several things. He put in place a couple of executive orders. One that eliminates the rebate on some medicare recipients. He also provides insulin at a low cost to low income and he does allow for the importation of some drugs in canada but i think there are things we can do, things he could done done. He has so there are things we can do to improve but we have seen this Prescription Drug prices flat out. We saw a lot of increase over a decade but they have been as we continue to work on that issue. Just to get back to covid lamar time, there is no vaccine yet. Schools are kind of open and kind of not. It depends on the week. Businesses were severely hit by this. What is the balancing act moving forward until there is a vaccine for businesses and schools. Fischbach, tell us how you move forward on this until there is a vaccine. There are several Companies Working on the vaccine and we need to make sure we move that forward and they are working on that. I dont support a mandatory vaccination. I think thats up to the individual. And as we move forward, we need to make sure we are not doing that onesizefitsall has been done sooner and that we are allowing businesses to open backup with what they feel is comfortable and what their customers are comfortable with while following the cdc guidelines. And as we social distance at things like that, making sure people are comfortable, but the onesizefitsall is a problem and we need to tailor that to areas of the country and state. I think its obvious. I and i hope to pray we have a vaccine. That would be the best solution. It seems like its going to be a problem because half of the people say they are not going to take one but thats probably our best longterm solution. In the short term, i think it is very clear. Open, we haveses to wear a mask and socially distance. We have to stay at a big clouds big crowds and wash our hands. The biggest problem is the federal government has not been clear. The cdc put out these guidelines and you have people in the federal government saying they dont mean anything. Thats a huge problem. I just dont see how we get these things back in line unless we have people paying attention. Airplane, they have been telling people when you get to the destination, dont get up, wait until people ahead of you get up, move your stuff down. What happens . You get to the gate and everybody gets up to the isle. People are not listening and part of it is because we have not sent a clear message. Has there been mixed messages from the federal government . What is your response to that . I have seen they have been pretty consistent. I understand there have been changes i will say there have not been changes as we learn more about covid and the spread. Say that one of the policies that accounted for many of the minnesota deaths was a policy in minnesota that would send Covid Patients to Nursing Homes and one of the problems as we are not protecting the vulnerable like we should. We should have been focused on making sure the vulnerable population was protected instead of sending in Covid Patients and that did account for many of the deaths in minnesota. But i do think that as people understand the cdc guidelines . Nd should be following them last issue as we get to closing statements it depends on who you are talking to. I8 jesting the essay with farmers what they asked me as are we going to get another check, how big is it going to be and when is it going to come . That is a problem, we have the farmers off of the government, the ad hoc deals and now we are kind of back into it. People are very concerned about covid and about the fact that we are not getting this under control. I hear that from people. They just cannot figure out why the usa, the most powerful country in the world, the most resources of any country in the world, why did we not have a test right away . Something do some of the things we should have done . How can we still be in the middle of this this far into the situation . Everything,ken over you cant get out and cant do days, theythe old really limits what you can do. It also limits what congress can do, the way congress is operating now is a big problem as well. Michelle, what are the issues you consider the most important among voters that you have talked to . First of all, we had a couple [indiscernible] [laughter] there were a lot of people there. Yes there were, it was fun. I am hearing out there when im talking to the people is the economy, making sure we get the economy going again. Things were going so well before covid, people were at work, there was low and employment, they want to see that move forward and make sure the economy is strong. That, law to order, they want to make sure the stuff going on in minneapolis is not going to happen in their backyard or in their city. Those are the two things that i think people are concerned about right now that they are talking to me about a lot. Lets get to closing statements, michelle, your one minute closing statement. I just want to say thank you so much, thank you to matt, thank you to aarp and thank you prairieublic public, and thank you to congress and peterson for being here. Up by saying we need to look at the whole picture, aggie industry, manufacturing, housing, workforce, broadband, and those things that can make the seventh district a great place to live and a better place to live and make it a place where people can live, work, and raise their family. That is what i am hearing when im talking to people, making sure we are able to maintain our way of life and able to stay here in rural minnesota. This is the most important election of our life, this is going to determine which direction our country goes and i want to go to washington dc and fight for the seventh district. I want to fight for our rights and i want to fight for our way of life. I ask for your vote this election and i thank you so very much for listening in and format and the others for putting it together. To the prairie republic and michelle for being here tonight, my official title is representative Collin Peterson. I take that very seriously, this is the only job in the government where you cannot be appointed. You have to be elected to be in congress. A lot of people do not understand that, that is something that i think is special. Proposehis seriously, i my job as a representative of this district, i am the guy that goes to d. C. , takes our concerns to d. C. I work with whoever is there, i have to work with nancy pelosi, i do not agree with her on most everything, but she is the speaker and if you do not work with or you wont get anything done. Iwork with john baer, he and did not agree, but we work together. I worked with gingrich, that is what you have to do. I have always done that, ive done in a partisan way, with people on the others out of the aisle. I think we have had some good success in terms of what we have been able to do for this district whether it is disaster programs, the farm bill, the trade agreements. Inook forward to doing that the next congress and i appreciate your support. Thank you, thank you representative peterson for being here michelle, thank you for your participation. Thank you for turning into our production of election 2020. Election day is november 3 and early voting is underway. Good night. Our campaign 20 20 coverage continues with candidates campaigning and debating. Cspan, your unfiltered view of politics. This afternoon joe biden and running mate senator Kamala Harris campaigned in arizona, the day after the Vice President ial debate