Transcripts For CSPAN Campaign 20240703

National security. [applause] meg thank you for joining us for this conversation and a pmp collaboration. Great to be back on the hill top and have this conversation continue. Senator as was mentioned in the introduction clearly on the minds of many is the war ongoing in israel with hamas. And worst situation, there are concerns that this conflict could spread and humanitarian concerns on the ground continue to worsen and defense secretary austin, secretary of state blinken visiting the region, still there and possibility that the president may be making a trip as well. Do you think these are the right actions for the u. S. Government to be making at this time and if you were president what would you say to president netanyahu . Sen. Scott what kind of response would we have if we were america and thats the kind of response we should provide to Prime Minister netanyahu . To put these into other terms, we are talking about 40,000 dead americans had that attack happened at home, so the question i ask myself as commanderinchief, what kind of response would we have if we were america and thats the kind of response we should provide to Prime Minister netanyahu . The first thing i said was that moving the 6th fleet into the mediterranean was the right decision. And put more fire power and we have to make sure that our special Operation Forces are prepared to help rescue american hostages. We should make sure that the Prime Minister has the resources he needs. The good news is that over the last 10 years or so, we provided israel with 35plus billion dollars. Part of the technological marvel of the middle east is the iron dome and participated with them. And they live in a very dangerous neighborhood. It helps me what we need to continue to do. I had the opportunity to sit down with ambassador herzog and one of the things he echoed to me was the same thing we heard from the Prime Minister, that they have the resources, the capability and the manpower calling up 360,000 reservists to wipe hamas off the face of the earth. And talked about the definition of proportional. When you see the kind of devastation brought upon this nation the one thing that the ambassador was clear that the definition of proportional is to make sure that hamas is wiped out so that they cannot do this again. I want to make sure that, number one, to reinforce it, that israel continues to have the resources, number two, the collaboration and partnership that has existed but deep investments in the last 10, 15 years and three, we are in a position to backfill as they use all the resources they have, the weapons, the technology, the backfilling that will be an important part of the strategy going forward. So i would make sure that we are there. Meg along with that, the u. S. Has been orders providing piece of the iron dome defense. I assumed you would support that . Sen. Scott is. What we have been giving israel should be higher in one of the things that we recognizes that the partnership does not only help israel, that some of the technological revolutions we enjoy from tel aviv, israel, so it benefits us, but in the midst of the war, we want to make sure all the resources that they have and they need are in their hands and they have the kind of flexibility that they need to exact what i consider a proportional response. The final thing i would say as president of the United States, commander in chief, make sure, you think of the state of affairs, they are going into gaza, the northern border. Meg im glad you mentioned that. That was going to be my next question. What is your concern about this becoming a more regional conflict with iran and hezbollah . Sen. Scott i think we have already seen iran drawn in through hamas. 90 of the funds come from hamas comes from iran. It is one of the reasons i have been apoplectic about this administrations initial reactions to the invasion and the start of the war, to tell israel that, but that kind of response that invites more conflict. Meg and to be fair, President Biden and other members of the administration have condemned the attack and subplots of strong links to the effect of that this is something that cannot be supported. Sen. Scott to be fair, their first reaction was without question to tell israel to refrain from spending. That is the worst decision you make when you see the kind of devastation and death around the nation of israel. So, the first thing i said is President Bidens weakness invites attacks. The negotiations, i am sure we will get to the negotiations, the hostages, the 6 billion helped to fund the attacks and that First Responder that i first telling israel to stand down is the worst decision. Meg well, since you brought in the administrations first response, this is a good place to go. I want to make sure i quote you here. You blame President Biden for foolish policy choices that undermine us and our allies and said he has blood on his hands. President biden remains popular in israel, so i want to hear in your words what did you mean by that . Sen. Scott i recommend you read the jewish times when you have the opportunity to do so because one of the things that i read in the last 24 is israels concerns that President Bidens comments, especially about the occupation is a distraction. They want us Standing Shoulder to shoulder. So what i would say without question is i am glad he finally got there, but my comments remain and the evidence is looking in the rear view mirror and look back at two years ago in the terrible afghanistan withdrawal that left is 13 americans dead. We can go forward when President Biden said to putin if you just dont cyberattack these areas, it might be ok. And in the third thing we would go to is when he said a small incursion into ukraine could be , you know, not so bad. The fact that the matter is that when you see that kind of pattern of weakness it only attracts more conflict than the one thing that i remember its not a quote, but it is a paraphrase, Ronald Reagan said out of the four wars in my lifetime none of them were in america because america is too strong. Weakness in the american presidency attracts conflict around the world. It is one of the reasons i have said to be prepared in the world that we are living in, volatile, fractured and frankly violent, we have to be prepared to deal with three conflicts in order for us to be prepared for global leadership. Meg how some of those conflicts interact and intermingle, i want to talk about in little bit, but first i want to talk about gaza where the situation is dire and getting worse and worse from all the coverage we have all seen, water has run out, israel has cut off access to whod come medicine. Two food, medicine. There have been constant bombardment by israel but the remaining a lot of people in harms way. How do you look at that at what point and intervene in a what type of humanitarian corridor should be set up in has the u. S. Gone far enough to encourage israel to abide by rules that were in this kind of situation . One of the things we should ask ourselves is what is the mere picture of the rules of war and how did hamas abide by those rules of war, and one of the things you think about is the first rules of war from an International Standard talks about the importance of distinction. They want to make sure you are able to distinguish between combatants and civilians. When you seep the attack within israel, there is one thing that is completely clear. There was no distinction or desire to look for it. The second thing we talk about is the military strategy. This was not in military strategy that hamas. It was a military strategy that targeted the most feeble, the weak, the elderly, the children in a democracy. What they did was not ignore any International Norms of war as if they are always applied. What they actually did was act as if there was nothing about it at all. This is an Old Testament absolute evisceration of the people with an objective, according to hamas philosophy of eliminating israel, part two , eliminating all the jews on earth, which 6 million live in america, part three is to attack western democracy. So when you think about the international rules, they completely ignored them all. And so lets take a look at israels reaction to the situation, going back to the concept of distinction. One of the first thing that israel has done is they waited. Now how president netanyahu had the kind of restraint and to refrain from immediate action just talks about the morality that we see coming from netanyahu into the gaza. What we see there is a it of patience with a warning to everyone in gaza, leave, go out of harms way. We will give you time to do so even though the time was not granted to us. We are going to give you something while we bury our loved ones, while we look at the pictures of beheaded children that happened to be ours or look at the bodies that were burned, babies that happened to be ours while our grandmothers were murdered in front of their families and our daughters were raped. We are going to show the kind of strength in spite of what you see. We will show the kind of restraint that was not afforded to us. But before that, we would tell you what were going to do. It is going to be complete sees, that the best thing to do is leave. And what was hamass reaction . Hamas who builds headquarters near schools and tunnels under hospitals, they say to the palestinians, stay. But why . Because hamas cares more about having human shields to slow down the reaction and response of israel than they do about the palestinian lives. Meg but what about, let us think about the people who remain, should the u. S. Play a role in trying to get out some of those citizens are hostages that couldnt take that opportunity to get out . Sen. Scott well, i certainly think there should be an International Opportunity for many players to play a role and we have had many conversations with egypt and im grateful as i read through the papers in israel it seems like the egyptians have provided a route, and thankfully they have because initially they didnt. So having that relationship even though it is sometimes volatile is an important part of the consideration they are seeing from us. I will also say that there are other players in the region that played a significant role in funding hamas and fostering and feeding terrorism. They could play a role. You could see some of these refugees, some of these people who have no place to go go to iran. Meg last week you propose that the Senate Banking committee on which you citizen member take a look at that 6 billion in funding that you mentioned. Hamas has acknowledged that iran did play a role in the planning for what happened recently in israel, but that money has been refrozen and is not able to be accessed. So why is Something Like your proposal the right thing to do right now while the situation on the ground is still developing. Sen. Scott one of the things that we know, when i said freeze the assets, you can use it means for the administration, and did nothing and they decided, wait a second, maybe we should try to freeze those assets. What they ultimately did was not freeze the assets, they had a quiet agreement not to release them. But not necessarily to freeze them, but what we suggested is not only should im just surprised and stunned and pleasantly surprised that the administration i like to use simple analogies that i understand. You have a bucket of water and you can use that for gardening, or washing her hands, you can use it for baking, drinking. Thank you very much michael, i appreciate that. [laughter] that bucket of water can be used for all kinds of purposes, bad and good. The purpose of that resource is varied. In a very similar fashion, to put a credit on a balance sheet, we know that they use 90 of the money that comes to hamas is from iran. Freezing the assets is going to reduce the likelihood of this spiraling impact in the middle east, i hope and pray. Without any question, i think about creating a market for american lives is a terrible concept. I said this under president obama what they paid 400 million for hostages, i said several years ago that this is a bad, bad president. President. Precedent. The prices will only go up on the heads of americans. We will be less safe abroad than ever before. As a result of the 6 million being paid. What we are seeing now is that 30 dead americans and there should be real consequences for that. And american hostages, we dont now how many, among the hundred and 50, there the 150, that strikes me as very bad policy. One of the other things you have talked about in the senate is that you have supported the move by the alabama senator to hold up some nominees for military leadership additions from going to the senate. That has been happening on an ad hoc basis, but not en masse. Hobos like this hamper military leadership that could be in place right now and could be more important . I dont think so. I would not be supporting it. I think its purpose is for clarifying policy, especially with our military, and its factually strong. The current lack of focus of our military is problematic and challenging, something we should be concerned with. More unfocused the military is, the more we will see flareup flareups. That combination is problematic. Just to go, two weeks ago, senator schumer overrode them. Issue, one of the things i was saying is that i would have a Different Department of defense anyway to allow us to move forward and happily forward the lethality that we need. If you think about the ultimate consequence of where we find ourselves, too many people do not want to join the military right now and our recruiting goals have been missed the last couple of years. Part of the reason why is that people feel like our military recruits is just so unfocused. It goes back to mandate, abortion issues, social issues like esg and eei that seem to be taking up too much space and causing consternation and reducing the people that want to serve in our military. I want to talk about so many other nominations republicans fighting for the nomination. I dont want to do that. [laughter] question i do want to ask you about what some of your competitors have said, President Trump had harsh words, saying that he let us down before the 2020 strike on general soleimani and they were not prepared for the most recent attack and they need to step up their game and he has called hezbollah smart. I want to ask you how you would assess these comments. Terrible. I have said it before and ill say it again, those comments are not helpful. They are heading in the wrong direction. I cannot be more clear that when you see your strongest ally heading into a war, one of the things you need is to make sure that there is no daylight. That sounds like daylight to me. I have been clear, i dont care if you are permissive or isolationist, one thing we cannot have is a mixed bag. We should be loyal to our allies. While being lethal to our adversaries. Anything less than that jeopardizes life. That is all i have to say about that. Ron desantis yesterday said that the u. S. Should not taking anyone from gaza, killing them all antisemitic. What is your reaction to that . I dont know that they are all antisemitic, i dont think thats true. I just cant tell you who is who. Part of the challenge that we have is coming to a conclusion on who is safe to bring an and who is not safe to bring in. I cannot make that decision, and i would say we should not bring anyone in from gaza at all. Thats the right decision. Not because i think they are antisemitic, but i kept the difference tell the difference. I know that the majority of palestinians support thomas based on the latest polling i have seen since 2021. The truth is, if i cant figure out who you are you cannot come into the country. There are other candidates, nikki haley has come to a different position and believes that it is permissible, it appears, to allow folks in. That is a moderate part of the republican party. She said that there is a way to ascertain. How . Thats what she said. I know, thats what i want to know, how. [laughter] if you see me moving around, i just cant help myself. The truth of the matter is that when you think about these policy positions, the one thing we have to ask ourselves is health this impacts i cant do it, im sorry. I have to go. How does this impact everyday americans, how do we make sure that we remain are the greatest nation on earth if we have no ability to discern who is coming into our country, if i cant figure that out as commanderinchief i have a responsibility to look back and say not on my watch. Our nation is just too important for me to a bad decisions under pressure, because i want to be popular. That does not work for me. The best thing we can do as we figure this out is hold up, hold up, hold up, until we get it right. In my opinion, you cant get there from here. Therefore if they come to our country its the right decision. Iran has lots of room and lots of funds and a lot of culpability. Other countries can handle, in the middle east, the challenges that we are seeing. Christ at this point in time, thats not something that the u. S. Should have, and as your perspective your perspective is that we should not be involved with anybody for the region. From a refugee standpoint, correct. I want to talk about some of the violence that we have seen in this country stemming out of what has been happening in israel. An illinois man was charged with a hate crime for allegedly stabbing a sixyearold muslim boy to death and injuring his mother, singling him out because of his faith. What is your reaction to this tragedy . Discussing, sounds like murder, lock him up. Ok. I can give you a longer answer. [laughter] heres my thought. Murder is murder. We should never, never find it ok for someone to kill someone because they hate them. That is not only a crime, that is immoral and unethical and it cannot be celebrated for any reason in our country. At the same time, the 71yearold dude who killed them, i cant imagine that level of hate, im a guy, as you can tell, well, thats not dont judge me too quick. Im a guy who comes from the deep south. [laughter] i understand racism and discrimination. I and thankful that our country has made tremendous progress in my lifetime, i really am. My eighth grade year we had a race right at the high school that i was going to go to next year. I gotta tell you, seeing the venom and the hate on display in my hometown as the place im going to spend my next four years of my life took me. Im a kid. Ive seen hate up close. And it is disgusting. Perios. D. We should not forget that over the last several months and several years we have seen the strongest increase in hate against jewish people in our country from a religious standpoint than any other religious group in the country. While we should see these as acts of hate against americans, blindfold, it does not matter where you are from who you worship, we should lock them up and throw away the key. But lets be aware about the antisemitism that has been spinning like a cancer in our country. It is real and it can be measured by the reports and the men walking in new york city who have been attacked we could go on and on and see the devastation of hate. Im here to tell you it should have no place in our nation and our country should rise up. I am will have more legislation on this next week. But the fact of the matter is, i think that i should be one of the leading voices against hate. Because i know what it feels like. It doesnt have to be directed towards me. I should stand in the gap. We should all be willing to stand in the fire. This is equitable time in our nation. Im going to sit back down, ok. This is in a church, dont worry about it, ill be back in a minute. Its something that is so important because one of the things we have missed in public life and policy and these very important conversations in the history of the world, one of the things that is so challenging is that people resort to violence as a response to their hatred. For someone who is just different. And you talked a lot about antisemitism, and concerns about that, the fbi says that they have been take been picking up increased threats against jewish people in the country as well as muslim people on both sides. As president , taking all of that holistically into account, what is your approach, its not just one purported sector of society, its perhaps mental, how would you do with that . You do with it with how youve dealt with it in the past. You need a president that leans into the debate and leads by example. It should call off all forms of hate, empowering the dj to be a system where justice wears a blind phone. Too many people in our country feel like lady justice has lost her blindfold. I know that we as conservatives believe that the pioche doj hunts people were conservative, whether you are a group of parents at the pta, called domestic terrorists, we believe that there is a problem. And we have others who believe that they have lost trust in the system. One of the way that you, as commanderinchief and president respond to this is by leaving and saying lady justice, her blindfold is back. You commit a crime, you go to jail. Thank you, i appreciate that. We have a question from a student at georgetown university. Thank you senator for speaking with us today. My name is will and my question is this. The topic of military aid for countries, notably ukraine and israel, has become increasingly partisan. To what extent do you believe the United States has an obligation to offer military aid to our allies and at what point if any do those obligations and . And . Thank you, what was your name . Will. What do you study . Government and chemistry. De mifi stand, will . Do you mind if i stand well . I get my shoes on. We should have these on. I was like seriously dude, searcy. One of the things i say is that what we need is a president who was specifically and clearly articulates Americas National vital interest and whatever we do, whether foreign assistance or more than 40 billion we spent helping countries, what is our return on the investment. When it comes to conflicts that we see, like ukraine, i would say that we need a president who says Americas National vital interest includes degrading the russian military, because by doing so we keep the homefront safe. And our nato allies who are contiguous with ukraine or russia if there is an article five attack on one, its an attack on all. If you are like me, you might not want to keep troops at home, safe, if i can degrade the russian military, by using the resources that the incredibly high price of ukrainian blood, it is a win win win. Its a win for ukraine. Its a win for my nato allies, which also means that it is a win by default for my military, our military, and finally is a win for the homeland. As it relates to israel, what we have already done is important. We passed that relationship for 75 years, in the last 18 years because of the advances that we have had, those have allowed us to benefit from our assistance with israel. We are getting it back. The same thing is true with ukraine. A lot of the resources that we sent over there, they are using them or come in the form of military purchases. We talk about how much we are spending, but we dont talk about how much is coming back to us. Its an incomplete company that had conversation. If we dont figure out how to deal with our southern border, we are it big link in investing in American Safety and security, because ultimately, several people from iran came across our border and are on measurable security watch lists. National security watch lists. I think that there will be another package forward that will give us an opportunity to weigh into some of that. Those are my answers on how we deal with making decisions. We could go back in history a little further, to 1990 with the clinton administration. They talked ukraine into giving up their nuclear weapons. With our assistance being part of that province. Alright senator, im going to need you back appear. I feel like im being put in timeout. To try to keep the conversation moving, we have lots of questions and get to, the next one is from the university of New Hampshire. Hello, my name is george, im a student at the university of new hatcher. What policies as president would you implement to further promote Legal Immigration into the United States . Ill sit right here, whatever you say. What i would say is very quick, it starts with ilLegal Immigration, unless we close the border it will be impossible for us to do anything about ilLegal Immigration. If we were able to accomplish that goal and that objective, i would then be able to focus on the front door, and we need to move to a meritocracy system. We have a workforce problem, 7 million or so open jobs in our country and no one is applying for those jobs. Therefore, for us to be able to fill our jobs we have to have a meritocracy on the immigration front. I think we would need some formula, im not sure what it should be, we should have bluecollar, artists and contractors, and white collar College Graduates that we want to state in the country. Why would i give you a visa to come to the country if you just go home and compete against us . 2024 had the highest 24 is the highest primetime age, wife would they stay here if there qualifying anyway . At the end of the day, we have to deal with the front door while our nation continues to age. Between now and soon, 810 years, america will have more people over 65 then under 18. Now we have the smallest Labor Force Participation rate among men 18twitter for that we have ever had. The ability to generate the revenue for government and the workforce for the future will require all of us to start having 57 kids per family. Were not replacing ourselves. We have a lot of work to do. Or were going to have to get serious on immigration policies. Lets go to clemson university. My name is caitlin, and i am part of the young women for america chapter at clemson university. What do you think is the current state of religious liberty around the world and what would your top priority be to advance religious liberty abroad . Thank you and congratulations on that. One of the things i would say is that america was founded upon the theory of religious liberty in the first to mimic, something we take very seriously. One of the reasons why people have the right to agree to disagree without being disagreeable, preferably, is because we provide people with a right that the vast majority of the world does not have, freedom of expression and religion. One thing i would do is to encourage that you dont have to believe the way i believe more at all, but one of the principles of who we are is to believe or not to believe and to be protected in those beliefs. Our next question comes from another student at georgetown. I look, a junior in business school. What is your response to figures in your party like dan crenshaw and lizzie con Lindsey Graham for a confrontation with iran, and how responsible is iran for that attack . Thanks to the question, are you sure youre not up littles Political Science major . That was a good question. I hold irene responsible. In a very big way. Hamas carried out the attacks, they were responsible for the funders of the attack, who came from iran. I would be shared with how we respond to iran because we want to make sure that israel has a singleminded focus bob we are planning while we are planning and focusing around the longterm. This is what they do with their money. We need to make sure they dont want to do that anymore, works which means you have to raise the price on them. Thats how we do with them. And to separate the price should be, in my estimation, it should be on multiple fronts. One thing i will hope to do tomorrow and the next day in may of this year, i cant member what the legislation is, it would stop the sunsetting of sanctions of on iran, and i would make their sanctions permanent because we have to have them extrinsic discomfort on the economic side. For every american hostage that has been taken, i would tell iran if they dont come home, part of the price paid will be paid by you. Thank you. Thank you for that question and answer, another question from georgetown university. Thank you so much for being here tonight, im sending government and environmental studies at georgetown. A question for you is do you believe that the u. S. Has obligations to send aid to democracies facing attacks from nondemocratic countries . Great question. The short answer is that i think we should encourage democracy but we do not have an obligation to always support democracies. There is a delineation between allies and democracies. We should encourage the flourishing of democracy across the world and the more we have the better off we are, that has been proven. The more flourishing and flourishing happens with the more democracies. I love when we have a chance to spread democracy. But i dont think that this nation has an obligation to support every democracy on the planet. Another question from the university of New Hampshire. Hello senator scott. I am a history and Political Science major at the university of New Hampshire. Regarding the rising tensions in the South China Sea and claims of several countries, mainly china, how does the u. S. Response to those claims . Working with partners, diplomatic efforts with china . Or Something Else . I appreciate the multiple choice options, thank you very much. [laughter] we should stand toe to with president xi jinping and make him understand that he is finding himself in a perilous position. We should make the sure that they stop buying farmland, stealing our intellectual property and spying on our children to compete against us. The way we do that is by having the robust Economic Opportunities graded here at home so that we are focusing more on supply chain costs and price and supply chain resiliency so that we have the ability to score ourselves if we learned anything to covid, its not depend on china to provide us with what we know our are this is are our necessities. Bill myon burrell, thats my plan to create 10 million jobs by focusing on energy resources, innovation, and launching 100,000 factories, why not remake them here at home, that can create 45,000,000 jobs, that is the first and best weapon, nonkinetic weapon that we have, if you our economy is as strong as humanly possible. That is a strong deterrent. What i would then do with china is focus on their ability to use our imagination. The definition of intellectual property is minds and imaginations. They take what we have and they try to recreate it. They partner with our companies a partnership which requires our companies to turnover our best and brightest ideas in the future to the chinese cons party, which i think is absolutely ridiculous. I would like that as well. First thing i would do, to make sure we continue, we still have the Strongest Military on the face of the earth, china is fast. They have done a great job with Hypersonic Weapons and nextgeneration jets. We need to do a better job with hypersonic missiles, if you cant see it, you cant shoot it, thats one of the defense secretary said, and thats important. If are going to get an economic return to become independent on more western allies, and then finally to be growing stronger with our own military systems. Finally, we need to focus on three specific areas. Minerals, medicine, and microchips. If we are going to be selfsufficient. Another question from georgetown university. Im a freshman studying Public Policy and environment of study. My question for you is as president , how would you address inward migration due to rising costs this placing those in coastal urban areas. I live in charleston, South Carolina. If you ever want to visit, please feel free. We are about two inches above or below sea level. One of the things i have done is i am on the Banking Committee, which we cover all the financial institutions, what you think he would imagine to be part of that portfolio is Flood Insurance while we see this more consistent activity. One thing that we cannot do is what i have to try to do is pass legislation. I would try as president to stop repetitive losses. 1 of losses in the Flood Insurance Program Based on the environment or Something Else, 1 of losses pay out about 30 of the resources of the national Flood Insurance program because we have so many people rebuilding exactly what they lost the property, not once, not twice, but dozens of times. The migration patterns, by the way, i am not sure that they are all i do not think that they are all about the environment. I think people find opportunities and they want to go live there and they find more places desirable and they want to go live there. We have seen an incredible influx of people into wellrun states like South Carolina and other states. Theyre attracting more people because their job market is good and taxes are low and the quality of life is fantastic. If i sound like a billboard for charleston its because i am. We want everybody who is smart to come toward town and make it their home. I dont know that i would put it all on one area, but those are things you can do. If you look at the result of the challenges that we are seeing within the five markets, where we see a huge influx of people flood markets, where we see a huge influx of people, the average Homeowner Insurance policy is 1700 dollars nationwide, in florida its 600 dollars, they have 70 of the suits, its so litigious, too many lawyers down yonder. That creates a powder cake for us. We have another question from georgetown university. Lots of georgetown university. It sums like its your alma mater or something. Hello senator scott, thank you for being here. My name is scott, i have a question about domestic and International Relations that your presidency would have with the country of india. My first question is, onto your presidency, how would the United States address rising religious tensions and islamophobia in india, and how would your Administration Work to cooperate with india on its Foreign Policy goals as with china . Its we will strengthen the areas where we are in alignment with. It felt like you asked a question that was a few hundred years old. India. India and pakistan, their relationships that come from religious challenges within the country, they are well documented for a very long time. Im not going to pretend to have a couple hundred years answered in 30 seconds to one minute, although i will try. One of the things that we continue to do is to ask our allies who are doing business with us to adopt a significant improved human rights significantly improved human rights challenge. We need to think about what they call up though. Call a go. Thats a partnership that we have in african markets where we try to have several key components of the enumerated to be part of the deal. I would love part of the trade negotiations and to have that same template used in india across the world. The other thing i will see is that brics, as shown i assume that you are familiar with all of that, those partnerships are something i would work to break, to be honest with you. There are percent of the worlds gdp. One of the goals it appears they have is to pull the world away from having the u. S. Dollar and the reserve currency. I would hope that i could woo india and other partners who have been on and off but relationship with us to have economic plans that would attract more resources into the partnership with us. And away from things like bricks. Brics. We have another question from georgetown university. I knew this was your alma mater, i tell you what. Thank you senator, i am a senior at georgetown. With the rokita currency has played in facilitating global terrorism, do you support efforts to crack down on its use senator warrens proposal, if not, why . Next question. Im sorry, i did not know i said that aloud. I was thinking it in my heart. [indiscernible] i do not support loose with wards approach to almost anything. Senator warrens approach to anything. There needs to be certainty and predictability brought into the crypto appeared and there are two paths you see forward, one being the ftc and the other third agricultural worlds. The cftc is led by Ranking Member boseman, who has spent a lot of time working with firms to figure out the rules of the road. One of the challenges that we have, i assume you know this, is that much of the consternation about regulation in america is pushing the Crypto Technology abroad and into foreign territory, which i think is longterm and could be problematic, particularly with blockchain technology. Its very easy to be opposed to the crypto conversation. I have taken the approach that since the alumnus on my committee has legislation that works in that direction, i would rather see her approach coupled with bosemans approach to provide the Regulatory Framework that whats would provide stability incredible take to what is likely, in some form or fashion, a serious part of our financial future. Thank you senator. Yes sir. Can you guess what we have next . A New Hampshire student. One and from georgetown. I love that, though he is. Thank you for being here with us senator, i am at the Financial Services program here in georgetown. Given your support for free trade, do you believe President Trumps withdrawal from the Transpacific Partnership was a mistake, allowing the china china to dominate the indo pacific, and would you follow his isolationist approach or continue with President Bidens stance in the indo pacific . I would just do it my own way. Let me just expand why. One of the things about this is that 11 countries, there about, 10 or 11 countries, 40 of the worlds gdp creating a coalition and we have an allergic reaction to multilateral trade deals. It weakened our countries negotiating position. What i would say is that having america on trading on our terms, which was part of the tpa, that allowed for us to set the parameters that would be necessary for us to then create a path forward. I dont have an issue with multilateral. I dont think that we should get back on it, but giving anybody other than us the prime position to dictate japan and the asian market is a mistake. I dont know that we should be in the deal, but we should be a part of leaving the conversation on new trade agreements that improve access to the world market for our companies, because frankly the world has access to our markets, typically without significant headwinds save for tariffs during the trump years where we focused on hitting china for their blind behavior in multiple ways which i thought was prudent, even though i am a free trader, i think a bad actor is just a bad actor sometimes. Senator, i have one final question for you. Hello, im still here. You are running for the gop nomination against a former present, former Vice President , former u. N. Ambassador, how does your Foreign Policy states stack up against theirs. Really well, to be honest with you. I served on the Armed Services committee, and on the relations committee, and the being delayed person on the Banking Committee for republican, which encompasses all of our sanctions worldwide, thats awful. Ive been on the finance committee for eight or nine years where we are trading dealing with trade deals and primary parts of the funding apparatus from our budget to our programs, and that gives me a wealth of experience that eclipses all them. More importantly, having started and run businesses with my own money is infinitely more important from an executive position to make a good top decision and having had the opportunity to travel in business and congress, that, nation puts me in the strongest position possible to understand the role far more than a few years doing this that or the other. I speak from his parents and depth of experience, and i have the personal wherewithal which will be very helpful, ill go up against anybody any day anyway. Thank you for that answer and for answering all the questions tonight. We appreciate your participation between georgetown and the associated press. That include concludes the second installment of our conversation series with contenders, stay tuned for the next candidate who will be taking time to talk about these important issues with us, and thank you for being with us here tonight. [applause]