Congressman ron desantis and mayor Andruw Gillum of tallahassee. [ applause ] gentlemen, before we start, a reminder of the rules to which you both agreed. You will have 70 seconds to answer my questions and 30 seconds for responses and rebuttals. The timing lights positioned around the studio will hopefully guide you and make it not necessary for me to stop you from talking. Lets begin with opening statements. Each of you has one minute. Were going to start with congressman desanties. Well, thanks, jake. Let me say hello to my wife casey who is here. You know, we have two kids under 2 and when youre out on the campaign trail, its very difficult, and she manages to hold it all together so i love you and thank you. I am ron desantis. Im an iraq veteran. Im a former prosecutor, and im on a mission to protect floridas future for a generation. We need to protect the economic momentum that weve enjoyed, but you cant do that if you do what andrew wants to do which is to raise taxes 40 and introduce a lot of new taxes. That will stop our economy. That will cost jocks. I also think we need to protect our environment and clean our water, restore the everglades and red tide. Ive been endorsed by everglades trust. Im the guy that can get that done, and i also want to protect our communities. That means standing with Law Enforcement. That means fighting sanctuary cities. That means not allowing the opioid peddlers to get their way. Andrew is a failed mayor. Hes presided over a crimeridden city. Hes involved in corruption. Hes not the guy to lead our state. Ive worn the uniform. Ive protected our communities. Ive stood for taxpayers. As governor ill stand for you, and i will protect floridas future. Mayor gillum. Indeed, that was a mouthful. My name is andrew glump. In addition to being the mayor of floridas capital city, im the proud husband to my wife r. J. Who is here this evening. Dad to my three children, davis, jackson and caroline, son to my mother frances who was a School Bus Driver growing up and my dead charles who was a construction worker. Im the fifth of seven children and the first of my siblings to graduate from high school, and the first to graduate from college. Im here this evening standing for anybody who has ever been told that they dont belong, that they didnt come from the right background or the right pedigree. Im here fighting for everyday floridians so that this is a state that works for all of us again. Im honored to be the democratic nominee for governor, but more importantly im extremely proud to be a floridian, and if you give me the opportunity to sever i promise to work fda on behalf of everyday floridians. Thanks and im looking forward to a very engaged conversation. Thank you to both of you. Congressman desantis, florida is still recovering from the devastating impact of Hurricane Michael with at least 26 floridians killed. There is Scientific Consensus that warmer waters from Climate Change are making hurricanes stronger as well as a stark warning that the world just received from the United Nations about Climate Change. You recently said that youre not a Climate Change believer youre not a Climate Change denier but you dont want to be labeled a believer in Climate Change. Given the threats florida faces from win tense hurricanes and rising sea levels dont florida voters know where you want to stand on this issue . I said i dont want to be an alarmist. I want to look at this and do what makes sense. For the people in northwest florida, i will be there for you. You guys are resilient. Youre fighting. This was a terrible storm. And we will rebuild. But i also think have you to just look at facts. Fact you is look at south florida. We need to do resiliency. Have you more water. You have flooding, so as governor thats something that im going to take on full throttle. What i dont want to do is do things like what andrew wants to do which is do a californiastyle Energy Policy that will cause our electricity tries the skyrocket, 20 , 30 . Thats going to hurt Senior Citizens on a fixed income. That will hurt our Blue Collar Workers, so lets deal with the issues that we can deal with. Im somebody who has a plan to fix, to stop the toxic algae thats been spewing into our rivers, to divert that south of the lake, restore the everglades and restore florida bay. We can get that done. I think im the candidate that can get that done, and i think now is the time to do it because if we dont take action over the next four years i dont know if well ever be able to restore the everglades to their rightful play. Mayor gullium. First, what florida voters need to know when they elect me governor they have a governor that believes in science that we havent had for quite some time in this state. Im not sure what is so california about believing the state of florida ought to lead in solar energy. Were known as the sunshine state. At the very least what we can do is be a Global Leader here. Weve got to teach the other 49 states of what to do and what it means to have a state that quite frankly leans into the challenges of the Green Economy and builds one and at the same time builds an economy that lasts. Im proud that the same week that donald trump pulled out of the paris accord, i broke ground in my city on a 120acre solar farm, tripling the amount of solar energy we produce. Were prepared to lead and weve done so in my city and we will do so in the state. You have a tv air called toxic air, red tides and algae blooms in florida, an economic and environmental disaster. People are getting sick and marine li marine life is washing up on floridas beaches. Which industries should be put on notice right now and what should they have to change . Well, ill say first the industries that need to be put on notice are the ones that have given my pundit over 300,000, some of the biggest polluters in my state. As the mayor of tallahassee we have a spray field. When we learned that that spray field was dumping high levels of nitrates into our groundwater and toxifying the the springs, we went and began to street that facility at the tertiary level the truth is the there tease not one singular issue and interest responsible for some of the climate adjustments and some of the blue and green algae. Not only is it agriculture that plays a role but some of the hyperdevelopment taking place north of lake okeechobee. Weve got to deal with all that have in this state, and as governor, because these are not the interests funding me, im going to have the courage of my conviction to hold those folks who are the biggest polluters accountable and responsible for the degradation of our environment. For 0 years weve handed over the keys of Environmental Protection in this state to quite frankly, again, the biggest corporate polluters. Were going to hole them accountable because this is our air, our water, our beaches, our oceans, and theres not a profit margin in this state big enough to take control of that. Thats interesting revisionist history are. I ran in the republican primary stressing the need for clean water. I stood up to the most entrenched interests in florida. I had 17 million spent against me, many of that from people who opposed my view on cleaning up our water. I was the one that got white house approval for the federal component of the Southern Reservoir which we will get online. We will build because what you need to do is you need to send water into that reservoir, clean it, send it south to the everglades and florida bay so youre not discharging the polluted water into the estuaries. Ill be able to get that done. Andrew wants to impeach drew. Youve got to be able to work with the administration because you have to work with the army corps, youve got to know the key people in the administration. Otherwise were never going to be able to solve of the problem. Im the only guy that can do it. Well, i think its worth noting that the the former member of congress voted 33 times while a member of the congress against clean water. In washington, d. C. I think some of the largest environmental groups gave him 3 out of 100. I went to school in gainesville, florida, with people who never went to class. They never got a 3. The congressman couldnt do any better than that. Why did i get endorsed by everglades fact . Hes an Election Year environmentalist. Yeah, right. But his record is going to come to bear in the race because you cant flip what has been six years of environmental disregard. Go ahead, congressman. Im endorse it had by the everglades trust, a Gold Standard and one of the few republicans. I have the scars from fighting this fight. When he talks about the environmental votes, i dont want to shut down like the coal industry in west virginia. For florida ive been there fighting restoration, fighting the red algae or red tide, ive been there every step of the way and thats why ive been recognized and thats why ive been endorsed and andrew has not. The board of the Everglades Foundation is made up of three people. The same board gave 250,000 to the Republican Party in the state of florida, and one of the three Board Members then dissented and joined me. Im endorsed by a number of environmental organizations, some of the National Leading ones because of my record, not what im saying in a campaign but what ive actually done as mayor. Would i like to turn to healthcare, mayor gillum. Youd like to ebb sure all floridians through medicare, not just over the age of 65. Congressman desantis says you have a, quote, far left socialist platt foreign. Why is he wrong . Well, hes wrong pause hes wrong but hes been wrong a long time. Here in the state of florida, i am in favor, and i know t tom lee is here in the audience. He was a member of the senate that helped to pass Medicaid Expansion in this state by 391 in the Florida Senate under republican control, an effort that my opponent opposes. If we expand medicaid here in the florida, well extend access to healthcare for over 800,000 of the most medically needed floridians, 800,000, and by doing so well be able to pull down 6 billion from the federal government that right now is being given away to other states because we philosophically disagree with getting folks access to healthcare. There are hospitals who want this. There are doctors and nurses associations. We can build floridas economy simply by extending access to healthcare. Guess what, its not only good for those 800,000 people who will get access, its good for folks like me and Small Businesses who right now cant afford to get access to healthcare because quite frankly its too expensive and out of reach. Were completely in bounds with what are the concerns of everyday floridians which why when i win this race well work to expand diligently for medicaid for 800,000 people. Medicare for saul euphemism because if you read it it abolishes medicare for seniors and abolishes Medicare Advantage and tricare and as a veteran i know military families depend on it. If you get your insurance through your employer it abolishes that and dumps all those people against their will regardless if they want to stay in their current plans, dumps them on a single payer government system. Taxes will go through the roof. Well face fiscal difficulties, and it will him rooj money and then the government will decide who gets the care and who doesnt. Floridians should have their care protected. Seniors should be able to stay with Medicare Advantage and medicare. If you get it through your employer you should be able to keep it. Well, again, and i expect well hear a lot of this revisionist commentary and history this evening from mr. Desantis, but in fact what were proposing to do is take 6 billion of money that ought to be coming into the state of florida and bring that money here to the state. Listen, there are democrats and republicans, folks on both sides of the aisle who believe that this is the right thing to do. Mr. Desantis, while in congress, voted to discriminate and allow Insurance Companies to discriminate against people based off of preexisting conditions. If youre a cancer patient, if you have diabetes and you are in the state of florida thats a preexisting program. You voted for the Republican Health care plan in the house which would have strapped obamacares provisions for preexisting chair. Do you think Insurance Companies should be able to charge more for preexisting conditions. In that bill they were required to be covered. It gave states the ability to it be able to do that in a way that would lower premiums for other people. Heres what i would say as governor, if somebody falls through a crack, a change in law federally or court decision, i will sign a bill to take care of people with preexisting conditions. We need to take care of those folks. You know. What i know people in the military, families with people with preexisting conditions on tricare. Andrew is running away for medicare for all and ran commercials in the primary saying he was for t. Medicare for all takes away tricare t. Forces military families on to a singlepayer government plan so heres the thing. I want protections. I want to have lay lot of things for plans, but you actually have to have access to a physician. Out cant get stuck on a waiting list. And you single payer plan, that will make the v. A. Waiting list look like a fast bass at disney world. Mayor gillum . Mr. Desantis wants to correct his restraining order now and he voted over a dozen times to repeal the aca. He voted to allow Insurance Companies to dim krim nate against people with preexisting conditions. For those people at home, sitting on a couch with one other person, between the two of you probably one of you has a preexisting condition, and this congressman would have allowed for Insurance Companies to discriminate you based off the preexisting conditions. He told a Cancer Patients without insurance cover, how would you get access to he canary, can you always go to the emergency room. Let me respond to that. The point was when you talk about this coverage, what does that coverage get you . The fact is with Medicaid Expansion, people didnt have access to doctors. Most physicians do not accept new medicaid patients, so the reality is you have people with that card but they are going to the hospital for primary care. I dont think thats a good thing, but that in fact is the reality. Healthcare is the major issue on floridians minds. Everyday floridians are concerned about getting sick because if they get sick in this state they cant go to work. If they go to work they cant earn a wage. If they cant earn a wage they cant pay their bills and when they dont pay their bills something gets caught off. Thank you. This issue is deserving of our time because this is not something we can just walk past. This is the issue that is at the top of mind for everyday floridians, and we deserve to hear from the congressman exactly what his healthcare proposal is. Hes been promising one for months. Final word, congress. Look, andrew wants to take away employerprovided gonchlg. Not true. Thinks it should be illegal. You support medicare for all. Define medicare for all. You said you supported single payer. You said you would do a single payer confederacy with new york and california. Man, our taxes will go up and well send all the money to california . Thats not had a good Healthcare Plan for floridians so i want to protect peoples current arrangements. Governments should not force you off your plans. And neither would i. The congressman, again, his votes have delude him into his own definition. So you dont support Bernie Sanders medicare for all . I support expanding medicaid for over 800,000 floridians access to the single payer bill, would you sign it or veto, would you sign it, would you sign the bill for singlepayer healthcare, you wouldnt sign it . I should also say this because this is clearly fun and games for the congressman, but for me i grew up having to wait for the free Dental Clinic to come do our neighborhood in order to get our teeth cleaned. I was accustomed to going to the Emergency Rooms because i thought that was the emergency root i didnt realize you were supposed to have a doctor and a regular relationship. This is not politics. This is real. I want to turn to the economy. Congressman desantis, Walt Disney World recently announce it will boost employee minimum wage to 15 and mayor gillum wants to raise the minimum wage by 2026 to 15. What do you think the minimum wage should be going . Andrew is proposing a 40 tax increase that will cost jobs and cause businesses to leave florida, and that will stop the flow of investment that were poised to get in light of our Good Business climate. Andrew will not say hell have to raise more taxes. A recent nonpartisan study that looked at all his spending proposals, and they concluded that to pay for it he would either need to do a 38 sales tax statewide or impose a state income tax. If that happens, florida is done. I want higher wages, but the way to do that is to keep taxes low, to keep the flow of investment coming into florida. I think we can expand in mfrmgt i think we can expand in technology. I think we can expand in finance. That will lead to higher paying jobs. Disney did that because they are doing well. You dont have government mandated. We have it in our state constitution, it goes up with inflation. I think thats the way to go. I made 6 an hour starting out. I had nothing. I had to work to get through college. I worked every type of odd job, and i can tell you if andrews policies were in play, i wouldnt have made 15. I would have made zero because i wouldnt have had the job. I dont want to replace florida jobs with key iosks. I dont want people starting out like me not to make it with opportunities to get ahead. I want no compliment disney for doing the right thing, moving their workers to a 15 minimum wage, and the reason why that is important is because when working people get a wage, they go out and they buy groceries. They pay their rent and they pay their mortgage. They maybe save up enough to take a vacation every once in a while, and you know what, this shouldnt be too much to ask in the state of florida. 44 of the people in our state, 44, say that they cannot make ends meet at the end of the month. Nearly half the people in this state. Of the 67 counties, 36 of them are doing worse today than they were doing in 2007. Weve got to build a more robust economy that makes way for people to have one job instead of multiple jobs. Heres the problem. Andrew this has been tried. Seattle imposed a mandatory 15 minimum wage. What happened . Businesses left city. People lost jobs, but even the people who did see the bump from say 12 to 15, ended up with less take home pay because their hours got reduced so its an incentive for automation and quite frankly it will be incentive for more people to come illegally to undercut the Blue Collar Workers wages so this has been tried. It has not worked, and i dont want to see hundreds of thousands of jobs lost because of bad policy imposed in addition to his tax increases. Mayor gillum, let me ask you. You want to raise taxes on corporations to finance your age damp the florida economy under Governor Scott added 1. 5 million new jobs. How can you guarantee that your proposed tax increase will not halt that growth . Yeah. Lowwage jobs under this governor. Lets be clear about what were proposing because my opponent and their campaign have pushed out all kinds of false information about what were propose, so lets be clear. One, there is not a state income tax here in the state of florida. Im not propose one. In the state of florida, 97 of businesses dont pay any taxes at all. Im not proposing to change that. Our proposal that for the 2 of the wealthiest corporations in this state, 3 , who under the trump tax scam supported by my colleague here walked away with 6. 3 billion our money, working peoples money, all were saying is that corporations can feep 5. 3 billion but were going to take a billion of that and invest in Public Education in this state of the right now florida, teacher salaries average 45th lowest of all 50 states. The Third Largest state in america. 45th lowest and what were also saying is for our young people who need access to the kind of skills training that used to exist, woodwork, shop, mechanical, electrical, technical, were going to reintroduce that back into our Public Education system so that we can train the workers that will then go and do the jobs that corporations are andrew has had a lifetime of supporting higher taxes. Advocated a higher sales tax in tallahassee on the commission. When he was on the commission, he voted to raise property taxes on middle income taxpayers even though he voted to give himself 80,000 in additional Retirement Benefits so more benefits for him and higher taxes for you. That doesnt work, and, of course, as mayor he imposed a stiff property tax increase on middle income tallahassee folks so he supports higher federal taxes, does support the 40 tax increase and heres the thing. If you believe with that record that he aint going to raise your taxes, then ive got some ocean front property in arizona id like to sell you well, let me be clear. Again, the congressman is not well studied on the record. Im the mayor of the capital city of the state of florida. We are among the Fastest Growing economy in the state of florida per capita, one of the Fastest Growing in the nation per capita. We won during the Obama Administration a tech higher designation to retrain the workers on the technologyrelated jobs that they need today. The congressman can speak from the cheap seats because hes never led a city. He spent six years in congress, and while in the Majority Party in Congress Never passed a single piece of legislation. Thank you. Hes not interesting in governing. Hes interested in destroying. Under his leadership tallahassee is the most crime ridden city. Last year tallahassee had the highest number of murders in the history of the city. People dont feel safe in hall tallahassee. You have burglaries and crime theft and violent crime. Hes failed the people of at all has we that record and he did raise taxes. He didnt deny it. He imposed a stiff property tax increase even though he voted to give himself tens of thousands of dollars of additional benefits. Mr. Mayor . Just so that the congressman can be aware. We dont collect enough in youre city to pay for the police department. He goes out touting endavid ortizments for the police. When we went to our citizens and taxpayers they joined with us, very little pushback and making sure we could hire 50 new Law Enforcement officers to help keep our communities safe. I preside right now over a city thats experiencing a fiveyear low in our crime rate, and were on trajectory to be at a 20year low. We are the eighth largest city in the state of florida, and were 28th in crime. Those are the facts. Thank you. No faux facts. More murders than higher murder rate than orlando hand miami. Thats just a fact. Tallahassee, neighborhoodscout. Com said at all hassy. Who is half heard of that . I inform size anywhere in the country. Well, the facts are the facts and youre presiding over a very crimeridden city and its dangerous for people. Makers i want to bring up an issue plaguing each one of you. Ill start with you, mayor gillum. The fbi has been investigating potential corruption in tallahassee for three years. The probe appears to include lobbyists and former Campaign Treasurer for you, aldage core de. Youve been trying to distance yourself with cory but youve been friends with him for a decade and two trips you took together are part of the investigation. How can floridians trust your judgment when someone under fbi investigation was part of your inner circle . We all have friends that sometimes let us down, and the truth is the let me be very clear about what the record s. I am not under fbi investigation and neither is my city government. And what we have done is we welcomed them in. If there is something who has done something wrong, they ought to be held fully accountable for their actions. Weve made every record available on a pubically searchable website. In contrast how ive dealt with the fbi in comparison by how mr. Desantis has dealt with the fbi. Hes gone out of his way before he quit his job in congress to protect donald trump, to curb the inquiry by mr. Mueller. He has gone even so far as to suggest that some deep state is at work to undermine the presidency. I mean, hes a conspiracy theorist, if you will, so if you take the way that weve dealt with their investigation as opposed to how mr. Desantis has dealt with it, ill take our example every single day of the week. The difference between and drew and me when i dealt with the fbi as a prosecutor i was working hand in hand with them to deal with justice. When andrew deals with them hes dealing with an undercover agent posing as a contractor who he was on a junket with in new york. You went to a broadway show with an undercover fbi agent. You went to costa rica with these same lobbyists, and guess what happened. The lobbyists that wined and dined andrew, they got a 2 million grant from the city government, so to me corruption is when youre in a position of power, youre getting something you shouldnt have had h. Shouldnt have gotten the broadway tickets, shouldnt have gotten the trip to costa rica and then you give something to someone in return. He gave 2 million to the same lobbyists. Mayor gillum . Let me be very clear. First of all, im a grown man. My wife and i take vacations and we pay for our own vacations. I didnt get anything in life for free. I got it by working for it so if the congressman is suggesting that because i have friends that i dont choose their professions, that somehow that makes me in some way less than ethical. Did you pay for hamilton . He ought to check himself. Did you pay for the trip . You have your time. Because you wont answer the question. You wont answer the question. The congressman himself accepted money in fact, he left his job in congress because he was under ethics investigation. Not true. He went and stayed in a home in washington, d. C. As a kickback and Left Congress before that inquiry could be completed. Thats a lie. Thats a fact. I lived in my office in washington. You know what i did when i got to corporation i declined all the perks, i declined the pension and the special healthcare subsidies. The first bill i passed stopped a pay increase for members of congress. What he said is wrong. Hes used the office to benefit himself. I put taxpayers first and gave up any perks because i think people are civic that, but question is did you pay for the hamilton ticket or did the undercover fbi agent pay for the ticket . Did you pay to stay in the villa in costa rica . Where are the receipts . You have not proven that youve paid for anything and thats the problem. Heres the direct answer. I dont take free trips from anybody. Im a hard working person. I know that may not fit your description of what you think people like me do, but i worked hard for everything that ive gotten in my life, and i dont need anybody handing me anything for free, but toss more specific about this congressman cincy hes bringing up receipts. This florida taxpayers deserve to know what he did with 145,000 of travel money as a member of congress that refuses to allow us to see the receipts. Even more, he said if i release my tax returns, which we have done, he would release his. I have. Were still waiting for the congressman to release the tax returns. I dont have anything to hide. Will you also release the 145,000 in travel receipts that are out there that you took public money, our money, went to new york city. Its all on record. Take every expense we do on that its a red herring. Its all this. Congressman desantis, let me turn to an issue plaguing your campaign. One of your donors called president barack obama the n word, denounced the comments and did not return the money. You said florida voters shouldnt monkey this up by elect mayor glumpt you insisted your comments had nothing to do to race but what do you say to florida voters who have concerns but keeping that money from the contributor, your comments and about your tolerance . Because he made a mistake, he apologized. Heres the deal. You know, you look at my record, whether its in the military, when were down range in iraq it didnt matter your race. We all wore the same uniform. We all had that American Flag patch on our arm, and that was end of story. You look at me as a prosecutor, working with Law Enforcement, it didnt matter the race of the victim. We were there to support the race of the victim toe floridians can know that ill be a governor for all floridians. Thats the only way you can do it. It doesnt mean were going to agree on every issue, but if we disagree tomorrow, maybe two weeks later well find some Common Ground so that is what i believe. Heres the thing. I look at what andrew has done in terms of aligning himself with groups like the dream defenders, he stood on the debate stage and said he stood with them and by them but one of their main planks of their platform is to boycott divested and sanction the state of israel. They say israel is a genocidal apartheid state and attack Law Enforcement and the police so that to me is very divisive. I dont think he should have signed the dream defenders pledge. If you want to unify florida, taking positions about israel like that, that may be unifying if youre running for the mayor of the gaza strip. It aint unifying here. Were a proisrael state and we need to do that. Mr. Mayor. Let me just simply say, my relationship with israel is beyond reproach. Im the mayor of the city that has a sister relationship with the city of ramaha sharpe. Ive been to israel three times and had rabbis from my Community Come to my defense in this regard. That was a clever attempt to get away from the fact that mr. Desantis himself used to moderate a xenophobic racist facebook page. That is not true. It is, up until you became the republican nominee. Lets go one at a time. When you became the republican nominee your response was i dont even do social media after you got caught. Thank you. Youve spoken at conferences jake, his his turn. On the facebook stuff you can get added to these things without consent. I never consented to anything. You can . I never consented to anything. Once we found out about it i kiss discontinued my facebook thing. He mentions this conference. Nothing wrong with that conference. The keynote speaker at that conference was a medal of honor recipient named clint r ho mashay, you inimpugn his integrity like you can mine. That man is an american hero. Youve not worn the uniform and i was proud to speak at the same conference he spoke at mr. Mayor. The congressman let us know exactly where he was going to take the race the day after he won the nomination, the monkey up comment said it all and hes only continued in the course of his campaign to draw all the attention he can to the color of my skin, and at truth is im black, ive been black all my life and so far as i know ill die black and this is point. The only color that the people the state of florida care about is the green blue algae flowing out of the state and they deserve a government that will protect the environment after 20 years of environmental segregation. They also deserve a government who will stand by their men and women in Law Enforcement the fact is andrew signed a pledge with the dream defenders pledging to support that radical manifesto. If you read, that they are so vicious about hating Law Enforcement. They say the police and prisons have no place in justice and that Law Enforcement should be defunded and the money diverted for welfare programs. The people who put on that program and risk their lives for us should be applauded. They should not be denigrated by a radical pledge. You should not have signed that. Thank you. Thats a huge mistake. First of all, i have no idea what pledge hes talking about. The only thing that i said is that as governor i will not see private prisons operating here in the state of florida. If you want to know about my record with police, because ive got public defenders and sheriffs all over the state who endorse me in this race for governor. Weve hired more Law Enforcement officers so they could do their job. Thank you so much. Well take a quick break and well be right back with the cnn florida governors race debate. Thank you so much. [stomach gurgles] when you have nausea, heartburn, indigestion, upset stomach, diarrhea. Girl, pepto ultra coating will treat your stomach right. Nausea, heartburn, indigestion, upset stomach, diarrhea. Try new pepto with ultra coating. [ applause ] welcome back to cnns Gubernatorial Debate here in florida between tallahassee mayor gillum and congressman ron desantis. Theres an estimated 150,000 undocumented immigrants living in the state of florida. Mayor gillum, let me start with you. You said florida must be a welcoming state for all people. Does that mean that the 850,000 undocumented immigrants living here should be granted u. S. Citizenship . No. What i believe is we ought to have real comprehensive real Immigration Reform in this country. While mr. Desantis was in congress, they did absolutely nothing to deal with the 20 Million People in the United States who were here in an undocumented form. We should not be terrorizing people here in this country who are babies, that are nursing with their parents, with their mothers. Right now we have no real comprehensive way to deal with this challenge, and what ive simply said were not going to become here in the state of florida is a state where we basically become a show me your paper state based off the color of their skin, the language that they speak and the neighborhood this they live in. Thats not the american way and who we are as floridians. We should have had a congress that demonstrated that they could do their job by dealing with the 20 million undocumented folks that we have here in the United States. Congressman desantis. I mean, im concerned about mayor gillums platform about be a publishing immigration and Customs Enforcement and having an open border and having sanctuary cities and a sanctuary city. Thats a wet kiss to the drug cartels. Weve got a major opioid endeckic. Must of that is being fueled by Prescription Medications by fentanyl being sent in from china and Central America and brought across the border. He says he wont cooperate with the Trump Administration with respect to illegal immigration but if someone is here illegally and committing a criminal defense ive got to honor the detainer request. I will as governor and ill make sure those individuals are gorsuch to the Trump Administration so they can be repatriated to their home countries r. The safety of our floridians is first. Thats why this administration is on the wrong path in the way that it dealings with immigration and bothered control, and instead of tracking these containers of fentanyl that are coming in from asia, instead of dealing with drug traffickers, with sex traffickers, they have turned their attention to babies, caging them and ripping kids away from their mother. I believe in a border. I believe that we have borders. I believe in the laws that exist in this state as they exist around Immigration Reform and obviously keeping our communities safe which is why i preside over a city thats experiencing a low end of the crime rate. He just doesnt want to enforce any laws. He says he wants to believe in laws but wants sanctuary cities. Congressman decanties, would you request that the federal government deport all 850,000 undocumented workers in florida . Were not in the immigration business and if somebody comes in contact and they are here illegally then i think thats when you work with the federal government, but what weve got to the do run of the mill crime, sheriffs. Ive been endorsed by over 50 sheriffs which ive very proud of, Police Benevolent association endorsed me, state troopers, huge level of support from Law Enforcement. They have to keep their eye on the ball but anyone here illegally. If you pleau left a child and you get convicted here, youre here illegally. You need to immediately upon finishing sentence be given to i. C. E. , and you need to be sent back to your home country. Andrew during the primary said he wanted to abolish i. C. E. , said he would not cooperate with the Trump Administration visavis illegal immigration. That means youre going to have more crime in florida, and this is a mayor who presides over one of the most crimeridden cities in our state. They have the Record Number of murders last year in tallahassee. In fact, they had to send in the florida Highway Patrol recently for an operation called all in because crime is so out of control they needed the help stop the bleeding. Thank you. The congressman went to far too many good schools to not get it, and my city, what we have said, is one, to replace i. C. E. And put it inside the department of justice, an organization that would at least have fidelity to the law. Second, what weve said is if you commit a crime in our community, you will be arrested and you will be dealt with and prosecuted under the left and to the fullest extent of law. Will you cooperate with trumps i. C. E. . That does not gel with what the congressman just said but its clear he has no relationship with the truth. Will you honor a request from Donald Trumps i. C. E. Agency, if they provide a detainer request will you honor it as government . Will you work with donald trump, yes or no. You can proceed with time. Jake, thats important because thats what happens when somebody is a criminal. Ive been a prosecutor, ive worked with Law Enforcement. When they are in the system, they are convicted, maybe they serve ten years, but it comes time to come out. Theres a detainer request from i. C. E. , you turn him over to i. C. E. Or relies him into the community. Andrew will not answer the question. That tells me hed be willing to release them back. Would you like to answer the question. I just think that the showboating is unnecessary. What we will do is we will follow the law. If you commit a crime, you do the time. If through the adjudicatory process and a judge issues a warrant for an arrest or movement into an i. C. E. Facility thats not the way it works. By the way, the congressman has determined by the Supreme Court to be unconstitutional. I want to move on to another i want to move on to another topic. In february of this year, a gunman opened fire at Marjory StonemanDouglas High School in parkland and murdered 17 students, teachers and staff. Following the tragedy new legislation in florida raised the minimum age to purchase a firearm, banned bump stocks and provided funding for Mental Health assistance in schools and for arming some teachers and staff. Congressman desantis, republican governor rick scott signed this legislation into Law Enforcement you say you would have vetoed it. Why . You know, jake, last year at the congressional baseball game we had a shooting and steve ask a lease my friend got shot. Three minutes away from income that fire and that real shocked me, but i can tell you casey andry young parents and parkland, even though i wasnt there and the congressional shooting was much closer to me, park lapd had more of an effect on my wife and me because of our two Young Children so i think that the School Security is something im working with andy polak whose daughter meadow tragically lost her life there. Were going to fix it in terms of School Security. I think the blanket restriction on age is going to get struck down by the courts. Im a big supporter of the School Security. I think we need to do more, and i think we have to take some of these people who are causing problems like this killer, he should have been convicted of crimes. He should have been baker acted. He should not have been on the streets, and so im going to work with andy and work with our Law Enforcement people to identify those people who should not have access to weapons and indeed should not be on the street at all. Mayor gillum. The congressman was against the piece of legislation because hes wholly owned by the nr ha. He wasnt stand up to the National Rifle association. Thats why they are running all these ads against me because they want the man that they bought. In my case were prepared to stand up to the nra. They sued me and drug me through court for two years all because we said we would not allow guns to be shot in a city park. Radical. That you cannot shoot guns in a park where our kids play and families picnic. Thats why people are so incensed by this. Common sense and decency seem not to be able to prevail in this conversation. The problem that andrew has though is his record as mayor is one providing over a city thats out of control in terms of crime. When you have the Record Number of murders, in fact, the guy running to succeed him as mayor was his former chief of staffed and hes sending out literature saying most murders in history last year, something needs to change. Andrew couldnt keep tallahassee safe, hes not the guy to keep florida families save. Ron is being don, and thats donald trump, neglecting all sense of reason and facts. I preside over a city thats experiencing a fiveyear low in our crime rate on trajectory to be at a 20year low in our crime rate. No matter of restatement of what he has to say is going to change the facts. Ins cnn, not fox. Have you to bring facts to the conversation. Record number of murders last year, yes or no . In our case we are the eighth largest city and 27th in crime. Did you have record murderers . One at a time. What florida voters understand is that communities will experience crime. Just in jacksonville earlier today thank you. Six people shot. The question is what are we going to do about if, and what im going to do is take on the nra and hold them responsible for the rampant crime in our cities. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is currently investigating sheriff israel who supports your campaign for the handling of the parkland massacre and he told me in an interview his leadership was amazing. Do you think his leadership was amazing . No, i dont. I think there were failures on many sides, quite frankly. I think scott israel is independently she elected by broward county, and they are the ones who have a say about what they think about his job, but more importantly, it is an easy tactic to go after scott israel rather than actually taking on the folks who are complicit in the kind of rampant violence that we see, in the only in our schools, but in our neighborhoods. Our kids right now are going to school having to be taught what to do in active shooter drills rather than learning arts and science and language when arts and history and culture and politics. Parents are literally terrified in they drop their kids off at school they want to know when they go to pick them up, will they pick them up alive and body bags . Thats unacceptable in this state and we deserve a governor who will stand up to one of the most powerful lobbies who stand in the way of any common sense gun reform. The way to keep people safe is to have account ability for the people in a let our communities down. Our parents, sheriff israel let that community down, the school board and the school straighter let the community down. They adopted a Promise Program which said if a student is getting into trouble, were going to pretend that hes not committing offenses. That individual should have been arrested and, of course, the fbi who ignored that plea for help from that great lady in january. Nobody has been fired at the fbi. We have a crisis of accountability at all levels of government. I think israel should have been removed from office by the governor, and i think there needs to be change in both broward and in the fbi as a result of this failure. Whoever wins the governorship on november 6 will have to work with the federal government and with President Trump. Congressman desantis, you featured your children in a campaign ad in which you were encouraging them to, quote, build a wall out of toy blocks and reading a childrens story about the president saying youre fired. Do you think President Trump is a good role model for the children of florida . Gentlemanic, my wife and i were poking a little fun at ourselves because of the way the campaign was going and im proud of my family though. I dont actually read the art of the deal to my son mason, smiles at anything but thats not necessarily his church tea. Heres what i know. You know, i was very passionate about moving our American Embassy from tel aviv to jerusalem. Andrew opposed that, a couple months said it was a mistake and said we shouldnt recognize jerusalem as israels capital. Every president for 25 years has promised that on the campaign trail. Once in office. They didnt do it. Donald trump promised it and followed through with it, so to me when you give your word and you follow through with it as an elected official, that is the model that were supposed to do. He was right to most embassy to jerusalem. I was there for an historic event. I know andrew didnt support that and doesnt think thats right but to me that was true leadership. Mr. Mayor . Im confused by the question. The question is whether or not he thinks President Trump is a good role model for the children of florida. Thats what i thought hurricane georgesly. I got confused. No, hes not. Donald trump donald trump is weak. As all week people do they become bullies and mr. Desante sis his acolyte. Trying out to be the trump apprentice. Hes tweeting him and talking to him hand complimenting him. My disgust for the president and his behavior actually will have nothing to do if trump tries to send us money as president obama tried to send to the state of florida to build high speed rail across i4 corridor, if trump tries to send me the 2. 6, ill take it and bring it to the state of florida and put the people of the state of florida to work. The problem with that our needs in florida intertwine with the federal government. We need Water Resources and reneed the reservoir south of lake okeechobee and transportation, parts of our state are like a parking lot. You need to work with the administration to get the dollars that we deserve and, of course, our milt footprint, so critical to certain parts of our state, you need to be able to work with the president. Andrew cant do that. He wants to impeach trump. Always saying bad things about him. Im not going to be involved in the washington food fight anymore. Been there, done that, got the tshirt but i think ill be better positioned to advance floridas priorities because i have a productive relationship with the administration. Let me be clear. Let me be clear about this. I realize that the congressman tried to obfuscate the Mueller Investigation on russia, but this is not russia. You shouldnt have to kiss the ring of the president of the United States for the president to see to the good and the goodwill of the Third Largest state in all of america. This is a democracy is. We can dissent. We can disagree, and where it comes to working together we can do that, too. Want to look at an example, look at how rick scott and i worked with each other in the aftermath of that hurricane. He and i dont agree much on Public Policy but when it comes to dealing with natural disasters we mutt the mess to the side and get the job done. Thats what you do in a democratic society. Thank you. Thats not the way it works. The president has so many different irons in the fire. Not with this president. Youve got to be able to make the case in a way that is going to get quick action, and i think ill be able to do that, its not just the president. I know the keep people in the administration. I was instrumental in getting the federal component for the Southern Reservoir which is going to solve our toxic algae crisis in this years water bill and trump is going to sign it soon so thats very important for the people of florida. Veterans know i will deliver for them and folks on the coast know i should be able to deliver for them. You should judge people based on their actions as a member of the controlling parties he got nothing passed. Not true. An obvious trucksist member of the congress. Voted to shut down the government and trump didnt actually, i passed a bill to stop sending money to the worlds leading state sponsor of terrorism in iran. You support the iran dole. I didnt. I thought it was a disaster for our country. Being able to get a Pilot Program to get paired with tr n Trained Service dogs. I have a Record Record of leadership and thats exactly what i lu do for the state of florida. Lets drul down on a point that the congressman is raising. You have called for President Trump to be impeached for obj t obstruction of justice and said his presidency shouldnt make it through the end of the year. Thats farther than Democratic Leaders in congress have gone. How can you expect to work with President Trump on behalf of the state of florida when you have gone so far on this issue . First of all, nobody is above the rule of law. The president himself in his own words admitted to obstructing justice. What do you do when someone obstructs justice. You should hold them accountable. But that aint my job. That was his job while he was there. They didnt get it done. My job is going to be every single day to wake up and to defend everyday floridians. The president as the gulf region began to prepare for the impacts of Hurricane Michael, what did he do . He took a sideswipe against us. He called names, went to twitter and interviews and insulted the people just as they were beginning to try to get out of harms way. The congressman said nothing about this. Hes a stooge. Its my job every single day to be in the interests and to do the bid iding of the people of e state of florida. Not to appease donald trump, not to bend to his will, but to stand up and to represent the people of the state. Every day im going to be team florida. Hes running away from saying he wants to impeach trump. He ran commercials two weeks ago saying impeach trump. But heres the thing. When president wanted to do offshore drilling, i opposed him on it. Because aoife productive relationship he listened to Governor Scott and me and we were able to get exemption from florida. Hes going to have to hollywood actors clapping. But the people of florida will be left behind. Our military installations, our water resource and transportation interests will all suffer because of the radical posture hes decide d to take. If congressman is elected, he will lead the effort to worship at the feet of donald trump. We live in a democracy. Et we dont worship the feet of the president. We hold him accountable. The governor of the state of flori florida, the governor ought to be out there for you. What is in the best interest in the people of this state. The president came here and disrespected our staut. He said nothing. If the president comes here and disrespects us, he will hear from it me as a governor. Et he should look for the folks. I stand with Law Enforcement. You support groups that attack Law Enforcement. I support our military. You support groups that the u. S. Is the biggest bully. I want to keech the good jobs. So im thinking about the hard working taxpayers and they have a different agenda more in tune. He was an obstructionist. I have 15 years of a public record. One oath in the capital. Its important to point that out because it keeps going to a made up record that doesnt reflect the reality of my community at all. Tallahassee is known for having bad crime. Its higher than everywhere else. The murders were the high eest history last year. Were going to take a quick break ask be back with more of the governors debate. Stay with us. Stop fearing your alarm clock. With new zzzquil pure zzzs. A drugfree blend of botanicals with melatonin. That supports your Natural Sleep cycle. So you can seize the morning. New zzzquil pure zzzs. Welcome back to the florida governmeor oes debate. We have time for closing statements. You each have one minute. Well start with the congressman. Good to meet you, andrew. Its been a fun night. Im et prepared as an iraq veteran and somebody thats worked with Law Enforcement and stood for taxpayers his whole life. Im the guy who can lead florida and protect our future. We have got to keep our economy going. People are getting opportunities. We cant destroy it with stiff tax increases that are going to cost jobs and prevent more business from coming to our state. Et we also got to stand with the men ask women in Law Enforcement. You got to have their back. You cant say youre going to cut their budget and say police and prisons have no place in justice. They are the heart of justice. We cant have open borders. I want to make sure were not trying to abolish i. C. E. And we will finally solve the problem of our toxic algae and dirty water and restore the everglades and clean this up once and for a ul. Im asking for your vote. Ill work hard and put your interests above mine. Im not going to use my office to feather my own nest. It would be an honor to have your vote. Mayor . Because my mother and father would have to get up so early they would drive us to my grandmothers house where she would have a ritual to do two things before we drosed the door. Take her bottle of olive oil and build a cross on my fore head as a way to send us out in the world with o covering. Then go to school, mind your teachers, get your lesson and bring that home. Bring it home for your family who get out there and work on somebody elses job. Bring it home for your brother and sister. What my grandmother was communicating to me was that it wasnt just about me. Its about all of us. And in trumps america we have been led to believe we have to step on our neighbors shoulder and their face and backs in order to get ahaed. I reject that. We have an opportunity on november 6th as a collective, as a state, to say we et deserve is better. We want better. We want better schools. Access to health care, a clean economy, a Restorative Justice system that works hand in glove the community and Law EnforcementWork Together for all of our benefit. Im asking you all for the only thing in life that my manufactumother told me to ask for and thans a chance. I want to be your governor. Lets bring it home. Thank you so much. Thank you so much to both