Transcripts For CSPAN North Carolina Governors Debate 20161011

Would never did. Donald trump i hate to say it, but he is kind of like a high and slumlord for seemingly his whole life. I knew from the time he got into the Republican Party that he was going to split the Republican Party in half. I taking a live to the North Carolina governors debate. Governor patrick or he is being challenged by democrat roy cooper. It is moderated tonight by meet the press host chuck to chuck todd. Carolinas the north gubernatorial candidates debate. This program is sponsored as a service to the citizens of the state by the North Carolina association of podcasters Educational Foundation of broadcasters Educational Foundation. Chuck todd good evening, i am chuck todd. Welcome to the North Carolina association of broadcasters Educational Foundation gubernatorial candidates debate between governor pat mccrory, and democrat roy cooper. We should note that this debate is happening at a difficult time. Hundreds of thousands of north carolinians are without power. Threading still remains a threat for so many desk flooding storm is a threat for so many. We want to thank both candidates and the viewers come and hope that things return to normal as soon as possible. We want to begin by covering the rules of the debate. It will last one hour, and will begin with one minute Opening Statements from each candidate. I will then post questions directly to the candidate. These questions have been determined by me and an association, and have not been reviewed by the candidates or their staff. Each candidate will have a minute for response and a 32nd rebuttal. I do reserve the right to follow up as needed. Secondill be 92nd 90 closing statements. We ask the candidates to adhere to these time limits so that we do not have to be time cops. Welcome the Current Governor pat mccrory come and the attorney general, democrat roy cooper. [applause] there is a live audience. , by virtue of the coin toss, you will go first with the one minute opening statement. Gov. Pat mccrory first, welcome to North Carolina. This is a difficult time for our state. Sadly, i had to announce two hours ago at the Emergency Center that we have now lost 17 people in these recent floods. Our hearts and prayers are with those families. I am also extremely proud of our team. Our national guard, i am proud of the president for working with us, i am proud of our emergence the Operations Team come at all the state and local officials. I do want to make an announcement that if you are in work out the and live below would like to am woodlake dam, you need to evacuate the area immediately. Engineers have not certified the strength of that dam, and i need to make that point very strongly. If youre one of the 60 holdouts, leaves. Do not put yourself or our Emergency Operations at risk. I have had to deal with many natural crises, but ive also had to deal with manmade crisis. Those were crises that i came into just three and a half to four years ago. We dealt with those crises, and we solve them. We are going to continue that during the next four years. Our hearts and our thoughts and our prayers go out to the victims of flooding tonight. Over the next few weeks and months, we have to do everything we can to help them. Tonight, we will be talking about our future. For the last four years, governor mccrory has taken our state backwards. Throughout this campaign, he has not been honest with you about his record. He has failed to make education a priority. We are 41st in teacher pay. He signed house bill two, writing discrimination into our law. With a stroke of a pen, he damaged North Carolinas brand, costing us thousands of jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars. We have had twice as many layouts as last year. So many people in the middle class are asking when they are going to see the gains of the growing economy. We need good jobs, governor. Good jobs and schools are my priority. I am going to work to make sure we spread the word across this country that North Carolina is open for business for everyone. Chuck todd mr. Mccrory, first question. Has know, since it businessesassage, have all moved events from here, a majority of voters come even want to support it, believe it has hurt the states reputation. How do you fix the states reputation without repealing the law . Gov. Pat mccrory the thing that is embarrassing is that a very liberal mayor of charlotte with support from our very liberal attorney general started this whole mess. It is one of the biggest bids in our mashed fibs in our natural press that the bathroom also made by republicans. We had not want this issue up. It was the mayor of charlotte with strong support from the attorney general, who decided to put a mandate on the entire private specter who had public facilities, and say we will find you, unless you recognize a brandnew concept of gender identity and gender expression, a major change in culture. Not just in North Carolina, but our cold but our country. It was not needed, it was not called for. It was the liberals who brought it up. As governor, i dont care if youre in the private sector and what your bathroom rules are. That is none of our business. , ifou are in our schools you are a man, youre going to go to the mens locker room, restroom or shower. If you are a woman, you go to their appropriate shower. No change whatsoever. Roy cooper house bill two has to be repealed. It writes dissemination into our law. It has been a does discrimination into our law. It has been a disaster for our economy. The acc, the ncaa, this legislation was passed in one day, and signed in the middle of the night. Governor mccrory continues to go across the state, telling people that this is not hurting our economy. He attacks businesses who are opposed to it, and says that everything is going fine. Governor, what planet are you on . Ishave to pull the this community together. We have to get this law repealed. We have to quit blaming it on ,ther people, blaming it on me blaming it on the president , blaming it on charlotte. What we have to do is repeal house bill two now. Gov. Pat mccrory the attorney general does not refute the claim that they started this mess. It has been a swindle of things. It has embarrassed North Carolina. If they just leave this new definition of gender expression and gender identity, which changes the whole definition of man and woman, boy and girl, and our privacy rights, if were not going to have leaders stand up for the basic rights of either see in our nation, and our state, and our state, then we our then we are losing strong leadership. Roy cooper im glad he admits this is an embarrassment to North Carolina, because it is. We had investors come in to tell they controlled 2 trillion worth of assets, and they told us this is essentially State Government inflicted recession. Governor mccrory attacked them. Three days later in wilmington come at a speech to the chamber of commerce, said we need to bring more investment and capital into North Carolina. Gov. Pat mccrory i got a standing ovation at that chamber of commerce event. Chuck todd i have followups were both of you. Each have 32nd responses 30 second responses. Youre the chief Law Enforcement of the state. If you pick and choose lost to defend, arent you setting an example setting telling the citizens to pick which lost to follow . I took a nose to follow the constitution just like governor mccrory did. I told him not to sign the law. I told the legislature not to pass it, because it like because it right discrimination into the law. It costs us hundreds of thousands of dollars. The governor has spent so much time and money, and it has hurt our brand. It has to stop. Has statedcrory he that he is running a multimillion dollar commercial right now saying he will stop talking about social issues. That is all he talks about. He wants to cover up the incredible progress we have made in this economy. We have lowered on a point is to record amounts. We have created 300,000 new jobs. We have lowered taxes. All he was to talk about is a social issue. He is fooling the people of North Carolina. Lets get off the social issues. Lets get out of bathroom politics and start creating jobs in North Carolina as we have done over the last three years. Chuck todd government curry, as a conservative governor mccrory, as a conservative, you said you did not want to get involved in City Politics across the state. Why is it ok for writing involved in charlottes politics . I was mayor for 14 years. Our line of responsibility is not to create new mandates for business. I dont think Hillary Clinton and barack obama should do it through the justice department, either, which is exactly what they are doing in changing the definition of vendor. In thell be resolved Supreme Court where it should be, not in a politicians hand. 21 other states in the country have joined the in that effort to stop government overreach into this very private issue. Roy cooper governor mccrory used to trust local government. Now he does not. What you have here is legislation that is hurting our state, and taking us backward. He is the one who has been all over national tv talking about house bill two, and talking about how important this legislation is to protect people , when we all know these are political scare tactics. ,his law was born in politics and unfortunately, now people are suffering because of it. It has to be repealed. Gov. Pat mccrory we do agree that it was born in politics. You are looking at the individual who has raised millions of dollars on starting this initiative. Chuck todd let me ask this. Perhaps the most famous transgender person is caitlyn jenner. What beth and can she legally use in charlotte whats bathroom can she legally use in charlotte . This is therory problem roy cooper this is the problem. We should not be getting involved in his issues. It gets us involved in these issues, and we should not, because not only is it hurting our economy, but it is embarrassing our state. The governor just admitted earlier. They did not have to do this. They should not have done this. There are cities all over this country that have these kinds of ordinances. You should trust local governments to make these decisions. The mostmccrory recent ncaa best club with noship was played kitchen by your barack obama are anywhere else. Where she should go . In the private sector, wherever the private sector wants her to go. If she is going to a shower facility at unc chapel hill after running around the track, she is going to use the mens shower. Chuck todd im going to change the subject to the economy. Mr. Mccrory is running on a carolina comeback. Unemployment has been cut in half, in, summarize income is on the rise. Why should vote is not reelect him . Roy cooper the governor wants to be carolina comeback governor. I want to be a come back to carolina governor. We need paypal to come back. We need the jobs to come back. We need the ncaa to come back. You go ask everyday working people whether they have seen a carolina comeback, and most of them will tell you they are working longer and harder and for less money than they did before the recession, and they would be right. Wage growth is stagnant. The middleclass is not seeing the gains from the growing economy. The governor tells people that their taxes are down when many people have taxes in the middle class that are up because of him and legislative leadership, and continues to say that house bill two is not hurting our economy. That is wrong. Just did acrory he commercial where he said no more social issues. He has brought it up or times already. No more social issues. Lets talk about the economy. Unemployment was a record 9. 4 when i came into office. It was lot worse under easily and pretty you purdue. 12 years of extreme high taxes. We had the highest input highest income tax and the highest Corporate Tax. Even South Carolina was beating us. That was unacceptable. When i came to office, we lowered our income tax, we lowered our corporate and business tax. We got rid of a 2. 6 billion debt that we owed to the federal government. 2. 6 billion. If you had been governor, you had a barn another two ilion dollars 2 billion. Then he wouldve put another tax and drove on of women up even more. This is the philosophy that you followed as a state senator. This is the philosophy that you follow with your fellow leaders, it has got to end. Roy cooper the governor promised people a tax cut. He came through for the corporations, and for those at the top. Everyday working people got tax increases. In 67 different ways, governor mccrorys governor has raised in cap raise taxes on middle income families. Literally from birth to death. Movie orou go from a get your car repaired or you buy , you look ates that receipt, and the taxes are courtesy of governor mccrory. He continues to tax the middle class. That is why the middleclass is hurting. Gov. Pat mccrory the income tax was as high as 7 . We have reduced it to 5 . Business and Corporate Tax was 6 , now it is 3 . We are recruiting is this is again. Mr. Cooper, if you become governor, are you going to raise the income tax again . Are you going to raise the Corporate Tax again . Are you going to raise those taxes again because you were against our tax reform . Are you going to be less competitive with tennessee and virginia and the rest of the nation . We do not have to raise taxes in order to fix what is wrong with our economy. The problem is the middle class is hurting. Wage growth is stagnant governor, whether you like it or not. With your tax cuts, you have mostly benefited those at the top. The statistics show that you are leaving out the middle class. This is why you are having trouble being honest with your record. We have seen it time and time again. Is mr. T mccrory it cooper that is raising half 1 million at goldman tax. . 5 million at goldman sachs. Ofis raising millions dollars. The people in San Francisco dont care about the middle last in North Carolina. Tell them where youre getting your money. It is not from people who care about North Carolina and our economy. The average teachers our next year will be over 50,000. According to the North Carolina Public School salary schedule, a teacher with a bachelors degree does not get to make 50,000 until the 25th year of teaching, or their 20th year if they have a masters degree. Teacheryou raise salaries early on so you do not risk seeing teachers moved to other state for higherpaying jobs . My firstmccrory in year and second year as governor, i put together a group of the best teachers in the united dates of america. , theydemocrats leaders had not raised to japan five to seven years they had not raised teacher pay in five to seven years. Before you get pay raises to anyone else, help those teachers with 127 years of experience. Experience. Ars of that is progress. I am the only one on the stage with a teaching degree, and understands what it is like to stand in front of a class and teach kids. I know how hard it is, and i am proud of our teachers. Respect andn them the pay raises they deserve. Roy cooper my mom was a Public School teacher. I have seen how hard they work, and i understand the challenges that they face. Just like his record, time and time again, the governor is not being honest about these years. And do notntrived reflect reality. The fact is, we are 41st in teacher pay, and 44th in person expenditure per student expenditure. We have teachers leaving North Carolina for better pay and more respect. We have teacher assistance being fired. Go listen to teachers and parents and ask if governor mccrorys changes have made it better difference in the classroom. Just listen to them and see what they say. Try to find the teacher who was making 50,000 a year. Governor, you need to be straight with people about public education. You need to get your facts straight, and to represent your record correctly. Gov. Pat mccrory you are about as straight as another trial lawyer who became a politician North Carolina, and that is john edwards. The facts, not the rhetoric, saying was the governor that help the teachers. Not only did we help the teachers with pay, we also have a 15 to 16,000 a year for benefits. We tripled the rate of money for every school for supplies and books, something that was clearly missing under the previous administrations. Roy cooper when i was a summit democratic majority leader, we moved teacher pay from 42nd in the country to 21st in the country in four years. Had fourmccrory has years. It is now 41st in teacher pay. That is wrong for our state. What i will do is invest in education. I will not just talk about it and distort my record. I will invest in early childhood. I will make sure our classrooms have resources, and i will get our teacher pay to the national average. Chuck todd i have a 32nd followup. Mr. Mccrory, you have said it is not enough. Where is it . To. Pat mccrory i had rebuild the economy, where we. Inally have a surplus just three weeks ago, the attorney general just recommended that a Rainy Day Fund was too high. We have had a lot of rain lately. You are just telling people we should have spent more of that money and not hold it over. That is fiscal responsibility. Another thing you deceived the people on when i came into teacher office, teachers pay was 48. We reduced it to 41. Next year is teacher pay is going to be in the low 30s in North Carolina. Roy cooper whered you get the money . When youre talking about Disaster Relief, governor 500,000 directly out of the Disaster Relief fund. Do note that is for best you know what that was for . House bill two. He wanted money for lawyers for house bill two and took 500,000 dollars out of this Disaster Relief fund. What we do is make education a priority. The governors priority is continue Corporate Tax giveaways. What we have to do is put it at the top of the list of what we want to do to make sure our student desk our teachers get to the national average. Gov. Pat mccrory i have not spent any money on hb two. We have not spent one dollar of the Disaster Relief and we were approved to by the legislature, and i made a statement that we would not use that money. He knows that. He is being deceptive to the people of North Carolina. You should know that. That is exactly what is wrong with politics today. The governor could have vetoed this legislation that took the 500,000 dollars after the Disaster Relief fund 500,000 after the disaster out of the Disaster Relief fund area fund. Gov. Pat mccrory he said we have too much money in our reserves. What if i told you as families in North Carolina dont save so much, go ahead and spend it. If he had been governor for the last year, we would not have reserves to deal with this hurricane. Up in easterngrew North Carolina. As a state senator, i helped push through the Disaster Relief funds for hurricane floyd. We had to force that to make sure the surplus was there. I support a surplus. We made sure to help people who would been a victim of hurricane floyd. We will have to pull together and do the thing again. Chuck todd im going to move along here. Mr. Mccrory i will start with you. You signed to measures restricting Abortion Access in the state, even after pledging that you were not going to add any more restrictions to abortion. Are you surprised four years later that your record is being defined as a social conservative . Gov. Pat mccrory first of all, i need to correct you. A you consider having to have doctor make sure that they dont do an abortion after 51 five months, that is not a restriction on the individual, that is a law. All it requires is a record that id not at all i make sure every law that is passed meets constitutional standards. Texas did not do that. That is something the attorney general did not do. We had to abortion clinics that were treating women so poorly, they were not even cleaning the floor or cleaning utensils. Not even cleaning them in between abortions. That is so cruel. We took care of it. I made sure that all rules regarding abortion protected the womens health, and also fits the spirit of the law. That is what we have done, and that is why there have been no challenges to our abortion laws. Roy cooper this is another example of governor mccrory distorting his own record. Chuck, you are right. On a debate stage like this one for012, when he was running governor, he promised he would put no more restrictions on a womens right to choose. Yet he supports legislation that puts State Government in the exam room between a woman and her doctor. You talk about a restriction, his legislation requires that a doctor send a womans ultrasound to State Government. Ever you feel about the policy, we do not need State Government bureaucrats reviewing womens ultrasounds. This is the kind of restriction that he promised he would not put in place, but he did. Now he is coming around trying to say that is not a restriction. I think people would say that it is, and you are distorting your record. Gov. Pat mccrory why didnt you, over 14 years as attorney general, protect the women that were being abused in asheville and charlotte. It took a doctor in her america to say these Women Deserve a safe abortion, a constitutional abortion. You stood on the sideline while these women were basically being treated not like women should be treated. I am proudly took action. Facilities,those because that is the law the constitution, and i respect that. Roy cooper this is another vehicle of government that governor mccrory putting social issues ahead of the safety of our citizens. You have house bill two, you have these abortion issues, you have refusal to expand medicaid. What he continues to do is to put these rightwing social ahead of thees best interest of our citizens. That is where he and i differ. Chuck todd were going to take a quick break here for a Public Service announcement. When we come back, we will have questions on policing democrat on justice so many call North Carolina home. Living here puts you in prime adventure territory. Residents enjoy 300 miles of risking beaches and the most beautiful old growth hardwood forests. From the coast to the mountains and in between, broadcasters and North Carolina are proud to provide high quality, free programming that educates, informs, and entertains. The North Carolina association of broadcasters leads the nation on educating the public and businesses about the uses and values of broadcasting. Through the North Carolina association of broadcasters, over 300 radio and Television Members support our local community and state by connecting viewers to their world. The North Carolina association of broadcasters Educational Foundation is proud to make tonights debate possible as a Public Service to the local communities they serve. Chuck todd we are back live with the two candidates for North Carolina, governor pat mccrory and roy cooper. Mr. Cooper, earlier this month you were quoted as saying that the state crime lab is providing excellent service, that the average processing time is seven and a half months. This was called excellent service. Should voters be concerned about your management skills as governor because of these wait times . Roy cooper this is an issue about leadership, finding a problem, accepting responsibility for that problem, and solving it. When i became attorney general, rape were over 5000 dna kits sitting on local Law Enforcement shelves. We also had years of shoddy investigation. I ordered an independent investigation, and made sure we got rid of that backlog and worked to make sure all of our scientists were certified. It is providing good Service Across our state. When you are talking about crime labs, governor mccrory was mayor of charlotte when they had a crime lab, and they destroyed governor mccrorys crime lab destroyed hundreds of dna rape kits, many of them in open cases. And governor mccrory did not fix the problem. When he left the mayors office, it was still happening. And im sure we are going to hear him blame it on somebody else, just like he usually does. Chuck todd mr. Mccrory, 60 seconds. Gov. Pat mccrory the reason charlotte had the crime lab was because attorney general cooper could not do his job. Not only does charlotte have to have its own crime lab, fayetteville is going to build their own. He says he is doing his job, but if he is doing such a good job, why is there a doubt county thinking about getting why is ate county thinking of getting their own crime lab . This is just one of the departments the governor is responsible for. If you cannot handle the crime lab after 14 or 16 years, how are you going to handle all the egovernment . When you talk to sheriffs, one of the reasons they say you supposedly dont have a backlog is that you have contracted it out. Now the contractors have a backlog. Who istalk to any lawyer working on a dwi, it will take half a year or year to get the blood test back. They love the crime lab just as it is. Roy cooper another distortion. The charlotte crime lab was started in 1969, so governor crime governor mccrory is trying to blame somebody else. Crime labs are critical. With the North Carolina state crime lab, we have put thousands of rapists and murderers in jail. They have also helped clear innocent people across North Carolina. They are working hard with Law Enforcement every single day, and it is critical that we continue to fund them, because more and more evidence continues to come in. Gov. Pat mccrory i agree it is critical that we continue funding, and as governor, i have asked for more funding. I have not gone one email from him requesting help from the crime lab. Of course he is only sent 14 emails in his 16 years as attorney general. If you really wanted to improve the crime lab, you would talk to the governor and send emails to the legislative leaders. You have not done that. There are no emails saying we have got a problem, help us fix. T together roy cooper may i respond . We met with governor mccrorys budget director and budget team every single time before the legislature. Governor mccrory has all of a sudden become interested in the crime lab issue during these last few months. It is critical that there be resources for the state crime lab to make sure those crimes are solved. And governor mccrory has not been doing his job in providing those resources. Gov. Pat mccrory actually, im the governor who got the resources for the development of western lab, because the western part of North Carolina has been suffering because of the lack of productivity from your crime lab, which you have been responsible for. Before that, you were responsible for the sbi. The head of his sbi was a political hack that he hired. Put i took over the sbi, i people who had Actual Experience in Law Enforcement, not making it a political organization. Chuck todd im going to stay on the issue of criminal justice reform. Signed a lawyou saying police are not required to release footage of body cameras unless there is a court order. The law would have barred Charlotte Police from releasing video of keith lamont scotts debt as they ended up doing before the law took effect. Governor, dont we need more transparency for the police . Gov. Pat mccrory we have several things we need to balance. First of all, we need to balance the public interest, but we also need to balance the Constitutional Rights of those being investigated. And foxnbc and cnn would love to show the video right away, it helps ratings, but the fact is, we have got a criminal investigation going on right now. Sbi the da, the fbi, the and the Charlotte Police department have to go through an investigation. Let me correct you. It does not deny the release, it allows a third party to make that decision. Frankly, politicians should not be making that decision, whether a mayor, a governor, or ada. It should be an impartial judge who determines where the Constitutional Rights of those being investigated seen in the video is is the right of the public to know. That is exactly what this new law does. I think it is a perfect law. We are going to see some possible gaps, but it is a vast improvement. We had no rules before, and i am pleased it got bipartisan support. More democrats voted for it than anything chuck todd thank you. Roy cooper i am grateful to the men and women of Law Enforcement who served honorably and risk their lives every day to keep us safe. Im also mindful that there are so many committees out there who feel targeted and they yearn to be heard, and they yearn for respect. What we need is a governor who is going to work to make sure we have that Mutual Respect. And part of Mutual Respect is transparency. We need to make sure that the Community Trusts what Law Enforcement is doing. Said there were significant problems with this law, because i believe that the records in these videotapes should be open. Clearly, there are sometimes when it should be kept confidential, but the presumption should be that it is public, because the more transparency you have, the more Mutual Respect you are going to develop. Chuck todd 30 seconds. Gov. Pat mccrory this is typical roy cooper. Passed, heaw is expresses concern, the way after a shooting he expresses concern. Interview, he says he was in favor of it, trying to get the endorsement of the federation of police. By the way, i got that endorsement, and im very proud to have that and the endorsement of five other major Police Organizations in North Carolina, because i care for the victims and the persons being investigated. It needs to be taken out of politics. Chuck todd thank you, mr. Mccrory. Mr. Cooper, 30 seconds. Cooper i have strong and strong approval from Law Enforcement across North Carolina. Again, governor mccrorys story is not true. We have to make sure we are in this Mutual Respect. Law enforcement needs training, support, and resources. Law enforcement needs to look like the communities that they protect and serve. As governor, im going to be a strong Law Enforcement governor, but we also need to make sure our communities are respected and that they work with Law Enforcement, with community policing, and other ways to make sure our communities are safer. Chuck todd all of these will be 30 seconds for both of you. In the first president ial debate, Hillary Clinton said, i think implicit bias is a problem for everyone, including police. Do you agree . Roy cooper i think police definitely need more training. I think all of us have biases that sometimes conflict with our jobs. We need training, we need to make sure that Law Enforcement has the resources it needs. And we also need to emphasize community policing. I think when Law Enforcement officers work with communities, i thinknow communities, you have savor a Law Enforcement all the way around. Chuck todd do except the idea there is implicit bias . Roy cooper gov. Pat mccrory i think there is bias in all of us. It is not necessarily racial, it could be how we look, dress, the environment we are in. Those are tools for Police Officers to determine what action to take. I agree with the attorney general, we need more training for Police Officers, there is never enough training. As mayor of charlotte, i helped Institute Community policing. , ournity policing is vital Police Officers should get out of their cars, become problem solvers. Im a Firm Believer in that. But to attack Police Officers the way ms. Clinton did and our president has done in his first year in office was totally inappropriate. Chuck todd let me ask you both the same question. Termerm what does the black lives matter mean to you . Roy cooper i think it is a statement that is true. I think what we need to do is make sure we continue this effort to understand that many communities of color feel targeted. They feel discriminated against. And what they want to be is heard, and what they want to be is respected. So i think there are many in Law Enforcement who would absolutely agree that this is something we have to do. Gov. Pat mccrory i personally was an admirer of Martin Luther king, who believed we should be judged by the content of our character, and i think all live should matter. It is the heart inside that matters, and we should value every single human life. But we do have to recognize the anger that committees have within how they interact with Law Enforcement. But at the same time, we have got to recognize the pressure of our Police Officers, who every day leave their familys home not knowing if they will come back. The officers who were most recently involved in shootings, they had no idea that was going to happen to them and their lives were also changed. Chuck todd there is obviously a lot of National Politics impacting the state. Mr. Mccrory, you released a statement condemning Donald Trumps comments about women in the access Hollywood Video from 2005. Many of your fellow republican governors withdrew their support completely. Why didnt you . Gov. Pat mccrory let me first say, when my ference moved to jamestown, North Carolina, my first day in class, i did not say, yes, maam to the teacher and they wash my mouth out with soap. For something so minor but so important, showing respect to our teachers. Sometimes when i see the president ial candidate mr. Trump, he needs to have his mouth washed out with soap. , becausees ms. Clinton the teachers said do not tell a lie, and she lies an awful lot about the emails, about benghazi, about other factors. Abc needs to look at a bar of soap next time she does not tell the truth. We have got some character issues among the candidates, but im voting for the candidate that best represents my viewpoint. Her though i disagree with character traits on issues like immigration, obamacare is a total disaster, something that the attorney general continues to praise is a disaster. Chuck todd thank you. Roy cooper it is hard to believe that governor mccrory continues to support a president ial candidate who condones sexual assault, who has admitted that he has done that, who has continued to demean women. Governor mccrory, this is the first time i have heard you speak up at all about donald trump. You have gone to his rallies, made jokes about house bill 2 on when a gold star family was demeaned by donald trump, you did not say anything. When women were demeaned, you did not say anything. Governor mccrory and donald trump are a lot alike. They both have trouble with the facts, and they both engage in divisive rhetoric. It is not good for our state, not good for our country. Chuck todd 30 seconds. Gov. Pat mccrory i dont know where that divisive rhetoric comes from. We have to make some difficult decisions. When you were in your first year as attorney general and state senator, you had to make some difficult decisions and vote for bill clinton. Im sure you were uneasy about many of the things he did, but you had to make a choice and balance those character traits. I have to do the same thing, and it is a sad commentary that we both had to make those decisions. Roy cooper listen, donald trump is bad for our country, and governor mccrory continues to go across the state and attend his rallies and continues to support him. I think that is wrong. On him today to withdraw his support from donald trump, considering this type of language that is so demeaning to women and actually says that he has committed crimes. Governor mccrory still supports them. Chuck todd a quick 32nd followup. The majority of north carolinians do not think Hillary Clinton is honest and trustworthy. Roy cooper i think she is much more trustworthy than donald trump. I think that the secretary will help keep our country more safe and more secure, and she certainly is not going to be a dangerous president like donald trump, who governor mccrory supports. Huck todd 30 seconds on this is he a role model for kids . Gov. Pat mccrory not his vulgar outbursts. Chuck todd does any part of him make him a role model . Gov. Pat mccrory the way he stands a strong on certain issues. The syrian refugee situation is a disaster. I have personally talked to one of the top leaders of the fbi, and they laughed when they said they are checking the backgrounds of the syrian refugees. No, they arent. There is no embassy to check. When Hillary Clinton says they are doing a vetting process, the fbi is not even being told where they are chuck todd im going to move to health care. Mr. Cooper, as you know, former president bill clinton recently referred to obamacare as the craziest thing in the world. One of the reasons he was pointing out is the issue with the exchanges. In North Carolina, there is only one major insurer. Is obamacare broken . Roy cooper the reason there is only one insurer on the exchange is because governor mccrory and the legislative leadership have faulted having a state exchange were more people can get Health Insurance. Withdrawn money that could help educate people and encourage more Insurance Companies to become competitive. The worst thing that governor mccrory and legislative leadership has done they have refused to accept the billions of dollars billions with a b that we have already paid to washington that could come back to North Carolina and expand medicaid to hundreds of thousands of north carolinians. Here we are again, governor mccrory putting social issues ahead of the best interest of our state. Governor chris christie, john kasich in ohio, even governor mike pence, they all saw that expansion of medicaid in their state, even though they disagreed with the policy, helped to create tens of thousands of good paying health jobs, helped private insurers, and governor mccrory continues to say no. Gov. Pat mccrory the blame game is coming. I have never been blamed for obamacare, this is a first. I had nothing to do with the legislation. I did try to get you to fight the legislation representing the state of North Carolina, and you as attorney general refused to fight obamacare because you thought it would be fantastic for the United States of america. It has been a total failure. If you talk to any middleclass businessperson, if you talk to any family right now you have had a nice set up with Health Insurance through the state of North Carolina for 26 years. Your own state plan is free. You talk to someone with obamacare my gosh, it will cost you 20,000 to 30,000 a year. You have gotten to use to the government Health Insurance that you are guaranteed until you are 65. If you feel so good about obamacare, get on it and get off the state plan we have right now. Roy cooper it is incredible to me that with this policy are ready set at the federal level that the governor cannot accept the billions in tax money we have already paid this is our tax money that could come back to North Carolina and ensure hundreds of thousands of people and take pressure off the small businesses, take pressure off private employers who see a benefit. The other states who have done this have seen a benefit and their insurance premiums, but governor mccrory has got to put the ideology, continue to talk ut it roy cooper its ok gov. Pat mccrory its ok to admit its a failure. We are expanding medicaid services. The services to those people who cannot help themselves. I want to emphasize helping those who cant help themselves. I personally met with president obama in the white house and the oval and encouraged him to work with us to allow us to have a North Carolina plan, not a washington, d. C. Plan. Im extremely sad right now that blue cross and blue shield is the only chuck todd your time is up, i will give you 30. Roy cooper we can make a North Carolina plan. We can expand medicaid in a North Carolina way. That opportunity is there, and for him to say you are not giving Health Insurance to people who need it, this is the perfect opportunity with a tax money that whenever he paid. He continues to say no because of ideology. Gov. Pat mccrory you are not going to get on obamacare, you are going to keep your government plan you have enjoyed for 26 years. Chuck todd answer the medicaid question, why wont you extend it . Gov. Pat mccrory we dont know what the cost would be to taxpayers of North Carolina. I think it is irresponsible to enter into something not knowing the cost. Right now, wall street journals are showing all states that he mentioned, the cost are greater than ever anticipated. A 525 million missed forecast on medicaid spending from the for do from the perdue administration, and we had to fix that. Chuck todd let me get one more topic in here. I think we got an idea where you stand on expanding medicaid. I want to go to voter id. Mr. Mccrory, a federal court in august said the voter id law targeted African Americans almost surgical precision. It has been thrown out. You regret signing the bill . Gov. Pat mccrory absolutely not. One thing i would like to consummate the attorney general on is one thing he did years ago regarding sudafed. We both agree on the issue of drug addiction. He passed a law requiring id when you get sudafed. If id is good enough for sudafed, i think it is good enough for the people of North Carolina to vote. Anyone who thinks, with tens of millions of dollars on the ground, if you do not think there is a potential for voter fraud, you are digging your head in the sand. In the history of United States in chicago, west virginia, texas, voter fraud occurs, and we need to do everything we can to make sure it does not happen. If you dont look for, you are not going to find it. Roy cooper the governor knows that this legislation was much broader than a voter id law. This was the strictest in the country. It had to do with early voting, that use of registration the ease of registration. When the panel in the Fourth Circuit said this law intentionally discriminates against minorities and students, it was time to stop, but governor mccrory continues to use taxpayer money to pay for attorneys to continue to appeal this. Of course, he lost. It is shameful for the governor to keep pushing this legislation. It is wrong for our state. Chuck todd you are both going to get more time here in a minute for your closing statements. That concludes all of my questions. Youroth get 90 seconds for closing statement. Mr. Cooper, by virtue of a coin toss, you will be first. Roy cooper thank you, check chuck. Thank you to the broadcasters. Thank you to governor mccrory. Thank you to my wife and family for here today and to all of you watching the debate at home. Lets all member to keep working and helped the flood victims. Even know we disagree on a lot of things, we agree we have got to pull together to help them. Some of them are in nash county where i grew up, and i have always been proud to call North Carolina home, and i still am. Over the last two years, some things have changed that we have heard about during this debate. For decades, you could travel across this country and tell people you are from North Carolina, and the questions would be about our great universities, technology, mountains, beaches. Now the question is, what in the world is going on in North Carolina . We can fix that. The first thing we got to do is recognize the problems that we face. We have to make education a priority. 41st in the nation is not good enough. We need to get to at least the national average. And we need good jobs, governor. A governor who will work to bring better paying jobs to our state instead of driving them away with discriminatory laws like house bill 2. And we need a governor who is going to work to restore North Carolinas great reputation, and i plan to do that. Thank you so much. God bless you. Gov. Pat mccrory i concur that our prayers are with everyone tonight. Im going right back to the Operations Center to work with our team members, and our prayers are with people tonight especially in kinston and rocky mount and greenville, up and down the tar river. This is going to be a tough next 72 hours. I would like to thank roy cooper for running for governor. It takes courage for the family do this. With my family and my wife, it is an extremely hard thing to do. Only a politician like roy cooper would consider record job ,ncreases, record tax increases record job creation and record teacher pay raises as a failure. This is leadership like we have never seen in three and a half years. It is leadership that we need to continue in North Carolina. We cannot go back to the leadership of easily and purdue and cooper. We do live in the best state in United States of america. I thank you both for a very civil debate, by the way. It is now up to the voters, and it is up to you. Dont forget to vote. This Public Service program was rock you by the North Carolina association of broadcasters Educational Foundation. I think them for the privilege of moderating. Im chuck todd from nbc news. Thank you for watching. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2016] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] announcer cspan, created by americas cabletelevision companies and brought to you as a Public Service by your cable or satellite provider. Our cspan campaign 2016 bus is traveling throughout virginia this week, asking voters what is the most important issue to you in the election and why . My name is john david allen. I am a freshman in college, and the most important issue to me is the Immigration Crisis refugee crisis, and also the economy. Our economy our country has not been doing so well economically lately, and i feel like the Immigration Crisis with Illegal Immigrants coming in is a very big problem. My name is violet willis. I go to longwood university, and to me, the most important issue is social issues, specifically abortion, and also immigration. Craney, ands colin i attend hampton sydney college. The most important issue in this election cycle is national security. We have athough foreign threats, and i feel that is important this coming cycle. My name is alex, i go to Hampden Sydney college. I think the most important issue in the 20162017 election is the economy. I go to Hampden Sydney college, class of 2020, and to me, the most important issue for a candidate to address would be and valuesnal rights that people like Thomas Jefferson held up and preserving those principles. Announcer voices from the road on cspan. Coming up tonight on forumcer coming up, a with leading thirdparty president ial candidates. We will talk to Libertarian Party candidate Kerry Johnson in just a moment. Later, dr. Jill stein will join us, along with her running mate, ajamu baraka. Hillary clinton and outdoor were on the trail in florida today, and mr. Trump was in panama city beach. State good evening. Steve good evening. For the next two hours, a chance to discuss issues with our leading thirdparty candidates. Our criteria is simple. Those candidates who have their name on enough ballots to win 270 electoral votes. Johnson from santa fe, new mexico. In our second hour, jill stein, the green party nominee. We begin with governor johnson and take you back to may of this year in orlando, florida as he acce h