Transcripts For CSPAN South Dakota Senate Debate 20141102

Candidates, thank you for your participation. Thank you so much for watching, and her member to vote. [applause] engage with us on cspan or facebook. Our coverage of the Campaign Continues with live debate in the Georgia Senate race. Here is a look at some of the ads running in georgia. I am Michelle Nunn and i approve this message. Him when i hear david produce a he is proud to have outsourced jobs to other parts of the world, i have to wonder, when we invest in georgia we can compete with anyone in the world. I do know how you can be proud to have sent american jobs overseas. Save jobsru helped here in america. We want to know where she is on jobs, education, national security. She supports president obamas agenda. We dont need more bad policies from washington. We need a new direction. I approve this message. I approve this message. Hisavid purdue is defending career. And he acknowledged that he spent most of his career moving u. S. Jobs overseas. Can you describe your experience with outsourcing . Ive spent most of my career doing that. I am proud of it. Michelle nunn admits she is too liberal and her foundation gave money to organizations linked to terrorists. Attacked david purdue that were mostly false. His careere spent spending creating thousands of jobs. I approve this message. A debate in the Georgia Senate race. At 11 00e starting a. M. Eastern time. A debate in minnesotas seventh Congressional District. The candidates are Colin Peterson and torrey westrom. This is in the western part of the state and includes moorehead. Race leans democrat. Of this is about 30 minutes. I will be a moderator this evening. We will start with opening remarks from both candidates. We will move on to some prepared questions. We will wrap up with closing remarks. Questions are to members of the media from west central minnesota. Theave the editor of newspaper in benson. Forave the news director the radio. Candidates running for the u. S. House of representatives are colin erson and map ofgoing to look at a the district. The largest city in the district is moorehead. Some other cities are alexandria and marshall. The seventh is the largest district in minnesota. We will now start with the opening remarks from both of the candidates. They have 90 seconds to make opening remarks. The coin toss was one by representative heaters in. Peterson. I want to thank my seventhents in the district for letting me serve them for the last 24 years. I am somebody that works across the island gets things done. The top of the agricultural committee. Beennking member, i have writing the farm bills. Of thisier a compost congress was getting a farm bill done. It took longer than we wanted. We passed a very good farm bill that covers farm safety nets which is what most people think about when they think about the farm bill, there is a lot more to it. We had a good conservation title that expanded significantly the conservation parts of the farm will. World development has allowed us to build new hospitals and other facilities across the district. It has been a very important thing for this district. Now we are in the process of getting it implemented. We are making Good Progress, but it is going to take a while. That is one of the reasons why i am running for reelection, so that it gets implemented correctly and the people that are against and it dont take apart. We have built new roads and airports and clinics. Next i want to welcome the senator to the program. Thank you. Lost my eyesight in a farm related accident at the age of 14. I serve in our state senate and run a Small Business in my hometown with my wife. I am the proud father of three beautiful children. I believe our country is headed in the wrong direction. You cant change the game if you dont change the players at the table. Congressman peterson has not done enough to stand up to the big spenders in d. C. We have seen the National Debt skyrocket. The Keystone Pipeline is still not passed. Cap and trade legislation was passed through the house with his support. This doesnt work in our district. I know we can do better. Minnesota, we balance our budgets. We believe in hard work and common sense. We need someone to represent those values in washington. As your next congressman, i will perseverance to represent our minnesota values in washington. Thank you. We will now move on to the questions. Will have 60e seconds to answer a question and there will be some limited rebuttal. Askedrst question will be. Represent a peterson will have the opportunity to answer first. Thank you, amy. Are concerned about the recent plunge in corn prices and land values are anticipated to drop. Is there anything washington can a rurald do to prevent recession . Bill change the way that we did the safety net. In the past we had direct payments that one out the situation. Were going to put a floor have a new safety net. This is in the process of being up amended. It will do a lot to put a floor underneath this price decline that is happening the last few months. You may give your answer. Agriculture is a very important part of this district. I grew up on a dairy farm and i havent agriculture background. I am a strong voice for farmers and the agate communities in the state capital bring i will continue to be that strong voice. I wouldve supported the bill. Something that allows them to do what they want with their land and farm they want to format have government tell them what they need to do. They can run their own business. Get out ofneeds to the way of farmers. They need to rein in this epa and stop trying to subject farmers to more control. They should build the keystone type line. This is not getting done. Thank you. The next question will start with you. Minnesota, our challenge is not job creation as it is worker creation. To resettle Rural America to ensure that jobs that are available now get filled . That is a good question. One of most viable things we have in our communities is our students and our children and having jobs for them to come back to is so important. Having a Strong Economy and job environment, get regulations out of the way and let these jobs be created. We have to have strong Educational Opportunities that are attainable and accessible for students to want to further themselves in higher education. We to make sure that they have the paying jobs would they leave college so they can pay back their Student Loans and expenses that go along with it. One thing i have heard as i travel, a lot of manufacturing jobs and hightech jobs that we see in manufacturing need to find more students coming out in those fields. We did make sure that our colleges and universities are putting students that can fill those jobs. Thank you for the question. This is something i heard a lot about. We dont have enough qualified people to do these jobs. I want to tie together the Education System at the Vocational School level and also at the secondary school level with the jobs that are available in the district. We are making Good Progress with some of these places. In alexandria, the New High School has four academies. Gethe ninth grade, we people experience to see the opportunities that are out there in the Manufacturing Community in the district. The are working with Vocational Schools and that is a kind of thing that needs to happen. People are telling me that these kids have got to start seeing opportunities in the ninth grade a set of wait until they get out of high school. We are working on it. We need to do more work to make sure that it happens in the future. Would you like to ask another question . There were propane shortages last year. What can we do to ensure that we dont have those shortages again this winter . Has already been done. I just came from west con industries east of town. A number of the other folks have double their storage from last year. That is the main thing in the short term that needs to be done and was done. We to get these pipelines working in the right direction so that we have access to the product. Last winter was a perfect storm. We had the coldest fall we have ever had and the coldest winter. We had wet crops it needed to be dried. It all came together at the wrong time. It was a serious situation. I think were in much better shape going into this winter. People are working on this. I think were making Good Progress. We need to keep focused. The propane crisis last year, we need to be aware of. We to make sure that weve got storage. I know several companies around this district and state are doing more to get more storage. We need to have the Keystone Pipeline built rather than blocked by nancy pelosi and president obama. Put people in charge like nancy pelosi that will block these projects. This is a safe way to move oil. We need to have propane for the heating season. We rely on railcars even more. That just went off this past april. This year it could be worse. We need to build common sense roger like this. We cant block these projects. A we are back to you with question. We are taking a look at the federal budget. Entitlements like Social Security and medicare are a large part of the federal budget. Are they a part of a discussion on a balanced budget . I think making sure we have those programs so they are going to be available 20 years from now is an important discussion to have. To rein in the outofcontrol spending. Our National Debt is now nearing of 18 trillion. , it was 4n peterson trillion and now it is up to 18 trillion. That is the wrong direction. We have to have a big discussion about how we would balance the budget. It would be in the context of how we preserve programs so that those near retirement are protected. That is the way you change it. Some of those bankruptcy may be bankrupt in 20 years. You cant take any part of the Budget Office table. Part of how we got into the current problem was we couldnt effortipartisan vote or on the budget control act of 2011. The only committee the did their work in that situation was the agriculture committee. A bill that cut our budget by 24 billion. If the other committees had done something similar, we would have a different significant reduction. Voted for a number of balance budget amendments over the years. We have not been able to get one all the way through the process. We will have to look at all aspects of government. We needase of medicare, to take the cap off the wages and extend Social Security. We talk about balancing the budget. We cant keep passing and raising the debt ceiling by 1 trillion like congressman peterson did it this year. Youve got to balance the budget at the same time as you are discussing raising the debt ceiling. That is our childrens future at stake. That is something i would advocate for as well as a balanced budget moment. We have one in minnesota. Congress needs one as well. Need to understand that raising the debt ceiling is not authorizing new spending. All it is doing is authorizing the payment of the spending that has already happened. Situationd the budget to the debt ceiling, you would end up shutting down the government which is just what they did a year ago when they did that. To not raiselike the debt ceiling. We have to pay our bills. If you didnt raise the debt ceiling, we would default on our debt. That is not something we should be doing. The next question. Do you approve using Ground Troops against isis . No. Im am not advocating for Ground Troops. I think the biggest question is the failed leadership we have seen out of president obama and this administration. It took so long for the president to recognize the threat of isis. It let them go to the point that they are today. We need a commander in chief the Serious Problems rather than continuing to see this pattern of failed leadership out of president obama and his administration. That is why many change in washington. It is time to shake things up. That shouldesident have ample met at a travel ban like i hear so many people asking me why we dont do that. I think that makes sense. Restrictions is another pattern of failed leadership. Your next question please . Her the Affordable Care act helped or hurt people in the district . I call it the on Affordable Care act. It is not working in this district. Travel around, farmers and Small Businesses and families continue to see skyrocketing premiums and a loss of choice in their health care. It is not delivering the whenses that we were told they pass the legislation. It is not delivering what we were told. It needs to be repealed and fixed. You cant keep this in place and have our Small Businesses who keep telling me they are seen 60 premium increases or more. I was picking up my kids from church. When the couples came to talk to me afterwards and said we are seeing a 400 a year increase in our premiums because of obama care. That is not acceptable. I did not vote for the Affordable Care act. One of the reasons i did not vote for it is i read it. That i would not supported. There are parts of this act that are good. They have helped my constituents. That is why im not wanting to repeal it. I do how many times people come to my office that could not get coverage paid they were just asking for insurance to buy for their families because there kids had a juvenile diabetes or a preconsisting addition condition that help desk cap them from getting coverage. Theing the 26 rolled on policies and getting rid of the lifetime limits, those are positives area we to work on the part of bill that is not working. Of that was written for the Insurance Companies and for the drug companies. That is the wrong thing to do and that was the main reason i voted against it. Medicaret fix the situation has been going on for years. The vote to pass the bill was four years ago. Congressman peterson has kept this the law of the land. He is now said he wont work to repeal it in local newspapers. That is the wrong direction. Our families and Small Businesses, related to just talk to me last night, they need more hope that we can take the good things and rewrite it into a bill that will work for families. The first years of this bill was enacted, they did not try to repeal it. Then they try to repeal it 51 times. T is not getting any place the senate was not going to take it up and thes president was not going to sign the law. He is going to be president for the next two yard years. Can fix the problems that we have with this bill and fixed them. We cant do that if it is all political. The democrats want to keep everything and say that nothing is wrong and republicans want to repeal everything. Both of them are wrong. We need to go to the middle and work on things. You can ask her next question. This a littleon bit earlier in one of the answers. Hospitals are planning for an ebola case. What to the federal governments role be in helping them . We should make sure that the people that are going to be the ones on the front lines have the resources that they need and the training that they need to deal with this. Weve done a good job of identifying the problem and where it will enter. There are now travel restrictions on five airports for the majority of these people would come in if they came into the country. Minnesota thadn minneapolis because we do get people from that on the world coming into minneapolis. I think they should be added and resources given to the people who will deal with that on that level. We should work with the ,ommunity, the Health Committee to make sure that they need. As i mentioned earlier, we should have had better leadership out of our president. Our committees need to have confidence in what the government is offering them. This has been a big concern. Travelld have restrictions and a president that would recognize this and do it right away. The current travel restrictions should be increased. That is what i hear from the voters in this district. You may ask the next question. The governor plans to is the federal government doing for have a debt creation and sustaining the habitat that is out there . I think the population has increased sense i was against her. There werent very many pheasants 30 years ago. I think there has been a good mix. One of the things you have to balance is not have government farmlandthat take good out of production. Land often tax rolls or reduces the taxes that are paid on it. It should be focused on the environmental areas along rivers and streams and lakes. I would work for that kind of common sense solution. Those balances have been met three well. The Conservation Reserve Program which i would say is responsible for bringing back pheasants and ducks and dear is something that i worked on my entire career. I got the acreage up to 36 million acres when we did the bill. What has happened over the last two years is as the price of are not gone up, people paying enough to compete. ,e have had to lower the cap which was 32 million. In this last bill, we reduced to 224 million. The reason we did that was we are going to wind up at that level anyway. The money would have disappeared, so we use that to a new Partnership Program which was going to be a big advantage for the Minnesota River valley Going Forward and controlling flowed floods. We did as much as we can. That is all the time that we have for questions. We will move into the closing remarks. We will begin with the senator. Thank you. When i was lying in the hospital just when the doctors told me i could never see again i could not imagine one day i would be here running for the prilidge to serve my community in congress. I was fortunate. I had parents and other whoss wouldnt i want the thank pioneer public television. And i want to tell a story at the end here to kind of illuminate what experience can do. Back in 2003, a fellow named bill thomas, a republican from california, was a chairman of the ways and means can he. And he was going to do a medicare improvement bill which had drug coverage but couldnt get any democrats to support him because they opposed some of the things in his bill. Didnt think he was doing enough. I was working on rural hospitals at the time, critical access hospitals which at the time had a 15bed limit. So bill came to me. We had become friends. He said will you work with me . I said yes if you will do something with the critical access hospitals. So we worked on the bill, brought it to the floor. And this that bill we raised the beds to 25 and the reimbursement to 101 . The problem was we didnt have enough votes. So they held the vote up for three hours on the floor. I got a lot of heat from my leadership to switch my vote. But at the end of the day we got the bill done. And without that critical access hospital provision that reimburses at 101 , many of my 39 critical access hospitals would not be here. The hospital in appleton or in vincent may not be here if we wouldnt have done that in 2003. The point is we had seven democrats vote for that bill, 19 republicans vote against it and it passed by one vote. The reason it did is because i saw an opportunity and i went and made it happen. Thats the kind of thing we need happening in washington not only on hospitals but on farm bills and other things. And i will keep doing that and ask for your vote on november 4. Thank you, gentleman. Thats all the time we have for this evening debate. I would like to thank the candidates for joining us. I would like to thank jp and reed as well but most importantly i thank you the viewers for tuning in. Your voice is important. Make sure your voice is heard by voting on november 4. Ood night. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2014] throughout campaign 2014 cspan has brought you more than 130 candidate debates from across the country in races that will determine control of the next congress and this tuesday night watch cspans live Election Night coverage to see who wins, who loses, and which party will control the house and senate. Our coverage begins at 8 00 p. M. Eastern with the results and analysis. You will also see candidate victory and concession speeches in some of the most closely watched senate races across the country. Throughout the night and into the morning. We want to hear from you with your calls, Facebook Comments and tweets. Campaign 2014 Election Night coverage on cspan. In floridas 26th Congressional District democratic incumbent joe garcia and republican challenger carlos car bello met last week. Floridas 26th district includes most of western Miami Dade County and the florida eys. This is just under 30 minutes. It is a south florida race the nation is watching. The numbers are close and the tone is nasty. And we will hear from our powerhouse roundtable just how badly was rick scott hurt by refusing to come out at the start of his debate with charlie kris . Hashtag sand gate. Good morning, everyone. So great to have you with us on what could be a defining week in this election. Early voting starts tomorrow. Absen tee ballots as you know are already coming in. A lot of them. This morning we are beginning with a south florida race with a seat in congress the focus here and across the nation. S congregsal district 27 span much of miami dade. All the way down to the keys. Split almost evenly among drabts republicans and independents. Joe garcia has served on the Public Service commission for the state of florida and is also a lawyer. And challenger carlos cash blow is a member ng and of the Miami Dade School board. Good morning. Good morning. Lets begin with the most basic question, which is why do you think you are the best man for the job . Why should you be elected in about 30 seconds or so you are the incumbent. Congressman go ahead joe. Well, michael, its about representing the interests of south florida. When one gets the opportunity to do this and you get a cha tons to sort of understand the breath and scope of this area. This is one of the most incredibly beautiful areas of the world. Its about our nature, about the people who work here the diversity. Its one of the most diverse districts in the country. And so the opportunity to represent is to give a voice to the 850,000 people that live here that they have a voice when youre in washington you know that south florida has a voice. Someone who speaks up, fights the president , supports him when hes right, fights his party when theyre wrong, support it is party when theyre right. But most importantly acts on the interest of the people of south florida. The same question to you. Thank you. Its been a rough couple of years for this district. Really four or five years. On top of all the economic challenges, a lot of young people graduate from our colleges and universities cannot find work. A lot of people are still unemployed today so many are underemployed. On top of all that we have had just a host of terrible headlines in this district. Straw candidates, people cheating to win electionings, people going to jail for absen tee ballot fraud. So we need to turn the page on this tough history of scandal, corruption, in floridas 26th Congressional District. I really think that its time to allow a new generation of leaders to step up and start solving the problems that this nation is facing. Who is going to fix Social Security and medicare for future generations . Who is going to reform the tax system . Where are the ideas weve been sorely lacking in ideas in Congressional District 26 for a few years now because all we talk about is scandal, corruption, straw candidates and fraudulent absentee ballots. I would like to follow up. Hold on just a minute. Well get there. Hold your thought for a second. Youre right theres so much about this race that has been so negative. Lets go right to the issues. Youve been hit very hard by your opponent on Social Security and medicare primarily because of a speech you gave at George Washington State University where you flat out used the word ponzi scheme for Social Security. Do you really think Social Security and medicare are ponzi schemes . And if not why use that word . Of course not. Im 100 committed to Social Security and medicare. I have a 92yearold grand modser, i have two parents who are beneficiaries of both Social Security and medicare and i believe in preserving and protecting these programs for current beneficiaries as they exist today and also for those near retirement. However, theres a reality here. We know that if we do nothing about Social Security and medicare both programs will be insolvent going into the future 10 or 15 years. So what i was expressing is the concern that a lot of Young Workers in this country have today that theyre paying into programs that may not exist for them. But the shorthand you use carlos, ponzi scheme, connotes criminal activity. Neither Social Security nor medicare is any kind of criminal they are big entitlement programs that face financial challenges. But that phrase are you disavowing the phrase . Of course. But what would be criminal is if all of these young generations of americans who are working so hard paying into these programs then cannot reap the benefits. I want Social Security and medicare to be strong for todays seniors but also for tomorrows seniors. The problem in Politics Today is that when you talk about solutions when youre honest and sincere with people and tell them about what we could possibly do to make the country stronger or to fix these programs you get criticized for it. And its a very disingenuous attack line. The problem here is to scare people. Because i know that there are thousands of people, tens of thousands of people who depend this isnt an entitlement. Its a right youve earned you bought into. I started paying in when i started working at 14 years of age and i expect it to be there. I know what it did to my father who was paying 180 a month for his health care until 18 o 00 a month. And this is the problem. Talks about turning the page. But what hes turge the page to is fear tactics and scare tactics. Says one thing in south florida and one thing when hes in front of his tea party friends. And that is not acceptible. But you in your adds say that carlos wants to end the medicare guarantee. I dont think he ever said that. Of course not. You refer to it as a ponzi scheme look maybe hes not old enough to remember but you and i remember how many times Social Security in theery has been at the edge how many times medicare was going to disappear. Its still there and it will always be there. Why . Because this a country we make a sacrifice and an investment in our people. We want to make sure let me finish because its important. How is it going to be there . What are your solutions for medicare . The numbers show that Social Security is on the way to insolvency. Just like all other programs. And what you have to do is o grow the economy. These programs grow. When you better salary these programs grow. When you look for more investments. When you take caps away from contributions when you dont exempt millionaires and allow everyone to contribute into the system it can grow further. Just like when they said it was going to die in the 70s just like when they said its going to die. When you scashe people thats the difference. You have to work together. And thats the problem. Hold on just a minute. He says im trying to scare people yet his ads are telling our Seniors Today that i want to end medicare for them. That is the ultimate hypocracy mr. Garcia. And you talk about the tea party. Let me tell you something thats another scare tactic. You know im not a tea party member. The only Tea Party Candidate that has run for office in this district is role yo row hose thats the candidate your campaign recruited and by the way illegally financed. Wait a minute. Lets stick with Social Security and medicare for a moment. Thats ridiculous. You had means testing to reform the system. What did you mean by means testing . At what means . You know what that means . I noy whether or not it means. But what bench mark . Maybe guys like warren bufflet and bill gates dont need Social Security or medicare benefits. Perhaps we could start there. Those funds would be better used giving them to seniors who are in need. These are Solutions Ideas to make the program solvent. He vaguely says all we have to do is grow the economy. Well that hasnt really works out. What we have to do is reform the system to make sure its strong for our Seniors Today and so that young working americans can also benefit from these programs. These tactics of trying to pit people like me against our parents and grandparents, thats immoral. Thats wrong. Those are scare tact 86. Thats what you were doing calling it a ponzi skenal. Soon youll start deachting ponzi scheme. He didnt understand the term. He said 12 year limit on Social Security. What do we do . So when you turn 77 we put you out to die . The reality is this is an essential part of the american compact. You advocated raising the age to 79. You change it over a decade and it has a huge impact on the actuarial tables. And more importantly what youve got to realize is this is the greatest single social program in the history of the world. Successful. Let me give you an example of medicare. When medicare was put into place 50 of seniors didnt have health care. And 30 of them lis in oosh ject poverty. The whole key is to invest in the system so we can grow our country. He just made a very important point. He supports raising the age to 69. Average Life Expectancy is 79. So he supported as 10year limit to medicare and Social Security benefits. No of course not. Lets be clear. Thats a gradual shift as people come into the system. They have a longer term compact. Gentlemen, hold your thoughts. Were going to move on here. This is a lot of fun, very lively. Stay with us. Ell be back in just a minute. Live in our studio this morning are the two candidates in the 26th Congressional District out of southwest miami dade all the way to key west. In what 20012002 you started a Company Called capital gains. When you went to work for then senator george la mue you became a statewide boss coordinator. You put that company in your wifes name. And it remains in your wifes name and leaguely that allows you not to disclose your clients. You are abiding by the law we understand that. But in the interest of full disclosure, why dont you just tell us who are your clients . Look, michael, i understand questions on this issue and i understand your concerns. The media always has to try to get as much information as possible. Heres what i tell you. I file not one but two Financial Disclosure forms every year state and federal. Congressman has to file one i file two. The state by the way requires a lot more information than the federal one. I have been willing to go beyond what the law requires and answer any specific question that anyone has had over the years about the work ive done. On top of that a lot of work ive done is ive told you before michael has been on the record in front of the camera. So im proud of the work ive done. I understand the Garcia Campaign has wanted to make an issue out of this to try to establish some parity or to try to muddy the waters but the bottom line is i follow the law im committed and i invite his campaign to start following the law as well. For the record it wasnt the Garcia Campaign that first brought this up. It was elaine who writes a blog and she in the media brought this up. And i dont think anyone is disputing the that you follow the law. The question is its not the media its the public and the media is a surgt of the public to find out what their Public Officials do who they get paid by. And who they are incouple berd to. And under that sort of scenario why not just tell people . Why not . Like i said, 50eu78 willing to answer any question that anyone has asked. Youve seen me answer them on tv. What im not going to do you talk about the media and blogs a lot of times other campaigns work through them. But what im willing to do is to continue answering any question ive had. Ive been transparent about the work ive done. I have contacted reporters many times over the years about the work ive done. What im not going to do is allow this campaign to become about my past work. It should be about the issues and it should also be about our campaigns and about how we can do our campaigns. Transparency is a legitimate issue and i just simply have to ask you, among your clients have been going taj the casino company, mt. Sinai Medical Center you worked for mario and lincoln deezeblart for Texas Governor Rick Perry Fred tax reform sop we know all those clients but petty missouria of the miami heard did i thought an excellent story the other day where she pointed out that you have represented two brothers from equador who li here roberto and william esias. They have been convicted in equador of fafta in the amount of 600 million. They say they didnt do it. I dont know the truth or not truth of the situation. Gu you escorted them around capitol hill. You introduced them to some powerful members of congress. And yet you never registered as a lobbyist when you did that. I mean, frankly that just looks like lobbying. Why didnt you register . Michael, there are very specific requirements that indicate whether someone needs to register or not. In the case and in the nature of the work that we did, we did not have to register. Now let me tell you did they pay you . Of course. Because we were doing a public campaign. A lot of people know them. They used to be the owners of Republican National bank they were victims of the corrupt government of eek zor and our job was to tell not just Public Officials but also members of the media who i had contact with about this case about the nature of the government of the equador and what they were doing to journalists and so many others. How much did they pay you . They compensate us fairly for the work we did. I wasnt the only person at the firm working for them. And by the way, eevep if i had disclosed this client on a Public Disclosure form, they dont require you to say how much companies pay. The family paid us fairly for the work we did. All right. Jose garcia, lets have you weigh in on capital gains. I think youre left to lsh lets open a phonebook and ask him the clients because he wont tell us. Let me tell you why its important because it tells you who you represent. Thus far we only know the peept he represents because weve seen him publicly do it or hes been brought out. The brothers were brought out. But the reality is he wont tell us. And michael its important you know who i represent . 850,000 people in florida. Thats it. To represent those interests. Its important. So for example on the marlins deal do you want the marlins . No, i dont. And then well go down the list. Right . He asked me a question. You answered it and im going to continue with my answer. Have you admitted to mr. Put that you solicited that you that family . Absolutely. I dont have to. And we didnt do the deal. Thats exactly right. You solicited them in writing. They are donors of me and they have been. But the reality is so they are donors of his and even though he doesnt represent them in congress he called the Obama Administration to ask the administration to help them. Absolutely. And thats of public record. Its of public record. What it is is unethical. Of course not. Youre only supposed to do constituent service work for your constituents. That is completely untrue. What weve done and what weve done for everybody who comes to us whether you live in our district or not is represent. And what they were asking from us is help with their residency which we tried to do with everybody. We do 2,000 people have come through our office dealing with these issues and we do that all the time. But whats important here is who exactly he represents. Who are his clients . We dont know. We have to guess. He says hes going to be transparent but we have to guess and we have to go through it one by one to figure it out and thats just not fair. We sit here ive got to disclose who my clients are who i representive to do it and i have to disclose every single one of our donors. I think this is a very good place to take another break. Stay with us. We believe be right back to continue this discussion. Welcome back to what has become a no holeds bar debate. Lets continue. Joe garcia, the Campaign Manager and then chief of staff jeff garcia that you have no relation recently completed a 90 day sentence for absentee ballot fraud on behalf of your campaign in 2012. You have said you knew nothing about it. How could that have been that jeff garcia and other staffers were involved in requesting absentee ballots and you didnt know . Well, the way these campaigns run, theyre wide, theyre large. Youre spending millions of dollars and staying to a schedule. Part of what happened in this campaign is when you ran the campaign you werent allowed to bring an absen tee ballot into the office. So i had no idea. But let me be clear. What weve done is been transparent from the beginning. We made a statement of the our statement was that we didnt know about it. Its the facts. The state Attorneys Office cleared us of any wrong doirning and we move on to do the work of the people of south florida. I could change the story but that isnt the story. Ive given the facts. When jeff garcia was indicted, you didnt fire him. He remains on your staff. Didnt that send a message . No. Before jeff garcia was indicted when this casme out he was fired that night. He resigned and he was fired because we did both at the same time. And that ended that night. Lets take this a little further to stay on this a little bit loppinger. Role yo row hoe a name that has come up as a possible shell candidate in the 2010 elections, a man registered as a democrat who secretly ran as a republican. As a tea party member. Shades of recently have been others who you beat for this seat two years ago is now implicated in running a shell candidate named justin stern add. How is role yo not your campaigns justin sternied . And i never met him. But were you involved in recruiting or financing him . Absolutely not. He was one of jeff garcias closest friends and ive never met him. What is it that i could say except ive never met him and weve been clear about this from the getgo. Weve no one has been interviewed about this issue. Its just a fact. Makele may i just Say Something . In 2010 in september the miami herald wrote for the first time about him. Before the election. In 2012 mr. Garcia ran a campaign looking at a camera just like this one saying that david rivera was corrupt, that it was unacceptable knowing that in 2010 his campaign had very likely recruited and illegally financed a straw candidate because we read it in the newspaper. And while his 2012 campaign was commiting absentee ballot fraud. So there is certainly at the very least a question of judgment here. Let me recruited a straw candidate in 2010 why was he not fired before the 2012 election . Because mr. Garcia has a win at all cost culture inside of his campaign. Let me tell you something i take full sponte responsibility for all the actions of my campaign and the people who wrk for me know that this kind of conduct is totally unacceptable. Hes got a secret client list that we cant see. If you guess he will tell you but you dont know if thats true or not because you have to guess. Weve been transparent. When we found something wrong we fired them and we moved on. Its simply a fact. Now, if he wants to make an aggregation of something that happened four years ago then make the allegation but it has nothing to do with myself. We were transparent and clear here. We have been from the beginning. Lets move on if we can to u. S. Cuba policy. Because this is a heavily hispanic district. Mainly cunen americans. Is current u. S. Cuba policy acceptable to you . What needs to change, if anything . We need to continue helping the opposition and we need to remember that the cuban government is an enemy of the United States. I think im one of the first candidates running for congress in south florida in one of these dribblingts snass talking about what is in the best interest of the United States. The cuban government is holding alan gross hostage since president obama came to office about six years now. The cuban government was caught recently sending arms illegally to north korea. The cuban government continues beating and imprizzning people who disagree with them. And, by the way, killing people in the streets. So any changes to u. S. Cuba policy need to be made or considered in the context that this is an enemy of the United States. And by the way, im also in favor of reforming the cuban adjustment act because i believe it is in the best interests of the United States too many fellow cubans are coming to our country abusing the prilidge granted to them. How . Which well the act needs to be preserved for those that are victims of oppression and tyranny. For example, people like the paia family whose fathor was murdered. Mr. Gartsias open bordeshes licy on open borders on cuba its not open borders. Of course. Lets be clear here. The reality is weve been on all hes got a stranglehold on the obvious. Of course this is the obvious. Its a bad regime. What we node is the Administration Policy of allowing more travel, more contact is good. Now, if reality is the cuban adjustment act has been a boon for this community. What its done is allowed people a fathway forward and gets them investing in the economy quicker more productive paying taxes. It makes a difference in this community. What he knows and wont tell you if we cant pass comprehensive Immigration Reform do you think were going to be able to amend a 1968 law that was designed to particularly let people who are victims of oppression fix it . Its eyesy to come in and then close the door behind you. But the reality is we saw the president on friday make a distinction with the Haitian Tea Party his friends arent going to allow it. We are just about out of time. We promised a brief closing statement. Since you began here im going to ask you to in about 30 seconds give us a close. First, thank you for the opportunity of being here. Thank the people of south florida for helping us. The reality is what makes this district and our people what weve been able to do is represent those issues whether its bring more money for education, whether its cut insurance rates and flood insurance, whether its to Bring Health Care to thousands who didnt have it before, what we want to do in south florida is make a difference for the people of south florida. Im not backed by outside interests or money. Were doing things that make a difference for south florida. If you watch the millions thats been spent on this campaign way before i even had an opponent and now millions more to keep their campaign of distortion up. Ours is to represent the people of south florida. Thank you. I thank the congressman for being here as well. In 2012 congressman garcia ran a campaign saying that our community deserved better that we could not be well served by david rivera who was engulfed by scandal and corruption. Fast forward and his campaign is under f. B. I. Investigation for the same crime that apparently mr. Riveras campaign committed. We do deserve honest representation in washington. We do deserve someone that can be effective and that can get things done. The school board ive worked with republicans and democrats and moved the ball forward to improve the quality of education in our Community Without raising taxes. That is the same type of Solutions Oriented leadership we need in washington. I dont only talk about bipartisanship. I have a record of doing it. Mr. Garcias idea of bipartisanship is going to the house floor and calling republicans the taliban thats not going to get thing done for this community. I ask for your vote. Thanks again for having uts. It is our pleasure to have you been here and we will be closely watching the race in the next 17 days is it . Something like that. Tomorrows early voting. 16 days. All right. Up next we take the debate and the fan favor to this weeks power roundtable. Stay with us. Next live your calls and comments on washington journal. Then on newsmakers a preview of next tuesdays elections. And live at 11 00 a. M. , a debate in the georgia u. S. Senate race. The student cam competition is under way to create a 57 minute documentary object theme the three branches and you showing how policies law or action by the executive legislative or Judicial Branch of the federal government has affected you or you community. Theres 200 cash prizes for students and teachers totaling 100,000. This morning a journalist roundtable on what campaigns need to do in the final days efore elections. Later, cofounder of targeted victory and