Transcripts For CSPAN2 Discussion With Presidential Campaign Managers 20150923

Im lee dunn. Behind all the brilliant youtube ads launched this cycle behind most of the creative debate and the best staged town hall theres a Brilliant Campaign manager. Today we get to hear from the Campaign Managers. At google and youtube are proud to partner with National Review to bring a program to inform all americans about the elections process and this promises to be an unpredictable and exciting 2016 cycle. Americans are hungry to know more about the candidates, elections the Campaign Managers. We have seen a 60 increase in elections searches since the 2008 cycle. Over 400 hours of video or uploaded to youtube every minute every day. We are proud to do our part by livestreaming this event with National Review on their channel so i hope you will go back and watch it again but we are most proud that all americans that want to participate even if you are not living here in town. Now i want to turn it over to our host a National Editor for National Review, rich lowry. Thank you. Thanks guys, thanks for being here. [applause] thank you to google and youtube for cosponsoring this. I like to say that my logistical suggestion is that we would do all these interviews in keeping with googles decorum and eating bag chairs separated by foosball tables. I just want to thank all of the Campaign Managers for taking the time to come out here. They are actually in the arena. There is nothing easier than being on the outside and criticizing people for all the things they are supposedly doing wrong which is what i and john do for a career but i have never run a campaign. I have never run for office. I have never had to deal with the press corps every day the way you guys do although i may have gotten a hint of what its like because they weeks ago my wife and i had our first baby, a beautiful little girl. [applause] and thats a little bit like dealing with the press corps. Shes insatiable and requires Constant Care and feeding. And a few displeased her she will whine and cry shamelessly so this might feel familiar. John brabender is achieved or Rick Santorum. Let me start out with what seems to be one of the Big Questions confronting your campaign as well as some others. It seems from the early indications that people arent interested in traditional political experience. They arent interested in anyone who has been around the block a few times and your candidate was in the senate for a while but left in 2006 and is run for president once before and has been around for a while now. How do you make him fresh and new or is that even necessary . Let me start by doing two things just so we are clear. Im not a Campaign Manager. Her campaign doesnt have a Campaign Manager by design. Rick and juno ran for president 2012. We basically did not have a Campaign Manager. We have position campaigns differently because we feel like this isnt the 1960s anymore and number two im the lead strategist of the campaign and im a Media Consultant and what i find enjoyable because i do a lot of press for the senator going on the air is they asked the same questions that i was asked four years ago where they say you have a candidate who lost his last race by 18 points. I hadnt brought that up yet. While im there. Hes running last and i will tell you last time a two weeks to go before iowa he was in last place and won the pole in iowa. The only reason that was notable was because he was behind John Huntsman too pulled out of iowa and even said im pulling out because in iowa all they do is think two weeks later Rick Santorum and supporting iowa and to refresh everyones memory he won 11 out of 30 states and tied to others as far as delegates. Probably the belief was if he would have won michigan out right a lot of people believe romney would have gotten out of the race to us understanding the understanding the fluidity of these types of races understanding, you look at the cnn poll yesterday scott walkers under 1 . I remember having questions three months ago when people asked me how are you going to stop scott walker . If you go back four years ago in the league was herman cain, Michele Bachmann. Romney was there, gingrich was there. A lot of people and perry and most of them didnt get past iowa. You really have to take a look and understand the way these races are. The first thing you have to understand as there is not one primary right now are not one caucus. There are many. Different people are running against different people. Shannon form is probably running against huckabee to some degree and maybe cruz is running against Chris Christie. Nobodys going to win this race by getting 50 and states. They will win by getting a lot of 15 and 18 so you start running a race that way and it looks different. Ive been involved in last four president ial races. I was with Rudy Giuliani and i can tell you is the strangest experience of my life because we would sit in our war room and see all these places were rudy was up by 15 points and nationally up by 15 points yet we knew he was going to have a lot of trouble because he wouldnt be conservative enough for republican primary voters. Everybody has to take a deep breath and understand this is unlike any other election. Its like those races on steroids. John mccain probably came this close to getting out of the race when he ends up winning the nomination. I feel like im answering a lot of the same questions. We run our race. We dont do it on money. Theres an interesting statistic last time in iowa Rick Santorum spent 22 per caucus vote. Parise spent 768 dollars per caucus votes so the other benchmark but i keep noticing everybodys trying to use his money raised in money raised doesnt mean that much anymore because trust me when people walk out and vote on primary days pay a rarely basing it on ads. At least they arent winner 20 candidates are 16 candidates. When you get down to one or two they matter a lot more. Let me press you on my initial question. Do you reject the analysis that pretty much everyone has bought into that carly carson and trump collectively being above 50 says people want outsiders. Are you reading that more as an artifact of temporary polling that you have seen before and saw last time . First of all i do think there are some exceptions this time. Every place i go people say are you kidding me donald trump, are you serious in the truth of the matter is that i will be the first to say i went on cnn three weeks ago and said after the first debate Donald Trumps 15 minutes of fame will be gone. I was dead wrong in the reason is i didnt misunderstand donald trump. I misunderstood the people were supporting trump. I think a lot of those people probably supported ron paul last time. We see where the more outrageous the behavior of trump he seems to solidify his base even more and all that to them as evidence that he is not going to be like everyone also rules go out the window when that starts happening. Number one i do think there is this deep desire to be antiwashington absolutely without a doubt. Second of all you have to factor into that in the early stages thats all they know about some of these candidates is their antiwashington. Herman cain was an outside washington candidate who went to the top is it that. People can tell you very little about herman cain and over time it was proven that he shouldnt be president. Im telling you that thats necessarily going to be proven about carly or trump. If you look at the difference between last time and this time he mentioned some candidates are running in specific other candidates rather than the rest of the field. He mentioned Mike Huckabee. Correct me if im wrong. It was put then person a category and put ted cruz in that category and maybe there are couple im missing but doesnt that make for a much more crowded and competitive playing ground in iowa . Absolutely and a much more credible field than we had last time. We felt we could be the conservative alternative because we felt the other candidates would not be all that conservative. This time i like to say there are about 16 people running and none of them are probably the frontrunner. And thats my argument with the rnc about limiting these debates i think this might be the greatest field of any party putting something together running for president in history. Its a remarkable field and i think you are seeing that somebody like scott walkers struggling who in my opinion is a very credible candidate. I think they are all well behind in some sense. Is the vast majority of the candidates now. I think in some sense they are all long shots. There was a suggestion from the that there wont be a an undercard debate instead there will be interviews and you can read beneath the surface. It sounds like an attempt to rush people off the stage and out of the debate. Do you think that interpretation is correct and if so what would you do to push back against the . I saw the comments and i think thats how a lot of people interpreted it. Its a huge stake at this point to say okay we have had two debates and everything has been settled. My client Rick Santorum was in 23 debates. 23 is probably too many. We would have to push the person that 2 is not. Case in point is carly fiorina. What if they would have decided that at first that there would not be an undercard. Carly fiorina would have never made it into the second debates i think at this stage theres nothing advantageous for anybody to do that. Obviously the 11 on the stage this time around are too many. I agree. I think they should done a tour seven and it should have been random because frankly i think you want a combination of people. The first debate was well covered. Ill take Lindsey Graham. They would have done just as well in that second debate. Theres no doubt in my mind. Santorum sat for 23 debates and did great last time. Right now to use some of those as a factor to say somebody at 3 is in and somebody at 2 isnt they are statistically tied in the second of all no sense as a party. This president ial primary is not about a winner. Its like threedimensional chess. Who is then and who is out will greatly change the field. Donald trump even if hes not the nominee is greatly change the selection and will change this election. You could take somebody out who you say shouldnt be there but you youre giving someone an advantage by doing that and it doesnt make since when you are talking about people who are twoterm governors people who have won the iowa. It just seems absurd to me. Is rick basically back to what he did last time just pounding the ground in iowa visiting pizza ranch after pizza ranch . He was the first one to visit every county. First of all right now im doing the governors race in virginia and im in louisiana doing a number of government and senate races. Everyone of those races is different. Every campaign has to be run different so santorum you have to remember hasnt been an elected official so is not an elected official that can raise money. He doesnt have a tv show like trump or Mike Huckabee did. His last name is not push so he has to deal with that, that he is not going to ever have money like that. On the other hand in a republican primary the most conservative cms addressing conservative and if you go into the evangelical community Homeschool Community groups like that give a lot of trust a lot of trust and thats how ended up winning iowa last time. He ended up winning in iowa. On caucus night that eventually. Let me hit you with two lightning round style questions at the end that i hope to ask everyone. What is the one moment, the one move from another campaigner candidates so far that has made you think wow thats good and i wish i would have thought of that. And two what is the most endearing quality of Rick Santorum that all of us on the outside may not be privy to but you are . First of all trump signing the pledge as a thirdparty. I believe two weeks ago there was a shift in the Trump Campaign if you watch it carefully. For the first time they started to believe they could win and they have tried to become more credible. I thought in the debate he tried to be more careful in how he chose his words and i think he understands he has popularity but he has to prove he can be the standardbearer and represent the party. Do you think he can win . Before i would have said no but i will tell you the oddity of what im seeing out there is incredible. I am seeing trumps popularity so i think lets put it this way i never thought herman cain was ultimately possible to be the nominee because i thought it problems and i never thought gingrich would be the nominee. I think there are there are scenarios with this many candidates in the race that trump has ownership of something. Think about Chris Christie was supposed to be the plain talking one. Trump stole that from him. Trump has stolen something from almost every candidate that is hurt them and help themselves. I dont know how you can rule them out at this time. We have 20 seconds the most endearing quality of Rick Santorum that the rest of us arent aware of . My opinion is he doesnt change my act as a Media Consultant. We did add against Romney Wright had a romney lookalike chasing santorum with what looked like an automatic weapon shooting mud at him. I thought when santorum site he would think i was crazy. He said i want to change the type. John, thank you so much. Thank you, appreciate it. [applause] chip, welcome. Chip englander of the rand paul campaign. I will start with the version of the same question i asked john which is there seems to be this emphasis on candidates who are new and different that dont represent politics as usual and i think a year ago or so a lot of people were saying who does that describe who is very likely to be candidate. That doesnt seem to have applied to him yet. Theres no question that there is a tremendous hunger out there. They are sick of the system and they want to shake things up and i think thats something that ultimately does play to the senators senators credit. As you mentioned a year ago that was something that was strongly associated with him. John talked about quite a bit its a fluid race. Things go up and things go down. You might have seen the news breaking about Governor Walker getting out of the race tonight. And this was a guy who a couple of months ago was in first place. Its an incredibly fluid race. Four years ago in august in first place Michele Bachmann was in first and rick perry was in first and october herman came as as an version and Newt Gingrich and none of those folks finished in the top two in iowa and New Hampshire and nevada. Four years before that you had to write how huckabee and mccain were in Single Digits and four years before that you had howard dean up by double digits and in iowa loses by 20. This is how the things go and thats what makes it fun. Another fact year people will raise with you guys and thats shaping the environment and away thats perhaps been difficult to deal with. The heading of james foley the beheading of james foley the Public Opinion changes in a more hawkish direction certainly among republicans and a lot of people think that has made it harder going for rand than they would have thought. If there is a shift in public sentiment and has made it tougher for the campaign . Rand follows the Ronald Reagan policy said he believes america should have the greatest military in the world and shouldnt be afraid to protect american interests but that doesnt mean we should i4 intervention for the sake of intervention. He did oppose unnecessary interventions in libya and he opposed the arming of isis allies in syria. The reality is isis fights us with western arms and we have to be very careful of our foreignpolicy approach to keep america safe. Did you feel that shift in Public Opinion and you think thats a real thing . I certainly would want to talk the the politicization of beheadings. Everybody is concerned about National Security as rand is. Its not that the beheading itself is politicized but after people worse apply a saw that are more appalled by that if you look at the numbers for Ground Troops and theory to fight isis. Some polls you have seen a majority support for that i believe what seems to be an issue environment that is different immediately after the end of the bush years when there was a reaction on the right. We were involved too much in the interventions didnt work out. Rand thinks we need to have boots on the ground. Thats the area that it most impacts and we dont want to send our young men and women to go and die and the reality is that is where a lot of the americans are an republican foreignpolicy has been historically. I hate to do this but lets talk a little bit more about trump. A few weeks ago rand began to go after him hammer and tongs and the result is that seemed not to be evident. Certainly didnt seem to help rand. What was the thinking behind that tactic . Are you guys going to keep it up Going Forward . What is your thought on that . 538 did the noses of the coverage out there and they found that trump was getting more coverage than all the other candidates combined so thats an extraordinary share of voice in the race. If you are not engaging trump then you risk completely falling out of the conversation and if hes going to be the frontrunner than when he could have a conversation about what that means is a party and where we stand. I think thats really about jumpstarting that conversation. Soap wasnt something that senator paul particularly expected to gain from. Its just something you considered necessary given trump status in the race . Well i think rand speaks speaks from the heart and speaks about the things he cares about and he worries about you know having somebody there are many parts of trumps records that are concerned to lots of conservatives out there. There are people who will tell you in iowa and to be honest most of them are associated with ted cruz but they will tell you that ted cruz has been able to get into rand paul libertarians support out there. Do you think theres any truth to that . Im sure ted cruz would tell you that ted cruz is doing well. No, i think it went very well for us in iowa. The reality is if you look at the iowa caucuses, caucuses put the disproportionate value on passion and organization which are things we do well at. Theyre 130,000 people were participated in the caucuses four years ago. There are 120,000 students in iowa. Four years ago ron paul finished 3800 that votes short and they were january 3. This time its february 1. This is the first time in over a decade the caucuses have occurred when school is in session when students are going to be around. If you look at that matthew can see how much opportunity there is out there. The caucuses and organizations is where we are very wellpositioned. Some of those. Some those kits who are at cpac every year and love rand paul and make him the winner of the straw poll of the year are going to be in school in iowa. Absolutely. Iowa has doubled the population of New Hampshire and half the participants because its caucusing and when you look at how many students are there its not one of the bigger states but it has schools like the university of iowa and iowa state. Those are two of the biggest schools in the country. Its very just a portion of that string. Just this past weekend was the straw poll since they canceled the straw poll in iowa this is the biggest straw poll so far and this past weekend rand paul one that. He finished just ahead of carly fiorina. Thats indicative of the strength of our organization and the passion felt for us among supporters. Talk about the particular aspect of that organization. Something that ron paul was pioneered ad was the digital on line, the email organizing. How if you follow that up and taken the ball down the field . The reality is republicans are going to be competitive this is we need to capture what obama did. If republicans next you do what obama did we are going to lose. There will be whole revolution in digital. We are running an ad, its a crowdsourced digital campaign. We are the only campaign that has released logos and the only campaign that has a Bumper Sticker and tshirt design contest. We are putting out videos every single week. We are the first candidate to do with snapchat interview. We have millions of followers between twitter and facebook so we have a real emphasis on that. The reality is that facebook and these digital things have become the 21st century. The other side of the coin in these campaigns is big dollar fundraising and there have been reports out there that senator paul doesnt necessarily like doing that so much. I would hate doing that myself but is that true . Ive been working on the political campaign. There are a lot of candidates out there. Its one of the important parts of the campaign. He works at it and he does it. Those are the stories put out by bad guys. Do you want to name names of the bad guys . Thats the process of the stories that people are into. John before he came on was talking about how everyone is running against a certain set of candidates and not sincerely the rest of the deal. Do you think thats true and if so who is rand paul running against . I think we are running against ourselves. The reality is the country has intractable problems and people wanted bold transformational leader ands senator paul is that person. I think if we do those things we are in great shape. Is held on career politicians and some of the politicians look at the maneuvering in kentucky said he could run for president and for senate and say if theres anything that would define the typical career politician type move that would be it. The reality is its common in president ial elections. Four years ago paul ryan was simultaneously running for reelection to the house. Its actually a fairly common thing. I think thats make in my point, something that politicians do all the time. He doesnt claim not to be a career politician i dont think. I dont think anyone would classify rand paul is a conventional politician. Are you privy to how ten he talks to ron and his run give him advice and say hey son. Ron has been out a few times. He was in texas doing some fundraising. Two weekends ago they saw each other in st. Louis at an event where ray and mom received an award from eagle forum so they see each other from time to time let me ask you the two questions. Is there in a moment from a candidate or campaign where you thought that was smart and that was shrewd and we should have done that and what is the most enduring rand paul quality for us . I think thereve been several moments. Thereve been several Good Campaigns that are out there. I think the way carly handled trump and remarque trump had made about her appearance. That was well done. She really cuts him off with a precision of a surgeon. Carsons debate two days ago was well done. Think rubios announcement was well done. I think there have been a number of opportunities where he has done well and as for rand enduring qualities i think the fact that for 20 years he has done free eye surgeries. Hes an ophthalmologist and i surgeon and he has been doing charitable ones. This year he went to haiti and last year he went to ramallah to do it charitably so i think that speaks to his heart and his passion. How long have you known him . Have i known rand . I have known him for a few years. In cycles supported candidates that i worked for but really know him well. Chip, thanks for being here. Thanks for having me. [applause] we are waiting for danny diaz of the bush campaign. He may be too busy reorganizing his strategy in light of the scott walker news. I felt a little like dan rather when somebody handed me the note ap reporting scott walker quitting the race. Is this true . The New York Times says that, of course its true. Ladies and gentlemen danny diaz making his dramatic entrance onto the stage. [applause] thanks so much for being with us. How shocked are you by this news about scott walker . It is surprising. These campaigns are tough and scott walker is a good guy and we will see what the news is coming out of this. I think his press conferences at 5 00 central so i would like to hear it first. He is a good man for sure. Let me ask you a couple of questions that come from the conventional narrative about your campaign. You are obviously welcome to push back. One narrative is that you guys coming into this suppose as shock and awe. Maybe youre going to scare people out of the race but you are certainly going to be in a fairly dominant position from the beginning at least where mitt romney was which is a solid second. People bumped up ahead of emmett areas times. Instead we see bush at 9 but kind of bear. I think when youre running for the president of the United States you take nothing for granted and you have to work hard every day. We have a candidate who will not be outworked who outworked his staff each and every day. We are very confident that our team and our strategy and everything that we have put forward as a long game locus. This isnt about being the president of the United States in september or october. Its about a rise in peppered being competitive in the march states and being able to communicate your message more effectively than anyone else and from our perspective we are confident once all the cards are dealt on the table that jeb bush will be out of the campaign. When you say he outworked his staff tell us what that works like. Is putting in 18 hours a day everyday to be elected president than anyone that knows him should know that is not entirely surprising. Thats the way he governed for eight years as the governor of florida. From our perspective thats what we see each and every day. Another thing you will hear often said about the governor is he famously said prior to getting and im only going to do it if i can do it joyously and it seems as though a president ial campaign inherently is not that joyous for a guy like jeb who is a policy wonk and maybe a bit of an introvert and especially this time when its been dominated by a guy who i would be almost certain that jeb bush considers him a clown and he has been losing to him and hasnt to particularly enjoy this process very much to those of us looking at it from the outside. Is someone who looks at it from inside what i can tell you is i see what you did there. That was good. He is having a lot of fun running as president. The thing is jeb enjoys meeting people. He enjoys hearing their stories. He likes talking about his ideas and policies and the impact that they will have on these individuals. When the governor rolls out and the tax policy and hes able to meet with real people and talk about the impact it will have on them when hes able to look back on his gubernatorial record and talk about those stories particularly in the area of education he enjoys that allows aware having a great time. You may see Something Different that i. Its also taken as gospel among journalists that the constant lowenergy gibe from trump has gotten under his skin and gotten his head as he seems to bring it up all the time himself now and in fact his secret Service Codename is going to be ever ready. Ever ready was the term he used as governor. I think there is a lot of talking in president ial campaigns. I think there needs to be more showing in the president ial campaigns. I have a candidate who is out there working hard every day rolling out serious policies whether its how to beat isis or grow the economy, whether its Regulatory Reform and on and on. Those ideas buttressed with the record of performance that is unmatched in the field. He has the best conservative record of accomplishment in the field. I think he has a lot of credibility when he goes out and says this is what im going to do for america. This is my record in florida, 4. 4 growth, 1. 3 million jobs, eight years of balanced budget, 8 billion in the bank account, aaa rating. America would be better off if we had that stewardship in our country so from our perspective we know that if we tell the jeb story we will be confident he will be the last guy standing. You are obviously real proand you have been out at this for a while. Did you at any point or do you have any point now worried that jeb is someone who hasnt run since 2002 has some rust . No. And you dont tank you think his performance right now is as good as going to be three months from now . I think every candidate needs to improve every day as does his team. Thats part of the process and from our perspective we are working hard every single day. There are always things that can be done differently or more creatively or whatever else. From our perspective as i said this is about growing. This is about building on yesterday. This is about Getting Better and this is about winning. Thats what winners do. Its a long season. We are not going to declare the baseball season halfway through. You need to get to the playoffs and from our gift that is where we are at. Certainly back to trump a couple of months ago the governor made a really definitive statement. Im done talking about donald trump. Enough, im just going to do my own thing and not address him and within another couple of weeks he was really too liberally going after him and that were with him. What changed . I think the colleagues have a tendency to ask questions that are exclusively focused on one individual so there is that that from our perspective that may be focused on, what needs to be focused onto a greater degree as the policies he is rolling out what he is doing each and every day addressing the chamber of commerce of regulatory policy and that is really the crux of this campaign. Its those ideas and those policies and that is what he is talking about day in and day out. Some things may get heightened attention. Its the nature of the beast if you will but i think if you look at what the candidate talks about in its entirety in its totality i think far and away he is focused on what he believes, what his record is and how key can help you. So there is no moment where people sat down and said everyone thought trump would be if a mom and on. Thats not true. We have to throw some punches. Look, no candidate or campaign is going to allow attacks to go up so there is anullment of that for sure but you win the presidency by selling yourself. You win the presidency by selling your ideas. You win the presidency by making sure you connect with people on how those ideas are going to positively impact their lives in a forwardlooking way. That is what needs to be met. Thats the threshold that needs to be crossed. We are running for the highest office sofa markers active from our perspective when either candidate with the best vision and has the most incredible argument to be a great president why would i hide back . Y. Would not put that front and center and make that argument . How seriously are you guys going to play in iowa and can you survive a fifth or sixth place finish . We play and we play to win. You dont play to lose. From our perspective we intend to run a competitive campaign in the early states and we intend to do very well. We have a candidate who ran three times and i think its now the third, now supports most popular state. He left office for 60 approval rating, somebody who outsized amount of the female vote. We believe without record of success with the policy ideas that we can compete anywhere and they will and we happen to have the resources to build to do it. So uber allin and iowa. I think we are playing to win. We are playing to win in the four primary states and playing to win afterwards. So sure. I learned slowly how much harder is it going to be in New Hampshire having to deal with a john kasich that at least early on has shown some potency in New Hampshire and Chris Christie who i think we conclude conclude from the last debate may have more life in him than he is shown so far in the commisso wisdom is those are two more establishments centerright candidates who are in your lane. I think the Republican Party should feel very proud of the riches we have on stage. There are a lot of accomplished guys running for the highest office in the land and from our perspective obviously we will compete very hard in New Hampshire. We have visited their very frequently and that will continue to be the case. I think if you look at the issues in New Hampshire such as the economic attacks issues in the governors record of accomplishment it fits nicely. When you look at some of the concerns with how d. C. Is so broken and dysfunctional and you look at the reforms that he instituted in tallahassee and the policy that he has put forward with regard to the term limits and the balanced Budget Amendment and you look at these other areas lineitem veto those are policies that resonate strongly with voters in New Hampshire. We look forward to a spirited conversation with governor christie with governor kasich. Should i read that as a threat to . I think from our perspective i think we have the most accomplished conservative record on the stage. I think we have the sound is policies and we look forward to the conversation. What you think is one of the governors best moments in the debate when he pushed back against trump on his attack against his brother. One thing about my brother is he has kept us safe and you have had liberal column saying thats just not true and showing pitchers of the World Trade Center ring attacked on september 11. I think what the governor stated is fairly obvious for any objective person looking at what transpired and very proud of his family. Once again i get back to what i said earlier my core message. Particularly for the presidency is the most personal vote that a voter makes. When you look at the most next personals probably the governor. They really want to know who you are, what you believe what you have done and whether they are going to watch you on that Television Set in their kitchen for the next four to eight years. Bomar perspective we need to show our heart and tell her story. We have the resources to do that effectively and we will compete everywhere. We will help an organization that is technologically savvy. Comprehensive Immigration Reform some version of which the governor supports was defeated in 2006 almost sank john mccains campaign. The gang of eight bill was defeated this time around than marco rubio took a swoon immediately after that. This is a warning that might come up. Even now you look at the party and it seems further right on immigration then than it was an 06 or a year or two ago. How hard does that make it for the governor to sell his position on immigration and two are you guys worried that with the talk we have heard about immigration the well has been poisoned some and jeb, an element of his general Election Campaign appealing to hispanics will be much more difficult. I think the polling data clearly demonstrates that people want a solution. Its a problem and we want it resolved. I think the governors put forward a conference of plan with respect to how one addresses the border and he has written a book on the issue of immigration. This is one of those big issues. Its one of those big issues and has been 30 years since its been addressed. Who has the wherewithal to get it done . Maybe the person at the with medicaid in florida. Maybe the person has big achievements. That would be a key indicator having the wherewithal to get it done and its an important issue that we need to debate. When you talk about governor bush as i said earlier he is someone that had an outsized performance of hispanic voters in florida. Hes someone who today is that 37 in the polls, general election polls with hispanic voters. Hes someone who can come be. He can win. He is campaigning with his arms wide open. He is bringing people into the process and i think conservatives can be confident that he is someone whos going to put forward a solution. Hes going to secure the border and put in place mechanisms to be sure this is an issue thats addressed once and for all. I think his record bears that out and he will continue to campaign as someone who is solution oriented. Quickly the best moment for another candidate or campaign in the most endearing quality . His most endearing quality as he gives out his email address to everyone. People email him and he responds. The exchanges, this isnt you. Is it really you . He someone that wants to engage people at an individual level and a very personal level. I think that is a really important quality. As far as something the other campaigns did that was pretty smart i thought the response for the super pac to the donald trump attack was well done. Danny, thanks so much. Really appreciate it. [applause] next up is Terry Sullivan from a marco rubio campaign. Terry, welcome. [applause] since we are living in an instant reaction world and the instant reaction to the media thing that is not quite happened yet on scott walkers exit . We just nailed down his New Hampshire state cochair to endorse marco still a little bit of news there for you that i got just a minute ago. I think we have got a few other folks but we are prepared as people move on to the race to capitalize on it and get their supporters. How shocked were you . Not really. People dont stop running for president because they run out of ideas or they run out of a desire to give speeches. They stop running because they run out of money and thats why we run such old wean campaign sometimes, taking knocks for it. Keeping control of the budget is such an important thing. We dont know why but i would assume that is the case. Tell us more about examples of things the guys arent doing that other people are doing that you think is a way to husband resources. Staff is so expensive. Its extremely expensive to go out and pay someone. When you are paying someone for three months its not too bad but when you are paying them for 12 months its a big difference. We have asked more people. Everybody on our campaign has taken a pay cut to take the job myself included. Whatever job they have some came from the official office and others came from other lines of work rather campaigns. Everybody who has joined the campaign is making less. I want people in the office to be there because they want to be. We dont make staff news and we dont send news releases. Its not a moneysaving thing but its a state of mind. We are all here for one person and thats marco. We are not looking for exorbitant amounts of money. Its really about saving money staying disciplined. Every expense over 500 in the entire campaign i sign a piece of paper on. It is a giant pain. There are days that i question why a implemented that policy. I was asked recently by one of the staffers could we bump it up to a thousand . Some of these county fairs they want a table and it has become onerous. I say wealthy think there are cases that we are not getting a table at such and such event because of it this is such a pain and she said to me well yeah. I said perfect that its working. This is great. No one ever won or lost the presidency because they had a table at the manchester of fair. Thats not why you win. We hard to give out anything Bumper Stickers or yard signs. You can go on our web site and buy them. We have a county chairman pack so you can put in their. So people have to pay to be part of the campaign. If they want collateral absolutely and you can sponsor someone and say i want to send here. We had a lot of people who said we just need this or we just need that and volunteers would say we needed in our area. Or find a donor. I get this from some of our folks. Find someone who will spend 100 on the web site. Part of it is saying thats only 100 here and its a culture and mindset. Marco flies 95 commercial. He gets mileage upgrades. He booked a special kind of hell for anybody but we have got to because these are the things we need campaigns and losing campaigns its all about how much money they have for direct voter contact. Its not about how much that they have for anything else. Let me ask you the way have everything else. One thing you will hear is prior to the bump after the last debate is one reason rubio is so low he needs bush to collapse or to fizzle on the launch pad. Any truth to that and whether or not theres truth to that is bush fizzling . We need everybody not named marco to fizzle. That is the plan. We need everybody to slowly fizzle out and we think they will. No disrespect to them or their candidacy for the campaigns. Its just that we are building this for the longhaul. The pain you cut rate for this stuff . It is just the sense that you want someone who is a little more responsible and frankly feel like they have command and control of the situation. That they can identify with themselves. You feel like you watch them on stage and hes personable. He can talking east coast and west coast. At the same time he is amazing on form policy. To have someone like that is a very unique candidate and we are approaching it that way. So to simplify and some up what you said. You kinda are making a bet on his talent and you think it is a good bet. This sounds a little bit of spin but i think every campaign, Successful Campaign has to bet on their candidate. Every candidate has strengths and weaknesses but you have to. If you try to make your candidate someone they are not, voters you can say what you want about voters and sometimes i do, they have a unique ability to sniff out b. S. Instead of saying this is exactly what our candidate is you may disagree on some stuff but at the end of the day this is who he is and thats a good thing. Our job is not to say its this or its that. When you try to make voters believe that theres something theyre not it doesnt work. Speaking of voters my favorite quote on that said the voters has spoken. The pastorates. So youre making this a vote on his talent at the criticism you will hear of the strategy is it is much riskier than a candidate who has a clear ideological base, the way ted cruz does, the way john k6 does again i think cruz would in. Like mccain, romney, and bob dole. None of our nominees have either those things. For quite a while. You hear a lot about which is the legs of the three legates duel are you going to be. Which is your line. You know a three legates stool for a reason. Republicans do best when they embrace all three legs. When are you are only a one like it candidate, you cant stand up. To that extent, were not one that only has one lane and were only going to double down on that lane. We also dont scare anybody. Yes you have to become the first choice of enough people, but the pathway to do that is not to be scared of any part of the party. There are diehard ted cruz supporters, and they think yes i like mark rubio. Thats important because its not just about marco, he said to me once i would never want to be the nominee of the league party. To that point, if you dont have a Sustainable Party and you are not a sustainable canada for a general election, what is the point. You shouldnt just be about general election, you should abandon your principles, but you should absolutely not sacrifice who you are. Weve seen candidates in the past get hurt by that. Try to open for compensate and say things they think they really dont believe in order to win a primary and it have to backtrack them in a general. Was there ever a moment where you set down and saw trumps rise and considered what to do about it . Or did trumps rise fall in the category of everything you would consider noise in your longrange plan. Know, because number one lets look at historically speaking who has been a force place. In the second week of september, based on public polling in four years ago last week, the front runner was rick. By 11 points. Eight years ago, it was Hillary Clinton by 16 points and giuliani by 11. You can go back from there. The point is, early polls dont mean anything. It turns out i was wrong, it means if you are in first place the second week of september youre guaranteed not to be the nominee of your party. There be nothing worse in my mind that and be in first place right now it is terrible. We were there for a short while and that was the time where most concern. The New York Times writes stories about how big the windows are in your house. Literally, how well manicured your yard is. We are happy with that. Ideally, i only want want to be in first place on one day. If i have to be a few more than that, i am okay with that. Talk to us about Immigration Reform. I understand senator rubio supports every part of that to this day but wants to do it on a different timetable in different order . Heres why its called meet the Campaign Manager. No one has every paid me for my policy advice. So we will not start today. I can speak to marcos plan. He tried to do something about it. This is when i go back to try to not make your candidate somewhat he is not. Marco is nothing but getting stuff done. He is a bundle of energy wants to accomplish things. He very much did on Immigration Reform. He had a lot of people come to him and say we need to for the party. So he took the ball and ran with it. It failed. He is the first to admit, look we did it in the wrong way. I dont want to put words in his mouth, and i would want to do that on any issue, much less this one. He now believes, and politics, business, if something doesnt work and you continue to do it, youre an idiot. In politics if something doesnt work everyone expects you to continue to do it or your sellout. Its unique. He believes the only way to get things done, the real heart of it is no one believed we were going to secure the border, and probably rightfully so that Obama Administration was not going to secure the border. First lets prove to the American People this is what we are going to do and then work from there. So completely, shamelessly superficial question. Do you ever worry he work looks too young question mark. Know. Not any more than bill Clintons Campaign or brock obamas campaign, and i and i realize im talking only about democrats. I have to believe this time. When we when we do the person whose turn it is, we just get trounce. There is a reason for. American voters are faced with a choice between the past and the future. They pick the future every time. We have to start being charlie around to the democrat solution. Lets not try to kick that bubble again. We are out of time, let me hit you with a few questions. Was there ever a moment when you knew jeb was getting in and you thought no marco is not getting in. Never. The chatter out there about jeb cutting off fundraising and will take his base from florida, hes friends with him. That was the point right. That he was going to clear the entire field and no one would consider getting in. That hasnt quite worked out. Steady wins the race. We were never intimidated. We are on intimidated by the prospect of jeb candidacy. Personal question. Have you ever had a ride on rubios electricity boat. I have not. I tried to convince them that we needed to do it for a fundraising gimmick. Like. And he said absolutely not, that is my boat. If hes back and let someone enter online hes back and bite me. Best moment for someone else and most enduring quality . The best moment for anyone else is ted cruz who is running the smart campaign. They they are their candidate. Theyre not making him somebody hes not. But inviting donald trump to that press conference is brilliant. None of you people, no one would have covered it but instead they carry ted cruz a five on all the networks. He would have never gotten that coverage but he got it because he invited trump there. It was smart. Most enduring quality, i say its intriguing to have a candidate you can talk about music with. First time i talk with bono i happen to be there, they talked about music and then rubio explains to bono that he believes that u2 was the First Christian rock band and heres why. Then he goes into why about i was like you know, youre right. So he is someone of our generation and that is pretty cool. And thank you so much. Thank you. [applause]. Not unexpectedly we have a little change in programming that i am a learned. Rick will not run the Walker Campaign will not be joining us. Instead were going to go straight to the bobby jindal campaign. So i have asked everyone and i will ask you to react to the news about Governor Walker. Surprised me. Why. He did get an early rise in the polls. He came out strong in january, it is always hard once you take the dip down to come back. I still didnt expect him to drop out this quickly. If you have been lurking back there ive been asking questions based on conventional wisdom. Fair warning. The criticism youll often hear of Governor Jindal and his campaign is here is a guy who is running the state health care system, who is the smartest guy in the room but he seems to be running kind of a bomb throwing campaign that is not necessarily who he is. What is your reaction question mark. The most visited page on our website is the policy page. He has laid out policy on repealing obama care and replacing it. He will be the only candidate in the race with a plan to replace obama care. He has education provision, Additional National defense. You still have to break through the clutter. You have 17, 40 candidates in the written race, you still have to break through the clutter. Putting out 30 page policy papers. The press is not interested in covering that. If youre going to break through the clutter and make through your point you have to do it in a way that is going to report it. If its not reported, is not said. What have been some of those moments where he feels he has broken through the clutter . I would say he came up here to lay out his case for why he thought trump would be the wrong nominee for america, the wrong candidate for conservatism. We shouldnt put our trust in somebody who is unproven. Someone who doesnt share our conservative values. I thought that was a week when he cut through the clutter. Talk about about the strategic decision if there was one to go after trump that hard question. The decision, this election is monumental. We are at a crossroads, you look at the candidate like trump, if we go ahead and invest in the presidency to a man like trump who cares about himself, who doesnt care about freedom, about the first principles. We are going to make a big mistake as a country. He doesnt have a problem with big government. His problem is he is not in charge of it. He is not going to reduce the size of government. He is not going to get rid of the burden of taxation and get the economy going. Hes not going to get the government out of education. The things we need as a country to bring back freedom, he is not interested in. So somewhat needs to stand up and say this is not the right guy for the Republican Party. He doesnt represent our principles. Was there any worry that kind of attack on trumpet so far doesnt seem to have work for anybody question mark if anything . It was important. At this moment in the campaign, at the time he was the issue. It was the wrong direction for our party to go, the wrong direction for country to go. So plot out for us what you see as what gentles breakout would be. How is it going to happen, where is it going to happen, what is it going to happen . Our strategy is an early state strategy. It is iowa. Is on a 99 county to her. He is halfway through it. He will spend a lot of time in iowa. The great thing about a marcus president ial election is it is not a national primary, it is an early state primary. That. That gives people in iowa and New Hampshire a chance to you to know the candidates on a oneonone basis. Not just from what they see on tv and on the news. But to actually visit with them. These voters are serious. They will go to every event, every, every candidate, they will have some questions and make their own decision. That is key to our strategy to success. Spent time in iowa, get to to know the voters oneonone. Let them get a sense of who Governor Jindal is in his experience. Sometimes told people that if Governor Jindal could Just Campaign in rooms of 12 people at a time, he would win the presidency. Sounds a little bit like your strategy and i was. Well you need a little bit more than 12 in the room. Louisiana is a state that is very retail happy. If you are running for governor you needed get to know the person. He was was an unlikely candidate for governor when he ran. He spent time, voters got to know him and they elected him twice. So either anything you look at as early indication of gentle catching on in iowa . In the polls you will see things go up and the image questions are leading indicators so we are watching that. He has traveled around youll see that we have 600 volunteers signed up in iowa so that is what we are looking at and hopefully that does it. What does he say or do that gets the most reaction. It seems to me not having been out on the trail with him but hearing what others say, reading reports that immigration. Is that the thing that gets people going question mark. Religious liberty is an issue that has a lot of people worry. This idea that we are losing something as a country if a christian businessman you cant operate a business according to your beliefs and conscious. If we are going to force people to attend religious ceremonies against their conscious, that is something that strikes a chord. Most recently, it is been having a frank conversation about what is going on in d. C. We have republicans that controlled the house and senate yet it seems like on the big issues we continually surrender. When democrats are in charge, they had no problem going balls to the wall to get done what they wanted to get done. You look at socialized medicine, kennedy pushed it, ability pushed it, and then obama ramped it through. They just never gave up on it. Republicans tend to surrender before we get a chance to fight on it. You look at the corker framework. We unilaterally said okay, we will let you do this. So anyway there is a lot of anger about republicans and our inability to fight and accomplish what we campaign on. So is the governor really and truly more angry at Mitch Mcconnell and brock obama . You might think mcconnell has not been aggressive enough, but he is basically this guy who running the senate and obama is running the country. I think the anger comes in from the fact that president obama and the democrats are honest about what they want to accomplish. They go very hard at accomplishing what they want to accomplish. We are told by republicans, this is what we hope to accomplish, this is is what were going to accomplish. Then, we are told later that oh sorry we really cant do that. Do you think mcconnell and paneer are dishonest . That they they are pretending to oppose these things. I wish we had the same level of fight on our side. So sean spicer has said there will not be in undercard debate next time and wants to shove the candidates down the polls to interviews rather than to a debate dates early, what you think about that . How would that affect use question mark. It has a lot of Important Roles but i would think an Important Role would be to limit the field and limit the number of candidates on the debate stage prior to anyone voting. I know a lot of smart people got in the room after the 2012 election 12 election and decided the reason might republicans lost that up election was because we had too many debates. We allow the front runner to get asked too many questions and get criticized too much. When as a party do we become afraid of ideas . When do we become afraid of having robust abate debates question mark that is a great thing to have in a democracy. So the id would have oaks in d. C. Say you have to limit the number of debates and limit the number of people who participate in debates because we decide that the best thing for voters, i think its silly. So you think the rnc is trying to shut down the debate and shutdown candidates to mark. I think they wanted to have fewer debates. Because they felt that romney got beat up too much. I dont think that is healthy. As a party we shouldnt be afraid of debates. We shouldnt be afraid of ideas. So one criticism youll hear Governor Jindal, from the left, is how is this guy running for president when he is so unpopular at home . Is he unpopular at home . From right now i can see he has a 40 approval rating. I think he told louisiana to things, shrink government and grow the economy. In louisiana we had a very topheavy government for a long time. Huey long came in and created a government that was outside. We couldnt afford it anymore. It was crushing our economy. Governor jindal came in and over the course of eight years he cut the budget by 11 billion. That is a lot of money. He fired 30,000 state employees. So in a state where you have 2 million adults, Everybody Knows somebody who got laid off. So if you want to be popular what you do is you give money away. You expand medicaid so everyone gets healthcare. You get free stuff to people thats how you get popular as governor. He didnt run to be popular, he ran because our state needed generational change. That is what he did. He shrunk government substantially. We had a government run had a government run Hospital System in louisiana that had been there since the 1920s, now it is all privatized. People said you cant privatize the Hospital System its too ingrained into our state. He privatized it. Look at education, statewide school choice. He got rid of tenure for teachers. Thats not a popular thing. But he got rid of it and gave the largest tax cut, income tax cut in history. Of course that resulted in fewer revenues. And they said we have a budget problem. He did on purpose. We cut we cut revenue so we could cut government. When he ran he won by historic margins the first time. The only nonincumbent governor to win in the primary and got reelected. He knew what he wanted to accomplish. I can hear someone tweeting right now, gentles campaign on popular. You see how you change things, Chris Christie is back down now, but initially swooned and came back up when they saw the results. What is different in louisiana question marks. We had to continue to reduce the size of government. It is not always popular to cut the size of government. The point of america theres too much government spending. Our debt debt is too large and spending is too much. It take someone with backbone to go in and cut spending. Spending is going to threaten our security, economic security. When you have president obama say that he didnt have the leverage he needed with iran visavis china. Because we owed china bunch of money. When you have the president saying that the amount that we are spending is affecting our security. So government is important. So the final two questions. What is the post moment for another campaign where he thought gosh, that was really smart. What is the most endearing quality about bobby jindal that we dont know about . Best moment was trumps hat. That was fantastic. The rule is never wear a hat right. Is counterintuitive but it is great. Most endearing quality about Governor Jindal is he is a very kind man. That doesnt always come across because he has so much intellectual horsepower that you dont get to see it. Can you give us an example. At times he will call me on the phone and my kids will answer. He will talk to the kids. He takes time with people. He makes people feel at home and welcome. He wont leave until everyone has a chance to talk to them. He was at one point the front runner of this race. I dont mean this to be an insulting question, but i have been personally curious because it senator graham is so lively and he loves the game. Was there something that he was sick with, with the under the weather . It was just night and day. The first or second debate, it is the typical funny and lively Lindsey Graham. That was his first debate as a president ial candidate. And it was also a very strange debate. They put those candidates together and you could hear a pin drop. It was a very difficult situation. To perform in such a stale environment. And especially introducing candidates in that setting. Were you aware that there would be not a soul in the arena except for a few individuals . I dont want to get too far into what we have been told, but we were told a number of Different Things beforehand, things changed and we knew that there wasnt going to be much of an audience. How do you think you the second debate . I would say that he was by far the winner at the Reagan Library and i would say that im a little biased. And hes the only one who is ready to be commander in chief on day one and is prepared for that task. I have been asking all the Campaign Managers because i am a journalist. Thats why we love hanging out with you. Okay, so the knock on him is that this is a one issue candidate and maybe even more than a one issue candidate, kind of a one policy candidate because when he comes back to again and again in both of the debate, you can almost asked him ask him anything and he would say 10,000 troops in syria. Im going to try to do the same thing. Turning the question matthew, what is more important . These people are trying to destroy the entire way of life. They are wreaking havoc around the world and it doesnt matter what the Social Security policy is of our citizens are not safe and if we dont get this war against radical islam right, nothing else matters. Our country is a threat, we have to get this right and that is going to continue to be the major focus in this campaign. I know that you are not a military expert. No, i am not. So where does that number come from except for being a memorable number because my limited understanding of military affairs. If you have 10,000 eyes when you take logistics and protection and search and rescue, you probably have about 50 guys are probably going to be fighting. Im not running for president of the United States, senator graham has been working in the arena on this for decades. It has been on the ground 35 times between his trips as a senator and deployment as a reservist. And these are numbers that are based on his experience and i couldnt tell you based on my own experience because that is not where i have become a political consultant. In this campaign is a long and grinding process and they had gradual and incremental progress and they tried to win it when the caucus was starting to happen. We are going to have a slow gradual decline. So how does he match up in your mind in iowa. The conventional wisdom would be that iowa tends to reward these very conservative, socially conservative candidates and senator graham has a reputation as a more centerright guys to i think that thats a fair point and i think that we have to see how this race is going to shape up in iowa. A few weeks ago we are talking about scott walker being the front runner. Hes not in the race today. I dont know how many will be in the race come next year and i dont know how the ideological puzzle breaks up in terms of whos dividing what segment of the vote. But the senator, if you look at his schedule the big focus has been New Hampshire and will continue to be New Hampshire. About some of the other guys, sean spicer said theres not going to be this kind of debate this time, that the policy that seems to be designed to relegate candidates like yours to some sort of interview format and not let them on the stage whatsoever hopefully it has nothing to do with this criteria. So i would ask, how is this that you know what they are going to do if you have no role on what theyre planning to do. And i think we need to let them determine their criteria and i think that the rnc, theres been a lot of great candidates. The its good for the party. We should be embracing this is a good thing about conservatism and our message rather than having the party to play the role that the voters are supposed to play. So if you dont convince them, would you be open to participating in some alternate debates sponsored by other news organizations . I suggested it to. I think you should divide people in half and have two forms so you can really see in a smaller setting all of these candidates showing off their talents in making their case. I would hope that others, i dont know how many will be left. So this could be a moot point. So how would you characterize the senators thinking on where the party is on immigration. Because he has been out there and very forthright about his position for a long time and hammering away, and it seems as though the party is only sliding further right. I think the key thing from the senators perspective is that immigration is a problem and were not doing anything about it right now. We have to find a way to fix the problem or by doing nothing we are continuing to grant amnesty and that is the one thing that i think that all republicans agree upon is that we have to do something to solve this problem. People have different ideas about how to do it. But as the senator thinks about most issues looking in in a pragmatic way, what is actually doable. Whether it helps me politically or not, im going to be honest with the American People and give them what i think is a straight story. Would you characterize his personal view as donald trump as appalled . I dont think he liked it when donald trump gave out his cell phone number and that was an interesting day. But and its like, something had happened. And it was very angry donald trump supporters. I think his personal views are probably that hes not ready to be commander in chief for the greatest fighting force in the world and we should be focusing on this. So where you secretly relieved that he forced the issue and force the senator to get a more modern phone . Well, it is a mixed bag because now he knows how to read polls and read news articles and so hes getting a lot of information on his own, but yes, i think that its great that he has joined all of us in using smart phones and as i said to him when it all happened, i had been his Campaign Manager for for five months. And donald trump just did something that i have been trying to do for for five months. Im a total failure. Hes pretty good at it. As i read it by the senators criteria, no one else is said to be commander in chief because no one else is on board . I think that we are waiting to see how people feel about that particular issue. From his point of view there is no debating it anymore and what we need to do in syria and iraq, the mistakes we made before, he has been very vocal fighting against the Obama Administration and i think that he feels that this is the will correct path forward and hes going to make his case and he thinks he is as prepared or he would not be running for president. So your path to a breakout. Does it require a number of other candidates including jeb bush to fizzle out . Im not sure. Anytime and politics you need to have a little bit of luck. There is Political Consultants that will tell you it is the genius in our heads. You need to have a little bit of luck. But you need to take advantage of that luck and i think probably many of you wouldve said Lindsey Grahams Campaign Manager isnt going to be on the stage when they have their forum. Well, we are running a small, disciplined, Flexible Campaign we can afford and in order to remain in the race and take advantage of the opportunity they still have to be sitting there and thats a campaign the campaign that we have had planned since day one. I asked this question as well, can you quantify for us and give us indication of exactly how small and what corners you are cutting and what it means to be lean and mean . Yes, we have an extremely Small National team of a dozen people. We sit in a giant room and we all yell at each other all day long. Its a great deal of on and a fun place to work and i think that that actually reflect slobber candidates personalities. I think a Good Campaign should reflect this and our campaign is kind of like that. We are a small team there for the right reasons and were there because we believe in Lindsey Graham. If we were doing this for the money or because of the polls, we would all be there for the wrong reasons and we are not. I have asked some of the other former senators. Do you worry that the mood is so much in favor of outsiders and people that have no political experience, the single worst case he could make as a candidate is that ive been in the senate a long time, i know things and i try to do things. It is a tough case to make right now. But i think at the end of the day when you get closer to election time people start thinking about Different Things. They are going to think about who is ready to take this fight to the board room and who it is ready. For military families theyre going to say i dont know that i want them to command my son or daughter, the capacity, the weapons, the support that they need to do their job. When we get down to it and crunch time and the importance of who the commanderinchief is going to be its going to be more relevant in peoples minds. Can and he talked to us about the history of Lindsey Graham as a vote getter in South Carolina . We understand he is the best vote getter in South Carolina history. He has never lost a race in South Carolina. He won his last primary against six opponents and was an overwhelming majority and he has not necessarily been seen as the front runner in those races but hes a great grassroots politician than what you see is what you get with him. He can interact with people as good as anyone ive ever worked with and that sort of talent helps him so much in South Carolina and that is perfectly tailored to iowa and New Hampshire as well to would you expect them to begin to pick up endorsements from the centers . I dont know if endorsements are the name of the game. I think that the key is how you are doing in the states and not to be more focused than what washington dc thinks. You have a secret number . I think that that certainly helps out. Senator graham is the only one in the race today aside from jim gilmore that has served in the military. He has been a reservist and i think that theres a Large Population of National Guard and reservists in iowa that is going to be good for him and theres a strong veterans population in South Carolina as well. Does he have a particular strategy or tactic for reaching out . I think that talking about his credentials is important and also talking about how we make sure that veterans are cared for and taken care of and that something important to the community and we have a good breadth of experience. Last two questions, what is the moment that you have been most impressed with that you wish that you have thought of first or Something Like that and what is the most endearing quality of Lindsey Graham do you have seen on the inside working with him closely that the rest of us may not be aware of . I think that one of the things that i find most fascinating about this campaign and hopefully in the long run is a good thing. Is that donald trump has turned a Political Consulting conventional wisdom and so maybe that is a good thing. Maybe we have too many Political Consultants out of the same playbook. And we have people challenging the way things have already been done. Thats good for folks like me to have to think differently and looking at this, we really i mean, how else can we look at what we do. So in terms of Lindsey Graham i think the one word i would use to describe him is sincere. What you see with him is exactly what you get. He is as approachable as anyone i have ever worked with in politics, as sincere and caring as ive ever been around and also just plain funny. He is a really funny person to be around and its not so much that he has the same jokes and hear over and over again. I worked with john mccain and i can tell you that if you asked me today what what the funny thing he said, im not sure that i could come up with it because everyday something new. So that creates an environment thats a great deal of fun to work in and im truly thankful for that opportunity. Thank you. Coming up next is very done it with ben carson campaign. [applause] thank you. Thank you. Okay, so we have this breaking news maybe in about 10 minutes that scott walker is out of the race. What do you make of that and how do you analyze that we met what does it mean to. I think last time it was so you know, dont give up, youre going to hit rough spots. Can you explain to us, then carson, if you will, what youre going to hear over and over again from the pundit class because i just dont get it. I dont get why he is lighting a fire. He is so soft spoken. Hes not a bomb thrower in this environment that rewards people for saying outrageous things and never apologizing. She took the slightest possible implicit swipe at donald trump and apologized for it which is a completely complete opposite of what he would do. He certainly is the smartest guy that ive ever met pressure and also one of the nicest people ive ever met. And hes got, starting off hes a physician with a pediatric specialty and a living legend. Madefortv movies . Yes, Something Like that. And hes carrying and smart and he has a stability that is amazing and people just love him. Hes very likable. And then there is just his life story that is just astonishing and inspiring. He is a guy who saw his cousins die on the street. Never thinking that he would live to be an adult let alone get inspired to start reading. And he only had enough money for one application. But they beat them in the quiz bowl, harvard ncl. How did you get to know him and become part of this operation . A friend of mine said, would you be interested in doing this and i said no. Im way past that. I have a corporate Political Consulting shop and ive always wanted to do this. And of course when i was younger and didnt have kids and i said okay, im going to go talk to him. I went on the florida and i spoke to david and i got into the car to go back to the airport and i said that im in, lets do it. And he was overwhelmingly nice and likable. And you have no doubt as someone who has always amazing accomplishments and attributes, that never having run for office before or having any significant executive experience is, that he will win this nomination be elected president of the United States . Am i telling you 100 . Of course not. But i am telling you that he has a lot to offer. That is some endearing honesty right there. But he has a lot and theres a lot to help the Republican Party and that is why i really became interested. He can make the party bigger, bolder, and better. And i think he probably will be our nominee. But even if he isnt, i think that is a mission that is good for everyone. The maxa what are those lessons that he is out teaching the Republican Party. So far we have campaigned last month, harlem, ferguson, detroit, innercity chicago. Going to places where we did not see the mitt romney and paul ryan team make a stop. And these talks about lifting yourself up and ending the cycle of dependency that none of our other candidates can do, i mean, you dont have to its not just the africanamerican vote that we are going after, but we are going after those suburban soccer moms that barack obama elected. He speaks in a compassionate way and people want their kids to have the same opportunities that they have. Was he talking to the africanamerican audiences and resonating with them enact. I sat with him around the same table. We asked about businesses that were obliterated with protesters and policeman and he said something that most politicians never say and it was great. How important is it is it that he is soft spoken. If theres any quality that you would naturally associate with success, that would be far down on the list. Yes, i agree. But in a field of these candidates, looking and sounding, talking and behaving different is very important and distinguishes ourselves from the rest of the debate. But that is not him. But i will take two hours of national tv time sitting with him any day, anytime any time that he wants to give it to me. So a lot of people must his standout performance in the first debate. Were they didnt get it. Did you know those last couple of questions, one about race in the closing statement, did you think is then carson terms that he is killing it and he would have a big bounce because of this . Well, nowadays everything is dashboard. And i can tell you how everything is playing. So i knew through social media that what he was saying was really resonating and the shares of the posts were going through the roof. And at that point i think he had about 1. 6 and we went up to almost 2 million. Yesterday we only gained 109,000 since the debate we have gained almost 900,000 and so we are at 3. 8 million right now. You know how that compares to candidates . Well, its three times more than Hillary Clinton. And 15 times more than jeb bush and we would be above donald trump that accumulated things three years after the apprentice. Have you take advantage of that . One way you can take advantage is 14 candidates on the republicans i, we are not clear on the democratic side, plus the super pacs and the outside money. If youre planning on winning this through Television Advertising in january, you are probably not going to do that. So we have built up a lot of the networks around to talk to the voters. And that includes all of these tools because content is tainted if you can talk to them effectively in the way that you want to be, you can do it with the press of a button. He blew out his candles on his birthday cake on friday and he said that what his wish was. I dont know what it was off the top of my head but i know that 19 Million People got this and five and a half million watched it on television which would cost a lot of money and. I hear you saying that if you happened to be a candidate that is really good at it boardrooms and has raised 125 million for your super pac, we wont name anyone, but that is an asset that could not be as powerful as it was in the past . We know already that the issue of advertising rates are 10 times more than campaign rates. So 100 million in terms of that. I have already raised almost 30 million. And we are going to have a super pac that is pretty wellfunded as well. But television is not going to be the breakthrough media. Are you raising that through phones, direct mail, email . Yes. Weve had 500 30,000 donations as of this morning. And these are donors that can come back again and again. Talk to us about the actual organization of the campaign. Whether it was a couple of months ago ordered a couple weeks ago about disarray. Complete disarray. The Campaign Chairman is one of the people that hired me that had left and somehow a few weeks later it was a news story. We have 80 some people on the staff today. We have financed people and. [inaudible] social media term. Im not on facebook, clearly. We are doing great. Can you talk a little bit about iowa specifically. And checking around in iowa a couple of weeks ago. One thing i was surprised to learn hearing from multiple people is that then carson has a Real Organization here and an organizer or a chairman and all 99 counties. How were you in terms of infrastructure and how important is this way max. It is very well organized. We have three tickets out of iowa. We are going to get one. And in a datadriven Campaign World we live and there were 13,000 people in the month of august that attended one of our events. The surprising thing was that 29 of them were not republicans they were independents or democrats. So i think that the cockpit is going to be expanding this year. And at least that is what we are going to try to do. Typically they be 25,000 votes would go into the caucus. So when those people come to an event, how are you establishing a connection with them you will maintain over time. We are getting phone numbers, emails. Text numbers are so much better than emails. The computer starts talking to them. We warmed them up. We find out what motivates them. Little things like that. And my aunt flo. Not a lot of. So we released this, we leased a bus and i said, what if we have people put their kids names on the list. So doctor carson could see the reason. 8000 people, at the dollars a name, we paid for it in about three hours. In that fight, why should i pay for that out of my account. But thats the people of South Carolina to kick in the money. We raised 120,000. So theres a lot of Grassroots Energy out there. So i would we rejected if we didnt talk about muslims here today and. Why today . So did doctor carson really believe that it is not theoretically possible to have any moslem that is capable of believing in a to be president of the United States . Know, what they said was if islam could be put together in the constitution, if a muslim ran for president , he could not advocate for them until he knew whether they supported the central tenets of islam or not. Do they support religious freedom or all of these things that are not part of the central tenants as we know them. We are so willing to not support the other silly things. Okay, so the doctors plan, the way that he has addressed the immigrants of art here is to say perhaps that many of them can become guestworkers and in my mind that another version of amnesty. Am i wrong . I believe so. A path to citizenship, you know, the problem with deporting every person as donald trump supports, for 30 years they felt that we should start there. But if you are going to deport them, first you have to find them and then you have to water for them to find out where they are from and then we are going to have to water for the nation that there from and to accept that and then you know, its an incredibly expensive and if they will come out of the darkness hidden taxes Going Forward. Then we can give them some kind of worker visa and they can go about their lives. So do you care whether donald trump inflator deflates. You have your unique appeal with this candidate . You know, i think that there are certain ways and commonalities with supporters. But i think donald trump is our best contrasted so just let him continue to contest. I have asked everyone else and what is the moment during this campaign than any other campaign has had or any candidate has had we thought that that was really smart. And what is the most endearing quality of this man that we may not be aware of as outsiders . I think that doctor carson is incredibly humble. And that is like a part of this. Im not overly proud of everyone ive ever worked for. As far as what other campaigns have done, one that i thought was brilliant. Come on, you can think of something. I thought that the announcement of ted cruz at liberty was a pretty good idea. We are going to speak next month. But its certainly a lot cheaper than what i paid to put together an event. Thank you so much. We truly appreciate you taking the time. Great talk. [applause] thank you. Like any good Campaign Manager, listening to two hours of strategy. Please join us outdoors for cocktails. Thank you, everyone. Is retired general has testified about the u. S. Role in syria and other Foreign Policy issues. But at the beginning of his testimony he apologized for what he called his serious mistake of sharing classified information with his biographer and mistress. Senator reid, members of the committee, i thank you for the opportunity to discuss the situation in the middle east. As you noted, mr. Chairman, this is the first time that i have testified in open session since resigning as director of the cia nearly three years ago. And that includes one that i have offered before that i want to repeat to you and the er