Transcripts For CSPAN2 North Carolina Senate Debate 20161014

Donald trump has demonstrated particularly this week that he is singularly not qualified to be our commanderinchief. On the National Security fund we have talked about having russia hacked our Computer Systems and using Nuclear Weapons and its very disturbing to me what we have learned about these tapes. Senator burr s. By donald trump during all of this and i think that shows a lack of judgment. What i want to do is get up every morning and work for the people of North Carolina every day and you can trust me. Burr i think the lack of judgment is a decision for a topsecret and special Access Programs from an unsecure server where our enemy can access it. I think that judgment is when one chooses to lie about emails to the American People and to lie about things like benghazi where four american soldiers lost their lives. The son of a minister my dad taught me when someone asked for forgiveness you grant it. Im not going to defend donald trump and what he said or his actions. Ive spoken out quickly and loudly when i disagree with something. But when i look at our choice its not close for me. Im going to support my nominee. Im going to support donald trump. Ross senator burr has toed the party line even when donald trump has crossed the line. The important thing for the people of North Carolina is to have the government that keeps us safe, that cares about their everyday problems and it works every single day at their job. I will do that for the people of North Carolina. Moderator mr. Burr you are not only a donald trump supporter, you are donald trump advisor. Just last week you were named trumps National Security advisory council. We had a group of 50 Top Republican National Security officials some that you respect greatly like michael dave you said trump the quote the most reckless president in american history. Can you say is the current chairman of the Senate Intelligence committee you have no concerns about donald trump . Burr i have more concerns about Hillary Clinton because of her lack of judgment, because of the way she has handled her official business as secretary of state and let me just remind you i have criticized donald trump. Ms. Ross hasnt criticized Hillary Clinton for one of these acts. I dont blindly go into this. I assess it. You talk about a rubber stamp, the rubberstamp is for the Clinton Administration but jonathan you know me. I will help whoever is in leadership to try to bestow what i know and what i have learned as chairman of the Senate Intelligence committee and ive done that in the Trump Administration but many of your Senate Colleagues in the past ever scented their support of trump in wake of the 2005 video with the lewd comments about women and now we see in the past 24 hours several women come forward and say they were touched or kissed by mr. Trump without their consent. Trump is denied those charges but until now he said he has asked for forgiveness but do you consider the behavior that donald trump himself described in that video to be Sexual Assault . Burr if in fact he did it that would be Sexual Assault. I take him at his word. He said he didnt do it. Now lets address how many members have abandoned him. Five republicans publicly since this news came out last friday out of 54 . There are many republicans in United States senate so lets make sure that we accurately described what has transpired. Ross thank you so much for that question jonathan. I want to be clear and to put it on the record that i believe the way Hillary Clinton handled her emails was inappropriate. She has said so and ive made it very very clear from the beginning of my campaign that i think she did not do well by her emails. Donald trump is an entirely different matter. Donald trump has encouraged people to hack into our email servers. He has talked about the nuclear code as you have mentioned that he has bragged about assaulting women. I completely understand forgiveness. You can forgive somebody that you do not trust that same person with the awesome responsibility of commanderinchief. Donald trump is not qualified to be president. Burr i think i heard ms. Ross say donald trunk donald trump has allowed them to hack into our email system. We have a thread from nationstates and from individuals. The next leader will have to decide how we are going to secure americas infrastructure, both critical and from the standpoint of our top secret backdrops. Hillary clinton as already proven that she has a disregard for it. Im not sure how you can be critical and not the explosive when you see what she has said. Moderator lets turn now to health care. Ms. Ross bill clinton recently referred to aspects of the Affordable Care act is quote the craziest thing in the world but in North Carolina we have a situation where 90 of the counties will soon offer only one insurance option in the marketplace, blue cross and blue shield. Last year blue cross and blue shield raised premiums by 32 . They said therell be another increase this year so my question to you is two parts. First, if you have been in the senate in 2009 would you have voted upordown vote would you have voted for obamacare and what would you do to fix fix it . Ross the Affordable Care act clearly needs to be fixed but its much better than what we have had before when Insurance Companies could deny you coverage for preexisting conditions and women are denied the same rates as men. Senator burr would like to completely repeal the Affordable Care act and return it back to the private Insurance Companies and we know what kind of service to god at that point. He has also taken more than a Million Dollars from the Insurance Companies with not a surprise that would be a solution. Let me tell you about a man i have met in troy North Carolina. He couldnt get Health Insurance before the Affordable Care act. He was 1400 a month. After the Affordable Care act to cut Health Insurance and his wife got him to go to the doctor. He found that he had dance Prostate Cancer and because he had insurance to save his life. We simply cant go backwards and their state legislature, and theres a lot of blame for the Rising Health care costs because it refused to extend medicaid and we need to fix fix it fix ie cannot tour together. Moderator i asked if he had been in the senate in 2009 when thousand nine when it was voted on would you voted in favor of the Affordable Care act . Ross i would have voted in favor of the Affordable Care act to kiss its better than what we had. If id been in the senate in 2009 i would have had an opportunity to make amendments to the bill to talk to the people in North Carolina to work with their legislatures and make sure they expanded medicaid particularly in our rural areas and i would have rolled up my sleeves and try to make our Health Care System the best it could possibly be. Senator burr again would have turned over to the private Insurance Companies. Moderator mr. Burr. Burr let me say obama cares on by the private care. Those were the people there the people that run exchanges. Was never the federal government took the respirator rest. It was blue cross and blue shield of North Carolina. They were one of the last ones and cover 60. Of the state. That was president obama the set if you like to plan you get to keep it. Governor mark dayton said this week the reality is the Affordable Care act is no longer affordable for an increasing number of people. This week the administration started sending to beneficiaries whose insurers have left a notice that said you either need to opt out of the Affordable Care act or the government will assign you your private sector carrier. Governmentrun health care is already karen is called obamacare. Ross senator burr doesnt like obamacare but he also wants to have the private Insurance Companies be in charge. We need to get a handle on this. We need to give consumers more choice. We could have Consumers Choice with nonprofits with costs like they have done in other states but we also have to recognize the North Carolina General Assembly did not do its job by extending medicaid and senator burrs answers are on the private sector. Moderator the shooting death of Keith Lamont Scott sparked mr. Burr to understand the anger that jurupas protests and you say theres a systemic problem in this country of racial bias and Law Enforcement . Burr jonathan eig to understand. I grew up in a time where riots, when i was a young boy in winstonsalem happen. This is very different today though. Its for a different reason. The trust with Law Enforcement doesnt exist. The Community Responsibility with Community Leaders and Law Enforcement has to reach out to those neighborhoods that could possibly feel disenfranchised. In many cases holding a school and building a Health Care Clinic isnt enough. We have got to go into these neighborhoods and create jobs. We have got to find a pathway so these kids get a good education. We have to make sure we may look down the road, they know that employment is a real opportunity and most of the cities we have seen this problem they have had huge unemployment and no hope of a job. Moderator is there a problem with racial bias and Law Enforcement . Burr im probably the last one i would try to answer that because department by department and city by city i dont think people get into Law Enforcement to carry out any personal bias so i would have a very difficult time believing that. In the case of charlotte, it was africanamerican officers and im not sure that they are going to show a racial bias. Ross this is such an important question not just for charlotte but for entire country because we have seen incidents of conflicts with the Africanamerican Community and our Law Enforcement all over the country. Right after the incidents happened in charlotte i was on the phone with leaders in the community, with members of the clergy and with citizens. We need to make sure that Law Enforcement and the Africanamerican Community Work Together for the safety of everybody. I have experience working on racial bias issues. Ive worked on one of the most comprehensive antiracial profiling laws in the country and i did it with the head of the Highway Patrol and with the secretary of public safety. We also need more Community Policing for Law Enforcement communities Work Together. I worked on those issues too. Senator burr voted against increasing Community Policing and cuts to Community Policing in the senate. I would not do that. We need to promote communities together. Burr jonathan theres a rule of law in the United States and the fact salute late crucial to follow. Its a process and investigations. We have got to ask our citizens, but these investments geishas take place. The rule of old law in america means we are going to hold some responsibility something wrong. The fact is she spent a lifetime standing up for criminals, not for victims of criminals. Moderator what was your reaction when you saw that video burr i actually found it to be on the part of Law Enforcement and effort to try to get somebody to obey their commands and that command was to drop whatever was in his hand which they thought was a done. Moderator lets move to Foreign Policy. Ms. Ross we may be in the most most greatest humanitarian crisis. In aleppo hundreds have been killed and more are killed every day. So my question is does the United States have a moral imperative to do more to stop the killing of children and their families and what specific action do you think the United States should be involved in . Ross the crisis in syria is something that has been intractable for a while. We have tried to be able to have ceasefires with the russians and the syrians and that has not been successful. Ultimately for the Syrian People we are going to have to come together as an International Community and stop what is going on in syria. But what we have got that the refugee crisis can be dealt with by having nofly zones over syria, making sure that we have good vetting programs that protect our people but also let people in for me no that theyre not going to be a threat to the United States. Ive been to a refugee camp in jordan after the iraq war and its scene of devastation. We need to make sure that we Work Together as an International Community to stop the slaughter in syria but also to make sure that we take care of the refugees. Moderator should u. S. Ground forces family table to deal with the humanitarian crisis or with isis . Ross we need to go after isis. We need to do that primarily with airstrikes in working with u. S. Ground forces with our allies on the ground to take back territory. In syria think making sure their nofly zones in order to protect the refugees are folks who would be refugees would be a good first step. Burr jonathan eig called for safe zones three years ago from the Obama Administration and they said they couldnt do it. What we have seen is over 300,000 syrian women and children killed. They been killed by chlorine barrel bombs dropped by bashar assad and most recently we think russia. Only one person appeared has sat across the table from bashar assad. I know him to be a ruthless man but this is genocide and america has never stood by and watched genocide is not reacted. Now is the time for us to create safe zones with of these women and children can go to bed at night and be saved, leverage our gulf state partners who have offered 30,000 physical troops to maintain the physical security and use our airpower until the russians and the syrians fly anywhere near here and will shoot you out of the air. Moderator u. S. Ground forces should be on the table . Burr Ground Forces are not needed based upon safe zones because we have been offered 30,000 gulf state troops from the gulf state partners to handle the physical security of those safe zones. Ross we need to make sure that we deal with this syrian conflict in syria. Senator burr has talked about his position as the head of the Intelligence Commission committee but having that position doesnt necessarily mean he has done everything that he can to make people in serious safe and to make us safe. It threatened to shut down the department of Homeland Security over a spat with the president about how we deal with immigration. He also hasnt always made sure that we deal with isis and made direct way. Moderator mr. Burr the u. S. Intelligence committee named russias responsible for the hacks for all of the Democratic Party. Donald trumps made it clear he doubts that finding. You are chair of the Senate Intelligence committee. Who do you think is right about this, your partys nominee or the 16 agencies who make up the u. S. Intelligence committee . Burr jonathan i will limit my answer to say that the director of the National Security has made a statement in that he named the russians and i will stand by with statement he has made. Moderator would he think that should be done if russias behind this . Burr jonathan this is not the first time russian cyber actors have played inside their estates. They have done it with data. They have done with intellectual property but is not limited to them. Iran, its north korea, its china. You would think that we would have a punishing sanctions program may be some type of offensive action against them. My opponent was in favor of the iran nuclear deal. This put about 51 billion in the hands of iran, the Worlds Largest funder of terrorism and a frequent hacker within the United States. Moderator im asking about this allegation. You are the vicechairman of your committee. Diane feinstein said a couple of hours ago that you can only conclude that the russian government is attempting to interfere in our elections with the goal of electing donald trump. Burr jonathan the department of Homeland Security is looked into every election system in the country and there is no ballot boxes connected to the internet. They have assured every state that from the standpoint of the vote count they are confident that it cant be, that it cant be intruded in any way but the reality is that they have gotten into 22 states where they have done something with the voter files but not expo. That information. Mods are choosing the hacks of the Democratic Party or attempt to differ with this election. Burr if you are talking about the hacks of the Democratic Party im not sure the record of National Intelligence has specifically addressed to is to blame for those. Director clapper in a statement that was released was referring the intrusions into the election of the boards of 22 states. Moderator you dont think that the russians are behind the dnc have . Ross i think this is a broader problem about our relationship with russia and Vladimir Putin. We talked about syria a little bit earlier. Russia is clearly flexing its muscles interested in getting back into a situation similar to the cold war so what we have seen, we have seen problems in syria with not being able to have the ceasefire. We have seen Cyber Threats and we have also seen russians incursion into the ukraine and what we need to do is be strong and tough with russia and if that means cracking down on known Cyber Attacks then we need to do that but donald trump is the absolute worst person to deal with that issue. He is enamored of Vladimir Putin and senator burr has endorsed donald trump and trusts donald trump to be the president the main president who negotiates with the russians. That is simply not making us safe. Burr let me say that Hillary Clinton is the architect of the russian reset. She is the one that talked about resetting our relationship with russia. Where has it gone . It has gone south just like the Foreign Policy of the United States in the middle east. When she was secretary of state she counseled with this president. The combined efforts have led to the challenges and the problems we have got in syria and iraq today. Moderator well take a short break for a Public Service announcement from the North Carolina public broadcasters. So many call North Carolina home. Living here puts you in the prime adventure territory. From the coast to the mountains and never ran between broadcasters and North Carolina are proud to provide highquality over the air programming that educates, informs and entertains. The North Carolina association of broadcasters leads the nation on educating the public and businesses about the uses and values are broadcasting. For the North Carolina association of broadcasters over 300 radio and Television Members support our local community and our state by connecting viewers to their world. The North Carolina association of broadcasters Educational Foundation is proud to make tonights debate possible as a Public Service to the local communities they serve. Moderator before we get to the next question i want to clarify something you said. U. S. Intelligence Community Statement on russian hacking said quote u. S. Intelligence committee is confident the russian government directed the recent compromises of emails and from u. S. Persons and institutions including the u. S. Will institutions so it seems the statement is directly talking about the hack in deals. Burr i was referring to director clapper where he discussed russias involvement in the election process. I dont think that has anything to do with the emails for the political parties. When you lead to North Carolina in the 19 90s you raised concerns about a bill establishing the states sex offender registry saying at the time the bill would, quote, make it even harder for people to free integrate into society and start over and could lead to vigilantism. The senators Campaign Says youu want to, quote, protect sexual predators over victims. Your response. Ross thats politics. The fact is that i diluted 18 v8 times to strengthen and update the sex offender registry. Ive always been for the sex offender registryoffender regise sponsor of the sex offender registry bill said that i helped him draft it. Youve seen him on tv. So there is no question i have a strong record of protecting women and children. I was a leader in Domestic Violence reform and introduced a bill to clear up the backlog and so by a record of protecting women and children is long and heartfelt. Senator burr on the other hand voted against the authorization act and against a bill that would have funded the sex offender registry and i will put my record of protecting women and children up against his any day of the week. Moderator didnt you say this would make it harder for people to start over and you were opposed to this bill when it passed. When it was being considered like a good lobbyist or legislature you have to look at the implications of the bill. Ultimately it is working and like i said i voted 18 times to strengthen and update it and raising issues isnt the same thing as opposing a bill. Moderator the reason this is difficult for my opponent is that she was the lead lobbyist. She went on a 1997 to say that it would have an unintended consequences and wont protect your child. When there is a sex offender in the neighborhood, we have an obligation to share that with neighbors, with the school and local officials. I believe that North Carolina understands shes been opposed to this because her words and actions dont support her clai claims. I think 18 votes definitely are clear actions and i find it disturbing that. Hes willing to forgive donald trump for admitting that he sexually assaulted women. Senator burr seems to be fine with that and having him as our commander in chief. Those are actions, my friends. Moderator i will give you ross take it any day of the week. Moderator on spending for National Debt has doubled since president Obama Took Office in 2009. 2009. Defense spending and entitlement programs are the prime drivers of our debt. Are there any cuts or changes to those programs that you would be willing to consider to get this debt situation under control . Ross when i served in the legislature we have to balance the budget every year he and thd surpluses and some years we didnt. We want cut programs into sometimes have to raise revenues into so the federal government has to deal with the debt in that way there is also waste, fraud and abuse and ive looked at those issues as a state legislature. We need to do three things to get control of the debt. We need to make sure people have jobs that pay good wages because when they do they pay taxes and they stimulate our economy and we have more money in the system and we also need to look at programs that we can cut without hurting essential government services. We need to be honest and do it in a fair way. Burr we do have a debt problem that has increased. We are shy of 20 trillion. You cant cut your way back to fiscal sustainability. Lets look at what weve done while we were in congress the last three years. We saved 1. 2 trillion. For that now we realize the sequestration to maintain the National Security we have to go back and rethink that. But then there were things that even the president proposed. Lets merge agencies together and put the Commerce Department anand labor departments together and maybe even put the department of energy and the epa together. The president proposed it and i offered it and democrats wouldnt let it come up so you have to understand there is a rich history. Not necessarily looking for efficiencies in the government. Ross congress hasnt been able to put together a sustained budget and that is another way that congress and washingto then are not working for hugh. The idea of how to deal with the tax policy is to cut taxes for millionaires and billionaires that would result in having to increase the taxes on the average working folks if we are going to pay for good schools, good roads and all of the important things that the government does. I wouldve put my budget balancing experience against his any day of the week. I had to do that for more than ten years. Burr moderator at different points you said this was a state issue, far too expensive and recently you said we should go back to where we are so bottom line should transgender individuals in North Carolina be able to use the bathroom that corresponds with their gender identity . Burr i dont think so. The Charlotte City council tried to find a solution to a problem that didnt exist and the North Carolina General Assembly did with the state legislature can do. I cant change that in washington. The president tried to expand this under title ix and the courts looked at that and said you cant do that because this is an education title for equi equity. It didnt fit. And its my hope that after the selection the General Assembly will reverse themselves and maybe they will go back and rethink whether this is a good policy. But here is what i would suggest. Include the people in charlotte in this decision. Let it be an initiative if in fact the local leaders want to do it. Moderator ms. Ross. Ross ive been opposed of h2b since the beginning because it is a federal issue and its going to hurt our economy and good name. Initially he said it didnt discriminate and it wasnt a federal issue. Wrong. Ive been all over the state of North Carolina and the economic devastation of the house bill has been extraordinary. Wilmington has lost the industry. Higi point is losing many of the market and they are going to las vegas. I even went to lexington for an event and heard that the house bill have to be repealed from the member of the chamber of commerce that said they had a new industrial park. People were calling every week and after thweekend after the h, completely gone. But its been a ba bad market ad the senator hasnt shown any leadership from the beginning work with his colleagues to deal with the issue. Burr im not here to defend the government because the fourth Fastest Growing in the country. When you look four years ago we had one of the highest unemployment rates and more people on the extended unemployment and said we are going to change this, and they have. We have one of the lowest unemployment rates today. We are still attracting business every day to North Carolina and investment in North Carolina and i think weve got the fourth Fastest Growing economy. We might have missed a few people like paypal. Their loss. Moderator so you dont think its hurt the economy in North Carolina . And i can only base it on bike scene in the Economic Data coming in we still attract investment and still create jobs every week. Moderator another question to you, youve been in congress for two decades 22 years as you pointed out. They criticized you for the special interest in the campaigns and you were one of just three senators that voted against the stock act that dams them from the members of congress so my question to you is how do you respond to the allegation that you basically used the position tuse the posid that is a lie . Burr she claims that my personal wealth has grown phenomenally. When i left the private sector 22 years ago it was worth over 200,000 today it is worth 258,000. Not a track record of investment people would follow. But my wife created her own business with a couple of partners and it is a successful real estate business. When you look at our net worth, hers is 66 of the total of the network. We shared jointly 26 and i have 8 . Now, what she did, she attacked my wife. The first time in 22 years, 24 to be exact that my family has been brought into the campaign. Im proud of my wife and i find it depressing that anyone would question her success and i think that quite frankly, my wife deserves an apology. Ross i have the utmost respect for your wife and women that work and make money and support their families and that is one of the reasons why i am a proponent of equal pay for equal work for women but to your question, jonathan, it is a fact that he was one of only three senators that voted the ban on Insider Trading for members of congress coming and he called that. He voted seven times to raise his own pay but against raising the minimum wage and against the Lilly Ledbetter fair pay act and fairness act that doesnt help North Carolina families and certainly North Carolina women. Most of the people running the minimum wage are the women working two or three jobs and most of the families rely on a womans paycheck to make ends meet. You can count on me to stick up for the North Carolina families. Moderator mr. Burr . Burr the facts are i never voted for a pay raise. Every opportunity to vote for a pay raise in the United States by voted against. As a matter of fact ive altered bills, and one of them that i was a cosponsor of in 2009 is the reason that we dont have a pay increase since 2009 the point i went off of the amendment, harry reid didnt let it come out an up and democratsd the pay of congress. Moderator on the issue of immigration a year ago governor mccoury signed the law that prohibits any county municipality from blocking local Law Enforcement to cooperate with federal officials. You obviously support comprehensive Immigration Reform. But until and unless it passes, do you support cities that dont want to help the government enforce immigration laws . Ross our immigration system is broken and congress has not interested. We have is compromise our security, it hurts the economy, and it breaks up families. I would have voted for the bipartisan comprehensive Immigration Reform bill that came up before congress three years ago. Senator mccain supported it and many republicans supported it. It would have secured our borders ansecure our bordersanda fair, tough path to citizenship, and it would have helped our economy. It was supported by the North Carolina farm bureau, the North Carolina chamber of commerce and the tech communities that the senator voted no. As your senator i will make it a priority to make sure that we solve this immigration issue so that we are not having spats within the state legislatures and among the local governments. Moderator mr. Burr. Burr well, jonathan, we tried desperately to put together a coalition that can have common sense and Immigration Reform that starts with fixing the legal system and i think mr. Trump has talked about that, but so have republican and democratic members of the United States senate. Its just we have been to the platforinto theplatform to be at up. If we start fixing the current system, then we can get onto fixing other things that need to be broken. Individuals that havent committed a crime should have thalegal status for this tempor. Individuals that want to seek citizenship should have to leave the country and do it just like everybody else and then come back. I think it is safe to say that there is no pathway that i can support that provides amnesty to anybody that came here illegal illegally. Moderator moving to the last question for both of you. If the president ial nominee of the opposing party wins for election, what issues will you be willing to work on. Let me start with you. On what issues would you be willing and able to work on . Ross that is a great question. I want you to know that i work across the aisle in my political career. I served when democrats were in charge, republicans were in charge, and the house was equally divided. I got my bills through in all of the scenarios, 90 of the bills i got past had more than 50 of the republicans voting for them. As far as mr. Trump, i know that he is tremendously interested in infrastructure. Thats something i have a background on. I was in municipal finance attorney that helped get roads and bridges and water and sewer systems. So i would love to roll up my sleeves and work on the issue in the United States senate. Senator burr has a 95 record of voting with his party. As a matter of fact, the only time he wants to split with his party is on other things like the star packed. I feel like i can work across party lines. Ive done it before and i look forward to doing it again so hopefully with my colleagues in the senate. Moderator on what issues will you be willing to work with Hillary Clinton . Burr it is illegal in the law even for congress to trade on the Insider Trading. Thats the reason that i oppose the act. North carolina didnt send me to washington to duplicate existing law and that is what it did. I worked with Hillary Clinton as a member of the senate. I look forward to if she is in and i look forward to working with her on healthcare because she will have her hands full. That is what America Needs as we have americanis wehave americans and cant find them. The threat that faces our country and the world is too great not to find a bipartisan approach to make america the leader in the world. Ross certainly, the most important thing that we should always work on in a bipartisan way as National Security. Is National Security. We all care about the people of North Carolina and we all care about the people in this country. We must come together to work on National Security defense and Foreign Affairs in a bipartisan way so that we have a strong country going forward. Moderator that concludes the clustering portion. We now turn to closing statements. While, thank you for tuning in. I think that you have heard tonight we have different visions for the future of North Carolina and how he would approach being a u. S. Senator. The senators vision where its okay to vote against a bill that bans Insider Trading and look out for the specialinterest and what north carolinians are looking for come a change. Ive been all over the state and heard your struggles and i know that you are frustrated that washington isnt working for you. I want to go to the United States senate and make sure that your everyday struggles are taken care of albeit a different senator and i wont back down or sell out. I will put your interests first every single day and i hope very much to earn your vote. It takes a lot to commend with the atmosphere. Im reminded of the conversation i haa conversation ihad with my. He said two words, im sorry. He said i fought a war so you wouldnt have to go through this. Now my dad was the last child that had all of his brothers and sisters serving. He made one mistake in basic training and they said he ended up in the South Pacific with tnt strapped around his neck. No wonder he became a presbyterian minister when he got cut. But i thought i understood what my dad was telling me that night. It wasnt until i started running for the reelection of tough the plate was of issues we were going to deal with and how easy it would be not to run. I realized with my dad was telling me is lif its life isnt sacrifices, it is about responsibilities. He didnt see world war ii as a sacrifice. He saw it as a responsibility. The reason im running is because i want to make sure the next generation inherits what i have inherite inherited the chad unlimited opportunity. I need your vote and i hope i cathati can earn it over the net three weeks. I look forward to what america can create in a bipartisan way forward. That concludes the debate and i want to thank you for participating. Thank you for watching and good night. Debate. Good afternoon. Welcome to the campus of the Community College. Im president of the college, and it is my distinct honor to welcome you here today for the debate between the two pennsylvania eighth Congressional District candidates. Civic engagement is vitally important to our democracy. We are pleased to host this debate once again having done so for every Congressional Election since 2004. The campus truly embraces our role as a vibrant center for community engagement. Id especially like to acknowledge all of the students here today. We have students from holy ghost press somewhere raise your hand. There we go. Back there. And where are the students, upon the balcony. As well as of course the Community College students and members of the community at large. I hope all of you have come here to listen, to learn, and then to go vote. It is my pleasure to introduce the moderator Political Science and history instructor here at the Community College. Thank you. [applause] today october 13 is Breast Cancer awareness day. I have every congressman elected next month across the nation will bring a passion to washington to provide the resources to combat this as well as other devastating diseases. Welcome to another in a series of congressional debate debatesr campus of the Community College has sponsored in every primary and general election since 2004. We are proud to play a role in what we repeatedly described as a celebration of democracy. We take this response ability quite seriously and we are equally proud of the audience decorum exhibited in the past and the decorum that we know we would have today. I want to recognize the campus executive director and the director of security as well as our technical crew for their work in preparation for this event. This debate is being broadcast statewide by the Pennsylvania Cable Network as well as nationwide by cspan. After reviewing the long list of potential topics, i concluded that what we need is a sevenhour debate. [laughter] however, we will do the best we can with the minutes allocated. There will be twominute openings Opening Statements and then we will move through if time permits with the same twominute and one minute format. There will also be one minute closing remarks. The speaking order is determin determined. Two of the students in the second row of the timekeepers. When theres 30 seconds left, we will see a yellow sign briefly when there is no time left you can finish the sentence and closeddoor remarks. We ask that there be no comments or noise of any kind except now as we welcome the candidates to the stage, democrat and republican brian fitzpatrick. [applause] before we begin let me briefly editorialize i will be voting in my 13th election i started when i was ten. [laughter] and ive never experienced the low level of discourse that we have seen in the president ial contest this year. The inflammatory rhetoric is unprecedented, and as an educator, i am concerned about the message it sends to students and young people. Some paying attention for the first time. I want them to know that this is not the norm for the president ial politics. I am confident that these gentlemen that we have before us today will demonstrate with meaningful political discourse should be like firm, tough and passionate but always respectf respectful. And the precious time we have together today, we will focus on issues of substance that may separate these highly qualified individuals enough so that we can cast an intelligent vote. Our Opening Statement based on the coin toss is from brian fitzpatrick. Fitzpatrick thank you mr. President and steve for participating. This is about you and i hope to get involved despite what was said earlier about the vitriol thats unfortunately taken over a big part of this. Dont lose faith, because we need you in that involvement in the process. You need your voice b to be hea, whatever that voice is. My name is brian fitzpatrick, and i come to you from a very different place but he will get to that and a second. I am a lifelong resident of bucks county. I grew up right down the road in the middletown township and its where my parents still reside. I grew up here and went to grade school, and i went to penn state and im an eagle scout and a certified licensed attorney and i had the honor to serve my country as a federal prosecutor here in this district. For the past 14 years i had the honor of a lifetime to serve my country in a very significant National Security role with what i consider to be one of the finest organizations on the planet. Its a job i miss dearly and it was the hardest decision in my life to leave that place and i miss the people that i left for one reason and one reason only because like everybody in this room i love my country, and i wanted to step forth and do my part to offer my background and credentials and experience in what i believe to be the two most pressing issues facing the country to be growin today growe economy of defending the homeland. I started my career as a cpa and balancing books and budgets and creating jobs and as an fbi special agent, keeping the country safe from counterterrorism threats, counterintelligence threats, Cyber Security threats, Border Security threats, all the threats that face the nation i will be able to address them and confidently from day number one. I look forward to the debate. Thank you. Moderator we are not going to do that today. Mr. Santarsiero. Santarsiero thank you bill and crying and everyone for coming out. I want to thank especially the young people, the College Students here at bucks Community College, as well as the high school students. Many of you know that after september 11, i decided to switch careers. I gave up my legal career and ultimately wound up teaching social studies and it was for me one of the greatest career moves in my life. I love teaching, and i saw the promise that next generation has come and it makes me fundamentally optimistic about the future. But i als also saw the great challenges that they face. In terms of being able to afford a College Education and in terms of being able to get a good job when they get out of high school or college. And it is one of the things that has motivated me to seek office and served in the state legislature where i currently serve and to run now because it Still Matters that we have people representing us in washington, no matter how disenchanted we make it in the political system, no matter how dysfunctional this may seem it matters that we have people fighting for the future, for those kids, fighting for working families today to make sure that their jobs will still be there and they will have a secure retirement and fighting for the seniors to make sure they will continue to get the benefits that thethey have earned over te of their lives. Im very happy to be here today to have these discussions. This is the most critical in my lifetime and i do echo the sentiment that its important that all of us do our responsibility and vote. Thank you. [applause] moderator again, we got it out of our system. [laughter] the first question is dressed one word long. You can respond in any way that you like and the word is taxes. Mr. Santarsiero. Santarsiero we need to make sure our working families do not suffer under the tax burdens. We need to provide tax cuts for those families by making sure the wealthiest are paying their fair share and that we close loopholes. Youve probably heard from Warren Buffett pastiche and be paying less than his secretary in taxes. Just the other night we have donald trump more or less admitting he hasnt paid federal taxes. There is something wrong with the system when the wealthiest people in the country can take advantage of those types of loopholes and not pay their fair share. One thing ive heard from people across the district is that they think it is rated. They think every part is an time that we inject fairness into the system to make sure we are doing the right thing for our working families and everyone is paying their fair share because at the end of the day our tax code like Everything Else it should be about fairness and that is one of the main reasons someone like trump has admitted that he isnt getting his fair share. Thats because every american should be concerned and should cause next congress to do something about it. Thank you. Mr. Fitzpatrick. Fitzpatrick i agree that its been rigged by politicians which is one of the reasons i got into this race. I spent my entire career of resting publications investigating government fraud. These are all the things thingt hand with my own eyes and i investigated and pursued through my career with regard to taxes i started as a cpa. I think we could use more people that know how to count and balance budgets and know how to