States of america. This is an msnbc special town hall with senator marco rubio. From Florida International university in miami. Here is chuck todd. And good evening, and welcome to the msnbc town hall with republican senator marco rubio of florida. Were here on the campus of Florida International university in miami, home of the fiu panthers. Lets go, panthers. Huh . Dont tell my friends a little north of here what i just said. Anyway, the question that in this is a critical moment for senator rubio to date. Hes won just 2 contests out of 24 in the race for president which makes tuesdays primary in his home state of florida absolutely critical to his chances. So lets get started and welcome the senator from florida, marco rubio. [ cheers and applause ] thank you. [ applause ] all right. You happy when youre home . Yeah. Are you happy when youre home . Oklahohome, home. I teach at fiu. Some people got as in here. You a tough grader . No, theyre voters. Wow, the real trick, right . Always get the professor whos running for office. All right. Lets get started with stuff that you probably dont want to talk about. It was a tough night last night for you. Yeah. Youve only won 2 con tests out of 24. You have a lot of even friends of yours saying theyre not sure why youre going to keep going. Ive heard that from the press. I understand that. The bottom line is this, first of all, running for president is tough. It shouldnt be easeasy. Second of all, it is true we havent done as well in some of the states that we want the ed. Florida is going to award 99 delegates all at once. You can win more delegates in florida than arocross five or seven states in an apportioned process. Even if i had done really well in all the previous states, if i had not done well in florida, it would be trouble for our campaign so we need to win here, thats our priority. Were focused on it like a laser. Were going to win. We feel really good at it. You at a point [ applause ] you have said a vote in the state of florida, vote for ted cruz or john kasich is a vote for donald trump. Is that your attitude in ohio . Are you telling your supporters, vote for john kasich in ohio . No, im telling you in florida why not . Shouldnt that be the strategy . Ill let kasich say that to you. In florida, the only one who has a chance of beating donald trump is me. Now, if [ applause ] if you like donald trump, that doesnt matter, but if you dont want donald trump to be the nominee, even if youre a supporter of ted cruz or even if youre a supporter of kasich, you vote for marco rubio because a vote for anyone other than me is a vote for donald trump. Im the only one that almost a million votes are are in. Im the only one who has any chance of beating donald trump in florida because if he gets floridas 99 delegates we have a different conversation next wednesday about the state of the republican race. Do you think youre struggling in florida because youre retiring from the senate . A couple things in florida, number one, its a big, big state. No one can run a fulltime president ial campaign in florida and run one in new hampshire, iowa, south carolina, the other states we were invest in. Second of all, its a state largely been operating off the National Media and the National Media, to be fair, has given donald trump ten times as much coverage than any other republican candidate combined. Its had an impact. Were working on reversing that now here in florida. Its going to be a hard work, but you know what, ive been in tough races before. Its an election. You have to earn these things. Let me tell you, running for president is not nearly as hard as being president so you better hope your president went through a trial in the campaign, because being president is even harder. You know, the other thing im wondering about this is [ applause ] that as much of the personality of donald trump gets in the way, there isnt an id youlogical difference. The two of you have two different definitions of conservatism. You know, his is sort of an older version of it, small c conservative, less intervention, tighter borders, skeptical of trade deals. Youre more of you look at america as a world power, sort of being at the center of the world a little more open to intervention. Obviously a little more open to immigration. Little more open to trade deals. Thats really the debate inside the Republican Party that, perhaps, republicans just want to go back to an older definition of conservatism and not yours . I think you give donald trump too much credit in terms of ideological stand. Hes all over the place about these issues. Its largely about an attitude, not about policpolicy. If theres one thing hes consistent on, going back to 87. Except for his own businesses where he makes everything overseas. The thing i would say to you about it, im a Ronald Reagan conservative. I grew up in the era of reagan. My view of conservatism is shaped by that experience. Its not an interventionist position. It is the belief that the world is a better place when america is the strongest country in the world. Look, in the absence of American Global leadership, there is no other nation or institution that can play that role and the result is chaos, and the evidence of it is every sector of the world today faces chaos. The absence of American Leadership in the asiapacific region led to the chinese taking over the south china sea, North Koreans aggression. Natos reduction in capability inviting Vladimir Putin to be more aggressive. Lack of American Leadership in the middle east resulted in the vacuums that exist in syria, in iraq, increasingly in libya. Theres a consequence for the lack of American Leadership. Youre seeing it all over the world. Some might argue its too much intervention that created, that sudden that that created i heard that in some cases. Its not accurate. Libya, the uprising was caused by the libyan people. Gadhafi was on his way out. The choice we had to make, did we let it go for two years . The same has been the case in syria. In the case of iraq, that was the withdrawal, the premature withdrawal by barack obama that left maliki in charge, allowed him to go hard after the sunnis and the sunnis welcomed isis in as liberators. Not anymore but they did initially because they viewed the shia government in baghdad as a puppet of iran. Youve been harsh on donald trump. We put together a montage. Ive been harsh . Ill go anywhere to speak to anyone before i let a con artist get ahold of the Republican Party. I mine, hes so thin skinned. So erratic. And to think youre going to make someone like that commander in chief, i want people to think about that. I think the problem here is donald trump is not really a republican. Hes not a conservative. I mean, donald trump basically has policy positions that are indistinguishable from democrats. Do not give into the fear. Do not give into anger. Do not give into sham artists and con artists. Trying to carry out is a scam to take control of the office of the presidency of the United States. [ applause ] i guess my question is, how can you support a con artist . Just because you any regret on the idea that you will support donald trump as the nominee . You call him a con artist, scam artist. I think its indicative of how bad i think Hillary Clinton would be or Bernie Sanders to even condetemplate that. You think theyre con artist, though . I think Bernie Sanders is a socialist which he admits. I think hk hk Illary Clinton is unqualified to be the president of the United States, mishandled her email server and donald trump the bot tom line, i dont wat him to be the nominee. If anyone else, if john kasich was where donald trump is now, if jeb bush is where donald trump the race is over. Would you be out of the race if this were john kasich thats the point. The point is no matter what i say today about supporting or not supporting the nominee, theres a significant percentage of republicans that are not going to vote for donald trump. That is why hell get destroyed in the general election. Thats what will happen. Its one thing to say youll support him. Should we assume theres no way you could be on a ticket with a con artist . You put it that way. You are calling him a con artist. I cant imagine im not running for Vice President , not looking to be anyones Vice President. I want to be the president can you be shermanesque . If he offers it f donald trump offers you the slot, you will say no . Im not interested in being Donald Trumps or anybody elses Vice President. Thats not what im aiming at. You didnt answer the question. I dont want to be Vice President of the United States. If donald trump asked you, youd say no . Absolutely. By the way, i am not running to be anyones Vice President. Im not looking to be anyones Vice President. I want to be the president of the United States or ill be a private citizen. Theres nothing wrong with being a private citizen. So i love public service, but its what i do. Its not who i am. Any thought theres been all these people that are trying to get you and ted cruz to somehow fuse together as a ticket to stop donald trump. You open to that at all . I said that in an earlier interview. Thats house of cards stuff. Looks good on tv, it doesnt ever work that way. Bottom line is, you know, this process is going to play itself out. We are focused on florida. So dont be surprised if we dont do well in some other states next tuesday because were not there. Were here. Wed like to pick up delegates in other states. We have good teams in other states. Were focus the on florida. My home state, 99 delegates. We do well here, well talk wednesday about the state of the race. I feel very positive about it. On that note, let me get some students involved in a couple of questions. Here. We got a lot of them, actually. Jose andreas. How are you, senator . Hi. My question is, how can you sacrifice basic christian principles like loving your neighbor, as we saw with recent verbal attacks on trump . You justified this by saying if anyone deserves it, its him. The bible says, we deserve hell, yet we still receive grace. As a christian as well, this question is important to me. Well, let me say on the policy issues i dont think that violates my faith because the result is righteous indignation. Were talks about the presidency of the United States. So youre going to elect the next commander in chief, someone that will have a real impact on the future of our country, representing themselves as someone who theyre not, its appropriate to the campaign to point thoet ouse out. Personal stuff, at the end of the day its is not something im proud of mind kids were embarrassed by it. If i had to do it again, i wouldnt. Not on the other charges. Not on the other things. When if cot comes to the fact h portraying himself as hes not, the stakes are not a worthless degree at trump university, the stakes are the greatest nation on earth. On that, i think im well within the reaches of my faith you regret the schoolyard stuff . You know why, because in the end what happened is, first of all, i think he had to be stood up to. I really do believe that. But that said, but that said, thats not the campaign i want to run. Took a toll on you. Well, i dont know about political toll. Im saying you didnt look comfortable doing, to be honest. He need to be stood up. This is a guy whos basically offended everyone for a year. Literally has mocked a disabled journalist, a female journalist, every Minority Group imaginable on a daily basis. It becomes use profanity from the stage. That said, yeah, i dont want to be that. If thats what it takes to become president of the United States, i dont want to be president. I dont think thats what takes to be president. I know its not what it takes. Its not what we want from our next president. If i had to do it again, i would have done that part differently. Not his record on business. Thats legitimate. The people need to know what they are electing is not who he says he is. Let me bring up adrian. Thank you, senator, thank you, chuck. You got it. Senator, you received money from Hedge Fund Managers like paul singer and megacorporations like the geo group, private prison corporation. How often are you influenced . None. My agenda in is writing. Im the only candidate who has an expentensive agenda online. When someone gives money to my campaign, theyre buying into my agenda, im not buying into their agenda. Its there to be held accountable to. Everybody in this race has contributors. Every issue in america has money on both sides of it. Everyone in this race, even donald trump who said hed selffunded loaned his campaign 17 million, he expects to be paid back by contributors. You have to be willing to say, look, heres my agenda and because of my jaeagenda there a people who dont support me. Multimillion dollar checks were written and used to try to defeat me in this campaign. Those people have interests. Some of them were Hedge Fund People as well. Ultimately i take a clear positions on issues. You can hold me accountable to where i stand. There are people that support it and people that oppose it. In america you have a firstamendment right to participate in the process that way. In addition, im sorry, chuck. Its okay. Candidates like Bernie Sanders dont receive any money from any Interest Groups unless its the people, people like sitting this room. So how would you compare yourself to Bernie Sanders . Theres no comparison, Bernie Sanders is a socialist and if you want to live in a socialist country [ applause ] i think if someone if you want to turn america into a socialist dedemocra knocmaxide election, fight you every step of the way. If you want to live in a socialist country, there are dozens of countries around the world you can move to. Im going to fight every day to keep america a Free Enterprise society so theres no [ applause ] quick before we go to break. If you could change one thing about the Campaign Finance system after going through all this, as a candidate, what would you change . I dont know. To be honest with you, i dont know. You think its broken . Well, look, theres a lot of money in politics. Heres the bottom line. If you look at whats happened in this campaign, the dominant feature of the Trump Campaign has not been that he ran a bunch of commercials. Hes been able to dominate thorrthor media. The head of cbs, may not be good for america but hes good for cbs because of ratings. I thnk thats true in every one of these networks. Theres millions and millions dollars of media thats out there. The other point id make, every time we tried to run a commercial, all these Media Outlets charge us. We have to raise money. You keep charging us to run commercials. That, i hear you. Theres no magic wand youd wave here. The First Amendment is so broad it allows people to run ads that are lying about me. Theyre allowed to do it. Speaking of television ads, i have to run a couple here. Take a quick break. When we come back, were going to do immigration, health care. Some real policy wonk stuff. Be right back. burke at farmers, weve seen almost everything, so we know how to cover almost anything. Even a stag pool party. party music splashing destruction splashing destruction burke and we covered it, october twentyseventh, 2014. Talk to farmers. 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To you recognize the underlying cause of ilLegal Immigration from Central America is a lack of security . What are you willing to do to help solve that problem . El salvador, guatemala, honduras theres a terrible security situation, many ways a breakdown of government. I know theres this effort, alliance for progress, work to be done. As chairman of the western hemisphere subcommittee, weve worked with the Vice President s office, tried to, anyway, to kind of figure out the contours of what we can do. I think the model for that would be what we war able to were abl with clolombia. Contributions made on the colombians they were able to turn around the security situation in colombia. The situation in honduras and guatemala is tougher. We should work with those countries to build up the infrastructure necessary, law enforcement, judiciary, so forth to deal with the violence that is driving people out of those countries and seeking harbor in the United States. Thank you. Thank you. Is there [ applause ] how much of our immigration issue, or the perceived first of all, do you believe we have an Immigration Crisis . Because net migration is down. So is this more of a perception problem that we have when it comes to immigration . That will fluctuate. Youll have years where theres not a lot of jobs so people go back. People are still coming in. Thats not the question. The question is whether we have a system in place today in which an uncontrolled number of people are able to unlawfully either enter the country or overstay visas. What that does is, as long as that exists, as long as that is problematic, we cant make the Legal Immigration system work. Makes people reluctant to improve it or move forward on it. Irrespective of the net numbers you still have a substantial number of people entering illegally every year and overstaying. Youre seeing that with cubans who instead of coming on rafts through the florida straits are going to mexico and crossing the border to get in. People crossing the border from mexico are no longer just from mexico, theyre from all over the world. It is a problem. A serious problem. Visa overstays are a problem in miami and in florida and does have to be dealt with. Until that is dealt with, i dont think were going to make progress on anything else on immigration. You said on day one you would eliminate the daca order. Thats right. I know that doesnt mean everybody ses everybodys deported on day one. They cant renew their permanent. When their permit expires, do deportations begin . Deportation is the final process in a longer process when someones in this country without status and here illegally, thats not the way its reported sometimes it makes it sound like you have hit teams out there rounds people up. Thats not the way the process works. My preferred outcome would be we bring ilLegal Immigration under control, prove it to the American People and are able to move forward on the rest of it. I believe if we can prove to people ilLegal Immigration is under control, the American People are going to be very reasonable about what do you do with somebody who came here when they were 3 years old, doesnt speak another language . Why rescind the order . Its unconstitutional. I leave in cutting taxes enter this specific order is you believe in the overall i believe that we should do something to accommodate young people in the country who were brought here through no fault of their own. I would love to cut taxes but if the president ordered the irs to stop collecting a certain p percentage of tax, i would be against it. If you undermine the constitution, you lose your country. We have to solve this but through a constitutional way. It cant be by the president doing whatever he wants. How quickly of a priority is it for you, though . Its an important priority. First 100 days type of priority . Enforcing the Immigration Laws has to be, securing our border if youre going to resend the order, dont you need to immediately have a basically some dreamer legislation ready to go . You cant pass anything until ilLegal Immigration is under control. Its been tried three sometitim it fails every time. You say to people this law requires a fence, more Border Agents and they say, we dont believe it, we dont think the federal government will do it. Weve heard this promise before. If you do it and prove it to them, it unlocks the door how do you ever prove it then . I just think youre moving goal posts here. Im not saying you, everybody is. I think you can see when the 700 miles of fencing and walls have been completed you think we need to physically put a barrier. Across 700 miles. Key sectors. What you want to do is funnel traffic to areas you can control and thats why thats the purpose of fencing is to ensure that any traffic we have legal traffic that comes over the border. We have trade. A lot of people that come back and forth to shop and do business. So the point is, but you want crossings to happen in an area that is controlled and monitored. Right now you have porous orders and inviting trafficking groups. Lets go to the next question. Hi, senator rubio. How are you, chuck . If you institute your meritbased immigration policy, wouldnt withdryou be shutting your people like your parents . You wouldnt shut them out. Its a different process. My parents came in 1956. The world is a different place from 1956. When my parents arrived in the u. S. In 1956, my dad had a fourth grade education, maybe. My mom had about the same. If they came today under those circumstance, they would struggle to succeed. In the 21st century economy unless you have a certain level of skill or education, its hard to find a sustainable job. So we always change policies when times change and immigration policy is no different. And so today in the 21st century, immigration policy has to be primarily based on merit. That doesnt mean everyones a ph. D. It does mean before you come in, you should be able to prove what skills are you going to bring to the u. S. . It also, by way, would open up more green cards for graduates from our universities graduating at the top of their class main sciences, technology and other fields and cant stay. The priority and the base of the system needs to be merit based. Absolutely. Its not the same system my parents came across in 1956 because nothing looks like it did 60 years ago. Thank you. Thank you, daniel. I want to ask you a quick one on h1b visas. Theres been controversy. Disney brought in a whole bunch of people on h1b visas and essentially made some americans put them out of work. Its wrong. Ill tell you how thats happening. Youre an advocate, mostly an advocate of the visa programs. I want to get rid of handicap parking stickers because i saw some guy abusing the handicap parking sticker. The h1b program is not the central issue. The central issue is the abuse of it. A lot of abuse of it. It is. Disney and other Companies Hire an outsourcing agency like this company, tata, a consulting agency. These Companies Control an inordinate number of visas. Youre not hiring the workers. Youre hiring the company. The company is bringing them in as contractors. They dont work for disney. They work for the company. Thats how they get around the h1b environment that youre know replacing americans. There has to be reforms to limb the number of visas controlled by these consultant companies. Also a stricter enforcement only whether or not youre hiring people to replace american workers. It is illegal now to use h 1b to replace an american workers. Were driving down wages from pretty good jobs. so,0 150,000 job goes to an 80,000 job. Its illegal under the law now. Thats the process of more enforcement. Catches companies that are doing that, using the Consultancy Group and outsourcing loophole, p punish them, if you do it once, youll face a penalty, do to twice, youll be prohibited from using the h1b program again. Your work with the gang of eight has made your campaign more difficult . Weve been attacked on it. The bottom line is i tried to solve a problem. I told people when i ran for the senate, i told people that i was going up there to do two things. To stand up to the obama agenda, but also to offer an alternative. So in 2013, i was a member of a senate controlled by harry reid and there was going to be movement on immigration and i said, im going to get involved and try to make it the best possible legislation, as conservative as i possibly can because the way this process works is even if the Senate Passes a law, it has to go to the house, controlled by k conservatives and theyre going to make it better. Its not what im saying now. It didnt work that way. The house never took it up. The senate bill is the only thing that happened. I didnt believe the senate bill should be the final law. You may be out of step with where your party is right now . The problem is worse today than it was three years ago. In essence we continue to have an ilLegal Immigration problem, still dont have a fence, dont have the 20,000 new boarder agents, you have 12 million or 13 Million People here illegally. Rder agents, you have 12 million or 13 Million People here illegally. Atried to do something. Its a messy process. At the end of the day doesnt it to have be done bipartisanly . I cant imagine one party being able to jam this through. If im president of the United States, its not going to look like the senate bill. Its going to be our way. I was skeptical at the time of being able do it comprehensively you dont believe comprehensively anymore . I dont believe the support is there. I dont think comprehensive has any chance of passing any time in the near future and were wasting time. All right. Speaking of time. Take another break. When we come back, health care, economy, cuba. Well be right back. When you think about success, what does it look like . Is it becoming a better professor by being a more adventurous student . Is it one day giving your daughter the opportunity she deserves . Is it finally witnessing all the artistic wonders of the Natural World . Whatever your definition of success is, helping you pursue it, is ours. Tiaa. Feel like this. Look like this. 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So you can easily master the way you bank. When we are back. Welcome back to our msnbc town hall with republican senator marco rubio. Six days before the crucial florida primary, as senator, himself, said, its always about florida, isnt it . Some form or another, its always about florida. We like that way. I take it as a badge of honor as a floridian. The next question, i believe, has it and its on cuba. Go ahead. Good evening, senator. As a cubanAmerican Businessowner, im curious to know, would you roll back all of the changes obama has made regarding cuba . Or would you keep some of them . Probably all because i think theyre [ applause ] i think theyre illegal. Relations between relations between the we have to get back to this idea of rule of law in this country. Relations between the u. S. And cuba are law. These are laws that regulate any sort of changes and it outlines how there can be a change between relations between the United States and cuba. It requires reciprocal measures on part of the cuban government. So i ask why couldnt we have gone toward cuba the way we did toward myanmar, burma, whatever the right term is these days . If you look at the opening toward them, the u. S. Made diplomatic recognition, economic openings and exchange the government there, a dictator shi ship allowed a political opening. By no means am i arguing theyre new zealand or canada or australia, its better than they used to be because it was a requirement. We made no requirements in cuba for political openings, freedom of the press, human rights. The situation in cuba today for human rights and democracy continues to deteriorate on the hopes somehow American Business and american tourism is going to lead to a political change. It will not. It will provide more resources for a dictatorship to carry out a transition and become permanent. I will roll back those changes and say if theres going to be a chan in u. S. cuba relations it must be according to the laws as written by congress and be reciprocal. What do you roll back . The travel bans, you roll everything back . Or is there some stuff you keep in place . First of all, cubanamericans have been allowed to travel to cuba for a long time. The problem you have now, people are going the problem you have now is this. You have people coming from cuba and say theyre here coming as exiles then they travel back to cuba 42 times a year. The question is if youwhy are going back 42 times a year . Number one. You have today People Living in cuba that came to the u. S. A year and a day later became u. S. Residents, qualified for all sorts of assistance from the u. S. Government, and are living in cuba. And their check is being depo t deposited in a u. S. Bank account, their relatives are taking the money and wiring it back to cuba. Thats an abuse of the system and abuse of our generosity. Thats what this has opened the door to now. So whats the better solution . Rolling back what the president has done, or do we get rid of wet foot dry foot, do we reform so that basically cubans have to be under the same Immigration Law as everybody else . First of all, we need to close this loophole that allows people to come into the u. S. , claim residency and live in cuba you support legislation that would change that . Its my legislation. Thats why i support it. The other point i would make to you, ive always said the cuban adjustment act is endangered given the current patterns we see. There are people in cuba legitimately fleeing oppression. And those people should we should continue to receive them. Then there are people abusing the system. I do think the cuban adjustment act should be revisited. Wet foot dry foot is the way the law is implemented. If you land on u. S. Soil, you get to stay, if they catch you at sea, they send you back. Thats the way theyre addressing the law. Do you buy the argument the Obama Administration makes which says doing what theyve done with cuba improved relations with the rest of latin america and more importantly they will argue has actually helped to isolate venezuela in a way you couldnt isolate venezuela before . No. Venezuela is isolated because theyre run by a crazy guy and they have no money. They have no money. Thats why theyre isolated. If cuba is closer to the United States, thats farther away cuba is from venezuela. Venezuela has no money, theyre bankrupt. They destroyed the economy. Cuba can be as friendly as they want to venezuela. They wanted the oil. They wanted cash. They needed to survive and needed it for subsistence. That was not going change. As far as the rest of latin america is concerned, our relationship with argentina improved because they elected a better president. Our relationship with colombia is solid. Our relationship with panama is strong. Our relationship with honduras and guatemala is good. Our relationship with el salvador is mixed. Our relationship with mexico is unaffected by our relationship with cuba. Thats a myth that somehow its improved. The only difference is when we go to the summit of the americas we dont have to sit through a 30minute speech about get rid of the embargo. Thats not a small thing, though, is it . Its a small thing. In terms of Public Policy. All those countries want to have a Good Relationship with the United States. Were going to move on. Brandon rodriguez, you have the next question. Topic change. Id like to thank both of you for being here and hosting the town hall. I first have to say im a strong advocate for maintaining and advancing america as an energy superpower. However, rising sea levels have become a concern for many citizens here in florida as well as citizens of other states, in new york, california. What are your views on this in what will you do as president to ensure us a future . If youre having flooding, weve had flooding for a long time. Sweetwater a few blocks from here used to have massive flooding before they put drainage. I live in west miami, waterfront property 20 years ago every time it rained. We happen to live in a swamp thats been filled in and now we have People Living here. Rising sea level impacting flooding, im in favor. Of course we want to do all that. Youre getting at a broader question, what Public Policy can we pursue . I want to lead the world in energy resource, fully utilize oil, natural gas, coal, nuclear energy, wind, solar, biofuels. I want to lead in all of them. I want the u. S. To be number one in every source of energy, have thefolio possible. As far as what impact thats going to have on the climate, not even the most stringent advocate if theyre being honest of these laws can tell you youre going to see a measurable difference in sea level any time in your lifetime or mine. The other hand, if we pass laws that mandate things on our economy, an Economic Cost will be associated with it. Innovation and technology are driving us in the direction. My onlyrgument is allow the market to drive it, not government mandates. Where are you on Climate Change . Thats a measurable thing. First of all, the climate is always changing. This notion that the climate used to be the same for 1,000 years and now its different, climate is always changing. Most Scientists Say thhumans ha contributed to it. Youre saying its your responsible to deal with it . Flooding in miami beach, you have to deal with it. We had flooding in west miami where i lived 15, 20 years ago. We dealt with it. Part of this is, are we risking too much of the economy by developing to the point where if a small flood could create too much damage . Were developing in coastal areas in this country because people want to live near the water its overdeveloped or not, its too late now. Shouldnt those folks help pay for the mitigation . Yeah, im not going there. Theyll have to figure that out localry. The bottom line is, thats already there. Going to roll back miami beach 100 years . Miami beach is an artificial island. Its there now, its a key part of our economy. Were going to protect it. We want it protect it. We want it to be a vibrant place to live. Theres. We need to deal with. Arianna rodriguez. New topic. Thank you for being here today. My question is earlier last month the Florida House approved a campus carry bill that would allow handguns on college campuses. What is your view on this policy and how would you regulate it to make sure students and professors are safe . Well, i think that if you have a law, lawabiding people will follow it and criminals will ignore it. If god forbid this afternoon some lunatic or someone who has Mental Illness or dangerous criminal decides they want to come on the campus of this university, god forbid, harm someone, theyre not going to care its illegal to do it, theyre criminals, theyre going to violate the law. The only people that follow laws are lawabidinging people. I am a gun owner. If the law says i cant do something, i wont do it. These thugs that are shooting up our community, it is already illegal to shoot up our communities so they dont care if its illegal to have a gun on campus, theyll bring it on campus because theyre criminals. I would just say to you on the realm of that, heres why its difficult. Think about it this way. Im a gun owner and like to drive in my car and have a gun in my car for my protection but i have to go to fius campus. What do i do when i get to southwest avenue, do i dump the gun in the bush, park my car and pick it up after class is over . You cant. Thats why the laws are justified. You want people to be able to protect themselves to and from work or to and from school. Its not just on campus. Its being able to not have to throw it out. That said, it is illegal to use a gun in a crime and criminals dont care because theyre criminals. All right. Thank you. All right. Were going to sneak in another break. When we come back, little more indepth on the economy and housing. Can a business have a mind . A subconscious. A knack for predicting the future. Reflexes faster than the speed of thought. Can a business have a spirit . Can a business have a soul . Can a business be. Alive . This just got interesting. So why pause to take a pill . And why stop to find a bathroom . Cialis for daily use, is the only daily tablet approved to treat erectile dysfunction so you can be Ready Anytime the moment is right. Plus cialis treats the frustrating urinary symptoms of bph, like needing to go frequently, day or night. 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Their soft cushioning support means you can look like this. And feel like this. Dreamwalk. Jake reese, day to feel alive jake reese, day to feel alive jake reese, day to feel alive we are back. Welcome back to the msnbc town hall. Im here with republican senator marco rubio. Six days before the florida primary. Were going to talk about an issue that is pretty big here in south florida when it comes to all things having to do with the economy and what happened with the financial collapse and we have the next question. Good evening, senator. Good evening, chuck. Now, my question is, the financial crisis of 2008 was caused in part by the irresponsible actions of banks and lenders. Although we currently see economic recovery, experts say most problems were simply thrown under the rug. As president , what course of action will you take to prevent another economic meltdown . Thats a good question. First of all, i was personally impacted by it. I bought a home in 2005 in miami. Anybody who bought a home in 2005 bought at the peak of the market. And a year and a half later, i did nothing wrong, in fact, i improved the home but it was worthless than the day i bought it and my neighbor went into foreclosure because he died of an illness and his family went into foreclosure and that reset the prices in the neighborhood as well. Again, none of us were in trouble, none of those homes have been foreclosed except for that untimely death yet our home was worth less a year and a half later than the day we bought it because of these actions. I think there are a lot of culprits here. The Federal Reserve is a big part of it. The Federal Reserve understood there was an overheated housing bubble and kept Interest Rates low artificially nonetheless. Inessence, they kept goosing up the Housing Market despite the fact they knew or should have known Interest Rates were too low. Banks created lending institutions created exotic packages for lending. They sold them as tradeable goods. And then add to all of that a law that basically required these banks to create these sort of packages because we wanted every american to own a home even if they couldnt make the payments and result is the housing crisis. So i think the best way forward is twohold. Number one, have a rulesbased system for our Federal Reserve. The Federal Reserve is not supposed to run our economy. It is a central bank. It is supposed to maintain the stability of our currency and it should have very specific rules that trigger when Interest Rates go up and when they go down or when they stay the same. And number two, very simple rules to regulate banks that have a very Clear Capital requirement of how much banks need to hold in reserve, very clearly dl lly dle lly deleniat. Its not so complicated that local lenders and regional banks and Community Banks cant comply. Its not a coincidence after dodd frank, local bank, regional banks, small Community Banks are being hurt. Theyre disappearing while big banks are bigger than theyve ever been because complex laws help Big Industries at the expense of small ones. You know, a lot of the fervor behind trump and sanders is this whole people feeling we got the shaft. Nobody went to jail. Do you think thats a problem . Well, they committed a crime, they should go to jail. But the attitude has been unfortunately there was no law in the books that whatever they did was all actually technically legal and it shouldnt have been. Well, you cant heres the bottom line. If it was legal, its legal. I dont think its right. Just because somethings legal doesnt make it right. People did things that are immoral and wrong and cashed out knowing their practices were unsustainable. It makes it negligent, makes it irresponsible, it makes it immoral, but thats different from saying illegal. If someone committed a crime, they should go to jail na. They should not be protected because of who they are or what influence they might have but it has to be a crime. One of the things miami is experiencing, new york city experienced it. Foreign money comes in, raises Property Values to the point where average middleclass residents here in miami cant afford to live here. Thats right. Theyre paying cash. Foreigners come in, they pay cash. Again, its good for Property Values short term. Its good for the seller, bad for the buyer. Its not good for average working people who are looking to own a home. What do you do . Largely the answer to that comes from local government through a combination of things. This is going to get complicated. I did zoning work early in my legal career. The density requirements, development. If you create a for example, the highest and best use of a waterfront property is not affordable residential housing. Its going to be highrises with good views that are expensive. Other communities you have to make it you have to have zoning and comprehensive planning laws that make it feasible to create Workforce Housing and Family Housing for a developer who is only going to take on the risk of a project, if, number one, they can get a good rate of return per square foot, and number two, if they can qualify people to buy. I think rental stock is important. Not everyone is at a stage in their life where they need to be buying so you have to make a costeffective for rental housing and rental apartments and so forth to be Cost Effective but a lot of that is a function of local government. It is not really a federal issue other than the banking and the Interest Rates and thinks of this nature. Our next question. David neighbors has a question. Yes, sir. Im an inspiring law student, so my condolences. [ laughter ] issues presenting to our federal judiciary are of particular importance to me, but i feel a lot of people, especially people my age, dont fully grasp the importance of those issues. Last month, our country suffered a great loss with the passing of Justice Scalia and it seems the next president is going to be in a position to appoint multiple justices to the high court. So can you speak a little bit about the importance of appointing prince pipled conservatives to the court and also about what specific qualities you would look for in potential appointees . People say conservative and i believe that. I think what you really need is someone who understands that the constitution is not a living and breathing document. It is a document that is supposed to applied as originally meant. The job of the court is not to change the constitution. The job of the court is to apply it. There is a way to change the constitution. Its article 5. It provides for amendment process. And weve had amendments in this country. There are a couple id like to see. Id like to see term limits on congress. Id like to see term limits on the court. Id like to see a balanced budget amendment. I dont think the court can impose that. So i do believe irrespective of the personal views of a judge, of a justice, at an appellate level, their job is not to be a policymaker but apply the constitution as originally meant. If the constitution ends up meaning whatever you want it to mean, its meaningless. Limits the power of the federal government, reserves governmental power to the stat s s and we need more judges that understand it and do it that way. You said Something Interesting what would you make, you have an idea in mind, what would you make for term of a federal judge . 20 years, 25 years, a generation . I dont believe anyone should be in any position inperpetuity. It makes them immune to pressure. If youre on the court and didnt live as long back then. Do you think that had something to do with it . Yeah, i guess. I dont mean to be that crass about it. Life expectancy was quite less than it is now. Term limits are good. Whether 8 years, 12 years in the legislative branch, i dont know, but i think it was good. Our system was built for people not in there for 50 years. Some had reallife experience, they come in, go back out. Let me ask you about a litmus test. Overturning roe v. Wade. Would you ask a potential Supreme Court nominee that question . Would you ask, what tells you thats going to be somebody first i want to make somebody thats going to be a scalia conservative. Number one, im make sure they have the intellectual capacity to defend their views. One of the things that made scalia effective, he was an excellent communicators of his ideas and positions. Do you think that matters a little bit, little bit of charisma, a little bit its not verbal. In his writing, hes able to express, and the clerks do a lot of the work but i think its important to have someone who has the intellectual exact capao express their views in the majority of the dissent. And the ability to understand and comprehend complex issues, number one. Number two, i want to make sure its someone that has the view of the constitution i do, that its a document of limitation to be applied as originally meant. As far as how they would rule in a particular case, no nominee will answer that question. No does Justice Roberts not have enough, in hindsight, not have enough of a record to make your comfortable . I wasnt involved in this nomination process. I understand that. Thats come up in this campaign. I havent gone back and looked at what his record was before then. I believe he was in private practice. You want more of a track record . I want someone that has a proven record whether its on the academia or on the bench of defending, the job of the Supreme Court justice is to apply the constitution according to its original meaning, not to reach policy conclusions theyd like. Speaking of limitations, one more break. Back with more with marco rubio here in miami, florida, on the campus of Florida International university. Welcome to opportunitys knocking, where selfproclaimed financial superstars pitch you investment opportunities. Ive got a fantastic deal for you gold with the right pool of investors, theres a lot of money to be made. But first, investors must ask the right questions and use the smartcheck challenge to make the right decisions. Youre not even registered; im done with you i can. I can. Savvy investors check their financial pros background by visiting smartcheck. Gov whose long dayis sheldon setting up the news starts with minor arthritis pain and a choice. 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Woman they took out the whole network. Man they had to hand out pens and paper. Woman yeah. Man could it happen to us . Woman no. Were okay. Man we are . Woman yeah, we brought in some new guys. Man what do they know that we dont . Woman that you cant run a country with pens and paper. Its not just security. Its defense. Bae systems. All right. We got our final minutes here with florida senator marco rubio. And im going to end where we began a little bit of state of the campaign, state of your political ambition a little l bit. First of all, theres some reports that jeb bush is having a mieeting with you, john kasic, the four of you getting together. I spoke to jeb bush a number of times but dont discuss private conversations. Would his endorsement help you . Sure. Hes a respected person in the state. I throughout the Campaign Said i have Great Respect and admiration for him. I still do. You said something in your victory speech when you won the u. S. Senate seat. This is what you said, washington is a place that literally changes people and within a short period of time, they forgot why they even ran. Six years later, is there some truth to that with you . Not with me. Im running today for the same reasons i ran in 2010 only the stakes are higher. Five years later, we see many of the things that made america a special country in a lot of trouble. Both parties are to blame for that. Remember why were exceptional. Its the one place on earth where youre born doesnt determine how far you go. They understand that here in miami and fiu especially. And were losing. We have the potential to lose that. And i want this to continue to be a country where participaent do for their children what my parents did for me. If we have another four years like the last eight, were going to lose it. Thats why i ran for president. All right, senator rubio,vy to leave it there. Pleasure, sure. That will be it for all of us. A big thank you to our friends here at Florida International university. Our wonderful host here in miami, florida. Keep it tuned in here for msnbc, the place for politics. Have a good night. Thanks for being with us tonight. Happy wednesday. Happy to have you here. In the 1964 president ial race, the Republican Party held its nominating convention in San Francisco and it was a fraught time. This was the summer of 1964, so it was, you know, barely six months after president kennedy had been assassinated and lyndon johnson, the Vice President , had taken over of the presidency. Deeply unsettled time in the country in general, and in partisan politics, in particular. A whole host of fairly normal republican candidates had thought about running that year. Had been asked to run. Had tried to run. Richard nixon whod been beaten by john