the government funding deal, dealing with gun violence and the situation in syria. this is about one hour, 10 minutes. president obama: please be seated. good afternoon. arne duncan is one of my longest-serving cabinet secretaries and he has been a friend for a lot longer than that. so it is with some regret and accepted his have decision to return to our hometown of chicago. after more than six years of living in washington, arne's wonderful wife, karen, and their kids want to move back home. they want to move back home. so, i will be honest, i pushed for arne duncan to stay, but i also know from personal experience how hard it is to be away from family. so while i will miss him deeply, he has more than earned the right to return home. take a look at what he has accomplished of the last six and -- over the last 6.5 years. he is one of the longest-serving secretaries of education in our history and one of the more consequential. in just a few years, arne and his team have delivered exceptional results at every step of education. nearly every state in america has raised standards for teaching and learning. expectations for what our kids can learn. our high school graduation rate is at an all-time high. we have helped millions of more families to afford college and more americans are graduating from college than ever before. that is just scratching the surface. he has done more to bring our educational system, sometimes kicking and screaming, into the 21st century than anybody else. america is going to be better off for what he has done. it is one to be more competitive and more prosperous. it will be more equal and more upwardly mobile. i truly believe no other education secretary could match. arne bleeds the stuff. he cares so much about our kids in he has been so passionate about his work. everybody who interacts with him , including people who disagree with him on some issues never question the genuineness and heart that he has brought to this job. i could not be prouder of him. and for good measure, arne holds the most points scored in a n nba all-star game. [applause] president obama: and he is my favorite partner in pickup basketball, the smartest player i know, even if he is very slow. and has no hops. [applause] [laughter] he knows it is true. i will say that watching ryan, by the way, the sun will soon be passing his father. this young man has got game. keep in mind that none of this change is beneath you and we still have a long way to go. one of the things about education is that it does not deliver results tomorrow or the next day. this is a decade-long or longer proposition. we plant seeds now, we make changes now, and we watched each successive class benefit from these reforms and it goes in fits and starts and we have a decentralized system. that is how our education tradition evolved. it is not easy and it is not quick, but we are making progress. we're not going to stop in these last 15 months and that is why it is so important and why i think we are very lucky that even as arne steps down that we have accounted educator to step -- we have an exceptionally talented educator to step in canada is dr. john king. he is already on the leadership team. he has been an educator all his life, a teacher, principal, a leader of schools, the new york state education chief. he is the right man to lead the department. he shares our commitment to preparing every child for success in a more innovative ink of the world -- and competitive world. he has a great team at the department of education, which i'm very, very proud. his family is equally cool and good-looking. [laughter] and he has equally exceptional children. i know that together we are going to continue to be able to do great things on behalf of our kids. arne and john, i want to wish you both a hearty congratulations and good luck. i'm going to let them say a few words and give a few remarks before take questions from the press. secretary duncan: i cried more today than i have in a while. i will try not to get up here and cry. i will start with the president. when he asked us to come to d.c. and work with him, that was a one minute conversation with my wife. it wasn't that we wanted to becomehicago, or education secretary, i just wanted to be on his team because i believe so much in what he said it stood for. seven years later, my -- my admiration is only greater. i want folks to know that with what hard decision, it is is right for kids. even if it was a hard political decision, it was never a factor. his passion and his commitment is absolutely extraordinary it is not the political leadership, it's not the educational leadership, it is the moral leadership. i cannot tell you what an unbelievable honor it was just to spend some time. for every day, folks who saw them -- you saw him last night talk about the horrendous gun massacre in oregon and how preventable these things are. we need more leadership in times like this. to our team, the team you have the white house, it has been extraordinary to work with dcc. i think the team at the department of education is stronger than it has ever been. you never know 47 years how these go, but we have the 18 and a-team. we have been able to work with the white house and for many folks that are here, with the team in place, i'm just extraordinarily hopeful and confident about what they can do together. emma and ted and the rest of the crew, i said a little bit about john. folks know that all this work is very personal. for me, it's very personal. john was one of those kids who probably should not be in a room like this if you look at stereotypes. not the easiest time growing up. he lost both his parents at an early age. he lived with his brother and i -- that was not very easy either, but he had an amazing teacher who saw something in him and kept him going. today, he is standing at the -- with the president. so many times, i think society seeskids like john and what he can accomplish. it drives us. while i am sad in leaving, i'm extraordinarily happy and proud and thankful that john will get to lead this team. i want to thank everybody for their hard work. i want to thank my parents as well. my dad is a lifelong educator at this university of chicago. my mother started teaching program before we were and that -- before we were born and that changed our lives. got to see what kids could do if given the chance and that is why we do this work today. to see what she did at the corner of greenwood and to now try have an impact around the nation, because this man gave us a chance. for my family, i cannot tell you how much it means to us. and finally to my family, i love this work. i love this team. i look the president. -- i love the president and i love the chance to serve. the only thing i love more is you guys. i can't wait to come home and see a couple more track meets and maybe have a few more dinners and maybe go to a movie someday. [laughter] that would be amazing. it has been too long. it has been an amazing journey and i feel so proud and so lucky to have been a part of this team. mr. president, thank you for creating a climate in which all of us here could have the impact that we did. we can never repay the debt of gratitude we all need for your leadership. thank you so much and i want to turn it over to john. [applause] dr. king: thank you, arne, for the very kind words and thank you, mr. president, for your faith in me and the chance to serve the department. i'm deeply humbled by following in arne's footsteps. he is an extraordinary leader who i have watched demonstrate tremendous courage and -- in fighting for kids and in fighting for what is best for them. and his willingness to listen to folks and make adjustments and make sure that everything we do every day is to the goal of greater equity. mr. president, you and our team at the department have laid out an ambitious agenda from strengthening early childhood education and expanding access to early childhood, to raising standards in teaching and learning through k-12 and ensuring that more americans have access to high-quality higher education, to ensure that we support our teachers, and we invest in our teachers and provide the best preparation and support and leadership opportunities for them. it's an incredible agenda and i'm proud to be able to carry it forward with an amazing team that we have at the department. earlier this week, arne gave a speech at the national press club and he said education can be the difference between life and death. i know that is true because it was for me. i grew up in brooklyn. i lost my mom when i was a and old and my dad when i was my dad was very sick 12. before he passed. i moved around between family members and schools. but teachers, new york city public school teachers are the reason i'm alive and the reason i became a teacher and the reason i'm standing here today. those created amazing and alsoal experiences gave me hope about what is possible and what could be possible for me in life. i know schools cannot do it alone. there is work that we have to do on economic development and housing and health care, but i know that my parents who spent their lives as new york city public school educators believe that school is at the heart of our congress of the quality and opportunity for all americans. that is what they believe and that's what the president believes and that is what i feel very privileged to be able to work on with this amazing team that we have at the department. every child in the united states, every college student, every disconnected youth, every working parent just what a few -- who just wants a few more credits to improve their salaried position at their job, everyone deserves the kind of opportunity i had to have a great education. every child deserves the opportunity that my beautiful daughters have to have a great education, the kind of education their grandparents were to provide. -- worked to provide. i am so grateful for my very supportive wife, melissa. i very grateful to the secretary for the opportunity to join the team and grateful to the president to continue to work with the wonderful people at the education department to try to expand opportunity. thank you. [applause] president obama: two good men doing really important work. i'm lucky to have them both as colleagues and as friends and i'm looking forward to seeing even more work done in the next few months. we have got some other business to attend to. so all of you who are here to celebrate arne and john are lucky enough now to have to sit through a little press conference with me. [laughter] make yourselves comfortable. [laughter] ahead of time,ds i said tried not to look -- try not to look completely bored. i'm going to take a couple of questions from the press. but first, a few additional pieces of business. first of all, we learned today that our business is created -- has created another 118,000 new jobs in september, which means that we now have had 67 straight months of job creation. 13.2 million new jobs and all. an unemployment rate that has fallen from a high of 10% to down to 5.1%. these long-term trends are obviously good news, particular ly for every american waking up each morning and heading off to a new job. but, we would be doing even better if we do not have to continue dealing with unnecessary crises in congress every few months. this is especially important right now, because although the american economy has been chugging along at a steady pace, much of the global economy is softening. we have seen an impact, exports, -- on exports which was a major , driver of growth for us, particularly at the beginning of the recovery. so our own growth could slow if congress does not do away with some of the counterproductive austerity measures that they have put in place and if congress does not avoid the kind of manufactured crises that shatter consumer confidence and could disrupt an already skittish global economy. on wednesday, more than half of republicans voted to shut down the government for the second time in two years. the good news is that there were enough votes in both parties to pass a last-minute bill to keep the government open and operating for another 10 weeks before we can get a more long-term solution. but keep in mind that gimmick only sets up another potential manufactured crisis just two weeks before christmas. and i've said this before and i want to repeat it. this is not the way the united states should be operating. oftentimes, i hear from folks up on capitol hill about the need for american leadership. the need for america to be number one. well, you know what? around the globe, part of what makes us a leader is when we govern effectively and we keep our own house in order. and we pass budgets and we can engage in long-term planning and can invest in the things that are important for the future. that is u.s. leadership. when we fail to do that, we diminish u.s. leadership. it is not how we are supposed to operate. we cannot just keep on kicking down the road without solving any problems or doing any long-term planning for the future. that is true for military. that is true for our domestic programs. the american people, the american families deserve better and we can grow faster and the economy can improve if congress acts with dispatch. it will get worse if they do not. that is why want to be very clear -- i will not sign another shortsighted spending bill like the one that congress sent me this week. we purchased our self 10 additional weeks and we need to use them effectively. keep in mind that both parties put in place harmful cuts that make no distinction between spending we don't meet and spending we do. we can revisit the history of how that happened. i have some rather grim memories of it. but the notion was that even as we were bringing down the deficit, we would come up with a sustainable, smart, long-term approach to investing in the things that we need. that did not happen. and so now, these cuts that have been maintained have been keeping our economy from grown -- growing faster. it is time to undo them. if we do not, then we will have to fund our economic and national security priorities in 2016 at the same levels that we did in 2006. now understand, during that decade between 2006 and 2016, our economy has grown by 12%. our population has grown by 8%. new threats have emerged. new opportunities have appeared. we cannot fund our country the way we did 10 years ago. because we have greater demands with an aging population, with kids who need schools, with roads that needs to be fixed, with a military on which we are placing extraordinary demands. and we cannot cut our way to prosperity. other countries have tried it and it has not worked. we have grown faster than they have because we did not pursue these blind unthinking cuts and necessary investment for our growth. by the way, because we have grown faster than them, we have brought our deficits down faster than they had. i want to repeat this because the public apparently never believe it. since i took office, we have cut our deficit by two thirds. the deficit has not been going up. it has been going down precipitously. we have cut our deficits by two thirds. they are below the average deficits over the past four years. the bottom line is that congress has to do its job. it cannot flirt with another shutdown. it should pass a serious budget. and if they do and get rid of some of these mindless cuts, then as we are still prudent about maintaining the spending that we need, but not the spending that we do not need and is not working, their own nonpartisan budget office says it will add an extra half-million jobs to our economy next year alone. we can immediately put half a million more people that work. that is if we just have a more sensible budget. in these negotiations, nobody is going to get everything they want. we have to work together though, even if we disagree, and order -- in order to do the people's business. at some point, we have to what want -- have to want to govern and not play politics or play to various political basis. at some point we need to pass bills to rebuild our roads, to keepour kids learning and our military strong, and help people prepare for and recover from disasters. that is congress most basic job and that is what government is supposed to do, serve the american people. so with that, let me take some questions and i will start with julie. hang in there, kids. [laughter] >> it will be over soon. thank you, mr. president. there have been several developments in syria that a want to ask you about, starting with russia's involvement. you met with president putin earlier this week and i wonder his intentions in syria are honest. if russia is targeting groups beyond the islamic state, including u.s. aligned groups, does the u.s. military have an obligation to protect them? on the situation in syria broadly, there have obviously been failures and u.s. training equip program. you believe that program can be fixed what you have to look at other options? would you look into a no-fly zone, which several dozens of candidates, including your former secretary of state, are now calling for? president obama: well, first and foremost, let's understand what is happening in syria and how we got here. what started off as peaceful protests against assad, the you bold into a civil war because assad met those protests with unimaginable brutality. and so this is not a conflict between the united states and any party in syria. this is a conflict between the syrian people and a brutal, ruthless dictator. point number two is that the reason assad is still in power is because russia and iran have supported him throughout this process. and in that sense, what russia is doing now is not particularly different from what they had been doing in the past. they are just more overt about it. -- propping upg a regime that has rejected by an overwhelming majority of the syrian population because they have seen he has been willing to drop barrel bombs on children and on villages indiscriminately and has been more concerned about clinging to power than the state of this country. so in my discussions with --esident clinton -- who did putin, i was very clear that the only way to solve the problem in syria is to have a political transition that is inclusive and keeps the state contact and keeps the military intact, maintains cohesion and is inclusive, and the only way to accomplish that is for mr. assad to transition because you cannot rehabilitate him in the eyes of syrians. this is not a judgment i am making. it is a judgment that the overwhelming majority of syrians are making. i said to mr. putin that i would be prepared to work with him if he is willing to broker with his partners, mr. assad and iran, a political transition. we can bring the rest of the world to a military solution, but a military solution alone an attempt by russia and iran to prop up assad and try to pacify the situation is going to get them stuck in a quagmire. and it won't work. and they will be there for a while if they do not take a different course. i also said to him that it is true that the united states and russia and the entire world have a common interest in destroying isil, but what was very clear and regardless of what mr. putin said, is that he does not distinguish between isil and a moderate sunni opposition that wants to see mr. assad go. from their perspective, they are all terrorists and that is a recipe for disaster and it is one that i reject. where we are right now, we are having technical conversations about the confliction so we are not seeing u.s. and american firefights in the air. but beyond that, we are very clear in sticking to our belief and our policy that the problem here is assad and the brutality he is afflicted on the syrian people and it has to stop. in order for it to stop, we are prepared to work with all the parties concerned, but we're not going to cooperate with a russian campaign to simply try to destroy anybody who is disgusted and fed up with mr. assad's behavior. keep in mind from a practical perspective, the moderate opposition in syria is one that if we are ever to have a political transition, we need. the russian policy is driving those folks underground, creating a situation in which to --re d capacity incapacitated and it is only strengthening isil. and that is not good for anybody. in terms of our support of opposition groups inside of syria, i made very clear early on that the united states could not impose a military solution on syria either. it was in our interest to make sure that we were engaged with moderate opposition inside of syria because eventually syria will fall. the assad regime will fall and we have to have somebody we are working with that can help pick up the pieces and stitch back together a cohesive, coherent country. and so we will continue to support them. the training and equip program was a specific initiative by the defense department to see if we could get some of that moderate opposition to focus attention on isil in the eastern portion of the country. and i'm the first one to a cknowledge it did not work the way it was supposed to and i think the department of defense would say the same thing. part of the reason frankly is because when we tried to get them to just focus on isil, the response we get back is how can we focus on them when we get barrel bombs and attacks from the regime. so it has been hard to get them to report -- reprioritize for them to look east when they have bombs coming at them from the west. so what we are trying to do is look at where we have had success, for example, working kurdishe of the --mmunity that pushed i sold isil out, to see if we can build on that. we will continue to have contacts with and work with believesn that rightly in the absence of change and government inside of syria. turbocharger will recruitment and we will continue that process. now the last part i want to talk about on this, because sometimes the conversation here differs from the conversation payton --nally, mr. putin had to go into syria not because of strength, but because of weakness. because mr. assad was crumbling and it was inefficient to send them arms and money, now he has to put in his own airplanes and pilots. he put notion that forward a plan and that somehow the international community sees that as viable because there is a vacuum there, i do not see after he made that speech at the united nations, suddenly the 16 nation coalition start lining up behind him. sawed -- assad make up putin's coalition at the moment. the rest of the countries make ours. so i do not think that people are full by the current strategy. it does not mean that we could putine mr. kitten -- cannot see that it is in their interest to broker a settlement. with our partners, the iranians, others, who are part of the anti-axis coalition to come up with a better transition and nobody pretends it will be easy. but i think it is still possible, so we will maintain communication, but we are not going to be able to get those negotiations going if there is not a recognition that there has to be a change in government. we are not going back to the status quo. the kind of airstrikes against moderate opposition that they are engaging and is going to be counterproductive, it will move us further away from the solution we should be looking for. [inaudible] throughout this process, people have constantly look for an easy low-cost answer. is -- we should have in early.rifles somehow everything would have been ok. taken that shot, assad had offered to give up chemical weapons, then immediately things would have folded, the regime would have folded and we would have suddenly seeing a peaceful syria. a peaceful syria. this is a hugely conflict problem. and -- complex problem. and i would have hoped we would have learned that from afghanistan and iraq, we have devoted the enormous time and resources with the best people and have given the afghan people and iraqi people an opportunity for democracy, but is still hard as we saw this week in afghanistan. effort,e of a lack of or commitment, we still got 10,000 people in afghanistan, moneyng -- spending building the government and it is still tough. so when i make a decision about the level of military involvement that we are prepared to engage in in syria, i need to make a judgment based on -- once we start something, we need to finish it. and we need to do it well. do we in fact have the resources make a capacity to serious impact, understanding that we still have to go after l in iraq, still support a military that is weaker than we d.rceive we still have things to do in afghanistan. consistently as i can over the last 45 years, i , i have soughtrs out steps to move syria in a better direction. as capder no illusions what a catastrophe this is and the hardships, the refugees who are traveling in very dangerous circumstances and creating real political problems now among allies in europe. the heartbreaking images of children drowned, trying to escape. and the impact of a destabilized country on our allies in the region. but, what we have learned over the last 10, 12, 13 years is that unless we can get the parties on the ground to agree to live together in some fashion, then no amount of u.s. military engagement will solve the problem. and we will find ourselves either doing just a little bit and not making a difference and losing credibility that way, or finding ourselves drawn deeper into the situation that we cannot sustain. so, and when i hear people offering half-baked ideas as if they are solutions, or trying to downplay the challenges -- what i would like to see people ask is specifically, precisely, what exactly would you do and how would you find it, how would you -- fund it, how would you sustain it and what you get is a bunch of mumbo-jumbo. these are hard challenges. they are ones that we are going to continue to pursue. the message i want everybody to understand is we will continue reachwilll i out to a moderate opposition, we will reject the theory that everybody involved with assad is a terrorist, that is self-defeating, it will be used as a tool for recruitment for foreign fighters. we will work with the international community and the relieven to relief -- pressure on refugees, we are currently working to see what we can do on the borders, methinks a perfect -- make things safer for people. ultimately, we are going to have to find a way for a political transition if we are going to solve syria. >> thank you mr. president. in july, you said that the gun issue has been the most frustrating of your presidency, we heard that frustration last night. in the last 15 months of your presidency, do you intend to do something differently to get thisess to act or get at gun violence problem, and i want to ask about what governor jeb bush said, he asked about the drive to take action about what "ppened in oregon, he said look, stuff happens. the impulse is to do something and it is not always the right thing to do." : i do not think i need to react to that one. i think that the american people should hear that and make their own judgments based on the fact that every couple of months, we have a mass shooting. in terms of -- and they can decide if you consider that " happening." in terms of what i can do, i scrub --d my team to what kind of authorities do we keep guns outto of the hands of criminals. is there action we can take to prevent even a handful of these tragic death from taking place? as i said last night, this will not change until the politics changes and the behavior of elected officials changes. so the main thing i am going to do is talk about this, on a regular basis. i will politicize it, because are in action is a political decision we are making. the reason that congress does , gunupport even the modest safety laws we proposed after sandy hook is not because the majority of american people do not support it, i mean, normally politicians are responsive to the views of the electorate. -- here you me it have the majority of the american people who think that this is the right thing to do, background checks, other common sense steps that would maybe evensome lives, could not get a full vote. and why is that? it is because of politics. it is because interest groups fund campaigns. in fairness, it is not just in the republican party. change thewe political dynamic, we are not going to be able to make a dent in this problem. for example, you'll hear about guns not being the problem, but mental illness. if you talk to people who study this problem, it is true that the majority of these mass shooters are angry, young men, but there are hundreds of millions of angry young men around the world, tens of millions of angry young men and they do not shoot. it does not help just to identify. the majority of people with mental illnesses are not shooters, so we cannot sort through and identify ahead of time it will take actions like this. what we can do is try to make sure that they do not have an arsenal when something cents in snaps in them. if we are going to do something, the politics have to change and the people troubled by this have to be as intense and organize and adamant about this issue as folks on the other side who are absolutists and think that any gun safety measures are somehow an assault on freedom or communistic or a plot by me to take over. forever, orpower something. there are all kinds of crackpot conspiracy theories, some of which are ratified by elected officials in the other party come up on occasion -- in the other party, on occasion. we needed to change the politics on this. not just people feeling deeply, but doing something. here is what we need to do. you have to make sure that anybody who you are voting for is on the right side of this issue, if they are not, even if they are gray on other stuff, you have to vote against them and let them know why you are voting against them. , for an you need to just while, be a single issue voter because that is what is happening on the other side. that will take time. ,he nra has had a good start you know. they have been at this a long time, they have perfected what they do. he have to give them credit, they are effective. up, they know how to stir fear, they know how to raise money, they know how to scare politicians. they know how to organize campaigns. the american people are going to have to match in their urgency, in order to stop this. it isis not to say stopping all violence, it will not stop all violence. violence is around the world. it is part of original sin, but our homicide rate are a lot higher than other places, but they also have the same level of violence, you cannot kill as many people when you do not have easy access to these kinds of weapons. i am deeply saddened about let's not forget this is happening every single day. neighborhoodsn around the country. every single day. just running for their lives trying to get to school. we were in new orleans city down with a group of young men when we were talking about katrina and i got two young men next to me, both of them had been times -- shotle multiple times. so we need to make a decision, if we think that is normal, then we are done. but i do not think it is normal. it is normal. -- abnormal. we need to change it, but i cannot do it by myself. we need to talk about it and hope over time that changing enough mines, along with other leaders around the country, we start to see some action. i do not think it will happen overnight. cheryl? >> thank you, mr. president. to go back to your opening remarks, you said you will not sign another short-term cr, but as you know yesterday very little announced that the borrowing authority would run out in november, would you recommend an increase in the debt ceiling and also does the speaker's race, locate these negotiations? i am sure that: it does. that was a rhetorical question. [laughter] it will complicate the negotiations, but when it comes to the debt ceiling we are not going back there. been a while, so let me refresh everybody's memories. raising the debt ceiling does not authorize us to spend it authorizes us to pay the bills we have already incurred. it is a way for the u.s. to maintain its good credit rating. the full faith and credit of the united states. historically, we do not mess with it. if it gets messed with it would have profound implications for the world economy and could put our financial system in the inlspin that we saw back 2000 7, 2008. it is a bad thing to do. so we will not negotiate on that. it has to get done in the next five weeks. even though the continuing resolution to keep the government open will last for 10 weeks, we have to get the debt ceiling raised in five. you have a shorter timetable to get back up. but, here is the bottom line. mcconnell, john boehner, had -- nancy pelosi, harry reid, we have all spoken and tried to negotiate a budget agreement. , speaker boehner's decision to step down complicate it, but there is still a path for us to come up with a reasonable agreement that raises the spending caps above sequester, to make sure that we can properly finance defense and nondefense areas, that maintains a prudent control of our thatits and that we can do in short order. it is not that complicated. the math is the math. is thatave encouraged we get started immediately and we push through over the next several weeks and try to leave issues that may prevent us from getting a budget agreement. i know for example that there are many republicans that are -- about planned parenthood. them on disagree with that issue and i think that it is mischaracterizing what planned parenthood does, but i understand that they feel strongly about it and i respect that. but you cannot have an issue potentially wreck the u.s. economy any more than i should hold the entire budget hostage for my desire to do something about gun violence. i feel just as strongly about that and i think i have that are evidence for it. -- better evidence for it. but the notion i would bring republicans -- threaten republicans that unless they pass gun safety measures that would stop mass shootings, i am going to shut down the government and not sign an increase in the debt ceiling would be irresponsible of me. and the american people would resent that. same is true for them, there are some fights we fight individually and if they want to defund planned parenthood, there is a way to do it. pass a law, override my veto. that is true across issues that they disagree with me on. that is how democracy works. but you have to govern. and i am hoping that the next speaker understands that the problem speaker boehner had or mitch mcconnell had in not dismantling of obamacare or not illuminating the department of -- eliminating the department of education, or not deporting every immigrant is not because speaker being there and mitch mcconnell do not care about conservative vegetables, and had to do with the fact that they cannot do it. in our system of government. it requires compromise. just like i cannot do everything i want in passing and immigration bill or a gun safety bill. and that does not mean i throw a tantrum and try to wreck the economy and put more work on americans that are just now able to dig themselves out of a massive recession and put them in harms way. it is the wrong thing to do. alexander -- peter alexander? >> i want to follow up on john's questions about the gun issue, apart from congress is in action , apart from the desire of new laws, apart from gun lobbyists, you'd -- you noted that these perpetrators are angry, often times mentally ill, young men. is there something you can do with your moral authority, with your remaining time in office, to help reach these individuals who believe that gun violence is the way out? no, i think ia: can continue to speak to the american people as a whole and basiclly model for them social norms about violence and cooperation and. caringer people, but -- for other people, but there are a lot of young men out there and having been one myself, i can tell you myself that, you know, us being able to pinpoint who might have problems is extraordinarily difficult. so, i think we as a culture should continuously think about how we can nurture our kids, protect our kids, talk to them about conflict resolution, discourage violence. i think that there are poor communities, rather than mass shootings you are seeing just normal interaction that used to be settled by a fist fight, but now settled by guns, where intervention programs and mentorship can work. that is what we are try to encourage with my brother's keeper. reachingit comes to percentung man, none of -- 99% of whom will grow out of it, i do not think there is a silver bullet. the way we will solve this they acts that when out, when they are disturbed, when they have a problem, that they can't easily access weapons that can perpetrate mass violence on a lot of people. because that is what other countries do. i want to emphasize this. there is no showing that somehow we are inherently more violent than any other advanced nation, or that young men are inherently young -- more violent van and other nations. inherently young men are more violent than the rest of the population. in theis something american character that is creating this. levels of violence are on par between the united states and other advanced countries, what is different is homicide rates and gun violence rates and mass shooting rates. so it is not that the behavior, the impulses are necessarily different, as much as it is that they have access to more powerful weapons. julie edwards? >> thank you, mr. president. you just said that he rejected putin actions in syriaand he' said it was as recipe for disaster, but what are you willing to do to stop him and protect opposition fighters? would you consider sanctions against russia? protectraft weapons to from aircraft and how do you respond to critics who say that putin is outsmarting you and he did maneuvers in ukraine -- president obama: i have heard all this. [laughter] i have to say, i am always struck by the degree to which critics and people by this narrative. we will think about this. when i came into office 7.5 years ago, america had precipitated the worst financial crisis in history. driving the entire world into a massive recession. we were involved in two wars with almost no coalition support. opinion, the opinion --,t the united states was we just barely above russia at that time. i think below china. shedding 800,000 jobs a month and so forth. strongest,re the large advanced economy in the world, one of the few bright spots in the world economy. our approval ratings have gone up. we are more active on a more forgedtional issues and international responses from everything from ebola, to countering iso- -- isil, putinile distributing -- comes into office when they are trying to prove it a more theirified economy, and economy is contracting 4% this year. they are isolated in the world community, sent -- subject to sanctions not just applied by us, but by some of what used to be the closest trading partners. their main allies in the middle east where libya -- were libya and syria. assad,ell feet and mr. and those countries are falling apart. now, he just now had to send in troops and aircraft in order to prop up this regime at the risk of alienating the entire syrian world. so -- what was the question again? [laughter] i think it is interesting to understand. russia is not stronger as a consequence of what they have been doing. they get attention. the sanctions against ukraine are still in place. what i have consistently offered from a position of strength because the united states is not subject to sanctions and we're not contracting 4% year. when i have offered is a pathway whereby they can get back onto a path of growth and do right by their people. putin's actions have been successful only so far as it has inside his poll ratings , which may be why the beltway is so impressed, because that tends to be the measure of success. of course, it is easier to do when you've got a state-controlled media. but this is not a smart, strategic move on russia's part. what russia has now done is not only committed its own troops into a situation in which the overwhelming majority of the syrian population sees it now as an enemy, but the sunni population throughout the middle east is going to see it as a supporter, an endorser of those barrel bombs landing on kids, at a time when russia has a significant muslim population inside its own borders that it needs to worry about. i want russia to be successful. this is not a contest between the united states and russia. it is in our interest for russia to be a responsible, affective actor on the international stage that can work with us, along with china, europe, japan, and other countries, because the problems we have our big. i am hopeful that mr. putin, having made this doubling down of the support she has provided to mr. assad, recognizes that this is not going to be a good long-term strategy and that he works instead to bring about a political settlement, just as i hope that they can resolve the issues with ukraine in a way that recognizes russian equities, but upholds the basic principle of sovereignty and independence that the ukrainian people should enjoy like everybody else. but until that time, we are going to continue to have tensions and differences. but we are not going to make syria into a proxy war between the united states and russia. that would be bad strategy on our part. this is a battle between russia, iran, and assad against the overall majority of the syrian people. our battle is with isil and with the entire international community to resolve the conflict in a way that can and end the bloodshed and end the refugee crisis, and be able to send kids to school. that is the side we are on. this is not some superpower chessboard contest. anybody who frames it in that way is not paying close attention to what has been happening on the chessboard. reporter: mr. president, good to see you. pres. obama: good to see you. reporter: for the children, i promise i will not take long. pres. obama: i have been fine, i -- have been boring them to death, i guarantee you. [laughter] pres. obama: but i will put up with this. reporter: understood. mr. president, to what extent can you tell the country whether you were changed or moved when you met privately with pope francis, and how he will affect the country long term. and is it too late for joe biden to decide whether he will run for president? and lastly, just to clarify -- [laughter] reporter: to what degree did hillary clinton's endorsement yesterday of a no-fly zone put her in a category of supporting a half-baked assessment of syria that is borderline mumbo-jumbo? pres. obama: on the last question you asked, hillary clinton is not half-baked in terms of these problems. she was obviously my secretary of state. but i also think there is a difference between running for president and being a president. and the decisions that are being made and the discussions i am having with the joint chiefs become much more specific and require, i think, a different kind of judgment. that is what i will continue to apply as long as i am here. if and when she is president, then she will make those judgments, and she has been there enough that she knows that these are tough calls -- reporter: [indiscernible] pres. obama: no, that's not what i said. that is perhaps what you said. when i am saying is we all want to try to relieve the suffering in syria, but my job is to make sure that whatever we do, we are doing it in a way that serves national security interest of the american people, that doesn't lead to us getting into things that we can't get out of or that we cannot do effectively. and as much as possible, that we are working with international partners. we will continue to explore things that we can do to protect people and deal with the humanitarian situation there and provide a space in which we can bring about the kind of political transition that is going to be required to solve the problem. i think hillary clinton would be the first to say that when you are sitting in the seat that i am sitting in in the situation room, things look different. because she has been right there next to me. i love joe biden. he's got his own decisions to make, and i will leave it at that. in the meantime, he is doing a great job as vice president and has been really helpful on a whole bunch of issues. pope francis, i love him. he is a good man. heart, and a big, imagination. and i think he had such an impact in his visits year as he has had around the world because he cares so deeply about the least of these. and in that sense, expresses what i consider to be the essence of christianity. and he's got a good sense of humor. i can't share all of his jokes -- they were all clean. [laughter] pres. obama: and as i said in the introduction in the south lawn when he appeared at the white house, i think it is really useful that he makes us uncomfortable in his gentle way, that he is constantly prodding people's consciences and asking people all across the political spectrum what more you can do to the kind and be helpful in love -- be kind and be helpful, and to love, and to sacrifice, and to serve. in that sense, i don't think he is somebody where we should be applying the typical american political measures, liberal and conservative, left and right. i think he is speaking to all of our consciences. we all have to search ourselves to see if there are ways that we can, you know, we can do better. i think that when i have spent time with somebody like the pontiff, and there are other individuals, some of who famous, some of whom are not, but who are good people and deeply moral, that it makes me want to be better. those people are great gifts to the world. sometimes they are just a teacher in a classroom, and sometimes they are your neighbor, and sometimes they are your mom, or your wife. sometimes they are your kids. but they can encourage you to be better. that is what we are trying to do. and that is part of the wonderful thing about pope francis, the humility that he brings to this. his rejection of the absolutism that says, i am 100% right and you are 100% wrong, but rather we are all sinners and children of god. that is a pretty good starting point for being better. all right? thank you, guys, for your patience. you can now go home. [laughter] pres. obama: all right. thanks. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2014] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] announcer: next, oregon governor kate brown getting an update on yesterday's choosing at umpqua -- shooting at umpqua community college. they were joined by first responders. this is 15 minutes. >> good morning, everybody. my name is tim freeman. i am a douglas county commissioner. thank you for being here. this morning, i am here to introduce each of our speakers, but before i do that i want to thank our governor and our federal delegation for being here to support us in these very difficult days. t us in these very difficult days. each of the speakers will give their statement and we are not going to do any questions. we are here today to let this federal delegation have the thoughts explain their , and as time goes by we will have more opportunity to understand more of what has happened and how to further dialogue. the first speaker i would like to introduce, and i am very thankful for the governor for being here and coming out yesterday to help us with this difficult situation, is governor brown. governor? gov. brown: thank you. thank you, commissioner freeman, and thank you for your leadership yesterday. :00of oregon stands with community college -- umpqua community college and the city of roseburg. i am proud of how the roseburg community pulled together to care for and comfort each other during this were a take crisis. -- horrific crisis. i want to thank our police, our firefighters, our dispatchers, our emergency medical personnel, and all those at the college for their heroic efforts yesterday. oregon has worked continuously to present these kind of tragedies, but they continue to happen here and across the nation. it is going to keep happening until we decide we want them to stop. there is no single solution that will prevent every shooting, but , and we will, do better to prevent these types of senseless violence. this is a conversation that we will have, but today is not the day. focused onust be providing the support and condolences and help this community heal. as we move forward, we can honor the lives lost at umpqua community college best by remembering what it means to be , toring community demonstrate more kindness, respect each other more, and take the time to truly connect to the people around us. this is a very difficult time for all of us, and of course, especially those in douglas county, whose lives and families were changed by the events of yesterday. one person's arranged act may may haveeranged act broken our hearts, but he cannot prevent our hearts from growing back bigger and stronger and more committed to the oregon that we all love so very much. thank you. [applause] thank you, governor brown. our next speaker, and i should mention the next three speakers got on planes and throughout from washington, d.c. to be with us today. i am very grateful for their efforts. the next speaker is senator ron wyden. in the last 24 hours, oregonians struggled with foreakable tragedy, grieved the victims and their families a day,ed ones, and gave to ourks -- thanks courageous first responders. right now is a time for healing and helping the community. future, it is clear that it does have to be about more than words and good intentions if this carnage can finally end. as a country, we cannot just shrug our shoulders and move on. view, ending these massacres is going to require compromise. rightmise that is about and responsibility. gun owners have rights under the must be there responsibilities if these massacres are going to anend. and oregon is exactly the place to lead this conversation. what we have shown is oregonians again and again -- we can step people, as help our we seek to help this community today, and show a bit of light for the rest of the nation. what any of about us in the united states congress have voted for in the past. it is about what common ground we as people, who don't always agree, can find in the future. [applause] host: thank you, senator. next, we have senator hartley. sen. merkley: we have a long list of names across the nation, columbine and sandy hook, and now we have umpqua community college. it is a list of names that no community ever wants to have be included in. at this moment, this horrific, senseless act has broken hearts, every heart, here. this is a small community. it is a community where everyone knows someone who was hurt or killed yesterday. the community has come together in an extraordinary fashion. the first responders responded quickly and competently. , countyiff commissioners, the mayor, the city manager, all jumped in to make these decisions and a flash , to respond and address these situations. , butdid an incredible job there is no response that can repair the broken hearts. back toy when i walked the capital to the office building, i was told there had been a tragedy in organ. there is been a mass shooting in oregon on. oregon.n -- your homet is from county, douglas county. i have a special place in my heart for this county. i was born in myrtle creek, just south of here. when i was two, we moved to roseburg. i want to first grade here. i have family on both sides -- my father's side and my mother's -- and this morning,. i was asked about my family down here. say, i never thought it could be that my family, my extended family, my cousins were directly affected. but as i said, this is a small town and everyone is affected. individuals who died is the great granddaughter of my first cousin, so she is my cousin. -- every heart is damaged and broken. this community is coming together to embrace each other, companionship, couldaffection -- no one envision that here in this wonderful, beautiful place of roseburg that this could happen. it is going to give us all food for thought. this long list gets longer with every passing week and month we -- every passing week and month. we have had 18 school shootings in the year 2015. we have had 45 mass shootings in america in the year 2015. we all carry in our hearts not only the sorrow, but also the responsibility to ponder what we can do that there will be fewer cities, that this list will not continue to grow as it has. thank you. host: thank you, senator will stop -- senator. so our last speaker today is representative peter defazio. here,efazio: approximately 25 hours after this tragedy, this is a day for died andrn those who two give as much as we can, our hearts and our prayers, to their family and their friends. and to pray for those who are still in the hospital, and for this community -- for the college, for the town, for the of mpeople, today is a day ourning. we will go through grief. we will have memorials. and then we will get to a time where we have all the facts from the investigation, which is ongoing, that we may find deal withays to problems such as this in the future. unfortunately, this is not the first time i have spoken at a .ews conference like this the first 1 took place two miles from my home. there is a tremendous demand for information, which is not yet readily available, for solutions, which we cannot even begin to think of until we know all the facts, and the impatience. this is not a time to be impatient. it is a time first to come together in solidarity and to give what solace we can for those who have lost so much. there will come a time when we will move forward with ideas and solutions. i expect this delegation to move forward together in unison, but that is not today. that is for the future. thank you. host: i would like everybody to come in closer, please. ladies and gentlemen, thank you for being here today. on behalf of the board of commissioners, i want to thank this group of people that has responded, at all levels of government -- city, county, ,tate, federal -- to help us and i really want to thank the first responders behind us. to support toe victims and families of this horrible incident. thank you. [applause] >> thank you. next, hillary clinton in florida. then a discussion of the campaign in u.s. history. and jack lew on congressional action tender -- concerning the debt ceiling. >> on the next "washington journal," bloomberg reporter victoria stillwell on the september jobs report. then david shepperton on public trust in automakers after reports of deception by wagon and fiat. and the founder of george washington university's c institute talks about nasa's discoverynt about the of water on mars. you can join the conversation on face book and twitter. live at 7 a.m. eastern on c-span. >> the c-span networks feature a weekend full of politics, nonfiction books, and american history. at 10 eastern, what nasa's announcement -- nasa's announcement of water on mars. and medianing, policy on c-spanies discuss the 2 book tv on "after words, a new book on presidential transitions and interviewed. depth"day at noon at "in we are live with tom hartman," rebooting the american dream. join our conversation as we take your phone calls, tweets. on american history tv, saturday afternoon at 2:00 in his book "in the dead shall rise," the 1913 murder of the murder in georgia and leo frank. and sunday afternoon at 4:00 in "real america," the documentary on the supply and demand of fossil fuels in the u.s.. get our complete weekend chedule at c-span.org. >> presidential candidate clinton made an appearance. his is about 30 minutes. [cheers and applause] secretary clinton: good afternoon. students, faculty and students. president of the college. and i have been given the privilege to the presidential candidate, mrs. hillary clinton! [cheers and applause] allow me to tell you a little about myself. i was born and raised in florida. [cheers and applause] now, when i was younger, i never took much interest who was running in president. my families supported democrats and whoever aligned themselves as going to align thems. it wasn't until my 12th grade i met my government teacher who counseled stupid to not only look what a democrat and republican meeps but research the candidate who are going to be influencing the policies and ultimately decides what is going to happen within the future. with that, i can proudly stand here and say, that i choose hillary! cheers and applause] >> we made history and hold office as president of the united states! [cheers and applause] . >> i was too young in 2008 and as2 to help elect bralkbralk president. and now i have my chaps to make history by voting for hillary clinton with our help will become the first female president -- [cheers and applause] >> ladies and gentlemen it is my honor and privilege to present to you my choice to be the democratic party's nominee and our next president, hillary clinton! secretary clinton: didn't he do a great job? i have to tell you, i am so pleased to be here at broward college, this great campus, 30,000 students here. [cheers and applause] . secretary clinton: and i want to thank you for introducing me. i'm so grateful to him for what he said about his choice and i thank all of you for being here to help us get organized in florida so we win the primary election. win the i think congressman deutch is here and i thank all the other elected officials and excited to talk to you about this campaign and bring up the issues that are important to the country's future and to all of you. but i want to thank you for doing what darnell is doing, and that is registering to vote, being active in the campaign, working to elect your candidate, hopefully, me -- [cheers and applause] sliptslint and why this election is so important. i want to say that my campaign is focused on making sure the economy works to raise incomes and provide jobs to everybody willing to work hard and do your part! [cheers and applause] secretary clinton: i'm excited about that because i believe and i say this, because i know the facts back me up, the economy works better for america and americans when we have a democrat in the white house! whaupwhaup secretary clinton: you can look at all of the statistics, they go back a long way. unemployment is lower. incomes are higher. even the stock market is higher. and, in fact, when a republican is in the white house, you are four more times likely to have a recession. now, i don't want to go back to all the beginning of our country to prove this. the past 35 years. three republicans and two democrats, i'm privileged to have known both of those democrats -- [applause] ecretary clinton: each of them got economic problems. in my husband's place, it was from george washington to ronald reagan, civil war, lots of other stuff going on and two temperatures of ronald reagan and one term of george h.w. bush and the deficit had gone way up and looked like there were problems. resessionary problem. husband said it's so much worse and somebody asked him, what do you think you unique bring to washington? and he said, math. [laughter] secretary clinton: we are going to work for americans and at the end of eight years, 23 million new jobs and most importantly, incomes went up for everybody, not just people at the top, people in the middle, working people, poor people, and we ended up with a balanced budget and a surplus. along came another republican president. and they wept back to the failed economy. trickle-down the debt was back up and we were facing the worst financial crisis since the great depression and they took their off off the markets and you know what happens. shortly after the 2008 election, i got a call from president-elect obama and he asked me to see him in chicago. i didn't know why. he asked me to be secretary of state. when i got there. he said it's so much worse than they told us. i heard that before. and indeed, it was. we were losing 800,000 jobs a month. the auto industry was on the brink of collapse. all those jobs all the way down the supply chain and the president said we have big jobs problems at home. he said you deal with the secretary of state issues and i'm going to focus on the economy and that's what he did. the republicans want to have a case of collective amnesia and forget it was their failed policies that put us in that big ditch. so now, now we have dug our way out, we recovered 13 million jobs. we have had good growth rates the last quarter. so we're standing but not yet running again. now, i'm not running for my husband's third term, i'm running for my first term but i'm going to work for what works for the economy of the united states. we've got to get wages going up again. people have to feel that their hard work is producing something for them and their families and we have to raise the minimum wage. nobody who works full-time on a minimum wage should be meyered in a minimum wage. we need to have people work hard and their work produce profits, those profits are not just shared with the c.e.o.'s but the people who actually worked to produce them. i have a whole economic plan that is focused on raising incomes and i want to see us create some really good jobs for people again. one of the ways we are go to go do it is combat climate change by trangsing to clean jobs and businesses and you know, if anybody should be supportive of this, it ought to be the people in fl. you all are on the front lines of all these weather-related events. we don't have to be pessimistic but be determined about it. some states are moving towards clean renewable energy. i spent a lot of time in iowa, as you might guess, and they are getting 30% of their electricity from wind. i came from massachusetts, which is not known as a sunny state and they rank number four in the country as solar power. i'm hoping florida gets on track when it comes to wind, solar and vanced fuels and some people say, republican candidates, you know what they say, i'm not a scientist, my response is talk to a scientist and hear what they have to say, because this is an economic opportunity, it shouldn't be seen as a drag but a way to lift our sights and do what we should do and actually create jobs, make businesses and make money doing it. i have set two big goals. i want to install half a billion more solar panels and by the end solar econd term, enough power. i'm excited by this challenge and i want everybody to think about what you can think in your home and business working in your city and state. something else we are going to do to create jobs. i want an infrastructure bank, a way to fund what we out to do to build and maintain roads. we have bridges that are falling apart. we have sewer lines, water lines, gat pipelines, we have a lot of work to do in this country and it's good work and we are ignoring it. some of you are originally from new york. commaupchaup secretary clinton: a state i was privileged to represent in the united states senate. and a lot of our infrastructure is 70 to 150 years old. some of the pipes and/or things going under the ground, they are old and some of them are exploding. you might read that from time to time. you ought to get ahead of it. if we are serious about growing our economy and increasing income, then we finally once and for all, have to make sure that women get equal pay for equal work! [cheers and applause] secretary clinton: you know. that's right. let's break the glass ceiling and break it in every workplace in america. nobody at work should be disadvantaged. and i get letters all the time from women who are really frustrated and maybe they are the sole supporter and they asked me what to do and how they can be treated fairly and equally. i want to make this point. this is a women's issue. but it's a family issue and an economic issue. we will grow our economy more if we actually do what we should be doing any way. republicans are always saying whenever i talk about this, there she goes, playing the gender card. if advocating for equal pay for equal work is playing the card, that is a hand that i will play! [cheers and applause] secretary clinton: because the economy is the central focus of what i want to do as president, education, for example. i want to make sure we do what we must do to improve elementary and secondary education and listening to and respecting teachers who are in the classroom! [cheers and applause] secretary clinton: they are the ones there with the kids all day and they have the ideas. they should be first in line and will be in any table i'm at. but we will not be as competitively keags neal as we want to be if we don't have early childhood education. those first five years of those little kids to be successful or not. i have an amazing, wonderful grandchild and we read and talk and sing to her. her first words, we love to do it and we do it because it builds brain cells. 80% of your brain is formed by the age of three. i want every kid to have the same shot, the same chance to be successful in school. we need a universal pre- kindergarten program and the kids have the same challenges and biggest obstacles to overcome so every kid has a level playing field to climb that ladder of opportunity. i think that every person should have the same rights to live up to his or her right god-given potential. so i'm going to do all i can to make sure our smallest, your youngest citizens have a chance. on the other end, we are going to make college affordable again! [cheers and applause] and we are going to give all of you the chance to refinance your student debt and bring down the costs you are paying. it's just not right. if you can refinance your mortgage or car payment, why can't you refineance your student debt and i don't believe the federal government should make a profit of lending you money to pursue your education. and i'm a big fan of community colleges and i'm going to do everything we can to implement president obama's plan to make community colleges free so you can afford to go. when it comes to health care, i'm going to defend the affordable care act. i'm going to defend it. it's working. 18 million people are getting health care and young people get 'o stay on their young families health care plan. out of pocket costs are too high. and prescription drug costs went up 12%. i have put forth a plan to bring them down. a lot of drug manufacturers aren't happy with me, but it was kind of interesting that when i rolled my plan out, it was the same day that a hedge fudge manager decided to raise the price of a life-saving drug top $750 a pill. a $5,000% increase. we can't sustain that. we have to get a happened will on prescription drug costs and we've got to make it possible for medicare to negotiate with drug companies to bring the price down. just think about this for a minute. you know, taxpayers, you and i, we pay for the n.i.h. and the clinical trials. we pay for the f.d.a. whether a drug is effective and we pay the highest prices for those drugs. if you are in carneda, you get a negotiated price, but not in america. some of you may have been from northern new york. when i was your senator and i would see busloads of people to buy the very same drugs for a lower cost. we cannot continue to pay the highest price for the drugs. we have got to bring in this in. i have a plan to do that. when you think about the affordable care act, it is distressing to me that florida, amongst some other states, refuse to expand medicaid to cover more people. in fact, i'm looking here. in florida, as many as 650,000 people could have gotten coverage under medicaid. fewer people without insurance means fewer people who get preventive care. more visits to the emergency room. it makes no sense economically. and i hope that florida would reconsider that, but your governor and the republicans in tallahassee -- boo. slintslipt they said no to families and no to fairness. and because they said no and refuse to expand medicaid, people are suffering. particularly working poor people, people of color, people who are disproportionately left out. it makes no economic sense. it makes none. the states who have expanded it, have seen lower nurns rate increases and not seeing emergency room visits and other expenses, problems. i'm not going to let the republicans kill it. they voted to repeal it 54 times. i will certainly stand in their way, but i want to improve it. i'm going to task a lot of costs and three other issues i want to mention. one, we are having a caregiving crisis, aleds i'mer's. families are taking care of their loved ones. i bet some of you are. we give so little hep. we need respite care and day care. let's help the caregivers get the care they need to take care of their loved ones. [cheers and applause] secretary clinton: we have a substance abuse in america. heroin, meth, other prescription dugs and people are dying. we lose 18 to 22 veterans a day from suicide. a lot of them came back and didn't get the care they needed but got handed a bunch of pills and they got hooked. our job has to figure out how to get more treatment and more support so people can get into recovery. 23,000 people who are addicted, ne in 10 can get coverage. untreeted mental health is an expensive problem and a lot of people end up in prison and they self-med indicate. these are expensive and heartbreaking problems. i'm convinced we can tackle them together. we have to stand up to our civil rights, our human rights, because the other side wants to pull them back. so i will defend a woman's right to choose and i will fight against defunding planned parenthood! and i will defend and fight for marriage equality and against discrimation! [cheers and applause] secretary clinton: and i will fight for voting rights for everybody and against states that are trying to restrict them! and i will fight to fight citizens united which has opened the door to dark unaccountable money. i will fight to fight for immigration reform because it is in the best interest of our country. i will move away from mass incarceration because black lives matter! cheers and applause] secretary clinton: i will tell you, i'm going to fight for new, ffective gun control measures! [cheers and applause] secretary clinton: i got to tell you, it is just heartbreaking, it is sickening to me to see another massacre. people should not be afraid to go to college like this one or go to the movie theater or go to bible study. what is wrong with us that we can't stand up to the n.r.a. and the gun lobby and the gun manufacturers? [cheers and applause] secretary clinton: this is not just tragic. we just don't need to pray for people but to act and need to build a movement. it's infuriatings, another time there is a massacre, republicans in the n.r.a. says now is not the time to talk to guns. yes it is. it is time to act. but republicans refuse to do anything to protect our communities. they put the n.r.a. ahead of american families. it is wrong and we need to make every politician who sides with them to look into the eyes of parents whose children have been murdered and explain why they listen to the gun lobbyists instead. i'm well aware that this is a political mountain to climb. but you don't get anything done in this country if you don't start by calling it out. and we have had too many murders, too many people who have never gotten guns in the first place, taking out whatever their rage, their fury, their mental problemsr by killing other people. and i will, as your president, never relent on trying to work on this. but we need a national movement. here's what the other side counts on. i don't think they represent a majority of americans or majority of gun owners, but they count on really having an ntense, dedicated group that scare politicians and say, we will vote against you. and people on the other side who are heartsick, heartbroken, disgusted. e care about college affordability and prescription drug cost. but each of us have to care about this issue. there are a lot of ways to have constitutional legal gun restriction. he