control of congress on c-span. see for yourself candidates and the debates from key house and senate embers. -- members. c-span takes you to minnesota second congressional district between jason lewis and democrat , they debated each other in st. paul, minnesota. >> jason lewis versus and to create. race.l profile the senate

activists are gearing up for a high-stakes election. we will talk to candidates in the other senate race. >> i am focused on the 2018 election. minnesota.% that's who i am. >>

this is made possible by this tablet television station and .upport is provided by energy a touchstone energy cooperative. and education minnesota, more at educating -- education minnesota.org.

hello and welcome to a special night of congressional debates. it features reports on conversations exploring the values of our democracy. the two candidates who represent the second congressional district. >> the second congressional district includes the southern suburbs of the twin cities and points south and east. a good to the north, they'll plane to the west and lock shut to the east. jason lewis is once again being challenged by democrat angie craig. >> this is really a conversation. there are no stopwatches.

here are the candidates. janice some lewis made his living on talk radio. is a democrat, a former health care industry executive lost to jason lewis two years ago. welcome to both of you. back in 2016 when you to abated, use sock congress as check on the imperial presidency. how is congress doing in the role and being a check on president trump? --taking back article one the exit of -- executive branch, they enforce a lot.

that is taking back article one power and the check on the executive. >> it doesn't sound like congress is a true check on the president in terms of no one is standing up to him and some of the things he might say >>. >>that is a difference between style and substance. if you're talking about style, would i do everything the way the president does, probably not. we got elected to cut taxes and to get the economy going again and i am glad to work with peaks -- with the administration on that. -- would you vote to impeach president trump if you are elected? independent being

investigation. have a foreign power that is accused of interfering with the election, no matter who they are and a fitted or hurt we have to -- we have tod have a full investigation. -- this is antion example of he is not willing to stand up to the president, voting to prohibit condition protections in the aca. >> we tried to pass that in congress. how do you do that if you don't have young and healthy people spreading the burden around? >> that is exactly what we want

to do. so young and healthy people get back in the poll. the aca sent they will check up premiums so high is the only way people will buy them if there is a mandate. they like high premiums to do it. all,nt back to cast the they said look if you are up to date on your coverage nobody can be denied pre-existing conditions. can --lapse then they >> you are not a medicare for all person. >> i am not. they added an age tax for people 60 264. the congressman is entitled to his own opinion but he is not

entitled to his own facts. said they have ability to charge people more. the language is the same as kennedy kassebaum. be denied pre-existing conditions and cannot be charged. 32 waiver to get out from underneath the obamacare law. lobbying underfunded obamacare. the reason plenums are flat is the waiver we pass in the hundred 15th. >> the congress knows i was never a lobbyist. did i support health care reform in this country? you bet i did.

this is what i think we should do. we should move forward key pre-existing condition protections and go forward on a bipartisan in faces -- basis. we ought to introduce a buy in to medicare. just like you would from united health care or blue cross, this is the fine most important thing. this conversation over the last decade has been about the cost of health care insurance. get back to the cost of health care. i grew up with out access to health insurance. i believe i have something -- now you're saying i am not , i justcare for all want a medicare buy-in. which one do you support?

medicare forte seniors if you have the buy-in. >> i have never supported medicare for all. the experts say we can strengthen medicare i having younger and healthier people in the poll. when angie was running her ,--talk to people who are paying four times the premiums. >> what about the cost of the treatment? devices?dical is well provider lobbied and donor it up in washington, and who will take a haircut financially to lower the cost of the care? >> i would like to answer that question first. the only thing standing in the way of strengthening medicare

right now is congress. if congress would get out of the way, we could negotiate prices on prescription drugs under medicare. i believe fundamentally, and i am telling you, some of the folks in the industry might not agree but we need to go after the cost. this is a volume-based health care system we live in, where we are rewarding physicians and hospitals. pharmacy -- >> pharmacy benefit negotiators >> -- >> those are only in medicare. medicaid,medicare and the price is 40% below the market. it dries up providers and youics and hospitals, and get them rationing. i do not know if you are advocating price controls on medical devices, but after you got obamacare past and tries to undercut the tax to pay for it, you received more money from the medical device industry than any other candidate in the country. >> we will move on. >> the congressman voted to

reveal the tax that i advocated that we repeal. we have exactly the same position. the same position as every other member of the delegation in minnesota. support the main funding mechanism, the medical device tax. >> the bottom line is you had get health care fixed and you failed. you had the house, the senate, and the white house and you could not get it done. your time is up. let's move on. the tax cuts and jobs act. it is a little more than $3000 per person tax relief in the second district. but the deficit and debt this is creating or helping create, are you going to have to go under we needents next? >> entitlement reform, but the first thing you need to have is growth. are $105 billion more today after the tax cuts and jobs act. haveis good when you

growth like that here it but i am not advocating raising taxes on a family of four 3000 dollars, which she says she wants to repeal the whole thing. i think the tax cuts and jobs act has been a great success. you have to have growth to do any of this. we are going to get more revenue. l income tax receipts are already higher than they were last year. 1% growth is $3 trillion more in revenue over 10 years. you have to have growth like john kennedy proposed growth, like reagan, even bill clinton proposed growth by cutting the capital gains rate. >> jason throws out a lot of facts and figures, but jason voted with the republican party 96% of the time since he has been a member of congress from the second congressional district. this bill was about who we helps, and what i said from the beginning is trickle-down economics doesn't work. i support tax reform, tax cuts for the middle class and for small businesses.

that is not what this was. this is over 80% of the tax cuts for large corporations -- >> corporate tax cut -- >> i am not. i think we should have doubled down, triple down on tax cuts for the middle class. [inaudible] >> this whole thing is about who we prioritize in this country, and i would prioritize the middle class. the congressman and congressional republicans have prioritized -- the lowest that implement rate since 1969, 7 million job openings, more job openings been jobseekers. >> the deficit is seven times -- >> i am talking about economic growth. 1.9% during the obama era when he raised taxes. do you know what happened? the debt doubled. we cut taxes and now we are growing. i think this has been a great success. one more thing, you have to assume the individual tax cuts expired to get the figure that she just used.

we already voted to extend them, which blows your figure out of the water. of americans said they have not felt more money in their pocket as a result of the republican tax cut. so i just don't think it is true, and at the end of the day what we did is added to trillion dollars to the federal deficit, almost $2 trillion. my kids and your kids are going to have to pay for that, and now they're talking about -- you use the word entitlement reform. and social security are not entire meant. people are those benefits for a lifetime of hard work, and by paying into those programs -- >> and that does not mean we should mess around with social -- >> now you are talking about -- >> it needs to be explained, this $2 trillion in more debt. that was predicated on 1.5% growth. me, onesays -- excuse .9% growth over the next 10 years. that was their figure, this one point $5 trillion extra debt. i have to get going here.

we took some ads off your facebook account. these are your ads, not outside groups. angie craig, this when you said jason has gone district of columbia on us. gone washington, definition. a congressman who takes half his money from special interest then put them first. example -- jason lewis? angie craig knows we've got to close the book on politics as usual. leaving all campaign contributions open and transparent, toughening the penalties for political corruption. if congress does not do their job, they don't get paid. >> i approve this message, because washington has to start working for people again. >> supreme court, the citizens united ruling that equates money with speech? would propose a constitutional amendment to overturn citizens united.

that would take the ark, anonymous money out of all sides of the campaign. i would be 100% supportive of that. beyond that, my campaign's program would say if you are going to spend anonymous money, you can't do that. is have to disclose who donating the money. we do that voluntarily on my campaign website, but the congressman won't join me. >> and he raised three much as times as i did. bigis setting records for money and outside money. this is her outside spending from pro-public. here is my outside spending. here is angie craig's. all the way down here, from michael bloomberg, the environmental defense action, trying to undo the pipeline, the sierra club -- you are dwarfing me by 3, 4, fivefold on money. if you don't like money in politics, don't take it, angie. >> i am telling you where my money is coming from. 132,000 people have interviewed it to my campaign before we

filed the last filing. dean or my money is coming from? >> out of. 50% of it is out of state. >> it is coming from people who do not want you to be there representative in congress. >> let's take a look at jason lewis's website. >> all politicians want to do is play games, log taxes, and hope you don't know where the money is going. that is why i live the fight to stop the corrupt bureaucrats. they raise taxes on our families and our neighborhoods for projects benefiting downtown minneapolis. they aren't accountable. but angie craig still wants to give them more of your hard-earned money. i'm jason lewis, and i approve this message because i will never stop fighting for you. theou would think that council would not be a congressional issue. >> metropolitan planning organization. federal compliance, you

have to be a board member. we are the largest one in the organization without an elected board member. we are the only one that can independently raise taxes. so i said, come in compliance with all the other mpo's in the country. nobody opposed, because every other mpo in the country has at least one elected board member. so i said, let's ended amendment out to have one board member to be federally compliant. i think angie would join me in that. it is a modest proposal, and now they are reviewing it because the council got grandfathered in in 1991. problem if have no we want to change the way the met council works, but i think that ought to be up to minnesota. the congressman should not force us to change, but lobby the legislature to change it. this is fantastic, but that is a minnesota decision. it is odd to me that you want to get involved in minnesota's business. to 1962,e going back

to be designated federally compliant, you had to do this and this and this otherwise we would not have the federal funds. so we are having the council come in compliance with every other mpo in the country. >> we got another issue here. cnn dove into your past radio comments, and it's teams that you were less than said that it to women who have been sexually harassed. you were talking in 2012 about the former presidential candidate herman cain, who was accused of harassment. the quote is, at some point your life, how many women have a man come up to them, have a hand thigh and their kiss them, and you don't get over it? come on, you didn't get raped. me for cycle they got slavery. i was proslavery, apparently. i was also pro-heroin usage. the radio tape thing is the gift that keeps on giving. if we want to talk about sexual

harassment, talk about judge brett kavanaugh and what they have done to that man. i will not support opening that up. >> you say the same thing today? >> sexual-harassment law needs to be better defined, much better defined. you don't want people able to make false accusations, and that is what my concern was on clearance thomas and -- clarence kavanaugh.brett that is just as bad as a sexual harassment case, if someone is falsely accused. don't take my word for it, take liberal lawyer allender shoelace -- alan dershowitz' word,. >> i do not think jason's way of thinking is representative of minnesota values, but that is up to the constituents. i am were offended by his votes against the minnesota families, giving large tax bricks corporations, gushing the affordable care act with the aca. i will let him respond. like i think actions speak louder than words. i am concerned about this issue

and it is an important issue. you took money from garrison keillor. if your campaign took al franken's money, actions speak louder than words. they are talking about attacking my free-speech rights and my ability to have an opinion on current law. i am talking about taking money from people you should not be taking money from. as head ofpent years hr for a fortune 500 company. i literally led a team that had responsibility for sexual-harassment investigations. for thee 100% that movement, for women to be heard is important, but it is also incredibly important that we have open investigations and due process as part of this. >> due process, that is for sure. a saudi arabia is multibillion-dollar arms client of the united states, and i am sure that the domestic arms producers in america do very well with the saudi arabian military buying our stuff. but they fired top officials and

arrested 18 saudi's after saying jamal to show the -- jamal kh ashoggi disappeared. aboutneed to get serious saudi arabia. i said that in 2016. >> what sanctions would you like? >> we will see what the investigation reveals, but something, that is for certain. whether it is cutter, uae, or the sunni countries, they are responsible for promoting the jihad around the world. when you look at the terrorist attack, they are all sunni. we have a bit of a blind eye to this and that is what i said in 2016. day, the end of the america needs to do their own investigation of what happened here. fromnnot take the results turkey or believe saudi arabia. i think we need to have an independent investigation to see what unfolds there.

i am very, very concerned about the rhetoric in this country and other places with respect to journalists. democracy.ut journalists have a job to do, and some of the hateful rhetoric around journalists is very concerning. >> i am concerned about the hateful rhetoric coming from maxine waters and hillary clinton. we had two minnesota republicans attacked this week. my family has been threatened. i could not hold a town hall without getting with the capitol police first. andle trespass on my lawn, nobody in the democrat party is announcing this. that is the total chaos that is going on. we had a few that did not survive our campaign, but look. i think the congressman is confused. i am not sure he remembers who he is running against. my name is andy craig, i am not other any -- any other democrat, and -- >> do you agree with hillary clinton, that stability should

come back if the democrats take power? >> i believe that angie cragg is running against jason lewis and i should response to those comments, not anyone else's. >> who will you vote for as house speaker? >> undecided, jim jordan or kevin mccarthy. i have not decided. i will listen to both of them. >> how about pelosi? thathave been very clear i'm open to new leadership in the party, and i want to take a good look at who is running at each level of leadership. i would like to see some members from the midwest run for leadership positions, because that to me would give us our best values. >> of the 17 republican candidates for president at the start of last cycle, who did you back coming out of the barn? >> i did not back anybody specifically. i like rand a lot. when it came to this president, i support him on good policies. whether it is controlling the border, whether my opponent does not want to control, i back the president. >> sanders or clinton? >> i did not endorse in that

process. my supporters were on both sides of that, and i will remind you that, he has a 96% voting record with republicans. >> and 76% with amy klobuchar. >> good luck to you both and take you for being here. >> yeah, you bet. with the midterm elections just days away, watch the competition for the control of congress on c-span. see for yourself the candidates and the debate from key house and senate races. make c-span your primary source for campaign 2018. president trump will deliver remarks at the future farmers of america convention in indianapolis. that's life, starting at 2:45 p.m. eastern here on c-span. the president of mexico has announced a new plan called you are at home. he says the program