firing thousands of rockets at your cities perhaps you be more measured in you're praise and if this deal was releasing an arms race in your neighborhood, maybe would you be woo be more reluctant to celebrate. don't think iran is only a danger to israel. besides iran's aggression in the middle east, and it terror around the world, iran is also building intercontinental ballistic missiles whose sole purpose is to carry nuclear warheads. now, remember this. iran already had missiles that can reach israel. so those intercontinental ballistic missiles that iran is building, there's not a meant for us. they're meant for you. for europe. for america.

for raining down mass destruction anytime, anywhere. ladies and gentlemen, it's not easy to oppose something that is embraced by the greatest powers in the world. believe me. it would be far easier to remain silent. but throughout our history, the jewish people have learned the heavy price of silence, and as the prime minister of the jewish state, as someone who knows that history, i refuse to be silent. [applause]

>> i'll say it again. the days when the jewish people remain passive in the face of genocidal enemies, those days are over. [applause] >> not being passive means speaking up about those dangers. we have, we are, we will. not being passive also means defending ourselves against those dangers. we have, we are, and we will. [applause]

>> israel with not allow iran to break in, to sneak in, or to walk into the nuclear weapons club. [applause] i know that presenting iran from -- preventing iran from developing nuclear weapons remains the official policy of the international community. but no one should question israel's determination to defend itself against those who seek our destruction. for in every generation, there were those who rose up to destroy our people, in antiquity we faced destruction from the ancient empires of babylon and rome, we and in modern times we

face the holocaust. yet the jewish people persevered, and now another regime has arisen. swearing to destroy israel. that regime would be wise to consider this. i stand here today representing israel, a country 67 years young, but the nation state of a people nearly 4,000 years old. yet the empires of babylon and rome are not represented in this hall of nations. neither is the thousand-year reich. those seemingly invincible empires are long gone. but israel lives. the people of israel live. [applause]

the rebirth of israel is a testament to the indomitable spirit of my people. for 100 generations, the jewish people dreamed of returning to the land of israel. even in our darkest hours, -- and we had so many -- even in our darkest hours, we never gave up hope of rebuilding our eternal capital jerusalem. the establishment of israel made realizing that dream possible. it is enabled us to live as a free people, in our ancestral homeland. it's enabled us to embrace jews who have come from the four corners of the earth to find refuge from persecution. they came from war-torn europe,

from yemen, iraq, morocco, ethiopia and the soviet union, from 100 other lands. and today, there's a rising tide of antisemitism once again sweeps across europe and elsewhere, many jews come to israel to join us in building the jewish future. so here's my message to the rulers of iran. your plan to destroy israel will fail. [applause] israel will not permit any force on earth to threaten its future. and here's my message to all the countries represented here. whatever resolutions you may adopt in this building, whatever decisions you may take in your

capitals, israel will do whatever it must do to defend our state and to defend our people. [applause] distinguished delegates, as this deal with iran moves ahead, i hope you'll enforce it -- how can i put this -- with a little more rigor than you showed with the six security council resolutions that iran has systematically violated and which now has been effectively discarded. make sure that the inspectors actually inspect. make sure that the snap-back

sanctions actually snap back, and make sure that iran's violations aren't swept under the persian rug. [applause] well of one thing i can assure you. israel will be watching. closely. what the international community now needs to do is clear. first, make iran comply with all its nuclear obligations. keep iran's feet to the fire. [applause] second, check iran's regional aggression. support and strengthen those fighting iran's aggression, beginning with israel. [applause]

third, use sanctions and all the tools available to you to tear down iran's global terror network. ladies and gentlemen, israel is working closely with our arab peace partners. to address our common security challenges from iran and also the security challenges from isis and from others. we're also working with other states in the middle east. as well as countries in africa, in asia, and beyond. many in our region know that both iran and isis are our common enemies, and when you're enemies fight each other, don't strengthen either one. weaken both. [applause]

common dangers are clearly bringing israel and its arab neighbors closer. and as we work together to thwart those dangers, i hope we'll build lasting partnerships, lasting partnerships for security, for prosperity, and for peace. but in israel, we never forget one thing. we never forget that the most important partner that israel has has always been and will always be the united states of america. [applause] the alliance between israel and the united states is unshakable.

[applause] >> president obama and i agree on the need to keep arms out of the hands of iran's terror proxies. we agree on the need to stop iran from destabilizing countries throughout the middle east. israel deeply appreciates president obama's willingness to bolster our security, help israel maintain its qualitative military edge and help israel confront the enormous challenges we face. israel is grateful that this sentiment is widely shared by the american people and it representative in congress by both those who supported the deal and those who oppose it. president obama and i have both said that our differences over

the nuclear deal are a disagreement within the family. but we have no disagreement about the need to work together to secure our common future. and what a great future it could be. israel is uniquely poised to seize the promise of the 21st 21st century. israel is the world leader in science and technology, in cyber, software, water, agriculture, medicine, biotechnology and so many other fields that are being revolutionized by israeli ingenuity and innovation. israel is the innovation nation. [applause]

israeli know-how is everywhere. it's in your computer's microprocessors and flash drives. it's in your smartphones, when you send instant messages and navigate your cars, it's on your farms, when you drip irrigate your crop and keep your grains and produce fresh. it's in your universities, when you nobel prize winning discoveries in chemistry and economics. it's in your medicine cabinet when you use drugs to treat parkinson's disease and multiple sclerosis, even on your plate when you eat the delicious cherry tomato. that, too was perfected in israel, in case you didn't know. we are so proud in israel. of the long strides our country has made in such a short time. we're so proud that our small country is making such a huge

contribution to the entire world. yet the dreams of our people ensome ryaned for eternal by the great prophets of the bible. those dreams will be fully realized only when there is peace. as the middle east descends into chaos, israel's peace agreements with egypt and jordan are two kosherstones of stability. israel remains -- coner storms of stability. until remains -- -- peace with the palestinians as well. israelis know the price of war. i know the price of war. i was nearly killed in battle.

i lost many friends. i lost my beloved brother. those who know the price of war can best appreciate what the blessings of peace would mean. for ourselves, our children, our grandchildren. i am prepared to immediately, immediately resume direct peace negotiations with the palestinian authority without any preconditions whatsoever. [applause] unfortunately president abbas said yesterday he is not prepared to do this. i hope he changes his mind because i remain committed to a

vision of two states for two peoples, in which a demilitarized palestinian state recognizes the jewish state. the peace process began over two decades ago. yet despite the best efforts of six israeli prime ministers, rabin, perez, olmert, and mist, the palestinians consistently refuse to end the conflict and make a final peace with israel. and unfortunately, you heard that rejection yet again only yesterday from president abbas. how can israel make peace with a palestinian partner who refuses to even sit at the negotiating table?

israel expects the palestinian authority to abide by its commitments. the palestinians should not walk away from peace. president abbas -- i know it's not easy. i know it's hard. but we owe it to our people to try, to continue to try, because together, if we actually negotiate and stop negotiating about the negotiations, if we actually sit down and try to resolve this conflict between us, recognize each other, not use the palestinian state as a stepping stone for another islamist dictatorship in the middle east but something that will live in peace next to the jewish state, if we do that we

can do remarkable things for our people. [applause] the u.n. can help advance peace by supporting direct, unconditional negotiations between the parties. the u.n. won't help peace, certainly won't help advance peace, by trying to impose solutions or by encouraging palestinian rejectionism. and the u.n., the u.n., distinguished delegates, should do one more thing. the u.n. should finally rid itself of the obsessive bashing of israel. here's just one absurd example

of this obsession. in four years of horrific violence in syria, more than a quarter of a million people have lost their lives. that's more than ten times, more than ten times the number of israelis and palestinians combined who have lost their lives in a century of conflict between us. yet last year, this assembly, adopted 20 resolutions against israel and just one resolution about the savage slaughter in syria. talk about injustice. talk about disproportionallity. 20. count them. one against syria.

frankly, i'm not surprised. to borrow a line from yogi berra, the late, great, baseball player and part-time philosopher, when it comes to the annual bashing of israel at the u.n., it's deja vu all over again. [applause] enough. 31 years after i stood here for a the first time, i'm still asking, when will the u.n. finally check its anti-israel fanaticism at the door? when will the u.n. finally stop slandering israel at a threat to peace and actually start helping israel advance peace? and the same question should be

posed to palestinian leaders. when will you start working with israel to advance peace and wreck cob -- reconciliation and stop inciting hatred and violence. president abbas, here's a good place to begin. stop spreading lies about israel's alleged intentions on the temple mount. israel is fully committed to maintaining the status quo there. what president abbas should be speaking out against are the actions of militant islamists who are smuggling explosives into the mosque and 0 who are trying to prevent jews and christians from visiting the holy sites. that's the real threat to these sacred sites. [applause] a thousand years before the birth of christianity, more than

1500 years before the birth of islam,

when our christian community continues to grow and thrive from year to year, as christian communities are decimated elsewhere in the middle east, when a brilliant young israeli muslim student gives her valedictorian address at one of our finest universities, and when israeli doctors and nurses,

doctors and nurses from the israeli military, treat thousands of wounded from the killing fields of syria, and thousands more in the wake of natural disasters from haiti to nepal, this, this is the true face of israel. these are the values of israel. and in the middle east, these values are under savage assault by militant islamists who are forcing millions of terrified people to flee to distant shores. ten miles from isis, a few hundred yards from iran's murderous proxies, israel stands in the breach, proudly and courageously, defending freedom and progress. israel is civilization's front line in the battle against barbarism. so here's a novel idea for the

united nations. instead of continuing the shameful routine of bashing israel, stand with israel, stand with israel as we check the fanaticism at our door, stand with israel as we prevent that fanaticism from reaching your door. ladies and gentlemen, stand with israel because israel is not just defending itself. more than ever, israel is defending you. [applause] >> i wish defense prime minister state of israel for the

statement just made and by request protocol to -- >> c-span2 live shortly here in reeseburg, oregon, for a press conference on the shootings thereend. expect to hear from oregon governor, kate brown, with an update on the sheetings at the community college here and which ten people were killed. the huffington post counting 45 school shootings this year in the united states and the one in oregon becoming the 142nd 142nd shooting at a school since newtown. you can head more at the huffington post and hear the president reside remarks yesterday in our video library. [background noise] [background noise]

[background noise] >> expect to hear from oregon governor kate brown on the scootings. while we wait here let's look at our weekend programming on the c-span networks.

... join our three our conversation

as we take your phone calls, texts, e-mails and textbook comments in tweets. saturday afternoon at 2:00, and the dead shall rise, the events of that april 26th, 1913, murder of 13-year-old mary sagan in marietta, georgia and the rest and lynching of leo frank and sunday afternoon at 4:00 on real of america the 1975 federal energy administration documentary on supply and demand of fossil fuels in the u.s. and public alternative energy sources. get our complete weekend schedule at c-span.org. >> we are live expecting the press conference with oregon governor kitty brown on roseburg, ore. expecting an update on the shootings were ten people were killed, also let you

know on our companion network president obama cheese scheduled to speak in about an hour at 3:30 eastern time. we will take you to that live on c-span. >> we will be hearing from president obama on c-span2 in about an hour. first governor brown of oregon speaking here along with the congressional delegation, we will hear from those states lawmakers and the executive of this the credit a few minutes.

[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible country stations]

>> check 123, check check, check 123. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> test test test test test. are we good? can you hear me?

got it? the governor is going to be out here real quick. three to five minutes. >> while we are awaiting for oregon governor kate brown a look at the washington post article about the shooter. looking at the horrific details of the mass shooting in roseburg, ore. one crucial piece remains missing, the portrait of the shooter. federal law enforcement officials identifying the gunman who was killed by police as chris parker mercer of the nearby town of winchester, you can read more at thewashingtonpost.com.

>> good morning, everybody.

i am jim freeman, douglas county commissioner. thank you for being here this morning. this morning, i am here to introduce each of our speakers but before i do that i want to thank our governor, our federal delegation for being here to support us in these very different days. each of the speakers will give the statement, and we won't do any questions. we are here for a special delegation to have a chance to explain their thoughts and as time goes by and we will have more opportunity to understand what happened at have further dialogue. the first speaker i would like to introduce, of am thankful for the governor being here and coming down to help us in this difficult situation is governor brown. >> thank you, commissioner freeman and thank you for your

leadership yesterday. all of oregon stands with the city of roseburg. i am proud of how the roseburg community pulled together to care for and comfort each other during this horrific crisis. i want to thank our police and firefighters and dispatchers and emergency medical personnel and those of the college except their heroics yesterday. oregon has worked continuously to prevent these 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 it is no simple solution that will prevent every shooting, but we must and we will do better to prevent these types of senseless violence.

this is the conversations that we will have. today is not the day. today we must be focused on providing the support and condolences and help this community keel. as we move forward we can honor the lives lost best by remembering what it means to be a caring 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 especially those in douglas county whose lives and families were changed by the events of yesterday. one person's the range act may have broken all of our hearts

but he cannot prevent our hearts from going back bigger and stronger and more committed to the oregon the we all love so very much. thank you. [applause] >> thank you, governor brown. our next speaker, i should mention the next three speakers flew out from washington d.c. to be with us today. i am grateful for their efforts. the next speaker is senator ron widen. in the last 24 hours, ore.ians struggled with unspeakable tragedy, grieved for the victims, the families and loved ones, and gave a big big thanks to our courageous first responders. right now is a time for healing

and helping the community. for vote future, it is clear that it does have to beat about more than words and good intentions if this carnage is to finally end. as a country we cannot just shrug our shoulders and move on but. in my view ending these massacres is going to require compromises, compromise that is about rights and responsibilities. son owners begun owners have rights under the law and there must be responsibility if these massacres are going to end. oregon is exactly the place to

lead this conversation. what we have shown as oregonians again and again is we can step forward and help our whoo-hoo as we seek to help this community today and show a bit of life for the rest of the nation. today is not about what any of us in the united states congress have voted for in the past. it is about what common grounds we as people who don't always agree. >> next we have senator berkeley.

>> we have fought long series of names on our hearts across the nation, places like columbine, sandy hook and now here at kumquat community college, is a list of names that no community ever wants to have included in, and at this moment this horrific, this senseless act has broken hearts, every heart here. this is a small community, a community where everyone knows someone who was hurt or killed yesterday. the community has come to gather

in extraordinary fashion, first responders responded quickly and competently. the sheriff, a county commissioners and the mayor and city manager all jumped in to make decisions in a flash to respond and address the situation. they did an incredible job, but there is no response that can repair the broken hearts. yesterday when i walked back to the capital to the heart senate office building i was told there has been a tragedy in oregon, a mass shooting in oregon and it is from your home county, douglas county. i have but special place in my

heart for this county. i was born just south of here and we moved here, i went to first grade here. i have family on both sides, father's side and one mother's side. this morning i was asked about my family teldown here. and i must say i never thought my extended family directly affected. is a small town and everyone is affected. one of the individuals who died is the great granddaughter of my first cousin. so she is my cousin. and i tell you, every heart is damaged and broken.

this community is coming to get it to embrace each other, to exercise the companionship, the law, no one could have envisioned that here in this wonderful beautiful place of roseburg, it is going to go as food for thought. this long whist gets longer with every passing week and month, 18 school shootings in 2015. we have 45 mass shootings in america in 2015 so we will carry in our hearts not only the sorrow and pain and

responsibility to ponder, that there will be fewer cities, this list will continue to grow as it has. our last speaker is representative peter defazio. >> approximately 25 hours after this tragedy, this is a day for us to mourn, those who died, and to give us much as we can our hearts and prayers to their family and friends and to pray for those in the hospital, and in the community, for the college, the town and the

townspeople. today is that day of mourning. we will go through grief, we will have memorials and then where will come a time when we will have all the facts from the investigation which is ongoing, the we may find discreet ways to deal with problems such as this in the future. unfortunately this is not the first time i have spoken at a news conference like this. thurston took place two miles from my home. in the case of first and it was like i saw the press conference earlier today, tremendous demand for information which isn't yet readily available, for solutions which we can't even begin to think of until we know all the facts and the in patience. this is not a time to be impatient visit is a time first to come together in solidarity and to give what solace weekend

to those who have lost so much. there will come a time when we will move forward with ideas and solutions and i expect this delegation with the support of local officials and the governor to move together in unison. that is not today. that is for the future. thank you. >> i would like everyone 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 and all levels of government, city, county, state, federal, tribes helping us and i want to thank the first responders behind us, we are all here to support the victims and families of this horrible incident. thank you.

[inaudible shouting] [applause]

>> thank you, guys.

>> everything is mingled for now. >> if you missed any officials in roseburg, ore. we will have them in our video library on c-span.org. secretary arne duncan is stepping down in december after seven years in the obama administration writing a letter to staff that he is going to return to chicago to be with his family. the letter was obtained by eddie associated press and confirmed by a white house officials. president obama will announce the resignation this afternoon at 3:30 eastern time. we will have live coverage on c-span2. former education secretary and current chair of the senate education committee lamar alexander says arne duncan was one of the president's best appointments. he has a big heart, cares about children and i enjoy working with him. arne duncan is one of two original appointments by president obama still holding

his position, tom bills of the sac is the other. >> weekends full of politics, nonfiction books and american history, saturday morning at 10:00 eastern on c-span. with nasa's announcement of liquid water on mars the science, space and technology committee talk to experts about the announcements and the possibility of life in space, sunday evening at 6:30 policymakers, business leaders and media personalities discuss issue is driving the national conversation at the washington ideas for wikipedia speakers include massachusetts governor mitt romney and senior adviser to president obama valerie jarrett. on c-span2's booktv saturday night at 10:00 eastern on afterwards martha discusses her book on presidential transition. cheese interviewed by a former clinton administration white house chief of staff mack mcmarty. on in-depth we are live with nationally syndicated talk-show host tom hartman who has

authored several books including the crash of 2016:reading of the american dream and threshold. join our three our conversation as we take your phone calls, texts, facebook comments and tweets for tom hartman the american history tv on c-span3 saturday afternoon and 2:00 in his book and the-job rise, the events of the eagle 261913 murder of 13-year-old mary sagan in marietta, georgia and the arrest and wing ching of leo frank. sunday afternoon at 4:00 on real america of the 1975 federal energy administration documentary on the supply and demand of fossil fuels in the u.s. and a look at alternative energy sources. get the complete weekend schedule at c-span.org. >> vice president joe biden's

chance of the nomination and republican presidential candidate donald trump. they talk about the race for 20 minutes during the annual washington ideas forum. >> everybody was great. good music. [inaudible conversations] >> we are going to hope to keep it in shack for 17 minutes here talking about politics, some of the smartest people covering the campaign is on capitol hill so we are going to jump into it. we start with the question we talked about upstairs which is i am going to do the thing candidate hate which is the raise your hand came. if joe biden gets in their race can he win the nomination? raise your hand if you -- >> you changed the wording of the question. >> what do you think, do you

want to put it as a percentage chance? >> non new but 0 possibility. highly unlikely. that he could win. unless hillary clinton collapses. >> i agree completely. it is my line. joe biden's popularity is so much a function of his role as of isolation from partisan politics and if he jumps into the race there is a very good chance that all of his gaffemaking will be less money, his history will be more scrutinized and he will suffer for it. >> he is not authentic candidate, he is the candidate of the obama administration, the candidate that is polling better in the general election. he is not in and that is something we have to clearly understand.

doesn't have the fund-raising needed in the political race or the infrastructure. what he is looking for, basically democratic party's plan b so if something happens with hillary that all of a sudden he can't come back from he is the one that will be able to step in. but absent that is almost impossible at this point. >> we know that at the end of the year 15 states filing deadlines will close including texas and ohio. if there is an emergency, break glass. he has to decide before the end of the year. can he wait long ricky diaz >> he has to get in. if you wants to be the plan b candidate he has to be actually running. there is a historical thing here where no vice president or two term president has ever sought the party nomination and loss. in a way joe biden behalf of -- nonzero chance that he wins.

>> start with you everybody jump in, as the guy covering the hell all these years tell us all little bit about this quote that was interesting from the soon-to-be former speaker john boehner, it is there a way to get things done so i don't burden my successor, i am going to get it finished. what on earth does that mean? what does burdening his successor mean? does it mean he will try to get something pushed through that a lot of republicans may be don't like, whether it is the transportation bill or something else can he do that? will he do immigration? >> he has been the only adult in the room for a long time. the reason kevin mccarthy's able to ascend is john boehner has taken on the tough task, he cracked down on the of rebellion, the guy that put up budget bills and debt limit increases and what he is saying

is he will try to figure out what to get done that hasn't been done, doesn't destroy mccarthy. he has a good idea what would destroy mccarthy and it is a lot of stuff. >> what would destroy it mccarthy? >> you know -- >> he is one of the folks, advocates for immigration. >> that whole act might reshuffle the republican conference. a couple weeks will for the election and the next speaker takes over and if you try to jam too much through, there's always the possibility they would vacate the chair. and there is some leash but not what. mean they tried to get a budget deal done that goes long prison december. >> you wrote a little bit about

john boehner's exit. and out of this crisis moment. >> this is an impossible dream for john boehner for years, moved heaven and earth to do it. something we learned from the announcement of his exit was how little goodwill there was. this is a conference disposed to give him a big legacy gift on his way out. you saw the amount of celebrating their was among his fellow republicans when he announced he wasn't going to be speaker anymore. he is not the only adult in the room. the majority of the republican conference are grown ups and only at minority are causing trouble but it is enough of them and they represent enough of the party base that is almost impossible to get a grown-ups

together. >> so the possibility of another government shutdown threat in december, i? >> it is always possible. we went two years without a shutdown. >> in the factory. >> but so the point being there was enough of us saw that things ran more or less smoothly for two years. on the other hand how do you get around this issue of planned parenthood that people a so riled up about? >> i am going to change topics for a second to the person who asked what they want to talk about and everybody wants to talk about donald trump. ..

>> since the second debate, he's now dropped, we have five or six national polls out, he's dropped five or six points. his rate of descent is about the same as his rise, and he's been eclipsed just a little bit by people like carson and fiorina. the tone of the coverage is a little bit more hostile. so i think you're starting to see maybe this is a phenomenon that's not all that different than herman cain and michele bachmann and rick perry and newt gingrich in 2011-'12 who had similar polling surges because they were in the news a lot and then declines when people got a closer look. that's, so right now if we

actually hit peak trump, it will have been that second debate. but he's also a master of getting himself in front of the cameras and keeping our attention on him. so i wouldn't underestimate his ability to keep it going. but i don't think -- i think there's a lot of mental energy that goes into describing what trump is and what the republican party's becoming because of trump, and i'm very skeptical of most of those analyses that, you know, he's some new right-wing, european-style candidate or the base of the republican party has fundamentally changed. i think mostly it's a function of him being the most famous name that you know about, and when a pollster calls you at 6:00, he's the person you heard on the news, and he's famous right now, and that's what's mostly explaining his rise. [inaudible conversations] >> right. >> well, i think it's 50% that. i think it's 50% trump does represent legitimate anxieties and fears within a nontrivial portion.

i like non as a prefix today a lot -- [laughter] a nontrivial portion of the republican party. and this portion's always been there, it's not a new phenomenon in republican politics, but buti think trump because of his fame gives it more visibility. there is a temptation, and you see it unsuccessfully with scott walker of trying to co-op this in some way, shape or form. and i think that's a very real thing that will persist for as long as the nomination fight continues. >> and i think that's one of the reasons ted cruz is buddying up to trump. i think when you look at the republican party versus the democratic party, i would argue that the republican party when you're talking about fiorina, carson and trump, they know the america that they're trying to win, right? they know the america that they're trying to rally with that base for better or worse. the democratic party is so disconnected for the most part about the emerging majority of americans when we're talking about women and people of color. you're having a really hard time

making that connection. and as an example, when you see bernie sanders, we were just having this conversation, bernie sanders went to los angeles. it's the bastion of the latino community. he filled up close are, he filled up the staples center. of one of my colleagues, really excited about bernie sanders, calls his dad in l.a. and said, hey, dad, are you going to bernie sanders? and his dad responded, bernie who? it doesn't really reflect -- >> weren't you in iowa with him? >> yeah, i was just in iowa, and it's interesting you brought that up because i saw him at the latino heritage festival in des moines, and the audience for him there was, i don't know, 80, 85% white, maybe 90% white. there were latinos and latinas that saw him, but it was a very small minority of the group. and this was maybe 100 people, 120 people at most, but it was not -- despite the fact he was at the latino heritage festival, it was a super-white crowd which struck me.

>> i think sanders, i don't think sanders, much like i don't think trump is especially new, i think sanders is a very classic democratic, insurgent candidate. he is howard dean. he is the sort of person who will will persist, but he'll never get past because he appeals to liberal, college-educated whites. >> this is why i think the comparison with trump and sanders is instructive, it's that we know what the ideological base of bernie sanders is, right? we have enough competitive democratic primaries in the last three decades to know he's bill bradley, gary hart -- >> right. >> -- howard dean ask and barack obama until he broke through with nonwhite voters. and he has, you know, he has this sort of 20-30% nationally that that candidate's always going to get against a big establishment party figure like hillary clinton. trump, if you look at the internals of the polls, he doesn't have an ideologically consistent base. some people point to the polls and say, oh, my gosh, he's winning evangelicals, he's

winning business conservatives and however else you want to slice up the republican electorate. i look at that and say, well, that's just a sugar high from his fame and being in the news because he doesn't have an ideologically coherent base in the republican party. it's sort of all over the place. and big difference between him and sanders. >> but i think that's, actually, i think it's what you see right now in the house with this hell no caucus, if we can say that on stage, hell no. i think it's the same thing you're seeing, which is those guys aren't ideologically together. you can't define them by region or by ideology. basically, they want to burn the place down, and i think trump has very much tapped into that. and i think the question is and i agree, obviously, seeing the polls can come down, i wrote a piece that says this is a moment where we see the teflon wearing thin a little bit, he's thin-skinned. the question is how, how low does he go, how strong is that base of i just want to rip everything up? and i think it's a significant portion of the republican party, and if there are other

candidates in the race through several states, donald trump could, you know, basically just take off. >> but i think what you bring up is rather interesting. has he done so much damage to the republican brand that it doesn't matter at the end of the day who the republican party runs because of that, right? the idea that he's not going to be attracted -- he may not attract women and people of color based on what he's talking about. and then i think that's where all of a sudden the republican party has to have a deep conversation. do they want to be a party that controls the house or controls the white house, right? >> right. >> and that's their challenge right now. >> well, and i think, i think that you bring up another important point which is it points to the failure of the rest of the field, of any other candidate to be compelling enough to surpass trump. you know, the reason he's in first place with 20, 25% of the vote is that no other candidate has managed to catch people's imagination in that way. and the only other candidates who have even begun to do so are the other outsider candidates. and the ones that the establishment had pinned so much

hope on, particularly jeb, have had a really hard time getting voters at all interested in their candidacy. so, you know, assuming that trump is not going to go away on his own, just take his ball and go home, somebody's got to do better than him for him to stop being in first place. >> so i wonder if it's, have they failed to get the voters' interest, or have they failed to get the media's interest? >> yeah. [inaudible conversations] >> the republican party actually created this scenario, right? how long can you actually go saying that you want to tear down government, that you don't want political insiders to run your party? how long before the candidates that you actually produce are outside of the game, right? again, that's one of the reasons that they're challenged. >> that's why, i mean, don't shed so many tires. there's a lot of commentary about shedding tears for john boehner, but he built a majority on a certain ideology, and you can't be totally shocked when the people you bring in -- [inaudible conversations] >> in 2010 he walked, so they had a huge tea party rally

outside the capitol. michele bachmann put it together with scott garrett and some of the other conservatives, and the big question is, is john boehner going to come to this? they were considered kind of the crazies of the house. not only did he come to it, he walked them out. >> and he wore the color of the tea party, the tie, which brought him in. >> john barren, he is the french revolutionary who gets -- john boehner, he is the french revolutionary who gets eaten by his own revolution. [laughter] >> i want to go to the democrats because i agree with you that republicans may be doing some damage, and they've already done serious damage to their brand with minority communities, with younger voters. at the same time, this idea of the obama coalition just transferring to hillary clinton also has to be questioned. and especially true among african-american voters, i mean, we do pay a lot of attention to latino voters, we should pay a lot of attention to latino voters, but if you look at the

margin of victory for barack obama, it was thanks to african-american voters in places like ohio and florida. can hillary clinton get that same level of turnout, and can she excite that coalition? >> it's a bit of an open question, i think, among political scientists that agree whether obama's turnout with blacks was obama, or was it obama being familiar enough with black politics to engage sieve organizations -- civic organizations intoen an effort to get votes out for obama and the democratic party. i tend to line towards the latter -- lean towards the latter, this is very much a function of intense organization informed by the fact that barack obama was a black candidate. and my sort of case study for that is the 2000 -- or the recent virginia gubernatorial election where terry mcauliffe is able to get obama levels of turnout among african-americans following a very similar strategy. so if terry --xd [laughter]

[inaudible conversations] >> campaign manager is now running the clinton campaign. >> precisely. >> so it is, in fact, the latter and about engagement, there's nobody better inside politics than the clintons in terms of organizing -- >> right. >> -- constituencies and energizing constituencies. >> i actually think there is -- i think a lot of folks are betting that emerging majority of the obama campaign is going to transfer to hillary. >> yeah. >> when you are on ground and start talking to her natural base which is white progressive women and they're not excited, i think there is an enthusiasm gap that we're not talking about. i actually think the challenges if, let's say, trump all of a sudden disappears and the caustic language, anti-women, anti-everybody unfortunately -- [laughter] >> you are a loser for bringing that up, he would say. [laughter] >> doesn't necessarily mean she's a shoo-in because she needs to give folks a version of the future. >> i'm not arguing she's a

shoo-in, i just mean you're talking about working the inside system. she's pretty good at that type of politics. not great on the stump, she doesn't energize -- >> the function of campaigns, right, is to get people energized and get people engaged. and typically, i mean, you know, if hillary clinton's the nominee, then people start paying attention in the summer. and i think they almost member nistically get engaged. i kind of think presidential elections are mechanistic, and if i were a democrat, i wouldn't be worried about being engaged, because i think that will solve itself. >> all right, guys, we're out of time. that was fantastic. >> wrap up, asap. >> thank you all very much. thank our panel. [applause] and we will have -- this way, right? ♪ ♪ >> education secretary.

arthel:ny duncan is stepping down. he wants to move back to chicago. president obama will discuss the resignation this afternoon at 3:30 eastern time and announce secretary duncan's replacement. yesterday secretary duncan was at the washington ideas forum, and he talked about college graduation rates, student debt and early childhood education. this is about 20 minutes. ♪ ♪ [applause] >> secretary arne duncan, it's great to be here with you. >> thank you. >> we were just talking about his long legs and how they're going to reach the front of this platform. i'm delighted to be here, and i want to just start with something that you unveiled just yesterday, a proposal to redirect the money that's being spent today to incarcerate half the people who are convicted of nonviolent crimes and put it

instead into paying teachers who are working in the highest-need schools in the toughest communities. you said you want to tackle, you call it the school-to-prison pipeline, and we've heard you talk about this before. how would this work? >> so i think no one can defend the current status quo, no one can say that mass incarceration has worked, has made us safer, has worked economically. if we just took 50% of nonviolent offenders instead of locking them up at 40, 50, 60, $70,000 a year and found other paths for them, if we took the 20% of schools around the nation in the poorest communities with the highest poverty rates, we could take every teacher in those schools and give them a 50% raise. and we should pay all too teachs more. this, for me, is a starting point. but great teachers make a huge difference in students' lives. there's all kinds of data. not just the academic learning, but great teachers lead to less teenage pregnancy.

and if we actually want to stop locking folks up, if we could attract and retain great teachers in our poorest communities, that would be life-transforming. and we can't talk about this without talking about race and class. the disproportionate number of men of color who are locked up, who don't have educational opportunity, if we want to have strong families and strong communities, we have to give them a chance at the front end, and that's what this is about. >> so how would you -- what would you do differently in the way you treat young, nonviolent offenders? how would you -- where would you give them a break? >> again, i think there's all kinds of paths to help them other than locking them up for, again, 50, 60, $70,000 per person. and you have to give them second chances, you have to give them drug treatment, you've got to give them training programs. but at the end of the day, the vast majority end up going back to jail. we're not helping to prevent more crimes, and the cost to society is staggering. it's hard to go to taxpayers for more resources these days, but if you could take $15 billion and stop spending it on

penitentiaries and prisons and spend that on great, great teachers, creating the incentive structure to have those teachers work in our most challenging communities, it would change everything. it would change everything. i want to make teaching in tough communities the pinnacle of a teacher's career rather than something to escape or avoid altogether. >> you're saying just paying teachers more is going to make the difference in the lives of these young people. i mean, make that connection for us. >> great teachers, all kinds of research, great teachers not only add months of additional learning every single year for students, one great teacher -- work out of harvard university, longitudinal studies -- one great teacher increases the lifetime earnings of a class of students by more than a quarter of a million dollars. one great teacher reduces teenage pregnancy. one great teacher increases college-going rates. and far too often our nation, the children in the communities who need the best get the least. and i want to reverse that. i want to make sure that

children in communities who need the best educators get the best. and if we do that, their life trajectory will be radically different, and long term we'll be locking up many fewer young people and, very specifically, young men of color. >> very quickly, you would have to couple this -- [applause] wouldn't you have to couple this with other reforms as well? outside education? >> oh, yes. there's -- yes. there's a million other things we have to do to reduce poverty and increase health care and housing and integration, but i want to make a massive play. great teachers transform young people's lives. and today in our nation we have very few incentives and lots of disincentives for the hardest working, the most committed teachers and principals to work in our most underserved communities, be that inner city urban or rural or remote or native american reservations. i want to flip that on its head and do everything we can to attract and retain great talent in the communities where we need it the most. >> let's talk about another innovation, secretary duncan. this one's in higher ed.

this is the idea of giving young people what you call micro-credentials. what do you mean by that? how would that work? >> historically in higher education what's been fixed was time and location. you went to a lecture hall like this at 10:30 on a tuesday and sat and listened. and that needs to become variable, not fixed. young people, folks returning to the world of work, single moms need to be able to learn anything they want anytime, anywhere. so having the chance to earn credentials in a portable way, have them stackable over time, we all need to be lifelong learners. this idea of sitting in a class for nine months to learn this just are doesn't fit the reality of what our students are looking for. the average college student is nontraditional. they're older, they're working, and they may have kids. the traditional is becoming not traditional. we have some folks in the higher ed space moving rapidly to meet that need of both folks who want to learn and also employers who

are looking for folks with more skills. we're doing a lot to try to accelerate that pace of change through investing in places that are moving to shorter-term credentials and helping folks climb that academic ladder more rapidly. >> what's a specific example of a micro-credential? >> so if you can learn to code in three months or five months or six months and go from, basically, not having a job to making $50,000, $60,000 a year, we should be able to incentivize folks to offer those kinds of opportunities. >> and how is that different from what we used to call vocational ed? >> yeah. >> and it's different from, you know, the idea of getting -- it's clearly different from the idea of getting a four-year college education. >> whether it's technology or advanced manufacturing or green energy, there's a whole set of new jobs and fields emerging where short-term training can lead to real dividends. and i worry a lot about the lack of economic mobility, the lack of opportunity for folks to, you know, retrain and retool and get

jobs for the new economy. and if we can be much more nimble in whether it's a three month program or six month program, historically we find, you know, year-long programs or four-year degrees or whatever, and that still has a very, very important place. we just have are to be much more entrepreneurial, much more innovative, much more flexible, and our resources drive a lot of this. so if we can get more resources to places that are thinking differently and help people more quickly get on their feet and get a higher paying job, we need to incentivize that rather than have our money stifle that innovation. >> now, we know that the administration has set the really ambitious goal of raising the postsecondary degree attainment rate to 60%. that's still a long way off. i guess my question is, is this partly an acknowledgment that this is a whole lot harder to do than you expected going in? >> they're related, but it's not quite the case. this is just the reality of we have a new economy, and today's learners look very different than the learners from 10 or 20

or 30 years ago. and, yes, we do need to lead the world in college completion rates. we did one generation ago. eleven other countries have passed us by -- >> what is the rate right now of college? >> 40s to 6. so we have a long -- 40s, we have to go to 60. we have a long way to go. high skilled jobs are going to go to the nations with the most educated work force, and i want that to be the united states and not other countries. and so we have to continue to innovate, we have to continue to get better faster than we are. we're very pleased that high school graduation rates are at all-time highs, dropout rates are down significantly. we hope over time that translates to higher completion rates but, again, other countries are moving faster than us, so i feel a real sense of urgency here. >> secretary duncan, you've also spent a good deal of your time focused on the college debt crisis in this country, the higher ed debt. you've talked about a number of ways to deal with that, one of

them has to do with creating income-based loan repayment plans. this is now getting a lot of, as you know, a lot of political pushback. explain what you would like to do in that arena. how does it work, income-based repayment? >> i'll come to that, but it's sort of a bigger issue. so, first, going to college is the best investment long term that anyone can make in their future and in their family's future. so that part is true. it is also true that for too many young people college costs too much. it's also true that some folks are starting to think college is just for wealthy people, not for people like them. and that's a real concern to me. that's a real worry. so we have to take this on in a number of different ways, there's not one answer. one is we want to make community colleges free. that america's college promise plan. that comes from governor hatland who's the republican -- hasland who's the golf of tennessee -- the governor of tennessee. it's very early, but

extraordinary interest. and the recognition there is that today a high school diploma is important, but it's insufficient for getting a good paying job. and we actually want to make pre-k -- because early childhood is so important -- pre-k-14 so important. k-12 is insufficient going forward. if we could make community college free, that would do a huge amount to reduce debt. secondly, the worst debt is debt you get when you don't get a degree. and we have to do so much more to challenge universities, yes, access is important. we've done a huge amount to increase access and huge increases in pell grants. but we have to make sure it's not about just access, it's about completion. and some universities take that mission very seriously, some do a great job with pell grant recipients and english language learners. others don't do. and the worst situation is getting that without having a diploma. income-based repayment simply says we will index your repayments to your income. so if you work in a legal aid

clinic or you're a social worker or a teacher, you'll pay less than if you're an investment banker. there's been significant uptake in that. more people, like 5,000 folks every day, are signing up. it's not the right option for everybody, but how we help people manage their debt at the back end is something we have to continue to get better at. >> and what about the criticism that we're hearing from a number of folks in the congress and elsewhere that what this does, though in part, is it gives colleges the opportunity once again to raise tuition? >> so there are many legs to this stool. we need to continue to invest. the other thing we've tried to do is provide maximum transparticipant city to young people around -- transparency to young people around not just one-year costs, but four-year costs. we put out recently the college scorecard that's had five million views, and historically this has been opaque. it's been hard to navigate. the more we can empower young people and their families to make good choices, that's going to force the marketplace to

adjust and change. we need to play, we need to empower young people and families to make good choices. universities have to do a better job of containing costs. some are cutting tuition 20, 30, 40% because they're mission-driven. so they're very interesting exceptions to that rule. and finally, we have to challenge states to reinvest in higher education. when states walk away from their investment, universities jack their tuitions up. there are at least four legs of the stool, and we have to hold ourselves accountable to making college more successful, colleagues not just -- completion, not just access. >> you are, in many ways, a hot topic in the media. there's probably more profiles of you than any other cab b net secretary. >> i don't think that's true. >> well, i won't ask you who's competing with you, but some of the recent profiles point out that the manner in which the obama administration, can k-12

reforms, were carried out in part incentivizing states to adopt changes that did not already have broad popular support on the ground, for example, tying teacher evaluations to test scores has led to a lot of political pushback. and the question that's now out there is these, so the reforms are being delayed, some of them are even being challenged in court. how concerned are you that the legacy -- and not just the legacy, but what you've spent so much time working on -- is now at risk? >> i don't want to blow through them. it's so interesting, the media loves to focus on conflict, and i understand that might sell. what the media doesn't focus on is collaboration. if you sort of step back and look, what you've seen is north of 40 states raise standards. republican and democrat across the board. because historically, many states dummy down standards k12 to make politicians look good and told kids they were ready to go on to college when they weren't even close. and they had to take huge amounts of remedial classes. so we've been lying to kids and

families for decades. that is starting to stop. many starts are starting to think about ways to reward, incentivize and spotlight great teachers. and test cores can be a small part of this -- scores can be a small part of this. they tell you some things, they don't tell you others. i'm actually not that concerned there. we want to highlight great teachers. great teachers transform young people's lives. we need to reward that, incentivize that, give them more leadership opportunities. and anyone who wants to treat all teachers as the same, i think, devalues the extraordinary work they do and, frankly, demeans the profession. what you have is states around the country who are thinking differently about teacher and principal evaluation support, who are raising standards, who are turning around underperforming schoolings. this is another hugely underreported story that part of the reason the graduation rate is up and dropout rates are down is we've invested $5 billion to turn around the lowest emergencying schools in the nation. it hasn't been perfect, but many

schools are getting better. this work is hard, it is a very significant change. it's being done imperfectly. implementation is difficult, but the nation is moving in a very different direction that short term will be rocky and bumpy, but long term puts us in a very different spot. one more second on it. massachusetts, virtually every measure is our highest performing state k-12. in massachusetts about 30% of their high school graduates -- not their dropout toes -- have to take remedial classes in college. when that happens, no one wins. students lose, they drop out faster, cost families more money, cost all of us as taxpayers more money, and that's our highest performing state. so you start there, think about states 2-50. so the goal is to increase graduation rates, to reduce dropout rates, but to make sure our high school graduates are truly prepared for college and careers and the simple measuring stick there is they don't have to take remedial classes. >> it's clearly not all

unfolding the way you had originally envisioned. i mean, states are doing it, as you said, in different ways. it's -- >> i think it's actually very much how we envisioned our honest hope when we started was to get maybe half the nation moving in this direction. and the fact that we have 40, 45, 46 states moving in this direction actually wildly exceeds what we anticipated a couple years ago. now, again, different states are doing this -- the implementation is the really hard part. there are different levels of success. some are doing it better than others. we need to do a better job of partnering and helping. but this change is very difficult and will be difficult for the next year or two or three. it will be rocky, but these are all 10, 20 year plays. massachusetts with great controversy raised their standards in the '90s, and what you saw over time was them rise to the top nationally. ..

congress fixes the broken law. i'm very concerned with speaker boehner stepping down that the odds of this being fixed wind down and not up and that's concerning because the law is broken and it's so far overdue. >> why do you think the odds are down with this-- with him stepping aside? >> i think you need a strong bipartisan bill and i think it is harder for whoever succeeds him to get to a bipartisan place. i hope i am wrong. i'm not politically astute and the folks in this room are smarter than i, but to get to a good bill that the president can support has to be bipartisan

bill and it stays strong on accountability and reforming schools and it's difficult for the next leader. again, i really, really, really hope i'm wrong. it's difficult for the next leader to work in a bipartisan way given that pressure from the extreme right. >> i assume you don't want to be education secretary for the next president, but tell me if i am wrong. >> my home is a chicago. >> why shouldn't the priority for the next secretary of education, the next president of education? >> i'm trying to start conversation and we have about two dozen folks running for president, so a lot of people who love that job in just a couple questions i wish the folks in the media and voters would ask them in first, what are you doing to increase access to high-quality early childhood education and the best investment we can make. relative to other nations we have a dismal record and makes a

sense whatsoever. so, what is your commitment they are and what is your commitment to raise high school graduation rates, reduce dropout rates and make sure they are college ready and make sure we have college completion rates and if we asked those four or five simple questions of what are your goals for each one of these and what are your strategies and what are your resources that you're willing to put behind that. everything else is noise. we give political leaders a path because we don't ask the simple questions they give kids a chance in life and that the conversation i would like to see, republican, democrat it doesn't matter. who is going to be the education leader, not the photo op person or that kissing babel-- baby person. >> as i think you and say goodbye, are you talking to any of these candidates? are they coming to you fordyce? >> we haven't good relationship with many, not all and it's not about us at all.

is about how do we help lead the world? it should be nothing political or partisan. >> secretary arnie duncan, thank you very much. [applause]. >> we are live now at the white house state dining room where president obama is a scheduled to make an official announcement that education secretary arnie duncan will step down in december after seven years in the obama administration. secretary duncan says in a letter to staff he's returning to chicago to live with his family. the letter was obtained by the associated press and confirmed by a white house official today. the president is expected to make that announcement and take some questions from reporters. arnie duncan is one of two original cabinet appointments by president obama that is still in the position. you are secretary tom ville sack is other. readers reported this afternoon that president obama has picked john b king junior who currently

access duncan's deputy to replace him. again, we expect to hear from the president at the white house in a few moments, live coverage on c-span 2. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> we are waiting for president obama who is expected to make the official announcements that education secretary arnie duncan will step down in december after seven years in the administration. former education secretary and chairman of the senate education committee, republican senator from our alexander had this to say after that-- about the current education secretary quote arnie duncan was one of

the president's best appointments and has a big car, cares about children and i have enjoyed working with him. again, not from lamarck alexander. waiting at the white house with the president's remarks in the official announcement and he is also expected to take questions from reporters. while we wait, remarks from education secretary arnie duncan. he spoke at the national press club earlier this week and we will show you a bit of that now. >> thank you so much and it's great to be back. i want to start by telling you about something that i'm not proud of. early in my time as ceo of the chicago public schools we set out to make our schools safer places for our children and adults. we knew our students were going to jail and i went to the police chief there and asked if we could find out what kind of day or night our kids are getting arrested. i figured if we knew when the arrests were occurring, if it

was after school as i suspected we could target an intervention to keep kids more engaged with after school hours. if it was happy late at night we would have to challenge parents to step up and actually parents keep their kids safe and at home and off of the streets. what i absolutely did not expect was the actual answer. the majority of the arrests were occurring during school day in our school buildings overwhelmingly for nonviolent misdemeanors. most calls to the police put kids in jail and we were the ones making them. we were responsible and that the enemy and it was as. i know no one, none of our teachers or principles or administrators had set out to criminalize behavior of our students or to strike them down a path towards incarceration. but, those were the facts. they are bound up with another set of facts. the fact that america has less

than 5% of the world population with more than 20% of the world inmates. the fact to that americans today locks up black people at a higher rate than south africa did during the height of up are tied the fact that a young man of color six times more likely to incarcerated by than their white peers. the fact that one out of every three black men, one out of every three in america is predicted to go to prison at some point in their lives, as much as one in five men receive a college degree. facing the facts on incarceration, we as a country have to do more to change the odds. you can try to reduce those statistics with just numbers on a page, but there are people behind those numbers in ferguson, baltimore and new york and hundreds of other places. if you spent time in those places with the real people who have real families, you will be left, no doubt, that we have to do more.

that's why went to lay out but i did today that will strike some as improbable or impractical, which i think is essential. it's about setting very different direction as a society, a different priority, one that says we believe in great teaching, earlier children's lives rather than courts and jails and prisons later. lets me tell you why it is so important to me. in close to seven years as education secretary i've had the chance to spend a lot of time very witness to great teaching and learning and the amazing young people who are finding ways to share their unique talents with their community in the world. i have also met a lot of young people who live side followed a different trajectory and i think a lot about those young people who we as adults have not done the right thing by. honestly, their stories haunts me. ms. branded with age of a lead-- 11 rocher feeding on the bathroom walls of the denver

augmenter school and the school called the police and brennan's act of vandalism became a criminal matter. brennan was sentenced to what they call community service alongside adult offenders and he told me he was the only 11-year old picking up trash on the side of the highway. it is simply mind-boggling. that experience also left brennan with a criminal record and years later when he set out to become a police officer that apartment turned him away because of that one youthful mistake. i talk to him just a few days after he got that news and he said, it killed my sense of hope. this young boy from broward county schools who racked up almost 30 behavioral referrals and received his first battery charge as a 7-year old after having an anxiety attack. there was a young man i met recently in an illinois prison, which i visited a few weeks ago. of these young men were locked

up for a variety of crimes they had committed during their childhood years. it didn't make any excuses or dodgers possibility, but many told us from an early age they had to take care of their families lack of meaningful job options and felt alone in a world where no one seemed to care about them or believe in them. what did these young people have in common? they all made bad choices, both large and small. for many, when they needed support it since it was not there. one of them told us i just got tired of seeing my mother cry every night before some, the system down ways-- >> doctor john king. >> please be seated, everyone. good afternoon. arnie duncan is one of my longest serving cabinet secretaries and he has been a friend for a lot longer than that, so it's with some regret and sorrow that i have accepted

his decision to return to our hometown of chicago. after more than six years of living in washington, arnie's wonderful wife karen and their excellent kids, claire and ryan, who are also buddies of mine went to move back home and that's meant in the interim a lot of time, so i will be honest i have pushed ernie to stay. sorry, guys. but, i also know from personal experience how hard it is to be away from your family on a sustained basis, so while i will miss arnie deeply he has more than earned the right to return home. take a look at what arnie has accomplished over the last six and a half years. he is one of the longest serving secretaries of education in our history and one of the more consequential. in just accused years arnie and his team have delivered incredible results at every stage of the educational experience.

more than 30 states have upped their investment in early childhood education. nearly every state in america has raised standards for teaching and learning and expectations for what our kids can learn and our school graduation rate is at an all-time high. we have helped millions more families afford college and more americans are graduating from college than ever before. that's a just scratching the surface. or he has done more to bring our educational system, sometimes kicking and screaming into the 21st century than anyone else. america's going to be better off for what he has done and we will be more competitive and prosperous. it's going to be more equal and more upwardly mobile. it's record that i truly believe no other education secretary could match. arnie bleeds this stuff. he care so much about our kids. he has been so passionate about this work.

everyone who interacts with him, including people who disagree with him on some issues never questions the genuineness and heart that he has brought to this job. so, i could not be prouder of him and for good measure arnie also holds the record for most points scored in an nba all-star game. [applause]. >> and he is my favorite partner in pickup basketball. [laughter] >> the smartest player i know even though he is very slow. [laughter] >> and has no height. he knows it's true. i will say, watching ryan, by the way, that his son will sooth surpassed the father. this young man has got game. now, keep in mind none of this

change has been easy and we still have a long way to go. one of the things that education is that it doesn't deliver results tomorrow or the next day this is a decade-long or longer proposition. we planted seeds now. we make changes now and we watch each success class benefit from these reform and it goes in fits and starts and we have a decentralized system. that is how her education tradition evolved, so it's not easy and it's not quick, but we are making progress and we are not going to stop in these last 15 months and that's why it's so important and why i think we are very lucky that even as arnie steps down that we have an exceptionally talented educator to step in and that is doctor john king. john is already on arnie's

leadership team. he has been an educator all of his life, teacher, principal, a leader of schools, the new york state education chief. he is the right man to lead that apartment. he shares our commitment to prepare and every child for success in a more innovative and competitive world. he has got a great team already at the department of education of which i am very very proud. his families equally cool and good-looking. [laughter] >> he has equally exceptional children. i know that together we will continue to be able to do great things on behalf of our kids, soap arnie and john and want to wish both of you a hearty congratulations and good luck. now i will let them say a few words and then i will make a few remarks before i take questions from the press. we will start with arnie. >> i have cried more today than

i have in a while, so i will try not to cry. i will start with the president and when he asked us to come to dc and worked with him that was about a one and a conversation with my wife. it wasn't necessarily to be education secretary, i just wanted to be on his team and believed so much and what he was about and what he stood for. i have to say seven and a half years later my admiration is only greater. it's pretty remarkable and important for folks to know that every hard decision, his only question was what is the right thing to do for kids and challenging as an art team to fight for kids every single day and often that was a hard political decision and at that was never a factor. his passion and commitment is absolutely extraordinary. for me is that the political leadership, not the educational leadership, its moral leadership and i just can't tell you, mr. president, when an unbelievable honor it was to spend time and for those-- every

day you see folks who watched him last night talking about the horrendous massacre, gun massacre in oregon and how preventable these things are. to our team, the teaming of the white house, it's the next ordinary to work with you. i don't say this lightly. i think our team at the department of education is stronger than it has ever been and you never know seven or eight years how teams go, welcome i think we had the a-team and accommodation of working with the white house, sean, sylvie summary folks anthony, with the team in place on extraordinarily hopeful and confident about what they can do to get a emma, ted, the rest of the crew, said a little bit about john and the folks know for all of us this work is personal. it's very personal for me. in john is one of those kids that probably should not be in a room like this.

not the easiest time growing up, he will tell you more about it. lost most of his parents at an early age and went to live with his brother that was not easy, but he had an amazing teacher who saw something in him and kept him going and today he can stand here with the presidents and so many times i think we write kids off that look like john come from places like john and to see what he can a college, i think that is what drives us. there are some kids out there that we can reach and while i'm deeply sad to leave on extraordinarily happy and thankful and proud that john will carry on this work for the team, soak i want to thank everyone for their hard work. i quickly went to-- or getting my parents. my dad is a lifelong educator at the university of chicago. that they're all of his life. my-- my mother started a program before we were born and raised all of us as part of that program and that changed our lives.

we saw what kids would-- could do and they were given a chance and that's why we do this work today. to be able to see what she did that one little corner and try heavy impact around the nation because this man gave us a chance. for my family, i can't tell you how much it means to us. finally, just my family and i love this work. i love this team. of the present. on love the chance to serve and only thing i love more is you guys and i can't wait to come home to couple more track meets and maybe get to coach ryan a bit and maybe have a few more dinners and maybe go to a movie someday. that would be pretty amazing. [laughter] >> it's been too long. it's been an amazing, amazing journey and feel so proud and so lucky to be a part of this team. mr. president, thank you. promise you to have impact and

we can never repay the debt of gratitude we zero your leadership and courage, so thank you and i want to turn it over to john. [applause]. [applause]. [applause]. [applause]. ,.

>> thank you. thank you for those kind words. thank you mr. president for the opportunity to serve in the fake he placed me in the team we have at the department. i am deeply honored by the chance to serve in deeply humbled by following in arnie's footsteps. arnie is un- extraordinary leader who i've watched them straight tremendous courage and fighting for kids and fighting for what is best for kids, but also being willing to listen. to listen to folks and make adjustments and make sure everything we do every day is towards the goal of greater equity. mr. president, you in arnie 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 for teaching and learning through k-12 to showing more americans have access to high

quality higher education to ensure we had supported teachers and that 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 arnie gave a speech at the national press club and in that speech arnie 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 my dad when i was 12. my dad was very sick before he passed. i moved around between family members and schools, but teachers, new york city public school teachers are the reason that i am alive. they are the reason i became a teacher. they are the reason i'm standing here today. those teachers crated great experiences and also give me hope. hope about what is possible emma what can be possible for me in

life. schools cannot do it alone. there is work we need to do on an economic development and housing and healthcare, but i know that my parents spend their lives at the new york city public school educators believe that school was at the heart of our promise of equality-- of opportunity for all americans. that's what they believe. that's what the president believes that's what arnie believes the mets would i feel privileged to work out with this amazing team have the department. every child in the united states, every college student, every disconnected youth, every working parent to just want more credit to improve their position at their job, everyone deserves that kind of opportunity that i had. every child deserves the opportunity that my beautiful daughters have to have a great education, the kind of education their grandparents worked to provide.

so grateful to my supportive wife, melissa. so grateful to the secretary for the opportunity he gave me to join his team an incredibly grateful to the presidents for that work with a wonderful group of people at the education department to expand opportunity. thank you. [applause]. >> thank you. [applause]. >> two good men doing really important work. so, i'm lucky to have them both as colleagues and friends and i'm looking forward to seeing you-- even more done in the next few months. we have other business to attend to.

so, all of you who are here to celebrate arnie and john you're lucky enough not to have to sit through a little bit of a press conference with me. [laughter] >> so, make yourselves comfortable. [laughter] >> i warned the kids ahead of time to read i said try not to look completely bored. [laughter] >> 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 our business created another 118,000 new jobs in september, which means that we now have had 67 straight month of job creation, 13.2 million new jobs in all. an unemployment rate that has fallen from a high of 10% down to 5.1% in these long-term trends are obviously good news particularly for every american waking up each morning and heading off to a new job.

but, we would be doing even better if we didn't have to keep on 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 on our exports, which was a major driver of growth forest particularly at the beginning of the recovery. so, our own growth could slow if congress does not do away with some of the counterproductive 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 there enough votes in both parties to pass a last-minute bill to give 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. i have said this before and i want to repeat its. this is not a way that united states should be operating. often times i hear from folks up on capitol hill 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. we keep our own house in order and we pass budgets and we can

engage in long term planning and we can invest in the things that are important for the future. that's us leadership. when we fail to do that, we diminish us leadership. is not how we are supposed to operate. we cannot just keep on ticking down the road without solving any problems or doing any long-term planning for the future. as true for our military, our domestic programs, the american people, american families deserve better and we can grow faster in and the economy can improve if congress acts with dispatch. it will get worse if they don't. that's why want to be a clear. i will not sign another shortsighted spending bill like the one congress sent me this week. we purchased ourselves 10 additional weeks and we need to use them effectively. keep in mind that a few years ago both parties put in place harmful automatic cuts that make no distinction between spending

we don't need 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 didn't happen. so, now these cuts that have been maintained have been keeping our economy from growing faster. it's time to undo them. if we don't, then we will have to find our economic and national security priorities in 2016 at the same levels we did in 2006. understand, during the decade between 2006 and 2016, re economy has grown by 12%. our population has grown by 8%. w