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Transcript of July Democratic Debate 2nd Round Night 1: Full Transcript July 30, 2019 [1]
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Date: 2022-07
We also have a full transcript of the Democratic Debates, Night 2 on July 31, 2019 with Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and more
Jake Tapper: (00:03)
Welcome back to the CNN Democratic Presidential Debate. Candidates, we’re about to begin opening statements, but first overview of the ground rules that your campaigns agreed to earlier this month to ensure a fair debate. As moderators, we will attempt to guide the discussion.
Jake Tapper: (00:17)
You will each receive one minute to answer questions, 30 seconds for responses in rebuttals and 15 additional seconds if a moderator asks for a clarification. The timing lights will remind you of these limits. Please respect that and please refrain from interrupting your fellow candidates during their allotted time.
Jake Tapper: (00:35)
A candidate infringing on another candidate’s time will have his or her time reduced. We also want to ask our audience inside the historic Fox theater to remain silent when the candidates are actively debating. The candidates need to be able to hear the questions and hear one another
Diana: (00:52)
Time now for opening statements, you’ll each receive one minute. Governor Steve Bullock, please begin.
Steve Bullock: (00:58)
Thanks Diana. I come from a state where a lot of people voted for Donald Trump. Let’s not kid ourselves. He will be hard to beat. Yet watching that last debate, folks seem more concerned about scoring points or are doing each other with wishlist economics.
Steve Bullock: (01:15)
Then making sure Americans know we hear their voices and it will help their lives. Look, I’m a pro choice, pro union, populist Democrat, that won three elections in a red state. Not by compromising our values, but by getting stuff done. That’s how we win back the places we lost.
Steve Bullock: (01:35)
Showing up, listening, focusing on the challenges of every day Americans. That farmers are getting hit right now by Trump’s trade wars, that teacher work in a second job just to afford her insulin. They can’t wait for revolution. Their problems are on the here and now.
Steve Bullock: (01:55)
I’m a progressive. Emphasis on progress and I’m running for president to get stuff done for all of those Americans Washington has left behind.
Diana: (02:04)
Marianne Williamson.
Marianne W.: (02:05)
Thank you. In 1776 our founders brought forth on this planet an extraordinary new possibility. It was the idea that people, no matter who they were, would simply have the possibility of thriving. We have not ever totally actualized this ideal, but at the times when we have done best, we have tried.
Marianne W.: (02:26)
And when forces have opposed them, generations of Americans have risen up and pushed back against those forces. We did that with abolition and with women’s suffrage and with civil rights and now it is time, a generation of Americans to rise up again.
Marianne W.: (02:41)
For an amoral economic system has turned short term profits for huge multinational corporations into a false god and this new false god takes precedence over the safety and the health and the wellbeing of we, the American people and the people of the world and the planet on which we live. Conventional politics will not solve this problem because conventional politics is part of the problem. We, the American people must rise up and do what we do best and create a new possibility. Say no to what we don’t want and yes to what we know can be true.
Marianne W.: (03:17)
I’m Marianne Williamson and that’s why I’m running for president.
Diana: (03:20)
Congressman John Delaney.
John Delaney: (03:22)
Folks, we have a choice. We can go down the road that Senator Sanders and Senator Warren want to take us with bad policies like Medicare for All, free everything and impossible promises that’ll turn off independent voters and get Trump reelected. That’s what happened with McGovern. That’s what happened with Mondale.
John Delaney: (03:42)
That’s what happened with Dukakis. Or we can nominate someone with new ideas to create universal healthcare for every American with choice. Someone who wants to unify our country and grow the economy and create jobs everywhere and then we win the White House. I’m the product of the American Dream.
John Delaney: (04:01)
I believe in it. I’m the grandson of immigrants, the son of a construction worker. My wife April, and I have four amazing daughters. I was the youngest CEO in the history of the New York Stock Exchange, created thousands of jobs and then served in Congress.
John Delaney: (04:15)
That’s the type of background and my platform is about real solutions, not impossible promises that can beat Trump and govern. Thank you.
Diana: (04:24)
Congressman Tim Ryan.
Tim Ryan: (04:26)
America is great, but not everyone can access America’s greatness. The systems that were built to lift us up are now suffocating the American people. The economic system that used to create 30, 40, $50 an hour jobs that you can have a good solid middle-class living, now force us to have two or three jobs just to get by.
Tim Ryan: (04:53)
Most families when they go to sit at the kitchen table to do their bills, they get a pit in the middle of their stomach. We deserve better. And the political system is broken too because the entire conversation is about left or right. Where are you at on the political system and I’m here to say this isn’t about left or right.
Tim Ryan: (05:14)
This is about new and better. And it’s not about reforming old systems. It’s about building new systems and tonight I will offer solutions that are bold, that are realistic and that are a clean break from the past.
Diana: (05:32)
Governor John Hickenlooper.
John H.: (05:35)
Last year, Democrats flipped 40 Republican seats in the house and not one of those 40 Democrats supported the policies of our front runners at center stage. Now I share their progressive values, but I’m a little more pragmatic. I was out of work for two whole years until I started what became the largest brew club in America.
John H.: (05:58)
And I learned the small business lessons of how to provide service and teamwork and became a top mayor. And as governor of Colorado created the number one economy in the country, we also expanded healthcare, reproductive rights. We attacked climate change head on, we beat the NRA. We did not build massive government expansions.
John H.: (06:19)
Now, some will promise that we’ll tonight or a plan for tonight. Where we focused on was making sure that we got people together to get things done, to provide solutions to problems, to make sure that we worked together and created jobs. That’s how we’re going to beat Donald Trump. That’s how we’re going to win Michigan and the country.
Diana: (06:41)
Senator Amy Klobuchar.
Amy Klobuchar: (06:43)
Let’s get real. Tonight we debate, but ultimately we have to beat Donald Trump. My background, it’s a little different than his. I stand before you today as a granddaughter of an iron ore miner, as a daughter of a union teacher and a newspaper man.
Amy Klobuchar: (06:59)
As the first woman elected to the US Senate from the state of Minnesota and a candidate for president of the United States. That’s because we come from a country of shared dreams and I have had it with the racist attacks. I have had it with a president that says one thing on TV, that has your back and then you get home and you see those charges for prescription drugs and cable and college.
Amy Klobuchar: (07:22)
You’re going to hear a lot of promises up here, but I’m going to tell you this. Yes, I have bold ideas, but they are grounded in reality and yes, I will make some simple promises. I can win this. I’m from the Midwest and I have won every race, every place, every time, and I will govern with integrity, the integrity worthy of the extraordinary people of this nation.
Diana: (07:46)
Congressman Beto O’Rourke,
Beto O’Rourke: (07:50)
I’m running for president because I believe that America discovers its greatness at its moments of greatest need. This moment will define us forever and I believe that in this test, America will be redeemed. In the face of cruelty and fear from a lawless president, we will choose to be the nation that stands up for the human rights of everyone, for the rule of law for everyone.
Beto O’Rourke: (08:16)
And a democracy that serves everyone. Whatever our differences, we know that before we are anything else, we are Americans first. And we will ensure that each one of us is well enough and educated enough and paid enough to realize our full potential. We will meet these challenges here at home and we will lead the world in those that we face abroad.
Beto O’Rourke: (08:40)
Successfully confronting endless war and climate change. At this moment of truth, let us pursue our national promise and make a more perfect union of everyone, by everyone and for everyone.
Diana: (08:56)
Mayor Pete Buttigieg.
Pete Buttigieg: (08:58)
I’m running for president because our country is running out of time. It is even bigger than the emergency of the Trump presidency. Ask yourself how somebody like Donald Trump ever gets within cheating distance as the Oval Office in the first place. It doesn’t happen unless America is already in a crisis.
Pete Buttigieg: (09:17)
An economy that’s not working for everyone, endless war, climate change. We have lived this. In my industrial Midwestern hometown, my generation has lived this as long as we have been alive. And it’s only accelerated. Science tells us we have 12 years before we reach the horizon of catastrophe when it comes to our climate.
Pete Buttigieg: (09:37)
By 2030 the average house in this country will cost half a million bucks and a woman’s right to choose may not even exist. We’re not going to be able to meet this moment by recycling the same arguments, policies, and politicians that have dominated Washington for as long as I have been alive.
Pete Buttigieg: (09:56)
We’ve got to summon the courage to walk away from the past and do something different. This is our shot. That is why I’m running for president.
Diana: (10:05)
Senator Elizabeth Warren.
Elizabeth W.: (10:07)
Donald Trump disgraces the office of president every single day. And anyone on this stage tonight or tomorrow night would be a far better president. I promise no matter who our candidate is, I will work my heart out to beat Donald Trump and to elect a democratic Congress, but all problems didn’t start with Donald Trump.
Elizabeth W.: (10:31)
Donald Trump is part of a corrupt, rigged system that has helped the wealthy and the well connected and kicked dirt in the faces of everyone else. We’re not going to solve the urgent problems that we face with small ideas and spinelessness. We’re going to solve them by being the Democratic Party of big structural change.
Elizabeth W.: (10:56)
We need to be the party that fights for our democracy and our economy to work for everyone. I know what’s broken in this country. I know how to fix it, and I will fight to make it happen.
Diana: (11:12)
Senator Bernie Sanders.
Bernie Sanders: (11:14)
Tonight, in America as we speak, 87 million Americans are uninsured or under-insured, but the healthcare industry made a $100 billion in profits last year. Tonight, as we speak right now, 500,000 Americans are sleeping out on the street, and yet companies like Amazon that made billions in profits, did not pay one nickel in federal income tax.
Bernie Sanders: (11:44)
Tonight, half of the American people are living paycheck to paycheck, and yet 49% of all new income goes to the top 1%. Tonight, the fossil fuel industry continues to receive 100s of billions of dollars in subsidies and tax breaks while they destroy this planet.
Bernie Sanders: (12:09)
We have got to take on Trump’s racism, his sexism, xenophobia, and come together in an unprecedented grassroots movement to not only defeat Trump, but to transform our economy and our government.
Jake Tapper: (12:26)
Thank you, Senator Sanders. Let’s start the debate with the number one issue for Democratic voters, healthcare. And Senator Sanders, let’s start with you. You support Medicare for All, which would eventually take private health insurance away for more than 150 million Americans in exchange for government sponsored healthcare for everyone.
Jake Tapper: (12:45)
Congressman Delaney just referred to it as bad policy and previously he has called the idea political suicide that will just get president Trump reelected. What do you say to Congressman Delaney?
Bernie Sanders: (12:57)
You’re wrong. Right now we have a dysfunctional healthcare system, 87 million uninsured or under-insured, 500,000 Americans every year going bankrupt because of medical bills. 30,000 people dying while the healthcare industry makes tens of billions of dollars in profit.
Bernie Sanders: (13:25)
Five minutes away from here John is a country. It’s called Canada. They guarantee health care to every man, woman, and child as a human right. They spend half of what we spent. And by the way, when you end up in a hospital in Canada, you come out with no bill at all. Healthcare is a human right, not a privilege.
Bernie Sanders: (13:47)
I believe that, I will fight for that.
Jake Tapper: (13:49)
Thank you Senator Sanders. Congressman Delaney.
John Delaney: (13:52)
Well, I’m right about this. We can create a universal healthcare system to give everyone basic healthcare for free and I have a proposal to do it. But we don’t have to go around and be the party of subtraction and telling half the country who has private health insurance that their health insurance is illegal.
John Delaney: (14:07)
My Dad, the union electrician, loved the healthcare he got from the IBEW. He would never want someone to take that away. Half of Medicare beneficiaries now have Medicare advantage, which is private insurance or supplemental plans. It’s also bad policy. It’ll underfund the industry.
Jake Tapper: (14:24)
Thank you Congressman.
John Delaney: (14:24)
Many hospitals will close and it’s bad policy.
Jake Tapper: (14:26)
Senator Sanders, I want to-
Elizabeth W.: (14:29)
My name was also mentioned in this-
Jake Tapper: (14:29)
We’re going to come to you in one second, but let me go to Senator Sanders right now. Senator Sanders.
Bernie Sanders: (14:33)
The fact of the matter is tens of millions of people lose their health insurance every single year when they change jobs, when their employer changes that insurance. If you want stability in the health care system, if you want a system which gives you freedom of choice with regard to doctor or hospital.
Bernie Sanders: (14:53)
Which is a system which will not bankrupt you, the answer is to get rid of the profiteering of the drug companies-
Jake Tapper: (15:01)
[crosstalk 00:15:00].
Bernie Sanders: (15:01)
And the insurance companies-
Jake Tapper: (15:02)
Thank you sir.
Bernie Sanders: (15:03)
… [crosstalk 00:15:02]-
Elizabeth W.: (15:03)
[crosstalk 00:15:03].
John Delaney: (15:04)
But now he’s talking about a different issue. What I’m talking about is really simple. We should deal with the tragedy of the uninsured and give everyone healthcare as a right, but why do we got to be the party of taking something away from?
Elizabeth W.: (15:14)
No. No one is the party-
Jake Tapper: (15:15)
[crosstalk 00:15:15].
John Delaney: (15:15)
That’s what they’re running on. They’re running on telling half the country that your health insurance is illegal. It says it right in the bill. We don’t have to do that. We can give everyone healthcare and allow people to have choice. That’s the American way.
Jake Tapper: (15:30)
Thank you, Congressman. Senator Warren.
Elizabeth W.: (15:31)
So look, let’s be clear about this. We are the Democrats. We are not about trying to take away healthcare from anyone. That’s what the Republicans are trying to do and we should stop using Republican talking points in order to talk with each other about how to best provide that health care.
Elizabeth W.: (15:51)
Now, I want to have a chance to tell the story about my friend Eddie Barkat. Eddie is 35 years old. He has a wife, Rachel. He has a cute little boy named Carl. He also has ALS and it’s killing him. And he has health insurance, good health insurance-
Jake Tapper: (16:08)
Senator.
Elizabeth W.: (16:08)
And it’s not nearly enough. [crosstalk 00:16:11] important-
Jake Tapper: (16:11)
Senator. I’m staying with you. I’m staying with you, but you’ve exceeded your time and so let me just stay with you on Medicare for All.
Elizabeth W.: (16:18)
All right.
Jake Tapper: (16:19)
At the last debate you said, your quote with Bernie on Medicare for All. Now Senator Sanders has said that people in the middle class will pay more in taxes to help pay for Medicare for All though that will be offset by the elimination of insurance premiums and other costs.
Jake Tapper: (16:34)
Are you also quote with Bernie on Medicare for All when it comes to raising taxes on middle class Americans to pay for it?
Elizabeth W.: (16:41)
So giant corporations and billionaires are going to pay more. Middle class families are going to pay less out of pocket for their health care. And I’d like to finish talking about Eddie, the guy who has ALS. This isn’t funny. This is somebody who has health insurance and is dying. And every month he has about $9,000 in medical bills that his insurance company won’t cover.
Elizabeth W.: (17:08)
His wife, Rachel is on the phone for hours and hours and hours begging the insurance company, “Please cover what the doctors say he needs.” He talks about what it’s like to go online with thousands of other people to beg friends, family and strangers for money so he can cover his medical expenses.
Elizabeth W.: (17:28)
The basic model of an insurance company has taken as much money as you can in premiums and pay out as little as possible in health care coverage. That is not working-
Jake Tapper: (17:41)
Thank you.
Elizabeth W.: (17:41)
… for American across this country-
Jake Tapper: (17:43)
Thank you Senator.
Elizabeth W.: (17:44)
Medicare for All will fix that and that’s why I will fight for it.
Jake Tapper: (17:46)
Thank you Senator. Just a point of clarification, in 15 extra seconds, would you raise taxes on the middle class to pay for Medicare for All? Offset obviously by the elimination of insurance premiums, yes or no?
Elizabeth W.: (17:57)
Costs will go up for billionaires and go up for corporations. For middle class families, cost-
Elizabeth W.: (18:03)
And go up for corporations. For middle class families, total costs will go down.
Jake Tapper: (18:06)
Governor Bullock, I want to bring you in. You do not support Medicare for All. How do you respond to Senator Warren?
Steve Bullock: (18:12)
No. Healthcare is so personal to all of us. Never forget when my 12-year old son had a heart attack within 24 hours of his life, had to be life-flighted to Salt Lake City, but because we had good insurance, he’s here with me tonight. At the end of the day, I’m not going to support any plan that rips away quality healthcare from individuals. This is an example of wishlist economics. It used to be just Republicans wanted to repeal and replace. Now, many Democrats do as well. We can get there with a public option, negotiating drug prices, ending-
Jake Tapper: (18:46)
Thank you, Governor Bullock. I want to bring in Mayor Buttigieg on the topic of whether or not the middle-class should pay higher taxes in exchange for guaranteed healthcare and the elimination of insurance premiums. How do you respond, Mayor?
Pete Buttigieg: (18:56)
So, we don’t have to stand up here speculating about whether the public option or a Medicare for All environment will be better than the corporate options. We can put it to the test. That’s the concept of my Medicare for All who want to proposal. That way, if people like me are right that the public alternative is going to be not only more comprehensive but more affordable than any of the corporate options around there, we’ll see Americans walk away from the corporate options into that Medicare option and it will become Medicare for All without us having to kick anybody off. [crosstalk 00:19:28]
Jake Tapper: (19:28)
15 seconds on the clarification. You are willing to raise taxes on middle-class Americans in order to have universal coverage with the disappearance of insurance premiums, yes or no?
Pete Buttigieg: (19:39)
I think you can buy into it. That’s the idea of Medicare for All who want it.
Pete Buttigieg: (19:43)
Look, this is a distinction without a difference whether you’re paying the same money in the form of taxes or premiums. Look. In this country, if you have health coverage… If you don’t have health coverage, you’re paying too much for care. And if you do have health coverage, you’re paying too much for the care. [crosstalk 00:19:56]
Jake Tapper: (19:55)
Thank you, Mayor Buttigieg. I want to bring in Congressman O’Rourke on the topic of whether the middle-class should pay higher taxes in exchange for universal coverage and the elimination of insurance premiums. What’s your response?
Beto O’Rourke: (20:04)
The answer is no. The middle-class will not pay more in taxes in order to ensure that every American is guaranteed world-class healthcare. I think we’re being offered a false choice. Some who want to improve the Affordable Care Act at the margins. Others who want a Medicare for All program that will force people off of private insurance. I have a better path, Medicare for America. Everyone who is uninsured is enrolled in Medicare tomorrow. Those who are insufficiently insured are enrolled in Medicare, and those who have employer-sponsored insurance- [crosstalk 00:20:38]
Beto O’Rourke: (20:38)
Jake, this is important.
Jake Tapper: (20:38)
Who’s offering a false choice here?
Beto O’Rourke: (20:40)
You have some, Governor Bullock, who said that we will improve the Affordable Care Act at the margins with a public option. You have others to my right who are talking about taking away people’s choice for the private insurance they have or members of unions. I was listening to D. Taylor in Nevada. His members want to healthcare that they fought for. [crosstalk 00:20:57]
Jake Tapper: (20:57)
Thank you, Congressman. Governor Bullock, he just said you’re offering false choice, sir.
Steve Bullock: (21:01)
Congressman, not at all. It took us decades and false starts to get the Affordable Care Act. So, let’s actually build on a public option allowing anyone to buy in. We pay more for prescription drugs than any place actually in the world. We’ve got nothing to show for it. Negotiate prescription drug prices, end surprise medical billing. That’s the way that we can get there without disrupting the lives of 160-million people that like their employer-sponsored health insurance.
Jake Tapper: (21:33)
Congressman O’Rourke, you can respond.
Beto O’Rourke: (21:34)
Every estimate that I’ve seen of expanding ACA even through a public option still leaves millions of people uninsured and also means that people are not guaranteed the health care that they need. As the examples that Senator Warren showed us, our plan ensures that everyone is enrolled in Medicare or can keep their employer-sponsored insurance.
Beto O’Rourke: (21:55)
When we listen to the American people and this is what they want us to do, they want everyone covered, but they want to be able to maintain choice and our plan does that.
Jake Tapper: (22:03)
Thank you, Congressman. I wanna bring in Senator Klobuchar. Senator Warren, at the beginning of the night, said that Democrats cannot win the White House with small ideas and spinelessness. In the last debate, she said the politicians who are not supporting Medicare for All simply lack the will to fight for it. You do not support Medicare for All. Is Senator Warren correct. Do you just not lack the will to fight for it?
Amy Klobuchar: (22:25)
That is incorrect. I just have a better way to do this. And in one of my first debates, Jake, I was called a street fighter from the iron range by my opponent. And when she said it, I said, “Thank you.” So, this is what I think we need to get done. We need the public option. That’s what Barack Obama wanted, and it would bring healthcare costs down for everyone. And by the way, I just don’t buy this. I’ve heard some of these candidates say that it’s somehow not moral to not have that public option. Well, Senator Sanders was actually on a public option bill last year and that was, Bernie, the Medicaid public option bill that Senator Schatz introduced. Clearly, this is the easiest way to move forward quickly, and I want to get things done. People can’t wait. I’ve got my friend, Nicole, out there whose son was actually died trying to ration his insulin as a restaurant manager and he died because he didn’t have the enough money to pay for it. And Bernie and I have worked on pharmaceutical [inaudible 00:23:23] together, and we can get that expensive- [crosstalk 00:23:25]
Jake Tapper: (23:24)
Thank you, Senator. Senator Sanders… I’m going to go to Senator Sanders and then Senator Warren as you both have mentioned. Senator Sanders.
Bernie Sanders: (23:29)
As the author of the Medicare bill, let me clear up one thing. If People talk about how the insurance, there are millions of people have insurance, they can’t go to the doctor. And when they come out of the hospital, they go bankrupt. All right? What I am talking about and others up here are talking about is no deductibles and no co-payments. And Jake, your question is a Republican talking point. At the end of the day… And by the way, the healthcare industry will be advertising tonight on this program.
Jake Tapper: (24:05)
Thank you, Senator. Senator Warren, it’s your turn.
Bernie Sanders: (24:07)
Oh. Could I complete that, please?
Jake Tapper: (24:09)
Your time was up, 30 sends.
Bernie Sanders: (24:10)
They will be advertising tonight with that talking point.
Jake Tapper: (24:13)
Senator Warren.
Elizabeth W.: (24:15)
So, we have to think of this in terms of the big frame. What’s the problem in Washington? It works great for the wealthy. It works great for those who can hire armies of lobbyists and lawyers, and it keeps working great for the insurance companies and the drug companies. What it’s going to take is real courage to fight back against them. These insurance companies do not have a god given right to make $23 billion in profits and suck it out of our healthcare system. They do not have a god given right to put forms in place so that people cannot… They want to deny coverage. [crosstalk 00:24:50]
Jake Tapper: (24:50)
Thank you, Senator. if we could all just stick to the rules of the time, that would be great. Congressman, Delaney.
John Delaney: (24:54)
I’m the only one on the stage who actually has experience in the healthcare business. And with all due respect, I don’t think my colleagues understand the business. We have the public option, which is great. [crosstalk 00:25:02]
Bernie Sanders: (25:02)
It’s not a business.
John Delaney: (25:03)
The public option is great, but it doesn’t go far enough. It doesn’t go far enough. I’m proposing universal healthcare where everyone gets healthcare as a basic human right for free, but they have choices. My plan, better care is fully paid for without raising middle-class tax options. So, when we think about this debate, there’s Medicare for All, which is extreme. [crosstalk 00:25:24]
Jake Tapper: (25:24)
Thank you, Congressman. Thank you, Congressman.
John Delaney: (25:24)
I was interrupted. One more thing.
Jake Tapper: (25:26)
I want to bring in Governor Hickenlooper. Governor Hickenlooper, I’d like to hear what you have to say about Senator Warren’s suggestion that those people on the stage who are not in favor of Medicare for All lack the political will to fight for it.
John H.: (25:38)
Well, obviously I disagree with that, as much as I respect both of the senators to my right. I think it comes down to that question of Americans being used to being able to make choices, to have the right to make a decision. And I think proposing a public option that allows some form of Medicare that maybe is a combination of Medicare Advantage and Medicare, that people choose it. And if enough people choose it, it expands, the quality improves, the cost comes down, more people choose it. Eventually, in 15 years, you could get there, but it would be an evolution, not a revolution.
Jake Tapper: (26:10)
Thank you, Governor. Senator Warren?
Elizabeth W.: (26:12)
We have tried this experiment with the insurance companies, and what they’ve done is they’ve sucked billions of dollars out of our healthcare system and they force people to have to fight to try to get the healthcare coverage that their doctors and nurses say that they need. Why does everybody… Why does every doctor… Why does every hospital have to fill out so many complicated forms? It’s because it gives insurance companies a chance to say no and to push that cost back on the patients. That’s what we have to fight.
Jake Tapper: (26:44)
Thank you, Senator. I want to bring in Marianne Williamson. Ms. Williamson, how do you respond to the criticism from Senator Warren that you’re not willing to fight for Medicare for All?
Marianne W.: (26:52)
I don’t know if Senator Warren said that about me, specifically. I admire very much what Senator Warren has said and what Bernie has said, but I have to say I have… I’m normally way over there with Bernie and Elizabeth on this one. I hear the others and I have some concern about that as well, and I do have concern about what the Republicans would say and that’s not just a Republican talking point. I do have concern that it will be difficult. I have concerns that it will make it harder to win and I have a concern that it will make it harder to govern because if that’s our big fight, then the Republicans will so shut us down on everything else. [crosstalk 00:27:26]
Jake Tapper: (27:26)
Thank you, Ms. Williamson. I want to bring in Mayor Buttigieg. Mayor Buttigieg, your response?
Pete Buttigieg: (27:28)
It is time to stop worrying about what the Republicans will say. Look, if it’s true that if we embrace a far left agenda, they’re going to say we’re a bunch of crazy socialists. If we embrace a conservative agenda, you know what they’re going to do? They’re going to say we’re a bunch of crazy socialists. So, let’s just stand up for the right policy, go out there and defend it. That’s the policy I’m putting forward, not because I think it’s the right triangulation between Republicans here and Democrats there, because I think it’s the right answer for people like my mother-in-law who is here whose life was saved by the ACA, but who was still far too vulnerable to the fact that the insurance industry does not care about her health. [crosstalk 00:28:04]
Jake Tapper: (28:03)
Thank you, Mayor Buttigieg.
Jake Tapper: (28:04)
Senator Sanders, your response?
Bernie Sanders: (28:05)
let’s be clear what this debate is about. Nobody can defend the dysfunctionality of the current system. What we are taking on is the fact that over the last 20 years, the drug companies and the insurance companies have spent four and a half billion dollars of your health insurance money on lobbying and campaign contributions. That is why when I went to Canada the other day, people paid 1/10 the price in Canada for insulin that they’re paying in the United States.
Jake Tapper: (28:38)
Thank you, Senator. I want to bring in Congressman Tim Ryan.
Jake Tapper: (28:39)
Congressman Ryan, your response?
Tim Ryan: (28:41)
So, here we are in Detroit, home of the united auto workers. We have all our union friends here tonight. This plan that’s being offered by Senator Warren and Senator Sanders will tell those union members who gave away wages in order to get good healthcare that they’re going to lose their healthcare because Washington’s going to come in and tell them they got a better plan. This is the left and right thing.
Tim Ryan: (29:02)
New and better is this. Move medicare down to 50. Allow people to buy in. Kaiser Permanente said that if those 60-million people do that, they will see a 40% reduction in their healthcare cost. Let businesses buy in, Jake… [crosstalk 00:29:19]
Jake Tapper: (29:18)
Thank you, Congressman. So, Senator, let’s talk about that. If Medicare for All is enacted, there are more than 600,000 union members here in Michigan who would be forced to give up their private healthcare plans. Now, I understand that it would provide universal coverage, but can you guarantee those union members that the benefits under Medicare for All will be as good as the benefits that their representatives, their union reps fought hard to negotiate?
Bernie Sanders: (29:42)
Well, two things. They will be better because Medicare for All is comprehensive. It covers all healthcare needs. For senior citizens, it will finally include dental care, hearing aids and eyeglasses. [crosstalk 00:11:53]
Tim Ryan: (29:54)
But you don’t know that.
Bernie Sanders: (29:55)
Second of all…
Tim Ryan: (29:56)
You don’t know that, Bernie. [crosstalk 00:29:56]
Jake Tapper: (29:56)
We’ll come to you in a second, Congressman.
Bernie Sanders: (29:57)
I do know it. I wrote the damn bill. And second of all, many of our union brothers and sisters, nobody more pro-union than me up here, are now paying high deductibles and co-payments. And when we do Medicare for All, instead of having the company putting money into healthcare, they can get decent wage increases, which they’re not getting today. [crosstalk 00:30:21]
Jake Tapper: (30:21)
I want to bring in Congressman Ryan to respond to what Senator Sanders has said.
Tim Ryan: (30:24)
I mean, Senator Sanders does not know all of the union contracts in the United States. I’m trying to explain that these union members are losing their jobs. Their wages have been stagnating. The world is crumbling around them. The only thing they have is possibly really good healthcare, and the democratic message is going to be, “We’re going to go in and the only thing you have left, we’re going to take it and we’re going to do better.” I do not think that’s a recipe for success for us. It’s bad policy and it’s certainly bad politics.
Jake Tapper: (30:53)
Congressman Delaney?
John Delaney: (30:55)
So, the bill that Senator Sanders drafted by definition will lower quality in healthcare because it says specifically that the rates will be the same as current Medicare rates, and the data is clear. Medicare does not cover the cost of healthcare. It covers 80% of the cost of healthcare in this country, and private insurance covers 120%. So, if you start underpaying all the healthcare providers, you’re going to create a two-tier market where wealthy people buy their healthcare with cash and the people who are forced, like my dad, the union electrician, will have that healthcare plan taken away from him. They will be forced into and underfunded- [crosstalk 00:31:32]
Jake Tapper: (31:32)
Thank you, Congressman. I want to give Senator Sanders a chance to respond.
Bernie Sanders: (31:33)
All right. On the Medicare for All, the hospitals will save substantial sums of money because they’re not going to be spending a fortune doing billing and the other bureaucratic things that they have to do today. [crosstalk 00:31:46]
John Delaney: (31:45)
I’ve done the math. It doesn’t add up.
Bernie Sanders: (31:46)
Second of all, maybe you did that and made money off of healthcare, but our job is for a nonprofit healthcare system. Furthermore, when we say $500-billion a year by ending all of the incredible complexities that are driving every American crazy, trying to deal with the health insurance companies, hospitals will be better off than they are today. [crosstalk 00:32:09]
Jake Tapper: (32:08)
Thank you, Senator. Congressman Delaney, I want to let you have a chance to respond.
John Delaney: (32:11)
Listen. His math is wrong. That’s all I’m saying, that his math is wrong. It’s been well-documented that if all the bills were paid at Medicare rate, which is specifically… I think it’s in section 1200 of their bill, then many hospitals in this country would close. I’ve been going around rural America and I ask rural hospital administrators one question. ” If all your bills were paid at the Medicare rate last year, what would happen?” And they all look at me and say, “We would close.” But the question is, why do we have to be so extreme? Why can’t we just give everyone healthcare as a right and allow them to have choice? I’m starting to think this is not about healthcare. This is an anti-private sector strategy. [crosstalk 00:32:47]
Dana Bash: (32:49)
Thank you, Congressman. Thank you, Congressman. We’re going to move on. We’re going to move on to the issue of immigration now. There is widespread agreement on this stage on the need for immigration reform, a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, including dreamers, but there are some areas of disagreement.
Dana Bash: (33:05)
Mayor Buttigieg, you’re in favor of getting rid of the law that makes it a crime to come across the US border illegally. Why won’t that just encourage more illegal immigration?
Pete Buttigieg: (33:16)
When I’m President, illegally crossing the border will still be illegal. We can argue over the finer points of which parts of this ought to be handled by civil law and which parts ought to be handled by criminal law, but we’ve got a crisis on our hands. And it’s not just a crisis of immigration. It’s a crisis of cruelty and incompetence that has created a humanitarian disaster on our southern border. It is a stain on the United States of America.
Pete Buttigieg: (33:41)
Americans want comprehensive immigration reform and frankly, we’ve been talking about the same framework for my entire adult lifetime. Protections for dreamers, making sure that that we have a pathway to citizenship for the undocumented, cleaning up lawful immigration. We know what to do. We know the border security can be part of that package and we can still be a nation of laws. The problem is we haven’t had the will to get it done in Washington, and now we have a president who could fix it in a month because there is that bipartisan agreement, but he needs it to be a crisis rather than an achievement. That will end on my wall.
Dana Bash: (34:14)
Just a point of clarification. You did raise your hand in the last debate. You do want to do criminalize crossing the border- [crosstalk 00:34:21]
Pete Buttigieg: (34:21)
So, in my view, if fraud is involved, then that’s suitable for the criminal statute. If not, then it should be handled under civil law. These show of hands are exactly what is wrong with the way that this race is being- [crosstalk 00:34:32]
Dana Bash: (34:32)
We’re not going that here.
Pete Buttigieg: (34:33)
We appreciate that.
Steve Bullock: (34:34)
Thank you. Congressman O’Rourke. You live near the US Mexico border in El Paso. You disagree with Mayor Buttigieg on decriminalizing legal border crossings. Please respond.
Beto O’Rourke: (34:44)
I do. Because in my administration, after we have waived citizenship fees for green card holders, more than 9-million of our fellow Americans freed dreamers from any fear of deportation and stopped criminally prosecuting families and children for seeking asylum and refuge and for-profit detention in this country, and then assist those countries in Central America so that no family ever has to make that 2,000-mile journey. Then I expect that people who come here follow our laws and we reserve the right to criminally prosecute them if they do not.
Dana Bash: (35:17)
Thank you, Congressman. Senator Warren, you say the provision making illegal border crossings a crime is totally unnecessary. Please respond.
Elizabeth W.: (35:25)
So, the problem is that right now, the criminalization statute is what gives Donald Trump the ability to take children away from their parents. It’s what gives him the ability to lock up people at our borders. We need to continue to have border security and we can do that, but what we can’t do is not live our values. I’ve been down to the border. I have seen the mothers. I have seen the cages of babies. We must be a country that everyday lives our values, and that means we cannot make it a crime when someone comes here. [crosstalk 00:36:02]
Dana Bash: (36:02)
Thank you, Senator Warren. Just to clarify… Thank you, Senator. Just to clarify, would…
Elizabeth W.: (36:03)
… cannot make it a crime when someone comes here.
Dana Bash: (36:03)
Thank you, Senator. Just to clarify, would you decriminalize-
Elizabeth W.: (36:05)
Yes.
Dana Bash: (36:05)
… illegal border crossings?
Elizabeth W.: (36:07)
The point is not about criminalization. That has given Donald Trump the tool to break families apart.
Dana Bash: (36:14)
Thank you, Senator.
Elizabeth W.: (36:15)
We need-
Dana Bash: (36:16)
Governor Hickenlooper, your response?
John H.: (36:18)
Well, I agree that we need secure borders. There’s no question about that. And the frustration with what’s going on in Washington is they’re kicking the ball back and forth. Secure the borders. Make sure whatever law we have doesn’t allow children to be snatched from their parents and put in cages. How hard can that be? On the two debate nights, we’ve got 170 years of Washington experience. Somehow it seems like that should be fairly fixable.
Elizabeth W.: (36:42)
Well, and one way to fix it is to decriminalize. That’s the whole point. What we’re looking for here is a way to take away the tools-
Dana Bash: (36:51)
Thank you, Senator Warren.
Elizabeth W.: (36:52)
… that Donald Trump has used to break up families.
Dana Bash: (36:54)
Thank you, Senator Warren. Senator Klobuchar, your response?
Amy Klobuchar: (36:56)
I would say there is the will to change this in Congress. What’s missing is the right person in the White House. I believe that immigrants don’t diminish America, they are America. And if you want to do something about border security, you first of all change the rules so people can seek asylum in those northern triangle countries. Then you pass the bill, and what the bill will do is it’ll greatly reduce the deficit and give us some money for border security and for help processing the cases. And most of all, it will allow for a path to citizenship. Because this is not just about the border.
Dana Bash: (37:31)
Thank you.
Amy Klobuchar: (37:32)
Donald Trump wants to use these people as political pawns-
Dana Bash: (37:35)
Thank you, Senator Klobuchar.
Amy Klobuchar: (37:35)
… when we have people all over our country that simply want to work and obey the law.
Dana Bash: (37:39)
Thank you. Senator Sanders, you want to provide undocumented immigrants free healthcare and free college. Why won’t this drive even more people to come to the U.S. illegally?
Bernie Sanders: (37:48)
Because we’ll have the strong border protections. But the main point I want to make is that what Trump is doing through his racism and his xenophobia is demonizing a group of people. And as president, I will end that demonization. If a mother and a child walk thousands of miles on a dangerous path, in my view, they are not criminals. They are people fleeing violence.
Bernie Sanders: (38:17)
And I think the main thing that we’ve got to do, among many others, and Beto made this point, we’ve got to ask ourselves why are people walking 2,000 miles to a strange country where they don’t know the language? So, what we will do the first week we are in the White House is bring the entire hemisphere together, to talk about how we rebuild Hondouras-
Dana Bash: (38:38)
Thank you.
Bernie Sanders: (38:38)
… Guatemala, and El Salvador so people do not have to flee their own countries.
Dana Bash: (38:42)
Thank you, Senator. Governor Bullock, about two-thirds of Democratic voters and many of your rivals here for the nomination support giving health insurance to undocumented immigrants. You haven’t gone that far. Why not?
Steve Bullock: (38:54)
Look, I think this is the part of the discussion that shows how often these debates are detached from peoples’ lives. We got 100,000 people showing up at the border right now. If we decriminalize entry, if we give healthcare to everyone, we’ll have multiples of that. Don’t take my word. That was President Obama’s Homeland Security secretary that said that.
Steve Bullock: (39:15)
The biggest problem right now that we have with immigration is Donald Trump. He’s using immigration to not only rip apart families, but rip apart this country. We can actually get to the point where we have both safe borders, where we have a path to citizenship, where we have opportunities for dreamers. And you don’t have to decriminalize everything. What you have to do is have a president in there with the judgment and the decency to treat someone that comes to the border like one of our own.
Elizabeth W.: (39:49)
I’d just like to add on this.
Dana Bash: (39:51)
Senator, he just said your plan is unrealistic. How do you respond?
Elizabeth W.: (39:54)
I think that what we have to do, is we have to be an America that is clear about what we want to do with immigration. We need to expand legal immigration. We need to create a path for citizenship. Not just for dreamers, but for grandmas and for people who have been working here in the farms and for students who have overstayed their visas. We need to fix the prices at the border.
Elizabeth W.: (40:17)
And a big part of how we do that is we do not play into Donald Trump’s hands. He wants to stir up the crisis at the border, because that’s his overall message. It’s, if there’s anything wrong in your life, blame them.
Dana Bash: (40:30)
Thank you, Senator Warren. Governor Bullock, your response?
Steve Bullock: (40:32)
But you are playing into Donald Trump’s hands. The challenge isn’t that it’s a criminal offense to cross the border. The challenge is that Donald Trump is president and using this to rip families apart. A sane immigration system needs a sane leader. And we can do that without decriminalizing and providing healthcare for everyone. And it’s not me saying that. That’s Obama’s Homeland Security secretary that said you’ll cause further problems at the border, not making it better.
Elizabeth W.: (41:06)
What you’re saying is ignore the law. Laws matter. And it matters if we say our law is that we will lock people up who come here seeking refuge, who come here seeking asylum. That is not a crime. And as Americans, what we need to do is have a sane system that keeps us safe at the border, but not criminalize the-
Dana Bash: (41:32)
Thank you, Senator Warren.
Elizabeth W.: (41:33)
… activity of a mother fleeing here for safety.
Dana Bash: (41:34)
Thank you. Congressman Ryan, are Senator Sanders’ proposals going to incentivize undocumented immigrants to come into this country illegally?
Tim Ryan: (41:42)
Yes. And right now, if you want to come into the country, you should at least ring the doorbell. We have asylum laws. I saw the kids up in Grand Rapids, not far from here. It is shameful what’s happening, but Donald Trump is doing it. And even if you decriminalize, which we should not do, you still have statutory authority, the president could still use his authority to separate families. So, we’ve got to get rid of Donald Trump, but you don’t decriminalize people just walking into the United States.
Tim Ryan: (42:12)
If they’re seeking asylum, of course, we want to welcome them. We’re a strong enough country to be able to welcome them. And as far as the healthcare goes, undocumented people can buy healthcare, too. I mean, everyone else in America is paying for their healthcare. I don’t think it’s a stretch for us to ask undocumented people in the country to also pay for healthcare.
Dana Bash: (42:33)
Senator Sanders, your response?
Bernie Sanders: (42:34)
Well, two things. A sane immigration policy moves the comprehensive immigration reform. It moves to humane border policy, in which by the way, we have enough administrative judges so that we don’t have incredible backlogs that we have right now.
Bernie Sanders: (42:53)
But to answer your question, I happen to believe that when I talk about healthcare, it is a human right that applies to all people in this country. And under a Medicare for all single-payer system, we could afford to do that.
Dana Bash: (43:07)
Senator Sanders, thank you. Ms. Williamson, your response?
Ms. Williamson: (43:10)
Everything that we’re talking about here tonight is what’s wrong with American politics. And the Democratic Party needs to understand that we should be the party that talks not just about symptoms, but also about causes. When we’re talking about healthcare, we need to talk about more than just the healthcare plan. We need to realize we have a sickness care rather than a healthcare system. We need to be the party talking about why so many of our chemical policies and our food policies and our agricultural policies and our environmental policies and even our economic policies are leading for people getting sick to begin with.
Don Lemon: (43:38)
Thank you.
Ms. Williamson: (43:38)
That’s what the Democratic… But I want to say more about immigration-
Don Lemon: (43:41)
Thank you, Ms. Williamson.
Ms. Williamson: (43:42)
Okay.
Don Lemon: (43:42)
Thank you Ms. Williamson.
Ms. Williamson: (43:43)
I hope you’ll come back to me this time.
Don Lemon: (43:43)
Go ahead. Thank you Ms. Williamson. Let’s turn now to the issue of gun violence. There were three large scale shootings this past weekend in America, at a park in Brooklyn, on the streets of Philadelphia, and one that left three dead and 12 injured at a food festival in Gilroy, California. Mayor Buttigieg, other than offering words of comfort, what are you specifically going to do to stop this epidemic of gun violence?
Pete Buttigieg: (44:07)
Well, this epidemic of gun violence has hit my community, too, far too many times. That’s the worst part of being Mayor, getting the phone call, consoling grieving parents. We have a mass shootings worth of killings everyday in this country.
Pete Buttigieg: (44:23)
What we’re doing hasn’t worked, because we haven’t had a system in Washington capable of delivering what the American people have told us they want. 90% of Republicans want universal background checks, not to mention the common sense solutions like red flag laws that disarm domestic abusers and flag mental health risks. And an end to assault weapons, things like what I carried overseas in uniform, that have no business in American neighborhoods in peacetime, let alone anywhere near a school.
Pete Buttigieg: (44:51)
I was at an event a few days ago, and a 13 year old asked me what we were going to do about school safety, and then began shaking, and then began crying. And we could talk about these policies, but we already know the policies. The only thing I could think of looking into the eyes of this child is, we’re supposed to be dealing with this so you don’t have to. High school is hard enough without having to worry about whether you’re going to get shot.
Don Lemon: (45:16)
Thank you.
Pete Buttigieg: (45:16)
And when 90% of Americans to happen-
Don Lemon: (45:19)
Thank you, Mayor.
Pete Buttigieg: (45:19)
… and Washington can’t deliver-
Elizabeth W.: (45:20)
I disagree-
Don Lemon: (45:21)
Thank you, Mayor.
Pete Buttigieg: (45:21)
… we can’t expect the same-
Don Lemon: (45:21)
Thank you, Mayor.
Amy Klobuchar: (45:22)
I disagree.
Don Lemon: (45:22)
Governor Hickenlooper, your response, please?
Amy Klobuchar: (45:23)
I disagree with his diagnosis of the problem.
Don Lemon: (45:23)
Please standby, Senator. Please stick to the rules. We’ll get to you. We’ll come to you in just a minute. Governor Hickenlooper, please respond.
John H.: (45:30)
Well, this is the fundamental nonsense of government, another place where despite our best efforts, we can’t seem to make any progress. When I went to the movie theater in Aurora in 2012 and saw that footage of what happened in the crime scene, I’ll never forget it. And we decided that we were going to go out and take on the NRA, and we passed as a purple state. We passed universal background checks. We limited magazine capacity. We did the basic work that for whatever reason, doesn’t seem to be able to get done in Washington.
Don Lemon: (46:05)
Thank you, Governor. Senator Klobuchar, please respond.
Amy Klobuchar: (46:06)
Yes. This isn’t just about a system, or it’s not just about words. This is about the NRA. I sat across from the President of the United States after Parkland, because I’ve been a leader on these issues and have the bill to close the boyfriend loophole. And I watched and wrote down when nine times he said he wanted universal background checks. The next day, he goes and he meets with the NRA and he folds. As your president, I will not fold. I will make sure that we get universal background checks passed, the assault weapon ban, that we do something about magazines, and that we understand when that little six year old boy died, Steven Romero, when his dad said, “He’s only six years old.”
Don Lemon: (46:49)
Thank you, Senator.
Amy Klobuchar: (46:49)
All I can say is he’s six years old. We have to remember that.
Don Lemon: (46:53)
Mayor Buttigieg, please respond.
Pete Buttigieg: (46:53)
This is the exact same conversation we’ve been having since I was in high school. I was a junior when the Columbine shooting happened. I was part of the first generation that saw routine school shootings. We have now produced the second school shooting generation in this country. We dare not allow there to be a third. Something is broken. If it is even possible for the same debate around the same solutions that we all know are the right thing to do… They won’t prevent every incident, they won’t save every life, but we know what to do and it has not happened.
Don Lemon: (47:25)
Thank you, Mayor. Senator Klobuchar, please respond.
Amy Klobuchar: (47:27)
Yes. What is broken is a political system that allows the NRA and other large big money to come in and make things not happen, when the majority of people are for. The people are with us now. After Parkland, those students just didn’t march. They talked to their dads and their grandpas and the hunters in their family and they said, “There must be a better way.” Then we elected people in the House of Representatives, and guess what? It changed and they passed universal background checks. And now that bill is sitting on Mitch McConnell’s doorstep because of the money and the power of the NRA. As president I will take them on.
Don Lemon: (48:00)
Thank you, Senator.
Amy Klobuchar: (48:01)
This is not about systems and words.
Don Lemon: (48:03)
Thank you, Senator Klobuchar. Governor Bullock, how can Democrats trust you to be the leader on this fight for gun safety when you only changed your position to call for an assault weapons ban last summer?
Steve Bullock: (48:15)
Well, like 40% of American households, I’m a gun owner. I hunt. Like far too many people in America, I’ve been personally impacted by gun violence. I had an 11 year old nephew, Jeremy, shot and killed on a playground. We need to start looking at this as a public health issue, not a political issue.
Steve Bullock: (48:37)
I agree with Senator Klobuchar. It is the NRA. And it’s not just gun violence. It’s when we talk about climate, when we’re talking about prescription drug costs, Washington D.C. is captured by dark money, the Coke Brothers, and others. That’s been the fight of my career. Kicking the Coke Brothers out of Montana, taking the first case after Citizens United up to the Supreme Court, making it so that elections are about people.
Steve Bullock: (49:02)
That’s the way we’re actually going to make a change on this, Don, is by changing that system and most of the things that people are talking about on this stage. We’re not going to address until we kick dark money and the posters of united corporate spending out of these elections.
Don Lemon: (49:17)
Congressman O’Rourke, your response?
Beto O’Rourke: (49:20)
How else can we explain that we lose nearly 40,000 people in this country to gun violence? A number that no other country comes even close to, that we know what all the solutions are and yet nothing has changed? It is because in this country, money buys influence, access, and increasingly, outcomes.
Beto O’Rourke: (49:38)
The Centers of Disease Control prevented from actually studying the issue in the first place. As president, we will make sure that we ban political action committee contributions to any member of Congress or any candidate for federal office. We will listen to people, not packs. People, not corporations. People, not special interests.
Don Lemon: (49:57)
Congressman, thank you very much. Senator Sanders, you said this in 2013, just months after the Sandy Hook Massacre, and I quote here, “If you pass the strongest gun control legislation tomorrow, I don’t think it will have a profound affect on the tragedies we have seen.” Do you still agree with that statement today?
Bernie Sanders: (50:13)
I think we have got to do… I think what I meant is what President Obama said, and that nobody up here is going to tell you that we have the magical solution to the crisis. Now I come from one of the most rural states in America. I have a D-minus voting record from the NRA. And as president, I suspect it will be an F record.
Bernie Sanders: (50:33)
What I believe we have got to do is have the guts to finally take on the NRA. You asked me about my record. Back in 1988, coming from a state that had no gun control, I called for the ban of the sale and distribution of assault weapons. I lost that election. I will do everything I can, not only to take on the NRA, but to expand in great universal background checks, do away with the strong man provision, do away with the gun show loophole, and do away with the loopholes that now exist for gun manufacturers who are selling large amounts of weapons into communities that are going to gangs.
Don Lemon: (51:12)
Mayor Buttigieg, your response?
Pete Buttigieg: (51:13)
It’s still the conversation that we’ve been having for the last 20 years. Of course we need to get money of out politics, but when I propose the actual structural Democratic reforms that might make a difference, end the Electoral College, amend the Constitution if necessary to clear up Citizens United, have D.C. actually be a state and depoliticize the Supreme Court with structural reform, people look at me funny, as if this country were incapable of structural reform.
Pete Buttigieg: (51:38)
Does anybody really think we’re going to overtake Citizens United without Constitutional action? This is a country that once changed its Constitution so you couldn’t drink and then changed it back because we changed our minds about that.
Don Lemon: (51:48)
Thank you. Thank you, Mayor.
Pete Buttigieg: (51:49)
And you’re telling me we can’t reform our Democracy in our time?
Don Lemon: (51:51)
Thank you, Mayor.
Pete Buttigieg: (51:52)
We have to or we’ll be having the same argument 20 years from now.
Don Lemon: (51:55)
Please respond, Governor Bullock.
Steve Bullock: (51:57)
You can make changes. Even in Montana with a two-thirds Republican legislature, we passed a law that said, “If you’re going to spend money in our elections, I don’t care if you call yourselves Americans for America, you’re going to have to disclose every one of those dollars in the last 90 days.” I’ll never forget running for reelection in 2016, even we stopped the Coke Brothers from spending it that time. If we can kicked the Coke Brothers out of Montana, we can do it in D.C., we can do it everywhere. And we’re also taking steps, additional steps that we’ve taken… I passed an executive order-
Don Lemon: (52:31)
Thank you.
Steve Bullock: (52:31)
Even if you’re in a contract with the state, you have to disclose-
Don Lemon: (52:32)
Governor Bullock, thank you very much.
Elizabeth W.: (52:33)
I’d like to have a chance on this.
Don Lemon: (52:35)
Ms. Williamson, how do you respond on this issue of gun safety?
Ms. Williamson: (52:36)
The issue of gun safety, of course, is that the NRA has us in a choke hold. But so do the pharmaceutical companies, so do the health insurance companies, so do the fossil fuel companies, and so do the defense contractors. And none of this will change until we either pass a Constitutional amendment or pass legislation that establishes public funding for federal campaigns.
Ms. Williamson: (52:54)
But for politicians, including my fellow candidates, who themselves have taken tens of thousands, in some cases hundreds of thousands of dollars from these same corporate donors, to think that they now have the moral authority to say we’re going to take them on, I don’t think the Democratic Party should be surprised that so many Americans believe yada, yada, yada. It is time for us to start over with people who have not taken donations from any of these corporations and can say with real moral authority, “That is over. We are going to establish public funding for federal campaigns.” That’s what we need to stand up to. We need to have a Constitutional amendment, we need to have legislation to do it.
Don Lemon: (53:31)
Thank you.
Ms. Williamson: (53:31)
And until we do it, it’s just the same old.
Don Lemon: (53:34)
Thank you, Ms. Williamson. The debate will be right back right after this short break.
Elizabeth W.: (53:39)
I’d like to be heard in this.
Jake Tapper: (00:00)
Presidential debate. We are live from Detroit, Michigan. In poll after poll, Democratic voters say that they want a candidate who can beat president Trump more than they want a candidate who agrees with them on major issues. Governor Hickenlooper, you ran a Facebook ad that warned quote, “Socialism is not the answer.” The ad also said quote, “Don’t let extremes give Trump four more years.” Are you saying that Senator Sanders is too extreme to beat president Trump?
John H: (00:32)
I’m saying the policies of this notion that you’re going to take private insurance away from 180 million Americans who, many of them, don’t want to give it. Many of them do want to get rid of it, but some don’t. Many don’t. Or you’re going to the Green New Deal, make sure that every American’s guaranteed a government job that they want. That is a disaster at the ballot box. You might as well FedEx the election of Donald Trump.
John H: (00:54)
I think we’ve got to focus on where Donald Trump is failing. The word malpractice, and this is interesting, I always thought it was doctors or lawyers. It’s negligent, improper, illegal professional activity for doctors, lawyers or public officials. Google it. Check it out. Donald Trump is malpractice personified. We’ve got to point that out. Why is it soybean farmers in Iowa did 10 good years to get back to where they were two years ago? Where’s the small manufacturing jobs that are supposed to come back? Why are we lurching from one international crisis to another? All things that he promised American voters. We’ve got to focus on that and the economy and jobs and training, so that we can promise a future for America that everybody wants to invest in.
Jake Tapper: (01:38)
Thank you governor. Senator Sanders, you are a proud democratic socialist. How do you respond to Governor Hickenlooper?
Bernie Sanders: (01:43)
Well, the truth is that every credible poll that I have seen has me beating Donald Trump, including the battleground states of Michigan, where I won the Democratic Primary, Wisconsin, where I won the Democratic primary, and Pennsylvania. And the reason we are going to defeat Trump and beat him badly, is that he is a fraud and a phony, and we’re going to expose him for what he is.
Bernie Sanders: (02:09)
The American people want to have a minimum wage, which is a living wage, 15 bucks an hour. I’ve helped lead that effort. The American people want to pay reasonable prices for prescription drugs, not the highest prices in the world. I’ve helped lead the effort for that as well.
Jake Tapper: (02:25)
Thank you senator. Governor Hickenlooper, I want to bring you back to respond.
John H: (02:28)
So, again, I think if we’re going to force Americans to make these radical changes, they’re not going to go along. Throw your hands up, but you haven’t-
Bernie Sanders: (02:37)
Okay.
John H: (02:37)
Oh, I can do it! But you haven’t implemented the plans. Us governors and mayors are the ones that, we have to pick up all the pieces when, suddenly, the government’s supposed to take over all these responsibilities, and there’s no preparation. The details don’t work. You can’t just spring a plan on the world and expect it to succeed.
Bernie Sanders: (02:55)
John?
Jake Tapper: (02:55)
Senator Sanders.
Bernie Sanders: (02:56)
John, I was a mayor, and I helped transform my city. I have some practical experience. Second of all, interestingly enough, today is the anniversary of Medicare. 54 years ago under Lyndon Johnson and a democratic congress, they started a new program. After one year, it had 19 million elderly people in it. Please don’t tell me that, in a four year period, we cannot go from 65 down to 55 to 45 to 35. This is not radical. This is what virtually every other country on Earth does.
Jake Tapper: (03:28)
Thank you senator.
Bernie Sanders: (03:30)
We are the odd guy out.
Jake Tapper: (03:30)
I want to bring in Congressman Ryan. You’re from the state of Ohio. It’s a state that voted twice for Obama and then went to president Trump in 2016. Please respond to Senator Sanders.
Tim Ryan: (03:40)
I would just say, Hillary Clinton was winning in the polls, too. To take a snapshot in the polls today and apply it 16 months from now, or whenever it is, I don’t think is accurate. Now, in this discussion already tonight, we’ve talked about taking private health insurance away from union members in the Industrial Midwest, we’ve talked about decriminalizing the border and we’ve talked about giving free healthcare to undocumented workers when so many Americans are struggling to pay for their healthcare.
Tim Ryan: (04:05)
I quite frankly don’t think that is an agenda that we can move forward on and win. We’ve got to talk about the working class issues, the people that take a shower after work, who haven’t had a raise in 30 years. If we focus on them, we’ll win the election.
Jake Tapper: (04:19)
Thank you, congressman. I want to bring in Congressman O’Rourke. Your response, sir.
Beto O’Rourke: (04:21)
Bernie was talking about some of the battleground states in which we compete. There’s a new battleground state, Texas, and it has 38 electoral college votes and the way that we put it in play was by going to each one of those 254 counties. No matter how red or rural, we did not write you off. No matter how blue or urban, we did not take you for granted, and we didn’t trim our sales either. We had the courage of our convictions, talking about universal healthcare, comprehensive immigration reform, and confronting the challenge of climate before it is too late. We brought everyone in, and now we have a chance to beat Donald Trump in Texas.
Jake Tapper: (04:55)
Thank you. Thank you, congressman. I want to bring Governor Bullock. We’re talking about whether Democrats are moving too far to the left to win the White House. President Trump won your home state of Montana by 20 points. How do you respond, sir?
Steve Bullock: (05:05)
Yes. The only one of the field of 37 that actually won a Trump state. 25 to 30% of my voters voted for Donald Trump. I know that we do have to win back some of those places we lost and get those Trump voters back if we’re ever going to win. But this isn’t just a choice between the left and the center. It’s not a choice just between sort of these wishlist economics or thinking that we have to sacrifice our values to actually win.
Steve Bullock: (05:33)
What folks want is a fair shot. The way I won, the way we can win, is actually focusing on the economy and democracy not working for most people. That’s how I win. That’s how we can take back the office.
Jake Tapper: (05:43)
Thank you, governor. Senator Warren, you make it a point to say that you’re a capitalist. Is that your way of convincing voters that you might be a safer choice than Senator Sanders?
Elizabeth W: (05:51)
Well, it is my way of talking about I know how to fight and I know how to win. I took on giant banks and I beat them. I took on Wall Street and CEOs, and their lobbyists and their lawyers, and I beat them. I took on a popular Republican incumbent senator and I beat him. I remember when people said Barack Obama couldn’t get elected. Shoot, I remember when people said Donald Trump couldn’t get elected, but here’s where we are. I get it. There is a lot at stake and people are scared, but we can’t choose a candidate we don’t believe in just because we’re too scared to do anything else. And we can’t ask other people to vote for a candidate we don’t believe in. Democrats win when we figure out what is right, and we get out there and fight for it. I am not afraid. And for Democrats to win, you can’t be afraid either.
Jake Tapper: (06:51)
Congressman Delaney, your response.
John Delaney: (06:54)
So, I think Democrats win when we run on real solutions, not impossible promises, when we run on things that are workable, not fairytale economics. Look at this story of Detroit, this amazing city that we’re in. This city is turning around because the government and the private sector or working well together. That has to be our model going forward. We need to encourage collaboration between the government, the private sector and the nonprofit sector, and focus on those kitchen table, pocketbook issues that matter to hardworking Americans, building infrastructure, creating jobs, improving their pay.
Jake Tapper: (07:28)
Thank you, congressmen.
John Delaney: (07:29)
Creating universal healthcare and lowering drug prices. We can do it.
Jake Tapper: (07:31)
Senator Warren.
Elizabeth W: (07:32)
I don’t understand why anybody goes to all the trouble of running for president of the United States just to talk about what we really can’t do and shouldn’t fight for. I don’t get it. Our biggest problem in Washington is corruption. It is giant corporations that have taken our government and that are holding it by the throat, and we need to have the courage to fight back against that. And until we’re ready to do that, it’s just more of the same. Well, I’m ready to get in this fight. I’m ready to win this fight.
John H: (08:08)
Thank you, senator. Congressman Delaney.
John Delaney: (08:10)
When we created Social Security, we didn’t say pensions were illegal. We can have big ideas to transform the lives. I mean, I started two companies and took them public before I was 40. I’m as big of a dreamer and an entrepreneur as anyone, but I also believe we need to have solutions that are workable. Can you imagine if we tried to start social security now, but said private pensions are illegal? That’s the equivalent of what Senator Sanders and Senator Warren are proposing with healthcare. That’s not a big idea. That’s an idea that’s dead on arrival. That will never happen. So, why don’t we actually talk about things, big ideas that we can get done. The stakes are too high.
John H: (08:48)
Thank you, congressman. Senator Warren.
John Delaney: (08:50)
So, look, he talks-
Bernie Sanders: (08:51)
He just mentioned plans-
Jake Tapper: (08:52)
We’ll come to you right after that. Senator Warren.
Elizabeth W: (08:54)
He talks about solutions that are workable. We have tried the solution of Medicare, Medicaid, and private insurance, and what have the private insurance companies done? They’ve sucked billions of dollars out of our healthcare system. They’ve made everybody fill out dozens and dozens of forms. Why? Not because they’re trying to track your healthcare. They just want one more excuse to say no. Insurance companies do not have a god given right to suck money out of our health care system, and 2020 is our chance to stop that.
Jake Tapper: (09:28)
Thank you, senator. Senator Sanders.
Bernie Sanders: (09:31)
Detroit was mentioned, and I’m delighted Detroit is rebounding. Let us understand. Detroit was nearly destroyed because of awful trade policy which allowed corporations to throw workers in this community out on the street as they moved to low wage countries. To win this election and to defeat Donald Trump, which by the way, in my view, is not going to be easy, we need to have a campaign of energy and excitement and of vision. We need to bring millions of young people into the political process in a way that we have never seen.
Jake Tapper: (10:04)
Thank you, senator.
Bernie Sanders: (10:05)
By, among other things, making public colleges and universities tuition free and canceling student debt.
Jake Tapper: (10:11)
Thank you, senator. Thank you, senator. I want to bring him senator Klobuchar. At the beginning of the night, you said you’re going to hear a lot of promises on the stage, and previously you have said, when asked about your primary opponents, quote, “A lot of people are making promises and I’m not going to make promises just to get elected.” Who on this stage is making promises just to get elected?
Amy Klobuchar: (10:36)
Everyone wants to get elected, but my point is this. I think when we have a guy in the White House that has now told over 10000 lies, that we better be very straight forward with the American people. And no, do I think that we are going to end up voting for a plan that kicks half of America off of their current insurance in four years? No, I don’t think we’re going to do that. I think there is a better way to get what we all want to see, which is lower costs for healthcare.
Amy Klobuchar: (11:04)
Do I think that we’re going to vote to give free college to the wealthiest kids? No, I don’t think we’re going to do that. So that’s what I’m talking about. But what I don’t like about this argument right now, what I don’t like about it at all, is that we are more worried about winning an argument than winning an election, and I think how we win in an election is to bring everyone with us. And yes, I have one in a state, every single time statewide, I have won those congressional districts that Donald Trump won by over 20 points. He just targeted Minnesota last week, and I’ve done it by getting out there and talking to people, by knowing rural issues and farm issues.
Jake Tapper: (11:44)
Thank you, Senator Klobuchar.
Amy Klobuchar: (11:44)
And bringing metro people with me in the state that had the highest voter turnout in the country. That’s what we want.
Jake Tapper: (11:49)
I want to bring Congressman O’Rourke. Congressman O’Rourke, please respond.
Beto O’Rourke: (11:53)
I think a big part of leadership and showing our commitment to the American people is delivering on our commitments. As a member of Congress, when I learned that the El Paso VA had the worst wait times for mental health care in the country, meaning that care delayed functionally became care denied, and was related to the suicide epidemic, we made it our priority and we turned around the VA in El Paso. We took that lesson nationally, and I worked with Republican and Democratic colleagues to expand mental health care to veterans, and we got it signed into law by the one person with whom I agree on almost nothing, Donald Trump. To show that, at the end of the day, we will put the American people first before party, before any other concern.
Dana Bash: (12:33)
Thank you, Congressman O’Rourke. We’ve been asking voters to weigh in on what they’d most like to hear Democrats debate. Among the topics they told us they’re most interested in, the climate crisis. Congressman Delaney, I’ll start with you. You say the Green New Deal is about as realistic as Trump saying Mexico was going to pay for the wall. But scientists say we need, essentially, to eliminate fossil fuel pollution by 2050 to avoid the most catastrophic consequences. Why isn’t this sweeping plan to fight the climate crisis…
Dana Bash: (13:03)
… why isn’t this sweeping plan to fight the climate crisis realistic?
John Delaney: (13:04)
Well first of all, because it ties its progress to other things that are completely unrelated to climate. Like universal healthcare, guaranteed government jobs and universal basic income. So that only makes it harder to do.
John Delaney: (13:15)
My plan, which gets us to net zero by 2050, which we absolutely have to do for our kids and our grandkids, will get us there. I put a price on carbon, take all the money, give it back to the American people in a dividend. That was introduced by me on a bipartisan basis. It’s the only significant bipartisan climate bill in the Congress. I’m going to increase the Department of Energy research budget by five-fold because we fundamentally have to innovate our way out of this problem. I’m going to create a market for something called direct air capture, which are machines that actually take carbon out of the atmosphere because I don’t think we’ll get to net zero by 2050 unless we have those things. I’m going to increase investment in renewables, and I’m going to create something called the Climate Corp. That is a plan that’s realistic. It’s a bet on the US private innovation economy and creates the incentives to get us to-
Dana Bash: (14:06)
Thank you.
John Delaney: (14:06)
… net zero by 2050 for our kids.
Dana Bash: (14:08)
Thank you. Thank you, Congressman. Senator Warren, you’re a co-sponsor of the Green New Deal. Your response to Congressman Delaney?
Elizabeth W: (14:13)
So climate crisis is the existential crisis for our world. It puts every living thing on this planet at risk. I have a plan for a green industrial policy that takes advantage of the fact that we do what we do best, and that is innovate and create. So I’ve proposed putting $2 trillion in so we do the research. We then say anyone in the world can use it so long as you build it right here in America. That will produce about 1.2 million manufacturing jobs right here in Michigan, right here in Ohio, right here in the industrial Midwest.
Elizabeth W: (14:50)
And the second thing we will do is we will then sell those products all around the world. Right now, for every $1, the United States-
Dana Bash: (14:59)
Thank you.
Elizabeth W: (14:59)
… spends trying to market around the world-
Dana Bash: (15:01)
Thank you, Senator Warren.
Elizabeth W: (15:02)
… China’s spending $100.
Dana Bash: (15:04)
Thank you, Senator Warren. Governor Hickenlooper, you take issue with the Green New Deal. Please respond.
John H: (15:08)
Well, I think the guarantee for a public job, for everyone who wants one, is a classic part of the problem. It’s a distraction. I share the urgency of every one up here. We have to recognize, I mean, everyone’s got good ideas. What we do in this country is no better than just a best practice, right? It’s what we do here is a best practice at a template, but it’s got to be done all over the world. So we’ve got to be building bridges right now with people like China who were cheating on international agreements and stealing intellectual property. We need to work on that, but not with the tariff system. We need every country working together if we’re going to really deal with climate change in a realistic way.
Dana Bash: (15:47)
Thank you. Senator Warren, your response?
Elizabeth W: (15:49)
Look, I put a real policy on the table. To create 1.2 million new jobs in green manufacturing. There’s going to be up $23 trillion worldwide market for this. This could revitalize huge cities across this country, and no one wants to talk about. What you want to do instead is find the Republican talking point of a made-up piece of some other part and say, “Oh, we don’t really have to do anything.” That’s the problem we’ve got in Washington right now. It continues-
Dana Bash: (16:22)
Thank you.
Elizabeth W: (16:23)
… to be a Washington that works great for oil companies, just not for people worried about climate change.
Dana Bash: (16:28)
Thank you, Senator Warren. Congressman Ryan?
Tim Ryan: (16:30)
Yeah.
Dana Bash: (16:30)
We are here in Michigan where there are about 180,000 workers in auto manufacturing. Your state of Ohio has around 96,000 workers in that industry. Senator Sanders is co-sponsoring a bill that would eliminate new gas power car sales by 2040. Given the number of auto manufacturing workers in your state, how concerned are you about Senator Sanders’ plan?
Tim Ryan: (16:53)
Well, if we get our act together, we won’t have to worry about it. My plan is to create a chief manufacturing officer so we could actually start making things in the United States again, that would pull the government, the Department of Energy, Department of Transportation, work with the private sector, work with investors, emerging tech companies to dominate the electric vehicle market. China dominates it now 50 to 60%. I want us to dominate the battery market and make those here in the United States and cut the workers in on the deal. The charging stations, solar panels, same thing. China dominates 60% of the solar panel market.
Tim Ryan: (17:25)
So this person will work in the White House, report directly to me, and we’re going to start making things again. But you cannot get there on climate unless we talk about agriculture. We need to convert our industrial agriculture system, over to a sustainable and regenerative agriculture system-
Female: (17:42)
I agree.
Tim Ryan: (17:42)
… that actually sequesters carbon into the soil. And you can go ask Gabe Brown and Allen Williams who actually make money off of regenerative agriculture, so we can move away from all the subsidies that we’re giving to farmers. They haven’t made a profit in five years, and we could start getting good food into our schools and into our communities. That’s going to drive healthcare down. That’s another part of the healthcare conversation-
Dana Bash: (18:07)
Thank you.
Tim Ryan: (18:07)
… that we didn’t even have. How do we start-
Dana Bash: (18:09)
Thank you, Congressman Ryan.
Tim Ryan: (18:10)
… talking about health instead of just disease care?
Dana Bash: (18:12)
Thank you. Senator Sanders, your response?
Bernie Sanders: (18:14)
I get a little bit tired of Democrats afraid of big ideas. Republicans are not afraid of big ideas. They could give $1 trillion in tax breaks to billionaires and profitable corporations. They could bail out the crooks on Wall Street. So please don’t tell me that we cannot take on the fossil fuel industry, and nothing happens unless we do that.
Bernie Sanders: (18:41)
Here is the bottom line. We got to ask ourselves a simple question. What do you do with an industry that knowingly, for billions of dollars in short-term profits, is destroying this planet? I say that it’s criminal activity-
Dana Bash: (18:57)
Thank you.
Bernie Sanders: (18:58)
… that cannot be allowed to continue.
Dana Bash: (18:59)
Thank you, Senator Sanders. Congressman, your response?
Tim Ryan: (19:01)
Well, yeah, I would just say … I didn’t say we couldn’t get there until 2040, Bernie. You don’t have to yell. I mean, all I’m saying is, all I’m saying is we have to invent our way out of this thing, and if we’re waiting for 2040 for a ban to come in on gasoline vehicles, we’re screwed. So we better get busy now, and that’s why I’m saying get a chief manufacturing officer, align the environmental incentives with the financial incentives and make sure that people can actually make money off of the new technologies that are moving forward. And then here’s what I’ll do as President.
Dana Bash: (19:36)
Thank you, Congressman.
Tim Ryan: (19:37)
Cut the worker in on the deal. Make sure these are union jobs, and I will double union membership to make sure that these new jobs pay what the old fossil fuel jobs pay.
Dana Bash: (19:45)
Senator Sanders, your response?
Bernie Sanders: (19:47)
Look, on this issue, my friends, there is no choice. We have got to be super aggressive, if we love our children and if we want to leave them a planet that is healthy and is habitable. So I don’t disagree with Tim. What that means is we got to A, take on the fossil fuel industry. B, it means we have to transform our energy system away from fossil fuel to energy efficiency and sustainable energy and a hell of a lot of good union jobs as we do that. We’ve got to transform our transportation system-
Dana Bash: (20:26)
Thank you, Senator.
Bernie Sanders: (20:26)
And we have to lead the world-
Dana Bash: (20:27)
Thank you, Senator Sanders.
Bernie Sanders: (20:29)
… because this is not just an American issue.
Dana Bash: (20:30)
Governor Bullock, your response?
Steve Bullock: (20:33)
All of us agree that we have to address climate change. No one on this stage is talking about though, the Republicans won’t even acknowledge that climate change is real, Dana. And that’s because of the corrupting influence of money. That has been the fight of my career.
Steve Bullock: (20:50)
And second of which, as we transition to this clean energy economy, you’ve got to recognize there are folks that have spent their whole life powering our country, and far too often, Democrats sound like they’re part of the problem. We got to make sure to aid in those transitions as we get to a carbon neutral world, which I think we can do by 2040.
Dana Bash: (21:12)
Thank you, Governor. Just to clarify, who is part of the problem?
Steve Bullock: (21:16)
Who? Oh no. I think Democrats, often when they’re saying, “Oh, these fossil fuel industries, these workers, those coal miner workers.” Look, the world’s changing. We got to make it change. But I think Democrats often sound like the people that, as Congressman Ryan would say, shower at the end of the day, that they’re part of the problem. And far too many communities are being left behind as we make this transition.
Dana Bash: (21:40)
Thank you.
Steve Bullock: (21:40)
Look, we’re having this discussion, and we can talk about competing plans-
Dana Bash: (21:45)
Thank you, Governor. I want to get Senator Sanders a chance to respond.
Bernie Sanders: (21:47)
Look, Steve, ain’t nobody in the Congress who’s more strongly pro worker than I am. So when I talk about taking on the fossil fuel industry, what I am also talking about is a just transition. All right? We can create, and what the Green New Deal is about, it’s a bold idea. We can create millions of good paying jobs. We can rebuild communities in rural America that have been devastated. So we are not anti-worker. We are going to provide, make sure that those workers have a transition. New jobs, healthcare and education.
Dana Bash: (22:20)
Thank you, Senator.
Steve Bullock: (22:21)
And look-
Dana Bash: (22:22)
Governor Bullock, your response?
Steve Bullock: (22:23)
And look, Bernie. I was a union-side labor lawyer. I fought day after day, and I know, but we set this up as a false choice far too often. Are we going to actually address climate change? Fire seasons are 80 days longer in the west now. Or are we going to give people a better shot at a better life? You can do both.
Bernie Sanders: (22:45)
Yes.
Steve Bullock: (22:45)
But let’s actually have the scientists drive this. Let’s not just talk about plans that are written for press releases that will go nowhere else, if we can’t even get a Republican-
Dana Bash: (22:57)
Thank you, Governor Bullock.
Steve Bullock: (22:57)
… to acknowledge that the climate’s changing.
Dana Bash: (22:59)
Congressman O’Rourke, your response?
Beto O’Rourke: (23:00)
I’ve listened to scientists on this, and they’re very clear. We don’t have more than 10 years to get this right, and we won’t meet that challenge with half steps or half measures or only half the country. We’ve got to bring everyone in. The people of Detroit and those that I listened to in Flint last week, they want the challenge, they want those jobs, they want to create the future for this country and the world. Those community college students that I met in Tucumcari, New Mexico understand that wind and solar jobs are the fastest growing jobs in the country, and those farmers in Iowa say, “Pay me for the environmental services, the planting cover crops and keeping more land in conservation easements.” That’s how we meet the challenge. We do it with everyone in this country. We bring everyone into the solution.
Dana Bash: (23:42)
Thank you, Congressman. Mayor Buttigieg, your response?
Pete Buttigieg: (23:44)
We have all put out highly similar visions on climate. It is all theoretical. We will deal with climate if and only if we win the presidency, if and only if we beat Donald Trump. Nominate me and you get to see the President of the United States stand next to an American war veteran and explain why he chose to pretend to be disabled when it was his chance to serve. Nominate me and we will have a different conversation with American voters about why the President of the United States thinks you’re a sucker. When the problem in your life is your paycheck is not going up nearly as fast as the cost of housing or the cost of education-
Dana Bash: (24:24)
Thank you.
Pete Buttigieg: (24:24)
… or the cost of prescription drugs. And he has done nothing about it except a tax cut for the corporations.
Dana Bash: (24:28)
Thank you, Mayor Buttigieg. Senator Klobuchar, I want to ask you about something that CNN heard from a Michigan Democratic primary voter. We’ve been reaching out and getting their questions. Kimber from Birmingham, Michigan has this question. What is your plan to address infrastructure including the water issue so another Flint, Michigan does not happen again?
Amy Klobuchar: (24:48)
Thank you, Dana. And I was just in Flint, and they are still drinking bottled water in that town, and that is outrageous. So my plan, and I am the first one that came out with an infrastructure plan, and I did that because this is a bread and butter issue. It’s a bread and butter issue for people that are caught in traffic jams. I think the governor here in Michigan smartly ran on the slogan, “Fix the damn roads.” And it is an issue for union jobs.
Amy Klobuchar: (25:14)
And so I think what we need to do is not have a president that’s promised he was going to do that on election night, if anyone remembers, and then he hasn’t followed through. He has done nothing. He blew up a meeting at the White House.
Amy Klobuchar: (25:26)
I would put $1 trillion into this, and I would pay for it by, first of all, changing the capital gains rate, by doing something when it comes to that regressive tax bill that left everyone behind but really made his Mar-a-Lago friends richer, as he promised. And I would take that money and put it into rural broadband and green infrastructure so you won’t have what you just saw in Detroit with the Jefferson Chalmers neighborhood, the African neighborhood that was African-American neighborhood that was most hit when you had those recent rainstorms.
Amy Klobuchar: (25:56)
And I truly believe that if we’re going to move on infrastructure-
Dana Bash: (25:59)
Thank you.
Amy Klobuchar: (25:59)
… and climate change, you need a-
Male: (26:00)
Dana?
Amy Klobuchar: (26:01)
… voice from the heartland.
Dana Bash: (26:02)
Thank you, Senator Klobuchar. Ms.-
Amy Klobuchar: (26:03)
That you need a voice from the heartland.
Dana Bash: (26:03)
Thank you, Senator Klobuchar. Ms. Williamson, what’s your response on the Flint water crisis?
Ms. Williamson: (26:06)
My response on the Flint water crisis is that Flint is just the tip of the iceberg. I was recently in Denmark, South Carolina where it is… There is a lot of talk about it being the next Flint. We have an administration that has gutted the Clean Water Act. We have communities, particularly communities of color and disadvantaged communities, all over this country who are suffering from environmental injustice. I assure you, I lived in Grosse Pointe. What happened in Flint would not have happened in Grosse Pointe. This is part of the dark underbelly of American society. The racism, the bigotry, and the entire conversation that we’re having here tonight. If you think any of this wonkiness is is going to deal with this dark psychic force of the collectivized hatred that this president is bringing up in this country, then I’m afraid that the Democrats are going to see some very dark days. We need to say it like it is. It’s bigger than Flint. It’s all over this country. It’s particularly people of color. It’s particularly people who do not have the money to fight back. And if the Democrats don’t start saying it then why would those people feel that they’re there for us? And if those people don’t feel it they won’t vote for us and Donald Trump will win.
Don Lemon: (27:10)
Thank you very much Ms. Williamson.
Ms. Williamson: (27:13)
Thank you.
Don Lemon: (27:13)
We want to turn now to the issue of race in America. Congressman O’Rourke, President Trump is pursuing a re-election strategy based, in part, on racial division. How do you convince primary voters that you’d be the best nominee to take on President Trump and heal the racial divide in America?
Beto O’Rourke: (27:30)
We’ll call his racism out for what it is. And also talk about its consequences. It doesn’t just offend our sensibilities to hear him say, “Send her back.” About a member of Congress because she’s a woman of color, because she’s a Muslim American. It doesn’t just offend our sensibilities when he calls Mexican immigrants rapists and criminals or seeks to ban all Muslims from the shores of a country that is comprised of people from the world over, from every tradition of faith. It is also changing this country. Hate crimes are on the rise every single one of the last three years. On the day that he signed his executive order attempting to ban Muslim travel, the mosque in Victoria, Texas was burned to the ground. So we must not only stand up against Donald Trump and defeat him in this next election. But we must also ensure that we don’t just tolerate or respect our differences, but we embrace them. That’s what we’ve learned in El Paso, Texas, my hometown, one of the safest cities in the United States of America. Not despite, but because it’s a city of immigrants and asylum seekers and refugees. We will show that our diversity-
Don Lemon: (28:37)
Thank you.
Beto O’Rourke: (28:38)
… Is our strength, in my administration.
Don Lemon: (28:39)
Congressman O’Rourke, thank you very much. Governor Hickenlooper, why are you the best nominee to heal the racial divide in America? Please respond.
John H: (28:46)
Well, the core value behind this entire country’s history is working towards a more perfect union, that all people are created equal. And we fall and fall away from that. I think the job is incumbent on any one of us to make the convincing case that we can deliver an urban agenda that represents progress in schools. In Colorado, when I was mayor, we got to universal pre-K for every kid in the urban city. We did major police reform, 10 years before Ferguson. Why is it now that five years after Ferguson we still don’t have anything? How do we get affordable housing? We created a scholarship fund for every kid. You’ve got to deliver a vision like that for the whole country.
Don Lemon: (29:26)
Thank you, governor.
Elizabeth W: (29:27)
Wait.
Don Lemon: (29:28)
Senator Warren, I’m coming to you now. Last week the FBI Director, Christopher Wray, said that the majority of domestic terrorism cases this year had been motivated by white supremacy. In fact, the alleged shooter in this weekend’s attack in Gilroy, California referenced a well-known white supremacist book on social media. How are you going to combat the rise of white supremacy?
Elizabeth W: (29:47)
We need to call out white supremacy for what it is, domestic terrorism. And it poses a threat to the United States of America. We live in a country now where the president is advancing environmental racism, economic racism, criminal justice racism, health care racism. The way we do better is to fight back and show something better. So I have a plan, for example, on education that says we have to build a better education system for all our kids. But we’ve got to acknowledge what’s happened on race. So my plan has universal tuition-free college for all of our kids, but also increases the Pell grants and levels the playing field by putting $50 billion into historically black colleges and universities. It cancels student loan debt for 95% of the kids with student loan debt and helps close the black-white wealth gap in America.
Don Lemon: (30:49)
Thank you senator, very much. Mayor Buttigieg, you have been criticized for your handling of racial issues in your home city of South Bend, from diversity in the police force to housing policy. Given your record, how can you convince African-Americans that you should be the Democratic nominee?
Mayor Buttigieg: (31:05)
As an urban mayor serving a diverse community, the racial divide lives within me. I’m not saying that I became mayor and racism or crime or poverty ended on my watch. But in our city we have come together repeatedly to tackle challenges like the fact that far too many people were not getting the help they needed in their housing, and so we directed it to a historically under-invested African-American neighborhood. Right now, in the wake of a police-involved shooting, our community is moving from hurting to healing by making sure that the community can participate in things like revising the use-of-force policy and making sure there are community voices on the board of safety that handles police matters. I proposed a Douglass plan to tackle this issue nationally, because mayors have hit the limits of what you can do unless there is national action. Systemic racism has touched every part of American life, from housing to health to home ownership. If you walk into an emergency room and you are black, your reports of pain will be taken less seriously. If you apply for a job and you are black, you are less likely to be called just because of the name on the resume. It’s why I’ve proposed that we do everything from investing in historically-redlined neighborhoods-
Don Lemon: (32:17)
Mayor.
Mayor Buttigieg: (32:18)
… To build black wealth in home ownership.
Don Lemon: (32:20)
Thank you, mayor.
Mayor Buttigieg: (32:20)
To supporting entrepreneurship for black Americans.
Don Lemon: (32:22)
Thank you very much. Senator Klobuchar, what do you say to those Trump voters who prioritize the economy over the president’s bigotry?
Amy Klobuchar: (32:32)
Well, first of all, there are people that voted for Donald Trump before that aren’t racist, they just wanted a better shake in the economy. And so I would appeal to them. But I don’t think anyone can justify what this president is doing. Little kids literally woke up this weekend, turned on the TV, and saw their president calling their city, the town of Baltimore, nothing more than a home for rats. And I can tell you, as your president, that will stop. The second thing I would say is
[END]
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