ABC News Democratic Debate - WATCH THE FULL DEBATE (2019)

[0:00] Good evening and welcome to Houston. We are live from Texas Southern University for tonight's [0:04] Democratic debate. The top 10 candidates are here. It's going to start right now and on the stage [0:09] you see them. They have all met the criteria set by the Democratic National Committee. At least 10 [0:14] others have not met the threshold. So for the first time in this primary, a single debate in [0:19] a single night with all the top candidates facing off. It is a critical test for candidates and [0:25] their campaigns at a critical time for our country. They're going to lay out their vision [0:29] for the country, their records, their differences with President Trump and each other. And we're [0:34] going to do our best to bring you a lively, informative and civil debate. I'm joined here tonight by [0:40] my ABC colleague, World News Tonight anchor David Muir, our national correspondent Lindsay [0:44] Davis and Jorge Ramos from our partner network, Univision. Jorge. Thank you very much. We appreciate [0:51] the opportunity to welcome Latinos across the country and to ask about Latinx issues during [0:57] these challenging times. Let me just give you a little translation here. I'm telling Latinos [1:16] that despite the fact that we are facing difficult times, this is our country too. We are delighted to be on [1:24] the beautiful campus of Texas Southern University, one of the largest historically black colleges [1:31] and universities in the country. And here in the health and physical education building tonight, [1:35] we are joined by a live audience of 3,500 people, most invited by the Democratic National Committee, [1:42] and of course, some of the brightest minds of the student body here at TSU. Go Tigers! [1:47] We can feel the energy in the room, can't we, Lindsay? The rules of this debate are very basic [1:53] tonight. It have been agreed to by all the campaigns in advance. Candidates will have 1 minute, [1:57] 15 seconds to answer a direct question and 45 seconds for a rebuttal or response as directed [2:03] by one of the moderators. Candidates will each see green and yellow lights. There you see them right [2:07] there indicating how much time they have remaining. And when time is up, the light will turn red. [2:12] Candidates who interrupt will be subject to having their time reduced later on. But this is democracy, [2:17] the great American experiment. And the candidates are here tonight to make their case. [2:21] The podium places based on their current standings in nationally recognized polls with the leading [2:26] candidates in the center. All candidates have been told they can have 1 minute to make an opening [2:30] statement. And we're going to begin in reverse polling order with Secretary Julian Castro. [2:39] Good evening. Y bienvenidos a Texas. Welcome to Texas. It's great to be here at TSU, [2:47] home of the Tigers. You know, on January 20th, 2021, at 12.01 PM, we're going to have a Democratic [2:56] president, a Democratic House, and a Democratic Senate. There will be life after Donald Trump. [3:03] But the truth is that our problems didn't start just with Donald Trump. And we won't solve them [3:10] by embracing old ideas. We need a bold vision. Universal pre-K and universal health care. Unleashing [3:18] millions of new jobs in the clean energy economy. A tax system that rewards people who have to work [3:24] for a living. But first we have to win. And that means exciting a young, diverse coalition of Americans [3:31] who are ready for a bold future. That's what Kennedy did. It's what Carter did. It's what Clinton did. [3:39] It's what Barack Obama did. And it's what I can do in this race. Get back Michigan, Wisconsin, [3:45] and Pennsylvania, Florida, Georgia, and Arizona, and finally turn Texas blue and say goodbye to [3:52] Donald Trump. Senator Klobuchar. Good evening, Texas Southern. I believe that what unites us up here, [4:03] the 10 of us, is much stronger than what divides us. And I think that's true of our country too. [4:10] Now, I may not be the loudest person up here, but I think we've already got that in the White House. [4:17] Houston, we have a problem. This, we have a guy there that is literally running our country like a game [4:25] show. He would rather lie than lead. I think we need something different. I am someone that tells the [4:32] truth. I don't make promises that I can't keep. I have people's back. And I believe that to win, [4:39] you bring people with you. And that is how you govern as well. So you're going to hear a lot of [4:46] ideas up here. Some will be great. But if you see that some of them seem a little off track, [4:52] I've got a better way. If you feel stuck in the middle of the extremes in our politics and you are [5:00] tired of the noise and the nonsense, you've got a home with me. Because I don't want to be the [5:05] president for half of America. I want to be the president for all of America. [5:12] Congressman Beto O'Rourke. [5:18] It's an honor to be on this debate stage. It is wonderful to be back in Texas, in Houston, [5:24] back here at TSU. On August 3rd, in El Paso, Texas, two things became crystal clear for me, [5:33] and I think produced a turning point for this country. The first is just how dangerous Donald [5:40] Trump is, the cost and the consequence of his presidency. A racism and violence that had long [5:47] been a part of America was welcomed out into the open and directed to my hometown of El Paso, Texas, [5:53] where 22 people were killed, dozens more grievously injured by a man carrying a weapon [5:59] he should never have been able to buy in the first place, inspired to kill by our president. [6:04] The second is how insufficient our politics is to meet the threat that we have right now. [6:12] The bitterness, the pettiness, the smallness of the moment, the incentives to attack one another [6:17] and try to make differences without distinctions, mountains out of molehills. We have to be bigger, [6:22] we have to see clearly, we have to speak honestly, and we have to act decisively. That's what I want [6:27] to do for you as president of the United States. Thank you. Senator Cory Booker. [6:34] It was over 20 years ago that I was a law student and moved to inner city Newark, New Jersey [6:40] to serve as a tenant's rights lawyer to try to address the challenges in my community, and I was sobered [6:47] by them, the gun violence, the substandard housing, but it was my greatest mentor, a woman named Miss Virginia [6:53] Jones, who challenged me. She said, boy, if all you see in this neighborhood is problems, that's all there's ever [6:58] going to be. But if you're stubborn and defiant and going to put forth a vision that can unify people, [7:04] then we can make transformative change. She was a church woman that said, without vision, the people [7:09] will perish. Well, that's exactly what we did. We created extraordinary unity in our community, and we did [7:16] things that other people think, thought was impossible. That's the story of America. At our best, we unify. [7:22] We find common cause and common purpose. The differences amongst us Democrats on the stage [7:28] are not as great as the urgency for us to unite as a party, not just to beat Donald Trump, but to unite [7:35] America in common cause and common purpose. That's why I'm running for president, and that's how I will [7:42] lead this nation. Entrepreneur Andrew Yang. [7:52] In America today, everything revolves around the almighty dollar. Our schools, our hospitals, our media, [7:58] even our government. It's why we don't trust our institutions anymore. We have to get our country [8:03] working for us again, instead of the other way around. We have to see ourselves as the owners and [8:09] shareholders of this democracy, rather than inputs into a giant machine. When you donate money to a [8:16] presidential campaign, what happens? The politician spends the money on TV ads and consultants, and you [8:21] hope it works out. It's time to trust ourselves more than our politicians. That's why I'm going to do [8:27] something unprecedented tonight. My campaign will now give a freedom dividend of $1,000 a month for [8:34] an entire year to 10 American families, someone watching this at home right now. If you believe [8:40] that you can solve your own problems better than any politician, go to yang2020.com and tell us how [8:45] $1,000 a month will help you do just that. This is how we will get our country working for us again, [8:51] the American people. Mayor Pete Buttigieg. It's original. I'll give you that. [9:09] The American people are divided and doubtful at the very moment we need to rise to some of the [9:17] greatest challenges we've ever seen. As a mayor of an industrial city coming back from the brink, [9:23] as a veteran of the war in Afghanistan, I know what's at stake in our national leadership. We keep [9:28] sending politicians to Washington, asking them to fight for us. But then when they get there, [9:33] they seem more interested in the part about fighting than the part about us. Good politics [9:39] is supposed to be not about the day-to-day fights of the politicians, but about the day-to-day lives [9:44] of Americans. We just marked the anniversary of 9-11. All day today, I've been thinking about [9:50] September 12th, the way it felt when for a moment we came together as a country. Imagine if we had been [9:56] able to sustain that unity. Imagine what would be possible right now with ideas that are bold enough to [10:03] meet the challenges of our time, but big enough as well that they could unify the American people. [10:08] That's what presidential leadership can do. That's what the presidency is for. And that is why I'm asking [10:13] for your vote. Senator Kamala Harris. Thank you. It's great to be back at TSU. So I plan on spending [10:24] tonight talking with you about my plans to address the problems that keep you up at night. But first, [10:30] I have a few words for Donald Trump, who we all know is watching. So President Trump, you've spent the [10:37] last two and a half years full-time trying to sow hate and division among us. And that is why we've [10:44] got nothing done. You have used hate, intimidation, fear, and over 12,000 lies as a way to distract [10:53] from your failed policies and your broken promises. The only reason you've not been indicted is because [11:00] there was a memo in the Department of Justice that says a sitting president cannot be charged [11:05] with a crime. But here's what you don't get. What you don't get is that the American people are so much [11:13] better than this. And we know that the vast majority of us have so much more in common than what [11:18] separates us, regardless of our race, where we live, or the party with which we're registered to [11:23] vote. And I plan on focusing on our common issues, our common hopes and desires, and in that way, [11:29] unifying our country, winning this election, and turning the page for America. And now, [11:35] President Trump, you can go back to watch in Fox News. Senator Bernie Sanders. Senator Sanders. [11:59] Let me be blunt and tell you what you don't hear much about in Congress or in the media. And that [12:09] is, it goes without saying that we must and will defeat Trump, the most dangerous president in the [12:17] history of this country. But we must do more. We must do more. We have got to recognize that this [12:28] country is moving into an oligarchic form of society where a handful of billionaires control the economic [12:38] and political life of this country. And as president, I am prepared to take them on. Yes, [12:46] we will raise the minimum wage to a living wage. Yes, we will finally make sure that every American [12:54] has healthcare as a human right, not a privilege. And yes, we will address the catastrophic crisis [13:03] of climate change and transform our energy system away from fossil fuel. Senator Elizabeth Warren. [13:15] So I was born and raised in Oklahoma, but I'm sure glad to be in Texas tonight. My brothers served in [13:25] military bases here in Texas. That was their ticket to the middle class. Me, I got my big opportunity [13:31] about a half mile down the road from here at the University of Houston back when it cost $50 a [13:38] semester for a price that I could pay for on a part-time waitressing job. I got to finish my four [13:46] year degree and I became a special needs teacher. And after law school, my first big job was back here [13:52] in Houston. By then, I had two little kids. And when childcare nearly brought me down, my Aunt Bea moved [14:00] in and saved us all. The paths to America's middle class have gotten a lot smaller and a lot narrower. [14:08] Today, service members are preyed upon by predatory lenders. Students are crushed by debt and families [14:15] cannot afford childcare. I know what's broken. I know how to fix it. And I'm going to lead the fight [14:23] to get it done. Vice President Joe Biden. You know, when President Kennedy announced the moonshot, [14:34] he used the phrase that sticks with me my whole life. He said, we're doing it because we refuse to [14:40] postpone. Well, I refuse to postpone one more minute spending billions of dollars on curing cancer, [14:48] Alzheimer's and other diseases, which if we invest in them, we can find cures. I refuse to postpone [14:55] giving every single child in America, no matter their zip code, pre-K all the way through high [15:01] school and beyond. I refuse to postpone any longer taking on climate change and leading the world in [15:09] taking on climate change. Look, this is the United States of America. There's never been a single [15:15] solitary time when we've set our mind to something we've been unable to do it. We're walking around [15:19] with our heads down like, woe is me. We're the best equipped nation in the world to take this on. [15:25] It's no longer time to postpone. We should get moving. There's enormous, [15:30] enormous opportunities once we get rid of Donald Trump. Candidates, thank you. [15:39] Several of you said you are more united than divided, and that is certainly true. All of you agree on one big [15:44] thing. The goal of defeating President Trump, driving the country in a new direction. But out [15:49] on the campaign trail, you have outlined big differences over how far to go and how fast to go. [15:55] And Vice President Biden, the differences between you and the senators on either side of you tonight [15:59] strike at the heart of this primary debate. Both senators Warren and Sanders want to replace Obamacare [16:06] with Medicare for all. You want to build on Obamacare and not scrap it. They propose spending far more [16:11] than you to combat climate change and tackle student loan debt, and they would raise more in taxes than [16:16] you to pay for their programs. Are senators Warren and Sanders pushing too far beyond where Democrats [16:22] want to go and where the country needs to go? That'll be for the voters to decide that question. [16:27] Let me tell you what I think. I think we should have a debate on health care. I think, uh, I know that [16:33] the senator says she's for Bernie. Well, I'm for Barack. I think the Obamacare worked. I think the way [16:39] enough to we add to it, replace everything that's been cut, add a public option, guarantee that everyone [16:45] will be able to have affordable assurance, number one. Number two, I think we should be in a position [16:51] of taking a look at what costs are. My plan for health care costs a lot of money. It costs 740 billion [16:57] dollars. It doesn't cost 30 trillion dollars. 3.4 trillion a year, it turns out, is twice what the [17:05] entire federal budget is. That's before it exists now, without interest on the debt. How are we going [17:11] to pay for it? I want to hear tonight how that's happened. Thus far, my distinguished friend, [17:17] the senator on my left does not, has not indicate how she pays for it. And the senator has, in fact, [17:23] come forward and said how he's going to pay for it, but it gets him about halfway there. There's a lot of [17:28] other things that need to be done. I have a bold plan to deal with making sure we triple the money for at-risk [17:34] schools that are a title one schools from 40 from 15 to 45 billion dollars a year. But I go down the [17:41] line and each of the things we're talking about, I lay out how I can pay for it, how I can get it done [17:46] and why it's better. Senator Warren, let me let me take that to you, particularly on what Senator [17:51] Biden was saying there about health care. He's actually praised Bernie Sanders for being candid [17:55] about his health care plan that senator says that Senator Sanders has been candid about the fact that [17:59] middle-class taxes are going to go up and most of private insurance is going to be eliminated. [18:04] Will you make that same admission? So let's be clear about health care and let's actually start [18:10] where Vice President did. We all owe a huge debt to President Obama, who fundamentally transformed [18:18] health care in America and committed this country to health care for every human being. And now the [18:26] question is, how best can we improve on it? And I believe the best way we can do that is we make [18:32] sure that everybody gets covered by health care at the lowest possible cost. How do we pay for it? [18:39] We pay for it. Those at the very top, the richest individuals and the biggest corporations are going to [18:45] pay more. And middle-class families are going to pay less. That's how this is going to work. [18:53] Direct question. You said middle-class families are going to pay less. But will middle-class taxes go up [18:58] to pay for the program? I know you believe that the deductibles and the premiums will go down. [19:02] Will middle-class taxes go up? Will private insurance be eliminated? Look, what families [19:07] have to deal with is cost. Total cost. That's what they have to deal with. And understand, families are [19:14] paying for their health care today. Families pay every time an insurance company says, sorry, you can't see [19:19] that specialist. Every time an insurance company says, sorry, that doctor is out of network. Sorry, [19:25] we are not covering that prescription. Families are paying every time. They don't get a prescription [19:32] filled because they can't pay for it. They don't have a lump checked out because they can't afford the [19:37] copay. What we're talking about here is what's going to happen in families' pockets. What's going to happen [19:44] in their budgets? And the answer is on Medicare for All. Costs are going to go up for wealthier [19:51] individuals and costs are going to go up for giant corporations. But for hardworking families across [19:58] this country, costs are going to go down. And that's how it should work under Medicare for All in our [20:03] health care system. Senator Sanders, you were involved by the Vice President. Also take on that [20:06] question about taxes. Joe said that Medicare for All would cost over 30 trillion dollars. That's right, [20:15] Joe. Status quo over 10 years will be 50 trillion dollars. Every study done shows that Medicare for All [20:24] is the most cost effective approach to providing health care to every man, woman and child in this [20:30] country. I, who wrote the damn bill, if I may say so, intend to eliminate all out-of-pocket expenses, [20:43] all deductibles, all copayments. Nobody in America will pay more than $200 a year for prescription drugs [20:53] because we're going to stand up to the greed and corruption and price fixing of the pharmaceutical [21:00] industry. We need, we need a health care system that guarantees health care to all people as every [21:09] other major country does, not a system which provides $100 billion a year in profit for the drug companies [21:19] and the insurance companies. And to tell you how absurd the system is tonight on ABC, the health care [21:28] industry will be advertising, telling you how bad Medicare for All is because they want to protect [21:35] their profits. That is absurd. Vice President Biden, you're involved. George, you get the, you get a [21:40] response, then we're going to broaden out the discussion. Okay, number one, my health care plan does [21:44] significantly cut the cost of the longest out-of-pocket payment you'll pay is $1,000. You'll be able to get [21:50] into a, anyone who can't afford it gets automatically enrolled in the, in the Medicare type option we have, [21:56] et cetera. But guess what? Of the 160 million people who like their health care now, they can keep it. [22:02] If they don't like it, they can leave. Number one. Number two, the fact of the matter is we're in a [22:07] situation where if you notice he hadn't answered the question. This is about candor, honesty, big ideas. [22:12] Let's have a big idea. The tax of 2% that the senator is talking about, that raises about $3 billion. [22:19] Guess what? That leaves you about $28 billion short. The senator said before it's going to cost you [22:24] in your paycheck. There will be a deductible in your paycheck. You're going to, the middle class [22:28] person, someone making 60 grand with three kids, they're going to end up paying $5,000 more. They're [22:34] going to end up paying 4% more on their income tax. That's a reality. Now, it's not a bad idea. If you [22:39] like it, I don't like it. Okay, now I want everybody to keep it at the time, but you did invoke both [22:43] senators. I have to get responses to them. Then we will go out. Senator Warren, you go first. [22:47] So let's be clear. I've actually never met anybody who likes their health insurance company. I've met [22:53] people who like their doctors. I've met people who like their nurses. I've met people who like their [22:59] pharmacists. I've met people who like their physical therapists. What they want is access to healthcare. [23:06] And we just need to be clear about what Medicare for all is all about. Instead of paying premiums into [23:13] insurance companies and then having insurance companies build their profits by saying no to [23:20] coverage, we're going to do this by saying everyone is covered by Medicare for all. Every healthcare [23:26] provider is covered. And the only question here in terms of difference is where to send the bill. [23:33] Senator Sanders. Let us be clear, Joe. In the United States of America, [23:38] we are spending twice as much per capita on healthcare as [23:43] Canadians or any other major country on earth. It's American. [23:48] Yeah, but Americans don't want to pay twice as much as other countries. And they guarantee [23:53] healthcare to all people. Under my Medicare for all proposal, when you don't pay out of pocket [24:00] and you don't pay premiums, maybe you have run into people who love their premiums. I haven't. [24:06] What people want is cost effective healthcare. Medicare for all will save the average [24:13] American substantial sums of money on his or her healthcare bill. [24:19] Senator Klobuchar, you said in your opening statement you want to represent the people stuck [24:22] in the middle of the extremes. Who represents the extreme on this stage? [24:25] I think you know that I don't agree with some of these proposals up here, George. [24:31] So I'm talking about if I could respond to some of the proposals from my friends. First of all, [24:37] Senator Sanders and I have worked valiantly to bring down the cost of pharmaceuticals. That was [24:42] a Klobuchar Sanders amendment to allow for drugs to come in from less expensive countries like Canada. [24:48] We have worked to bring down the cost by fighting to allow 43 million seniors. That's a bill I lead [24:56] to negotiate for better prices under Medicare. I figured that's a lot of seniors and they should be [25:01] allowed to get a better price. But when it comes to our health care and when it comes to our premiums, [25:07] I go with the doctor's creed, which is do no harm. And while Bernie wrote the bill, I read the bill. [25:14] And on page eight, on page eight of the bill, it says that we will no longer have private insurance [25:23] as we know it. And that means that 149 million Americans will no longer be able to have their [25:31] current insurance. That's in four years. I don't think that's a bold idea. I think it's a bad idea. [25:38] And what I favor is something that what Barack Obama wanted to do from the very beginning, [25:44] and that is a public option, a nonprofit choice that will bring down the cost of insurance, [25:49] cover 12 million more people, and bring down the prices for 13 million more people. [25:54] That is a bold idea. Senator Warren, page eight of the bill, she says, 149 people will lose their [26:01] health insurance. I'm sorry. She said page eight of the bill, 149 people will lose their health [26:06] insurance. What current health insurance? 149 million. Million, excuse me. So let's be clear about [26:12] this. People will have access to all of their doctors, all of their nurses, their community hospitals, [26:19] their rural hospitals. Doctors won't have to hire people to fill out crazy forms. [26:25] They won't have to spend time on the phone arguing with insurance companies. People who have sick [26:31] family members won't have to get into these battles. What this is about is making sure that we have the [26:39] most efficient way possible to pay for health care for everyone in this country. Insurance companies last [26:46] year sucked $23 billion in profits out of the system. How did they make that money? Every one of those $23 [26:57] billion was made by an insurance company saying no to your health care coverage. Mayor Buttigieg. [27:03] The problem, Senator Sanders, with that damn bill that you wrote and that Senator Warren backs is that [27:11] it doesn't trust the American people. I trust you to choose what makes the most sense for you. Not my way [27:18] or the highway. Now look, I think we do have to go far beyond tinkering with the ACA. I propose Medicare [27:26] for all who want it. We take a version of Medicare. We make it available for the American people. And if we're [27:32] right as progressives that that public alternative is better, then the American people will figure that [27:37] out for themselves. I trust the American people to make the right choice for them. Why don't you? [27:42] Senator Sanders, 45 seconds. George, you talked about 150 million people on private insurance. [27:50] 50 million of those people lose their private insurance every year when they quit their jobs [27:57] or when they go unemployed or their employer changes their insurance policy. Medicare for all [28:05] is comprehensive health care. It covers all basic needs, including home health care. It allows you to [28:14] go to any doctor you want, which many private insurance company programs do not. So if you want [28:21] comprehensive health care, freedom of choice regarding doctor or hospital, no more than $200 a year for [28:29] prescription drugs, taking on the drug companies and the insurance companies, moving to Medicare for [28:36] all is the way to go. Senator Harris, you started out co-sponsoring Senator Sanders' bill. You now say [28:41] you're uncomfortable with it. Why? I want to give credit first to Barack Obama for really bringing [28:48] us this far. We would not be here if he hadn't the courage, the talent or the will to see us this far. [28:53] I want to give credit to Bernie. Take credit, Bernie. You know, you brought us this far on Medicare for [29:01] all. I support Medicare for all. I always have. But I wanted to make the plan better, which I did, [29:06] which is about offering people choice, not taking that from them. So under my Medicare for all plan, [29:13] people have the choice of a private plan or a public plan because that's what people want. And [29:18] I agree we shouldn't take choice from people. But here's the thing. Everybody on this stage, [29:23] I do believe is well intentioned and wants that all Americans have coverage and recognizes that right [29:30] now 30 million Americans don't have coverage. But at least five people have talked some repeatedly on [29:35] this subject. And not once have we talked about Donald Trump. So let's talk about the fact that [29:41] Donald Trump came into office and spent almost the entire first year of his term trying to get rid of [29:48] the Affordable Care Act. We all fought against it. And then the late great John McCain at that moment [29:54] at about 2 o'clock in the morning killed his attempt to take health care from millions of people in this [30:03] country. Fast forward to today and what is happening. Donald Trump's Department of Justice is trying to get [30:11] rid of the Affordable Care Act. Donald Trump's administration is trying to get rid of the ban [30:19] that we placed on on denying people who have pre-existing conditions coverage. Donald Trump is trying to [30:26] say that our kids up to the age of 26 can no longer be on our plans. And frankly, I think this discussion has given [30:34] the American public a headache. What they want to know is that they're going to have health care and cost will [30:39] not be a barrier to getting it. But let's focus on the end goal. If we don't get Donald Trump out of office, he's going to get rid of all of it. [30:45] George, 15 seconds. Let me get to Congressman O'Rourke and then bring you. Go ahead, Mr. Vice President. [30:52] 15 seconds. Look, everybody says you want an option. The option I'm proposing is Medicare for all, [30:59] Medicare for choice. If you want Medicare, if you lose the job from your insurance company from your [31:05] employer, you automatically can buy into this. You don't have no pre-existing condition can stop you from [31:11] buying in. You get covered, period. And if you notice, nobody's yet said how much it's going to [31:17] cost the taxpayer. I hear this, large savings. The president thinks, my friend from Vermont thinks [31:24] that the employer is going to give you back if you negotiate his union all these years, got to cut [31:28] in wages because you got insurance. They're going to give back that money to the employee? [31:32] As a matter of fact, they will. Well, let me tell you something. For a socialist, you've got a lot [31:38] more confidence in corporate America than I do. Senator Sanders. George, go ahead. [31:43] All right. Two points. You got to defend the fact that today, not only do we have 87 million people [31:52] uninsured and underinsured, you got to defend the fact that 500,000 Americans are going bankrupt. [32:01] You know why they're going bankrupt? Because they suffered a terrible disease, cancer or heart [32:06] disease. Under my legislation, people will not go into financial ruin because they suffered [32:14] with a diagnosis of cancer. And our program is the only one that does that. I know a lot about cancer. [32:21] Let me tell you something. It's personal to me. Let me tell you something. Every single person [32:26] who is diagnosed with cancer or any other disease can automatically become part of this plan. They [32:32] will not go bankrupt because of that. They will not go bankrupt because of that. They can join [32:37] immediately. And we're talking four, six, eight, ten years, depending on what you talk about, before we [32:42] get to Medicare for all. Come on. I've been there. You've been there. You know what it's like. People need [32:49] help now. Hope now. And do something now. Congressman O'Rourke. Yeah. Thank you. Listen, [32:59] I'm grateful that we all agree about the urgency of this challenge and the fact that Donald Trump [33:04] is undermining the limited protections that we have right now. But I also think we're being offered [33:10] a false choice between those who propose an all or nothing gambit forcing tens of millions off of [33:16] insurance that they like that works for them to force them onto Medicare and others who want to, [33:20] as the vice president does, incrementally improve what we have, which will still leave many, maybe [33:25] millions, uninsured and uncared for in a state like Texas where the largest provider of mental health [33:31] care services is the county jail system. We've got to do better. And my proposal, Medicare for America [33:37] says everyone who's uninsured will be enrolled in Medicare. Everyone who's insufficiently insured, [33:42] cannot afford it, can move over to Medicare. And those like members of unions who fought for the [33:47] health care plans that work for them and their families are able to keep them. That is the best [33:51] possible path forward. Health care is the top issue for everyone in the country. I want to make [33:55] sure everyone gets one minute to respond. So Senator Castro, Andrew Yang, and then Senator Booker, [34:01] you all get a minute. Thank you. And you know, I also want to recognize the work that Bernie has done on [34:06] this. And of course, we owe a debt of gratitude to President Barack Obama. Of course, I also work for [34:12] President Obama, Vice President Biden. And I know that the problem with your plan is that it leaves [34:17] 10 million people uncovered. Now, on the last debate stage in Detroit, you said that wasn't true [34:22] when Senator Harris brought that up. There was a fact check of that and they said that was true. [34:27] I grew up with a grandmother who had type 2 diabetes and I watched her condition get worse and worse. [34:32] But that whole time she had Medicare. I want every single American family to have a strong [34:39] Medicare plan available. If they choose to hold on to strong, solid private health insurance, [34:45] I believe they should be able to do that. But the difference between what I support and what you [34:49] support, Vice President Biden, is that you require them to opt in. And I would not require them to opt [34:54] in. They would automatically be enrolled. They wouldn't have to buy in. That's a big difference [34:59] because Barack Obama's vision was not to leave 10 million people uncovered. He wanted every single [35:04] person in this country covered. My plan would do that. Your plan would not. They do not have to buy in. [35:10] They do not have to buy in. You just said that. You just said that two minutes ago. [35:14] You just said two minutes ago that they would have to buy in. You said they would have to buy in. [35:18] Your grandmother would not have to buy in. If she qualifies for Medicaid, she automatically [35:22] be informed. Are you forgetting what you said two minutes ago? What you said just two minutes ago? [35:27] I mean, I can't believe that you said two minutes ago that they had to buy in and now you're saying [35:32] they don't have to buy. You're forgetting that. I said anyone like your grandmother who has no money. [35:37] We need a health care system that automatically enrolls people regardless of whether they choose [35:44] to opt in or not. If you lose your job, for instance, his health care plan would not [35:49] automatically enroll you. You would have to opt in. My health care plan would. That's a big difference. [35:54] I'm fulfilling the legacy of Barack Obama and you're not. I'll be a surprise to him. Andrew Yang. [36:01] This is why presidential debates are becoming unwatchable. This reminds everybody of what they [36:09] cannot stand about Washington. Scoring points against each other, poking at each other, [36:15] and telling each other that you're my plan, your plan. Look, we all have a different vision. [36:18] That's called a Democratic primary election. That's called an election. That's an election. [36:24] You know, this is what we're here for. It's an election. [36:27] Yeah, but a house divided cannot stand. And that is not how we're going to win this. [36:33] Everyone, we know we're on the same team here. We know we're on the same team. [36:37] We all have a better vision for health care than our current president. [36:40] And I believe we're talking about this the wrong way. As someone who has run a business, [36:44] I know that our current health care system makes it harder to hire people. It makes it harder to give [36:49] them benefits and treat them as full-time employees. You instead pretend they're contractors. [36:53] It's harder to change jobs. It's certainly harder to start a business. The pitch we have to make the [36:57] American people is we will get the health care weight off of your backs and then unleash the [37:02] hopes and dreams of the American people. Now, I am Asian, so I know a lot of doctors, [37:08] and they tell me that they spend a lot of time on paperwork, avoiding being sued, [37:13] and navigating the insurance bureaucracy. We have to change the incentives so instead of revenue and [37:19] activity, people are focused on our health in the health care system. And the Cleveland Clinic, [37:24] where they're paid not based upon how many procedures they prescribe, shocker, they prescribe [37:29] fewer procedures, and patient health stays the same or improves. That is the pitch to the American [37:34] people. Senator Booker, close out this discussion. Thank you very much. Look, there are a lot of [37:38] people watching at home right now listening to us that are afraid because they are in crisis. They [37:44] don't have health insurance. Their health insurance doesn't go far enough. They can't afford their [37:48] prescription drugs. Look, I'm clear in what I believe. I believe in Medicare for all. I believe it's the best [37:55] way to rationalize the system. But dear God, I know that every one of my colleagues on this stage [38:00] is in favor of universal health coverage and comes at this with the best of intentions. And I'll tell you, [38:06] there is an urgency right now in this nation. Everybody feels it. And as a person who has an ideal, [38:11] I know we cannot sacrifice progress on the altar of purity because people in my community, they need help [38:18] right now. They have high blood pressure right now. They have unaffordable insulin right now. And this [38:25] must be a moment where we as Democrats can begin to show that we can not only stake and stand our [38:30] ground but find common ground because we've got one shot to make Donald Trump a one-term president. [38:37] And we cannot lose it by the way we talk about each other or demonize and degrade each other. We can [38:44] walk and chew gum at the same time. If I am the leader, I will work towards the ideal of health [38:49] insurance, health coverage being a right for all Americans. But every single day, I'll join with [38:54] other Democrats to make progress happen in our nation for the people that are struggling and suffering [39:00] today. Candidates, thank you. Lindsey Davis. Thanks, George. Since we're here at an HBCU, [39:06] I'd like to start with young black voters. Several recent polls indicate their number one concern [39:13] is racism. This campus, this state, and this nation are still raw from that racially motivated attack [39:21] on Latinos in El Paso. Now, we know that the racial divide started long before President Trump and [39:27] President Obama. But each of you on this stage has said that President Trump has made that divide [39:33] worse. Congressman O'Rourke, coming to you first, why are you the most qualified candidate to address this [39:39] divide? You know, I called this out in no uncertain terms on August 3rd and every day since then. And I [39:47] was talking about it long before then as well. Racism in America is endemic. It is foundational. [39:53] We can mark the creation of this country not at the 4th of July, 1776, but August 20th, 1619, [40:00] when the first kidnapped African was brought to this country against his will and in bondage and as a [40:07] slave built the greatness and the success and the wealth that neither he nor his descendants [40:13] would ever be able to fully participate in and enjoy. We have to be able to answer this challenge. [40:19] And it is found in our education system where in Texas, a five-year-old child in kindergarten is five [40:25] times as likely to be disciplined or suspended or expelled based on the color of their skin. In our [40:31] health care system where there's a maternal mortality crisis three times as deadly for women of color [40:37] or the fact that there's 10 times the wealth in white America than there is in black America. I'm [40:41] going to follow Sheila Jackson Lee's lead and sign into law a reparations bill that will allow us to [40:47] address this at its foundations. Also call out the fact that we have a white supremacist in the White [40:55] House and he poses a mortal threat to people of color all across this country. Secretary Cashel, [41:00] 45 seconds to this point. I want to commend Beto for how well he has spoken to the passion and the [41:09] frustration and the sadness after what happened in his hometown of El Paso. He's done a great job [41:13] with that. Look, a few weeks ago, a shooter drove 10 miles inspired by this, 10 hours inspired by this [41:22] president to kill people who look like me and people who look like my family. White supremacy is a growing [41:29] threat to this country and we have to root it out. I'm proud that I put forward a plan to disarm hate. [41:36] I'm also proud that I was the first to put forward a police reform plan because we're not going to have [41:41] any more Laquan McDonald's or Eric Garner's or Michael Brown's or Pamela Turner's or Walter Scott's or [41:49] Sandra Bland here from the Houston area. We need to root out racism and I believe that we can do that [41:55] because that doesn't represent the vast majority of Americans who do have a good heart. They also [42:00] need a leader to match that and I will be a president that matches that. Senator Booker, [42:05] you have said, quote, the real question isn't who is or isn't a racist. It's who's going to do [42:11] something about it. Senator, what do you plan to do about it? Well, first and foremost, [42:14] I want to hit that point because we know Donald Trump's a racist, but there is no red bag of [42:20] courage for calling him that. Racism exists. The question isn't who isn't a racist. It's who is [42:27] and isn't doing something about racism. And this is not just an issue that started yesterday. It's not [42:33] just an issue that we hear a president that can't contend white supremacy. We have systemic racism [42:39] that is eroding our nation from health care to the criminal justice system. And it's nice to go all [42:45] the way back to slavery. But dear God, we have a criminal justice system that is so racially biased. [42:50] We have more African-Americans under criminal supervision today than all the slaves in 1850. [42:57] We have to come at this issue attacking systemic racism, having the courage to call it out and having [43:04] a plan to do something about it. If I am president of the United States, [43:08] we will create an office in the White House to deal with the problem of white supremacy and hate [43:15] crimes. And we will make sure that systemic racism is dealt with in substantive plans from criminal [43:21] justice reform to the disparities in health care to even one that we don't talk about enough, [43:27] which is the racism that we see in environmental injustice in communities of color all around this [43:32] country. Mayor Buttigieg, you've been struggling with issues around race in your own community. [43:38] You've also said that anyone who votes to reelect President Trump is at best looking the other way [43:44] on racism. Does that sort of talk alienate voters and potentially deepen divisions in our country? [43:49] I believe what's deepened divisions in the country is the conduct of this president. [43:53] And we have a chance to change all of that. Look, systemic racism preceded this president. And even [43:59] when we defeat him, it will be with us. That's why we need a systemic approach to dismantle it. It's [44:06] it's not enough to just take a racist policy, replace it with a neutral one and expect things will just [44:12] get better on their own. Harms compound in the same way that a dollar saved compound, [44:17] so does a dollar stolen. And we know that the generational theft of the descendants of slaves is part of [44:23] why everything from housing to education to health to employment basically puts us in two different [44:29] countries. I have proposed the most comprehensive vision to tackle systemic racism in every one of [44:35] these areas, marshalling as many resources as went into the Marshall Plan that rebuilt Europe, but this [44:41] time a Douglas Plan that we invest right here at home to make sure that we're not only dealing with [44:46] things like the over-incarceration of black Americans, but also black solutions, entrepreneurship, [44:52] raising to 25 percent the target for the federal government to do business with minority-owned [44:57] businesses, investing in HBCUs that are training and educating the next generation of entrepreneurs. We can and [45:03] must do that, but that means transcending this framework that pits us against each other, that pits [45:10] a single black mother of three against a displaced auto worker. Because where I come from, a lot of times [45:15] that displaced auto worker is a single black mother of three. We've got to say that and bring people [45:19] together. Also a concern for people of color is criminal justice reform. Senator Harris, you released [45:25] your plan for that just this week, and it does contradict some of your prior positions. Among them, [45:31] you used to oppose the legalization of marijuana, now you don't. You used to oppose outside [45:36] investigations of police shootings, now you don't. You've said that you've changed on these and other [45:41] things because you were, quote, swimming against the current and thankfully the currents have changed. But when [45:46] you had the power, why didn't you try to affect change then? So there have been, there have been, I'm glad you [45:56] asked me this question, and there have been many distortions of my record. Let me be very clear. [46:01] I made a decision to become a prosecutor for two reasons. One, I've always wanted to protect people [46:09] and keep them safe. And second, I was born knowing about how this criminal justice system in America [46:17] has worked in a way that has been informed by racial bias. And I could tell you extensively about [46:22] the experiences I and my family members have personally had. But I made a decision that if I [46:28] was going to have the ability to reform the system, I would try and do it from the inside. [46:33] And so I took on the position that allowed me, without asking permission, to create one of the [46:39] first in the nation initiatives that was a model and became a national model around people who were [46:45] arrested for drugs and getting them jobs. I created one of the first in the nation requirements that a [46:51] state law enforcement agency would have to wear cameras and keep them on full time. I created one of the [46:57] first in the nation trainings for police officers on the issue of racial bias and the need to reform the [47:04] system. Was I able to get enough done? Absolutely not. But my plan has been described by activists as being a [47:11] bold and comprehensive plan that is about ending mass incarceration, about taking the profit out of the [47:17] criminal justice system. I plan on shutting down for profit prisons on day one. It will be about what we need [47:24] to do to hold law enforcement, including prosecutors accountable. And finally, my plan is about making [47:31] sure that in America's criminal justice system, we de-incarcerate women and children, that we end [47:38] solitary confinement, and that we work on keeping families intact. And as president of the United States, [47:44] knowing the system from the inside, I will have the ability to be an effective leader and get this job [47:50] complete. Thank you, Senator Harris. Senator Klobuchar, during your eight years as a prosecutor in [47:56] Minnesota, there were dozens of incidents where black men were killed by police. Critics say that too [48:02] often you sided with police in these cases. The ACLU's legal director in Minnesota has said that you showed [48:08] no interest in racial justice. Do you wish now that you had done more? That's not my record. We are here [48:16] at a historically black college. And I think of an alum of that college, Barbara Jordan, in something [48:23] that she once said. She said, what the people want is simple. They want a country as good as its [48:30] promise. And that same can be said of the criminal justice system. So when I was there, the way we [48:35] handled these police shootings, I actually took a stand to make sure outside investigators handled them. [48:42] I took on our major police chief in Minneapolis. But in the prosecutor's office, they were handled [48:48] with a grand jury. That's how they were all handled across our state. I now believe it is better for [48:53] accountability if the prosecutor handles them and makes those decisions herself. That aside, I am proud [49:01] of the work our staff did. 400 people in our office. The cases that came to us, the African-American [49:06] community that came to us, they said there was no justice for their little kids. There was a kid named [49:11] Byron Phillips that was shot on his front porch. No one had bothered to figure out who did it. [49:16] When I came into that office, we worked with the community groups, we put up billboards, [49:20] we found the shooter, and we put him in jail. We did the same for the killer of a little girl named [49:26] Taisha Edwards who was doing her homework at her kitchen table and was shot through the window. [49:30] What changes did we make? Go after white collar crimes in a big way. Diversify the office in a big way. [49:37] Work with the Innocence Project to make sure we do much better with eyewitness ID. And as a senator [49:42] and as your president, I will make sure that we don't just do the first step act when it comes [49:47] to criminal sentencing, that we move to the second step act, which means the 90 percent of people [49:52] that are incarcerated in local and state jails, let's reduce those sentences for nonviolent offenders [49:58] and let's get them jobs and let them vote when they get out of prison. Thank you, Senator Kodachuk. [50:03] You all believe that the war on drugs has put too many Americans behind bars. [50:08] Vice President Biden, you have a plan to release many nonviolent drug offenders from prison. [50:12] Senator Booker says that your plan is not ambitious enough. Your response. [50:16] Well, first of all, let me say that when I came back from law school, I had a job with a great [50:22] big time law firm. I left and became a public defender because my state was under siege. [50:27] When Dr. King was assassinated, we were occupied by the National Guard for 10 months. [50:32] I've been involved from the beginning. As a young congressman, as a young councilman, [50:36] I introduced legislation to try to keep them putting a sewer plant in the poor neighborhood. [50:40] I made sure that we did deal with redlining. Banks should have to lend where they operate, [50:45] et cetera. The fact of the matter is that what's happened is that we're in a situation now where [50:51] there are so many people who are in jail and shouldn't be in jail. The whole means by which this [50:57] should change is the whole model has to change. We should be talking about rehabilitation. Nobody [51:02] should be in jail for a nonviolent crime. When we were in the White House, we released 36,000 people [51:08] from the federal prison system. Nobody should be in jail for a drug problem. They should be going [51:13] directly to a rehabilitation. We build more rehabilitation centers, not prisons. I'm the guy [51:18] that put in the drug courts to divert people from the criminal justice system. And so we have to [51:24] change the whole way we look at this. When we put people in prison, we have to equip them when they [51:28] get out. Nobody who got in prison for marijuana, for example, immediately upon being released, [51:34] they shouldn't be in there. That should be a misdemeanor. They should be out and their records [51:39] should be expunged. Every single right should be returned. When you finish your term in prison, [51:44] you should be able to not only vote, but have access to Pell grants, have access to be able to get [51:48] housing, have access to be able to move along the way. I've laid out a detailed plan along those lines. [51:54] And the fact is, we've learned so much more. Thank you, Mr. Vice President. Senator Booker, [51:59] 45 seconds to respond. Our criminal justice system is so savagely broken. There's no difference in [52:06] America between blacks, whites, and Latinos for using drugs or dealing drugs. But if you're African [52:11] American, you're almost four times more likely to be arrested and incarcerated, destroying your [52:15] lives. And so much of this comes down to privilege. We have a criminal justice system that Brian [52:20] Stevenson says treats you better if you're rich and guilty than if you're poor and innocent. [52:24] And so I have challenged this whole field. We can specifically and demonstrably now show that there [52:29] are 17,000 people unjustly incarcerated in America, and all of us should come forward and say, [52:36] when we are president of the United States, when I am president of the United States, we will release them. [52:39] And let me be specific. I joined together and led in the United States Senate the only major [52:44] bipartisan bill passed under this president for criminal justice reform that has already led to [52:49] thousands of people coming out of jail. If 87 members of the United States Senate says that [52:53] these sentences are way too long and we changed it, but we didn't make it retroactive, we could literally [52:59] point to the people that are in jail unjustly right now. Everyone on this stage should say that we are [53:06] going to give clemency to these 17,000 people. And I challenge you, don't just say big statements, [53:12] back it up with details of the people in prison right now looking for one of the most sacrosanct ideals of this [53:18] nation, which is liberty and freedom. We need to reform this system and we must do it now. [53:25] Every day we wait is too long. Thank you, Lindsey. I want to turn to the deadly mass shootings here [53:31] in this country. And of course, we are all mindful tonight of where we stand. We are here in Texas [53:36] tonight where 29 people have lost their lives in just the last month alone. El Paso, which we've [53:41] discussed in Odessa. And I know there are survivors from El Paso right here in the hall tonight. Vice [53:47] President Biden, I do want to direct this to you because we all remember Sandy Hook. 26 people died in [53:52] that school, 20 of them children. Those first graders would be in eighth grade today. At the [53:57] time, there was a groundswell in this country to get something done. President Obama asked you to [54:02] leave the push for gun control. You have often pointed to your ability to reach across the aisle [54:07] to get things done. But four months after Sandy Hook, a measure to require expanded background checks [54:12] died on the Senate floor. If you couldn't get it done after Sandy Hook, why should voters give you [54:17] another chance? Because I've got it done before. I'm the only one up here that's ever [54:21] beat the NRA. The only one ever beat the NRA nationally. I'm the guy that brought the Brady [54:26] bill into focus and became law. And so that's number one. Number two, after Sandy Hook, a number [54:33] of things happened. It went from a cause to a movement. Look what's happened now. Mothers, [54:39] the organization Mothers Against Violence, gun violence. We've seen what's happened again. Now we have [54:45] all these young people marching on Washington, making sure that things are going to change. There has been a [54:50] sea change. Those proposals I put forward for the president had over 50 percent of gun members of [54:57] the NRA supporting them and overwhelmingly the rest of the people supporting them. Now the numbers are [55:03] much higher because they realize what I've been saying and we've all been saying is correct. Over 90 [55:07] percent of the American people think we have to get assault weapons off the street, period. And we have to [55:12] get buybacks and get them out of their basements. So the point is things have changed and things have [55:18] changed a lot. And now what's happening is, and by the way, the way Beto handled, excuse me for saying [55:24] Beto, what Congressman. That's all right. Beto's good. The way he handled what happened in his hometown [55:32] is meaningful. The look in the eyes of those people, to see those kids, to understand those parents, [55:37] you understand the heartache. We are ready to do this. Mr. Vice President, thank you. You did bring [55:43] up assault weapons here. You did bring up assault weapons here. And many of you on this stage have [55:51] talked about executive orders. Senator Harris, you have said that you would take executive action on [55:55] guns within your first 100 days, including banning imports of AR-15 assault weapons. President Obama, [56:01] after Sandy Hook, more than 23 executive actions. And yet here we all are today. In recent days, [56:07] former Vice President Biden has said about executive orders, some really talented people [56:11] are seeking the nomination. They said, I'm going to issue an executive order. Biden's saying there's [56:15] no constitutional authority to issue that executive order when they say, I'm going to eliminate [56:20] assault weapons, saying you can't do it by executive order any more than Trump can do things [56:25] when he says he can do it by executive order. Does the Vice President have a point there? [56:28] Some things you can. Many things you can't. Let's let the Senator answer. [56:32] Well, I mean, I would just say, hey, Joe, instead of saying, no, we can't. Let's say, yes, we can. [56:40] Let's be constitutional. We've got a constitution. And yes, we can, because I'll tell you something. [56:47] The way that I think about this is I've seen more autopsy photographs than I care to tell you. [56:55] I have attended more police officer funerals than I care to tell you. I have hugged more mothers of [57:02] homicide victims than I care to tell you. And the idea that we would wait for this Congress, [57:12] which has just done nothing to act, is just it is it is overlooking the fact that every day [57:22] in America, our babies are going to school to have drills, elementary, middle and high school [57:27] students, where they are learning about how they have to hide in a closet or crouch in a corner if [57:35] there is a mass shooter roaming the hallways of their school. I was talking about this at one of [57:41] my town halls. And this child, it was eight years old probably, came up to me. It was like it was a [57:46] secret between the two of us. And he tugged on my jacket and he said, I had to have one of those drills. [57:52] It is traumatizing our children. El Paso and Beto, God love you for standing so courageously in the [58:01] midst of that tragedy. You know, people asked me in El Paso, they said, you know, because I have a [58:07] longstanding record on this issue. They said, well, do you think Trump is responsible for what happened? [58:12] And I said, well, look, I mean, obviously he didn't pull the trigger, but he's certainly been tweeting [58:17] out the ammunition. Senator Harris, thank you. Vice President Biden, do you still stand by what you [58:23] said on an executive order? No, what I said was, the question, speak to constitutional scholars. [58:28] If, in fact, we could say, by the way, you can't own the following weapons, period. It cannot be sold [58:34] anymore. Check with constitutional scholars. Mr. Vice President, thank you. Congressman O'Rourke, [58:39] I'm going to work down the row here, but I do want to come to Congressman O'Rourke because I know this is [58:45] personal to you. El Paso is your hometown. Some on this stage have suggested a voluntary buyback [58:51] for guns in this country. You've gone further. You said, quote, Americans who own AR-15s and AK-47s [58:57] will have to sell them to the government, all of them. You know, the critics call this [59:01] confiscation. Are you proposing taking away their guns and how would this work? I am. If it's a weapon [59:07] that was designed to kill people on a battlefield, if the high impact, high velocity round, when it hits [59:17] your body, shreds everything inside of your body because it was designed to do that so that you [59:23] would bleed to death on a battlefield and not be able to get up and kill one of our soldiers, [59:27] when we see that being used against children, and in Odessa, I met the mother of a 15-year-old girl [59:34] who was shot by an AR-15, and that mother watched her bleed to death over the course of an hour because [59:40] so many other people were shot by that AR-15 in Odessa and Midland. There weren't enough ambulances to get [59:46] to them in time. Hell yes, we're going to take your AR-15, your AK-47. We're not going to allow [59:52] it to be used against fellow Americans anymore. I want to say this. I'm listening to the people [1:00:03] of this country. The day after I proposed doing that, I went to a gun show in Conway, Arkansas, [1:00:09] to meet with those who are selling AR-15s and AK-47s and those who are buying those weapons. And you [1:00:15] might be surprised there was some common ground there. Folks who said, I would willingly give that [1:00:19] up, cut it to pieces. I don't need this weapon to hunt, to defend myself. It is a weapon of war. So [1:00:25] let's do the right thing, but let's bring everyone in America into the conversation, Republicans, [1:00:30] Democrats, gun owners, and non-gun owners alike. Congressman, thank you. I want to bring in [1:00:34] Senator Klobuchar on this because you've often talked about your uncle and the proud hunters back [1:00:39] home in Minnesota. So I wanted to get your response to Congressman O'Rourke tonight. Where do you stand on [1:00:44] mandatory gun buybacks? I so appreciate what the congressman's been doing. And I want to remind [1:00:49] people here that what unites us is so much bigger than what divides us. Everyone up here favors an [1:00:55] assault weapon ban. Everyone up here favors magazine limitations, which, by the way, would have made a [1:01:02] huge difference if that was in place in El Paso, in that store where all those ordinary people showed [1:01:07] such extraordinary courage. And certainly in Dayton, Ohio, where in 30 seconds one man guns down, [1:01:14] innocent people. The cops got there in one minute and it still wasn't enough to save those people. [1:01:19] That's what unites us. You know what else unites us? And I'll tell you this. What unites us is that [1:01:25] right now on Mitch McConnell's desk are three bills. Universal background checks, closing the Charleston [1:01:32] loophole and passing my bill to make sure that domestic abusers don't get AK-47. So we want to [1:01:39] get something done. And I personally think we should start with a voluntary buyback program. That's what [1:01:47] I think, David. But I want to finish this because if you want action now, if you want action now, [1:01:53] we got to send the message to Mitch McConnell. We can't wait until one of us gets in the White House. [1:01:58] We have to pass those bills right now to get this done. Because we cannot spare another innocent [1:02:04] life. Thank you. Thank you. I want to turn to Senator Booker because you have said just this week [1:02:09] about guns and about the candidates on this stage that the differences do matter. Those were your words. [1:02:14] You have argued if you need a license to drive a car in this country, [1:02:17] you should have a license to buy a gun. Gun owners would not only have to pass a background check, [1:02:22] they would have to obtain a federal license to buy a gun. This would require, as you know, [1:02:26] Congress to pass legislation. If Democrats can't get universal background checks, [1:02:31] how would you get this done? And can you name one Republican colleague of yours in the Senate [1:02:35] right now who would be on board with this idea? So background checks and gun licensing, [1:02:42] these are agreed to by overwhelmingly the majority of Americans. 83 percent of Americans agree with [1:02:48] licensing. This is the issue. Look, I grew up in the suburbs. It was about 20 years ago that [1:02:54] I came out of my home when I moved to inner city Newark, New Jersey and witnessed the aftermath of [1:02:59] a shooting. It's one of the reasons why shooting after shooting after shooting in neighborhoods like [1:03:05] mine for decades, this has been a crisis for me. It's why I was the first person to come out for gun [1:03:10] licensing. And I'm happy that people like Beto O'Rourke are showing such courage now and coming forward [1:03:16] and also now supporting licensing. But this is what I'm sorry about. I'm sorry that it had to take [1:03:23] issues coming to my neighborhood or personally affecting Beto to suddenly make us demand [1:03:27] change. This is a crisis of empathy in our nation. We are never going to solve this crisis [1:03:34] if we have to wait for it to personally affect us or our neighborhood, our community before we demand [1:03:40] action. You want to know how we get this done? We get this done by having a more courageous empathy [1:03:46] where people don't wait for this hell to visit upon their communities. They stand up and understand [1:03:51] the truth of what King said that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. I will lead [1:03:58] change on this issue because I have seen what the carnage creates in communities like mine because we [1:04:05] forget national shootings, these mass shootings are tragedies, but the majority of the homicide victims [1:04:13] come from neighborhoods like mine. Nobody has ascended to the White House that will bring more [1:04:17] personal passion on this issue. I will fight this and bring a fight to the NRA and the corporate gun [1:04:23] lobby like they have never seen before. Senator Booker, thank you. A quick follow-up though, [1:04:28] because Americans watching tonight know the reality of Congress in Washington. I asked, [1:04:32] do you have a Republican colleague in the Senate who would be on board with this idea to get this done? [1:04:37] You know, if that was the attitude when Strom Thurmond had the longest filibuster ever on civil rights, [1:04:43] if it was this idea that we can't get it done because of the situation in the Senate, [1:04:47] I'm looking to lead a movement. The number one reason why governments are formed is to protect the [1:04:53] citizenry. Think about this. We have had more people die due to gun violence in my lifetime than [1:04:59] every single war in this country combined from the Revolutionary War till now. This is not a side [1:05:05] issue to me. It is a central issue to me. That is the kind of fight because the majority of homicide [1:05:10] victims, we have a mass shooting every single day in communities like mine. We must awaken a more [1:05:15] courageous empathy in this country so we stand together and fight together and overwhelm those [1:05:21] Republicans who are not even representing their constituency because the majority of Americans, [1:05:26] the majority of gun owners agree with me, not the corporate gun lobby. It is time for a movement on [1:05:31] this issue and I will lead it. Senator Booker, thank you. Senator Warren, I want to come to you next [1:05:36] time. Because you have actually said in recent days that there are things you can get done with [1:05:40] Republicans in the Senate. What can you get done on gun control? So let's start by framing the [1:05:45] problem the right way. We have a gun violence problem in this country. The mass shootings are [1:05:51] terrible, but they get all the headlines. Children die every day on streets, in neighborhoods, [1:05:58] on playgrounds. People die from violence, from suicide and domestic abuse. We have a gun violence [1:06:06] problem in this country and we agree on many steps we could take to fix it. My view on this is we're [1:06:14] going to not, it's not going to be one and done on this. We're going to do it and we're going to have [1:06:17] to do it again and we're going to have to come back some more until we cut the number of gun deaths [1:06:23] in this country significantly. But here's the deal. The question we need to ask is when we've got this [1:06:30] much support across the country, 90% of Americans want to see us do, I like registration, want to see us [1:06:38] do background checks, want to get assault weapons off the streets. Why doesn't it happen? And the answer [1:06:45] is corruption, pure and simple. We have a Congress that is beholden to the gun industry. And unless [1:06:55] we're willing to address that head-on and roll back the filibuster, we're not going to get anything [1:07:02] done on guns. I was in the United States Senate when 54 senators said let's do background checks, [1:07:09] let's get rid of assault weapons. And with 54 senators, it failed because of the filibuster. [1:07:17] Until we attack the systemic problems, we can't get gun reform in this country. We've got to go [1:07:25] straight against the industry and we've got to change Congress so it doesn't just work for the [1:07:30] wealthy and well-connected, so it works for the people. Senator Warren, thank you. You bring up [1:07:36] eliminating the filibuster, which means you would need simply a simple majority in a Republican [1:07:41] Senate to get something done. I want to turn to Senator Sanders on this because you've said before [1:07:45] of this, if Donald Trump supports ending the filibuster, which he's talked about himself, [1:07:50] you should be nervous. Would you support ending the filibuster? No, but what I would support [1:07:55] absolutely is passing major legislation, the gun legislation that people here are talking about, [1:08:01] Medicare for all. Climate change legislation that saves the planet. I will not wait for 60 votes [1:08:09] to make that happen. And you could do it in a variety of ways. You could do that through budget [1:08:14] reconciliation law. You have a vice president who will in fact tell the Senate what is appropriate [1:08:22] and what is not, what is in order and what is not. But I want to get back to a point that Elizabeth [1:08:27] has made. And that in fact, in terms of gun issues and picking up on Corey and Beto and everybody else, [1:08:34] what we are looking at is a corrupt political system. And that means whether it is the drug companies [1:08:42] or the insurance companies or the fossil fuel industry determining what's happening in Washington, [1:08:50] or in this case, you got an NRA, which has intimidated the president of the United States [1:08:58] and the Republican leadership. I am proud. I am proud that year after year, I had an F rating [1:09:05] from the NRA. And as president, I will not be intimidated by the NRA. Senator Sanders, thank you. [1:09:13] Thank you. May I respond? Thank you very much. We've been hearing a lot about what's been happening [1:09:20] here in Texas. Only a few weeks ago, the deadliest massacre of Latinos, Latinos in modern U.S. history [1:09:28] happened in this state, in El Paso. So the fear among Latinos, and you know this, is very real. So let me [1:09:33] start with an issue that is causing a lot of division in this country, immigration. Vice President Biden, [1:09:40] as a presidential candidate in 2008, you supported the border wall saying, unlike most Democrats, [1:09:47] I voted for 700 miles of fence. This is what you said. Then you served as vice president in an [1:09:53] administration that deported 3 million people, the most ever in U.S. history. Did you do anything [1:10:01] to prevent those deportations? I mean, you've been asked this question before and refused to answer. [1:10:05] So let me try once again. Are you prepared to say tonight that you and President of the United States [1:10:11] Obama made a mistake about deportations? Why should Latinos trust you? [1:10:16] What Latinos should look at is comparing this president to the president we have is outrageous, [1:10:23] number one. We didn't lock people up in cages. We didn't separate families. We didn't do all of [1:10:28] those things, number one. Number two, number two, by the time this is the president who came along [1:10:34] with the DACA program. No one had ever done that before. This is the president who sent a legislation [1:10:38] to the desk saying he wants to find a pathway for the 11 million undocumented in the United States [1:10:43] of America. This is the president who's done a great deal. So I'm proud to have served with him. [1:10:49] What I would do as president is several more things, because things have changed. I would, [1:10:54] in fact, make sure that there is we immediately surge to the border. All those people are seeking [1:10:59] asylum. They deserve to be heard. That's who we are. We're a nation that says if you want to flee [1:11:04] and you're fleeing oppression, you should come. I would change the order that the president just [1:11:09] changed, saying women who were being beaten and abused could no longer claim that as a reason for [1:11:14] asylum. And by the way, retrospectively, you know, the 25th anniversary of the Violence Against [1:11:19] Women Act is up. The Republican Congress has not reauthorized it. Let's put pressure on the past, [1:11:25] the Violence Against Women Act now. But then we'll go back. [1:11:27] You didn't answer the question. Did you make a mistake with those deportations? [1:11:32] The president did the best thing that was able to be done at the time. How about you? [1:11:37] I'm the vice president of the United States. Secretary Castro, would you want to respond to [1:11:44] Vice President Biden? And let me put this in context, because your party controlled the White [1:11:49] House and Congress in 2009 and didn't pass immigration reform. And this broke a promise made [1:11:54] by President Barack Obama to Latinos. So why should voters trust Democrats now? I mean, [1:11:59] now it is even more difficult, as you know, because you need Republican votes in the Senate. [1:12:03] So are you willing, for instance, to give up DACA or give up a path to citizenship, [1:12:07] or even agree to build a wall in order to legalize 10.5 million undocumented immigrants? [1:12:12] Jorge, thank you very much for that question. And look, I agree that Barack Obama was very [1:12:18] different from Donald Trump. Donald Trump has a dark heart when it comes to immigrants. He built his [1:12:23] whole political career so far on scapegoating and fear-mongering and otherizing migrants. And that's [1:12:29] very different for Barack Obama. But my problem with Vice President Biden, and Corey pointed this [1:12:34] out last time, is every time something good about Barack Obama comes up, he says, oh, I was there, [1:12:39] I was there, I was there. That's me too. And then every time somebody questions part of the [1:12:44] administration that we were both part of, he says, well, that was the president. I mean, [1:12:48] he wants to take credit for Obama's work, but not have to answer to any questions. I mean, [1:12:55] Vice President Biden, you have 45 seconds. [1:12:58] Hold it. Let me just say that I would, I was the first candidate in early April to put forward [1:13:05] an immigration plan. You know why? Because I'm not afraid of Donald Trump on this issue. I'm not [1:13:10] going to backpedal. I'm not going to pretend like I don't have my own vision for immigration. So [1:13:16] we're not going to give up DACA. We're not going to give up protections for anybody. I believe that [1:13:20] on January 20th, 2021, we're going to have a Democratic president. We're going to throw out [1:13:24] Mitch McConnell and John Cornyn and have a Democratic Senate and a Democratic House. And we're going to [1:13:28] pass immigration reform within the first 100 days. Vice President, 45 seconds. [1:13:36] I did not say I don't stand. I stand with Barack Obama all eight years, good, bad, and indifferent. [1:13:44] That's where I stand. I did not say I did not stand with him. [1:13:48] Okay, Senator Warren, hundreds of children have been separated from their parents at the border. [1:13:53] And recently in Mississippi, we saw the largest immigration rate in a decade. You want to replace [1:13:58] ICE, the agency in charge of rounding up undocumented immigrants. So how would you deal [1:14:03] with the millions of immigrants who arrive legally but overstay their visas? And how would you stop [1:14:09] hundreds of thousands of Central Americans who want to migrate to the U.S.? [1:14:12] Well, I start with a statement of principles. And that is in this country, immigration does not [1:14:19] make us weaker. Immigration makes us stronger. I want to see us expand legal immigration and create [1:14:28] a pathway to citizenship for our dreamers, but also for their grandparents and for their cousins, [1:14:34] for people who have overstayed student visas, and for people who came here to work in the fields. [1:14:40] I want to have a system that is a path to citizenship that is fair and achievable. Down at the border, [1:14:49] we've got to rework this entirely. A system right now that cannot tell the difference in the threat posed [1:14:57] by a terrorist, a criminal, and a 12-year-old girl is not a system that is keeping us safer, [1:15:05] and it is not serving our values. Mr. Yang. We need, I want to add one more part on this, [1:15:13] because I think we have to look at all the pieces. Why do we have a crisis at the border? In no small [1:15:18] part because we have withdrawn help from people in Central America who are suffering. We need to restore [1:15:25] that help. We need to help establish and reestablish the rule of law so that people don't feel like [1:15:32] they have to flee for their lives. We have a crisis that Donald Trump has created and hopes to profit [1:15:40] from politically. We have to have the courage to stand up and fight back. Mr. Yang, it is true that [1:15:46] in the last few years we have seen the most severe anti-immigrant measures from putting kids in cages to [1:15:50] limiting asylum for people fleeing gangs and domestic violence. But it is also true that about one [1:15:56] million immigrants enter the U.S. legally every year. So are you willing to raise the number of legal [1:16:03] immigrants from one million to two million per year? And should there be a merit system as President [1:16:08] Trump wants? Sir, yeah. Oh, I'm sorry. Did you ask me? I already said it. Okay. Sorry. My father grew [1:16:15] up on a peanut farm in Asia with no floor and now his son is running for president. That is the [1:16:21] immigration story that we have to be able to share with the American people. If you look at our history [1:16:28] almost half of Fortune 500 companies were founded by their immigrants or children of immigrants [1:16:33] and rates of business formation are much higher in immigrant communities. We have to say to the [1:16:37] American people immigrants are positive for our economic and social dynamism and I would return the [1:16:43] level of legal immigration to the point it was under the Obama-Biden administration. I think we have to [1:16:49] compete for talent and I am the opposite of Donald Trump in many ways. He says build a wall. I'm going [1:16:55] to say to immigrants come to America because if you come here your son or daughter can run for president. [1:17:01] The water is great and this is where you want to build a company, build a family and build a life. [1:17:06] This country has been a magnet for human capital for generations. If we lose that we lose something [1:17:12] integral to our continued success and that is where I would lead as president. [1:17:21] Eight out of ten Latinos in Texas for another mass shooting targeting them. This is according to a [1:17:26] new Univision poll. President Trump has called Mexican immigrants rapists and killers, tried to ban [1:17:32] Muslims from entering the country and separated children from their parents. His supporters have chanted [1:17:37] build a wall and send her back. Do you think that people who support President Trump and his immigration [1:17:44] policies are racist? Anyone who supports this is supporting racism. Este es racismo y es sencillo. [1:17:52] The only people though who actually buy into this president's hateful rhetoric around immigrants [1:17:58] are people who don't know any. We have an opportunity to build an American majority [1:18:03] around immigration reform. In my community, a group of conservative Republicans rallied around an [1:18:09] individual, a beloved local individual who was deported when he went into ICE to try to get his paperwork [1:18:15] sorted out because they never thought it would happen to him. In some of the most conservative rural [1:18:20] areas of Iowa, I have seen communities that embraced immigration grow and it's why part of my plan [1:18:27] for revitalizing the economies of rural America includes community renewal visas that would allow [1:18:33] cities and towns and counties that are hurting not only for jobs but for population [1:18:37] to embrace immigration as we have in my city. You know, the only reason that South Bend is growing [1:18:43] right now, after years of shrinking, is immigration. It's one of the reasons we acted, [1:18:48] not waiting for Washington, to create city-issued municipal IDs so that people regardless of immigration [1:18:54] status in our city had the opportunity to have the benefits of identification. We have an opportunity to [1:19:00] actually get something done. But we cannot allow this to continue to be the same debate, [1:19:05] with the same arguments and the same clever lines, often among the same people since the last real [1:19:10] reform happened in the 1980s. We have to actually engage the American majority around the opportunities [1:19:17] for not just growth and small communities but our values, values of welcome, values of faith that all [1:19:24] argue for us to manage this humanely and in a way that marries our values with our laws. [1:19:30] In an interview eight months ago, you were asked what to do with the so-called overstayers, [1:19:38] people who come with a visa density. And you said, I don't know. Do you have an answer now? [1:19:43] I do. And if you read the rest of that article in the Washington Post, I talked about harmonizing [1:19:48] our entry-exit system with Mexico in the same way that we do with Canada. I think that could help us to [1:19:53] keep a handle on visa overstays. But I think the larger question that we're trying to get at is how [1:19:58] do we rewrite this country's immigration laws in our own image? In the image of Houston, Texas, [1:20:04] the most diverse city in the United States of America. In the image of El Paso, Texas, [1:20:09] one of the safest cities in the United States of America. Safe, not despite the fact that we are a city [1:20:15] of immigrants safe because we are a city of immigrants. I will lead an effort to make sure that we [1:20:30] rewrite our immigration laws in that way. Never cage another child. Make sure that there is [1:20:35] accountability and justice for the seven lives lost under our care and our custody. But also face the [1:20:41] fact that Democrats and Republicans alike voted to build a wall that has produced thousands of deaths [1:20:47] of people trying to cross, to join family, or to work a job. That we have been part of deporting [1:20:53] people, hundreds of thousands, just in the Obama administration alone who posed no threat to this [1:20:58] country breaking up their families. Democrats have to get off the back foot. We have to lead on this [1:21:03] issue because we know it is right. Legalize America. Begin with those more than one million dreamers. [1:21:09] Make them U.S. citizens right now in this, their true home country. And extend that to their parents, [1:21:15] their sisters, and their brothers. And ensure that we have a legal, safe, orderly system to come to this [1:21:21] country and add to our greatness here. Turn now to national security and the foreign policy issue [1:21:25] that has such a direct impact here at home. The U.S. relationship with China, trade, and President Trump's [1:21:31] tariffs. We received more than 100 questions from viewers wanting to know how all of you are going to [1:21:36] handle these tariffs. And Mr. Yang, let me begin with you. Would you repeal the tariffs on your first [1:21:42] day in office? And if so, would you risk losing leverage in our trade relationship with China? [1:21:48] I would not repeal the tariffs on day one, but I would let the Chinese know that we need to hammer [1:21:54] out a deal. Because right now, the tariffs are pummeling producers and farmers in Iowa who have [1:21:59] absolutely nothing to do with the imbalances that we have with China. A CEO friend of mine was in China [1:22:05] recently, and he said that he saw pirated U.S. intellectual property on worker workstations [1:22:10] to the tune of thousands of dollars per head. And he said, one, how can my workers compete against [1:22:15] that? And two, think about all the lost revenue to American companies. So the imbalances are real, [1:22:21] but we have to let the Chinese know that we recognize that President Trump has pursued an [1:22:27] arbitrary and haphazard trade policy that has had victims on both sides. So no to repealing the [1:22:34] tariffs immediately, but yes to making sure we come to a deal that addresses the concerns of [1:22:40] American companies and American producers. Mayor Pete, let me take that question. [1:22:44] Let me take that question to you because you've seen President Trump's tweets. He says what's [1:22:47] going to happen here is the Chinese are just going to wait him out so they can get a Democrat who [1:22:51] they can take advantage of. How do you think about China? We've seen President Trump [1:22:56] call President Xi both an enemy and a friend. Well, the president clearly has no strategy. [1:23:02] You know, when I first got into this race, I remember President Trump scoffed and said he'd [1:23:06] like to see me making a deal with Xi Jinping. I'd like to see him making a deal with Xi Jinping. [1:23:12] Is it just me or was that supposed to happen in like April? It's one more example of a commitment [1:23:17] not made. When that happens on the international stage, people take note, not just our competitors, [1:23:24] our adversaries, but also our allies take note of the inability of the United States to keep its word [1:23:31] or follow through on its plans. And when that happens, there are serious consequences. [1:23:35] We saw it at the G7, the leaders of some of the greatest powers and economies of the world [1:23:41] sitting to talk about one of the greatest challenges in the world, climate change, [1:23:45] and there was literally an empty chair where American leadership could have been. [1:23:49] The problem is this is a moment when American leadership is needed more than ever, [1:23:53] whether it's in Hong Kong where those protesters for democracy need to know that they have a friend [1:23:59] in the United States or anywhere around the world where increasingly we see dictators throwing their [1:24:05] weight around. The world needs America, but it can't be just any America. [1:24:09] Would you reveal the tariffs? I would have a strategy that would include the tariffs as leverage, [1:24:14] but it's not about the tariffs. Look, what's going on right now is the president who has reduced the entire [1:24:19] China challenge into a question of tariffs when what we know is that the tariffs are coming down on us [1:24:26] more than anybody else, and there's a lack of a bigger strategy. Senator Klobuchar, you've actually [1:24:30] supported the tariffs on steel. What we've got right now, though, George, it's not a focused tariff on steel. [1:24:39] What he has done here, he has assessed these tariffs on our allies. He has put us in the middle of this trade war, [1:24:45] and he is treating our farmers and our workers like poker chips in one of his bankrupt casinos. [1:24:50] And if we are not careful, he is going to bankrupt this country. One forecast recently says that it [1:24:56] has already cost us 300,000 jobs. All right. There is soybeans that are mounting up in bins all over [1:25:04] the Midwest in my state of Minnesota and in Iowa. So what I think we need to do is to go back to the [1:25:10] negotiating table. That's what I would do. I wouldn't have put all these tariffs in place, [1:25:14] and I wouldn't have had a trade policy where on August 1st, he announces he's going to have tariffs [1:25:19] on $300 billion of goods. On August 13th, he cuts it in half. A week later, he says he's going to reduce [1:25:25] taxes. The day after that, he says he's going to do it. The leaders of the world are watching this, [1:25:31] and it undermines our strength as a nation. And yes, we want fair trade, but we must work with the rest [1:25:37] of the world. And he has made a mockery of focused trade policy, which I think means enforcement, [1:25:43] like we've done in northern Minnesota, passing bills, getting President Obama to do more on that, [1:25:48] so that our workers can benefit. So we are importing, exporting goods, and making sure that is a [1:25:56] competitive policy where our goal is that we are making things, inventing things, and exporting to [1:26:04] the world. He is defeating that goal. Secretary Castro, you actually, in one of the previous [1:26:07] debates, identified China as the most serious national security threat to our country. I want to [1:26:11] pick up on what Senator Klobuchar was saying. She said she'd go back to the negotiating table. The [1:26:15] question is, what do you do for leverage? Where do you get it? Well, look, I agree with those who have [1:26:21] said that this erratic, haphazard trade war is hurting American families. As Senator Klobuchar said, [1:26:28] 300,000 American jobs. It's estimated that it's cost $600 to the average American family. Just a couple [1:26:34] of days ago, 60% of Americans said that they believe that we're in for a recession next year. So, [1:26:42] when I become president, I would immediately begin to negotiate with China to ratchet down that trade war. [1:26:48] We have leverage there. I also believe, though, that we need to return to a leader when it comes to [1:26:54] things like human rights. We have millions of Uighurs, for instance, in China that right now are being [1:27:01] imprisoned and mistreated. And in North Korea, this president is elevating a dictator. We need to stop [1:27:09] that. We need to return to ensuring that America leads again on human rights. When it comes to this trade [1:27:14] war, I would immediately begin ratcheting that trade war down. We have leverage in that discussion. [1:27:19] Senator Warren, let me bring you in on this conversation. President Obama signed the Trans-Pacific [1:27:23] Partnership Partnership. In part, it was designed to reign in China, to bring China in to some kind [1:27:29] of regulation. What do you think he got wrong? So, our trade policy in America has been broken [1:27:35] for decades. And it has been broken because it works for giant multinational corporations [1:27:42] and not for much of anyone else. These are giant corporations that, shoot, if they can save a nickel [1:27:49] by moving a job to a foreign country, they'll do it in a heartbeat. And yet, for decades now, [1:27:55] who's been whispering in the ears of our trade negotiators? Who has shaped our trade policy? [1:28:01] It's been the giant corporations. It's been their lobbyists and their executives. The way we change [1:28:08] our trade policy in America is, first, the procedures. Who sits at the table? I want to negotiate trade [1:28:15] with unions at the table. I want to negotiate it with small farmers at the table. I want to negotiate [1:28:21] it with environmentalists at the table. I want to negotiate with human rights activists at the table. [1:28:27] And you ask the question about leverage, if I can just respond to that one. The leverage, [1:28:32] are you kidding? Everybody wants access to the American market. That means that we have the capacity [1:28:40] to say, right here in America, you want to come sell goods to American consumers? Then you've got to [1:28:46] raise your standards. You've got to raise your labor standards. And you've got to raise your [1:28:50] environmental standards. So our companies can compete on a level playing field. We can use trade [1:28:57] not to undermine American workers and not to undermine American farms and not to undermine small [1:29:04] businesses in this country. We can use trade to help build a stronger economy. Senator Harris, [1:29:11] how would your trade policy differ from President Obama's? Well, first of all, I have no criticism [1:29:19] of that more than just looking at where we are now, which is that we've got a guy in the White House [1:29:23] who has been erratic on trade policy. He conducts trade policy by tweet, frankly, born out of his fragile ego. [1:29:30] It has resulted in farmers in Iowa with soybeans rotting in bins looking at bankruptcy. When we look [1:29:37] at this issue, my trade policy under a Harris administration is always going to be about [1:29:42] saying we need to export American products, not American jobs. And to do that, we have to have [1:29:48] a meaningful trade policy. I am not a protectionist Democrat. Look, we need to sell our stuff, [1:29:53] and that means we need to sell it to people overseas. That means we need trade policies [1:29:58] that allow that to happen. You asked earlier about China. It's a complicated relationship. [1:30:04] We have to hold China accountable. They steal our products, including our intellectual property. [1:30:09] They dump substandard products into our economy. They need to be held accountable. [1:30:13] We also need to partner with China on climate and the crisis that that presents. We need to partner [1:30:19] with China on the issue of North Korea. I am on, and I think the only person on this stage, [1:30:24] the Senate Intelligence Committee, and the Senate Homeland Security Committee. [1:30:28] We need a partner on the issue of North Korea. But the bottom line is this. [1:30:31] Donald Trump in office on trade policy, you know, he reminds me of that guy in The Wizard of Oz, [1:30:38] you know, when you pull back the curtain, it's a really small dude. [1:30:41] Okay. I'm not even going to take the bait, Senator Harris, but I am going to take this to Senator. [1:30:52] Senator Sanders right now. There is a reason why in the last 45 years, the average American today, [1:31:07] despite an explosion of technology and worker productivity, is not making a penny more than he [1:31:14] or she made 45 years ago. And one of the reasons is that for decades, we have had disastrous trade [1:31:22] policies. And I got to say to my good friend Joe Biden, Joe and I strongly disagree on trade. [1:31:29] I helped lead the opposition to NAFTA and PNTR, which cost this country over 4 million good-paying jobs. [1:31:40] And what happened is people who had those jobs ended up getting other jobs, [1:31:47] making 50 percent of what they made in manufacturing. So Trump obviously hasn't a clue. [1:31:56] Trump thinks that trade policy is a tweet at three o'clock in the morning. What we have got to do [1:32:04] is develop a trade policy that represents workers, represents the farmers in the Midwest and elsewhere [1:32:13] who are losing billions right now because of Trump's policy, a trade policy which understands [1:32:22] that if a company shuts down in America and goes abroad and then thinks they're going to get online [1:32:29] to get a lucrative federal contract under Bernie Sanders, they got another guess coming. [1:32:36] Vice President Biden, he invoked your name. Yeah. Well, look, we're either going to make the policy [1:32:42] or China's going to make the trade the rules of the road. We make up 25 percent of the world economy. [1:32:49] We need another 25 percent to join us. And I think Elizabeth, Senator Warren is correct. [1:32:54] At the table has to be labor and at the table have to be environmentalist. The fact of the matter is [1:33:00] China, the problem isn't the trade deficit. The problem is they're stealing our intellectual property. [1:33:06] The problem is they're violating the WTO. They're dumping steel on us. That's a different issue [1:33:12] than whether or not they're dumping agricultural products on us. In addition to that, we're in a [1:33:16] position where if we don't set the rules, we in fact are going to find ourselves with China setting [1:33:23] the rules. And that's why you need to organize the world to take on China to stop the corrupt [1:33:28] practices that are underway. Senator Booker, close out this round. [1:33:31] Sure. There's one point we're really missing on this stage right now, which is the fact that Donald [1:33:36] Trump's America first policy is actually an America isolated, an America alone policy. [1:33:42] Exactly. [1:33:43] From trade to battling China to the global crisis of climate change, the challenges in the Middle [1:33:50] East, he is pulling us away from our allies, out of the Iran deal, out of the Paris climate [1:33:55] accords. And on trade, he's deciding to take on China while at the same time taking on tariff battles [1:34:02] with all of our allies. You literally have him using a national security waiver to put tariffs on [1:34:09] Canada. Now, look, I'm the only person on the stage that finds Trudeau's hair very menacing, [1:34:14] but they are not a national security threat. We cannot go up against China alone. This is a president [1:34:22] that has a better relationship with dictators like Duterte and Putin than he does with Merkel and [1:34:27] Macron. We are the strongest nation on the planet Earth. And our strength is multiplied and magnified [1:34:33] when we stand with our allies in common cause and common purpose. That's how we beat China. [1:34:38] That's how we beat climate change on the planet Earth. And that's how American values are the ones [1:34:43] that lead on issues of trade and workers' rights. [1:34:46] David. [1:34:47] George, thank you. I want to turn now to our troops [1:34:50] overseas and to America's longest war in Afghanistan. U.S. talks with the Taliban are dead, [1:34:55] according to the president. Secret talks at Camp David have been canceled before they could happen. [1:34:59] Many of you have waited on that already. So I want to move past that tonight to what all of you have [1:35:04] promised on the campaign trail. Many of you on this stage have said you'd bring the troops home in [1:35:08] your first term. Others have said in your first year. Senator Warren, we all know the presidency is [1:35:13] much different from the campaign trail. President Obama wanted to bring the troops home. President Trump [1:35:18] promised to bring the troops home. And you have said of Afghanistan, let's help them reach a peace [1:35:23] settlement. It is time to bring our troops home, in your words, starting right now. Would you keep [1:35:28] that promise to bring the troops home starting right now with no deal with the Taliban? Yes. And [1:35:34] I'll tell you why. What we're doing right now in Afghanistan is not helping the safety and security of [1:35:41] the United States. It is not helping the safety and security of the world. It is not helping the safety [1:35:48] and security of Afghanistan. We need to bring our troops home. And then we need to make a big shift. [1:35:56] We cannot ask our military to keep solving problems that cannot be solved militarily. [1:36:04] We're not going to bomb our way to a solution in Afghanistan. We need to treat the problem of [1:36:11] terrorism as a worldwide problem. And that means we need to be working with all of our allies, [1:36:18] our European allies, our Canadian allies, our Asian allies, our allies in Africa and in South America. [1:36:27] We need to work together to root out terrorism. It means using all of our tools. It means economic [1:36:35] investment. It means expanding our diplomatic efforts instead of hollowing out the State [1:36:41] Department and deliberately making it so we have no eyes and ears in many of these countries. [1:36:47] We need a foreign policy that is about our security and about leading on our values. Senator [1:36:55] Warner, quick follow on that because top U.S. leaders, military leaders on the ground in Afghanistan [1:36:59] told me you can't do it without a deal with the Taliban. You just said you would. You would bring them [1:37:03] home. What if they told you that? Would you listen to their advice? [1:37:05] I was in Afghanistan with John McCain two years ago this past summer. I think it may have been [1:37:12] Senator McCain's last trip before he was sick. And I talked to people. We did. We talked to military [1:37:21] leaders, American and local leaders. We talked to people on the ground and asked the question, [1:37:26] the same one I asked on the Senate Armed Services Committee. Every time one of the generals comes through, [1:37:33] show me what winning looks like. Tell me what it looks like. And what you hear is a lot of [1:37:39] because no one can describe it. And the reason no one can describe it is because the problems in [1:37:47] Afghanistan are not problems that can be solved by a military. I have three older brothers who all [1:37:54] served in the military. I understand firsthand the kind of commitment they have made. They will do [1:38:01] anything we ask them to do. But we cannot ask them to solve problems that they alone cannot solve. [1:38:08] We need to work with the rest of the world. We need to use our economic tools. We need to use our [1:38:14] diplomatic tools. We need to build with our allies. And we need to make the whole world safer, [1:38:20] not keep troops bombing in Afghanistan. Senator Warren, thank you. [1:38:24] I do want to stay on this. And I want to turn to Mayor Buttigieg, because you're the only veteran [1:38:28] on this stage who served in Afghanistan. We heard in recent days from General Joseph Dunford, [1:38:33] the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who said in recent days, I'm not going to use the word [1:38:37] withdrawal right now. It's our judgment the Afghans need support to deal with a level of violence. [1:38:42] If he's not even using the word withdrawal, would you put your promise to bring troops home in the [1:38:46] first year on hold to follow the advice? You know, I served under General Dunford, [1:38:52] way under General Dunford in Afghanistan. And today, September 12th, 2019 means that today you could be [1:39:04] 18 years old, old enough to serve and have not been alive on 9-11. We have got to put an end to endless [1:39:13] war. And the way we do it is see to it that that country will never again be used for an attack [1:39:21] against our homeland. And that does not require an open-ended commitment of ground troops. Let me [1:39:27] say something else, because if there's one thing we've learned about Afghanistan from Afghanistan, [1:39:33] it's that the best way not to be caught up in endless war is to avoid starting one in the first place. [1:39:41] And so when I am president, an authorization for the use of military force will have a built-in [1:39:48] three-year sunset. Congress will be required to vote, and a president will be required to go to [1:39:54] Congress to seek an authorization, because if our troops can summon the courage to go overseas, [1:39:59] the least our members of Congress should be able to do is summon the courage to take a vote on [1:40:03] whether they ought to be there. By the way, we also have a president right now who seems to treat [1:40:09] troops as props, or worse, tools for his own enrichment. We saw what's going on with flights [1:40:14] apparently being routed through Scotland just so people can stay at his hotels. I'll tell you, [1:40:19] as a military officer, the very first thing that goes through your mind, the first time you ever make [1:40:24] eye contact with somebody that you are responsible for in uniform, is do not let these men and women [1:40:31] down. This president is doing exactly that. I will not. Mayor Buttigieg, thank you. I want to turn to [1:40:37] Vice President Biden, because the concerns about any possible vacuum being created in Afghanistan, [1:40:44] if you pulled the U.S. troops out, has been heightened by what we've seen in recent days on [1:40:48] the ground in Iraq. When you were Vice President, President Obama turned to you to bring the troops [1:40:52] home from Iraq. You have said on the campaign trail, quote, I made sure the President turned [1:40:56] to me and said, Joe, get our combat troops out of Iraq. There was a major drawdown of U.S. troops, [1:41:02] and then ISIS seized by some estimates 40% of the territory in Iraq. You then had to send [1:41:07] thousands of troops back in. Was it wrong to pull out of Iraq that quickly, and did the move [1:41:12] actually help ISIS take hold? No, it wasn't wrong to pull up. I want to ask you an Afghanistan [1:41:17] question. I've been in and out of Afghanistan, not with a gun, and I admire my friend for his service, [1:41:23] but I've been out of Afghanistan, I think more than anybody on this, and it's an open secret. [1:41:28] You reported a long time ago, George, that I was opposed to the surge in Afghanistan. The whole [1:41:33] purpose of going to Afghanistan was to not have a counterinsurgency, meaning that we're going to [1:41:38] put that country together. It cannot be put together. Let me say it again. It will not be put [1:41:45] together. It's three different countries. Pakistan owns the three counties, the three provinces, [1:41:51] and the east. They're not any part of it. The economies run it. I will go on and on, but here's the [1:41:55] point. The point is that it's a counterterrorism strategy. We can prevent the United States from [1:42:01] being the victim of terror coming out of Afghanistan by providing for bases, insist that Pakistanis [1:42:07] provide bases for us to airlift from and to move against what we know. We don't need those troops [1:42:14] there. I would bring them home, and Joe Dunford's a fine guy, but this has been an internal argument [1:42:19] we've had for eight years. With regard to Iraq, the fact of the matter is that, you know, I should [1:42:28] have never voted to give Bush authority to Gwynn and do what he said he was going to do. The AUMF [1:42:33] was designed, he said, to Gwynn and get the Security Council to vote 15 to nothing to allow inspectors [1:42:39] to Gwynn to determine whether or not anything was being done with chemical weapons or nuclear weapons. [1:42:45] And when that happened, he went ahead and went anyway without any of that proof. [1:42:50] I said something that was not meant the way I said it. I said, from that point on, [1:42:54] what I was argued against in the beginning, once he started to put the troops in, [1:43:00] was that, in fact, we're doing it the wrong way. There was no plan. We should not be engaged. We [1:43:05] didn't have the people with us. We didn't have our alliance. We didn't have allies with us, etc. [1:43:10] And it was later, when we came into office, the president turned to me and said, Joe, [1:43:15] when they said we had a plan to get out, he turned to the whole security system, [1:43:20] Joe will organize this, get the troops home. My son spent a year in Iraq, and I understand. [1:43:26] And we were right to get the combat troops out. The big mistake that was made, which we predicted, [1:43:32] was that you would not have a circumstance where the Shia and the Kurds would work together [1:43:39] to keep ISIS from coming, from moving in. Mr. Vice President, thank you. I want to turn to [1:43:44] Senator Sanders on this, because the concern over Afghanistan is very similar to what we saw in [1:43:48] Iraq when the troops came out. ISIS filled that vacuum. What do you make of people out there who [1:43:54] are worried that if we pull out U.S. troops too quickly from Afghanistan, it will create safe haven [1:43:58] all over again like the plotters of 9-11? David, let me answer that, but let me just [1:44:02] comment on something that the Vice President said. You talked about the big mistake in Iraq and the [1:44:09] surge. The truth is, the big mistake, the huge mistake, and one of the big differences between [1:44:15] you and me, I never believed what Cheney and Bush said about Iraq. You voted against the war in Iraq [1:44:23] and helped lead the opposition. And it's sad to say, I mean, I kind of had the feeling that there would [1:44:31] be massive destabilization in that area if we went into that war. As the former chairman of the Senate [1:44:39] Committee on Veterans Affairs want to pick up on what Pete said, we cannot express our gratitude to all of [1:44:46] the men and women who have put their lives on the line to defend them, defend us, who have responded to [1:44:53] the call of duty. But I think also I am the only person up here to have voted against all three of [1:45:02] Trump's military budgets. I don't think we have to spend 750 billion dollars a year on the military [1:45:12] when we don't even know who our enemy is. I think that what we have got to do is bring this world [1:45:20] together. Bring it together on climate change. Bring it together in fighting against terrorism and make it [1:45:28] clear that we as a planet, as a global community, will work together to help countries around the world [1:45:38] rebuild their struggling economies and do everything that we can to rid the world of terrorism. But dropping bombs on [1:45:46] Afghanistan and Iraq was not the way to do it. Senator Sanders, thank you. I want to take this to Mr. Yang. [1:45:53] You share the stage as you know when we talk about troops in Iraq and Afghanistan with the vice [1:45:57] president who was in the situation room, with senators who are on the Senate Armed Services, the [1:46:01] Foreign Relations Committees, with an Afghanistan veteran who is on the stage tonight. As you share the [1:46:07] stage with these candidates, what makes you the most qualified on this stage to be commander-in-chief? [1:46:11] I've signed a pledge to end the forever wars. We've been in a state of continuous armed conflict [1:46:18] for 18 years, which is not what the American people want. We have to start owning what we can [1:46:23] and can't do. We're not very good at rebuilding countries. And if you want proof, all you have to [1:46:28] do is look within our own country at Puerto Rico. We've spent trillions of dollars to unclear benefits, [1:46:36] lost thousands of lives. And thank you, Pete, for your service. And the goal has to be to rebuild [1:46:42] the relationships that have made America strong for decades. I would lead our armed forces with [1:46:48] restraint and judgment. What the American people want is simply a president who has the right values [1:46:54] and point of view, and they can trust to make the right decisions when it comes to putting our young [1:46:58] men and women into harm's way. And that's what I would do as president. Mr. Yang, thank you. Jorge. [1:47:05] Thank you very much. Vamos hablar de América Latina. You haven't been asked about Latin America in the [1:47:10] previous debate. So let's begin. Senator Sanders, one country where many immigrants are arriving from [1:47:17] is Venezuela. A recent UN fact-finding mission found that thousands have been disappeared, [1:47:23] tortured, and killed by government forces in Venezuela. You admit that Venezuela does not have free [1:47:29] elections, but still you refuse to call Nicolás Maduro un dictador, a dictator. Can you explain why? [1:47:35] And what are the main differences between your kind of socialism and the one being imposed in Venezuela, [1:47:42] Cuba, and Nicaragua? Well, first of all, let me be very clear. Anybody who does what Maduro does [1:47:49] is a vicious tyrant. What we need now is international and regional cooperation for free elections in [1:47:56] Venezuela so that the people of that country can make and can create their own future. In terms of [1:48:03] democratic socialism to equate what goes on in Venezuela with what I believe is extremely unfair. [1:48:11] I'll tell you what I believe in terms of democratic socialism. I agree with what goes on in Canada [1:48:16] and in Scandinavia guaranteeing health care to all people as a human right. I believe that the United [1:48:23] States should not be the only major country on earth not to provide paid family and medical leave. [1:48:30] I believe that every worker in this country deserves a living wage and that we expand the trade union [1:48:37] movement. I happen to believe also that what to me democratic socialism means is we deal with an issue [1:48:46] we do not discuss enough, Jorge, not in the media and not in Congress. You got three people in America [1:48:53] owning more wealth than the bottom half of this country. You got a handful of billionaires controlling [1:48:59] what goes on in Wall Street, the insurance companies and in the media. Maybe, just me, maybe what we [1:49:07] should be doing is creating an economy that works for all of us, not one percent. That's my understanding [1:49:13] of democratic socialism. Secretary Augusto, you wanted to say a quick response, 45 seconds. [1:49:18] Uh, sure. Thank you, Jorge. I'll call Maduro a dictator because he is a dictator. [1:49:22] And, uh, what we need to do is to, along with our allies, make sure that the Venezuelan people get [1:49:30] the assistance that they need, that we continue to pressure Venezuela so that they'll have free [1:49:35] and fair elections, and also here in the United States, offer temporary protected status, TPS, [1:49:40] to Venezuelans. That is something that the Trump administration has failed to do for all of his big [1:49:46] talk about supporting the Venezuelan American community. He has failed. I will not. I also [1:49:52] believe that we need to do things like a 21st century Marshall Plan for Honduras, El Salvador, [1:49:57] and Guatemala so that people can find safety and opportunity at home instead of having to make [1:50:02] the dangerous journey to the United States. And, uh, under my administration, we're going to put [1:50:07] renewed focus on Latin America. It makes sense. There are neighbors, and we have a lot of things in [1:50:12] common. It also makes sense that because we have a country like China that is going around the world [1:50:18] to places like Africa and Latin America making their own relationships, strengthening those, [1:50:23] the United States needs to strengthen its partnerships in Latin America immediately. [1:50:26] Thank you, sir. And I will. Senator Booker, let me ask you about Brazil. [1:50:31] After the recent fires in the Amazon, some experts suggested that eating less meat is one way to help [1:50:38] the environment. You are a vegan since 2014. That's obviously a personal choice. [1:50:42] But President Trump and Brazil's President Bolsonaro are concerned that climate change [1:50:46] regulations could affect economic growth. So should more Americans, including those [1:50:51] here in Texas and in Iowa, follow your diet? You know, first of all, I want to say no. [1:51:00] Actually, I want to translate that into Spanish. No. Look, let's just be clear. The factory farming going [1:51:14] on that's assaulting this corporate consolidation, the agriculture industry. One of the reasons why I have a [1:51:19] bill to put a moratorium on this kind of corporate consolidation is because this factory farming is [1:51:25] destroying and hurting our environment. And you see independent family farmers being pushed out of [1:51:31] business because of the kind of incentives we are giving that don't line up with our values. That's what I'm [1:51:36] calling for. But I want to I want to switch because we don't have crowded debate stage. We were talking about [1:51:42] Afghanistan and Iraq. It annoys me that we had a conversation about our troops overseas and we didn't [1:51:48] say one word about veterans in our country. We have a shameful reality in America that we send people off to [1:51:56] war and they often come home with invisible wounds, hurts and harms. They're disproportionately homeless. [1:52:03] You hear stories about women waiting for months for gynecological care through the VA. [1:52:08] It is very important that as we as a country understand that we are not going to solve every [1:52:14] problem with this outrageous increased militarism that we also make sure that we stand up for the [1:52:19] people that stood for us. We end our national anthem with home of the brave. It's about time we make this [1:52:25] a better home for our bravest. Congressman O'Rourke, Hurricane Harvey hit this town two years ago. [1:52:33] And not only is the Amazon burning, Greenland is melting at a record pace. The last five years [1:52:38] have been the hottest ever recorded. And we have a viewers question about this. What meaningful action [1:52:44] will you take to reverse the effect of climate change? And can we count on you to follow through [1:52:49] if your donors are against it? Yes, we will follow through regardless of the political consequences or [1:52:56] who it offends because this is the very future of our planet and our ability for our children and [1:53:02] grandchildren to be able to survive on it. We will make sure that we get to net zero greenhouse gas emissions [1:53:09] no later than the year 2050. That we are halfway there by 2030. That we mobilize $5 trillion over the [1:53:16] next 10 years to do that. That we invest here in Houston, Texas with pre-disaster mitigation grants to [1:53:23] protect those communities that are vulnerable to flooding. Given the fact that this town has seen [1:53:28] three 500 year floods in just five years, you'd like to think you're good for 1500 years, but you're not. [1:53:34] They're coming faster and larger and more devastating than ever. We're also going to make sure that we [1:53:39] free ourselves from a dependence on fossil fuels and embrace renewable wind and solar energy technology, [1:53:46] as well as the high paying, high skill, high wage jobs that come along with that. And then we're going to pay [1:53:52] farmers for the environmental services that they want to provide. Planting cover crops, keeping more [1:53:58] land under conservation, using no-till farming. Regenerative agriculture can pull carbon out of the [1:54:03] air and can drive it and sequester it into the soil. That's the way that we're going to meet this [1:54:08] challenge and we're going to bring everyone into the solution. Many of you want to comment? Let's [1:54:12] let's try to see. We can go very fast. Senator Klobuchar. Thank you. This is the existential crisis [1:54:18] of our time. It's, you know, that movie, The Day After Tomorrow. It's today. We have seen a warming in [1:54:26] our world like never before. We're seeing flooding in the Midwest, flooding in Houston, fires in the West. [1:54:32] And I think having someone leading the ticket from the Midwest will allow us to talk about this in a [1:54:37] different way and get it done. On day one, I will get us back into the international climate change [1:54:43] agreement. On day two, I will bring back the clean power rules that President Obama had worked on. On [1:54:50] day three, I will bring back the gas mileage standards. You can do all that without Congress, [1:54:55] which is good. On day four, five and six, I will, working with Congress and mayors and business [1:55:01] people all over the country, introduce sweeping legislation to get at that 2050 goal. And on day [1:55:09] seven, you're supposed to rest. But I won't. Senator Warren. This is what we need to do if we're [1:55:13] going to get at climate change. We have to take this on as a crisis that's happening right now. [1:55:18] Senator Warren, should American foreign policy be based around the principle of climate change? [1:55:22] Yes. We need to work on every front on climate change. It is the threat to every living thing on this [1:55:30] planet. And we are running out of time. Every time the scientists go back, they say we have less [1:55:36] and less time than we thought we had. But that means we've got to use all the tools. One of the tools [1:55:41] we need to use are our regulatory tools. I have proposed, following Governor Inslee, [1:55:47] that we, by 2028, cut all carbon emissions from new buildings, by 2030, carbon emissions from cars, [1:55:55] and by 2035, all carbon emissions from the manufacture of electricity. That alone, those three, [1:56:03] will cut our emissions here in the United States by 70%. We can do this. We also need to help around [1:56:13] the world to clean. But understand this one more time. Why doesn't it happen? As long as Washington [1:56:20] is paying more attention to money than it is to our future, we can't make the changes we need to make. [1:56:28] We have to attack the corruption head on so that we can save our planet. Senator O'Hara, 45 seconds. [1:56:35] When I think about this issue, it really is through the lens of my baby nieces who are one and a half [1:56:40] and three years old. When I look at what is going to be the world if we do nothing when they turn 20, [1:56:48] I am really scared. And when I've been in the United States Senate for now the last two and a half years, [1:56:54] and I look at our counterparts, the Republicans in the United States Senate, they must be looking at [1:57:01] their children. And then when they look at the mirror, I don't know what they see. But it's a lack [1:57:04] of courage. And this is an issue that, yes, it represents an existential threat. It is also [1:57:10] something we can do something about. This is a problem that was created by human behaviors. [1:57:16] And we can change our behaviors in a way that saves our planet. I've seen it happen in California. I took [1:57:25] on, as the Attorney General of California, I ran the second largest Department of Justice in the [1:57:29] United States, second only to the United States Department of Justice. I took on the big oil companies, [1:57:35] and we saw progress. If any of you have been to Los Angeles 20 years ago, you'll remember that sky was [1:57:41] brown. You go there now, the sky is blue. And you know why? Because leader just decided to lead, [1:57:48] and we took on these big fossil fuel companies. We have some of the most important and strongest [1:57:53] laws in the country. Thank you very much. And we made a difference. And my point being, [1:57:57] I've done it before, and I will lead as president on this issue because we have no time. The clock is [1:58:03] tipping. Thank you. But we need courage, and we need courageous leadership. We can get this done. [1:58:09] Mr. Yang. So to follow up on what Elizabeth said, why are we losing to the fossil fuel companies? [1:58:17] Why are we losing to the gun lobby and the NRA? And the answer is this. We all know, [1:58:22] everyone on the stage knows, that our government has been overrun by money and corporate interests. [1:58:27] Now, everyone here has a plan to try and curb those corporate interests, but we have to face facts. [1:58:33] Money finds a way. Money will find its way back in. So what is the answer? The answer is to wash the money [1:58:39] out with people-powered money. My proposal is that we give every American 100 democracy dollars [1:58:46] that you can only give to candidates and causes that you like. This would wash out the lobbyist [1:58:51] cash by a factor of eight to one. That is the only way we will win. And as someone running for president, [1:58:56] I'll tell you, there's a people on one side and the money on the other. The only way for us to win [1:59:01] is if we bring them together. Thank you, Mr. Yang. I'd like to have an academic discussion now about [1:59:08] education. Mr. Yang, we'll stay with you. Here in Houston, the school district is facing yet another [1:59:14] year of spending cuts. Like schools across the country, the system faces many challenges. One of [1:59:19] them, thousands of students are leaving traditional public schools and going to charter schools. [1:59:24] You're the most vocal proponent on this stage for charter schools. You have said that Democrats who [1:59:28] want to limit them are, quote, just jumping into bed with teachers unions and doing kids a disservice. [1:59:34] Why isn't taxpayer money better spent on fixing traditional public schools? [1:59:39] Let me be clear. I am pro-good school. I've got a kid, uh, one of my, uh, little boys just started [1:59:46] public school last week, and I was not there because I was running for president. So we need to pay [1:59:53] teachers more because the data clearly shows that a good teacher is worth his or her weight in gold. [1:59:58] We need to lighten up the emphasis on standardized tests, [2:00:02] which do not measure anything fundamental about our character or human worth. [2:00:07] But here's the big one. The data clearly shows that 65 to 70 percent of our students' outcomes are [2:00:12] determined outside of the school. We're talking about time spent at home with the parents, [2:00:18] words read to them when they're young, stress levels in the house, income, type of neighborhood. [2:00:24] We're putting money into schools, and educators know this. We're saying you're 100 percent [2:00:28] responsible for educating our kids, but you can only control 30 percent. They all know this. [2:00:33] The answer is to put money directly into the families and neighborhoods to give our kids [2:00:37] a chance to learn and our teachers a chance to teach. [2:00:40] Mayor Buttigieg, 45 seconds to respond. [2:00:48] Step one is appoint a secretary of education who actually believes in public education. [2:00:54] I believe in public education. And in order to strengthen it, [2:01:03] some things are very complex for preparing for a future where knowledge is at your fingertips, [2:01:08] but we've got to teach more to do with critical thinking and social and emotional learning. [2:01:13] Some of it is extremely simple. We've just got to pay teachers more. [2:01:17] And we've got to lift up the teaching profession. I always think of a story from South Bend [2:01:21] of friends who host exchange students from Japan. They had a student one year [2:01:25] who wanted to be a teacher, and they kept in touch with her when she went back to Japan and to college. [2:01:30] Uh, she took the exam to try to become a teacher, uh, in a society that really regards teachers [2:01:36] and compensates teachers as well. And she came up just short. So you know what she did? [2:01:40] Since she was academically good, but couldn't quite make the cut to be a teacher? [2:01:43] She had a fallback, fallback plan. She became a doctor. That is how seriously some countries treat [2:01:50] the teaching profession. If we want to get the results that we expect for our children, we have to support [2:01:55] and compensate the teaching profession. Respect teachers the way we do soldiers and pay them [2:02:02] more like the way we do doctors. Senator Warren, to use Mr. Yang's term, [2:02:06] are you just jumping into bed with teachers unions? You know, I think I'm the only person on the stage [2:02:12] who has been a public school teacher. I've wanted to be a public school teacher since I was in second [2:02:22] grade. And let's be clear in all the ways we talk about this, money for public schools should stay [2:02:28] in public schools, not go anywhere else. Freddie made my commitment. I will, we will have a secretary [2:02:37] of education who has been a public school teacher. This is ultimately about our values. I have proposed a [2:02:48] two-cent wealth tax on the top one-tenth of one percent in this country. That would give us enough [2:02:56] money to start with our babies by providing universal child care for every baby age zero to five, [2:03:05] universal pre-k for every three-year-old and four-year-old in this country, raise the wages of [2:03:12] every child care worker and preschool teacher in this country, cancel student loan debt for 95% of [2:03:19] the folks who've got it. Thank you, Senator. And strengthen our unions. This is how we build an [2:03:27] America that reflects our values, not just where the money comes from with the billionaires and [2:03:32] corporate executives. Senator Harris, 45 seconds to respond. My first grade teacher, Mrs. Francis [2:03:38] Wilson, God rest her soul, attended my law school graduation. I think most of us would [2:03:43] say that we are not where we are without the teachers who believed in us. I have offered in [2:03:48] this campaign a proposal to deal with this, which will be the first in the nation federal investment [2:03:54] in closing the teacher pay gap, which is $13,500 a year. Because right now in our public schools, [2:04:01] our teachers, 94% of them, are coming out of their own pocket to help pay for school supplies. [2:04:06] And that is wrong. I also want to talk about where we are here at TSU and what it means in terms of [2:04:12] HBCUs. I have as part of my proposal that we will put $2 trillion into investing in our HBCUs for teachers [2:04:21] because, because, because, because one, as a proud graduate of a historically black college and [2:04:28] university, I will say, I will say that it is our HBCUs that disproportionately produce teachers and [2:04:36] those who serve in these many professions. Thank you, Senator. But this is a critical point. [2:04:42] If a black child has a black teacher before the end of third grade, they are 13% more likely to go to [2:04:49] college. If that child has had two black teachers before the end of third grade, [2:04:56] there are 32% more likely to go to college. So when we talk about investing in our public education [2:05:03] system, it is at the source of so much. When we fix it, that will fix so many other things. We must invest [2:05:11] in the potential of our children. And I strongly believe you can judge a society based on how [2:05:16] it treats its children. And we are failing on this issue. [2:05:25] Guess what? You're guessing. All right. Here's the answer. [2:05:31] We are the wealthiest country in the history of the world. And yet we have the highest child poverty rate [2:05:40] of almost any country on earth. We have teachers in this country who are leaving education [2:05:50] because they can't work two or three jobs to support themselves, which is why under my legislation, [2:05:57] we will move to see that every teacher in America makes at least $60,000 a year. [2:06:04] What we will also do is not only have universal pre-K, we will make public colleges and universities [2:06:13] and HBCUs debt free. And what we will also do, because this is an incredible burden on millions [2:06:24] and millions of young people who did nothing wrong except try to get the education they need, [2:06:31] we are going to cancel all student debt in this country. And we are going to do that [2:06:40] by imposing a tax on Wall Street speculation. Thank you, Senator. [2:06:46] Mr. Vice President, I want to come to you and talk to you about inequality in schools and race. [2:06:52] In a conversation about how to deal with segregation in schools back in 1975, [2:06:57] you told a reporter, I don't feel responsible for the sins of my father and grandfather. [2:07:02] I feel responsible for what the situation is today, for the sins of my own generation. [2:07:06] And I'll be damned if I feel responsible to pay for what happened 300 years ago. [2:07:12] You said that some 40 years ago. But as you stand here tonight, [2:07:16] what responsibility do you think that Americans need to take to repair the legacy [2:07:20] of slavery in our country? Well, they have to deal with the, look, [2:07:25] there is institutional segregation in this country. And from the time I got involved, [2:07:29] I started dealing with that. Redlining banks, making sure that we are in a position where, [2:07:35] look, talk about education. I propose that what we take is those very poor schools, [2:07:40] the Title I schools, triple the amount of money we spend from 15 to 45 billion a year, [2:07:44] give every single teacher a raise to the equal raise of getting out of the $60,000 level. [2:07:50] Number two, make sure that we bring in to help the teachers deal with the problems that come from [2:07:56] home. The problems that come from home, we need, we have one school psychologist for every [2:08:00] 1,500 kids in America today. It's crazy. The teachers are, I'm married to a teacher. [2:08:05] My deceased wife is a teacher. They have every problem coming to them. We make sure that every [2:08:10] single child does in fact have three, four and five-year-olds go to school, school, not daycare, [2:08:16] school. We bring social workers into homes and parents to help them deal with how to raise their [2:08:22] children. It's not that they don't want to help. They don't want, they don't know quite what to do. [2:08:27] Play the radio. Make sure the television, excuse me, make sure you have the record player on at [2:08:32] night, the phone. Make sure the kids hear words. A kid coming from a very poor school, [2:08:37] very poor background, will hear four million words fewer spoken by the time they get there. [2:08:42] There's so much, no, I'm going to go like the rest of them do, twice over, okay? [2:08:49] Here's the deal. The deal is that we've got this a little backwards. And by the way, [2:08:53] in Venezuela, we should be allowing people to come here from Venezuela. I know Madura. [2:08:58] I've confronted Madura. Number two, you talk about the need to do something in Latin America. [2:09:03] I'm the guy that came up with $740 million to see to those three countries in fact change their [2:09:11] system so people don't have a chance to leave. You're all acting like we just discovered this [2:09:15] yesterday. Thank you, Mr. Vice President. Secretary Castro. [2:09:17] Thank you very much. Well, that's that's quite a lot. You know, I grew up in one of those [2:09:26] neighborhoods that folks have talked about in a neighborhood that was grappling with the legacy [2:09:30] of segregation. In fact, in two public school districts that were involved in a 1973 Supreme [2:09:37] Court case challenging how Texas financed its schools. And I know that today our schools are [2:09:46] segregated because our neighborhoods are segregated. Now, I have an education plan like a lot of folks [2:09:51] up here that would pay teachers more, that would recruit diverse ranks of teachers that would invest [2:09:57] in our public schools. But I also believe that we have to connect the dots to uplift the quality of [2:10:02] life to invest in housing opportunity, to invest in job opportunity, to invest in community schools [2:10:09] that offer resources like parents able to go back and get their GED and health care opportunities [2:10:14] and those things that truly truly ensure that the entire family can prosper. Those are the types of [2:10:20] things that we need to do in addition to lifting up our public schools. You asked a second ago about [2:10:26] charter schools. Look, it is a myth that charter schools are better than public schools. They're not. [2:10:32] Thank you, Secretary. Well, I'm not categorically against charter schools. I would require more [2:10:40] transparency and accountability from them than it's required right now. Senator Booker, [2:10:44] coming to you now. It was 65 years ago this year that the Supreme Court outlawed racial segregation in [2:10:49] public schools. Yet for millions of students of color today, segregation remains a reality. [2:10:55] Non-white districts typically receive $2,200 less per student than those in white districts. [2:11:01] This means older books, less access to computers, and often worse outcomes. What is your plan to address [2:11:07] segregation? And I'm not just talking about the achievement gap, but I'm talking about the opportunity gap in [2:11:12] education. So I'm hearing a lot of conversations on the stage that and the way we talk about communities [2:11:20] of color. Look, I live in a black and brown community below the poverty line. I've lived in [2:11:26] public housing projects almost for a decade and saw the anguish of parents who are just so deeply [2:11:32] frustrated that they don't have a school that serves their genius. I think I'm the only person on the [2:11:37] stage, even though I had no formal authority as mayor to run a school system, I stepped up and took [2:11:41] responsibility for our schools, and we produced results. A lot of folks here talking about raising [2:11:47] teacher salary. We actually did it in Newark, New Jersey, and we didn't stop there. We closed poor [2:11:53] performing charter schools, but we expanded high performing charter schools. We were a city that [2:12:00] said we need to find local solutions that work for our community. The results speak for themselves. [2:12:05] We're now the number one city in America for beat the odd schools from high poverty to high performance. [2:12:12] Strategies like investing in our children work. And I'll tell you this, I am tired of us thinking [2:12:17] about these problems isolated, disconnected from other issues. That's why my friend Secretary Castro was [2:12:22] 100 percent right. We are in the reality we are right now because the vice president of overtly racist [2:12:29] policies, not 400 years ago, just in my lifetime, that we're redlining communities, disinvesting in [2:12:35] communities. And more than just that, my kids are not only struggling with racial segregation and housing [2:12:41] and the challenges of underfunded schools, but they're also struggling with environmental injustice. [2:12:47] If you've talked to someone who's a parent of a child who's had permanent brain damage because of lead, [2:12:53] you'll know this is a national problem because there's over 3,000 jurisdictions in America where [2:12:58] children have more than twice the blood lead levels of Flint, Michigan. Thank you. And so if I'm [2:13:02] President of the United States, it is a holistic solution to education from raising teacher salary, [2:13:08] fully funded special education, but combating the issues of poverty, combating the issues of racial [2:13:13] segregation, combating the issues of a criminal justice system that takes parents away from their kids [2:13:17] and dealing with environmental justice as a major pillar of any climate policy. And we are back now for a [2:13:23] final round of questions. One question for each candidate. We're going to go in reverse order [2:13:27] from the opening statement. And candidates, the question is on the quality of resilience. [2:13:33] No president can succeed without resilience. Every president confronts crises, defeats and mistakes. [2:13:40] So I want to ask each of you, what's the most significant professional setback you've had to face? [2:13:45] How did you recover from it? And what did you learn from it? Vice President Biden. [2:13:50] I, uh, I never counted any professional setback I have as a serious setback. Uh, [2:14:00] there's things that are important, things that are unimportant. [2:14:02] I'm going to clear the protesters now. Just one minute. [2:14:22] Senator Biden, we'll start the clock again. I'm sorry. We're sorry. Go ahead. [2:14:50] There's setbacks and there's setbacks. And, uh, I think the most critical setback that can occur to [2:14:58] anyone is to, uh, um, lose, uh, well, my, my dad had an expression. He said, Joey, [2:15:06] it's not a question of succeeding whether you get knocked down. It's how quickly you get up. [2:15:10] And, uh, and he used to say, never explain and never complain. And then go on and say that the [2:15:15] only obligation that really matters, the most important thing is family. And so I was raised to [2:15:21] believe that that was the center of everything, family. And it could be judged on based on how you [2:15:27] treat your family and, and how you went from there. And I, uh, um, it took, you know, Kierkegaard said, [2:15:34] faith sees best in the dark. Right after I got elected, my wife and daughter were killed in an [2:15:39] automobile accident and my, and my, uh, my two sons are badly injured. And I just been elected, [2:15:44] not sworn in. And, uh, I lost my faith for a while. I came back. And then later, when my son Bo came [2:15:51] home from Iraq and with a terminal disease, and, uh, a year later, a year and a half later, losing him was [2:15:57] like losing part of my soul. But the fact is that I learned that the way you deal with it is you [2:16:03] deal with finding purpose, purpose in what you do. And that's why I hope hope he's proud of me today [2:16:11] because he wanted to make sure I didn't run for president, but I stayed engaged because when you [2:16:15] get hit badly, whether you're losing a job or you're raising a family like my dad, where you have to [2:16:21] make that longest walk up the stairs to tell your kid, you can't live here anymore. Dad lost his job. [2:16:26] You know, we've all went through that in some form or another. And it just takes, it just, for me, [2:16:31] the way I've dealt with it is, uh, finding purpose. And my purpose is do what I've always tried to do [2:16:36] and, uh, stay engaged in public policy. And, but, uh, there's a lot of people been through a lot worse [2:16:42] than I have, get up every single morning, put their feet one foot in front of another without the help I [2:16:46] had. They're real heroes out there. Some real heroes. Thank you, Mr. Vice President. Senator Warren. [2:16:50] I mentioned earlier, I've known what I wanted to be since second grade. I wanted to be a public [2:17:01] school teacher. And I invested early. I used to line my dollies up and teach school. I had a reputation [2:17:07] for being tough but fair. Um, by the time I graduated from high school, my family didn't have money for a [2:17:14] college application, much less to send me off to four years at a university. Um, and my story, like a lot of [2:17:21] stories, has a lot of twists and turns, got a scholarship and then at 19, got married, dropped [2:17:26] out of school, took a minimum wage job, thought my dream was over. I got a chance down the road at the [2:17:33] University of Houston. And I made it as a special needs teacher. I still remember that first year [2:17:40] as a special needs teacher. I could tell you what those babies looked like. I had four to, uh, four to [2:17:45] six year olds. But at the end of that first year, I was visibly pregnant. And back in the day, [2:17:52] that meant that the principal said to me, um, wished me luck and hired someone else for the job. [2:17:59] So there I am. I'm at home. I got a baby. I can't have a job. What am I going to do? [2:18:04] Here's resilience. I said, I'll go to law school. And the consequence was, I practiced law for about [2:18:12] 45 minutes and then went back to my first love, which is teaching. But it let me get into fights. [2:18:20] It gave me new tools. And the reason I'm standing here today is because I got back up. I fought back. [2:18:29] I know what's broken. I want to be in the fight to fix it in America. [2:18:33] Thank you, Senator. That's why I'm here. Senator Sanders. [2:18:37] Resilience to me means growing up in a rent controlled apartment in Brooklyn, New York, [2:18:46] the son of an immigrant who came to this country without a nickel in his pocket. Professional [2:18:53] resilience means to me, George, running for U.S. Senate in Vermont and getting 1% of the vote, [2:19:01] running for governor and getting 2% of the vote, finally becoming mayor of Burlington, Vermont with [2:19:07] 10 vote margin. What resilience means to me is that throughout my political career, [2:19:15] I have taken on virtually every powerful special interest in this country, whether it is Wall Street, [2:19:26] whether it is the insurance industry, whether it is the pharmaceutical industry whose corruption [2:19:33] and greed is killing people today, whether it is a military industrial complex or a prison industrial complex. [2:19:45] And I feel confident that given a lifelong record of taking on powerful special interests, [2:19:52] of standing up for the working families of this country, that I will be able to take on the greed [2:20:01] and corruption of the corporate elite and create a government and an economy that work for all of us, [2:20:09] not just the 1%. Thank you, Senator Sanders. Senator Harris. [2:20:17] You know, every office I've run for, whether it be district attorney or attorney general, [2:20:23] I was told each time it can't be done. They said, nobody like you has done it before. [2:20:29] You're, nobody is ready for you. When I ran for DA, I won and became the first black woman elected [2:20:38] DA in a state of 40 million people in San Francisco. When I ran for attorney general of California, [2:20:45] I was elected because I didn't listen. And I was the only black elected, woman black elected attorney [2:20:53] general in the state, in the country. And each time people would say, it's not your time. It's not [2:21:00] your turn. It's going to be too difficult. They're not ready for you. And I didn't listen. And a part of [2:21:05] it probably comes from the fact that I was raised by a mother who said, um, many things that were life [2:21:12] lessons for me, including don't you ever let anybody tell you who you are. You tell them who you are. [2:21:17] And when I look around the town halls that we do in this race for president of the United States, [2:21:26] and I look at the, um, the, the, the meetings that we do in the community meetings, and I see these [2:21:31] little girls and boys, um, sometimes even brought by their fathers and they bring them to me. And I [2:21:37] talk to them during these events and they smile and they're full of joy and their fathers tell them, [2:21:43] see, don't you ever listen and let anybody ever tell you what you can or cannot be. You have to [2:21:50] believe in what can be unburdened by what has been. Senator Harris, thank you very much. Mayor [2:21:56] Buttigieg. You know, as a military officer serving under Don't Ask, Don't Tell, and as an elected [2:22:06] official in the state of Indiana when Mike Pence was governor, at a certain point when it came to [2:22:14] professional setbacks, I had to wonder whether just acknowledging who I was was going to be the [2:22:21] ultimate career ending professional setback. I came back from the deployment and realized that [2:22:27] you only get to live one life and I was not interested in not knowing what it was like to be [2:22:35] in love any longer. So I just came out. I had no idea what kind of professional setback it would be, [2:22:40] especially because, inconveniently, it was an election year in my socially conservative community. [2:22:48] What happened was that when I trusted voters to judge me based on the job that I did for them, [2:22:55] they decided to trust me and reelected me with 80% of the vote. And what I learned was that trust [2:23:02] can be reciprocated and that part of how you can win and deserve to win is to know what's worth more [2:23:10] to you than winning. And I think that's what we need in the presidency right now. We have to know [2:23:16] what we are about. And this election is not about any of us up here. It is not about this president, [2:23:23] even though it's hard to talk of anything else some days. It's about the people who trust us with [2:23:28] their lives. A kid wondering if we're actually going to make their schools safe when they've learned [2:23:33] active shooter drills before they've learned to read. A generation wondering whether we will actually [2:23:38] get the job done on climate change. And if we hold to that, then it doesn't matter what happens to [2:23:43] each of us professionally. Together we will win a better era for our country. Mayor Buttigieg, [2:23:50] thank you. Mr. Yang. I was an unhappy lawyer for five whole months and I left to start a business. [2:23:58] And I'm going to share with you all one of the secrets to entrepreneurship. If you want to start [2:24:02] something, tell everyone you know you're going to do it. And then you don't have a choice. You put your heart [2:24:07] and soul into it. And even though I did that, my company flopped. It had its mini-rise and maximum [2:24:12] fall. I lost investors hundreds of thousands of dollars. Still owed $100,000 in school debt. My [2:24:18] parents still told people I was a lawyer. I guess it was a little easier. So I remember lying on my [2:24:24] floor looking up wondering how it had come to this. Eventually I picked myself back up. I kept working in [2:24:29] small growth companies for another 10 years and eventually had some success. Then after I did have [2:24:34] some success, I still remembered how hard it was, how isolating it was, how it feels like your friends [2:24:39] no longer want to spend time with you. And so I spent seven years starting and running a non-profit [2:24:46] that helped train young entrepreneurs around the country, including Sean Nguyen, who's here in the [2:24:50] audience tonight, who left his gilded Wall Street job to become a food entrepreneur in San Antonio. [2:24:57] Sean, I hope I made the process a little bit easier for you than it was for me. But the goal of my [2:25:02] campaign is to make this an economy that allows us to live our human values and aspirations. [2:25:07] Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Yang. Senator Booker. [2:25:13] So my biggest professional setback is embarrassing because a lot of folks know about it. I, [2:25:18] with a bunch of tenant leaders in Newark, New Jersey in 2002, took on the political machine. [2:25:22] And boy, did they fight back. I had tires on my car slashed or campaign offices were broken into. [2:25:28] My phones were tapped. It became a spectacle and we lost that election. [2:25:34] And here's a bit of advice to everybody. If you're going to have a spectacular failure, [2:25:38] have a documentary team there to capture it because it made for [2:25:41] an Oscar-nominated documentary called Street Fight. But then, unfortunately, [2:25:45] another setback it lost in the Oscars to a movie called March of the Dagnab Penguins, [2:25:49] for crying out loud. The people in my community living in the projects told me, [2:25:55] don't give up on the people and the people won't give up on you. Create bigger and bolder [2:25:59] coalitions and you're going to win. And you know what? We came back four years later [2:26:03] and won the largest lopsided victory in our city's history. But more than that, [2:26:08] the lesson was there. We didn't give up. We were taking on America's toughest problems, [2:26:13] from crime to poverty. And we transformed our city, creating tens of thousands of new jobs, [2:26:18] the biggest economic expansion in our city. And as I said before, turned around our school system. [2:26:23] There's more work to do, but I haven't given up on the people. I still live in that community. [2:26:27] But this is the big lesson. My staff and my friends and my community told me, [2:26:31] if you want to go fast, you may have won the mayor's race, but that's not what life is about. [2:26:35] There's an old African saying that says, if you want to go fast, go alone. But if you want to go [2:26:39] far, go together. The lesson I learned of resilience is to trust people, because the power [2:26:45] of the people is always greater than the people in power. And the test of America right now, [2:26:51] it's not a referendum on Donald Trump. It's a referendum on us and who we are and who we're going [2:26:55] to be together. We need to use this moment in history to unite in common cause and common purpose. [2:27:01] And then there's nothing we can't do together as a nation. Senator Booker, thank you. [2:27:06] Congressman O'Rourke. Thank you, George. Everything that I've learned about resilience, [2:27:14] I've learned from my hometown of El Paso, Texas. In the face of this act of terror that was directed at [2:27:23] our community in large part by the president of the United States that killed 22 people and injured [2:27:29] many more. We were not defeated by that, nor were we defined by that. The very thing that drew that [2:27:35] killer to us is the very thing that helps us set the example for the rest of this country. We don't see [2:27:41] our differences as disqualifying or dangerous. We see them as foundational to our success, [2:27:47] to our strength and to our security and to our safety. Yesterday, I was visiting with one of [2:27:53] those victims. He's the head coach of the Fusion. This is a girls soccer team of 10 and 11-year-old [2:28:00] girls. His name is Luis. He was shot in the legs multiple times. He was shot in the side multiple [2:28:06] times. He's still healing from his wounds in the hospital. But from his hospital bed, he's still [2:28:11] trying to coach the Fusion girls soccer team. Memo, his co-coach, is still fighting for his life [2:28:19] right now at Del Sol Hospital. Those two men, Jessica and Marcela, their wives, they exemplify [2:28:25] resilience to me. And when we end this scourge of gun violence in this country, when we finally [2:28:31] confront the racism that exists in America, when we're defined not by our fears but instead by our [2:28:37] aspirations and our ambitions, it will be in large part, I think, thanks to the example that El Paso [2:28:43] has set. Congressman, thank you. Senator Klobuchar. My challenges and resilience have brought me [2:28:52] up here. I grew up with a dad who struggled with alcoholism his whole life. And after his third DWI, [2:29:00] he had a choice between jail and treatment. He chose treatment with his faith, with his friends, [2:29:06] with our family. And in his words, he was pursued by grace. And that made me interested in public [2:29:11] service because I feel like everyone should have that same right to be pursued by grace. [2:29:16] I then got married. My husband's out there somewhere, hopefully smiling. And our daughter. [2:29:23] And our daughter was born. I had this expectation. We're going to have this perfect, perfect birth. [2:29:28] And she was really sick. And she couldn't swallow. And she was in and out of hospitals for a year and a [2:29:33] half. But when she was born, they had a rule in place that you got kicked out of the hospital in [2:29:38] 24 hours. She was in intensive care. And I was kicked out. And I thought this could never happen [2:29:44] to any other mom again. So I went to the legislature, our state legislator, not an elected official, [2:29:50] a mom. And I advocated for one of the first laws in the country guaranteeing new moms and their babies [2:29:55] a 48 hour hospital stay. And when they tried to delay the implementation of that law, [2:30:01] I brought six pregnant friends to the conference committee. So they outnumbered the lobbyists [2:30:06] two to one. And when they said, when should it take place, they all raised their hand and said, [2:30:09] now. That is what motivated me to go into public service. And when I got to that gridlock of [2:30:15] Washington, D.C., and got to work and pass over 100 bills. And I know a lot of my friends here from [2:30:22] the left. But remember, I am from the middle of the country. And I believe if we're going to get things [2:30:27] done, that we have to have someone leading the ticket with grit, someone's going to not just [2:30:31] change the policies, but change the tone in the country, and someone who believes in America [2:30:38] and believes it from their heart because of where they came from, that everyone should have that same [2:30:43] opportunity. Senator, thank you. Secretary Castro. And thank you, George, to Jorge, to Lindsay, [2:30:51] and to David, and to all of you all for tuning in tonight. In many ways, I shouldn't be here on [2:30:55] this stage. You know, Castro is my mother's name and was my grandmother's name before her. I grew up [2:31:03] in a single-parent household on the west side of San Antonio, going to the public schools. Eventually, [2:31:09] my brother Joaquin and I became the first in our family to become professionals. And when I got home, [2:31:15] I took a job at the biggest law firm in town. I was making $100,000 a year in the year 2000. [2:31:22] A few months later, I got elected to the San Antonio City Council. And the city council at the time was [2:31:27] only paying $1,040 a year. So everybody had another job. And my job was at the law firm. [2:31:33] Well, a few months after I got elected, the law firm got a client. And the client wanted those of us on [2:31:40] the city council to vote for a land deal. The land deal was that they wanted to build a golf [2:31:45] course over our water supply because we relied on an underground aquifer. I didn't think the [2:31:50] environmental protection plan was strong enough. So I wanted to vote against it. And my constituents [2:31:55] wanted me to vote against it. But under the ethics rules for lawyers in Texas, because believe it or [2:31:59] not, lawyers have ethics rules, you can't just go against the interests of a client. So I was stuck. [2:32:07] On the one hand, I wanted to do the right thing. On the other hand, my livelihood, [2:32:10] my student loans, my new house payment, my car payment depended on me shutting up, [2:32:15] being conflicted out. So one day I walked into my law firm and I quit my job. And then I went and [2:32:21] I voted against that land deal on the city council. And, you know, it was the first test that I had. [2:32:31] And I think back to that because oftentimes we think of politics and you think of politics as dirty [2:32:36] or corrupting. I wondered before I went in it whether it would change who I was. [2:32:41] And I was proud that when that first test came, that I stood up for the people that I was there to [2:32:46] represent and not for big special interests. There's nobody that gets tested more in a position [2:32:52] of public trust than the president of the United States. This president has failed that test. [2:32:59] But I want you to know that if you elect me president, I won't. I won't serve anybody except [2:33:05] you and your family. And together we can create an America that's better than ever. Thank you very [2:33:11] much. Secretary Castro, thank you to all of our candidates. It was a great debate. I think we [2:33:16] learned a lot tonight. Thanks to you. Thanks to Texas Southern University for hosting us tonight. It was a [2:33:21] great crowd as well tonight. Thanks to you. Thanks to everyone at home. The debate is over.