Lets please give a warm welcome to former Vice President joe biden. [applause] joy we got you your own chair, just for you. Mr. Biden reverend anyways, never mind. Joy great to have you here. We are going to jump right in. Reverend, are you going to start it off, or bishop barber . Sorry, you have an opening statement. I just violated our rules. Four minutes for you, mr. Vice president. Mr. Biden i thought you made a mistake. Does it count getting to the podium . Hey, everybody. Thanks for being here. Reverend barber, good to see you again. Everybody, my name is joe biden. I am jill bidens husband. Today is our anniversary. She is still with me so, god love her. I am Ashley Bidens father and my son, hunter. Folks, look, i wanted to be here today for the poor Peoples Campaign. Thats just what it is. Reverend barber, we have talked about it before, but the fact of the matter is, what you are doing is making a difference. You are picking up what was left off by dr. King, when he decided it was necessary to go beyond just poverty among africanamericans but across the nation. For too many years, the animated principle of what has happened is, with great income inequality, the charlatans have been able to pit black folks against white folks against latinos, et cetera. When you have a problem, its the other. Look at whats happening now. The reason why poor folks are poor is because of all those immigrants, those muslims, those africanamericans, et cetera. Its a bunch of malarkey. The fact of the matter is the Peoples Campaign intends to and end this exploitation. The exploitation is worse than it has ever been because of the gigantic income inequality across america, worse than any time since the turn of the last century. It is ridiculous that we have this extreme, extreme, extreme change going on, deep inequities our society, a policy that discriminates against and devalues black people, native americans, people of color, women, lgbtq individuals, people with disabilities, refugees, im going quick because i have four minute immigrants, asylumseekers. These are all our children. Thatare the kitestrings lift our National Ambitions aloft. They are americas children. We have an obligation and everyone should be treated with dignity. As you know, today is the fourth anniversary of the massacre at Mother Emmanuel Church in charleston. The fact is the reverend was a friend and he was murdered along with eight others. It is the clearest example of the poisonous ideology of white supremacy. Here is the point. When we went down there to celebrate the loss of those people and their lives, president obama stood there and ended his presentation with amazing grace. It was amazing the impact he had. I got to stay afterwards, and the next day my family and i went to the regular service. I listened to those family members and they had the grace to forgive those who did the horrible thing that were done. Thats time. Thank you very much. Joy sit on down. Come back. Sit on down. [applause] all right, bishop barber, a question . Rev. Barber its amazing when a preacher has a problem with a microphone. Let me ask this question. The poor Peoples Campaign is building a movement to root out the interlocking injustices of systemic racism, poverty, ecological devastation, militarism and the war economy, and what we call the distorted narrative of religious nationalism. I am from the south, the sun belt, where onethird of all the poor people live in america. Thats 50 Million People, 13 million of them uninsured. And the Southern States, 26 of them to be exact, have the worst records on Voter Suppression and racialized gerrymandering. But here is the other side. The persons who get elected by what some courts have now called surgical racism, once in office, they vote to deny health care, living wages, cut public education, deny womens rights , immigrants rights, lgbtq rights in ways that hurt people. Moreat hurt in raw numbers low will white people. There were 26 million poor low blacksack low wealth wealth whites low in this country. Here is the question. When will you go and spend significant time in the south and the sun belt to put a spotlight on these issues . How will you fight to win a new electorate of poor whites, blacks, latinos, natives and others in the sun belt . How will your campaign address the issues of poverty that underlines the myths that these issues impact small, marginalized groups only, rather than all of us . Mr. Biden first of all, i will campaign in the south. I believe we can win georgia, south carolina, believe it or not, and texas and florida. The election is a long way off, and you may recall i was the only person who campaigned for the senator in alabama. I was the only person invited to speak. Not the only, but the only person who was not a person of color invited down. I spent a lot of time campaigning in North Carolina and texas and around the country. I have no intention of walking away if i am the nominee. If i am not the nominee, i have no intention of walking away and trying to help whoever the nominee is to win those states. Number two, if i were to be elected president , number one, we have to bring back you know, what happened with the Voting Rights act, as you well know, there was a decision, the Shelby County case occurred, and it said it would eliminate the requirement that you had to get preclearance to change anything dealing with your Voting Rights legislation. Anything that changes. The truth matter the truth of the matter is i thought we had made real progress. I was chair of the judiciary committee, the Ranking Member when we extended the Voting Rights act the last time for 25 years. It was fiveyear increments. When i was there, we did it for 25 years. At that time, we had a unanimous vote. All those southern boys and women voted for it. I thought maybe there was progress, maybe things were beginning to change. What i vastly underestimated was how deep and systemic racism is and how and why it never gives up. Its like cutting grass. You have to do it every week. If you let it go for a month, six months, or a year, you will have a forest in your yard. I would ask the United States senate to reassert the Voting Rights act and overrule shelby. Overrule the shelby case as a practical matter. And theds to education prison system, i think everyone is entitled to total health care. I would ensure that every Single Person in the United States has access to medicaid right off the bat. I would triple the amount of money we spend on title i for underprivileged schools from 15 billion to 45 billion a year, and i would make sure we had preschool for every 3, 4, 5yearold in every single state in the union. I would make sure we were in a situation where we had more social workers, more school psychiatrists, etc. , going into schools. Its a long question. You are looking at me like you want me to stop. Do you want me to answer more or to stop . I will conclude by saying look, there isnt a single reason in the world why every single, solitary child in america is not covered by health insurance. There isnt a single reason in the world why any parent having to pay for daycare shouldnt should in fact not have an 8,000 tax credit. I was a single parent for five years after my wife and daughter were killed and my sons were badly injured. I had to have a lot of help. I had the salary of a senator then and i found it hard. I can only imagine what it is for Single Parents trying to raise a child on the minimum wage. We have to raise the minimum wage to a minimum of 15 an hour. Its disgraceful that somebody works 40 hours a week and lives in poverty. There are a whole lot of other things i could speak to, but the bottom line is my dad had an expression. Wouldld say someone come to my dad and say, let me tell you what i value. He would say show me your budget, i will tell you what you value. These guys dont value education, the poor, any of these things we are talking about right now. Joy lets have reverend harris ask a question. Harris the poor Peoples Campaign has done an audit, and we found there are 140 Million People who are poor or one couple hundred dollar emergency from deep poverty. We want to know, even though there are so many folks, 43. 5 of the population, the media doesnt cover it. Most politicians dont talk about it. People prefer to talk about the middle class. When we are told there is not enough to go around even though they can find . 53 of every discretionary dollar for the military. So one, what are you going to say about the lie of scarcity . Two, how are we going to immediately and fully, not incrementally, eliminate poverty . Three, what can you say about your view on military spending, militarization, and the problem of warmongering happening in this country and the world . [applause] mr. Biden number one, we have the greatest income inequity in the history of the United States of america since 1902. And the fact of the matter is, there is plenty of money to go around. The first thing i would do is eliminate the president s tax cut which has added to the deficit 2 trillion, and also we trillion in tax loopholes. We have the money. Its not just we are not talking about the middle class. We are talking about the poor because they have to have access to get to a place where they can live a decent life. Everyone is entitled to be treated with dignity. You have no dignity when you cannot provide health care for your children. You have no dignity and you turn around and realize there is nothing you can do to get a child an education. My point is, as a United States senator and, more important, and eight years as Vice President , we moved to cut the budget, as you recall. I am the guy the president put in charge of ending our presence in iraq. We had over 160,000 troops overseas, we took over, the president said to me, what are we going to do . 1 5 down to 1 5 of that amount of people, about. We should not be involved in the war in yemen. There are so many things we can do in terms of the military budget, but also, folks, remember, remember, there is a trillion, a trillion six hundred billion dollars in loopholes. I will give you an example. We could make sure every single solitary person in the United States qualified to go to a Community College with a good education from preschool through 12, we could put all of it free we could put all of them free into Community College for 6 billion a year. There goes that big spending democrat, right . Guess what . Eliminate one loophole. Its called stepped up basis. I was listed as the poorest man in congress for 30 years, i didnt know what it was. Stepped up basis means if you have 1 million of stock and you million, you have to pay Capital Gains tax. God forbid, you get hit by a truck on your way to selling it and it goes to your son or daughter, they dont have to pay a tax. That could pay for your kids to go to college and go well beyond the opportunities they have now. I could do it and still have 11 billion left over. Its one tiny illustration of the ability we have to do so much. The idea that we cannot triple money for title i or provide an 8,000 tax credit for any man, woman who needs it for child care, et cetera. This is all within our wheelhouse. We dont have to punish anybody. This is not about punishment. Take away 500 billion in loopholes, you are not going to affect any wealthy persons standard of living, for god sake. They are not going to have to sell their second or 15th home, whatever the devil it is. This is plain fairness, simple, basic fairness, and we have all the money we need to do it. Joy all right, mr. Vice president , i am going to bring up francine jefferson. Francine . Francine thank you for taking this question. I am here with a pastor from rural indiana who lives on the banks of the ohio river, the most contaminated river in the country. I am here with my family from the flood lands of the mississippi delta where dr. King first launched the poor Peoples Campaign 51 years ago. Holmes from homes county, the poorest county in the nation. Recently, we had a flood that destroyed homes and fields, left crops devastated, and we have seen almost no governmental help. It is not uncommon for us to be ignored. We have held the title of poorest county in the nation for a long time. But we are living in the richest nation in the world and we are the poorest county. There are a lot of places like this all over the nation and we are experiencing Real National emergencies. My question is first, i have to say to you, poverty hurts. High poverty in the United States is morally corrupt. But it is fixable. My question is, how will your administration respond to the increased threat of Natural Disasters, emergencies from climate change, and the connection to the everpresent emergency of poverty across this country . Mr. Biden in the interest of time, i have laid out in detail a Global Warming initiative. Focusing first and foremost on what we do with those communities that are the poorest communities, hit the worst by environmental degradation, whether it is flooding, lead paint on the wall, whether you cant turn on a faucet without drinking poison water, that would be the first and foremost focus immediately as we move toward zero emissions. Number two, the whole idea that in fact we think that Global Warming is occurring and having this impact on the United States and the world hurts everyone equally, it does long run, but in the near term, it is a gigantic, gigantic, gigantic unfairness to people in poverty because they live in the wake of all of these things that are happening. Folks, the additional piece of this is, there is no reason why by the way, it is overwhelmingly in the interest of everybody, everybody, if we end this division, bring people of poverty out of poverty, move them into a place where they are able to compete and get a fair shot, whether it is housing, education, health care, whatever it is, it benefits the whole nation. We have to stop letting these guys use the divisions that exist in the country as a means, like charlatans always do, to divide the country. The reason that black man doesnt have a job is because of that white immigrant coming across the border or that hispanic or that muslim, whatever. Its used by charlatans all the time. We have a guy in the white house that has turned it into an art form. It has to end. It has to end. The division has to end and we have to Start Talking about what we are going to do explicitly. I agree with clyburn. He has a 102030 program. Any county that has been in poverty for more than 10 years should be the first place where any program that affects counties, the money should go first. Start with the poorest and work our way to the wealthiest. I think that program would be instituted fully with me as president of the United States. Joy may i ask a followup. Really to all three of these questions. What you have talked about are initiatives that eventually would wind up in the senate. You have been in the senate a long time. You have experienced Mitch Mcconnell up close. He comes from a state that has substantial poverty, a Southern State where you would think these kinds of programs would be needed in popular, whether on the environment or economics. He is dead set against them all. How would you get past a majority Republican Senate in which Mitch Mcconnell was determined to kill all of these ideas or even a Mitch Mcconnell in the minority who repeated the consistent filibustering that happened when you were Vice President and anything that came from the obamabiden administration, Mitch Mcconnell considered dead on arrival. Mr. Biden i know you are one of the ones who thinks it is naive that we have to work together. The fact of the matter is we cannot get a consensus, nothing happens but the abuse of power by the executive, number one. There are certain things that take a brass knuckle fight. When they say we are not going to support you, we do what i did last time. I went into 68 races in 22 states. They were not blue states. Not blue areas. And guess what . Remember i got criticized by a lot of you in the press when i said we are going to win back the house and win over 40 votes . We got 40 votes back. We beat back republicans with mainstream democrats. Look, this is what they are doing to health care. You have to go out and beat these folks if they dont agree with you, by making your case. Thats what president s are supposed to do, persuade the public. Last point i will make. The Affordable Care act. Everything that landed on obamas desk was a locust at the time. He had no time to explain it. Once it got started taking away, we got what we call an aldercall saying, im for health care, i dont want to take away preexisting conditions, et cetera. You go out and you beat them. You make a case. You make an explicit case, just like we did for the house. I think we can do the same thing for the senate. You have to make it clear to republicans that on some things there is a rationale for compromise. For example, when we did the recovery act. The president , as you may have remembered, at the state of the union, said joe will do the recovery act. 89 billion, done without any waste or fraud, 2 waste, fraud, abuse. What happened . We didnt have the votes initially. I went out and changed three republican votes. You try to persuade. It doesnt mean you can do it all the time, but it kept us from going into a new depression. If you start off with the notion that there is nothing you can do, why dont you go home . Lets start a real physical revolution if you are talking about it. We have to change what we are doing within our system because we talk about we the people who hold these truths selfevident. We have not lived up to that standard, but we have never fully abandoned it. The moment we abandon it, we lose everything we stand for nationally and internationally in terms of the power of persuasion. The reason why the rest of the world follows us is not because we have the Largest Military in the world, but because we not only lead by military power but because of the power of our example and you can shame people to do things the right way. Rev. Barber one of the challenges the poor Peoples Campaign is bringing to everybody is that there is nobody thats not to blame. Republicans are at fault. For the position of the poor. Democrats. We have virtually eliminated the conversation about poverty and policies, and the interlocking injustices. Most of the time, in a conversation about racism, people want to talk about cultural racism, not policy racism. Then there is not a connection to that and poverty and so forth, and ecological devastation. Here is my question. In 2016, we had 26 president ial debates on a mainstage, televised. Not one of them focused an hour on addressing the problems of 43. 5 of this nation, 140 million poor people. Will your campaign advocate for a complete debate on the issue of poverty in the United States of america . [applause] mr. Biden yes, thats why im here. Thats why im here today. The notion of dealing with poverty in america is not only systemic, its incredibly debilitating. Its the one thing that can bring this country down and it gets worse and worse. My whole career, i have talked about poverty. Thats what i got involved with. Thats why i got started in the first place. Injustices exist not only in my state, as you know, but also, you know, has the eighth largest africanamerican population in the country but also, its a state that couldnt decide which side it wanted to be on in the civil war. We have a lot of poor folks they call hanging chickens in the chicken industry. Most of them are caucasian. The point is, we have to make it clear to people that they are all in this together, but we dont do that very well. My son bo and i, before he died, he was the attorney general, we only two caucasian guys who won downstate, as they call it, and in the black community. We were trying to make a difference. I dont trim it. You know me. We tried to make a difference. We expose the truth. We knock on doors, sit with them in their living rooms, walk into diners, and make the case. They get it. They get it. And look, my dad had an expression, half of winning is showing up. Thats why im so proud of you. Its presumptuous of me to say this but im so proud of you. All of this. You started this. You organized this. You put it together. Joy we have a little over a minute left. President obama largely spoke those kinds of messages and was so compelling. Why do you suppose the other side did not hear it . Mr. Biden lets be honest. When the president of the United States, my friend barack obama was elected, it was the greatest honor my life to serve with him and become a close friend. The world was falling apart. The first year, he did everything just to keep us from going off a cliff completely. Done, finished, depression. It took an enormous amount of capability for him to do it. Then he made sure we did something no other president has been able to do, the Affordable Care act, without a single republican vote. It was hammer and tong fighting. At the same time, he went on and tried to change our Foreign Policy and end our involvement in these wars, and he did it. And by and large, until things changed around and we have made so many mistakes subsequently. President obama talked about these things, but first things first, it didnt matter a whole lot if in fact we were in an absolute depression. Joy and that is your time. In the music didnt play. You guys will have to sing it. There it is. Mr. Biden thank you very much. Joy thank you very much, mr. Vice president. Joy appreciate it. Mr. Biden go spread the faith. Joy thank you very much. There it is. Comes. Re he your four minutes begins now. Mr. Yang it is such a thrill to be here. Thank you all. I was just talking to Tamika Whitfield backstage. She drove 16 hours from little rock, arkansas. That is the spirit in this place. Am i right . I could not agree more with your mission of a National Call tomorrow revival. And i have some bad news for you, which is that your work is more vital than even you know. A study came out recently that projected median africanamerican net worth will be zero by 2053. You have to ask yourself, how is that possible . The reason its possible is that the most common jobs in our economy are being automated away. We have automated away factory 4 million jobs and now we are going to automate retail jobs, call center jobs, Truck Driving jobs, and on and on. This is an economic Natural Disaster. Who suffers in an economic Natural Disaster . Poor people, people of color marginalized communities. ,as usual, look to the writings and teachings of dr. Martin luther king jr. Wesaid in 1967 in his book, need a guaranteed minimum income in the United States of america. [applause] and it is what he was fighting for on the day he was assassinated in 1968. If you have heard anything about me, you know this, there is an asian man running for president. Who wants to give everyone 1000 a month. All those things are true. Now the freedom dividend seems dramatic now in 20, but not only dr. King fought for. Thomas payne at the founding of the country called it the citizens dividend. Economist Milton Friedman said it would be tremendous for america. It passed the u. S. House of representatives twice in 1971 and there is one state that has a dividend where everyone in that state gets between 1000 in 2000 every year, no questions asked. What state is that . Alaska. And how did alaska fund it . Oil. And what is the oil of the 21st century . Data, technology, self driving cars and trucks. What they are doing for the people of alaska with oil money, we can do for everyone in america with technology money. Indeed, we must do this. The punitive and inhuman nature of our economy is about to ramp up in unprecedented ways. If we dont get in front of this, unfortunately the causes of Donald Trumps victory will only accelerate. A symptom, a manifestation of the fact we are in the greatest economic and transformational transition in our country. Thats why im running for president , to help solve this problem. Im going to cite one of our great thinkers chris rock. , what did chris rock say . Chris rock said that george w. Bush is one of the great black activists in recent history because he helped barack obama get elected. [laughter] he said, george w. Was so bad, it led to barack obama. And he looked at donald trump and said the only way that donald trump can work out is if we go for the total opposite direction the next time after donald trump. Chris rock said donald trump is so bad, is going to give us jesus christ. [laughter] unfortunately, we dont have jesus christ, but we do have someone who is running on the opposite of everything donald trump stands for. He wants to turn the clock back. I want to turn the clock forward. I want to accelerate and evolve the way we think of ourselves in value and work, like the work that my wife does at home with our two boys every day. One of whom is autistic. What is her work valued at right now . Zero. That is your time. Thank you very much. The opposite of donald trump is an asian man. Who likes math. Thank you very much. [laughter] the first question as we said, almost half of the country is living in poverty. And there is very little conversation about it. The problems of leaded water, the lack of health care, living and there is very little wages, we want to know how you contend with the lie of scarcity, people telling us there isnt enough. We want to know how you will break through the narrative and talk about the issue of poverty, and not just with talk but with solutions. We want to know, what will you say to the fact that . 53 of every discretionary dollar goes to the military and . 15 goes to health care and education and antipoverty programs combined. What will we do about the problem of militarism, the militaryindustrial complex and warmongering . Mr. Yang i could not agree more that the biggest lie in American Life right now is that we dont have the money. We are the Richest Society in the history of the world. Our economy is up to 20 trillion plus. I dont remember anyone saying we didnt have the money when was wall streets turn to seek a bailout in 2008. You over member that . Do you remember voting for the 4 trillion bailout of wall street . I sure as hell dont. Remember anyone looking around saying, where will the money come from . I dont were member that either. I could not agree with you more that this is a battle between the mindset of scarcity which unfortunately is winning in our country, and the mindset of abundance and humanity. Why is the mindset of scarcity winning . Because of the reason youre all here today. 78 of americans are living paycheck to paycheck. Cant afford an unexpected 500 bill. If you say do something for those people, what is the human response . You think if they are getting theirs, that is bad for me and if you demonize them, than i am on board. That is the mindset of scarcity in action. How do you reverse that and un brainwash so many of our citizens . The fact we are the Richest Society in the history of the world and can easily afford a 1000 a month dividend to help even the playing field, and the way we do that is by getting americans on board with a vision. Were all owners, shareholders of this country, instead of getting something, everyone gets e we alls an incom deserve as owners and shareholders. When a Company Declares a dividend, when verizon says we made money so lets give money, everyone applauds management. They said that is great work. Now it is our turn is a country to come together as a democracy and say we deserve a dividend and we can make that case very strongly to the entire american people. Would your dividend be means tested or universal . Mr. Yang the freedom dividend which is a flagship proposal of my president ial platform is that it is not means tested. Were taking a page from alaskas book. Alaska gives everyone a dividend. They do not see if you are employed or what your means are. It becomes universally popular and is impossible to demonize orville and eyes. Lets go to an audience question first. We will change the order a little bit. I want to thank you. I am a former chairman and former councilman of the apache tribe in arizona. [applause] i am from pennsylvania. Im with mohawk and seneca nations. My children were taken from me for reasons of poverty in direct violation of the Indian Welfare act. Chapter of america foundation, which includes the devastation of indigenous lives and communities need to be addressed. Encroachment on indigenous religion is a priority. The National Environment protection act has been continually bypassed by congress, allowing for desecration of federal trust land by foreign corporations. To this day, my people are struggling against poverty, and the attack on our sovereign rights guaranteed to us by this government. Our lands are being poisoned and are under consistent threat from mining and fracking from companies. As president , what would you do to ensure protection of sacred and holy indigenous lands, the lives of native people and our tribal sovereignty . [applause] mr. Yang thank you very much for being here, and it is immoral and criminal what has happened in your community. All of america can see the legacy of the dislocation of native peoples over the last number of generations. So i would appoint someone who respects all the commitments we made to native peoples. When you talk about the poisoning of your land, the problem is were measuring our economic progress in gdp and it makes it seem like people are obstacles. We have to actually take your communitys health and all Americans Health and use that as a new gdp. That seems far out, but gdp is a record high, and Life Expectancy has declined for three years in a row because of record levels of drug overdoses and suicides. So if we continue to see people as obstacles, there is a continual battle against the grain. Like if you respect native rights, you will somehow be costing some oil company or Fracking Company money. Instead we had to change the measurement. We have to to say their Childrens Health and success, our clean air and water, Mental Health and freedom from substance abuse, thats how we measure economic progress, and then protecting your peoples rights will be part of that progress. [applause] bishop barber. Thank you so much for being here. Let me just say to all the people who are gathered here. You are right. You can clap at the questions that the people ask, and then we listen for the answer that the candidate gives. Is that all right . I also want to go back one more time and do a little housekeeping. If you are not with media that has been assigned, we have ask ed you to turn off your phones and your wifi. Right here on this row, are you all with the media . If you are not, we would ask you to take that off and turn it off. It is being livestreamed. It helps us with the signal. It will be provided to everybody. I am from the southland, the sunbelt. Im part white and part black. But the reality is, in america, since 2010, we have had 26 state s that have engaged in racist Voter Suppression and racist gerrymandering laws. It represents Something Like 54 of all africanamericans and people of color. It also represents states that make up 52 members of the u. S. Senate plus 50 of the u. S. Congress. When we look at the maps, however, and we put up all the states that have engaged in systemic racism as seen through the lens of racist Voter Suppression, something strange happened. We overlay that over the same states with the highest poverty, the highest Child Poverty, the lowest wages, the lack of health care, the greatest attack on immigrants and the lgbt community. What we find is that those who get elected through racist Voter Suppression laws end up passing, blocking, and supporting policies that hurt mostly poor white people. Because there are 26 million poor black people in this country, but 66 million poor white people in this country. So our campaign understands that you cannot have a conversation about racism without dealing with poverty, ecological devastation and the false narrative of religious nationalism. Heres the question of your administration. How will you run and administrate to break through the mythology of the separation of these issues . The mythology that poverty just hurts a small subset of people, i. E. , people of color. And how would you help build a coalition in the south of whites, blacks, brown people, of natives, and how will you make sure that if youre running on a party ticket, it does not just follow the polls . To say, i think we could win North Carolina, go to this state. How do you say to them, we have to go to every state and not give up on any state if we are going to change the United States . [applause] mr. Yang that question deserves applause. And this echoes what dr. King was arguing for. He said that we need to unite poor people from different backgrounds and let people know it is not a race. And look at this group. You all represent this and reflect this. It is inspiring and invigorating. I make the case to folks around the country that our economy has become punitive and inhuman. That is not a case that folks who watch fox news see that often. But they get it. They see whats going on with their communities. I talk about for example, truckers, a lot. There are Truck Drivers in the 3. 5 million United States. My friends in Silicon Valley are working on trucks that can drive themselves. It is going to be an epic disaster for many workers in many communities. And a majority of those truckers are republicans and white americans. Because that is just who the majority of that group is. They have looked at me and said wait a minute, hes talking about problems i actually care deeply about. We need to build a coalition and one of the ways im trying to build that coalition, i have been on fox news a number of times. I think the dnc, and some may not agree with that decision, but we need to win a general election. We need to win over americans from every point in the political spectrum. I will havey case, an honest conversation with anyone, anywhere. We need to make it so that democrat is not a dirty word in certain parts of the country. Unfortunately, i have been shocked where it has been. Ive been talking to workingclass americans in ohio or another part of the country when i say im a democrat, you can feel this vitriol rising. And for me, democrats were the party of the working class, the working man. We need to make that case to the american people. Quickly following up on that. So much of the history of that word becoming a dirty word has to do with race. You are a person of color yourself. How do you overcome the fact that a lot of time the opposition is not about policy. There is broad agreement across people in the havenots about what should be done about social programs, but theres a barrier that has to do with the history of racial polarization and racism in this country. What do you do about that . It is funny. As you suggest, i am the son of immigrants myself. And i show up. And there is a curiosity around my particular identity and background because im going to places that frankly would not necessarily expect that. And i have actually found them to be openminded about the phenomenon i am describing. Youre right, theres been a polarization that has built up in part because cable news has found they make more money, no offense, by catering to particular audiences. Most of the americans i talked to are very willing to listen to the fact that there is a bigger set of forces here that we should be rallying around together rather than letting ourselves get divided. I want to follow up. One of the things this campaign is seeing, you look out here, we dont say is it race or is it class. We say it is. [applause] but by racism, we dont mean cultural racism, because just namecalling, thats not really what we are looking at. We are looking at policy, disparate impacts and trying to help folks see, when you pass a disparate impact on black people, people of color, it also has a disparate impact on poor whites. So here is the question. In 2016, there were 26 televised debates, not forums like this but televised debates. Everybody on the stage. Not one debate was dedicated to systemic poverty and not one hour was dedicated to systemic racist Voter Suppression, even though we face Voter Suppression like we havent seen since the days of jim crow. Will your campaign insist on those that are putting together the debates, that there be a debate that focuses on these five interlocking injustices. Systemic poverty, systemic policy racism, ecological devastation, the war economy, militarism, and how will you do that . Because we believe that until we have the interlocking conversation, we are having silo conversations which further enable people to divide us. [applause] mr. Yang you know i would be thrilled to have a debate on those topics. I would advocate to the powers that be im not the powers that be, im letting you know. [laughter] mr. Yang one of the messages from my campaign is that poverty has an antidote. Money. You know what i mean . Or as my friend says, poverty is not absence of character, it is an absence of cash. So what we need to do is fix the capital flows in our country. Put cash into people and families hands and with that and would that help with some gerrymandering and voter exclusion . Would that help with some marginalization politically and in a way that we can hopefully rein in our Defense Budget . That is the goal. We know that our democracy right now revolves around who has the money. So if we put money into our hands as the shareholders and democracy, we can start retaking our government and having it work for us. I would be thrilled with that debate format because this is the core set of values and ideals of my campaign. And one other followup. You come from the corporate world, and understand that world quite well. Part of what drives the disparity in cash on hand is that the very powerful interest s in this country are the people with a lot of money. And you talk about being able to solve some of the issues of poverty by pulling money from tech. Those are powerful lobbies with a lot of influence in washington, a lot of control over our politics. How do you break that cycle and how do you increase the power of the 140 Million People who dont have the cash versus the people with a lot of money . [applause] mr. Yang thats one reason im so thrilled with the progress of my campaign. My average donation is only 20. My fans are even cheaper than bernies. [laughter] i dont owe anyone anything. So the goal is to try to fix the economy so it works for us. I would suggest thats the kind of lightning bolt you need to shock our system to start changing the rules of the economy so they are actually a trickleup economy. From people, families and communities up. Then you can change the balance so it is not just the moneyed interests that win, joy, but the people of this country. Unfortunately i do not see a realistic way to do that that does not involve a Political Revolution and a groundswell of support. One thing i am thrilled about, there is bipartisan support for a dividend. And as your president in 2021, the democrats and progressives will be so thrilled with beating donald trump, then we can get some of the republicans and conservatives who represent rural areas to say this actually helps rural americans and areas that have been devastated by automation in ohio and michigan. We dont need 81 of congress to pass a dividend, we only need 51 . If we get that dividend across, we can change everything. All right. Theoday, were releasing poor peoples moral budget, everybody has got a right to live. We are talking about what is it going to take for us to invest in our future. And the demands that this campaign has come up with. We are suggesting that if we cut military spending and actually make this country more secure, if we invest knowing we will get more money for those investments, and if we tax those who can afford to pay those taxes the most and not the poor, we could in fact not just lift up the 140 million poor people, but the vast majority of people in this country. Can you talk a little bit about how you propose to impact not just poor people, not just middleclass people, not just business people, but what is it going to take for us to really take seriously these real problems of the lack of living wages, the lack of health care, hospitals closing, and have a whole solution, not Silo Solutions but a whole solution to come to terms with those realities . Mr. Yang heres the beauty of it. If we put this money into our hands, we end up getting that money back. I was with a corrections officer in New Hampshire who said we should pay people to stay out of jail, because we spend so much when they are in jail. We will save billions of dollars on incarceration, homelessness services, emergency room Health Care Just by making our people stronger and healthier. One study showed you would increase gdp 700 billion a year just on the basis of Better Health and education outcomes if we were to relieve Child Poverty in this country. We would create over 2 million new jobs because all this money we have would go into our local communities over and over again. It would go to tutoring for kids. Car repairs we have been putting off. This is again, even us in this room, we start thinking where we would get the money, lets get it from the military or from some other program. If we put the money in her hands, we will get it back over and over again. And so this is the mindset of abundance even for us. Are we spending too much on military . 750 billion that we know of, on threats that do not apply to us in the current era. 100 , we need to move some of that elsewhere. But the mindset, this economy of abundance, the humancentered economy, we would invest in ourselves and get the money back over and over again. Very quickly, with the last few remaining minutes. You have been very successful in terms of being a virtual unknown to most of the people in the country, using grassroots online , techniques to get yourself out there. How does your Campaign Plan to use those same techniques to encourage people who are poor and low income . Also white low income people do not vote. How would you change that . Mr. Yang i was inspired by the words of a rapper in atlanta, about me and the campaign. I dont know who andrew yang is, but he wants to give me 1000 a month. If you get that word out to people, where they think that is a reality, we can get folks who dont think politics applies to them, because they are just putting one foot in front of the other. Fighting for the next month. Say hey, vote, they say it wont matter. Yes, we want to put cash money in everyones hands and humanize the economy and they will think it is still too good to be true. Until they turn on that tv and see me standing next to joe biden on june 27. Then they will say, the asian m ans for real. I have almost 130,000 donors right now. I am qualified for debates not just doing in july, but september as well. I will be here the whole way. If we wake up america to the fact that there is a real possibility we can energize folks who do not think politics matters right now. We are hoping for the day in the campaign where people say i will vote for whoever that person is because i know that if they get in they will never ignore the 140 million poor people, they will pass living pass programsll for the poor, take money we dont need to put into the military to put it into Infrastructure Development and communities. They will guarantee health care. They will stop Voter Suppression. They will call it out. Likewont use code words, we have to get working people, as though black people, latinos arent working. They will deal with ecological devastation and they are going to say it is somehow inconsistent with who we say we are as a nation to continue to have conversations about the wealthy, the middle class, and not have fixing the issue of poverty at the center of our National Narrative and national discussion. And we are looking forward to when that day comes. Andrew yang, thank you very much. Mr. Yang thank you for all you do. You are all inspiring. Thank you. [applause] everybody. U, take a quick walk around. Dont be too long. Well be back. Youve got five minutes, five minutes before our next candidate. Oh, do i look forward to running against him. Tonight President Donald Trump hold a rally in orlando, florida to officially launch his run for a second term. Watch live on cspan two, online at [indiscernible] or listen live on the free radio app. Robert lighthizers on capitol hill today for a Senate Finance hearing on trade strategy that includes a trade agreement between the u. S. , mexico, and canada. Thats live at 10 15 a. M. Eastern on cspan. Later in the day the Senate Foreign relations subcommittee looks at the situation in ukraine five years after russias annexation of crimea. That gets underway at 2 30 eastern on cspan three, four online at www. Cspan. Org or on the free cspan radio app. The complete guide to congress is now available. It has lots of details about the house and senate for the current session of congress. Contacts and bio information about every senator and representative. Plus information about congressional committees, state governors, and the cabinet. The 2019 congressional directory is a handy spiralbound guide. Order your copy from the cspan online store for 18. 95. Now, more from todays president ial forum hosted by the poor Peoples Campaign. Next we will hear from author and activist marianne williamson, followed by massachusetts senator elizabeth warren. Everyone please give a warm welcome to marianne williamson. [applause]