Were about to begin now. I want to thank all you for being here, i want to thank the Poor Peoples Campaign for moving the schedule because my airplane was delayed by 2 1 2 hours. And i want to thank all of you for fighting for what youre fighting for. In this country over the last 40 years, weve seen in economic mobility for 90 of the American People. We have the greatest income inequality we have had since 1928. 160 families that are the top. 1 in america control as much wealth as the bottom 90 , which is 200 million 290 million americans. Thats why the budget you put out today is so important. Let me tell you something, youre hitting the target right where it needs to be hit. Because its 2001 in washington, we have spent 5 trillion on tax cuts, almost all of which have gone to the wealthiest people in america. We spent 5. 6 trillion on wars in the middle east. Thats almost 11 trillion or 12 trillion. Did i say spend it . I meant borrowed it from the American People and our children. Tax cuts for rich people and for the middle east. If we had spent money differently, the way you think about spending that money, we could have put people to work fixing every road and bridge in america that needs to be fixed. We could have fixed every Water Treatment facility, not just in flint, michigan, but everywhere in america. We could have given every kid in im not making these numbers up. These are real numbers. With your budget we could have given every child living in poverty in this country who needs preschool, which sever child living in poverty in america the chance to have that free school. We could have raised the salary of every teach for the america by 50 . We could have funded housing vouchers in this country the way they should be funded. But we did none of that we need a completely different set of priorities, starting with reversing the terrible trump tax bill. And i would suggest passing my proposal that dramatically increases the Child Tax Credit with ry family in america a kid under 6 would get 300 a month. Every family in america with a kid over 6 would get 250 a month. Per kid. This would reduce poverty in americaing it would end 2 a bayday poverty in america for our children. It would cost less than trumps tax bill by far. And the only thing that is getting in our way is we got Mitch Mcconnell in washington. This isnt just about moving out donald trump. This is about moving out a group of people including Mitch Mcconnell and the Freedom Caucus who acted as tyrants for the last decade in our country. They have immobilized our country. The reason we dont have universal health care is because of them. The reason weve done nothing on climate is because of them. The reason weve done nothing on poverty is because of them. War on guns, because of them. Strump a eff or on guns is because of them. Trump is a symptom of the problem, hes not the cause of it. On the back end of it, i hope as your president to figure out how to govern this country for people who need our help. Thank you all for being here today. I look forward to questions. All right. Please have a seat. Do you want to get started . Thank you for coming, thank you for being here. Mr. Ben fete thank you. Im from the south, many people here are from the south, many people are not from the south but they understand how the south works. If you can control the 13 former confederate states, you can control 30 of the United States congress, 26 senators, and nearly 170 electoral votes. In the south, the seat belt from virginia up to texas, a large portion of politicians get elected through systemic racism. Racist Voter Suppression and gerrymandering. When they get elected, though, they pass policies that hurt mostly white people in raw numbers, not in concentration but in raw numbers because they are against living wages, against health care, against immigrant rights, against womens rights, against the lgbt community. Yet right now in this moment, with 40 of africanamericans living in the south if you connect those africanamericans to progressive whites, to latinos, you could fundamentally shift the electorate and fundamentally shift whats going on in the country. Too often, politicians, sometimes democrats, have tried to find a way around the south rather than through the south. How first of all, do you think its important to build these coalitions . Are you willing to take on that challenge . And how will you bring together your campaign, your administration, blacks, whites, browns, latinos, native people, to build a new coalition to transform the politics of this country. Mr. Bennett i dont think theres any other way to do it. I left a book for you back there, i finished writing, im not just making this up, thats what the book is about. I believe that is what we need to do we need to build a constituency for change in this country, a ligs for change. Washington is not going to change unless we force ashington to change. People can give you all the proposals they want, if theyre not building a coalition of a Broad Coalition across this country, that looks different than the coalition that we have seen up to this point, we will not succeed. I think the only way to succeed is by building that Broad Coalition, north and south, democrats, independents, and even some republicans who are going to need to be able to move, to really advance a progressive agenda. My wife is from a town called mariana, arkansas, in lee county, arkansas, in the poorest part of arkansas in the mississippi delta. Ive spent lots of my life in these parts of the country and i know how mistreated they are and represented they are by the people in washington. These guys come here, i sit on the finance committee. They come here and day after day after day they try to cut medicaid. That thats what they do they come here an cut medicaid. In the states youre talking about 50rk of the live births are paid for by medicaid. In some cases its 70 . And the politicians who represent the people in these states are voting to cut that medicaid. Where do they expect people to have their babies . Or their children . These are the same people cutting rural hospitals all over america. And what i think is we need not just candidates to show up in these states but for a president to show up in these states. I think the next democratic president , i hope that its me, will go and sign the bill reversing the trump tax cuts in a county in the south where 70 of the people voted for donald trump, to be able to show them the math and say this is why you should be with us, not with him. Or with these other people that are, you know, in theory representing you but not doing it at all. I think this creates an enormous opportunity for us to change the politics in america which we have to do you cannot you cannot wish into existence, you cant hope into existence the changes that youre fighting for. Everybody in this room knows that. You have to fight for it. You have to struggle for it. And thats what youve been doing in North Carolina and thats what youre doing here and thats what we need build during the course of this campaign or all of these interests in washington will continue to defeat the will of the American People. Ok. Im a preacher, ive been engaged in antipoverty protesting for 25 years. Almost not a week goes by where the where somebody says, you know, the bible says the poor will be with you always to justify poverty. Can we just have everybody please sit and not talk. Just so we can all hear. Please. Thank you. Go on. As a way to say that we cant end poverty. We clearly have 140 Million People who are poor. Or one emergency away from poverty in this country right now. So what are your plans and proposals to immediately effect living wages, sanitation systems, Voting Rights, and all those Poverty Issues that are all interconnected just to say in fact that scarcity is a lie and we can actually end poverty. Mr. Bennett reverend, this is what ive been focused on. I was a superintendent of school for the Denver Public schools, a Large Urban School District in this country and this is what ve been saying. The American Family act which raises the Child Tax Credit up to 3,00 a year. Pays it out monthly not annually. The folk that was looked at it says it will cut childhood poverty in america by almost 40 and then as i said and end, as i said earlier, the 2 a day poverty. I think we have to make work pay again in this country. We have made it too hard for people to work. Theres a reason why our Labor Participation rates are so much lower than other countries in the world that have the kind of payments that im talking about doing and i think we can make the investments in infrastructure and other kinds of things. You talk about we shift the priorities away from 5 trillion for the wealthiest people in america and 5. 6 trillion for the wars in the middle east that would go a long way. Can i ask a quick followup, how would you do that . Youre in the United States senate, you know the way it is run currently by senator mcconnell and even when he was used aminority leader he filibuster to stop priorities that would have helped the American People. How would you get these priority foss actually become law . Mr. Bennett i dont think theres any escaping or any short cuts to what reverend barber and i were talking about. You can talk about whether its 51 or 6, 0 the real issue is can you build a coalition for change in this country . And can we build as strategic as Mitch Mcconnell. I wouldnt want any of us to be a malevolent or as cynical as Mitch Mcconnell but could we please be as strategic as he is . We have a climate denier in the white house. The majority of the American People believe that Climate Change is real, that humans are contributing to it and that we should deal it with deal with it urgently but we have a climate denier in there. Who ran proudly on that and the senate is full of climate deniers as well. And the only way were going to change that is by outorganizing them and by creating a set of policy proposals including antipoverty proposals, including climate proposals that build this kind of unusual coalition. So if you look at my climate plan, for example, what youll see is that it is it is directly tied to the issue of conservation in this country. And what that puts at in the conversation, what can our farmers and ranchers do to contribute to a solution on Climate Change. There are a lot of people who would look at this and say those people are all republicans, theres no reason to talk to them. But tuck figure out how to pay farmers and ranchers to sequester carbon that could be an important step forward to building a coalition that can overcome Mitch Mcconnell. I do not believe and i just want to be honest about it, i do not believe we can change all this in one election. I think this is going to take the rest of my lifetime, election after election after election, starting with the defeat of donald trump, who should never have been elected president to begin with. Manifestly unqualified for this job. And he won because we were too careless with our democracy. We cant make that mistake again. Lets bring up Ellen Barfield. Where are you, ellen . Ok, ellen, you have the microphone. Im Ellen Barfield from baltimore. Im a u. S. Army veteran and member of of veterans for peace. As you can see from my shirt. [applause] thank you. Veterans dont deserve any more thanks than anybody else but thank you. And my friend here, vicki ryder is the wife of a vietnam veteran and she, he, and i all believe that working to end war is what service to this country really means. [applause] i was part of the massive and massively expensive overseas u. S. Troop presence caused in caused and continues to cause a devastating human toll, here at home ive also come to recognize that there is a war being waged against the poor. Ive seen poor people funneled into the military and back out with no job prospects, incomplete and lessening health care at the v. A. And elsewhere, and a rate of over 20 veteran suicides a day. Including frinds of mine. What is your plan, sir, to address the deep crisis in poverty facing our veterans and their families and the larger communities that are so damaged y militarism and militarized police . Mr. Bennett thank you for your question. [applause] mr. Bennett im very sorry for your loss as well. We have had lots of veteran suicides in colorado, colorado is a place where veterans like to come after the after theyve theyre out of their service. Ive often said we want to try to make our state the best state in the country to be a veteran. By the way, whether youre living in rural or urban area, whether youre living in poverty or not, and theres so much more for us to do on health care, you know, you said that you dont deserve special privileges but on health care youve done everything weve asked you to do and we do not have for the people that have survived these battles, who would never have survived in prior battles but have because our Battlefield Medicine is so good, were not prepared for them when they come hemo. Were not taking care of them. The addiction, the Mental Health issues that we are all confronting are critical ones you pointed to something very important. The certifications that people get while they are in the service ought to be used by they should be able to use those certifications to get jobs in the private sector. And all over the country, not only can they not do that but every states licensing requirements are different. That would be one thing we could do to make sure people are back into the work force more quickly. On the question of the wars, if i could just say, you know, if youre born, if youre 20 years old now, basically, youve never known a time when the United States was not at war, in a war. If were in afghanistan two more years well have been there for 20 years. And i was here. I had a great privilege to have debate and vote on the iraq deal that president obama put together. Which for once, for once was an attempt by washington to actually try to stall the solve a problem, not go to war with it in the middle east. And donald trump, by the way, i was up for reelection in a swing state when i voted for that. That was not an easy vote but i was glad to cast the vote because it was the right thing to do. Donald trump comes to office and all the things we hoped for about the deal but didnt know would be true turned out to be true. And iran was more than a year away from breaking out the Nuclear Weapons and now hes stripped ripped us away from that deal and is beginning to, you know, put us in a position to have to go back there again which would be an unbelievable tragedy. I am very grateful for your advocacy for our vets and also for your observations about where we are in terms of our trajectory in involvements in other countries. Can i ask you a question, you used to be superintendent of the Denver Public schools. I used to go there. Mr. Bennett where did you go . I went to montebello. The schools used to open in the summer to feed us lunch. We could go to my local Elementary School, shut out to mcgloin Elementary School and you could get a meal in the summer. That was a huge antipoverty meal program that allowed kids to eat. Kids who had and those who didnt we all gathered in the school. What ways could the federal department of Education Impact poverty in this country . We know how good your school is often depends on your zip code, depends on the tax base where you live. Are there ways that federal education policy could help to alleviate that . Mr. Bennett first of all, i think the School Lunch Program should be available during the summer. Ive worked hard actually with a republican from arkansas to expand it for the summer and also to make it available for distribution outside of schools as well because for a lot of kids in rural parts of the country, theyre not living near a school and the food needs to be near the kid for the kid to have lunch. Thats an important point you raise. Out of what we spend on k12 education in this country, 9 of it is federal dollars. Theres a limit to what we can do from the federal government but i think theres some very important responsibilities the federal government has. You know, we have a hugely important civil rights function. Thats why there is a department of education. And thats something that we have to enforce. And betsy devos has done exactly the opposite. I could never have imagined as horrible an education secretary as her but we need an education secretary who is actually focused on how to make it better. So title 1 money which has never been spent properly in this country. Never been spent properly because its based on average budgets in schools rather than actual budgets in schools which is why weve ended up with this massive subsidy in american schools, running from wealthy from poor kids to wealthy kids in america, we need to change that and ive been trying to change it for the last 10 years or so. But theres more work to do there so that the money we are spending actually goes to the purpose its intended in that case for high priority schools. Let me say one last thing about your neighborhood if i can. There were many years, my mayor, mayor hancock, ran an ad the first time he said, why sit, he lives in montebello, why sit my son has to travel across town to go to a Decent School was his question. Today in the Denver Public schools, more kids are choicing into montebello than out of it because of the changes in the school district. We have a listening way to go. Our achievement gaps are still huge like they are in urban School Districts all over america, but 60 more kids are actually graduating, going to college, than when we started and its proved its proof that progress can be made. Mr. Barber. Listening to you, one of the things ive noticed is the attention to detail in policy. Heres our concern as a movement. We hear people talking about change of a generation. Were not naive to think change could be made in a moment but until we talk about changing now, we wont get change then. And we are concerned about the dialogue, the narrative, the dynamic. Last time, 26 debatesen of tv. 140 Million People in poverty. 43. 5 of the country. Not one single debate focused on poverty. Not one. We have less Voting Rights today in terms of enforcement than we had 50something years ago thats impacting black people, white people, everybody. Not one full debate on systemic racism and Voter Suppression. We have identified five interlocking injustices through deep studies that for the full transformation we need in this country we must address systemic policy racism. Were not talking about how you feel about me in your heart and what words you call me. Policy racism. Weve identified policy racism as Voter Suppression, immigrant injustice, injustice toward our first nation people. Mass incarceration, desegregation, high poverty schools. Secondly that is connected to poverty, of which poor people of colo color have the highest concentration but poor white people have the highest numbers. Four Million People get up every morning and cant buy unleaded gas or unleaded water. Thats related to gross militarism. If we cut 50 billion from the war, we could still have the most powerful military, still be paying more than china, north korea, iran, and russia combined. And then we got this gross moral, immoral narrative, distorted narrative that says if you pit gay people against womens rights, for guns, for taxes, thats a great moral position. This is the question. Are is your campaign willing to go to the powers that be, because theres going to be 26, maybe 30, and say to the media say to the media and the corporate executives, my campaign is demanding that we have at least one, we need more han one, we need two or three, full debate that are address the issue of systemic poverty, tem racism, ecological together, not separately so america can understand how these interlocking injustices are harming not just a party but the very heart and soul of our democracy. If you are, how are you willing to do that . Mr. Bennett i am. [applause] mr. Bennett i think we should. And im happy to talk to the d. N. C. Or anybody else to say we should do it. You mentioned there wasnt a single debate about poverty last time. There was not a single question asked during the president ial campaign, not a single question asked about education. Either. You know which today, unfortunately, i hate to say this as somebody who was school superintendent, our system of Public Education is reinforcing the income inequality we have in america, not liberating people from it. Thats a national tragedy. Thats a national disgrace. So im all for doing that reverend. I think the way you tied these things together makes a love a lot of sense to me. Joy is more of an expert on this than i am but when i spend watch the Cable Television at night, i often think to myself, this is after ive come home from a day in the senate where im asking myself the same question, what does this have to do with the children i used to work for in the Denver Public schools . What does this have to do with their families . And think answer is, almost never and thats what is setting the agenda here in washington. Youve got about 12 or 13 Million People that are really well represented in washington because its the agenda thats on cable and reinforced on social media that is not the agenda that you guys are fighting for. With some exceptions, joy, with some exceptions. And that is why your work is so important. Thats why its so important for you to be here. Because we cant accept these terms of debate and to go back to the beginning of our conversation together, we cannot accept this set of priorities which is eto whole point of what youre tie trying to do. I completely agree wit. Not only do i agree with it, im incredibly grateful youre willing to do it. Very little time left. 62 million workers are making less than a living wage and theres no place in this country where if youre working minimum wage you can afford a twobedroom apartment. What are you going to do about this . Mr. Bennett i think theres two issues. Ill just quickly, because i know ive got to get out of here. Id love to stay here, i know youve got other people. One issue is the income issue. That issue is we have had flat incomes for 40 years in america. We need to solve that. We can solve that by raising the the minimum wage. Thats not the only thing we need to do we need to change tax policy, like i mentioned earlier. The earned income tax credit and the Child Tax Credit, that could make a huge difference, especially for poor People Living in rural areas where it might be hard to get the same minimum wage job you can get somewhere else. Second is what stuff costs and housing, health care, higher education, Early Childhood education, preschool. Totally out of reach for americans. Middle class americans, to say nothing of People Living in poverty. I believe, you know, when we live in a country, heres how screwed up our priorities are when everybody who is eligible for the mortgage deduction gets the mortgage deduction but only a quarter of the people eligible for get it, thank you for having me. Appreciate it, senator bennett. Appreciate your time. Thank you very much. Everybody, let me give you all a second to compose yourselves, sit back down. Settle back down. Ok. Y say in jamaica lets bring on congressman eric walwell, our next candidate. Your four minutes begins right now. Mr. Swalwell thank you. Thank you, joy. Thank you, dr. Steve harris, thank you reverend dr. Barber. I come here with good news and bad news and you already know it. But first, the good news. Because the bad news can lead us to some good if we do it right. The good news is because of your activism, refer rend dr. Barber, because of your activism and your challenging politicians and lawmakers across the country, we won the house this past november. We won the house. We did that. We were challenged to move our feet from the town squares to the town halls and as dr. King said go all the way to the ballot box. And we did. Because it matters. And ill tell you in the first 100 days in this new house, we updated the Voting Rights act. We passed background checks. We passed the equality act. Weve done a lot and weve got a lot more to do. Heres the bad news. Those pieces of legislation are going nowhere in the senate and unless we get a new senate and have a compassionate, forwardthinking leader in the white house, theyre just going o stay in the house. Im thrilled to be here today to talk to you about what we can do with this 21st century poor peoples movement. Reverend dr. Barber, i heard you talk a lot about poverty is not a godmade condition. Its manmade. Its something that has been policy made. Its also something we shouldnt avoid talking about. Being poor is not immoral. What is immoral is 27 Million People in america dont have health care. Immoral . Mmoral . Is that 40 Million People are in the financial quicksand of student loan debt. And it hurts young black men and women more than any other race in america. What is immoral is that 100,000 people will be shot in 2019 more in the black community than anywhere else, and it is the number one cause of death for a black child in america. We dont have to live this way. We can do something about it. Im running for president to do something about it. Im running for president because i come from a generation that will actually do worse than generations before me, and there are a lot of people in generations before me who have said, we didnt do that well. So on health care, lets have a health care guarantee, regardless of your income, your employer, your luck. In america, if you are sick, you should be seen, and when you are seeing, you shouldnt go broke. You shouldnt stay broke. Ien it comes to education, was the first in my family to go to college. My parents are scratching their heads, saying, what the hell happened . We worked so hard and you have student loan debt, 100,000 of for so manys real people in america today. It is deferring the dreams of the next generation. Starting a family, buying your first home, taking a good idea and being an entrepreneur in this economy. All those dreams deferred. And the fear in our communities of gun violence. Goon education before i to gun violence, lets bring the student Loan Interest rate down to zero. Government should not make a single penny thats actually your time. Mr. Swalwell i am fired up. You are just getting started, i know, but we want to make sure you get some questions from the audience. You can incorporate those ideas if the questions come up. Lets have bobby come up. You can ask the congressman a question. My name is bobby fields, and i am here with Mindy Lawrence beside me, who is a lowwage worker from maine. I have worked in fast food for almost 11 and a half years and currently work the night shift at mcdonalds. In tampa, florida, where i am from, the current minimum ways in which current minimum wage hour. 46 an aint right. I became a part of the fight for 15 as a leader [cheers] [applause] know that there are millions just like us two across the country. Folks like us who work hard to make ends meet and contribute to their community deserve to live with dignity. [applause] president , what will you do to ensure that everyone can earn a living wage now, not in 10 or 12 years . [applause] ensure that our right as workers to organize in a union is protected . [applause] mr. Swalwell bobby, i am with you. I think you have dignity now. I think you have dignity in your work, but you want to have dignity in what you can provide. Theres a difference right now, because people just like you work very hard and have dignity and purpose in their work, but they are not taking home pay to save, not taking home enough to pay rent, not enough to cover their health care costs. President isdo as bring the minimum wage everywhere in america to 15. 15. Second, i would make it easier to organize in an labor union. I am leading by example because my Campaign Staff as organized as members of the teamsters 238 movement. Just, bobby, right now showing solidarity with the movement, with a twoyearold who really likes to go to mcdonalds, we are not going to go to mcdonalds until they get this right. Thank you. All right. There are 140 Million People who are poor or one paycheck away from poverty. We are told over and over again that we cant do anything in the face of poverty. That is when the media pays attention, when politicians are willing to talk about poverty. . 53 of every discretionary dollar on the military and less than . 15 on education, health care, and antipoverty programs combined. On the your position connection between poverty and militarism . What do you say to the live of scarcity to the lie of scarcity . And what are your proposals for immediately and fully implementing the elimination of poverty . Mr. Swalwell i believe the tip spear ofeer of the our National Defense must be the health, education, and safety of the people in our country who may have to defend us. I would start there. When it comes to military spending, i think we can be the Strongest Military in the World Without spending more than the next seven countries do combined. Where would i put that money . First, into schools. Under my plan, a childs destiny will no longer be defined by a childs zip code. My parents moved us around nine times. I went to nine different homes and 11 different schools before graduating high school. We were lucky. They fought to get us into a Better School so i would have a shot to be the first in the family to go to college. But too many families cant move, so they stay in areas with crumbling infrastructure and underrated teachers. Under my plan, School Construction would be an infrastructure priority. It is not just property taxes that define a childs future, it would be the federal government at the table. When it comes to jobs, i want to lift wages, but i also want to bring business and development to communities that need it most. I have seen too many communities , the payday lenders and the Liquor Stores that define a community and the commerce around them. I wrote in congress the main street revival act. If you bring a Small Business into a community that is economically depressed, you can defer your payroll taxes for three years. Bringing more capital and jobs to places that need it the most. When it comes to pay for our military, i would rather see us pay our personnel better and take care of veterans after they serve than all the money that is going to defense contractors. That disparity in america has to change. Thank you so much for being here. Sometimes i am out and about and people say, reverend barbara, we , we reverend barber are with you on the Poor Peoples Campaign. Then they will immediately Start Talking about black people. They come in a room like this and say, i didnt realize the Poor Peoples Campaign was organizing across every race, color, creed, sexual orientation, because we have done the math. The math is in terms of concentration of poverty, it is more among people of color. In terms of wrong numbers, there are 40 Million People more people that are poor that are black. We are also taking a hard look at the south, the sun belt, because we have found that in those states, those are the statehouses that vote against living wages, health care, vote to attack immigrants, against women, against the lgbt community. How did they get that power . Said,k another look and the people who control the state legislatures are the beneficiary of racist Voter Suppression and racist gerrymandering. They must know something. They must know that if you build a broadbased coalition in the south, that it can be transformative for the whole nation. Like of times it seems progressive, democrats have to figure that out. We keep having conversations about how to run around the south, how to get elected, or how to pick out certain states, like florida, North Carolina, but not mississippi, alabama, louisiana, arkansas. If you are running, how are you going to make that case and work in the south particularly to pull together blacks, whites, latinos, asians in a massive coalition. It is not impossible. Many of those states are not red states. They are unorganized states. How are you going to work in both policy and campaigning to go to the south to build these progressive coalitions to have a major impact on the electoral outcomes in this country . Mr. Swalwell i am going to show up, first and foremost it again, leading by example. On wednesday, i am going to be in tennessee. That is not early in the primary calendar, but i think it is important we go to places that are not traditionally democratic states. On thursday i am going to be in alabama, and i am going to keep going across the south because i think the only way to win there is to go there. But i see the structural disadvantage we have with the influence of dirty money and the drawing of dirty maps. That was an important part of the for the people act that we passed, to strip down to the studs the Citizens United rolling. Because corporations are dumping money in to silence or voices and put people in power, particularly in the states voting against a living wage and the right to organize. We need to get rid of that structural issue. The one that is important to me is to have independent redistricting commissions in every state. It is the only way someone like me is in congress. My parents had never met a congressman until their son got elected to congress. People like me were not in congress when i got there. I had 100,000plus of student loan debt, the first in my family to go to college, i was 31 years old. The overwhelming majority were millionaires, disconnected from the problems of my generation. The only way it was possible was californians passed in 2010 an independent redistricting commission. I ran against a 40 year incumbent in my own party to win. There is only a few states in the country that take away the drawing of maps from politicians, who protect themselves. We have to make sure ed make sure ordinary people who live the struggle are connected to our dreams in congress. I think that means get rid of dirty maps and dirty money. Rev. Barber let me followup up again as a son of the south. Even if you visit the south, if you dont deal with racism, this deal will have racism impacting how maps are drawn. One of the things we are concerned about is, are candidates willing to talk openly about racism and its connection to poverty, ecological devastation . Because if somebody says the nword on capitol hill or we have a charlottesville, everybody says, i am against that. And should be. The problem is not cultural racism, but policy racism, where somebody never calls you the nword, but they pass policies rooted in racism, but the policies actually hurt more white people. And until that is unpacked openly so here is the last part of my question. Are you willing as a candidate, and how will you say to all the people in the debates, we cannot have another debate for president where we dont have at debatese of those committed to dealing with systemic, policy racism. Not how you feel in your heart. Connected to poverty, ecological , and howon, militarism will you and will you fight to say, we must have at least a debate we need more than one, but at least one where these issues are raised. Notlast time, 21 debates, one of them was on the systemic issue of Voter Suppression and not one was on property, despite 40 Million People in poverty and 26 states having passed racist Voter Suppression laws since 2010. We have to get out of this anemic conversation. Will you push for that and how . Mr. Swalwell yes, i will. You have already been pushing for that. You referred to it as the clinical violence that you see, where the gun Safety Measures we have in our community, that is Political Violence when you allow assault weapons in the communities and handguns in the cities and do nothing about it. The outrageous cost of health care is Political Violence because it hurts in a more pronounced way communities of color. But it is not just communities of color, it is a lot of people in the south affected by it. It is Political Violence when failure to address Climate Change brings unseasonable flooding to places like houston or miami, where the first debate is going to be. I am going to be a voice for that. I am calling for that right now. We should have a debate in the south in a nondemocratic state, to say, we care about these issues and allow candidates to put forward their ideas. Two parter to follow up on this issue. Way thatu suppose the the democratic debate is structured is so fixated on the middle class . Which is important, obviously, but if 140 Million People out of 326 Million People are poor or low income, why isnt that a top of mind issue in the Democratic Party . [applause] mr. Swalwell it should be. I cant speak for why it is or isnt, but it should be. Those are people i talk to and listen to and engage with. In many ways, growing up paychecktopaycheck with my parents, living with grandparents or on san uncles as we moved around, those are the people we grew up with, hardworking americans who, just like bobby, they are in quicksand. They wonder every month if they are going to have enough to pay the bills. I see those people because i grew up with those people. Yes, we should develop more forums on those issues. You are obviously from california, a state that has a large immigrant population, but ofo is on the leading edge the demographic change of america becoming a majority nonwhite nation. How do you, a white politician, fight the fact that within a lot of communities, the immigration issue and fear of a brown wave is a much more potent issue then even 60 million white americans in poverty . What do you do about that . Mr. Swalwell my district is one of the most diverse in america, so these are my neighbors, my friends and constituents. It represents the new american majority where the majority of people in my district are ethnic minorities in america. We benefit from that diversity in our economy and our community. What i have always done is show up, listen, learn. For people who dont have opportunity today, create an environment and structure where if you do work hard, it adds up because your kid has as good of the schoolhouse as a kid in a wealthier community. If you have a health care issue, you are not going poor because you had a bad diagnosis. I have a plan where i would reduce a businesss tax rate, lower than what the president has proposed, if a Company Shares profits with their employees. Not just the minimum wage, but lift the wages through profitsharing. I think that cuts across every ethnicity and in a district like mine, which is going to look more like america, i think we have to create that opportunity. Ms. Reid when you are campaigning within white communities, because you have talked a lot about trying to bring across people who may not naturally vote democratic, how do you make those issues you mentioned more powerful to them than their fears about immigration . Rev. Barber can i follow up on that . Because i want to push this. The Poor Peoples Campaign, we know all about committees having an impact. White. Black and i am you can notice that. She is armenian by heritage. I am part test aurora and white and black, but i white comes to Voter Suppression, i am black. But when it comes to Voter Suppression, i am black. What would happen if candidates were willing to go into predominantly white communities, as this campaign does, and say, you are mad because people are taking more water rights and you are mad because of Public Education cuts and teachers leaving the community, and you are upset because wages are not high and unions have pulled out, but did you know that the people that get elected that do this to you only get elected because of racialized Voter Suppression . What if candidates said to women, did you realize that in these states that are voting against womens rights, the people get that power because of racist Voter Suppression . Same thing with the lgbt community. So if we are willing to see that and unpack it and it is going to take politicians willing to unpack that openly and honestly in order for folk to say this is what happened in one community, we put a map up in an predominant white audience and one guy said, damn. That was like an epiphany for him. He was like, you mean to tell me theyve been lying to me about voter integrity . Theyve been lying to me and what they have really been doing is using a race line around voting to get elected . And once they get elected, they push policies that are hurting us in this community. And we said, mmhm. And he said, i am in the campaign, ready to organize with the Poor Peoples Campaign. [applause] rev. Barber are you willing as a politician to push others in the Democratic Party to stop tiptoeing around the issue . Because america cant handle the truth. Mr. Swalwell yes, they can. I do want to say, i dont want to give too much of an equivalence to what white americans experience and the generational suffering that i see and want to do something about in the black community. I understand what you are saying. We want white americans to realize they are getting screwed by a top floor economy where benefits go to the top floor. But i dont want to see that as a reason to be let off the hook for the responsibility to determine that particularly in a log the cities i have been to, especially in the last six weeks, i see a more pronounced effect of generational suffering and a lack of attention and resources. Rev. Barber we are not talking about letting off the hook. We are talking about making sure you catch the whole fish. What we are saying is you cant fix this country and deal with the issue of poverty as long as it is racialized. Many people have been made to think it is a black problem, or because black and brown people are getting something free, you are hurting, and we have to cut through all of that. The concentration of poverty is higher in the black and brown community. About the actual raw numbers is higher in the white community, and it is people who are fighting living wages and health care i dont mean to preach and cutting Public Education. If they are cynical enough to be together, we better be smart enough to come together and ask a candidate, are you willing to say that, not just in this room, but to america . Mr. Swalwell yes. I have seen the value in my district of intersectionality where people of different colors come together, work hard. The community does better. It turns out at the end of the day you have more in your bank account. Because i have seen the benefits of that, we dont have to fear people who dont look like us, people are not flocking away from california. They are coming to california because the economy is doing so well and we are the most diverse economy in america. Californias economy is raging and doing great. There is inequality that has to be addressed. We are doing better than most states. You cant say that and discount what is contributing to it, which is our diversity. A quick followup to that. We were just in pacoima, california, where one in four kids in schools are homeless. There is a lot of people not doing ok in california. What is your plan to do something, not just around california, but the whole nation . [applause] mr. Swalwell i know the homeless issue fairly well. I had a very close Family Member who was homeless for a long time, and myself and other Family Members spent a long time on the streets of San Francisco looking for him, putting him into treatment centers, seeing him fail out, getting him again, seeing him go to jail, getting him out of jail, and i saw the failures of the way we address homelessness. One of the principal causes of homelessness is addiction, and a jail should never be a way to treat addiction. The criminal Justice System is not the way to treat addiction. I would invest in decentralized addiction resources, not just in hospitals, but churches, schools, firehouses. I also saw with the veterans committee, they had a lot skills that were useful in their service, but we did not do as good a job as a community in transferring those skills to work and making sure they were taking care of for their ptsd, the traumatic brain injuries they had, decentralizing resources rather than putting them in one place. Finally, Mental Health, another root cause of homelessness. Too many people that i have worked with have to go 30 to 45 minutes away to get Mental Health treatment. I would rather put those resources in our churches, schools, communities so you dont have to go too far to get the help you need. Look at that, perfectly on time, finished right at 00 00. Thank you very much. [applause] llowed by senators Bernie Sanders and kamala harris. Lets right, everybody, start back again. Is and irend theohar are going to hold it
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