This is 40 minutes. It is great to be with you at the iowa state fair. Thank you to rachel and everybody at the Des Moines Register and those that helped organize this. Iowa is proud of the state fair. You have a lot of reason to be. Im here with my family. My wife, erica and our daughter and sun son. Treat for mel because i dont often get to travel with my family. I think they are looking forward to the bumper cars and maybe the sky rides and that bacon that yall sell on a stick. [laughter] mr. Castro i want to talk to you this morning about what were going to become as a nation. I think of we went if we went around this fair and listen to the stories of your family, we would hear a lot of stories that reflect the best of our nation, of the American Dream coming true. That is true in my case, too. I grew up with my brother joaquin and my grandmother and mom on the west side of san antonio. My grandmother had come to san antonio when she was seven years old with her younger sister because their parents had died. They came from northern mexico through eagle pass, texas, in 1922, and ended up on the west side of the city. She got yanked out of school in elementary, so she never got a formal education. She ended up working her entire career as a maid, cook, and a babysitter because of that. She raised my mom as a single parent and my mom raised my brother and me as a single parent, too. My mom became the first in a family to get to graduate from high school and go on to college. My brother and i had the opportunity to go to stanford and then to harvard law school. We went together, because you cant get rid of my brother. [laughter] mr. Castro he likes to say that the way to tell us apart is im one minute uglier than he has. [laughter] mr. Castro but its not true, im a minute older. I got a chance to come home and be elected to the city council and be the first in my family cant get rid of my brother. [laughter] mr. Castro he likes to say that along with my brother to be a professional as an attorney. And then server for four years on the city council in san antonio until i ran for mayor at 30. I was trying to become the youngest elected mayor in san antonio at the time, running against a gentleman that was 70 tried to be the second oldest. He won in a close runoff, but he had strict term limits so i came back four years later. I became the mayor of my hometown. I served for five years. It is a city of falls 1. 5 Million People now. Call on from april 16, 2014 president barack obama. I remember the date because it is not everyday that the president calls you and asks if you want a job. I had just driven through the drivethrough at panda express. [laughter] mr. Castro you know how on your phone it says unknown or blocked call . It said private. If you ever get a call that says private, answer the phone. Hopefully it will be me on the other end of the line calling you. [applause] mr. Castro i ended up serving as secretary of housing and urban development. A 48 billion budget. 64 field offices across the United States. I got to see in that time all of the ways that communities across this country are grappling not only with housing but with everything that goes along with that. The fact that where you live often determines the quality of your childs education, what kind of Job Opportunities you have. It determines in many communities, especially rural ones like here in iowa the kind of Health Care Access you have because too many hospitals have , had to close, or they have had to close Psychiatric Care or ob gyn care. In places like flint, michigan, that i visited when i was hud secretary and visited again too much ago, it determines something as simple as whether you can drink clean water. Im running for president because i believe that we live in the greatest nation on earth, because i know that we need a president that understand that in the years to come we need to move forward as one nation with one destiny. And i am convinced that our destiny in the years to come is to be the smartest, the healthiest, the fairest, and the most prosperous nation on earth. Smartest, the healthiest the , fairest, and the most prosperous nation on earth. We need to start with universal prek for three and fouryearolds. [cheers and applause] mr. Castro when i was mayor of san antonio, we did something about that. We put on the ballot initiative, a point eight cent sales tax increase to extend highquality prek. We were in texas, and so some people wondered about that. But more than 53 of the voters in san antonio said yes to investing in our fouryearolds. [cheers and applause] mr. Castro today san antonio has one of the best prek programs in the country because of it. We need to improve k12 education by paying teachers what they deserve, by reducing class sizes, by making sure that no matter the need of the child they can have been met by the school they go to. Because too often times the parents of special Needs Children feel like there have to be lawyers to argue with the bureaucracy to get what they need for their child. That should not be the way it is, and we can do better than that. We also know that today for the first time in our nations history, we are competing and collaborating with countries around the world that are producing tons and tons of young people that are intelligent and hungry ambitious and creative , and innovative. That means on our end we dont have a Single Person to waste. We need to do two things. Number one, we need to make sure that Higher Education is available and affordable to everybody who graduates from high school, tuitionfree public state universities, community colleges, job training and certification programs. And, that we reinvest trade programs into our high schools into our high schools so that folks can get gainful employment and make a good living if they choose not to go to Higher Education. [applause] mr. Castro if we are going to be the healthiest nation on earth, we need a Different Health care system. Like many of yall, i grew up with a grandmother, and maybe for you it was your parents or a sibling or other relatives, but my grandmother had diabetes. She was a type two diabetic. I watched her get worse and worse as i got older and older. Until she had to have one of her feet amputated for she passed away. But that whole time she had medicare. I want to strengthen medicare for the people who are on it and make sure it is available to every Single Person who wants it in this country. [applause] mr. Castro i also believe that if you have a private Health Insurance plan that is strong and solid that you want to hold onto, you should be able to hold onto that. We should be able to do both of those things. What i dont believe is that the profit motive of big pharma or Big Insurance Companies should ever determine whether somebody gets the health care they need in our country. [cheers and applause] mr. Castro nobody should have to travel to canada or mexico to get medication or a dental procedure or a medical procedure. And, we need to do things like and this distinction between physical health care and Mental Health care and invest in Mental Health care. [cheers and applause] mr. Castro if we are going to be the fairest nation on earth, we need to reimagine our criminal Justice System. Too many young people of different backgrounds from different places get caught up in a criminal Justice System that puts a big black x on their record, that means they cannot get a good job in the future, they cannot get housing, they can never get on the productive path in life they want to be on. We need sentencing reform, we need to invest in public defenders. We need to do cashbail reform, and do things like legalize marijuana and invest in diversion programs so people dont get caught up in the system in the first place. [applause] mr. Castro and we also need to make sure that no matter what the color of your skin is, how much money you have, or what neighborhood you live in, you are treated the same way by Law Enforcement. Im the only candidate was put forward a plan to reform policing in the United States. [cheers and applause] mr. Castro we have seen video after video after video that shows us, unfortunately, especially if you are young black man in the United States, oftentimes you are treated differently in this country, and that shouldnt be the case. My plan would add transparency and accountability to Police Departments and make sure we invest in groups that are trying to amend the rift that too often exists between police and the community. The criminal Justice System begins with a cop on the street. So many cops do a great job but i believe it is not a case of bad apples out there. The system is broken and we need to fix it. My plan would fix it. [applause] mr. Castro we also need to do things like pass the equality act so no matter your Sexual Orientation or gender identity you cant be discriminated against. We wont have secondclass citizens in United States of america. [applause] mr. Castro i grew up with a single mom. I watched how hard my mother worked to support me and my brother and her mom, my grandmother. We need to ensure women get equal pay for equal work in our country. And that we pass the equal rights amendment. And also that we defend a womans right to choose because it is under assault right now in our country. [applause] mr. Castro if we are going to be the most prosperous nation on earth, it has to mean prosperity for everybody. Recently congress, the house of representatives passed legislation to raise the minimum wage to 15 an hour. The senate needs to pass that as well and the president should sign it. We need to make sure people can earn a good living and provide for their families. But that also means that we need to support labor so unions can represent workers and worker productivity that has been on the rise for so many years can be matched by the wages and benefits people get. Right now that is not happening in our country. Too many people that are working 40, 50, 60 hours a week are struggling to pay the rent. You see that in des moines. You have seen the rents go up tremendously over the last several years. That means we need to do things like invest in housing that is affordable for the middle class for the working poor and the , poor. I have a housing plan that would create more Affordable Housing and big cities so we can do just safeand people can have a decent, affordable place to live , because i see housing as a human right. I dont believe in this, the wealthiest nation on earth anybody should sleep on the streets. Especially our veterans. Too many veterans make up the homeless in this country. I know we can do it because in the Obama Administration i, along with many others, worked hard and we reduced veteran homelessness between 2010 and 2016 by 47 . Imagine that. Washington worked the way it should. We can do that again. If we are going to be the most prosperous nation, it means we need to reform our immigration system. We need to harness the potential of immigrants. Yall saw just yesterday this raid in mississippi where they rounded up 680 people. There were little kids, little children that were wondering where their parents were. They got out of school and they did not know where they were. We can do better than this. We can fix our broken immigration system so we put undocumented immigrants as long as they have not committed a serious crime on a pathway to citizenship. We end family separation and detention. And we fix the Legal Immigration system because people have to wait too long to become a citizen right now. We can do things like a 21st century Marshall Plan for honduras, el salvador, guatemala, so people can find safety and opportunity at home instead of having to come to the United States. That is the smarter, more effective, more humane way to do immigration than what we are doing right now. Finally, if we are going to prosper in the years ahead when we need to address the most existential threat to our country. We need to combat Climate Change. My First Executive order would be to rejoin the paris climate accords, then to invest in agree a Green New Deal so we can create jobs and also get the net zero in the years ahead. Dont let anybody tell you we cant do both of those things. Yall know that here in iowa. We know it in texas in the wind energy industry, the solar energy industry. We can create great jobs in the new Energy Economy and also protect our planet and ensure we get to net zero that we have clean water and clean air. All of that is possible. But before we do that we need new leadership. You know i dont want to make , our country anything again. I dont want us to go backwards. I want to make our country better than its ever been. I want us to move forward going into the future to create great opportunity for everybody. [applause] mr. Castro i got tested very early on in my tenure. I went back home. I got a good job. I bought a house, a car. I had 950 in student loan payments. I got elected to the city council. The city council only paid 1000 a year back then even though we were a city of a Million People. The law firm i was at got a client. The client wanted the city council to do a land deal. The land deal was they wanted to put a golf course over our water supply. We relied on an underground aquifer. I was against it because i had a concern about their environment a plan. I did not think it was strong enough. I thought the chemicals you use on a golf course might seep into the water supply and compromise it. I wanted to vote against it. But under the ethics rules for lawyers in texas, because there are ethics rules for lawyers believe it or not, you cant just go against the client like that. I was stuck. On the one hand my constituents wanted me to vote against it. They wanted me to represent them , to do the right thing. On the other hand, my livelihood depended on me shutting up and saying i had a conflict of interest. One day i walked into my law firm and i quit my job and that then i went and i voted against that land deal on the city council. I tell you that because before i ever went into politics i worried i would have to change who i was to succeed. You hear that policies can be dirty or corrupting. You have to play this game with people that usually get their way or special interests that have a lot of control. I was happy that when that first test came when i was 27 years old that i stood up and do the right thing did the right thing for the people i was there to represent. Nobody gets tested more than the president of the United States. This president has failed that test. I want you to know if im elected president , i will keep my eye on the ball. I will work hard every day for the so you and your family can have good health care, that your children and grandchildren can get a good education so they can reach their dreams, and you can have good Job Opportunities whether you live in a small town or in a big city. Im not taking any federal lobbyist money or pac money in this campaign. This campaign is fueled by the people of the United States. Little by little, week by week, month my month we are getting stronger. I believe we will keep working hard. I believe there are many folks here that will be ambassadors of this campaign and spread the good word throughout iowa because yall go first. We need you. Talk to your friends, your neighbors, your families, your coworkers. I hope we will keep getting stronger and that by february 3 when the Iowa Caucuses come around i can be a front runner and go want to do well on super tuesday and defeat donald trump on november 3, 2020. On january 20, 2021, we will say adios to donald trump. Thank you very much. Thank you all very much. [crowd talking] like ted cruz camouflage. [crowd talking] there you go. What was the intent of your others tweet . Mr. Castro what was the question again . What was the intent of your brothers tweet . Mr. Castro i believe americans have the right to freely associate. I believe that is public information. There are all types of newspapers. All types of organizations that put out information about who contributes to who. That is nothing new. I think the intent was that he was lamenting the fact you have so many folks, these big businesses in san antonio who made their livelihood off the Hispanic Community in san antonio that are propping up a president who is clearly racist, who is encouraging hate and division against the Hispanic Community. I believe people need to know what businesses in that city that are profiting off the backs of hispanic customers are turning around and putting that money into the pockets of a politician in donald trump that is actively making the lives of hispanics in this country worse. You have been very critical of the president but we are hearing him say just now he wants to see meaningful change on background checks. Do you give him credit for trying to push that . Julian castro i will give him credit when he signs legislation that gives common law gun laws. His playbook is that he says what he needs to say in the heat of the moment. If you will say we will have a plan on that in a few days are we are going to do x, y, or z in a few days. He knows the nature of the American Public and the Attention Span is very short. Then he creates another issue that gets in the way and everyones attention go somewhere else and he never follows up on what he said in the first place about what that issue was. What do i expect from the president . I expect that in a few days the president will drop this, like you did last time. He had this meeting at the white house with a bunch of advocates and then he talked to the nra and appeased the nra again. I am tired of president that constantly just appeases the nra because he is afraid of losing the election without their support. Americans deserve better than that. We dont need any happy talk from this president. What we need is for him to actually push Mitch Mcconnell and the senate to enact common sense gun safety legislation. Joe biden said yesterday that poor kids are just as bright as white kids. Do you think that is racist . Julian castro look, i dont believe that the Vice President was being racist. Like a lot of us, he got tripped up in his words but what i do believe that no matter what the color of the skin of a kid is or whether they live in a Rural Community are big city that they have a good education. I went to schools that were grappling with segregation. I lived in neighborhoods who were still feeling the effects of segregation. I know what it is like to go to those schools and to see a lot of people around you not be able to make it out of there. We need to make sure that we are investing the resources and doing the right policies so that no matter who you are and no matter the color of your skin you can meet your dreams. Do you expect President Trump to attack your family and if so, how did you prepare them . Julian castro my family has been standing up for civil rights longer than Donald Trumps family has been trying to tear those civil rights down. Donald trump is not going to scare me, my brother, or any of my family. I know what is right and what is wrong. This president has demonstrated he is simply not up to the job as president and that is why i am running. You have talked about reclaiming and reimagining ice. What is your response to the raids and how can you ensure Border Security to those who are concerned about it . Julian castro we will always maintain Border Security. We will maintain the resources that need to be maintained so we have Border Security. I dont see those workers in mississippi as any kind of threat to this country. There are simply good folks trying to live those lives and provide for their sons and daughters. They are making our country a stronger country. I would put undocumented immigrants as long as they have not committed a serious crime on a pathway to citizenship so we wouldnt have that type of situation where people who have been here for years and years who have roots and little children who are american citizens i wouldnt put them in that situation. How would you put your gun policy . Julian castro the question is with the policy i put forward this morning on combating domestic terrorism, White Nationalism that includes gun safety legislation, how would we get that passed in the senate that Mitch Mcconnell may still be in control of, although i believe will have a democratic president and senate come january 20, 2021. But if he is still the majority leader, we will use every thing we can to put pressure on republicans who represent swing states who are for reelection and in the congress, republicans who represent swing districts because some do still exist. I believe that what those senators in swing states is an outpouring of frustration and anger at them for standing in the way of things like universal background checks that 90 of americans support. You saw what happened the other day in ohio. That while governor but he was going to get up and make this happy talk speech and the people of ohio were having none of it because we are tired of politicians just talking about keeping our families safe or common sense gun laws. We want them to act. You saw Mitch Mcconnell today talking about how he might do something. Why is he doing that . He is doing it because he has an election coming up and he is afraid. Whether it is in kentucky, texas, or other places, they are having to take notice because people are fed up. But who are usually voting republican may withhold their vote or vote democrat because they see these folks are not keeping their families safe. If you have a child like i do, you think about the fact that your child is going to School Every Day and they are less safe than they should be because we have people who are copycat mass shooters going into schools just trying to make a statement, or people going into shopping malls or walmarts or whatever it is, the only way to keep your family safe is to pass gun safety legislation. The republicans are starting to feel the heat from those who have had enough of it. There is a lot of racism within i know you released a plan, but how do you change the culture and some of the departments . Julian castro whether it is customs and Border Patrol or Police Department across the United States, what we see is this epidemic of racism and white supremacy. The report you are talking about and one look at facebook posts and other social media posts of Police Officers across our country and what it found was that they are making racist posts. And they are people on the streets were supposed to be treating all people equally. My policing plan calls for a better recruiting, better screening, also antivirus training for Police Officers and the ability to terminate officers who dont live up to the expectations that we have of them in Police Departments across the country. We need to find ways at the department of justice to reward those departments who are doing the best in terms of best practices for recruiting and keeping good Police Officers with a diverse police force, people that whatever their background or skin color that they are able to do a good job with the people they are supposed to work with in the community. We have that in some places and we do have a lot of offices doing a good job but we also have this epidemic of racism and recruiting with better officers and training so we can ensure that Police Officers understand how to treat people the same no matter their background, instead of profiling them those other kinds of things we need to do. What is your message to the iowa farmers around Climate Change . The last year had the highest levels of rain in the straight estate followed by a drought before that. How will you address the iowa farmers . Julian castro iowa farmers know that Climate Change represents a threat to their livelihood. There was another report out that said that Climate Change is going to negatively affect our food supply. We need to act. My hope is that more iowa farmers will leverage the influence they have to push for Climate Change legislation. We need to do it. It is an existential threat to our country and the world. I also believe that i will farmers understand how badly this president has betrayed them. China has stopped buying Agricultural Products from the United States. The soybean farmers and other farmers have lost contracts that may never come back because this president has too big of an ego to actually try and figure out how we marshal support for what we want to do with china instead of just with the erratic going alone haphazard trade war. The trade war is costing jobs and costing farmers their livelihood here in iowa and they are watching it go by. I would tell the farmers this is not what you bargained for. This man is not who he says that he would be. He has caused you to lose your livelihood. He is costing you money out of your pocket right now and costing jobs. We can make a change into Something Better so that we can improve your livelihood and also make sure that america comes out on top in the years i had. Some of the trump donors are being targeted and harassed. Republican or democrat, how is that ok . Julian castro it is not ok for anybody to harass anybody else. It does not matter where they are coming for, right or the left. Nobody ever said it was ok to harass people. Why post the list online . Julian castro my brother put out a list of names of people who had maxed out to the trump campaign. That is public information. That kind of information is put out all the time. For anyone to pretend or suggest that it is not that is just untrue. He did not put down anybodys private information. He did not put down addresses, phone numbers. You did not do that. He put forward publicly available information. The right wing wants to make this a because they want to attend that in some way that is equivalent. It is not. These donorswants to be secret. He doesnt want you to know who is donating to him. Maybe he believes these people are embarrassed. How was your gun plan different from your rivals . Castro we will. The message is right. These we bring the angels of Abraham Lincoln upon us. According to jewish law, they have a different take. It is not right. Please help us. Julian castro thank you. Mr. Biden you support reparan i have my money now . Do you support reparations . Is it possible to get paid now . Only 26 of americans support reparations. How would you sell that to the rest of america . [crosstalk] could i get a picture please . Julian castro how are you. Good to see you. [indiscernible] thank you so much. This is autumn from the twin cities. Thanks again. Julian castro thank you for being here. Thanks a lot. Julian castro good luck with everything. Thank you so much. [indistinct conversations] campaign 2020, your unfiltered view of politics. 2020 democratic president ial candidates entering the democratic wing ding. At 8 00 eastern on cspan three it is American History tv with programs on the anniversary of Cuyahoga River fire. Washington journal live every day. Coming up saturday morning, reporter Michael Braga on the state of rural hospitals in states that did not expand medicaid under the Affordable Care act. Former fbi special agent talks about the rule of Law Enforcement in combating domestic terrorism. Conversations with swing voters in pennsylvania on socialism. Watch washington journal live at 7 00 eastern saturday morning. Join the discussion. Cspans campaign 2020 coverage continues from the iowa state fair with viewer c all ins aboard the cspan bus. Starting saturday at 12 45 p. M. Eastern with ohio congressman tim ryan. At 4 30 p. M. It is john hickenlooper. Sunday at 1 00 p. M. Eastern former massachusetts republican governor bill wells. P. M. Tom steyer. Finally bill de blasio. Watch anytime online at cspan. Org or listen live wherever you are on the go using the free cspan radio app. This weekend on book tv, saturday Warren Farrell discusses his book, the boy crisis. Why our boys are struggling and what we can do about it. Success is what boys and girls feel they are like, they have friends, it is what prevents them from going into depression. When boys dont have it they go down the slippery slope. The worstcase Case Scenario as it moves to depression, anger, withdrawal. Eastern, disability rights activist, who contracted polio as a baby talks about growing up with a disability. Alreadyther told women talking and walking on my own. I was never sick and never a fever until that fateful night polio invaded our happy home and stole me from my family. 9 00 p. M. Eastern on afterward, former virginia democratic Governor Terry mcauliffe talks about his book open beyond charlottesville. Wow, the president said the stuff, i say this too. That is why they felt comfortable in charlottesville. I make the point that people used to wear hood. They dont think they have to wear hoods anymore. In charlottesville they came out. This is the big coming out party. They got hurt bad. Sunday at 9 00 p. M. Eastern virginiaards, former democratic Governor Terry mcauliffe talks about his book. Wow, the president can come out and say this stuff, i can too. That is why they felt comfortable coming to charlottesville. I make the point that people used to wear hoods. They used to do this at night. They dont think they have to wear hoods anymore. In charlottesville, this was their big coming out party. They got hurt bad. More now from the iowa state fair with remarks by president ial candidate andrew yang. The Des Moines Register invites all candidates to speak at the fair with the Iowa Caucuses currently set for february 3. This is one hour
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