Pete. President pete has a good ring to it, too. Awould like to tell you little bit about who i am and what my values are, why i am doing this and i will shut up while there are times for questions. We have a country where the Gross Domestic Product is going up and Life Expectancy is going down. We are a country where there will be 130 million more guns on the streets by 2030 and he wants us to think our biggest problem is Political Correctness and his biggest solution is to pass a tax cut for corporations and the wealthiest among us. I am here to argue this president would not be here if we did not have even bigger problems that motivated a lot of our friends to go and vote to burn the house down and now the house is on fire and the real question is what is next . What are we going to do to get this country on the right track because we cannot go on with four more years of what we have right now. [applause] mayor buttigieg i am running for president because it is time to have someone in the oval office who will stick up for american values. And being serious about our values has implications, like when i put forward a plan on medicare for all who wanted, we make sure everybody in our country can get health care. You are not free if you dont have health care in this country. I also think you are not free if politicians get to tell you what your Reproductive Health choices are going to be in this country or if they get to tell you who to marry. If we want real freedom in this country, we will have to invest in infrastructure. You are not free if you cannot get a good glass of drinking water. This isnt just about freedom from regulations, this is about freedom to live a life of your choosing and freedom comes by way of things like education. On day 1, i will appoint a secretary of education who actually believes in Public Education. Mayor buttigieg it means we honor the idea that that flag stands for the idea that in this country, you are entitled and obliged to speak up when your leaders are doing wrong and when you do, nobody will question you to the loyalty for the republic to which it stands let alone telling you to go back to where you came from. Toave got an action plan actually do something about violent extremism by giving Homeland Security the tools they need and implementing what every just about every american wants, but washington cannot deliver, which is common sense gun safety reform. Want of americans background checks and washington cannot get it done, that tells you something is broken and it is why we have to fix our democracy before it is too late. Keepinglk about americans safe from gun violence, lets talk about keeping americans safe from climate disruption, which is the security challenge of our time. Country safep this if we are not willing to name and defeat the greatest threats of the 21st century. At the 21st century is presenting a completely different set of problems right now, which is not going to get solved with a 17thcentury solution like putting up a wall on the southern border. We have got to come up with better ideas. At the end of the day, even though we are living in a divided time and a dark time, i still have hope. That is why i am running for office. Thathere to make the case you would not run for office that you had a sense of hope it was worth doing that we could build the kind of future we are going to be proud of. In 2030, we will be able to look back and say we did what it took to deliver an economy where the rising tide lifts all votes. To deliver a climate where we are not afraid of what our future is going to be. That we actually delivered an economy and a society where your race has no bearing on your health or your wealth or your experience of law enforcement. And i will be able to tell my kids once upon a time there was this thing called mass shootings, but we came together and did what it took to made sure that did not happen all the time in this country. We can do that. We can build a country we are proud of and a future we are proud of, but it starts by recognizing the presidency and the campaign is not about him and we are not going to win going on his show. Pretty much everybody in our party would vote for anybody who could beat this president. Mayor buttigieg that is where i come in. [applause] mayor buttigieg i dont want this to be all monologue. Any questions lets have a conversation. Any questions out there . [indiscernible] mayor buttigieg the question is about foreign and would we reenter the transpacific partnership. I think the time has passed for that and i dont like the way it would have overruled the american governments ability to protect workers and environmental standards, but i also dont think the solution is to close ourselves off from the rest of the world. Lets invest in our own competitiveness. They are doing it and they will be running circles around us if we dont keep up. Poking them in the eye with tariffs coming on the backs of in placesoy farmers like iowa anyway. We need to engage in the rest of the world. You can either resent the rest of the world or lead the rest of the world, but you cannot do both. I am ready to have america lead before it is too late. Yes, maam. Say no to that, of slide i will ride the with your son. I dont know what it means, but i will do it. Thank you. Yes, maam. [indiscernible] mayor buttigieg the question is about what we are going to do about cancer. This is an example of where we have to come together to face a tremendous challenge. Cancer took my father earlier this year. And it isssible possible altogether. We can be investing more nationally in the battle against cancer and for those who have a diagnosis, far too Many Americans are one cancer diagnosis away from total ruin. We were lucky because my dad was on medicare, so we did not have to worry about whether our family would he destroyed financially. We were free to worry about what do you have any advice for them . Mayor buttigieg advice for teenagers entering college. What do you want advice about . Anything. Mayor buttigieg all right. One thing you ought to know is dish soap and hand soap are pretty much the same thing. It took me a while to figure that out. That is better advice, please vote. More than that, and this is important and this is how our organizing will work, i am sure you have friends you talk about where the country is headed with and your futures, but they dont believe voting matters. They will be more likely to respond to you urging them to get involved than they will anybody else in television on television telling them to do it. If you care about the future of this country and the you planned on being here, the more you have a stake about dealing with National Debt before it swamps us during more or less your career prime. If you care about this stuff, you have to call others to be part of it with you. Our views are popular, we just dont always vote. Good luck in your studies. Yes, maam. [indiscernible] mayor buttigieg how will we protect a womans right to choose . I will appoint justices that understand American Freedom means the freedom to make your own Reproductive Health care decisions. I will also make sure we have legislation that responds when states try to act to take that right away. The right to choose could be gone by 2030 if we dont act. I will not let that happen as president. [indiscernible] thanks forgieg raising that. The question is about special education. Legislation requires resources goes to disabilities those with his abilities, but it is not fully funded. I ed to fully fund id. D. E. A. We need tosystem, properly fund our Public Schools so they have the resources to deal with special education. This is our future, we are not doing ourselves any favors by going cheap on Public Education and it is why that will be such an important priority for us. What about Mitch Mcconnell is the question. There are so many directions we can take that. I worked with a lot of republicans in my life. In indiana, i would not get much done if i did not work with republicans. To work across the aisle, there has to be good faith and the Senate Majority leader is not acting in good faith. As a matter of, principle, you would never vote on a nominee in an election year. There are two ways to answer this question. The second best answer is way we are going to box them out because our views are popular and i will Fly Air Force one into the state of any senator blocking our agenda. Things the American People want done, and remind the voters there senator is not speaking for them. The best answer is for Mitch Mcconnell to not be the majority leader anymore. It would help to nominate somebody with coattails that comes from the middle of the country and can speak to these concerns in plain english so that we bring in a set of majority Senate Majority with us and it will be time to put an end to the filibuster that has gotten in the way. Yes, sir. The question is about criminal justice reform, which we need, urgently because for too Many Americans, the system is not delivering justice at all. We need to cut incarceration by half in this country and i have a plan to do it using clemency powers, working with states ending incarceration as a response to drug possession and when we legalize marijuana, we fort to have expungement people whose incarceration is doing more harm than the offense did. A generation of kids experiencing the incarceration of a parent. We have to put an end to their being people in this country who stand to make money when more of us are incarcerated. Yes, sir. Is soon security, this important. If you stop and think about it, as powerful as our government is, the reason the Government Works for us and the other way around is your vote. It is not your gun. If they take our democracy away from us, by the time anybody reaches for their gun, it is too late. There is a bill pending to do just that and Mitch Mcconnell killed it. They are embarrassed to admit this is a problem because they then fitted from it. We have got to secure our elections. There is technological stuff we have got to do, but the biggest thing we have to do is use the security toolkit of the country. To create a penalty forever messing with our elections again that russia or any other country would not think about doing it the next time around. [inaudible] mayor buttigieg the question is about what we will do to ease the burden of student debt. This one is personal because we are in 6 figure student debt at the household. If we say education is the pathway to prosperity, we cannot allow it to be crushing you with the burden of debt. I want to expend expand extend the Public Service it is almost impossible to access. We have forprofit colleges that specialize in going after veterans. The ones that dont deliver, we should go after. We need to make college more affordable on the front end and work with states to bring down tuition. This time, lets link it to inflation so we dont have to go back to congress and every time. What would you do about dark money in our elections and mayor buttigieg i will put that to the group at the end about fair food. The other question is about dark money, slightly more heavy topic. This is not a democracy so long as dollars can outvote people. We need reform. There are reforms we can do right now part of hr 1 passed to the house. It is also the case that if it is really true that under this constitution we cannot have common campaignfinance reform, that is really true, then time for a constitutional amendment. To clear this up once and for all that money is not the same thing as speech and corporations do not have the same political souls as human beings like you and me. Dont tell me we cannot do that. We have had more than 25 constitutional amendments in this country. We had one constitutional amendment in this country so you could not buy a beer and we changed our minds. Do not tell me we cannot undergo a thoughtful constitutional remedy that works for all of us. The other question she had was what fair food am i about to try . You are not supposed to go by the polls, lead with conviction, but this feels like one i should solicit some input from the crowd. Corndog. Mayor buttigieg i heard the word pork chop. How many people are on the team pork chop . If it comes down between pork chop and turkey leg, who would go for the turkey leg . Turkey is in the minority, got it. Craft beer, sounds pretty good. It is a bit early, i am still on the clock. Tempting. Somebody said fried oreos. I promise to sample as much as i can and offer a thoughtful assessment of the fair food afterwards because i am very much looking forward to conducting research. I am getting the impression our time is about up. If you believe in our vision, i need you to go to peteforamerica. Com. We are building a fantastic team on the ground in iowa. Get the message out far and wide and with your help, we will not go on his show and play his game, we will change the channel completely. Can i look for your help doing that . Got to see you today. To see youhe today. Lets win the era together. Folks in the back, thanks very much. Thank you. ] [chanting pete mayor buttigieg we need the u. S. To stand for freedom and democracy. The idea with hong kong was supposed to be two country one country, two systems and that is not what we are seeing. People to the aspirations of the people of hong kong seeking freedom and we should be there for them at a moment when unfortunately, america is withdrawing from the world. We need to be a clear, moral force voice. Forou mentioned the need Mitch Mcconnell to not be the Senate Majority leader. Democrats,ou tell especially some of your other president ial hopefuls being asked to consider running for the senate . Mayor buttigieg i am not going away in on what my competitors ought to do other than to say we have to win back the senate. As a candidate in 2020, it will be my focus to do everything i can to bring in the Senate Majority because the next president will need one. Getting Rural America to vote for you mayor buttigieg Rural America is beginning to see all the ways in which they are being neglected by this administration. You look at everything from policies that have eviscerated the soy industry to a secretary of agriculture who says farmers are whiners and you realize they dont care. A lot of talk about doing things for workers and the biggest achievement they have legislatively is a tax cut for corporations and the wealthy. Farm income is down half of what it was five years ago and these policies are making it worse. We may not be able to win everybody over, but i believe in areas,ning in rural especially because we have a planta grow jobs and populations and help grow infrastructure that will make sure Rural America can succeed going forward. Explain a little bit more about how that will work . Mayor buttigieg the idea of a Community Renewal visa is based on my area where we realized we needed a population growth strategy. In iowa, some of the areas that are experiencing encouraging growth in rural parts of the states are places like storm lake that embraced immigration as a way to grow. This is a proposal that would encourage communities to come together, apply for allocation of Community Renewal leases that would allow people to be in this country provided they commit to being part of one of these communities for a period of time. It allows us to grow population, which goes handinhand with growing jobs if we want to strengthen Rural America at a time it has been draining out in too many communities. [inaudible] do you think in doing that he undermines the idea that tariffs are not impacting American Consumers . Mayor buttigieg they are saying one thing, but even this Trump White House knows the American People are paying for these tariffs. A tariff is a tax paid by americans and that is how it works. We stand to lose 800 per household as a consequence of these tariffs and we will feel this, this will hurt in our pocketbooks at home. The fact he does not want that at the end of christmas shows he knows it is hurting American Consumers. It will make a difference in the long run. We are talking about people who very often have paid into the system and just one more effort to divide americans around the issue of immigration. If this administration were serious about immigration reform, they could get it through washington in a month or less. We want a pathway to citizenship, protections for dreamers, humane treatment at the border, and the right measures for border security. That compromise has been passed by one chamber of Commerce Congress to be killed by the other. We could have that reform and move on, but the white house finds this issue more useful unsolved. If elected, would you keep President Trumps mayor buttigieg i would have, in that situation, had this be part of a negotiated discussion and the really upsetting thing wast what was done was it an intervention in israeli domestic politics. The president used u. S. Foreign policy to put a thumb on the scale for rightwing allies within israeli domestic politics. We can talk about the future of any of the hot button issues in the middle east. When i am president , we will do it not based on u. S. Politics or israeli politics, but based on what is best for the israeli come up politician you would keep it . Mayor buttigieg i will not make any decisions about the future of that status. On my watch, it would not have come about. What can congress do right now there is a lot of talk about what residential candidates on the democratic side would do if they were elected president. What is the rule right now . Mayor buttigieg there is a background check bill waiting for the senate to do something with it. It is not even complicated. Either the senate or is serious or it is not. I hope as these senators are in this recess at home, they continue to hear loud and clear the American People expect and demand action on everything from background checks to assault rifles to countering violent extremism in this country. [inaudible] over the weekend, escalating president , how would you deal with a potential war . Mayor buttigieg nobody wants to see escalation between Nuclear Neighbors in south asia and it is one more example of how the world needs the u. S. Today that is credible, that is respected, and can help ensure there is some kind of arrangement that is going to lead to peace. What is happening now is provocative, destabilizing, and not good news for the region or the world. When the u. S. Enters these conversations, we need to be perceived as an honest broker and our fundamental interest is peace and security for south asia. [inaudible] mayor buttigieg i believe we can and should participate in trade diplomacy if it is to the benefit of american workers. Too often, that is not the case. I come from a part of the country that was told, go along with these trade deals. Such anger there is in my part of the country for these deals. It doesnt mean we need to close off our economy, but we need to i believe there is a way to do that, but it is different than what we have seen in recent years. Thank you. Mayor buttigieg thank you, everyone. Your campaign is the first time i have ever participated in the political process. Thanks mayor buttigieg thanks for getting involved. I have been working hard to convert supporters every week. Mayor buttigieg thank you so much. I just wanted to shake your hand. Mayor buttigieg thank you. My next president. Thank you for answering my question. Mayor buttigieg sure, thanks. This is so cool. Thank you so much. Thank you for everything you are doing. Thank you for everything. Thank you. Youve been a great inspiration. Mayor buttigieg hang in there. Very much. U mayor buttigieg do you want to get a picture . Much. Nk you so mayor buttigieg the big problem all of the producers have now is the trump administration. The continued extreme weather will destroy livelihoods. We have to keep moving. Thank you so much. Nice to meet you. Can we get a picture really quick . Awesome, thank you. We declare Climate Emergency day one in the oval office . Mayor buttigieg most likely. Im sorry, we have to keep moving. Do you believe in abolishing the Electoral College . Mayor buttigieg yes. What would that mean for the voters in south bend, indiana . Mayor buttigieg it would mean their vote would count more than it does today. Do you believe you cannot win with the Electoral College vote . Mayor buttigieg of course i do. Just wanted to thank you for the positive dialogue and for being a good role model. You. Buttigieg thank that is our goal. He is a korean war vet. Mayor buttigieg thank you for your service. What branch were you . Thank you for being out there. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. If you get elected, youll be the first millennial president . What is your spotify playlist . Mayor buttigieg you can look it up on spotify now. Around the band is my walkup song. Windm with the American Energy association supporting wind. Thank you. Mayor buttigieg here is what i know, rural and conservative areas are much more open on immigration where they actually know immigrants. Thank you, sir. People have been told immigration is their problem. Thank you for your answer on the cancer question. Mayor buttigieg thank you for raising that. I appreciate it. Mayor buttigieg a real problem, the depopulation of rural areas. Good to see you. Mayor buttigieg where is home for you . Florida. You . N i get a selfie with mayor buttigieg just turn around and i will lean in. Thanks for coming by. Has a gay man in politics would you be willing to command with President Trump for his willingness to decriminalize homosexuality . Would you commend him to be the first president in history and supportive gay marriage . Im your biggest fan. All of thegieg attacks on lgbt americans. Taking trans people out of the military. God bless you. Mayor buttigieg everybody vote. For me, please. Are you and supportive of ban on automatic weapons . Mayor buttigieg yes. Why are men involved in any decisionmaking that has to do with womens reproduction . [inaudible] mayor buttigieg we are in it to win it and we are not going anywhere. [indistinct conversations] could america learn something from gun laws in australia . Mayor buttigieg it is certainly an example of taking action. So nice to meet you. Can i take a selfie . Thank you so much. I am so excited you are here. I have a son in the reserve and a son in the guard. One of my sons came back from his second deployment. At one time he and his twin brother were both in afghanistan. Thank you. Thank you for all that you do. The campaign is very important. Regardless of the outcome, the fact that you are doing great. Mayor buttigieg thank you. Thank you so much. Nice to meet you. I am amanda. Welcome to iowa. I recommend porkchops on a stick. We love you. Thank you so much. You have a genuine face. It is appreciated so much. Making progress, partly . Mayor buttigieg now we are going. You. I got your book. Mayor buttigieg hello. Thank you. Thanks for wearing the shirt. Sarah with an h. Please. Mayor buttigieg i almost wrote down with an h. [laughter] thanks very much. You are too kind. Good luck, good luck. Youve been making a lot of good impressions. I appreciate it. I appreciateeg it. That you like what you see. Thank you. Mayor buttigieg we made it. Lead the way. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2019] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] the house will be in order. For 40 years, cspan has been providing america unfiltered coverage of the white house, the supreme court, and unfiltered publicpolicy events from washington dc and around the country. Cspan by cable in 1979, s brought to you by or local cable and satellite provider. Cspan. Your unfiltered view of government. Washington journal is next. We will be taking your calls and tweets with a focus on cities, asking your top concern. We will talk with columnists and editorial writers from detroit, chicago, new york, and san francisco. Ost good morning we are spending this morning on the washington journal focusing on the issues facing americas cities. Having this conversation in the wake of President Trump singling out baltimore and pointing to the nations 30th largest city as a symbol of problems with urban areas. This morning were are going to hear from City Residents only. Ellis tell us what your top issues are where you live. You areidents only, if in the eastern time zone, 202 7488000