[applause] i want to get your questions. I want to orient you to who the heck am i. I was raised by two incredible parents. They have seen the worst of america. They were civil rights activists. They had seen violence and discrimination, but only saw the best of america. We are who we are as a country because we came together, stood together, and worked together. My dad is one of these guys, the older i got, the more difficult his story for a childhood was. By the time he was older, the hail was like beach balls falling from the sky. Let me tell you when this tsunami hit my town. I was like you grew up in the mountains of North Carolina. He said dont disrespect me, thou shall honor your mother and father. You cant look it up, but it happened. My dad was born to a single mom in a segregated world. My history back to slavery was just poverty, poverty, poverty. He would tell me, dont tell people i was poor. Tell them i was po. He was born in america. My father would tell me that he is who he is because of a conspiracy of love. People not related to him were willing to fight for him. My fathers mom could not take care of him. She got ill. It was the community who took him in. No college in my familys history. They told him, you are going to go to college. He could not afford it. A church put a collection plate around and gave him money to go to North Carolina central university. He landed there in the early 1960s when the Student Movement started in North Carolina. This guy who grew up in a segregated town suddenly sees white people showing up to sit in for his rights. When he got to washington, i dont care who you are, irish, jewish, there was a time that Corporate America did not want you. He landed there when black people werent hired by corporations, but a coalition of blacks and whites that stood up and fought for him to be the first black person hired as a sales and but a small company, i dont know if youve ever heard of it, called ibm in the entire virginia area. When he got a promotion, he led people to the table fairly, you do well and the company does better. Inclusion, diversity, he gets promoted to manhattan, looks for places to live and finds out the White Communities in the 1960s in northern new jersey did not want black families. They were doing housing segregation. People, mostly white people, who said they will fight for him. White couples followed my parents around. When they were told a house was sold, the white couple would come and find out if it was for sale. The house i grew up in, we were told it was sold, the white couple found it was still for sale. On the day of the closing, the white couple didnt show up, and my father did, and they hired a volunteer lawyer. When they walked into the Real Estate Agent office, he stands up and punches my dads lawyer in the face and six a dog on my dad. When i was growing up in this beautiful home in my community, every time my dad would tell this story, the dog would get bigger. [laughter] i am literally here, we are all here, because of people who did not just say the words of our nation, liberty and justice for all they were willing to sacrifice and fight for it. My dad watched me growing up and said dont you ever walk around this house like you hit a triple. You were born on third base. I went off and got a scholarship to play football. Tot to oxford, i came back yale law school. My dad was not impressed. He said you have more degrees than the month of july, but youre not hot. Life isnt about the degrees. It is about the service you give. In my family, the values i was raised with, what did i do after i got my yale law degree . I moved into one of the poorest neighborhoods in my state to be a tenants rights lawyer because people fought for my housing rights. I will fight for other people. I still live in that neighborhood today. The only person in the senate that lives in a neighborhood, black and Brown Community below the poverty line, and we dont make the mistake in our community of mistaking wealth for worth. We are an incredible community. I want to get to your questions. I want you to know my values. I fight every day. Life is about purpose, not position. I may be running for president , but i am fighting for the same reasons i ran for city council. That a fight for people are too often left out of the equation. For families like mine, who are looked down upon, discriminated against, to make this nations promise real for everyone. Thats how i fight. How we fight, that is what i know, we stand up for each other. Our strength comes from each other. We are each others hope. We are each others promise. When we stand up and organize and mobilize, that is how we win. People want to make this election all about donald trump. It is not a referendum on him. It is a referendum on us. When we come out, when we stand up, when we bring out the swarm, we win elections. This past election, in some states like wisconsin, he got less votes than mitt romney got. We saw massive africanamerican communities alone, the blacks came out in the same rate as 2012. We would have hillary clinton. The next nominee should be the one that can excite, engage, and ignite a movement. I am not in this just to beat donald trump. I want to beat Mitch Mcconnell. That means we have to win senate seats in North Carolina. We have to win seats in georgia. We have to win seats in arizona. We have to bring out a wave election. People tell me about the polls right now and i laugh. We have never had somebody from our party, someone leading in the polls right now, has ever gone on to be president. Gloria has volunteered to be our microphone runner today. This is when we should all break into a chant. Calling gloria you didnt know you would get a musical discussion. I will kick it off with a right to work governor like we have, how will you as president ensure that labor has a seat at the table . Senator booker you say kick it off, trying to appeal to me as a football player. What is happening in this state is shameful. It is happening and states all around the country. These attacks on our unions emboldened and empowered by a right wing extremist Supreme Court. They are undermining the values and the winds of our generation parents generation. They are rolling back workers rights. Civil rights, Voting Rights. They are rolling back womens rights and the ability for people to control their own body. We have to stop this. One of the ways we stop this is by passing legislation to stop it. This is why i am on the equality act. This is why i am on the new Voting Rights act. We have to get these things past. The decisions to get workers rights, we have to pass it. Great pieces of legislation to proactive that we want to get passed through congress. Not justing to do that by focusing on the white house, but by making sure we have the kind of president that can win the presidency and create a wave where we can win up and down the ticket. When im trying to do in my leadership is to wake up this country to understand this is just like the Civil Rights Movement again. We need to create a nationwide movement. That is why you will have a lot of people stand here but dont ask people what they are going to do for you. That is what politicians do. If you want to talk to leaders, ask what you have been doing this fight already. One of the reasons i have such one of the reasons i have such labor support in new jersey, when i was mayor, everything i did, you want to do something in my city, unions have to be the center. Workers were fighting at the airport for minimum wage, i was on the picket line. [applause] one thing you should ask here in new hampshire, because a lot of these issues are because you have governors like you have right now. What were the president ial candidates doing in the last midterm elections . In this racedy that raised more money for local officials, make sure back on your governor than i did for made sure you pack on your governor then i did. If i am your president , i am going to be not just the president of United States but the leader of the Democratic Party. It is not just about the federal victories. Jobs with dignity, these are the victories we need to win in the next four years. Not just overturning Supreme Court cases and legislation but helping to shift bargaining, raising the minimum wage, saving Pension Plans that are in danger. Making sure people can retire with dignity. We need to make sure we fight for the larger country by fighting up and down the ballot and making sure the Democratic Party and our values begin to rise again. Thank you for coming to new hampshire. I have a question for you about agriculture, agribusiness, and the price of food. I worked 20 years for the state and retired. And an, Social Security, 10 an hour job. The cost of green beans last year was . 99. Now they are 1. 99. The cost of a hamburger, i cant even tell you. Mushrooms were 1. 89. Now they are 3. 89. I went six months without hamburger waiting for a sale. You want to do Carbon Neutral agribusiness, which i agree with. How will that affect the price of food . Senator booker god bless you. I rarely get a question like that. Think a lota i about. I will come to the white house with a much different set of experiences than anybody else. One of them is just living for the last 20 plus years in low income community. I see people on my block that work longer hours than my parents did. Add my corner bodega, they still need food stamps to feed their family. We have a real crisis. It is a crisis for independent family farmers who are being driven out of business right ourbecause of things like farm bill. When you spent one dollar in food, the percentage that goes to the people that produce the food, it has gone down 50 . I met with republican farmers in the midwest and they were telling me that their world has changed because they are getting squeezed. Monsanto has bought all of the source product. Raising the prices of seed and chemicals they use. They only have one person that dictates the price. The reason the price of food has gone up, it is because of big corporate consolidation in the agricultural sector. Again, past is prologue. Ask the candidates what they have done about the crisis. I put a bill in with the other farmer in the senate, jon tester, to put a moratorium on over consolidation in the ag sector. So we can start working to fight on these trends. It also creates reverse realities. We have a Serious Health crisis in this country. My kids and your kids could walk into a Grocery Store and the twinkie product is cheaper than an apple. Because of what farm subsidies are going towards. This is directly related to our childrens help, health care in schoolrformance this is all interrelated. Enough is enough. The cost of goods is going to o high because of this monopolization of oligarchies and i will stop that. I will start having policies to help the independent family farmers, making organic food and healthier food. And they can do it at lower prices if we create a food system that works. You said you were a retiree. There is something about a society, three places you want to look to see what a society is really about. See how they treat their children. We are a nation a shameful we lead industrialized weary leadn, shameful we industrialized nation in child mortality. Childcare is more expensive in most states then College Tuition at state colleges and we pay those childcare workers poverty wages. Look what we are doing to children. No paid family leave. No universal preschool. Look at how a nation treats its children. Look how a nation treats its elderly. Millions of americans, retirees, live at or below the poverty line because we have a Social Security system that is a regressive tax. Think about this. We have people whose Social Security checks are not keeping up with the cost of inflation and people are living on fixed income and seeing everything going up, from prescription drugs to the cost of hamburger. I will make that go from a regressive tax to making it far more progressive by lifting the cap on Social Security payments. [applause] we will increase the payments so no senior system is ever below the poverty line in america. Look how that look at prisons and who they incarcerate. Incarcerate the media. There is only one person from the New York Times here i might want to incarcerate. Russia, they incarcerate their political prisoners. Who do we incarcerate . The poor. Thousands of people in america are there because they cannot pay their bail. We have a criminal Justice System that treats you better if youre rich and guilty than if you are poor and innocent. Who elsearcerate do we incarcerate . The mentally ill. There is no treatment being given. We over incarcerate women. Almost 90 are survivors of sexual trauma and sexual assault. Human Rights Violations for mothers. Bedtill shackle women to when they are giving birth. Another group we over incarcerate his minorities. I respect and love joe biden. I was not being disrespectful to him. But i will tell you what, there were more marijuana arrests and convictions in 2017 that all Violent Crime arrests combined. Who do we incarcerate . Kids at stanford who i saw smoking weed at rates that were pretty incredible . Talk about contact high. Nobody is worried about dartmouth. We incarcerate the poor. Disproportionally minorities. If you are black or white in america, there is no difference in marijuana usage or sales. But africanamericans are four times more likely to be incarcerated. Our prisons are shameful institutions. Women, over incarcerated. Veterans, over incarcerated. That is a testimony to the lack of courageous empathy in our society. All of these things, i just want to say, i am going to stand up and change. Because after two plus decades living in my community, seeing seniors work their whole life living in poverty, seeing people having to make unhealthy food choices, i will change this as your president. [applause] a signgn waving i see waving back there that i have to wrap up right now. You are a great man. This is a crowded democratic field and i want to ask for your support. This is not just about the policies we have been discussing. This is a moment we should make but also with our head with our heart and our gut. Who is going to represent the spirit of this country . I was going up to a stage in iowa and some big dude the i dont know if you know this, i am a big dude, former tight end. The older i get, the better i was. The guy stops me and says, dude, i want you to punch donald trump in the face. I go, dude, that is a felony. We do not beat him by being like him. We match his darkness with our light. We match his hate with our love. It so eloquently, that we have to repent for the silence and inaction of the good people. If we have record voter turnouts, we will win seats up and down the ticket in 2020. I know i am the best person in this field to ignite this country so we have a movement election. What gets legislation done . Getting big movements to push better legislation. We have suffrage legislation not because a bunch of guys on the senate floor got together. No, we got it because of activism. It was not Strom Thurmond who said, i have seen the light. Ro peoplee those neg the right to vote. We got it because of activism. If you elect me your president , i am warning you. Write this down. If you elect me your president , i will ask more from you than any president has ever asked from you in your lifetime. Not asking you to pay more for your groceries. I will not ask you to pay more taxes. Everybody in this room will get a tax break. I will ask you to volunteer. To serve more. I will ask this union to help me organize even more. We need changes in america not from washington but american s standing up for americans. The part of the story i told, i went back to find out who those americans were who stood up for my family. I found the lawyer who represented my family. I asked him why, why would you in the 1960s, you were busy starting your business, why would you help a black family move in your neighborhood . He says, i was sitting at home watching tv. On march 7, 1965, the movie was called judgment at nuremberg. Three channels back then. Most of america was watching this movie and they broke away from the movie to show a bridge in alabama called the Edmund Pettus bridge. Here is a white man on the couch a thousand miles away watching marchers from selma get stopped on a bridge in alabama by state troopers who then tear gassed them and charged in with billy clubs and started viciously beating them. What did this guy on a couch in new jersey do . He did not allow his inability to do everything to undermine his determination to do something. He stood up from the couch and said, i cannot go to alabama. I cant afford a plane ticket. But i will do what is a powerful american tradition. I will do the best i can with what i have where i am. He was a patriot. He showed his love. He called around to see who needed an hour of pro bono work. He found this group of activists that were trying to do something about real estate segregation. He said they started working and they got other volunteers demanding from their neighbors. By 1969, they had a whole system working. He says, i will never forget the day i got a case file from a family trying to move up from the south, frustrated and discouraged, that their American Dream was being stolen away from them by racism. The names on that case file, the family coming up from the south, they were cary and carolyn booker, my parents. I am literally a United States senator. The fourth black person ever popularly elected to that office. I am running for the highest office in the land because an american on a couch in new jersey did not just sit there. They stood up for our country. This election is not about him. It is about, will we stand . Will we join together because the power of the people is greater than the people in power. This election is about organizing us, igniting us, us reviving civic grace. It is about a more courageous empathy, more radical love. If we can ignite that spirit, every policy becomes possible. We will make the low places high. We will make the crooked places straight. We will bring justice to this country because it will roll down like water. Stand with me in this fight. This man may be trying to tear us down but i promise you, together, we will rise. [applause] how about a big thank you for senator booker . Senator booker thank you, everybody. Before you leave, we would like to get a group photo. We are going to turn around. [indiscernible chatter] senator booker here we go. Thank you. Thank you. You are still a runner, right . Thank you very much. We will vote for you. Importantly, we will make phone calls and knock on doors. We will see you soon. Welcome. Senator booker i promise you if i am your nominee, we will beat donald trump, not with our hate but with our love. We will ignite the moral imagination of this country again. We will continue a greater campaign that will energize record numbers at the polls, not just here in the state but all across the nation. If i am your president , i will ask more from you than other president s have ever asked. I will ask you to volunteer more, reignite the best of our civic virtues. That is not just how we pass important legislation. That is how we as a nation rise. Thank you. [applause] what you just said, my mother sent me out the door this morning with a quote from john kennedy on his inauguration day. She memorized that she was a senior at nashua why school. It is not a victory of party, it is a celebration of freedom. She told me we all need to think about this differently because this time, it will be a victory of party or we will not have the freedom to celebrate. She wanted me to pass that information and thought to you. And the lady in front of me has a question. My name is barbara. It is interesting. Her quote has so much to do with my question. After watching the last two weeks of the house inquiry and seeing how republicans continue andig in and support lies russian talking points and realizing it goes from the house to the senate to the attorney general to the secretary of state to the president. And the Supreme Court. Between that and their gerrymandering and throwing voters off voter rolls, i for the first time feel extraordinarily nervous about where our country is going. Are our votes going to count . Mitch mcconnell wont do anything. Putting his to be feet to the fire. How do you assure the American People we need to get off our couches, we need to get involved in these campaigns, and we need to vote, not that it wont matter after all . Senator booker i was raised with my parents cautioning me. The only thing necessary for to be for evil triumphant is for good people to do nothing. Not just the words and actions of the bad people but the silence and inaction of good people. A woman on the fifth floor of the projects, this is my favorite. She taught me what hope is. A woman who had her son killed. She taught me that hope is the active conviction that despair will not have the last word. So we all need to speak up in the face of despair and wretchedness and hatred. The modern republican party, they are betraying the values they proclaim in their own party. What do you do in the face of that . I will tell you already, it is not about me, it is about we. One of the darkest moments i had, as a senator, because his win a person who began the campaign with racism. Talking about muslims and mexicans. Exposed about his sexual assault. You heard his own language. How could my country elect this person . Maybe you would go up there and call him and call in a quote from john kennedy or others, but there was a whole lot of malice and very little charity. I saw them walking out, bill clinton next to george bush and they were whispering and it was reported that george bush was so to billand he leans in well, thatsays, was some strange shit. I went to bed that night on a low of lows. I curled up in a ball on my bed. All i was thinking about, how many votes they now have with paul ryan, Mitch Mcconnell, donald trump to take away health care for millions of americans. The next day the womens march. Senator booker millions of women in america said, dont let despair have the last word. This is not a time to curl up, to give up, to shut up. It is a time to get up, rise up, to speak up because despair will not have the last word. People started changing this country. Under ms. Joness words, this has been the most hopeful three years of my life. The muslim ban, that is what he did first. Based on religion. I went out to Dulles Airport and i had a court order. To try to make detain families had legal representation. I got stopped in my tracks because hundreds and hundreds of people were turning out. Chanting patriotic slogans. There were orthodox jews. Dancing and cheering. Muslim families coming into our country. That is what america looks like. I told joe donnelly from indiana. He said, same thing happened to me i went to indianapolis airport and there were people coming out of the gates. Except, there were no international flights. We were just hugging people from detroit. Guess what we did in 2018 we only won back the house but it is the most Diverse Congress and the history of america. They started passing legislation. What the American People want. This next election is round two. One election does not win it. There are senate seats up from arizona, colorado, North Carolina. That is why i am telling people right now, i am not running for one office. I am running to awaken this country. The highest voter turnout ever before. When we went back the senate, i do not care what Mitch Mcconnell has to say. We can pass legislation. I can do by executive order and rejoin the paris climate court. Climate accord. We can do this the way we have always done this. Nothing that is bad in this democracy cannot be cured if we bring out more democracy. This is a movement election. It is about the campaign for our country. I want to be a movement leader, not a party leader. I want to call out to america to be who we are. Our declaration of independence, it ends with a declaration of interdependence. If we are going to make this happen, we must mutually pledge our lives, fortunes, and sacred honor. Republicans in congress right now have sacrificed their sacred honor. They are saying it is ok for the president to betray their oath. The compromise the security of our allies and the National Security of our country. This is not ok. We have faced bigots before. We have faced demagogues before. The know Nothing Party used the same antiimmigration language as this president. We beat them. Mccarthy, we beat him. Number onehlin, the radio show in the media, in america with his antisemitic screeds, and we beat him. How did we win . By abandoning our values . Me, i want youo to pitch donald trump in the face. I said, dude, that is a felony. We are not going to win this election by being more like him. We will win this election we have activism that will reawaken the moral imagination of our nation. God more people of the couch and into got more people of the. Ouch and into the game. That is what we are going to do. I am telling you right now, this is a test of how much i do not mean to make this sound trite or cliche. How much do we love each other . That is the test of america. Will we leave our homes and defend our nation, will we get up when it is not convenient to stand up for someone elses rights . The highest Child Poverty rates in the developed world. Will we stand up for those kids . Will we stand up for those struggling with addiction, mental health, struggling in their classroom, reaching in their own pocket to purchase things for their kids even when a lot of them are paying their own student loans. Will we be the nation that stands up and says liberty and justice for all and not have a criminal Justice System like we have now that treats you better if you are rich and guilty than if you are poor and innocent . Will we sit comfortably back while these injustices are going on . Children are afraid of going to school. Do we get up and join with our fellow americans arm in arm . This is a sad note but it is a beautiful note. I went to newark as this hopeful, inspired kid, to be a tenants rights organizer. My first big tenant meeting was packed like this and i was getting all of the notes i needed to try to file a legal action against against a slumlord. The elderly man who was the tenant leader of our city it went on and on. It went on for hours. As we were leaving, i made some snide remark about how long the meeting was. He stops and he looks at me and says, you dont understand. We need to fix these buildings. We need to repair. The first thing we got to do is repair community. Those folks who come out get their moment at the microphone. They deserve to be heard. If we repair this community and bring these people together, no slumlord can stand against us. He was right. That guy got convicted in federal court. That community did not win a victory because of a lawyer. They won that victory because it together. This elderly man changed my life by telling me, you are going to run for city council. I had to give up my job, live on credit cards. He believed in me and we bought we beat the machine. Eventually, his eyesight goes out. I used to knock on his door and he would say, who is it . And i would say frank, it is cory. He would say, i see you. That became our greeting. He eventually was in hospice. 10 years ago this month, is last his last days, i am confessing my weaknesses to you. He helped thousands of people and every time i visited him, i was the only one. In his last days and hours, he seemed to glow. He was happy because, to him, life was not about popularity. It was about purpose. It was not about celebrity. It was about significance. It is not about how many people show up for you when you are dead. It is about how many people you show up for when you are alive. These are angels we do not recognize until we need them. They said to me, it wont be long now. This will probably be the last time you see him alive. I was already choking up for i went in. They said, he cant talk but he will hear you. I walked into the door and i closed it and i started walking to the bed, frank, its corey. To my surprise, he forces out the words, i see you. I walked to his bedside, this man changed my life. I would not be in politics without him. I sat by his bed and i told him what he meant to me. I kissed him on the cheek. But i had to go, i was mayor of the city and id so many things to do. I said, frank, i love you. He struggles and gets out the words. I love you. I tell you all right now, dont make this choice based on just your head. It is something deeper than that. Remember the words of my mentor. I see you, i love you. I see you, i love you. Do we see each other in america . The struggle and the pain and the hurt and the fear all over our country right now. Do we honor and value the voice of people who are voiceless . In the world of shiny media and billionaires spending money. I see you, i love you. What is the quality of our mercy . What is the depth of our empathy . What is the power of our love . There is nothing we cant do together. Our history has shown it is a testimony to the achievement of the impossible. Other countries look to us for for our values. I see you, i love you. If this election is not just about politics and not just about the policy platforms. If it becomes about that, grace and decency and love and healing. If it is about that, we will win back the white house and we will win a lot more than that. Those people who betrayed our values will leave office just like the republicans are retiring right now because they know they cannot win. This is a time for a movement. It is time for the best of the american movements. A movement about how much we care about each other. If i am your president , i promise you, we will put more indivisible back into this one nation under god. I promise you that our hallmark will not just become a slogan, it will become the spirit again. I promise you that this president will the words of maya angelou, his bitter twisted lies, he can try to trot us down in the dirt. I promise you, we will rise. Thank you. [applause] what a great crowd of folks. We were only expecting about 50 people in there were over 100 people. This is a more republican area, too. That is really great. They were so generous to open up their home like that. Earlier, having these great intimate events. That is really amazing. Can i see my phone . I wanted to respond to thank you. The person who said they gave questions and she was hoping we would respond in writing to her six questions. We have it. Is that something you just give to the policy team . Slideshow on u. S. School. I do research on it every week. My dad would rather i do it on something not political. I said, nope, cory booker. The slideshow is titled cory senatoramericas finest. Dont forget the hat. From richard. What can we do for him . For his presentation. Maybe you could send him a video he could incorporate. Are there any politicos they flagged . I do not think it is for this one. A this is supposed to be for 1 58 and wend it is are a halfmile away . I am living my absolute best life. I will pull up the number. We can do it real quick right now. Manny, a state rep, he just got engaged today. He is a young democrat state representative. Just a really great guy, firstterm representative out of nashua. Congratulate him. Senator booker it is cory booker, how are you . I am in a car with my team. You are on speakerphone. It is chris. How are you doing . Senator booker i am being followed by cspan cameras. There filming me talking to you. My girlfriend is trying to break and i amconversation not getting off the phone. Big fan of her work. Thank you. It seems like you guys are having a really good trip. Senator booker amazing. The crowd has been about 2x what we were expecting. Just feeling really fired up since the debate and the momentum we have. That last speech was really heartfelt. I was like, damn, that is amazing. Senator booker we are burying the lede here, man. Congratulations so exciting. It is. Really we walked the dog and i have been holding this ring in my pocket for about a week now. Senator booker i love love, man. Maybe i should have brought rosario into the conversation. Hold on a second. [phone ringing] senator booker real quick, you called while i was talking to a state rep who just got engaged to an amazing latina as well. Can i merge the call . Rosario what . Senator booker manny, who was a young state rep here in new hampshire, he just proposed to his girlfriend. He is on the other line. Can i merge the calls and have you congratulate them . He is a big fan of yours. Rosario not facetime. Senator booker definitely not facetime. Manny, are you there . Tap it quickly. Marriage, right . Merge, right . What happened . Are you there . Hold on one second. I will call you right back. Manny, hold on. Dont go anywhere. [phone ringing] rosario hello . Senator booker hold on. There we go. Manny . Hello . Senator booker meet rosario. Is this Rosario Dawson . Rosario how are you . Huge fan. My girlfriend is also a big fan. Rosario dont you mean fiancee . Senator booker get it right, man. She is no longer your girlfriend. I have got to change the terminology now. Rosario congratulations. Thank you so much. Rosario that is so rad. I appreciate all the work you done to help inspire so many folks around the country. We dont get enough portrayal in media. And like, it is funny, because i think hollywood is in california. You have to try hard to exclude latinos in l. A. Shout out to you and all of the work you are doing out there. Thank you so much. Rosario thank you. I really appreciate that. Like senator booker just said, i feel like i am dating up all the time. Senator booker i hope and pray that rosario comes out on the campaign trail with me from time to time. If she comes to the hampshire, the four of us will have to get together. Rosario that would be lovely. Thank you for the call. I really appreciate it. Senator, keep doing what you are doing. I appreciate the message. I appreciate everything for everything f. Really speaking truth to power. I appreciate you shouting out. For me, it was tough to watch the debates without having julian there. Rosario especially when they brought up housing. I had a little conniption. Tweeted thelive whole thing. The war on drugs is really a war on black and brown folks. I was like, i felt that. That was real. Rosario sadly. It is sad but it has to be addressed. I appreciate it. Senator booker thanks. Congratulations to the two of you. We will find more time to talk. To go into this event now. I love you so much. Rosario i love you, too. Thank you. Senator booker byebye, everybody. This election is about virtues. And who is best going to be the nominee that represents the best of American Values . I believe if we win this ielection not by believe if we run this election election by what we are for coming out against and win back the senate and i believe we as a nation, together, i believe we will rise. Thank you. [applause] i am ready. I have a question but she has been raising her hand. My name is susan. I am a teacher at a local high school. I love working with kids. I am not in the job for the money. Cant be. What really concerns me, at our agh school, we have created alwaysod pantry that is in need. This year, we have put together 82 thanksgiving baskets for families in the community who are in need. It utterly breaks my heart that we have homeless students and students who go home to no food. I was wondering what would you do as president to help solve that problem . Help these families so there is enough money so they can have food independence. Senator booker you do collections for food . You have a 501 c 3 . This i dont know how it works i dont know how it works. Senator booker i will give you 100. And i will challenge that other people will match. At least that we can raise another 100. Can everybody join me . [applause] this is what i am talking about. I want to say, i tell the story a lot. God bless cspan. Serving in the military. That is really beautiful. This is incredible. Thank you so much. Wow. This is an embarrassing story but i want to tell it. [applause] i am driving home with this guy straight from the newark projects. We have such a connection, we do not have to talk in the car. We are driving by this place. I dont know if you have this in new hampshire. It is called mcdonalds. He looked at me and all i do is bow my head in shame and he knows he has to go to the drivethrough. I am vegan. This is when i did not know that mcdonalds french fries were not vegan. Burger king. Hail to the king. We go through the drivethrough and i order my fries and you know that i believe in marijuana legalization. But mcdonalds french fries are so addictive, i want to schedule them. I am holding it like the movie lord of the rings. Y precious i want to unbuckle my pants and watch the british baking show. In the guy there dumpster, rooting around. Kevin, igo, what do you need . He said, i am just hungry. I knew immediately what i needed to do. Think it says somewhere in the bible if you have two mcdonalds french flees and your neighbor has none it was the sermon on the big mac. I hand him some fries. He switches and asked another question. I work with homeless shelters and groups a lot, i realize this has all been a crisis. They dont carry extra socks in my carpet i said, im sorry, i dont have any socks. I thought kevin would drive away. But he doesnt he reaches between his legs, kicks off the shoes hes wearing it takes off his socks, and hands them to the guy through the window. Three blocks from my mom. From my home. Dont tell my mother but the socks she gave me last christmas, i havent even opened yet. I talk about love and kindness and grace but all of every single day god delivers us opportunities to make a difference in peoples lives and we dont even know it. Sometimes it is just a word. There was a group in iowa and i see them months later and say they say to me, we live in iowa and we just bought a home in alabama. They said they bought a home in alabama after hearing me talk that they are renting it below market rent just to help a family in alabama. There are things we can do to take our country back. Did people wait for slavery or did they build the underground railroad . This is what we have to have in america. So my policy, ill go through real quick. This is simply it. Im rolling back the trump tax cuts. I can do this if i have a majority in the senate. Thats why i want to run a movement election. I can get it done with reconciliation. I dont need 60 votes to do a double earned income tax credit and changing the definition of work in america. If theres anybody here taking care of a child with special needs at home. Youre not working but youre working, or like my mom who took care of my dad who died of parkinsons and fences dementia. I saw her go through their life and concerns dementia. I saw her go through their life savings. They should qualify for the work credit too. Young people in college dont qualify if youre working and in college. Do. Ll make sure you my plan cuts poverty in a third. Next, im doing something called the renters tax credit. What is that . We use our tax code to help people who have money get more money and im not against all those things. I believe in the mortgage Interest Deduction but its overwhelmingly used by people who make 150,000 and more. What about the rest of people . So my tax credit says this, if you are a family paying more than a third of your income on rent, then you qualify for a refundable tax credit up until the area of median rent. You get that back and guess what that does . 10 Million People out of poverty. So i have a lot of very basic things. Rolling back the trump tax cuts. We could pay for them by making sure we close loopholes. Interest, which allows Hedge Fund Operators to of taxmaller version then you do as a teacher. We can actually pay for it more than enough money to pay for it. Go back to the estate tax of and 2009 close all the estate tax loopholes. And the last one, this is where i agree with some people. Changing Capital Gains tax to taxing as ordinary income after exceptions after a few million dollars, which means all of us would be exceptions. If my man chase, one day, when hes rolling in dough, buys a picasso and then sells it the next year. He paid 1 million but sells it for 10 million. He is not going to be taxed at the same rate the schoolteachers as well. Thats going to get the money to do the kinds of things im talking about. Poverty is a sin. Being poor is not a sin. Its wasteful because poor children cost so much more. Especially in opportunity costs and children having needs. For teachers, no more racking up debt for student lunches and things like that. Were going to make sure that every student who comes to school gets fed. [applause] thank you. You are quite welcome. We got about 300. I will send you a text and let you know. Get one. O fine gentlemen. Thank you, all right. All right. Thank you. All right. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you. Thank you for being here. Oh, you did . And then we listened to he remembered it. Thank you so much. Senator booker you are in the middle. I do, i do. All right. Thank you. Senator booker i believe, i believe. Thank. We came in for coffee and saw you were here and said weve got to hear this. Very inspiring. Thank you very much. My wife said she thought your speech was the best. Senator booker oh, thank you very much. [crowd noise] yes, other than that, good. Why dont you jump on the other side . How do i pronounce his last name . Would you like some . Wheres kevin . Kevin is speaking with the New York Times. Democratic president ial candidate senator Kamala Harris attends a house party sunday at a residence in knoxville, iowa. Live coverage begins at 12 20 p. M. Eastern on cspan. Cspans washington journal, live with news and policy issues that impact you. Coming up wednesday morning, cost of war projects codirector discusses u. S. Military deployments around the world, and better angels president and cofounder talks about the groups efforts to foster understanding among people with differing political ideologies. Be sure to watch cspans washington journal live at 7 00 wednesday morning. A discussion on chinas global influence and the growing competition between china and the u. S. In the indo pacific region. The Hudson Institute hosted this 90minute event. Satu good afternoon and welcome to the Hudson Institute. My name i i myself am a visitor. I am satu limaye. Im the Vice President of the Eastwest Center and senior Senior Advisor to the center for naval analysis here im delighted to have been asked to moderate this panel with this distinguished group of experts on the indopacific region. A real mover and shaker in his