Governor, thank you. We are sorry you couldnt be here. Im sorry too, but im here celebrating in South Carolina and it is an amazing place. It is an amazing place. I hope we can be together soon. Amanda i think it is probably a lot warmer there. Give you a couple minutes to start off with opening remarks. Gov. Patrick thank you very much for the privilege of joining you and letting me do so remotely. I am here in South Carolina on the occasion of the mlk weekend. A fitting occasion for todays conversation given how hard dr. King and others worked to enable our american democracy to function as a democracy for so many have been marginalized. For a long time, we have treated thedemocracy hyperpartisan gerrymandering, is in politics today. Our member after the 2016 election after a report of the amount of money each campaign had spent, over a billion dollars over the course of it, and one of our daughters turning to us and saying, what i am sure we have heard from so many others. Just imagine how much good that money could do in some other way. So much time tearing each other down. Along comes the Citizens United decision that has made all of that worse. The influence the influence of lobbyists and controlling and influencing legislation. Democracy is, our not producing democratic outcomes. That is why we put out what we described as a democracy agenda. It is about a systemic focus on improving the functioning of our democracy, eliminating hyperpartisan gerrymandering, limiting the amount of money, so much of it dark in our politics, dealing with voter suppression, which has only gotten worse theirthe Supreme Court in decision invalidating large making everything better and we can move on to a bright new day. This is personal to me. I started as a civil rights lawyer for the naacp. I was head of the Justice Department in the clinton administration. We were responsible there for enforcing the provisions of all of the civil rights laws, but in particular the Voting Rights act. Fact, got to know bill clinton when i sued him as governor clinton in a Voting Rights case, the outcome of which became the bones of what law whento the voter he became president. We have all kinds of ways that we have made it harder than it should be for people to participate, and i believe that we have to bear down on this. Therefore, the democracy agenda would be the very first ease of legislation i would trial as president , because frankly, so much of the outcome of the big ideas that i and others have, that the American People have, depend on getting our democracy to function like one. I also put a provision in there to expand national service. Indeed, by a short period of time, over the next decade, i would like to make that universal. Why . Yes, it is true that we are politically divided. Yes, it is true that we seem to have a president waking up every day thinking of new ways to divide us. But it is also true that is so needed easy. It is so easy because we do not know each other anymore. So what i am encouraging and what i will fight is opportunities through national service, civilian or military, to bring americans together nmet national an u need, and give us the opportunity to get to know each other from different backgrounds, different parts of the country. Because i think frankly, it is less easy to divide people who have come to understand each other better than we do today. So that is how i am thinking about making and helping and that our, frankly, democracy functions like one, that it reflects the best of who we are and the best of what we have, and im looking forward to the conversation because i am sure there are many, many good ideas that you have as well, and we can share from my time as governor as part of the conversation too. So thank you very much for having me. [applause] governor, a super pac has been formed to support your campaign. It has already started airing ads. Most of the democrats have sworn off support from super pacs. How do you reconcile your support for campaignfinance reform with accepting help ultimately from a group that can take unlimited donations and was basically allowed to exist because of the because of the Citizens United position. [inaudible] governor, we are having trouble understanding you and i do not really know how to fix this. We cannot actually hear you. Gov. Patrick is this better . That is better. Gov. Patrick [indiscernible] hmm. So, this is not working. Do we have someone who knows how to fix this . Gov. Patrick good you hear me when i was we could. During your opening you were great. Gov. Patrick should we hang up and call back . Yes. We would like you to hang up and call back. Ok. Sorry about that. Well, while we do not have him on the line, do we have anything we can throw in . We are sorry for the technical problems. Getting people livestreamed in is tricky. Gov. Patrick any better . Right now. Gov. Patrick so the question was about the super pac. Is a just saying, look, it perfectly fair question, and it is something that candidates cannot do much about, but president patrick can. One good thing is i have understood from the flyer, or the announcement that went out, that this pac will disclose all of its donors. In an ideal world we have publicly financed campaigns. We limit the amount of money that an individual could contribute. I am not accepting any pac donations, corporate or otherwise, into our campaign. I have made that pledge and im going to keep it. Are the only you africanamerican candidate who is left in the race. Both senators booker and senator harris said part of the reason they ended their campaigns is essentially they ran out of money. Do you think our campaignfinance system right now makes it harder for africanamerican candidates, latino candidates, candidates who come from workingclass backgrounds or poorer areas, doesnt make it harder for those candidates to run . Gov. Patrick of course it does. I think there are two candidates who came in close to the New Hampshire filing deadline, me and mayor bloomberg. And i am the only one constantly being asked questions about being too late, even though most people are undecided. I keep making the point, it is not late until you vote. We are awash with money and we keep score on who is making progress based upon the amount of money. The amount of money raised and the amount of money spent. And when i think about how much of that money has been spent in order to generate poll numbers and so forth polls, by the way, which we should know by now since 2016, we should not trust. To that how hard it is to get onto ballots, how varied the rules are in all the states. We have a democracy to all the talent we know exists in every community in our country. Ad if we are going to build successful,. Pluralistic democracy, we have to make that access real. Ms. Terkel i wanted to go back to something you said about the super pac. He said as a candidate there is not a lot you can do about it, which is true because they operate independently so they can do whatever they want. But you can say i do not super pac supporting me, and unless i am wrong, i have not heard you say that. Gov. Patrick i have not said that. For once, i think they have been helpful in not having been in the race so long. But if you would like me to say that and tie another hand behind my back, i am willing to do that. Thatt does miss the point we have a great, talented field of candidates, all of whom have ideas. I have results. And i have results in the area of making voter voting easier as well. I signed legislation as governor that made it easier to register, sameday registration, and illuminated so many of the our ballot in massachusetts. That is the kind of leader i have been and will be. Ms. Terkel do you think certain kind of Campaign Donations can corrupt politics . Whether they come from certain sectors, whether it is money where we do not know the source, things like that . Gov. Patrick look, i think it is important that we know the source. What concerns me is when i think about my friends in the congress or the senate, where they spent 50 , 60 of their time raising money instead of doing the peoples job. And it should concern them too. To have as much transparency as possible. I do not think we should have foreign money in our elections, any more than i think we should have foreign influence. And i think we should have less money in our elections. But we are all going to have to do that together. It is not going to be about one party or the other, it will not be about one candidate or the other. It is about how we set rules that make sense and are fair, and that can stream the excess in terms of money and politics today. Ms. Terkel i wanted to talk you a little bit about judges, and if you could talk a little about what you would be looking for, say, if there was a Supreme Court vacancy. What would you look for in a nominee . Gov. Patrick you know, we have so many talented judges and practitioners who bring a progressive approach to interpretation of the United States constitution, which more needs to have the original intent of the constitution. It was always meant to be the case that there was tension between our reality and our ideals, and that would be advocates who would stand up in based on thess fact of the day that we move closer to our ideals. Does not mean the constitution has anticipated everything. There are things that we need to, and we have in our history, have considered for amendment. But we have provisions around freedom and privacy that are embedded in the constitution, and i want judges what we have today are masquerading as conservatives. Theres absolutely no way you can call yourself an originalist and find an individual right to bear arms or describe a corporation as a person for purposes so, i think we have to get folks who understand the lived experience of modernday america, and who can look out beyond washington, beyond privilege, beyond your own experience, and understand that there are people in this country who are depending on our moving every day closer to american ideals, equality, opportunity, and fair footing. Ms. Terkel i wanted to go to the audience now, and we have a question from sarah ferguson. Hi. Can you see me now . [laughter] i wanted to introduce myself as someone who comes from a long line of democracy seekers. I come from a long line of suffragettes, and freedom fighters, people who gave their lives and shed blood in world war i and world war ii, and in the civil war, for rights for a ll. A survivor fellow with every town, and i am city and state lead for moms demand action. Gov. Patrick thank you. Thank you. An honor and a privilege to be a part of that. Is, being thatn my family has fought so hard, as have most people in this room likely, have fought so hard for these rights, as president , how a leader to restore confidence and participation in our elections, ending active voter suppression, and voter purging, and restoring the rights of formerly incarcerated people, and ensure everyone is able to cast a ballot, regardless of a past felony conviction . And if i may add, whether their social economic status prevents them from doing so as well . Gov. Patrick thank you for the question. Been doing this work for decades. Court andn active in as an advocate on behalf of folks who have had their access to the ballot compromised. As i said earlier, i was head of the Civil Rights Division and responsible for enforcing the Voting Rights act, in an administration that actually cared about the subject. And i was active in the florida ballot initiative, most recently to restore the right to vote to felons who have finished their sentences. Saw how quickly after the Supreme Courts most recent Voting Rights decision, the number of states went right back to their same bad habits. In some cases, using even more sophisticated and insidious means of doing so. Purging, asea of some sort of housekeeping matter, has struck me as shocking. When you consider the number of people who do not go to the polls because they do not feel that matters. But it does not mean that they have surrendered their citizenship or their right to vote when they feel it does. Purgingwhole idea of always raises questions in my mind. We need to ensue restore and enhance the Voting Rights act so that it is powerful enough for todays circumstances, todays ingenuity. And i say this as a democrat who does not think you have to hate republicans to be a good democrat, but increasingly it seems republicans have decided they cannot win a fair fight, so they have just decided we will jerryrigged this whole system so that whatever outcome is people, itshe people, completely frustrating. So, i believe not only do we need to restore and strengthen the Voting Rights act, but the civil rights and all related. We need to have the resources and personnel and directions from the oval office to get the job done. Ms. Terkel thank you. Now we have one more audience question. This one will be from vern. Hi, governor patrick. Thank you for being with us, sharing your thoughts, and also listening to us. A retired minister and also university teacher. Cencus, states are census, be 2020 states are going to be required to withdraw district. Gerrymandering, as we know, worse in some parts of the country than others. A majority of people are against gerrymandering, which gives the advantage to the party that is in power, and works against the voter strength for the opposing power, or party. In fact, we know that seven states now have legislated so that gerrymandering is ended in those states, and they have established independent, citizenled commissions to do the task of drawing the lines of districts. What would you do in order to also toymandering, and ensure that redistricting is done fairly . Gov. Patrick thank you for the question. I thinkare right, everyone is using the same language to describe what is going on today with the elected officials choosing the voters instead of the other way around, and that has simply got to stop. Oftopped short, vern, requiring independent citizen commissions for just one reason, and that is when we redistricted in massachusetts recently, we had a very transparent, very ofsured Committee Legislators who got it done. And at every stage there was input, there was bipartisan approach, lots and lots of and basically the point was excuse me, sorry. Were neutral there principles agreed on and were enforced, and in this case the legislators responsible for it took a very transparent, as i said, and very noble and dutiful approach to it. That will not always be the case but i have seen it done, is my point. So where i want to be is to be clear about those neutral principles, and if states have different ways to accomplish that, sometimes it will be independent citizen commissions, sometimes it will be committees of legislators. But so long as there is fealty to those principles, i can accept that. What i cannot accept is what we have today, which is officials choosing the voters rather than the other way around. Ms. Terkel thank you. Everyone, thank you, governor patrick, for being with us today. [applause] left, and ispeakers am now happy to welcome Entrepreneur Andrew Yang up to the stage. [applause] mr. Yang hello, everyone. I forgot i am amplified. Hello. Thank you. I know you are all here for me. Back, ijoking in the was looking at my grades from represent us and other organizations on democracy reform, and i got straight as. It may be very happy. We were joking in the back that if the Big Companies wanted someone to do their bidding, they would never have sent the anonymous asian man that no one had heard of 12 month ago. Realizing n up uprising of the people. Million, allr 16 individual donors. My fans are almost as cheap as bernies. Everyday americans knowing we can do better for ourselves. Donald trump is our president in part because Many Americans have given up hope that thats not an irrational concern, because the Feedback Mechanism truly has broken down. Corporate interests and lobbyists have the ear of our legislators and we are all looking up wondering what has happened. There was a headline in a satirical publication that said that we should hire our own lobbyists to represent us, because that is the only way anything would get done for us anymore. Money is speaking very loudly in our Nations Capital, and that is what we have to try to change. I know you are here today because he believe Citizens United was a grievous error that has damaged our democracy very badly, and i could not agree more. We need to overturn Citizens United, but then we have to go even further. Because the fact that orbit money had its run of d. C. Before Citizens United. So how do we counter the almighty dollars influence in our Nations Capital . What we do is we unify the people and the money. Right now, 5 or fewer of us donate to political candidates and campaigns. So what we have to do is put money into our hands, democracy dollars, that only we can give to candidates and campaigns every single year. 100 democracy dollars, use it or lose it, that you can give to whoever you like, each calendar year. If we did this, what percentage of americans would get to candidates and campaigns . Lazy,0 , americans are but you would certainly get it up from 5 . To what . 20 , 40 , 50 . We would wash out all lobbyist cash by a factor of four to one. Money talks in this country. The problem is it is speaking for the companies. We have to have the money speaking for the people. If we have democracy dollars in our hands, this is how we can restore democracy to ourselves, and give us the knowledge that legislators respond to us because it is in their financial interest to do so. 10,000 of us is 1 million for that legislator, when a company says i have 25,000 for you, they say i do not want to turn off my 10,000 voters. This is the only way we will make our government responsive to us again. Thank you very much. I look forward to taking some questions. [applause] so, you have a lot of proposals to reform government, to reform lobbying. One of the proposals that you have out there is a plan that would raise to be clear, the next president , not yourself, raise the salary to 4 million while borrowing barring them from accepting outside employment for a decade after leaving office. You would raise cabinet member salaries to 1 million. But how would you sell a plan that involves these highranking government officials a massive raise to an American Public that is already, as you said, distrustful and disdainful of washington . Mr. Yang as your president , about a year from now, i will awkward, sorryis about this. You asked me a very serious question. [laughter] pledge president , i will never to take speaking fees for any personal gains forever. If i know a company can pay me a quarter Million Dollars for one hour, i might go easier on that company as president. That happens with every agency regulator. As soon as you stick someone at the head of an agency in d. C. , a clock starts ticking. They start thinking, ok, what is my next move after my stint at this agency ends . You know who is waiting for them . Industries with bags of money saying if you go easy on us, we will hire you to pay five to 10 times what you make now. Human nature is for that person to go easy on the companies. You know who said this . Sheila bear. She said you need to make this a oneway street, because all my incentives are to be nice to the companies as soon as i get here. What i am proposing is we take her up on her advice, and make being president and a regulator a oneway street. If you do this, you cannot work for industry for years afterwards. And if you have a long enough period like 10 years, you become useless. They are not asking you for your knowhow, they are asking you because you can call people up and lean on them. So, for having regulators and a president that we know answer to us, a higher salary is a small price to pay. Because if you are going to say to someone you can never work for industry again after you take this job, you have to give them enough compensation so it is not a lifetime of poverty. So, and this is what sheila said up, we need to ramp compensation for regulators, but then we have the i went to high school with a guy who went to capitol hill with the best of intentions. He said he cannot stand lobbyists, would never be one. What is he today . We know how the story ends. And i do not blame him for it because after he did his time on capitol hill, it was a big company that wanted to pay him hundreds of thousands of dollars to lobby, and there were not other opportunities at that level. We have a fundamental incentives problem for both our government and industry, and we have to change it if we are ever going to have regulators that work in the Public Interest to the point where they will actually make enemies of the companies and know that they can never work there again. [applause] president barack obama has taken speaking fees since he left office. Do you believe that was a mistake on his part . Do you believe those speaking fees positively impacted him when he was president . Mr. Yang all i will say is i will gladly take no speaking fees forever after i leave office, and that should be the standard we hold president s to. Because if you cannot count on the president to work on behalf of the American People, then it is never going to happen. Cultures and organizations start at the top. If you see the boss doing something, you look around and say i guess it is ok. If we want to clean up what is happening in washington, the boss has to set the example. So i am not going to speak to past behaviors. I would just say what i will do as your president. If we codify it, that should be the norm for every president after me. Ms. Terkel so that was a yes on obama then . Humanng lets just say, nature is human nature. There has to be a point in American Life where we say enough is enough. Have to be there some things that are more important than money. [applause] now, essentially nothing in American Life is more important than money. If you have human lives on one side and money, which wins . The money. Democracy, money, the money. Families, money, the money. Theres nothing that is beating money in america today, and that has to change. I am running for president because i have seen the future that lies ahead for our kids. How many of you are parents like me . If you are a parent, you realize where we are leaving our kids a far less secure and stable than the lives we have led, and that is because of the numbers. It is just a fact that their future is going to be much more tenuous and uncertain. That is why trump is our president today. And we have to change that. The only way to change that is to have a government that is looking out for people and families instead of giant companies and lobbyists. Ms. Terkel today you tweeted that you would like to see 12 year term limits for members of congress. What do you think that would do . Sorry. G when we when we send people to congress on ou behalfr, they should do their to do work and then come home. They should not go there and think i can turn this into a lifetime appointment, i can squat here and never have to go back to d. C. So much money, the food is so good, etc. That is the wrong attitude. I am happy to say i have seen the secret, the loophole as to how we can pass term limits in congress. Go to congress as your president , i will say hey, you know what would be a great idea . Term limits. Legislators would be more dynamic, more people coming in, be more responsive to the people. He would not have this entrenched culture that builds up. So heres what were going to do. 12 year term limits for every member of congress, but current lawmakers are exempt. Do you think they will pass that the next day . Oh yeah they would. They would be like, we do this for the American People. [laughter] because they would be grandfathered in. They would be like, check this out, i can become one of the last people standing around here. But eventually those people lose or age out, and then we end up with a legislature that is actually responsive to us. O of theis is waysne one of the ways we can change things in washington. It is a zone of agreement where you are not asking people to shoot themselves in the foot to that degree. These people are setting restrictions on the people that will come after them. 12 year term limits, what do you all think . If you cannot get something done in 12 years, you should come home. Ms. Terkel there are some states that have term limits in legislatures. States like virginia. What people say end up happening is you still have an entrenched culture, except it is in the favor of lobbyists, because lawmakers are not there forever but lobbyists can be there as long as they want. So they can manipulate the system because legislatures do not have the history and the knowhow. Mr. Yang just look at what is happening in d. C. Today. Do we really think lobbyists are losing because we have so much experience in the legislature that they are outsmarting the a lobbyists at every turn . Of course not. We got rid of the office of Technology Assessment in 1995, 25 years ago. Congress has literally been getting zero guidance on Technology Issues for 25 years. You know who tells them about Technology Issues . The technology companies. So are you really telling me that if you Keep Congress people around lay will be able to resist lobbying better . It is not born out of experience. Ms. Terkel i want to turn to audience questions, and we have our first one. A retiredg im teacher and i have a question on Voting Rights. I believe that the right to vote is something that should never be taken away. If elected president , will you commit to ensuring full Voting Rights for every american citizen, including those who are currently incarcerated, on parole, or who have prior felony convictions . Mr. Yang first, thank you for teaching our kids. Our educators make the world go round. As a parent of two children myself, i have one autistic and one in Public School. I will 100 commit to full Voting Rights for all americans including those who are incarcerated and have prior felony convictions, with one exception. If they have deprived another american of the right to vote permanently, then they cannot vote themselves. Other than that, even if you are in jail, you should be able to vote. We have to try to help people reintegrate into society. There are any things we can do to make Voting Rights easier. We all know what is happening right now. We are saying to everyone great news, you can vote. Then we put up all these obstacles. So among the things we should do, one, make election day a national holiday. [applause] have automatic Voter Registration when you get your drivers license or any other government documentation. Vote by mail. Just try to make it easier instead of harder. I am not making any news here, but this is something that americans are just waking up to. We should lower the voting age to 16. Hear me out as to why we should do this. The earlier you vote, the more likely you are to vote throughout your life. It would turn every Public School into a political hotbed where they would actually be talking about politics junior and senior lear senior year. And 16, you can pay taxes for work, and youre going to be on the planet longer. The primary counter argument for this is that 16yearolds are not wellinformed enough and their brains are not fully formed enough to be able to vote. To which i would say it is not like we are giving pop quizzes to people who are voting now. You know . We know people are showing up to vote that have not exactly gone through copious white papers on candidate positions. To to me, i think we need trust our young people and empower them and have them feel like they are part of the palooka process from day one of the political process from day one. Another thing that people do not talk enough about, i would support local journalism. It is very fact is hard to vote, particularly on community matters, if you did not have a local paper covering things anymore. Almost 2000 local newspapers have gone out of business. Why . All of their revenue floated up to the internet, and here in america, the market rules all. So if the markets as you no longer have a local paper, you do not have a local paper, and democracy suffers. As your president , i will put billions of dollars in matching grants to help communities transition to sustainable publicprivate models of journalism that could be headquartered in Public Libraries to try and move us to a point where everyone knows what is going on in their community, because you cannot have a functioning democracy otherwise. [applause] ms. Terkel thank you. We have one more question from you, from victoria who is also from des moines. Thank you for being here, mr. Yang. I am a retired civil rights lawyer, so, i think it is good to be following a teacher. Teachers taught me everything. The gerrymandering process is never fair. It is was contrary to our democracy. Gerrymandering is one of the many reasons people feel that their vote does not count. It is a tragedy that should be addressed. What will you do to make our voting districts fairly drawn and not subject to gerrymandering . Mr. Yang thank you, victoria. A civil rights lawyer, that is tremendous. That is incredible work. [applause] this is such a prodemocracy group. [laughter] gerrymandering is a massive problem. And someone put it best, voters should be choosing politicians, not politicians choosing voters. So, i would back up what eric holder and barack obama had been working on in terms of antigerrymandering provisions that are based around objective criteria for these voting district lines, and not some politician coming in and saying if i drawn the line this way, the people that like me will be here and not the people who do not like me. One of the me, clearest examples of the need to safeguard our democracy. As president i would say we should be following these objective criteria instead of letting politicians choosing their voting lines. I also want to talk about what we are all here to medically to reverse, which is the Citizens United ruling. There are a couple ways you can reverse Citizens United. One is a constitutional amendment, very difficult in this day and age, because you need two thirds of states, two thirds of congress. Really hard. We all know what the other path is, right . The Supreme Court overturning itself. Now, that sounds like it might be very, very difficult, but that is actually the easier path here. Now, i have a couple of major reforms for the Supreme Court. One, we need to shift to 18 year terms instead of Lifetime Appointments. If you think about Lifetime Appointments, they make no sense at all anymore. When they wrote the constitution, people did not live as long as they do now. And people stepped down for a variety of reasons. They did not stay on the court until they were at deaths door. Really. If you look at what we are doing now, literally youre looking this is literally how America Works today. They appoint a justice and it is like, ooh, this person is in their 50s, they will be here a while. Everyone is like, oh, ooh. Does it make sense that you will put someone in place who will literally be influencing policy 30 years from now . We should have senior term limits. It would reduce the political firestorm that accompanies these decisions. Because if you lose a president election, you know the other party gets, lets say two justices, and it is not based upon whether or not visionary and is well or unwell. Toht now it will be rational follow Ruth Bader Ginsburg around and scrub doorknobs that she would touch. That would actually be a fairly rational move right now. And that is not the way we should be running our country or our legal system. And number two, after you have 18 year term limits in place, which is bipartisan. Republicans should be on board with this, because it does not hurt either side. Two, this is something that is controversial but is the only way we can overturn Citizens United. There is nothing in the constitution that says the number of Supreme Court justices. It has been higher than nine and lower than on. I believe we should increase the number, with the argument being that this too would decrease the politicization of the court. If you have a higher number then is a justice rotates off it is not as big a deal. One byproduct of increasing the number of justices under my administration is that the composition be such that we will have a realistic chance to overturn Citizens United during my first term. But we would have to get real, because the other side has been playing very, very, very dirty on this. And if you are in a fight, you cannot tie one hand behind your back and complain while they are stabbing you with a knife. You have to get out and say i get it, this is a knife fight. Here is my bazooka. [laughter] and that is how we win. [applause] ms. Terkel ok, we are all set then. Mr. Yang lets win this thing [applause] thank you all. Ms. Terkel thank you all for sticking around. We have one more speaker. Final speaker of the day. Making sure we are already. We are all ready. One second. That is fine. Totally fine. So, i wanted to do now welcome our final speaker, former congressman john delaney. [applause] thank you for being here. We wanted to give you a couple minutes to give opening remarks. Mr. Delaney good evening, everyone. Thank you for having me. Thank you for moderating. I want to thank all these wonderful organizations for organizing and convening such an important discussion about our democracy. Because in reality there is nothing more important for us to be talking about during an election season than how our democracy functions. We spend a lot of time talking about issues and policy, but underpinning progress on any of those issues or policies is actually getting our democracy functioning. So, tomorrow we will be celebrating the extraordinary life and legacy of dr. King. And all of us will probably reflect on how we can better model our lives after the great dr. King. How we can be more decent, how we can have a greater commitment to service, how we can have the kind of determination and fight that he showed throughout his life, and how we can live our lives with the kind of sense of grace that he brought to everything he did. But we also need to remember these words. And one of his most famous expressions is the ark of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice. And i believe this is an absolute matter as part of my faith, but i also believes it relates to our democracy and the progress we can make. But the thing we have to remember is it does not bend on its own. It takes goodminded people serving for the common good. Actuallyocracy that represents the will of the people. And across the last several decades we have seen extraordinary progress as a world. In fact, the facts do favor the optimists. We have lifted billions of human beings out of poverty in the last several decades. We have seen diseases that used to be terminal, now they can be chronic or even keyword. World, seen across the the Life Expectancy has been extended. Things like child labor, even though it is amazing that still happens, is slowly but surely getting eradicated around the world. We can connect with human beings all over the world with devices in our hands and opened up societies. Open up societies. But in the last 10 years we have seen progress start to grind to a halt. We have stopped doing things for the common good. We see it in our citizens, the suffering. 40 of our citizens cannot afford the basic necessities. We are not dealing with the existential threat of Climate Change. Why is this happening . It is because we have allowed our democracy to be broken. I think there are two things behind it. One is a sense of selfishness and politics, where people come to the table as one issue voters. By definition, if you want to do the kind of work that dr. King so advocated for, you could not a one issue voter. You have to serve for the common good. I say this to friends of mine, particularly people of faith like myself. You could not be a one issue voter and try to serve for the common good. But it is also because we have allowed the institutions in our decide our society to be eroded. And that is what you are here to talk about and we are here to talk about. We are here to talk about the corrupting influence of money in politics. The 10 Year Anniversary of the Citizens United decision, something that in my judgment should either be overturned or repealed from a constitutional amendment, or at a minimum we should pass laws in congress limiting it and requiring disclosure. It has been deteriorated because of insidious forces like gerrymandering, which clearly bend the will of government away from the common good of the American People, which is why while i was in congress i led the effort with a bill called open our democracy, which ends gerrymandering by requiring independent commissions to draw districts, makes election day a holiday, and calls for open primaries. It has been deteriorated because of the assault on Voting Rights, which is why we need to pass the Voting RightsAmendment Act right away to ensure that everyone in this country has the sacredof the safe franchise that people have it has been deteriorated because congress does not work anymore. We have allowed the executive branch of this country and Judicial Branch of this country to run our nation, because congress has been so neutered. So, these are the things that are important to getting our democracy working again, so that your elected officials can actually fulfill their most fundamental responsibility, which is to leave the world better than we found it, to Work Together for the common good to make it happen. And we know we can do it because we have done it. But it just involves getting democracy working again, which is why i am so grateful to be here with you tonight and have this important discussion, so thank you. [applause] ms. Terkel you talked about Voting Rights and avoiding rights act. What are some things he would do right away that do not require congressional approval on this . Mr. Delaney well, i think there is a lot of things that can be done with executive authority, including enforcing the laws we have now, supporting change at the state level, using the power of the presidency to actually try to make change occur at the state legislature where a lot of these things are happening. But at the end of the day we have to get out of this mindset that change happens only with executive authority, because as i said in my comments, in reality what has happened to our country because congress is so broken, we run the country to a president , democrats and republicans, doing things with executive authority, and then it being challenged in the courts, and the courts determining whether they have the ability to do that. That is basically how we are functioning as a country right now. And that is so fundamentally flawed, because we really cannot create the kinds of protections around the right to vote unless we actually, in my judgment, pass the Voting RightsAmendment Act. The Supreme Court directed the Congress Actually to do this, and that is what we really have to have to do, because otherwise we are never going to be able to have the kind of Enforcement Mechanisms we need to ensure that people can vote. Obviously if i were making the enroll everyd auto voter as soon as they are of voting age, so that we would not have the ability to limit people. I would not require identifications. I would not do the kind of things happening at a state level. But the only way we can ultimately prevent those things from happening his pass laws in congress. Mr. Robillard when the dodd frank bill was being written, after it was passed and they were writing regulations, president obama ordered all agencies implementing those relations to publicly disclose all the meetings they had with consumer groups, with lobbyists, with financial institutions, anyone trying to influence the law. Would you require your administrations agencies to do the same when having meetings that would influence rules that were being made . Mr. Delaney yes. I just think you have to lean into transparency, because Transparency Creates accountability. And unless we have transparency and people should not be ashamed about who they are meeting with, or they should not meet with them. Seriously, right . If you are not comfortable with who you are meeting with, you probably should not be meeting with them. And if you have that position in the public trust and you are sitting in an office paid for by the taxpayers of the United States, presumably doing the public good, you want to be completely comfortable disclosing that. And so yeah, i would absolutely require that. Ms. Terkel we just heard andrew yang say he thinks there should be 12 year term limits on memories of congress. As a former member of congress, what do you think of this . Mr. Delaney when i ran for the first time i called for 12 year term limits, which means every u. S. Senator would have to terms and every member of the house of representatives would have six. I think democracy would function much better. People argue against it who say we lose institutional knowledge, etc. The issue with it is you have to amend the constitution. So, i think we should be honest with ourselves. When we talk about various ideas to improve our democracy, it is important that we categorize them in things that can be done by executive action, which you should get a commitment for a president to do right away, like put the daca law back into place so dreamers are protected, recognizing that the only way to actually give them permanent protections is pass laws in congress. We have to think of issues as we can do by executive authority, by legislation, and what you have to do with a constitutional amendment. Look at what happened with virginia, the historic ratification of the era, the 38 th state to ratify it. But theres no argument against the era. There is literally no coherent argument i have ever heard against the equal rights amendment. Yet we have been trying to amend the constitution to do it for almost 100 years. So i think we have to be clear eyed about some of the challenges around term limits. Iam all for term limits, but think under the category of being honest with people, which is what i have pledged, i have always pledged it, in particular around the campaign that will take a long time. And there are a lot of things we can do like end gerrymandering, which is not require a constitutional amendment. Pass a law which says super pacs cannot receive any more money than a candidates campaign. Because right now the most anyone can give my campaign is 2800. I do not take any money from corporations or anything. And they have to disclose where they live, what their occupation contribution that to my campaign. People canuper pac, give 200 million and they do not have to say who they are. So we can clearly pass along right now in congress that says if you want to give money to a pac, you can limit it, and you have to disclose who you are. So those of the kind of things we can do right away with congressional action. So i am all for term limits, i ran on them the first time i ran for congress. A lot of people do, because everyone loves the concept, but we have to be clear eyed about the challenges of getting it done. Ms. Terkel a lot of your colleagues when they leave congress become lobbyists. Do you think there should be a lifetime ban on members becoming lobbyists . Mr. Delaney i do not think there should be a lifetime ban, because it should apply to members of congress and their staff. To be honest i have no problem on a lifetime ban for members of congress, but im against a lifetime ban for people who work on capitol hill. Because there are some good minded people who work on capitol hill and then become a lobbyist for an Environmental Advocacy group ms. Terkel or a bank. Mr. Delaney well that is the thing about free speech. You cannot pick and choose what is free speech. I think that is a dangerous place to go. So, for members of congress, fine. Them. Lobbying ban on i have no issue with that. But for people who work on the hill, i think we should have longer coolingoff periods than now, but not a lifetime ban. You can have someone working on the hill when they are 25 years old, they could work for a couple years, and then they want to dedicate the rest of their lives to some of the Amazing Things you are all fighting for, and in that capacity they kinda become lobbyists, and they should not be banned from doing that. [applause] ms. Terkel i want to make sure we have time for the audience question. I first wanted to go to a des moines litigator acting in the des moines legal community. Hello. You mentioned mr. Delaney what was your name . Shayla. You mentioned the power of the courts and how they have an elegant located in fighting our loss. If you are elected president , how do you deal what has happened to the appointments and the courts, now we have interesting political decisions coming out of them . And what do you do to fill the courts, to make sure you have reasonable diversity and someone on the bench who will protect not only our civil rights, our reproductive rights, but also just our human rights as cases come before them . Mr. Delaney it is a really important question. What i meant by this notion that the executive and the courts really are deciding policy in this country, let me give you an example of that. In 1972 it was, i think we passed the Clean Air Act, which was a remarkable piece of environmental legislation. And president obama, decades later, wanted to make progress on Climate Change. Of course. And he tried to do it legislatively. He was not able to do it. So he used executive authority to interpret the Clean Air Act to effectively cover Greenhouse Gases, which were not there were actively which were not directly addressed by it. He was sued and it went to the Supreme Court. And the notion that Public Policy around Climate Change is being decided by the Supreme Court, i am sure i have not talked to any of the justices about this, but i am sure if you ask them if they think they should be deciding whether co2 or Greenhouse Gases are actually covered by the 1972 law, the Clean Air Act, they would say absolutely not. That is the job of the legislative branch of the country to actually pass laws and be engaged in policymaking. So that is what i mean when i say that congress is broken and we are kind of being run by either the executive branch or the courts. And i think we are all paying the price. So i would support judges and put forth judges that are willing and have a demonstrated track record of putting people first, ahead of special interests and corporations. I would only nominate a justice who would want to protect and have a demonstrated track record of protecting important progress that we have made as a society. And you mentioned some of them. Important progress we have made around womens reproductive freedom. Important progress we have made around equality. So, as president , looking at what this president has done in packing the court with a combination of judges that do not represent that worldview, and in many cases, are completely inexperienced because that is another thing that has actually happened. The relative experience of judges who are being put on the bench for Lifetime Appointments is shockingly low. And it is a national tragedy. So what i would do is i would put forth and appoint and nominate judges who have a demonstrated track record, have real experience, and who, in my judgment, are going to fight for people over special interests, and who are going to protect progress we have made as a society. So that would be the standard that i would apply. Thank you. [applause] now i wanted to turn to ms. Howard, a mother of two who lost when she was 16 years old. She continues to share their stories to help save lives. Good evening, congressman. 17, it marked 20 years since i lost my older sister, she was only 16. At that time, i was only 11. Fastforward, it has been seven years since losing my younger brother, he was only 20 both due to gun violence, one decade apart. We know that democracy is imperfect, but our government continues to marginalize honorable communities vulnerable communities and the same communities are the ones affected most by these policies. And the policies that are decided increasingly by a small segment of the population that does not even represent our community. [sighs] andee tragedies of death injury. I have personally seen treasuries of death and injury myself, with my own eyes due to gun violence, which every has spoken of, but we are still in crisis every day. How do you ensure that special interest money such as money from the nra that is stopping actions and allowing the cycle of violence to continue in our communities, is removed from decisionmaking so that the issues threatening the safety of our citizens, your citizens, are properly addressed, and peace and hope is restored . [applause] you for sharing that this evening. More important, thank you for the courage you have obviously shown in taking this unspeakable personal tragedy that it is hard for any of us to really comprehend unless we have walked in your shoes, for us to even understand the kind of internal strength and commitment it takes for someone like you to step forward and be an advocate and share your stories. Because that is what is actually making a difference and will continue to make a difference. Issue, the center of your question, was about the tragedy, the unspeakable tragedy of gun violence in this country. Something that is so shocking that if you go anywhere in the world, they cant even begin to comprehend how we have let this happen to our nation. The scar of this and the effect it has had on so many lives, who have been directly, like you have and your family, affected by it and suffered that personal loss. But also the shock it has to so many families around this country. Iremember about six month ago was in New Hampshire and i was about to go on stage and i was talking to a Police Officer and i was asking what was going on in the community. He is stationed at an Elementary School every morning. He said, you know, the number one item in schools this year for these kids, at an Elementary School, was not a new toy or a new era of sneakers, it was kevlar, bulletproof backpacks. That was the item that moms and dads sitting at their Kitchen Table thought was the most important thing for their child to have going to school. And the thought of that blows your mind, to think about how many people have been affected by what we have allowed to happen in our country. And there is no issue in this country, there is no issue in this country that tragically demonstrates as well as this issue, how the will of the American People has been bent away from the common good because of money. Because of money in politics. Money that encourages legislators to lie to keep getting the money, and encourages them to vote in a way that is not in the best interests of their constituents. Youssue after issue, and look at things like universal background checks, 97 of the American People support universal background checks. You can barely find an issue that 97 of the American People support, and yet on this issue, we have that kind of support, and yet nothing happens. The good news is, we are making progress. Last year for the first time, groups that advocate for common sense gun safety legislation like universal background checks , like limitations on highpowered military style assault weapons, things like red flag laws, things i fully support, and the overwhelming majority of the country supports, for the first time groups that were supporting elected officials actually did nra. On the ground than the and thefirst time thing about this issue, and we cant wait this long, but the thing about this issue is young people are so overwhelmingly supportive of progress on this issue, that it is inevitable we will make progress. But we cannot wait for that to happen. But it should give us a sense of optimism. Because when the generation of people i have four daughters and my youngest daughter is 12 you take 12yearolds to 30 or 35yearold, they are so overwhelming in support of gun safety legislation that it is inevitable that we will get it. The question is how do we get it now . At the end of the day, it is by winning elections. We have to win at the ballot box on this issue. We cant be afraid to run on this issue. We cant run away from this issue. We have to take the case to the American People, talk openly about what we want to do and why we want to do it, and we have to share stories like you shared with us today. Personal stories about how it affects individuals, their families, their communities, and what we are trying to do to make a difference. But this is a battle we will win all of the issues we just talked about, whether it be Voting Rights, whether it be overturning Citizens United, whether it be broader campaignfinance reform, all of these issues affect this issue. Gerrymandering. You know, the relationship between money in politics and gerrymandering, in my opinion, has been particularly negative for this issue. So many congressional districts in this country arent safe because of gerrymandering. 85 of the districts will vote republican or democrat and it almost doesnt matter who is on because they have been gerrymandered to create that dynamic. In those districts, if they are republican, the primary is really where the election is determined. And we have very low turnout in primaries. Which is unfortunate and we have to change that, but in a low turnout primary, where there is no general election threat, money can play a huge factor in a primary could that is what has happened. Gerrymandering on this issue in particular given the nra a Playing Field in their favor. But it is starting to change. Change, anding to it is going to change because of people stepping forward sharing their stories, having the courage to do it. The story you told moves minds and hearts more than anything an elected official can tell us. More than anything any elected official can tell you. Ever live coverage of the president ial candidates and iowa continues today. Senator elizabeth warren, followed by senator Bernie Sanders at 5 30 p. M. In des moines. 2020,our Live Campaign unfiltered coverage of the Campaign Candidates on cspan, online at cspan. Org, or listen wherever you are on the free cspan radio app. For the third time in history, a president is on trial in the u. S. Senate. Watch live tuesday as the Senate Begins the trial with a vote on rules. The Senate Impeachment trial of president trump, live, unfiltered coverage on cspan2, on demand at cspan. Org imp eachment, or this and the free cspan radio app. Joins theority leader leader of the Supreme Court rooting dish will link in the supreme united case court ruling in the Citizens United case. The mayor will be here. Shes tied up right now, but shell be here in just a minute, maybe 1015 minutes, but shell be here