clear politics shows senator sanders leading the democratic field in iowa. cortez leads off the event. ♪ [cheers and applause] rep. ocasio-cortez: hello, iowa! [cheers and applause] rep. ocasio-cortez: my glasses are bouncing around. hello, hello how are you? are we ready to caucus our hearts out? nine days. nine days. nine days left. that we have got here in this state to kick off one of the most consequential election years that we have had in recent history. i'm so excited to be here and share in this moment with you all, shoulder to shoulder, because this is not just a moment, it is a movement. it is a true movement. [cheers and applause] rep. ocasio-cortez: it is a movement for social, economic, and racial justice. [cheers and applause] rep. ocasio-cortez: it is a movement for true solidarity in the united states of america. [cheers and applause] rep. ocasio-cortez: and it is a movement to transform our public policy so that the united states can finally, finally advance ideals and embody an advanced 21st century, establishing 21st century human rights. that is really what this campaign is all about. that is why i am here. i am here because 10% better is not going to cut it for most americans. it is not going to cut it. people are saying, wages are up. and we are looking at it and it is like 3%. what is 3% of like $8 bucks an hour? truly. what is 3% better on an $8,000 deductible? what is 3% better when people are being incarcerated for decades? what is 3% better when people are in tens of thousands, sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars in student loan debt? what is 3% better? what is 3% better when children are being incarcerated at our border? we don't need 3% better. we don't need 10% better. we need fundamental change in the united states of america. [cheers and applause] rep. ocasio-cortez: that is why i'm here. that's why i'm here. but what it is going to take is for us to also change our politics as well. it is going to require us to transform and grow as individuals. it is going to take fighting for someone we don't know. that is what it is going to take. applause] rep. ocasio-cortez: i'm proud to be a part of this movement because we need a true, true green new deal in this country. [cheers and applause] rep. ocasio-cortez: and senator sanders has the largest plan in the field to address the climate crisis. the largest. [cheers and applause] rep. ocasio-cortez: i'm here because we need true immigration justice in the united states of america. [cheers and applause] rep. ocasio-cortez: and i am not here to reform some of these systems when we talk about immigration, i am here because senator sanders has committed to breaking up i.c.e. and c.b.p. that's why i'm here. [cheers and applause] rep. ocasio-cortez: because i'm sorry, once you are at the point of caging children and separating families, there is no going back from that. we need a wholesale, re-imagination of our immigration system that actually honors human rights and treats every person as a human being and with the dignity that every person deserves from the right of their birth. [cheers and applause] rep. ocasio-cortez: i'm here because every person in this country deserves to be paid a living wage. that's why i'm here. i'm here because earlier today, we were in cedar falls and a woman stood up and told me that her wages and her paycheck is being garnished due to her medical bills. no, it's not right. but unfortunately, it is more normal than we would like to admit in this country. it is more normal for people to live in fear whether it is economic fear, whether it is fear of -- due to your documentation and immigration status, it is fear due to perhaps this system of mass incarceration, fear of student loan debt, fear of medical debt. we should not live in fear. especially in one of the most prosperous and powerful countries in human history. we should not be living in fear. we should be coming together in collaborative movement work to establish a more advanced nation. [applause] but here's the deal. that change cannot happen from the top-down. it cannot. fundamentally, that change cannot and will not come from the powerful. it cannot. because the reason it will not come from the top down is because those policies are about a fundamental change in who this country centers and who has the reins. that is a huge and a enormous shift. what these policies are about are about centering working people and centering the marginalized, instead of centering profit and centering the powerful. [cheers and applause] rep. ocasio-cortez: and so if that is the shift, then it is up to us to make that shift. to organize that shift. when i was running for office, and i see it to this day, people who want to run for office, especially for congress, they say, if you can't call your friends and family and raise 300k off them in the first week, you may as well not try. and it is said earnestly and it is said honestly, and it is just said like, that's the way it is. um, you know what else is just the way it is? people say, oh, people are in $50,000 loan debt, that's the way it is. people's families are being separated and people are unjustly deported, living in fear, that's just the way it is. people are in tens of thousands of medical debt. or you have an insurance plan that is so expensive, it makes it hard for you to go to the doctor in the first place, that's the way it is. we can't accept "just the way it is" anymore. we can't. and we will not. [cheers and applause] and we will not. rep. ocasio-cortez: we won't, and we can't. one of the reasons that this weekend was important for us to come together is because this is our final stretch. we need to knock on doors. we need to call on our friends and family. if you are not able to caucus due to your age or your status, there is still something we can give. we can babysit our neighbors' kids while they go out to caucus. we can cook people a hot meal and bring it to those caucuses to help people in that long day. that is what community is all about. and at its best, that is what movement and organizing is all about. because it lasts beyond an election cycle. that is what is so important for us to understand. this organizing, one way is elections, but organizing is also unionizing your workplace. [cheers and applause] rep. ocasio-cortez: organizing is about tipping people off if you start to see that i.c.e. and c.b.p. are in communities, to keep people safe. organizing is making sure and counseling each other to make sure they make educated college decisions, to try to reduce that debt in the short-term. all of that is organizing. and this is going to require sustained organizing. electorally and beyond. because that is what holding power really is. when we talk about mass movements and the will of the people and public power. but that is what we are trying to fight for, true democracy. for so long, it has been slipping away. true democracy, slipping away because it has been purchased by the powerful. let me have the opportunity now to not only push back on the creeping authoritarianism in the white house, but to replace it with something new and better. [applause] rep. ocasio-cortez: and that is at the core. and that is what we have to do. we have to make sure we are fighting for someone we don't know. and go beyond the politics of "what is in it for me," and go towards the politics of "how is this helping my neighbor?" and when we do that, when we transcend that and go beyond that, we can get to a better place, we will get to a better place. all of it is there. all of it is technologically possible. the question has always been about political will. always. you know, it is funny, people ask, how are you going to pay for it? while authorizing a space force. [laughter] they will say, "how are you going to pay for it?" while authorizing massive infrastructure for gas pipelines across the united states, but they will ask, "how will you pay for public colleges and all these other things?" but really, the better question is, how do we organize for it? how do we create the political will? applause] rep. ocasio-cortez: and the way we create the political will is with you and each and everyone of us. when we introduce accountability back to our democracy, that is what this is truly all about. so this movement-building is really about creating bonds that are much deeper, and extend much further than just the cycle. but what they are about are our actual commitment to one another. are we committed? are we committed to the most vulnerable in our society? because all of us are so close to being most vulnerable. i live in new york city, the rates of people that are experiencing homelessness are at some of the highest rates since the great depression. yet one in every four luxury apartments in new york city goes unsold. there are about three empty apartments for every one person experiencing homelessness in new york city. that juxtaposition of some of the largest excess next to some of the worst depravity is not an accident. it is not an accident. >> [shouting]: that's not right! rep. ocasio-cortez: it is not right. and we have to stop acting like it is an accident. because it's not. it is systemic. it is the natural outcome of our system. and in order for us to have to establish a society that truly works for all of us, we have to change our system. we have no choice. [cheers and applause] rep. ocasio-cortez: and i'm just thrilled to do that because what is exciting about that is that it is not boring public policy. it is some of the most exciting and imaginative public policy. we are being challenged to actually reimagine our future and our present. that is what we are being challenged to do. and that is a scary thing. because tinkering around the edges sometimes feels like the most politically feasible thing to do. but people will continue to suffer if we don't radically reimagine our system. and not only that, but it is popular. it is popular. [cheers and applause] rep. ocasio-cortez: it is popular. and there is a lot of people that want to say that all of these proposals are fringe and radical and divisive. but really, they are quite unifying. they are quite unifying. and more important than that, they are just. and they are the right thing to do. [cheers and applause] rep. ocasio-cortez: i'm not going to lie to you. it is going to be hard. i'm not going to lie to you. being part of this campaign is signing up for the difficult task. it is not easy, what we are working and coming together to do. but i think it is the right thing to do. i was telling the story earlier today in cedar falls about how i got sworn in on january 3 of last year. it has just been one year that i have served in office. [cheers and applause] rep. ocasio-cortez: thank you. and in the transition between the general election and actually getting sworn in, you are not allowed to be paid, but also, you are supposed to kind of get a second apartment. and the right wing was, like, making fun of me for not being able to afford a second home. i don't know why that was embarrassing. i mean, it's not, or it was supposed to be, but whatever. so i spent the first few months in office sleeping on an air mattress. i would sleep on an air mattress and then i would go walk to work. and it was a really bizarre experience, because i would go into work and hear people make arguments as to why we can't make pharmaceuticals more affordable, and make arguments as to why a living wage is not doable, or make an argument as to why single-payer health care is going too far. and basically making the argument as to why families like mine didn't matter. and that was really hard. but what we can do is transform that. and it is not just that we can transform it, it is that we are transforming it. [cheers and applause] rep. ocasio-cortez: it is transforming. and that is part of our responsibility. this calls on each and every one of us to step up in our lives. maybe tonight is a call for you to join your pta or to organize your community, or to be a precinct captain. but this requires all of us to join in community. because all too often, elections happen and we forget them. but this work of organizing is so much deeper. and senator sanders has understood that for his entire life. and that is why i'm happy to be here, shoulder to shoulder with you all, and shoulder to shoulder with him. we have nine days left. [cheers and applause] we've got nine days left, so on that day, on caucus day, i want us to all bring our friends, bring our family, celebrate democracy, and really usher in an era of 21st-century social economic and human rights. thank you all very much. and with that, i would like to introduce -- [cheers and applause] rep. ocasio-cortez: our senator, is he ready? i kind of did that a little abruptly. so, he may be walking over. [laughter] [shouting]: we love you! rep. ocasio-cortez: thank you. thank you. thank you. thank you all so much. i so appreciate that. he's coming around. thank you also much. thank you. [cheers and applause] rep. ocasio-cortez: senator bernie sanders! [cheers and applause] ♪ >> ♪ power to the people power to the people power to the people ♪ sen. sanders: thank you, ames. [cheers and applause] sen. sanders: let me thank all of you who have squeezed into this. we won't tell the fire marshal, not a word. [laughter] sen. sanders: and i want to thank the many hundreds of people who are in the overflow as well. this is a great turnout. thank you all. [cheers and applause] sen. sanders: and let me thank mississippi jank for his music -- mississippi jake for his music tonight. let me thank portugal, the man. [cheers and applause] sen. sanders: let me thank my dear friend, michael moore. [cheers and applause] sen. sanders: you know, michael has been in the vanguard of filmmaking in america and he has gone into areas where corporate media does not go. he has taken on special interests, he has spoken truth to power. and michael, thank you so much for all the work you have done over the years. [cheers and applause] sen. sanders: and let me thank congresswoman alexandria ocasio-cortez. [cheers and applause] sen. sanders: you know, i have been in congress for a few years. [laughter] sen. sanders: and i honestly cannot recall any single first-term member of congress having as much impact on our country as alexandria has. [cheers and applause] sen. sanders: so i thank her for her courage in standing up for working people. i thank her for her being an inspiration to young people and all over the country. so -- and she is playing a great role in our campaign, and we are very, very grateful. thank you so much, alexandria. [cheers and applause] sen. sanders: i am really delighted to be here tonight. you don't know how delighted i am, because last night i didn't know that i would be here. all of you, i think, know, i am a united states senator from vermont. let's hear it for vermont, come on. [cheers and applause] sen. sanders: and i have a constitutional responsibility to be a juror in the impeachment trial of donald trump. [cheers and applause] sen. sanders: that is my responsibility, and that is what i will do. we don't know what kind of -- we are not told every day with the schedule may or may not be. in fact, we were lucky that the trial adjourned this afternoon at around 12:30, giving me the opportunity to get to marshalltown and then coming here this evening. [cheers and applause] sen. sanders: but, i was our schedule, needless to say, has been significantly changed. i will be back in washington on monday, tuesday, wednesday. don't know what time the senate will adjourn. so we are very dependent upon our surrogates, like michael in alexandria, and many other great surrogates to kind of carry the bowl for us over the finish line. we are going to try to get back in the next 10 days as often as we can. i expect i will be back here next weekend, if we can get back here in the night during the week, we will do that. tomorrow, we will be in ankeny, perry, fort dodge, sioux city. [cheers and applause] sen. sanders: we are going to do our best in the limited amount of time that we have, and our surrogates and all of you will do the rest. let me speak a little bit about what this campaign is about and why it is a unique campaign. what we want to accomplish in this campaign are two fundamental goals. the first is pretty obvious. and that is we will defeat the most dangerous president in the modern history of this country. [cheers and applause] sen. sanders: now, in iowa and across this country, people have different political views, and i am more than aware that not everybody agrees with everything that i say. i got that. but i think what we can agree on is that in our great country, we should not have a president who is a pathological liar. [cheers and applause] sen. sanders: we should not have a president who is running a corrupt administration. [cheers and applause] sen. sanders: we should not have a president who is a racist, a sexist, a homophobe, a xenophobe, and a religious bigot. [cheers and applause] sen. sanders: and we can have our differences of opinion on the important issues. that is called democracy. but we do not need somebody like donald trump in the white house who forces parents to turn off the tv when the kids are in the room. who is an embarrassment to us all over the world. so goal number one is to make sure that together, we defeat donald trump. [cheers and applause] sen. sanders: now in that context, there is a lot of discussion, and i think you have heard it, about electability, which is a fair question. which candidate is best able to defeat donald trump? let me submit to you why i believe that our campaign is the campaign most likely to defeat donald trump. why is that? to defeat trump, we are going to need, by far, the largest voter turnout in american history. that's a fact. [cheers and applause] sen. sanders: and i do not believe, i simply do not believe that the same old, same old politics is going to generate the excitement to create that turnout. [cheers and applause] sen. sanders: you can't generate excitement when you are busy going to new york, raising large sums of money for millionaires and billionaires. people want change. [cheers and applause] sen. sanders: and i think that what our campaign is about is the ability to speak to working people, many of them having been calm disillusioned with status quo politics. people who work longer hours for low wages, are tired of the political establishment, and want a government that stands up for them and not just the 1%. we can talk to those people. [cheers and applause] sen. sanders: and we can do something which is enormously important, and that is bring young people into the political process in a way that we have never seen in this country. [cheers and applause] sen. sanders: the very, very good news, something that all of us should be proud of, is that the younger generation today is, in my view, the most progressive, young generation in the history of this country. [cheers and applause] sen. sanders: and for every, i believe, that for every three young people who vote, two out of those three will vote progressive. that is the good news. that is the good news. the not so good news is that same generation historically has not voted in very large numbers. so tonight, what i am saying to that generation, if you are tired of student debt, if you are sick and tired and scared about climate change, if you are disgusted with racism and sexism and homophobia and xenophobia, all right, if you believe that health care is a human right -- [cheers and applause] sen. sanders: you can't sit it out. you can't complain. you have to be involved. and if young people were to vote in iowa and in this national election at the same rate as older people, not only would be beat trump, we lay the round -- groundwork for transforming this country. [cheers and applause] sen. sanders: in terms of electability, which is a fair question, we need a campaign which has energy, which has excitement, which has a strong grassroots movement, which is able to raise money from working families to campaign and not just billionaires and wall street executives. [cheers and applause] sen. sanders: just in the last month alone here in iowa, and the weather has been pretty cold, our volunteers have knocked on hundreds of thousands of doors. [cheers and applause] sen. sanders: nationally, we have received more campaign contributions from more people , averaging all of $18.50, than any candidate in the history of the united states of america. [cheers and applause] sen. sanders: so the way you defeat trump is by putting together a strong grassroots multigenerational, multiracial, working-class movement, and that is exactly what we are doing. [cheers and applause] [crowd chanting "bernie!"] but what we are alexandria was talking about, is we are not just fighting to win an election, we are fighting to build a movement. [cheers and applause] sen. sanders: and the reason that we are doing that is you know and i know that if you look at american history, you understand that real change never, ever takes place from the top down. it is always from the bottom up. [cheers and applause] sen. sanders: that is the history of the labor movement in this country. it is the history of the women's movement in this country. it is the history of the gay movement in this country. it is the history of the civil rights movement in this country. it is the history of the environmental movement in this country. [cheers and applause] sen. sanders: what real change, what real change is always about, it is not some president signing something, not congress passing legislation, that is usually the result of grassroots pressure. so what we are trying to do in this campaign is create a process in which millions of americans, from coast-to-coast, are going to stand up and look around them and say you know what, in this great country, we need a government, we need an economy that works for all of us, not just wealthy campaign contributors. [cheers and applause] sen. sanders: and the message of our campaign when we talk about us, not me, is that we uniquely, i think, understand -- and i am the only candidate who will tell you this -- that no president, not bernie sanders or anybody else, can do it alone. that is not the way it works. i want you to think for a moment about the power structure of america. think about wall street, where six banks own assets of more than $10 trillion. [crowd booing] sen. sanders: and think about the pharmaceutical industry that charges us the highest prices in the world while they make tens of billions of dollars in profit. [crowd booing] sen. sanders: think about the insurance industry, which will spend zillions of dollars to prevent us from moving to medicare for all. think about the fossil fuel industry, which is prepared to destroy the planet for their short-term profit. think about the military industrial complex. [crowd booing] sen. sanders: think about the prison industrial complex. [crowd booing] sen. sanders: think about the 1% who spend their lives trying to pay lower and lower taxes. [crowd booing] sen. sanders: what this campaign is about, unashamedly, we are taking them on! [cheers and applause] sen. sanders: we are telling them that we will not allow this country to become an oligarchy. that we want a nation that works for all of us, not just the few. [cheers and applause] sen. sanders: so what this campaign is about, it is not just winning here in iowa which we have got to do, it is not just winning the democratic nomination, not just beating trump, it is the day after the inauguration. all of us together rolling up our sleeves, standing up, and fighting to create the kind of nation that you and i know we can become. [cheers and applause] sen. sanders: so what does that mean in practical terms? what does it mean? it means we have an agenda that works for working people who, for so many years, have been ignored. today, after 45 years of huge increases and work productivity, explosions, and technology, the average american worker is not making a nickel more in real inflation account for dollars than he or she did 45 years ago. almost all of the new income and wealth goes to the top 1%. today you got three people on top earning -- owning more wealth than the bottom half of american society. you got that? three people, 160 million people. you got the top -- you got 49% of all new income, think about this, in iowa, you have people working for $10, $12, $13 an hour. working two or three jobs. 49% of all new income goes to the top 1%. half of our people today, trump talks about the great economy, half of our people today are living and working paycheck-to-paycheck. paycheck-to-paycheck. half of our people. you have got an economy today that is working really, really well for the 1%. not so well for the majority of americans. what do we have to do? what do we have to do to create an economy and a nation that works for all? well, first of all, in america, if you work 40 hours a week, you should not live in poverty. we are going to raise that minimum wage to at least $15 an hour. [cheers and applause] sen. sanders: if you are a woman, you should not make $.79 on the dollar compared to men. [cheers and applause] sen. sanders: if you are a worker, you should have it easy -- find it easier to become a member of a trade union. [cheers and applause] sen. sanders: and at a time when our infrastructure, our roads, our bridges, our water systems wastewater plants are crumbling, we can create millions of good paying jobs, good paying union jobs, by rebuilding our infrastructure. [cheers and applause] sen. sanders: if we talk about the needs of working families, we have got to talk about education. we will end the dysfunctional childcare system, which, for so many families, is unaffordable without the quality that we need. [cheers and applause] sen. sanders: we believe that every family in america is entitled to quality, affordable childcare. we will fight and pass universal childcare in america. [cheers and applause] sen. sanders: we will substantially increase funding for low-income title i schools throughout this country. [cheers and applause] sen. sanders: and i will tell you what else. when you rethink priorities in america, let us understand that education has got to be at the top of the list, and that means we respect the educators, the teachers. [cheers and applause] sen. sanders: and that means i want on college campuses and iowa state and all over this country young people to say, you know what? i'm so excited, i'm going to out and become a teacher. what's more important than that? [cheers and applause] sen. sanders: and those teachers deserve a salary commensurate with the importance of their work, at least $60,000 a year. [cheers and applause] sen. sanders: and when we talk about education, this is not radical stuff. when we talk about education, i want every kid in america to understand that if he or she takes their schoolwork seriously, that no matter what their income of their family is, they will be able to get a higher education, because we are going to make public colleges and universities and trade schools tuition-free. [cheers and applause] sen. sanders: and i will tell you what else we are going to do. and this is not radical stuff. 11 years ago, some of you remember that congress, against my vote, voted to bail out of the crooks on wall street. you all remember that? [crowd booing] sen. sanders: two years ago, trump and his friends gave a trillion dollars in tax breaks to large private corporations and the richest 1%. well, you know what? if america can give huge tax breaks to the rich and bailout out crooks, we can cancel all bail out crooks, we can cancel all student debt in america. [cheers and applause] sen. sanders: with a modest tax on wall street speculation. [cheers and applause] sen. sanders: i will tell you something else. in terms of what an agenda for working people means. it means that we will end the international embarrassment of being the only major country on earth not to guarantee health care to all as a human right. [cheers and applause] sen. sanders: the current system we have is not only dysfunctional, it is not only wasteful, it is incredibly cruel. please hear this. today, we spend twice as much money per person on health care as do the people of any other country on earth. you got that? you would expect that if you are spending twice as much as the canadians or the europeans, we are going to have an extraordinary system. and yet, despite spending $11,000 for every man, woman, and child, we have 87 million americans today who are uninsured or underinsured. we have 30,000 people a year who die because they have not gotten to the doctor when they should , because they were uninsured. we have 500,000 people a year going bankrupt because of medically-related debt. i want you to think about that. i want you to think about somebody who walks into a doctor's office and is diagnosed with cancer. and all that that person is thinking about -- what kind of treatment i will get, what doctor i will get, what hospital do i go to -- all the things you have to think about when you are fighting for your life. in this country uniquely, you also have to be worried that your family is going to go bankrupt, because you were diagnosed with cancer. that is not acceptable in this country. we are going to end that. [cheers and applause] sen. sanders: the function of a rational and humane health care system is to guarantee health care to all people in a cost-effective way. the function of our current system, however, is simply to make huge profits for the drug companies and the insurance companies. , who made $100 billion dollars in profit last year while people die, because they don't get to a doctor on time. where people are paying in this country -- they want to talk about vulgarity, take a hard look at the pharmaceutical industry. if there ever was a bunch of crooks in this country, they are sitting as ceo's of the drug companies. they are charging us, in some cases, 10 times more for the same exact medicine you can buy in canada or in europe. all right? so tonight, we tell the drug companies that you will, under our administration, stop ripping off the american people. we are not going to pay the highest prices in the world. [cheers and applause] sen. sanders: the medicare for all is building on a strong medicare system, but expanding that system. because we believe that when you talk about health care, it has got to be comprehensive coverage. what does comprehensive coverage mean? it means dental care. it means hearing aids. it means eyeglasses, which are not covered today by medicare, so we're going to expand medicare. and it also means covering home health care. [cheers and applause] sen. sanders: under our medicare for all program, everybody goes to any doctor you want, you go to the hospital you want, go to the same clinic you want, and you will end up paying substantially less than we are currently paying. because we are going to eliminate the profiteering of the drug companies and insurance the insurance companies. [cheers and applause] sen. sanders: and we are going to end an insane, wasteful system, where there are huge administrative costs, hundreds of billions of dollars, in order to administer thousands of separate plans. under our plan, you get a card, you go to any doctor you want, any hospital you want, you don't take out your wallet, you don't take out your credit card, and that's it. and we fund it by imposing a 4% tax on workers, exempting the first $29,000. that means if you are family is making $1 million, 4% of $31,000 is $1200 a year for comprehensive health care. pretty good deal. [cheers and applause] sen. sanders: now, donald trump is -- i don't want to get into donald trump too much. [laughter] sen. sanders: he is doing many bad things for our country. but there is one thing he's doing, which is not only bad for our country, but it is very bad for the world. and that is in terms of climate change, he is rejecting science. we cannot have a government that rejects science. [cheers and applause] sen. sanders: and what the scientists are telling us, and this is scary stuff, is they are telling us they have underestimated the severity and the speed in which climate change is wreaking havoc on our country in the world. polar ice caps are melting at a faster rate than they had anticipated. the ocean is warming at a faster rate, meaning rising sea levels which will inundate major cities , in america and countries around the world in the coming years. they have underestimated the degree to which drought will be taking place, which will impact farmers in iowa, who will have a shorter growing season, and the quality of the food they produce will be deteriorating. they have underestimated the kinds of extreme weather disturbances that we are seeing in terms of torrential rainfall and flooding. they have underestimated the kinds of forest fires and wildfires that we will be seeing. all of you are aware that australia, a beautiful country, is now burning. i was in paradise, california last year, and i saw what a wildfire did to that beautiful town. killed 86 people. what the united nations tells us, if present conditions trends continue, there will be tens of millions of climate refugees, people forced to leave their communities, because there is no drinking water and no land to grow their crops. when millions of people start migrating, you have international tensions. i have been criticized for bringing forward the most sweeping comprehensive climate change proposal that any candidate for federal office has ever brought forth. [cheers and applause] sen. sanders: but i am not going to apologize to anybody for listening to the scientists. i'm not going to apologize to anybody to do everything that we possibly can to make sure that the planet that we leave our kids and grandchildren is a planet that is healthy and is habitable. [cheers and applause] sen. sanders: so i am very proud that we have received the support of the sunrise movement. [cheers and applause] sen. sanders: as we go forward to implement a green new deal, which will end our dependence on fossil fuel and transform our energy system into sustainable energies, like wind, solar, geothermal, and energy efficiency. this is an issue of enormous consequence. and what makes this issue even more complicated is it is not just an american issue. it is a global issue. we can do everything right tomorrow, and the problem would not be significantly lessened. so as your president, i will not do what trump does and deny the reality. what i will do is reach out to people all over the world, in china, russia, india, pakistan, brazil, all over the world, and make it clear that we are in this together as a planet. [cheering and applause] sen. sanders: and here is my dream. it may be a radical, unreachable that, but it is my dream, in this time, when the whole globe, the whole planet faces this existential threat, maybe, just maybe, instead of spending $1.8 trillion every year on weapons of destruction, maybe we other,d to kill each maybe we can pool our resources, come together, and face our common enemy, which is climate change. [cheering and applause] [chanting "bernie!"] sen. sanders: think of, in america, where we have leadership which is not denying science, not denying the great global threat that we face, but that america with our people, scientists, our engineers, reaching out to countries all over the world to come together in unity to fight this very , very dangerous situation. that is a new america. now, when we talk about progressive change and creating an economy and government that works for all, we cannot ignore the fact that today, we have a broken and racist criminal justice system. cannot ignore that. [applause] sen. sanders: we cannot ignore that we have more people in jail in the united states than china does. communist, authoritarian country, four times our size. we have more people in jail. than china does. we spend $80 billion every year locking up fellow americans. what we're going to do is begin to invest in our young people, in jobs and education, not more jails and incarceration. [cheering and applause] sen. sanders: today in america, some 400,000 people are in jail. many of you do not know this. 400,000 people in jail out of 2 million. you kno they have not been convicted of anything. why are they in jail? they are in jail because they cannot afford the $500,000 they need for bail. we will end cash bail in this country. [cheering and applause] sen. sanders: we are going to end private prisons and detention centers in america. [cheering and applause] sen. sanders: and i will tell you what else we are going to end. we will end the so-called war on drugs. [cheering and applause] sen. sanders: we are going to legalize marijuana in every state in this country. [cheering and applause] sen. sanders: we are going to expunge the records of those arrested for possession of marijuana. [cheering and applause] sen. sanders: and when we talk about another system in america that needs fundamental change, it is a very broken and racist immigration system. [applause] sen. sanders: so, in our first day in office, we will issue an executive order, which repeals all of trump's racist executive orders on immigration. [applause] [cheers and applause] sen. sanders: and on our first day in office, we will re-establish the legal status of the 1.8 million young people eligible for the daca program. [cheers and applause] and on our first day in office, we will fundamentally change our border policies, so that no federal agent will ever be snatching a baby from the arms of her mother. [cheering and applause] sen. sanders: when we talk about issues that impact everybody in this country, no matter what your politics may be, we are all sick and tired every time we turn on the tv and hear about another mass shooting. so let me simply say this. under our administration, gun policy will be determined by the american people, not the nra. [cheers and applause] sen. sanders: we are talking about universal and expanded background checks. we are talking about ending the gun show loophole. ending the so-called strawman provision. and, by the way, there is now a growing consensus in america for something that i have supported for decades, and that is ending the sale and distribution of assault weapons in america. [cheering and applause] sen. sanders: now, i am a united states senator, and i am often on the floor listening to my republican colleagues give speeches. not the most pleasant thing in the world. [laughter] sen. sanders: that is what i do. very often, when you listen to conservative republicans, they say, "we believe in small government. we believe in getting the government off the backs of the american. do what you want and get the government off your back." i say to those hypocrites, if you believe in getting the government off the backs of the american people, understand that it is women who will control their own bodies in this country, not politicians. [cheering and applause] sen. sanders: so my promise to , my promise to you is, instead of trying to cut funding for planned parenthood, we will expand funding for planned parenthood. [cheers and applause] sen. sanders: we will codify roe v. wade. [cheers and applause] sen. sanders: and i will never nominate anybody to the supreme court, or any federal court, who is not 100% in support of a woman's right to control her own body. [cheering and applause] sen. sanders: so, today, we find ourselves 10 days before the iowa caucus. nine days. all right. [laughter] sen. sanders: this is, as i think most americans appreciate, the most consequential election in the modern history of this country. >> yes it is! sen. sanders: and, as fate would have it, iowa is the first state to be voting in this 2020 election process. you go first. and i have got to tell you, because i have been all over this state, we have held, i think, over 100 events in every corner of this state. i have been deeply impressed about how seriously the people of iowa accept that responsibility. i am sure there are people here tonight, as there are in every meeting i hold, who go to hear other candidates. that is what you should be doing. you want to hear what people have to say, which candidate most makes sense. this is my appeal to you. if you think it is absolutely imperative that we defeat donald trump, take a hard look at what our campaign is about, because i honestly believe, not that there are not other good candidates out there. all of these candidates are my friends. i have known some of them for years. they are good people. but if you look at the structure of our campaign, our ability to mobilize millions of people all over this country, our ability to raise funds from the grassroots, not from the wealthy and the powerful, our ability to put together an agenda that reaches out and speaks to the working class of this country in a unique way, i think you will conclude that our campaign is the strongest campaign to defeat trump. but it is not only that. what this campaign is about is not only defeating trump. if you believe that we must finally end the massive income and wealth inequality, we are that campaign. [cheering and applause] sen. sanders: if you believe we have got to end a corrupt political system that allows leaders to buy elections, we are that campaign. if you believe that health care is a human right, not a privilege, we are that campaign. [cheers and applause] sen. sanders: if you believe that together, we have got to fight, in an aggressive way, to save this planet for future generations from climate change, we are that campaign. if you believe that every working person in this country deserves a fair wage, we are that campaign. this campaign has taken everybody on. we are taking on wall street. we are taking on the insurance companies. the drug companies. fossil fuel industry. we are taking them all on. we are taking on trump and the republican party. we are taking on the democratic establishment. [cheering and applause] sen. sanders: and all across the country, let me tell you, the big-money interests are getting very nervous. they are looking at recent polls in new hampshire and in iowa, and they are saying, "oh my god, sanders can win." [cheering and applause] sen. sanders: so this is an historic moment in our country's history. we have got to stand up to trump's desire to divide us up based on the color of our skin, our religion, where we were born, our sexual orientation, our gender. we have got to come together, black and white, latino, native american, asian-american, gay, and straight, we have got to stand together around an agenda that works for all of us, not just the few on top. tonight, i am coming before you, nine days -- [laughter] sen. sanders: right? we would show up the day after the caucus. that would be a bad thing. i come before you to humbly ask for your support. [cheering and applause] sen. sanders: let me make a prediction. on caucus night, if somebody tells you that the turnout is high, we win. [cheers and applause] sen. sanders: if somebody tells you turnout is pretty low, we lose. so the question is, can we bring out people who do not always come out to vote? working people who are often discouraged with the political process, young people who have not gotten involved in the political process. if we can do that, if we can create a high voter turnout, if you are able to bring out your friends, your uncles, your aunts, and everybody you know, we will win here in iowa. we will begin the process of defeating the most dangerous president in the modern history of this country, and in transforming our nation, so that we have a government that works for all of us, not just the 1%. that is what this campaign is about. and tonight, i ask for your support. thank you all very much. [cheering and applause] [chanting "bernie!"] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2020] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> joining us via skype is jane , a seniorames lynch executive reporter. thank you for being with us. let me first ask you about newspaper endorsements in iowa. do they make a difference? [no audio] i think marginally, steve -- guest: i think marginally, steve, people we call the low information voters. the "sioux city journal" has endorsed him, certainly the candidates like to talk about the endorsements. i talked to amy klobuchar, and she was talking about her endorsements by the "new york times" and another, saying it was the first time those two agreed. guest: you mentioned senator klobuchar. she had a quick flight to iowa, where she is this weekend, along with the other senators running for president, but have you sensed any impact that this has had for senator rn, sanders, klobuchar, or bennett in iowa? guest: the endorsements? host: no, heading to washington for the impeachments. guest: i think it has had some impact at this point on the campaign based with the voters, caucus-goers, it is really important, and, you know, klobuchar talked about that yesterday. she is doing everything she can in the morning before the trial tosions start in the senate get on iowa tv, to do a townhall conference. those types of events just to maintain that content, and then on the weekend, spend as much time in iowa as she can. partyut together a house saturday afternoon on less than 24 hours notice, and there were 150, 175 people who showed up to that, so people are still anxious to see the candidates. host: you mentioned the "quad city times," representing rock island, illinois, the editorial saying "klobuchar is the one." "amy klobuchar earned our endorsement. she won it from the editorial board. we have struggled with how to access the large field of candidates vying for the 2020 presidential nomination." how are caucus-goers sorting through a record democratic field. guest: it is interesting, steve, some of these people have been manyg to the events for events. you see fewer people showing up at any event, and i think health care is probably the most talked about issue, climate change is getting a lot of attention, gun questions about that, , i love willmy happen in the economy, even though things are going well right now. issuery voter has their that they are most concerned about, but i would say those are the main issues people are talking about and asking candidates to respond to. host: you are in cedar rapids, in the eastern part of the state, so if you could give us an overview of the democratic party demographics from where you are situated in des moines to sioux city and council bluffs. guest: mostly democratic. i was city, where the university of iowa is located, certainly reliable democratic stronghold for the democratic party, however, once you get outside of , we have a lot of republican representation in the state legislature, for example. if you look at iowa, the cities tend to be democratic, suburbs are trending more democratic, but once you get beyond that, it is ready -- pretty red all across the state. urban areas are voting democratic, through areas voting republican. host: we are going to be live in iowa with two caucuses on monday, february 3. what happens at a caucus? guest: well, the democratic ,aucuses form preference groups they put everybody in that corner, everybody for elizabeth warren and that corner, everybody for joe biden in that corner, they will physically separate and a preference groups, and you have to have 15% at your caucus to be viable. if you do not want to support any candidate, you can go to a noncommitted preference group, and then when those groups that aren't viable, there is a realignment or a second alignment, they can move to a second group. what is different this year is that in addition to what the state party calls the state delegate equivalent, which for them is the nationstates, they law-abidingly counts of how many people caucus for bernie sanders, how many caucus for amy klobuchar, so we will have two sets of numbers this year. host: with the release of those two sets of numbers, that is something that, admittedly, even here on c-span, we are wrestling with in terms of how we convey that information to the audience. if a candidate does not go well in that first go around but doesn't do well in the second go round, he or she can claim victory early on. would it be confusing in terms of the storyline coming out of iowa? guest: i think you are absolutely right, steve. there will be a lot of winners. most actualould be people, bodies will be able are, ,nd of course, as you all know expectations, so anybody who beats expectations is a winner, so we could have 5, 6 winners out of the caucuses. host: and one final question, because for a while, pete buttigieg was rising in polls based on the surveys. now senator bernie sanders is on top. his numbers in particular have fallen. why? because'm not sure, there is still a lot of enthusiasm for mayor pete, but bernie sanders seems to have really galvanized support here. early on, sanders and supporters from four years ago i talked to said well, we did that, we are looking at other people, but it seems like they are coming back, and he is getting more supporters as his campaign goes on. energylies are very high attracting large crowds. number one, there is some question about how much experience he really has come and the story is about the lack of support from affecting theans, whole scope of the campaign. host: james lynch, how can people follow you on social media? guest: on twitter, i am @jamesq lynch. ost: joining us from cedar rapid >> first votes of campaign 2020 are just days away. watch our unfiltered coverage of the iowa caucuses live monday, february 3 as we follow the candidates on the campaign trail , take you inside caucus voting sites, and show you live caucus results beginning at 7:30 p.m. eastern on c-span, online at c-span.org, or listen with the free c-span radio app. >> this week, live coverage of the house debate and vote against action in iran. legislation has been introduced use of military force in iraq into black federal funding to take action against iran without congressional authorization. one coverage, this week c-span, watch on-demand on c-span.org, listen on the go with the free c-span radio app. >> next, treasury secretary steven mnuchin and kristalina christine lagarde, president of the european central bank. they took part in the world and dallas,um switzerland. -- in davos,