Michael bloomberg speaks out the Democratic Party of virginias 2020 blue commonwealth gala, in their largest dinner of the year. 99 delegates arts taken virginias primary, part of super tuesday on march 3. Honored guests, democratic candidate for president former mayor of new york city, michael bloomberg. [applause] fmr. Mayor bloomberg thank you. [applause] thank you. How are we doing . [cheers and applause] we will wait for the music to stop. Hello everyone. How are we doing . [cheers and applause] i cannot even see that far at both ends. So im sure you are there. But if ive learned anything tonight it is that the virginia democrats know how to put on a party in party dinner. I wanted to thank the chair for inviting me here tonight. What about another round of applause for her. [applause] ok. It is always nice to be welcomed. Thank you for being in this venue with me. Im glad to be back in virginia. This is the very first state i came to when i launch my campaign a couple of months ago and since then i have been to 62 cities in 25 states. But i have been to virginia more than anywhere else. [cheers and applause] in fact i was just here last week. I was meeting with veterans starting businesses including one who has opened a bakery. And yesterday was my birthday. So i thought i michael back for a piece of birthday cake. [applause] those entrepreneurs remind me what was like to start a business and to this day ive never had more fun than i did when i started my business. I was basically doing every job by myself. Now youre probably asking, why it is ive been coming to virginia so much . Yes in part because the virginia , craft breweries, one which i visited today. [laughter] and i had a double ipa called, none of this makes any sense. [laughter] [applause] who knew . That is a pretty good summary of the trump administration. [applause] which brings me to the other reason i have been coming to virginia so much. Because if we are going to be at donald trump in 2020, we absolutely must win this commonwealth. [cheers and applause] and we cannot wait until the primary is over to start campaigning here. Our work starts now. Yes you can applaud for that. As many of you know i have been involved in virginia politics since long before i became a president ial candidate. Back in 2013, i was a big supporter of Terry Mcauliffe in his race for governor. [applause] and im glad i was, because he proved virginia could help point the way for a Better Future for our country. Of course virginia was also forced to grapple with its past, when terry was in office. We all know the events in charlottesville invoked some of the darkest chapters in our history, chapters we are all reminded of in this neighborhood where thousands of slaves were bought and sold and separated from their loved ones. That history is one of the reasons americans felt so much pain when President Trump said very fine people among the nazis and klansmen were marching in charlottesville. But as tragic as that day was, it was also a galvanizing moment for many people. Because virginia and across this country, americans stood up and said, we cannot accept this. And i was honored to stand with all of those who spoke out for what this country really stands for. And i was glad to support candidates here in virginia in 2017, 2018, and 2019, who i knew would fight against the hatred on display in charlottesville. [applause] last month, all of that work paid off. When, for the first time in more than 25 years, virginia democrats took control of both chambers of the legislature. [cheers and applause] and i am happy that they won but i am even happier about what they have done. It has only been a month since they took office and already you have taken action to end our epidemic of gun violence. Lets hear it. [applause] lori haas and all the other leaders who made this possible, your legislature has also made progress expanding voting rights. So every voice can be heard at the ballot box. You have protected reproductive rights, because you understand that women have a right to make their own decisions about their own bodies. [applause] and you have raised the minimum wage, because no american who works fulltime should live in poverty. [applause] you have taken steps to ban lgbtq plus discover nation, becausemination, virginia really is for all lovers. [cheers and applause] and half a century after it was first proposed, you became the 38th state to ratify the equal rights amendment, declaring once and for all that Women Deserve equality under the law. [cheers and applause] this progress you have made did not happen overnight. It happened because the people in this room believed a red commonwealth could become a blue commonwealth. [applause] and you worked around the clock to make it so. Making phone calls, knocking on doors, and getting voters to the polls. So before i say anything else, i want to say thank you, thank you for all the good work you have done for this great state. Give yourself around of applause. [applause] now i want to be clear about why i am in this race. I am running to defeat donald trump. [cheers and applause] and i am running to restore honor to our government. And to build a country that we are proud of. And to start getting things done. And to start putting the united back in the United States of america. [cheers and applause] at the 2016 Democrat National convention in philadelphia, i warned that donald trump was not fit for office. And in 2018, i worked to help lift 21 house seats, which made nancy pelosi speaker, and allowed us to begin Holding Trump accountable. [applause] since the Republican Senate did not have the courage to remove the president from office, it is up to us to do it this november. [cheers and applause] i got into this race 11 weeks ago, because i was deeply concerned that donald trump was on track to win the election and i could not sit by and let that happen. Our campaign has been getting a great response all over america. We are running a campaign for change. A campaign for sanity. A campaign for honesty. For inclusion. For compassion. And a campaign for human decency. [cheers and applause] and we are running hard here in virginia. Because no mistake, virginia is still very much up for grabs in 2020, and we are not waiting until the general election to organize here. We have already knocked on more than 32,000 doors in the state. Made more than 72,000 phone calls. And i have hired more than 82 staffers to work right here in virginia. I am here to stay no matter who comes out on top of this primary. So we can elect democrats up and down the ballot. [cheers and applause] and say goodbye to donald trump. [cheers and applause] lets face it, donald trump is the World Biggest schoolyard bully with no respect for decency or facts or honesty. Our party needs a candidate who can go toe to toe with him and take the fight to him. Just think about the past few weeks. The president has been busy insulting the democratic candidates. He does that a lot, you know. When you cannot defend your record on health care or wages or the environment, you resort to insults. Well, Donald Trumps insults do not bother me. I have never run away from a fight. And i can tell you, he is not going to bully me. And i will not let him bully you either. [cheers and applause] fmr. Mayor bloomberg i have been blessed there is nothing donald can do or say that can hurt me. But he has hurt a lot of other people. That is why i am running. To stand up for every american who has lost his or her job, or lost their insurance, who cannot pay the college tuition. My whole career i have been a doer. I believe we need less talk, less partisanship, less division, and less tweeting. [cheers and applause] in fact, how about a commitment from me that when im in the oval office, no tweeting evermore . [cheers and applause] that is easy for me to say. Since i cannot spell. [laughter] then again, neither can donald. Even though donald and i are both from new york, the truth is, we could not be more different. In fact, i am the untrump. Just think about it. He breaks promises, i keep them. He divides people, id unite them. He is a climate denier, i am an engineer. I actually believe in science, imagine that . [applause] he tweets, i follow facts, respect data, and tell the truth. He looks out for people who inherited their wealth, like him. While i am a selfmade. And i will raise the estate tax to generate some of the revenue we need to start fighting income inequality. [applause] he is stubborn. I am a leader who can be honest about my mistakes. I believe when you make a mistake, you learn from it. Next time, do right. When i first took office, families in york city were losing their children to gun violence at alarming rates. My focus was clear. I wanted to save lives and respond with urgency to the crisis that was plaguing our communities. While many of the ways we tried to reduce gun violence and invest in communities were right, and we reduced murder by half, there is one approach i deeply regret. The use of up Police Practice called stop and frisk. I defended it for too long, i think, because i did not understand the unintended pain it caused to young black and brown kids and their families. I should have acted sooner and faster to stop it. For that, i have apologized. I spent a long time speaking with black leaders and community members. I have listened to their stories. I have heard their pain, their confusion, their anger. I have learned from them and i think i have grown from them. I cannot change history. But i can learn from my mistakes and use those lessons to do right by black and brown communities who suffered. Tonight, let me be clear. [applause] as president of the United States, i will work to dismantle systems that are plagued by bias and discrimination. I will invest in the communities that have borne the brunt of those systems for generations. And i will put this work at the very top of my agenda. [applause] now, it will not be easy. But i also know we can do it. Because unlike other candidates, i do not just talk about doing things. I have a record of reaching across the aisle and getting them done. Let me just give you a few quick examples. Other candidates talk about raising teachers salaries. As mayor, i raised them in york by 43 . They talk about improving public schools. I raised Graduation Rates by more than 40 . [applause] they talk about improving health care. In york, i cut the number of uninsured by 40 , improved care for mothers and babies, and raised Life Expectancy by three whole years. [applause] others talk about fighting climate change. I cut new york citys Carbon Footprint by 13 and helped create a Grassroots Movement to close more than 300 dirty, polluting coalfired power plants across this country. [applause] green jobs and a greener planet, we can get it done together. Others talk about stopping gun violence. In new york city, we cut murders by 50 . We have taken on the nra by creating a gun safety group, with 6 million members. We passed stronger laws in more than 20 states, thanks to so many moms demand action volunteers who made it happen. [applause] i was elected mayor just seven weeks after the devastating terrorist attacks of 9 11. Our city was in tatters and our economy was in recession. But i brought people together in the city and we created nearly 500,000 new jobs, and 175,000 units of affordable housing. We reduced street homelessness by 30 , launched programs to fight poverty and made our city stronger than ever. Some of you may have heard the slogan, mike will get it done. Let me tell you what the it is. It means winning this november and sending donald trump back to maralago permanently. [cheers and applause] but that is just the beginning. Because getting it done means finally providing Health Insurance to every american who lacks it, and lowering costs for everybody else. [applause] getting it done means passing commonsense gun safety laws that protect our children and our communities. [applause] getting it done means making america a Global Leader in the fight against climate change. [cheers and applause] getting it done means creating good jobs with higher wages. Getting it done means addressing discrimination and inequality. Getting it done means fixing our broken immigration system and creating a path to citizenship for the 11 Million People living in the shadows. [applause] getting it done means protecting a womans right to choose an appointing judges who will protect that right. [cheers and applause] and getting it done means providing Health Insurance to every single american. [cheers and applause] over the past two decades i have taken on the toughest fights and won. Ive taken on donald trump and won many times. I beat him on gun safety. I beat him on coal pollution. I beat him on turning the house blue in 2018 elections and i am ready to do it again. So if you want Health Insurance for everyone, if you want to combat inequality with fairer taxes and better jobs, if you support my commitment to quality Public Education matter what zip code you live in. If you share my belief that an opportunity for all, not just for the few, if you are ready to defend the constitution of the United States, and if you are ready to clean out the oval office and get things done, and i would be honored to have your help, your support, and yes, your vote. Thank you for coming and support this great organization. [applause] [cheers and applause] campaign 20 20 coverage continues with Pete Buttigieg speaking to caucusgoers at a caucus in nevadas capital carson city monday at 2 00 p. M. Eastern live on cspan. On tuesday senator Bernie Sanders speaks at supporters on a get out the vote rally at the university of nevada campus at las vegas. Early voting for than about a caucus on stew fiber 18 with a caucus on saturday, fabry 22nd. February 22nd. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] our cspan bus is traveling across the country asking voters what issues candidate should address. The most important issue for me is sore rights and Civil Liberties like voting rights, reproductive rights, criminal Justice Reform and productive freedom. These rights are more important now than ever because we are seeing them being violated left and right. There just as important as every other issue. The issue most important to me now is the fact that our veterans do not have housing. Hampshire,hough new one of our 50 states, should do more for its veterans. Right now, veterans have to leave and go to vermont or massachusetts in order to get the services they need. I do nothing that is appropriate. These people make a sacrifice for our country and should be able to have services when they come home. Im interested in having candidates focus on actionable environmental policies, saying you are going to rejoin the paris accord is not a real policy. Having to do with Carbon Emissions and adopting renewables
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