Her father owns this place. I thought it would be nice to introduce her or else we might get thrown out. You dont trigger beer yet, do you . Thank you for coming, and you dont drink here yet, beer yet, do you . Thank you for coming, and thank you for having us. I am shameless. [applause] how are we doing . [applause] some crowd. I dont know if you came out for the campaign or the craft beer. To be clear, i am here for both. To save be the only way a nation, with a little libation. Buildingign is really momentum in virginia and across the country. Super tuesday is two weeks away and were going to make every second count. Forant to thank supporting the campaign and all those kind words. The good news is she sent them exactly the way i wrote them. Seriously, thank you for your leadership in the house of delegates. You and your colleagues are showing the country how much progress as possible when democrats are in charge. May rememberyou that virginia was the first date i came to when i launched my campaign couple of months ago. And since then i have been to 62 , i was here with someone who opened a bakery. Yesterday was my birthday. I hope i have a few more. Dont catch up and i will not extend the difference between us. These entrepreneurs reminded me of what it was like when i started my business. To this day, i can tell you i never had more fun than i did back then when i was crawling under desks and doing the basic jobs myself. You can always tell who owns the place when they are the last ones theirs sweeping up. Now my companys 20,000 people and i dont know them all, but i have been very lucky. Iure probably asking you why have come to virginia so much. The answer is because of the great beer in part, and it is a simple fact that if were going 2020, weonald trump in absolutely have to win this commonwealth. And we cannot wait until the Campaign Starts here. Our work starts right now, today, and as many of you know, i have been involved in virginia politics long before i became a president ial candidate. Big supporter of Terry Mcauliffe and his race for governor. I always thought he was a really good guy and i am glad i was because he proved to virginia could help point the way toward a Better Future for the whole country. Virginia was also forced to grapple with its past when carrie was in office, and those events evoked in charlottesville evoked some of the darkest history and that is much painans felt so when donald trump said there were very fine people among the klansmen and the nazis marching. I tragic as the day was thought it was a galvanizing moment for people because across virginia and across the country, americans stood up and said we cannot accept that we cannot do that. I was honored to stand with 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 would fight against the hatred displayed in charlottesville. Last month, all of that work paid off when for the first time in more than 25 years, democrats took control of both chambers of legislature. [cheers and applause] mr. Bloomberg im happy they won, but im even happier about what they have done. It has only been a month since they took office and already, they have taken action on everything from gun violence to reproductive rights, to lgbtq plus discrimination and even ratified the equal rights amendment. [cheers and applause] mr. Bloomberg and they did it half a century after it was first proposed, declaring once and for all that Women Deserve a quality deserve equality under the law. [cheers and applause] mr. Bloomberg now, this progress made tonight didnt happen overnight. It happened because of all the virginians who made phone calls and got voters to the polls, never losing faith in a red commonwealth turning into a blue commonwealth. That is what we did. [cheers and applause] mr. Bloomberg but before we see anything else, i just want to thank all of you who made all of that possible. It was done by a lot of people and a lot of hard work and it is just great for this state and for the country. Yes, you can applaud for that. [cheers and applause] mr. Bloomberg let me be clear why i am in this race. I am running to defeat donald trump. [cheers and applause] mr. Bloomberg and i am running to restore honor to our country. And to build a country that we are proud of and to start getting things that we need done. And to start putting the united back into the Words United States of america. [cheers and applause] mr. Bloomberg back in 2016 in philadelphia at the Democratic National convention, i warned ok, thank you very much. [crowd booing] mr. Bloomberg ok. Ok. Thank you. Thats ok. Thank you. [booing] [crowd chanting mike ] mr. Bloomberg i just want to thank you for making me feel at home. [laughter] mr. Bloomberg back then, i warned donald trump was not fit for office and in 2018, i worked to help with the house, 21 seats. [crowd chanting] mr. Bloomberg ok, we will get over it. [booing] [crowd chanting] mr. Bloomberg thank you, thank you. The easiest thing to do is just to wait them out. Anyways, we flipped 21 seats in the house and that put nancy pelosi in as speaker, and began and it allowed us to begin Holding President trump accountable through the impeachment process, but since the Republican Senate didnt have the courage to remove trump from office, it is up to us to do it this november and we are going to do it. [cheers and applause] mr. Bloomberg i got into this race 10 weeks ago because i was deeply concerned donald trump was on track to win the election and i couldnt sit by and let that happen. Our campaign is getting great response all over america. We are running a campaign for change, a campaign for sanity on a campaign for honesty, inclusion, compassion, and a campaign for human decency, and we are running hard here in virginia because, make no mistake, virginia is still very much up for grabs in 2020, and we are not waiting until the general election to organize here. Weve already knocked on more than 32,000 doors, made more than 72,000 phone calls, and weve hired more than 87 staffers in virginia. So we are working hard here. [cheers and applause] mr. Bloomberg and i want you to know that im here no matter who comes out on top of this primary, god forbid, and so we can elect democrats up and down the ballot. We are not just doing one thing. And so we can say goodbye to donald trump. [cheers and applause] mr. Bloomberg let me tell you why i believe i am the best candidate to take on donald trump and win. To start, i have achievable plans to deal with all the toughest challenges facing this country and i will get them done. [cheers and applause] mr. Bloomberg and that is the message we need in order to win voters all over this country and beat trump in the swing states that will decide this election, because we all know trumps strategy. Attack democrats, make their plans look on a realistic, look unrealistic, unaffordable, and the undoable but that wont work against me and it wont work against you. I have a record of getting things done and that is what voters want. And we need a nominee who can deliver it. But that is not all we need to win because lets face it, donald trump is the biggest worlds biggest schoolyard bully. [cheers and applause] mr. Bloomberg with no respect for civility, decency, or even facts and honesty, and 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. You have been reading in the papers and seeing on television, the president has been busy insulting democratic candidates. And he does that a lot. I guess when you cant defend your record on health care or wages or environment, you resort to insults and that is what he is doing. Well, Donald Trumps insults dont bother me. Ive never run away from a fight, and neither have you. The people of this state no one what state know what they want and we will not get it for them. And we will get it for them. He is not going to bully me and he is not going to bully you, either. Now, ive been pretty blessed. That is nothing trump can do or say that can hurt me. Im from new york. Thats why im standing up for every american who has lost their job, for every american who cant pay their tuition, who has lost their insurance, my whole career has been as a doer. Believe me, we need less talk, less partisanship, less division, less tweeting. [cheers and applause] mr. Bloomberg i will make you a commitment right now. When i am in the oval office, no more tweeting. [cheers and applause] mr. Bloomberg in all fairness, it is easy for me to say that because i can spell. [laughter] mr. Bloomberg then again, neither can donald. Even though donald and i are both from new york, we couldnt be more different. I bill myself as the untrump. Think about it. He breaks promises, i keep them. He divides people, i unite them. Hes a climate denier. Im an engineer. I actually believe in science. Imagine that. Tweets, i follow facts, respect data, and tell the truth. He looks out for people who inherited their wealth and im selfmade. I will raise the estate tax to generate the revenue we need to start fighting income inequality. [cheers and applause] mr. Bloomberg he is stubborn, i may later who can be honest about my mistakes and i believe when you make a mistake, you must learn from it and next time, do it right. When i first took office in new york city, families in new 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 plaguing our communities. While many of the ways we tried to reduce gun violence and invest in communities were right, and we did reduce murders by 50 in new york city, there is one approach that, in all fairness, i deeply regret. It is the abuse of a Police Practice called stop and frisk. Ive gotten a lot of grief for it lately. Ive defended it for too long and it is because i didnt understand the pain, i should have acted sooner and stopped it and i didnt, and i apologize for that. [cheers and applause] mr. Bloomberg sometimes come you make a mistake and decided and i think a sign of leadership is standing up and learning and doing it better. Ive spent a lot of time with black leaders and community members. Ive listened to their stories. Ive heard their pain, their confusion, their anger, and ive learned from them and grown from them. Tonight, let me make it clear. For those of you who want to know, as president of the United States i will work to dismantle systems that are plagued by bias and discrimination. I will invest in communities that have borne the brunt of the systems for generations and i will put this work at the very top of my agenda. [cheers and applause] mr. Bloomberg now, it wont be easy but i also know we can do it. Why . Because unlike other candidates, i dont just talk about doing things. I have a record of reaching across the aisle and getting them done. Let me give you a couple of quick examples. Other candidates talk about raising teacher salaries. As mayor, i raised teacher salaries by 43 . They talk about improving public schools. I raised Graduation Rates by more than 40 and the raise was part of that. They talk about improving health care. In new york, i cut the number of uninsured by 40 , improved care for mothers and babies, and raised Life Expectancy by three whole years. [cheers and applause] mr. Bloomberg so if you have people that you really love and you want them to stay around, you can send them to new york. I cant guarantee that everyone will live three years more, but if you send enough people, i can guarantee the average. [laughter] mr. Bloomberg others talk about fighting climate change. I cut new yorks Carbon Footprint by 13 and create a Grassroots Movement to close more than 300 dirty coalfired power plants. Green jobs and green plan, and we really can have both. Others talk about stopping gun violence. In new york city, we cut murders by 50 and i have taken on the nra by creating a Gun Safety Group with 6 million members across the country. [cheers and applause] mr. Bloomberg and weve passed stronger gun laws from background checks in more than 20 states and our thanks go to the moms demand action volunteers who made it happen. I was elected mayor just seven weeks after the devastating terror attacks of 9 11. Our city back then was in tatters. There was still smoke coming out of the void and our economy was in recession. But thanks to a lot of people, new yorkers and people from virginia and all over this country and the world, we brought the city together and created more than 500,000 jobs, 175,000 units of affordable housing, reduced homelessness by 28 . We launched programs to fight poverty, and we built our city stronger than ever. [cheers and applause] mr. Bloomberg somebody told me a fact the other day, when 9 11 happened, there were five hotels downtown. Today, there are 25 hotels, so you can recover and we can do that all over this country wherever we have problems. Some have heard the slogan mike will get it done, and if you havent heard it, ive been wasting a lot of money on campaigning. [laughter] mr. Bloomberg let me tell you what the it is. It means winning this november and sending donald trump back to maralago permanently. [cheers and applause] mr. Bloomberg but thats just the beginning. Getting it done means finally providing Health Insurance to every american who lacks it and lowering the cost for everyone else. Getting it done means passing common sense gun laws that protect our children and communities. Getting it done means making america a Global Leader in the fight against climate change. Getting it done means means creating jobs with higher wages. Getting it done means addressing addressing means addressing discrimination and inequality. Getting it done means finally fixing our broken immigration system and creating a path to citizenship for 11 Million People living in the shadows. [cheers and applause] mr. Bloomberg getting it done means protecting a womans right to choose and appointing judges who will defend that. [cheers and applause] mr. Bloomberg and getting it done means providing Health Insurance to every single american. Over the past years, ive taken on the toughest fights and won, and ive taken on donaldson donald trump and won many times. We beat him on gun safety for background checks, we beat him on coal pollution. He promised to keep lots of mines open and they are not. Db we beat him on turning the house blew with 21 new delegates and nancy pelosi. And im ready to beat him again. [cheers and applause] mr. Bloomberg but i cant do it alone. If you want to qualify for 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 no matter what zip code you live in, if you share my belief in opportunity for all, not just a few, if you are ready to protect and defend the constitution of the United States of america [cheers and applause] mr. Bloomberg and if you are ready to clean out the oval office and get things done, then i would be honored to have your support, your help, and yes, your vote. Thank you for having us. You are the greatest. [cheers and applause] [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] cspan, your unfiltered view of government, created by cable in 1979, and brought you today by television provider. Victoria mclain is a political reporter for the boston globe. She is joining us on the phone from massachusetts. Specifically, what are you looking for in tonights debate . Victoria first of all, i am