Thanks for those watching at home. This is being closely watched not just here, but across the country. Serving thembents house and the senate, a challenger with seven years under his belt and the house, and as for the rules, there are no rules. No opening statements, no closing, no time limits, although we will be keeping track of speaking time to keep things relatively even. We want to cover a lot of ground, so brevity is appreciated. Feel free to talk to each other, we encourage it, and since we are asking our studio audience to not applaud during the debate, we would like to give senator ed markey and. Ongressman joe kennedy a hand. [applause] thank you for joining us tonight. It is all yours. Supportersmarkeys have criticized u. S. An opportunist in this race. Why are you running to unseat a man who has 70 policies that you support . So many policies you support . Thank you for moderating, and thank you for tuning in around the country. This time around, so much of what we care about is on the line. Our is at stake for us for party and our country, this one counts. At this moment, we have to make sure that we have United States senators giving everything you possibly have for our commonwealth. Is not aetts, this swing state and this is not a swing city. There is a special opportunity and obligation that comes with it. Mitch mcconnell doesnt care. Thatis about making sure one, you are a constant presence in massachusetts, making sure the people are safe, that you are fighting for them, and you care about them. And the folks victimize most by this president , those that are vulnerable, suffering, those that are different, no they have a champion for you every single day. Three, given the challenges that we face, you have to ensure that you are bringing everything you possibly can to restore power to the Democratic Party so we can advance the causes we care about and protect the people we care about. Has even a good senator . Of course he has. Is at this moment, given at stake with the headlines we saw with President Trumps pardons, what he has done for weaponizing ice this is not about voting the right way. We have to do everything we can to restore power to a Democratic Party across the entire country. Flip the house, flip the fed, flip the president , restore the courts. That is the type of leadership i can bring to the seat and what massachusetts deserves. Critics ofthe your candidacy, senator, know that you have been in congress for more than 40 years. In the senate is dead. The democratic agenda is going absolutely nowhere. Some believe a fresh face with a different approach is what is needed to change the dynamic. Why are they wrong . Andhank you to everyone thank you to your great audience, especially the young people over your shoulder, this whole debate should be about the future, their future. That is what i fight for every single day. The future for these young people. When i introduced the Green New Deal with alexandria ocasiocortez one year ago, it transformed the way in which Climate Change is being debated in the United States and across the planet. It made a huge difference. The fuel economy standards that we live under, that is my law, 2007. The affiant the the appliance efficiency standards . On guns i passed legislation to adjust in december have 25 million be spent by the centers for Disease Control to begin the research on the causes of gun , builte in our society on a law i passed earlier that bands 10 million chinese assault weapons from coming to the students of uniteds states. Of united and my law passed more dollars to find the cure for 5. Zheimers before 202 15 million baby boomers will have alzheimers if we do not find the cure. The challenges of today are not we have been but delivering with legislation that passes that protects the people of massachusetts and the whole country. Would your response to what the senator had to say, congressman . The senator has made many of us last week celebrate valentines day. It was the two Year Anniversary of the shooting in parkland. The last transformative law was was signed into law signed by Richard Nixon with the clean air act. When it comes to the challenges that we confront with Mitch Mcconnell saying look, what this is about is about maintenance and access to power, my bill was actually signed by donald trump to Begin Research at the cdc that had been blocked for 25 years by the nra. Might i say, the last environmental law was my law as well. It was the 2007 law that doubled the fuel economy standards of the vehicles which we drive, 70 of all of the oil goes into gasoline tanks. It is the single largest reduction of Greenhouse Gases ever passed in any country in the world. I have been leading fossil fuel industry i beat them. The gun lobby . I beat them. The law is on the books. One thing about the Green New Deal, as many of your democratic colleagues, including its pelosi, the house speaker, she does not think there is a chance the Green New Deal can pass. There is no carbon tax in the Green New Deal, and that is something that a lot of businesses and some of your gop establishment leaders have supported. So why not put that in there and have an increased chance that this could get through in a bipartisan way . The Green New Deal, since we introduced it, alexandria ocasiocortez and i, just one year ago, its transformed the debate on this issue. We deal with the fact that our own Scientists Say that the planet massachusetts can warm by eight to 10 degrees over the next 80 years and our sea rise would go up 10 feet for the massachusetts so the magnitude of the problem is clear. What we say is we have to solve this problem with millions of new jobs created and to do it with justice so the frontline communities, minority communities, that we do with intersectionality. We have to make sure no matter what we do, it doesnt lead to dramatic price increases for the poorest in our society. We have to have a debate over how to get this done but we have to be absolutely nonnegotiable the that weo set so we can accomplish this goal. There are many paths to take to accomplish this goal. We have to say were going to transform our society into 100 clean energy and we can do it with a number of different pathways, including fuel efficiency standards. You said you would put up your environmental record against anybody. Please do. Rep. Kennedy big picture to small. This is an issue that is important to me. I am 39 years old. I have got a 4yearold and a 2yearold. My goal as a parent is to make sure they have a planet that will be there for them, the same planet that i was able to inherit from my parents and the fact is that while i believe the senator is right, there are now plenty of different policy ideas out there to try to address a warming climate, what we lack is in fact the political will to get there. I support the Green New Deal. I think it frames the debate the right way. Carbon neutral emissions, getting us down to net zero emissions, sector by sector decarbonization. The approach ive taken is trying to ensure that communities at the brunt of environmental degradation and Climate Change are put at the forefront, like fall river, and specifically, if you look at what i have done in communities like fall river, i filed a bill last week to make sure communities targeted for petrochemical plants and chemical contaminations, they have a greater ability to push back against it. We have been working with the community in fall river to transform that economy to be the staging area for offshore wind. We have filed legislation and worked on that with senator markey. We have been dedicated to issues like combined sewage overflow and storm water runoff in ways that impact local frontline communities and gateway cities. Both of you have been front in regarding the natural gas compressor in weymouth. Youve taken money from black rock, an investor in that compressor. You have close to 2 million in your portfolio of stocks of fossil fuels. Does that not at least leave the appearance of some sort of conflict, even if you say its not going to affect why dont you divest those stocks and why dont you return that contribution . Starting with you, senator, quickly. Sen. Markey i went down with weymouth and stood with those citizens. And they told them and the citizens of braintree and quincy its a small piece of land where a Natural Gas Company wants like a straw to bring up natural gas. That compressor station should not be there, so they can ultimately move it up to maine to export that natural gas most china. To so what ive done is ive led on that issue and ill tell you why youve taken money from an investor, though, on that project. Sen. Markey i vote my convictions and from my perspective, what ive done is ive taken on that company. That company that wants to go weymouth and ive told them absolutely not. Ive led the effort on that issue, as well. Absolutely guaranteed that theres no dispute which im not going to be the leader on. I tell you why i lead on it i lead on it because when i was a boy, and i was in malden, my mother told me not to swim in the malden river because of the Chemical Companies and the Coal Companies that were polluting the malden river and she said it would be unsafe to swim. So wherever i see Environmental Justice issues, i stand up and i fight for those communities. Ive done so for weymouth, ive taken on that company. Ive told them absolutely under no circumstances right from the beginning that it should not happen. Why dont you divest of those Stock Holdings . Rep. Kennedy there is not a single vote that anybody can point to that shows an that shows that Investment Holdings that have long been that shows that Investment Holdings that have long been held have influenced my vote once. The idea that those holdings have influenced my vote at all, you cant find it. One last thing about Campaign Finance. If we can, the congressman has challenged you repeatedly, senator, to support a peoples pledge originated by, as you know, Elizabeth Warren, years ago. , virtually the same peoples pledge you embraced in 2013 and 2014. If it was good enough for your races then, why is it not good enough for the race in 2020 . Sen. Markey ive introduced a progressive peoples pledge for 2020 so that we deal with the era of donald trump. Yeah, we should have a pledge that keeps out dark money, that keeps out negative voices. But we should welcome positive voices. We should welcome disclosed contributions so that environmentalists, womens groups, labor groups, lgbtq groups can speak. Were massachusetts. Its 2020. Donald trump is president. We need to have a new modern peoples pledge. Not an old one. One for the trump era, that allows for positive voices to speak. Whats the matter with that, congressman . Rep. Kennedy that is an exception that follows the rule. It was good enough for senator markey in 2014, when he championed it, when massachusetts set the standard for keeping dark money out. Its the same pledge now. We start making people, adding in voices we like, who decides which voices they are . It gets to say they are voices that we like or dont . Dark money, jim, is dark money. Massachusetts walks the walk when it comes to progressive values. We need to do it now. And you opened the door to this. You opened the door to absolute landslide of money coming in to distort the electoral framework we have been so proud to very quickly, who does decide what is positive and progressive and whats not . Sen. Markey we need the voices to be positive and we need who decides that . Sen. Markey youll decide, the media will decide. We should have positive voices. You said the media decides. Sen. Markey and no dark money. If its not disclosed, it should not be allowed into our state. So it should be disclosed. Why wouldnt we want rep. Kennedy the medias going to come in and say its so fox news can say it is . But wgbh can say its not . Theres no rationale to this whatsoever. The broader point on this, look, Campaign Finance reform is one of the core issues for a democrat and for progressive values to try to make sure that you level the Playing Field so that you can, in fact, empower the people that are hurting today across our country. You do not do this, how are you ever going to pass a Green New Deal if you allow the fossil fuel industry to open the spigot and flood the airwaves with scare tactics . That is what this is about. Sen. Markey we should not silence these progressive groups. We should celebrate them. Should celebrate their desire in the era of donald trump in the white house, trying to destroy every one of our values, if they want to come into this debate, speak positively, disclose their funding sources, we should welcome and celebrate it but keep out dark money and negative voices. We have to move on. Rep. Kennedy just invested in a race across this country with positive voices in a positive way. Hhe coke brothers the koc brothers, the number one opponent of Environmental Protection and regulation in the country, they can cross things in a positive way. Thats what the senator is advocating for. Theres no way this works. None. Lets talk about a couple of current issues, starting with immigration. Youve both condemned a decision by customs and Border Patrol to come into boston. But what do you propose to do to stop them . Congressman . Rep. Kennedy a couple of points on this. One, the way in which this administration has gone about targeting and vilifying the the the immigrant community is one of the most abhorrent things ive seen in my time in office. I think the senator would agree. We have to ensure that we continue to speak up and push back. Massachusetts has a proud history of immigration. Our country has a proud history of immigration. My own family, both sides of it, is an immigrant family. Im very proud of that. What we need to do is ensure that we are not just as elected officials, but as members of the Community Standing up and rejecting the trump administrations efforts. More than that, building to a place to pass comprehensive immigration reform. The first fathers day with my son i spent on the border outside of texas, protesting the family separation policy as this administration ripped children from their parents arms. Theres no way that is ever the answer for immigration. That is what this administrations going to do. That is what theyre going to continue to do, to scare, to vilify, to tear this country apart and you have to go after this with everything youve got. That is a type of leadership i hope to bring to the senate. Senator . Sen. Markey this is just part of the donald trump policy of trying to make America Great again by making america hate again. These s. W. A. T. Teams are meant to just terrorize immigrants. Hes tried to take muslims, mexicans, immigrants, women of color, and demonize them. When i announced for the senate six years ago, i went up to lawrence to knock on the door where the five markey brothers and sisters grew up and see who lives there now. And on the porch came a dominican family and the aspirations are clearly the same for that family as for the markey family. What donald trump is trying to do is to terrorize those families in boston, to make them afraid to answer the door and make them afraid parents might be separated from the children and make it much less likely that they will cooperate with Law Enforcement officials. I agree with marty walsh, the mayor of boston, i agree with rachael rollins, the district attorney. We have to make boston a beacon on the hill and make it stand for the freedom which it always has stood for, and we have to fight donald trump every step of the way, take him to court, not cooperate. This is fundamentally a challenge to who we are as bostonians. But theres no way to stop them right now. Sen. Markey i have to take them to court. We have to stop them in court. We have to introduce legislation so that we debate it on the floor of the house and senate, try to move it as far as we can as fast as we can to let him know that hes accountable. Ill tell you what i did in august. When trump announced he would take kids who were in hospitals in massachusetts and deport them even though they had cancer, i stood up and i fought him along with congresswoman presley and in two weeks we got trump to back down. You cant deport kids with cancer. I won just in august on that issue. We have to do the same thing. Thats who we are here. Speaking of this, if i may, both of you, as you know, 700,000 Daca Recipients in this country, young people brought to this country by their families or by others, the Supreme Court will decide in relatively short order what the disposition of them is to be. Maybe three years ago, Democratic Leaders in the senate went to the white house and said billionve you all 25 for your wall, President Trump, if in return we get protection for the dreamers. Two quick questions. One, would you support the same deal . Giving him all his money for the wall . Two, if you wouldnt, what would you be willing to trade for the president , the republicans to protect the dreamers . Quickly. Sen. Markey i would trade president s. Lets just get rid of trump. Hes out of here. We have eight months get rid of this guy, get rid of Mitch Mcconnell running the United States senate. Thats what this next eight months is about. Its about a referendum on this issue, who we are as a country. He goes right to the soul of who we are. Thats what the president is doing and its our responsibility to make sure that this man is really a footnote in history. Would you give him money for his wall though, senator . Democrats were willing to do that in 2017. Sen. Markey i am not willing. We need a pathway for all 11 Million Immigrants in our country, make sure dreamers are made citizens, protect the temporary protected status of citizens, of residents who are here from haiti. By the way, ive also introduced legislation, the grace act, to lift up to 90,000 a year the number of refugees we accept in our country. The president is only accepting 13,000 this year. This is an absolute disgrace. On each one of these issues, we have to get rid of donald trump, change the whole agenda for our country and put out the welcome mat to immigrants. You cannot make America Great by putting people down. You make America Great by lifting people up. Before you get rid of donald trump, what do you do for the dreamers there, congressman . Rep. Kennedy i went back and forth between Republican Leadership and our leadership a year ago when the house, we had the votes to pass an additional piece of legislation to protect dreamers, tps recipients, and deported veterans. Ive got some pretty strong relationships with republicans and some folks asked me can you transfer a message to house leadership, which i did. And every time the response was the same. We hear this from the president all the time and then by the time we make it from the capitol to the white house he changes his mind. You cannot negotiate with a. You are anticipating that the president says this is deal, take it or leave it. Every time we engage in those conversations hed change his mind. Every time. So we can get into hypotheticals as to what it would take. I went through those conversations relaying those messages and every time when it came back to the republicans to say, have that come from the president , they balked because they know they can never pin him down. Can we move to another current event, if we can . There is a recent possible breakthrough agreement between the u. S. And taliban that could mean the beginning of the end of the longest war in american history. The sevenday socalled reduction of violence could inaugurate a drawdown of troops. Starting with you, congressman, should the president stop at 8,000 troops or should all u. S. Troops be out of afghanistan . Or should we leave a multithousand Counterterrorism Force there for the foreseeable future . Which is the preferred route . Rep. Kennedy we need to bring our troops home, as many as we possibly can to ensure the safety of our country. And look, lets be clear about this. We have the ability to deploy rapidly should we need to. The president still maintains broad Constitutional Authority to protect our nation and our interests, but lets be clear one, we have been at war in afghanistan for the longest Armed Conflict in american history. Two, we still have, according to an extraordinary investigation done by the Washington Post that came out on the afghanistan papers, we still have no clear idea, after 20 years, what our mission is, what success looks like, how long its going to take or the burden were putting on our men and women in uniform or their families. So how long are we going to ask soldiers and our armed forces to go deploy overseas . Thats what im asking you. Bring them all home . Rep. Kennedy bring them all home as fast as we possibly can. Not even a small number there to protect what weve gained, a small number . Not everybody but a very small number . Sen. Markey when i visit afghanistan, i can see the incredible tension still on the streets of that country. And from my perspective, i think that it is absolutely imperative that we remove troops, that we try to resolve this issue, negotiate a resolution of it. The taliban, the u. S. Government, the afghan government, pakistan theyll all going to have to get involved if this is going to work. If we are going to protect this country from descending into chaos, which it did the last time the taliban had any power in that country. It still has power in large it still has power in large parts of it but to completely remove the United States immediately, it could jeopardize 50 of their population. Women in that country were living in terror when the taliban had total control. We cannot allow that to happen again. So we should draw down as many of the troops as we can, test any agreement to make sure protections put in place are working, but until were sure that that is the case, we could, in fact, jeopardize, once again, the lives of 50 of that population who will descend once again back into medieval conditions which is how the taliban was treating that population in that country. So draw down the troops, do it as much as you can while youre guaranteeing that any agreement is in fact working. Congressman, the senator has a long history in Foreign Policy areas. Anything you would have done differently than what hes done votewise . Rep. Kennedy yes, with responses to this question first, though. The recent attack. Service members in afghanistan were killed was a greenonblue attack, killed by our allies. I visited troops in walter reed who are injured for the rest of their lives by our allies. Yes, we need to make sure we are protecting innocent civilians in afghanistan but we have been doing that for 20 years at grave cost. Were in the longest conflict in our nations history, the war in afghanistan in 2001 and in 2002 we went to war with iraq and we are in iraq still. The authorization for the use of military force in iraq was used to justify the elimination of general soleimani, iranian general from a separate nation that had nothing to do with iraqs quest for weapons of mass destruction and completely separate rationale for going to war yet that authorization was used to do so and keeps us in the middle east even today. That authorization was used by president obama to do drone strokes in yemen that killed 21 kids. You didnt call for rep. Kennedy oh, yes i did. Look at the record. I have been outspoken about repealing the authorization for use of military force from 2001 to 2002 for years. How about his record, hes got much more experience in Foreign Policy. Rep. Kennedy and he voted for the iraq war without a sunset provision to say you got to come back and justify it, without a definition of success and without a question as to the burden we are putting on our men and women of uniform and that authorization is used 20 years later. I met recently with return veterans and heard from them about their mission in the middle east and one of them said thats interesting hearing your mission, that was my mission five years before. We still have no clarity as to what were doing and thats the result of that vote. When you voted for iraq, you were in the minority of the democrats in the house of representatives that authorized action in iraq. Do you regret that vote, senator . Sen. Markey george bush lied, Donald Rumsfeld lied, dick cheney lied to the American People about the presence of Nuclear Weapons in iraq. It was a false pretense to start a war. Im still angry about that lie to the American People. I regret that vote. It was a mistake. Thats why every day i work to make sure that donald trump cannot start a war on a false pretense with iran. Thats why i lead with my legislation to make sure that donald trump cannot start a nuclear war with north korea without prior authorization of the house and senate. Thats why i lead on the new miniaturized Nuclear Weapons that donald trump wants to employ, which makes it more likely that we will have a winnable war in the mind of donald trump. And its why the major peace groups, peace now, mass peace action, council for a livable world, have all endorsed me. Theyve had a chance to look at our records and have endorsed me in this race because i am fighting donald trump and his reckless military policy every single day. We are just a tweet away, at 5 30 in the morning, of getting into a military conflict that will be catastrophic for our country and for the planet. Senator, as long as were on Foreign Policy, you voted for the use of force in syria around the chemical weapons matter. Why did you do that . Sen. Markey very simply. There was a rush for judgment. There was an attempt to have a vote forced without complete information given to the committee and so i protested that we werent given the information and i said im waiting until i get everything i need to know whether or not we should be bombing syria, we should be bombing assad for 60 days, and when i got the information, i understood the consequences. I announced i would vote no before the vote came to the senate floor so i made sure i was not going to be put in a position where there would be a rush to judgment. Our producers tell us you have two minutes more time so more time to you, congressman. Would you like to respond to what the senator said . Rep. Kennedy the lesson of iraq, one of many, that you do not go into another middle eastern country without knowing how to get out and when confronted with that question 10 years after that vote, the senator voted present on a matter of war and peace and i think that record speaks for itself. Sen. Markey when your government does not give you all the information you need and one senator says, im going to demand that all the other senators get the information they need, that was just in the committee, before we bring it out on to the senate floor, lets understand what the consequences are if we bomb in syria, put our young men and women at risk. So i led the effort to get the information. By the way, they then withdrew. They then withdrew that resolution. So it was the disinfectant of all of that information that made it impossible for them to get the vote to we have to move on. Rep. Kennedy it is not a disinfectant. Let him finish, senator. Rep. Kennedy a present vote. Its hard for me to understand when a present vote is going to be a profile in courage. Sen. Markey when youre hiding facts, when youre lying without giving all the information to the American People, then somebody has to stand up. Which is what i did in order to ensure that on that issue we would not be pulled into another conflict in the middle east. Why not vote no as the congressman suggested . Sen. Markey i wanted to give them the opportunity to present all of the intelligence. They had not done so. There wasnt going to be a vote on the senate floor for another week so i was demanding that information be put out in the public so it could be understood by the other senators and by the American People. We have to move on. A 2017 exploration of racism in boston found that by the Boston Globe Spotlight Team found that black americans rated boston the least welcoming of eight major american cities. The wealth disparity figures put the wealth of white bostonians at 250,000 and only 8 for black bostonians. Nationally, the numbers are much less smaller. And for latinos, the disparity is more than 100 to one where its eight to one nationally. What have you done to change the situation for people of color here in boston, congressman . Rep. Kennedy a number of things. The statistics that you say ite indicate a terrible legacy from our commonwealth and the federal government in Racial Discrimination that persists to this day and the disparity in those numbers, 247,000 for median net worth and 8 for African American and zero for dominican household is the result of intentional choices made by government, federal, state and local, and will not be resolved without intentional choices made by government on how to address it. Like what . Rep. Kennedy one, housing. The biggest reflection of that is, after 10 years of Economic Growth a segment of our population wasnt able to access the Housing Market so you have to be deliberate and intentional about making sure the federal government makes a sizable investment in access to Affordable Housing in particular in communities that have been redlined, directly affected by housing policy. Look at the legacy of the fha, the g. I. Bill, the ways in which the federal government has systematically prejudiced against African Americans and minorities. Two, zoning laws that need to be cleared up that end up being a prohibition on the way that people can build Housing Stock and accumulation of wealth. Three, issues around transportation. If youre trying to look at ways to get to work to get home to care for a child, the 111 bus in chelsea takes you an hour to go three miles. African americans spend 60plus hours more per year on a bus than white people do in boston to get to work. 60 hours a year more just to get to work. These are the results of deliberate discrimination that have to be addressed and the federal government can do a lot about it and we need to. Tell us a couple of things the federal government should be doing, senator . Sen. Markey ive introduced legislation with Elizabeth Warren to construct three million Affordable Homes in our country that will reduce the overall price of homes by 10 if we do that. To introduce a bill, 75 billion, to increase the number of Public Housing units in our country so that its there, its affordable and its modern. That we have free College Tuition, that we have Free CommunityCollege Tuition for people of color, for lowincome citizens in our country and that ultimately we change our transportation system. My father, when he drove a truck, used to go up to the fellsway, get on the bus, go into sullivans station and go over to drive the truck. Thats how people live today, when Transportation Systems dont work, when the t doesnt work, when we dont have the bus lines to go out into the communities which need it, then we have a big problem. I lived it in my own house. My father got up to get on the bus every day. We have to make sure we provide that kind of programs. And moreover, so much of this goes back to the original sin in our society, slavery. Thats why its so important that we have a debate on reparations, that we have a debate on how weve treated minorities in our country, especially those who are descended from slaves. They have a legacy of mistreatment that then manifests itself in imprisonment, lack of programs to help them to be able to achieve and discrimination that is still deeply built into our society and if we dont deal with that reparations issue, if we dont deal with the massive incarceration of African American and other minorities in our society and then the aftermath of that which then results in these kinds of income wealth disparities, were not going to get to the core of this issue. I just obviously youre federal legislators but theres a local push to return to rent control to limit the amount of increases landlords could throw at tenants. What do you think about that . Rep. Kennedy anywhere i go across the state, cost of housing and access to housing is the number one issue, whether pittsfield to springfield to worcester to boston. We have to do a lot more to make sure housing is affordable. I spent a couple of years as a legal aid volunteer in the housing courts in boston in the midst of the foreclosure crisis. You see a system that has some Robust Tenant protections, but it is a challenge if people dont have access to protections. Should we return to rent control . Rep. Kennedy resident stabilization needs to be on the table and theres a wide variety of measures we can address. Rent control can be part of that debate. If youre looking for systemic reforms that are necessary, investment in Affordable Housing, reforms to infrastructure and Public Transit to make sure theres more housing thats affordable, as well. And last piece, you have to address the other economic challenges we have in boston. Healthcare costs, costs of childcare. It costs more to raise a child from birth to five than to send that kid to college at boston university. Rent control, yes or no, senator . Sen. Markey i would support any community that wants it to impose rent control. Local options . Sen. Markey local option. If they believe in their community the housing costs have spiraled so far out of control, that its leading to an exodus of the poorest and the most vulnerable out of that community, that community should have a right to impose rent control in order to stabilize that community. Were seeing a gentrification that is taking place across our state but its across the country, as well. We just have to deal with this as the epidemic which it is because housing, education, transportation and breaking down of the discriminatory barriers that exist are actually at the heart of this issue. We have to make sure that were giving these opportunities to every family but especially those who are black and brown. I grew up white. I know there are much higher [laughter] still are. To be clear. Sen. Markey im very conscious of it and very conscious of the discriminatory barriers that i did not have to deal with. Moving on to healthcare. We have one of the lowest uninsured rates in the country in massachusetts but i believe you are both supportive of medicare for all. Does that mean you support getting rid of the private insurance that 160 americans have through their bosses, employers, including those people in unions that have negotiated these great Health Benefits and their contracts . Lets start with you. Sen. Markey we still have a healthcare crisis in america. We are running a sickcare system, not a Healthcare System. 30 million americans do not have Health Insurance as we sit here tonight on channel 2. Healthcare bills are still the number one cause of bankruptcy in the United States. We spent twice as much money in the United States as other industrialized nations and we have the 30th worst outcome for health. Were paying twice as much and were not getting the answer. So thats why we need no deductibles, no prescription bills. Why we need to ensure that we transform this system so that everyone gets the healthcare which they need. Eliminate private insurance . Sen. Markey we have to move towards a pathway in our society we have to debate it and do it correctly and in a way that causes the least disruption but we have to move towards that system. Thats a system that will keep costs low but eliminating private insurance . Sen. Markey over time we have to move in that direction and the reason we have to move. I have to hold because time is way out of whack. My apologies. You can take some extra time. Congressman, get rid of private insurance . Rep. Kennedy start big and well get there. First off, the Healthcare System for the richest, most powerful nation on earth should be able to ensure that every person gets access to the care they need and the fact is that today even in our country and even in our state, we dont. A couple of statistics for you. 17 million insured patients in this country, jim, still ration access to medication. 26 of patients that depend on insulin ration their insulin. 88 billion, the medical debt last year alone. 812 billion, the amount of healthcare dollars that go to administrative costs and not a dime of which actually makes you healthier. 252 billion, investment that is made from our dollars into Insurance Companies that dont actually get turned back around into care. Heres the kicker. 12,000, thats the average amount that every American Family spends for healthcare already today premiums, deductibles, copays, outofpocket costs, 12,000 already. Do i think we can do better . Absolutely. My uncle introduced a single payer bill on the floor of the United States senate in 1971. When you look at that speech, some of the factors he looked at maternal mortality, infant mortality, life expectancy, almost 50 years ago and between 1971 and today, those stats have gotten better. When you look at them compared to other oecd countries, weve gotten worse. When you judge them for income, you fall through the floor. Do i think that 50 more years will ensure better healthcare . That single mom, probably not. 50 years is enough to say that the process we have taken is leaving too many behind. Issues of medicare for all scare some people because they like their insurance and some union people love their insurance. Would you favor taking that away . Rep. Kennedy two things. One, this debate has ended up in this odd litmus test on whether or not to allow private insurance. The entire point of the bill is that people will get access to better healthcare at lower costs. I think we can do that. And lets try to actually do that. Two, theres no single pair system in the world that has abolished private insurance but it is a source of equity, it eases the statistics i cited and we better try to make sure people do get access to clear. Youre both supporting medicare for all and other than the buttigiegs of the world who say medicare for all who want it, you are not saying that. You do or do not support elimination of private insurance over time. You said yes over time. Whats your answer, congressman . Rep. Kennedy i think we need to make sure we provide access to care that we need and i think we can try to do that without access to private insurance. Without access. Quickly. Sen. Markey we have a Healthcare System that needs to be fixed. My mother contracted alzheimers. She was going to become senior class president. My grandmother died, my mother had to be the caregiver for the family. My father married my mother. When she contracted alzheimers, my father said, you know, eddie, it was an honor that your mother married me, she was a brilliant mother. You got to help me keep her in the living room in malden. And the right arm of the milk man is the strongest arm in the world lifting six milk bottles all day long. So at age 80, 84, 86, 90, we kept her in the living room in malden. 15 million baby boomers will have alzheimers. The medicaid bills will be equal to the defense budget. It will bust the Defense System in our country. Thats why ive led in the effort to fully Fund Research to end alzheimers by 2025. We must find a cure by 2025 and if we dont, that issue alone will bankrupt the system. So we have to look ahead, lead the way. Thats my legislation which is on the books right now and its up to 2. 8 billion just this year in funding to find the cure. I was able to add 350 million more dollars in december to accomplish that goal. We have to give hope to every family that they have alzheimers solution that is on the way, otherwise, almost every baby boomer family will know someone with that disease. Lets talk about the president. Lets talk about the president for a minute, your favorite person here. The 25th amendment determines what to do if a president is deemed physically or mentally unfit to serve. This became an issue early in the president s term when then Deputy Attorney general Rod Rosenstein talked about getting cabinet members together to remove the president and then there was psychiatrist, psychologist who wrote the book talking about the president s malignant narcissism that these medical professionals made him unfit to serve. Senator markey, do you think the president is mentally unfit to serve . Sen. Markey theres not a chance in the world that the president s cabinet will remove him. Sad to say, there are tens of millions of americans who agree with the president on everything he does. I just saw that on the senate floor, i sat there for two weeks. With the president on everything i heard overwhelming evidence that he had committed a high crime against the country. I looked over at the republican side. It was irrefutable evidence that he had done so and then we cast the vote. I stood twice and voted guilty to each one of the counts and the republicans acquitted him. So to the extent to which we think that donald trump is wrong for the country, look, in the United States senate, in his cabinet, he has willing, supine allies. Do you think hes mentally unfit . Sen. Markey i think he has crazy ideas. I think his view of the world is absolutely a Rearview Mirror view of the world for a country that never existed. But i dont think anyone and my wife is a psychiatrist can evaluate anyone at a distance without examining them. I can say his ideas are crazy. By the way, you know that a colleague of yours has a bill together to compose a body, authorize the composition of a body, that would be able to make these determinations unders the 25th amendment. Do you think hes mentally fit for office, congressman kennedy . Rep. Kennedy im not a doctor and i dont think im qualified to make that determination. Ill leave that to the professionals. What i will say is that his actions alone disqualify him from office because the Mueller Report is a clear indication he obstructed justice on multiple occasions. I was a prosecutor. I had cases where people didnt have evidence or witnesses. They were called pleas. Thats what that should have been and thats essentially what that was. The part that i think is critical to understand, the bigger picture, is that this president violates his oath of office to protect every single citizen in this country literally on a daily basis but what is incumbent for every one of us now is to ensure you are doing everything you possibly can we ended up in those impeachment proceedings with the oversight through the house of representatives because we were able to flip the house. We need to ensure we are doing everything we can to if republicans are not going to abide by their oaths as impartial jurors, you hold them to it and flip the senate. We have very little time so we need quick answers. A lot of democrats and others think attorney general barr has violated his oath of office. A woman youre supporting for president says if he doesnt voluntarily resign, he should be impeached quickly. Should he be . Rep. Kennedy yes. Should he be impeached . Sen. Markey i call for his resignation and i would say that impeachment is the only way to deal with a man who responds to a tweet from the president of the United States and changes thats a yes. Staying in the judicial system. You know there have been two conservative justices appointed, Supreme Court a tilt to the , right. The two of the oldest justices are liberals so the president could potentially affect the tilt for a generation or beyond. There are some president ial candidates who propose enlarging the size of the court quickly. Do you support that . Rep. Kennedy the better alternative is term limits. The term limits might need a constitutional amendment enlarging rep. Kennedy term limits are the better way to go. Do you support enlarging the size of the court . Sen. Markey i think we need a debate on changing the Supreme Court term limits, enlarging it. Its time for us to do so. Although i will say this. Im glad that Ruth Bader Ginsburg was not term limited. You would support enlarging the size . You say we need a debate. Should democrats lead the charge to enlarge the size of the Supreme Court . Sen. Markey i think that we should make sure that donald trump does not get reelected and have the next democratic president after shes sworn in name all the justices in 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 and that should be our principal nearterm goal to make sure hes out, we control the senate and we can confirm the justices of the next president of the United States who will be a democrat. Only a few minutes left. Quick answers, please. You support relief for student debt, tuition free college. Should that be means tested or should that be available to everybody whether wealthy or not . Rep. Kennedy the bill ive supported and look, the premise here is every single the commitment that our country has made to every generation is that you get a pathway to an education that gets you to a good quality job for free and the reality of the circumstances at the moment we dont. The pathway, appropriate pathway i believe in is that we should eliminate student debt for 95 of all students. For families of means, i dont think your taxpayer dollars should pay for my childrens education. Sen. Markey i was first in my family to go to college. I had to be a commuter, i had to drive an Ice Cream Truck to earn tuition. Without federal loans, i couldnt have gone to college so i identify with these kids with a backpack of debt they have to take out of the college they graduate from so i believe we should make it debtfree and i do believe we should have Free Community college, free public universities in massachusetts. For everybody or means . Sen. Markey i would limit it. I dont think rich people should get free tuition. But i think we have to make sure we have a pathway for everyone else because for just about everyone else, it is so onerous that it becomes a way in which it changes the direction of an individuals life and i lived it. Without the loans, i could not have made it. I was paying back Student Loans through my third time in congress. That is how dependent i was on that program. Were out of time. Last question, and this time it is time enforced. Ending where we began. After having been informed by an hour of debate, could you sum up, starting with you, senator, for voters, how you would describe the differences between the two of you. Why you should be rehired, and why he should be fired and you should be hired in his place. 45 seconds. Sen. Markey i have led and delivered for the people of massachusetts. If i am once again given the opportunity to serve in our state, i will lead on a Green New Deal and get it passed in the next congress. I will lead on the strongest possible Gun Legislation that can pass and make it the law of our land. I will lead and win legislation to fully cleanse finding the cure for alzheimers so that this plague is stopped before 15 million baby boomers have it. I will lead on those issues. I have been successful passing legislation in those areas and ill continue this effort to ensure that in the future children have to look to the history books to find there was such a thing as alzheimers or Climate Change or a gun safety epidemic on the streets of our country. Congressman . Rep. Kennedy thanks for this opportunity to engage. We are at a moment of crisis for our country, for our Democratic Party and for our commonwealth for so many of the issues that we believe in and yes, filing the right legislation and voting the right way is a critical part of the job but if theres one lesson from todays washington, d. C. Is that this is all about power and if you are serious about putting the people and the causes we care about first, you got to go out there and take it. You got to have candidates that are going to and senators that will leverage every ounce of power that comes with a Massachusetts Senate seat to go out there and rebuild the bench to deliver on the structural change that is necessary, ending the filibuster, ending electoral college, Campaign Finance reform, keeping dark money out so we can deliver on the ideals of a Green New Deal, of college, the Voting Rights act and ending gerrymandering. These are all of the parts that we need to address. Thank you, gentlemen. Thank you both. Thats all the time we have for tonight. Thanks for watching and listening. Thanks to the candidates, senator ed markey and congressman joe kennedy and now you have an opportunity to thank themselves yourselves, everybody in this room. [applause] primary election day is september 3. Dont forget to make your voice heard on that day. I am margery eagan. Thank you so much for joining us. Good night. [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] the boston globe reporting on last nights Senate Debate rights, speaking to reporters, kennedy suggested he would be able to connect with voters in the same visceral way as the knights comment enemy, trump can. Policy matters but in this moment when so much is at stake, you have to have folks that are doing everything they possibly can to help navigate our way through it. Senator markey for his part appeared intent on demonstrating that he is an effective leader on the challenges of the day, not just on his signature issue of Climate Change. Read more at boston globe. Com. More Live Programming in 90 minutes when Long Island University announces winners for the annual george polk award in journalism, 1 00 eastern on cspan. Tonight, President Trump holds a Campaign Rally in phoenix, arizona. 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