The people elected to these positions will be grappling for serious issues. Are pleased to offer a democratic primary debate for the 16th Congressional District. Map of the 16th district. The seat is currently held by eliot engel. Districtpresented this since 1989. Here are the rules for this debate. You can see them on our screen. They have been agreed to by all of the candidate. We will allow for conversation to take place. You can see the full debate at any time and i want to note we are taking this on tuesday, june 9. Lets go now to opening statements. The order will be determined by random drawing. Chris will go first. Good evening. Thank you. Voters have a choice between four great individuals, three of whom arent here. You can choose a career politician, whose focus solely on International Issues and has had 32 years the address the issues and hasnt gotten it done. On the other hand, your pick an individual with no experience as at the classroom, backed solely by money outside the district. What i ask you to do is listen to issues important to us and look at who has the experience to address them and who has the plan to move us forward on each and every one of these issues . That person is me. Thank you. Thank you. Next well hear from mr. Bowman. Thank you. I have had the pleasure of serving this community as an educator. I started my career as an Elementary School principal before becoming a guidance counselor and for the last 10 per five years, i have served my community as a principal in the bronx. I have had the opportunity to organize parents, teachers, students, and by the proposal of my own school. In 2009, we opened our own school in. The northeast bronx and our mission was to tap into the potential of our children, leverage the power of our family to fight against institutional racism and classism that exists within the system throughout the state and the country. Were proud of the work weve done, but theres more work to be done because our children who lived in poverty deal with extreme trauma and are suffering under the policy. Its time for change in the district and for the country. Ok, thank you. Next is mr. Engel. Thank you, i just want to say that im disappointed that the fourth candidate in the race and the only latino is being barred from being here. I wish that he would be here. Im eliot engel. Im running for another term as a member of congress. I want to say the country has changed in the past few weeks and i want to address that. I want to address the fact that black lives matter. I want to address the fact that there has been a tremendous outpouring of young people and old people and middleaged people and our country will never be the same. I can only imagine the pain that black people feel, the indignity of it and hope all of us, no matter who was elected, will develop our time making sure racial equality in america becomes a reality. What happened to george floyd breaks my heart. It should not happen to anyone, certainly not to a human being. I hope they throw the book at those three cops and i hope it opens up a chance in america for us to really reassess and redo our law enforcement, because it cant continue to be the way it is now. I know in congress, we met yesterday. Were working on packages to make sure chokehold and other things are banned. There are so many things we can do because a black lives do matter. Thank you. Candidates, we are going to talk about the protests. We are in a time of great upheaval of course, and there are lots of questions about criminal justice swirling around, including some legislation that the next representative will have to get involved with and vote on. I wanted to ask each of you, what public actions have you taken on these issues the last few weeks since protests began . And if elected, what would be the top priority when it comes to criminal Justice Reform . Lets go in the same order. Lets start with you, mr. Fink. Mr. Fink these are big problems the country is facing. The positions i have taken, and you can find them on a website, are as follows. A, if i was in power in minneapolis, i wouldve a, charged the racist with murder one from day one. I would have started that trial from day one, impanel a jury and get it taken care of. I would have arrested the other three immediately. We needed leadership on these issues. I proposed on my website that it would make it a hate crime for any prosecuting officer who targets people of color. I would put in a reasonable and necessary standard, a standard under the law for many years that people understand, and those are the standards before you can use force. I would require deescalation techniques before you can use force. Ban chokeholds. And three strikes legislation. This individual had 18 complaints against him. And he was still on the force. That should never have been allowed. He should have been thrown off the force way before what happened in minneapolis. Mr. Bowman one thing the congress and mentioned, things have changed the last few weeks. If youre american, things have not changed at all. We deal with institutional racism on a daily basis, and i have dealt with Police Brutality and Police Arrest my entire life. The first time i was beaten by police was 11 years old. A few years later, i was smacked around by police for being a boisterous young man. Its something we consistently deal with. As we engage with Police Brutality, we have to engage with all institutional racism, and where it exists. In education, healthcare, housing and environmental justice. The federal policy we need to address involves immunity. Right now, police have immunity. If they violate someones civil rights, the person is not allowed to sue them. That is unacceptable. We need to increase police accountability, not just in terms of accountability, but federal investigation. If police commit a crime, we need the department of justice and the f. B. I. To investigate at a federal level. In addition, we need to reallocate resources that have gone to demilitarizing the police, thats the crime bill that led to militarization of the police force. We need to reallocate those towards nurses, teachers, Mental Health professionals housing so , they can be depoliced. Respond toe, you can mr. Bowman, but also please give us your response. What have you been doing and what would you do if reelected . What i would be doing is what my kids have been doing every day this week. I would go out to demonstrations and go to my district to demonstrate. When i mentioned to change, obviously were not going to change a week or two weeks or three weeks, but i think this country is changing in terms of how horrific this is and being aware. If youre not black, there are things you take for granted. I think this is a tremendous thing in making people aware and embracing people as brothers and sisters. Thats why congress tried to respond yesterday with some of the proposals. Im working to make sure some things are eliminated in new york state, there is a bill in the legislature which would allow people to take a look at the officers the cops previous record. Right now, you cant look at it. I think things are changing. Plenty more to do, not enough, but it makes us aware. When i march and my kids, one in brooklyn, one in the bronx, two in the bronx, when they march, they were topped by the values taught by myself and their mother. I march because i want to be with the young people because i think there cant be a better lesson taught than social action for positive change in this country. Ok. Let me ask each of you, there are calls nationwide and here in new york for each of you to defund the police. I want to know if you supported that. Different people mean Different Things by that. Let me start with you, mr. Engel. Mr. Engel i dont support defunding the police. I believe we need to have a police force. What i do support is taking some of the money and using it for other methods of policing. There is not just one method of policing. I think we need to have a structure in the police department. That doesnt mean we have to go with the model we had been using for years and years and years. I think that people can put their heads together, come up with a good plan, and i think we will be able to, by and large, move forward in a positive way. But it is going to take a while. We cant solve these problems overnight. But were all in this i always like to quote, saying my good friend congressman john lewis who is a civil rights activist who is endorsing me for this election. He says, we all come here on different ships, but we are in the same boat together. We have to fix our society. It is wounded and it is broken and we have to change it and we have to work as hard as we can, and hopefully we will come up with a system where people will feel a modicum of fairness than what they feel right now. Ok. Mr. Fink . View is that we need to demilitarize the police. We need to reallocate the amount that replaced to the Police Departments all over the country and use them in the correct ways. We need to get rid of the ar15s, i couldnt believe that we have two Armored Vehicles in new york to take care of these issues, and that is a complete waste of money. We should get rid of those. We should get rid of military type weapons that are carried by Police Forces and reallocate that money to proper training, better testing, and social policing. I do agree with the congressman that we have a long way to go. I am a father. I have five children. Four are white, one is black. I dont want to live in a country where my one child is treated differently than other children by our police, so we need to make change and we need to make change now. Not just black people. Not white people. All of us. Mr. Bowman you say we have a long way to go. How long are people of color in this country going the wait to get there . How long are people in poverty going to wait to get there . Yes, i support defunding of the police because if we invest in jobs, there wont be any for as large a police force as we have and there will not be a need for demilitarization of the police. There is no need for that anyway. And congressman engel, when you said you came here on different ships, you are absolutely correct. Africanamericans came here on slave ships. We were shackled and chained. We are the only people on this land that actually existed on this land as property, as capital. You say we were on the same boat. We are not on the same boat. People of african descent are more likely to live in poverty, more likely to be killed by police, incarcerated, live in areas where housing has been neglected. We have to have conversations to deal with institutional racism and classism. And we cant say it is going to take a long while. The whole country is wising up. We are tired of waiting. We are sick and tired of being sick and tired. Did you want to respond . Mr. Engel i did. I wasnt quoting myself. I was quoting john lewis, a civil rights hero in the 60s in alabama on the bridge, where he was beaten senseless, almost dead. He is the one who said that, and i respect him. He is supporting me. We worked very, very closely together. He is an icon. I dont think his word can be doubted whatsoever, because he is one of the people who changed this country. Fair enough. Stand by, candidates. We are going to take a short break. Well be back with more of this debate in just a minute. Stay with us. Welcome back to our democratic primary debate for the 16th Congressional District, which covers part of the bronx and lower westchester. Featuring candidates eliot engel, chris fink, and jamaal bowman. I want to talk to you about the ongoing pandemic. The city is beginning to reopen but it is worth remembering the first major covid outbreak in this region took place in my hometown of new rochelle, which falls within the 16th Congressional District. I wanted to know from each of you as the pandemic swept through the area, what public actions did you take to help the community . I would also like to get into a discussion of what we need to do Going Forward. Lets start with you, mr. Bowman. Mr. Bowman the pandemic hit new rochelle march 2. Within eight days, new rochelle was contained. Schools were closed, National Guard was brought in, and food was distributed to those who needed it. Shortly thereafter, i was rallying with the nurses outside of st. Joseph hospital demanding ppes because the federal governments response was lackluster in terms of ppes not just here in the state, but across the country. I also had the privilege of serving at food pantries in yonkers and multiple areas of the bronx. The one thing i want to highlight the new rochelle response was accurate. Within eight days, we shut it down and we got them the services they needed. Unfortunately, the same response that not happen in yonkers and mount vernon. It took another 23 days to bring a testing site to coopt city and another 53 days to bring testing sites to yonkers, mount vernon. The response was inadequate, and as we know, black and latino communities were disproportionately impacted by covid, and our the responses lackluster terms of the community in new rochelle and those in poverty in other areas of the district. Mr. Fink . Mr. Fink my house is less than a mile from new rochelle, the epicenter of this pandemic. Beginning in the middle of march, my family and i brought food to homeless shelters, food kitchens. We gave blood. So did my staff, because we knew blood was short at this period of time. We got out there and attended rallies in support of our community. What i also did was i came up with a plan. It is on my website. It is called the sea see forward plan. Clearly, our nation and our federal government were not ready when we came into this pandemic. There were not prepared for it, they did not react quickly. I want to have a plan when we come out of it. That plan addresses social, environmental, and economic. On the social side, it gets us safely back to work and trains healthcare workers. On the environmental side, and make sure the last two months continue Going Forward and we get Renewable Energy. Most importantly on the economic side, we get people back to work. We need to create jobs, all of our district, long term jobs that will support our people. Mr. Engel . Mr. Engel i was meeting with people. People really didnt know what had hit them. In new rochelle, when this first started, i spoke with the people who were quarantined at the time to tell them we were behind them, that we would help them any way possible. I went down to washington and got to work. I procured 100,000 100,000 antibody tests. 5 million in funding to new york hospitals. Money for Community Health centers in new rochelle and in mount vernon and places like that. I have been able to get more money into my district than any other member of congress. I was very proud of the money that i was able to bring in. So, thats what i did and worked with all the hospitals of new york to help them procure money that they needed for beds and other things like that. Ok, lets spend a couple of minutes, candidates. What is the status as far as you are concerned of medical readiness, resiliency in the district, and if it needs improving, what would you do as a member of congress to make that happen . In any order. From the very beginning, we called on the federal government to do a lot more. The cares act was inadequate. This district is one of the most economically unequal in the country. One time 1200 checks were not going to get it done. We called for 2000 per month check to everyone who lost their jobs, we called for the cancellation of rent, the cancellation of utilities, and the cancellation of mom and pop mortgages. We called for undocumented immigrants to be a part of the cares package as well. I spoke to an undocumented immigrant recently who has four children who are american citizens and she has not received a dime from the federal government. Which is unacceptable. In terms of readiness, unless we are going to do doortodoor testing, especially in places like coopt city where they are so many seniors, so many have been homebound since the virus hit, i dont think we are ready to open up, open back up just yet. I also want to comment on congressman engle. He reported via his social media that he would be giving out supplies in mount vernon. He put out multiple tweets he would be there doing so. In fact, he was in maryland. At his home. A reporter knocked on his home and congressman engel answered the door. He lied to the constituents of this district saying he was going to be here handing out splice when he was not. Lets give him a chance to respond. Mr. Engel mr. Bowman, that is so ridiculous on its face. I work in washington. Maryland is right across the river from washington. When i first got elected to congress, my children were young and i brought them down with me. They stayed in that house. Now they are in their 20s and 30s and they are back in new york. I still have that house where i go when i go down to washington. I dont think anybody would begrudge me for going down to washington. I fought in the heroes act. I got 5 billion in funding for new york hospitals. That is five times more than any other state got. That is work that i did. Its so ridiculous. I live in riverdale. Everybody knows i live in riverdale. I have lived there for a long time. I am sort of like the mayor of riverdale. For anybody to imply, it just goes to show how much you dont know the district, because everybody in riverdale knows me. Very few know you, because you really have not been in the district. You just decided you were going to move in and run for office. Mr. Bowman heres the issue. He said he was going to be in the districtm and he was not in the district. That is misleading, that is a lie. That is taking your constituents for granted. Number one. Let me finish, ok . Number two, how can you feel the pain and the suffering that people are going through during the pandemic if you are not here . All of the other Senior Leaders from congress returned back to their districts here in new york. Congressman engel stayed in maryland. If you wanted to stay in maryland, thats fine, but do not mislead the voters when you say you are going to be here when you were not here. Mr. Engel the only person misleading the voters right now is you. Senator charles bailey, who by the way, is supporting me. And by the assemblyman who was supporting me. The three of us were giving food to the people. I couldnt make it, so the two of them gave it and i was not there. My name was there. I was a sponsor. I was listed on there. Mr. Bowman you tweeted you were going to be there. Mr. Engel no, no, no. I sponsored it. Ok, i think we get the gist of this dispute. Im sure people are Fact Checking as we speak and twitter will get the last word on that. Mr. Fink . Mr. Fink i will let these two fight all night long but let me answer the question that neither of them answered. Two things. Contact tracing is the most important thing we could and should be doing right now with respect to this pandemic. Its shown to be effective all over the country. We need to do it here. The pandemic happened here for a reason. Because of the concentration of human beings in our population. We need to follow that. Second, the cares act. The cares act was a bandaid, an insufficient bandaid. That is why my plan will create jobs, not only in infrastructure, but jobs in the Health Care Industry so that we can test, we can provide Health Care Workers the ability to test and do Contact Tracing so that when this happens again, and i can promise you, we are going to have another pandemic. It may be in the fall, it may be two years from now, but we need to be better prepared. The federal government cannot be caught flatfooted again. We need to focus on those two areas Contact Tracing and providing longterm jobs that address this issue before it becomes a pandemic. Thank you. Candidates, it is time now for the crossexamination. That is when each candidate will get a chance to ask one opponent one question. Were going to start with you, mr. Fink. Mr. Fink thank you. I would like to address this question to mr. Bowman and i have asked him this before and he didnt answer this. If i had a group, a company that wanted to move to our district, lets say yonkers, and open a factory that is going to create solar panels and provide great, longterm, good paying jobs for people who work in that industry, and provide Renewable Energy to us Going Forward but your backers, aoc and the justice democrats, for some reason do not like the woman who runs that company. And they have given you 500,000 to support your campaign. I want to know, can you honestly tell me that you are going to vote in favor of your district or the people who backed you . Mr. Bowman im going to vote in favor of my district. I have not received half a Million Dollars from aoc and the justice democrats. My campaign is fully funded by small dollar donations, we have an average donation of 37. We dont take any money from corporate pacs at all for our campaign. Mr. Fink thats not really true. We cannot do rebuttals, but we will come back to that probably in some other forum. Mr. Bowman, you get to ask a question of one of the rivals. Mr. Bowman yes, im going to ask congressman engel a question. Congressman engel, will you apologize and take responsibility, will you apologize for saying you would be in the district giving out supplies and groceries during the pandemic when you were in fact in maryland . Will you apologize for misleading the voters and will you take responsibility for that . Mr. Engel what is your problem, mr. Bowman, if i sponsor something, and give away the food, and i at the last minute i was not physically there . Yesterday, we gave out food as well, and i was there part of the time because i had to leave because i had another meeting to go to. The important thing is not if you are physically there to hand out the food, but you do the programs to hand out the food. I have lived in this district since i was 12 years old. Everyone knows me there. Im like hometown kid. I help people. It does not matter whether i am there or im not there, as long as people get the help they need, thats what counts. I dont understand your dwelling on my physical presence one place or another. I was rated one of the 10 most effective lawmakers. Its not because i was there each and every time. It is because i am effective in what i do. Its because i bring home things to the district. It is because people know me and they see me. We have never seen you until you decided you were going to run for congress. Nobody knew you. Im sure you had your school and that was it, but youve done nothing in the community through the years. Every battle weve had in this community in the years, you have been missing in action. I think you are the last one who should point the finger at anybody else. Ok, mr. Engel, you got to ask a question now. Mr. Engel yeah, i would like to ask mr. Bowman, where has he been . He has Community Night outs every single year, were fighting against flooding in westchester. We were fighting about crime or anything, schools, where has he been . Hes been with his school. By the way, i hear the school did not have such good ratings and i heard the parents of the school made him resign because he was using his kids to do Political Campaign work for him. I heard that from a number of people. I think we got a question out of that. Mr. Bowman that is completely absurd. [laughter] im sorry, that last part was completely absurd. Congressman, i have not just served as the middle school principal, which i am incredibly proud of. I didnt just open on my own Community School in your district. We did other things beyond the school. We partnered with the Medical Center to build a health care attachment to the school. Were breaking ground on that this summer and we are very proud of that. We have worked with the alliance for quality education to increase funding for new york state schools to record numbers. Weve worked with a coalition of education justice to bring culturally responsive curriculum to our schools. We worked with one of your colleagues, jamaal bailey, so he can fight for schools on the senate floor. He evoked my name at the state level when he pushed the bill to bring more practices to our schools. I also testified to governor cuomos Common Core Task force against the common core standards because they were inappropriate and they led that led to a moratorium on teaching evaluations twostate test. Congressman engel, the reason why you have never seen me is because you are not here, you live in maryland. Im here. Im principal of a school in your district. Youre not seeing me says more about your absence than my absence. Thank you. That ends the crossexamination. Thank you, candidates. Everybody stand by. We are going to take a short break. We will be back with more of this debate for the 16th Congressional District in just a minute. Stay with us. Welcome back to our democratic primary debate for new yorks 16th Congressional District. It is time for a lightning round , where each candidate lancer my question with a brief response, usually yes or no. Lets go right around in order. If reelected or elected, will you vote to have nancy pelosi continue as House Speaker . Mr. Fink yes. Mr. Bowman it depends whos running. We will have to wait and see. Mr. Engle absolutely, yes. Mr. Engel, should the u. S. Cut its military budget . Yes. Mr. Fink absolutely. Mr. Bowman yes. Reallocate towards peace and diplomacy. Mr. Bowman, should the nypd be removed from the role of providing security in new york city Public Schools . Mr. Bowman absolutely, yes. mr. Fink absolutely, no. congressman engel yes. Mr. Engel, should taxes be raised on households that earned more than 500,000 a year . Congressman engel yes. mr. Fink absolutely, let believe in a progressive tax system. Mr. Bowman yes. Ok. Mr. Bowman, should new York City Police officers allowed to live in the surrounding suburbs . Mr. Bowman good question. I guess so, yeah. But, i would like to lightning round. Bowman we got to hire them from the city. Got it. Mr. Fink . Mr. Fink absolutely not. Under my crime plan, they would have to live in the city they work. Mr. Engel . Mr. Engel yes. Mr. Engel, should social Media Companies be allowed to censor the content on their platform . Mr. Engel no. Mr. Bowman . Mr. Bowman no. Mr. Fink . Mr. Fink no, the First Amendment gives us the right to free speech. Mr. Fink, should all medical care for coronavirus be free . Mr. Fink absolutely. mr. Bowman yes, all health care should be free. We support medicare for all. Mr. Engel . Mr. Engel yes, and i also support medicare for all. For many years. Mr. Engel, at this time would you feel safe riding or having family members ride the new york city subway . Mr. Engel yes. My kids ride it everyday to work. Mr. Fink . Mr. Fink yes. I have taken the subway my whole career and i would do so in a heartbeat. Mr. Bowman . Mr. Bowman no, we still need to handle this pandemic. Mr. Bowman, what is the last social thing you did before social distancing became a thing . Mr. Bowman petitioning in mount vernon. Mr. Fink . Mr. Fink same exact thing. I was on the train tracks in mount vernon getting signatures so i could run in this election. Mr. Engel . Mr. Engel with my wife. Ok. Mr. Engel, do you think it is safe for professional sports to start up in some sort of limited capacity . Mr. Engel yes. Mr. Fink . Mr. Fink i think they should start up in a capacity which does not have people in the stands. Mr. Bowman . Mr. Bowman i dont know, man. No. [laughter] i dont know sounds like a no. Mr. Bowman, should the Democratic Party hold an in person National Convention this summer . Mr. Bowman no. Mr. Fink no. Mr. Engel no. Ok. That is the lightning round. Thank you, candidates. I wanted to move on to a different topic and it is one that kind of rolled throughout this campaign. We even touched on some of it tonight. That is the issue of experience versus change. Ive got a particular question for each of you. Mr. Engel, what do you say to constituents who want change after more than three decades of your service in office . Another way to put it would be, what do you plan to do in the next two years that you have not done in the last 32 . Mr. Engel well, i think finish the job. Im now the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs committee. We are doing a lot of investigations on President Trump and his administration. The stories have been all over the paper about the Inspector General being fired. They have people trying to find out if things are on the up and up. What trump does is the minute they are start making headway he , fires them. We are going after them. Im leading the charge in this thing is going to blow up in the next few months. You will hear a lot of things because we have them hot on their tail. With seniority in the congress, there is clout. The seniority system works that way. If you have your committee chair, you can have more money for your district. You can do investigations like the ones i just described. I have brought home lots of dollars to my district because of my seniority. In terms of making sure that this administration is on the up and up, i was part of the speakers Kitchen Cabinet when it came to the impeachment. I was one of the Six Committee chairs that carried the ball. I have been doing a lot of work as the chairman. In the congress. Im very proud of it. I think you send someone back to congress has the experience, who has been doing his job. I feel i am perfect for that position. Ok, mr. Fink, you have talked about how both mr. Engel as an established longtime incumbent, that there are some drawbacks to that. I take it from your question to mr. Bowman, you think his connections to the justice democrats and some of the progressive organizations is also a problem. On the other hand, you go in as a freshman theres a fine line, you could say, with being independent and being disconnected. How would you as a freshman plan to get things done if you are not part of any established National Political formation . Mr. Bowman i have been able to get things done my entire career. Mr. Engel talked about how his 32 years and his chairmanship gives his clout. We looked at the numbers and the numbers do not lie. He introduced 43 bills. None of them passed. Zero. If i was 043 in my job, i would have been fired. In my career, i have represented state and local governments across the country. Over 700 state and local governments. Ive fixed the infrastructure in different municipalities. I have brought Renewable Energy to the tune of 24 billion of projects over the last 10 years. In the last nine years, my group has advised more municipal governments than any other group. Nine years in a row, we have ranks number one. That is effective and thats experience in things that matter to our district. They dont care so much about the Inspector General. People care about the roads we drive on, the bridges we drive over and the schools our kids go in. They are all crumbling and they have been for 32 years. They care about pollution and the climate crisis. Everyone on this panel talks about the Green New Deal. Im the only one who has any background or experience in energy and a plan to get it done. Im not just saying lets get green. We have a plan to get it done. You need experience and you need to be effective and thats what i have been my whole career, and thats what i will be in congress. Mr. Engel, i give you a chance to respond on that. Mr. Engel the committee for effective leadership ranks me the top 10 in congress. Since there are 435 members in congress, i think being top 10 shows you are doing pretty well. I dont know where he got this no bills passed. It shows you do not have an idea of how things work. You sign on bills, you combine bills, you do all kinds of things that way. Believe me, i have had a lot of impact on this congress and past congresses. Ok, we can factcheck. It is a fact that you introduced 43 bills and none became law. Thats not a gray area, its true. Mr. Engel i dont believe its true. Let me go to mr. Bowman. You have talked tonight and other times during the campaign about repealing the 1994 crime bill, but that law also established the assault weapon ban and allowed consent decrees. I am wondering, you do not necessarily want to get rid of every element of that bill, right . Mr. Bowman correct. There are things in the bill that work, like the violence against womens act. That is part of the bill. There could be other things that could be implemented that did not have to be part of the crime bill. We have to rewrite new bills and introduce new legislation that will impact our communities in a positive way. If you dont mind, i want to go back something that congressman engel mentioned. He mentioned over the next 10 years, they will go after trump and investigate trump. He has received an f for oversight in congress. That is number one. Number two, we called for the impeachment of trump after we lost our campaign in midjune. Congressman engel did not get on board with impeaching trump until two months after that date. Weve heard throughout the district that people are calling for change. We need 70,000 Affordable Homes as we speak in the district. Our schools are underfunded by billions of dollars. We are dealing with environmental racism in the district where people are three times more likely to die of asthma in the bronx than anywhere else. We need jobs in the job training program. There is so much to fight for, and unfortunately, congressman engels absence has forced has caused people to tell us, he is not present, he is not engaged and it is time for a change. I will give you a moment to respond, but mr. Bowman, he got an f from what group . Mr. Bowman forgive me if i do not remember the group, but he got an f for oversight. Ok. Mr. Engel i have been a progressive democrat for all the years i have been in congress. That is why i have ratings of a. From the naacp. That is why the Congressional Black Caucus endorsed me. The hispanic caucus has endorsed me. Im one of the clean votes, the pure votes on the Progressive Side and i have done that for years. People can make up things. The fact is a progressive does not take corporate pac money. Mr. Engel what are you taking money now . Mr. Bowman a progressive does not take corporate pac money. My campaign didnt. Mr. Engel did i interrupt you . I didnt interrupt you. The fact of the matter is, you are now getting half a Million Dollars, and that money is dark money. It is not good for our institutions. You try to pretend you criticize me for voting for the crime bill. It is an omnibus bill. There were other things, the violence against women act, in t in there, too. Bernie sanders voted for the bill. You cannot just pick things out and pretend they are all by themselves. You ask anybody in congress, democrat or republican, they will tell you eliot engel is a hardworking progressive democrat for many years. Im proud of it, and i want to continue to do it. Mr. Fink . Mr. Fink can i just clear up, numbers do not lie. Politicians make up a lot of things. Numbers do not lie. Mr. Engel gets 87 of his contributions from outside of the district. Very clear. We filed with the sec. That number is there. Mr. Bowman gets 94 of his from outside the district. That is not even counting the 500,000 he is getting from aoc. He gets more money from brooklyn, 30,000, than he gets from our district where he only has 21,000. This is disclosed in the sec filings. They are both financed from outside the district. Im not. When you are going to go vote, who are you going to vote for . Our district, or the people that support the two of you . Im going to vote for our district. Mr. Bowman, you can respond. Mr. Bowman thats all right. This then. Sk you it has come up a couple of times. 500,000 from the justice democrats. Is that expenditures, support for you . What is behind the number . Is independent expenditures. I do not know why this keeps coming up. I am talking about our campaign and the funds we have raised. We dont take any corporate any corporate pac money, and our critique of congressman engel if he is completely funded by big business, large donors, Big Pharma Companies and big military companies. You cannot call yourself a progressive when you are accountable to corporate pacs and weapons manufacturers. When you look at his voting records allowing the sale of bombssaudi arabia, to saudi arabia, when you oppose Barack Obamas signature foreign policy, the iran deal, when you look at who funds him and what he votes for, you see a conflict of interest in terms of his foreign policy. If you honestly feel the way you say you feel, then why dont you publicly state that you dont want any money pledged from the justice democrats from the justice democrats . They are clearly supporting you. If you dont want to be there their puppet, tell them we dont want your money. Why dont you do the same thing . Thats what you want congressman engel to do, why dont you do the same thing . Mr. Bowman he is being critiqued because he takes money from corporate pacs. We have been endorsed by 60 grassroots organizations and individuals. We get a ton of support from all over the place, and we appreciate the support because we are running a Grassroots Campaign with the working class and the poor, which is who i am and where i come from. We get a ton of support from organizations and we appreciate that support. [indiscernible] mr. Engel mr. Fink is absolutely right. I cannot believe mr. Bowman says what he does with a straight face. He is bought and paid for by the justice dems. It is disingenuous. Mr. Bowman, what do you say when the question comes up of the various pacs that have supported you over the years . Mr. Bowman i am for what new york city has. I would want to take the money out of politics. New york city has a matching system. That is the way to do it. The fact of the matter is, i am not going to universally disarm who can put money in order where only wealthy people can run. We dont want to go back to the republic, where only the strong could run, so as long as it is not illegal to do any of it, i am going to do what i need to do. But i am for public financing. But you have to fund your campaign. Mr. Bowman tries to deny it and points his finger as everyone else and tries to deny that he is bought and paid for by the justice dems. Sayingll wind this up by theres plenty of disclosures on the ftc website, so people can find out where everybodys money comes from, and they can decide whether it is good money, bad money, whatever. We only have a couple of minutes, but i think we have time to go around once. I would like each of you to give your single best idea about what to do for Public Housing. New York City Housing Authority gives is tens of billions of dollars in the hole just to get in working condition. There are tons of ideas. The main one seems to be to go to washington and get money. That has been talked about for 30 years. Lets put that aside. What is your best idea, other than asking for more money out of washington, to help make conditions better . Lets start with you, mr. Fink. Mr. Fink that is a good question. It is actually a simple answer that i cant believe the federal government hasnt taken care of. Housing authority is the new york Housing Authority has the able is you access taxexempt financing to fund their activities. However, there is a cap that applies to housing statewide. That cap should be absolutely eliminated for new york state. It is ridiculous that we have the same cap that they have in iowa and oklahoma, and if i were in congress, this is one of my first and foremost positions. We need to eliminate that cap on taxexempt funding because right now, you can get taxexempt funding for almost free. The fact that our congressional caucus hasnt pushed back is unbelievable to me because it costs nothing. It costs the federal government very little. That should be eliminated because then we could build housing everywhere. Very good. Mr. Bowman. Mr. Bowman we need to make sure the wealthy pay their fair share in taxes. We need to text Capital Gains at 2 on wall street. We need to make sure large corporations like amazon do not get away without paying federal tax, and invest in building 12 million new social Housing Units over the next 12 years. Next 10 years. That was elizabeth warrens plan to get them done. Build them in the alignment of net zero cause in emissions over the next 10 years. So a Green New Deal for Public Housing. Make sure the wealthy pay their fair share so the government can reinvest and help create millions of new manufacturing jobs and labor union jobs in alignment with the Green New Deal. Mr. Engel. Mr. Engel i grew up in Public Housing in the bronx. It is in my district today. It provided good housing for me and my family. It was a very wellintegrated project. Everybody got along and went to the same schools. That is why i have always been for Affordable Housing. My dad was a union welder, and we were a Union Household as a result of that as well. We need to make these things priorities. We need to bring more money. I know you said besides money. Money makes the world go round. It does a lot of things. Instead of giving tax breaks to the rich, we ought to give tax breaks to build Affordable Housing and fix Affordable Housing. I regularly go around to different projects to check and see if there is adequate heat. I passed a bill to require the Housing Department to have a minimum amount of heat. These people were freezing in their apartments. I would go visit people in their apartments. There are bugs, there are all kinds of things. That is very dear to my heart, Public Housing. Ok, candidates. That concludes our debate. Thanks very much. On tuesday, nih director dr. Redfield, dr. Ert stephen hahn, and assistant secretary of health testify before the house energy and Congress Committee on the trump administrations response to the pandemic. Watch live coverage of the hearing beginning at 11 00 eastern on cspan, onto me not cspan. Org or listen live on the free cspan radio app. In new yorks 14 congressional the debatece, focused on the Coronavirus Response and Police Reform, Public Housing and health care. New york one hosted the debate on the primary is tomorrow. And the primary is tomorrow. Good evening and welcome. I am the political anchor at new york one. After months of a devastating crisis, the city is now in the middle of days of mass protests seeking Police Reform as well as several massive unrest involving looting. As we cover these events, we are keeping our eye on the upcoming primary on june 23 for many states including congress for state senate, assembly, the people elected to these offices are grappling with serious issues here and all around the country. Tonight, were holding a