Transcripts For CSPAN Democratic Attorneys General Discuss Racial Inequity 20240712

Democratic attorneys general speak about Police Reform and Racial Disparities caused by the coronavirus. This session was part of a net roots nation conference. For joining usch today. On the to our Panel Democratic ags. They are the frontline line of our democracy. I am the political director for the democratic attorneys general association. Truthappy to be back at just let us know. There is a q a function. Panel, we of this have left room for questions. If you want to use that function, thats the best place to do it. Because we already asked it or weve moved onto the next question. Im happy to be here. Lets get started. I want to make sure that east of the ags introduced themselves. In the you were there mountains with you. Friend ine my good california would make a bid for company. Colorado is a special place. I am honored to be the attorney general here. Forarted off as a law clerk ruth bader ginsburg. We really work together. Ive been a member of the community at the university of colorado. Ive also spent time in washington at the Justice Department. Weve got of people, some big challenges. We need people to step up. I thought it was my time to do so. Ive been working on these issues, im excited for that conversation. Thank you. Lets stay out west. Thank you very much. My three colleagues, its great to be with them. Weve been fortunate to work as a team. Thats why we have had such success. We are a team overall. Its been a thrill for me to partake with them. California is a special place. I was born and raised here. It really does reflect the future of the country. Be thehave a chance to top Law Enforcement officer in the state, you will keep it forward leaning. Weve done that. Weve taken on everybody from donald trump to every company you could think of, including somebody taking away from the little guy. We believe there is a mission we can get behind to open doors. We will do that the best we can. For a guy who was the first in his family to go to college, we want to keep opening doors. Thanks for having me. Thank you so much. You are an inspiration. Lets go to the midwest. I just want everybody to know that the presumptive Vice President ial nominee is a former state attorney general. Lets just keep that in mind. Whenever you see her on that judiciary committee, fiercely challenging those witnesses, those are skills she honed doing what we do. Hims honored to serve with for 12 years in congress. He was my mentor. I just wanted to say our philosophy is to help people afford their lives. That means prosperity is something every american should expect. Its our job to make sure they have that chance. Im just honored to be with you guys. Ive been to net roots nation many times. For onlinermade advocacy. Weve been doing it before it was cool. Pandemic isnt cool. Weve been doing this for a long time. We are ready for the moment. Im glad to be here. Thank you. It over. D its great to be with you. Its great to be with my colleagues. Its great to be with net roots nation. I am here in boston, massachusetts. I grew up in new hampshire. I found my calling and my home in the Attorney Generals Office when i left a big Firm Practice many years ago. I became head of the Civil Rights Division. I saw what it was like to work with Kamala Harris and take on the predatory lenders. A were the first to file civil rights suit against those lenders who had such disparate impact on black and brown communities. Of theght the challenge defense of marriage act and sued president obama. Ultimately, that case went all the way to the Supreme Court. The law of the land changed forever. Those are my experiences as a lawyer. Run, it ended up being a landslide even though i was an unknown candidate and had never run for office. The thing that got me there and why i love being with you today is its all about grassroots. People,ut working with being out there and engaging. That what makes this so powerful. See the norms of democracy and our institutions being whittled away, this is how we build. I dont even use that language. I talked about building. For the first time, we have the opportunity to build a different way and to read ourselves of systemic racism. We are going to talk about that today. General,ate attorney hes been on the frontline. Holdingn the line and the Trump Administration accountable and trying to stop as much bad constitutional stuff from happening as possible. Its great to be with you. Its great to be with all the people at net roots nation. Thank you. The its really exciting to see what happened this week when a former attorney general who can move on and go and do bigger and larger things. It really starts here. Lets step into it. This of topics to cover, is why we love coming to net roots, to understand the variety of issues and the topics our ags can cover. Following the recent demonstrations in communities across america, attorneys general are addressing policing facingunities in color, inequities. Attorneys general are the peoples lawyers. We are reflecting this diversity themselves. Today, we have 25 emma craddick ag is that represent the most Diverse Group of ags in history. That is diverse. They address Current Events and represent vulnerable communities. Lets dive into some of these issues to see what democratic ags are doing it. Ets start we all wish we were there and it right now. The title of this panel is building Racial Equity. Are ags on the front lines faring this time when so many committees of color are feeling marginalized and threatened . What steps are you taking . Leadin. You for that we are part of a team and im honored to serve with them. I want to emphasize all of us are focused on these issues before george floyd. We are now in a moment, an opportunity to build. Take three different cuts at the answer. First and foremost, we need to build an office in colorado that looks like the peoples colorado, which means we need a key at the inclusive Attorney Generals Office. I set up a Deputy Attorney general for diversity equity inclusion. We are committed to hiring and supporting a Diverse Talent pool, not just those in office to become judges and leaders in our state. The last couple of prosecutors ive hired are all people of color. We need to do our part to build a more diverse and inclusive, not just Attorney Generals Office, but in the Legal Profession generally. Number two, criminal justice reform. When we see our criminal Justice System and a level of current a level of incarceration mostly of people of color, we need to do better. That goes across the spectrum from ending cash bail, which is a big reason a lot of people are in jail, because they cannot afford bail. That is wrong. It doesnt support Public Safety. It is unfair and we have two fix it. We have some great Public Programs here and we have to learn from california who has done better on this. We have to do better on reentry. We have to end the school to prison pipeline. You getting people even as teenagers who find themselves with criminal records. We are working on all of those fronts. Finally, Police Accountability and reform. I am proud of the law we passed in colorado. At the National Bottle and we need to build trust in Law Enforcement and make sure we train Law Enforcement so that we escalate situations and dont have tragedies like we saw with george floyd. We have a lot of work to do. Im proud to be colleagues with the great ags we have here. Im glad that you brought up the cash bail system. You have testified how it is fundamentally flawed on many different levels. Can you share your thoughts a little more on the inequities on the cash bail system . What are the farreaching consequences of a cash bail system for individuals and society at large and how can we address these inequities and overhaul the system . Atty. Gen. Weisner i want people to understand and this is super important when you keep say 48, 72jail lets hours, the chances that they commit a crime later go up. When you separate someone from their families, they lose their job and that is a destabilizing event in their lives. Pretrial attention should only be to protect Public Safety. That only happens with someone who is a risk to society. If someone is not a risk, you should let them out as soon as possible. Things hurtingy the poor people, some cases taking away their drivers licenses. We have to take down these barriers. We have to ask ourselves are what we doing here really about Public Safety . Or is it because its always been this way and we dont have the courage and ability to change it . Cash bail is crying out for reform. It doesnt serve Public Safety, it doesnt help people and it costs money. What california has done on this is a model and we are going to fight hard to get it done here in colorado. I see lots of questions in the chat and a shout out from the people who are in places like new york and we have folks from l. A. And someone from denver. They are giving all of you guys shout outs right now and lots of love. But i completely agree with you there and if there are so many barriers and being a leader and showing up is part of what is important here. Ag ellison, with everything going on right now, we want to talk about george floyd. What happened to george floyd, Breonna Taylor and so many others are painful examples of how far we still need to go what have we but learned as a country from these painful incidences and how can we protect and support our black communities . What can attorney generals like yourself do to address the hurt and pain and express across the country . Atty. Gen. Ellison let me start by saying the Attorney Generals Office can convene, no matter what happens, no matter what your jurisdiction may be, you can pull people together and use your bully pulpit to shine a light on things like cash bail or juvenile detention, domestic violence, there is a range of things as attorney general you can do, including the issue of Police Account ability. Pulled together this document and this is our working group on Police Involved deadly deadly force encounters. We did this in 2019 and everybody on the panel said we didnt just start working on this issue. Weve been working on this issue and have been trying to deal with Police Accountability and Police Brutality all along. We engage Law Enforcement and community to have a real conversation and came up with a number of recommendations. Several of which were passed in the last legislative session. I say this to the folks out there listening because where you are from, you need to engage your attorney general to convene people around Police Accountability. The second thing we can do is, because jurisdictions are not always the same, many of us can bring lawsuits and civil claims where we might be able to say look, you have a police finds all thech black folks and gives them exorbitant fines. The u. S. Attorney general, eric holder, did this investigation regarding ferguson and found out there was an oppressive system in place. The state attorney general, we have the same authority. We can do that where we have the jurisdiction to do so. We can prosecute. Right now, im prosecuting a group of Police Officers i cannot go into the case, i dont want to impact the jury pool, so im not going to talk about it, but i will say we have the jurisdiction in certain situations which varies from state to state to prosecute people who violate the law even if they are Police Officers and we should do so. We should not say we are going to let some people be above the law and others be beneath the law. Tos is critically important prosecute violations of law no matter who it is. Then we can advocate legislatively. Very impressed with the work phil has done, that javier and those guys in california have done on use of force and, by the way, the four of us are just a slice of the talent that democratic ags have. We are just four out of 25. Everyone is doing awesome things, but we can advocate legislatively in nevada, they are doing great stuff. In illinois, in new york, right out on the front on these issues. Federally, we have weighed in as a group and mara was leading what policethis is accountability looks like. Those are just a few ideas. My things my thing to the Netroots Nation is you need to look at it as a source of movement, a source of change. Engage them, call them, get on the phone and give your ideas of what you expect and what you would like to see them do. Those are just a few ideas. Farah the movement right now mean something. You should be talking with and communicating with your eye with your ags. Why is the role of ag so critical for these issues . Atty. Gen. Becerra the attorney is the and most states only official that covers not just a city or county, but the entire state. When the people are looking for protection and defense, the one office that can do that for everyone and not just folks in this he or county is the attorney general. So it is critical we are is why its that important we have statewide policies that let us get into these issues. As my colleagues mentioned, the accountability is so important, the transparency, more and more so, we realize we need transparency in policing and the way Public Safety is conducted. What i have found in terms of reform, you cant have reform unless you go down to the roots to the way policing is done. Ist is why what keith said so important. In california, we do pattern and practice investigations. In 2018, we did we were invited by the chief of police in sacramento to review a shooting that occurred. The young man named Stephan Clark in 2018. Into at have to go in pattern and practice because we were invited by the new chief of police, the first africanamerican chief of police in sacramento. We did a wholesale review of the sacrament of Police Department. We were also asked to do an independent investigation on the criminality of the shooting on top of that two separate activities. But what keith mentioned which is so important, rather than look at one incident and try to get to the bottom of the truth and justice, you need to do a wholesale review and you have to start at the roots. We came out with a report which was directed at the sacrament of city Police Department, but ended up becoming the basis of legislation in california which is now law, which requires every Police Department to undertake new reforms. Those are starting to take form. A pattern and in practice investigation in bakersfield, at the Police Department and kern county, the sheriffs department. We are right now in charge of the reform oversight for the San Francisco Police Department. We just got involved in doing the same thing for a small town just north of San Francisco which has had a number of police shootings. But the fruits of much of our work came from a lot of what we found in sacramento. It has informed much of what we have done. We have a law in california that allows us to track every single shot by a Law Enforcement officer, so we can find out if they are profiling by race or transgender status. Us so it now informs is no longer anecdotal evidence. It is now empirical evidence that will drive our policies. So you do have to get down to the roots to make this happen and that is where being a statewide official and office head is there to protect the people statewide. It helps to have ags involved. Farah it not only helps to have ags involved, but a democratic ag, which is why we will talk about elections later in this conversation. Voting for and electing emma craddick ags come if you care about these issues, you should be electing democratic ags. To youy, i want to get as well. What is your perspective and how can attorney generals address that at least in the state of massachusetts . Atty. Gen. Healy i come to this as somebody who is formerly head of the Civil Rights Division and now the attorney general, chief Law Enforcement officer for our state. I think what my colleagues have said is so right on. Its about training, its about training for unconscious bias and police practices. Its about officer standards and training for use of force, deescalation, all of that is really important. Here in massachusetts, we have worked to do that and we are working on legislation that would statewide ban the use of chokeholds and intervene when an officer sees another officer using excessive force, encouraging body worn cameras and the like. All of that seems to me does not get you where you need to go unless there is true accountability, and thats one thing we have partnered with our chiefs on because the ability to identify those who engage in bad actions, holding them accountable is very important. Thats something that we as democratic ags have been supporting. We have also been supporting efforts to make sure our resources are being used appropriately. We have been on the front lines fighting the opioid crisis, going after Major Pharmaceutical Companies for their abuses and that has translated to a lot of drug activity on the streets. Is we the things we see have police who may be trained, many times coming from battlefields overseas who have not been giving been given the training about how to deal with Mental Health issues and the like. Lets make sure that we not only demilitarized our police, take away some of the unnecessary gear that studies show are not conducive and helpful to Public Safety, but lets make sure we are supplying whether it is through Police Departments or realigning resources in municipalities, the right kinds of resources on the streets that meet the Public Health needs of our residents and also Public Safety. The bottom line, a lot of conversations, you have to bring a lot of stakeholders to the table, but you have to find points of commonality and i think it is clear in this moment and time that we as chief Law Enforcement officers have every obligation to act and rid the system of systemic disparities we have seen. I do want to stay on that topic now that youve mentioned change,ags affect whether through lawsuits or the policytive process or a platform. For example, you have created a hate crimes hotline dedicated to receiving calls on racial, ethnic minorities. This affected and impacted those communities that you have been able to see by implementing these in your office . This is one ofy the great things about being an attorney general. You can act in a number of different ways. You can bring cases, do investigations, issue reports and propose legislation and policy. Keith mentioned convening. We set up a hate crimes hotline immediately after trumps election because we saw the rise ofhate crimes and reports illegal activity. We were out there again because as his rhetoric continued, more and more people have been marginalized and hurt. We wanted to be sure after George Floyds murder that the public at a place to go. I think it has been well received. I think its important not only so we are able to take in reports from the public and make sure those reports are followed up on and addressed, that i think its important that as a Government Agency that we send that message to the public. That kind of stuff is not going to be tolerated. We are not going to allow for it and heres the hotline. Call it out. If you see something, call it out. Becomesd of messaging important. You see how important it has become when it comes to the treatment, mistreatment, abuse, denigration by the trumpet ministration of our immigrant communities. I think many of us separately work with in our offices to set up, for example, regular councils that meet. I have one on race and equity with stakeholder members of black and brown communities regularly coming to my office to engage with me and my team on issues. Same with immigrant communities, and members of, the disability community. That kind of engagement is really important and is possible through an office like ours. Farah and while the powers vary from state to state as well, i want to talk about your nine uses recommended of force reforms and called out state Law Enforcement agencies to develop policies in line with the needs of the community. How are you specifically working with state legislators and policymakers to affect change . Atty. Gen. Becerra right now, the legislature is working on a number of reforms to our laws. We are moving toward trying to decertify officers who have engaged in criminal activity or activity that is contrary to their policies. We are also looking at how we deal with the investigation in the use of force of an officer that leads to the death of an individual. A number of policies dont need a law or state legislative will to become enacted. Ive worked with the chiefs and sheriffs in california to try to implement policy. A have put out a policy platform of reform over a month ago that dealt on much of what we put out in 2018 on the sacramento incident we investigated. What we are trying to do is get agencies to use best practices. Everyone understands that you can avoid a lot of the shootings if you use deescalation tactics that have been proven successful. Understand its dangerous not just to use a chokehold, but weve got a reform that calls for agencies to stop using any type of hold that constricts or restrains the flow of blood or oxygen. Further. N go even simple stuff, the use of canines. Right now, the policy of canines can be almost anything, including using them as weapons. We believe a canine should be used not as a weapon but as a means to deter the escape of an individual and be able to detain them, not to use the k9 as a weapon. Very simple things, very expensive things, but what we do know is there are practices we can use to help us move toward safe policing where we become a partner with the community and not just perceived as agents who go after criminals. Im glad we are all saying the names of those who have unfortunately lost their lives, so lets continue to say their names out loud because they are not said often enough. But to all of you, and we can start with ag wisner, theres a lot of discussion about race when it comes to policing in america. But it appears in almost all facets of daily lives. Can you talk about what you are using to improve racial equality . Atty. Gen. Weisner i want to start with one that is painful during this pandemic the digital divide. It affects rural americans as well as those in inner cities. Something ive worked on for 20 years now, inc. About the following school is not in person. Rich white people generally could be putting their kids in a pot and hiring private tutors. The poor people of color may not even have access to the Online Education the School District is offering. That disparity threatens to exacerbate existing disparities. In the world i want to live in, we all send our kids, no matter if you are rich, poor, black, white, to schools that are good schools for everyone. That is the america i believe in. Unfortunately, thats not the america we are all living in right now. And one of the issues we need to address is access to both broadband and devices so you can participate in the modern digital economy, which is more important now, which is why 39 ags have said congress, you have to respond during this pandemic. One of the responses is support for broadband access. Number two, health care disparities. We are seeing this in the pandemic and it is not new. If you are an African American woman giving birth to a child, the chances are far more likely you die in childbirth. Whats going on there . It is a cry for help. Addressing issues like implicit bias and conscious by it comes up in other areas too. Conscious bias. Depending on your skin color, you are more likely to be expelled or have criminal citations against you. All of this work calls out for engagement, it calls out for a Creative Strategy because weve got to be better. Right now, we are living a moment where the commitment and support toward Racial Justice is at a level that before he passed, john lewis noted, gave him a real hope. We have to do what we can on all fronts because its not only about terminal justice, its access to broadband and education and health care and we got to work on all of those fronts. Farah you mentioned the pandemic and we are going to talk about that in just a second, but i want to make sure, ag ellison, you are a champion on this on these issues as well and have been for so long. Can you talk about areas you have been focusing on to improve Racial Equity . Atty. Gen. Ellison first of all, every issue has Racial Equity. Theres no issue where Racial Equity is not a thing. It is every single thing we do. I will subjectively pluck out to because i think they need a little focus. Housing. As attorneys general, our breadandbutter is consumers, consumer protection. Tenants are consumers and so are people who buy homes and loans and mortgages. Right now, this is particularly critical because unemployment is at depression levels, people are ,eing laid off and unemployed literally over a million filings for unemployment, and that directly into mortgage payment and rent and things like that. The cares act was beneficial in that you had a federally subsidized rent or mortgage was at in some way, there moratorium on eviction foreclosure. When that runs out, there is going to be a wave and we need to be ready to respond to it and i want to command nearly all of our states, give agile shapiro, who helped spearhead this. There,not the only one but he got the noncares act act loans say cares and rent have been stopped or a moratorium on those, what about the rest . In minnesota, we got over 30 lenders together to say we will forestall, we will forbear on foreclosure because we fear this wave of foreclosure and eviction is right in front of us, which set off a lot of problems, not that people will be out of into but they get to sweep the neighborhood and buy up these Residential Properties which creates another problem of monopoly and i want to make sure everybody understands that monopoly in highly concentrated markets have serious racial implications. Monopolies make it hard for Small Businesses to thrive, think about how monopolies make it hard for black, brown, and women owned businesses to run. If white owned businesses have a tough time, the other ones have an enormous barrier. Ine, legislating in minneapolis, a lot of folks immigrated from mexico and they have revitalized that street. You can go to lake street and get wonderful food, wonderful everything, all with a latin american flavor right there in minneapolis. And yet, those folks can get pushed out by some chain that masquerades as offering latin as they food there, but get bigger and larger and squeeze out the competition, those Small Business people are is a pushed out and that racial inequity right there. I want to mention housing and i want to mention monopolies. Because i believe, netroots paid enoughave not attention to monopolies. Its the root of so many problems in our society and one person who ran for attorney general in new york just released a book called break them up. I would recommend people read her book because we as ags have a trust authority, all of us do antitrust cases, and it is a Fertile Ground for social justice for those of you who want to delve into that. Those are two things and i could have mentioned 25 more. All i want to say is amen. People of color, we dont care about two issues, we care about all the issues. Ag healy, i want to make sure we give time to you and then we will jump into covid and the pandemic and how it is affecting their communities. What other areas are you focusing on to improve Racial Equity . Atty. Gen. Healy everything. I cherish my office, every single division, whether youre working in utilities, telecommunication, consumer work , worker safety, civil rights, everybody has to see their work with an equity lens. If we as an agency are going to defend a permit that has been made to a company that is going to cite something nasty in an Environmental Justice community, its going to further exacerbate poor how poor outcomes for black and brown committees, we are going to look at that through an equity lens in deciding how we support or not supported. Whether we defend challenges to the way our education is funded when we see real disparities, Racial Disparities in we havesetts, which serious disparities in our state. Having that mindset, that mentality that after 450 years bledstemic racism that has across every sector from transportation, employment, education, housing, and of course health, this is the opportunity, if we have the mindset and consciousness there, and the intentionality around it, i believe we have an opportunity to really build our way to and out of some of these disparities. My colleagues and teams do it every single day and a lot of what we see is economic justice. But as you know, we are talking about Climate Justice or economic justice, it is black and brown communities that are disproportionately hurt the worst by the practices my colleagues here are talking about. I totally agree. Atty. Gen. Becerra i associate myself with everything my colleagues have said. Let me point to a couple of things. As we try to do these reforms, you have to remember i believe it is going to the root. We took an action in stockton, california, a smaller town just south of sacramento. We got reports that students, mostly of color, were being treated to quickly by Law Enforcement in school. We all hear about this and theres a lot of complaint thisu start seeing kids being dutch we looked at the stockton unified School District. They are reforming the way that they handle these issues involving some of the students. They will now try to address these things. These students will stay in school. We took on the marin county School District if anyone knows california, you know marin county. Its a very wealthy suburb area of San Francisco. We found the School District that was essentially segregating mostly black kids, black, latino and so we took action, and we were able to get a consent agreement to go all the way to the court action and we are going to integrate those schools so there isnt one school for the minority kids and one school for the white kids. That is because at the root of things, the systems are not equal, not just. So much of this stuff happens when you talk about antitrust, im trying to get a bill passed on the legislature that has consolidation in the health care market. We are trying to get a bill passed that would give the department of justice to give the authority to review cases. Its a tough sell. And that is the way you get to the root of the problem. Thank you for talking about the sausalito case. I just put in the chat this if this were to these is this like to desegregate america is a nationwide problem. This is a nationwide problem. Feel free for any ag to jump in and add to it. Were in the middle of a pandemic. We have losses and other things we have mentioned here. We grapple with how to protect the democratic ags are playing an essential role. Democratic ags are protecting millions from scams. They can do telemedicine and online schooling. You can do mortgage relief options. Share someof you ways you have used your office during an Historic Health pandemic . I will start with you. To pull out put out an alert to all consumers to watch out for price gouging schemes that are out there because we have a lot of californians say you cannot raise the price of a product more than 10 . But before an emergency was declared by the governor. We have seen stories where people were trying to sell maskszers sanitizer or for outrageous prices. And we have prosecuted some of those cases. It gives money to causes they dont declare. We are trying to get guidance. Those difficulties are real. Over 60, times now we have had to defend our governors emergency declarations that could lead to the contraction of covid19 by our population, so we are fortunate that we have been successful in defending those actions against all sorts of attacks and its all because at the end of the day we are trying to protect californians. Fortunately, the courts have recognized the necessity of making sure the public is protected and the ag, our role form of for the the foremost. We are making sure that they do not get kicked out of their home or rental. Its crucial. Student loans we could get no assistance from the federal government. This is part of an effort of making sure we had secretary studentsrecognize that cant find jobs. Why are you letting these predatory lenders. Everywhere you step in, week, all of us, are urging, calling on amazon to pay their workers properly. Some of these issues we have to take on independently as ags. Thank you, ag becerra. Him riding down notes. Lets go you. Thank you. I will start with have years point. I have the mad eye moody rule, for the fans of harry potter. He was known we did have one comment. We had one pretending to be the Public County Health department saying they were doing Contact Tracing but they needed your credit card number, wait for it. Thats to do the test. Hey are preying on people i hate to deliver this message, but its important. Vigilance. There are scammers out there that look at fear as an opportunity. This is the latest one. Stay nervous, stay vigilant. What i am terrified about in this moment , this is something i am really passionate about is a former professor. Protecting students from debt. This is really important to the students who do not have jobs, necessarily, arent teens squeezed. This is important work that is personal to me. To the net roots audience, i want to say really your listening in on how reachable you can contact your attorney general. They are watching your back. The ags of done such a great job. Im really proud to be working with them weary of there is a level of communication there i think the public is either not aware of or does not know they can just contact the office for these types of things that are happening. What is goingut on in massachusetts. You know, a lot of what my colleagues are talking about, they applaud all of the action. Here are a few things i did the reason white to my credit ags are important is we are the peoples lawyers. We actually are. We have Community Engagement that we set up. I amally glad i did really glad i did. When covid hit, we could be in the community. And iffiction fiction and if a landlord tries to throw you out. Whereood information on to get tested. I remember being in a food pantry line and literally hearing from a man who was threatened with eviction that morning by his landlord. That is the mentality we approach with a lot of our offices. The other thing is, we have a lot of workers safety. Of course it is the essential workers driving these claims, delivering food, working at the theyibution centers, and are disproportionately black and brown, right . Aree who are hit hardest also, from what we have seen in terms of the coronavirus rates are out there. Theres a amazon, whole foods, the grocery stores, demanding worker safety. That vigilance needs to continue as we fought tooth and nail to get ppe in place for these workers on the third thing i would say is telehealth. Haveimes you are able to chancesgy and the like, for leapfrogging. Youve made a lot of gains and telehealth. You can point out the real broadband issues. Its a way to deliver service more easily. Beif only we could all standing in line next to you. What about you . All of my colleagues have laid out what is happening in minnesota. Essential work should not mean disposable workers. Really amazing breakouts. This is one of the biggest. Hicken companies this is a company with a of briberyputation in the marketplace and here they are, now basically putting their profitability above the lives of in places those plans like worthington and central minnesota. We have been very aggressive. Defending those workers. Thats something we will keep doing. We are busier than ever this year because we are trying to get away with stuff. They are trying to get away with stuff. Also when it comes to Prescription Drug prices, one of the things that is going on now is the federal government and the state governments are putting money in to come up with companies, andse it charges the consumers. We issued the report. This is the report of the s onsota attorney general drug prices. So we are ready now to say when the vaccine at the its the market, we are ready to have those prices be fair and we are going to litigate this. This is something that we think is critical and i know my colleagues are into this as well. Issue that isr coming out. This is the online phishing scam. We are at the ready to defend the public. We have passed a moratorium on addictions. We cant put you out, but we will turn up the utilities, and we have taken those people to court and we have taken so many of them to court that they know we are not messing around. Differenteight lawsuits. That is an ongoing thing. To make int i want the right to spread covid. We are going to fire your commissioners. We are confronting them. We are proud we are. And all four of us are proud of our colleagues who have been kim of they have been fighting off to tiger on this stuff, man. You all will remember, who are watching this, we had a bunch of folks showing up at the State Capitol with guns because the governor was trying to protect them from covid. The democrats are fighting back and we are proud of that. We have so many voices here. Of the attorney general expands so many things. As soon as he said republicans weying to invite covid did that checklist, and you guys, we need you to help us with that. I do want to switch gears little bit. I want to talk about daca and california and the coalition. So, you let the fight in texas, trumps attempt to end it entirely. Because of the early coalition, more than 600,000 dreamers were able to renew their daca status and you were successful at the. Upreme court so, can you share why this is so important to you. Appears this intent ontion is doing this attack on dreamers. For me, it was a very personal case. The dreamers had been so courageous. Their motto is undocumented and unafraid. When you put yourself out to the public and say i dont have papers, you know what you are facing, and to still do that, there are not too many more people more courageous than them. There is no reason why we cant he has courageous and unafraid as they are. When we took on the case, and every one of us who is on this chat was part of the effort. It was a Coalition Effort all around. Are letting these kids who are americans stay american. The team came out of the Supreme Court, that was tough. Dont give up hope on this. We believe in the rule of law. Government that put something out there for its people and has people rely on it to their detriment, does not yank something away. Youve got to go through a process. Cane if one president establish an executive order another can yank it away, but you cant yank it as if nothing was involved. That was the case we try to make and fortunately, enough justice in the Supreme Court felt that same way. Administration that is not willing to accept the Supreme Court decision and is trying to dismantle daca through other means. We will fight this administration through to his last day we hope to god we can say january 19 is his last day. Dreamers makehose the American Dream a reality. Thank you to everybody not just my colleagues on this call, but everybody who came to stand up for dreamers. I think that this is also super personal. I will be honest. I cried when the decision was made. Our latino communities at least for me, thank you. Theyre really meaningful. To the ags, i do want to lets talk about the Affordable Care act. Aware, theall well Republican Ags are acting asking to strike down the entire Affordable Care act. Back every step of the way. Can we discuss why this lawsuit impressive . I see you nodding. We will start with you. Not 18 finitely its a team effort. He said join me on this Conference Call where we are announcing this case. This gets into my background. This is constitutional law. It is surreal that we are litigating this case. The theory that the Justice Department has was just rejected any Supreme Court case. In the face of that principle, a live these republican attorneys general and the doj have basically said we dont care. Were going to seek to end health care for millions of americans. In colorado, 400,000 people because of the medicaid expansion. Against protection for those who have preexisting conditions. And hisn a pandemic administration is filtering to take away health care, making what i think is a surreal argument. In the face of that, democratic ag of us yes and two Republican Ags who are defending the rule of law are standing up for the core principle. Laws get passed in this country and we expect them to be followed, including by the president and the administration. That principle will be vindicated next year. Just like we made clear the dreamers have to be treated lawfully and fairly. Now its about health care with the Affordable Care act. We are seeing a testing of our institutions. That is why we are saying the rule of law is on the ballot this fall. We have the district attorney. I am proud to work with these great leaders to do just that. I do want to open up the floor. If one of you wants to jump in first and continue on the great things that ag wisner says . He was pretty good on that one. Youve got all the answers for us. Staring at the pandemic. Ag at noe a republican cost not even during a pandemic. So, Pay Attention to the elections and what is coming up. I see a lot of chatter about who their attorneys generals are. The attention to what they are doing. Healy see you have anything else you want to add to that . These are really important fights. Its really frustrating when you governorsican encouraging people not to wear masks. These are the same states with a have fought to take away health care from people. Resources we have needed, frankly have been deibert of their, which is appropriate on some level. It is about standing up for people. I can add to anything that he said except to underscore that we understand the humanity. A lot of us were down on the border. Action is to take on the travel ban. We will see less action against the federal government. Folks dont know this. 190 of our cases against the Trump Administration, stopping we one 90 of our cases won 90 for cases against the Trump Administration, stopping actions. Remember, the attack on the justdable care act is not they have been trying to become part the Affordable Care act last deed of years. They came up with the rule that there should be providers that service to an lgbtq person if they do not like the they can say i do not want to provide the services under the trump and deny them, and lgbtq immigrant the service. We thought that. We were successful in most of those cases to protect the womans right to have access to services. They came up with a rule that said that you had to split the plan. Or the insurance what theyre trying to do by the way, even if the ultimate charge was one penny, you still had it segregated, which would mean for a lot of people they failed to get the second plan or one month pay plan. It was ridiculous. For the 130 people, donald trump said he would protect the people through executive order. He doesnt need to do that. All he needs to do is stop litigating it. Its very callous. Its a harmful game. Thats why were standing up. Its a good time to remind congressionalthe races are important. Races thathole other are essential to your quality of life. There is this doctrine whereas historically the freedom of then was the states state changing your religion. They are changing this doctrine to say an individual business can discriminate against people because of who they are. Affront tot is an hobby lobby to provide equal access to Reproductive Health care to women. They are literally using the doctrine of the freedom of faith, freedom of religion to , theiminate against people people who called for muslim band a muslim band also want not theypany can can deny you service because you have a samesex wedding, because your transgender, does you want reproductive services. This is a critical fight for the public. Trump is trying to load up the judiciary with the most outrageous rightwingers you have ever seen, and just for scale, there were 95 people. Trump is gotten 200 nearly at the time. They are trying to block out the rights of workers, civil rights through the judiciary, and who is your advocate there . That is us, but its also the judges who will tell the story. If you have questions, please click on the q a. Lot about a lot of issues. Have elections every year. Few months. Year whereraces this people will directly elect to their ag. We have really, really great opportunities to put red state blue such as montana and ndm up. All of you have campaigned before. Whats one thing you have learned well on the trail that andmportant in ag campaigns what makes for a great ag . I think so much of it is the people business. Im not looking at the polls right now. I dont believe much in polls. Law school i to had a basketball career. Behind. Lay like you are play right to the clock. Massachusetts is very blue. Over a million trump voters. Thereognize as state are other parties. Theres a lot of commonality if you find a way to connect with them. They are able to be out there that way. Grassroots matter. I believe in endorsements. Now that i am elected. That i do not believe in endorsements. Dos not to say that people not want endorsements. Its the power of the people. I am so proud of the democratic attorneys general association. We have this amazing class of colleagues out there that truly are representative of the p old and the communities we serve. Aji weiser aji weiser. Lets hear from you herein this group has been great about being a team. Also, see really important to educate people about why ags matter. All of you on this them call, you have the sense of why ags matter. Please spread the word. Focus on these races. I know more than others have used. We protect civil rights. Something i make clear throughout the campaign. I dont care who you voted for for president. I dont care if you voted for me or not. You show up, im going to respect you. Youve got to keep showing that and building relationships. We are the peoples lawyer. That peoplething tell you. No one cares what you know until they know that you care. You can build relationships. You can build trust. We show people that we are fighting for them. Spiritare embodying that in a palpable way. Can i just mention a few years ago the democratic ags had a halftime executive director. Being housed i think we were in colorado and washington. The fact is we have gotten very serious about electing ags and quite frankly the emotions are quite ahead of us. Our message is, look. Just because someone has better ideas does not mean they are going to win. Makeyou to help out and these races competitive. You will lose 100 of the races you are not in. You never know. You never know. You can change the odds. Someone might say that person has no chance. How do you know . You get in there and you fight. Race. N change that we need folks to really start taking this seriously. Literally, your lives depend upon it. Look how we have been defending people against the covid disease. You are saving the lives of people. These things are critical. I could not agree with you more. This is a relationship business. Yes, we do mailers. Yes, we do tv and radio. You can i explain to them mail malier how a mailer how youd could not afford or insolent. I will say, thank you for being right there. This is 2020, not 1920. Ags, it might look more like 1920. We have been the backstop. But i will go a step further. I dont think we have been the backstop. We have been the tip of the to the spear in defending what we know, an agenda that says we can be forward leaning, even though weve got a backward administration. So, ags have served a purpose which has become very evident to moreamericans and i think and more people are depending on ags to come to read a note in california we are being asked to do a lot more than we did my sense is that net roots nation is a team that understands what it is when you are taken for granted. You like the ag of us we has feel like for the longest time they were taken for granted. The 21ste we are in century and is 2020, not 1920, more people are getting to see the ags have more of a role. There are more progressive, forward leaning ags at the helm. My screen froze for second. Thank you. Think of this is not 1920. Were talking about building Racial Equity, we are far from that. Electinitely have to more craddick ags democratic ags. I do want to ask a question that came in from the chat. Anybody this is open to anybody, whoever wants to jump in on this one. One question and will wrap up. Can you talk about what ags can and cannot be doing on predatory lending . As we know predatory loans drive black and brown communities into higher rates of poverty. Breadhink that there is and butter. Whether you are talking about financialor any other instrument. We continue to go after those that are violating state usery laws. We go out, we get injunction orders. There are many issues of lending. That work has continued in different forms in all of our offices. Shadyafter a lot of these debt collectors. You have people violating the people collect dead in our state. They target the first in their family to go to college. And that is another form of predatory lending and practice. E of these most recently we sue the Device Administration every other week, but we most courtly did an order in that required her to pay up on the predatory loans made for the students. Work that allnt of us were doing. It was an honor to work for all of you. Democraticink the ags are the game. They have been holding the line. And you cannot have a more progressive body of actors in government anywhere. We love this with no roots nation and i think we can get a lot done. Thank you. Do you want to jump in . Let me jump in. Our role is to protect people. About flybynight. We are here to protect people. We are government of the people, by the people, for the people. We have this crisis in government. And we are representing what Good Government looks like. Passed a 36 tax to end payday lending. It was on the ballot when i was running. This says something about people wanting protection. Se who violate that will again to much right to take advantage of the most vulnerable. Cashing using check services. They are out there fighting for be. For people. I would just say, we do state, we do enforcement regarding the Debt Collection act, payday protection, truth in advertising, this is what we do. This is the blocking and tackling of our job. , and the netimes roots nation can get people out. People are being used and taken advantage of. I Left Congress and hobby or r Left Congress because we wanted to be were the action is. You turn on the tv and on you congress. Is but if you wanted protection from a payday lender, i would have to call the state ag to help you. Now i can help you. Spread the word. Predation ofe economic livelihoods. Helping people afford their lives. Grateful. Thank you a lot, never roots nation. On that, itjust say is bread and butter. Largest Student Loan Service or in the nation because they were clearly driving students into loan payment repayment programs that were not good for them, but good for them the company. It is important that these guys at the right way. A by the laws. Abide by the laws. You have an obligation to treat them properly. We are at court to prove that these guys were taking a manner edge of so many millions of American College graduate. By the way all of those thereofit colleges out that are essentially marketing themselves in selling themselves and then they give you a piece of paper that is worthless and they take advantage. People ofter mostly color. And they take it vantage of the fact that you cannot afford a federal student loan. You run up the debt, they get the money, you get nothing. We have gone after that. Let me close by saying this. The Trump Administration, once again is in this. Ofifornia, and i expect many these states have laws that serious rates and lending. We have a lot that does not allow that. The Trump Administration is trying to pass a regulation that predators to evade that law by using a federal bank, which we do not have jurisdiction over because its use of federale, thing to do their Loan Servicing activity. They go out there and they prey on you, but they do the loan through a bank, a federal bank, so guess what . They get to evade our state rules against you serious Interest Rates and usery us Interest Rates. They allow these predatory lenders to use federally chartered banks to go out and prey on people. We are going to try to stop it, but once again, november is critical. Whoo not need a president actually wants predatory lenders to use you as the next meal. We hope you will get out there. Its so hard to follow all of you with their closing thoughts. I want to thank all of you. And we need you. Have a democratic attorneys general, pick a state that doesnt have one. Look at the candidates we have up this year. Get to know the amazing work of the ags here across the country also we need to look at what we are doing. Next week during the convention we will have great panels. Take a look at that. We are so excited. Thank you. We are excited to see you next year. Thanks, everyone. Thank you all. Thanks. Thanks, everybody. Sunday night, on q a, journalist alain whyte on her book the womans hour about the 19th amendment. With aasses the house narrow margin, passes the senate with only two votes. There are senators that ares adding on it. The house passes it in 1918 and it takes until june of 1919 before it passes both houses. Then the senate knew they were sending it out for ratification in this date in what is called an off year when most state legislatures were not going to. E in session and that was sort of purposeful, to make it more difficult, and the suffragettes had to convince 30 governors to call their legislators back into special session to consider the amendment. , sunday night at 8 p. M. Eastern on cspans q a. On monday, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton discusses americas role in the world in a prerecorded by theation posted atlantic council. Coverage begins at noon on and, cspan. Org, or you can listen on the free cspan radio app. President trump says he will agree to additional funding for the Postal Service if democrats except his proposals for additional coronavirus relief. He also answered questions about an fbi review of the russia investigation and a peace deal between the middle east and the united arab emirates