Transcripts For CSPAN3 Campaign 2020 NAACP Convention In Detroit 20240714

Group thats been on the front lines of social, racial and Economic Justice forever and to be here at a time of historic importance for the group because youve just called for the impeachment of donald trump. [ cheering and applause ] i read the Mueller Report the day it came out i read into the afternoon on the night and the next morning and when i got to the end, i did not stick my finger in the air and asked about the politics, i did not hesitate, i read it, i knew what is said and i concluded first that this is a man who has broken the law and he should be impeached and i said so on that very day. I come to at a moment of great crisis in this country, crisis at a time when americans are working better and better for a thinner and thinner slice at the top of that would leave everyone else behind. The simple question of my lifes work is what is happening to working families in america, why is the road getting so much rockier and deeper and for families of color, even rockier and even steeper and the answer is its no accident it lies at the heart of the issue, Voting Rights are undercut, none of that is an accident we live in an america where the plan of the president of the United States is to turn people will, working people against working people, let me finish and ill take it at the end. Based not on color or change because heres the important part i got a make change in this country. He talked about washington, Robert Miller is on the hot seat and says the president is not exonerated of obstruction of justice. Joe reporter read the Mueller Report, it makes three central points, the first is that a hostile Foreign Government attacked our 2016 election for the purpose of helping then candidate donald trump. Footnote documents to clearly lay this out in part two, then candidate, donald trump, welcome to the help. Then, part three at once the federal government started investigating the attack, now, President Donald Trump did everything he could to obstruct justice, we have to make clear that no one is above the law, not even the president of the United States and a time to bring impeachment charges against him. The naacp approved a resolution for the articles of impeachment, what say you about that, particularly as nancy pelosi, the speaker of the house is not for impeachment right now . I understand that there are people who for the political reason say its not where we want to be fat, want to be, but some things are above politics and one is our constitutional responsibility to do what is right and the responsibility of the congress of the United States of america when a president breaks the law is to bring impeachment charges against that president [ applause ] my view is whether it will pass the senate or not ive heard this argument at this is a moment in history and every Single Person in congress should be called on to vote and to live with the vote for the rest of their lives. It didnt start out that way expect there are a lot of plans. What is your plan for black and brown american areas and homeownership . Let me duties, i have a plan the field about three point to million Housing Units in this country and the federal government has backed out of doing that we need to do that, this would be healthy for middleclass americans, for workingclass americans, for the working poor and the poor poor to the homeless, for people with disabilities, for seniors that want to age in place. It would reduce rent overall by 10 and radius about 1. 5 million new jobs that can be sent to china or someplace else but, part of the housing plan looks at why we have so much disparity in this country and its because of redlining. At a time, generation after generation, the federal government subsidized housing purchases for white people while it discriminated against housing purchases for African Americans. That shows up in intergenerational wealth. So, my proposal not only builds new Housing Units, helps refurbish all of our housing in america and bring down housing costs and specifically set money aside to say that in formerly redlined areas or places where people lost their homes during the housing crash, that focused on families of color and communities of color, we are going to do First Time Buyer assistance and get more African Americans into homeownership, that is how you make a difference. [ applause ] since you asked about entrepreneurship as well, you know we have an entrepreneurship gap in america , right now, whites are about twice as likely to be able to start a successful Small Business as africanamericans. The principal reason for that, its not because people dont have good ideas and not because they dont work hard its because they dont have capital , they dont have the cash to get started. Im not talking about loans, you have to be paying back loans from the beginning, they dont have capital traced back to redlining in the problems we have in creating a black light. I have a plan for that. It will take about 7 billion to close the gap and i proposed a fund and i have it fully paid for, to take 7 billion and make it available for equity, for entrepreneurs, entrepreneurs who are Getting Started and entrepreneurs who want to build their businesses, these are the upfront investments that often make a big difference between whether a business can succeed or fail. One other part, this 7 billion fund is going to be administered by a people of color by women people who are usually shut out of the Investment Decisions. We know that making Investment Decisions tends to pick people that look just like them so instead of having a bunch of white guys run this, we will make this an Investment Fund that looks like the people who need this to build their own businesses. That sounds great. But at the end of the day how will you pay for . Ive got paper on this. I have a plan for that, its time for america to put a wealth tax in place. [ cheering and applause ] this is a two cent tax on the top 1 10 of 1 of fortunes in this country. So, your first 50 million, free and clear, and i know you are relaxing now, but for your 50 millionth and first dollar, you have to pitch into sense and two cents for every dollar after that, that produces enough money to think about this to provide universal childcare for every baby in this country ages zero through five. [ applause ] universal prek for every threeyearold and fouryearold in this country. [ applause ] raise the wages of every childcare worker and preschool teacher to the professional levers levels they deserve. Closing statement. Provided Technical Community school and Fouryear College for every one of our kids, but 50 billion into historically black colleges and universities [ cheering and applause ]. Cancel Student Loan Debt for 95 of those who have got them and put 7 billion into my entrepreneurship fund. Thank you. Thank you. Now we have closing remarks, it went by fast. We need to make change in this country, not just to get rid of donald trump and go back to the way things were country that alexa man like donald trump has Serious Problems. [ cheering and applause ] we need to make big structural change. We need to have the courage to attack ahead on the problems that infect this country and we need to make the changes, here is how i see it i have a lot of plans, but if you want to get something done then you had better have a plan for it. [ cheering and applause ] we have 41 seconds left, anything else you would like to add . I need to know this, my daddy ended up as a janitor and i had a dream all my life, that was to be a Public School teacher but, no chance to go to college because my family didnt have the money. My big chance in life was a commuter college that back then cost 50 per semester. I have lived opportunity and i am committed down to my toes that every child in this country will have opportunity to that is why im in this fight for president. Thank you so much. [ cheering and applause ] senator Elizabeth Warren. [ applause ] all right, look who just came out on the stage. Senator booker, how are you . Im very good how are you. Spartacus is in the building. Oh. Good morning everybody. You now have two minutes of an opening statement. I just want to say how good it is to be back here in detroit , my family hails from the city, this is where my mama was born and this, in many ways was the start of our american dream. We have an x essential crisis in this country which is the presidency of donald trump, ripping our nation apart. We have to make sure that we win the next election and we know that there has been no Great Movement for social change , political change or economic change in this country, without africanamerican communities being a part of that transformation. We must have leaders that dont just come to our community and ask us for their vote but that no our communities, are engaged in our communities and partner with our communities because if we dont have that we will not win. I believe the election needs not to just be about what we are against but what we are for and we have to articulate a vision that is inclusive of all of america because we know in communities like mine where i was the mayor of newark, new jersey, we know that the challenges that we have did not begin with donald trump and beating him is not enough. Meeting donald trump is a four its not a feeling, gets us out of the valley but it does not get us to the mountaintop. When it comes to issues of systematic Economic Empowerment and issues of gun violence, or tax on Public Education, we must be ready to bring a fight, not just to the election but to actually getting transformative things done from washington to our communities. Thank you very much. I asked a question about the Mueller Report and that the president was not exonerated. You read the report and you see that he spells out behaviors , deceit, instructing people to live and cover things up, that report is enough of indication that the house of representatives should begin impeachment proceedings against this president [ cheering and applause ]. Im proud that the naacp, today, resolved that we should do just that. But, again, this is a congress right now that is divided, its a senate that is controlled by the republicans that we ultimately must be prepared to do, should congress fail, remember the power of the people is greater than the people in power and we need to be ready to be donald trump soundly in the 2020 election and that is why am running for president. The report shows that new jersey has a problem, what would you do to fix the issue of cities like newark, new jersey. We inherited a Police Department with decadelong challenges with accountability, decadelong challenges with transparency and we ended up working with the aclu to create a national and setting of accountability measures. Police accountability is radical and we saw this most recently with eric, what happened with him in the doj and failing to do what is necessary and i have began to hold Police Departments around the country accountable, ive been forcing them to produce information including on use of force and Police Involved shootings. So as president of the United States im gonna make sure that we have a plan for broadbased criminal Justice Reform because we are distraught, and under criminal supervision, all the slaves in 1850 we have a system that is deeply biased along racial lines from policing, to incarceration to even the opportunities that come from reentry, this is a system of mass incarceration that im determined to tear down, so we have a system in in america thats not like Brian Stephenson says that is a system that treat you better than if you are rich and guilty we have a system that reflects our values and i will be the president that will bring that to be. If you happen to be the mayor of new york city, with eric garner working your district, would you have thought for charges against the officer that fatally choked eric garner . A we live in a country now where we see things happening on videotape that are clear to our i. Eric garner was selling loose cigarettes and was suddenly put into a chokehold and killed. So, yes, i wouldve brought charges but this is what we have to understand that there are thousands of incidents that we dont cover every name that we know there are thousands of others that we dont know, its key for the next president to have a department of justice cannot like this president who is pulling back investigations and consent decrees on Police Departments. We need to have a department of justice that is actively working to stop oppression of poor communities, minority communities and the use of force that is unacceptable in a nation with our values. What is africa matter to this country . Look, we are a nation that is a part of a larger planet and so from issues of Climate Change to issues of dealing with our Economic Security as a nation, africa is a continent of extraordinary value not just in the words of the people but in the larger global context what you see now is a competition on the planet earth between authoritarian regime and free democracies. I was going in, i was ahead in the senate of the democrats on the Africa Committee and i was going with the republican and agreed to talk to the new leader of zimbabwe we dont care about free elections we just want to extract your industry, extractor mineral, this is the kind of competition thats going on, america has a role in the world and what the president is doing is he calls african countries shole countries, thats what hes calling them, its time for us to be an ally, not an isolated nation turning its back to allow totalitarian government to have sway. Some of the top issues are mental health, homelessness, access to services and unemployment, how do you plan to bridge the divide that is crippled the department of Veterans Affairs . We see a nation that seems to come up with enough money to send people overseas to wars and engagements for our tack they are money going there but when we come home we see poverty and we dont have the resources to provide for them when they come home. We are literally a nation that sings the National Anthem the ends with we are the home of the brave but yet our veterans are disproportionately homeless. As president of the United States i will step up to our obligations to understand that we need to have a healthcare system, va system, a housing system that works and especially for veterans that are coming home with invisible challenges. We need to show that we are a nation of empathy and love and that all of our citizens from veterans and low income folks, all of our citizens there so in closing, i appreciate you doing this. Thank you, sir. , im tired of watching elections in the past were folks and not speaking to the allegations of African Americans and to see issues like housing, Economic Empowerment healthcare even disparities and the Fastest Group in group of these are africanamerican women. I will inspire a critical element of our coalition which is africanamerican voters to turn out but i will make sure just like a United States senator, when i got to the senate, even like a Judiciary Committee to make sure that we as africanamericans are at the table when decisions are being made and even more than that, make sure you focus on the Critical Issues where you see unfair disparities in our nation , disparities in income, disparities an opportunity, in education, we will never be the nation that we say we are of liberty and justice for all, unless we begin to lead as a nation that invests in all of our communities. I want to say this finally. This is the most important election of our lifetime and we and africanamerican communities will determine the destinies of our nation, we are too critical of a campaign and so as your candidate, i will make sure that when we come to communities like detroit we dont just talk to people but we invest in those communities and we make sure that ultimately the victory is shared by every community in our country. Thank you very much. [ applause ] thank you, senator. [ applause ] that was senator cory booker. Two down and eight more to go. Are you getting needed information . Jenn [ cheering and applause ] that youre not hearing in other places. Now candidate number three, beto orourke. [ applause ] hello, sir how are you. How are you doing. You are very tall. You have two minutes to address. Good morning. When is the is buenos dias stuck on this very day 94 years ago in my hometown of el paso texas, there you go, dr. Lawrence nixon walked into fire station number five, his polling location, showed up with his poll tax receipts and attempted to vote and was turned away, because of the color of his skin the year before, 1923, he created the allwhite democratic primary. But dr. Nixon who had started the first branch of the naacp in the state of texas and el paso took his case to the Supreme Court twice and through his courage and his persistence in his patients, he integrated our democracy and at least took the first step in texas and in 1944, almost 20 years to the day we walked back into fire station number five and proudly casting his ballot but that is only to the tenacity and leadership of this organization and the inspiration for our Campaign Last year in texas, where we encountered a state that previously had ranked 50th in voter turnout, not because we love our democracy any less than you do here in michigan but we are literally drawn that way based on Race Ethnicity and country of National Origin we are drawn out of a diminished power of vote and the likelihood we would hear your voice but to transcend that we went to every single one of the 254 counties of texas, showed up for everybody and one more votes than any democrat had in the history of the the state of texas. That is how we are running this campaign for that is how we will defeat donald trump, writing no one often bringing everyone in and taking no one for granted, and that is how in january 2021 we will bring the great divided country together again. Time is up, lets have a seat and thats a visit. Lets visit. Full restoration of the Voting Rights act especially section 5 requiring preclearance of election changes. Yes. If we had that Stacey Abrams would be the governor of the state of georgia right now. We would not racist voter id laws in the home state of texas in addition to the racial gerrymandering, right now in texas you can use your license to carry a firearm to prove who you are, but you cannot use your student id at Texas Southern university to prove who you are at the ballot box and the new voting right act removes the barriers and you will follow the lead of the secretary of state vincent, sameday voter registration, automatic voter registration, ending gerrymandering and no more Political Action committees are operations contributing to federal candidates or officeholders. We will get our democracy back for everyone. What is your plan to reduce the cost of prescription drugs the prices builtin due to in part, lengthy research. We will sign into law medicare for america which means that if you dont have insurance today, you are automatically enrolled in medicare, if you are insufficiently in short we will enroll you as well and if you havent later sponsored insurance and you like it you can keep it but it will allow us to make prescription drugs affordable for everyone, we will also use the purchasing power as leverage for medicare to bring down, negotiate down the price of prescription drugs. In addition, we will allow you to go right over the border here in canada and by from canada to the European Union, japan, other countries selling medications at a far lower price with the same high level of quality. So, allowing you to buy overseas, allowing to negotiate down the price and guaranteeing universal high quality care for every american makes medication and healthcare affordable for all. How will you safeguard if you buy drugs from another country that dont necessarily have the same regulations and guidelines that are here. We will ensure and thats why i use canada and the European Union as examples, we will ensure that they meet the same strict standards we have here in the United States. The problem is, you and i as taxpayers in this country, invested in the drugs being sold back to us at the highest prices on the face of the planet today, the research and development, clinical trials, the fact that we purchased them for medicare and medicaid, tricare and va beneficiaries, lets use the leverage to bring down the cost and then, in addition lets allow competition from other countries , as long as we are satisfied that they are maintaining the same or better level of polity. What is your agenda for the lgbtq to community . Lets make sure we allow every single american to flip to their full potential we overturn the transgender troop band and we follow the lead of poindexter who i met in detroit , who told me about the fact that you have so many trans women of color who are being killed in this country is is the server Police Department ndas to stop the epidemic of crime and we want to make sure that everyone is safe in their own communities and everyone is free to live up to the full potential. What is your plan to eradicate for a lower Student Loan Debt . Lets do this, lets stop digging the hole in the first place to ensure that the first two years of Higher Education are absolutely free for every american, lets make sure that for a fouryear degree it is debt free for low income and middle income americans and those who are holding outstanding Student Loan Debt right now, we are going to radically restructure the step program, if youre willing to serve as a Public School educator we will wipe in our debt to focus on the children in front of you in the classroom and we will pay for it by making sure that everyone their fair share in this country , take a Corporate Tax rate, it generates hundreds of billions of dollars over the next decade , more than enough resources to invest in the future and careers of fellow americans and for those who do not pursue Higher Education that we celebrate the role of unions and allow people to enter apprenticeships debtfree learning a skill or a trade that allows you to command a living wage for the rest of your life. Wow, i need to finish the sentence. The biggest misconception about me is . Perhaps the biggest misconception about me, given where we are in the polls today, is that our chances have narrowed and diminished in this race. But i want to tell you that when i first ran for congress in 2012, we also ran against the incumbents and we ran against the odds, no one gave us a snowballs chance in houston of being successful in that race and we knocked on thousands of doors and listened and won the race. In congress, they delivered for constituents, though we were in the minority, every single day of the six years we were there and in texas taking on ted cruz and not only meaning winning more votes but winning independence for the first time in decades, winning half 1 million republicans and electing to new members of congress helping to flip the house of representatives and to judicial positions in harris county, changing the face of criminal justice in that community, so we have been a long shot before counted down before, but through persistence and courage i know we can come through for the American People effects him a white in 1954 graduated from the allblack douglas high school. She attempted to enroll in Texas Western college and again, because of the color of her skin, was turned away. She enlisted the aid of the naacp in texas, little nona attorney named Thurgood Marshall and they took the case to the federal bench of ari thomason and not only did her persistence encourage and the decision in that federal court allow her to attend Texas Western college, integrated Higher Education throughout the state of texas and it struck down the segregation clause in our state constitution. That is why, and that is why the inheritor of her sacrifice and service and her struggle that we invest in true equality and equity and in education for every single american. We will start a half trillion dollar Permanent Education Fund for equity and excellence, we are going to make sure that we address the disparity in Public Education funding for communities of color, 23 billion per year, we are going to make sure we invest in minority serving institutions, historically black colleges, to train the next generation of teachers because while funding is important, its also just as important that the teachers in the classroom look like the students in front of them. [ applause ] we are going to make sure that we live up to the full potential and promise of this country. Its an honor to run, to serve you and i ask for your help and your support in the Great Mission ahead. Thank you so much for having us out here today. Thank you very much. Candidate number three, beto orourke, thank you so much. [ applause ] candidate number four, thank you so much. Thank you your opening remarks my name is pete and im the mayor of south bend indiana and im running for president and im thankful for the opportunity to be here. Im thankful to president johnson into the naacp leadership for everything you do to make our country a more just place. I also want to recognize if possible, the president of our own chapter where i am a subscribing sober life member. Ive been reminded there are some other levels so im gonna do my best for the naacp because the mission is so important. Running for president , because i think america is running out of time, i am worried that even now we may be under reacting to the situation that we are in and its not just racism and corruption that is emanating from the white house, its the condition that maids a white house like this possible president doesnt come within cheating of the oval office if everything is going okay in our country and thats why we will not and cannot wind if the message is a Democratic Party will just go back to normal but my generational expenses that normal doesnt work. Being on the business end of Climate Change and being on the business end of an economy where we may be the first generation in American History to do worse than our parents if nothing changes. But, i dont need to tell black americans about why the old normal isnt going to work, it is the crisis of our time to White Supremacy brought this nation to its knees once and i believe that systemic racism is the thing that could unravel the american project if we do not confront it. Its why i propose that with as much ambition went into the Marshall Plan that rebuilt europe after world war ii, we undertake a plan, im already out of time . We will talk about it in the q a, thank you for having me. Policing involved abuses recently, please tell us how you would as president fix the police abuse that arrives in this nation. I want to tell you about the sure of the journey that south bend has been on. When i took office we had no recognizable promotion or accountability system for promotions in the department, we started doing that but we elevated accountability and i saw to it that the board that makes decisions about hiring and firing, had minority representation in elevated level of accountability. We undertook a number of measures with better relations and they support cities and compel Police Departments to do the right thing because as long as there is a wall of mistrust between communities of color and Police Departments, everyone is worse off. Under president obama, we had resources in the department of justice and things like a collaborative Reform Service process that would help us undertake reforms. Needless to say the department of justice in this administration has not shown a lot of interest in supporting cities trying to move the ball forward when it comes to Police Accountability the police use of force and eliminating Racial Discrimination from the Justice System. This does not if elected president how would you set up your administration and staff . I would appoint people to reflect our community. We not only have better representation but we made better decisions. This feeds upon itself, ill give an example, i appointed the first africanamerican counseling and she went on to build the department of law for us cover the city, that was the one of the most diverse and excellent in the administration. When she moved on to become the first africanamerican magistrate judge in the county, she had a success in the department whose also injuring going on to be the first africanamerican associate and we are building a Campaign Team rapidly as we speak and they will reflect the diversity for the countries and parties we seek to represent and the administration i seek to serve. Along with the building take . Is underway right now and we will publish numbers that will demonstrate for the diversity of our team. People want to know, what is the balance to raising the minimum wage without raising the cost of the product . The reality is every time theyve told us that raising the minimum wage would be consumed by inflation, its just not true. We are better off and the house of representatives last week passed a 15 minimum wage. And, because we were talking about the president s racist attacks on for congresswomen. I feared that not enough attention went to what the congresswomen were working on, including the minimum wage increase. You have to do both, name and list racist behavior by the president and have a spotlight on the agenda thats making People Better off, especially Something Like the minimum wage that disproportionately benefits americans of color that makes the whole country better off. Weve got to make sure that there is a political penalty when Senate Republicans brought this measure from being considered when it goes from the house to the senate [ applause ] what is your plan to eradicate and lower Student Loan Debt. We have a sixfigure Student Loan Debt and this is personal to us and im glad i did but were living to with a lot of debt and we first want to make it more affordable, pressing states to make college more affordable and we can deliver Debt Free College for low and middle income students. We can also call on the backend have a more Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program and when it comes to the forprofit colleges which target people of color, they turn this into a reddit trey landers when we look to eradicate that we look at the debt runoff by colleges that did not deliver for their students. , as important as it is to make college more affordable. We have to make it more affordable to not go to college in this country that is one of the reasons why the work thats being done on minimum wages so important. You should be able to afford to live well as a working american, whether you have a College Degree are not. [ applause ] the time remaining tell us what is your black agenda . So, if you want the 45 minute version i urge you to read about the douglas plan but in the short, we learn the hard way is a country that if you take a racist structural policy and you replace it with a neutral one, that is not enough to deliver justice and equality because harms compound. In the same way that a dollar saved compounds through the years because of interest, the same thing is true of a dollar stolen. If we want to truly make america whole or equal, we need to work across every area in which black and white americans might as well be living in a different country. That means supporting Health Equity zones in training and requiring they do not discount the pain of a black female patient which is why there is a higher mortality rate for black women. Massively expanding access to title i funds and supporting minority institutions that trained doctors or lawyers, and president s of tomorrow. In Home Ownership, it means finding a new version of 21st Century Community homestead act that would help people stay in their own neighborhoods that are rapidly gentrifying by funding them to acquire properties and neighborhoods that of been historically redlined because we need to stabilize the neighborhoods. When it comes to criminal justice, we need to cut, and we can do this without crime going up that we need to cut incarceration by 50 and i see we are running out of time quickly but just because a lot of the incarceration is happening at the state level, doesnt mean the federal government can lead on this by eliminating mandatory minimums and by ending incarceration as a response to drug possession, by establishing a Clemency Commission that does lead the way from the federal side, we can and must do this in our time. Among many other measures we have to undertake so that the criminal Justice System is actually serving up justice. These are some of the elements of the douglas plan which i contend is the most comprehensive yet offered by a 2020 candidate, to tackle systemic racism and serve black america. One minute 23 seconds in closing. There are a lot more details to these proposals that i hope you will take time to familiarize your site with a bye going to our website to learn about our message. We are taking this message everywhere and i invite you to watch me talk about systemic racism, not only when i am speaking to mostly black audiences but when i am speaking to mostly white audiences. [ cheering and applause ] as an urban mayor of a diverse city seeking to do the right thing, i have also encountered the limits and the pressures of our lack, nationwide of systems and structures that make it possible for everyone to succeed. It took intention to create the types of inequalities we are living through right now. It will therefore take intention and resources to reverse the inequalities and i am determined to do that because if we do not tackle systemic racism in my lifetime, i am convinced it will unravel the american project in my lifetime. I am committed to deliver and i trust that you will see me both in our proposals and the way we run the campaign, live up to that commitment all the way to the nomination into the white house. Thank you for what you do and thank you for having me. Pete burrigieg , thank you so much. [ applause ] candidate number four pete burrigieg. As we move to the next candidate, candidate number five [ cheering and applause ] hello sir, how are you. Good to see you. Your microphone is on you. I was asking for a microphone , but the microphone is on me. You can see we are losing our minds now. Thank you very much, april, good morning. Good morning. Its wonderful to be with you while youre at the Naacp Convention in detroit. I am leon castro and i am running for president because i believe that we need new energy and new vision for the future of our country because i believe that we need a country where everybody counts where everyone has a place at the table. Over the last six months i have been articulating a vision for the future of our country where we become in the 21st century, the smartest, healthiest, the fairest and the most prosperous nation on earth. I have been bold and fearless in the face of a president who is the biggest identity politician to come along in the last 50 years trying to divide us along racial, ethnic and religious lines. I want the United States to be a place where no matter the color of your skin, your background, how much money you have or do not have that you are able to fully realize your dream. I come from a family with an immigrant grandmother and a mother who was part of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement who was a raiser when she was young that understands for us to just talk about progress, thats what i did to try to transform the east side of the city into when i had more prosperity for the People Living there, thats what i did as secretary of housing and urban development where you could further desegregate for communities across the country and that is what i will do if elected president of the United States. I look forward to a conversation today about that. Thank you very much. You are the first candidate to come out with a black agenda , why . I think its important that especially for the black community who often times has been discriminated against, been left behind, i saw this growing up in san antonio and i did the same thing as mayor, the first thing i did was begin working with leaders on the east side of the city to try to make sure that we had opportunity everywhere in san antonio. So i have chosen to go to flint i was the first candidate to say that we need to put forward resources to eliminate the Public Health threat. I was the first and i think only, so far, candidate to put forward a Police Reform plan because, we saw just a few days ago with the case of eric garner that too often especially, young black men in this country are treated differently at the hands of police. My Police Reform plan would create more accountability and transparency by setting a national use of force standard that says that an officer has to exhaust all other reasonable alternatives before they use legal force, [ applause ] you would also demilitarize our police because weve been gilling giving military weapons to our police and its creating over aggressiveness. At work with congress to eliminate racial profiling. My Education Plan says that we should not have cops in schools enforcing discipline because two times too often they are enforcing it in a biased way against young black men. Im proud to have an agenda that i believe is resonating with the black community because its substantive and its based on the work that ive done before. The Trump Administration has reduced focus on monitoring and diminishing White Nationalist and domestic terrorism, how would you change this practice . I would go in the other direction. What we see as clearly, look at all the incidents happening out there. We have seen the rise of nationalism and the identity politics of the all right that the president is soaking in building his political career on that is what is happening in america today, just to be clear about it so i would make sure that the department of justice is focused on rooting that out and prosecuting individuals who engage in that type of activity , whether its a lowlevel criminal activity or more serious criminal activity and taking it seriously throughout the administration. As president would you support this modernday example of course i would. We see that too often times, even now in the United States, crimes that should be categorized as hate crimes may not be treated that way, i want to ensure that they are and that we take all of these crimes as serious as they should be taken. The gentrification site is huge and you have those who profit off of it and those who lose out, how would you balance the dynamic of fixing communities and infrastructure, Building Communities that are also helping . You have to do two things, first of all as head secretary of housing, new orleans, here in detroit, and a number of other communities, i heard two things. And better amenities, but i want to be able to say here. So one part has to make people be able to stay in those neighborhoods if they want to stay there. That means programs that are focused on ensuring that the rising cost of rent dont move people out, working with local governments so they can buffer people against that. The other part of it, though, is for folks that want to move into other neighborhoods, that theyve been locked out of traditionally. At hud we were working to ensure that people could actually move into those neighborhoods too. You all know too often people are still blocked based on the color of their skin from being able to live in certain places. We need to fix that too. The way i look at that, you need to give people options based on what they want to do, thats what i would be focused on in my Housing Project as president. You just mentioned flint, michigan. Flint is not alone, there are many communities across this nation where water is unsafe to drink. How much would that be for president , to fix the problem, to include infrastructure change. I put forward a plan to make sure that lead is no longer a major Public Health threat, that includes money for infrastructure, like the infrastructure issue we saw in flint, and especially with target communities, that are vulnerable communities that have often been left behind. The thing is, we need to put resources into it. This is not an issue that local governments, or state governments are going to be able to solve on their own, so my plan does that. It but thes billions of dollars into alleviating that issue. How can a nation pay its bills without raising taxes . Well, i think that part of the answer is were going to have to raise taxes. And were going to begin by repealing and replacing the trump tax cuts. I think for the last 40 years, for the last 40 years weve been asking more and more of people who are middle class, and working poor and poor, and less and less of people that are doing very well, and people at the very top. I would raise the marginal tax rate. I would close these loopholes that lobbyists have worked into the tax code. I would look for creative ways to raise revenue. The National Housing trust fund is funded with a transaction fee on fannie mae and freddie mac. Every time theres a transaction, a little bit goes into a fund thats aimed at creating housing for extremely low income individuals, basically individuals that make less than 30 of the means in the community. So we can do more of what we need to do to ensure everybody can prosper in our country. Now your closing, sir. Well thank you, april. I know what its like to grow up and to struggle. To grow up in a single parent household. Im a proud product of the Public Schools of texas. Amend and i also know what its like to be able to achieve my dreams to go to college and to go to law school and to be the first in my family to go to be a professional, as an attorney. Thats what i want for everybody in this country. To make sure that everybody is able to get a good education, that theyre able to reach their dreams, that theyre able to prosper in our nation. What were facing now is a president that wants to take us backwards. I dont want to make america anything again. I dont want to go backward, i want to go forward, i want to make us better than anything weve ever been, in the future. That of course includes the black community in america that have too often been left behind. I know that. When i was a city councilman, when i was mayor, when i was hud secretary, i worked directly with the black community to try to ensure that everybody can prospect, and i want you to know that if im elected president , that i will work in the same way with you, to ensure that you and your family can prosper too. Gracias. Thank you very much. Thank you, sir. Secretary julian castro. Candidate number five. Now were making way for candidate number six. Senator bernie sanders. [applause] hello, sir, how are you . Good, how are you . Good to see you. Two minute of an opening statementment. I dont have to tell anybody in this room, that we are living in an unprecedented moment in American History. We have a president who is a racist. A president who is a pathlogical liar. And a president who is trying to divide the American People up based on the color of their skin, where they were born, or their religion. Now trump may be crazy, he may be a racist, but he is not stupid. He is doing what demagogues have always done. And that is to pick on minorities, to divide people up in order to gain power. The antidote, in my view, to what trump is doing, is exactly the opposite. And what our campaign is about is bringing people together. Black and white, and latino. Asian american, and native american. Around an agenda that works for all of us, not just the 1 . And when we talk about medicare for all as a human right, we also talk about the disparities in the healthcare system. We talk about the need for more black doctors and nurses and ending the absurdity of infant mortality rates in the black community, 2. 5 times the white community. We talk about wealth and income inequality. We talk about the absurdity of white families owning ten times more than black families. And time for questions, sir. Et cetera. [cheers and applause] thank you. Senator sanders, you are not a support of reparations for descendents of african slaves. History shows they were promised 40 acres and a mule. Then president lincoln supported the military measure, yet the promise was not kept. Knowing this, how do you correct this wrong, or do you think you have to . I support what congressman jim clyburn of South Carolina has talked about. Thats a 102030 legislation, which recognizes that as a result of the legacy of slavery, we have massive levels of poverty, too much unemployment, not enough educational opportunity, and communities that are polluted, and our kids are getting sick. So what we are talking about is putting a massive amount of money into distressed communities, often African American, and latino communities, so that we end the absurdity of the kinds of inequities that currently existment here is my fear of reparations, and i understand the issue. Here is my feel. The Congress Gives the African American community a 20,000 check, and says thank you, that took care of slavery. We dont have to worry about anymore. I think thats wrong. I think we need to rebuild our distressed communities. Thank you for that explanation. What would be your plan for africa, cuba, and haiti. And then when it comes to haiti and cuba, there are different policies for Asylum Seekers from both nations. How would you fix that . Well we need comprehensive Immigration Reform clearly, and that deals not on with the latino community, but with the African Community as well. Sometimes we saw that issue. My answer to your question is maybe radical in that unlike the president of the United States i happen to believe in democracy and in human rights. And i believe that we should reach out to try to End International conflict and not simply send billions of dollars in arms to countries all over the world. Instead of fueling the arms race, maybe we rebuild america, we rebuild our infrastructure, create millions of jobs right here. But im going to ask you again, do you have a plan for africa, cuba, or haiti . Sure i do. And that is that we have normal diplomatic relations. I have been to cuba, for example, on several occasions. I want to see trade opened up with the people of cuba. I want to see the United States do everything that it can to address the very Serious Problems in africa and that again, instead of putting money into weapons of destruction, the United States should lead the world in putting money into schools, education, and environmental protection. Did you get a chance, before you came out on stage to watch what was happening on capitol hill . Did you see the mueller testimony . I have not seen it yet today, no. What are your thoughts about mueller feeling that the president is not obstructed . That is kind of what he wrote in the report, and he is not exonerated. We know for a fact that the president did everything he could to obstruct the mueller investigation. He told people to fire mueller and other people in the investigation, so im not quite shocked about what he said. Gentfication is a double edged sword however, what is your solution. Weve got a major crisis in this country in terms of affordable housing. All right, and its not just that we have a half a Million People sleeping out on the streets today. Youve got millions of people spending 40, 50, 60 of their limited incomes on housing. And what we are going to tell the developers, you just cannot come in and build expensive condominiums and drive working class people, who have lived in those communities their entire life, out of those communities. What we need to do is change the priorities of america. No more tax breaks for billionaires. But were going to invest in healthcare, education, the needs of our children, the needs of our senior citizens. This is the richest country in the history of the world. 40Million People should not be living in poverty. Half a million should not be homeless. [applause] senator sanders, you talked about immigration earlier. How do you bring back humanity in this immigration process in the southern border . Hard for me to talk when im sitting down. Im sorry. Look, thanks jesse. The United States is about many things. But it is not about snatching babies from the arms of their mothers. It is not about putting children into cages. It is not about separating families. So we need obviously comprehensive Immigration Reform. We need a humane policy at the border which understands that if a mother and a child travel a thousand miles on foot to escape violence, they are not criminals. They have got to be treated humanely. In our last minute, would you bring back net neutrality, since it was repealed a year ago by the Trump Administration . Yes. Look, let me just conclude, if i could by saying this. We are the wealthiest country in the history of the world. We need to do what every other major country on earth does, guarantee healthcare to all people as a right. We need to make public colleges and universities tuition free. We need to cancel student debt. We need to adequately fund hbcus. We need an unprecedented Grassroots Movement that tells the 1 they cannot have it all. That this country belongs to all of us, not just wealthy campaign contributors. Okay, so now youre into your closing. Oh. Okay. Let me close in this way. This is the most dangerous period in the modern history of our country. And we have a president who thinks that he can win reelection by hatred and divisiveness and our job is to do exactly the opposite. We need a president ial campaign, which energizes, and excites the American People. Which brings young people out in unprecedented numbers. I know the naacp, your Great Organization is working hard on that, and were going to work with you. We win when the voter turnout is high. We will take on Voter Suppression from one end of this country to the other. I believe, and as president i will implement a simple process. If youre 18 years of age in america, you are eligible to vote. End of discussion. This is not a moment to throw up our hands in despair. This is a moment to take on racism, sexism, homophobia, and this is a moment to go forward and create the kind of nation that we all know we can become. Thank you all very much. And thank you naacp for all that you do. Senator bernie sanders. Candidate number six. Thank you so much. Are you gaining information today . For an informed decision at the ballot box. And next, candidate number seven. Amy klobuchar. [applause] hello senator. How are you doing . Thank you, you have two minutes. Thank you, hello naacp. It is always fun to follow bernie sanders. So let me tell you about me. Because you may not know me as well. I am the daughter of the heartland. I grew up in minnesota. Im a granddaughter of an iron ore miner who worked 1500 feet his whole life to send me dad to college. He saved money in a coffee can. My dad became a newspaper man. My mom, she grew up in milwaukee, and she came to minnesota, and she taught second grade until she was 70 years old. I stand before you today as the granddaughter of an iron ore miner, as the daughter of a teacher and a newspaper man as the first woman elected to the United States senate from the state of minnesota, and a candidate for president of the United States. That is what this country is about. And something the naacp has stood up for every single day of its existence. No matter where you come from, no matter who are you, no matter the color of your skin, no matter where you worship, no matter who you love that you should be able to succeed in the United States of america. That is what you stood for. And today as we are seeing another hearing, we are reminded of something you have always stood for, and donald trump better be listening. That in america, as someone once said, the law is the king. The king is not the law. So it is time for donald trump to stop the racism, to leave the white house, and we must have change in america and i stand for Economic Opportunity. I stand for Voting Rights. Something i have fought for dearly, and i stand for a better america for all of us. Thank you for having me. Okay, time for questions, senator klobuchar. What is your black agenda . Okay, so first of all, she asked what my black agenda is. First of all, i dont think were going to have a black agenda if we dont allow black people to vote, all right . When you think about what happened in georgia, this last election, where the secretary of state running for governor withheld 58,000 voter registrations because they didnt have hyphens. If he wouldnt have been allowed to do that, stacy abrams would be governor of georgia right now. So my agenda is to reauthorize the Voting Rights act. I actually carry the bill that senator sanders just mentioned to about every Single Person in this country, to register to vote when they turn 18 years old. And i would make sure we stop the Voter Suppression. The second part of it is Economic Opportunity. Its a simple idea that we know whats happened in this country. That there are not equal resources. When we look at our Public Schools, april, we see a situation my daughter was for years in a school that was nearly 90 free and reduced lunch. I saw what happened to those kids in that school, because they would come and they would be hungry. They would be getting into the vending machines to try to get food to go home. We have a president right now that just yesterday tried to cut, as you know, food stamps. He announces that after giving trillions of dollars, the big weight of which is for the wealthy people, so my agenda is to ensure that we are investing from kids from Early Childhood on. Investing in our Public Schools. Making college much more affordable, and making sure that people can retire, which really hits the African American community hard. So you just brought up the issue of food stamps. Whenever there is anything to be cut, its always going for something those subsidies for low income americans. Would you guarantee that that would not happen if you were president of the United States . Yes. Explain. Well i have been on the Agriculture Committee since i got to the senate. I have a state that has a major metropolitan area and they come through agriculture. So i have a lot of experience. Ive worked on a number of these farm bills and have stood up for that. Youre not going to be able to have kids do well in school if they dont get good nutrition. And theyre not going to be able to succeed if theyre not able to learn. Well you have been criticized for not having top tier staff that reflects diversity of america, is it a fair criticism and explain why or why not . First of all, our staff actually, the diversity numbers are way above what my state is. I worked really hard on that. I go back to when i was county attorney. I think four of the people that were some of my top people are now judges. I work to promote them. I recommended them for judges. My state director went on to be the African American City Attorney of st. Paul, minnesota. So i am proud of our record of diversity. I think that you cant have a president that doesnt understand that their cabinet, and their leadership, and the judges they appoint must reflect the community, and include a major African American leadership. You did not want direct payment for reparations. With that said, im going back to general shermans promise of 40 acres and a mule. Then president Abraham Lincoln supported it. But it was a promise that wasnt kept. Understanding that, what do you believe should happen . Im on senator bookers bill, which i think is a very important bill, and has to be a priority for our country. A study for reparations and as you know, thats a major bill out there. I think from there, you look at the recommendations from the commission and decide what to do. I think one of the most interesting things is what representative clyburn is doing. Which is investing in underpoverished communities. What is the importance of a historically black college . I think that historically black colleges, and i was able to visit at this just recently. Historical black colleges are a centerpiece of African American education in this country, and we must keep them funded. I met with their leadership numerous times. We must keep them strong, and i think it gets to the bigger issue of college in this country. That is that it has become harder and harder for people to be able to go to college. Thats why i support making sure the money goes where the money should be. That is with the people that need it the most. I favor doubling the programs. I favor increasing the eligibility for those programs, making Community College free. And then making it easier for people to pay back their loans. On issues of policing, i want to bring up a recent case. Eric garner. What are your thoughts about what happened . Should the Police Officer have been charged in that case . That is for the Justice System to decide, and i know it went through a number of attorney generals, but i thought that what happened there, if you could just let me answer, i thought it was an outrageous situation. I watched that video, and it just tears your heart out to see what happened. I think in a broader sense, that we have to make a decision on how were going to deal with a criminal Justice System that is, has very strong problems with racism. We have to admit that this criminal Justice System is racist, and go from there. What do you think we need to do . Number one, make sure body cameras are the law. Number two, have a diverse police force. Number three, dont just rely on investigations to be done by internal prosecutors in the office that handles the case. That people should be looking at the cases, Police Investigations should come from the outside. Number four, again, dont always use the grand jury system. Make the prosecutor make the decisions herself. Senator klobuchar, what is the biggest misconception about you that people should take . Sure, i think maybe that im someone who gets things down in washington. Ive passed over 100 bills since ive been the lead democrat that that somehow means youre not bold enough. I think my ideas are bold. For decades weve tried to take on the pharmaceutical companies to try to bring down the prescription drugs, and that has failed. We have tried to do things when it comes to making Affordable College has failed. I think we need someone bold that is going to turn on this march, work side by side with the naacp. You are the welders that have shortened that arc of justice, and that is what we must do to beat donald trump. And time to close. Okay, thank you. Well i want to thank all of you, i start with what happened the day of that inauguration, that dark day. You look at what happened the next day, millions of people marched across this country, right . They didnt just put their blanket over their heads and say what went wrong, they marched. You look at the next day when 6,000 people signed up to march. This is the march that we are on. Then you go to day ten, where at the airports all over the country after the put out out that mean spirited muslim ban. People spontaneously showed up at airports all across this country, and they marched, and they objected. You go through to the summer, when they tried to repeal obamacare, right . Tried to take aware peoples rights to protect themselves from getting thrown off their insurance for preexisting conditions. What happened . The democrats united, we were joined by three republicans, and we won. That is because we are on a march to justice. You go into that hall when we elected people in races in virginia, and new jersey, or when in the state of alabama where no one ever thought it possible in a victory against racism, we stood up for dignity and doug jones won that seat in the senate, in the state of alabama. Thats what happened because of all of you. You go and see those kids marching after parkland, they didnt just march, they voted, which brings us to the midterm where we elected the most Diverse Group of candidates we have ever had, literally 50 years after the first African American woman was elected to congress, we elected 20 to the house of representatives. You did that. And that is the march that we were on, that is going to take us to 2020. Thank you very much for having me today. Thank you for your good work. Thank you so much, senator. Thank you so much senator amy klobuchar. Candidate number seven. Were rolling through this. All right, weve got candidate number eight. Candidate number eight. Vice president , joe biden. [cheers and applause] here he is. Hello mr. Vice president. How are you . Thanks for having me again. Good to be home. Good to be home. Okay, you get two minutes. You can sit, you can stand, you can do whatever you want to do. Well, within reason. Wow. Am i supposed to Say Something right now . Two minutes, 1 51. Oh, times running out. Hey folks, look, its good to be back. Ive had a chance to be with you my whole career. Hey jess, how are you . You got me started in delaware. I got involved early on when i got back from law school, my city was in flames because of dr. King being assassinated. Ive been working with the naacp then, and now. And theres an old expression, yall brought me to the dance, and ill still dancing with the. You. Were really in a battle for the soul of the country right nowand we have a president who has done everything to divide us, and this is not who we are as a people. This president has abandoned them. The single most important thing we have to do if from all i want to do from criminal Justice Reform to education, to a whole range of issues from Global Warming on, is nothing happens unless we defeat donald trump. Flat out. Thats number one. Number two, it seems to me that we also want to make sure, you know, that were in a position where we have, you know, theres no one solution to any of the problems that exist in the systemic racism is here. I did a lot of work in detroit. 26 seconds left. I was able to cherry pick the best administration. We came in, and we dealt with the problem and one of the things we found out is that theres nothing the community cannot do, given half a chance. Thats what this is all about. Im happy to answer your questions, and ill get off of here. Come on, mr. Vice president. Come on. Yes, sir, i would like to hear. Former Vice President biden, you know the last time i saw you was 2017. We received our honorary doctorates together at morgan university. I got responsible the speaker at morgan. You got to be the speaker. And with that, what is the importance to you, hbcus, and what would you do if you are made president of the United States . Everybody has to understand, this is the only audience that understands it, but ive been deeply involved with hbcus since early on in my career. Delaware state hbcu, the best hbcu in the country. Youre going to get in trouble now. All kidding aside, thats where i got started. I wouldnt have been elected senator. And i wont get elected president without them either, but i wouldnt get elected senator, because i got engaged early on in the Civil Rights Movement. I say no great shakes, but i started off in the black churches and wed go from there to desegregate movie theaters. I was no great leader, i was just a kid who worked on the east side, and i got a lot of support from delaware State University. So i think, remember, they were put in place because of systemic racism. Thats why theyre there. And i think we have an obligation to really, in tough Economic Times right now, and thats why the president and i, obama and i, when we were in office, we spent a lot of time and money in bringing programs to hbcus. I think we should be spending 500 million over time to do with them, just what were doing with Community Colleges, but ill get into that if you want me to go into detail. Weve got a lot more questions for you. You launched your new criminal justice plan. Yep. Can you explain your evolution system, crime bill. Lets get straight within that 1994 crime bill. 1994 crime bill, we had a giant epidemic in america of violence. Particularly in African American communities. Now jesse and i disagreed a little bit in this, but in my community, the notion was overwhelmly supported, it was supported by the black caucus and the United States senate by and large. The majority supported it. The majority supported it, and black mayors supported it. But heres the deal. What happened is we lost the election two years later, and werent able, every Major Initiative needs to be reformed. We have now a systemic problem and too many African Americans in jail right now. I think we should shift the whole focus from what were doing for incarceration should be shifted. I dont think anybody should go to jail because of a drug crime. I dont think, unless theyre a major seller or dealer. The fact of the matter is, we also should be having in prison, Education Programs in prison. No, i really mean it. Because look, the whole idea is, when we let somebody out of prison, we want them to be engaged in community. Dont just give them 25 and a bus ticket. Everything single thing, including restoring the right to vote. Its about getting them back engaged in the community. Theres much more. Yeah, we only have a little bit of time. Is your time in the obama administration, an asset or a crutch . Its not a crutch. You ask president obama, i didnt need any crutch, although as trump says he dragged me off the scrap heap, as trump says it. But look, the fact of the matter is, this is not a continuation of baracks administration. What it is, theres new problems. Theres new problems we face today that were different than the ones we faced at the time. The fact is, hes a close friend. Im very proud to have served with him. And i might add, if he thought it was good enough, he did a significant background check on me for months with ten people. I doubt he would have picked me if theres accusations about my being wrong on civil rights was correct. If elected president , you would have to collect the atrocities as it pertains to the southern border. How would you handle the corrections. Really quickly, dreamers would be american citizens. Theyre already american citizens, number one. Number two, we need rational border security. We should do that with modern technology. Not building walls and what were doing now. Thirdly, i would surge to the border significant number of additional judges for asylum. I would lift the muslim ban. I would do a whole range of things, but heres the deal. We have 11 million undocumented people in the United States of america. Id provide a path to citizenship. So on day one if im elected, if you choose to elect me, on day one, i will introduce a major reform of the entire immigration system, because thats whats made us who we are. Thats who we are. In 139, you know this is 100 what would be your africa policy, and would you talk about the disparity between haiti and cuba. How would you fix that when it comes to asylum . I would provide asylum from both seekers. We did a Major Initiative in african countries. The point is, people dont understand, it is a burgeoning continent. It provides an Incredible Opportunity for people in the world and those communities. The point is its not a charity case. Its about growing with them. We should be there. China is in there full bore. The russians are in there full bore. We should be engaged, and thats why i got so deeply involved in the antiapartheid movement, when reagan was president , we had to demonstrate but who we are as a nation. Thats why barack focused on african countries in order to bring, not just them along, but us along with them. Great Economic Opportunity for both of us. Mr. Vice president , but what about haiti and cuba . Haiti and cuba i would provide for the access to the United States of america for those people who are seeking refuge, who are seeking refuge as asylum. So it would be no different. No different. Youve got time for your closing. My closing . Okay. Folks look. He wants to stay. I do want to stay. Im used to coming here a long time. Folks look, we have an opportunity to change the landscape of whats going on in america. The first thing we have to do is state the obvious, get rid of donald trump, but the second thing is, we have to understand this is about whether the African American does well depends on how well america does. And we are, no, im being deadly earnest. What we have to do is make sure that we challenge, thats why triple funding for title one schools, theres not a thing a kid in an African American Community Kid cant learn that a kid in a Rich Community cant learn. Thats why we should have schools 3, 4, and 5 years old. Everybody. We know the numbers. If people from poor communities go to school, 3, 4, and 5, they have more than a 50 chance of graduating from high school. Beating gangs and profitable undertakes. We should make Community College free. By the way, thats only 6 billion to get every single solitaire person qualified for Community College. We should be supporting hbcus, because they are the rock bed of where people in fact get started here. And the other thing is, folks, on the environment, you look at the environment. People were killed by the environment are people in poor communities, like in my city, where the smokestacks were dropping on them. Were not paying nearly enough attention, all the way back to 1986, you can check real politics fact check. We must focus up the road in flint, we should be replacing all of those pipes. What is the matter of us . South carolina, we have the capacity to do all of this. Ive got 6 seconds left. Let me just say, i love you, look me over, i need your help. Thank you. [cheers and applause] Vice President joe biden. Former Vice President , joe biden. Information is power. This is how you fight. All right, so whats the slogan . When we fight, we win. Candidate number eight. Former Vice President joe biden. Candidate number nine, kamala harris. [cheers and applause] hello senator. How are you senator . Okay, greetings. Greetings. Good morning naacp. Good morning, good morning. I first just want to thank you everyone here for the leadership that you provide every day. I have only two minutes, so i just want to say this. We all stand on broad shoulders, those who came before us, and fought the good fight, and the way that i think about this moment in time is that they passed us a baton in this relay race. The question will be, what do we do with the moments that we have it . What i know is that the folks in this room are leading on all of those things that we know we must fight for. Education, housing, economic wealth, and security. And i will tell you as president of the United States, those will, as they have always been, be my priority. I know that this is an inflection moment in the history of our country. It is a moment in time where we are being required to look in a mirror and ask a question. That questioning about who are we . What we know, naacp, is we are better than this. So this is a moment in time where we must fight for the best of who we are, and fight we will. This is not a new fight for us. We are up for this fight. We know how to fight the good fight when its about fighting for equality, and fairness, and justice. We know this fight. And i come from a family of fighters. My parents were active in the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s, my sister and i, we grew up surrounded by a bunch of adults marching and shouting about this thing called justice. It is why Thurgood Marshall, and all of those broad shoulders upon whom we stand fought that good fight, and so now it is ours with with the baton that we have. I will tell you, i am prepared to fight for the america we believe in. We have always believed in what can be unburdened by what has been. That is the fight before us, and we will win. All right senator, come on, lets take some questions. So did you watch tv by any chance . I did not, i was on a plane flying here. What do you think about what mueller said today . From what i gather, he said everything he said in that report. There is no exoneration. He said what that report reads, and says, which is that there are ten clear separate incidents of obstruction of justice. And its the only reason why there was not an indictment returned is because of a memo in the United States department of justice that says a sitting president cannot be indicted. So we know what we knew then. The problem, april, where we are, and i believe the need therefore for mueller to testify today was that the intervening fact between that investigation and the report was the current attorney general of the United States misleading the American People. And so that needed to be cleared up. But i will tell you, having run the second leading department of justice in the United States, which is the California Department of justice, im very clear that there are outlined incidents of object struck of justice, and no matter what this current attorney general and the president of the United States try to say, the American People are smart enough to know what is, and what it not true. So as you mentioned your job as prosecutor, lets go back to that time. I want to ask you about a few high profile cases. Would you have charged the officer accused of a choking death of eric garner, yes or no . I was actually just with eric garners mother yesterday, and i will tell you, we spent a great deal of time together. First of all, part of what is wrong with what happened, and also the way that this happens every day in america is we have to honor the grief of a mother, and give her the dignity she deserves. The second problem with that case is that, and everyone i think knows this, the United States department of justices Civil Rights Division made a recommendation that that case be charged. But the attorney general, the current attorney general instead went to the Eastern District of new york and bypassed the recommendation of the Civil Rights Division of the United States department of justice. Under my administration, the Civil Rights Division of the United States department of justice will have priority in terms of weighing in on what these cases should be. Furthermore, in a Harris Administration we will require independent investigations of these cases. To ensure that there is justice. Unimpeded by bias, unimpeded by prior relationships. Im going to ask you another question. How would you handle the asap rocky case in sweden . How would you use your power to make sure a misuse of power doesnt happen in things like this, and that this case would stay in a state department and not go to the white house. Listen, there is no question that this white house has been playing politics with his, with his role of leadership and it has to end. This president , let me, i just want to back up for a second. So you know, i have fought predators. I fought to the United States when they were preying on the homeowners in the United States of america, and pushing those loans, and rubber stamping foreclosures, which particularly helps hurt black families in america. I took on those banks. I have taken on the predators that have been the pharmaceutical companies, and the Big Oil Companies that have preyed on consumers, preyed on seniors. I am going to tell you something, we have a predator living in the white house. The thing youve got to know, the thing youve got to know is that it is the nature of predators. It is their instinct, and their nature to prey on those they perceive to be vulnerable. To prey on those they perceive to be weak. To prey on those who are in need of help often desperate for help, and the other thing about predators, theyre cowards. Theyre cowards. And i am prepared, april to prosecute the case against four more years against donald trump. And there is a rap sheet and when you look at the fact that this president said he was going to come in and help working families pass the tax bill benefiting the top 1 . You talk about how he said he was going to come in and help working families with healthcare, but then has tried with everything he has to get rid of obamacare. You look at the fact that this is it a president who has pushed policies that is about putting babies in cages at the border in the name of border security, when in fact, it is human rights abuse being committed by the United States government. Weve got to take this case on. So youre saying this is another piece on trump. This misuse of power. Yes. Say it loud. Yes. I want to hear you say it again. Say it loud. Im black and im proud. All right, maam. Here we go. How does your new criminal justice plan answer what some call the failed war on drugs with collateral consequences. On a number of levels, first of all, with jerry nadler who is the head of the Judiciary Committee in the house and in the United States congress, we just rolled out what i intend to do, that is not only about decriminal sizing and legalizing marijuana, but also what we need to do to ensure that this industry, because check this out, the legalization of marijuana it has happened in my state of california, the state of 40 Million People, its happened in colorado, many other places. People are making a lot of money right now. People are making a lot of money off of this new industry. But, and heres the irony, in what is wrong about it. Those young men, and women, who for years were selling it on the streets, and are now felons for life, have been excluded from this industry, and now people are making a lot of money doing the exact same thing. So part of what i am proposing is that they be first in line to get those jobs that their convictions not prevent them from having access to an industry where they can support themselves and their families. Its only right. Senator, 1 10 to close. The time is gone. Well, theres so much to talk about. I invite everyone to look at our website, www. Kamalaharris. Org. Part of what im prepared to do also is prepare with the deal of Home Ownership, and closing the racial wealth gap in the United States. I want to talk specifically about this, because it is long overdue. We know there is a history, from back with world war ii, when people were coming back from war saying were going to help build a new middle class, and gave all of these promotions and money to these returning veterans, but black veterans were excluded from that. You look at the history of red lining, where black folks here in detroit were excluded from Home Ownership. Then you look at the foreclosure crisis, that disproportionately impacted black families. What im prepared to do is put 150 billion of federal money into focusing on families living in federally subsidized housing to help with down payments for Home Ownership and also to change the Credit History process so that when you pay your phone bill on time, when you pay your utility bill on time, when you pay your rent on time, that will also be measured as evidence of financial responsibility. Thank you, senator. Thank you naacp. Thank you so much, senator. Thank you, so much. Senator kamala harris. Candidate number nine. Were down to our final candidate. Woo do you feel empowered . Do you know more than what you knew before . Do you think this will help you make a decision at the polls . All right. All right. And our last and final candidate. Candidate number ten. A republican who is going up against President Donald Trump. Bill weld. Lets welcome bill weld, candidate number ten, thank you. Hello, sir. How are you . Im fine, thank you. Thank you. You have two minutes, governor, for opening statement. Good morning, everybody. My name is bill weld, and im already running against donald trump in the republican primary. So, lets get one thing out of the way right at the beginning. Donald trump is a raging racist, okay . Hes a complete and thorough going racist, and he made that choice, as a choice a long time ago, when he was engaged in the housing business in new york with his father. And he famously said, we have ways of keeping people like them out of our projects, referring, of course, to people of color. He was convicted of that, and that apple didnt fall far from the tree. So he made that choice. Now the Republican Party in washington, the national Republican Party has a choice. And a lot of them like to think that its a political choice. But its not a political choice. Its a moral choice. And unless the Republican Party in washington expressly, expressly rejects the racism of donald trump, theyre going to come to be universally viewed as the party of racism in america. I dont propose to stand idly be, and let that happen. So i look forward to working closely with the naacp as president on issues near and dear to me such as education opportunity in the inner cities, school choice, charter schools, equalizing funding across School Districts so the inner city minority districts dont get the short end of the stick as historically they have. On criminal Justice Reform, where a black person is four times as likely to get arrested for marijuana as a white. Four times as likely to get a jail sentence, the jail sentence is likely to be four times as long as for a white person. Thats a 641 disparity. Were going to work on that, thank you. Its time for questions. Governor weld, im asking you, like im asking anyone else. Particularly as you are in the president s party. Did you watch mueller this morning, talking about the president is not exonerated from the department of justice . I almost didnt need to watch mueller this morning. Bob was my deputy, and i read every word of the Mueller Report. I was one of more than a thousand former federal prosecutors who signed a document saying yeah, the ten examples of obstruction that mueller cites, they make out the elements of obstruction of justice under 18 u. S. Codes. Career people by and large. Muellers report paints the vivid picture of a scofflaw. The man is a moral leopard. He has no clue, no compass. So should donald trump be impeached . I think the house should start impeachment inquiry. That doesnt mean you take a vote tomorrow. I worked on the nixon impeachment, and it was 8 to 10 months and thats a much less complicated trial than it would be for president trump. Lets say they vote to send it over to the senate. The senate doesnt take a vote the next day. The house appoints eight people to go manage that in the senate. Thats another six months. By the time thats concluded, the election would be over. So the fear of donald trump getting acquitted by a totally partisan vote in september of 2020, and saying exonerated again, thats a baseless fear. All right, sir. So issues of equality are being folded into the abortion debate. Where do you stand on the medicaid issues and abortion . Ive been prochoice, since the first day i was in politics on the abortion issue. Ill get to this later. I intend as part of my coalition i hope to build to appeal to all women to vote for me in the primary against mr. Trump. Mr. Trump is associated with atrocious legislation recently coming out of alabama, and georgia, which treats women as carriers, as cattle. Its just unthinkable. And mr. Trump and the Republican National party seem to be content to sit still for that. And its unconscionable. Medicate was the other . Yes, how medicate and abortion are now playing out in this. Yeah, i couldnt vote for the hyde amendment. Youve got to have fairness so all women have equal access to reproductive freedom. Global warming, impacts us all. Particularly in minority communities, just look at katrina. How would you combat Climate Change . I think Climate Change is a major issue. Mr. Trump has a one word platform for it, hoax. The polar ice cap will melt, all mountain glaciers around the world will melt. Well have reputations of katrina in this country, which affect communities of color disproportionately. You asked earlier about haiti. The problem with haiti was construction. So in addition to humanitarian aid, thats the island of hispaniola is right on the line for earthquakes. We need to go down there and help haiti rebuild. Not just humanitarian aid. So you want to pull in haiti. How much would it cost . What is your plan to help haiti . Haiti is in need. I know that but to put port auprince back on its feet would be a drop in the bucket. Not just portauprince i understand but i often like to say to govern is to choose and a matter of priorities. I think that when you have a humanitarian situation like that but it is going to happen again, crying out for assistance i would pull the lever and say thats my priority. Thats all you have to do as president of the United States. All right. You are talking about the infrastructure of haiti and helping about the people, cube or versus haiti Asylum Seekers come to the u. S. Thats ludicrous, you have to equalize this, i do think we should be kind to cuba, i go back to the obama policy and open that up for tourism and ecological operations, thats the way to go and then you wouldnt have so many Asylum Seekers. All right, okay. What is africa matter to the United States and what would be your africa policy . Back africa where i spent a good deal of time over the last 10 years, this is the continent of the future, africa is the continent of the future and there are many misunderstandings about africa and people think its all dirt poor, there are a lot of african countries with compound annual growth rates of 10, 12, 60 but people dont know that, people like donald trump who dont know anything about anything [ applause ] and i will use a french word that donald trump word that trump use, referred to a bunch of s hole countries. Thats not a french word. Oh, i thought it was s policies are upside down and inside out and i love trump in a lot of countries there, south africa, i was over there and met with Trevor Manuel and was great friends with pablo and becky who gave me a south africa type. Others are more difficult, the democratic republic of congo, it breaks your heart and one thing i was engaged in over there was teaching people out in the country to do subsistence farming instead of slash and burn. Subsistence can go year after year and the people there never wanted to do that because it meant they could be found by the gangs that would come to kill them we have 17 seconds of q a got really fast you heard me ask about reparations, its a big issue right now. Reparations for past . For the past atrocity of slavery the descendents. I would put a thumb pretty hard on the income inequality scale and i think a lot has to be done there i think a lot has to be done in criminal justice, senator booker has a plan to get 70,000 people out of prison from the marijuana days and i would go with that and that is where i would go first. Thank you sir, our time is down and you can close. Like i say, im running against donald trump in the primary time bill weld and the [ applause ] so, my message to the people to whom im going to be speaking, and by the way im not going to try to convert the Republican National party or the state committees, they are already trumps organization, but im speaking to another different coalition, im speaking to millennials who will get murdered by the debt, murdered by Climate Change, im speaking to women everywhere, i think that we need to broaden the electorate of people who will vote in the primary, and i am saying to people, you can vote against donald trump twice, if you come in and vote in the Republican Party, that vote for me is coming right out of Donald Trumps hide and it will weaken him. [ cheering and applause ] there have been five president s in modern times to run for reelection and been challenged within their own party in a primary all five of them lost, the other five times there was no primary, those president s one but truman, johnson, ford, carter, they all lost because of a primary and george bush last with pat buchanan and only 37 of the vote, in the primary that i plan to win. If everybody gets together and votes to the extent you can, in the Republican Party, we can send a strong two word message to Donald J Trump as he packs his golf clubs and that is, youre fired. [ laughter ] [ cheering and applause ] thank you so much. Clap clap [ applause ] 10 president ial candidates, there you have it, the choice is yours or go to the polls. What does the naacp is a slogan for the convention, when you fight you when. So the bottom line is this is one of the tools you have in the toolbox, you are going to the polls armed. Thank you so much. April ryan, over and out. This weekend on American History tv, saturday at 8 p. M. Eastern on lectures in history, comparisons between Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson on the constitution. Take a look at the whole cartoon, its a very different impression for what they thought about johnson and that he didnt understand the constitution and that he was acting in unconstitutional ways. Sunday a preview of the 19th amendment at the national archives. Americas first voters beginning in 1776 when new jersey became a state, the constitution made no mention of sex when discussing voting qualifications, it only had a property requirement. The women who own enough property, primarily single women so not all women in new jersey, could and did vote in elections at the local, state and national level. At 8 p. M. On the presidency, author john farrell talks about nixons early life and career. In 1947 and early 1948 he campaigned for the Marshall Plan going to every rotary club, chamber of commerce, vfw and American Legion hall, every crowd that would take him, he told them he owed them his best judgment not his obedience. Richard nixon did not just when the republican nomination, he won the democratic nomination and had wagered everything and ran unopposed and explore the nations passed on American History tv on cspan 3. This weekend on book tv, the former policy director for senator Elizabeth Warren talks about the effectiveness of government involvement in promoting opportunity in a polity. A public option for broadband will go a long way in addressing the challenge of access when introducing competition into concentrated markets. This is in a pieinthesky, chattanooga tennessee a city of hundred 80,000 people has had 1 gb download internet, extremely fast internet as a public option since 2010 and today, more than 100,000 of the people and businesses take advantage of the public option there. Sunday at noon eastern, in depth is live with author and historian the edwards and at 9 p. M. Eastern michael malice talks about the firsthand account of the far right movement and the origin in his latest book the new right. Theres no agreement across the subculture other than what the nature of the energy is , there are those who are complete anarchists and those who are internationalists as a citizen not in the leftist sense but in the sense that there are those that are America First take the america back others little agreement other than who you are. Cspan open the doors to washington policy for all to see , bringing you unfiltered content from congress and beyond , a lot has changed in 40 years but today the big idea is more relevant than ever this is American History tv a sample of programs that are every weekend on American History tv like lectures in history. Oklahoma State University professor, Jennifer Murray examines the historical evolution of the gettysburg battlefield, she is the author of on the great battlefield, the making management of Gettysburg National military park. This is one hour. Good morning everyone, happy fathers day. We will open this morning