Transcripts For KPIX CBS News Democratic Primary Debate 20240713

People. applause . 2020 is our time to change who makes the rules. One stage. This election is just too important, and we cannot afford to get it wrong. Theres no limit to what we can get done in the next four years. Show up in november of 2020 and win. applause seven democratic concerneds. Together we have built a movement. We have a fantastically diverse diverse and wonderful party. We choose hope over fear. We are going to unite together. And together we are going to get it done. We will deliver a democracy worthy of the name. Ro we are here, and we are strong. applause live from the Gaillard Center in charleston, South Carolina, this is the cbs news democratic debate. Here are the seven candidates for the president ial nomination. applause cheers cheers good evening, and welcome to the democratic president ial primary here in South Carolina, the first primary in the south is just four days away. And super tuesday is just a week away, and this is the biggest primary day of the year as voters in 14 states cast ballots, and many of them tell us they have not actually made up their mind. So this debate, when you think about it tonight, may be the last, best chance for the candidates to make their case to South Carolina and super tuesday voters. O and cbs news is proud to bring you this debate, along with our cosponsors. They are the Democratic National committee and the Congressional Black Caucus institute, a Nonpartisan Organization committed to educating voters and training political leaders. And we are partnering tonight also with twitter. So you at home can participate in this debate. How do you do that . Send us your questions for the candidates using the twitter hashtag demdebate. Now, here are the rules for the next two hours. When you are asked a question, you will have one minute and 15 seconds to answer and 45 seconds for followups. So lets begin. Senator sanders, we havent had a National Unemployment rate this low for this long in 50 years. Here in South Carolina, the r. Employment rate is even lower. How will you convince voters that a democratic socialist can do better than President Trump with with the economy . Well, youre right. The economy is doing really great for people like mr. Bloomberg and other billionaires. In the last three years, last three years, billionaires in this country saw an 850 billion dollar increase in their wealth. T . T you know what . For for the ordinary american, things are not so good. Last year, real wage increases for the average worker were less than 1 . Half of our people are living paycheck to paycheck. 87 million americans have no Health Insurance or are underinsured. 45 Million People are struggling with suant debt. 500,000 people tonight are sleeping out on the street, including 30,000 veterans. That is not an economy thats working for the American People. Thats an economy working for the 1 . Were going to create an economy for all, not just wealthy campaign contributors. Senator, senator g. Mayor bloomberg. applause mayor bloomberg, ill let you respond to that. Do you think senator sanders economy would be better for america than President Trumps . I think donald trump thinks presided be better if hes president. I do not think so. Vladimir pu donald trump should be president of the United States, and thats why russia is helping you get elected. Oh, mr. Bloomberg. applause let me tell mr. Putin, okay, im not a good friend of president ziof china. I think president xi is an authoritarian leader, and let me tell mr. Putin who interfered in the 2016 election. Try to bring americans against americans. Hey, mr. Putin, if im president of the United States, trust me, youre not going to interfere in any more american elections. Senator warren. We know what russia wants. Its chaos. So, look, the way i see this is that bernie is winning right now because the Democratic Party nd a progressive party, and progressive ideas are popular tdeas, even if there are a lot of people on this stage who dont want to say so. Un, but, bernie and i agree on a lot of things. But i think i would make a better president than bernie. And the reason for that is that getting a Progressive Agenda enacted is going to be really hard, and its going to take someone who digs into the details to make it happen. Bernie and i both wanted to help reign in wall street. In 2008, we both got our chance. N. T i dug in. S. Fought the big banks. I built the coalitions, and i won. Bernie and i both want to see universal health care. But bernies plan doesnt explain how to get there, doesnt show how were going to get enough allies into it. And doesnt show enough about how were going to pay for it. I dug in. I did the work. And then bernies team trashed me for it. We need a president who is going to dig in, do the hard work, and actually get it done. Progressives have got one shot, and we need to spend it with a leader who will get something done. Mayor buttigieg, we want to bring you into this conversation. Why would the russians want to be working on behalf of Bernie Sanders. Ill tell you what the russians want. They dont have a political party. They want chaos. And chaos is what is coming our way. I mean, look, if you think the last four years has been chaotic, divisive, toxic, exhausting, imagine spending the better part of 2020 with Bernie Sanders versus donald trump. Think about what that will be like for this country. And, meanwhile, folks at home, from South Carolina to south bend, are trying to figure out shat any of this means for us. Because its right that there is a progressive majority, an american majority that wants to see real change, wants to see wages go up and go up faster than the ndan the cost of health and saving for retirement. But, also, theres a majority of American People who i think right now just want to be able to turn on the tv, see their president , and actually feel their Blood Pressure go down a little bit instead of up through the roof. applause we have an opportunity to set a different tone. Mr. Steyer. Bernie sanders analysis is right. The difference is i dont like his solutions. I dont believe that a government takeover the large parts of the economy makes any sense for work people or for families. I think that what we need to do is to present an alternative that includes a vibrant, competitive private sector. But we all know, unchecked capitalism has failed. The answer is not for the government to take over the private sector, though. The answer is for us to break the corporate stranglehold on our government and have the government work for the people again. Vice president biden. Let me just finish because we need to have an alternative to donald trump. Im talking about doubling the minimum wage, cutting taxes by 10 for everybody who makes less than 250,000 and creating over 4. 5 million goodpaying, union jobs. Donald trump thinks hes incompetent as a steward of the American Economy. We have to show we can create a growing, growing, prosperous economy that works for American Work people. Mr. Steyer, thank you, your time is up. Vice president biden. When we talk about progressive, lets talk about being progressive. Walking distance from here is mother emanuel church. Nine people shot dead by a white supremacist. Bernie voted five times against the brady bill, and wanted a waiting period applause no, let me finish. And waited and waited a waiting period of 12 hours. Im not saying hes responsible for the nine deaths, but that man ould not have been able to get that weapon with the waiting period had been what i suggest until you are cleared. In addition to that, being progressive, he talked barack obama, he wanted a primary he said we should primary barack obama. Someone should. And, in fact, the property was weak and our administration was in fact not up to it. Look, folks, this is lets talk about progressive. Progressive is getting things done, and thats what we got done. One. Ot a lot done. applause . Senator sanders. Senator sanders, your response. You know, pete mentioned im hearing my name mentioned a little bit tonight. laughter i wonder why. And maybe, you know, pete mentions what the American People want. I will tell you, pete, what the joerican people want, and, joe, what the American People want. They dont want candidates to be running to billionaires for huge amounts of funding. All right, lets clear this up once and for all. Pete has gotten funding from over 50 billionaires. Up. His needs to be cleared up. Re biden has gotten a little bit more. What the American People want, by the way, and a lot of the issues well be discussing tonight are issues i raised four years ago raising the minimum wage tie living wage, 15 bucks an hour. Making public colleges and universities tuitionfree, and finally, doing what every other major country on earth does guaranteeing health care to all people as a human right through a medicare for all, singlepayer system. I cant allow its just not true. Enator sanders were allowing everyone an opportunity opportunity to respond. That is untrue about my campaign. The idea that most my campaign is funded by billionaires. I didnt say, that pete. In in charleston alone, just in charleston, over 2,000 people have contributed to my campaign. That means the dollars that have come to my campaign, just from charleston, is more than the dollars that have come from the 50 people that you mentioned. Grassroots contributions are the life blood of my campaign. In fact, i shouldnt misthe opportunity, if youre watching r right now and you support my campaign go to peteforamerica. Com, and chip in. And if you are watching right now, and youre a billionaire, i will raise your taxes. But if youd like to defeat donald trump, please go to peteforamerica. Com and donate legal maximum of 2,800. All right, Vice President biden, i want to make i want to bring us to another topic. Were in South Carolina. Its the first primary with a significant black voting population. Your numbers appear to be slipping with black voters. And im wondering if you could respond about why that is happe happening to you at this particular time. Well, first of all, the latest poll i saw, my numbers i im still 15 points ahead, the latest poll. Ct. Yes, yes, youre correct. applause youre correct. But look but senator sanders is in strike distance of you. Are you within the margin of error in this state. It depends which look, ive earned the vote, ive worked otee the def toil earn the vote of of the African American community, not just here but across the country. Ive been coming here for years and years, creating jocks here, making sure that the port, for example, that employs one in 11 people, we put 500 million, in our administration, just into this county. Weve created jobs for people. The people know he. My my entire career has been wrapped up in dealing with civil rights and civil libertys. Hidont expect anything. I plan to earn the vote. Im here to ask. Im here to earn it. Int, folks, i intend to win South Carolina, and i will win the African American vote here in South Carolina. Mr. Mr. Biden, will you continue if you do not win South Carolina . You have said that South Carolina will determine the outcome of this president ial race. If you dont win South Carolina, ace . You continue in the race . I will win South Carolina. applause all right, sir. Mayor bloomberg, id like to bring you into this conversation. I want to ask you about a question that impacts the black and brown community. Youve apologized for stop and frisk repeatedly. What exactly are you apologizing for . We let it get out of control and when i realized that, i cut it back by 95 . And ive apologized and asked for forgiveness. Ive met with black leaders to try to get an understanding of how i can better position and that i should have done and what i should do next time. But let me tell you, i have been working very hard. Weve improved the School System ir black and brown students in new york city. Weve increased the jobs that are available to them. Thats avaiased the housing thats available to them. But what more can you do about this issue, mr. Mayor, to put peoples fears and skepticism to rest . It continues to follow you. Well, thats because its in their interest to promote that. But if you talk to the people in new york city, i have over 100 black elected officials that have endorsed me. A lot of them are in the audience tonight. And ive earned the respect of people in new york city. I was the mayor of the largest, most populous city in the United States for 12 years, and people will tell you its a lot better city today. It is safer for everybody. The School System is better. The budgets under control. Weve done the things that people need in new york city for all ethnicities. Mayor buttigieg . applause mayor to mayor, mayor to mayor, youve certainly had your issues with the black community as well. Do you think the new york citys implementation of stop and frifng was racist . Yes, in effect, it was. Because it was about profiling people based on their race. And the mayor even said that they disproportionately stopped white people too often and minorities too little. And im not here to score points. I come at this with a great deal of humility, because we have had a lot of issues, especially when it comes to Racial Justice and policing in my own community. And i and i come to this with some humility because im conscious of the fact that there are seven white people on this stage talking about Racial Justice. applause none of us none of us have the experience, the lived experience of for example, walking down the street, or in a mall, and feeling feeling eyes on us, regarding us as dangerous, without knowing the first thing about us justice because of the color of our skin. None of us had the experience that black women have had that drives that Maternal Mortality ga gap that we are all rightly horrified by, of going into a doctor, and being less likely to have your description of being in pain believed because of your race. Because we dont have the experience the next best thing we can do is listen to those who do. Wait a second, i know if i was black my success would have been a lot harder to achieve. And i know a lot of black people, if they were white it would have been a lot easier for them. Thats just a fact, and weve got to do something about it rather than just demagogue about it. Senator klobuchar was the way the mayor implemented stop and risk racist . Eedyes, and what i think we need to do instead of talking about the past is how were going to move forward. Martin luther king once said that we are all tied in a single garment of destiny, and that what affects one of us directly affects all of us indirectly. So when there is racism in the criminal Justice System, then we x it. To fix it. And to me that means sentencing reform, like the first step act, and extending that to the states wit with the second step act. It means equal opportunity. Because if we dont pass representative clyburns bill out of South Carolina here to invest in impoverished communities were never going to get to that single garment of destiny. And we also need to do something about child care, about make sure we increase the minimum wage. And then, finally, voting. Bating, wisconsinsitting here debating, wisconsin has kicked hundreds of thousands of people off of their voting rolls. Georgia kicked 100,000 off. As president , i will get Voting Rights to be a reality for everyone. Senator warren, im coming to you. I want to direct this question to you because you because mayor bloomberg has said he got in this race late because he doesnt believe that any of you on stage can beat donald trump. You said mayor bloomberg is not the safest candidate. He is the riskiest candidate. What did you mean by that . I mean that mayor bloomberg lets think of it this way. Were here in charleston, and charleston later oing to be in charleston later this week is donald trump. Hes going to be here to raise money for his biddy senator Lindsey Graham, who funded Lindsey Grahams campaign for reelection last time . It was mayor bloomberg. And thats not the only rightwing senator that mayor bloomberg has funded. In 2016, he dumped 12 million into the Pennsylvania Senate race to help reelect an antichoice, rightwing republican senator. And i just want to say, the woman challenger was terrific. She lost by a single point. In 2012, he scooped in to try to defend another republican senator against a woman challenger. That was me. It didnt work, but he tried hard. applause i dont care how much money mayor bloomberg has. The core of the Democratic Party will never trust him. He has not earned their trust. I will. And the fact that he cannotarn the trust of core of the Democratic Party means he is the riskiest candidate standing on tis stage. Tis stage. N, all right, senator warren, th thank you. Mayor bloomberg, would you like to respond . Mayor bloomberg . I have been training for this job since i stepped on the pile that was still smoldering on 9 11. I know what to do. Ive shown i know how to run a country. Ive run the city, which is almost the same size bigger than most countries in the world. I am not the im the one choice that makes some sense. I have the experience. I have the resources. And i have the record. And all those side shows that the senator wants to bring up have nothing to do with that. When people hired me to run new york city three times in an overwhelmingly democratic progressive city, they elected me again and again. Mr. Vice president. I was mentioned in this. Id like id like to respond. Go ahead, senator. He called me out by name. And referred to what i talk about as a side show. You know, this is personal for me. When i was 21 years old, i got my first job as a special education teacher. I loved that job. And by the end of the first year, i was. Ear, i was visibly pregnant. The the principal wished me luck and gave my job to someone else. Pregnancy discrimination, you bet. But i was 21 years old. T didnt have a union to protect me. And i didnt have any federal law on my side. So i packed up my stuff, and i went home. At least i didnt have a boss who said to me, kill it. The way that mayor bloomberg is alleged to have said. I never said that. To one of his pregnant employees. People want a chance to hear booing people want a chance to hear from the women who have worked for mayor bloomberg. Never said that, and for the record if she was a teacher in new york city she would never have had that problem. We treated our teachers the right way, and the unions will t. Ll you exactly that. Well, mayor bloomberg, senator warren has raised let us have the women have an opportunity to speak. The bloomberg corporations and mayor bloomberg himself have been accused of discrimination. They are bound by nondisclosures so that they cannot speak. If he says there is nothing to hide here, then sign a blanket wolease and let those women speak out so that they can tell their stories the way i can tell my story without having theyre going to be sued by a billionaire. Thank you. We have a number of issues to discuss but i want to give the mayor an opportunity to respond because she has raised concerns about women in your workplace. At the last debate, you said some of your female employees might not have liked some of your jokes. Did these women take your jokes wrong or were you wrong to make the jokes . Probably wrong to make the jokes. I dont remember what they were. If it bothered them, i was wrong, and i apologize. T. M sorry for that. What what happened here is we went back 40 years and we could only find three case wheres women said they were uncomfortable. Nobody accused me of anything other than making a comment or two. And what the senator did suggest is we release these women from the nondisclosure agreement. I did that two days later, and my company has said we will not use nondisclosure agreements ever again. The senator has got it. And i dont know what else she wants us to do. Ill be clear. Were following exactly what she asked to do. Ill tell you exactly what i want to do. The trouble is with this senator enough is never enough for what this im going to start focusing on some of these other things. We just cannot continue to relitigate this every time. We did what she asked, and, thank you, we probably made the world better because of it. And by my company renouncing using these, we probably changed, hopefully, the corporate landscape all across america. If you get nominated we be relitigating this all year. Senator warren, that is a edry serious charge you leveled at the at the mayor. Yes. He told a woman who get an abortion. What evidence do you have of that . Her own words. Mayor bloomberg, could you respond to this. Io i never said it, period. End of story. Look categorically never said it. When i was accused of doing it, he couldnt figure out what she was talking about. But right now, im sorry if she heard what she thought she heard or whatever happened, i didnt take any pleasure in that. And weve just have to go on. But i never said it. What i asked the mayor to do is to do a release of all people who have we are doing that, senator. Who have credible we want to get to the we want to get to the issue we want to get to the issue of electability and the ideological difference within the Democratic Party. Senator sanders, the cost of your agenda. Yesterday, you released information about how you will pay for your major proposals but not all of your details are clear. You proposed more than 50 trillion is nnew spending. Youve said medicare for all for all will cost 30 trillion. Over a 10year period. But you can only explain how youll pay for just about half of that. Can you can you do the math for the rest of us . How many hours do you have . Two. Thats the problem. No, thats not the problem. All right, lets talk about medicare for all. Im sure youre familiar with the new study that just came out of yale university, published in lancet magazine, one of the prestigious medical journals in. He world. You kn you know what it said . Wedicare for all will Lower Health Care costs in this country by 450 billion a year, and save 68,000 lives of people who otherwise would have died. What we need to do is to do what every other major country on earth does guarantee health care to all people, not have thousands of separate insurance plans, which are costing us some 500 billion a year to administer. Our plan, we have laid out options all over the place. One of the oppositions is a 7. 5 payroll tax on employers, which will save them substantial sums of money. Another bernie, let me respond to that. P . Does the math add up . Up no, the math does not add up. In fact, just on 60 minutes this weekend he said he wasnt going to rattle through the nickels and the dimes. Well, let me tell you how many nickels and dimes were talking about. Nearly 60 trillion. Do you know how much that is for all of his programs. Not true. Th that is three times the American Economy not the federal government, the entire American Economy. The medicare for all plan alone on page 8 clearly says it will ffck 149 million americans off the their current Health Insurance in four years. That is true. As one prominent democrat once said, we should Pay Attention to where t where the voters of this country are, bernie. That prominent democrat was barack obama, a few months ago. And i think thats what we should do. They are not with you on spending nearly 60 trillion. First of all, what i think we should do is make things more affordable, nonprofit public option, make sure were paying for longterm phre better, take on the pharmaceuticals, like you and i ha have done together, and do aomething for the people of america. Thank you, senator klobuchar. Instead of a bunch of broken promises that sound good on bumper stickers. Mr. Steyer mr. Steyer i think were talking about math. Lets talk about it. Could i Say Something first of all, o. No, let me go. Tom, i think she was talking about my plan, not yours. I think we were talking about mah, and it doesnt take two hours to do the math. Lets talk about what it adds up to. Math. Ts talk about math. Lets talk about math, indeed. Heres the math i can respond to the attack . What will happen senator sanders you are allowed a Quick Response and then we would like to allow the candidates. Senator sanders. Is it my term . Senator sanders you have been name checked. You are allowed to respond. What the health and Human Services have said in analyzing health care costs, what yale recent yale study has said is that your program would cost some 50 trillion over a 10year period. We would continue to pay nsome cases, 10 times more for the same exact exripg prescription. What every study out there, conservative or progressive says, medicare for all will save money. 5urs will cost about 45 bil billion, not 60 trillion. Bernie, i was talking about i was talking about i would like senator sanders, we would like to bring sr. Steyer in on this conversation. Mr. Steyer, please. I was talking about all your programs. Excuse me, amy inspect conversation shows a huge risk for the democratic parent. We are looking at a party that has decide were either going to support someone who is a democratic socialist or somebody gho has a long history of being a republican. And let me say that i got into this race because i wanted to fight for Economic Justice, for Racial Justice, and to make sure we had Climate Justice for the American People. And i am scared. If we cannot pull this party together, if we go to one of those extremes, we take a terrible risk of reelecting donald trump. Thank you, mr. Steyer. And that is something i still have some time. And let me say this. That is a risk that will hurt the American People in a way that none of us on this stage should be willing to risk. Thank you. Lets keep this topic going. Mayor pete. So lets do this math. Senator sanders at one point said it was going to be 40 trillion, then 30, then 17. Its an incredible shrinking price tag. At some point he said it is unknowable to see what the price tag will be. Now there are new numbers. Im tell to. Tell you what it adds up to. It ends up as four more years of donald trump, Kevin Mccarthy as speaker of the house, and the inability to get the senate in democracy hands. The time has come to stop acting like the presidency is the only office that matters. Not only is this a way to get donald trump reelected. We have a house to worry about. We have a senate to worry about. And this is really important. Hello if you want to keep the house in democratic hands, you might want to check with the people who actually turned the house blue 40 democrats who are not running on your platform. They are running away from your platform as fast as they possibly can. applause i want to send those democrats back to the United States house. House. Vice president biden. They dont want to be out there defending thank you, mayor buttigieg. E. Ce president biden, please. I guess the only way to do this is jump in and speak twice as long as you should. Heres the deal. Heres the deal. A guy who is a friend of mine, toitz holling, said you want to know what a woman will do . Look at what theyve done. You talk about concerns about race. My good friend at the end of this platform, he, in fact, bought a system that was a private prison system after, after he knew that, in fact, what happened was they hog tied young men in prison here in this state. They, in fact, made sure that in care for the people who werealth being held. They, in fact, went on, and he said, after he knew that, he bought it. And then he said he was proud of his accomplishment. You talk about what were talking about with bernie. Bernie, in bernie, in fact, hasnt passed much of anything. The fact of the matter is no, no, no. I get to answer that. Hat. T to answer that. Look, the fact is youre out of time. Im not out of time. You spoke overtime and im going to talk cheers and applause heres the deal. Heres the deal, the fact of the matter is, look at whats happening here. Look at whats happening here. We have to win the senate back. And by the way, i went into all those races that got 41 new democrats. Ree majority of them are supporting me for president. Mr. Vice president , i have to allow yes, mr. Mayor. Mr. Mayor, youre allowed to respond. I bought stock in a Prison Company thinking they did a better job and i investigated and i sold it. You knew stornlings stop. You knew when you bought it theyd done that. Since then, ive worked to end the use of private prisons in my home state, and weve ended it. Ive started a bank to support black ownership of businesses, women ownership of businesses, and latino owners of businesses because this Financial Service industry is prejudiced. I have worked tirelessly on this, and you know im right. You wrote the crime bill where we come from thats ly. Led tommy come lately. To put hundreds of thousands of young black and latino men in prison. Not true. Let me Say Something. Thank you. Theres something going on here. I have worked for Racial Justice thank you. Completely, and that is an absolute unfair statement. Thank you, mr. Steyer. All i know johnnycomelately. If we spend the next four months tearing our party apart, were going to watch donald trump spend the next four years tearing our country apart. Look so my argument here is is that we need to get back to noats happening right now. We have a clear choice of whos going to lead this party. And i am the only one in the New Hampshire debate when asked if we had a problem with a socialist leading the ticket that raised my hands. I like bernie. We came in together to the senate. But i do not think that this is the best person to lead the ticket. And if you want to talk about getting things done and make a comparison, according to Vanderbilt University in tennessee, last congress, i was the most effective democrat in the u. S. Senate on 15 metrics. Bernie and elizabeth were in the bottom half. It matters it matters if you can actually get things done. It is not just who talks the best. Its who actually gets things done. And especially with the African American community, there have. Een a lot of broken promises. And i think having someone that keeps their promises and follows through and is going to get things done for these people matters. And thats why i ask for your support. Mayor blrk please. Lets just go on the record. They talk about 40 democrats. 21 of those were people they spent 100 million to help elect. All of the new democrats that came in, put nancy pelosi in charge, and gave the congress the ability to control this process prt president , i got th. When you talk about money, lets put it in perspective. The federal damage is 4. 5 trillion, we lose 1 trillion a year. Thats why the federal deficit is right now the debt is 20 trillion, going up to 21. We just cannot afford some of this stuff people talk about. But if you let me finish. If you keep on going, we will elect bernie. Bernie will lose to donald trump. And donald trump and the house and the senate and some of the state state houses will all go red. And then between gerrymandering and appointing judges for the next 20 or 30 years, were going to live with this catastrophe. Thank you. I will allow senator sanders a Quick Response and then senator warren. Senator sanders a Quick Response. Thank you very much. Mayor bloomberg has a solid and strong and enthusiastic base of support. The problem is theyre all billionaires. booing now, if you look oh. On the other hand, of the last 50 polls that have been done nationally, mr. Bloomberg, i beat trump 47 of those 50 times. If you look at battleground states like michigan, wisconsin, and pennsylvania polling the polls arent the election. I beat trump. And if you want to beat trump, what youre going to need is an unprecedented, Grassroots Movement of black and white and latino, native american and asian, people who are standing up and fighting for justice. Thats what our movement is about. Imagine moderate republicans going over and hiting for him . Absolutely. And you have to do that or you cant win. S you know, that is that is the problem. And that and that is that a Progressive Agenda is popular, mayor bloomberg. And for everyone on this stage. We talk about how to build a future. Thats what matters. I talk to people in selfie lines every day who tell me about the importance of getting real help on health care. Its why i also have a way to pay for health care that doesnt raise taxes on middleclass families. But its so much more than that. Its democrats, we need to speak to the future we can build together. We need to speak to the prosperity we can build together. How about a wealth tax in america . Because with a two cent tax on just the top onetenth of 1 , we have a chance to invest in universal childcare for every one of our babies, to really level the playing field. Put 50 billion into historically black colleges and universities. And start closing the racial wealth gap by cancelling Student Loan Debt for 43 million americans. We need to talk about our aspirations, our hopes. T. Is is a moment. Senator. To choose hope over fear. Senator, thank you. This is our moment. Senator, thank you. applause we have to take a quick break. When we come back, the democratic democratic president ial debate continues right after this, only on cbs. applause if you looked at america like a bird and that was all you knew, would you really understand it, with just that point of view . Weve got a different way to look at it. From right here on the ground. We dont just the United States. We see united towns. From where we sit, just down the street, near the post office, by the park, when we stop and look around, what we see are sparks. Sparks of hope, of compassion, of communities who stand firm. When neighbors lift each other up, expecting nothing in return. Were grateful for what you bring, and all the sparks youve shown, in the thousands of towns that we get to call home. We have an angry, out of control, lawless president dividing the American People and abusing his office. Now, i have no doubt that historians will indict this president. Along with the republicans who lack the courage to do it themselves. But we cannot wait for historians to render a verdict. Thats our job and we must do it this year this election is a referendum on our constitution and the values that define it and the meaning of america. Its about what we will tell our children and our grandchildren that we did at this very moment. And thats why i got into this race. So let me be clear i am running to defeat donald trump and to restore honor to our government and to build a country that we are proud of and to start getting things done and putting the united back in the United States of america im Mike Bloomberg and i approve this message. Go to the pharmacy counter for powerful. Congestion and pressure . Claritind. While the leading allergy spray is indicated for 6 symptoms. Claritind is indicated for 8. Including sinus congestion and pressure. Claritind. Get more. I am totally blind. And non24 can throw my days and nights out of sync, keeping me from the things i love to do. Talk to your doctor, and call 8442142424. Im gayle king with norah odonnell. Joining us now in charleston, South Carolina are cbs news colleagues, the a team, Bill Whitaker of 60 minutes. Chief washington correspondent, thats Major Garrett. And margaret brennan, mo moderar of face the nation. Were going to begin with you, Vice President biden, for this part. Just across the street, as you mentioned at the top of the debate, is where nine people were shot and killed at the mother emanuel church. We all remember that day back in 2015. And every day in our country, over 100 people die from gun violence. You all have plans, i know, on this stage, to address the gun crisis. But congress has not been able to pass a major Gun Legislation in a quarter of a century. Just think about this, in those 25 years weve had columbine, newtown, parkland, las vegas. We could go on and on. Vice president biden, i want to start with you, why should anyone have naight youre the now . Who can get this done now . Because im the only one who ever got it done nationally. I beat the n. R. A. Twice. I got assault weapons banned. I got magazines that could not hold more than 10 rounds in them. I got them eliminated. Except we had a thing called an election with hanging chads in tiorida and it was not reauthorizationed. In addition to, that i passed the brady bill with waiting periods. But my friend to my right and others in fact also gave into the gone manufacturers absolute immunity. Imagine i stood here and said we companiive immunity to Drug Companies. We would give immunity to Tobacco Company naps has caused carnage on our streets. 150 Million People have been killed since 2007 when bernie voted to exempt the gun manufacturers from liability. More than all the wars, including vietnam, from that point on. Carnage on our streets. And i want to tell you, if im elected n. R. A. , im coming for you, and, gun manufacturers, im moing to take you on and im going to beat you. Im the only one who has done it. Thats why we have to. And talk about what really its going to take to get something done. Ive been in the senate. What ive seen is gun safety legislation introduced, get a majority, and then doesnt pass because of the filibuster. Understand this the filibuster is giving a veto to the gun industry. It gives a veto to the oil industry. Its going to give a veto on immigration. Until were willing to dig in and say that if Mitch Mcconnell is going to do to the next democratic president what he did to president obama, and that is try to bloarveg single thing he does, that we are willing to roll back the filibuster, go with the majority vote, and do what needs to be ple. For the American People. Were going to stay on this top and i can allow beat Mitch Mcconnell. Understand this many people on this stage do not support rolling back the filibuster. Until were ready to do, that we wont have change. I want senator sanders to respond. Youve gone after the insurance industry. Youve taken on pharmaceutical companies. And youve taken on big tech. Why did you vote repeatedly to ive gun manufacturers a pass . Well, you know, joe has voted for terrible trade agreements. booing no, no, no, no, no. Joe voted for the war in iraq. My point was not to be i have cast thousands of votes, including bad votes. That was a bad vote. I have today a dminus voting record from the n. R. A. 30 years ago, i likely lost a race for the one seat for 0ongress in vermont because 30 yea years ago, i opposed i supported a ban on assault weapons. O. Years ago. Right right now, my view is we need to expand background checks, end the gun show loophole, and do what the American People want, not what the n. R. A. Wants. Okay, but wait a second the opposition to the filibuster is not a discretion ago. A long time ago. Recognize me, thank you. I have a six millionperson organization around this country. Moms demand action, in every town. applause we have put background checks we have background checks in 20 states. So you can do it. Its congress that cant seem to do it. And i dont know why we think theyre going to do it. The Vice President voted for a death bill, and supported the n. R. A. And certainly senator sanders has supported the n. R. A. But we can do this. We just have to stop talking about it. The way we do it is having someone leading the ticket from a part of the country where we actually needs the votes. So i have long supported the assault weapon ban. I am the author of the bill to close the boyfriend loophole that says that Domestic Abusers cant go out and get an ak47. I wrote that law. That bill along with you didnt write that bill. I wrote the bill, the violence against womens act. Did you that. That took out of the hands of abusers lets look at the fact check. The only thing the boyfriend loophole was not covered. I couldnt get that covered. You in fact as a senator tried to get it covered and Mitch Mcconnell is holding it up on his desk right now, and were going to lose the violence against womens act across the board. So if i could finish. I have the bill. Anyone can check it out, to close the boyfriend loophole. Also to close the charleston loophole is another that is out there. Universal background checks. Let me say how we win this. We have to win in the middle of the country. While everyone talks about winning rural areas, suburban areas, im the only one up here with a receipt that has actually assault ly, while being for the assault weapon ban, won in republican congressional districts over and over again, including Michele Bachmanns district. Having someone that can lead the ticket, that can bring people with her, is the way you get gun safety legislation. I look at these proposals and cky do they hit my uncle dick and the deer stand. They do not. Coming from a proud hunting paate and still being tiebl pass this legislation is going to be the key. Senator klobuchar thank you. We want to allow as many people to get in on this top i think. Im on board of sending up somebody from the middle of the country. I want to come back to the question of the filibuster because this is not some longago bad vote that bernie thnders took. This is a current bad position. Hat Bernie Sanders holds. applause and were in South Carolina. How are we going to deliver a revolution if you wont even support a rule change . We are in this state applause booing we are in the state where Strom Thurmon use the filibuster to peatedly. Il rights legislation repeatedly. No less a senate traditional figure than harry reid has called for it to go. It has got to go, because otherwise otherwise washington will not deliver. I was in high school when the columbine shooting happened. And i remember everybody in washington saying, never again. Well never let this happen again. And then a Second School shooting generation has now been produced. Shame on us if we allow there to be a third. And also, in terms of making the case, i think it wouldnt be a bad idea for somebody to illustrate from the perspective of the a veteran why the kinds of weaponry, anything remotely erke what i trained on in order to go serve in a war zone has no business being sold anywhere near an American School or church or neighbor. All right, senator sanders, please. applause 30 years ago, i supported a ban on assault weapons. Mik aike bloomberg has started a very good organization, moms demand actions. Congratulations. Thank you. They have credited me with w. N sense, as you know. Yes, we did. Furthermore, further mor, it is my view, the time is now and joe made this point. At the end of the day we need to really the American People. Here is the good news. Because of all these disgusting and horrific mass shootings, the american American People now understand that we must be aggressive on gun safety, not be dictated to by the n. R. A. And i am proud that i have a dminus voting record from the n. R. A. If elected president twill get worse than that. All right, mr. Steyer, ease, mr. Steyer. Look, it isnt a question of the American People deciding that we have too much gun violence. Everyone in america knows we have too much gun violence. The problem we have is that Corporation Corporations have bought washington, d. C. The gun manufacturers own the senate of the United States, so even though though over 90 of americans want mandatory background checks on every gun purchase, we cant get it through the senate. So the question you have to ask yourself is how do we change the senate of the United States in a material way . And there are two things. Thats why i am for term limits of 12 years for every Congress Person and senator, to change whos in charge, to get rid of Mitch Mcconnell and Lindsey Graham and ted cruz. But i am also senator sanders is right we need to win a huge victory across the aboard. Democrats need to go to the grass roots. I built one of the biggest grassroots organizations in the United States. Your time sup. Tell the truth and organize. Thats what its going to take in 2020. Your time sup. Bill whitaker. Lets talk about education. S uth carolinas schools score in the bottom half of the national assessment. Black students here consistently score worse than white students. Ma mayor bloomberg, a key element of your response to failing schools in new york city was a dramatic increase in public Charter Schools. As president , would you pursue that same strategy and seek to expand Charter Schools nationwide . Im not sure theyre lapropriate every place. I can only tell you in new york, they provided parents with an alternative to send students to them. We had the Charter Schools are mixed in with the noncharter public schools, because our Charter Schools are public thhools as well. Theyve helped each other. I saw a statistic the other day, when i came into office, zero new York City Schools were in the top 25 of the state. When i left, 23 out of 25 were from new york city. Weve cut the gap between the rich and the poor. Weve made an enormous difference in all of the options that parents have. I increased teacher salaries by 43 . I i value education. It is the only way to solve the poverty problem is to get people a good education. And rather than just talk about it in new york we actually did it. Senator warren . So this is one thing where a president can make a big ifference all by herself, and im going to start with my secretary o secretary of education. My secretary of education will be someone who has taught in public school. My secretary of education will be someone who believes in Public Education. And my secretary of education will believe that public dollars s. Ould stay in public schools. applause ing. More thing. My secretary of education will believe that it is time to get rid of highstakes testing. We need to support our children. But, look, we want to build a future in this country, we build ilfuture by investing in our children. Ive got a plan to put 800 billion new dollars into our public schools. Education is not free. We must invest in the fiewfort our our children. Senator sanders. This carriage our campaign, our campaign is about changing american priorities. Instead of giving tax breaks to billionaires, were going to have highquality, universal, childcare for every family in this country. Because the psychologists tell us 04 are the most important years of human development. We are going to triple funding for lowincome title i schools because kids education should not depend upon the zip code in which they live. Were going to make public colleges and universities tuitionfree, of through a tax on wall street speculation. And were going to move to make certain that no teacher in america earns less than 60,000 a year. We want great teachers. I can mayor buttigieg. Look, the best thing that we can do to support Public Education is to support public educators. Im a little biased because im married to one. I get an education about education every day i come home. I see how teachers are expected to dip into their own pocket poo rsrnish their classrooms. Teachers are expected to handle the Mental Health challenges their students are facing because we dont have an adequate Mental Health system to summit kids. And now some politicians, because they arent willing to sece the need for commonsense gun laws, are expecting teachers to somehow transform themselves into highly trained armed guards when theres a threat to a classroom. We have to show not only with compensation but the support for the profession overall our regard for those educating our kids. And, yes, that means a secretary of education who will support itachers. It also means investing. Im supporting. The way we can support our teachers is to kill Student Loan Debt. Candidates, good evening. People across this country are being crushed by Student Loan Debt. This is an issue we need to talk about. Thats what my plan would do. As we all know, the political conversation in our country is interactive and because of our partner, twitter, this debate is no different. I want to put a question from twitter to you, senator klobuchar. This is from k. C. Pennington. How will your policies address and ensure Affordable Housing and Education Equity for minimum wage workers . Thank you. This is one of the first time we have talked about housing. I put forth an extensive policy. When i looked at this both in my job and local government in the senate, one sure way we can make sure kids get a good start is if they have a roof over their head and a stable place to live. The way you do that is, first of all, taking caper of the section 8 backlog of applicants. There are literally hundreds of thousands of people waiting. And i have found a way to pay for this, and a way to make sure that people get off that list and get into housing. Secondly, you create incentives for Affordable Housing to be built. Ynd, third, to help people pay fo for it. And i want to make clear, given South Carolina and the rural population, as well as urban, that this isnt just an urban problem. Its a big urban problem, but its also a rural problem where we have housing dispertz people want to have their businesses located there, but theyre not able to get housing. So for me, its building a coalition. And i actually like to get these things done, and to the way you do it is by building a coalition between urban and rural so you can pass Affordable Housing and finally get it done. We need to talk about race, though. I understand. It is not enough to talk about housing neutrally. A can we speak up when we want. It has to be raceblind. It is important to recognize want role that the federal government played for decades ind decades in discriminating against African Americans having an opportunity to buy homes. Thats red lining. And while mayor bloomberg was blame the housing crash of 2008 on African Americans and on latinos, in fact, i was out there fighting for a Consumer Agency to make sure people never get cheated again on their mortgages. I have a housing plan, and what it has in it senator warren thank you. Specifically, is it needs to deal with the effects of red lining. We can no longer pretend that everything is raceneutral. We have got to address race considerably whats happening in this country. Mayor bloomberg, please, we were going to ask you about this. Rewant to give you a chance to respond. In addition to what senator warren said on twitter, she called you a liar and borderline racist because of what you said about red lining. Im sorry, but, unfortunately, shes misinformed on red lining. You can go back and look at the record. I fought against it before 08, the crisis, during 08, and after that. Red lining is not the problem with the mortgage market, but it was a problem for the communities where it was done, and we stopped that. Let me also say, just since i have the floor for a second, that i really am surprised that all all of these my fellow contestants up here, i guess, would be the right word for tgiven nobody pays attention the clock. Im surprised they show up, because i would have thought airfare did such a good job in beating them last week, that they would be a little bit afraid to do that. Let me just say, when youre talking about Affordable Housing, we created 175,000 iits of Affordable Housing in new york city. And i listen to them, theyre in congress and they say they cant get it done, cant get it done. But if you change Something Like the president , they would. No, you have to learn how to work with both sides of the aisle, and then you can get stuff done. I did it in new york city. I got the Republican State Senate to vote for gay marriage virtually before anybody else in this country. You can work across the aisle. You just have to know how to deal with people. Mayor bloomberg, thank you very much. Ill. To you, bill. Environment biden, black men larn 73 cents for every dollar earned by white men, are about twice as likely to be unemployed, five times more likely to be incarcerated, conditions that ripple across black families, and have endured during both democratic and republican administrations. How do you convince black voters that you can change years of inequities . Two ways. Number one, my entire life i have been involved with the black community. I was a public defender. I worked in the projects. I came along, and the first thing i did was the chairman of the Judiciary Committee extending the Voting Rights act eventually for 25 years. And i have been deeply involved. And my first effort i had as a councilman was doing away with red red lining in the county. The way we the way we do this, weve got to help them create wealth, and thats why we double the amount of money that is available for young entrepreneurs and black entrepreneurs are as successful as any other group of people in the country. We go from. 5 p billion to three dollars billion, taking 30 billion off the sidelines. Thats how you create wealth. Secondly i provide for the opportunity for firsttime home buyers to be able to have a 15,000 tax credit so they can get the mortgage at the front end and be able to keept it. Thirdly, i go after those people gentrification because wha gentrification because whats happening is were moving people out of their neighborhoods in ways that in fact make to sense. Theyre being bought out. You cannot find a place to live. Thirdly, i make sure that with regard to housing, we allow people, look, right now if you live in a black neighborhood and have the same exact house as the guy across the street in a white neighborhood has, your house is valued significantly less than the white house. Weve got to deal with the institution mr. Vice president. I know how you cut me off all the time but im not going to be quia et anymore. Mr. Steyer. Every single place in the United States has a subset of race, were talking about education, criminal justice, were talking about housing, were talking about loans. I started a bank to basically correct the injustice in the Financial Services industry. Basically, to make loans to blackowned, latinoowned and womenowned businesses. Weve 1u79d over 8,000 Affordable Housing units. But more than that, i believe im the only person on this stage who believes in reparations for slavery. Something happened. We should have a formal commission on race to retell the story of the last 400plus years in america of africanamericans, of systematic, legal injustice discrimination and cruelty, but also of 400plus years of contribution in terms of building the United States of america and leading the United States of america from a moral standpoint. Thank you, mr. Steyer. Reparations. Amy klobuchar. New topic. I dont know where he got that impression. If you could honor the rules of the debate. Thank you, senator klobuchar, rural areas have populations who are older, sicker and poorer than nonrural communities and they have to travel farther to get medical help when they need it. Expanding coverage will be useless if there are no providers to go to. How would you ensure there is Available Health care in rural areas . I know youre aware in South Carolina about how much poverty there is, particularly Child Poverty in rural areas. So the answer is one size doesnt fit all. One of the ways you codo this, right now we have something called critical access hospitals so theyre designated for rural areas. Actually, i am the lead democrat on a bill to extend that, to have other types of hospitals, like Emergency Rooms in rural areas be covered. The other issue is we dont have enough personnel. So thats where we get to this. Ducation plan. And i dont want agree with some of my colleagues here about putting hardearned taxpayer money into rich kids going to college. What i think we need to do rnstead is look at what our needs are in our economy. Were going to have a million openings for Home Healthcare workers, particularly in rural areas, that we dont know how to fill. Were going to have over 100,000 openings over nurses. We wont have a shortage of sports marketing, well have a shortage of plumbers and nurses. Putting inceptives in place with how we do loan payback, making 1year and 2year degrees free, and creating loan payback programs if people will go, especially medical students, into rural areas. Fourth is comprehensive immigration reform. Senator, time. I have passed a bill that allows doctors in other countries that go to our medical schools to stay in our rural areas. Same question. Yeah, so, when i was born, there was no difference in your Life Expectancy, if you were born in a rural area or city. Now the gap is as big as its been in a generation, particularly affecting black h carolimilies in places like South Carolina. Were seeing hospital closures, right and left. And were seeing them, in particular, in states where medicaid was not expanded. Something that is hurting black isd poor white families and is largely the results of racial voters suppression. See, all of these things are connected housing, wages, the ability to get anything meaningful done on criminal justice reform. All of these things are going to be harder to deal with as long as black voices are systematically excluded from political participation, which is happening on everything from the purging of voter rolls to the closing of voting locations. Out of time, sir. Coats why my plan for comprehensively dealing with tissues part of it is a 20t 20th century Voting Rights act. Senator sanders. Yeah, very proud working with congressman jim clyburn, south South Carolina, that we increased funding for the Community Health Center Program by 11 billion as part of the Affordable Care act, which now provides for 9 million americans access to primary health care, dental care, Mental Health counseling and lowcost prescription drugs, in that bill. We also put two dollars billion into a program which would provide Debt Forgiveness for doctors, nurses, dentists. Nt have a major dental affordable crisis in this country to make sure that they are practicing in underserved areas. The advantage of a medicare for all healthcare program, because its not driven by profits for the Drug Companies and the insurance companies. Youre out of time. We will have health care for all people in all parts of this country. But for any of that to happen it has to pass. Thank you. Next topic. Were talking about a plan excuse me, were going to toyor bloomberg to change topics. Mayor bloomberg, you declared war on obesity, you banned trance fapts from restaurants and tried to do the same thing on large insuringy drinks. Will you push those policies on the National Level as well if you become president . New york city isnt like all other cities otherwise you would have a naked cowboy in every city. Lets get serious is. I think its Good Government to teach people good science and tell them how to extend their lives. We are a country where there are too many people who are obese. We should do Something Like that. Look what happened with smoking. We banned smoking in new york city in Public Places and it s spread across america, across europe, across latin america, even to placehouse in the middle east and into the far east. It has saved an enormous number of lives. It goes to show, if you have good public health, then you can do things. One of the great problems today, you read about the virus, whats really happening here is the president fired the pandemic specialist in this country two years ago. So theres nobody here to figure dot what the hell we should be doing applause and hes defunded centers for disease control, so we dont have the organization we need. This is a very serious thing. As you see, the stock market is falling apart because people are really worried and they should b. We dont have anybody to respond. Well talk about that in the next segment. Are new yorkers living longer thaws because of your policies . No question about that. Before i left Life Expectancy in new york city had grown by three years during our 12 years in office such that, when i left, it was three years greater than the national average. All right, Vice President biden, please. Vice president biden. Look, one of the things we have to do, we have a thing in the Defense Department called a special operation theme to find out all the things we have to deal with to make us safer. They came up with the internet, ltth the whole idea of stealth technology. Im going to do the same thing at the National Institute of health. Were going to focus at least 50 billion over the first five years on focusing on obesity, diabetes, alzheimers and cancer, and were going to make that investment because no one else is willing to make that investment. We can, in fact, find cures if we make the investment, and we can get that done. The American People support it. Even republicans support it. We have to focus on extending life, saving life and making people, put them in a position to be able to live longer and more securely. applause all right, senator biden, thank you. Senator klobuchar. Senator sanders wants to legalize marijuana on day one of his presidency and is promising to expunge the record of anyone rho has been arrested for possession. As a former prosecutor, is that a a realistic promise . Well, it is realistic to want to legalize marijuana, i want to do that, too, and i also think you need to look back and at peoples records and maybe you can cant do it on day one. I think you want to have a process that you go through, because theres too many people that have things on their records that have stopped them from getting jobs. I think a lot of what we also need to do is to make sure that, when we do this, that we have money for treatment, and its not necessarily because of marijuana, it is because of things like opioids and the heke, and thats why one of the first plans i put out was for treatment because, if you want to make the criminal Justice System work, you dont want to have repeat customers, and you want to help people get off of drugs, and the way you do that is with drug courts. The way you do that, by the way, is with my proposal for a clemensy board in the white house so that you dont have a president that pall mall gives pardons to his buddies and whitecollar offenders, but that, instead, you have a set process that you use that is fair and fair and is outside of the Justice Department and while getting their advice. Mayor bloomberg, id like to get your thoughts on this because you have called marijuana another addictive drug that weve never done research on. Look, the first thing you do is we should not make this a criminal thing, if you have a smal small amount. For dealers, yes. But for the average person, no. When you should expunge the records of those that got caught up in this before. applause number two, were not going to take it away from states that have already done it. Number three, you should listen to the scientists and the doctors. They say go very slowly. They havent done enough research, and the evidence so far is worrisome, before we get all our kids, particularly kids in their late teens, boys even more than girls, with this may be damaging their brains. Until we know the science, its nonsensical to push ahead. But thet cats out of the bag. Some states have it, youre not going to take it away. Decriminalize the possession. Senator sanders, you were name checked. Look, youre right, we have a criminal Justice System today that is not only broken, it is racist, got more people in jail than any other country on earth including china. One of the reasons for that is an horrific war on drugs. So i do believe that, on day one, we will change the federal controlled substance act which, if you can believe it, now equates heroin with marijuana. Thats insane. Were going to take marijuana out of that and effectively legalize marijuana in every state in the country. What we are also going to do is move to expunge the records of those people who were arrested for possession of marijuana, and ill tell you what else were going to do, were going to provide help to the africanamerican, la teen latino, native American Communities to start businesses to sell Legal Marijuana rather than let a few corporations to control the market. Can i respond to this. Write the bill that set up drug courts thank you, Vice President biden. Well get back to you. The cbs news democratic president ial debate will continue right after the break. applause where did it come from . You know im not sure. Whos peter samuel . Daddy . Yeah . Whos peter . Well sweetie, hes your greatgreat grandfather. Does he look like me . Yeah. Yeah . Yeah. Turn questions youve always had into stories you cant wait to share; with ancestry. If you have moderate tuto severe psoriasis, always had into stories Little Things can become your big moment. Thats why theres otezla. Otezla is not a cream. Its a pill that treats plaque psoriasis differently. With otezla, 75 clearer skin is achievable. Dont use if youre allergic to otezla. It may cause severe diarrhea, nausea, or vomiting. Otezla is associated. With an increased risk of depression. Tell your doctor if you have a history of depression. Or suicidal thoughts or if these feelings develop. Some people taking otezla reported weight loss. Your doctor should monitor your weight and may stop treatment. Upper respiratory tract infection and headache may occur. Tell your doctor about your medicines, and if youre pregnant or planning to be. Otezla. Show more of you. But when allergies and congestion strike, take allegrad. A nondrowsy antihistamine plus a powerful decongestant. So you can always say yes to putting your true colors on display. Say yes to allegrad. The most empoweringmike experiences that ive had. To putting your true colors on display. Its important to talk to the people who know him personally. I worked for him for 8 years in city hall. Ive been working for bloomberg for 27 years. 25 years. Almost 30 years. Theres nobody that i respect more, and felt more respected by. Mike believes excellence is not defined by gender. Mike builds a culture that advances women. I was the first woman ever appointed to be council to the mayor. He expects excellence out of everyone, but he also provides the kind of support that allows you to be that person. Mike called to tell me, you should be proud of what youve done and your name should be on that project. He has faith in you, he believes in you. It was about always showing up and doing your best. I always knew that he had my back. He was raised by an extraordinary woman, she supported him all along the way and thats very much a part of who he is. Mike supports women, he promotes women, and he respects women. applause odonnell welcome back. The cbs news democratic debate. Each of you is campaigning for the role as commanderinchief, where you will command 1. 3 million u. S. Troops and be responsible for protecting Americas National security. There are also 53,000 here in South Carolina. You said, senator warren, you said you wand to bring home wanted to bring home all troops from the middle east and you walked that back to say you want to bring home combat troops. I do. Odonnell how does that protect Americas National security . Look, a president s job, first job, is to keep america safe, and an important part of that is to have a strong military. All three of my brothers served in the military, and i understand how much the military sacrifices, how much their families sacrifice and how much theyre willing to put on the line. That means we have a sacred responsibility to them and that is not to use our military to solve problems that cannot be solved militarily. We are not winning in afghanistan, we are not winning the in the middle east. Ohat we need to do is we need to use all of the tools in our toolbox. We need a strong military, we also need a strong state department. Those are our eyes and ears on the ground. They are our front lines in diplomacy. We need a Strong Economy and to work worldwide on that economy, and we need strong alliances. We need to know the difference between our friends and between dictators who would do us harm and we need to be nicer to our friends than to dictators. We need not to cut and run on our allies. We need an approach that keeps es safe by using all of the tools in a measured way. Odonnell mayor bloomberg, voters have not heard much about your Foreign Policy views. Would you pull all combat troops out of the middle east . No, you need to cut it back as much as we can, but if we learned things from 9 11, people plan things overseas and execute them here. We have to be able to stop terrorism. Theres no guarantees you will be able to do it but we have to have troops in places where terrorists conjugate and to not do so is irresponsible. We shouldnt be fighting wars we cant win. We should only go to wash as a last resort. Nobody argues with that. This is a dangerous world. If we havent learned that affidavit 9 11, i dont know whats going to teach us, what to. Do we have to do something, and i think the budget the things i have seen recently convinced me that the military today is better prepared than they have been in an awful long time, and that the moneys they are spending on the war of weapons ot need for the next war and not the last, a common mistake that theyre not making now, theyre. Oing a good job. Mayor buttigieg, i would like to go to you as the only veteran on stage. Can you weigh in on this . The first time i set foot in South Carolina, it was stepping off the bus that brought me to combat training near fort jackson, to get ready to go to afghanistan, where i saw one to have the things that kept me safe just as sure as my body armor was the fact that the flag on my shoulder represented a country that was known to keep its word. Our allies and our adversaries knew it. The president has torn that to shreds, so the first thing weve got to do is restore the credibility of the United States. applause the send thing weve got to do is make sure that we not only have the intelligence capabilities and i guess i disagree with the mayor, i dont think we need to have Ground Troops anywhere terrorists can gather because terrorists can gather anywhere in the world abilities andd intelligence capabilities and specialists on the ground, but what good is that if you have a president who wont listen to them . Right now some of the biggest threats we face are not only things like counterterrorism, but issues like global house security and the coronavirus that rely on the ability to listen to scientists time, mr. Mayor. Listen to your own intelligence and coordinate with an International Community that this president has alienated because his idea of a Security Strategy is a big wall. Minutefiftees fast but a minutefifteen is a long time. We ask respectfully yoi all try to keep to the time. Good idea. Right, mr. President . Senator klobuchar, as were coming over here today i promise, mr. Vice president , were going to get to you today. You keep promising but you havent done it yet. I havent broken a promise. Senator klobuchar, as with we were coming over from today there was breaking news from the c. C. D. C. About the coronavirus. So far there have been 2,700 deaths globally and so far in this country no death. But the c. D. C. Says its not a matter if the virus will spread here but when. The question to you is this, when you close borders to americans who have been exposed to the coronavirus in order to prevent an outbreak here in this country . What we have to do is make sure we have treatment for those americans and that they are in a quarantine situation. We dont want to expose people, but we want to give them help. And i would agree, when mayor bloomberg said that this president has not invested like he should have in his budget, he tried to cut back on the c. D. C. , in tried to cut back on the International Organization that would coordinate with the rest of the world, he hasnt yet really addressed the nation on this topic, i would do all of that. But i want to take this out of politics right now and talk to the American People because this is so serious. Im not going to give my w. B site right now. Im g im going to give the c. D. C. s web site which is cdc. Gov so that people keep checking in and they follow the rules and they realize what they have to do if they feel sick and they call their health care provider, because many doctors are just saying its just a matter of time before were going to start seeing this here, and i think the answers as president , what dould i do, i would better cord flate throughout my presidency to be ready for the next pandemic and to prepare for this one. I would have better relations with our allies and i would eupport, because i know the vaccine is out there in the head of some kid right now in school, in columbia, South Carolina, or houston, texas, and its investing in education, so we are ready to lead, again, in the world. Senator, thank you. applause ing poie president , we reached a turning point today with the c. D. C. , warning schools that they must prepare that they might have to close. Members of the Trump Administration saying we dont ssve enough medical masks if necessary. What would you do . What we did with ebola, i was part of making sure that pandemic did not get to the United States, saved millions of lives. What we did, we set up, i helped set up that office in the presidency, in the president s office on diseases that are pandemic diseases. We increased the budget of the c. D. C. , we increased the n. I. H. Budget. Our president today, hes wiped all that out. We did it. We stopped it, and the second thing i would point out to you is that what i would do immediately is restore the funding. He cut the funding for c. D. C. He tried to cut the funding for n. I. H. He cut the funding for the entire effort. Heres the deal, i would be on the phone with china and making it clear, we are going to need to be in your country, you have to be open, you have to be clear, we have to know whats reing on, we have to be there with you, and insist on it and insist, insist, insist. I could get that done. No one up here has ever dealt internationally with any of these World Leaders im the only one that has. Senator sanders. applause in the white house today, we have a selfdescribed great genius selfdescribed and this great genius has told us that this coronavirus is going to end in two months. April is the magical date that this great scientist we have in the white house has determined i wish i was kidding, that is what he said. What do we have to do . Whether or not the issue is Climate Change, which is clearly a Global Crisis requiring international cooperation, or Infectious Diseases like coronavirus, requiring international cooperation. We have to work and expand the world health organization. Reviously, we have to make sure th the c. D. C. , the n. I. H. , our infectious departments, are fully funded. Thank you. Is is a global problem, weve got to work with countries all the over the world to solve it. Senator, were going to stay on the topic of foreign affairs. Margaret brennan. You said president xi jinping of china is not a dictator and that he is responsive to his constituents and that the u. S. Must cooperate with beijing. How far does that go . Would you allow chinese firms to build critical u. S. Infrastructure . No, i would not, and i think the Chinese Government has not been open. The freedom of press does not exist there. Their human rights record is abominable and we should make a fuss, which we have been doing, i suppose. But make no mistake about it, we have to deal with china, if there ever going to solve the clim climate crisis. We have to deal with them because our economies are inextricably linked. We would not be able to sell or buy the products that we need and, in terms of whether hes a dictator, he does serve at the behest of th their group of peo. But theres no question he has an enormous amount of power, but he does play to his constituency. You can negotiate with him. Thats exactly what we have to do, make it seem that its in his interest and in his peoples interest to do what we want to do, follow the rules, particularly no stealing of intellectual property, follow the rules in terms of the trade agreements that we have are reciprocal and go equally in both directions. Thank you. Vice president biden, same question to you. Would you allow chinese firms to build critical u. S. Infrastructure . No, i would not. I spent more time i with xi jinping than any other world leader by the time we left an office. This guy doesnt have a y. Mocratic bone in his body. Hes a thug that has a million uighurs in reconstruction, mean concentration, camps. This is a guy who you see whats happening right now in hong kong, and this is a guy i was able to convince should join the International Agreement at the Paris Agreement because, guess what, they need to be involved. You can cooperate and you can also dictate exactly what they are. When in fact they said were going to set up a no fly zone that you cant fly through our zone. He said, what do you expect me to do when i was there . I said well fly right through it. We flew b1 bombers through it. They must play by the rules, period. Senator warren would you let chinese firms build infrastructure . We have to be able to trust our president because there are a lot of decisions a president makes that you just cant follow every part of that. Thats one of the reasons that we need to see any candidates taxes. We know that mayor bloomberg has been doing business with china for a long time, and he is the snly one on this stage who has not released his taxes. He plans to release them after super tuesday. It is not enough to be able to say, just trust me on this. We have a president who said he was going to release his taxes after the election was that a question or no . And refused to do this. No, i would not. Okay, mayor bloomberg, would you mike, like, to respond . I got into this race ten or twelve weeks ago, we have been working on our tax returns, i said they will be out, we have another couple of weeks to go, were doing it as fast we can, weve complied with requirements for disclosure. When i was mayor of new york we had tax returns out twelve years in a row and well do that in the white house. My tax return is online light now. Mr. Steyer. I released my tax returns. Hat was easy to do. How many years . Ten years. I wan i want to saysomething. We keep acting as if were in the 20th or the 19t 19th century. Were talking now about coronavirus that cannot be solved within the border of the United States. Were talking about Climate Change which is a global problem where we need u. S. Leadership for countries around the world. In fact, mr. Trumps policy of us going it alone, of America First of having no values, no allies and no strategy is disastrous for us. The biggest threat to america right now in terms of our safety of our citizens is climate and its time for us to deal with it th that way. Every single Foreign Policy issue is about American Leadership and coalition. New topic. Senator sanders. Can i say one word on its in the same theme, sir. Seuve praised the Chinese Communist party for lifting more people out of extreme poverty than any other country. You also have a track record of expressing sympathy for socialist governments in cuba can americaragua. Can Americans Trust that a democratic socialist president will not give authoritarians a free pass . I have opposed authoritarianism all over the world and i was amazed at what mayor bloomberg said a moment ago. He said that the Chinese Government is responsive to the pilot bureau, but who are they responsive to . Who elects the bureau . You have a real dictatorship there. Of course you have a dictatorship in cuba. I said what barack obama said in terms of cuba, that cuba made progress on education. Yes, i think booing really . Really . What barack obama said was they made great progress on education and healthcare. That was barack obama. Occasionally, it might be a good idea to be honest about american Foreign Policy, and that includes the fact that america has overthrown governments all over the world in chile, in guatemala, in iran, and dictatorships, whether the chinese or the cubens, do something good you acknowledge that but you dont have to trade love meters with them talking at the same time barack obama was abroad in a town meeting, he did not in any way suggest that there was heything positive about the cuben cuben government. He acknowledged they did increase Life Expectancy but he went on and condemned the dictatorship, he went on and condemned the people who, in fact, had run the committee. He also made sure to make it clear and by the way, i called to make sure that i was prepared i never say anything about my private conversations with him, but the fact of the matter is he, in fact, does not, did not, has never embraced an authoritarian regime and does not now. applause this man said that, in fact, he thought it was he did not condemn what they did. That is untrue categorically untrue. What did you tell him . I have condemned authoritarianism whether the eeople in saudi arabia that the United States government. How ant cuba. Cuba, nick rag wax authoritarianism of any stripe is bad, period. But that is different than saying governments occasionally do things that are good. The only thing well restore american credibility the only way you can do this is to actually win the presidency, and i am not looking forward to a scenario where it comes down to donald trump with his nostalgia for the social order of the 50s and Bernie Sanders with a nostalgia for the revolution politics of the 60s. This is not about what was happening in the 70s or 80s, this is about the future. This is about 2020. W we are not going to survive or succeed, and certainly not going to win by reliving the cold war, and were not going to win these critical house and senate races if people in those races have to explain why the nominee of the Democratic Party is telling people to look at the bright side of the castro regime. Weve got to be a lot smarter about this senator sanders, your response. Let us be clear do we think health care for think health care for all, pete, is some kind of radical communist idea . I think raising the minimum wage to a living wage, do we think building the millions of Affordable Housing, do we think raising taxes on billionaires is a radical idea . Lets talk about whats radical about that plan. Immigration reform. The truth is one at a time. The American People talking at the same time weve got to open this up. Universal healthcare. Senator klobuchar. Donald trumps Worst Nightmare is having someone that the people in the midding who are tired of the insults and the extremes in our politics have someone to vote for, and i was going to comment on cuba policy because i actually lead the bill to lift the embargo. I went with barack obama when he went to cuba, and ive seen firsthand how the cube cuban pee are way in front. They want to be entrepreneurs. The way we embrace them is by opening up cuba and starting to do business with them. But to get at what we were just talking about, i think we just have a huge choice. Super tuesday states, onethird of america will vote. Do you want to have someone thank you, senator. In charge of this ticket. Can i finish, margaret. Well, youre out of time. To have someone in charge to have the ticket who wants to put forth 60 millio 60 there does g three times the economy. I think we can get the bold things done without having someone so alienating were yo to turn off the voters. You have to allow the senator to respond. Amy used the word alienating. Hey, amy, my favorite ability, is the highest up here. The point is the way we beat trump, which is what everybody up here wants, is we need a campaign of energy and excitement. We need to have the largest voter turnout in the history of the United States. We need to bring working people back in to the Democratic Party. We need to get young people voting in a way they have never done before. That is what our campaign is about. Bill whitaker has the floor. Vice president biden. Yes. The Bipartisan Senate select committee on Intelligence Report concluded russia interfered in our past president ial election, and the Obama Administration failed to respond forcefully. U. S. Intelligence says russias at it again. If it is proven that russia has interfered in the 2020 elections, would you, as president , launch a retaliatory cyber attack . I would make them pay for it, and i would make them pay for it economically. They are engaged now, as i eleak, in interfering in our elections. They were engaged, and when, in fact, we were the last election in 2016 against hillary, they were. Theres no question. This man stood before the whole world, turned to the russian leader and said, why in gods name would this man ever interfere in our elections . Give me a break. Seventeen intelligence agencies said he did. Ehen we got the information, we went to the committee in the senate thats responsible for knowing these issues and dealing with them. We went to Mitch Mcconnell and said join us and point out what is happening here. He said, no, we want no part of it. And if we had moved we didnt have all the information at that time until after the election was over. And, so, the idea of the Bipartisan Committee said we could have done more, theoretically thats true, but the fact of the matter is we didnt have the information until the end. So, look, we, in fact, should be imposing sanctions on russia now for their interference. Mr. Steyer tapplause twentyfirst century warfare is cyber warfare. What were having is an attack by a hostile foreign power on our democracy right now. Right. The question you have to ask is where is the commanderinchief . And let me say this we dont have one. This isnt news, what Vice President biden said is true, he did stand next to Vladimir Putin. There was a hostile, foreign attack on our election last time and the president sided with the hostile foreign power. Thats why i started need to impeach. Thats what we have to do. We have to impose a president eignsides with a hostile foreign powe power that commits cyber warfare against the United States of america. Thats where we are. Where are all these patriotic republicans who wave the flag but, when were actually under attack, they side with our enemies. Its outrageous. Thats why he should have been impeached. They covered it up and i was years before these people. Theres something wrong here. Were under attack and theyre not doing a darn thing about it. Thank you, mr. Steyer. Senator sanders, i have a question for you, sir. Youre the frontrunner in this race, youre on the ballot in South Carolina. If elected, senator sanders, you would be americas first jewish president , you recently called a very prominent, wellknown american israel lobby a platform for bigotry. What would you say to American Jews who might be concerned youre not from their perspective supportive enough of israel an israel and specifically, sir, would you move the u. S. Embassy back to tel aviv . Let me just the answer is its something that we would take into consideration. But excuse me. But here is the point i am very proud of being jewish. I actually lived in israel for some months. But what i happen to believe is that, right now, sadly, tragically, in israel, through Bibi Netanyahu you have an actual racist who is running that country. applause and i happen to believe that what our Foreign Policy in the isddle east should be about is absolutely protecting the independence and security of israel, but you cannot ignore the suffering of the palestinian people. We have got to have a policy that reaches out to the palestinians and the americans. And in answer to your question, that will come within the context of bringing nations together in the middle east. Mayor bloomberg, would you like to weigh in on that, please. Well, the battle has been going on for a long time in the middle east, whether the arabs vs. The persians, the shias and the sunnis. The jews and palestinians have only gone on 40 or 50 years. We cant move the embassy back. It was done and you will have to leave it there. Number two, the only solution is a twostate solution. The palestinians have to be accommodated. The real problem here is you have two groups of people, both who think god gave them the same piece of land and the answer is to obviously split it up, leave the israeli borders where they are, try to push them to pull back some of those extra on the other side of the wall where theyve built these new communities which they should ot have done that, pull it bac mayor, thank you very much. Senator warren. The way we have to think about this is i think we have to start with the values and what ias to be protected here. Israelis have a right to security and the palestinians have a right to be treated with d lfgnity and to have selfdetermination. That is a twostate solution. But its not up to us to determine what the terms of a twostate solution are. We want to be a good ally to everyone in the region. The best way to do that is to encourage the parties to get to the negotiating table themselves. Donald trumps big mistake is he keeps putting a thumb on the scale on just one side, and that moves the parties further away from working out their own solution here. We need to be an ally by supporting them to come to negotiate to find a lasting peace. Senator warren, on the question of the embassy, what was your position . It is not ours to do. Would you move it back . It is not ours to do. We should let the parties determine would you move it back yes or no . We we should let the parties determine the capitals themselves. Norah. Odonnell i want to turn to tissue of north korea because President Trump engaged in direct diplomacy meeting directly with kim jong un. Senator klobuchar, if you were commanderinchief would you meet with the north Korean Leader . I would but not in the way this president has done it. He literally thinks he can go over and bring a hot dish to the dictator next door and he thinks everything is going to be fine. He has not done it with our allies. He has literally just hastily called summits and run off. That is no way to do it and, as you can see, north korea is emboldened, they are still launchin launching missiles, theyve promised a christmas surprise that thankfully never happened, and he has not been able to advance the ballot at all. So what would i do . I would work with our allies. It has been pointed out, this is what this president fails at all tie time. We should be negotiating ourselves back into the iran nuclear agreement. We should be working with russia not only to stand up for the protection of our elections and call Vladimir Putin out for what he is, the ruthless tic dictator that takes down planes and poisons dissidents, but, also, at the same time, we have to acknowledge that we should be renegotiating the new start treaty and the other arms negotiations that must happen. This president likes to do tweets at 4 00 a. M. In his bathrobe, gets out there and doesnt achieve the results we need. I would meet with him, but i would do it with our allies. I would have clear deliverables and achieve those deliverables. Mr. Vice president , how would you deal with north korea . You dont negotiate with a dictator, give him legitimacy without any notion whether he is going to do anything at all. You dont do that. Look what happened. He gave this dictator hes a thug thug legitimacy, weakened the sanctions around the world against holding committing people not to trade anything from oil to parts that can deal with providing missile technology, and whats happened . Its been weakened. I would be in beijing, i would be calling to, i would be speaking with xi jinping, i would be reassigning the relationship between japan and south korea and south korea and i would make it clear, i would make it clear to china, we are going to continue to move closer to make sure that we can, in fact, prevent china prevent north korea from launching missiles to take them down, and if we dont okay. Why am i stopping . No one else stops. laughter okay. Its my Catholic School training. applause Vice President biden, youre a gentleman, good home training. Thank you, sir. Gentlemen dont get very well treated up here. Margaret brennan. Thank you very much, norah. This is a question for mayor buttigieg. As you know viewers and voters are participating in this through twitter. The city of idlib in syria is facing an unprecedented humanitarian crisis. The syrian we regime and russia are targeting schools, bakeries and hospitals. What would you do as president to push back regime and Russian Forces and stop the killing of innocent civilians . First of all, i stand with the people of idlib who are being targeted, as you said, in a brutal fashion by a dictatorship that has already been so brutal for so many years, and this is one of the reasons we have got to change the balance of power in the region because the president has basically vanished from the stage when it comes to even playing a role in the future there. Turkey, russia, iran all have so much more of a say than we do. We dont have to be invading cuntries to be making a difference, working with our international partners, in order to deliver peace and support those who are standing up for selfdetermination. Now, i want to come back to something, and i promise it relates to International Affairs because senator sanders asked me a question earlier of whether health care for everybody is a radical idea andeth not which is why im for it, very much in a ugh. Erent way, though. Wh what is a radical idea is completely eliminating all private insurance and part of how you know it is is that no industrialized country has gone that far. He and i both like to talk about denmark, for example. But even in denmark, they have not abolished the possibility of private insurance. So this is an idea that goes further than what is acceptable in denmark, the country, let alone imagining how thats going to three in denmark, South Carolina. Thank you, mayor. Senator warren, would you like to respond . What would senator warren do to stop the mass murder . Im sorry . Same question, what would you do to stop the mass murder in idlib, syria. Look, i think thatt what weve got to do is we have to provide humetain relief, we need to work with our allies on this, but this is not a moment for military intervention. We have got to use our military only when we see a military problem that can be solved militarily. We cannot send our military in unres we have a plan to get them out. So, for me, this is about working with our allies. It is about standing with the people who are under enormous pressure right now. This is recognizing what donald trump has put us in, in a terrible box around the world. Eut the solution is not to use our military. The solution is to use the other tools here. Thank you, senator. King weve talked a lot about your policies during this debate, now i would like to get a little more personal. Senator sanders, i know how you enjoy that. After the break well ask you about the words you live by. Well give you a couple of minutes to gather your thoughts and well be right back. fun fact 1 in 4 of us millennials have debt we might die with. And most of that debt is actually from credit cards. Its just not right. But with sofi, you can get your credit cards right by consolidating your Credit Card Debt into one monthly payment. Including your Interest Rate right by locking in a fixed low rate today. And you can get your money right with sofi. Check your rate in two minutes or less. Get a nofee personal loan up to 100k. Get a nofee personal loan aleve it. With aleve pm. Pain happens. The only one to combine a safe sleep aid. And the 12hour pain relieving strength of aleve. So. Magic mornings happen. Theres a better choice. Aleve pm. Thenot actors, people, whove got their eczema under control. With less eczema, you can show more skin. So roll up those sleeves. And help heal your skin from within with dupixent. Dupixent is the first treatment of its kind that continuously treats moderatetosevere eczema, or atopic dermatitis, even between flare ups. Dupixent is a biologic, and not a cream or steroid. Many people taking dupixent saw clear or almost clear skin. And, had significantly less itch. Thats a difference you can feel. Dont use if youre allergic to dupixent. Serious allergic reactions can occur, including anaphylaxis, which is severe. Tell your doctor about new or worsening eye problems, such as eye pain or vision changes, or a parasitic infection. If you take asthma medicines, dont change or stop them without talking to your doctor. So help heal your skin from within, and talk to your eczema specialist about dupixent. Fisnt just about polar bears. Were fighting for our lives, were fighting for clean air and clean water. Thats why i wrote the law to send billions from polluters to communities suffering the most. And only one candidate for president was with us back then, tom steyer. And hes still fighting for us, pledging to make clean air and clean water a right for everyone, regardless of your zip code. Thats the truth. Thats tom steyer. Im tom steyer and i approve this message. applause welcome back to charleston, South Carolina. This is the final segment of the final debate before the first in the south primary this saturday and super tuesday one week from today. Gayle. King all right, one final question, candidates, and its a twoparter. First, id like you each to tell us t us the biggest misconception about you, thats number one. Number two, the South Carolina motto is this while i breathe, i hope. So outside of politics, and no more than 45 seconds or so, what is your personal motto, your personal belief, your favorite quote that represents you . Mr. Steyer, the biggest misconception and then your motto. The biggest misconception about me is that somehow im defined by Business Success and money. King okay, and your motto . Every day, i write a cross on my hand to remind myself to tell the truth and do whats right, no matter what. King thank you, mr. Steyer. Senator klobuchar. Id say the biggest misconception is that im boring because im not. laughter then i would say that my motto is the words of one of my political mentors, paul wellstone, who sadly is no longer with us, and he said that politics is about improving peoples lives, and thats been my life from when you my grandpa was an iron ore miner in the unions, politics made those mines safer, and when my dad needed treatment, it was there for him and, in his words, he was pursued by grace, and when my mom got divorced and she didnt have a job and she went back to teaching and that gift of Public Service got her through. And then when our daughter was born and she couldnt swallow senator klobuchar. I thought we had a minute to answer the question. O. What is your motto. My ploto is politics is about improving memes lives. Vice president biden. A pretty good one. Very good one. Thank you. When you get knocked down, get up, and everyone is entitled to be treated with dignity no matter what or who they are. Also, everyone should be represented. No ones better than me and im e. Better than anyone else. The fact is what we should be doing, we talked about the Supreme Court, im looking forward to making sure theres a black woman on the Supreme Court to make sure that they in fact get representation. cheers and applause not a joke. Ot a joke. I pushed very hard for that. My mothers motto says youre defined by your courage, youre redeemed by your loyalty. I am loyalty, i do what i say. King whats the biggest conception about you, sir . I have more their than i think i to. Do. laughter theres a way to fix that. Senator sanders. Misconception. King yes. Misconception, and youre hearing it here tonight is that the ideas im talking about are radical. Theyre not. In one form or another, they exist in countries all over the world. Health care is a human right. We have the necessity, the moral imperative to address the existential threat of Climate Change. Other countries are doing that. We dont need more people in jail, disproportionately africanamerican, than any other country on earth. Not a radical idea. The motto, the saying that moves me the most is from nelson mandela, and mandela said, everything is impossible until if happens, and that means, if we have the guts to stand up to powerful special interests who are doing phenomenally well, if we can bring working people together, black and white and iotino, we can create a nation where all people have a good standard of living. Senator warren. Well, i suppose one misconception is that i dont eat very much. In fact, i eat all the time. laughter because i get teased about this. Look, i never was supposed to be on a stage like this, and the misconception is that i thought i should be president of the United States, no. I got in to this because i am a fighter. My motto ties in directly to this. Its mathew 25, and that is, in s much as you have done it unto on its matthew 25. And it is as much as you have done one of these the least of thy brethren, yes have ses havet unto me. It is how we treat other people and lift them up. That is why i am in this fight. That is why i am running to be president , and it is why i will be an effective president. Thank you, senator. applause now buttigieg. Well, i think the biggest conception misconception is that im not passionate. Vel,t that im kind of level, som some say unflappable. I dont think you want a president who is flappable. But its precisely because im so passionate about the things that are going on in this country. That i consider it important to approach all of that with discipline. And my disciplines are guided by the mottoes i try to live by, many of which come from scripture. And just to be clear i would never impose my interpretation of my religion to anybody. Just as sure as im wearing this ring i will never let that happen to anybody. I seek to live by the teachings that say if you are a leader, first be a servant. It holds that we are to treat others as we would be treated. When i think about everything at stake from racial and Economic Justice t justice to our stewardship of the climate, to the need to heal the sick and the need to heal this country, i seek for those teachings to order my steps as i go through this campaign and as i go through life. Thank you. Mayor bloomberg. applause misconception, that im six feet tall. laughter and ive trained for this job for a long time and when i get it im going to do something, out it. Than just talk about it. applause . All right. Thank you, candidates, thank you very much. Well, thank you. That concludes our debate. No, no, we have time for one more break, norah, one more break. Time flies when youre having fun. Youre watching the democratic debate right here on cbs. applause i am totally blind. And non24 can make me show up too early. Or too late. Or make me feel like im not really there. Talk to your doctor, and call 8442342424. Hey allergy muddlers. Achoo . Do your sneezes turn heads . Try zyrtec. It starts working hard at hour one. And works twice as hard when you take it again the next day. Zyrtec muddle no more. Skip to the good part with alkaseltzer plus. Now with 25 more concentrated power. Nothing works faster for powerful cold relief. Oh, what a relief it is so fast this spo[ laughing ] thing . What is all of this . Were being hunted. Theyre not human beings. [ gunshots ] everybody get down this country belongs to us. Im in. In. In what is happening . It hasnt even started yet whats the plan . You better start running. [ screaming ] hurry up. [ screaming ] youre not getting away with this. Ou. Thank you. That concludes our debate. We want to thank the candidates, the yoe moderators and to you watching at home tonight. And a reminder the primary here in South Carolina is this saturday. Then next tuesday, of course, super tuesday. Cbs news will have special coverage. And our coverage of tonights debate will continue in a moment from the spin room here on cbs and on our streaming news service cbsn. There will be more about the debate as well on your late local news on this cbs station and first thing tomorrow on cbs this morning. Im getting on a plane right now going to new york. Ill be there. From all of us here at cbs news, im norah odonnell. Good night. Good night. applause growing up in la, bad air forced us indoors. And now we have to deal with this. Climate change is an emergency. Thats why i wrote the nations most progressive climate law. And thats why im endorsing tom steyer. Because when big oil tried to stop our clean air laws, he led us to victory. Same with the keystone pipeline. When tom says we can save the world and do it together believe him. Im tom steyer and i approve this message. This is a stodream. The american it starts here, in a middle class neighborhood with a middle class kid named mike. When his father died, his mother went to work and became the breadwinner. She instilled in mike a belief in hard work and a drive to build a better life. So he started a company from scratch with an idea and endless hours today, that makes him the only democrat in the race whos created 20,000 jobs. Hes the only democrat whos run the largest and most diverse city in america, rebuilding after 911, creating over 450,000 jobs and expanding Health Care Coverage to 700,000 people. The only democrat whos built a Grassroots Movement to combat gun violence and hes a leader combatting Climate Change. The only democrat whos never taken a penny from special interests. Now mike is running to deliver on the American Dream for everyone with Common Sense Solutions and the ability to get it done. Because Mike Bloomberg is the only democrat who can take on trump. And trump knows it. Im Mike Bloomberg and i approve this message. Imagine spending the better part of of 2020 with Bernie Sanders versus donald trump. I think i would make a better president than bernie. Im hearing my name mentioned a little bit tonight. laughter i wonder why. Theill tell you what the russians want. Russia is helping you get elected. I was talking about heres the deal whoa, whoa, whoa. This conversation shows a huge risk. At least i didnt have a boss who said to me, kill it. Never said that. If we spend the next four months tearing our party apart, were going to watch donald trump spend the next four years tearing our country apart. Good evening. And welcome to special coverage of the tenth democratic president ial debate. Im elaine quijano, live in charleston, South Carolina. Tonight, we are simulcasting on cbs and our 24hour streaming news network cbsn. Over the next hour, we will hear directly from the candidates who tok part in tonights event. Our team is here in the spin room ready to meet the candidates as they make their way out of the debate hall. And our panel of journalists and analysts will be here to get to the substance of what the democratic hopefuls said. Antjuan seawright is a cbs news political contributor. Caitlin hueyburns is a cbsn political reporter. And ed okeefe is a cbs news political correspondent. Plus, cbs news chief washington correspondent Major Garrett will join us in a few minutes with insight from his perspective in the debate hall tonight. There. Candidates made the stage every on there. Every one of them had something to gain, and perhaps more to lose. Lets start with our panel and get some initial takeaways d. Night, starting with you, ed. Elaine,cracy great to be with you. Utrtainly began feisty but ultimately end informative. I think what you saw there at the beginning as unwieldy, as aggressive as it was was a sign of desperation for a lot of these candidates who understand tonight was their last opportunity to speak out not only to voters here in South Carolina, but in those 14 states that vote next week on super tuesday, places like california, texas, minnesota, colorado, virginia, vermont huge number tf delegation available next week. Week. So there was essentially two fights under way tonight joe biden trying to maintain his lead here, and stave off Bernie Sanders and tom steyer who are inching up on him, and then everyone else trying to break through in all those other states and stop the rise of bloomberg spending bill not billions, millions of his own dollars on feels like millions millions of his own dollars. Caitlin. It did feel like all of these candidates had something to lose at this point. Because were just a week away from super tuesday where the bulk of the delegates will be at stake. The biggest qi i had going into this debate tonight was could these candidates do anything to blunt the momentum come frg Bernie Sanders . We saw him coming off a big win in nevada. He won New Hampshire. He is considered a frontrunner this primary process. You saw the attacks against him early on in this despecially from joe biden and michael bloomberg. But i think Bernie Sanders seemed to be able to move forward his campaign, not taking as many cuts as he might have. Antjuan, quickly. You can feel the gravity and the expectation in tonights debate, and it was bigger than South Carolina. This was about the next phase and the next leg of this race. I thought there were many candidates who had something to prove, and those who had something to prove definitely proved what they needed to, ed okeefe. The fact of the matter swe know Bernie Sanders was going to be groun ground zero for everyone on that debate stage, including michael bloomberg. That did not fall short. Hnd we knew there were High Expectations for the Vice President biden to perform well. And it was a homecoming for joe biden. I think he did everything he was supposed to do tonight. All right, thank you all. Well have more with our panel in just a moment. First, lets take a look at some of the biggest moments of the night. Of the last 50 polls that have been done nationally, i beat twusm 47 of those 50 times. What every study out there, conservative or progressive says, medicare for all will save money. Ours will cost about 45 billion, not 60 trillion. Bernie, i was talking about i was talking about we are looking at a party that has decided that were either going to support someone who who is a democratic socialist or somebody who has a long history of being a republican. Nine people shot dead by a white supremacist. Bernie voted five times against the brady bill. Im not saying hes responsible for the nine deaths. But that man would not have been able to get that weapon with the waiting period had been what i suggest, until you are cleared. The mayor even said that they disproportionately stopped white people too often and minorities too little. There are seven white people on this stage talking about Racial Justice. At least i didnt have a boss who said to me, kill t the way that mayor bloomberg is alleged to have said. I never said that. To one of his pregnant employees. Oh, come on. Nobody accused me of anything other than make a comment or two, and what the senator did suggest was that we release these women from the nondisclosure agreement. I did that two days later. The time has come for us to stop acting like the presidency is the only office that matters. Not is this a way to get donald trump reelected. Weve got a house to worry about. Weve got a senate to worry about. And joining our panel now, senator Amy Klobuchar of minnesota. Senator, thanks so much for being with us. Thank you. Enjoyed the debate. So i want to talk a little bit, frawrl, of where you stand right now. In our latest cbs news battle tracker is tracker is showed you polling in inngle digits with the people in South Carolina. I have to earn that support. I know that. Tyd i think i made some pretty ,ointed comments about my plans, that this means not just investing in Economic Opportunity and improving our criminal Justice System, but its also about making sure people can vote, and im the leader in the u. S. Senate when it comes to the bill to stop the voting purges, to stop the gerrymandering, to make sure kids can be automatically registered to vote when they turn 18. Cbt i would like to commend cbs. I thought the defense was a little less of a slugfest than last time. You did . I did. I actually had okay. laughter noe. L no, i mean, its all relative, isnt it . But i had the opportunity to answer some we questions, as did others, on Rural Health Care and on education and the like. And i think thats really important. Because there are tons of people watching these debates that have not tuned in until now. Ive got two questions for you. First of all, there appeared to be or you appeared to have a disagreement there with former Vice President biden regarding the violence against women act, g gun control, and the socalled boyfriend loophole. Yeah. First of all, for those that ate unfamiliar, remind us what t that is. Sure. And why youre pushin push f. What this is is a bill that ive offered that basically says people who are convicted of Domestic Abuse shouldnt be able to go out and get an ak47 or any gun. And its really theres a high rate of homicide for people that have actually been convicted of Domestic Abuse. L. At is my bill. It passed in the house. Debbie dingell is the lead. It passed there. Passepassed in the house, sith h mc