President ial candidates appeared for the first time on the same stage thursday night sparring over immigration, Foreign Policy , health care, and president obamas legacy. I think we e should have a debate on health care. She isthe senator says for bernie. I am for barack. I think obamacare worked. Insurance Companies Last year billions of dollars in profit out of the system. How did they make that money . Everyone of those 23 billion was m made by an insurance compy saying no to your health care. Amy we will air highlights from the houston debate and host a roundtable discussion. All that and more, coming up. Welcome to democracy now, democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. In texas, the ten leading democratic president ial candidates appeared for the first time on the same stage together thursday night at a debate at Texas Southern university in houston. It was the third debate of the primary season but marked the first time former Vice President joe biden and senator Elizabeth Warren shared the stage. Biden repeatedly defended the policies of former president obama as he clashed with his rivals over immigration and health care. Biden and other candidates targeted vermont senator Bernie Sanders over his medicare for all bill, as well as massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren, who supports it. Sanders had the Current Health care system is a disaster. We need a Health Care System that guarantees health care to all people as every other major country does, not a system which provides 100 billion a year in profits for the Drug Companies and the insurance companies. Tell you how absurd the system is tonight on abc, the Health Care Industry will be advertising telling you how bad medicare for all is because they want to protect their profits. That is absurd. Amy after the headlines, we will spend the rest of the air airing highlights of thursday nights debates and host a roundtable discussion. Hours before thursdays debate got t underway, nenearly a dozon grgreenpeacece activists rappeld off the Fred Hartmann bridge above the houston ship channel, in a nonviolent civil disobedience action that brought shipping traffic to a halt in the largest oil export channel in the United States. The protesters were calling for president ial candidates to supporort the e Green New Deal d for a Just Transition away f frm fossil fuels. One of the activists, piper, streamed the action live on social media. All of the Major Oil Companies depend on this terminal. Bp, shell,es exxon, chevron. They all depend on this terminal. And right now we are shutting it down. Amy by late thursday, police had arrested at least 15 of the activists. The Harris CountySheriffs Office says theyll face a number of charges related to obstruructing roadways and waterways. The uniteded nations is warninig 2. 2 2 Million People are expectd to go hungry in somalia and are at risk of starvation, amid a massive drought thats withered crops, bringing harvests in the east african nation to 70 below average in some areas. The u. N. Reports unreliable weather patterns and climatic shocks have coupled with widespread poverty to trap millions of somalis in severe hunger and malnutrition. This comes as a new report finds extreme weather events around the globe displaced a record 7 million p people duringng the first sisix months of f the yea. Ththe internal Displacement Monitoring Centre warns in its midyear report in todays changing climate, mass displacement triggered by extreme weather events is becoming the norm. The house of representatives voted thursdsday to o block the Trump Administration from opening up alaskas anwr the Arctic National wildlife refuge to oil and gas exploration. The bill had the support of native alaskans who depend on migrating caribou herds for their subsistence. Members of the Gwichin Steering Committee traveled to washington, d. C. , this week to lobby for the drilling ban. They said in a statement the gwichin and caribou have had a spiritual and cultural connection since time immemorial, the future of caribou and the future of the gwichin are the same. Harm to the caribou is harm to the gwichin way of life. A companion bill to ban drilling in anwr is not expected to pass the republicancontrolled senate. This comes as Trump Administration has announced its final plan to offer oil and gas lease sales across more than a millionandahalf acres of anwrs coastal plains. The plan calls for the creation of landing strips, drill pads, pipeline supports, a seawater treatment plant, 175 miles of roads, and other infrastructure in pristine wilderness along alaskas north coast. Here in new york city, Public School administrators say they will not mark students as absent if they have a parent or guardians permission to join the Global Climate strike on friday, september 20. The youthled protest will come just days before World Leaders gather for a Global Climate summit at the United Nations headquarters. The strike was inspired by Greta Thunberg, a teenage climate activist who last year began skipping classes each friday to protest outside the Swedish Parliament demanding action on catastrophic Climate Change. She spoke on democracy now earlier this week after she sailed across the atlantic to attetend u. N. , talks and join protest in the u. S. This friday the 13th im going to join the School Strike for the climate outside the white house in washington, d. C. Amy the head of amnesty international, kumi naidoo, sent a letter to 30,000 schools around t the world asking them o allow students to join climate strikes worldwide. The Trump Administration says it has finalized the repeal of an obamaera clean water policy that protects thousands of streams that flow into large rivers and lakes, as well as wetland areas that filter polluttsts andbsororb flooooaters. Environmtatal prectitiongencyy administrar r andr wheheel, a former cl l lobbst, annoced the rulehange thsday to thundero applausduring a evenat the hdquarterof the nation associaon of mafacturerin washiton, d. C. Vironmenlists satrumps ve to reind the 15 regulaon, knowas waterof the uned staterule, wi remove pollution controls for 60 of u. S. Bodies of water, endangering the Drinking Water of over 100 0 Million Peoplele. The Trump Administration will allow a michigan man to import the remains of a critically endangered black rhinoceros he shot and killed on a trophy hunt in namibia last year. A photo of circulated widely on social media shows the hunter chris peyerk and his family smiling as they pose over the corpse of the rhino. Conservation groups say only 5500 of the animals remain in the wild. President trump has repeatedly sought to ease u. S. Restrictions on the importation of animal remains. Trumps two adult sons, don jr. And eric, are longtime trophy hunters who have repeatedly posed for photos with dead animals they shot and killed in africa. On capitol hill, Democratic Congress members voted thursday to formally move forward with impeachment proceedings against president donald trump. Committee chair Jerrold Nadler said future inquiries would look beyond the findings of the mueller report. Have responsibility to consider allegations of election crimes, violations of the constitutions emoluments clause , and the failure to defend our nation from current and future attacks by foreign adversaries. Amy democrats remain divided over whether to even call the judiciary committees expanded powers of investigation an impeachment inquiry. On thursday, Democratic House speaker nancy pelolosi abruptly ended d her Weekly Press Conference after a reporter asked whether the house is conducting a formal inquiry, refusing to answer the question. Mexicos foreign minister Marcelo Ebrard said thursday his nation will not change its immigration policies after the u. S. Supreme Court Allowed the Trump Administrations ban on most migrants seeking asylum at the u. S. Mexico border to take effect. The mexican governments position has been that we are not going to accept that. We consulted with the Mexican Senate and they will not accepted it, either. Amy this comes as tens of thousands of asylum seseekers ae stuck in border cities on the mexican side waiting to be processed for initial asylum proceedings in the United States. In the Tijuanasan Diego border alone, there are more than 10,000 migrants in the waiting list to turn themselves in to u. S. Immigration officials. The binational Legal Aid Group al otro lado tweeted we are the only on the Ground Organization here providing legal aid. This is a death sentence for most our clients. Our hearts are broken and were exhausted. And washington, d. C. , protesters rallied outside immigration and Customs Enforcement headquarters thursday. This agency has done nothing but tear immigration families apart. Immmmigrant c community, people of color, that we are actually going to be truly free and united in this country that we call home is if congress stops funding agencies like this whose only mission is to tear our families apart. Amy protesters later marched to the washington, d. C. , home of amazon Ceo Jeff Bezos to protest the mega online retailers decision to continue providing ice with technology to enforce trumps zero tolerance immigration policies. In russia, police raided the homes and offices of activists at 200 sites across more than 40 cities and towns thursday, in the most massive sweep yet against political groups aligned with the Opposition Leader aleksei navalny. The government of president Vladimir Putin says the raids were part of a criminal moneylaundering investigation into navalnys anticorruption foundation. Also rated were the offices of golos, an independent election monitoring group. Opposition groups call the charges trumped up and say its an escalation of a crarackdown n kremlin opponents that included the mass arrest of more ththan 2000 people during recent protests in moscow. In iran, a woman who set herself on fire to p protest her arrrret for tryiying to attend a soccer match has died of her injuries. Sahar khodayari was jailed for three days in march after she disguised herself as a man and tried to enter a tehran soccer stadium. When she discovered that she faced up to two years in prison, she selfimmolated outside a courthouse in tehran. Her protest left her with burns on 90 of her body before she succumbed to her injuries on september 8. Iran has no written laws barring women from soccer stadiums, but Human Rights Watch says a de facto ban is ruthlessly enforced by authorities. Sahar khodayaris death drew widespread outrage by iranian social media users who gave her the nickname blue girl after her favoritete teams colors. Her death also drew protests against the International Soccer federation fifa, which is accused of failing to hold iran accountable for its discrimination against female fans and athletes. Human righghts groups s are calg on the bill and Melinda Gates foundation to rescind its award to indias hindu nationalist president narendra mododi. Modi is set to receive t the gas foundations global goalkeeper prize in new york city on september 24 for his public sanitation and hygiene program, which has brought toilet access to m mlions acroross india. Yale university epidemiologist gregg gonsnsalves called the awd outrageous, tweeting bill gates should be ashamed of himself. Narendra modi is not worthy of any award. He is a despotinthemaking, a human rights abuser. Everyone in Public Health should speak up. Modi was once banned from the United States on charges he did not intervene in a massacre against muslims in 2002 when he was governor of the indian state of gujarat. In august, modi revoked limited autonomy for indianadministered kashmir, arresting thousands of people, setting up roadblocksks, imposing curfews, and cutting off the internet and other communications. Back in the United States, california lawmakers voted wednesday to ban private prisons statewide in a major blow to the forprofit prison industry in the u. S. The legislation also orders the closure four ice prisons that can jail up to 4500 immigrants. The bill now heads to governor gavin newsom for his signature. Newsom said at in his inaugural address in january that california should end the outrage of private prisons once and for all. Meanwhile, california lawmakers have approved a bill cracking down on Gig Economy Companies that classify employees as independent contractors rather than hourly workers. Under the legislation, workers who are part of a companys main business, or who are directed by a companys managers, must classified as employees instead of contractors, beginning on january 1. Governor gavin newsom has promised to sign the bill, which could see thousands of workers win a guaranteed minimum wage and Workers Compensation insurance. Executives at the ridehailing apps uber and lyft said this week they have no plans to reclassify their drivers as employees. President trump has met with widespread protests thursday as he travel to baltimore for House Republican retreat. It was his first visit to baltimore since he insulted the city in a july tweet storm as a disgusting, rat, and rodent infested mess adding no human being would want to live there. It was part of an attack on elijah cummings, one of the most prominent africanamericans in congress. Thursdays protest against trump featured a giant inflatable effigy depicting the president as a rodent clutching a cell phone. And those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. Juan and i am one gonzalez. Welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. The 10 leading democratic president ial candidates appeared for the first time on the same stage thursday night at a debate at Texas Southern university in houston. It was the third debate of the primary season, but it marked the first time former Vice President joe biden and senator Elizabeth Warren took part in the same debate. Biden repeatedly defended the policies of former president obama as he clashed with his rivals. In one of the most contentious moments of the debate, obamas former housing secretary Julian Castro questioned bidens memory during an exchange about their healthcare plans. The option im proposing is medicacare for all in a medicare for choice. If you want medicare, if you lose the job from your insurance from your employer, you automatically can buy into this. You dont have no no preexisting condition can stop you. You get covered, period. I want every single American Family to have a strong medicare plan available. If they choose to hold on to strong, solid private health insurance, i believe they should be able to do that. The difference between what i support and you support, Vice President biden, require them to opt in and i would not require them to opt in. They would automatically b be enrolled. That iss a big difference becaue Barack Obamas vision was not to leave 10 Million People uncovered. He wanted everything a person in this country covered. My plan would do that. Your plan would not. They do not have to buy in. You just said that two minutes ago. You just said they would have to buy in. If you qualify are youou forgetting what you said two minutes ago . Believe that you said two minutes ago that they had to buy and and now youre saying they dont have to. Youre forgetting that. Amy the Washington Post question the accuracy of castros comments and said he was incorrect that biden forgot something about his own plan. It was castro who forgot what biden said. Former texas congressman beto orourke received some of the loudest applause of the night when he discussed and enacted new gun control measures after the two recent Mass Shootings in texas. Cooks i met the mother of a 15yearold girl who was shot by an ar 15 and that mother watched her bleed to death over the course of an hour because so many other people were shot by that ar 15 in odessa and midland, there were not enough aim balances to get to them in time. Were going to take your ar 15, ak47. Juan on the Foreign Policy front, senator berernie sanders chided joe biden for voting to support the war in iraq. To iraq, the fact of the matter is, i should have never voted to give bush authority to do what he said he was going to do. The amf was designed he said to go in and get the Security Council to vote 15 to zero to allow inspectors to determine whether or not anything was being done with chemical weapons or nuclear weapons. And when that happened, he went ahead and went anyway without any of that proof. I said something that was not meant the way i said it. Let me comment on something the Vice President said. You talked about the big mistake in iraq and the surge. The truth is, the big mistake, the huge mistake and one of the big differences between you and me, i never believed what cheney and bush said about iraq. Voted against the war in iraq and help lead the opposition. It is sad to say i had the feeling that there would be massive destabilization in n tht area if we went intoto that war. Amy criticized sanders plan for medicare for all. Said how muchyet it is going to cost the taxpayer. I hear this large savings. The president saying, my friends in vermont thinks employees are going to give you back because you got insurance. Theyre going to give back that money to the employee . As a matter fact, they will. For a socialist, of a lot more confidence in Corporate America than i do. You have a lot more confidence of Corporate America than i do. Two points. You have got to defend the fact that today not only do we have 87 Million People uninsured and underinsured, you got to defend the fact that 500,000 americans are going bankrupt. You know why theyre going bankrupt . Because they suffered a terrible disease cancer or heart disease. Under my legislation, people will not go into financial ruin because they suffered with a diagnosis of cancer. And our r program is the only oe that does that. Juan in onene of the more unusl debate moments, andrew yang unveiled a plan that may violate campaignfinance laws. It is time to trust ourselves more than the politicians. Dot is why im going to something unprecedented tonight. My campaign will now give a freedom dividend of 1000 a month for an entire year to 10 american families. If you believe that you can solve your own problems better than any politician, go to yang2020. Co and tell us howm 1000 a month will help you do just that. Amy when n we come back, we wil hear clips from the debate and host a roundtable discussion. Back in a minute. [music break] amy this is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. One their democratic debate, were joined by three guests. Is cesars in houston espinosa, executive director of feeel, a houstonbased nonprofit that helps undocumented members of the citys latino community. Debate he attended last nights debate. In philadelphia, julian brave noisecat, a journalist who belongs to the secwepemc and statimc nations. He is the director of the Green New Deal strategy at the thinktank data for progress. And in washington rashad , robinson, president of color of change. Cesar, t talk to us about your immediate sense of how the debate went. First of all, thank you for having me. I think there could have been a lot more substance in terms of our issue the issue of immigration. Many topics that were talked about were talked about very broadly. When it came to actually putting immigrants into the conversation, a lot of the time it f failed to do so. This covers the gamut of education, health caree, and honestly immigration reform. The other thing that really we were disheartened by was the fact a single candidate did not really have the answers to a very necessary problem that we have now, which is the issssue f immigration reform. Many talked about broad strokes, about potential plan, but in concrete, detailed plan of how were going to bring 11. 5 Million People out of the shadows, how were going to bring onone million dreamers and tps recipients out of the shadows, was not really talked about in substance. Ando apply y the fact hooley castro talked about tps, but we were also Julian Castro about tps, but not about the haney of people who are suffering one of the biggest crisis if not the biggest crisis the country has faced. To we want to also turn Rashad Robinson and washington, d. C. You are therefore a major gathering this weekend but you watched the debate lasast night. Talk abouout what you felt was most significant. T think w what continues to e most significant, yes, these debates give us an opportunity to see where the candidate stand, where the country stands come and have the candidates talk about these issues and broadways and maybe sometimes in detailed ways but theres a real gap between the what and the how. This is not simply about the fine details of the individual candidates c campaigns in fa, if you go to the polls and v voe for biden, a are not necessarily going to get his health care plan. If you vote for bernie, are not necessarily going to get his health care plan. The gap between what is in the proposalal and the actual how it is going to get done and how theyre actually going to move it is where movements come into play. We are not looking for a candidate to be the leader of our movement. We need them to understand how to work with our movement, how to engage our movement. One of the big challenges in 2008 is obama came into office and try to to be the leleader of the movement. I think for all of these candidates, the ability to actually get these policies done inside of a system that is deeply entrenched with corporations and all sort of incentive structures that will stand in the way of the type of progress that pushes back against the profiteers a and all of those that are standiding in the way of progress really requires us to have the type of people power to get itit done. And that is how we have an honest conversation. Ununfortunately, the backandforth about individual details is for not if we dont actually have the real conversation abobout power andnw we leverage power and leverage everyday people to actually get these things done. Amy julian brave noisecat, your overalal response to the debate, what was and was not included . Two gueststhe prior raised important questions, especially about immigration in a place like houston in the context of the Climate Crisis come incredibly important. How the candidates planned actually enact their policies is also very important. I was struck personally by the talent on stage last night. I am a millennial. I scroll twitter. I saw folks were comparing team blue to the avengers. I guess the question is, if were going to run with that analogy, which episode is it . Workame infinity war . Within the party, is there enough young talent to take on someone like joe biden and maybe even when the nomination . I was very impressed by the talking points for by number of rising voices, but i think whether one of those folks can rise to the top and become e the nominee is still an open question. Juan i want to ask Rashad Robinson on the issue of race, which is discussed quite extensively at the debate, especially the moment that beto orourke really had one of the highlight moments of the debate, i want to go to when the moderator linsey davis asked that orourke about race. Look, a few weeks ago a shooter drove 10 miles inspired by 10 hours inspired by this president to kill people who look like me and people who look like my family. White supremacy is a growing threat to this country and we have to root it out. I am proud i put forward a plan to disarm hate. Im also proud i was the first to put forward a Police Reform plan because we are not going to have any more Laquan Mcdonalds or eric garners for Michael Browns or pamela turners or walter scott or sandra bland here from the houston area. Juan that was a glitch. That was Julian Castro speaking, not beto orourke. I think we have beto orourke now. R racism in america is endem. It is foundational. We can mark the creation of this country not at the fourth of july, 1776, but august 20, 1619, when the first kidnapped african was brought to this country against his will and in bondage and as a slave built the greatness and the success and the wealthth that neither he nor his descendadants would ever be able to fully participate in and enjoy. We have to be able to answer this challenge. And it is found in our education system, where in texas a fiveyearold child in kindergarten is five times as likely to be disciplined or suspended or expelled based on the color of their skin. In our Health Care System, where therees a maternrnal mortality crisis three times as deadly for women of color, or the fact that theres 10 times the wealth in White America than there is in black america. Im going to follow Sheila Jackson lees lead and sign into law a reparations bill that will allow us to address this at its foundation. But we will also call out the fact that we have a white supremacist in the white house and he poses a mortal threat to people of color all across this country. Juan that was beto orourke last night. Rashad robinson, your reaction and the fact that we have several president ial candidates were talking about reparations, first time, really in memory come in a president ial race . It really is incredible. It is a result of movement, result of the narrative change that has been built come a narrative change is about the rules and norms of society, what people see is acceptable and what people e can envision is possiblele. Onon the main stage inside o ofa president ialal debate, give candidates talking about a very clear policy that is going to impact the black community but actually talking about the Historical Context of how we got here. Tatalking about reparations. Talking about slavery and very clear ways. Using the term white supremacist on the National Stage and talking about white nationalism, i mean this is a fundamental change in the sort of rules, the unwritten rules of the debates that used to exist that y you had to talk around re or you couould not talk directly about race and be considered a kind of legitimate toptier candidate. That is a result of how we move this country also the result i think of a lot of people waking up to the failures of the left at avoiding these conversations about race. Unfortunately, our opponents talk about race all the time not in ways we want them to, but they are talking about race all the time. So leading leaving this conversation to our opponents, pretending that we can talk about solving the ills that are deeply about Structural Racism without talking about race is something that i am so glad 70 candidates are speaking out about. So mamany candidates are speaking out about. I think that was beto orourkes finest moment of the night. Amy lets go to senator cory booker. It is nice to go back to slavery, but dear god, we have a criminal Justice System that is so racially biased. We have more africanamericans under criminal supervision today than all of the slaves in 1850. We have to come at this issue attacking systemic racism, having the courage to call it out and have a plan to do something about it. If i am president of the United States, we will create an office in the white house to deal with the problem of White Supremacy and hate crimes. And we will make sure that systemic racism is dealt with in substantive plans, from criminal Justice Reform to the disparities in health care to even one that we dont talk about enough, which is the racism that we see in environmental injustice in communities of color all arounud this country. Amy that is new jersey senator cory booker. , if yourave noisecat can respond to what he said . Bringing Racial Injustice into the conversation was a major moment f for the envivironmental movement broadly speaking. It stuck out to me. Theres been a long history of people of color fighting the hazardousionate materials in our community. Hououston. Ply rooted in and the fact the senator brought that into the conversation last night was, i would say, a mark of success for the communities of color that have been fighting these issues. I just thought it was too bad the broader issues of environmental degradation and Climate Change did not get more houston, the center of the fossil fuelbased economy, a place where as you noted in the lead to the show, protesters were blocking oil tankers into o the port. I ththought ththat was a great moment, but one wearing we could haveve had more about these very important issues in a place where they really need to happen. Juan last nights debate was held at Texas Southern university in houston. Lets go to california senator kamala harris. I also want to talk about where we are here at tsu and what it means. I have as part of my proposal we will put 2 trillion in becauseg for teachers one, as a proud graduate of the historically black college and university, i will say that it is our hbcu that disproportionally produced teachers and those who serve in these many professions. But this is a critical point. If a black child has a black teacher before the end of third grade, theyre 13 more likely to go to college. If that child has had two black teachers before the end of third grade, there are 32 likely to go to college. So when we talk about investing and our Public Education system, it is at the source of so much dish will we fix it that will fix of any other things . Juan she was a graduate of howard university. I want to ask again, rashad rorobinson, your response to her remarks . Once e again, thiss is a recognition of the type of culture change that we are having in this country where these candidates recognize they have to come with deep narratives on how theyre going to do with race but clear and specific policies and that is incredibly important. Thahatognition of the role Public Education had played in the advancement of black folk in the closing of racial gaps in this country is s incredibly important. And also i think we just need to hear more from alall of these candidates, specifically on education. Since 1980 in this country, thte geographic segregation our country, the way p public ededucation has dealt wiwith e are in a position where we are going back to before brown versus the board of education. And d that type of segreregation our schools has directly aligned with the type of funding. I am glad we are talking about what type of investments are going to be made in schools that serve students of color, black students, latino students, immigrants. I think it is incredibly important. And once again, this is not just a question of the what, but this is a question of the how. The reason why schoolsls have bn privatized in cities around this country, the reason why we have under invested in our schools is because corporate profiteers have been able to move the resources that are public into private hands that Hedge Fund Managers and so many others are using attacks on teachers, using attacks on parents and communitys as a vehicle to do this. So absolutely we need investments. I believe these proposals. But how are wewe going to deal with all of the incentive structures that have been put in place that are making money off the Current System that has to be broken in order for us to achieve the type of success and goals these policies claim theyre going to give us . Amy during the bait, during the debate, asked joe biden about the obama administrations Record Record on immigration. As a president ial l candidate in 2008, you supupported sing mt democrcrats, i voted for 700 mis of fence. Then you served as vice 3esident that deported millioion peoeople, the most evn u. S. Historyry. D yoyou do anyththing to prevent those deportations . I mean, youve been asked this question before and refused to answer, so let me try once again. Are you prepared to say tonight that you and president obama made a mistake about deportations . Why should latinos trust you . What t latinos should look at is compmparing this presisidt to the president we have is outragageous, number one. We didnt lock people up inn cacages. We didnt separate families. We didnt do all of those things, number one. Number two number two, by the time this is a president who came along with the daca program. No one had ever done that before. This is the president that sent legislation to the desk saying he wants to find a pathway for the 11 million undocumented in the United States of america. This is a president whos done a great deal. So im proud to have served with him. What i would do as president is several more things, because things have changed. I would, in fact, make sure that there is we immediately surge to the border. All those people who are seeking asylum, they deserve to be heard. Thats who we are. Were a nation who says, if you want to flee and youre freeing oppression, you should come. I would change the order that the president just changed, saying women who were being beaten and abused could no longer claim that as a reason for asylum. And by the way, retrospectively, you know, the 25th anniversary of the violence against women act is up. The Republican Congress has not reauthorized it. Lets put pressure on them to pass t the violence agaiainst wn act. Yeah, but you didnt answer the question. No, did you make a mistatake wih ththose depoportations . The president did the best thing that was able to be done at the time. How about you . Im the Vice President of the United States. Debate, julianhe castro criticized his response. I problem is every time something good about barack obama comes up, says, oh, i was there, i was there that is me, too. Every time somebody questions part of the administration we were both part of he says, well, that was the president. He wants to take credit for obamas work but not have to answer to any questions. Amy that is Julian Castro. Cesasar espinosa, you were at te debate last night. Can you talk about their response . Again we were very disheartened by joe bidens response because he did not take responsibility for what he did what he and obama did under the obama presidency. It is important to point out that up until this point, even though trump is well on n his wy to surpassss the number of deportations come up until this point, obama is still the sitting president that is deported the most in u. S. History. It is important we hold biden accountable because he did have a say when he was Vice President under president obama. N for want to applaud julia calling that out, for making sure we hold all of the elected officials later on in the debate, he said we must hold people accountable for their actions. And that is what we want to do. There have beenen groups that he been calling on biden for his record on deportatitions. And for thehe fact that he cannt deny that there were 3 Million People, 3 million families broken up under the obamabiden presidency. Our fear is if he does when the nomination, if he does make it into the where white house, there will be more of the same thing, more enforcement and obviously, a lot of our folks in our Community Find it realllly disturbing that he actually supported the bororder wall or building of a border wall when criticized President Trump are doing the same thing. We want to see more transparency. We want to see more accountability. And we hope that different groups all over the country continue to raise this issue as specifically with biden since he is the front runner at this moment. Juan during the debate, some immigration activists disrupted the discussion. They chanted we are Daca Recipients come our lives are at risk. And firstly, they could not be heard by the tv audience and it came later on n in the debate. The most significant professiononal setback yououved toto face . How did you recover from it and whwhy did you learn from it . Vice President Biden . Never cap any professional setback i have as a serious setback. Therere are things that aree important, things that are unimportant. [indiscernible] we are going to clear the protesters now. Were the immigrant rights protesters. Caesar, what did you see and what was the reaction of the crowd . Amy and what were they saying . It was a coordinated effort by an unknown group to me of startedo just suddenly changing. At first it was difficult to hear but when they started taking them off the stage they made it all the way to the stage. We saw the shirt d where they talked aboutaca and their talking about protecting daca because if they were deported their lives would be at risk. It was at the moment where Vice President biden started speaking because once again we wantnt to make sure that we hold Vice President biden accountable for the fact even though the doctor president did come under president obama, the fact that 3 million families were separated does not outweigh the cost of providing 700,000 undocumented permitrk under the plan. They were escorted out. We have petitioned the police chief. We do not know the status of these young folks yet but we have petitioned the chief of police to not press charges because even that could put ththeir status at risk, they cod lose daca status if they were arrested. We hope these folks were freed and let go. Once again, they just wanted to get a point a cross. All they wanted was to hold Vice President biden accountable for the fact he deported 3 Million People when he was Vice President under president obama. Amy Cesar Espinosa executive director of a houstonbased nonprofit that helps undocumented members of houstons latino community. Houston, where the debate was held. Rashad robinson, president of color of change. And were joined by julian brave noisecat, director of the Green New Deal strategy at the thinktank data for progress. We will continue with them and highlights of the debate come in a minute. [music break] amy this is democracy now , im amy goodman with juan gonzalez. We continue to cover the democratic debate in houston, i would like to turn to a moment when the univision anchor question senator Bernie Sanders. But first i want to preface this by saying, a lot of people know univision and they know univision has always been reporting extensively on the plight of immigrants in the United States. But a lot of folks dont know spanish and follow univision dont follow univision regularly dont know that univisions role in terms of reporting on latin america has always been to bash socicialist or populist governments in latin america. It is no surprise those of us who regularly watching univision that he would ask Bernie Sanders this question about venezuela and democratic socialism. Senator sandeders, one county where many immigigrants are arriving from is venezuela. A recent facactfindnding missin found thousands have been disappeared, tortured, and killed by Government Forces in venezuela. You admit that venezuela does not have free elections,s, but still you refuse to call Nicolas Maduro a dictator a dictator. Can you explain why . And what are the main differences between your kind of socialism m and the one beining imposed in venezuela, cuba, and nicaragua . Well, first of all, let me be very clear. Anybody who does what maduro does is a vicious tyrant. What we need now is international and Regional Cooperation for free elections in venezuela so that the people of that country can make can create their own future. In terms of democratic socialism, to equate what goes on in venezuela with what i believe is extremely unfair. Ill tell you what i believe in terms of democratic socialism. I agree with goes on in canada and in scandinavia, guaranteeing health care to all people as a human right. I believe that the United States should not be the only major country on earth not to provide paid family and medical leave. I believe that every worker in this country deserves a living wage and that we expand the trade union movement. I happen to believe also that what, to me, democratic socialism means, is we deal with an issue we do not discuss enough, jorge e its not in e media and not in congress. Youve got three people in america owning more wealth than the bottom half of this country. Youve got a handful of billionaires controlling what goes on in wall street, the insurance companies, and in the media. Maybe, just maybe, what we should be doing is creating an economy. Thank you. That works for all of us, not 1 . Thats my understanding of democratic socialism. Juan julian brave noisecat, this whole issue of now a couple of debates, the issue of democratic socialism being raised by the moderators to try to pin one of the other candidates on that issue . Answer this question as magazinesines in to which will be identified as left or socialist. I have many friends who have gotten engaged to the democraticsocialist of america. And generally speaking, i would say theres particularly among increasing interest in socialism, particularly one we lived through of our formative experiences was first the recession and crisis of 2008 and then, of course, the campaign of senator sanders in 2016. So i think socialism is a rising Political Force in this country, but it is true which kind of socialism we are fighting for, what our vision for socialist movement might be is a relevant issue because there are joshling rugged sees legacies around the country. I was in washington, d. C. , back in may and senator sanders gave his speech on democratic socialism and made clear what he means when he embraces that term. And that he is talking about the legacies of people like fdr. He is talking about the legacies of people who fight for universal human rights, the right to health care, the right to housing, economic and social rights. I think continuing to distinguish that this is exactly what the broader left generally and what the socialist movement in particular is pushing for is an important thing. I think it is great that that kind of a message is getting shared on cable news. The question might have been unfair, but i thought the senator handled it well. Amy very quickly, on the issue o travelre, whole group to washington to lobby for the drilling ban is the hohouse of representatives voted to block President Trump from opening up amw toiling gasar exploration. The significance of this . Last night one of the big what theg questions is broader Democratic Coalition is going to look like. One thing that was disappointing to me is not a single candidate, not a diverse candidate, no one of the older candidates, not what we talked about immigration, brought up the reality of native people in this country. One of the big issues is the degradation of our homelands and the attack by the fossil fuel industry, by the Republican Party the Alaska National wild life refuge is one of those major issues. I would be very hopeful that candidates would try to speak to those issues in the future and on the debate stage moving forward. Juan lets go back to last nights debate. W worn. Elizabeth our trade policy in america has s been broken for decades. It is been broken bececause it works for giant multinational corporations and not for much of anyone else. These are giant corporations that, shoot, if they can save a nickel by moving a job to a foreign country, theyll do it in a heartbeat. And yet for decades now, whos been whispering in the ears of our trade negotiators . Who has shaped our trade policy . Its been the giant corporations. Its been their lobbyists and their executives. The way we change our trade policy in america is, first, the procedures. Who sits at the table . I want to negotiate trade with unions at the table. I want to negotiate it with Small Farmers at the table. I want to negotiate it with environmentalists at the table. I want to negotiate with human rights activists at the table. One code that was Elizabeth Warren on trade. And here is Elizabeth Warren talking about afghanistan. What were doing right now in afghanistann is not helping the safety and security of the United States. It is not helping the safety and security of the world. It is not helping the safety and security of afghanistan. We need to bring our troops home. , yourRashad Robinson reaction to some of f these moments in Elizabeth Warren at the debate last night . I think it is deeply powerful that we have a candidate on the stage willing to talk about Corporate Power on corporate media. A lot of w why we had certain questions, if you look at the conversation earlier about the jorge ray must questions, it is deeply rooted in the fact who gets to control the platform that these debates are had on. We are already playing on aa field, a already talking on a platform that is controlled by a set of elites that do not want the type of radical change that is going to lift all. The fact Elizabeth Warren is willing to go on these platforms, willing to talk about Corporate Power, willing to talk want thesehe will folks at the table. It is not just about being at the table. It is about fundamentally changing the table. And that requires these candndidates to articulate and e connected to how theyre going to work with, engage, and empowewer movements to do so. Part of why a school of w white children can get shot up and no meaningful reform on guns happen, even though the vast majority of americans want it, is because the movement on the right has made it possible for politicians to believe they cannot make those type of changes even if they believe it is possible. So what are we going to build on the left that is powerful enough and how are our candidates going to be accountable to those movements and connected to those movements . Because only then do we turn the vision of the ideas, the vision of the polls, of what we believe, as possible into the actual reality. People drive the type of change that is possible, not politicians. Amy were going to turn to our last clip, which is the beginning of the whole debate last night, and it was around the issue of medicare for all. This is senator amy klobuchar. While bernie wrote the bill, i read the bill. The bill,e eight of it says that we will no longer have private insurance as we know it. And that means that 149 million americans will no longer be able to have their current insurance. Ththats in four years. I dont think thats a bold idea, i think its a bad idea. Says, 149 peoeople will losoe their health insurance. Making sure we have t the mot efficient way possible to pay for health care for everyone in this country. Insurance Companies Last yearr sucked 23 billion in profits out of the system. How did they make that money . Every one of those 23 billion was made by an Insurance Company saying no to your health care coverage. Mayor buttigieg . The problem, senator sanders, with that damn bill that you wrote and that senator warren backs, is that it doesnt trust the american peopl i i trust yoyou to chohoose whas the most sense for you. Not my way or the highway. Now, look, i think we do have to go far beyond tinkering with the aca. I propose medicare for all who want it. Senator sanders, 45 seconds. George, you talked about, was it 150 Million People on private insurance . 50 million of those people lose their private insurance every year when they quit their jobs or they go unemployed or their employer changes their insurance policy. Medicare for all is comprehensive health care. Covers all basic needs, including home health care. It allows you to go to any doctor you want, which many private Insurance Company programs do not. So if you want comprehensive health care, freedom of choice regarding doctor or hospital, no more than 200 a year for prescription drugs, taking on the Drug Companies and the insurance companies, moving to medicare for all is the way to go. Amy just some of the candidates speaking last night in houston at the historically black college, Texas Southern university, in their third major democratic debate. That last person was senator Bernie Sanders. Before that, indiana south bend amyr Pete Buttigieg and klobuchar. I want to thank our guests for being with us, Cesar Espinosa, executive director of feeel, a houstonbased nonprofit that helps undocumented members of the citys latino community. Julian brave noisecat, a director of the Green New Deal strategy at the ththinktatank a for progress. And Rashad Robinson, president of color of change. That does it for our show. Today we will be covering Greta Thunberg with many others outside the white house for this friday for future, the protests around Climate Change that has been taking place around the globe. To go to our our on credit tumor, go to democracynow. Org. Announcer r this is al jazeera. Anchor hello. Liveal jazeera newshour from london. A new storm in the bahamas, as it struggles to pick up the pieces after hurricane dorian. Action to stop Sexual Violence in south africa, where it is estimated a woman is raped every 36 seconds. The egyptian businessman with vide