To fdr. And tonight senator bennett will take questions from democrats and independents who say they plan to participate in the democratic primaries and caucuses. Now please welcome senator Michael Bennett. Hey, senator. Thank you so much. Thank you for having me. Nice to see you. Senator, i want to start with some breaking news this evening and that is the president im sure you saw announce that on june 10th the United States will impose a 5 tariff that could increase to 25 on all goods from mexico until, quote, Illegal Migrants coming through mexico and into our country stop. How would a president bennett handle that situation . President bennett would work with our countries in our hemisphere. President bennett would not erect tariffs that are just another tax on American Workers and American Farmers and ranches. Commodity prices are already low in this country. People in the midwest are getting hammered with terrible rains, and in my state hammered with terrible drought. And President Trump has made matters worse for them already and hes going to make it even worse now. Okay, lets get straight to the audience. Our first question comes from justin ash who supports former Vice President joe biden. President trump has possibly broken numerous laws. Do you plan on if elected requiring your attorney general to investigate him, and if violations are found prosecuting him after he is out of office . Or will you pardon the president for all crimes committed if its found he did so including members of his administration . I certainly wouldnt pardon him, and i think we should investigate him if we believe thats whats called for by the rule of law. And in the meantime we need to beat him to make sure hes just a oneterm president. Let me ask you a followup on a related issue. Robert mueller said yesterday, quote, if we had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime we would have said so. Given that, where do you stand now on impeachment . Listen, i think bob mueller made it very clear Congress Needs to do its jobs and i believe Congress Needs to do it job. I read the mueller report. I heard what mueller said yesterday. I believe President Trump has probably committed impeachable offenses, and i think bob mueller should come to congress and testify. Congress should subpoena other people, and if the president doesnt allow them to testify, we should go to the courts and insist that they testify, and we should follow where the evidence leads. We need to follow this process, though. There are a lot of tweets going out today about what we should do, impeach or not impeach and all this stuff. It is very important that we take a page out of American History and do what they did with watergate, which is to make sure the American People understood really what was at stake. If we go down the road tomorrow and impeach President Trump were actually giving him a favor. Thats what he wants to be able to say he was railroaded. And then to have the impeachment from the house go to the senate where i guarantee you Mitch Mcconnell and the republicans are not going to convict donald trump. Theyre going to acquit donald trump and then hes going to run for president saying he was acquitted. You mention the tweets. Im sure youre referring to several of your democratic competitors saying now that they do believe that at least impeachment proceedings should begin. Why are they wrong just on that . I think we should call them, you know, russia proceedings involving the president or whatever it is we want to call them if that leads us to impeachment, it leads us to impeachment. I wouldnt be surprised if it did. I say the president in my view i think he committed impeachable offenses. But we have to go through the process. And to me its one of the problems with our Politics Today is we want to go out and tweet and immediately react, race to judgment. And we need to be more strategic than that. We need to be smarter than that. Even though the vast majority of americans believe Climate Change is real and we need to do something about it. And im tired of losing to these guys. You know, im tired of losing to Mitch Mcconnell. Im tired of losing to a guy like donald trump who never should have won the presidency to begin with. So im not saying we shouldnt follow this evidence where it leads, but i am saying we should bring the American People along for the journey so that they can also help us make a judgment about what the right thing to do is. Okay, senator. Lets get back to the audience. Christina leplant is a phd student stud yg Political Science at Georgia State university. Thank you, senator. Recently the governor of our state signed house bill 481 into law which severely restricts womens access to abortion. In a world that becomes more tech logically advanced with each days passing state governments across the country are respond boog y restricting womens rights and not expanding them. What would you do . Thats a short answer for me. Everything i possibly can do to make sure roe v. Wade is the law of the land and make sure women make these decisions, not the government. And thats the way it ought to be. Can you be more specific . What does that mean in real classical term snz. What does it mean, making sure judges i appoint up holding the precedent of roe v. Wade to begin with. I think Kamala Harris had an idea the other day but her idea the Justice Department ought to have something to say if states have lost Court Battles and then put further restrictions on women as we have with the civil rights division. I think thats a really interesting idea, too. This is whats happening in this conty. Womens reproductive rights are under assault all over the United States. Womens health care is under assault all over the United States. We have managed in the sen toot be able to hold it back, but that doesnt mean there are not huge parts of america where texas is a good example, where planned parenthood is stripped of any ability to serve women. And, you know, thats not the way it ought to work. John tester whos my friend from montana who just won reelection miraculously to the senate said last time when he was running that his daughter was having to fight for rights that his wife never had to fight for because her grandmother had won those rights. And that is true. And theyre trying to turn back the clock and we need to fight it with every ounce of strength we have. Senator, many Entertainment Companies have put georgia on notice about this new law. You probably know, and im sure people do know film and tv is a multibillion dollar industry here in georgia. Netflix, disney, nbc universal, warner media which owns cnn, theyve all warned that they will halt future business here if this laws goes into effect. Do you support that . I do support that. I think thats awesome. I think we need more of that kind of advocacy in this country. We need more of that kind of activism by the leading corporations in america on issues like this and issues like Climate Change as well. So you support a boycott you asked me do i support the businesses right to boycott. Let me take it a step further. Do you support the notion of this boycott . I think its important, its helpful and its necessary. Look, this is moment where our democracy is under siege in so many different ways. From the white house all the way to these state legislators. And this isnt about just politicians. This about all of America Rising up and saying were going in a different direction. Let me ask you on a bit of a related note, as of this month 100 of President Trumps judges have been confirmed to the federal bench, and its a milestone made possible by senate democrats. When you changed the rules a couple of years ago to make it so that just a majority, a simple majority vote would allow these judges to get through, now you call your vote to support that your biggest regret in your tern years in the senate. You say you did it because youre a member of the democratic leadership. What have you learned from this regret . What ive learned first of all its important to be honest when you make a mistake. Second, my objection is not that we that Mitch Mcconnell would have done anything differently. It didnt surprise me at all when he said today if theres a vacancy next year hes going to fill it. Hes the most cynical person in washington, d. C. And i believe we need to at least be as strategic as Mitch Mcconnell, the democrats need to. I dont want us to be as malevolent as he is, as cynical as he is, but as strategic as he is. Now as you point out donald trump has twice the Circuit Court judges that barack obama had, and its shameful. And thats why we need to elect a democratic president. Thats why we need a democratic majority in the senate, and thats why we need elected leaders in washington that are going to be as strategic enough to take on a guy like Mitch Mcconnell. I dont think weve done that very well over the past ten years. Okay, senator. Lets get back to the audience. I want to bring in nadia foster, a paralegal that will be attending law school in the fall. The Legal Profession threw me out. Its not for everybody. Thats what i told my mom. [ applause ] okay, so sorry, its true, though. Thank you. I have a friend whos a recent graduate from uncc. She was almost killed due to gun violence. Gun reform legislation is long overdue but seems impossible to implement. How do you plan to reach a compromise that will keep other students and families safe in america. Thank you for raising the question. I come from a state as you know where weve had 20 years now of gun violence starting with culm bine which happened just before my first daughter was born. Shes here tonight, actually. She and her younger sister, younger sister Middle Sister are here tonight. By the way, its ironic, the younger sister thats 14 is the only one in the house that really wanted me to run because she thought it would mean id be out of the house and away from her. Her plan is working because shes not here tonight, i am here tonight and i have no idea what shes doing in denver, colorado. But they have grown up in a world that my generation didnt grow up in. Scared to go to school because of what happens every several months it seems in the United States of america. And not to mention every single day in many communities in america. In chicago just this weekend 42 people were shot by guns. It wasnt the kind of mass shooting that we commonly think of, but its the kind of shooting that goes on every single day in neighborhoods across america. And i think they deserve to live in a country where they know that their parents and grandparents care enough about them that theyre actually going to do something about it. And thats we should pass background checks in washington, d. C. Though democrats in the house of representatives have done that, we should call on Mitch Mcconnell to put that bill on the floor. And if he doesnt, which he wont because he is impervious to compromise on this issue just as he is on all other issues. If he will not put it on the floor, the American People need to demand members of need to elect members of congress that will ensure that that bill is on the floor and voted by the members of congress. It is supported by 90 of the American People. And if there are people there that wont support what 90 of the American People want, we need to beat them. I would wish that we could compromise with them, but i dont think those guys are open to compromise because the nra wont let them compromise. My state is a third democratic, a third republican and a third independent. It is a western state. After columbine, we went out and we went to the ballot led by our republican governor at the time to close the gun show. Basically to put on the ballot the same bill thats on the floor of the house of representatives today. And we passed it. And in my state what that means is 2 on avrlkerage of the people who try to buy a firearm are stopped from buying it every year. And those people are murderers, theyre rapists, domestic abusers. And i dont know anybody in america who can argue that we would be better off with those people having firearms. So youre talking about closing the gun show loophole. And the internet loophole. What about banning assault weapons . I would support that. Because you havent always voted that way. I didnt vote that way once because it was an old assault weapons ban i thought was overdrawn and allowed the manufacturers to avoid the ban. But i certainly would support one. Okay, senator. Dont go anywhere. I know youre stuck here. Well be right back with a lot more from cnns democratic president ial town hall with senator Michael Bennett. Stay with us. Thanks for the ridealong, captain ive never been in one of these before, even though geico has been ohhh. Ooh ohh here we go, here we go. You got cut off there, what were you saying . Oooo. Oh no no. Maybe that geico has been proudly serving the military for over 75 years . Is that what you wanted to say . Mhmmm. I have to say, you seemed a lot chattier on tv. Geico. Proudly serving the military for over 75 years. You ok back there, buddy . Hi, do you have a travel card . We do the discover it® miles card. 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With va video connect, powered by tmobile, vets can speak to their doctors from virtually anywhere, and get the care they deserve, without it counting against their data, so they can return to their most important post. Soulmate, best friend, or just dad. The va provides the care, tmobile provides the coverage. Were back with cnns democratic president ial town hall with senator Michael Bennett. Were live from atlanta. Senator, you were diagnosed with Prostate Cancer right before you announced your candidacy. How are you feeling . Im feeling great. Thanks for asking. Its hard to believe it was about five weeks ago i was on an operating table and maybe two months ago that i was diagnosed. And i feel really good. But ive got to say i feel awfully lucky i had health insurance. This cost 93,000. And if my family hadnt been insured it would have been a disaster for us. And it would have been a real disaster for most american families. I think about that and what it would mean if you were an american citizen and you didnt have a primary care doctor that could give you a screening that would let you know i had cancer. I had no symptoms, and if hadnt that screening id be sitting here tonight and id be sick and at some point dying of cancer. And thats whats happening to millions of americans. And it doesnt lane in any other industrialized country of the world. It only happens here. And thats why we need universal health care. Let me ask you about that because you support a public option for health care, and you call your plan medicare x. A number of your supporters supports bernies medicare for all plan. Why are they wrong . I think i might have to get up for this one. Go for it. I think they are wrong. What we would be much better off doing in order to get to universal health care quickly is start with the Affordable Care act and the one i would design would be administered and give you all the right to choose whats right for your family. If you want a public option you can have it. Basically its medicare for all if you want it. But if you want to keep the insurance you have, which many people do, youd be able to do that as well. I dont know if you guys remember when we were passing the Affordable Care act, the whole thing if you like your insurance you can keep it. Do you remember that . And a few people lost their insurance and all hell broke loose. And now bernie is proposing if you like your insurance, were going to take it away from you, from 180 Million People who get it from their employer, 80 of them say they like it. Every Single Person in america thats negotiated a benefit package for their workers would have to give it up for medicare for all. I just dont think theyre going to give it up. I think what we should do is give the American People a choice. And if we give them a choice its going to be very hard to argue with the case were making. And i think thats essential because people in my state and people in georgia and people all over this country dont need insurance ten years from now or 20 years from now. They need insurance now. And we havent been able to give it to them for the last ten years. We cant afford to do this for another ten years in my view. Senator, were going to stay on the issue of health care and get to the audience. Question comes from irene, a registered nurse who currently works in a neonatal intensive care unit. Good evening. As you may be aware the racial gap in mortality is increasing in the u. S. Currently black women are dying four times the rate as white women from maternal complications. This statistic has led to the u. S. Being the most dangerous developed country to give birth in. If elected how do you plan to address this issue and keep black mothers alive . Thank you for the question and thank you for being a neonatal nurse, thats an important job and [ applause ] everything thats wrong with our Health Care System and by the way if you are white and middle class there are many people in this country who hate our Health Care System because it doesnt work well for them. Everything thats wrong with it for them is far times worse for people of color and especially for africanamerican women, and especially for poor people in this country. And especially for poor children of color in this country. And i think what we have to do is increase access for everybody in the United States of america and be willing to pay for it. And we havent been willing to pay for it. There are Rural Communities and urban communities, many africanamericans in the south, others in parts of country where there is no primary care or Maternity Care at all. And thats why people are dying in our country, and thats why our Life Expectancy is actually going down in the United States of america instead of whats happening in all these other countries of the world. I think that it is time for us to have universal health care in the country. Weve got to reduce the cost of health care in the United States because were spending twice as much as any other industrialized country in the world, but were not covering people as you say for the most basic parts of health care that are expected as a right in other countries. They should be a right in the United States of america no matter what color you are, especially if you are living in one of our less privileged communities. Senator, our next question comes from jake stroy strongwat. Hes a criminal defense attorney. Climate change is wreaking havoc across the country. We have flooding in oklahoma. We have tornados in ohio. In the south we have record high temperatures. What would you do beyond the carbon tax to slow or reduce the rate of rising ocean levels, loss of the ozone layer and reduction of glaciers and solar icecaps . You know, there are a lot of issues tonight i hope we talk about that i care a lot about. Dana mentioned id been a School Superintendent. I care a lot about our failures in education right now. I care a lot about the fact were not investing in infrastructure. Weve got an economy thats not driving everybodys income up when it grows. The one issue different from all those issues is Climate Change. Because not only is it existential. If we dont deal with it now, our children arent going to be able to deal with it because itll be too late. Thats why you hear young people all over this country rising up saying your failures are not good enough for us. Your excuses are not good enough for us. We need you to act urgently on Climate Change and that is what we need to do. Last week thank you. [ applause ] last week i put out a plan, the first part of which says, look, we have to get to a nonet new carbon by 2050, which is what the scientists say. It invests a trillion dollars of public money to leverage another 10 trillion of private money to deal with Climate Change here and abroad. You mentioned whats happening in some of our agricultural areas. Its the first climate plan that links the importance of conservation and carbon sequesttration in our lands and oceans with Climate Change. Its a very important part of how were going to solve this problem. And it gives everybody in america an opportunity because of the way they want to buy clean energy to participate in driving Climate Change. This isnt going to be driven from washington, d. C. Everybody in America Needs to take a role solving it because everyone of our kids and grandkids are going to be affected by it if we dont. Not going to be affected by it. They are being affected by it today. The topsoil is pouring into the gulf of mexico because of the heavy rains that are caused by Climate Change. The time to act is now, and weve got to make sure that the selection i mean, look, we elected a climate president last time. We cant afford for that to happen. Stenter, were going to take a another quick break. Well be right back with more from cnns democratic president ial town hall with senator Michael Bennett live from atlanta. Stay with us. Woow yeahhh there we go this memorial day, start your summer off right in a new chevrolet. Oh, wow its time to upgrade. You guys out did yourselves there. Im gonna go and get a chevy. An exciting summer begins at your chevy dealer. And now, during the chevy Memorial Day Sales event, get 0 financing for 72 months on these select chevy models. Or current gm owners can get thirty two fifty total cash allowance on this colorado. Find new roads at your local chevy dealer. Total cash allowance on this colorado. 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And i was surprised to learn that about you, and im just curious about how that plays into what you think as you see the rise in antisemitism in this country, obviously given what happened in pittsburgh and in california. It makes me deeply worried about it and especially when i know people are forgetting the history and forgetting what the holocaust was all about. When i grew up all of that was very present in my house. As you said my mom and parents were polish jews. They went from war saw, lived there for two years and website to stock holem and then they went to mexico city who was willing to take them in and after spending a year there, made it to new york where they could rebuild their shattered lives in the only country that they could. And my grandparents to this day, and i live in a state with a lot of immigrants to this day my grandparents had the strongest accents of anybody i have ever known. And they had Great Sadness because of what had happened to their family because of what antisemitism had done to them. But they also at the same time had sheer joy of what it meant to be an american citizen. Unadulterated joy, a daily joy about being an american. And part of being an american was knowing you lived in a place where Something Like antisemitism would not be allowed to rear its ugly head. And once you got here you were american. No matter what your religion was, no matter where your parents came from, no matter what language you spoke. And that is who we have been over generations. And i think we cant allow President Trumps bizarre view of all that color our pride in what we are as a country, a pluralistic place that accepts everybody. Lets get back to the odd by the way, its also troubling to know in a lot of European Countries theres a rise of antisemitism too that also tends to attract these autocratic regimes that are trying to overtake democracies in those places as well. These things often go hand in hand. Lets get back to the audience. Brian coleman works in health care i. T. Also worked for Hillary Clintons 2016 campaign. Hi senator. Hi. Men like me have been increasingly killed in the last decade. There are systemic problems in our Police Departments across the nation. Cellphones have begun shining a light on these issues. However, how will you manifest a change in our Police Department culture in this nation . I thank you very much for the question. And by the way thanks for working for Hillary Clinton in 2016. In the old days after i was in the private sector and before i was a School Superintendent i went to work for the city and county of denver for a guy named john hickam who i dont know what happened to that guy. He was a terrible boss he wasnt a terrible boss. And the first thing we encountered really when he was taking office is a young man named paul childs had been shot in denver by the Police Department under circumstances that should never have happened. And as a result of that i worked for a year and a half to completely redo the Police Oversight system in the city and county of denver on johns authority, it should be said. And what that took was 18 months of Community Meetings in denver, very, very tough Community Meetings that i often hosted in the community but also in the city and county building to make sure we were working through the process to create not just oversight but a new kind of trust and accountability between the community and the Police Department. Since that time, that was before these digital cameras and what they have revealed that the community always knew was happening but that the Police Department often said wasnt happening. Or the broader america believed wasnt happening. We now know that it is. And thats why black lives matter has been so important. Thats why the people that have filmed these altercations and these incidents are so important. And thats why it is so important for us to embrace each other as americans. We need to have fundamental trust in each other, and i think the only way we can build that is by spending time with each other, not just when something goes wrong but in the periods in between stuff going wrong so that when it does, we know how to fix it and correct it. And when im president of the United States, i can assure you the Justice Department is going to take seriously every single kmant thereat comes from every Single Community where someone has been treated unfairly because of the color of their skin. Thats something we have to end in the United States of america. Our next audience question comes from Margaret Thompson a student at High Point University studying Political Science. Hi. So according to the Washington Post two in three americans say public schoolteachers are underpaid. How are you going to increase teacher pay and the equality of education at schools across the country . Thank you very much for the question. As dana mentioned i spent five years privileged in working for the children and teachers and principals of Denver Public schools as superintendent. It has been the best job ive ever had, the most rewarding job i have ever had. There are many challenges with our Education System. One of them is we are not remotely paying teachers what they need to be paid in this country. Were not going to be able to solve that problem only from washington, d. C. Were going to need National Leadership from washington, d. C. , but we need d. C. States and School Districts working together to finally decide that were going to move past a system of compensating teachers that actually was developed and belonged when we had a labor market that discriminated against women and said your only choice was being a teacher and being a nurse, so were not going to pay you anything. And thats still the system we have today. And so weve got to change that system. And we have to pay teachers as the professionals that they are. And thats not just a little bit more. That is a lot more. And i think we can do that as a country if were willing to take on that challenge. Can i Say Something about Public Education generally . Go for it. Listen, there was a time in america after world war ii when Public Education was the wind at our back. There was a time when we had decided that we were going to have universal high school. We hadnt had it before. There was a time that we decided we were going to have the gi bill and give a whole bunch of people the opportunity to go to college who never had it before. And now it was 20 years or so before we finally started letting women go to college, and that changed our economy forever. And that created the Economic Growth that we had after world war ii. Today im sad to say this, but because of our insufficient smoert for our schools, not just payment for teachers but kids in this country that should have preschool, have no preschool in america, and to go to college youve got to bankrupt your family. And if you dont go to college, which is 70 of the people that graduate in high school, we have absolutely nothing in place that will train you to make this instead of a minimum wage. We can fix all that. But today our Education System is instead of liberating people from their economic circumstances is actually is actually making worse the income inequality that we have. And weve got to change that. I dont think we can change our economy without changing our commitment to Public Education in this country. We need to make it a 21st century offering to our kids and grandkids not a 19th century offering which is what they have today. And i think we can do it. Stick around. A lot more of cnns democratic president ial town hall live from atlanta right after this. This simple banana peel represents a bold idea a way to create energy from household trash. It not only saves about 80 in carbon emissions. It helps reduce landfill waste. Thats why bp is partnering with a California Company fulcrum bioenergy. To turn garbage into jet fuel. Because we cant let any good ideas go to waste. At bp, we see possibilities everywhere. To help the world keep advancing. 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I took the right vote. It was the right vote for my state and the country. Both dod and frank said that the attacks the claimed attacks on dodd frank were false. It didnt matter to other democrats they were attacking democrats on this but they were. And the reason i supported the bill was that small banks and small Credit Unions in my state which are very important to Rural Communities in colorado, had trouble keeping windup the regulatory requirements for dodd frank. And for years they had pointed out to me that they hadnt caused the financial crisis, which is true. And i said to them when i have a chance to help fix that in a bipartisan way i will because we lost 40 of the Bank Headquarters in colorado as a result partly because of those regulations. That is why i voted for the bill. I kept my word, and i believe i did the right thing. Thank you for the question. Were going to go to another audience question. Deb dolbman who runs her own packaging business. For the past two years our country has been jerked around like a wagon being towed down a bumpy dirt road behind an angry toddler on a tricycle. I dont know what you mean. We seem to be in danger of losing our place as leader of the free world. If you are elected who would be the resip dwrncipients of your three official phone calls and what would be your message . I think thats a great question. I think i would call our allies in europe and say that we are open for business once again because we know how important this alliance is to freedom and the world and to all of us since world war ii. Its not a a republican or democratic president hasnt made a call like that. I would make a call like that. I would call the Prime Minister of israel and remind them that our relationship is strong and that even when we are critical of one another we have a particularly important relationship for the reasons that dana and i were talking about earlier. And then i would call the heads of mexico and honduras, el salvador and guatemala and i would invite them to washington or i would go there and say we need to help you solve the problems in your countries so that we can end the kind of refugee crisis thats led to the American Government in the name of the American People separating children from their families at the border of the United States of america. That should never happen again and never can happen again. Those are the calls i would make. And senator, what about Vladimir Putin . What about Vladimir Putin . Well, id call Vladimir Putin, but he probably wouldnt be one of my first three calls, i dont think. Id call xi, too, and id say, look, lets figure out a way to reorient our relationship here. I think donald trump has been right to call out china. I think hes done it completely the wrong way. And i think we have an Incredible Opportunity to create alliances all over the world from europe to asia to latin america and to africa, to push back on chinas murktleest practices and benefit workers here in the United States and throughout the rest of the world. China is running on the law of big numbers. And it seems to me that our answer there is to not go it alone. Our answer is to build coalitions all over the world to push back in a measured and thoughtful way. And thats not what weve had from this president. And what about when you made that phone call eventually Vladimir Putin, what would you say . Id say we like the previous president we know youve been attacking the United States of america. Youve been attacking our democracy and democracies in europe through social media, and we need to stop. And if youre not going to stop, theres going be a price to pay. Which is . Which is to sanction them and create real economic harm for them. So while were at it, last one is kim jongun. Would he be on your call sheet . He wouldnt be on my call sheet because i dont think the president of the United States should call kim jongun until the work is done to setup a negotiation that makes sense. And donald trump has done exactly the opposite. So i think it would be important not to send a message from america that we condone the behavior of that regime. President trump keeps saying over and over again that he somehow has the economic interests of this country at heart, and thats why hes never going to do anything crazy. In fact, he said thats he said im in love with the leader of north korea and americans can sleep at night. North koreans havent changed anything theyve been doing for the last 20 years and theyre not going to change it unless they know theres an american president whos going to rally the world against him. I think thats what we need to do. Okay, senator, were going to sneak in one more quick break. Dont go anywhere. Cnns democratic president ial town hall with Michael Bennet coming up in just a moment. Each day justin chooses to walk. At work. And after work. He does it all with dr. Scholls. Only dr. Scholls has massaging gel insoles that provide allday comfort. To keep him feeling more energized. Dr. Scholls. Born to move. Introducing miraclegros next big thing. Performance organics. Finally organics that work. Tested and refined by plant scientists. For twice the results, guaranteed. Dont grow a snack, grow a feast. Dont grow a flower, grow a Million Dollar view. This new organic collection of soil and plant food is what you always wanted. No compromise, just results, guaranteed. Miraclegro performance organics. Applebees new loaded fajitas. Now thats eatin good in the neighborhood. Another wireless ad. Great. Applebees new loaded fajitas. So many of them are full of this complicated, tricky language about their network and offers and blah blah blah. Look. Sprints going to do things differently. And let you decide for yourself. Theyre offering a new 100 total satisfaction guarantee. Try it out and see the savings. If you dont love it, get your money back. See . Simple. Now sprints unlimited plan comes with one of the newest phones included for just 35 a month. So switch now. For people with hearing loss, visit sprintrelay. Com when it comes to reducing the evsugar in your familys diet,m. Coke, dr pepper and pepsi hear you. Were working together to do just that. Bringing you more great tasting beverages with less sugar or no sugar at all. Smaller portion sizes, clear calorie labels and reminders to think balance. Because we know mom wants whats best. More beverage choices, smaller portions, less sugar. Balanceus. Org welcome back. Were live in atlanta with president ial candidate senator Michael Bennet. Getting straight to the audience. Our question comes from cindy moffett, shooees an assistant principal for gwyneth county public schools. Good evening, senator. Good evening. Given President Trump is an unorthodox candidate, who are you planning in order to defeat him especially since he seems to have a base that sticks beside him no matter what he and his administration does . So thank qulyou, cindy, so m for the education. Thank you for being an educator and assistant principal. We appreciate it. Id like to use this as an opportunity,educator, to talk a why im running and why i think i can beat donald trump. I mentioned my daughter, ann, tonight. I made a joke she didnt want me to run but the truth is the reason shes not here, this is her last day of school. And like students all over the country, shes working hard to try to end the school year in a strong way. And like students throughout the country, shes trying to learn math or english or a. P. Biology or whatever, geography, she whatever it happens to be. And that is their job. Thats their job. And by the way, some of the students, and you know this, some of the students are in schools where there is no broadband because they live in a rural community. Some of the students are in urban School Districts where the roof leaks or there are 35 kids in a classroom or the boiler is broken and every day they show up to do their work. Every day. We live in a country where when kids are in the fourth grade in this country, only 34 of the kids are proficient mathematicians in the fourth grade. 40 i guess 34 are proficient readers. 40 are proficient mathematicians. I lost cindy. She knows these numbers. But still, they come back to work and work and work because thats their job. They do not have time to create universal health care in america. They do not have time to fix our broken immigration system. They do not have time to deal with climate to make sure the planets not incinerated before they occupy the future. They dont have time to build an economy that works not just for the people at the very top but very everybody. They dont have time to make a k12 system in this country thats actually just. Where your education doesnt depend on the neighborhood that youre born into. They dont have time to make sure college is affordable. They dont have time to make sure that our generation starts paying its bills so that they can make the choices they should be able to make. And as theyre doing their work tonight, theyre not watching this show. As theyre doing their work tonight, theyre expecting us to do all of that work. And for the last ten years in washington, we have done almost none of that work. And in the case of donald trump, whom you mentioned, hes actually taking us backwards on every single one of those dimensions. Health care being the best example where hes taking away from millions of people in america including people with preexisting conditions. And i believe we need to start doing that work and thats why im running for president. Because i think that we have to build a Big Coalition of americans, democrats, republicans, and independents, to overcome the broken politics in washington, d. C. It will never fix itself. It will only become more bitter and more partisan if we, as a country, dont come together and say, we demand something better. And were going to create this big constituency for change, a coalition that spans the parties, to make it better. And i think if we do that, we cannot only beat donald trump, we can fix our broken politics in washington, and we can leave our kids in this honorable country a future that we can be proud of. Thats whats at stake in this election. Thats why im running and thats why i think i can beat donald trump. Senator, thank you so much. Thank you for joining us tonight. Thank you for watching at home. Our studio audience here at the zn cnn center in atlanta. Tune in this sunday for back to back to back democratic town halls with congressman seth moulten, tim ryan and Eric Swalwell starting at 6 00 p. M. Eastern. Cnn tonight starts right now. Thank you very much, dana bash. This is cnn tonight, im don lemon. And you just watched our cnn town hall with senator Michael Bennet, the colorado democrat and president ial candidate answering questions from the audience for just about an hour. Questions about health care, his support for a public option and his clean bill of health after a cancer treatment. Questions about gun laws, Climate Change, education, and so much more. But we got to talk about the president s tantrum today. It is getting to be a regular thing. President ial tantrums, tirades. Its absolutely no coincidence that this one happened the day after Robert Mueller finally spoke out about his investigation. Did you catch this . The president slipped up this morning. Tweeting this. Russia, russia, russia. Thats all you heard at the beginning of this witch hunt. Spoiler alert, it wasnt a witch hunt, but lets continue, and now russia has disappeared because i had nothing to do with russia helping me get elected. Russia helping me get elected. Hmmm. G guess president didnt need to be quite so truthful there because less than an hour later, he said this. No, russia did not help me get elected. You know who got me elected . You know who got me elected . I got me elected. Russia didnt help me at all. Russia, if anything, i think helped the other side. Well, thats not what Vladimir Putin said. President putin, did you want President Trump to win the election and did you direct any of your officials to help him do that . Translator talked about bringing the u. S. russia relationship back to normal. Well there you have it, straight from the horses i mean the strongmans mouth. Thats not all. The president back on his utterly false no obstruction, no collusion kick today. Theres no obstruction. You see what were saying. Theres no obstruction, theres no collusion, no nothing. Its nothing but a witch hunt. Well, that in spite of the fact that mueller did not say there was no collusion. He said there wasnt enough evidence to charge anybody with conspiracy. He also didnt say there was no obstruction. If we had had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so. So the president , of course, lashed out with personal attacks on mueller. I think hes totally conflicted because as you know, he wanted to be the fbi director and i said no. As you know, i had a business dispute with him after he left the fbi, we had a business dispute. Not a nice one. He wasnt he wasnt happy with what i did. And i dont blame him, but i had to do it because that was the right thing to do. None of that is true. None of its true. The fact is, the Justice Department cleared mueller of any conflict. He did meet with trump, but that was at the white houses invitation and mueller wasnt looking for the fbi job. But the thing the president really seems to be steamed about, that business dispute which amounts to nothing more than mueller quitting his membership at trumps Virginia Golf Club and requesting a refund. Thats it. Doesnt really seem like much of a conflict, does it . According to muellers report, steve bannon recalled telling the president , that was ridiculous and not a real conflict, but the president had another personal attack to lob at mueller today. He loves comey. You look at the relationship that those two so whether its love or deep like, but he should he was conflicted. Okay. Heres the fact on that athletes as sons of bitches. Says reimpeachment, the i word is a dirty, filthy, disgusting word. And those words arent my language. Those are direct quotes from the president. She is right. Irony is dead. But the president is not letting go of his grudge. His grudge match with Robert Mueller and his team. I think mueller is a true never trumper. Hes somebody that dislikes donald trump. Despite 40 million, 18 trump haters including people that worked for Hillary Clinton and some of the worst human beings on earth. They got nothing. Worst human beings on earth . Is he talking about these guys . Oh, no, those guys, those are the people this president makes excuses for. He praises. He sides with against his own intelligence agencies. Wont call on the carpet for murder. The president s fine with dictators and strongmen, but he unloads on u. S. Law enforcement and counterintelligence officials. Hes calling his fellow americans including lifelong republican Robert Mueller the worst human beings on earth for doing their jobs and investigating russias election interference. An attack on our democracy. And what is the president doing tonight in the face of all this . The same old strategy. Distract and deflect. With an announcement that he earlier as a big leak, he says. The announcement that hell slap new tariffs on all goods imported from mexico if the country doesnt stop the flow of migrants by june 10th. But the thing is, thats only going to end up forcing you to pay more for anything from mexico thats sold. In this country. That includes everything from beer to mmatoes, avocados and berries, from phones to computers, refrigerators to air conditioners. And cars like the chevy cruze and equinox and the ford fiesta and fusion. Hmm. Sounds like a tax to me. So its just another distraction . Just like his tirade this morning . Were almost used to the fact that this president seems to be willing to say or do anything to fend off his perceived enemies. Heres why his tirades and tantrums matter because the president is using his bully pulpit to lie, to deflect, and to distract. And to do it all out loud. Thats why Robert Mueller needs to testify. He needs to state the facts out loud. The report is not enough. Hes twominute statement yesterday was not enough. He needs to speak the truth and congress, if theyre devoted to transparency, if they really want answers, congress should treat him exactly the way they would any other witnesses that they need to hear from. We all need to hear what he has to say. And like i said, the president had a complete meltdown today. So, what was it about Robert Muellers statement that sent him over the edge . Thats the question for former Governor John Kasich and david axelrod, and theyre next. Veterans affairs partnered sf with tmobile for business. With va video connect, powered by tmobile, vets can speak to their doctors from virtually anywhere, and get the care they deserve, without it counting against their data, so they can return to their most important post. Soulmate, best friend, or just dad. The va provides the care, tmobile provides the coverage. With licensed agents available 24 7. Its not just easy. 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Over 17 minutes he ranted on the south lawn in an apparent attempt to undermine special counsel Robert Mueller who made it clear yesterday he could not clear the president of wrongdoing. So lets discuss now, the former republican governor of ohio john kasich is here as well as david axelrod, the former Senior Adviser to president obama. Gentlemen, im so glad to have both of you on. Welcome to the program. David, youre up first. So, listen, you know, we did a lot of Fact Checking here. The president did lie after lie today from the south lawn. Why do you think muellers statement caused him to completely melt down like this . Well, because i think he thought he had this in a box, you know, after the release of the report and the way the attorney general handled it. He had his mantra, no collusion, no obstruction, and he thought that they were past this story and bob mueller nine minutes simply by emphasizing elements of his report left real doubt about the things that the president had been saying, and he rekindled the story, rekindled and fueled new talk of impeachment, and i think the president just boiled over and did what he does which he went into paraxisms of hysteria and lying. You know, john kasich, it was interesting because mueller didnt really say anything other than what was in the report and it sounds to me like the president and his acolying acol apologists were counting on people not reading the report and by Robert Mueller going out and saying this is the report, this is what i said, if i thought the president did not commit a crime, i would have said so. So why is he angrier than usual about this today . I think david hit the nail on the head. I think that when that report came out, they felt, okay, this is where it is and we can move on, and the thing just doesnt go away. Thats why hes so upset with these members of congress that are trying to, you know, conduct some oversight, which they have a right to do. And i i just think he wakes up and say s this should be ove with and its not. So i dont think its anything thats more complicated than that, and you mentioned that hes now saying hes going to levy a tariff on the mexicans if they dont stop the influx of people trying to get to the border. I mean, hows he going to do that . It my be a distraction. Yeah. Are you kidding s inding me . John, ill let you finish. When i saw that today, thats the first thing i thought, thats a distraction. No doubt. Saying youre going to levy these tariffs. He wanted to change the news cycle and, i mean, i think it sounds like a tax to me on the American People, but, john, i cut you off. Go on. Well, look, i always look at it and cant figure it out, these people, no matter what the president does or says or how he acts because hes not conducting himself like any other president , i mean, that has been in modern history, they just keep sticking with him. And they just make excuses. So you got the tariffs on now, the war with china, the price of goods going up. The farmers got problems. Now hes threatening to put tariffs on mexico. I mean, you know, its i just cant figure it out, david, can you . I mean, they just stick with him no matter what. It doesnt make any sense to me