Hearing the last three days. From all over the world we have human rights activists from 31 countries, from every region, that have come together to really consult together what do we do in these difficult times, how do we breathe and push . How do we push Forward Together . So its our honor and privilege to have with us tonight two of americas most admired leaders. [applause] for a conversation about how do we stand again for human rights in the world, how does america, as imperfect as it is when it comes to human rights, bring back human rights to the centerpiece of our lives . Id like to start with you, president carter, a question for you. If you could just summarize what you heard today, where are we and what do we need to do now . President carter well, i think the best comment i heard today that summarizes it is that we are struggling now to keep going what we achieved in the past. Weve sit back in human rights all over the world. One of the key reasons is that other countries that used to use the United States of america as kind of a beacon light of truth, human rights and justice and freedom no longer can see us as a beacon light of hope and about the future. And quite often our government has declined to when the United States abandoned that as one of our key elements of foreign policy. They say well its ok for us to do it now. So i think weve seen the entire world slip backward in effect in honoring and promoting and championing and fighting for human rights and holding it as a key guide for all of us. Host senator sanders, how do you see this problem now Going Forward as america hopes to really be a leader on human rights . We are in a difficult time. What would you say is our priority now . Spoip before i respond to that senator sanders before i respond to that i want to say what a joy it is to be at the Carter Center with a man who not only is respected by the vast majority of the people of our country, those who may agree with him politically and those who disagree, but who has lived his life and mrs. Carter and amy with incredible dignity so we are all so proud of what you have achieved as president and after president. I am just delighted to be here. [applause] let me answer your question by saying i am not i think going to say anything that will shock anybody in this room, i dont think the leadership of this country today in fact believes very strongly in human rights. Thats not what they believe in. We are in a new moment, in a Pivotal Moment in american history. We have a president , again, i dont mean to be disrespectful to anybody, at least of all the president , but he is in contrast to the gentleman here. We have a president who lies all of the time and it is very hard to deal i dont mind people disagree we may disagree. People disagree with each other. Its called democracy. I am often asked, what do you think of what President Trump said yesterday . Its hard to answer because it will be different tomorrow. Very often factually what he says is just not correct. When you talk about human rights, its important that we do not allow the normalization of a situation in which a president basically says that all of the media in this country, new york times, the washington post, the whole lot of them believe me, i have problems with the media, but to suggest all of the media are providing fake news and that really the only person in america, the only source of information that we can get that we can trust comes from the tweets of President Trump, how crazy is that. And then you have a tax on the judiciary, socalled judges who with ee with, you know, the decision thank god they ruled against some of his executive orders. And then you have him with a very plausible relationship with mr. Putin who has moved his country into a very authoritarian direction as well as other Global Leaders who in fact do not particularly believe in democracy. So that is where i see us today. Host how do you both explain the rise of authoritarianism . Where is this coming from . President carter well, i think the root of it is something i havent heard discussed much. I told a group today in 1999 at the end of the last millennium and the beginning of 2000, i was asked to make speeches and oslo, norway, and taiwan and my subject was, what is the greatest challenge to be faced by the next century . I said the disparity between rich people and poor people. You know, i think that is the case not only between people who live in the country but also between nations. I believe that the root of a downturn in human rights preceded 2016. It began earlier than that. I think the reason was the disparity in income which has been translated into the average person, you know, good, decent, hardworking, middleclass people feeling they are getting cheated by the government and by society. And they dont get the same element of health care. They dont get the same quality education. They dont get the same political rights. Particularly after the stupid decision of the Supreme Court on Citizens United where they said an unlimited amount of money going into campaigns. But now they feel even if politics the choice of a candidate to be president or governor or congressman or whatever is not the same as the rich persons. And also once that candidate gets in office, if hes successful, quite often the average person feels they are repaying their contributions with legal bribery. Its legal. And the Justice System has also gone down. Long before we had this last election, when i left the white house, for instance, one out of 1,000 people were in prison. Now seven people out of 1,000 people are in prison. Seven times as many people americans are now in prison as they were just when i left the white house. So the feeling of the average person that ill be treated fairly by the Justice System is missing. So, you know, basic human rights, income, status in society, health care, education , participation in politics, justice, the things which we used to have complete faith now has been distorted by the rich people getting richer and the poor people getting poorer. When the rich people get a candidate in office they can be sure the tax laws and Everything Else will keep them getting richer and richer but the average person suffers. I think that dissatisfaction with the existing system of politics resulted in the outcome of the election in 2016 in the United States. People were willing to take a chance and abandon democracy and what we know as basic principles and try something new no matter what was it was. Host one said market fundamentalism is the driving force behind this. What do you think, senator sanders, how do you explain the rise . Senator sanders well, i agree with everything president carter said. Look, here is the situation. You got all over this country tens of millions of people who are extremely angry and they are disappointed. Now, we all know that as a result of Technology Workers are producing more today than they did 20 or 30 years ago. And yet, despite that, youre seeing people working not 40 hours a week, they are working 50 or 60 hours a week. Their wages are actually going down. Now, how would you feel if you were a 50yearold man or Woman Working in a factory and you went to work one day and somebody said, oh, by the way, our company can make more money going to china, good luck to you, and you go out and get a job at half the wages you formerly made . How do you feel as a parent when you know that your kid, who you love so much and you want Better Things than you had thats the American Dream your kid cant afford to go to college . Cant even find a home for himself or herself . Or maybe leave school 50,000, 80,000 in debt . So i think president carter is right. I think if you are going to look at human rights, we have got to look the term i use is in rowth of oligarchy america and what that means, and the president touched on both of the issues, its not just unbelievably grotesque level of income and wealth inequality, one family in america owns more wealth than the bottom 42 , etc. , but these guys are not putting their money under their mattress. They are using it politically. So we live in a country where people fought and died for democracy and you got the Koch Brothers and sheldon aledleson and billionaires able to spend millions of dollars to elect candidates who represent the wealthy and the powerful. This recent bill, everybody is familiar with this terrible bill that was passed last thursday in the house, the media describes it as a health care bill. Its not a health care bill. It is a bill designed to give 300 billion in tax breaks to the top 2 and hundreds of billions more to the insurance companies. Thats what you got, the rich get richer. They protect themselves politically. They get more tax breaks. The middle class shrinks. Some people in this country live in debt in poverty. And in the midst of that frustration and that anger and the pain, you have somebody who comes along and says, you know what the source of your problem is, its that muslim over there, its the latino over there. You are supposed to hate that person. And i think that has a lot to do in this country and internationally. With a lot of what we are seeing today. President carter im relieved to know that senator sanders agrees with me. I feel much more sure about what i said now. [laughter] [applause] president carter how does it affect other countries, the ones assembled here . Host of course. The neoliberal orthodoxy that we have lived within for how many decades now that we have been told the rising tide would lift all boats have failed. We heard many testimonies today about this problem. From the congo, pakistan, everywhere. As the United States exerts its influence in the world and we take a broader view of human rights, these are interlinked because we see in our country just as you are describing this, the police are expanding their powers. When people protest what you are talking about, we have increase in prison population. We have a crack in the militarization of the police using military equipment to control the protests. We have our Atlanta Leader of the black lives Matter Movement here. So we all over the country, standing rock, ruth ann buffalo from standing rock, there is a Rising Movement but these are interlinked. So when these policies leave people behind and people rise up, even in the United States, we heard today from india, a heartbreaking testimony that even in the last two or three years what we think of india as a great democracy, that is going away. You cant even protest anymore. So we see the linkages. So how can we use our influence in the world for you both this question is for you both. President carter, you put human rights the center of our foreign policy. It was a difficult time. It was the cold war. It was not easy to do that. Senator sanders, you are in the senate. You have the one of 100 seats of really where the only power is left in this country, a part from the very courageous federal courts, i must say, our courts are standing up for human rights, but how do we get to face tates to its own problems but then become a leader again . President carter you go first this time. Sen. Sanders i can copy what you said. It makes it more difficult. I dont think derail change we need will take place in the u. S. Senate or in washington. It is going to take place in what our very raved guests here are doing all over the world. It will take place at the Grassroots Level from one end of this country to the other. And what i mean by that, as ive said many times, dont mean to get into the ntricacies of american politics. I think in many ways donald trump did not win the election, the Democratic Party lost the election. That means we have to revitalize the credit party. Grassroots. Black workers, white workers, latino workers, native american workers. I think we can do that. I have spent a lot of my time recently, not going just to blue states, but going to conservative states. Because if you go to states like kansas or you go to states like nebraska, which ill vote by have all vote very strongly republican states and you ask people, do you believe that it makes sense to give tax breaks to billionaires and cut back on social security, medicare, and medicaid, people look at you like youre crazy. Of course we dont believe hat. So our job is to go into 50 states in this country to bring people together around a Progressive Agenda that has the courage to do what democrats historically have not had the courage to do. Point out, there is wall street, there is the insurance companies, drug companies, fossil fuel industry, these are the people who are ripping us off and these are the people who are donating money to candidates who will represent their interests and not the interests of the middle class and working people of this country. So i think we need to revitalize american democracy. We have one of the lowest voter turnouts than any major country in this world. Some of you may have noticed in a few weeks ago, the french first election, almost 80 of the french people voted. If we had 80 of the people voting in this country, the Republican Party would be a significant minority. [applause] sen. Sanders so we have to get people involved and you do that by being honest about the real problems they face and come up with real solutions. President carter can you see why i voted for him . [laughter] president carter well, i think the thing we need to discuss is the trend downward and the things in which we have faith and which we can on which we can depend. We used to have faith in democracy. We used to have faith in the truth. We used a faith in our fellow human citizens. We used to have faith in our public officials. But we basically lost that element of faith. My High School Teacher said we must accommodate changing sometimes and we are in the midst of changing times but we must cling to principles that never change and one of those principles is the truth. And freedom. Nd i quoted roosevelts four freedoms. One is freedom of speech. Anothers freedom of religion. Two of them were negative. Freedom from want and freedom from fear. I think now permeating the entire world of freedom lack of freedom to combat want because of the disparity in income that i pointed out which is getting worse every year and also freedom from fear. We still have that is a long way to go. In some cases we have freedom of speech and freedom of eligion. We are religious one where or another so we have freedom of religion but sometimes it is constrained. And anyway, we still have that big obstacle to overcome. One of the things we need to do now is see how this small group of courageous human rights heroes can add their contributions of thought and experiences together and form a ight coalition in this small group and then expand it to washington and some of you are going up there to meet with members of the senate and the house and maybe some parts of the administration. I dont know about that yet. And then expand it as much as we can to the world and never give up. And unite it together, which i hope we will be, just being champions of human rights and freedom and the lack of fear and a lack of want i think our voice can be greatly expanded on a global basis even. This little tiny drop of people compared to the rest of the world can have a great influence if we speak together forcefully and courageously. Host senator sanders, president carter opened the door to not let you off the hook. You are in the senate. Yes, we have a Peoples Movement for sure, but you have from , very huge platform which you can speak. We heard from one from russia about the danger of silence, that we have to speak whats going on around the world. We have to give voice and highlight this regression of human rights thats happening globally, even in our own country. I know that there are members of the senate, your own colleagues, who are looking at ways the senate can, you know, bring the power of the senate. After vietnam we had the Church Committee that made important reforms in the cray. I realize its an in the c. I. A. I realize its an uphill battle with this administration but we have to think ahead. Can we rely on the leahy amendment to challenge military assistance to some of the countries where our friends are coming from nigeria, kenya, that are receiving military assistance, this is something the United States can help with . Senator sanders theoretically it could. Those who believe in those values are in the minority. As the president just said, even though we may be in the minority, that our voices have got to be loud and clear. The United States should not be funding military dictatorships around the world, should not be giving support to leaders who torture and imprison thousands of their people. And somebody has got to what is very, very sad again, the president made this point. There was once a time in our lifetimes, not 200 years ago, when people thought about the United States, they did believe this is a country of freedom. This is a country that of opportunity. This is the country in the world that believes in truth, nd it is very, very, very sad to see that the values that we once were respected for all over the world are now being diminished, especially in the last few months. Moderator a small group of us will be in washington later this week meeting with a few senators. We will be seeing senator corker. President carter bob corker, republican. Moderator yes. President carter chairman of the Foreign Relations committee. Moderator we know it is an uphill battle. Last year we talked a lot about diverting the resources from the machinery of war into the achinery of peace. And the machinery of human rights that is in front of us. Do you see any opportunities, senator sanders, to really raise this . We know there is a new budget coming up. The president has asked for an increase in military expenditures. Is there any chance for the people to be heard to question that . Senator sanders the answer is of course. If you think about what needs to be done, then look at the trump budget and its exactly the opposite of what we should be going, all right. [applause] senator sanders can you imagine at a time when we need to focus on diplomacy, at a time when people all over the world must know or should know that the United States is their ally, that we are there to help them with food. We are at their to help them with technology. We are their allies. What President Trump wants to do is substantially reduce foreign aid, substantially reduce the staffing in the state department but add 80 billion more to the military on top of an already very, very bloated military budget. And domestically, having done that, he wants to take that money, that 80 billion hes spending on the military, by cutting head start, by cutting pell grants, by cutting the w. I. C. Program, by cutting the program for lowincome pregnant women and children, cutting the meals on Wheels Program which provides nutrition and meals too low income seniors. In other words, doing exactly he opposite. In other words, doing exactly the opposite. Our job right now, and i am working on it almost 24 7, is to go around the country and tell the American People, are those your priorities . Ore money for the defense . Already we are spending more than the next 12 nations. And there is tremendous waste within the department of defense. Do we need more by cutting programs . Do we need not to be supporting poor people around the world rather than leaving them prey to terrorist ideology . Moderator we talked about the new generation of nuclear weapons. Do you think this 1 trillion were about to spend is a weiss use of resources . President carter of course not. [laughter] president carter i dont think theres any way for anyone, even in your own personal mind to separate peace from human rights because one of the basic elements of peace, of human rights, is to be living at peace and only then can you have other human rights like freedom of speech and religion and also a chance to have an incoming and income and an education and health care and a house to live in and things of that kind. When war comes, the abuses of human rights which we all know about and for which we have talked for the last three years, but the number one human rights abuse, that is women and girls, that becomes much more serious. Every human right that we talk 30 and is listed that has types, existed in the intervals of human rights are exacerbated or made worse under the cloud of war. When a nation decides to go to war, they basically drop any feeling of love or absence of hatred or the version to killing. The United States has been a war almost constantly since the econd world war. Only in four years did we not have any conflict. I wont say which for years that was. [applause] president carter so we need to do what we can to let the United States honor their basic commitment and purpose, to preserve peace in the world. The United States can do its part of it ever well but i think now we are moving toward a military attitude. And this derives not just from politicians, not from the military industry manufacturers weapons, but it derives from the attitude of the American People who forget about the fact that we are a nation of peace and most of us in the United States are christians. We worship the prince of peace, not a prince of war. And we are supposed to reach out and understand each other and not hate each other. Thats a basic principle, again, that we need to remind ourselves about and that is connecting peace always as human rights. Thats two things that the Carter Center tries to concentrate on, without deviation promoting peace whenever there is a choice shes and human rights. Sometimes neither one of those things are very popular. Moderator yes. And since 9 11 we have put ourselves in a permanent war frame and on a permanent footing for war. You know, the Bush Administration started us on that path and thank goodness that president obama did avoid war with irannormalized relations with and he cuba. These are two fantastic, wonderful developments. But at the same time he did not change the basic framework with which we are dealing. On 9 11, there was a very small piece of territory where you could find al qaeda, on the border of pakistan and afghanistan. Very small. A handful of guys. Now the ideology has spread globally so it obviously has not worked. Just as were closing, we only ave a few more minutes, any thoughts how we can can get out of this mindset . We have to change the minds of the American People that this is actually a pathway that is going to lead to more security. How do we do that . How do we get the American People to see that investing in peace and human rights is a better investment and will make them more secure . Senator sanders, what advice you have for us . Senator sanders well, just two points. We do have, going back to somebody who preceded president carter by a few years, is dwight d. Eisenhower. You all remember what he said in his farewell remarks and that is beware in so many words of the military Industrial Complex. And if you think the military Industrial Complex was strong when he left in 1960, it is far, far stronger. Do not kid yourself. When we expand military spending and develop new weapons systems, there are corporations making huge amounts of money. Billions of dollars in profits. The oversight of these defense contractors is minimal. Oftentimes they will tell you they will do a Weapon System for x dollars and it will be two or three times than that. Massive overruns. A lot of corruption going on there. I think i would get back to the point i made earlier. What this country is hungry for is a vision which says, no, we are not going to spend 700 billion a year on the military when we have veterans sleeping out on the street. Kids cant afford to go to college. When 28 Million People have no health insurance. When there are Senior Citizens trying to make it on 13,000 a year social security. We need a vision that talks about an america which works for old people, which involves people. I do not want to see this country continuing as we did in 2014. The elections, almost two almost 2 3 ft American People did not vote. They had given up. They dont believe their voices matter. So i think all of these things there is what i learned in politics is everything is related to everything is related to everything. You cant finalize these things. We have to revitalize american democracy. We have got to get people active standing up for themselves and their kids. Prepare to take on very powerful, bigmoney interests. We need a Progressive Agenda that will in fact speak to the needs of the working people of this country. President carter theres one other thing that id like to add i know we are about out of time that is a lot of people think its a choice between security on the one hand and human rights on the other. But the best way to have a country secure is to honor human rights. They are tied together. I think that is one of the biggest messages we should put forward. [applause] president carter if the administration goes for human rights and freedom and equality, its the best way to avoid a lack of security. It makes our country stronger at home and our country stronger on a global basis as well. We should remember that human rights and security are tied together. If our people want to live securely, let them honor human rights. That choice ought not to be divided thing in politics which it often is because the conservatives, many of the republican candidates say, when you go to those weak things like peace and human rights, you are abandoning american security. Ts just the opposite. Moderator and we were explaining this week about we have to do a better job of explaining to the public that these things go together. Senator sanders i was thinking when we talked about freedom from fear, that it is not just being black in this country and walking the streets and being afraid of being picked up or shot by a police officer. But also, increasingly, and this is just a whole discussion above and beyond everything we are doing today, is the kind of surveillance that exists hrough information technology. The fact there are resources and nobody knows exactly what is going on but we have reason to believe that the government can easily track anything that you read on the internet. Ny email that you send can get that you sent, can get into your phone calls. Corporate america knows more about your purchasing habits than you know. We see that. I think in the year 2017 there is no question to my mind that we are moving toward a surveillance type of society. We need Public Policy to confront that exploding technology. [applause] moderator that is right. Were going to wind up now. Senator sanders agreed to take some questions but president carter needs to leave right at 7 00. Is there anything left unsaid . President carter save it for tomorrow. Moderator thank you. President carter i cant tie a tie. By the way, my wrist is healing up quite well. I told you ill smain that to you today. Thank you very much good. Good to see you. God bless you. [applause] moderator now, we have some microphones that are set up for you to if you want to pull the microphones out to the front here so people can come and ask questions. If you want to ask a question of senator sanders, come right up to the microphones. We are grateful to you. Ok. Im sorry. Where are they . Somebody wave and show people where to line up. I cant see. The lights are too bright. Stand up and go to the icrophone. Hard to see. Is there someone there . I see doug. Introduce yourself. I am doug from the International Center for nonprofit law. Senator sanders, you talked about folks that have to work 50, 60 hours a week, their income is declining, they dont have health care and they have endemic poverty. How would you explain to a u. S. Citizen in that circumstance why its important to invest nternationally in human rights senator sanders well, because at the end of the day, and in fact at the end of the day, if l that we do is grow a military and engage in wars all over the world from simply forget the morality and humanity of it from a dollars and cents perspective that is a very, very expensive proposition which takes us right back to trumps budget of 80 billion more for the military and cuts in programs that that worker may depend upon. That worker may need food stamps, it will be cut. That worker when he or she gets old will be on social security. They just cut medicaid by 88 billion over a 10year 880 billion over a 10year period. I think it gets back to the argument of whether we can afford to spend a huge amount of money getting involved in wars and adequately take care of working families in this country. Thats a simple and i think straightforward situation. Hi, senator sanders. Eye name is colette. My name is colette. I am with the u. S. Human rights network. Thank you for being here. I come to the human rights work from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the bp oil drilling disaster. One frame i hear mentioned subtly but not as in front as i would hope is the issue of climate change. I wonder how you see the fight for human rights and the climate reality connected. Senator sanders well, if youre talking about the survival of the planet and the lives of billions of people, i guess were talking about human rights. If we are talking about the fact that the people most immediately impacted in this country and around the world would be lower income people, you are talking about human ights. I am furious at this fossil fuel industry today that is doing exactly what the Tobacco Industry did 50 or 60 years ago and that is that they are lying. You may recall or read 60 years ago the Tobacco Industry was telling you how good it was to smoke for your health. What the fossil fuel industry is denying today is the reality that the Scientific Community has almost unanimously come to. Climate change is real. It is caused by human activity. It is already doing devastating harm and the people most impacted will be poor people in this country an poor people around the world. And on top of all of that, if we look at a world of more flooding and more drought and rising sea levels and mass migrations of people to find a place where they can grow their crops or live in a peaceful way, what youre going to see is with that mass migration, more tension developing within the Global Community and the potential of more wars. So i happen to think of all the embarrassments of the trump administration, the fact that they are rejecting what the Scientific Community almost unanimously agrees to is really quite pathetic. What e good news is youre seeing in state after state and around the world is quite Rapid Movement to Energy Efficiency and Sustainable Energy. The price of solar is plummeting. Our job and i just worked with senator jeff merkley of oregon on legislation. Massive investments in Sustainable Energy and Energy Efficiency. Thats the direction we have to go. Its very much a human rights issue. [applause] am i on . Good evening, senator sanders. Let me first say that my name is mary. Im from bahrain. I was one of your many, many supporters internationally when you were running for election. Senator sanders thank you. My question to you and i want to challenge you a little bit. I think many of us, your supporters, both in the u. S. And outside were quite surprised when you signed on to a letter about israel to the secretarygeneral of the united nations. My question is, why . I saw your interview where he made the comparison about saudi arabia, which i completely understand. Given that im from there, but i guess the comparison would be, with the same senators, would they have signed onto a letter if it had been about the apartheid government of south africa . Senator sanders the reason i signed on with this letter along with every other member of the United States senate was simple. The thrust of the letter to my mind was not to defend israel. Thats what was what the media icked up on. But to suggest that if the Human Rights Commission or committee at the u. N. Is going to be honest, maybe you got to tens of ok at egypt, thousands of people in jail, many being tortured. Saudi arabia, not sure if women can drive a car yet. Or russia or other countries. It was not a denial of human rights, it was to say, why just israel . Lets take a look at human rights all over the world and violations to include israel, but not just israel. Moderator before i call on rodney, i would like to say the Human Rights Council, were very much involved in the reform of the Human Rights Council and i would say that the Human Rights Council is actually much better now. I think there has been a problem in the past with sort of sole focus on israel but that has really changed in the last few years. I think i would applaud that question in the sense not to criticize you, senator sanders. You are in our house. I would not do that. But to maybe open a discussion about this. There are great resolutions on egypt. The council is quite good on many of these countries where there are problems. The council itself is getting stronger and we should acknowledge that. Rodney . Is that rodney . Yeah. I am rodney, journalist from west africa. I would like to address something that has affected everyone in this room. The budget for the state department will be cut drastically and most human rights organizations in countries like ours benefit from that funding. And for me personally, i think about women who are being raped every day in liberia and they go unpunished. Victims are being victimized, and they cant speak up because there is no awareness and everything. I wonder what you as a senator in the u. S. Senate can do to advocate for increased funding. Senator sanders look, understand, as most of you know, the way the budgetary process works in the United States is the president makes a proposal. I think it is fair to say that his proposal, not just in the area of the state department but in general is going to be dead on arrival. [applause] senator sanders so and i think you will have people in the military saying that, you know what, from a military perspective, you have got to continue foreign aid because we dont want to fight terrorists in every country in the world. We want people around the world in developing countries to understand that the United States does know that they have problems with hunger, with education, with womens rights. Trump put forth his budget. That will not be absolutely the final budget. It will undergo massive changes and i will do my best to make sure the state department and foreign aid are very adequately funded. Thank you very much. [applause] senator. I am from pakistan. I am muslim, and brown. No muslim ban could stop me from coming here. I am so glad that you raised an issue of surveillance. It is not happening only in america but in countries like america are setting bad precedence for countries like pakistan. Who always gets an excuse to do mass surveillance. However, i also want to raise the issue of not only the muslim ban but also the laptop ban and i call it muslim laptop ban. Senator sanders what ban . Laptop. The muslim laptop ban because they cannot carry their laptop in their hand carried luggage. Also asking for their passports on their regarding their social media accounts at immigration. All these practices being set by america is setting a bad precedence for countries like us and i would like you to lobby around that, the precedent that america is setting are really not good precedence. Thank you very much. Senator sanders thank you very much for your remarks. I agree. It is why this particular president wants to create a situation where hes giving ammunition to al qaeda and isis is beyond my comprehension. Why do you want to show the world that you are at war with muslims . That you hate muslims . It is incomprehensible to me so were going to do our best to oppose those policies. And i think as you mentioned earlier, thank god we had some good Court Decisions coming down that says that we cannot discriminate against people coming into this country based on their religion. Maybe just two more questions. Moderator there is andrew anderson. My name is andrew anderson. I work with an Organization Called frontline defenders. I want to ask you about sudan. One of the last things president obama did was ease sanctions on sudan, which were coming up for review i think at the end of may. Sudan continues to wage war on its own people and continues to jail human rights defenders including our friend and frontline defenders award winner, who in the last couple of days had his order for his release rescinded and he remains in prison after five months without charge. I am hoping that you can use your position in the senate to continue to question the human rights record of sudan in the context of the review of the sanctions situation there. Senator sanders thank you very much for the work you do. Its certainly something that we will pursue. Thank you. Ok. Maybe last question. Hi, senator sanders. Its pleash to speak with you. I work here in the Carter Centers Democracy Program on our human rights house project for the congo. I should say the human rights struggle in the congo. Not the project. I would just like to recognize and it is a pleasure to get to ask you this because you are in such a position of power. As an ally on the hill, i think we can all recognize that as democracy in the u. S. Is threatened, we sort of see it echo around the world. This is something we have been talking about all throughout this form. Particularly in the u. S. , as democracy is compromised and as it deteriorates, you see that women of girls and especially women in girls of color feel it most strikingly. , alth rights, economic rights in every facet of life, women and girls of color are really suffering as democracy deteriorates. So id like to ask you how, in your position of power in the Senate Senator sanders i wish i was powerful as you think i was. This country would not be in let me put it this way. I Read Everything you post on facebook. All of my friends do. When you say something, people think about it. And they really prioritize. [applause] senator sanders thank you. Hat makes me very happy. You are talking about it. I would like to appeal to you and ask how can we prioritize rights for women and girls of color in that u. S. [applause] senator sanders what is going on now and, again, it is so important that we not allow ourselves to accept this as normal. All right . Right now, as you know, in the health bill that was passed on thursday in the house, they want to defund planned parenthood. Taking away the choice of 2 1 2 million women. Trump Just Announced that hes going to be thinking about aid to historically black colleges and universities. Do you know that . They are going to try to we dont know what the repercussions are but he thinks that kind of funding may be unconstitutional. We have Jeff Sessions as our attorney general who thinks we havent been aggressive enough on the war on drugs, which has been devastating to minority communities all over this country. So, you are quite right. Not to mention that the there is a war against womens rights to control their own bodies. There will be cutbacks if trump has his way. We will do everything we can to stop him. There have been and many of you are part of organizations that are doing your best to protect girls of color around the world so they get good educations, right . So they can go out and find jobs in a nondiscriminatory environment. They want to cut back on those things. So, we are at war on all of those issues. We need to rally the American People. I will certainly do everything i can to fight for those in those enormously important issues. I tell you we can go on and on and on, but all of you who know in this room and those not from the United States knows something about american history. Ou know about the struggles. I was just talking to president carter. In his youth, what the south was about in this country. Segregated society. We have struggled for so many years and so many people have went to jail. Some have died to try to end this racism, to end the sexism, right . Think about the struggle of the womens movement. 100 years ago women did not have the right to vote. I remember it was a big, big deal when i was mayor of burlington that we appointed the First Woman Police officer. Wow. What a big deal. We have made progress and now you have a president who wants to rescind and overturn so much of what was done in this country and around the world and weve got to stand united and say, sorry, mr. President. You are not going to get away with that. [applause] senator sanders with that thank you very much. Thank you, all. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2017] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] coming up later this week, former f. B. I. Director james comey will testify before the senate tenls Committee Investigating russian intelligence Committee Investigating russian activity during last years elections. That will start at 10 00 a. M. On cspan3. Well also take your phone calls and social media comments after the hearing. You can also listen to it on the free cspan radio app. A reminder if you missed any of it will reair at 8 00 p. M. On cspan2 and later that night on cspan. The u. S. House back at 4 30 eastern today to begin legislative work for the day. Live coverage here on cspan. In the meantime, a discussion from this mornings washington journal. Continues. Ebellfirst guest is myron with competitive enterprise institute. Chefs as director for center for environment. Here to talk about the recent decision by the white house on agreement. Limate good morning. Little bit about your organization first. Yourself you describe and what you do . Nonpartisan a nonprot