Brewery, and we are here for the first town hall of this primary season. Were here in michigan, of course, which is one of the three states that flipped and gave the white house to donald trump in the 2016 election. He won by a razor thin margin, just 10,000 votes across this entire state. In 2018, things changed back, shifting back toward the democratic party, with statewide wins for democrats, here in the state and congressional districts like this one, which had not elected a democrat to the house for a full term since 1964. That streak was broken by Hailey Stevens who won here in 2016. All of these voters here are intending to vote in the democratic primary and they want to hear from the candidates on the issues that matter to them as we head into the 2020 race. Tonight, we have the newest candidate in the field. She just made her formal announcement, new york senator Kiersten Gillibrand. Thank you. Hey. How are you, chris . Thank you for having me. Come on up. Hey, everybody. How are you . Hello. How are you . Good to see you. Nice to see you. Thank you for coming. Thank you, guys, very much. Have a seat. Thank you. All right. Have you heard the term gillifan. Theres a gillifan here. He coined that. Thank you. This is the question i ask everyone whos running. In a field this crowded in a country where tens of millions of people who are eligible, why should you be the sole person who wields this powerful office, why should you be president. I believe im the best candidate to take on President Trump because i have the vision of what needs to be done in this country. I have listened to voters all across this country about whats going on in their lives, what their worries are, their challenges. I have the compassion to fully absorb that and offer a real plan, a real set of ideas about how to solve these problems, and i have the experience. Ive actually gotten things done over the last ten years in the senate, and 12 years in congress, and brought people together to do the right thing. And let me explain. You know, when ive talked to folks around my state of new york, all across your state, and states around the country, theyre worried about health care. They Want Health Care as a right, not a privilege. Theyre worried about education. Theyre worried about their kids and crumbling public schools, Early Childhood education, affordable college, theyre worried about jobs. They want to earn their way into the middle class. They want to live the american dream, and they are worried about corruption and greed in washington. They want money out of politics, they want publicly funded elections and those are the things i have actual legislation to get these things done. Its why im more medicare for all, the Green New Deal, and publicly funded elections. I want to talk politics, you said youre the best person to beat donald trump and policy. Lets talk about record first. But i just didnt finish. The one thing i want to add is my record in congress is about bringing people together. Not only did i win a 21 republican district twice, the first time by six points, the second time by 24 point. Then i served the u. S. Senate for ten years, every election i brought the state together. I have the highest vote total of 72 . Thats higher than anyone who has ever run, president obama, secretary clinton, any person who has run statewide in its history and i get bills pass, dont ask dont tell, and the 9 11 health bell, money for First Responders who are dying of cancer. And the house, senate, and president , i passed 18 bills into law, things that would help michigan, money for rural broad band, money for Small Businesses, money for maid in america. You did win this relatively conservative district, in fact it was a quite conservative district and you had positions that were more conservative. An a rating for the nra, the specter of illegal aliens wharks do you say to someone what do you say to someone who says you were pandering, and you became liberal and now a democratic primary, and basically following was most convenient plitly. I ran on 2005, medicare for all because i traveled around my district and asked people what they needed. They were so worried about health care, they couldnt afford it. I also ran on getting out of iraq, and when i started running on that issue, very few supported it, which is why i think i will be the best candidate. On guns, i should have done more. I regret, actually, not caring about other communities. My community didnt have the gun violence that other parts of the state had, and in fact, the Biggest Issue for upstate new york was hunting rights. My mother didnt just cook the thanksgiving turkey, she shot the thanksgiving turkey, so i came from a different lens, but what i regret is i should have cared more about ending gun violence in other places and so the first thing i did when i became a senator was met with families who lost their loved ones to gun violence. When you meet a mother or father who has lost a child to gun violence, there is no way you will ever not answer them directly and say i will do something to End Gun Violence, and thats what i did. Thats the change, when you talk about your change on this what youre saying is you were convinced through talking to these individuals that you had the wrong position, and you changed your mind. More than convinced, that i should have been better, i was humbled and regretted that i didnt think beyond the needs or the priorities of the people i represented because the truth is, we all have a responsibility to End Gun Violence in this country. We all have to take on the corruption and greed that the nra represents. The gun manufacturers want to sell weapons to everyone. It doesnt matter if youre a teenager in a walmart or someone on the terror watch list or someone who has grave Mental Illness with a violent background or someone with a violent criminal record, the reason why they oppose universal background checks is they want to sell those weapons to all of those people. Were having a debate about whats capitalism, and socialism, there is a difference between capitalism and greed and the line is when a gun manufacturer says i want to sell this weapon to anyone at any cost and not care that it results in children dying on a park bench in brooklyn. It is unacceptable and it is why all of us are required to stand up to the gun manufacturers, the corruption and greed that runs washington, and hold them accountable. You support publicly funded elections. What effect do your donors have on you . You have been criticized for raising money from wall street, youre a new york senator and new york senators from whichever party get money from wall street. What does someone purchase when they max out to Kiersten Gillibrand. When somebody gives you money for your campaign, its because they believe in you. My values have never been for sale. If thats the case, why is it so important to get publicly funded elections, no input to output correlation. The reason why we need publicly funded elections which is why i am number one not taking corporate pac money, not taking federal lobbyist money, not having individual super pac, the reason i have made those commitments is because its a first step. The reason to get money out of politics is the way washington has worked, and this is what i have learned in ten years is the powerful have Unlimited Power and the money is the name of the game. When the nra doesnt want gun reform, they funnel money into campaigns of candidates across this country to make sure they dont vote for common sense gun reform. If you believe health care is a right and not a privilege, well you have to be willing to take on the Insurance Companies because they will funnel money into washington with the most sophisticated lobbyists in the world to make sure we dont have medicare for all, to make sure they arent cut out of the system because you know what the Insurance Companies do, its a middle man, they take money out of the system and doesnt actually provide you value. So thats why we have to fight against that. When youre suffering from the opioid crisis, like they are in my state, and your state, states all across the country, what we have to do is take on the drug manufacturers who purposefully made these drugs stronger, more addictive, and now that we have the documents, we know because they wanted record sales. Should there be accountability for these corporations . Absolutely. Is that something you would pursue through the department of justice if you were president of the United States. Lets take the opioid crisis. They should be prosecuted. What we know from internal investigations. Who should be prosecuted . I think the what we know from the evidence thats been gleaned from the what the Sackler Family did, and looked at drugs is a way to make billions of dollars and make the dosage higher to make them more addictive, dampened down any investigation, transparency and accountability, that is what we have to take on. If youre not willing to do the hard work, which i am, to take money out of politics to have publicly funded elections, to ensure voting rights, we as people, as americans, everyone in the town hall, this is what democracy looks like. You looking me in the eye, if youre going to be my president , this is what i expect from you, by getting money out of politics and changing who has the power in this country, it shouldnt be the elite of the elite, the most wealthy and the most powerful companies in america that can fund lobbyists, fund campaigns, its all related and thats why im running for president. Its not just about President Trump, its about taking on this corruption and greed that defines everything. Stick around. Dont go anywhere at home. Well be right back with this town hall with Kiersten Gillibrand here in michigan. Why are all these Business Owners so excited . Were going to comcast. Its ahead of the game, ahead of the curve. Its going to add to the productivity of our business. Its switch and save days at comcast business. Right now, get fast, reliable internet for 49. 95 a month and save 600 a year. Just one more way we take your business beyond. But hurry, switch and save days ends april 7th. Internet thats reliable. Internet thats fast. Thats super important. I just want to get it right now. Call today. Comcast business. Beyond fast. My name is eddie osmond, and im the owner of the american fuel stop gas station. Right across the street there was a manufacturing plant right across the street. Thats correct. Used to be ford motor company, lincoln town car. That was one of the most powerful and busy plant in the United States, and this company here used to have 7 to 8,000 people, people who worked over there for 20 years, and suddenly they have no idea where theyre going to end up. In this community, its about jobs . Its about jobs 100 . You ask what do i need from my next candidate, what did i tell you, jobs. Obviously jobs and the economy rank very high on the list of concerns of democratic primary voters. That was eddie osmond, a Small Business owner and immigrant from lebanon in michigan. We have some other michiganers, rebecca, a mom to a oneyearold, aj, a vp of the local w 600. A Third Generation auto worker, and sonia patel, a member of the Democratic Club and has a daughter headed off to college. Eddie, what do you want to hear from a president ial candidate about the economy . Jobs, whats going to happen to our jobs. Do i have to worry about it. Do i have to worry about my kids. Theyre 15, 16 years old. Theyre going to go to college. Theyre going to find jobs after their finish college . After we going to be able to afford college . Is the United States going to be the number one economic power in the world or like they say china is going to take over us. Are all the jobs going to be shifted overseas, are we going to stay in the United States, are we going to be able to get a decent pay. Not like the minimum wage, live day by day, something is going to be like all days, something where america is great, and still something is going to make us afford to take vacations, afford to have homes, luxuries . What is your vision for what a middle class economy looks like . So i think the most important thing that we have to do, which, you know, frankly, the country hasnt focussed enough on is rewarding work again, actually rewarding peoples work, and what that means to me is four things, the first is let workers organize, collectively bargain, and form unions. Its so important when you have a Union Representation because then you can workers can have a voice to make sure they have fair pay, good pay, and good benefits. We have to raise the minimum wage to a living wage, 15, get rid of the tipped wage and index that to inflation. Living wage is one. The second idea is we have to make sure that a full employment is actually a national priority. And what that means to me is to make sure that we can train workers. Anyone who is underemployed or unemployed, will get access to job training that is created in our Community Colleges, state schools, apprenticeship programs, not for profits, with employers directly so you have a pipeline to jobs, and fully fund that. The third thing i would do which helps our moms and dads is we have to change the infrastructure of work. What that means is a National Paid leave plan. We are the only industrialized country in the world that doesnt have it. We need to actually understand that all workers need that, whether its a parent whos dying and sick, whether its a loved one whos ill, whether its a new baby. Affordable day care, universal prek and making sure equal pay for equal work. And then thats the infrastructure of work to me. And last, we need to reward good corporate behavior and punish bad behavior, so you need carrots and sticks. Carrots are things like a bill that i just passed in the last congress, again with the republican house, senate and president , signed into law, which was a made in america bill to help more manufacturers get access to more government funding, to help them grow manufacturing jobs, and then if a company ships jobs overseas, im introducing a new bill this congress that they will be punished that we can actually take back any Tax Deductions or tax benefits they had, and take away any tax breaks because they cannot be rewarded. If i am president of the United States, i promise i will work on rewarding work in all of these ways but i will also make sure no company outsources our jobs without paying a penalty. Let me follow up on that. Aj is sitting there, works at aw. I have watched in my career following politicians around, i have heard them talk about were not going to let corporations outsource jobs. Every politician i have ever seen. It gets applause, and guess whats happened, lots of outsourcing, donald trump was the best at running this particular con. Too right, chris. I guess my question to you, aj, as someone who watched this happen in terms of your membership, like what concretely tangibly, what are you looking for when people talk about making sure that jobs stay here in a place like michigan. Its an honor, senator, and we have seen in the Auto Industry over 30 years the most dominant current example is General Motors shipping five plants overseas. Yeah. They received 50 billion in a bailout. You have been very good in your voting record on supporting auto workers. They received over 500 million tax credit from trump and his Corporate Tax cut. Now, our workers that have been in auto factories work harder than anybody else in the world and we know that these jobs are being sent away to exploit workers. They have no healthy and safety regulations in china and mexico. They have no rights to real unions. They have rights to fake unions run by companies. As the president of the United States, the 50, 60yearold auto worker whos seen his job leave is tired of hearing youre going to have to learn a new skillset. They dont want to hear you need to learn to code. They dont want burial insurance, they want their jobs, they want their right to work in dignified, good paying jobs, and theyre also concerned about those good paying jobs being here for their children and grandchildren. So were looking in the auto work force for a real solution for these problems that have developed over 30 years. I think theres a couple of things we need to do. As i said, making sure our unions are strong, fighting against right to work states is going to be a priority because its just pushing down wages and making sure people dont have collective bargaining rights, which i think is an outrage. In terms of the Auto Industry, particularly, i think theres ways we can incentivize keeping jobs here through the Green New Deal. One of the things that that bill is about, which well talk about later, i think, is about energy efficiency, so when you have a manufacturer whos making cars, theres a whole industry ahead of us about Energy Efficient cars, about battery propelled cars, about less carbon emission cars. We are the greatest inventors in the world. People who work in your industry have been inventing and building cars for decades, for generations. So why not unleash the innovation, the entrepreneurialism of your industry to create the cars of tomorrow, and if you create a tax incentive so its so much cheaper to do that car manufacturing here in america because you are solving the problem, that is a winwin for everyone. And so the reason why i believe the Green New Deal is such a Market Opportunity is because its a strategy to keep jobs here, to create innovation, and i also believe we should put a price on carbon. The reason why this is so relevant to you, when you have manufacturers that send jobs overseas, theyre producing typical, Traditional Cars that are polluting the environment, why not reward the innovators in the United States with much lower taxes and tax requirements to incentivize capital flows to keep those jobs here. Can i follow up on that. Yes, please. I think you make outstanding points and i love your vision. The thing im interested also to know is you talk about making it incentivized for the companies to stay here. Were looking for Real Solutions to make corporations want to stay here. Thats going to include more regulation. Its going to include more laws. Is there specifically things when you win presidency, that you want to enact right away . Well, the tax benefits to make it cheaper, to put a manufacturing plant in michigan today to manufacturing cars. Money flows when tax rates are lower. Thats just how the economy works. The other thing i would do is take on china in a very different way than trump does. So trump has started a trade war. When you start a trade war, youre not Holding China accountable. In fact, youre just raising prices. Steel, a fundamental input for manufacturing, because we have a trade war in china on steel, it has raising the cost of producing in america because of his trade war. How do people feel, positive or negative about the tariffs, negative, put your hand in the air negative. The trade wars are a disaster. You have to hold china accountable. They would dump steel on the market, and undermine or manufacturing and competitiveness, and we didnt hold them accountable enough. Theres a difference between holding a Company Accountable and a trade war. I want to turn to rebecca for time purposes and talking about sort of the situation youre in. The situation near and dear to my heart as i have a 1yearold at home. I had a baby last year whos 11 months old and im fortunate to work for a company that has a generous paid leave program, which was fantastic, but being off whats your sons name. His name is theodore. Do you call him theo . That is my oldest son name, and did you know theodore means gift of god. Hes certainly a gift from god. Thats the best thing about that name. I love that. Very cool. Tell me more about theo. I realized how difficult it is to be a new mom, how crazy i felt. I had the time off, and i dont understand how women do it without that flexibility. How did you have the time off . My Company Provides four months of paid leave. Youre one of the lucky ones. Yes. She is. There was a room wide gasp over what is the bear minimum of oacd paid family leave in rest of the industrialized world. Less than 15 of American Workers have access to paid lever, and we are the only industrialized country in the world that doesnt have paid leave as a national priority. So whats your question. How are you planning to enact that, what is your vision for that, how are you going to get people to sign on to that . It seems like an obvious thing to me. The American People want paid leave, and we have a president who i agree with on basically nothing talking about the need for paid leave. We have republican candidates talk about paid leave and many Democratic Candidates so the country is in agreement, we need National Paid leave. The best way to provide National Paid leave is to make it an earned benefit so that you buy in over your lifetime whether youre working fulltime, parttime, big business, Small Business so that its yours. Its the way for a small state like when i was talking about this idea years ago, a place like north dakota, they needed paid leave because their state wasnt big enough to pass it on their own. New york and california have passed paid leave but not smaller states because they dont have enough people. And so if you bought in. 2 of your income, its 2 a week. Would you pay 2 a week to get access to paid leave. Sure. Of course i would. This works like social insurance. Its the cost of a cup of coffee a week. If i go to every employer in america and say would you buy every employee of yours one cup of coffee a week so he or she can have paid leave when their families needs it. Small business that is dont have the resources and ability to offer it, yes, i can offer it. Theres no overhead, just like social security. Can i clarify something. Okay, so both me and my employer would be paying into this fund. Yes, 2 a week. So its not a lot of money. Employment, its a hundred dollars a year. Thats not a great deal of money and one that if you create this fund, chris, when your employer says, gosh, shes going to be out for three months, i have to hire a quick replacement worker or temp. They can use your old salary to begin to fund that temp because now youre going to get your payments straight out of your fund that you bought in. Its yours. You get to take it with you everywhere you go. Sonia, you have a daughter whos in college right now. Shes in high school. I have a son in college. And youre thinking about what their career or Job Opportunities are going to look like. Right. I have so many fears for them that i didnt have before. Theyre children of immigrants, now i worry about my daughter. I worry about, you know, if shes ever assaulted no ones going to believe her. I worry about the opportunities presented for her. I worry that shes going to out work anyone, but i dont know if shes going to be paid for that work. I feel as mom in this day and age, everything is different. So many issues. Well talk about education first, and one of the problems with President Trump is betsy devos. I voted against betsy devos. I voted against most of President Trumps nominees for his cabinet because they were either unqualified or they did not have the experience necessary. I have the best voting recording against anyone else for budgeting, and the reason why im so disturbed about betsy devos is actually what you said, she doesnt want to enforce title 9 requirements, she doesnt want to protect survivors of Sexual Violence on a college campus. I have been working on a bipartisan basis about how you get things done with an array of senators from all different backgrounds, including marco rubio on this issue of how do we end, how do we end Sexual Violence and assault on a college campus. We need transparency and accountability. We have to have a nationwide survey, so every kid in america can fill out a form, do you feel safe, have you been assaulted, if you have, did you report, if not, why not . That would create transparency, and accountability overnight. You need memorandums of accountability to work with Law Enforcement. If someone is a survivor, they wont be laughed out of the Police Station which happens all the time, and you need to make sure that you hold them accountable and anyone who deals in the cases is fully trained. Thats issue one, and youre also worried about affordability. Student debt is one of the biggest crises we have in this country today. I believe that the federal government should not be making money off the backs of our students and that is exactly what is happening today. So one of the quickest ways to get rid of student debt is refinance all federal student debt at the lowest rate for debt thats available. So your house mortgage, your business loan, today thats about 4 . If you refinanced all federal debt at 4 automatically, you would put 15 billion right back into the economy. I also think we should make college more affordable to more kids. Imagine telling every american kid f you do Public Service for a year, you get two years free of Community College or state school. Imagine if you told them if you do two years of Public Service, you get four years free. That would create a pipeline of kids doing service for someone else, and i promise you, when you spend any time putting others before yourself, any time, whether youre in health care, education, or as a First Responder or as someone in the military, its an expansion of the gi bill. And it works. The gi bill is one of the greatest economic engines in our history. Thats my big idea for how more kids can get education thats much more affordable. I like it. Weve got some more questions from folks here. I want to thank eddie, and rebecca, aj and sonia. Thank you so much. Well be back with more michiganers with questions for senator kirsten gillibrand. Dont go anywhere. These folks, they dont have time to go to the post office they have businesses to grow customers to care for lives to get home to they use stamps. Com print discounted postage for any letter any package any time right from your computer all the Amazing Services of the post office only cheaper get our special tv offer a 4week trial plus postage and a digital scale go to stamps. Com tv and never go to the post office again int easy. 12 hours . 20 dogs . Wheres your belly rubs . After a day of chasing dogs you shouldnt have to chase down payments. vo send invoices and accept payments to get paid twice as fast. danny its time to get yours vo quickbooks. Backing you. When i was out knocking doortodoor, for various candidates, i was talking to a lot of people in the area. A lot of people were also interested in health care, and were concerned about health care. My name is theresa brooks. I am a wife, a mother, and a physician. I never considered myself to be a political person, and that really changed in 2007, 2008, with the candidacy of barack obama. And i was just very inspired by him. But then i stopped paying attention, and i got complacent. When it comes to health care, what are you hearing from voters . Obviously im a physician so im in the industry, and so it is something that i see every day, day in and day out, and theres a lot of concerns that people have, especially with their insurance, their health insurance, people really want a Health Care System that can work for them. I think its important for everyone to have access to Affordable Health care. That was michigan physician theresa brooks whos here to ask a question of senator kirsten gillibrand, joining her rick joseph, the 2016 Michigan Teacher of the year. We have David Sanchez whos an immigrant rights organizers with michigan united and naya, director of flint rising. You had a question on health care for the senator . Yes, so i am a physician, and as a physician, and a health care provider, we are on the front lines and so i have seen many concerning things in health care recently, especially. I have a patient who he works, he has a job, but he can not afford the premiums that are rising. He can not afford the 900 a month premiums. He also makes too much money to qualify for the aca, and for medicaid. And hes too young to qualify for medicare. So he is literally praying every day that he doesnt develop some catastrophic illness until hes able to qualify for medicare. I have a patient just last week who told me he couldnt afford his insulin, and he was asking me what can he do, and insulin, you cant live without insulin if your an insulin dependent diabetic. Thats a life saving medication, and i have a lot of patients that are of mature population, and they live on a fixed income, and they cannot afford rising premiums and copays and Health Care Costs that are happening. So, you know, i know that you support medicare for all. How would that work . How would you implement that . How would you get it done . Yeah. So i believe as i think most americans do that health care should be a right and not a privilege. And that means you have to fight for universal coverage thats affordable and quality for everybody. I think the quickest way you get there is you allow anyone to buy into medicare at a price they can afford. Something like 4 or 5 of income. They buy in so its an earned benefit and they are qualified automatically for medicare. What that does as a minimum is create competition in the system immediately. Those insurers, i dont think they are going to compete. They refuse to lower their rates. They are pricing people out of the market today but for the Affordable Care act, they were dropping people with preexisting conditions, and under President Trump, theyre going to keep dropping people with preexisting conditions, so the truth is, lets have a not for profit public option compete for the business, youre going to transition into single payer. Youre not saying start with single payer, introduce a buy in option and its possible the private insurance continues to exist under that. I dare them because i dont think they will meet the needs because they are for profit companies. When your goal is to make money for your shareholders, you are not giving the patient the medicine they need or the treatment they need or the extra day in the hospital they need because it doesnt allow you to make enough money, so i dont think they will compete. So create this not for profit public option as a transition. I imagine within a few years, most of americans are going to choose medicare because its quality, its more affordable. I mean, in your own mind, just think, 4 or 5 of income on what you make today, is that cheaper or not . Its going to be cheaper. If you make a hundred thousand dollars, its 4,000 a year. Most americans earn less than that. That would be what i would do because medicare works. Rick, you had a question for the senator . I started my career in chicago as a bilingual, esl teacher, spanish is my second language. Im aware of the role teachers play as leaders and i was and el paso texas, and the crisis on the border has been manufactured by this administration. And i was there through an Organization Called teachers against child detention and my colleague amy hewitt, one of her students wrote this poem, i want to read it to you. Shes from el salvador. There was nowhere else to go but here, no school, too danger, no friends, too danger, no life, too danger, the painted ones too much danger, they rape, rape, they rape, they kill. Girls have no chance. There was nowhere else to go but here. So the refugees that come to the border come because of the dire situation. Im wondering what you would do as president to address these issues related to immigration, and how can we uphold our immigration policies so we enshine Asylum Seekers and on a greater level, how can we address equity issues at the federal level for education policies so we make sure we are supporting equitable Funding Initiatives across our country. So immigration first to me, education second, i believe that immigration has always been a strength of this country. Our country was largely founded by immigrants and largely built by immigrants. Our diversity has always been our strength. Its what creates entrepreneurism and innovation across america for our entire history and in our best moments, we have not been afraid of immigrants. In our worst moments we have. We have a statue of liberty with the beacon of hope, send us your tired and hungry, your huddled masses. She stands for something. This country, in its best moments welcomed immigrants and this is not what we are seeing from the president today. What he has done on the border is inhumane and intolerable, separating children from parents, mothers from babies, and locking up people in facilities that are run by for profit prison companies. Its an outrage. I would get rid of all of that. That should not be under i. C. E. It should not be under homeland security. Immigration is not a security issue. It is an economic and a humanitarian, and a family issue. [ applause ] there is no such thing as an illegal human. I believe we have to fundamentally transform how we treat people seeking asylum and refuge and in my state, and i know in your state, you have immigrant populations across the state. Refugee populations that make your economy stronger, that make your city and states stronger, that make this country stronger. We should not be afraid of refugees and Asylum Seekers and mothers and babies seeking our help. I want to see if david has a follow up question about immigration. Go ahead. Senator, thank you. Yeah, im from one of those immigrant communities you talk about, Southwest Detroit, born and raised in detroit, my grandfather came to Southwest Detroit in the 50s. Just to make a better life for himself, and his family and me his grandson, which is working out, so really appreciate him for that. Theres still families that are making life for themselves, creating that beautiful culture, a diverse culture that youre talking about but theres also, michigan being off the border, Border Patrol and i. C. E. , that is devastating families, a lot of earlier immigrants, decades and centuries ago didnt have to go through a huge militarized police force to begin start their lives here. I know grandmothers that have been detained in detention, low hanging fruit who check in with i. C. E. All the time. I know grandmothers that have tethers on their ankles unfortunately. My question to you, for one, as immigrant rights organizer, i found a great policy that i tried to get senators to support, the data act, which you sponsored and what that does is put oversight on i. C. E. And Border Patrol, and collects data of who they are doing traffic stops for, and thats how we can see if its racial bias, and everything like that. Correct. And im wondering how you would get democrats, republicans together right now, it seems like were so far to the right, a lot of conservative people have taken this country steps backwards, and im wondering how you can bring us back to do things that just make sense to hold up our freedoms and values that we hold so dear . I think you have to talk about the common ground. Because the truth is everyone knows that diversity is a strength, no matter where you go in this country because you have seen it. Remind us about immigration, and the stories show the strongest and best moments are when we welcomed immigrants and our lowest and darkest moments are when we did not, and remind people how important immigration is but the bill that you mentioned is something that i authored because we have a canadian border, too, and everyone here in michigan knows we do enormously great things with canada. We have economics, we have businesses, cross border transactions, kids going on field trips, this is why our border matters and the way people are treated at the border really matters. Thats why i authored the legislation to say we need transparency and accountability, how many times theyre stopping someone, are they stopping them because they dont like the color of their skin or are they stopping them because they have a concern. Thats the data we dont have, and we have to get rid of institutional racism. And we have institutional racism in so many parts of our communities. We see it the in criminal Justice System and in every day issues like health care, education and jobs, and this is one area where transparency and accountability can help us. Do you have a question . Yes, today is the 1788th day since Flint Residents have had clean Drinking Water, and actually next month will be the fifth Year Anniversary since the switch, and over the course of those five years, we have residents who are facing multiple Adverse Health issues around Drinking Water and being exposed to read, bacteria, and other contaminants and one of the issues at the federal level is, one, there is no money or investment to invest in our infrastructure. Were constantly having contaminants being reintroduced into our water system, and the other thing is we do not have any health based standards at the federal level. And how can you, one, ensure that there is longterm recovery for Flint Residents but because not only do we have Drinking Water crises, not only within the state of michigan but in other populations around the country, but were also facing a burgeoning water affordability crisis because water is becoming more and more unaffordable for poor income residents across the country. So i believe that clean air and clean water is a human right, and i believe that every american should have access to it no matter what. [ applause ] i have been serving on a committee thats in charge of clean water for ten years. I have made clean water one of my absolute areas of focus and priority. I have a bill that were hoping to introduce in this Congress Called the pipe sack to do exactly that, to give communities like flint, michigan, money to actually afford water because i know youre running out of access to bottled water and people cant afford it. You should have a right to clean water. The second thing we should do is for other areas of degradation. I know you have pfas in your state, a chemical used in Fire Fighting foam. Its also used in manufacturing. You have legacy pollution throughout your state because of your history of manufacturing. Polluters should be paying. They should also be paying for medical monitoring is this is what plint residents need. You should have access as a matter of right to full medical monitoring because whatever the toxins that your children, that your families have drank during that entire time when you were exposed to toxins and chemicals and lead, that are harming krr children and yourselves you should have a right to doctors that have expertise and can monitor you over your lifetime and make sure you get the medical you need. Thats what we put in place with the 9 11 rules, the epa told them it was safe under george w. Bush. Epa is trying to roll back every type of requirement to have clean air and water. President trump is letting polluters pollute, and rolling back any protections and as president of the United States, i would make clean air and clean water a national priority, and no one in flint, michigan, would not have access to clean water and wouldnt have access to basic medical support and medical care. Thank you all for your questions. Were going to be right back here in auburn hills, michigan, with more with senator kirsten gillibrand. Stick around. Termites. Were on the move. Hey rick, all good . Oh yeah, were good. Were good. Terminix. Defenders of home. We are back here in auburn hills, michigan, and i want to ask you a question. This is a question i get from a lot of viewers emailing me. It has to do with al franken. There are people who email me all the time who are angry at you, because they feel like you played some untoward role after allegations came out against al franken, and then about a staffer on your staff who complained about Sexual Harassment from someone else and quit in protest of the handling of that issue, which they felt was not handled people have emailed to say, what does the senator say about her own record . So i believe we as a society must value women. It is so important that we value women, which is why when a woman or a man comes forward with an allegation of Sexual Assault or harassment that you believe them and do a full, thorough investigation so that justice is possible. Ive been taking on this cause thinkout my senate career, whether it happens in military, and. I take it on on college campuses, bar tlejs across america who would rather shove it under the rug. I take it on in congress, passing with the help of many colleagues, including ted cruz, a new Sexual Harassment bill for how congress deals with Sexual Harassment. In terms of my own office, the woman who came forward, she is was believed, her allegations were taken seriously, fully investigated, thoroughly and immediately. Her allegations did not rise to Sexual Harassment, but we did find evidence of derogatory comments. The person she alleged these against was punished, and this employees was dearly valued. I told her she was loved by us, by our office, by me personally. I hugged her. She was deeply valued. In terms of senator franken, this is a very hard issue for so many democrats, because the truth is we miss him and people loved him. But he had eight credible allegations against him of Sexual Harassment for groping. Two of them, since his was a senator, and the eighth one that came out was a congressional staffer. I had a choice to make whether to stay silent or not, whether to say its not okay with me, and i decided to say that. Now, senator franken was entitled to whatever type of review or process he wanted. He could have stuck it out, stayed in the senate, gone through the investigation for as long as he wants. He could have sued all of the eight women who came out against him. Those were his choices, but i had to make my choice. I am a mother of boys. The conversations i was having at home at the time were very upsetting. Theo said, why are you so tough on al franken. As a mother, i had to be clear. Its not okay for anyone to grope a woman without her consent. Its not okay to forcibly kiss a woman without her consent. It was not okay for senator franking. Its not okay for you, theo, ever. I needed clarity. If there are few democratic powerful donors who are angry because i stood up for women who came forward with allegations of Sexual Harassment, thats on them. Tell me your name and your question. My name is nada, im with were a nonprofit focused on engaged political engaging the muslim mine minorities. Im a palestinianamerican. My mom was born and raised in a refugee camp in syria. She just received her citizenship three days before trumps inauguration. With the muslim ban happening, my mom feared traveling, because she does not speak english. She was afraid of harassment getting her dual citizenship. This is her fear with having citizenship. Most of the community does not have citizenship. They have daily fears day to day with being deported, and with last weeks incident we have another added layer with new zeilened. Our place of solitude has not been compromised. My mom spends most of her time there. My Community Members and our president is not defending us. He does not see White Nationalism as a threat. What will you do about White Nationalism and will you repeal the executive order that are the muslim ban. I will stand up gets White Nationalism and repeal the muslim ban as soon as i am president of the United States. But to answer your broader question, toance your broader question, one of the reasons why im running for president is because what donald trump has done to this country. Hes made her family afraid to worship. He has spread fear and hate and degradation across this country. He has spewed hate, racism, antisemitism and inspired more. Donald trump did not create hate and racism and antisemitism. What he has done is poured fuel on a fire that is raging more than i have ever seen it in a lifetime. Hate crimes have gone up exponentially across the country because of the what President Trump has unleashed. I have the courage to stand up against him. I have the courage to fight what needs to be done. Its not just about him. Its about the corruption and greed that destroys everything in washington. It makes it impossible to do the right thing. To make it impossible to Pass Health Care as a right, not a privilege. To make it impossible to take on the Drug Companies on the opioid crisis. So each one of es has a choice to say, will we defend this democracy . Will we as americans fight for what we believe in . Will we reject the hate her family has to go through every day . Will we say this is not who we are as americans . Will we take back that right to vote . Will you kick money out of politics . Will you fight with every fiber of your being . Because everything that you care about is at stake . And lets just talk about National Security for one minute. I know from Law Enforcement that this muslim ban, this hatred means that muslims are afraid to work with Law Enforcement, afraid to come forward to make sure our communities are safe, as they always have. I am a senator from new york state. We are still often the number one terror target in this country. I spend so much time and effort getting resources for our First Responders to make sure they have the money they need. Ive been on the Armed Services committee for ten year. I focus on how to defeat terrorism worldwide. I promise you, you do not defeat terrorism by being hateful. Let me tell you another thing. When i went to syria, and god bless your mother to survive thought refugee camps. I met with mothers who could well have been your mother. They looked me in the eye and say you are so afraid of sew sama bin laden. When you turned a bly eye toe people here, you are creating thousands every day. That is what donald trump is creating. Hes making us less safe. His hatred makes us less safe. His muslim ban makes us less safe. I will protect this country. I will make sure we are safe, but i will make sure we remember we are at our best when we love one another. When we believe in the golden rule and we care about the least among us. I want to thank everyone here at the Rochester Mills brew and tap room. All the audience here, and senator gillibrand. Please join me in thanking her. Thank you. We will be back tomorrow night at 8 00 p. M. Thank you at home for joining us. Donald trump proudly issues his first ve veto of his campaign promise. He doubles down on immigration