Transcripts For MSNBCW Democratic Candidates Debate 20190628

Hickenlooper. Bernie sanders, california congressman, eric swalwell. Author Marianne Williamson and former tech executive, andrew yang. From nbc news, decision 2020, the Democratic Candidates debate. Live from the Performing Arts Center in miami, florida. Good evening and welcome. Our spirited audience here tonight and across america tonight. We continue this spirited debate about the future of the country and how to tackle the most pressing problems and getting to the heart of the biggest issues in this primary. We will talk about health care and immigration and dive into the economy and Climate Change as well. Before we begin, it may sound familiar. 20 candidates qualified for the first debate. We heard from 10 last night and we will hear from 10 more tonight. The break down was selected at random. The candidates will have 60 secondings and 30 for followups. Not every person will weigh in on every topic, but we will hear from everyone. We love our audience, but keep your reaction to a minimum and we wont hold back with having our candidates stick to the time. We will start today with senator sanders. Good evening to you. You have called for big new government benefits Like University health care and free college. In a recent interview you suspected that americans would be delighted to pay more taxes for things like that. My question to you is, will taxes go up for the middle class in a Sanders Administration and if so, how do you sell that to voters . You are quite right. We have a new vision for america. At a time when we have three people in this country owning more wealth than the bottom half of america while 500,000 people are sleeping out on the streets today, we think it is time for change. Real change. By that, i mean that health care in my view is a human right. We have got to passe medicare for all single payer system. Under that system, by the way, the vast majority of the people in this country will be paying significantly less for health care than they are right now. I believe that education is the future for this country and we must make public colleges and universities tuitionfree and eliminate student debt and we do that by placing a tax on wall street. Every proposal that i have brought forth is fully paid for. I will give you 10 seconds to answer the very direct question. Will you raise taxes for the middle class in a Sanders Administration . People who have health care under medicare for all will have no premiums or deductibles and no copayments or out of pocket. They will pay more in taxes, but less in health care for what they get. Senator bennet, we will get to everybody. Senator biden, i promise everyone will get in here. Vice president biden. Senator sanders has been calling for a revolution. Recently in remarks to a group of wealthy donors as you spoke about the problem of income inequality, you said you shouldnt demonize the rich. Nobody has to be punished and no ones standard of living would change. What did you mean by that . Donald trump thinks wall street built america. Ordinary americans built americans. My dad said a job is about a lot more than a paycheck. Its about dignity and respect and looking your kid in the eye and saying everything will be okay. Too many people in the middle class have had the bottom fallout. I am saying we have to be straight forward. We have to make sure we understand that the return of dignity to the middle class, they need insurance that is cover and they can afford that. We have a situation where there is continuing education and they are able to pay for it and make sure they can breathe air that is clean and they have water they can drink. Look, donald trump put us in a horrible situation. We have enormous income inequality. We can make massive cuts in the 1. 6 trillion in tax loopholes and i would be going about eliminating Donald Trumps tax cuts for the wealthy. Vice president biden, thank you. [ applause ] senator harris, there is a lot of talk in this primary about new government benefits such as student loan cancellation, health care and more. Do democrats have a responsibility to explain how they will pay for every proposal they will make along those lines . Let me tell you something. Where was that question when the republicans and donald trump passed a tax bill that benefits the top 1 and the biggest wealth raisers in this country contributing a 1 trillion to the debt of america, which middle class families will pay for one way or another. Working families need support and need to be lifted up and frankly this economy is not working for working people. The rules have been written for the favorite of the people who have the most and not in favor of the people who work the most. Thats why i am propoedsing that we change the tax code. For every family making less than 100,000 a year, they collect up to 500 a month which will make all the difference for the families to get through the end of the month. I will repeal the tax code that benefits the top 1 and large corporations. You said democrats will booed if they embrace socialism. Only one candidate on this stage identifies as a democratic socialist. What are the policies that you think are veering towards socialism. I think the bottom line is if we dont define we are not socialists, the republicans will come every way they can and call us socialists and if you look at the Green New Deal which i admire the sense of urgency and how important it is to do Climate Change, im a scientist, but we cant promise every american a government job. I believe health care is a right and not a privilege, but you cant expect to eliminate private experience for 180 Million People, many of whom dont want to give it up. We brought businesses and nonprofits and we got nearly universal health care coverage. We were the first state in america to bring the oil and gas industry to aggressively address methane emissions and the first place to expand reproductive rights. We have done the big progressive things people said couldnt be done. I have done what pretty much everyone else up here is still talking about doing. Senator sanders, i will give you a chance to weigh in. What is your response to say nominating a socialist would reelect donald trump . I think the response that the polls had us 10 points ahead of donald trump because the American People understand that trump is a phony, that trump is a pathological liar and a racist and that he lied to the American People during his campaign. He said he was going to stand up for working families. Well, President Trump, you are not standing up for working families when you try to throw 32 Million People off their health care that they have and that 83 of your tax benefits go to the top 1 . Thats how we beat trump. We expose him for the fraud that he is. Senator, you have 30 seconds. I agree with both per perspectives. The debate is confusing. The truth is there is a big difference between capitalism on one hand and greed on the other. All the things we are trying to change is when Companies Care more about profits than they do about people. If you are talking about ending gun violence, its the greed of the nra and the gun manufacturers that make any progress impossible. Its the greed of the Insurance Companies and the Drug Companies when we want to try to get health care as a right and not a privilege. There need not be disagreement in the party. We want healthy capitalism and not corrupted capitalism. Senator bennet, you said its possible to write policies that have no basis in reality, you might as well call them candy. Were you referring to any candidate or proposal. Was that directed to me . That sounded like me. It was you. I appreciate it. First of all, i agree completely with bernie about the fundamental challenge we face as a country. 40 years of no Economic Growth for 90 of the American People and 160,000 families in the top. 1 have the same wealth as the bottom 90 and the worst income inequality. Where i disagree is the solution of medicare for all. I proposed universal health care and it is a right. Health care is a right. We need to get to universal health care and i believe the way to do that is by finishing the work we started with obamacare and creating a public option that every family and person in america can make a choice for their family about whether they want a public option which for them is like having medicare for all or keep their private insurance. I believe we will get there much more quickly if we do that. If i can finish, bernie mentioned that the taxes we would have to pay and because of those taxes, vermont rejected medicare for all. Senator, we are going talk about health care at length, but for the moment, my colleagues want to continue the questioning. I wrote a part in senator sand sanders bill that merges what the two said. If you have a buy in over a four or fiveyear period, you move us to single payer more quickly. Senator, we will get to this. Before we do, i want to say hello and good evening to mayor buttigieg. [speaking foreign language]. [speaking foreign language]. Many of your colleagues support free college. Why not . College affordability is personal for us. We have six figure student debt. Its logical that if you can refinance your house, you should be able to refinance your student debt. Cost could be a barrier. I just dont believe it makes sense to ask working class families to subsidize the children of billionaires. The children of the wealthiest americans can pay a little bit of tuition and while i want tuition costs to go down, i dont think we can buy down every last penny for them. Something else doesnt get talked about in the college affordability. Yes, it needs to be more affordable to go to college and needs to be more affordable to not go to college. You should be able to live well, afford rent, be generous to your church and Little League whether you went to college or not. Thats one reason we need to raise the minimum wage to at least 15 an hour. You cant count on people in government around when it was created. Its the 40 million of us who cant start a family and start a business and cant buy our first home. This is the generation that will be able to solve student loan debt. This generation is ready to lead. Your signature policy is to give every adult in the United States 1,000 a month, no questions asked. Thats right. Thats like 3. 2 trillion a year. How would you do that . Sorry . How would you do that . Its difficult if you have Companies Like amazon paying literally in taxes. We need to put the American People in a position to benefit from the parts of the economy. If we had a value added tax in half of the european level, it would generate new revenue which combined with the money, its the trickle up community. We would spend the money it would create millions of jobs and make our families stronger and healthier and save monoincarceration and homelessness, services and adjusted gains from having a stronger and healthier population that would increase gdp by 700 million. We have to make this as technology is automating away millions of jobs and enter donald trump is our president today. We automated jobs from michigan, ohio and pennsylvania and wisconsin. We are about to do the same thing to many other jobs through the economy. To understand better, you are saying 1,000 a month for everyone over 18 so a value added tax to spend that 1,000 on value added tax . The value added tax would end up you would still increase the buying power of the 94 of americans, but you would have 12,000 a year per vchltd with two or three adults, it would be 24 to 36,000 a year. What mr. Yang is talking about, Many Americans are worried about self driving cars and robots and Artificial Intelligence will cost jobs. What would you do to adapt to this new world . We must always be a country where Technology Creates more jobs than it displaces. I have seen the anxiety across america where the manufacturing floors go from 1,000 to 100 to 1. We have to modernize our schools and value the teacher who is prepare our kids and wipe the student debt from any community that needs it and invest in communities in places are the best exports to get skills. Jose, i was 6 years old when a president ial candidate came to the California Democratic convention and said its time to pass the torch to a new generation of americans. That candidate was then senator joe biden. Joe biden was right when he said it was time to pass the torch to a new generation of americans 32 years ago. Hes still right today. If we are going to solve the issues of automation, pass the torch. If we are going to solve climate chaos, pass the torch. If we are going to solve student loan debt, pass the torch. If we are going to solve school violence, class the torch. Would you like to sing a torch song . I would. Im Still Holding on to that torch. We have to make sure everybody is prepared better for an education. The fact is thats why i proposed us focusing on schools in distress. Thats why i think we should triple the amount of money we spent and have universal prek and every person who graduates from high school, 65 out of 100 need something beyond high school and we should provide for them to get that education. There should be Free Community college, cutting in half the cost of college. We should be in a position where no one has to pay back a student debt when they get out and making less than 25,000 a year. Debt is frozen and no interest until they get beyond that. We cant put people in a position where they are not able to move on. Folks, there is a lot we can do, but we have to make continuing education available for everyone so that everyone can compete in the 21st century. We are not doing that now. As the youngest guy on the stage, i ought to contribute. Im all for this. Before we move on before we move on from education. Please, please. Its generational. The issue is who has the guts to take on wall street, to take on the fossil fuel industry, to take on the big money interest who have unbelievable influence over the economic and political life of this country. Senator harris, im so sorry. We will allow all of to you speak. Senator harris. We will let you all speak. We cant afford to wait. America does not want to witness a food fight. They want to know how we are going to put food on their table. So on that point, part of the issue that is at play in America Today and we have all been traveling around the country, i certainly have. I meet people who are working two and three jobs. This president is talking about his great economy. My great economy. How are you measuring this greatness of this economy of yours and he talks about the stock market. Thats fine if you own stocks. So many families in america do not. You ask him how are you measuring the greatness of this economy and they point to the job numbers and unemployment numbers. People are working, they are working two and three jobs. Lets be clear. No one should have to work more than one job to have a roof over their head and food on their table. [ applause ] we have all expressed interest in health care. Lets talk about health care and this will be a show of hands question. We asked about Health Care Last Night and it spurred a lot of discussion, as you know. We will do it again now. Many people watching at home have Health Insurance through their employer. Who would abolish private Health Insurance in favor of a governmentrun plan . Senator gillibrand. Now its my turn. This is a very important issue. The plan that senator sanders and i support medicare for all is how you get to single player. It has a buy in period. In 2005 when i ran for congress in a 21 republican district, i actually ran on medicare for all and i won that 21 district twice. The way i formulated it was simple. Anyone who doesnt have access to insurance they like, they can buy in a percentage of income. Thats what they put into the transition for our medicare for all plan. I believe we need to get to universal health care as a right and not a privilege. The quickest way you get there is you create competition with the insurers. Got bless them if they want to compete, they can try, but they never put people over profits and i doubt they ever will. What will happen is People Choose medicare and you will transition and we will get to medicare for all and your step is so short, i would make it an earned benefit just like Social Security so that you buy in your whole live and its always there for you. Its permanent and universal. I want to put the same question to mayor buttigieg. Look, everybody who says medicare for all, every person in politic who is allows that phrase to escape their lips has a responsibility to explain how you are actually supposed to get from here to there. Heres how i would do it. Its very similar. I would call it medicare for all who want it. You take medicare or a flavor and make it available on the exchanges. People can buy in. If People Like Us are right that its more inclusive and efficient than the corporate answers, it will be a natural path to the single payer environment. Even in countries that have outright socialized medicine, even in england there is a private sector. For our primary care, we cant rely on the tender mercies. This is very personal for me. I started out this year dealing with a terminal illness of my father. I make decisions for a living and nothing could have prepared me for this. The thing we had going for us is we never made that decisions based on whether it would bankrupt our family because of medicare. I want every family to have the freedom to do what is medically right. Vice president biden. You were one of the ark tekts of obamacare. Where do we go from here . This is very personal to me. When my wife and daughter were killed in an Automobile Accident and boys were badly injured, i cant imagine what it would have been like to not have Adequate Health care immediately. My son was diagnosed with terminal cancer and given months to live. I cant fathom if they said by the way, the last six months of your life, youre on your own. You used up your time. The fact of the matter is we build on obamacare and what we did. Secondly, to make sure that everyone does have an option. Everyone whether they have private insurance or employer insurance or no insurance. They can buy in the exchange to a medicarelike plan. You can do it quickly. Urgency matters. There is people right now facing what i faced. What we faced without any of the help i had. We must move now. Im against any democrat who takes down obamacare and any republican who wants to get rid of it. [ applause ] senator sanders, you want to scrap the private Health Insurance system and replace it with a governmentrun plan. None of the states that tried Something Like that. California, vermont, and new york have been successful. If politicians cant make it work in those states, how would you implement it on a National Level . I find it hard to believe that every other major country on earth including my neighbor to the north, canada, they provide health care to every man, woman, and child and in most cases spending 50 per capita what we are spending. Let us be very clear. The function of health care today from the insurance and drug Company Perspective is not to provide quality care to all in a costeffective way. The function of the Health Care System today is to make billions in profits for the Insurance Companies and last year if you can believe it, while we pay the highest prices in the world for Prescription Drugs and i will lower Prescription Drug prices in half in this country. Top 10 Companies Made 69 billion in profit. They will spend hundreds of millions of dollars lying to the American People, telling us why we cannot have a medicare for all. How do you implement it on a National Level, given the fact its not succeeded in other states . I will tell you how. We will do it the way real change has always taken place. Whether its the labor or the civil rights or the womens movement. We will have medicare for all when tens of millions of people are prepared to stand up and tell the Insurance Companies and the Drug Companies that their day is gone. Health care is a human right, not something to make huge profits off of. This is a question for you. Im addressing the question to ms. Williamson. We have been talking about Health Insurance. The most pressing concern is the high cost of health care. How would you lower the cost of Prescription Drugs. First of all the government should never have made the deal with big farm that that they couldnt negotiate. National corporations have their way with us. While i agree and im with senator bennet and others, but i agree with almost everything here. Its nice that we have the plans, but if you think we are going beat donald trump by just having plans, you got another thing coming. He didnt win by having a plan. He won by saying make America Great again. Even if we are just talking about the superficial fixes, ladies and gentlemen, we dont have a Health Care System in the United States. We have a sickness care system in the United States. We just wait until somebody gets sick and talk about who is going to pay for the treatment and how they are going to be treated. We need to talk about why so Many Americans have unnecessary chronic illnesses compared to other countries. That gets back to not just the big pharma, not just health Insurance Companies, but chemical policies and Environmental Policies and it has to do with food policies and it has to do with drug policies. Environmental policies. Senator bennet, you want to keep the system we have in place now. You mentioned that a moment ago. Is that enough to get us to universal coverage. Thats the quickest way there. I thought the Vice President was moving and mayor pete as well. I had Prostate Cancer recently as you may know and why i was late getting in the race. My kid had an appendectomy and families ought to be able to have this choice. Thats what the American People want and i believe it will get us there quickly and millions of people in america that do not have Health Insurance because they cant. They make too much money to be on medicaid and they cant afford Health Insurance. When senator sanders said canada is single payer, there are 35 Million People in canada. 330 Million People in the United States, easily the number of people on a public option. It could easily be 35 million. It would be medicare for all as mayor buttigieg said. If they want to keep t they should be able to keep it. Bernie is a very honest person. He said over and over again unlike other who is supported the legislation that this will ban and make it illegal all insurance except cosmetic and except insurance for plastic surgery. Everything else is banned under the medicare for all. Obviously senator sanders, you get a response. Just briefly. You know, mike, medicare is the most popular Health Insurance program in the country. People dont like their private Insurance Companies. They like their doctors and hospitals. Under our plan, people go to any doctor and any hospital they want. We will substantially lower the cost of health care because we will stop the greed of the Insurance Companies. We have to think about how this affects real people. The reality of how this affects real people is captured in a story that many of us heard and will paraphrase. There is any night in america a parent who is seeing their child as a temp hurr is out of control and calls 911, what should i do. Take the child to the emergency room. They get in their car and they drive and are sitting in the parking lot outside of the emergency room looking at the sliding glass doors with the hand on the forehead of their child, knowing that if they walk through those sliding glass doors, even though they have insurance, they will be out of 5,000 deductible when they walk through those doors. Thats what Insurance Companies are doing in America Today. We are going continue this discussion. Candidates, please. I was just in the emergency room and im telling you we fight health Insurance Companies every week. We stand in line and pay expensive Prescription Drugs. We have to have a health care guarantee. If you are sick in america, you should never go broke because of it. A lot of you have been talking about the Government Health care plans that you proposed in one form or another. This is a show of hands question and hold them up so people can see. Raise your hand if your government plan would provide coverage for undocumented immigrants. Let me start with you, mayor buttigieg, why . Because our country is healthier when everybody is healthier. Remember, we are talking about something and people are given a chance to buy into. In the same way there are undocumented immigrants in my community who pay. They pay sales taxes and property taxes directly or indirectly. This is not about a handout. This is an insurance program. We do ourselves no favors by having 11 million undocumented people in our country be unable to Access Health care. The real problem is we shouldnt have 11 Million People with no pathway to citizenship. It makes no sense. The American People agree on what to do. This is the crazy thing. If leadership consists of forming a consensus around a divicive issue, this white house divided us around a consensus issue. The American People want a pathway to citizenship and protections for dreamers and clean up the system like how my father emigrated to this country and as part of a compromise, we can do all the common sense measures. Washington cant deliver on what the American People want. What does it tell you about the system . It needs profound structural reform. Your Health Care Plan would not cover undoumcumented immigrants. You did not raise your hand. No, i did. You said it would be covered under your plan which is different than obamacare. Can you explain that change. You cannot let people who are sick no matter where they come from and no matter what their status go uncovered. Its going to be taken care of. Its the humane thing to do. The deal is that hes right about three things. Number one, they contribute to the well being of the country and they also, for example, increased the lifespan of Social Security. They have a job they are paying in a Social Security tax. They increase the lifespan and do the same thing in terms of reducing the cost of health care by them being able to be treated and not wait until they are in extremis. We can deal with the Insurance Companies by number one, putting insurance executives in jail for misleading advertising and what they are doing on opioids and paying doctors to prescribe and making sure everyone on medicare that the government should be able to negotiate the price for whatever the drug costs are. We can do this by making sure we are in a position that we in fact allow people. Times up. Hold off. We need to take a short break and we have a lot more we need to talk to all of you about. We will be back with more from miami after this. We will be back with more from miami after this my experience with usaa has been excellent. They really appreciate the military family and it really shows. With all that usaa offers why go with anybody else . We know their rates are good, we know that theyre always going to take care of us. It was an instant savings and i should have changed a long time ago. It was funny because when we would call another insurance company, hey would say oh we cant beat usaa were the webber family. Were the tenneys were the hayles, and were usaa members for life. Get your usaa Auto Insurance quote today. Cancer is the ugliest disease mankind has ever faced. We got the idea that if we took two dimensional patient imaging and put it in holographic displays, we could dissect around the tumor so we can safely remove it. When we first started, we felt like this might just not be possible but verizon 5g ultra wideband will give us the ability to do this. Welcome back from miami. Jose will lead off the questioning in this round. Thank you very much. Senator harris, last month more than 130,000 migrants were apprehended at the southern border. Many of them are being detained, including small children in private Detention Centers in florida and throughout our country. Most of the candidates on this stage say the conditions of these facilities are abhorrent. On january 20th, 2021, if you are president , what specifically would you do with the thousands of people who try to reach the United States every day and want a better life through asylum. Immediate on january 20th of 2021, i will first of all cannot forget our daca recipients. I will start there. I will immediately by executive action reinstate daca status and protection to the young people. I will extend protection for deferral of deportation for their parents and for veterans who we have so many who are undocumented and served our country and fought for our democracy. I will also immediately put in place a meaningful process for reviewing the cases for asylum and release children from cages and i will get rid of the private Detention Centers and i will ensure that this microphone that the president of the United States holds in her hand is used in a way that is about reflecting the values of our country and not about locking children up, separating them from their parents and i have to just say that we have to think about this issue in terms of real people. A mother who pays a coyote to transport her child to their country of origin through the country of mexico, facing unknown pertoil come here, why would that mother do that . I will tell you. Because she has decided for that child to remain where they are is worse. What does donald trump do . He says go back to where you came from. That is not reflective of our america and our values and its got to end governor hickenlooper. [ applause ] day one, if you are at the white house, how do you respond . Let me get to you in a second. Im sorry. Governor . Day one. Thousands of men, women, and children cross the border asking for asylum for a better life. What do you do . Day one, hour one. The images we have seen this week just compound the emotional impact that the world is judging us by. If you had told me at any time this country would sanction federal agents to take children from the arms of their parents and put them in cages and actually put them up for adoption and in colorado we call that kidnapping. I would have told you it was unbelievable. The first thing we have to do is recognize the humanitarian crisis for what it is. Make sure that there are the sufficient facilities in place so that women and children are not separated from their families. The children are with their families. We have to make sure that ice is reform and they begin looking at their job in a humanitarian way where they address the needs of the people they are engaged with along the boarder and make sure that ultimately we provide not just shelter, but food, clothing and access to medical care. Ms. Williamson. What are donald trump has done to these children and its not just in colorado, but its kidnapping. Its important to realize that. If you forcibly take a child from their parents arms, you are kidnapping them. If awe take a lot of children and put them in a detainment center, thus inflicting trauma upon them, thats called collective child abuse. Both of those things are a crime. If your government does it, that doesnt make it less of a crime. These are stateresponseored crimes and what President Trump has done is not only attack these children and demonize these immigrants, but attacking a basic principal of americas moral core. We open our hearts to the stranger. This is extremely important. Its also important for all of us and i have Great Respect for everyone on this stage. Where have you been, guys. Its not a matter of a plan. I havent heard anyone who talked about the policy in latin america and how we might have in the last few decades. Senator gillibrand . What would you do as president with a reality . One of the worst things about President Trump that he has done to this country is has torn apart the moral fabric of who we are. When he started separating children from their parents, the fact that seven children have died in his custody and dozens of children have been separated from their parents and they have no plan to reunite them. I would do a few things. I would fight for comprehensive reform with a pathway to citizenship. I would reform how we treat Asylum Seekers at the border and have a communitybased Treatment Centers within the community where is Asylum Seekers are given lawyers and there is real Immigration Judges and not employees, but appointed for life and have a communitybased system. I would fund Border Security, butt worst thing he has done is diverted the funds away from cross border Human Trafficking and Drug Trafficking and gun trafficking. He has given that money to the for profit prisons. I would not be spending money in for profit prisons to lock up children and Asylum Seekers. We had a very spirited debate on the topic of decriminalization of the border. Raise your hand if you think it should be a civil offense rather than a crime to cross the border without documentation. Can we keep the hands up so we can see them . Thats not just a theoretical exercise, but the basis for family separation. You do away with that, its no longer possible. It wouldnt be possible in my presidency because it is dead wrong. The Republican Party likes to cloak itself in the language of religion. Now, our party doesnt talk about that as much largely for a good reason which is we are committed to the separation of church and state and stand for any religion and people of no religion. We should call out i hhypocrisy when we see it. For a party that associates tuesday with christianity to say its okay to suggest that god would smile on the division of families at the hands of federal agents, that god would condone putting children in cages has lost all claim to ever use religious language again. [ applause ] mr. Vice president , i dont know if you raise your hand or were just asking to speak, would you decriminalize crossing the border without documents . The first thing i would do is unite families that surge immediately. Billions of dollars worth of help to the region immediately. Look, i talk about Foreign Policy. Im the guy that got a bipartisan agreement at the end of the campaign and at the end of our term to spend 740 million to deal with the problem. That was to go to the root cause of why people are leaving in the first place. It was working. We saw, as you know, a net decrease in the number of children coming. The crisis was abated and along came this president and he immediately discontinued this. We all talk about these things. I did it. I did it. Now look, second thing. The law now requires the reuniting of those families. We would reunite those families, period. If not, we would put the children where they were safe until we could find their parents. The idea that he is in court with the Justice Department saying children in cages do not need a bed and do not need a blanket and a tooth brush, that is outrageous. The Obamabiden Administration deported more than three million americans. My question to you is if an individual is living in the United States without documents and that is his only offense, should that person be deported . Depending if they committed a major crime, they should be deported. President obama i think did a heck of a job. To compare him to what this guy is doing is i find close to immoral. The fact is that look, we should not be lock people up. We should change the change the circumstance of why they leave in the first place. We should have the capacity to absorb them and keep them safe until they are heard. Should someone who is here without documents and that is his only offense, should that person be deported . That person should not be the focus of deportation. Senator . On day one, we take out the executive order pen and rescind every damn thing that trump has done. Number two, picking up on the point, we have to look at the root causes and we have a failing state. Massive corruption. You got gangs who are telling families that have a 10yearold has not joined that gang, that family will be killed. What we have to do on day one is invite the president s and the leadership of Central America and mexico together, this is a hem its fearic problem. Congressman swalwell. What do you . Day one . No, if someone is here without documents and that is their only offense, is that person to be deported . No. That person can be a part of this Great American experience. That person can contribute. My district is one of the most diverse in america and we see the benefits when people become a part of the community and they are not in the shadows. Day one, families of reunited. This president for immigrants, there is nothing he will not do to separate a family, cage a child, or erase their existence by weaponizing the census. There is nothing that we cannot do in the courts and i will not do as president to reverse that and make sure that families always belong together. Senator harris . Well thank you. I will say absolutely not they should not be deported. This was one of the very few issues with which i disagreed with the administration, with whom i always had a great relationship and great deal of respect. On the security communities issue, i was attorney general of california and led the second Largest Department of justice, second only to the United States department of justice and state of 40 Million People. I disagreed with my president because the policy was to allow deportation of people who by isiss own definition were noncriminals. Under the chief law officer in the state of california, i issued a directive to the sheriffs of my state that they did not have to comply with detainers and should make decisions based on the best interest of Public Safety of their community. What i saw and i was tracking it every day, i was tracking it and saw that parents, people who had not committed a crime even by the definition were being deport and i have to add a point here. The problem with this kind of policy and i know it as a prosecutor. I want a rain victim to be able to run in the middle of the street and wave down a Police Officer and report the crime against her. I want anybody who has been the victim of any really crime to be able to do that and not be afraid that if they do that, they will be deported because the abuser will tell them they were the criminal. It is wrong. It is wrong. We are going to turn to the issue of trade if we can. We asked the candidates last night to name the greatest geopolitical threat. Four mentioned china. China steals our intellectual property and manipulate their currency tow keep the cost of goods artificially low. I will ask this to senator bennet. How would you stand up to china . First of all the biggest factor of National Security is russia, not china. Second, on china, we have competition because of what they have done with our election. In china, the president has been right to push back on china, but has done it in the wrong way. We should mobilize the rest of the world who all have a shared interest in pushing back on chinas trade policies and i think we can do that. I would like to answer the other question. When i see the kids at the border, i see my mom because she sees herself. She was separated from her parents for years during the holocaust in poland. For donald trump to be doing what hes doing to children and families at the border, to somebody who wrote the bill in 2013, they created a pathway to citizenship and had the most progressive dream act ever conceived, much less pass that had 46 billion of Border Security that was sophisticated 21st servery Border Security and not a medieval wall and the president turned the border of the United States into a symbol of nativist hostility that the world is looking at when what we should be representing is the statue of liberty that brought my parents to this country to begin with. We need to make a change. Mr. Yang, i will bring you in on the issue of china. You expressed concerns about technology and taking jobs. Are you worried about china and how would you stand up against it . I think russia is our biggest threat because they have been hacking our democracy and laughing their asses off about it for the last couple of years and we should worry about that before other threats. China is a massive problem, but the tariffs and the trade war are punishing businesses and producers and workers on both sides. I met with a farmer in iowa who spent six years buying up in china and that is disappeared and gone forever. The beneficiaries have not been american workers. It is Southeast Asia that stepped into the void. We need to crack down on chinese malfeasance. This is the wrong way to go. First of all, we have to recognize that the china challenge is a serious one. This is not something to dismiss or wave away. If you look at what china is doing, they are using technology for the perfection of dictatorship. Their fundamental model is not going to change. I live in the industrial midwest. Folks who are not in the shadow of a factory are somewhere near a soy field where i live. Manufacturers and especially soy farmers are hurting. Tariffs are taxes. Americans are going to pay on average 800 more a year because of the tariffs. China is investing so they could be able to run circles around us in Artificial Intelligence and this president is fixated on if all that mattered was the export balance on dishwashers. At a moment when their model is being held up as an alternative to ours because ours looks so chaotic compared to theirs because of internal divisions, we have to invest in our own domestic competitiveness. If we disinvest in our infrastructure and education, we will never be able to compete. If we want to be a democratic alternative, we have to care about Democratic Values at home. We are going to take a quick break. When we come back, the questioning continues with our colleague chuck todd and rachel mad ol. Much more with our candidates straight ahead. Much more with our candidates straight ahead [ giggling ] lets play dressup. [ doorbell ] [ slap ] your nails xfinity home. Cameras. Xfinity home. Disarm the system. Doors open. Morning. Welcome to the neighborhood. Do you like my work . Secure your home with x1 voice control. And rest easy knowing you have professional monitoring backing you up. Awarded top pick by cnet. Demo at an xfinity store, call or go online today. Xfinity home. Simple. Easy. Awesome. Welcome back to the democratic president ial debate in miami. As we continue the questioning, we want to bring in more members of our team. Lets turn it over to chuck todd and rachel maddow. Rachel, i had a dream that we had done this before. No, this is definitely the first time. Thank you, lester, savannah, and jose. Lets recap the rules. 20 candidates qualified and we heard from 10 last night and 10 more tonight. Candidates have 60 seconds to answer direct questions and 30 seconds for followups, if necessary. Because of the large field, not every person will be able to comment on everything, but the less audience reaction there is, the more time they get. We will hear from all of these candidates, but we are going begin this hour with mayor buttigieg. In the last five years, civil rights activists have led a debate over race and the criminal Justice System. Your community of south bend, indiana has been in uproar over an is now 6 black in a city that is 26 black. Was has that not improved over your two terms as mayor . Because i couldnt get it done. My community is in anguish right now because of an officerinvolved shooting. A black man, eric logan, killed by a white officer. Im not allowed to take sides until the investigation comes back. He the officer said he was attacked by a knife but he didnt have his body camera on. Its a mess, were hurting. I can walk you through all the things we have done as a community, all of the steps from bias training to deescalation, but it didnt save the life of eric logan. And when i look into his mothers eyes, i have to face the fact that nothing that i say will bring him back. This is an issue that is facing our community and so many communities around the country. And until we move policing out from the shadow of systemic racism, whatever this particular incident teaches us, we will be left with the bigger problem, the fact that there is a wall of mistrust put up one racist act at a time. Not just from whats happened in the past, but from whats happening around the country in the present. It threatens the wellbeing of every community and i am determined to bring about a day when a white person driving a vehicle and a black person driving a vehicle, when they see a Police Officer approaching feels the exact same thing the feeling not of fear, but of safety. I am determined to bring that day about. Thank you. Mayor buttigieg, if i can ask one question because i think governor, ill give you 30 seconds. I think the question theyre asking if south bend, i think its across the country is why has it taken so long . We had a shooting when i first became mayor ten years before ferguson and the Community Came together. We created an office of independent monitor, a civilian oversight commission. We diversified the police force in two years and we actually did deescalation training. I think the real question that america should be asking is why five years after ferguson every city doesnt have this level of Police Accountability. Governor hickenlooper, thank you. I got to the respond to that. Look, weve taken so many steps towards Police Accountability that the fop just denounced me for too much accountability. Were obviously not there yet. And i accept responsibility for that because im in charge. Then you should fire the chief. So under indiana law, this will be investigated and there will be accountability for the officer involved. Youre the mayor. You should fire the chief if thats the policy and someone died. All of these issues are extremely important. But they are specifics. There are symptoms. The underlying cause has to deal with deep realms of Racial Injustice both in our criminal Justice System and the Democratic Party should be on the side of reparations for slavery for this very reason. I do not believe that the average american is a racist. But the average american is woefully undereducated about the history of race in the United States. Thank you so much you very much. Vice president biden, we will get to you. Hang on. I would like to speak on the issue of race. Senior harris. And so what i will say if i can preface this, we will give you 30 seconds, and we will come back to you on this again in just a moment. Go for 30 seconds. Okay. On the issue of race, i couldnt agree more that this is an issue that is still not being talked about truthfully and honestly. There is not a black man i know be he a relative, a friend or a coworker who has not been the subject of some form of profiling or discrimination. Growing up, my sister and i had to deal with the neighbor who told our parents her kids couldnt play with us because we were black. I will say also that in this campaign, we have also heard and im going to now direct this at Vice President biden, i do not believe you are a racist. And i agree with you when you commit yourself to the importance of finding common ground, but i also believe and it is personal and it was actually very hurtful to hear you talk about the reputations of two United States senators who built their reputation and career on the segregation of race in this country and it was not only that but you also worked with them to oppose bus. And you know there was a little girl in california who was a part of the second class to integrate her Public Schools and she was bussed to school every day. And that little girl was me. So i will tell you that on this subject it cannot be an intellectual debate among democrats. We have to take it seriously. We have to act swiftly. As attorney general of california, i was very proud to put in place a requirement that all my special agents would wear body cameras and keep those cameras on. Senator harris, thank you. Vice president biden, you have been invoked. We are going to give you a chance to respond. Vice president biden. Its a mischaracterization of my position across the board. I did not praise racists. That is not true, number one. Number two, if we want to have this campaign litigated on who supports civil rights and whether i did or not, im happy to do that. I was a public defender. I didnt become a prosecutor. I came out and left a Good Law Firm to become a public defender when, in fact, when, in fact, when, in fact, my city was in flames because of the anas says of dr. King, number one. Now, number two, as excuse me, as the Vice President of the United States i worked with a man who, in fact, we worked very hard to see to it that we dealt with these issues in a major, major way. The fact is that in terms of busing. The busing, i never you would have been able to go to school the same exact way because it was a local decision made by your city council. Thats fine. Thats one of the things i argued for that we should not be we should be breaking down these lines. So the bottom line here is, look, everything i have done in my career, i ran because of civil rights. I continue to think we have to make fundamental changes in civil rights and those civil rights, by the way, include not just only africanamericans but the lbgtq communities. But, Vice President biden, do you agree today, do you agree today that you were wrong to oppose bussing in america then . Do you agree . I did not oppose busing in america. What i opposed is busing ordered by the department of education. Thats what i opposed. There was a failure of states to integrate Public Schools in america, i was a part of the second class to integrate berkeley, california, Public Schools almost two decades after brown v. Board of education. Because your city council made that decision. It was a local decision. Thats why the federal government must step in. Thats why we have the federal rights act. Thats why we need to have equality. There are moments in history where states fail to preserve the civil rights of all people. I have supported the era from the very beginning when i ran 30 seconds. I supported the e. R. A. From the very beginning. Im the one that extended the Voting Rights act for 25 years. We got to the place where we got 98 out of 98 votes in the United States senate doing it. I have also argued very strongly that we, in fact, deal with the notion of denying people access to the ballot box. I know my time is up. Im sorry. Thank you, Vice President. Senator sanders, im going go to you on this. You said on the day you launched your campaign that voters should vote on what people stand for, not a candidates race, age or sexual orient ache. Many democrats are very excited by the diversity of this field on this stage and on last nights stage and the perspective that diversity brings to this contest and to these issues. Are you telling democratic voters that diversity shouldnt matter when they make this decision . No, absolutely not. Unlike the Republican Party, we encourage diversity. We believe in diversity. Thats what america is about. But in addition to diversity in terms of having more women, more people from the lbgt community, we also have to do something else. And that is we have to ask ourselves a simple question in that how come today, the worker in the middle of our economy is making no more money than he or she made 45 years ago and that in the last 30 years the top 1 has seen a 21 trillion increase in their wealth . We need a party that is diverse. But we need a barth that has the buts to stand up to the powerful special interests who have so much power over the economic and political life of this country. Senator gillibrand, i want to give you 30 seconds on this. Well, first of all, where bernie left off, weve heard a lot of good ideas on this stage tonight and a lot of plans, but the truth is until you go to the root of the corruption, the money in politics, the fact that washington is run by the special interests, you are never going to solve any of these problems. I have the most comprehensive approach that experts agree is the most transformative plan to actually take on political corruption to get money out of politics through publicly funded elections. To have clean elections. If we do that and get money out of politics, we can guarantee health cares is a right, not a privilege. We can deal with institutional racism. We can take on inincome inequal and the corporate corruption that runs washington. It was introduced by me when i was a young senator. We want to shift topics here. Senator bennet, on the issue of partisan gridlock, president obama promised after his election the fever would break. Now senator biden is saying the same thing. Both party also want to Work Together. Should viters believe that if there is a democratic president in 2021, that gridlock is going to magically disappear . Gridlock will not magically disappear as long as Mitch Mcconnell is there. First. Second, second, second, thats why it is so important for us to win not just the presidency, to have somebody that can run in all 50 states. But to win the senate as well. And thats why we have to propose policies that can be supported like medicare act so that we can build a Broad Coalition of americans to overcome a broken washington, d. C. I agree with what senator gillibrand was saying. I share a lot of her views. We need to end gerrymandering in washington. We need to end political gerrymandering in washington. The court today said they couldnt do anything about it. We need to overturn Citizens United. The court was the one that gave us Citizens United and the attack on Voting Rights in shelby versus holder is something we need to deal with. All of those things has happened since Vice President biden was in the senate and we face structural problems that we have to overcome with a Broad Coalition. Its the only way we can do it. We need to root out the corruption in washington, expand peoples rights to get to the polls. I think then we can succeed. Vice president biden, 30 seconds. It does sound as if you havent seen whats been happening in the United States senate over the last 12 years. It didnt happen, why . I have seen what happened. Just since we were Vice President. We needed three votes to pass an 800 billion recovery act that kept us from going into the depression. I got three votes changed. We needed to be able to keep the government from shutting down and going bankrupt. I got Mitch Mcconnell to raise taxes 600 billion by raising the top rate. And as recently as after the president got elected i was able to put together a coalition act that billions of dollars go into cancer research. Bipartisan, but sometimes you cant do that, sometimes you have to go out and beat them. I went into 20 states, over 60 candidates and guess what, we beat them. We won back the senate. Thank you. Chuck, the problem with what the Vice President 30 seconds. Go ahead. Sometimes you do have to beat them. But the deal that he talked about with Mitch Mcconnell was a complete victory for the tea party. It extended the bush tax cuts permanently. The Democratic Party has been running against that for ten years. We have lost that economic argument because that deal extended almost all those bush tax cuts permanently and put in place the mindless cuts that we still are dealing with today that are called to sequester. That was a great deal for Mitch Mcconnell. It was a terrible deal for america. Thank you, senator bennet. 30 seconds. The reason why the trump tax cut had to be passed is because they had to pay back their donors. You heard it. They actually said those words. So the corruption in washington is real, and it is something that makes every one of the plans weve heard about over the last several months impossible. And i have the most comprehensive approach to do it with clean elections, publicly funded elections, so we restore the power of our democracy into the hands of the voters, not into the Koch Brothers. We were talking about issues. Imagine, were in florida, imagine the parkland kids having as much power in our democracy as the Koch Brothers or the nra. Imagine their voices carry farther and wider than anyone else because their voice is needed. Senator gillibrand, im trying to get everybody in here. Thank you. Its the first thing i am going to do, nothing else is possible than education or healthcare or ending institutions. Senator sanders, id like to put a different question to you. Roe versus wade has been the law of the land since 1973. Now that there is a conservative majority on the Supreme Court, several republican controlled states have passed laws to severely restrict or ban abortion. One of those laws could very well make it to the Supreme Court during your presidency if you are elected president. What is your plan if roe is struck down in the court while youre president . Well, my plan is somebody who believes for a start that a womans right to control her own body is a constitutional right that government and politicians should not infringe on that right. We will do everything we can to defend our roe versus wade. Second of all, let me make, let me make a promise here. You ask about litmus test. My litmus test is i will never appoint any nominate any justice to the Supreme Court unless that justice is 100 clear he or she will defend roe v. Wade. Third of all, i do thought believe in packing the court. We got a terrible 54 majority conservative court right now, but i do believe that constitutionally we have the power to rotate judges to other courts. And that brings in new blood into the Supreme Court and a majority i hope that will understand that a woman has the right to control her own body and the corporations cannot run the occupation of america. Senator, i will give you ten additional sectioned. The question is what if the court has already overturned roe and roe is gone, all of the things you just described would be to try to preserve roe. If roe is gone, what could you do as president to preserve abortion rights . Well, first of all, let me tell you this, it didnt come up yet but lets face this. Medicare for all guarantees every woman in this country the right to have an abortion if she wants it. Thank you, senator. Can i just address this for a second, and i want to talk directly, directly, to americas women and to men who love them. Womens reproductive rights are under assault by President Trump and the Republican Party. 30 states are trying to overturn roe v. Wade right now, and it is mindboggling to me that we are debating this on this stage in 2019 among democrats whether women should have access to reproductive rights. I think we have to stop playing defense and Start Playing offense. But let me tell you one thing about politics, because it goes to the corruption in the dealmaking. When the door is closed and the negotiations are made, there are conversations about womens rights and compromises have been made on our backs. Thats how we got to hyde. Thats how the Hyde Amendment was made, by compromise of leaders of both parties. Then we have the aca, during the aca negotiation i had to fight like heck with other women to make sure that contraception wasnt sold down the river or abortion services. And so what we need to know is imagine this one question, when we beat President Trump and Mitch Mcconnell walks into the oval office, god forbid to do negotiations, who do you want when that door closes to be sitting behind that desk to fight for womens rights . I have been the fiercest advocate for womens reproductive freedom for over a decade. I promise you as president when that door closes i will guarantee womens reproductive freedom no matter what. Thank you. Were moving to climate, guys. Senator harris, addressing you first on this. You live in a state that has been hit by drought, wildfires, flooding, and Climate Change is a major concern in your state. Its pretty obvious, this state as well. Last night voters heard many of the candidates weigh in on their proposals. Explain specifically what yours is. Well, first of all, i dont call Climate Change, its a climate crisis. It presents an existential threat to us as a species. The fact we have a president of the United States who embraced Science Fiction of science fact will be to our collective ive visited while the embers were smoldering the wildfires in california. I spoke with firefighters who were in the midst of fighting a fire while their own homes were burning. And on this issue, it is a critical issue that is about what we must do to confront what is immediate and before us right now. That is why i support a Green New Deal. It is why i believe on day one and as president will reenter us in the Paris Agreement because we have to take these issues seriously. And, frankly, we have a president of the United States we talked about you asked before, what is the greatest National Security threat to the United States, its donald trump. And im going to tell you why. And im going to tell you why. Because i agree, Climate Change represents an existential threat. He denies the science. You want to talk about north korea, real threat in terms of Nuclear Arsenal but what does he do . He embraces kim jongun, a dictator are to the sake of a photoop. Putin. You want to talk about russia . He takes the word of the russian president over the word of the American Intelligence Community when it comes to a threat to our democracy and our election there. Thank you, senator harris. These are the issues before us, chuck. I hear you. Thank you, senior harris. Mayor buttigieg, in your climate man, if youre elected president in your first term, how is this going to help farmers impacted by Climate Change in the midwest . Well, the reality is, we need to begin adapting right away. We also cant skip a beat on protecting Climate Change from getting worse. Thats why we need aggressive and ambitious endeavors. Its why we need to do a carbon tax dividend. I would propose a way to do it as it is rebated out in a progressive fashion so most americans are made more than whole. This isnt theoretical for us. In south bend. Parts of california on fire, theyre talking about sea level rise. Well, in end that, i had to activate the Emergency Operation center of our city twice in less than two years, the first time was a thousand year flood. And the next time was a 500year flood. This is not just happening on the arctic ice caps. This is happening in the middle of the country. Wean weve got to be dramatically more aggressive moving forward. Heres what very few people talk about. First of all, Rural America can be a part of the solution instead of being told theyre part of the problem. With the right kind of soil management and investment, Rural America can be a huge part of how we can get this done. Secondly, we have to look to the communities, there are networks from cities around the world who have come together not waiting for our National Governments to catch up. We should have a pittsburgh summit where we bring them together as well as rejoining the perris summit. I want to bring governor hickenlooper into this for a moment. You said oil and Gas Companies should be a part of the solution on Climate Change. Lots of your colleagues on stage tonight have talked about moving away from fossil fuels entirely. Can oil and Gas Companies be Real Partners in this fight . Well, i share the sense of urgency. Im a scientist. So i recognize that within 10 or 12 years of actually suffering irreversible damage, but, you know, guaranteeing everybody a government job is not going to get us there. So socialism in that sense is not the solution. We have to look at what really will make a difference. In colorado were replacing a couple of coal plants and replaces them with wind and solar batteries. The monthly bills go down. Were building a network for electric vehicles. We are working with the oil and gas industry and weve created the first methane regulations in the country. Methane is 25 times worse than co2. We got to get to that last part. The industrial heavy industry. We havent seen the plans yet. If you look at the real problem, co2, the worst polluters is china, the United States and its concrete and its exhalation and beyond that, i think weve got to recognize that only by bringing people together, businesses, nonprofits in, we cant demonize business, we have to bring them together to be part of this thing. Ultimately, if were not able to do that, we will be doomed failure. We have no way of doing this without bringing everyone together. Governor, thank you. Vice president biden, on the issue of how do you this democrats are arguing robustly among themselves about whats the best way to tackle Climate Change. But if were honest, many republicans, including the president , are not sure if they believe it is a serious problem so are there significant ways you can cut Carbon Emissions if you have to do it with no support from congress . The answer is yes. Number one, our administration, we built the largest wind farm in the world, the Largest Solar Energy facility in the world. We drove down the Competitive Price of both of those nrenewabe sources. I would immediately insist that we, in fact, build 500,000 recharging stations throughout the United States of america working with governors, mayors and others so that we can go to a full electric vehicle future by the year 2020 by the year 2030. I would make sure weve invested 400 million in new science and technology to be the exporter, not only of the Green Economy but economy that can create millions of jobs. But i would immediately join the paris climate accord. I would up the ante in that accord which it calls for, because we make up 15 of the problem. 85 of the world makes up the rest. So we have to have someone that knows how to corral the rest of the world, bring them together and get something done like we did in our administration. Senior sanders, i want to give you 30 seconds to follow up. But im going to hold you to 30. The old ways are no longer relevant. The scientists tell us we have 12 years before there is irreparable damage to this planet. This is a global issue. What the president of the United States should do is not deny the reality of Climate Change but tell the rest of the world that instead of spending a trillion and a half dollars on weapons of destruction, let us get together for the common enemy and that is to transform the World Energy System away from fossil fuel to Energy Efficiency and sustainable energy. The future of the planet rests on us doing this. Before we go, hang on before we leave this topic heres the solution, pass the torch. Pass the torch to the generation that will feel the effects of Climate Change. Take all the foss till fuel thats enough. Thank you both. Before we leave this topic, heres something you all want to weigh in on. Hole on a moment. Trust us on this. Just because you have a younger body doesnt mean you have old ideas. John kennedy did not say, i have a plan to get a man to the moon and so were going to do it. I they think we can all Work Together and maybe we can get a man on the moon. John kennedy said, by the end of this decade, we are going to put a man on the moon, because john kennedy was back in the day when politics included the people, included imagination, included great dreams and included great plans, and i have had a career not making the political plans, but i have had a career harnessing the inspiration and the motivation and the excitement of people. Thank you ms. Williamson. We know we say we are going to turn from a dirty economy to a clean economy, were going to have a Green Economy, were going to create millions of jobs, were going to do this within the next 12 years ago because im not interested in just winning the next election. We are investing in our grandchildren, then it will happen. We will sneak in a break in a minute. Before we go, i will go down the liner, im asking you please for one or two words only, all right, please. Really. President obama in his first year wanted to address both health care and climate, and he could only get one signature issue accomplished. It was obviously health care. He didnt get to do Climate Change. You may only get one shot in your first issue you are going to push, you get one shot that it may be the only thing you get passed. What is that first issue for your presidency . Eric swalwell, you are first. For parkland, for orlando, for every community affected by gun violence, ending gun violence. Senator bennet. Climate change and the lack of economic mobility bernie talks about. Senator gillibrand. Passing a family bill of rights that includes a National Paid leave plan, universal prek, affordable day care and making sure that women and families can thrive in the workplace no matter who they are. I like that. I had it. So passing a middle class working families tax cut. Daca, guns. Okay. Im giving you credit for the first thing you said, the tax cut. Senator sanders, the first thing. The premise that theres only one or two issues out there. Im not saying there is one or two. This is an enormous crisis. Senator sanders we need a political revolution. People have to stand up and take on the special interests. We can transform this country. Vice president biden, your first issue, mr. Vice president. I think you are so underestimating what barack obama did. Hes the first man to bring together the entire world, 196 nations to commit to deal with Climate Change immediately. I dont buy that. But the first thing i would do is make sure that we defeat donald trump, period. Okay. Mayor buttigieg, your first priority, your first issue as president that you are going to block and tackle . We got to fix our democracy before its too late. Get that right, climate and immigration, taxes and every other issue gets done. Mr. Yang. I would pass a 1,000 freedom dividend for every adult at age 18, which would speed us up on Climate Change, because if you get the boot off peoples throats theyll focus on Climate Change much more clearly. Governor hickenlooper. I would do Climate Change and pronounce it well before the election so we dont reelect the worst president in american history. My first call is to Prime Minister of new zealand who said her goal is to make new zealand the best place in the world for a child to grow up. I would tell her, girlfriend, you are so on, because the United States of america is going to be the best place in the world for a child to grow up. We are going to have you guys were close, at least it was shorter responses. Not at all. Not at all. All right. C minus. Were going to take a quick break. Well be right back with these candidates right after this. Its a new Buick Envision. And i got it with wifi for all of your wifi stuff, Wireless Charging for your phone. Cool wait til you check out the back thats a lot of groceries. Look at my strong man dont patronize me. The new Buick Envision is full of surprises. Current eligible gm owners get up to 16 percent below msrp on most of these 2019 buick models. Thats just over 7 thousand on this envision premium. Calyoure gonna love this. Rs. New coppertone sport clear. Not thick, not hot, not messy, just clear, cool, protected. Coppertone sport clear. Proven to protect. Of a lifetime. Its progressive on ice. Everything you love about Car Insurance the discounts. The rate comparisons. And flo in a boat. Insurance adventure awaits at progressive on ice. Tickets not available now or ever. At progressive on ice. Stop fearing your alarm clock. With zzzquil pure zzzs. A drugfree blend of botanicals with melatonin that supports your Natural Sleep cycle so you can seize the morning. Zzzquil pure zzzs. Welcome back to the Democratic Candidates debate in miami. Were going to continue the questioning now with lester in the audience. We are . We are in a second going to have a question from lester in the audience. But that was just a fakeout. Thats good. Were going to the issue of guns. Congressman swalwell, among this field of candidates, you have a unique position on gun reform. Youre proposing that the government should buy back every assault weapon in america and it should be mandatory. How do you envision that working especially in states where gun rights are a strong flash point . Keep your pistols, keep your rifles, your shotguns, but we can take the most dangerous weapons from the most dangerous people. We have the nra on the ropes because of the moms, because of the brady group. Because of the giffords, march for our lives. Im the only candidate on the stage calling for a ban and buyback of every assault weapon in america. I seen the plans of other candidates here. They would all leave 15 million assault weapons in our communities. They wouldnt do a single thing to save a single life in parkland. Ill approach this issue as a prosecutor. Ill approach it as the only person on this stage who has voted and passed background checks but also as a parent of a generation who send our children to school where we look at what theyre wearing, so we can remember it in case we have to identify them later. A generation who has seen thousands of black children killed in our streets and a generation who goes to the theater, and we actually look where the fire exits are. We dont have to live this way. We must be a country who loves our children more than we love our guns. Senator sanders, a vermont newspaper recently released portions of an interview you gave in 2013 in which you said, quote, my own view on guns is, everything being equal, states should make those decisions. No. Has your thinking changed since then . Do you now think there is a its a mischaracterization. Its a quote of yours. We have a gun crisis right now. 40,000 people a year are getting killed. In 1988, rachel, when it wasnt popular, i ran on a platform of banning assault weapons and in fact lost that race for congress. I have a d minus voting record from the nra. And i believe what we need is comprehensive Gun Legislation that among other things provides universal background. We end the gun show loophole. We end the straw man provision. And i i believed in 19 8 and i believe today. Assault weapons, assault weapons are weapons of the military and that they should not be on the streets of america. Your plan leaves them on streets. You leave 15 million on the streets. We ban the sale and distribution and thats what i believed for many years. Will you buy them back . If the government wants to do that, if the people youre going to be the government. Will you buy them back . Yeah. Senior harris. I think your idea is a great one, congressman swalwell. And i will say there are a lot of great ideas but congress has not had the courage to act, which is when i am elected president of the United States, i will give the United States congress 100 days to pull their act together, bring all these good ideas together and put a bill on my desk for signature, if they do not, i will take executive action and i will put in place the most comprehensive background check policy weve had. I will require the atf to take the licenses of gun dealers who violate the law and i will ban by executive order the importation of assault weapons. Because im going to tell you as a prosecutor, i have seen more autopsy photographs than i care to tell you. I have hugged more mothers, who are the mothers of homicide victims and i have attended more Police Officer funerals. It is enough. It is enough. There have been planty of good ideas for members of the United States congress. There has been no action. As president i will take action. Mayor buttigieg, i want to bring you in on this. A lot of this discussion about assault weapons, you are the only person on this stage tonight with military experience as a veteran of the Afghanistan War. Will military families does that inform your thinking and do you believe military families as a veteran of the Afghanistan War at large will have a take on this and who congressman swalwell is appealing to with his Buyback Program . Of course. We trained on these weapons. Every part of my experience informs this. Being a mayor of a city where the worst part is dealing with violence, we lose as many as we have lost at parkland every two or three years in my city alone. And this is tearing communities apart. If more guns made us safer, wed be the safest country on earth. It doesnt work that way. And commonsense measures like universal backgrounds checks cant seem to get delivered by washington. Even when most republicans, let alone most americans agree its the right thing to do. As somebody who trained on weapons of war, i can tell you that there are weapons that have absolutely no place in American Cities or neighborhoods in peace time ever. Vice president biden, 30 seconds. A real 30 seconds . A real 30 seconds. Okay. Im the only person that beat the nra nationally. Im the guy that got the brady bill passed, background checks, number one. Number two, we increaseed that background check during the Obamabiden Administration. Im also the only guy that got assault weapons banned, banned, and the number of clips in a gun banned. And so, folks, look and i would buy back those weapons. We already started talking about that and we tried to get it done. I think it can be done and it should be demanded that we do it and thats a good expenditure money. Lastly, we should have smart guns. No gun should be able to be sold unless your bio medic measure can pull that trigger. Its within our right to to that we can do that. Our enemy is the gun manufacturers, not the nra. The gun manufacturer. But the nra is taking orders from the gun manufacturers lester holt has our next question. All right, chuck, this is a question from our viewers. We put some suggestions they asked me to share son. Heres one from kathleen from oregon. She writes many fear the Current Administration has inflicted irrevocable harm on our governing institutions and norms and the process on our reputation abroad. The question is, what do you see as important early steps of reversing the damage done and well put this to senator bennet. Thank you very much. What an excellent question. First of all, we have to restore our democracy at home. The rest of the world is looking for us for leadership. We have a president who doesnt believe in the rule of law, he doesnt believe in the freedom of the press. He doesnt believe in an independent judiciary. He believes in the corruption hes brought to washington, d. C. And that is what we have to change. Thats why everybody is up here tonight and i appreciate the fact that theyre up here for that reason. Second, weve got to, weve got to restore the relationships that hes destroyed with our allies, not just in europe, he flew to the g20 last night and attacked japan, germany and a third ally of ours without saying anything about north korea or russia. And when you got a situation where you have a president who says something happened in the straits of hormuz and the whole world doesnt know whether to believe it or not, that is a huge problem when it comes to the National Security of the United States of america. This is a perfect time thank you, senator. A perfect time to do another one of these down the line. This is what this question is. Youll likely have to reset a relationship between america and another country or entity if you become president perhaps because of some relationship that you just mentioned about President Trump. What is the first relationship youd like to reset as president . Lets go down the line. Ill start with ms. Williamson. Well, one of my first phone calls will be to call the european leaders and say were back. I understand how important it is the United States be a part of the western alliance. Im trying to get one or two lines. Governor hickenlooper. I talk about constant engagement. The first country i understand they have been stealing intellectual property is china. You will deal with public health. Thank you. You deal with all the challenges of the globe, you got to have relationships with everyone. Mr. Yang, were trying to squeeze in a couple more things before we go to another break. China, we need to cooperate with them on Climate Change and other issue, north korea. Thanks for the quickness. Mayor buttigieg. We have no idea which of our allies he will have bissed off between now and then. We know the entire world starts to change. It starts with modeling American Values thats home. Mr. Vice president. We want to to be quick. We know nato will fall apart, its the single most important consequential alliance in the history of the United Nations. Its not one country. I think its rebuilding trust in the United Nations and understand that we can solve conflicts without war but with diplomacy. Senior harris. All the members of the nato alliance. Senator gillibrand. President trump is hell bent on starting a war with iran. My first act will be to engage iran to stabilize the middle east and make sure we do not start an unwanted never ending war. Senator bennet, quickly. Our european allies in every latin America Country ready to have a conversation about dealing with a refugee crisis. And congressman swalwell. My first is breaking up with russia and making up with nato. Thank you all. Last question for Vice President biden tonight. You have made your decades of experience of Foreign Policy a pillar of your campaign. But when the time came to say yes or no on one of the most consequential Foreign Policy decisions of the last century, you voted for the iraq war. You since said you regret that vote. Why should voters trust your judgment when it comes to making a decision about taking the country to war the next time . Because once bush abused that power, what happened was we got elected after that i made sure the president turned to me and said, joe, get our combat troops out of iraq. I was responsible for getting 150,000 combat troops out of iraq and my son was one of them. I also think we should not have combat troops in afghanistan. Its long overdue. It should end. Thirdly, i believe that you are not going to find anybody who has pulled together more of our alliances to deal with what is the real stateless threat out there. We cannot go it alone in terms of dealing with terrorism. So id eliminate the act that allowed us to go into war and ache sure that it could only be used for what its intent was, that is to go after terrorists, but never do it alone. Thats why we have to repair our alliances. We put together 65 countries to make sure we dealt with isis in iraq and other places. Thats what i would do. Thats what i have done and i know how to do it. Senator sanders, 30 seconds. One of the differences that joe and i have in our record is joe voted for that war, i helped lead the opposition to that war, which is a total disaster. Second of all, i helped lead the effort for the first time to utilize the war powers act to get the United States out of the saudiled intervention in yemen, which is the most horrific humanitarian disaster on earth and, thirdly, let me be very clear, i will do everything i can to prevent a war with iran, which will be far worse than disastrous war with iraq. Senator sanders, thank you. All right, guys. We got good news is you get more time to talk, but i have to sneak in one more break. Well be right back with more debate. Compare comcast business to your current provider. My Current Service provider does not provide half of what you provide. And to know that i could save money . Id be thrilled. This sounds like a whole business package, which would be incredible. So what are you guys waiting for . Lets do it. laughs comcast business gives you a full suite of products with great performance and value. Get fast, reliable internet on the nations largest gigspeed network for less than at t. Thats 120 dollars less a year. Better, faster. I mean sign me up. Comcast business. Beyond fast. We are back from miami. Now each candidate will have a final chance to make their case to the voters. 45 seconds each. We begin with congressman swalwell. We cant be a forward looking party if we look to the past for our leadership. Im a congressman but also a father of a 2yearold and an infant. When im not changing diapers, im changing washington. Most of the time, the diapers smell better. I went to congress at 31. I found a washington that doesnt work for people like you and me. Its made of the rich and the disconnected. I was the first in my family to go to college and have student loan debt. And so i have led the effort to elect the next generation of members of congress and we have a moment to seize. This is a cando generation. This is the generation that will end climate chaos. This is the generation that will solve student loan debt. This is the generation that will say enough is enough and end gun violence. This generation demands bold solutions. Thats why im running for president. Congressman, thank you. Ms. Williamson. Im sorry we havent talked more tonight about how were going to beat donald trump. I have an idea about donald trump. Donald trump is not going to be beaten just by insider politics talk. Hes not going to be beaten by somebody who has plans, hes going to be beaten by somebody who has an idea of what this man has done. This man has reached into the psyche of the American People and harnessed fear for political purposes. So, mr. President , if you are listening, i want you to hear me, please. You have harnessed fear for political purposes and only love can cast that out. So i, sir, i have a feeling you know what you are doing. I am going to harness love for political purposes. I will meet you on that field and, sir, love will win. Thank you. Senator bennet. Thank you. Thank you. My mom and her parents came to the United States to rebuild their shattered lives. In the only country that they could. 300 years before that my parents family came searching religious freedom here. The ability for one generation to do better than the next is now severely at risk in the United States especially among children living in poverty like the ones i used to work for in the denver Public Schools. Thats why im running for president. Ive had two tough races in colorado. But by bringing people together, not by making empty prompts, and i believe we need to build a Broad Coalition of americans to beat donald trump, end the corruption in washington and build a new era of the american democracy and american opportunity. This is going to be hard to do. But its what our parents would have expected. Its what our kids deserve. I hope you will join me in this effort. Thank you. Thank you. Governor hickenlooper. Im a Small Business owner who brought that same scrappy spirit to colorado, one of the most progressive states in america. We expanded Reproductive Health to reduce teenage abortions by 64 . We were the first state to legalize marijuana, we transformed our Justice System in the process. We passed universal background systems and we attacked Climate Change with the toughest methane regulations in the country and for the last three years, we have been the number one economy in america. You dont need Big Government to do big thing. I know that because im the one person up here whos actually done the big progressive things everyone has is talking about. If we turn towards socialism, we run the risk of helping to reelect the worst president in american history. Thank you, governor. Senator gillibrand, you have the floor for 45 seconds. Women in america, women in america are on fire. Weve marched, weve organized. Weve run for office and weve won. But our rights are under attack like never before by President Trump and the republicans who want to repeal roe v. Wade which is why i went to the front lines in georgia to fight for them. As president , i will take on the fights that no one else will. I stood up to the pentagon and repealed dont ask dont tell. I stood up to the banks and voted against the bailout twice. I stood up to trump more than any other senator in the u. S. Senate. And i have the most comprehensive approach for getting money out of politics with publicly funded elections to deal with political corruption. Now is not the time to play it safe. Now is not the time to be afraid of firsts. We feed a president who will take on the big challenges even if she stands alone. Join me in fighting for this. Senator gillibrand, thank you. Mr. Yang, you have 45 seconds for your closing. First i want to thank everyone who put me on this stage tonight. I am proof our democracy still works. Democrats and americans around the country have one question for their nominee and that is who can beat donald trump in 2020. That is the right question. And the right candidate to beat donald trump will be solving the problems that got donald trump elected and will have a vision of a trickle up economy that is already drawing thousands of disaffected trump voters, conservatives, independents and libertarians as well as progressives and i am that candidate. I can build a much broader coalition to beat donald trump. It is not left, it is not right. It is forward. And that is where ill take the country in 2020. Mr. Yang, thank you. Senator harris, the floor is yours. Thank you. Well, i just want to leave you with a couple of things. One, we need a nominee who has the ability to prosecute the case against four more years of donald trump, and i will do that. Second, this election is about you. This is about your hopes and your dreams and your fears and what wakes you up at 3 00 in the morning. And thats why i have what i call a 3 00 a. M. Agenda that is about everything from what we need to do to deliver health care to how you will be able to pay the bills by the end of the month. And when i think about what our country needs, i promise you, i will be a president who leads with a sense of dignity, with honesty, speaking the truth and giving the American Family all that they need to get through the end of the month in a way that allows them to prosper. So i hope to earn your support. Please join us at kamelaharris. Org. Mayor buttigieg, 45 seconds. Nothing about politics is theoretical for me. Ive had the experience of writing a letter to my family and putting it in an envelope marked just in case and leaving it where they would know where to find it in case i didnt come back from afghanistan. I have the experience of being in a marriage that exists by the grace of a single vote on the u. S. Supreme court. I have the experience of guiding a community where the per capita income was below 20,000 when i took office into a brighter future. Im running because the decisions we make in the next three or four years are going to decide how the next 30 or 40 go and when i get to the current age of the current president , i want to be able to look back on these years and say my generation delivered climate solutions, racial equality and an end to endless war. Help me deliver that new generation to washington before its too late. Thank you. Senator sanders, 45 seconds, the floor is yours. I suspect people all over the country who are watching this debate are saying, these are good people. They have great ideas but how come nothing really changes . How come for the last 45 years wages have been stagnant for the middle class . How come we have the highest rate of childhood poverty . How come 45 Million People still have student debt . How come 3 million own the wealth of the bottom half of america . Here is the answer. Nothing will change unless we have the guts to take on wall street, the insurance industry, the pharmaceutical industry, the military Industrial Complex and the fossil fuel industry. If we dont have the guts to take them on, well continue to have plans. Well continue to have talk and the rich will get richer and everybody else will be struggling. Thank you, senator. And lastly well hear from Vice President biden. Sir, you have 45 seconds. Thank you very much. Im ready to lead this country because i think its important to restore the soul of this nation. This president has ripped it out. Hes the only president in our history who has equated racists and White Supremacists with ordinary and decent people. Hes the only president who is that engaged and embraced dictators and thumbed his nose at our allies. Secondly, im running for president because i think we have to restore the backbone of america. The poor and hard working middle class people. You cant do that without replacing them with the dignity they once had. Lastly, we got to unite the United States of america as much as anybody says we can. If we do, theres not a single thing the american cant do. This is the United States of america. We can do anything if were together, together. So god bless you all and may god protect our troops. Vice president biden, thank you. We want to thank our candidates. Weve had two nights of serious debate on a range of issues. 20 candidates in all. Seriously t. Takes guts to run and stick your neck out like this to you guys and to the ten last night for having the guts to do it. Id like to thank the audience for completely ignoring our suggestion to the to react. You made it a lot of fun. Also, our thanks to the Democratic National committee and the florida Democratic Party. And, of course, thank you to everyone at the adrian arts center for hosting us here. Our terrific audience. Over terrific. For savannah, jose, chuck and rachel, im lester holt, good night, everyone, from miami. Part two of round one is now history in the city of miami. What have we learned . Weve learned ten people on one stage is a lot. Weve learned 20 people over two nights is a lot. Well stay in these picture, by the way, in the hall as we talk. We saw some divisions on that stage very visible. You could hear them and a big one was generational. And listening to it, watching it, it occurs to me the most indell i believe picture of the evening may be a photo weve never seen of a young girl in berkley, california, named kamala, at the bus stop on her way to school. That is to say, it was on that point that she forged a moment against i agree with that. I believe that what happened tonight will erase in most peoples mind what happened last night. Not to take anything away from any of the men and women who stood on that stage, but there was a very different feeling about tonight. From joe bidens very First Response and donald trump is what joy reed said the Democratic Party is hungry for. They were all much more closer to the beating pulse of the hopes and desires of