Candidate has someone ignited so much buzz so fast. Hes 37 years old, a graduate of harvard, a rohde scholar, a naval officer deployed to afghanistan and a mayor of a small city in indiana, population 100,000. Pete buttigieg. He says his eight years leading south bend, indiana gives him more experience to be president than donald trump had. He gave me a tour of his hometown which a decade ago was cited as one of americas ten dies cities, the same year buttigieg was elected mayor. How are you doing . Hi, pete. So you dont mind being called pete by this guy . You dont have to say your honor . Thats my man. Hes my mayor. Hey. How are you . Good to see you. In south bend, they just call him pete, the hometown mayor who is suddenly a national celebrity. Say hi to pete . When you wake up in the morning do you feel mayor . Yeah, because the first thing youre doing is checking to see what happened overnight. If it wasnt something worth waking you up over a crime report . I get incident reports and a monthly look at where the numbers are. The city was in a decadeslong decline. The indianapol today investment in pouring in. There are new condos, parks, restaurants, even a nightly light display along the river. One of the mayors proudest achievements, similar sewers. Its linksed to a sensor down to the pvc tube and that is giving you a level reading on what the level reading is here. If you know this is close to topping out you can reroute to other places avoiding an overflow. I bet Donald Trumps never had one of these experiences. I doubt it. So theres different parts of even this building, which is just one part of the complex. The mayor took me to the site of the old studebaker plant which closed in 1963. At one time it employed 24,000 people. The company basically folded. Almost overnight. They had some problems in the 50s, labor issues, business problems, and then the word went out one december day in 63 and the whole city changed. People thought the city was dead. Pretty quick after that, we started losing population. Down by the 90s we were down about 30,000 people from our peak. How are you doing . The mayor transformed the site in a technology hub, also a site for nonprofits. The city still faces challenges. The jobless rate among africanamericans is almost twice as high as for whites. One of the mayors policies, demolishing vacant homes, faced early pushback from community activists. So whats your plan to help the neighborhood because youre demolishing everything . What about building and repairing. Sop thats when we came up with 500 homes in 500 days. We lost a quarter of our population. Plus the housing stock, you know, eventually becomes a little different than what people want and need in terms of demand. You got houses built in the 40s and 50s. Smaller lot sizes, small house sizes. People want something different. Im a proud son of south bend, indiana, and i am running for president of the united states. Buttigieg wants his record as mayor to power his president ial campaign. He told me hes proud of where he comes from. Rust belt. You know, a lot of my fellow industrial merneidwesterners wao ban that from the vocabulary. I think we should own it and transform it what it means to be the rust belt. A sort of pride. Took it in the gut because of the changes that happened and figure out a way to grow and adapt to the future. I think trump promised to bring it back. He did, but he promised to bring it back by returning to the past. And thats not just [ inaudible ] and now the biggest star to come out of south bend, indiana since rudy, mayor pete buttigieg. How are you doing . Hi, everybody. Whoa. Thank you. All right. Pretty good. Pretty good. Thank you. Thanks for having me. Lets get into business now and the issues that matter to the News Business but the real people that are here. The shootings in florida and virginia, Virginia Beach this week. 20 12 dead. 12 dead. Youve come out for a National Licensing plan. How would that work . We have almost 400 million guns the this country. How do you license them . Thats the thing. If you have to have a license for a car, it doesnt seem unreasonable for deadly weaponry we should do the same. Most americans are fine with this. Most gun owners this shouldnt cause any problems for that. Just as we lack universal background checks. Red flag laws to department domestic abusers are help with situations where somebody poses a danger to others or to themselves can far too easily get a weapon. Its making our country less safe. Im fine with this something being harmonized at the federal level and managed at the state level. Kind of how we do i. D. S suitable for flying at the state level and issued at the federal level. Its got to be up to a certain standard nationally for it to work. The nra, as you know, has been wildly against this since i was born practically. They talk about gun registration is the enemy. Theyll round them up next. Would it be by serial number. How would it work . Everybody with a gun calling the atf to register . How would it work . Holook, i think the most important thing is what we do going forward. I have a couple of antique rifles i brought back from afghanistan. You couldnt fire them in you tried. I dont know how to go about registering those. What about a person who owns a shotgun . Should they register it . I think at the point of sale. But they own them. I got to register my car. We own 400 million guns now. So lets get it right going forward. Look, lets figure out a system have you changed on this because i thought you said awhile ago you believed in the licensing of all guns. Look, think we can start on a go forward basis and actually have a system that we can use to look at what we can do retroactively. At a employment minimum. How many would like to see that . How many dont like the idea of registering guns. Come on. All right. Theres a few. A few honest people. Lets talk about the guy leading in the polls, joe biden, over the weekend. You made a mention about the fact that basically the that you couldnt go back to the norm. Yeah. That we cant go back to the 90s any better than we go back to the 50s because the democrats were rejected. People voted for, in the electoral college, at least, trump. People have seen democratic and republican administrations letting them down basically for as long as ive been alive. There is a sense our economy and our government is twisted, are tilted, are not working for us and it was incredibly upsetting. At a time when most americans, by the way, agree with democrats on most issues to see us basically cast out as though we represented the system. If we dont demonstrate that we understand the need to transform the systems that were living in, not just tinker around the edges. Not just replicate what were used to. I guess the point is if we have a campaign where the theme is lets go back to normal thats what biden wants. Youre suggesting biden would do that. Im not going to talk to anybody elses campaign strategy. Yes, you are. This is an indirect shot at biden. Come on. Does anybody think hes talking about biden . Thank you. Theres like 24 of us. I dont know which ones are pursuing all right. So you think you can get an unanswered shot from biden when you say some people want to go back to obama biden and to hillary but im not going to name them. Come on. My point is this is honesty here, okay . This is a lot bigger than one candidate or even one cycle. I believe were in a moment between periods of american history. Every 30, 40, 50 years, you come to one of these hingen points, the beginning of the reagan era was one and has lasted until completely now. Its constrained how democrats and republicans have behaved since they got into office. The problem is it didnt work. The whole idea, and democrats bought into this, too, was that rising tide lifts all boats. As long as we make sure there is growth, everything will take care of itself. The problem is you start the clock right around the time i was born. You find the rising tide rose but most of the boats didnt budge. Most peoples Median Income didnt move, and i think that sense that the system overall has failed us helps to explain why, you know, in around here in this part of california, certainly around where i live in the industrial midwest, a lot of people who are under no illusions about the president being a good guy, okay, theyre under no illusions about his character, but they decided to vote effectively to burn the house down. Yeah. To send a message, and thats exactly what we got. So we got to demonstrate that we are speaking to the fundamental concerns. Okay. That made it possible. Thats a powerful message, mayor. I want to ask everybody if they agree. Do you believe the politicians at the National Level of both parties have been out of touch . Lets go to a local person right off the bat. Jacquelin lowe. Where is jacquelin lowe . There she is. Fourth generation walnut farmer here in fresno, california. Jacquelin, go ahead. Good afternoon, mayor pete. Hello. Welcome to fresno and thank you, hardball, for coming to fresno. Thank you. My name is jacquelin lowe and im a fourth generation farmer. And my family farm currently raises walnuts in the San Joaquin Valley. President trumps policies on tariffs and trade are absolutely devastating our opportunity to sell our products overseas. Right. Particularly in asia. Now, you are in fresno in the heart of the San Joaquin Valley, one of the richest agricultural areas in the world, and we would like to know what are your ideas on trade policy and tariffs as they relate to farms and ag policy and agriculture industry . Thank you. First of all, thank you for being here and thank you for raising that issue. I hope we get a chance to try your product some time. I bet that when i do, one of the things ill come away believing is that anybody in the world ought to be able to enjoy it. You ought to be able to sell it to anybody in the world. The San Joaquin Valley helps feed not just america, but the world. The products that are grown here are worldclass and yet what were finding is because of a shortsighted, i cant even call it a strategy, i cant even call it a policy, its a pattern, its a pattern of poking people in the eye to see what will happen. But when you dont have look i completely get the idea if china is doing something unfair, i get the idea of standing up to them. If there are trade deals that are not benefitting us enough, i get the idea of adjusting them to make sure that its fairer trade, but thats not what were seeing right now. What were seeing right now is basically politically motivated gamesmanship and its coming down on your back. Yes. Its harting farmers, workers, consumers. The projection is we all on average will pay 800 bucks more a year starting now because of these tariffs. And by the way, a tariffs is a tax, so if you ever believe the republicans dont raise taxes, thats what theyre doing right now. Lets go to mayor, another guest thanks very much. Calvin flemming, sir, go ahead. Hi, mayor pete. Happy pride. Thank you. As a gay dad who adopted my two sons through foster care, i wanted to find out what your plans were to fix the broken foster care system. Hint, i hear you and chastin are looking to grow your family. Well, first of all, thank you for making such a positive difference in the lives of your children, and i believe that we have been seeing the consequences of grossly underresourced foster care systems. You know, each state does it differently and most every state is letting kids and families down. So we need to have a process that will hold states to a higher standard. Yes, its okay that states can have some independence on this, but it is not okay for children to be kicked around from home to home, for wait lists to be infinitely long. By the way, it would also make a big difference if it were harder for agencies to discriminate against samesex parents who can provide loving families. And as for our plans, chastins right here. Hes a very patient person. No pressure. Obviously ive made a couple of professional decisions that are kind of complicating our pathway to parenthood, but we cant wait and maybe you cap give us some advice down the line on that. Thank you. Mr. Mayor, thank you. I wanted to ask you i wanted to talk to you about a followup to calvin. Yeah. And what he raised there. And i think there are other questions there along those same lines. Where with your candidacy, were at kind of a new frontier. We had a catholic president when i was growing up. This is not just political talk. Soon after he was elected president , his religion never came up again. It wasnt relevant. Bigger things. We were fighting the russians. Cuban missile crisis and things that like, much more important. The first africanamerican president. I growing up thought, wow, this might be a challenge for the country. Michelle obama was enormously popular as first lady. 70 something popularity. She was really good at it. So chastins here and i think i want you to talk about the people, not like mike pence, who are never going to vote for you, for all kinds of reasons. Hey, there is hope for everybody. What about the people who honestly say gay couple in the white house, let me think about that . What do you want to say to them . I would ask them to think about what kind of president i would make and how i would serve them. Thats what we did in south bend. When i came out, it was relatively late certainly compared to chastin. I was already mayor. It prompted me to realize you only get one life and i got to get on with the personal life and that means coming out. It happened to be an Election Year and we werent sure what the politics of it would be. I mean, mike pence was governor of our state at that time. South bend was democratic and quite socially conservative. I got reelected with 80 of the vote because people just cared about what job i was doing for them as mayor and i trust americans to do the same thing nationally. One of the reasons im a student of people like kennedy. Right. I have to tell you one of the reasons he won the West Virginia primary is he did it the way youre doing it, very direct, very open, very clear and let them make up their minds. I think its wonderful the way youre doing this. Anyway, were going to come right back, were going to talk about another lighthearted topic, impeachment. When we come back. 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At adp were designing a better way to work, so you can achieve what youre working for. You never know what life is going to throw at you. [ whimpering ] and from this point on. Nothing is going to be the same. [ all these things that ive done by the killers ] no, no, no. This way buddy. No liams heads for comforts is in the 80th percetile. Oh thats cool. Its a lot of head. Its like youre the dad and im the mom and were in a relationship and this is our baby. [ laughing ] well. Its exactly like that exactly welcome back to our special live town hall in fresno, california, with south bend mayor and 2020 president ial candidate pete buttigieg. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Right there. Your question, sir . All right. Thank you. Welcome to california, mayor pete. Thank you. My name is keith, and i just want to let you know im starting to feel a little discouraged and feel like all the work i did in all the work we did if 2018 really didnt matter and im also starting to lose confidence in our House Democratic leadership. And i want to know if you support speaker pelosis slow, cautious approach towards the impeachment inquiry or not and why. Thank you. First of all, i believe that the president deserves to be impeached. I would also say, even though i have revealed myself to be ambitious in that i am a young man running for president , that i also would think twice before offering strategic advice to nancy pelosi. Because i think part of whats happening here is to a lot of people impeachment means removal from office, but its really a process, right . And its the only process weve got left because the doj has said you cant charge a sitting president , and i dont think it makes a lot of sense to suggest that the president is above the law, but basically it means the only place we can have a procedure, the only place we can have a due process, the only way we can go through the steps of evidence and so forth, as long as he is in the oval office, is in congress in the form of an impeachment proceeding, which i think is what were going to have to do, but in order to do that, it better be an airtight process. So i do recognize while were still trying to get information, the investigations are ongoing, there are witnesses yet to come before congress, that there may be some strategic wisdom in following that sequence. Ill leave that to congress. What i will say is that no one ought to be above the law, that it matters that there is a majority. Mayor, ive got a followup and its its the its to sort of nail you down. Yeah. If you were voting in congress right now on impeachment, would you vote to impeach . Yeah, i would. Okay, good. Thank you. Thank you. Let me go to angelique. Angelique. Hello. Hi. Hi. So you have a tremendous resume. One that speaks to your character and your capabilities, but you are running in a field of truly exceptional candidates, particularly in the case of the women who are running like senators Kamala Harris and elizabeth warren. So my question to you is, why should the women of america vote for you over our sisters who are kind of more qualified . Wow. Well, look, i admire so many of the people running. Theyre extraordinary. And, by the way, we ought to have a woman in the oval office right now. Im still disappointed that didnt happen. I do think, though, that my qualifications are a little bit different. That when youve led a city, especially exactly the kind of city that this president targeted with this rhetoric of nostalgia and resentment, but that can find a new future in a way i think disproves this whole idea that making America Great again has to do with turning back the clock. When you have the experience of executive leadership on the ground on everything from Economic Development puzzles to officerinvolved shootings, not just discussing them but actually having to handle them day in, day out and having to summon a Community Together when it comes under moments of intense strain. Not to mention knowing personally what it means to be sent ordered into a war zone by the stroke of a pen of the american president. And i think a different kind of focus on the future than any of my competitors in this process. I think that i represent something thats just different. Now, the other thing that i want the women of america to know, because ive met a lot of women who say i like you, i like your message, i think you got an appealing candidacy, but i just will not vote for a man this time, is that i get it and whether you decide to be for me or not, i promise that i will be for you. Thank you. Mayor, the next one is haley. Hey, mayor pete. My name is kalen and this fall ill be embarking on graduate school so like others ill have to take out large amounts of loans to pay for my education. So my question is what will you do about student debt . So this one is pretty personal for us. I dont know if you saw the rankings of the wealth of various candidates for president , but our household is pretty much bringing up the rear on that one because because we have sixfigure student debt. Not because of any wrong choice. Largely because chasten made the selfless choice to be a teacher and to go through some very expensive graduate school to get qualified in order to do that. Weve got to make debt more affordable in terms of interest rates. If you can refinance a house, you ought to be able to do that on student debt. And i think more and i think more generous programs for Public Service loan forgiveness, so that you can get it forgiven. And then on the front end, i think we should massively expand pell grants and this time actually peg it to inflation so you dont have to go to Congress Every time you want to raise them. But i want to mention and a bunch of other steps to make college more affordable. But i want to mention something that i think is important that doesnt come up as often in the conversation about college affordability. College should absolutely be more affordable. It should also be more affordable to live and work in this country if you havent been to college. Okay . Were talking about an american majority that may not ever have a university degree. And that shouldnt be a poverty sentence. So we also have to make sure that through, first of all, making sure that weve got a decent minimum wage, starting with 15. But also more broadly that we honor work and that we have adequate benefits and good pay and Affordable Health care, housing, education and the rest of it. That a working class lifestyle is a good one. It ought to be possible in this country to be able to afford to have your kids go to school and to put food on the table and even to be able to afford to be generous in some way to your little league, to your church. Whether you have gone to college or not. And so in addition to making going to college affordable, weve got to make not going to college more affordable in this country. Okay. How many how many in the audience just raise your hand, how many in the audience, this issue of college debt is real. A Kitchen Table issue. Yeah. Look at that. Real people. Thank you. Let me go to lydia right now. Go ahead, lydia. Well, thank you for coming to fresno. Womens rights and equality are very important issues to me, especially in todays political climate. Youve talked a lot about getting along and working together, but in a primary where we have multiple strong progressive candidates to choose from with detailed policies who are polling better than you right now, my question is, what detailed policies will you put in place to guarantee that abortion is kept safe, legal and accessible, but most importantly, to guarantee women the right to choose whats best for her life . Thank you. So i think that every candidate for the democratic nomination ought to be able to demonstrate our commitment to womens reproductive freedom, especially the candidates who are not themselves women. Thats why i thought it was important for me to be on the steps of the Supreme Court with planned parenthood. Its why if you visit our website, youll see our commitment to repealing the hyde amendment. Our commitment to making sure that judicial appointments are those who share my view that freedom includes freedom to make decisions about your own body and making sure that we adequately fund the whole range, the whole spectrum of Reproductive Health services, which, of course, includes abortion care but is not limited to that. And i definitely invite folks to look at our website because our website contains more specific policy proposals than the majority of candidates for president on the democratic side right now. I promise. Wow. Check it out. Thank you. Mayor pete, you should see maybe you didnt see all the nodding heads from the women here as you were speaking. I watched all the heads. Theyre moving. Theyre nodding again. There is a lot of agreement about concern about choice. Thank you so much. Well be right back. The lightning round is coming up next. 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But we can protect your home and auto. Welcome back to our special hardball town hall with mayor pete buttigieg. Were live in fresno, a wonderful part of california. Thank you for all being here, everybody. All right. Lightning round. Yes or no answers would suffice, but you want to expand on it. Right to work laws. The last time we had a town hall meeting, i hate the right to work laws. Where do you stand . Bad idea. Even though you have them in indiana youre against them . Yeah, we do. Its a bad idea. It helps explain why income is so much lower in indiana than many other states. A National Draft . No, but i do believe in National Service and i think we should expand service opportunities. Not just military. Because the military is not for everybody. But things like americorps, the peace corps, you name it. When youre 18, you spend a year in National Service. The first question you get on your application is what did you do with that year . I think its great. A cultural thing. I think it would knit so Many Americans together. I got to know so many radically people from me, different backgrounds, different politics, when i was in the military. You shouldnt have to go to war to know that. Did you ever have to use your weapon . Took it off safety a couple of times. You were threatened . We had a couple of hairy moments, but its not like i killed bin laden. I was an intel guy. If im taking my weapon off safety, its pretty tough. Voting in prison . As soon as someone is released, i believe without any red tape or any cost they should be able to vote. Im not there yet when somebodys still incarcerated. What do you mean . You sound like kamala who says it should be part of the conversation. Its not my position youre what they pointed out is even if you believe philosophically as i do that its possible that in a fair system part of what happens when youre removed from society for a sentence and youre also removed from voting. We dont have a fair system and we have a systematic racial bias in who is incarcerated in the first place. If we cant correct that, it does make my position harder to defend. Okay. Let me ask you on the same topic, cultural realities. Capital punishment for or against it . Against it. 21 states against it. Youre against it. In any case . In any case. Those were easy. Those were easy . Just kidding. Name some of your public figures republicans who you respect. Living republicans. Ill give you a few seconds. Oh, i had such a great answer if it wasnt living. I know. Abraham lincoln. I got a better one for you. Teddy roosevelt. Even better. Wende wendell wilkey. He was from indiana, put country before party. He was roosevelts diplomat going to britain to unite the world there. Al franken, should he have been pushed to resign from the u. S. Senate by the democratic caucus, his fellow caucus members . I think it was his decision to make, but it think the way we basically held him to a higher standard than the gop does their people has been used against us. Do you think he should have been pushed to leave . Again, it was his decision. I think that but im not asking you about his decision. Should the other members of the democratic kaucaucus in the sen starting at the top, Chuck Schumer down and the other people who pushed him to get out, they put a lot of pressure on him to leave, were they right or wrong . Well, its not a bad thing that we hold ourselves to a higher standard. Were they right to do that, to push him out of the senate because they did . I would not have applied that amount of pressure at that time before we knew more. Okay. Welcome, mayor pete. I wanted to thank you for your service. Thank you. And also on that sort of topic, ask you if you had been in the u. S. Senate in 2002, would you have voted along with senators biden and clinton to go into the iraq war and why . So i was against the iraq war then and i believe now it was a bad idea. I was obviously not in the senate, i was a student, but i actually thought youre supposed to pretend it never crossed your mind to run for office until you actually do. I actually did think in college that i might run for office one day, and i actually thought it would probably hurt any future political career that i might have when i stood up and spoke at an antiwar protest as a student. But i also believed so strongly that it was the wrong thing to do. And, you know, we didnt find weapons of mass destruction. If we did, i think it would have been an even worse mistake because they would have been used against us, and weve seen what a total policy disaster that was. And it gave democracy progressives a bad name. I actually really believe in democracy progressives. I just dont think we should do it at gunpoint. But at the end of the day that was something that cost hugely in lives, in treasure and in americas reputation. It was a mistake then and a lot of people back then its not just something in hindsight. A lot of people back then knew it was a mistake, and im afraid there were some democrats who maybe believed deep down that it was a mistake but didnt think that it was safe to say so. Mayor if youre elected president of the united states, what would you say to Vladimir Putin the first time you met him . Because you will get to meet him. Well, dont mess with our elections, for one. Thank you. Leah parks. Hello, mayor pete. My name is nia parks, and my question to you is the topic of reparations has come up a lot in this election. I would like to know what your take is on that, and if elected, how would you go about that strategy of gettiiving back for slavery. Thank you for your question. I think its time for us to have this discussion. There is a proposal in Congress Called hr 40. Its named after the 40 acres and a mule promise that was made and not kept to former slaves. It proposes that we set up a commission to look at how we could establish a fair and reasonable way to go about reparations. I believe that we have to do this for this reason. You cant just have racist policies for one generation to another, all the way up to this present day, and replace them with maybe less racist policies or neutral policies and expect everything to just get better. The generational wealth gap for black americans has so many black families at a net worth of roughly zero. Obviously that is a consequence of the fact that we live in a country where some people used to own other people, and none of us is free even look, a lot of people think, well, why should i have to contribute to this in any way because i wasnt around in the civil war or anything. We are living in these racist systems today, and thats why in entrepreneurship, in home ownership, in health, in education, of course in criminal justice, not to mention in democracy itself where it is systematically harder for people of color, especially black neighborhoods to be able to access the vote in so many parts of this country. That we have to systematically reverse that. I think the time has come and real resources may have to go into that, if only because some of these disparities came about as a result of policy since slavery. Im not just talking about faroff historic wrongs, im talking about the fact that some of our segregated neighborhoods and of course here in fresno there is an egregious pattern of segregation, but its true in my hometown, too. Thats not a knock on fresno. Mayor some of that happened because of policy. Because federal subsidies. And this goes, for example, in the fdr administration, actually took neighborhoods that were less segregated and made them more segregated. The way housing subsidies were distributed. So weve got to be intentional about this because a lot of intention, unfortunately, brought us to the point were at right now. Mr. Mayor, let me ask you about reparations back in the reconstruction era, thaddeus stephens, one of my heros, talked about 30 acres and a mule. Is it a quantum of money or an opportunity to go to places like dartmouth where there are special educational opportunities. What would be the form . So an ongoing enduring value to africanamericans in this country, not just money up front but a change in their opportunity. Well, thats what this how do you do it . Thats what the commission ought to work out. There is no way you can do it without putting dollar resources behind it. Now, the right cant wait to caricature this as a check in the mail that they say would be unfair. But we did it with japanese americans. Thats right. There can be ways of doing this that are fair or at least bring us to a more just reality than the one were living in right now. Let me ask you about politics. I looked the numbers. You must look at your poll numbers every once in awhile. Africanamericans are not coming forward as a community to your campaign. What is that about . So, a couple of things. I think the biggest is that weve got to reach out in communities that havent had a chance to get to know me. If you are neither already famous with a long track record in National Politics nor yourself from a community of color yeah. Then of course its going to take longer for people to come to know and trust you. We were able to do it in south bend. The minority voters who know me best by the way, not everybody, of course, but the voters who know me best contributed to that big reelection margin that i was talking about. I had years to build up that kind of trust. Now, the most important thing is people need to hear the message. What i have to say about how we can make a difference on black home ownership, health at a time when a black mother is three times as likely to die in childbirth as a white mother, issues in generational wealth building, concepts that dont get talked about much like the black tax, which is basically the name given to the fact that even for people who do well in professional life, black professionals are more likely to find themselves financially supporting members of their family or close social network, and that this in turn helps make it harder even for those who made it into that upper middle class to build wealth and create that kind of generational shift. Sharing incomes with other family members. Thank you. Yep. Well be right back with the mayor, mayor pete buttigieg. Well be right back. Woman 1 i had no symptoms of hepatitis c. Man 1 mine. Man 1 . Caused liver damage. 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Pnc easy lock, so you can easily lock your credit card when its maximum limit differs from its vertical limit. And clover flex, for when you need to take credit cards when no one carries cash. Or requesting a call to help get a new credit card one that hasnt followed the family goldfish. Pnc make today the day. Who used expedia to book the Vacation Rental that led to the ride which took them to the place where they discovered that sometimes a little down time can lift you right up. Flights, hotels, cars, activities, Vacation Rentals. Expedia. Everything you need to go. Welcome back to hardball. Mayor pete, this is what weve all been waiting for on our program right now. This is not the first time youve been on hardball at a live event. In fact, many years ago you asked a question of a president ial candidate who visited your college, harvard. Here you were back in 2003 asking Dick Gephardt about young voters. Congressman, why are you the only president ial candidate not attending tomorrows youth oriented rock the Vote Campaign and do you think young votes matter . They matter a lot. Ive got a preset meeting in iowa, so im going to be in iowa tomorrow night. I talk to young people everywhere i am. Ive got lots of young people on my campaign. Maybe i ought to say this now, when i was in college, jack kennedy was president and i was moved when he said to young people like me, get involved in politics, give part of your life to politics, so i just want to say to all of you here, get involved in public life, give back to your country, dont just take from it and get involved in this campaign. If its not for me, get behind somebody and get out there and work to make this country a better place. You can do this. You havent aged a year. Look at this guy. So was that the stimulation that you needed to make a move for public life . First of all, im a lot more sympathetic to scheduling i was pretty hard on him. I feel bad about that now. Wow. How did you even find that . We have one more question not from the audience, its a remote question. Sir, do you have a question for the mayor . Dick gephardt. Hey, mayor pete, you really took me seriously, didnt you . How is he doing . How do you think hes doing as a candidate . Good for you. How do you think . Hes doing great. So heres my question, mayor pete. So i get asked all the time by people all over the country what about the future of our democracy, of america . And my answer is very simple, ive always been optimistic about america because the people are good and theyre good citizens. Youre out there now meeting thousands of them. Am i still right . Yeah. Thats my experience. Dick gephardt is now a california voter. Uhoh. All right. Hes a resident and voting resident of santa rosa. Got to get on his good side. Thats been my experience. Look, people just want to know that theyre going to be okay, but, you know, people can have good and bad things called out from within us. Were all capable of good and bad things. Just ask somebody you love. And, you know, people individually and also collectively, i think we become worse when were not secure. And part of whats happening right now in a world where weve got everything from the rise of china to Artificial Intelligence and automation and the economys changing is people have been made less secure and it makes it possible for a cynical leader to draw out the worst of us. Right. But i also believe that one of the best reasons to get involved in politics, as i felt called to do when i was a student by people like speaker gephardt, is that you can also use the tools, the skills that you learn as an elected leader to draw out the best in people. And i think that, even more than policy and administration is the thing were missing most in the white house right now. Going back to Dick Gephardt, we have him on the phone. Dick gephardt, you would have been a great president. I think you know i believe that. Do you have any advice to this young fella, 37 years old, running hard with 20plus rivals. How does he get ahead of all of those guys and women . Keep doing just keep doing what youre doing. Work hard every day. Its a big job but youre doing a great job of being out there talking to people and listening to people, which is the most important thing you can do. Youre doing great. Just keep on going. Im proud of you and all the other candidates. Were going to win this thing. By the way, thats how Dick Gephardt got ahead. I watched his career. Thank you, Dick Gephardt, from santa rosa, california. A registered i think democrat safe to say in california. Thank you so much. Back with mayor pete buttigieg. Well be back here no, why am i saying that . Fresno state in just a minute. My experience with usaa has been excellent. 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Were live still at fresno state in california for our special live hardball town hall with mayor pete buttigieg. Leo price, last question, sir. Thank you for coming today. Im an eighth grader and my question is, since Climate Change will have a big affect on my future, what measures do you support to stop this crisis . Well, thanks for your question. Thanks for not being as tough on me as i was when i was a young person asking a president ial candidate a question. Look, this is an existential issue and i think we got to treat it like a security issue. Its also a moral issue and its an issue of intergenerational justice because each generation in the future is being made worse off if we dont deal with it. So what can we do . We definitely got to have a carbon price and dividend, carbon tax and dividend. Call it what you want. Weve got to at least quadruple federal r d. Weve got to undertake building retrofits, which by the way, will create a lot of jobs in addition to making us more energy efficient. Weve got to put climate at the center of our diplomacy so other countries are held accountable for their part of the seclusion. Places like Rural America, like the central valley, could be a huge part of the solution. There are some estimates through better soil management, soil could capture a level of carbon equivalent to the entire Global Transportation industry. If we let Rural America know they can be the most important part of the solution instead of feeling like theyre part of the problem, we might be able to break down some of the resistance, when Rural America is beginning to realize because of this extreme weather where i live is making it hard to see whether its worth planting soy this year, for example, because some of the fields are so waterlogged after some of the extreme weather. They have the most to lose, but the point is all of us need to be part of a National Project to deal with good climate through good policy, yes, through the private, public, academic and social sector can bring on this issue. Leo, thank you. Mayor pete, thank you. Special thanks to fresno state, where we are right now. What a great place. Go bulldogs. Thats all for the special hardball town hall. All in with chris hayes starts right now. Thank you. Tonight on all in what is the president covering up . The pressure to impeach. To me its a dirty word, the word impeach. With at least 58 hours members signaling support and the first mueller hearing a week away, where do democrats stand on impeachment . Weve already begun it. Then exclusive new reporting on children separated from their parents. Plus senator chris murphy on the Gun Legislation stalled in the senate. And the president s soninlaw on mid east peace and his fatherinlaws birtherism. I