[ cheers and applause ] please welcome former secretary of state hillary clinton. [ cheers and applause ] ladies and gentlemen, the Democratic Candidates for president of the United States [ cheers and applause ] before we begin tonight, we want to take a moment to remember former first lady nancy reagan. As you probably know she passed away this morning at the age of 94. Her grace and elegance in the white house, her deep love for president reagan, and her strength and advocacy in the fight against alzheimers and drug abuse will always be remembered. We would like to pause for a moment of silence in honor of mrs. Reagan. And now will you please rise for the National Anthem performed by the flint citywide choir conducted by darnell ishmael. Oh, say can you see by the dawns early light what so proudly we hailed at the twilights last gleaming whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight oer the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming and the rockets red glare t
Senator sanders is first. We begin with him. Anderson, thank you very much. Over the last several weeks, i had the opportunity to meet with a number of residents of flint, had a town meeting in flint, and i have to tell you, what i heard and what i saw literally shattered me and it was beyond belief that children in flint, michigan, in the United States of america in the year 2016 are being poisoned. That is clearly not what this country should be about. As anderson indicated there is a lot of blame to go around. One of the points that i have made is i believe the governor of this state should understand that his dereliction of duty was irresponsible. He should resign. [ applause ] but more importantly, what is happening in flint to a lesser degree is happening throughout this country. In recent years, we have seen a proliferation of millionaires and billionaires and increase in income in wealth inequality and all over this country middle class families are struggling and cities and to