Montana governor Stephen Bullock is one of those who sees himself as a moderate, also pulling in the single digits. Governor, it is good to see you here. I almost didnt recognize you without nine people standing to your left. The format today will include remarks from the governor followed by questions from myself and the audience. Governor bullock is the only candidate who won the election in 2016 in a state by donald trump and the only candidate who has a National Campaign finance reform at the core of his. Latform governor bullock expanded aticaid, expanded programs schools. He made montana the first state to protect Net Neutrality through legislation. He has promised that if elected president of the u. S. , his First Official act, we define an executive order requiring corporations to disclose every dollar they scan on electoral. Olitics he told those of his fellow candidates who support the Illegal Immigrants are walking into a trap donald trump has set for them. After this weekends tragedies, governor bullock shared his personal story of his 11yearold nephew who was shot and killed at a School Playground by fellow classmates. The governor called for expanded background checks, red flag laws, and a boost to Mental Health care as well as a ban on assault weapons. Governor bullock is a native of montana. He previously served as innesota eat attorney general and a lawyer in private practice in both helena and washington he is an adjunct professor law. Please welcome Steve Bullock to club. Tional press thanks so much, thomas, and hank you all for taking a little bit of time this morning. An honor to get to be here. El t, the Mass Shootings in paso and in dayton, theyre just for the not families, not just for the indeed for our entire country. F. B. I. , since he the attacks of 9 11, more have been killed by fueledc terrorism, often by a hatred and white than foreign terrorism. This must stop. Of pious are sick politicians offering hopes and and burying common sense we gun safety laws before have even comforted the victims of the last mass shooting. Job, but has done its the senate wont act. And each if they would, donald likely veto it. We need to acknowledge the nra and other extremist groups have a stranglehold on our politics. And that stranglehold is caused by fists full of dark money. When a was growing up, the nra was hunting, gun safety and shooting organization. Now it is nothing more than a Political Organization designed to tear us apart. If we were to pass meaningful anticorruption laws, then rather than being one of the most feared men in washington, Wayne Lapierre would be nothing more than another dweeb in a 1000 italian suit. Aking on the corrupting influence of money in our elections has to happen. But d. C. s inability to do so cannot be the excuse for continuing inaction. I come from the west. Our tradition of hunting and fishing, hiking and exploring, it runs deep. I am a hunter and a gun owner. And let me say that as a hunter, no real hunter needs a 30 round clip. No real hunter needs a weapon of war. No real hunter needs a bump stock. And no real hunter wants a terrorist or domestic abuser or a violent felon or someone wrestling with Mental Illness or alienation to get his hands on a weapon, period. Yes, the Second Amendment confers rights. But like all rights, they come with responsibility. And like all rights, they can be forfeited. People on the terrorist watch list lose the right to board an airplane. They should damn sure lose the right to a gun. I am calling on my fellow gun owners to take leadership in the fight against gun violence that is tearing our country apart. Be bigger than what this city washington, d. C. , is. I believe i can speak to folks who live in gun country. I know their hearts. And their hearts are not with the White Supremacists and domestic terrorists. They want to keep their kids in their communities safe from gun violence just like each of us. Yet they are also worried and it times feel threatened. It is no surprise given that the nra has spent hundreds of millions of dollars doing everything it can to scare them and to divide us. The only way we can move forward is to do so together. As dr. King taught us, we are woven into one fabric of common destiny. But donald trump has done all he can to rip us asunder. Mr. Trumps hatred is damn be the ties that bind. Hs hateful rhetoric about immigrants, communities of muslims and other permission ive the structure for hate. Heres a sentence i never thought i would utter, the president of United States gives aid and comfort to the enemies and incites abroad the enemies of decency at home. That is why i am here today. Im here because more than almost anything in the world, i want to see Donald Trumps presidency end. But as i stood on that debate stage last week and then listened to that next night, i saw his reelection becoming more likely with each passing minute. As someone who comes from a state where a lot of people voted for donald trump, someone he is going hard to be to beat, please permit me o take everyone out of the twitter verse for at least a minute and bring us back to earth. Let me put it plainly. We could not defeat Donald Trumps politics of personal the ibution if we practice politics of selfdestruction. The fact is, we are well on her way to losing this election long before it ever really even has started. Let me start with health care. Barack obamas Affordable Care act was the greatest expansion of Health Care Coverage since medicaid and medicare. And despite this administrations constant efforts to sabotage, it is working. 90 of americans now have health care. Health insurance. We need to get to 100 . And we need to guarantee that those who have Health Insurance are not bankrupted by costs, denied coverage, priced out of lifesaving medications, or ripped off. It has taken us 70 years to get this close. It makes no sense to go back to square one. I stood on that debate stage and i could not believe that after 70 attempts by republicans, it is now the democrats who are calling to repeal and replace obamacare. If you propose abolishing private Health Insurance, you will lose. You will reelect trump. You simply cannot upend the Health Coverage of 180 million americans on the promise of something better. Especially when you dont need to in order to give every american Affordable Health care. It is like the guy who inherited his familys 100 year Old Homestead in montana. The roof leaked, so to the pipes, but the bones were good. The structure was sound. The foundation was solid. The family was comfortable. So kept what was working, replaced what wasnt, and everybody was happy. My opponents look at our Health Care System and see a tear down. I see an addon. We do not need a wrecking ball for obamacare, just a repair job. I recently signed into law the reauthorization of Medicaid Expansion in montana. Yes, montana. I was able to get work with a trump Republican Majority Legislature to reauthorize medicaid something the purple florida, and nsin, North Carolina have yet to be able to do. And we got it done even after Tobacco Companies spent 26 million killing that renewal by Ballot Initiative only two months before the legislative session began. Heres how i got passed in 2015 and how we renewed it in 2019. I made the case unless we expanded medicaid, folks would lose their rural hospitals, our economy would suffer, companies that are unwilling or unable to provide health care will lose that medicaid coverage for their employees. You see, the winning argument on health care has often been youre going to lose what you like. That is how the right defeated hillarycare in 1994. How democrats blocked newt from cutting medicare in 1997. And it is why despite 70 attempts, the republicans have been unable to repeal and replace obamacare. Even though the Trump Administration continues its quest to repeal each and every day. But that is also why the repeal and replace democrats are wrong. We saved rural hospitals, my appraoch, that approach has been dismissed as incrementalism. By delivering results. Lets not forget that we bill medicare incrementally. When it was created, medicare does not cover folks who had longterm disability. Prescription drug coverage was not added until 2003. Getting rid of the donut hole Prescription Drug coverage did not happen until the affordable. Are act so for 54 years, we have added to it, covering all americans, expanding benefits. We can do the same with obamacare, and it will not take 54 years. As president , ill sign Health Reform that covers everyone, opens medicare to all, brings down drug prices and costs, and retain a private option. And i will do it in my first term. There is one part of obamacare that i dont want to change. When president obama proposed it, it did not extend coverage to folks who are here without documentation. I suspect he did so for both political and practical reasons. The political being it would never have passed with that provision. And the practical being it could, at least, create a magnet for even more without documentation. Now, imagine for just a moment how these two issues come together today in the minds of a lot of voters. My opponents are effectively saying to 180 million americans, im outlawing that private insurance that you went on strike for, struggled for, but dont worry, im going to replace it with the same policy that will give to undocumented immigrants. It might work in burlington, it wont sell in billings. We need comprehensive immigration reform. Protecting the dreamers, the path to citizenship for those living in our country without documentation. Two thirds of whom have been here for over a decade. We need border security. But we need sanity, not divinity is securing our borders. Yet our every action cannot be that reaction to donald trump. To that end, a third issue which i believe is a dealbreaker for the voters that we need to win the white house is to criminalizing unlawful entry. Wrong solution for the wrong problem. The law criminalizing border crossings without papers was enacted in 1929. And for 90 years, we enforced our borders without putting kids into cages. We can do so we can. We all want to reunite families. We want to protect children. And we could do so without repealing a 90 year old law. What we need to do is repeal the trump presidency. And that really is the goal here, is defeating donald trump. To do that, we need 270 electoral votes. To get that, we have to win in places that went for trump the last time. I guarantee you, if i am the nominee, i will place a bet right here with all of you that im going to carry vermont, massachusetts, and california. But i wonder if the senators from vermont, massachusetts, and california to make that same guarantee about carrying montana or michigan or wisconsin or pennsylvania . I pledge to work my heart out for whoever the nominee is. If i come up short in the primary, i will work ceaselessly to defeat mr. Trump. Yet some of my fellow Democratic Candidates are not making it easy. I have two tests for any policy position. One, will it solve the problem . Two, can we get it done . Im a prochoice, prounion, populist democrat. Ive won not by compromising our values, but my fighting like hell to deliver results for the people in my state. I take a little issue at times and thomas is, well, he is the moderate on the state. Only inasmuch as if the core word to progressive is making progress in peoples lives, making them know that they can have a better life. In many respects when i look at the film largely out of d. C. , i get more progressive by my results than anyone in the field. The way i have one and what we need to do now is to make sure voters know the democrats hear them, understand that problems and challenges they are facing, and have solutions that we can deliver that will make a difference for them. If it is not going to help people, what is the point . People have been let down by this president enough. We have to deliver for folks. Principle and pragmatism must be intertwined. And this multicultural, multilingual, multifaceted democracy. Those two questions, will we solve it and can we deliver on it, they come together. And when we focus on those questions, unite the country and move solutions forward, you would be surprised at what we can do. And i know that in my bones. I proved it in office and even before. I led the fight to raise the minimum wage in montana before even got into office at a time when there was only 5. 15 an hour. As attorney general, i fought to make elections about people, not corporations. I fought to change our criminal Justice System so a child that is a victim is not further victimized by the system and can start on a path of healing. I took on the big banks. I used the money that we recovered to help people stay in their homes. I took on the drug companies. Used that money to fill gaps in Mental Health. As governor, even with a deeply divided legislature about 60 now republican, the best it is ever been we have been able to address many of those seemingly intractable problems. From keeping College Costs affordable to criminal Justice Reform to kicking dark money and foreign money out of our elections. After 20 years of trying in montana, passing unearned income tax credit, after 20 years of trying, finally providing firefighters protections against cancer and other illnesses for exposure to workplace dangers, after a decade passing the largest Infrastructure Program in over a decade, we have done that and more. I know politicians always tell you this election is the most important election in your lifetime. This one really is. And it is not because i am on the ballot. Not even because donald trump and his hate fueled presidency is on the ballot. The American Dream itself is on the ballot. More than anything else in this 243 year experiment called representative democracy, i am seeking the presidency to revive the American Dream. I have lived that dream. When you go from delivering newspapers to the governors house as a kid to now raising our three kids and it, you have lived that American Dream. For far too many of people of color, that dream has been denied. For far too many women in this country, that dream has been deferred. For far too many immigrants, that dream has been derailed. And for far too many farmers and factory workers and shopkeepers, that dream has been destroyed. The American Dream is not a myth. It is, as dr. King famously taught us, a promissory note. And for far too many americans, that promissory note has been nothing more than a bounced check. When i was a boy, 90 of americans knew that they would do better than their parents had done. Today, it is less than half of 30 year olds are doing better than their parents were at age 30. 60 of americans have not had a pay increase in real terms in 40 years. Friends, the American Dream is not dead, but it is on life support. And if we give donald trump four more years, he will pull the plug on the American Dream. We can bring that dream to life. We can guarantee secure, Affordable Health care to every plug on the American Dream. American. We can send every child to quality schools where she can reach the fullest of her godgiven potential. We can save our precious planet and create good green jobs while doing it. Without leaving communities american. Behind. We can pay folks a living wage, offer them a secure retirement after a lifetime of work. We can make the burden of Student Loans more bearable without taking our eye off the ball that almost two thirds of folks in this country have no college degree. And we must be getting stuff done for them as well. We can clean up that cesspool of dark money and influence here in washington. I do believe im the best candidate to carry that case to every part of the country. I refuse to cede the votes of rural americans to donald trump. As if men and women who work the land, see the world, pass a plate on sunday are forever wedded to a new york man with orange hair and a golden toilet. I refuse to see places off the coast and those who voted for obama then trump or they did not vote at all because they no longer believed the economy in washington, d. C. Was working for them. We need to make them both believe and understand that both will work for them. The American Dream is ably described by barack obama not as a revolution, but as a relay race requiring each of us to do our part to bring the country closer to its highest aspiration. The American Dream that was handed to me by women and men who carried the torch through really tumultuous times, but under donald trump, that flame is flickering. My solemn vow when i take that oath of office will certainly be to reserve, protect, and defend, yes, the constitution, but also the American Dream, to ensure that every pe