Hopefuls senator Amy Klobuchar and senator Elizabeth Warren in just three days here in South Carolina voters will put their stamp on the 2020 race in the first in the south primary. Many of those voters are here to ask the candidates questions before they head to the polls and now please welcome to the stage minnesota senator Amy Klobuchar. [ cheers and applause ] hi. How are you . Welcome. Thank you. So im going to ask you about what the president said earlier today about the coronavirus, but first i want to bring in a voter to talk about that, Caroline Schneider is a student at the college of charleston here who is currently supporting mayor buttigieg. Hi, caroline. Ive been to the college of charleston. Good to see you. Thank you, senator klobuchar for being here. Weve been dealing with an outbreak of mumps on campus and still receiving outbreak on how many cases its been and how its been through the student body and between this and the spreading of the coronavirus, what do you plan to do to keep these kinds of diseases for spreading. Thank you and thank you for putting that in the bigger context. I think the first thing that we want to do here whether it is people who are dealing with the mumps at your college or those around the world that have been sickened by the coronavirus is to thank those on the front line and the nurses, the doctors, the researchers and everyone that is working around the clock to get at these diseases. Last night on the debate stage i was asked about this, and you know how candidates always like to give their website out, right . I thought it was a moment to not just talk about why you want to be president , but to show how you should act as a president because until today our president has not addressed the nation about this, and i thought that he should have, so i actually gave out the cdc website, the cdc. Gov and urged people to look at that website to find out what you should do to protect yourself and find out what you should do if you feel sick whether its from the mumps or any other disease. Today when the president addressed this, he did do it with the cdc that i think thats important because i believe in science, but i also think as we look at diseases and how they spread, we have to think ahead, and a lot of this, when you look at the budgets and how he has handled this. Hes tried to cut the cdc in the past. He has tried to cut the organization that works with the rest of the world when it comes to pandemics and in fact, now, he kind of left it up in the air after asking for a billion dollars from congress about how much money and said i guess theyll decide that. I know that the democrats in the senate led by senator schumer, the place i work, have asked for Something Like 7, 8 billion and i think we have to be ready and the number one thing is to listen to the doctors and call the doctors and the other thing is to plan ahead and how i would do this as your president is one, make sure we have adequate medical help and research, that we have invested in education because the next vaccine or the next cure or the next way that we reduce the risk is probably right now in a College Student at your college, in their head or maybe its in a nurse in houston, and so investing in education, investing in medicine is important and then, of course, keeping the cdc strong. To give you a sense of my investment in the in science, when we had a shutdown, a Government Shutdown once caused by ted cruz, by the way, whole other story, i actually gave my salary during that time to the nih because i wanted to make clear that when you mess around with the government like that or when you are like President Trump and you throw darts at people you stop lifesaving cures. You stop research. Or if you go after our allies and you make it harder to work with them when it comes to curing diseases. Senator, what the president announced, one of the things he announced earlier was that the Vice President mike pence would lead the governmentwide team to deal with the coronavirus. Whats your response . Well, i would think usually you might put a medical professional in charge, but i am [ applause ] i would hope that the Vice President will be working. Im sure he will be with the agency heads at health and Human Services and at the cdc and sometimes you elevate things by giving them to the Vice President , but what i want to hear from which so often we see including in the First Response from this administration when we put the 14 people who have been infected on that plane along with the people that werent off that cruise line and brought them to our country, i think we want to make sure that everything is done in the right way and thats the job of congress to perform oversight. Thanks. Lets get back to the audience. Donna norvel is a consultant and Community Volunteer from Mount Pleasant and she is currently undecided. Thank you for coming to charleston. Welcome back. Thank you. The last time i saw you it was very hot outside here at the college. Senator, i am a domestic gun violence survivor. It was decades ago, and its only recently that ive been able to talk about it. Tell us what you plan to do to make sure that only mentally healthy citizens in our country have access to guns. Well, thank you. [ applause ] and i am so sorry that you went through that, and i am so proud of you for coming forward and talking because it takes it takes a lot of courage to do that. It is so easy to try to put it behind you, but you are actually speaking out for other people and i think you know that or you wouldnt have asked this question. So my answer is first of all, when it comes to making sure guns are not in the hands of people that will misuse them and people who shouldnt have guns is first of all, universal background checks. I had the experience after sandy hook to meet with parents that came to washington to try to get the universal background check bill done and that was the day that i had to tell them that we didnt have the votes in the senate to pass them, and i remember this mom sobbing and saying to me, you know, the last time that i saw my little boy he pointed up to the picture of his school aide on the refrigerator and he went off to school and then i never and she told me shed had the courage which she did to come to washington to advocate for universal background checks even though it wouldnt have saved her baby because of the circumstances of that case. Well, why . Because those universal background checks actually saved the most lives when it comes to things like suicides and when it comes to Domestic Violence. Another thing that you all know way too well in this town that would be very helpful would be to close the charleston loophole. The victims [ applause ] in honor of reverend pinckney in that tragic, tragic case, giving police the time that they need to review so in a case where you have someone who may be mentally ill or may have something that shows up on their record, if the police doesnt have the time to review that youre not going to be able to get through it. Another bill that those two bills, by the way, are sitting on Mitch Mcconnells desk and as president i would get them done. The other thing i mentioned is something i mentioned last night which is closing the boyfriend loophole, and what this says right now is that in a number of states if you are convicted of serious Domestic Abuse that you can go out and actually still get a gun, and yet theres a huge correlation between Domestic Abuse convicts and later homicides. So i have put that bill out there for a long, long time and have not been able to get it through. We turn the peoples house back into the peoples house. Thanks to you, South Carolina, and your election of representative cunningham, by the way [ cheers and applause ] that is democracy in action and because of that we finally got that through the house and that bill is now sitting on Mitch Mcconnells desk. So in light of what happened today in mill walk e the mass shooting that you saw here, the Mass Shootings we see all over the country, i still do not want us to forget the everyday gun violence, the kids that get killed every single day in this country. The victims of Domestic Violence, the Police Officer in minnesota whose funeral i attended who showed up at a Domestic Violence scene because a young woman had called and he had a bulletproof vest on, but the guy with severe Mental Illness problems shot that officer in the head and when i was sitting in that church i saw his widow go down the aisle with their three little kids and the last time theyd been in that church was for the nativity play with their dad in the front row. Domestic violence affects an individual victim, but it affects a whole community and when we look at these gun violence laws we have to respond to the Mass Shootings and the hate crimes, but we also have to make sure were looking at solutions for everyday gun violence. Thank you, senator. I want to go to another undecided voter in the audience. Orlando sutton, retired different ridistrict ranger with the u. S. Forest service. Thank you very much. Good evening, senator. Why should plaque america vote for you . What are your goals to make inroads with Economic Opportunity political appointment and Affordable Housing and policing. Great question, thank you. [ applause ] i think as you know, there is still racism in society at every level. We know that when an africanamerican woman goes into a Maternity Ward in new orleans and says that her hands are swollen and no one listens and she walks out without her baby or the store security person who walks around following around someone, i know this story from someone i know in minnesota in a store just randomly profiling them and picking them out or the fact that africanamerican poverty for kids is 30 . All of that is wrong. So heres what i would do. First of all, i would make sure that people have the ability to vote, because to make all the changes that we have been talking about, all of the candidates youve heard have been talking about, you cant do it without the ability to vote. Im going to be in North Carolina tomorrow night and there a court actually said that their legislature, the bill they put forward was discrimination with surgical precision against africanamericans and it is everything from purging voting roles where we had not had that kind of conduct as well as other voting restrictions, stacy abrams would be governor of georgia right now. [ applause ] it is things like gerrymandering, it is things like making it hard for people to register to vote. I lead a number of those bills, in fact, all of the bills i just mentioned and so as president , i could actually get them done. Secondly, its an agenda of Economic Opportunity and that means everything from working with representative clyburn on his major plan to invest in areas that have been perpetually impoverished to making sure that we are investing in k through 12 education. Im the daughter of a second grade teacher and my moms looking down at me somewhere, so if i didnt say big Time Investment in education i dont think that id be here today because she cared so much about that. Its investment in preschool. Its taking those trump tax cuts where so much of the money went to the wealthy and putting it into things like making college more affordable and hbcus and making sure that we have retirement because that hits people of color more than any other group. So it is an agenda of Economic Opportunity, allowing people to vote and then, of course, criminal justice reform. Senator, you mentioned the congressman james clyburn. As you know, he endorsed your opponent. Im well aware. Joe biden. I can still mention him. I very much like him. What i want to ask you about is your history or your record so far with the black vote. In nevada you won 2 of black voters. So why are you a better choice for voters here in South Carolina with black voters than joed bien . First of all, i respect the work with the Africanamerican Community and hes well known and more well known than me and its up to me to earn the vote of the people of South Carolina. In my own state which ive always had strong support in the Africanamerican Community in all of my elections and i have a number of leaders in the Africanamerican Community in minnesota that are supporting me not only through the years, but in my president ial race. So the way i earn the support is with the agenda that i just talked about and it is also earning the hearts and minds of people. I am someone that myself has a story where i wouldnt be here without opportunity, and im someone that didnt come from a lot of money, dont have a big bank account, im not the one that youve heard of immediately, but through grit and resilience im standing up here on this stage, and [ applause ] i think there have been so many broken promises to the Africanamerican Community, and im not that person, and i think some of my colleagues, im not referring to the Vice President here, but some of my colleagues up on that debate stage were promising a lot of things that i dont think they can deliver, and i dont want to be that person, and thats why the plans that i just put forward to you when it comes to Affordable College and k through 12 investment, ive shown how im going to pay for every single to use senator sanders words, nickel and dime. Ive actually showed how im going to do it. Then, i think you also have to have someone that can win, and my story of winning is out there. Im the only one on that stage that not only won with the Africanamerican Community in my state and a firedup Democratic Base and the highest voter turnout in the country when i led the ticket, but i also was able to win in rural areas and in suburban areas with independent voters, with Republican Voters and that is a coalition. Black women have been carrying the torch for too long for the Democratic Party on their own and on their shoulders. I think they need the friends and that is how we build a big coalition. There are a lot of voters who are undecided and heres another question from an undecided voter. Dr. Eric berman, hes an opthalmologist of South Carolina. Maybe not in this room, in the great state of South Carolina, President Trump is very popular. Business is doing well and record low inemploymeunemployme. Weve heard in campaigns, its the economy stupid, why should we vote a president who is so successful with the economy out of office . Because he is not successful for a lot of people in this room. So i would start with that. [ cheers and applause ] i always think about when he went down to maralago, and after he signed that tax bill and he had this big party in a ballroom and he literally told all of his friends there you just got a lot richer. Was anyone here in that room . I just want to make sure i didnt want to embarrass anyone. If you were there, so the point of it is that thats worked really well for some people, but making things more affordable, that should be a focus of a president and thats everything from bringing down healthcare costs which he promised to do. He went on fox news and he said he would bring pharma prices down so low it would make your head spin. Well, it makes your head spin because theyve gone up so far. Hes done nothing about college affordability. He has not kept the promises on infrastructure, so important here in South Carolina, Rural Broadband and the like. So i think you have that issue that there hasnt been shared prosperity and you have a second set of issues which is dealing with the longterm challenges to make our economy strong and that is everything from workforce training to Immigration Reform which would be very good for our economy to climate change. When you look at the effect its going to have on the economy here in South Carolina and tourism, i look at it as a moral issue, yes, but also an economic issue to institutional racism and the like, and then finally, if you want to bring people together so we can compete in the World Economy and be a beacon of entrepreneurship and a beacon of democracy for the world, you dont go and go after their own people. You dont go after immigrants. You dont say you dont say after charlottesville that there are two sides when the other side is a ku klux klan. Theres only one side and thats the american side. Yet another undecided voter. Okay. Katherine mansfield, an attorney from Mount Pleasant. Hi, katherine. Hi, good evening. You often claim that your ties to the midwes