[ cheers and applause ] i have to ask you the meaning of those lyrics to you. Just turns out yesterday we were in oklahoma. Woodie guthrie means a lot to me. He was one of the great song writers in modern american history. Theres a museum in oklahoma for him. We use his song, this land is your land at many of our rallies. I think what he did is capture the spirit of working americans, of poor people in an extraordinary way he brought together people like ledbetter, pete sieger and others to create a whole moment for folk music in this country. An extraordinary man. I know you did an album. Oh, god, please. Youre using Woodie Guthries name and my name in an album. The american presidency has four hats. The first is chief executive, responsibility of the entire federal government and its efficiency and honest. Second, head of state. Head of government through your legislative program. The one i want to talk about first is commander in chief. You forgot one important thing. Go for it. Represent the American People. Represent working people and poor people and elderly. People who are being shafted today who need in the wealthiest country in the history of the world to right to have a decent standard of living and the right know their government is not controlled by billionaires in a corrupt Campaign Finance system. One of the reasons im running for president , everything you said is true is to transform American Society to take on a corrupt Campaign Finance system, rigged economy. When i look at what my agenda is, its everything you said but its more than that. Let me ask you about the role of commander in chief. Can you see yourself, your speeches are resounding and you have a powerful message. When it comes to the job it brings certainly responsibility. Can you see yourself in that position now . Absolutely. Ive very proud of my achievements. The most important decision that congress made in many years is the war in iraq. Its not just that i voted against the war, which is the right vote. Its not that i led the opposition against the war. Check out what i said on the floor of the house. Pretty good judgment. When you talk about my views now and how we destroy isis through a coalition, through muslim troops on the ground. I think my position is right. How do you establish that youre not a american to be messed with . Remember kennedy got in trouble. Once you look weak then they come at you. How do you deal with that . I dont know that i accept your basic assumptions here. Ive taken on every special interest in this country. Im fairly tough guy. I take on everybody. Im prepared to take on putin and everybody else. How do you let them know that . You let them know that because you have the Strongest Military in the world. We have a great military and prepared to use that when necessary. Let me also say, i think the kind of regime change the United States has brought forth has been counter productive. That was a terrible mistake. He wanted to Nationalize Oil there. You know we ended up with a lot of antiamerican sentiment. What Foreign Policy is about is not just power. It is judgment. I think we got to be a little bit careful about regime change. Hillary clinton sees as a mentor of hers, henry kissinger. I do not see him as a mentor of mine. I think he was one of the worst secretaries of state in the history of this country. Lets talk about trujillo. Thats right. Now we have something regime change. Instead of unofficial or official assassination policy, we have a regime change policy. You know im looking at libya, what did you think of that. We ended up killing the leaders any way. What happened . What happened the day after . Saddam hussein, a brutal murdering thug, a kadafi equal, bad guy. They got rid of them. He was killed. What happened right now . Isis has a foothold in libya which can be a testing ground, an operational strength, stronghold for them in terrorists attacks. Heres the point. All of us agree you have a lot of bad, bad people running countries around the world. Its not good enough to say assad is a terrible guy. He is. What happens the day after assad is gone . What is the best way to transition to democracy . On this area i would say Hillary Clinton and i have a difference. Its not just the war in iraq that she supported. Im a little more cautious in terms of regime change. Youre sitting in the white house and reading the oped and they start the drum beat for another regime change. Page after page, day after day, they start pounding the door. They said we got to get rid of assad. What do you do . You stand up to them. Youre absolutely right. The war drums for the war in iraq, i remember like it was yesterday. Initially the American People were very nervous about that war. You remember that . I remember it all. The media kept pounding you have to be tough and they have weapons of mass destruction. The trick is not just to understand we have a lot of bad people around the world. The trick is to understand what happened the day after you get rid of those people. This is a lesson ive learned not just from iraq but i knew a long, long time ago. Lets talk about an alternative world if you were president after 9 11. 9 11 happened, i know if youre secretary of state and they said al qaeda is about to attack, you probably would have done something. Sure. Lets talk about afterwards. The president had the country united. He stood at ground zero. He had the firefighter right next to him. He went to afghanistan. Would you have done that . First of all, what you want and what i believe also very importantly, if what the lesson of iraq is, very simply, United States of america cannot and should not be doing it alone. You need coalition. You need people on the ground. This is tough stuff. Or else nobody joins your posse. Korea they joined us. We are not the policeman of world. We have people sleeping out on the street a few blocks away from here. You have 29 people who have no health insurance. We are spending more money than the next Nine Countries of this world on the military. We have got to be strong. We have got to protect our allies around the world. We have to protect ourselves from the dangers of terrorisms. My Foreign Policy would be a little different than secretary clintons. If we dont have allies, we dont go . Youre asking me a hypothetical. Its not hypothetical. Nobody is joining us in fighting isis. They better start. Thats not quite true. Its not quite true. You have king abdulla of jordan thats making it very clear the way you destroy isis is with muslim troops on the ground. We have got to provide air supports and other types of supports. Are they there . We have to build that we are making a little bit of progress. Nobody here ploobelieves the ir army has been an effective fighting force. Finally with american help they were able to retake ramadi. Why did we tear apart the iraqi army . Dont ask me. Ask the bush administration. What we said to the people, youre terrible, awful people. Youre not going to lose your jobs, youre going to lose your money. Youre not going to be able the take care of your family. Arent we shocked. What a shock that was. This is a tough one. I dont have the answer thats why im giving you the question. Gitmo. We can argue about the numbers. There are men down there that we think they are scared of. We know they will get us as soon as we let them go. What do we do with them . I think the president is right. You shut down gitmo. What do you do with the people . Dangerous people you cant convict. When they said they deserve a trial. You have to release them because theyre on u. S. Territory. Isnt that why they are on gitmo because its not u. S. Territory . Gitmo sends a signal to much of the entire muslim world, the United States talks a good game about democracy, but take a look at gitmo. Theyre running a prison camp. What do you do with them . I dont have all the answers but i believe we shut it down. If we let them go im not going to let them go and start waging terrorist attacks against the United States. Let me get to one point. All those issues are important. Let me get to an issue thats more important, if i might. That issue is were going to change nothing in the United States unless we address a corrupt Campaign Finance system. Ill tell you something very interesting. You know what i find, its not just progressives. Its conservative who is are saying whats going on when you have billionaires spending unlimited sums of money buying elections. What this campaign is about is trying to bring about a political revolution. I acknowledge at every speech that i give is no president , not Bernie Sanders or anybody else can do it alone. Wall street and Corporate America and the Big Campaign Donors and the Corporate Media are so powerful, so powerful that were not going to change america unless millions of people stand up and fight back. Thats the most important. Lets talk about that when we come back. Give it respect by the republican senate. Without doing that you cant change the court or get rid of citizens united. Well be right back. Were live. Hardball college tour. My name is melissa snyder, im a Customer Relationship manager with pg e. Ive helped customers like plantronics meet their Energy Efficiency goals. So you save energy and you can save money. Energy efficiency and the environment go hand in hand. And i love how pg es commitment to the environment helps a Community Like santa cruz be a better place to live. And being able to pass that along to my family is really important to me. Just being together and appreciating what we have right here in santa cruz. See how you can save energy at pge. Com. Together, were building a better california. Its a big issue for you and the country. The question is how do we replace the Supreme Court system. How do you get the republicans to get a hearing. The president doesnt seem to be able to move these people. What we have and im in the senate and have been throughout obamas tenure, we have a level of obstructionism which i believe is unprecedented in the history of the United States. What happened, as you know, literal ri ly on the day he was sworn in, they got together and said how do we make sure hes as ineffective as possible . How do we stall . Im there. Ive seen them. We cant get an assistant sanitation worker approved without going through all sorts of processes. This is just a continuation of that. You asked me the question of what do we do about it . Ly be very clear to see that the president does make a nomination and that the United States senate holds the hearings to either approve or disapprove. Thats what the constitution mandates. Theres no debate about that, is there . No. Article 2 says name a nominee. Its his job. Its as clear as the nose on our faces and yet these people are so obstructionist they dont want to give the president the right to fulfill his constitutional duty. Ill do everything i can to make it happen. You asked what do we do about it. This is what the campaign is about. I know its outside of mainstream thinking. You ready for this one, chris . Yes. I think i can take it. Take it. I dont want anyone collapsing on me. Its to revitalize american democracy on issue after issue. Its motte just republican obstructionism on this issue. You have a congress that does the bidding of the billion their class. You know. Youre there all the time. Half the members of congress are spending their life raising money. Its getting worse and worse. This is what you got to do. What you need to do is rally the American People. Give you an example. Raising the minimum wage. Overwhelming support for raising the minimum wage. Congress does not want to do it. Pay equity for women workers. Congress doesnt want to do it. Obama cant do it, but you can. How . What you need and what i say is you need a political revolution. You need these young people to understand and orking people and low income people, if they are not involved actively in the political process, it will be the billionaire class who makes decisions for them and not necessarily in their interest. You get elected. Say you get elected and take off next january 20th. You walk up to the senate and you meet with the leadership and say i have a program here. Government funded tuition, theres things i want on Social Security to increase benefits and things i want done on health care so it can become like medicare for life. You have very strong positions. Mitch mcconnell says forget about it. I say take a look out the window. Theres a million young people out there who dont want to be in debt for half their life for the crime of going to college. If you want to antagonize those Million People and lose your job, if you dont want to lose your job, you better start listening to what we have to say. Thats the point. Thats how change takes place. How do you squeeze a guy like him . Its not him. I know mitch. These are smart you need 60 senators. You need 60. Absolutely, positively, 100 , if we rally young people in this country to say, you know what, germany, scandinavia, other countries have free tuition. I have talked to kids 30, 40, 50,000 in debt paying a huge percentage of their income. Young people stand up and say we are sick and tired of it. We dont want to go in debt for our whole lives because we got a college education. Well win that fight immediately. The trick is not to appeal to mitch mcconnell. Its to say take a look at your emails. What evidence do you have this has worked for you . Have you increased the turn out . Have you been able to get 60 votes for anything . What evidence do you have you can do it . Thats what the Civil Rights Movement was about. Thats what the Womens Movement, gay movement. Its necessary but is it sufficient . Is it sufficient to get it done . Theyre running their own states with their own constituencies that saber kny Bernie Sanders i liberal. How do you know you can do it . I dont know anything. We do the best we can do. We try. If i said i think in 2015, gay marriage will be legal. You would have told me i was crazy, honestly . Thats what you would have told me. You thinking about it . I cant see the future. Youre right it moved very quickly. It moved quickly because people in the Gay Community and their straight allies said they have a right. Do you see any republicans how does this relate . Let me answer your question. I dont see the connection. I see all the connection. Youre asking me how to make change. You dont make change by sitting down with mitch mcconnell. You demand change. Thats the way change has always been. [ cheers and applause ] i use gay right which is is a good example. Contemporary example for these young people. When i voted against doma in 1996, that was a very difficult vote. What about the Civil Rights Movement . What about the Womens Movement . It always happened when millions of people demand change. We have massive levels of income and wealth inequality. When the top 1 10th percent have more wealth than the bottom. It seems the reason we got gay marriage is they couldnt find anybody, there was nobody on the other side. They didnt have a case. There was no damage done by gay marriage. Thats what happened. There were no losers. Whoa, whoa. They couldnt make a case against it. Hold it. I dont agree with it. You have all of these fundamentalists. They didnt lose. They disagree but they didnt lose. I think they lost. Let me ask you about money. If we get tuition money, it has to come from someone. Those will be the people that lose. There will be tremendous forces against everything youve advocated. Its not like saying, nobody is staying up all night worrying about gay marriage. This thing they are losing money. What youre saying is you have a powerful billionaire class who wants it all and will resist any change. Anyone with substantial wealth or 401 k . Youre going into a different direction. Youre talking about the koch brothers. And everyone in the stock market. Who are very, very wealthy . Anyone in the stock market. No, no. Let me just say this if i might. In the last 30 years, you know whats happened . Theres been a massive redistribution of wealth. I agree completely. Its gone from the middle class and working families to the top 1 10th of 1 . I didnt hear the establishment moans about how crazy it was when trillions of dollars left the pockets of middle class. When im talking about giving the middle class a break. I agree with it. How do you get it done with all these powers against you. The finance committee. We have to get that tax passed. You have to bededicated to tuition bills. Let me be very clear. I believe in the year 2016, a College Degree today is about the equivalent of a High School Degree 50, 60 years. I agree with that. What i believe that when we talk about public education, it shouldnt be first grade through 12th. It should be through college. I believe that public colleges and universities, not the university of chicago, sorry guys, public colleges and universities should be tuition free, so that every kid in this country i grew up in family that didnt have a lot of money. My parents never went to college. I want every kid who has the ability to do so, to go to college. I also want to deal with an issue you guys are worried about is student debt, is that true . We got millions of people really being crushed with student debt. My idea is to merge the two. Youre asking me how to pay for it. I havent asked you that. How do you get through the senate . Well pay for it through tax on wall street. Who will pass that tax . Th