Summary

TVU 21 ANDREW YANG MT PLEASANT IA MEET AND GREET ABC UNI 010420 2020 [16:45:58] 50 plus policy. Then you know that he fully intends to do this work for the freedom dividend is a critical first step in the right direction. It will pave the road ahead to the millions of Americans, can lift their heads up and looked forward and just plan and save for a rainy day. Hope for a brighter future. That's why I so embrace this campaign and my work putting humanity first, what humanity first means to me is super charging our people, super charging our family, super charging our community. It's not just about giving people money. It's about what people can do when they're in power with more freedom and more choice. [16:46:47] That's more than any science group. We all want not just to help ourselves, but to help each other. It's what makes us human. And so building a better society starts with us. People invest in us and we will invest in each other. So many people are just scraping by. And that is terrible for humanity because that's when we're isolated in stress, in fear and doubt, and that's when we can't even agree on it. [16:47:17] That's what this campaign offers is a new way forward. It's a movement that suggests that people have value no matter their race, your gender or your paycheck. It's a path that will show all of us that our country cares about us and our country is willing to step up to secure us a better future. That is the future that Andrew is fighting for, for us and for all of our children. So now please join me in welcoming my husband, the next president of the United. [16:48:17] There also is talk in your thinking, everyone. 2020. [16:48:24] I am the luckiest guy I know at any time. Anyone thanks me for running. [16:48:29] I say with all sincerity, thank my wife because she won't let me run. It, too, is making much bigger sacrifices than anyone. While I've been on the trails. Thank you, baby. I love you. [16:48:45] And I joke about the fact that she never imagined that I would run for president because I'm really bad at lying. I think a terrible politician. As a result, I'm not a career politician at all. I'm an entrepreneur and problem solver. I spent the last seven years helping to create thousands of jobs in Michigan, Ohio, Missouri, Alabama. And while I was doing that work, I saw firsthand why Donald Trump won Iowa by eight points, why he won in 2016. He won because we blasted away four million manufacturing jobs that were primarily based in Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Missouri, and forty thousand right here in Iowa. [16:49:36] I looked into those towns and we all know what happens when a factory or plant closes. The shopping district closes. People start to leave, the school breaks and that community never recovers. I have seen these communities in the places where Trump won and I know what happened to those communities is now shifting to other parts of our economy. How many of you have noticed stores closing where you work and live here in Mount Pleasant? [16:50:05] Henry County. And why are those stores closing? [16:50:11] Amazon? That's right. Amazon is soaking up 20 billion dollars of business every single year, closing 30 percent of our stores and malls. How much of that was on paying federal taxes last year? Zero. That is your math. Iowa, 20 million out, 30 percent of your stores closed. You get zero back. The most common job in the country and in your communities is retail work. The average retail clerks at 39 year old woman making between eight and ten dollars an hour. What is her next move? When the store closes? [16:50:46] Yeah, I know it is somewhat rhetorical. Who knows what the next move is? Oh, how many you've seen the self-service kiosk at a fast food restaurant or CBS at a grocery store? McDonald's says every location the U.S. will have these kiosks by next year. And they're now looking at automating the back of the house, the robot burger flippers, the price cookers. It's not just the things that we can see. When you call the customer service line of a big company and you get the bot or software, you do the same thing I do, which is 2 pounds, 0 0 0 is a human being, human representative. [16:51:23] And to get someone in the library, raise your hand if that's what you do. [16:51:26] Our software is miserable, but in two or three short years, the software is going to sound like this. Hello, Andrew. What can I do for you? It'll be seamless, efficient, delightful. You might not even know its software. What is this going to mean for the two and a half million Americans who work at call centers right now making fourteen dollars an hour? [16:51:46] Where are the unemployment? How many of you all know a truck driver here in Iowa? [16:51:54] My friends in California are working on trucks. I can drive themselves. They say they're in 98 percent of the way there. There was a robot truck that took 20 tons of butter from California to Pennsylvania just two weeks ago with no human intervention. Why butter? [16:52:10] I have no idea what a global robot butter truck you'll see. [16:52:19] These trucks are already hitting the highways. What will that mean for the three and a half million Americans who drive a truck for a living right now? Or the 7 million Americans who work at truck stops, motels and diners that rely upon the truckers getting out and eating and sleeping every day. I've been to Iowa and out for company for the highway. Right, because they've got an excellent buffet for the valley. It's like, wow, really good riding for that price. They say that 5000 people out there every single day. How many people will out there when the trucks don't need to sell for a meal anymore? This is the greatest economic transformation in our country's history when experts are calling the fourth industrial revolution. When's the last time you heard a politician say the words fourth industrial revolution? [16:53:13] Seconds ago. I'm barely a politician. [16:53:19] So when Donald Trump won in 2016, I took that as a giant red flag that tens of millions of our fellow Americans decided to take a bet on the narcissist reality TV star as our president. That was not business as usual. And though some of you reacted very, very well, at first I was like groomed like like just believe Naja. It was a shock. But even though it was a shock to me, we all have family members and friends and neighbors who celebrated his victory, particularly here in Iowa. And so to me, we have to solve the problems that got him elected in the first place. [16:54:08] And we have to identify with this problem. We really are. We're in the midst of this historic economic transformation that is leaving more and more of us behind in the feedback mechanism between us. The people of this country and Washington, DC has broken down. People do not believe that DC is actually responding to our problems anymore. This is one reason why it's a thrill to be here in Iowa with you all. You all are among the most powerful people in our country today. [16:54:35] I know it does not feel like it because you're just living your lives. Well, I've done the math. You know how many Californians? [16:54:42] Each of you is worth 1000 Californians each. So if you look around this room, how many of us are here today? I'm going to give a trophy, an estimate. [16:55:05] There were a hundred of us here today that would still be two and a half football stadiums full of Californians. [16:55:11] That is the power that you all have. That is why presidential candidates come to you and present our vision for the future because unlike anyone else in the country, you can actually flush the pipes that are clogged with the lobbyist cash. Other Americans look up and they say there is nothing they can do to dislodge the corporate interests that have overrun our government. They are generally correct. There is nothing they can do. [16:55:38] It is only you and their country that can actually recapture our government for our people. The question is, how do you use that power? What is the vision that we will present to the rest of the country in 30 short days? [16:55:54] Can you believe that terrorism and now you are here today? At some point you heard that there someone running for president who wants to give everyone in the country 1000 dollars a month. And the first time you heard that. You said that's a gimmick. That will never happen. That's too good to be true. But this is not my idea. It's not a new idea. [16:56:14] Thomas Paine was for this at the founding of the country. He called it the citizen's dividend for all Americans. Martin Luther King fought for this in the 1960s, and it is what he was fighting for when he was killed in 1968. I know this in part because I had the privilege of sitting with Dr. King's son in Atlanta, and he said that this is what his dad was fighting for. I have to say, it was fascinating to hear someone refer to Martin Luther King as dad. [16:56:42] He said this is what dad was fighting for. And I was like, Martin Luther King is your dad. Yes. [16:56:57] Those who did. It was so mainstream that a thousand economists endorsed this in the 1960s and it passed the U.S. House of Representatives in 1971 under Richard Nixon. It was called the Family Assistance Plan, set an income floor for all Americans. And then eleven years later, one state passed a dividend where now everyone in that state gets between one and two thousand dollars a year. No questions asked. And what state is that? And how is Alaska pay for it? Why and what is the oil of the 21st century technology that data technology, A.I., self-driving cars and trucks? [16:57:37] A study just came out that said that our data is now worth more than oil. How many of you saw that study? How many of you got your data checked in the mail last month? If our data is now worth billions, tens of billions of dollars, where's all that money going emanates from Facebook, Amazon, Google and the trillion dollar tech companies that are paying zero or near zero in taxes. That is one reason why it feels like our communities are getting sucked dry because they are being sucked dry by these companies that are paying zero into the system. This is what you all must change. This is how we rewrite the rules of the 21st century economy to work for. Awesome. [16:58:20] To work for you. To work for our families. If it's not working for you, it's not working and you have the power to change it. [16:58:30] So this dividend, if you take our tiny fair share of every Amazon sale and we Google search, every Facebook ad, eventually every robot truck, while we can easily afford a thousand dollar dividend for every American, which incidentally would stack on top of Social Security would be the biggest boost for people to be able to retire with dignity in all these circumstances that's been proposed in generations. [16:58:58] But we can easily afford it if we have a mechanism or we're getting our fair share of this, literally trillions of dollars of value that's being generated and spirited out of our communities, particularly because when this money is in your hands, where will it go? How will you actually spend it in real life? How much of it would stay right here in Iowa? [16:59:21] Not most. All of it. A little bit of it would float up to the cloud. You might buy that blender. You had your high on an Amazon, but most of it would go to daycare expenses and car repairs you are putting off and little league sign ups and local nonprofits and religious organizations. [16:59:40] This is the trickle up economy from our people, families and communities up. This is the vision that you can take to the rest of the country in 30 short days and make real. It would make our people stronger, healthier, less stressed out, mentally healthier, improved relationships. This is how we turn around the mindset of scarcity that is overrunning our communities and keeping everyone's heads down, turning us against each other, making it harder and harder for us to solve the real problems of this time. We're all being beat over the head with these economic measurements that are saying everything is great. Yet we're looking around our community saying it does not feel great. [17:00:21] And it turns out that, as usual, we're right and the numbers are wrong. You have a record high corporate profits and GDP in this country right now. Also, a record highs, stress, anxiety, mental illness, student loan debt, even suicides and drug overdoses. It has gotten so bad that America's life expectancy has declined for the last three years in a row. You know, the last time America's life expectancy declined like that three years in a row. The Spanish flu of 1918, a global pandemic that killed millions. You have to go back that far to find a time like this in American history. It is highly unusual for life expectancy to ever decline in a developed country is ordinarily just keeps going upwards because we're richer, stronger, healthier, but not in the United States. It has gone down and down and then down again. [17:01:19] Going to ask a very simple question. Which do you listen to? Corporate profits or people dying earlier? Right now, we're going off a cliff because we have the wrong measurements. Even the adventure of GDP said this one hundred years ago. He said this is a terrible measurement for national well-being and we should never use it as that. And here we are a hundred years later, following it off a cliff. Self-driving trucks will be tremendous for GDP and corporate profits. They're gonna be terrible for many, many Americans. [17:01:50] As your president, I will modernize our economic measures to tell us how we're actually doing. Instead of GDP and corporate profits, I will be using our wellness and life expectancy, our ability to retire in quality circumstances, mental health and freedom from substance abuse, childhood success rates, clean air and clean water. These are the real measurements of our health and progress as a society. And if we had these measurements, we would see we're in a mental health crisis. We're in a wellness depression. [17:02:23] If you don't know what the problems are, it's very hard to solve them. And for the clearest sign of how messed up our economic measurements are, you need look no further than anyone in my family. Everyone has been home with our boys for the last number of years and our older son has autism. How much is her work valued out in our economic measurements every day? 1 0. And we know that's nonsense. We know that the work she's doing is among the most important and challenging work that anyone will ever do. [17:02:55] It's not just Apple in its stay at home parents and caregivers around the country. It's nurturers, volunteers, mentors, coaches, artists. Very often now journalists. And very often now, because we put two thousand local papers out of business and turn thousands of communities at the local news desert. These are the things that we claim to value most dearly. But the market is nearing them out more and more. And it was evident that said to me, she said, how is this so mainstream in the nineteen 60s and 70s? [17:03:32] Now when you say we should all be stakeholders in our own country, that it seems dramatic and future is utopian in what I said to everyone. Then is what I'm saying to you all now. It's because we've somehow been brainwashed over the last 50 years to think that economic value and human value are the same things in Iowa. I'm here to tell you that they are not that we and our children have intrinsic value as human beings, as Americans and as citizens of this country. And it's time we make that case to the rest of the country right now and 2020. [17:04:19] So this is though, is it? This is why we need you to caucus in 30 short days to take this case to the rest of the country. Evelyn said we raise 16 and a half million dollars in the last quarter in increments of only thirty five dollars each. So my feelings are almost as cheap as Bernie's, but they're an awful lot of supporters behind this campaign. [17:04:40] Zero corporate PAC money. This is purely people powered grassroots campaign to flush the pipes and retake our government and get it working for us a real fine. [17:04:52] Go ahead. Did you ever. Oh, I don't. [17:05:02] We have to rewrite the ways to work for our kids. [17:05:05] And if you are a parent, you raise your hand if you're a parent in this room. If you were born in the 1940s in the United States of America, there was a ninety three percent chance you're going to be better off than your kids. That's the American dream that brought my family here, that brought everyone's family here. If you're born in the 1990s, you're down to a 50/50 shot. And that number is declining very quickly. That is what got Donald Trump into the White House. That is why we have this sense of uncertainty around what our kids are going to inherit. [17:05:35] It's because we're smart. We get it. Our kids are smart, too. We are stressed about their future because their future is less stable and less secure than it has ever been here in America. And it is up to us to change it. I'm not running for president because I dreamt about being president. I'm running for president because like so many of you here today, I'm a parent and a patriot. I have seen the future that lies ahead for our kids. And it is not something I'm willing to accept. I want to fight for something better. You want to join me? [17:06:15] We are in a position to rewrite the rules and make history, but we need your help to do so. We need your help to make the case to the rest of the country that this is still art. It's not that we all work for the machine. The machine has to work for us. Donald Trump became our president because he had a very simple message. He said he was going to make America great again. What did Hillary Clinton say in response? [17:06:39] America's already great. [17:06:41] Remember that? I know it's been a long three years and counting is about to end. That was not the right response because we have to acknowledge the depth and reality and severity of the problems in our communities. The suffering is real, but we need solutions that will actually help provide a new way forward for all of us. What would Donald Trump's solutions build a wall, turn the clock back, bring the old jobs back? [17:07:11] Iowa, you know, we have to do the opposite of these things. We have to turn the clock forward. We have to accelerate our economy and society to rise to the real challenges of this time. We need to evolve in the way we think about ourselves and our work and our values. And I am the ideal candidate for this job, because the opposite of Donald Trump is an Asian man who likes math. [17:07:47] That is an acronym. What does it stand for? You can call it America. Think harder. That's right. A job I was. It is your job to take. This country's not left the right, but over the decades. [17:08:12] Questions, it makes me very happy. So go ahead and raise your hands. It looks like he's got a question right here in the front. Hi. [17:08:22] Thanks for coming to this. If I'm just watching the debates and I'd like it. All right. Americans apparently paying attention to politics. I don't want to talk too much about it. I'm going to watch the debates for. It's hot in here. Clear what your value proposition is. So I don't know. Is there a way for you, like throw a thousand dollars up on the big stage? Like everyone's like, oh, this guy's offering a thousand dollars a month. After everyone quibbles about all the issues be I know with that, a thousand dollars a month in your bank account. There's just something to make your value proposition a little bit. [17:09:03] That's really good. Funny. What's your name? You go around? Yeah, I thought so. Peter here is a student at Brown University where I graduated from a number of years ago. So, you know, I saw that there must be a very bright young man. The debates have been a real process, an adaptation for me. Imagine an ordinary American joining the politicians on the debate stage. And for the first time, look around me like what is going on? [17:09:33] I feel like I didn't get the memo over this. [17:09:37] And what it reminded me of more than anything else was a high school play because I was walking around backstage and literally people they're like mouthing their lines to themselves. I remember like what they're going to say. I was like, oh, my gosh. Like, this is really the process. That's really how we do things. So it took me a minute to adapt. But then I realized that it was not truly a debate. It was like a distributed media appearance across candidates. And then with that as my framing, I then became more comfortable. Now, what's your question, Peter? [17:10:09] Hey, the average person watching and they realize that the guy wants to give them without thousand a month. There was one debate where we literally said we're gonna give a thousand bucks a month to anyone who goes to the website with his people. We have give it a thousand dollars a month to approximately 13 families around the country with this campaign so far, including two in Iowa. And one of the reasons why we've been doing this is because there is an abstraction and then there's the reality of human abstraction. You think, hey, like, how would that work? But then when you see the family in Iowa, all they got a thousand dollars a month. They like it a lot. [17:10:47] And you see what it means in their hands. [17:10:49] It means better mental health, better relationships, better outlook. Kyle Christensen, we've got the freedom dividend in Iowa Falls as caring for his mom who who's recovering from cancer. And after he was he paid the bills, he went out and bought a guitar and then started playing shows for the first time in years because it turns out he's a very talented guitarist who sold his guitar to care for his mom. Now. Yeah, I know that he was going to buy a guitar. No. Do I think it's great that he seemed like a new man and transformed the fact that he was out there pursuing his passion and performing again? [17:11:26] Because when I first met Kyle and his mom, he seemed very down. Honestly, you seem very depressed. And then when I saw him two or three months later, he seemed like a new person. So, Peter, the question is how to translate that kind of value within the context of the debate. And I agree with you. It's not easy. I do think that if I were just going around throwing dollar bills up in the air, I would probably be confusing as many Americans as I would like. But I'm excited to make the case to America again as the debate stage constricts and the number of candidates dwindles. People are paying more and more attention to me and my message. So thanks for the question. One question here. [17:12:12] Andrew. Oh, thank you. Yeah. Please turn out. So I'm wondering. [17:12:32] First, thank you for your service. As you may recall. [17:12:40] And to me, you are the essence of our military. That is our people. We're spending 700 billion dollars on our military every single year. And the most important aspect of the military are the young men and women who join every year and then served briefly abroad and then come home. So our investment in you can't stop when you do enlist. It has to come back home with you. I've spoken to hundreds, even thousands of veterans around the country who are struggling because employers don't want to take a chance on them. Many of them are struggling with medical conditions. [17:13:18] The V.A. doesn't have the right resources to be able to help them. The suicide rate among veterans is sky high. It's many times that of the civilian population. So number one is we have to invest in you. We have to invest in our soldiers and our troops. And that's well after you return. The second thing is we have to be much more judicious about actually deploying you. We've been in a constant state of armed conflict for 19 years and counting. And that is not the will of the American people. Seventy eight percent of Americans want nothing to do with a war. [17:13:55] Well. [17:14:03] And what does our Constitution say, our constitution says there will be an act of Congress to declare war. Unfortunately, Congress has ceded that authority to the executive branch for the last 19 years. And that is not appropriate. I would repeal the EU IMF and return the power and declare war to Congress where it belongs in the Constitution. I would reinvest in our partnerships and alliances so that when you are serving, you know that we're only putting you in harm's way. If there is a clear national interest at stake, we can bring you home in a reasonable time frame and we will have the resources to care about you and your fellow veterans when you return. [17:14:43] Thank you for your service. [17:14:51] Thank you all so much. Ellen, I will stick around for pictures and selfies. It sounds like I might have to do some press right now. I'll be back momentarily. Thank you all. Let's make history together. GAGGLE I don't think I can meet a lot different than. That's right. Just know the Ohio secretary of state of Ohio, Colin. Steve, I know Iris, the younger you say yourself that I know you're a female first command of the issues that exploits that. And they said, I seriously, sincerely sympathize with myself to support his candidacy. The Ohio presidential primary. It's really important that the to keep letting him down. I mean, how if you are not going to be on your primary, what do you make of. [17:20:06] Gets you to make sure that he will be able the vote for you and you have any comments in response. The eyes open. We have thousands of signatures in the state of Ohio, which is a sign of just how much support we have in this state. So we're looking forward to making our case in Ohio. And there have been writing campaigns that have won in Ohio. We're very confident that we'll be able to compete in Ohio the whole way again. Thousands of signatures and the secretary of state should be trying to listen to the voice of the people who clearly want to see more of this campaign at the highest levels. [17:20:42] This is one of the things that we have to overcome is that at this point, we hope your accuracy being prioritized over the will of the people in the true democracy. Do you think we're going to be sufficient to allow yourself to be back on the ballot? Yeah, we're we're working through the options right now. And, you know, we're exploring every path. We have many very smart people looking at it in Ohio. Thank you all. Thank you. Appreciate it. That's it. Yeah. No, no, no, no. We've got just me. Right. All right. I'm sorry. Go ahead. [17:21:14] I wouldn't say about making aside the fact that, you know, for whatever reason, you're with the Democratic Party. 172114 GARCIA>> What about people who say "How are you going to put a cabinet together if you weren't able to put the application, proper paperwork in to get your name on the ballot?" 172122 YANG>> I think Americans are very smart and Americans get it. That we built a grassroots campaign with the energy to contend for the White House at the highest possible levels and that we're gonna bring that energy through the primaries and on to victory in DC. And that we have the clearest vision and the clearest set of solution to actually improve American's lives. Americans understand that. Joe's money went out for nothing. In reality, the percent of Americans were. Slowing down a verbal agreement can provide funding to develop more in line with a happy ending. Trying to use it financially would be like trying to use a point like. Most Americans don't have the desire. Down. [17:22:40] She'll be receiving fire in the army to actually create opportunities. It is not even a priority, as I have said, a very narrow idea of what the market prioritizes. All right, just very quickly, if you ask people on the campaign trail would go and spend money. They had a thousand dollars on what would you say now? Well, I have two kids, so we're going to take start. Books, toys, games like activity here. Normal when you buy them something and you think they'll like it, and then it turns out that they don't like it and you end up having to buy something else because you love them anyway. So that's where I'm going. And you any parent want to talk about your kids? You know, the dividend is going to get enough pretty quickly. Literally. I figured if they go, let's go. Why to you go out on a man like a photo.