STAKEOUT AT THE OHIO CLOCK FOLLOWING THE WEEKLY PARTY POLICY LUNCHEONS FS35X75 Senate Republicans - Media availability MCCONNELL: Well, good afternoon, everyone. We're going to wrap up three items here here in the Senate during this short week. We're going to do another Congressional Review Act. We're going to confirm Dan Coats and we're going to deal with General McMaster's promotion. With regard to the CBO Report yesterday that everybody's talking about, the first point I would make is it's a very -- gives us a pathway to lower premiums. So we think they will be a lot lower than than when we get the raw discretion of the Secretary of Health and Human Services involved in this. And as we learned during the Obama years, the Secretary had a lot of latitude -- lower taxes, lower deficits and the most significant entitlement reform in history. With regard to the projection of fewer people purchasing, I think that the inevitable result of the government not making you purchase something you may not want. And so we are hoping to have a more vibrant market that will attract a greater number of people to actually be able to buy, at an affordable cost, insurance that actually makes sense for them, rather than one prescribed by the government. And with that, let me turn to Senate Foreign. CORNYN: But to think about it, if the government's not going to penalize you for not buying a policy that you don't want, given the freedom to make a decision that is consistent with your own economic interests and you decide -- you may decide not to buy it. And that's, in large part, what the CBO score reflects. But I would just say to our friends on the democratic side of the aisle that Obama care is in meltdown mode. We all know that; they know that, as well. Premiums are skyrocketing. Deductibles are unaffordable, insurance companies are fleeing the marketplace. And so, the question really is: If you don't like this proposal, then what's your suggestion? What's your suggestion? Because what I'm sensing is that they are just sitting back on their hands and taking great glee, great joy, out of seeing this marketplace of their creation melting down and people being left high and dry. We are the rescue team that's come on the scene in order to try to salvage a mess that they created when they passed Obama care along purely party lines. And we are genuinely interested in making sure that every American has access to quality health care. And if they don't like what has been proposed by the House, then we invite them to join us as we solve the problem. BARRASSO: And as Republicans, we are party of choice, of freedom to make those choice -- of choosing between options. The Democrats have been a party of mandates. And as a doctor, I will tell you, patient prefer options and choices over mandates. So for the last seven years, the Democrats have continued to tell this fairy tale that coverage equals care. Well, President Trump had a number of people at the White House to visit with him, all of whom were insured under Obama care. But with the deductibles so high, were actually unable to get the care that they wanted, that they needed. So there is a difference between coverage and care. And as a doctor, I'm focused much more on care than I am on coverage. And what you're seeing now with the House bill is a fundamental shift away from Obama care, it gets rid of the mandates, the taxes, gives much more freedom and flexibility and choice to states and to individuals. And with regard to the -- the CBO and you look at that score, from the beginning, we've been saying we want to repeal Obama care and do a step-by-step replacement. CBO scored step number one, didn't look at step number two, step number three. We are focused on providing the American people with the care they need from a doctor they choose at lower costs. BLUNT: Well, the Congressional Budget Office is notoriously bad at anticipating what's going to happen in a marketplace. They're sometimes not even very good at adding and subtracting. But usually, they get the math right. What they almost never get right is what's going to happen once the market place occurs. And particularly in this case, when you have a marketplace that they can't really score in a way that reflects what the Health and Human Services Secretary can do to create more opportunities in that marketplace. You know, with Medicare Part D, over a decade ago, CBO thought it would cost 40 percent more than it cost in year one through year 10. From the very first year, they were 40 percent off. With the Affordable Care Act, I think the CBO predicted that we'd have about twice as many people. I believe it was somewhere close to 25 million people insured now through the individual exchange. That number is 10 million people. So this is something the CBO doesn't do very well. What we've got to do is come up with a plan that creates more options and more opportunities for people not to just have access, but to have -- have -- not just to have coverage, but have access. It doesn't matter if you have a bus ticket, if there's no bus to get on. It doesn't matter if you have coverage if you have to pay the first $6,000 of it, which was the average deductible per individual with the bronze plan that was offered this year. So we need to have both opportunity to get coverage, opportunity to get health care. And the one thing I think you can bet on for sure about a CBO estimate of the marketplace is that it's not been right at any time in the past, unlikely to be right now. GARDNER: Let's talk a little bit about next week's markup up the confirmation hearing for Judge -- Judge Gorsuch. I'm going to read you a quote. "At a time when too many judicial nominations are bogged down by partisan and ideological rancor, it is heartening to see a nominee who is suitable -- who -- who is suitable for both parties, someone both parties can agree to. In addition to professional excellence, as a lawyer, a judicial nominee, they should have a demonstrated ability to be impartial, to have impartiality (ph) to precedent and the avoidance of judicial activism from both the left and the right. And I believe that Mr. Gorsuch meets this very high test." That was from Ken Salazar, July 20th of 2006. Next week, we will begin the Committee hearings on the confirmation of Justice Gorsuch. It's time that we have another voice west of the Mississippi on the nation's highest court." QUESTION: Have -- do you believe that this bill -- significant changes are going to be salvaged in the Senate? MCCONNELL: I mean, it'll be open to amendment in the Senate, like all reconciliation bills are. We're anxious to get past the status quo. I think all of my colleagues had mentioned repeatedly, as I have, the status quo is unsustainable. And the first step is in the House. And we're hopeful and optimistic they're going to send us over something that'll be open for amendment. We're going to do our thing and pass it. QUESTION: Will you bring it to the -- will you bring it straight the floor or will you go through the Committee? MCCONNELLL: No, we'll -- we'll bring it up to the House, probably. But it's open for amendment under reconciliation. QUESTION: It sounds like you're saying that the parts of the CBO analysis you like are accurate and the parts you don't like are flawed. Why should the American people buy that? MCCONNELL: That's not what I was saying. I've pointed out the part that I think is an accurate reflection of the tax reduction of the likelihood of premiums going down, the Medicaid reform. Senator Blunt pointed out it's pretty hard to predict coverage when the government stops telling you you have to buy something you don't want -- very hard to predict. Because we are eliminating the individual mandate so -- and working hard to create a marketplace of options that will be more attractive to people and therefore entice them into -- into buying insurance that they all need. QUESTION: Mr. Leader, if you received a letter received a letter last week from the Treasury Secretary encouraging Congress to raise the debt ceiling at the first opportunity possible, his language, how soon do you anticipate that and what's the -- the course compared to dealing with this? A straight extension or -- or cuts or what? MCCONNELL: No. We'll talking to the Secretary of the Treasury about timing. But obviously, we will raise the debt ceiling. QUESTION: Mr. Leader, Senator Lindsey Graham has said he's willing to subpoena the FBI for information regarding wiretaps as well as the existence of (inaudible). Would you support him in that subpoena, if necessary? MCCONNELL: Well, Senator Graham is in -- involved in an investigation of this effort. And I would not try to direct him how to do that. The core of the investigation, as you know, and we've said repeatedly, is being done by the Intelligence Committee. I think they'll pursue whatever angles they need to pursue to get to a conclusion. QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE). What's your response to that? And are you concerned that either that or some other problem you could encounter might lead to a government shutdown in response? MCCONNELL: I'm amused by the Democrats apparently warming up to the idea that threatening to shut down the government's a good idea. It seems to me everybody's got kind of memory loss on other other side. They will be players when it comes to the appropriations process. They will have an opportunity to ball it up, once again, like they did last year and refusing to allow us to even get on the Defense Appropriation Bill. But I've been hoping the fever's going to break here at some point and we'll get into a -- an operational mode that involves participation by both sides. We haven't seen much of that so far, but I remain hopeful and optimistic. Thanks. QUESTION: Thank you. Senate Democrats - Media availability SCHUMER: Hello, everybody. We're going to get started right away, because a few of our members have other engagements. So I want to thank my colleagues for being here with me. I want to -- I want to ask just one question. Trumpcare has been public for one week now. Is there anyone left in the country who actually likes it? Trump wants to call it Ryancare. Ryan wants to call it Trumpcare. How good could it be if neither of them wants their name on it? Doctors don't like it. Patients don't like it. Hospitals don't like it. Women don't like it. Millennials don't like it. Seniors don't like it. More and more Republicans don't like it. And Democrats are totally united against it. President Trump has slapped his name on buildings, ties, steaks, hotels and golf clubs, but not on a bill that he says he supports. The answer is very -- is simple, that every single day we learn more and more about this bill and more and more Americans turn against it. That's why Donald Trump doesn't want his name on the bill. That's why he calls it Ryancare and Ryan calls it Trumpcare. Republicans like to talk about access to healthcare. They want universal access to healthcare. Every single American right now has universal access to a million-dollar home and a fancy sports car. They just can't afford them, but they have access. They can go to a real estate broker and say, "show me a home," just as someone under their plan to go to an insurance company and say "show me a plan." But then they won't be able to afford it. So, what's the real effect of this Trumpcare bill? Yesterday, the CBO, of course, made clear that 24 million Americans will have health insurance if Trumpcare -- will lose their health insurance if Trumpcare becomes the law of the land. It's one of the biggest broken promises that this president has made. In an interview with the Washington Post, the president said, quote, "We're going to have insurance for everybody, much less expensive and much better. We're going to have insurance for everybody." The CBO report confirms that Trumpcare does not even remotely come close to that pledge. The president was off by 24 million Americans, more than the population of my entire state. Seniors will get crushed with higher premiums. Americans of all ages will have to pay out-of-pocket costs with deductibles and copays. And rather than going back to the drawing board to solve those problems, the Republicans are attacking CBO. Just one problem here. The director is the person that Secretary Price hand-picked. Dr. Hall worked at the Mercatus Institute, funded in part by the Koch brothers. Republicans are attacking the referee because they're losing the game, plain and simple. We Democrats are going to stay strong, stay united, and fight tooth and nail against Trumpcare until Republicans drop their repeal effort for good. I'm going to call on Senators Baldwin, Warren -- and Warren, and Warner and Warren, because they each have to go to other engagements. And then Senator Klobuchar and I will stay and answer questions. (CROSSTALK) BALDWIN: President Trump promised insurance for everybody. But Trumpcare breaks that promise by putting millions of people at risk of losing healthcare coverage and forcing millions to pay more for less care. On Sunday, Paul Ryan wouldn't say how many people would lose their healthcare coverage with his plan. Now, we know. The nonpartisan CBO report confirms that millions of people would lose their healthcare coverage with Trumpcare. In fact, Speaker Ryan's repeal plan would lead to 14 million more people being uninsured next year. The CBO also estimates that the increase in the uninsured would disproportionately be among older and middle-aged individuals with low incomes. I had a town hall meeting in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on Sunday. And I got a chance to hear from Wisconsinites who asked me would I be one of the people who might lose their care; for some, describing conditions and treatments that are keeping them alives. The people of Wisconsin did not send me to Washington to take people's healthcare away. And I will not support repealing the guaranteed health insurance protections and the care that people have today. I would not support higher costs, few people with healthcare coverage, and more economic insecurity for Wisconsin families. WARNER: Well, thank you, Tammy, and thank you, Chuck. Some of you know, over the last years that I've been here, I've been kind of a numbers guy. So I've been waiting to see the president's promise that everybody was going to have healthcare; it was going to cost less; and it was going to be of higher quality. Now we've got the results from CBO. Trumpcare costs more, lower quality. And as a matter of fact, even their claim, as somebody who's been an advocate for deficit reduction, that this reduces the deficit is suspect. I can tell you as a former Governor, as this scheme does is transfer the cost of Medicaid from the Federal Government to the states. As a matter of fact, it's a net $500 billion -- even with the exception of $300 billion deficit reduction -- it's $800 billion-plus cost transferred to the states. Governors around the country, democrat and republican, look at what your budgets would be next year if Trumpcare gets put in place. Now, I've believed for a long time that are reasonable ways to fix the Affordable Care Act. But what's been proposed so far doesn't even fit in the realm of reality. And then to see so many in the Administration who I see in a variety of areas like to rely on alternative facts, try to come out and attack the CBO. The CBO for 40 years has been the bi-partisan referee. We, as democrats, have been at the losing end of some CBO scores that we haven't liked. But we didn't say in the middle of the game let's kick out the referee. That's what the republicans are trying to do at this point and we stand united against this. There will be ways to fix healthcare. Trumpcare does not step in that direction. SCHUMER: Senator Warren? ELIZABETH WARREN: Thank you. So, who does President Trump fight for? Candidate Trump said he would fight for working people. But, talk is cheap. The real question now is look at their actions. And what President Trump is doing once again is fighting for millionaires and billionaires and not for working people. Here's the example, right in the heart of Trumpcare. Under Trumpcare, a millionaire would see his costs go down by $57,000 on average. But someone who is 64 years-old, makes $26,500 a year, would pay additional premiums of more than $13,000. In other words, Trumpcare is one more way that the rich and powerful get richer and more powerful, and kick dirt in the face of the working people. The insurance would be worst and the costs would be higher. I can't find anyone who says the way to make healthcare better in America is to deny 24 million people a chance at coverage. People will still get sick. People will still have heart attacks and strokes. Child will still be born with complex medical needs. People will still be struggling to deal with opioid addictions. And what is the response in Trumpcare? Just shove those costs off on someone else. And who will bare those costs? The costs are borne by state taxpayers. The costs will be borne by community health centers. The costs will be borne by our local hospitals. The costs will be borne by families who will be bankrupted by Trumpcare. And ultimately, the costs will be borne by those who can't get the care they need. That's not an improvement for working families in this country. This is trying, once again, to help the rich and powerful at the expense of everyone else. Democrats are united in fighting Trumpcare. SCHUMER: Senator Klobuchar? KLOBUCHAR: Thank you. I'm hearing the voice from the Heartland as the state that's fifth in the country for ag. I can tell you in the rural parts of my state, what's very concerning to them is rural hospitals. These Medicaid cuts and what they're looking at would definitely -- rural hospitals across the country. Another thing they care about in the rural areas of my state is the opiate epidemic. We've lost hundreds of people to that and they finally thought we had their backs, right? I was one of the four authors of Carrot (ph) bill. We got that done, we passed the Kers (ph) Act at the end of the year. Just as people were dotting the I's and crossing the T's on their campaign TV ads this last November, now they're going to take the coverage away from the people that were promised it. That's wrong. The last thing is, in rural areas, a lot of elderly people -- seniors, and when you look at what this bill does, it literally is a transfer of wealth. It takes years off the Medicare trust fund. And I'm gonna end with some words from my constituents themselves from some of our rural areas. This is a family recently retired. The guy's on Medicare, but she is not yet on Medicare and she won't be through 2018. She talks about how, "I know that you are doing all you can to try to prevent his bill from passing, but please try to work with other sympathetic Republican senators to vote this bill down." So we're looking for them. Second person, Bonita from a very Republican area of my state. She says, "I'm concerned, as most, about the GOP's slam dunk attempt to check off a box on their do-to list at my expense." This isn't about politics, this is about people's lives and we've received thousands of emails just like this one since this plan was announced. Thank you. SCHUMER: Questions for either of us? QUESTION: On the deficit, what... SCHUMER: Let's try to do Trumpcare first, then we'll go to you. QUESTION: Senator Schumer, Senator Cornyn said a couple of (inaudible) Democrats don't like this plan, they should offer their (inaudible). SCHUMER: Well, we've offered it. It's on the books and it's working. We have told Senator Cornyn and the others, if they -- if Senator McConnell, Senator -- Speaker Ryan and President Trump say tomorrow, they're giving up on repeal, we'll work with them to improve ACA. But we've put a healthcare bill in place. What they would do would be much, much worse. So I would say to me good friend John Cornyn, who I just saw in the gym this morning, I said, "John, back off repeal. It's a loser for the American people. It hurts too many people and we'll work with you to improve ACA." QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE) SCHUMER: Listen, first, this bill digs them so deep in a hole that no regulations are gonna get them out of that. And on the changes, they need 60 votes. And again, until they repeal, we think this bill is so bad there's no way to make it better, particularly compared to the good job that ACA is doing. WARREN (?): And the numbers speak to themselves. I mean, you have 24 million people that are gonna be booted off coverage, and even in the near-term, which is what's really scaring our people since these numbers came out, by 2018, 14 million people. Those numbers aren't a lie, that's something that would happen just two years from now. QUESTION: Senator Schumer? SCHUMER: OK. Go ahead (inaudible) this subject? QUESTION: On this subject. SCHUMER: Then we'll go -- he always likes (inaudible) topics right off the bat. QUESTION: The president has (inaudible) that if the Republicans do nothing, that the ACA will collapse and they can use it against Democrats in the 2018 elections. He's not saying he's going to do that, but... SCHUMER: Well, the CBO report said that the ACA has stabilized, so he's wrong on that. Second, if they really care about people, they'll help us make ACA better once they back off repeal. What they're trying to do now in every way they can is to trash ACA and hurt people for ideological reasons. The Republicans have just backed themselves into an ideological corner, and that is their biggest problem and there's no way they can get out of it until they repeal. One other point I'd make, because I heard the folks -- our Republican friends made it before. They said, "Well, the costs of healthcare, the actual premiums will go down." Some of them may for some people, but the out-of-pocket expenses will go way up because if you look at the CBO report, the cost of the plan goes down because it's a bare bones plan. The deductibles go up, the co-pays go up, the coverage is less and so people will have to take much more money out of their pocket to pay for healthcare, even if they're paying a lower premium for a skimpy plan. KLOBUCHAR: And the other thing about it from the CBO score is that it really just puts things onto the backs of state taxpayers, and as one of our members said today, you know, he could reduce the deficit as well if he was to switch over the entire cost of, let's say the Army, the Navy, the Air Force, the Coast Guard over to state taxpayers. And that's what this essentially is when it comes to Medicaid. (CROSSTALK) QUESTION: Can I follow up on that? SCHUMER: Yes, sir. OK, sure. QUESTION: Really quick. What are some of the suggestions that you would have... (CROSSTALK) SCHUMER: Look, we've been talking about those for the longest time. When President Obama was president, we suggested these changes. We have a long list of them. There are different ones for different, you know, that different peoples have. I would, for instance, I'd put in the public option to allow more competition. I would put more weight on the insurance -- on the -- give more clout to the state insurance agents to prevent rates from going up. I'm sure Senator Klobuchar, who has been our leader on this, would get down the cost of prescription drugs. KLOBUCHAR: For Medicare Part D negotiations -- that's something from the beginning when we passed ACA, I would love to work with our Republican colleagues on. We don't have any Republicans on that bill right now. SCHUMER: Right. KLOBUCHAR: But that is one example, and there's a number of other things we could do with the exchanges. SCHUMER: So we can do lots of things, but they -- they are all based on improving the Affordable Care Act, not on repealing it. It can't work until they back off on repeal. Last question. QUESTION: Thank you. So on the debt ceiling, you got a letter from the Treasury secretary last week urging folks to raise this as soon as possible, first opportunity. What do you see as timing? And what are red lines for Democrats on what could be connected to this? SCHUMER: Democrats have always been for making -- you know, for -- for saying that we cannot default. Our OMB secretary was the leader in trying to urge default. So we're going to have to -- we're going to have to have some of our Republican colleagues step up to the plate on this issue. QUESTION: What are the red lines, though, for Democrats if they try to attach something to a debt ceiling bill? SCHUMER: Well, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. First, let's see if there are enough Republicans who will vote to raise the debt ceiling now that they're in charge. We Democrats have never used it as a -- as a weapon. QUESTION: Senator Schumer, are you (inaudible) at all (inaudible)? SCHUMER: The Republicans are in charge. What we've done is done just the same thing we did last year. We have told them that there are certain red lines: no sequestration levels; parity defense and non-defense; and no poison pill amendments. If they put those poison pill amendments in and try to shove them down the American people's throats, of course they might be responsible for shutting the government down. But last time, they heeded our warning, our letter that was signed by a few of us to the leadership, sending them a warning, but a guidepost how to avoid them shutting the government down. QUESTION: (inaudible) supporters (inaudible). You've supported (inaudible) in the past. Why (inaudible)? SCHUMER: Which -- I -- we have not supported a wall. And if they want to debate a wall and do it in the regular order, that's fine. I have a lot of questions. First one, President Trump said Mexico would pay for it. Why don't we try that before saddling the American taxpayers? Senator Cornyn is opposed to the wall because of eminent domain -- all the private property owners along the Texas border. What would the wall cost? Where would it be built? These are all kinds of questions that should be answered in the regular appropriations process where we can entertain the wall. I personally, I can't see myself supporting the wall, but they can try to get to 60 votes for it. The problem is to stick it on a bill, a must-pass bill, just like defunding Planned Parenthood, would be a huge mistake, and they would be responsible for shutting the government down. I'm hopeful that Leader McConnell and Speaker Ryan, knowing that they're in charge, knowing that if the government shuts down it's on their backs, they have no one to blame. They can't blame anybody else -- would not do that. But we wanted to lay out some clear guideposts because evidently President Trump is pushing them to include the wall in the C.R. QUESTION: Senator... SCHUMER: No, that's it. Thank you, everybody.

LU 2 CORY BOOKER JOHNSTON IA HOUSE PARTY FOX POOL 123119 2020 1:30 PM: House Party with Cory Booker in Johnston Location: 6451 N Winwood Dr, Johnston, IA [14:52:43] Criminal justice system and expanding economic opportunity and fighting for equal justice for everyone. I am inspired by you, Senator Boxer. It is my pleasure to introduce you to Johnson about. [14:53:07] Ahh, OK. This is amazing. [14:53:12] We just told Nine and Chris a few people over and we have invaded their home. It is unbelievable. But this is the spirit of humanity. Although the three Abrahamic faiths were founded on the spirit of Abraham was said to be favored by God because he kept his tent open on all four site so people would feel welcome to come together. And Abraham, for those who do know he was the left, first thing he did after he got a blessing was to treat angels first appeared as strangers, greeted them, brought in the house. [14:53:44] Then they revealed themselves. And then they saw the rainbow destroy a city which will form very scary. Abraham, they argued with them. And so I always say the two things he did right before he got a blessing right after was one to show kindness. The Hebrew word festered for that, and the other one is he fought for justice. Hebrew word in Arabic words, the delta for that. And that's why we're gathered here. It's the spirit. Really why we're here. And I know that this is a lot of folks coming here from a lot of the candidates, but there's something bigger going on in our nation. [14:54:16] And that's why I feel the sense of gratitude. [14:54:19] You know, this country, we didn't get to where we are. The big achievements of our nation did not happen in Washington. They happen to change. In fact, doesn't come from Washington comes to Washington because of committed people who are dedicated to it. Look, it wasn't much of what you guys did on the Senate floor and one day decided, you know what, 19, 20. Let's let's give the women the right to vote. [14:54:40] All right. Let's do it. It already, right. That's not how it happened. It was the activism, the engagement. It wasn't one day, Strom Thurmond longest filibuster in Senate history, coming to the Senate floor and said, you know what? I've seen the light. Let's give those Negro people's rights. You know, change happens from the activism, the engagement of ordinary Americans who make extraordinary change happen. That's why I carry so generously. [14:55:08] Just introduced me is really representative of how you make change if people sit out or think the opposite. The obstacles are too overwhelming or it's too hard. No change was made since people leaving their comfort zone, but not standing alone. Inspiring people to work with them. Stand with them. That's how she won her seat. That's how I won my city council seats, this powerful political machine. [14:55:31] And this is the challenge. [14:55:33] This is why I'm so excited to talk to you right now, because it's a little different. I'm going to open it up to questions after I talk for a little bit. Anything that you want to ask me about, any policies you want to ask me? I'm sure. What the question if you want to ask me how much money I say one product every year. Very frugal man. It's far cheaper to meatball any question you want to ask you about any policy? There is a big case to you right now. [14:55:59] What we need right now. In fact, the necessary preconditions to dealing with the big challenges of our nation from climate change to gun violence to health care in order to get that done. We have got to repair our nation's spirit. We've got to deal with the severed belonging that people feel, that we've got to deal with. The fact that was needed in this nation right now more than ever is a revival of civic grace, is a more courageous empathy for one another is a greater activism. Listen, I I. This may sound weird guy and competitive election,. [14:56:38] But I have so I'm one of these people that knows and is friends with most of the people running for president. Heck, all the senators, you know, we all have written bills together. Bernie and I wrote a bill for importing prescription drugs. Elizabeth and I wrote criminal justice bills together. We've all worked together. They're all friends of mine, literally. Joe Biden. When I got sworn in, I got sworn in a special election in the Senate on a really auspicious day of Halloween. Joe Biden sworn into office, I now hold that he and I love dad jokes, and on Halloween I thought. [14:57:12] He was going to play with my name and call me gory. Kurt. It was text messaging with Andrew Game yesterday. He's a dear friend of mine. There are good folks in here. We all have put over 90 policy plans out. I've got mine on gun violence, very similar to other people in this race. I'm going to tell you right now, the differences between us on our policies are small compared to the differences between us and the guy in that office right now. If any of these presidential candidates want to take the truth, I'm going to touch you right now. I'm president. I'm still the best ideas from anywhere. They call my vote. [14:57:54] This is why I don't know why I'm standing here now. [14:57:58] Through those handsome heads and this whole. The reason the reason the reason we're here to win this election isn't who has the better fifteen point policy plan that's not going to get it done. This is an election. I'm going to make the case for you right now about something deeper that makes big policy change possible. It's the heart and the sphere of this country. I hope when you leave here, you are making a decision in this election, not just on your head, but on your heart and on your gut and on your spirit of this country. [14:58:30] What we need out now will make a more difficult case to you got. What this nation needs is not more trumping this. And don't, don't, don't think that we are not sometimes called to the conviction of being more Trump. My first town hall. I love it here in this big town. For 500 people. And I was running toward the stage and I don't know what goes on. The big guy before tight end for Stanford University for all American football player. [14:58:57] The older I get, the better. I was lumbering towards the stage, the big guys off behind the stage, and he puts his arm around me and wants to have this moment of testosterone. He goes, Do I want you to punch Donald Trump in the face? And I don't miss a beat. I'm like, dude, that's a felony. We are not going to beat Donald Trump by being like Donald Trump. [14:59:29] As. [14:59:32] Let me make the case to you, because King said it more eloquently than I can. Darkness cannot drive out darkness. Only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate. [14:59:42] Only love can do that. This may make me go off track with some people in this room, but I want to be very candid with you. [14:59:50] We Democrats are going to lose this election if we make a whole thing about what we're against and not about what we're for and hunger for. [14:59:57] Yet so far as. [15:00:02] It's all going to raise hands, but just came from holiday dinners where you had Republicans at your table handling blood and you love them anyway. You may not like them every day. We tell you this. I am a competitor. I want to. I'm not I'm not in this just to be Donald Trump. I'm in this to Sen. Mitch McConnell. Back to back. By the way, we really went the way we heal our nation and get big things done. It's not by defining our party by this short term goal of being Republicans. That's not what America needs right now. We need to stand up to the party and say we are about uniting Americans common cause and common purpose. [15:00:49] Because the 60 million people voted for Donald Trump are not our enemy. In fact, every big thing we've done throughout our history, the big fights, the big challenges, the big achievements have come when we created new American majorities. When we created uncommon coalitions. When they put Sputnik up in the air with the Russians, put Sputnik. Do you think that was the moment we tore each other apart with partisanship or do we join together, create a bigger table? Have we brought hidden figures together with white astronauts and we had Sputnik? Yeah, that's high. But we are going higher. We're going to the moon. [15:01:29] My Iowa born grandma. Yeah, that's right. My grandmother was born and raised in the morning. Her grandmother comes from our town. So we all have never heard of called Buxton, Iowa. I guess there's a book written by a great Iowan called Hold. Yes. You know the Bob Austin. Yeah, it was. It was a town in this country. The book written about my life was called the the Americas Utopia, because these were black folks migrating from the south and immigrants from Europe came together and lived in an integrated town. [15:02:06] They joined together and they carved from the earth their American dream together when they had a minor title. The stories in my family are that they would all the miners go back side by side, black and white, into the mines, do a day's work and do that. [15:02:20] That paycheck to the widow they had built. [15:02:24] These were people came with their little fabric. Eastern Europeans, Western Europeans, black folk from the south. And using their thread, it would stitch together a common quilt. This is what makes us great. I will grab other threads until the day she died that we beat the Nazis. And you know what we did? She talked to me about her victory garden. You talked to me about the fact that a working class woman bought war bonds. We mobilized this nation. [15:02:56] That's how change made you think we're going to beat Donald Trump, who yells aloud is we have the best put down. This is why I say even on the Democratic stage, I'm the one that says we should not tear down fellow Democrats, not tear down their character. Every one of us shows or commitment to public service. Some of them, including challenges, drove by this family, just kill and still went to the Senate to serve people who sacrifice their financial well-being to continue to stay in the local office. [15:03:32] This is a nation that you cannot campaign wrong and say you're going to govern, right. And the way we've got a governor, we kind of prepare that fabric of our nation, have that revival of civic race, begins to mobilize us to do big things again. Because I'm telling you right now, as the only person in the United States Senate, as the only person in this election that lives in an economically vulnerable community, I live in a community, black and brown community below the poverty level. [15:04:01] My whole adult life I've lived in this community and I see the vulnerability that people have at the margins. It's not just Newark, New Jersey. It's all over our country. There are people hurting right now. Where what's going on in Washington is life or death. Whether it's arcane policy about his executive orders on methane or or the clean power plants, we have more people dying now of respiratory diseases, whether it's families who lose a parent, American children, American spouse, your parents being evicted because they're deported because they're a document, whether it's somebody who's rationally their insulin,. [15:04:41] Because it's ridiculously too expensive and ends up in a hospital emergency room clinging to their life, whether it's American who has a medical condition, that just because it's a mental illness, they end up in our jails and prisons, which are our biggest mental health places where we warehouse the dignity of humanity, whether it's a nation that pledges allegiance to a flag or sings the national anthem that ends with these profound ideals that we are the home of the brave. But yet our bravest come home and they're disproportionately homeless are veterans. [15:05:20] There is so much at stake that speaks not to him, but to us. This election is not a referendum on one guy in one office. There's a referendum on who we are and who we. You're going to be to each other? Yeah. And this is what I know. Hi. I'm the child of civil rights activist, the grandson of that greatest generation. And the stories I heard him even in the wretchedness and even in the challenges. And we still have them, I'm telling you right now. If America hasn't broken your heart, you don't love her enough. [15:05:50] What did my parents generation. My grandparents generation through our parents and grandparents do during heartbreak. With four little girls died in a bombing in Birmingham. This whole country, black, white, the whole nation stood up and said, this is wrong. Their consciousnesses were pricked. Their activism ignited. And we mobilized. And we changed laws in Washington and my grandparents generation. Some of you all know the horrible fire in New York at the Shirtwaist Factory where women were throwing themselves out windows, trying to escape the flames, only to die on the pavement below. [15:06:31] This whole nation said this is wrong. We went to Washington, demanded a name change to protect workers rights. God, my generation. What do we see? People dying in a concert in Las Vegas, slaughtered, slaughtered in a nightclub in Orlando. And nothing changes. Ninety percent of Americans agree on the common sense pillars of my plan. But yet, when they are shot at places of worship, people are slaughtered in a synagogue in Pittsburgh or church in South Carolina. And nothing changes. [15:07:10] Our children are children hiding under their desks, killed from Newtown to Parkland and the strongest nation on the planet, the strongest nation ever in humanity, says to our children, the implicit message were, we can't protect you. So we're gonna send you to school and teach you how to hide your war. Shelter in place drills in our public schools now and fire drills. What is this election about? [15:07:39] This is about who has a better fifteen point policy plan on guns. War is about who is going to ignite the conscience of our country. Remind us that the lines that divide us or not nearly as strong as the ties that bind us, help us to be like our parents and our grandparents generation where we demand that we put more indivisible into this one nation under God. [15:08:01] That is. [15:08:05] As to why I'm running for president and some people think, oh, poor you talk, you dare to talk in public circles in the political realm about a four letter word. Let me tell you, some patriotism is love of country. And you cannot love your country unless you love your fellow countrymen and women. And love is not sentimentality. [15:08:33] What is not a. [15:08:35] The test was what gets men, boys storming beaches in Normandy, never turning to their left or right and asking what party they're in love. Book of people. Different race, different religion. Their names were Goodman, Cheney and Schwerner, dying together in Mississippi, fighting for the voting rights of other people. Yeah, love is what makes a man right now struggling with struggling with pancreatic cancer. It's what got him on buses knowing they would get bombed. [15:09:06] It would make him sit together with blacks and whites doing sit ins at lunch counters. It's what made him stand on the Edmund Pettus Bridge. His skull fracture. [15:09:19] Lewis told me about the moment in his life when he was sitting in his congressional office and one of the men that bludgeoned him showed up in his congressional office. Now, an elderly man with his grandchild tears in his eyes, asking him for forgiveness. And what did John Lewis say to me? Did he react with hatred or hurt or the trauma of that moment? No. He turned to the man and wept with him and hugged him and forgave him. [15:09:48] What do we need from our White House? What spirit do we need in our nation now? That's the question we have to ask. And you can't campaign wrong and think you're gonna govern, right? Let me tell you right now, people challenged me, rightfully so. Look at the biggest thing that people say they want from a candidate in our party is someone who could beat Donald Trump. Well, my first response is always, dear God. Can't we have higher aspirations? Donald Trump for his caucus ceiling beetle, Donald Trump gets us out of the ditch, but we are called to go to the mountaintop. [15:10:27] Yeah, yeah. And let me tell you the secret here. This is the great secret. This strategy outlining what it's being built in grace and decency. This is how we win. We beat Bull Connor by bringing bigger dogs and bigger fire hoses. Now we beat him by getting more people activated, engaged. That's how we win, as represented as a toy. What is it to the council? I'm pointing out the same amount of votes he always got. But we brought out a whole new electorate and beat the most powerful machine in New Jersey. [15:10:58] And so look at this election you were about to come to. Which candidate is the best candidate? It's going to be the one that can ignite and inspire the activism of others, not the one who could best insult and put down their opponent. Yes. And by the way, that turns people off from politics. [15:11:14] And the candidate herself, a lot of Republicans actually should be with us as we win this election. [15:11:23] When we show up because you don't what in the last election in 2016, some of the most key swing states, like like Mike, like Wisconsin. Donald Trump got less votes than Mitt Romney got. And we lost that movie, shellacked Mitt Romney. And let me tell you, this is why I tell people, whoever our nominee is better be able to appeal to all voters to the full rainbow coalition, because you don't. What if you just look at African-American voters alone in Milwaukee and to the in Wisconsin and Michigan and Pennsylvania, we lost those three states combined by seventy seven thousand votes. [15:12:01] . And there were hundreds and hundreds of thousands of less African-Americans who showed up to vote in those three states in 2016 than in 2012. In fact, in Milwaukee alone, seventy thousand less African-Americans turned up to vote in the Milwaukee area. We have got to inspire everyone to come out to show people that it's not just the head. We we do make decisions up here, but we have. And I felt with Obama when I was in college, I felt it with Bill Clinton. We fight from our heart, from our passion, from our low, for sure. Your politics works dividing people against each other. [15:12:38] But our greatest politics in America is a politics of inspiration. The politics of hope, the politics that expand our moral imagination about who we can be. And I tell you what I'm talking about beating Mitch McConnell. No, the pathway that goes to get there goes through, I hope. But it doesn't stop in Iowa, folks. It goes to states like North Carolina that we won when Obama was on the ticket. And we engage that whole Obama coalition record African-American turnout in North Carolina. We won that seat. [15:13:08] Had we had the Georgia Senate seat there, too. There's two seats up in Georgia right now. There's a North Carolina and the South Carolina sea and an Arizona seat. If we don't get a candidate at the top of our tickets, that could ignite the oldest of our coalition. We don't win. [15:13:24] Yeah. And I'll tell you, this brings me back to my thesis. [15:13:34] I'm running for president because it's not about me. It's about a week. We are at a point in our country. King said that. Well, we have to repent for our day and age. It's not just the vitriol at words and violent actions of the bad people. It's the appalling silence and inaction of the good people. The sermon of King's life was not a a condemnation of hatred. He did not tolerate it. He fought against it. [15:13:59] But the sermon of his life was speaking to us, good people. His letters from a Birmingham jail spoke to good people who were not doing enough. He literally said so eloquently that what we have to repent for is not the vitriol. We're trying to actually the bad people. It's the silence of the good people. And this is my point. [15:14:22] I believe in us. [15:14:25] I'm running because I believe in us. It's what helped me beat slumlords when I started my legal career. Powerful men, rich and powerful, who do doing horrible things. We told our organizing group that we the stronger we stand together, the more we beat them and we beat the wars. I moved into high rise projects where someone went to federal prison when I became mayor of the city of Newark. People told me all the things we could not do, but we took one of America's cities known, unfortunately, for crime and corruption in the middle of a recession. And we took a city school system under state takeover,. [15:15:02] One of the lowest performing school systems in urban districts in all of New Jersey and in the span of less than a decade. We ushered in its biggest period of economic expansion from supermarkets into food deserts to our school system. For one of the worst. Now the number one school system in America for taking kids in poverty and graduating from college. There is nothing that's not impossible. [15:15:24] What are you going to do? I want to end. [15:15:29] Couldn't it on you? Because my hope is after we do questions and everything that you'll leave here saying, you know what, this guy doesn't only have a good head. He's right on the policies or maybe some variation between him, other candidates. But I understand that this election we're going to win or lose it on the hearts and the spirit and the gut. And if you feel that you want a candidate. And I love what's happening to us in the last three months of this campaign. We see a surge in our online donations, a surge here in Iowa. Now the top in endorsements from local elected leaders and local local activists. [15:16:03] We now literally have a campaign. This is this is something I hope the reaction to is, hey, fellows, what's up? But we now are the number one campaign for online contributions presented online contributions from women in Iowa. And I love that. I want to stay because you guys don't care about the national polls right now. You're like, wait a minute. I remember John Kerry, John Edwards were pulling 6th and 7th at 4 percent and 2 percent. One month later, they come into this state and finish one in two. [15:16:36] There was a Jimmy Carter effect. Nobody was leading in the polls, a front runner, everyone onto the White House. It's always been the underdogs in our lifetime. Jimmy Carter polling at 1 percent in December. Bill Clinton around 4 percent became the comeback kid. Even some guy who married up, what's his name? Well, I miss Obama. Yes, I. And guys don't clap yet. I miss Obama and I miss her husband, too. He hope Michelle's husband was about 20 points behind. [15:17:11] Hillary Clinton, December, you're going to focus on the people, on the heart of the spirit, on the values. This election is about a moral moment and has to be about the core conviction of our country and reviving those ideals for all the people who surrender to cynicism, who checked out from our politics the record engagement record. [15:17:36] It's all going to end with this. This story is very simple. It's why I get excited when I stand in anyone's living room and I see a crowd of people because I am literally here today. I'm not exaggerating. You'll get it at the end of the story. I am literally here because of a living room like this. Talk about those Abrahamic values. Well, let me tell you. If 50 years ago, my family was coming up from the south trying to move to this Mecca, I don't know if you ever heard of this incredible mecca that America call New Jersey. [15:18:12] I love it. [15:18:13] I know a spot, the Jersey girl, one right there. I see one right here. It's easy to spot us. We make ourselves known. Well, my parents were guided by one thing, which is one of the reasons why I'm such a big fighter for public schools, is they wanted just a place with great public schools. But every place they looked in the 60s for rare public schools returned home in white neighborhoods, and they would be met by a real estate agent who would see a black family and say, I'm sorry, his house is sold. All the owners pulled it off the market. It would be like to. [15:18:44] That's what my parents frustration and distress. What did they find? They found a group of Americans that met in a living room. And they literally said to my parents. We got you. They lived their values. Patriotism is love of your fellow countrymen and women. Patriotism says you welcomed the stranger. Patriotism says you love your neighbor. They live in your values. And they set up a sting operation for my parents. I call it the conspiracy you love. My parents would go look at the house if they were told it was sold. A volunteer white couple from the living room would go right behind them and and see if the house was still for sale or not. Amazingly, in the house I grew up in. My parents were told it was sold. [15:19:27] The white couple shows up and finds out it's still for sale. They put a bid on the house. The bid is accepted. Neighbors are drawn up and on the day of the closing of the real estate agent's office. The white couple did not show up. My father did. And a volunteer lawyer from that living room. And then March and march. I was looking into the story. It's as they march into the real estate agent's office, confront the real estate agent who suddenly get so angry. He's been caught in a sting operation, conspiracy above. He stands up and punches my dad's lawyer in the face and then he sticks his door on my dad. And let me tell you, as I was growing up in this beautiful home, in this beautiful town. Every time my dad would tell this story, the dog would get bigger. [15:20:20] Eventually, if I signed up, I don't know what to get through this house. [15:20:25] My parents taught me like your family taught you, that all of us drink deeply from levels of freedom and liberty and opportunity that you did not do. My dad will actually go off to Stanford. Yeah, I got it. Because of a 4.0 sixteen hundred four 4.0 yards per carry. Sixteen hundred. Yeah, you know, that's that's who gets the money in the coffers. My dad watched, needs a discriminating eyes and then went on to say he got a master's degree, he went to Oxford once a year. And finally, he's just like he wasn't satisfied as a boy. He got more degrees in the month of July, but she's hot. Life is not about the degrees you get. It's about the service you give. So why did I go to Newark, New Jersey, with my laundry? Because I became a tennis rights lawyer, because people fought for my housing rights. [15:21:18] I could never pay it back. We're Americans. We pay it forward through service, through sacrifice, through love. [15:21:30] We took down slumlords, transformed an American city to a place of hope and promise. I got to the Senate and I had the same attitude that you are not my enemy. I asked every Republican. [15:21:43] I couldn't go out to dinner with me. [15:21:45] Ted Cruz and I went out to dinner. And let me say, it was hard, not because he is because he's from Texas and I'm a vegan. [15:21:55] I love that. He and I pass legislation together to help communities recover after a natural disaster. [15:22:05] I go to the Bible study, right wing conservatives, office chairman Inhofe and I pass legislation together to help homeless kids and foster kids because we can go to Washington to hate each other. We went to Washington to get things done. They told me when I got there, people my own party told me we can't pass comprehensive criminal justice reform, can't do things, are going to liberate people from prison. And the specter of Willie Horton. Well, you know what? [15:22:29] I led in the Senate working with people across the aisle. [15:22:32] The first major comprehensive reform of our criminal justice system, this liberated thousands of people from prison. But this is the end of the story, because I got to the Senate, I decided to do it. A lot of senators didn't have a high sense of self-regard. I decided to write a book. And you all got to admit that if your name is Booker, it's a lot of pressure, a lot of credit. And so I go back and I have never thanked the people I met in that living room 50 years ago. So I went back to try to find the people that started my life, that I was born 50 years ago, and I found the woman that was the head of that group in that living room. [15:23:11] She's now 93 years old. And she was easy to find because she is still head of that organization right now. She does not represent black families anymore. Lots of black folks live in Bergen County, New Jersey. She represents same sex couples, Americans with disabilities, Muslim families, sent families. You know why? Because to her, as to us, justice has no color, no race or orientation. It is one justice, one nation, one love. She answered a lot of my questions for this chapter, which said you have to go to a lawyer that devised all those that sting operation. Go find him. Why call him up? He he's. Now, I find he's 84 years old, a retired judge. And I get all the things I needed from from the chapter. I even found out finally how big the dog was. [15:24:02] But this is what got me. [15:24:08] She must know why that. [15:24:12] This is what got me shook me when he said this to me. You know, I get shaken to your core representing my core values, who represent why I'm running for president, because in general, the thing I had one question on my sheet but just popped to mind. [15:24:24] Why? Why would you a guy who was just starting a business. Any entrepreneurs here know how busy that is? Why would you when you're just trying to support your family, why would you take so much time out to help black families moving your neighbor at in time that there were real fears out there, white flight or real estate prices going down? Why would you do, sir? Google. I know the moment I made the decision. I know the moment he goes at the exact moment ago. When was he goes was March 7th, 1965. And I'm like, sir, that's very specific. [15:24:54] What was going on on March 7th, 1965, when he said he was at home sitting and watching TV? Now, this might come as difficult news to people like the hardships of the past. But there was a time in America where we only had three channels and a whole lot. It's not over. The hardship is not over. We actually had to get up and change that. I don't know if you all know, it's just hard to think about right now. I still think to this day my dad had two boys just to make them get up and change the channel for him. So he's sitting down and watching TV. And on this historic night, as I would find out that he was talking about a historic night on this historic night. Most of America was watching a movie that some of you were my age or a little older. [15:25:40] You're really look finish the title form. The name of the movie that most Americans were watching that night was called Judgment at Government. Right? Right. That's of you were getting and I still don't get when he's telling me. This is a very famous night in America. March 7th, 1965, Americans sitting at home on a Sunday evening watching TV. He's sitting there and then suddenly they break away from an ongoing movie to show something tragic happening. They go to a bridge in Alabama called the Edmund Pettus Bridge, where these marchers had started in Selma and they were trying to march to Montgomery to protest voting rights. [15:26:21] And he watches in horror as those marchers stop on that bridge by Alabama. State troopers thEn gassed them and the troopers storm in. So on horseback trampling people, others with their billy clubs drawn and start beating those marchers. We now know the day is Bloody Sunday. And my hero, John Lewis was at the front of that. Marchers had his head fractured and told me with such humility. I Corey, I should. A little bit of blood on that bridge. Right, Congressman? No, no, sir. You were you were knocked unconscious. You bled infamously. I'd be carried back to the church. [15:26:55] So this is a question like today. That was a world moment in America. [15:27:02] What did one man, one white guy a thousand miles away on a couch? What did he do in a moral moment? Did he. Sit there and allow his inability to do everything, to undermine his determination to do something? No. To treat this democracy like is a spectator sport. Just sitting on the sidelines. No. He knew that democracy is over. He told me he stood up off the couch and he said, I got to go to Alabama. And he laughed at himself because he couldn't close his business. He couldn't even afford a plane ticket. So then he did something that is one of the greatest of American traditions. It's why we're all here today. He decided. Well, I can't do everything, but I'm going to do the best I can with what I have, where I am. [15:27:47] And he decided in that moment that he could spare one one hour a week of pro bono work. He calls around to see who might need it. He finds his young woman, now 93 years old, was like, how old are you? Thank you, Jesus. I need some help. And the two of them, he says, are working. They plot a sting operation, conspiracy of love, and they invite neighbors to join them. And people came and they fill fill the living room at fifty five, turn to 60, 70, got things going. He goes by 1969 and volunteer lawyers and others. And he said, I'll never forget the day he gets a case file handed to him. [15:28:15] His family coming up from the south, struggling to make it. And he goes quiet. We help him get to housing. Do you know the name on that case file? Don't know, sir. He was retuning for that case files. Corey he was. What was then? Carrie the other one was in Carolyn Terry and Carolyn Booker. Your parents. I am literally standing before you right now because of a little group of Americans just like this living room of people who gathered together in a moral woman and understood their obligations and understood that they were not going to sit on the sidelines. They wanted change in Washington. [15:28:51] They had to make it right where they were. I had literally the fourth black person ever elected to the United States Senate because one white guy on a couch in 1965 before I was born stood up. I literally could be the first person in the history of our nation who is descended from slaves, who could then go one to a White House built by slaves because of Americans who understood what's at stake. And that brings me to us right now in this room. Our challenges are no lesser. The problems we have are no lesser. What's at stake? [15:29:31] The very lives of our fellow countrymen and women, their well-being, their people. Isolated, alone. Are hoping for us. There are people like my family, distressed and discouraged, looking for help. And now the question is not what they are going to do or what a candidate is going to do is what we will do. This election is about the spirit of our nation, the heart of our country. It's about our highest ideals and virtues. And no matter what, one guy tries to define us, to demean us, to degrade us or the terrorists down. [15:30:01] I promise you, if you stand with me, if you caucus with me, this will be the ignition point that starts a movement in our country that will take us through election day and help us to heal our country and do the great things we need to do to meet our challenges and seize her opportunities. No, Donald Trump will not terrorists down because I know we're together. We will rise. Thank you. [15:30:34] Great, thank you. Thank you. All right. So any question whatsoever? [15:30:44] I'm not sure of my Jersey girlfriend here is good luck finding your custody questioning. Oh, OK. OK. So I want you to know that I'm probably the first person here that committed the caucus to you, because when you were mayor of Newark, you had this great Twitter feed where you would talk about how you were helping out people in New York. And I grew up in about 30 Jersey. And I remember what you were it was like before you got there. And I was like I was reading your Twitter feed alive to allow my husband. And I said, this guy's crazy. He's like running into Ernie Billingsley, shoveling people out. He's bringing people diapers and the snowstorm. [15:31:21] And I was like, Doug, if this guy ever runs for president, I am caucusing for him. So if you decide to talk, it's hard, OK? [15:31:33] But I just want you to know that the authenticity of what you are about is what inspired me, the company going an this here into my life. And it is, I believe, so hard. I want every person in here to get convinced. If you don't want to caucus for you yet, you just are going to have coffee with me and I will talk you into it. All right. So but what I'm here for is a little bit selfish, because right now I'm a Jewish woman from New Jersey and I'm living in Iowa, and it's very isolating. I said I was locked during our services. And when a stranger can talk to our people panic because we don't know what that person's is coming for us to do. And that is the opposite of what else abortion should be. And, you know, I'm sure you've heard last month there are menorah was vandalized in a town that is the most liberal diverse. [15:32:28] . It was an amazing place to grow up. And it's like breaking my heart. And so I am here because you are. I called you my rabbi before you. You're my preacher. You make me feel like there is a potential in this country back on track. And when I think about sending my baby girl off to college the year in 2020, that is a really intense. And I just want you to talk a little bit more about the things about how you're going to bring this push back together and heal, like what is happening, how we get rid of neo-Nazis or New Jersey, because we know that they do not belong there. A good question, because since 9/11, there's been more terrorist attacks in this country. [15:33:16] There were not sort of external people coming into our country to terror suspects. The majority of our terrorist attacks have been right wing extremist groups, a majority of them white supremacist groups. And this violence is on the rise. And when she's talking about my phone today, yesterday, day before, because the attack, the stabbing attack in Muncie, New York, because of the shooting attack in Jersey City, New Jersey, we're just seeing these acts of violence, vandalism and violence against Jews. Anti-Semitism is on the rise. [15:33:42] The attacks have increased more than 100 percent over the times just a short period of years. And it's not just that we're seeing attacks on Latinos, as we saw with the shooting in Texas, where the person drove 10 hours to seek out a Latino Americans to murder, then we're seeing that violence against sick Americans who wear turbans or similar horrible instances of New Jersey of heckling or abuse. [15:34:08] Muslim Americans. And so this is a time, really, where we have to question about what can we all be doing to make sure we're doing something about that. So as your president two days, I make a difference. Martin Luther King said you can't legislate someone to love me. You passed legislation. Stop them from lynching. No, I can't pass legislation to change our hearts. [15:34:30] But I can pass legislation to restrain the heartless. So there is a role for government. There is a role for a president who will not deny white supremacy. But talk about these issues by organizing your Justice Department to investigate and do things to stop that can actually do to actually to do justice, which is what the Torah who going to tour work for 10 years, the highest calling Miko, which is in the Christian Bible as well. A lot of war. [15:34:54] Do you want from your people is to love God, hate evil and do justice. [15:35:00] And so this to me is all of our calling. I'll never forget. I love reading for Abraham. He talks about these very simple but very powerful ideas about making ourselves vulnerable. How important it is. You can't have her heroism or courage without vulnerability. [15:35:18] All of us have an obligation to enter this world or differences or being exploited by people of hate to drive it up for whipping up to do more to incentivize on site kind of acts. And so I just want to say to everybody this and this is may sound again like why is this guys and try to even caucus form. But I want to just give you a warning label on my candidacy. [15:35:40] If I am your president, I'm warning you, I promise you, I'm going to ask more from you than any president is asking you in your life. Remember, I grew up with grandparents who told me about presidents. FDR was my grandfather was a Republican. Most blacks were back in the 20s and 30s. And in Michigan, turn, 14 districts are Democratic because of the GOP's call to service of FDR and looking to do for each other. [15:36:09] This is where I need to ask more from you. First of all, for all of us here, whether it's our seniors was too small Social Security checks or people that are working teachers in this room who don't know how your pay your student loans and your rent, but still reach in your pocket the paper things for your kids. We will be a lot like doubling of the earned income tax credit by extending the earned income tax credit for people who are at home not working, but they are working because they're taking care of someone special needs, a spouse with Alzheimer's, a child with special needs. [15:36:39] Therefore, if I have my earning contacts for a redo it and it's going to be 150 million Americans, a pay increase. Cut poverty in the third. So I'm not talking about paying more taxes, but I'm going to ask you to serve more. And I'm asking a roomful of people who are obviously already activists. But if we think that we're going to get changed tomorrow by doing the same thing we did yesterday. It's just not going to happen. [15:37:01] And all of us have to put ourselves out there a little bit to figure out more creative ways to make a difference. And this will only the question after this long. But I just want to take you with me on one step of a journey. [15:37:11] And it may sound small, but I want you all to the biggest thing you could do in any way is always going to be a small act of kindness, of decency, grace and love. [15:37:22] It's proven to be my life. My biggest mistakes have been not knowing this lesson about what small acts of kindness do. But just let me tell you it. [15:37:30] Every day is you perfect opportunities. I love the last House party. We were there and I traded upon the grace of the homeowners because we broke a lot of fire bills getting people in. But one of the questions was what they were talking about, voter suppression at the end of the question. What are you hearing about voter suppression? And then they said, what can I do about voter suppression? I was like, that is wonderful. But you're asking for things because there's always something you could do. Remember, you have to go down to Alabama and march, but you can figure out what you might be able to do with 30 minutes more week and not underestimate that can make a lifetime of change. [15:38:05] And I'm guilty. This is what I want to talk about, vulnerability. I'm guilty for not always living. All of us have to wrestle with this because I remember one day. This is for I tell them I'll go rapid fire questions, but I'm driving home where I live in work, three blocks from my house. We have this place. I don't know if you've ever if you have these in Iowa or if you prefer these places. It's called McDonald's. And I'm a guy in Newark. Been with me since I was mayor. He drives me around and pick me up in the airport. [15:38:34] He's in the front seat where he's just kind of grew up in the projects. When we served, the military came back to the door, please. We've been together for like two decades. Just looking good. Every year we communicate so much as we're driving. That's because he looks at me rearview mirror and I put my head down in shame because the flesh was weak and he knew that was a sign to go into the middle. [15:38:53] Now I love him. [15:38:55] So I wasn't going to walk into a McDonald's. Let people see me. I was. I was going to go through the drive through and get my French fries back. And I thought, where do you get in there? Actually not go to Burger King. I go to I go 200 dollars. I get my two French frocks disguising my voice, of course, holding my head down and having my French fries, and now I'm holding them. I am so excited to get home and just bought the white pants and watch TV. And I knew I had to to my best friends waiting for me in my freezer. Ben and Jerry. And so I'm holding his prize. [15:39:30] I thought the most precious thing on earth I've ever seen that line for Lord of the Rings by Precious. And then we're driving out. We see a guy who has head in trash. I look in the rearview mirror communications. He knows me. I know. And he spots the car. I rolled out my window. Hey, man, are you all right? The church is wasting away. And, you know, sometimes you should press, affirm the dignity of the person I some kind of hate. I mean, anything you want, anything you need in terms really just as I'm hungry. [15:39:57] And so I knew immediately I too much. Right. And I'm a man of faith. [15:40:01] And I know that Jesus said something extra much in the Sermon on the Mount. You have to fret about the French fries and your neighbor. I think that's what he said. And so I reach in my pocket and my bag and I hand him one of my fries. He seems happy. But at that moment he looks at me and he goes from having to looking little pain. In fact, you said, hey, man, give me socks. And he was who I seem logical know if you've worked in the homeless person dies, it's like worth its weight in gold. [15:40:33] And I looked at and I knew the pain and I looked at him and I go on, sorry, man, I don't have any socks. And I leaned back and looked at my friend in the rearview mirror thinking that Kevin was going to drive, but he didn't. He puts the car in park reaches between his legs and the steering wheel, kicks off his shoes, takes off the socks he's wearing and handsome through the window. Now, I. You heard me just give a speech all about love and kindness and decency. [15:40:59] I am a work in progress. I really am. I have this measure for people. [15:41:06] And I hate to be judgmental because again, my face is not to be judgmental, but I always say someone who's nice to you but not nice to the waiter is not a nice person. [15:41:14] You get the everyday kindnesses that we do to each other, just that changes the energy. [15:41:21] Here's a Stanford researcher that does this research. One act of kindness, actually, they measured this can ripple out multiple degrees beyond you in changing the world. Remember one man standing up to get one hour in a whole. Ripple out to change a generation not yet born. So I'm simply saying to you right now, if I'm your president, give a guy that uses his platforms every day to demonstrate some of the worst of our character. When I would come up to me and said, you passed my test, I'm caucusing for your wife, because my test is who would I want to babysit my children? [15:41:57] And I looked at her and just smiled. Why? No, that's not Donald Trump. [15:42:04] My point is character matters. I'm your president. I'm going to use my platforms sometimes to show my own vulnerability, but every day I'm going to work to inspire more acts of kindness or acts of decency, more acts of grace, because that is the salvation ultimately of our nation. Quite yet, right here we go where we see round one, two, three, because they're pulling me outside and talking to long. Go ahead. OK, so real quickly, how can we get the message out everywhere that city councils and dog catchers and school boards are the breeding ground? [15:42:41] The training ground for our candidates for the future. And if we don't vote in every municipal house, we know that the GOP has known this and has been working it for decades. So I'm going to be the kind of leader of the party. I'm just gonna put this plane again. I'm about unity, about bringing people together. I'm also a competitor. And I want the Democrat Party to be as strong as it ever was under my presidency, to work ahead of the con to a point where we states that people think are blue to blue, like Iowa, like Texas, like Georgia, which demographically it could be should be blue if we organize from the grassroots up. [15:43:14] I tried to show people what I'm going to be like in the future by just demonstrating the kind of person I am. The number one fundraiser in Iowa state legislative elections in 2018. All people running was my team. We wanted to show you that there's three ways to campaign. I learned this when I was knocking on doors as a city council person. The people that trump over grass and they go knock on the door and they walk over the grass. That's not a consciousness raising. The second person's good. [15:43:40] You put what you say on the sidewalks. Knock on door for the third person is the best. The person that walks along the season, newspaper end law picks it up and brings us to the door, sees a piece of trash, picks it up, throws it away. We are all in this together because I'm going to be blunt with you. I'm not a presidential candidate tells you I'm going to solve all your problems. I'm your federal official. Your state legislature right now is coming after Medicaid with his privatization scheme. Your state legislature right now is coming after teachers with the right to organize the greatest president for you. [15:44:10] But if we don't change the leadership here in Iowa and this is a Republican or a Democrat, this is about making progress for Iowans. Look, your whole farming's world view is changing this. Independent family farmers are being wiped out, driven out of business. There's no way that we're really successful as a nation. If we don't have federal policies supported by state policy, supported by local policies, as a local leader, please put people with local elected leadership experience in the White House. I will help build a great cash. [15:44:40] That's. [15:44:43] Retired after 22 years as hospice social worker. I now focus on the end of life medical aid in dying. I really want to have two choices in Iowa. Any plot to spy on the national level? [15:45:00] This is so this is this is I hate to tell you that my empathy was expanded because I watched my dad die of Parkinson's and dementia. And and it woke me up to things as a young man that I just was not aware of. And so I gave a very warm and detailed policy for long term care issues on my website. [15:45:18] I want to give you a couple highlights to the elder elderly, to our elderly. This country is so disrespectful. It is policies that do not reflect the empathy and the love of this country. I'll give you one example. We tell our seniors that if they're going to qualify for Medicaid, they have to lead themselves into poverty, even to qualify for Medicaid and nursing home care. Just think about that. You've done everything right. Live your life. I'm retired and you're getting sick whether you'll pass on this, you know, poverty and then we'll help you. [15:45:48] That so. That's ridiculous. So part of my long term care plan is lifting the caps one hour on, on on on savings as well as the income because people might want a part time job or to do something. So we're changing that. I've already told you that for people like my mom and this, I so much empathy for people taking care of folks with special needs. I mean, she bled through savings. She was literally standing at the door. One day when I had my mom's physical health was in danger because my father was insisting he had to go out. He was half dressed and my mom had to wrestle with him. [15:46:20] And I saw her back, hurt her knee, getting her, trying to lift my dad out of bathtubs. We find my brother and I made sure she had more help at home and then night overnight. She eventually stopped trying to put our resources. You've got to be sure she had. Home at night is getting better and longer. There are so many Americans, noble Americans, doing what we all should do to be there for family members to the extent that we can. And why do you think works? Guess what happened to that person? They would end up on the taxpayer care, which would be so much more expensive. [15:46:48] That's why I expand this idea of saying that everyone who is doing that kind of work should qualify for a refundable tax credit. And you literally I'll bring thousands of dollars back into the pockets of families who are struggling with that. And I'm not going stop there. There are other things that we do for laws that people want to age at home. Medicare does not prioritize. That doesn't provide the right kind of incentives. We need to do that. And so end of end of care life is something that I to interest legislation on. And I formed bills. [15:47:16] But as president, I'm going to awaken the conscience of this country to care about two populations, far more for a policy than we're doing right now. I'm pushing awareness to so many people about what's happening in this country. That's shameful. Those groups of your elderly and our kids. And the reason why I wanted to focus on kids, because you talked about your professional career. I know you're aware of this, but I hope people know this. We're the one industrial country that does not have universal prenatal care. [15:47:41] And as a result of that, we lead the developed world in infant mortality, low birth weight babies and look, turtle mortality. It would be that's expensive. [15:47:53] People know premature birth is so expensive, taxpayer dollars. Besides being morally wrong, we should lead the world in examples of how we take children into this world, especially because guess what happens? [15:48:04] The brain develop. 90 percent of it happens before the fifth year. And we are a country that does not pick up children in any kind of public way really substantively until they hit kindergarten. It would be cheaper for this country to give women access to dual care than it is to allow children to be born like they are right now. [15:48:22] That's why my plan calls for that going. That's shameful. [15:48:27] We do not have universal preschool. Well, I can show you the dollars invested a year to preschool bring back to our economy every dollar we invest. Forty seven dollars back to your economy. It's shameful that we have paid family leave. Afghanistan and the Congo have paid family leave. And we we don't. And then the final one is why don't we have affordable childcare in America and pay our childcare workers what they deserve? We are a nation right now, and it's more expensive for childcare in most states than it is for tuition at the local college. So I want to be judged. There's a lot of things I won't be judged for as your president. [15:49:04] The spiritual thing I want to do is probably done a better job repairing the fabric, moving our country to common cause and common purpose. Have I done a good job? I tried to do a Newark by city that was ignored and overlooked making a national cause. My Twitter feed was not just talking about to my residence. I wanted the world to know that we were a city, that the American dream thrived there. We ended up getting developers and philanthropy all around the country. As president, I'm going to do the same thing. [15:49:29] Expand pie to expand the moral imagination. That's one of the ways that the judge was successful. The other way is in policies, especially how we treat our children and our elderly. And so thank you. Only go real quick. I don't ask what you're yelling. I got to go the other room and I'm going to do one thing that's really defiant. I'm going to go to questions more like feel bad, I'm sorry, Dan, and killing me if I need something. [15:49:50] Time a lot quicker. Here you go, this gentleman. Here now is the last question I'm going to cut right here to my boy. Yeah. Yes, go ahead. Yes. This is my question. It's already started. I'm happy for those who are in the back. Did you hear? He said you were such a handsome man. [15:50:12] That's what he did, he said. [15:50:15] He said, I love your ideals, but I'm concerned about how we get there continued. [15:50:22] Yes. [15:50:26] How are you guys really think this has really? These are great questions. He said two things he said. How are you going to fix this guy? How are you going to overturn citizens by court? And then he said, how are you going to tone down Fox? And so, really, Christian Citizens United is a destructive. It is one of the biggest cancers in our to our democracy right now. But I think corporations or people, unlimited money pouring in. It is cancerous to our society. And so, first of all, I do it by being the change I want to say in the world. [15:50:54] I was a fifth senator to take the essence of I pledge, which means I don't take corporate PAC money at OK, corporation dollar. Then I'll take federal lobbyist. My LG Pharmaceutical executive sees me dollar and he was on it. He said no. This is why we are heavily reliant on individual contributions from people like you. Women. Thank you. Catch up. So one is just to show people you could win. But then the second way is very electoral. [15:51:21] I feel so much passion running this before to be your nomination because I know if we do not think about right now, they've got three seats on us. We've got to defend Alabama, which is going to be very hard. We narrowly won that and we were pulling against a guy accused of horrible things, horrible things. So so we've got three to four seats to make up on to do everything I can to fight to preserve Dow Jones. So we've said we pick up Iowa City. You exactly say we pick up seven, pick up Colorado, which I think we have a good shot of the your head right now. Now, Arizona, that's a great one. [15:52:00] This brings us back to almost even. We've got to pick up Susan Collins, but then we've got to look at the south in the southern seats that are up. So I'm telling you right now, I have incredible confidence that we could push Mitch McConnell to the backbench. If I'm the nominee that we're going to win in places we don't win normally. And we will further to the east, which is why I'm so confident I'm the best person for this. My state blacks are a small minority in my state, about nine, 10 percent of the population. I have to correctly. Chris Christie had to set my special election. The logical place we all thought the said it was when he was up for reelection. But he said, no, it's November normal, actually. [15:52:35] Move it up three weeks earlier and put it in on a Wednesday in October. So we had a campaign not just for the office to tell people it's not the November election, it's three weeks earlier. No, no, no, not Tuesday. Wednesday, show up. It was really hard to remember anybody that's running for president for the Democrat Party is going to get 90 plus percent of the black vote. That's not the question, is the turnout. And so when I was on the ballot, the black turnout in my state spiked upwards, up between 13 and 14 percent three weeks later. [15:53:07] Normal election elections all up and down the ballot. It dropped down to around 9 percent, between 9 and 10 percent. And so for us, the Obama is so successful, not because he just got black votes, but the whole Rainbow Coalition. We saw incredible surges. If I'm your nominee, are going to get the Senate back. And then now still your question. I've got 52, 53 votes. How are you going to get the rest of the votes? You need 60 votes to pass. [15:53:33] Citizens United Court. How are you going to get it done? And so my point to you is this gets us back to what I think is a difference from the field is my whole career has been taking impossible circumstances and showing people the things that people couldn't dream testimonials you can get done to finding a way out of nowhere. [15:53:54] So I'm going to tell you, I exactly know the legislative strategy, but I know it when you turn away from your city council, whatever, and turn to the nation and generate more movements, you can make change. When I was mayor of the city of Newark, I'm not joking to my departmental directors told me we had we had challenges. It just couldn't be solved. Our revenues as a city were crashing. I called for help, the foundations. He wouldn't return my call. I wanted the bill and we had to grow our tax base. [15:54:21] I couldn't get developers to pay attention. I went to a supermarket council place in Las Vegas and literally they get the person that was the one of the big supermarket chains. I asked them to come to work. They laughed at me, but I found creative ways to get things done. One of the funny things I did that this is a Trump uses his presidency uses he breaks norms all the time. I tell you what, I'm breaking norms, too, but not for darkness, for life. One of the ways he breaks laws with the social media. [15:54:50] I was an innovator, as you saw on Twitter. So one of the things that happened to me wasn't the worst depth of our challenges. CONAN O'BRIEN comes on The Tonight Show and insults our cities as I hear herky jerky, his great your health care program. We had this healthcare program, the lower prescription drugs for many of our residents. I was proud of it. He goes, but I think the best healthcare for the city of York is a bus ticket out of town. And I was like, OK. This is a gift. Readers take problems and they turn them into opportunities. [15:55:19] So I went to my desk in New York City Hall and I said, I'm Cory Booker, our American City North. And I brag about our city. And I said, by the power vested in me, Collins insulted our cities with the power vested in me by the people, the city, you know, I hereby ban. CONAN O'BRIEN from Newark Airport. I said, you're on the no fly list. JFK, buddy, put it online. Knowing that he had 3 million viewers. This was the early days of Twitter. I knew my video, as funny as it was was. And he kept it became a trending. He had hundreds of thousands of lives. So much so. That City Hall is being flooded with calls. Everything from civil libertarians were mad at me for violating civil rights. [15:55:59] And I just like it was a joke all the way to the TSA. Then went on to put a clarification on their website that mayors in America can't ban people from their. But this is great now that the press will only show up in Newark when there was murder or corruption scandal. Now I've got satellite trucks lined up. I'm loving this. And then I get another gift from God. Colton comes on The Tonight Show again and says, Corey Booker plays my video, giving me more millions of viewers. [15:56:28] And I say, but then he says, By the power vested in me by my studio audience, I beg you for Burbank Airport. Now your flight to L.A., not a big deal. L.A. acts, but this becomes a major fight. I've been on the whole state of New Jersey then, and it becomes this one of the top stories in area that I was getting more media being invited on the Larry King show. All these. Never before have I got a chance to brag to more people about my city. It ends because this amazing woman is hero of my life. She was in charge of creating peace, war torn areas around the globe. She was a secretary state, the United States of America joining Hillary Clinton. No joke. Clearly, this whole line, she filled her own video, basically, in essence, just saying, Corey Coleman give peace a chance. [15:57:15] And so it adds me going on The Tonight Show. Imagine there are Newark, New Jersey. The curtain opens and I step out, sit on the couch and he apologizes on national TV and writes a hundred thousand dollars worth of check up checks to your charities. But that's not the end of it. It is this sense. It's even possible before I call the largest foundations in the country. They return my calls. The pilot. I call those developers. This is you know what? I'm in the New York area. I'll come back and look at the. We built the first hotel in 40 years for new office towers in generation. [15:57:48] And that supermarket chain that left empty shop there record, if you will, like to be your president. I'm telling you right now, I'm not playing by the rules, but I'm not violating rules to demean and degrade people. I'm going to find creative ways to make a way. I don't know. It's been my whole career going to the toughest challenges and finding ways to get them done. I can tell you exactly how we're gonna do it, but that's the operative word. How we are going to do it. [15:58:15] And so since you nicer we going to you want to end this nightmare. We're in end this nightmare in our country. And I'm going to find the ways to get things done that other people say can't get there. Okay. All right. Yes. Last question right here. Yes. This is one of my friends that gives me the best hugs every time I see them. [15:58:35] And we see. Oh, my God. And that's what makes it so. So. [15:58:46] OK, this is the true honor. And with this, because you ask me a beautiful question. I'll tell you. I appreciate it. All right. So she's one of our great volunteers. You already heard one of our volunteers mentioned. I am. And I'm also the organizers. We're doing well in Iowa right now. And so many measures from the beginning to the morgue registry said the two best organizing teams on the ground with me and Elizabeth's. And we are surging right now because not because of the candidate. [15:59:11] Even as handsome as I might be. Because really because it's really because of the team that we have on the ground. And so that's what I want. And it's an appeal to this team in this room. You all have the power to change the world. People from living rooms like this have been changing the world for whole country's history. Maybe it wasn't always literature before they got together in a barn to plan it underground railroad and went through this this take everything. They got together in a church basement to plan the civil rights movement. It's always been ordinary Americans coming together, doing extraordinary things. This is what we need right now. [15:59:49] And I'm asking you, think about bringing my larger team and I want to end with this ideal because my heart is a little heavy cause of John Lewis. And I learned that when bad things were happening, when challenges exist. I learned from a woman on the fifth floor of the projects that taught me when her son, her son was murdered in. [16:00:11] The lobby of the building, so I must ask her why she stayed in the buildings. Why did she say? She said to me, look at you like just bemused by the questions because I stay here because I'm in charge of homeland security. She talked, she had a title, she had a cabinet post, but she took responsibility for her neighborhood. Hope is the active conviction that despair will never have the last word. [16:00:35] And on my lowest day as an American, when I was there, when a boy was shot, tried my best to stop him from bleeding to death. It was one of the most gruesome experiences of my life, trying to stop a teenage child from dying from gunshot wounds in my neighborhood. [16:00:54] I went to bed that night feeling angry and despondent after scrubbing another boys blow off my hands, feeling like I wanted to give up, feeling so angry that children were dying in my city and it didn't even make the news anymore. And I remember going to bed that night just feeling so angry at the world. It's the lowest point I as an American. I was so angry at this country. We pledge allegiance and we swear an oath to liberty and justice for all. But where was the Justice Skeeters before it would become better? [16:01:25] And I felt so overwhelmed by the size of the problem, so small, I felt like giving up and I got the next morning. There are people in this room. I know you're in this room, but no, to me, the real definition of courage is not the big moment. The big challenge, the big speech. There are people in the room that know that the greatest courage is often so choked by that morning that you get up with all of your heart ache, all of your heart, and your courage is just to put your feet on the ground and keep on filming. [16:01:52] Keep on fighting. Keep on moving forward. I got up the next morning and I got downstairs in my building, the lobby of the projects walking through that lobby. I suddenly remembered in the back of my mind that this is where Mrs. is Jones's son was murdered. And I walk out in the lobby and there in that courtyard was this Jones with her back to me. And I felt like I was screaming under one hundred feet of water. And then almost as she heard me, she turns around and puts her arms open like this is exactly what I did. And I ran for that courtyard. Six foot three she five feet this vision. But I felt like a little kid running to her arms and she held me. [16:02:28] And that's when I broke and started crying. [16:02:30] But what she said to me is she rode my back just two words and kept me going as a bear, as help me keep going as the senators keep me going in the presidential campaign other days. I'm exhausted and leaning on the goodness of people like I like this in this room that I need. She said two words to me that have nothing to do with religion, but everything to do with a civic gospel. [16:02:50] She said to me as she wrote my back, as I wept on her shoulder, she said to me, Stay faithful, stay faithful, stay faith. [16:03:00] This nation has come this far by faith. Faith in our common ideals. Faith in each other. Our ability to bond together across our differences and assert or higher calling. [16:03:13] This is a moment that we need that manifest, that faith again. [16:03:18] And if you've put your faith in me. If you caucus with me, I promise you I will not let you down. I won't be perfect. [16:03:25] But I promise you that together our faithfulness together, our service together, our sacrifice together, our love is not going to have the end of our story be in some ditch will be Donald Trump and we'll make it to the mountaintop because we will rise. [16:03:43] Thanks. [16:03:49] Regarding Sophie's outsides are waiting for you outside the lab in the front door of his office outside. [16:03:55] I'm going to stand outside the door. If you want a selfie with me, please do it. If you want to commit to caucus, please rebel organizers hug them, too, if you want. That's a really good idea. I wouldn't do it with words. Thank you. [16:04:40] Oh, I think it, too. I think sitting next to me. Better. After. I'm not even sure how I wanted to talk to you as much as. I'm not surprised you were there. Oh, my God, guy. Oh. [16:05:29] Now I know. Yes, yes, yes. Is over again. Thank you very much for sharing my perspective for us. Thanks. I'm hoping I see every three hours here. Yes, it's very good. So he just sits there and you see the competition. We're just showing the world crashing and burning. I know. Are you feel this Saturday night? The bottom line is you get better. You have. Several years, even when I was eight years old, when I was five. How do you do it? Oh, my gosh. I saw your scar. Yes. I'm so sorry. [16:27:37] You're good. We're not. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've got somebody secretly having sex. Oh, OK. I'm telling you, I always get more. You could tell me where I was. Oh, yes, several counties. Yes. Yes. Just make sure he said yes. I feel warm inside. Yeah, sure. Yeah, hey, guys. I'm like, so. How so? So I made my life would just like this. This is not a good start for countries like Syria. I'm sorry. Thanks for being here. All right. You know, I think of the 14 too high. Yeah. What does it mean? Oh, of course it wasn't. [16:29:13] Oh, no. Oh, department and the to say I. Most of my time. Every day. Yeah. I just hear that you spend a couple days. Yes. Yes. Oh you mean three different times in the final three. So now got a door I horse and more. Following what I'm usually writing. Usually you're not. Yeah, I said to see you in a while and also say, I'm sorry. So you want to get something? Yeah. That's where I am. I mean. Have you been here? Sorry for what I did. I guess I just want you to go when you're just trying to get 20, you already found this one. Like, I haven't checked my life. I love it. Good evening, Mr. Klein. [16:31:09] As first of all, you're teaching like one of my favorite subjects by going up. And I know you are a great teacher. How do I know that? Because one of your students is telling me so. So thank you for what you do every single day. You signed that would. Great, great, great. You're could have into your home. Certainly not in our country. Being a place where I think the critical question for you. Yeah, yeah, baby. No, I'm not. All right. Now, anything they have continued to be devilish. Let's be honest. [16:31:59] I almost want I can just leave for two hours and then Emma GRIFFITHS, our commercials to continue with this work. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I think next season. That's what I said to me. I've heard that before. Come back. I hope my favorite part of the law is the White House told them, well, it would be very curious to know what I was coming up. Yeah. You know, the last one is basically like the membership and some inquiries or his staff. And let's just take for the better. Obviously, it's a system I should just call, right? Yeah, sure. Do you know how to do this? I mean, a lot of you to make me feel good. Yes. GAGGLE [16:33:38] I go there now. It was just after. Am I saying too high? Should I step down? Yeah, that's about it. I just wanted to lord over you. I owe you. I think we got a newbie over here. Are you all right? Look, it's Maura. It's going to be here. Oh, that's pretty cool. End of the year. Little switch switcheroo. OK, we'll go ahead. I just think it's been turned off by getting your reaction to everything that's going on right now in Baghdad. Look, we all should have a resolve and a strength that says if you were going to attack Americans, we're going to respond. We have a real crisis there and we have crisis in the region, frankly. [16:34:34] Here's an Iranian backed militia at a time in Iran. Iran is grant growing in strength and influence under this president because we don't have a larger strategy to contain their bad actions, whether it's their running arms through Syria, to arm Hezbollah, whether it's what's going on in Yemen right now, which is a crisis or what's going on in Baghdad. So we need to stand together. And this idea that we're going to be resolute and strong when it comes to American troops and the well-being of American contractors that are there. [16:35:10] But we need to have a larger strategy that is about the safety, security, that region and bringing our troops home. You're your campaign manager, you just suggested on Twitter that you could send your best fundraising quarter. Can you give us some insight into what you're heading into this final month? This is all about the surge and we're already seeing it. We saw it on online contributions and we're hoping more people will come to help us out, because right now we're running commercials for the first time on TV here in the state, doing what a lot of billionaires in this race have been doing, what they consider a lot of resources. [16:35:43] Thank God we're seeing a real lift in our online contributions. In addition to that, we're now leading in the pack in local endorsements. We've picked up county chair people on this trip. Local representatives, city council people. It's incredible. So we know we're going to be the upset story in Iowa. It's just like every single cycle. It seems like there's a great up. What's that story? Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, John Kerry. We know that we're running an incredible ground game here. [16:36:11] That's how I beat a machine in New Jersey and to win and become the mayor of the largest city. And that's how we're going to win here in Iowa and start a spark. It's going to create a real movement. It's really about our common values as a country and showing what real strength is strength that will be Donald Trump, but more importantly, strength that will meet the biggest challenges of a generation, from climate change to gun safety to health care access. On February 3rd, I'm sure I have a better sense of exactly what this means. [16:36:37] But right now, when you say you have the best ground game in the safe, what does that mean? It means a lot of things from the beginning. The Des Moines Register, other local media here has been saying we have the most experienced, talented team on the ground. And that's one measure we're seeing the most effective organizing going on, because right now, as we saw in this ad, that we're just getting so many commitment of caucus cards now, we're really seeing a measurable surge in what's going on. [16:36:59] But you're right, caucus is going to be the day that decides and I'm very excited about it. Now, a lot of your tweets have been about TV ads and buying more TV ads and even more donations to buy more TV ads. How important are specifically ads on television versus your digital ads? Well, we've seen the TV ad. The people that have been running TV ads over and over and over again have seen little bumps in the polls that help them to get to the debate stage. I'm not a billionaire. I can't buy TV ads out of my pocket. We really rely on others. And the fact that we've seen so many contributions coming in and we hope they continue. [16:37:30] That's what's helped us to now be on TV, which hopefully will trigger our polls continuing to go up and going up a little bit already and get us on the next debate stage. And that really helped start the last debate before caucuses here in Iowa. It's really important that I'm on that stage. And if people want me on the stage, please continue to go to Corey Booker, AECOM to help. Speaking of polls and bringing your friend. Yes. It has challenged the DNC to conduct more polls, but they kind of I don't think they will not be doing that. Is that something that you think needs to happen? [16:38:01] How what kind of influence the DNC should be using to getting reports that, look, they set criteria based upon early state polling, yet there has not been an early state poll since early November. You know, we've had two debates since then. People have dropped out of this race since then. This race has shifted. So I just don't understand how we are stealing with this situation were to qualify with the state polls. But there's been not so much the early state polls, I should be specific. So I think Yang's point is should be well taken. And again, I'm not gonna argue with a ref right now. [16:38:34] We're focused on running our game and we're hit the field and we're making a lot of progress. I'm really encouraged by just the energy on the ground force. Right. Now, you see in the crowds of the people that are showing up, you see it, the endorsements we're getting. We still have 33 days now and we're going to work every single one of. And anybody else to use a little bit of Senate speak on you? [16:38:57] Yes, to a point of clarification. Yes. If you would, you have mentioned the story that you said today in this House party about the drive thru at McDonald's. Yes. A couple of times on the trail in previous counts. There was a different driver or you're at Burger King, not McDonald's. Can you clarify the story for me? No need to clarify. It's always been McDonald's and it's always been. Kevin Betts, I have a transcript that says Burger King. So. Well, then I must make a mistake. OK. This is the only fast food restaurant we watch. My house is McDonald's. You could factor in the.

TVU 22 AMY KLOBUCHAR HENDERSON NV EARLY VOTE KICK OFF RALLY ABC UNI 021520 2020 Sen. Amy Klobuchar started off an early morning event in Henderson, Nevada talking about what her post-debate and NH primary results fundraising hauls have done for her campaign, saying it's going to ads to increase her name ID in a state she is having financially trouble catching up in. "And let me tell you, last week we more than made the debate stage. [123015] . But it made a big difference. And then, of course, we did more than exceeded expectations in the state of New Hampshire. So, we thought we would bring this show on the road. And what happens? I wake up yesterday morning and there is a public poll with the Las Vegas newspaper, and what does it say? That we are in double digits, already [cheers] And that is a - [123047] And for us, we were not able to put TV ads like some of my more well-funded opponents until just recently, and the reason we were able to start big time running ads in Nevada is because after that first -- that last debate, we started to literally get in, I think in two days, from regular people online at AmyKlobuchar.com, we got in three million dollars." [123115] She continued going after the self-and-well-funded campaigns saying "I do not believe, in a democracy, that it's the biggest bank account that matters." [123240] She wrapped her remarks talking about what little time she has left to convince Nevada voters, calling on her supporters to campaign for her, much like she had done in Iowa and New Hampshire. "I need your help. I only have like, what? Seven days left or something? I don't know and we have the early voting today. I need you to talk to your friends and call them, volunteer for us if you'd like. We'd love that. But just call people you know. Talk to them at work, talk to them when you're in a restaurant and make the case for me of what you've heard today. [131000] . I am asking you to volunteer, to call people, to talk to your friends because I'm telling you, we shocked everyone in New Hampshire. We're gonna do it here again in this great state of Nevada." [131148] About the event: Klobuchar addressed a half-full medium-sized wedding ballroom at 9:00am PST. Amongst a majority-white, older crowd, were a handful of minorities you could count on one hand. ------------- Highlights: Debate Surge/ "Show on the Road / TV Ads 123015 And let me tell you, last week we more than made the debate stage. [cheers] And that really gave me that opportunity to explain not just where I was coming from, policy wise and we've had a lot of debates in that way, as you know if you've been watching any of them, but also really to tell people where my heart was, and that's hard to do in 30 seconds or one minute or whatever you have on the debates. 123047 But it made a big difference. And then, of course, we did more than exceeded expectations in the state of New Hampshire. So, we thought we would bring this show on the road. And what happens? I wake up yesterday morning and there is a public poll with the Las Vegas newspaper, and what does it say? That we are in double digits, already [cheers] And that is a -- 123115 And for us, we were not able to put TV ads like some of my more well-funded opponents until just recently, and the reason we were able to start big time running ads in Nevada is because after that first -- that last debate, we started to literally get in, I think in two days, from regular people online at AmyKlobuchar.com, we got in three million dollars. [cheers] 123146 And so, the amazing thing about that is that the money came from people that watched and got that I am the one that can lead this ticket to victory, and it was just so rewarding. And that's allowed us, like it should happen in politics, to keep going. Wealthy Presidents 123240 And in any case, I do not believe, in a democracy, that it's the biggest bank account that matters. I don't. When you look at some of the people that have come from nowhere to become the president of the United States, because of the early states actually, that either they won those states or they did better than expected in those states --- those are people like Jimmy Carter. Those are people like Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, where people had not predicted that they were going to be able to win for various reasons. 123313 Right. And so, that's what's so important about having smaller states like Nevada at the beginning -- not smaller, size wise, you guys are like really big. KLOBUCHAR POKER CHIPS JOKE 124339 I'm gonna be able to say, first of all, you know, the midwest, the area that he always boasts about, that is not fly over country to me and the people that live there are not poker chips in a bankrupt casino to me, that's what he had. Instead -- because we're in Nevada so I thought i'd -- instead they are my friends and my neighbors. KLOBUCHAR ON NEEDING YOUR HELP 131000 I need your help. I only have like, what? Seven days left or something? I don't know and we have the early voting today. I need you to talk to your friends and call them, volunteer for us if you'd like. We'd love that. But just call people you know. Talk to them at work, talk to them when you're in a restaurant and make the case for me of what you've heard today. KLOBUCHAR ON SHOCKING IN NH: 131148 I am asking you to volunteer, to call people, to talk to your friends because I'm telling you, we shocked everyone in New Hampshire. We're gonna do it here again in this great state of Nevada. Trint: [12:27:20] Unbelievable. Thank you. OK. [12:27:25] All right, good. OK. You saw me and Bill Marr. Thank you. Yeah. That was that was fun. All right. Well, thank you, everybody. It is so great to be here in Henderson to be back again with all of you. And what is today early voting? Right. You ready to go? And there are five early voting sites, right, in Henderson, including one at Sun City Anthem. So you guys are ready? Just thought I'd mention that. That's on Monday. [12:27:56] Yeah. We don't want to send people to the wrong place. That would be bad. All right. So first of all, I'm amazed all these people here at 9:00 a.m. or whatever time it is on a Saturday, we have a lot in our schedules. So really appreciated when I heard you were all here. And then I want to mention also these incredible thank you to David, who, you know is the former president of the Sun City Anthem Democrats. Thank you. Where did you go, David? Right over there. [12:28:26] I enjoyed my visit there. Then we have Teresa Bell. Thank you. Been there for me from the beginning. Yes. She said she's been doorknocking and things are really looking up. Right. OK, good. And then, of course, the great Las Vegas city councilman, Isaac Brown. Where are you, Isaac? We've just had a great talk out there. [12:28:48] Thank you so much. [12:28:52] From North Las Vegas. Let us get that clear. Thank you. And then I also wanted to mention my state director, Marina. Where are you? Right over here. [12:29:05] Who is just doing a great, great job for us. [12:29:09] So we are pretty excited. We are suddenly seeing what we call a surge. I got a text that had a bad autocorrect from a friend a few weeks ago and it said congratulations on your insurgency, incentive surge. But that is not something that just happens by a fluke. It's because of the hard work that Marina does that our whole team does, seeing some of her, our friendly team that was in Iowa with us and a little warmer here. [12:29:42] Don't you think? Yep. So anyway, we've just just done this step by step by step. And when you think of where I came from, there were a lot of people that actually didn't think I was going to make it through that speech in the middle of a blizzard. They literally that we're seeing on TV, I don't know what she's going to do. They're going to have to shut this down. It's on an island and there's too much, you know. And then we went from there. [12:30:07] A lot of people predicted our demise by the summer. And then would she make the same debate stage and going on and on and on. And let me tell you, last week we more than made the debate stage. That really gave me that opportunity to explain not just where I was coming from policy wise, and we've had a lot of debates in that way, as you know, if you've been watching any of them. But also really to tell people where my heart was and that's hard to do in 30 seconds or one minute or whatever you have on the debates. [12:30:47] But it made a big difference. And then, of course, we did more than exceeded expectations in the state of New Hampshire. So we thought we would bring this show on the road. And what happens? I wake up yesterday morning and there is a public poll with the Las Vegas newspaper. And what does it say that we are in double digits already? And that is a. And for us, we were not able to put TV ads like some of my more well-funded opponents until just recently, and the reason we were able to start big time running ads in Nevada is because after that first that last debate, we started to literally get in, I think, in two days from regular people online. [12:31:41] AD Amy Klobuchar dot com, we got in three million dollars. And so the amazing thing about that is that the money came from people that watched and got that I am the one that can lead this ticket to victory. And it was just so rewarding. And that's allowed us like it should happen in politics to keep going. And I am well aware you guys know more than anything that there are a few billionaires in this race. My my more amusing thing was yesterday or two days ago when the president and Bloomberg got into it on Twitter and the president claimed that Bloomberg was short and he said he was only 5 foot four. And then Bloomberg goes, no, I'm really like 5 foot 8. And I thought, you know, there is only one candidate they can claim to be five foot four. [12:32:29] That is me. So let us make that clear. [12:32:34] And we know that James Madison was five foot four. So there you go. [12:32:40] And in any case, I do not believe in a democracy that it's the biggest bank account that matters. I don't. When you look at some of the people that have come from nowhere to become the president of the United States because of the early states, actually, that either they won those states or they did better than expected in those states. Those are people like Jimmy Carter. Those are people like Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, where people had not predicted that they were going to be able to win for various reasons. [12:33:13] Right. And so that's what's so important about having smaller states like Nevada at the beginning, that smaller size wise guys are like really big. I was in Reno yesterday and it was a lot of fun. Then we'd been back there quite a few times. But in terms of population. So that's the first thing I'd say. The second thing is that the we have to remember as we go into this election, I think this is what why we are adding so much support that a lot of people watching those debates may not have voted in 2016 or they're starting to watch the ads and see the candidates. [12:33:51] And when they watch it, they think or maybe they voted for Trump or they voted for someone else. And they look at it and they think, you know, I don't agree with everything that's said on the debate stage. I don't agree with everything that said on the debate stage. In fact, I think I was the only one that raised my hand that said, no, I'd have some trouble with having our ticket led by a socialist. And that's fine, even though Bernie and I are very good friends. But the. OK. Thank you. [12:34:18] Very person and the. [12:34:21] But the second thing that's happened is they think about it. And that's what they think. Because I think you saw it big time in Nevada, where, by the way, you guys have done an incredible job of teaching the country how you can win and the kind of candidates you can put up that win. [12:34:37] You are Nevada. Nevada is only a handful of states. [12:34:43] Minnesota being one of them. That sent not one, but two women to the U.S. Senate. [12:34:50] And in my very good friends, Catherine Cortez Masto and Jackie Rosann, most recently, you now have a majority women legislature, which is incredible. And then they got all these things done along with your great new governor. [12:35:14] So you look at what's happened in your state and it is actually a model for the rest of the country. And part of that was you put candidates up that fit your state. Right. They may not have been the most famous person. [12:35:29] They may not have been a celebrity, but they fit the state. [12:35:32] And people trusted them. They trusted them, which is key. So my whole theory here is that we have to have a candidate heading up the ticket that brings people with her instead of shutting them out. That that is the number one thing. And so when these people watch these debates, they think to themselves, one thing that we all have in common, no matter if we have different political philosophies, and that is that we need someone heading up a ticket that get that this is going to be. [12:36:02] Yes, an economic check on this president, because not everyone is sharing in what he claims is this prosperity, because we know not everyone is sharing in it too hard for people to afford child care. Hard for people to afford. Long term care, hard for people to afford sending their kids to college. Hard for people to afford refilling their insulin prescriptions. All of this is going on and he really has done nothing to be able to get at some of these problems we see out there because he spends a lot of time just talking about himself. But we also know that for people out there, it is a patriotism check. This is of this election. It is. [12:36:39] It is a. It is a decency check, a decency check. [12:36:47] It's this idea that years ago you would put the president on TV and you may not agree with that precedent, but you'd want to watch them out of respect and you'd maybe have your kids or grandkids watch it. But now there are people that are afraid to have a man because they don't know what he's going to say. [12:37:06] They don't want their kids to hear it and they literally have to meet the volume. That is a far difference when you used to watch the president give an address. Even if you didn't vote for the person, but you thought you should do it as a citizen so you'd figure it out. So you're informed of the issues of the day. We've completely gotten away from that. The patriotism check people watched when this president stood at the G-20 next to Vladimir Putin, a ruthless dictator, and he was asked by a reporter, well, what about Russia's interference in the election? And he looked at Putin and he made a joke about it. [12:37:39] You think about it, hundreds of thousands of Americans have lost their lives on the battlefields, just standing up for democracy. That's what World War 2 was about, standing up for our democracy and democracies around the world for little girls at the height of the civil rights movement in that church in Birmingham, Alabama. They lost their lives. They were innocent because they were trying to be part of that democracy and other people were trying to shove them out of it. [12:38:07] So many moments in this country, the past moments and the worst moments have been about our democracy, have been about our constitution. And this guy turns to a dictator and makes a joke about it. That is what a lot of people out there are thinking about, like the rancher I met in my own state who gave me a tour of his cattle ranch on an ATV where we were dodging these huge cows, and I thought, this is not how I want to die. [12:38:36] Like, seriously? [12:38:37] And after word, he brought me into the house and he says, you know, he went like this. We voted for Trump. And I said, what do you mean the ranchers? You mean your family? And he says, No, no, I mean, I did, but I don't like to talk about it myself. So I say we. [12:38:56] And then I said he said we did it because the health care. [12:39:01] And he said and then he said, I saw him in front of the wall. And I go, no, no, the wall wasn't built. There's no. He said, no, no. It was the day after the inauguration when he stood in front of the CIA wall. And he remembers that Trump gave this incredibly partisan political speech about the size of his crowd in front of this sacred wall devoted to those anonymous, anonymous patriots who lost their lives in the line of duty. [12:39:30] And it just simply has stars. And because of their work, it doesn't have their name. And our president gave a political speech in front of that wall and this guy remembered that. And then he says months and months later, he said, for me, the last straw was the Boy Scout jamboree. And not everyone remembers this, this guy that this guy and some of you do. So we started talking had been a Boy Scout, and we talked about the fact that my husband comes from a family of six boys, his mom, and they actually had four boys. And she went to have a girl and got pregnant again and had identical twin boys. [12:40:06] And they they lived in a trailer home until he was in sixth grade with triple bunk beds. [12:40:13] And they were very involved in scouts to the point where five of the six boys became Eagle Scouts. And I never like to say you can clap, but yeah, I never like to say which one didn't make it because they don't want to embarrass my husband. [12:40:27] So that was their story. [12:40:30] So we talked about that. [12:40:33] He said he was a scout and then he brought this image. She said when Trump stood there in front of that whole jamboree of all those young people and gave that partisan political speech. He said that was it for me. [12:40:47] Decide what I did. He went like that again for me. He said it wasn't patriotism. So he said I was mad. And I took that vote. [12:40:56] It wasn't patriotism. So that's what we're hearing or when I was in New Hampshire in this long line of people in Conway, New Hampshire, and they had these happy stickers on that said, I'm a climate change voter. I am a reproductive rights voter. I am a Supreme Court voter. And this guy is a brown jacket on. [12:41:13] And I said, sir, you don't have a sticker on. And he says, Yeah. That's because I was a Trump voter. And we don't have any stickers. And I these are my neighbors here, and they don't know. So don't say anything. And he goes, but I'm not doing it again. [12:41:34] So that is that is what that is what I want us to remember. Because while your state pulled this off. [12:41:42] Right. Incredibly so in 2016. And then again in 2018. How you handle those congressional races in the state. Right. Races. That didn't happen everywhere. And I went on this tour of what I call the blue wall tour of these states that we'd lost, like Pennsylvania, where I met with carpenters and dock workers in Michigan and dairy farmers in Wisconsin and then down to Ohio and Iowa. [12:42:07] And I finally came up with a plan, and that is that we are going to build a beautiful blue wall of Democratic votes around these states and we're going to make Donald Trump pay for it. So but when you talk to those voters, you see what I'm talking about because they were hoping they were gonna get some good deal out of this guy because they knew he built things, but yet they haven't seen that infrastructure. [12:42:40] I mean, we're still at a point where it is easier to get like make a cell phone call or get high speed Internet in this state, in the country of Iceland. And they've got volcanoes everywhere than it is in northern Nevada. OK, that's something wrong with that. And he promised all kinds of things with pharmaceutical prices and it just hasn't happened. So when these workers get back, they think, well, if something goes wrong in my life, I just got to go get a loan or I got to work more hours or my spouse has to get a second job. [12:43:10] And then they look at him and they think, you know, he's got the best job in the world. He lives in the best house. He made all these promises. And whenever anything goes wrong, he just whines and blames other people. He does that all the time. And so, in fact, and they are right. He started his life when his dad, over the course of his career, gave him four hundred thirteen million dollars. [12:43:33] And so I cannot wait to debate this guy, because I'm going to be able to say I failed to say, first of all, you know, the Midwest, the area that he always boasts about it, and that is that flyover country to me. And the people that live there are not poker chips in a bankrupt casino to me. That's what he had. Instead, they because we're in Nevada. [12:43:56] So instead, they are my friends and my neighbors. [12:44:02] And I did not start my life with 413 millions from a trust fund. This is my story. My grandpa was an iron ore miner. He worked fifteen hundred feet underground his whole life. He never graduated from high school because his parents were sick. They died very young. He had nine brothers and sisters. The youngest was taken to an orphanage when his parents died in Duluth when she was eight years old. [12:44:26] And he vowed he would go get her. He bought a car and he came and he brought her back. Hannah in two years. And so he spent most his life going down in this cage with the black lunch bucket that my grandma would pack for him and worked. And he wanted to be in the Navy. So I always thought of how he imagined that life at sea when he went down underground, but he knew that was the right thing to do when he met my grandma. [12:44:51] And they had two sons, including my dad. And the unions back then made those mines safer. The unions were the ones that came in and made those mines safer because in the old days, the siren would go off, everyone would run to the mine. They didn't know if it was their son or their brother or their husband that got killed. [12:45:09] And my dad still remembers the caskets lined up in the church because literally people would die all the time. So they got safer. And that enabled my grandpa to save money in a coffee can in the basement to send my dad to a two year community college, which is why I'm such a big believer in these 1 and 2 year degrees. And from there, he got a degree in journalism from the University of Minnesota. He was a journalist. His whole life he covered the Vikings. [12:45:40] I just saw your Raiders stadium that is going up. [12:45:45] But my dad was one of the main sportswriters that covered the Vikings. And he actually wrote a book in the early 80s, which is so sadly still relevant today. It was called Will the Vikings Ever Win the Super Bowl? [12:45:57] I'm not kidding. That is a true, true, true story. [12:46:02] And so then my mom grew up in Milwaukee, which is going to be the site of our national convention. And she moved to Minnesota and ended up teaching second grade until she was 70 years old. [12:46:16] So I. I stand before you today as the granddaughter of an iron ore miner, as a daughter of a teacher and a newspaperman, as the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate from the state of Minnesota and a candidate for president of the United States. [12:46:42] And that that is because we live in a country of shared dreams, that no matter where you come from or who you know or the color of your skin or how much money you have or where you worship or who you love. [12:46:56] That you can make it in the United States of America. And to me, when we are get out there and people are so focused right now on one thing which is winning, which we should be. So we have to look at how we get to that point. And to me, that means making it really clear what this guy is all about. Yeah, he's a bully. Yeah, he's a racist. But it's also really important to talk about what I've been mentioning, these broken promises to people. [12:47:22] This patriotism check, this decency check as you go and talk to some of your friends and neighbors over the next few months and you that may not agree with you on everything, how important this election is just for that soul and heart of America. Because I'll say one thing everyone will agree on, and that is that the heart of America. The day after Valentine's Day, the heart of America is so much bigger than the heart of the guy in the White House. [12:47:55] But the other thing that we're going to need to make this and we know how important this is to every person is an optimistic economic agenda for our country. And that means everything from and I start here because I know how important this is in in the Vegas area and that's housing. [12:48:12] Right. People need housing. And we have a aging population all over the country. They need senior housing because then that opens up housing stock for other thank you person that once that housing stock. But that opens up housing for families and for young people. And so we have to think like that about how we do this. I have one of the most expansive housing plans, in part because when I was a local official and then as a U.S. senator, I was able to see how important that is. That makes the difference for people. [12:48:43] If they've got a place they can live, whether it's apartment or a house, they've got a place that they're proud of. They've got a place where they know they can go to school from that place and they have transportation from that place. It literally makes all the difference in terms of how people feel as part of our community. Other challenges that we know, we have health care and we've had a lot of debates about health care. And we know one of the things when we look at this practically the Affordable Care Act right now, as some of my colleagues want to blow it up. I don't. I want to make it better with the nonprofit public option. [12:49:22] The Affordable Care Act, if we look at this, practically Barack Obama's signature legislation, the Affordable Care Act, wasn't maybe very popular at the beginning. It is now nearly 10 points more popular than the president of the United States who's in there. [12:49:38] So I do not know why we would want to blow it up with the protections for preexisting conditions. [12:49:44] I remember being in a small town parade and a woman had a stroller and she said, this is my son. [12:49:52] And he has Down's syndrome. He was a toddler. She said, I will do anything to fight for his health care. But I want you to know that this is what a preexisting condition looks like. Remember that word? Preexisting condition. Those words did not really come off people's tongues easily. It's because we united around that. We understood how hardcore that concept was for people out there, didn't want to be kicked off their insurance. [12:50:18] And we got people behind us so that when the Republicans were trying to repeal it, we were able to have an army of people with us and not just our fired up Democratic base seniors and people with disabilities and people joining with us so we could stop that repeal. So I would build on it with that nonprofit public option to bring down premiums. I would take on pharmaceuticals in a really, really big way. [12:50:47] I actually read the bills to unleash the power of 45 million seniors to be able to negotiate better prices under Medicare. It is an outrageous if you hear about this. This is what happened. Pharma has two lobbyists for every member of Congress. And at some point way back, they got a provision written into law that you couldn't negotiate for better prices. Medicaid can. The V.A. can, but Medicare cannot. [12:51:15] And so I already have over 30 sponsors for my bill, co-sponsors in the U.S. Senate. And as president, I will be able to get it done. Other things are less expensive drugs from other countries. In Minnesota, we can see Canada from our porch and we see those drug prices and you could literally create this leverage. [12:51:41] A president can do this herself. That's why I came up with over a hundred things that a president can do herself in a hundred days without Congress that are legal. And one of them one of them is to get a waiver to bring in those less expensive drugs from other countries. This is a bill I have I had with my good friend, Senator McCain, who I miss so much. Now, Senator Grassley, Republican, is doing that bill with me. But Bernie and I actually did it as an amendment at midnight one night, and we got 14 Republican votes for that. [12:52:14] And so they may have been tired, but we got bad. And it just shows what we can do to get that done. Putting a cap on drug prices, there's a bill over at the House just by tying it to the international average because nothing's been done on drug prices. Common drugs like insulin, which we know have skyrocketed up, people saving their injectors and the drops in those injectors for the next day. All of that is happening literally. [12:52:39] If you put a cap on, you save taxpayers ready for this 350 billion dollars in 10 years. That's the kind of money that we're talking about. So that is building on the Affordable Care Act, addiction and mental health. One in five Americans suffer from mental illness sometime in their life. And I would be the first president coming in. That would make this a huge issue, cause I am tired of the stigma. [12:53:06] I am tired of the stigma that people are feeling, especially in our rural areas are veterans. [12:53:12] There's been a major increase in suicides from our veterans. People feel isolated. Literally, people have committed suicide in V.A. parking lots. And so taking this on in a big way, paying for it, by the way, for mental health beds and counselors and the like. Understanding that rural is different when people feel that they don't they don't have a place right next door, that you find a way for them to be able to get the help they need paying for with that major opioid settlement that's going to be coming in that we can use for beds, for addiction and mental health. [12:53:45] And for me, this is personal. My dad, when I was growing up, struggled with alcoholism. By the time my husband and I got married, he had three d.w eyes. And at that point, the judge looked at him and said, you got to choose jail or treatment. And he chose treatment. And in his words, he was pursued by grace. It changed his life. And I think everyone should have that same. Right. [12:54:09] He is now. He is now sober at age 91. [12:54:17] He is in assisted living with about 15 other people in this house and his AA group still visits him there. And in his words, about a year and a half ago, it's hard to get a drink around here anyway. So that's him. And by the way, that leads to the other challenge, which is Long-Term Care, which is a big issue in Nevada. And it's like the elephant. We cannot fit in the room. And it doesn't just affect seniors. It affects families that are trying to help their kids with child care and college. And then also at the same time, take care of their aging parents. So, yes, this means strong Social Security, but it also means strong Medicaid. [12:54:56] But then it means stepping back and being really innovative, like making it easier for people to get long term care insurance by reducing premiums and actually find a way to pay for this and bring $500 billion, which is a really smart way. And you can see it on our Web site. Also making it easier for people to stay at their homes, which saves money for everyone. And to do that, you need long term care workers that come visit them in the like. My dad's case, just to finish it up, somehow he got that long term care insurance when it was cheaper years ago. I didn't know he got it, but that's what's allowed him to stay in this place. It ends in a year and a half. I know exactly the month it ends. [12:55:34] And then we go into his savings, which are not as big as they should be because he got married three times. But, you know, it's Valentine's weekend. We don't need to go over that. [12:55:45] And so then from there, he goes on Medicaid. [12:55:48] He goes on Medicaid. And I've already talked to Catholic elder care. They'll take him in because the place he lives right now doesn't take Medicaid. That story is actually better than so many other people's stories that aren't able to get Long-Term Care. And so that's why taking this on is actually an incredible opportunity, because as you know, including some people in this room, there's so many seniors that want to maybe work part time. We need them in the economy or they want to volunteer. I said this at a town hall about a month ago and two women start to laugh. I go, where are you guys laughing? They go, well, we're the opposite. We're working and we want to retire. So it is people are different. They want to do different things. But we've got to try to realize that our laws were set so long ago and we've got to make them better. [12:56:36] Merging into our next big challenge, which is workers for our economy that are trained in the jobs that we have, hooking our education system into the actual openings that we have in the economy. And I know some of my colleagues on the debate stage have bumper sticker solutions like free college for all. I don't think that's actually the best solution. [12:56:56] I think we can do so much better for people by actually thinking bigger, by stepping back and saying, what do we need in our economy right now? So if you step back and you look at that, what do you see? You see that we're going to have over a million openings for home health care workers, that we don't know how we're going to fill. And that relates to what I just talked about. We're going to have so many seniors, people living in their homes. [12:57:21] But we want to make sure those jobs are well-paying enough, that there's child care, that they're for their own kids, that they have retirement. And if we're going to take hard earned taxpayer money, I would rather not have it go for wealthy kids to go to college. I would rather have it go to make sure that those workers that we need in that economy get the help that they need. So they'll take those jobs. Secondly. [12:57:47] We are going to have over 100000 openings for nursing assistants, that's kind of the same arguments for the needs we have. We have to make sure that people are able to get those one into your degrees. I think they should be free to fill those kinds of jobs. Then you look at what else we're going to have over 70000 openings for electricians. [12:58:08] We are not going to have a shortage of sports marketing degrees in this country. Now, I'm sure someone has one or is getting one, but we are not we are not going to have a shortage of sports marketing degrees. We're going to have a shortage of plumbers. And so we have to figure out how to make all this work. How do we do this one? Big time investment in K through 12. I've visited is. [12:58:30] I have visited some of the Vegas schools. [12:58:34] I've seen the needs for infrastructure investment, which is part of my infrastructure plan. We need to make sure that our teachers get good salaries and do a major, major, major investment in those K-through-12 schools. Secondly, those 1 and 2 year degrees on preschool as well as a good investment. [12:58:54] Those wanting to your degrees, though, should be free. That's the fastest growing area of jobs, apprenticeships, things like that. Then when it gets to college, we're going to have a need for a lot of four year degrees. So I think we should simply double the Pell Grants those and because they have just been stagnant. [12:59:10] Those are the money. They're not. [12:59:11] Loans are actual money from six to twelve thousand dollars a year. Take the income level with limited at fifty thousand a year for a family and put it up to one hundred thousand a year for a family. That way the money is going to where it should go instead of the bumper sticker solutions, and then make it easier for students to pay back their student loans. [12:59:33] Take that loan payment program we have now for people that go into teaching and other public service jobs over 10 years make that program actually work. And here's one thing I would not just do in my first 100 days. I would do it in my first 100 seconds via Betsy Davos. That would be a. [13:00:01] And then you expand that loan problem. [13:00:05] After you make it work, you include some of these in-demand occupations that would create incentives for people to go into the areas regardless of the education level that we need them to go into. And it's just going to be better for everyone. And I know it doesn't fit on a bumper sticker, but it is the best way to do it. Other challenges, immigration reform are huge in Nevada and it would also help with all these things I'm talking about. Right. And we've got a Trump just uses immigrants as wedges. He does it all the time. [13:00:34] And I look at it, as, you know, in this great state where in the Las Vegas region, something like 37 percent of your small businesses are owned by Hispanics. That's an amazing figure. It shows what we're seeing in terms of immigrants contributing so greatly to our economy. So how do I look at this? Well. 70 of our Fortune 500 companies are headed up by people from other countries. 25 percent of our U.S. Nobel laureates are born in other countries. Thirty seven percent, as I said. As the businesses in the Las Vegas area are owned by immigrants, immigrants don't diminish America. [13:01:13] They are America. And we all. We all basically rest on their shoulders, in my case, my grandpa came was Swiss. He had no money when he arrived at Ellis Island. He had like 18 bucks in his pocket. He wanted to be a cook. My grandma had come over with her kids. This is on my mom's side. And when he's in Ellis Island, I just found this out when I wrote my book. I had no idea about this. He then they stop him because they say there's a quota for Swiss immigrants. So they had those. [13:01:52] And so he then says, oh, okay, I'm going to Canada. So he goes to Canada for one week and then he somehow gets through Detroit and Michigan and he gets into Wisconsin and he lives there as a US alien. It's what they call them back then for that amount and for really most of his life. He meets my Grammy, gets married. She was illegal immigrants. So he could have tried to apply for citizenship, but he was afraid to do it because of how he had come in. Right. Twice, basically into the country. [13:02:23] And so then when World War 2 is starting to break out, they have this alien registration act and he has to register and they get. We found the old form that he filled out because they were looking for communists. And it said, what group do you belong to? And he wrote down the Swiss mail choir to fact. [13:02:42] And from there, he from there he ends up he gets that status. [13:02:48] So he's kind of emboldened. So he decides to apply for citizenship pretty late. My my mom's born ever in their family. They're working at a pie shop. All the stuff. And he applies. And that's when they find out. And so he has to have this hearing and they go back in and back then they're like, OK, well, you've lived here all this time, so you're OK. And they give him his citizenship. And I have a picture of him with this happy little bow tie. The day he got his U.S. citizenship. [13:03:13] And you think about that now. What would happen to him now? What would happen do with Donald Trump as president? So literally that is what I mean, that we have to be smart about this and that's why I favor comprehensive immigration reform with a path to citizenship. We were so close to getting this done before and we can get this done. It passed the U.S. Senate with Republican votes. George Bush wanted to get it done. [13:03:37] Barack Obama wanted to get it done. And the only thing stopping us now is Donald Trump. So that's one of my top priorities. And the last thing I'm going to mention, two things as I look at our friends out there with the Moms Demand Action, gun, gun, gun safety and how important that is coming from a state like I do that has a strong hunting tradition. [13:04:00] I look at these proposals and I say, did they hurt my Uncle Dick in the deer stand? They do not. And that means right now, pull from this summer, a Fox poll actually showed that the majority of Trump voters wanted universal background checks. [13:04:15] The majority of hunters wanted universal background checks. But those bills are sitting on Mitch McConnell's desk right now. [13:04:23] Bills like my bill, actually, that passed with 30 Republican votes to close the boyfriend loophole so that people who are convicted of domestic abuse can't go out and get an AK 47. I've been trying to get that bill done for ever. And it is sitting on Mitch McConnell's desk. [13:04:38] You think of the mass shooting that we saw in Mandalay Bay, everything that happened, all those ordinary people running in to save lives. And yet Congress is too scared to cross Donald Trump and to cross the NRA and to do something smart and get these things done, like magazine limits and the bump stock bill and the like. [13:04:59] I'm proud of the Nevada legislature that they took steps here. And I am proud of Moms Demand Action, who's been standing up for so long. And I am proud of those Parkland kids. We're just face that anniversary a few days ago who stood up. And I'm telling you, we can get this done. Veterans as their veterans over here. Nevada has more than carry its weight when it comes to people who sign up to serve. [13:05:26] And you have such a strong history of veterans. And when I look at this. Have we made some improvements on benefits? Yeah. But when people sign up for to serve, there wasn't a waiting line. And when they come back to the United States of America, they need a home or there need a job or they need health care. There should never be a waiting line in the United States of America. [13:05:51] And the last thing that I wanted to mention was climate change, which is something that particularly is impacting Nevada because you look at the hot temperatures here and what you're seeing. [13:06:03] We have the same thing in the Midwest. But for us, it's flooding. It's weird weather events you saw in California. That video, if you haven't seen it, you should of the dad driving his little girl outside of paradise as the neighborhoods on fire behind them. And they literally are she is singing to her to calm her down. And so the solution there is no one. [13:06:23] Get back into the international climate change agreement on day one, on day two and three, bring back the clean power rules and the gas mileage standards. On day four, five and six introduced legislation to put a price on carbon and bring energy efficiency in and make sure that it's airtight. [13:06:44] So the money goes back to the people that need it, the people that are going to pay for their air conditioning bills here as well as their heating bills. That has to be the way or it's not going to work. And also, we need to make sure people are whole. So those are really, really exciting opportunities for us, because, as you know, this state is going to have a lot of great new jobs out of this. Right, with your solar industry and the like. But we have to make sure people are whole. When I was growing up, I remember that billboard outside of Duluth up where those minds are. [13:07:15] And it said at one point, last one to leave, turn off the lights. Someone literally took a billboard out. So that's why I am devoted to make sure people are held hope. When it comes to this and we're going to get trillions of dollars in by putting a price on carbon, and we need to make sure that that goes back to the people. [13:07:32] Last thing, very last thing is we need to win and we need to and and we need to win big. [13:07:44] So my case to you is this. I am the only one on that stage that has the receipts. [13:07:49] I am the only one that literally have one time and time again the rural districts, the suburban districts, the reddest congressional districts. I have one Michele Bachmann's district three times. [13:08:02] And I have done it. [13:08:04] I have done it by bringing people with me instead of shutting them out. And I think that matters. And it matters to have someone that is able to say to Donald Trump, the Midwest now flyover country, to me that matters that having someone that a different background. I just simply don't think people look at that guy in the White House and say, I want to have someone richer. I just don't think so. I think they want some. They want something else. [13:08:31] And so at the close of that last debate, I told a story that is really for me was my moment where people saw where I was coming from. And that's a story of FDR, beloved President Roosevelt when he died. They actually put his body on a train and the train went from Georgia to Washington, D.C. and people spontaneously stood by those tracks to show their respect. And there is an old story of a guy that was standing there and he had his hat in his hand. And this reporter says and he's sobbing. [13:09:01] The reporter says, Sir? Did you know President Roosevelt? Do you mind me asking? And the guy says, no, I didn't know President Roosevelt, but he knew me. [13:09:12] He knew me. [13:09:15] That's what's missing right now from our president. He can not put himself in the shoes of regular people. He cannot do it. So I tell you, if you are struggling to decide, are you going to fill your refrigerator or fill your prescription? I know you and I will fight for you. If you are someone that can't figure out how am I going to do this to pay for my kids, for their child care, their college and my long term care for my parents. [13:09:44] I know you and I will fight for you if you're trying to figure out how you stretch the paycheck to pay the rent or the mortgage or you want to move somewhere else. I know you and I will fight for you. That's what this is about. So I'm asking you to join us. I need your help. I only have, like, what, seven days left or something? I don't know. And we have the early voting today. I need you to talk to your friends and call them volunteer for us if you'd like. We'd love that. But just call people, you know, talk to them at work. [13:10:13] Talk to them when you're at a restaurant and make the case for me of what you heard today. I pick the color green for a reason. That's a color of one of my political mentors, Paul Whetstone. He was someone who had no money, ran against a very rich guy and stunned the world and won a U.S. Senate seat. And he would drive around in this green bus and he would run really, really fast back and forth in the parades. [13:10:38] And then he would talk really, really fast in his commercials because he'd say, I don't have as much money as my opponent. So I'm going to talk really fast. And the last year, after he won two races and he's up again and it's the last year. That election he's going to win and a tragedy happens right before the election, he crashes in a plane with his wife, they die with their daughter, their staff. But I got to watch Magic that year because I didn't have an opponent, which sounds really good for my reelection for county office. [13:11:10] And so I got to hang out with him and help him campaign. What I saw that year, he had told the state he had M.S. and he wasn't able to run anymore in those parades. He could hardly walk. So he would instead stand at the back of the green bus and just wave at people. And here was the amazing part. He had inspired so many people in these green shirts to run around that bus that you didn't even notice he wasn't running himself. [13:11:37] So I am asking you to do that for me. I'm asking you not literally to run around a bus around here. You can, but a little dangerous. I am asking you to volunteer to call people to talk to your friends, because I'm telling you, we shocked everyone in New Hampshire. We're going to do it here again in this great state of Nevada. [13:11:59] We're going to do it. We're going to do it. [13:12:05] In a state where we already got the endorsement of Los Vegas Sun, we're going to do it in a state that gets that you want to have someone that fights for people that understands where they're coming from, that can actually beat this president that's going to bring people with her instead of shutting it up. So let's go. Let's win. Thank you so much. [13:12:26] Thank you. Henderson Thank you.

TVU 12 JOE BIDEN MILFORD NH COMMUNITY EVENT ABC UNI 122919 2020 There was a lot of commotion at the top of the event protesting biden HIGHLIGHTS Protester 183710 PROTESTER 1>> [inaud] It's on video. BIDEN>> That's okay -- this is not a Trump rally. Okay. PROTESTER 1>> . We don't need another old white man running for president. BIDEN>> Alright, I agree with you, man. I agree. Nice talking to you. PROTESTER 1>> Don't touch kids you pervert! [inaud] 183735 BIDEN>> Alright, well, you know. This -- this -- this is a democracy. PROTESTER 2>> The truth is gonna come up, buddy. BIDEN>> I hope it does. I hope it does. Let her go, let her go. Let her go, let her go. Ok. Ok. Folks, folks, folks, folks. Look this is a, you know, we all know -- PROTESTER 3>> Excuse me Mr. Biden, how much did you make from Ukraine? 183812 BIDEN>> I'll tell you what. Well, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. I released 20 years, 21 years of my tax returns. Your guy hasn't released one. What's he hiding? [applause] Ok, look, look. Well folks look, here's the deal. Here's the deal. PROTESTER 3>> [inaud] SUPPORTER>> Shut up! 183845 BIDEN>> No, no, no, no, no, no. Just -- just let him go. He's an idiot. Let him go. Alright, look. It's ok. It's alright. This is a democracy. This is a democracy. Would you -- I'll tell you what. How about you and I talk later, ok? PROTESTER 3>> Absolutely. BIDEN>> Alright, well hang around, let me -- [more commotion] BIDEN>> As my mother would say, would you hush up for just a while? Ok? Be polite. Ok, good. Now having said that -- 183921 PROTESTER 3>> You don't respect the American people -- BIDEN>> This is what I talk in having to restore the soul of America. It's called decency. It's called honor. Well look folks, the -- so there's a whole lot of issues that we have to discuss. Voter Suppression - New Jim Crow 192437 Q: Hi, my name's Claire, I'm from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. BIDEN>> Welcome. Q: Thank you. And I was wondering what you're planning on doing to help restore the voting rights to the hundreds of thousands of voters in Wisconsin and across the country that have been, they've been taken away from. 192454 BIDEN>> You're really smart. You got it. No, I'm not just saying that. What most people don't realize, thirty seven states have gone out and made it harder to register to vote, stripped people all around the polls because they didn't vote the last time, stripping them from the polls, from being able to vote. And we're going to do what I did and the president -- I say the president, President Obama did, I don't want to confuse the two -- when with the Justice Department to challenge every one of those attempts to make it more difficult for people to vote. 192529 If you notice, the president started off, remember -- the election was stolen. In many places, he would have won by, I don't know, how many millions of votes? Well had these big studies done. Guess what? They found no patterns of abuse. Even the Republicans who put these together. But what's happening now? What's happening now is we're moving in a direction to say that there's all kinds of impediments, particularly for the elderly. 192559 You have to have a newly issued I.D. card from -- from the government. Well, how many people you know have a mom or a dad, uncle or aunt who has a hard time getting on a bus or going somewhere to go get a new I.D. card? It's not easy to do. There's no rationale for it when they already live in the place, nobody doubts that's where they're from, they voted the last time. So I would, in fact, aggressively use the Justice Department to challenge as we did, as we did under Eric Holder in our administration, challenge these attempts. mostly in states. And I'm not being a wise guy, mostly in states that are Republican states. For example, suggesting that they don't want you -- Are you a student in college, and you go to Holy Cross here -- in Worcester? 192649 Well, let's say you decided you wanted to register and declare Worcester as your place of residence as a college student? Well, in states that are, in fact, Republican states that have that occurring, they make it impossible for you to register. They keep students because they're worried if students vote, guess what? College students tend to vote significantly more for Democrats than Republicans. 192712 In states that have large black populations, what do they do? There's a new Jim Crow out there. The Jim Crow laws are you are taken off the polls if you didn't vote the last election. Some of these requirements requiring federal I.D. cards. I mean, it's all designed to make it more difficult for people of color, poor folks, elderly folks and students to be able to vote. 192737 As president of the United States, what I'm going to push very hard is same day registration, number one. Number two, when you turn 18, you automatically are registered if you identify where you're living. Why are we the only country in the world that makes it harder to vote? Harder to vote? TRINT [18:32:22] How are you? [18:32:25] There must be a basketball game tonight. [18:32:28] Thank you, thank you. Thank you. My goodness. Thank you all for being here. Whoa! Hey, how you doing, man? Good to see you, folks. First of all, I want to start off by thanking charity. Madam Chair, thank you for that introduction. I appreciate it very much. And thank you all. When the middle of the holiday season is still y'all showing up here tonight. [18:32:51] I do appreciate it. I really do. And I skews my back to all of you are behind me, as my father would say. I apologize for my back, but I want to I want to start off by saying to you all that I really do appreciate the fact you take the time to be here. And I want to also thank. I want to thank the senator for her her introduction as well, although all of those of you who were elected officials as a busman's holiday for you. And I apologize for that. And for those of you who aren't. Well, I just. [18:33:23] This is New Hampshire. I. I was down in Peterborough. We had a nice crowd. About 500 people show up. And and I started off by saying that people in other states don't understand the Iowa caucus or you being the first primary in the country. And there's a simple solution. Answer I give them and I really mean this, including people in Delaware and people in Colorado and Michigan. They don't understand it. [18:33:55] But, you know, you all take it really, really seriously. And it's not just you take it seriously in terms of who you want to see for your state to be the next nominee and hopefully president. But you guys think beyond the beyond the box. You think about whether or not you're going to nominate somebody. You realize you sort of have the gate and you only let a couple of us through. And if we don't get through, then it's determined that they're only narrowed down the nominees and the conversations I've had over the years here, campaigning for candidates, for your senators and for others is that you take it seriously. [18:34:40] You you look at not only who you might think might help your state, but you look at terms of who do you think is going to be able to go on and win the nomination, not just the nomination, but who's going to be able to beat Trump in this case? And and that and you look at everything from whether or not that person can, number one, win to begin with or number two, if indeed they can win. Can they bring along Democratic senators and representatives? Can they help candidates in states that we should be able to win, like North Carolina, Georgia, Texas, Arizona, states where we should be winning and we have a chance to win? [18:35:22] And you all and I talk to you on the last meeting and the meetings I've had here, people say, well, I don't know. Can you help so-and-so win if you're the nominee? Is it going to be a drag on or is going to be value added to the local candidate? And because we have to win back the Senate, we just can't win the presidency if we don't win back the Senate. We're going to make it awful hard for the next president to be able to get done what he or she has in mind. And the third thing I find about all of you is you. You take a look at whether or not those among us says you're calculating who you before. [18:35:59] Are they do they have the experience? Or do they have the talent to be able to get what we're talking about, needing to be done, done? Are they going to be able to do anything about global warming? They can't do it. They can't do with Trump. They're obviously getting rid of Trump. But beyond that, are you going to be able to get some kind of consensus in the Congress? Because without a consensus, without movement among the senators and congressmen, it's going to be awful hard to get it done. Can we do anything about dealing with the fact we've ignored education for so long and we've walked away from commitments to education in a big, big way, not only for preschool, but for all the way through college? [18:36:37] What are we going to be able to do about seeing to it that we deal with? I heard the Violence Against Women Act mentioned. Well, you know, I wrote that legislation. But the fact of the matter is that has to be reauthorized. And it's been sitting in the United States Senate without a movement. And we're going to lose it if we don't, in fact, get moving. And the reason we can't lose it, I might add, released with it another issues of consequence, and that is whether we're going to have any rational gun policy. So we don't send six and eight year olds off to school, learn how to duck and cover to be on TV. [18:37:12] That's OK. Hey, Dad. This is not a Trump rally. [18:37:17] OK. Oh. [18:37:22] All right. I agree with you, man. I agree. Nice talking to you. All right. [18:37:35] Well, you know, this this this this is a democracy. [18:37:45] Well, I hope it does. [18:37:47] I hope it does. Let her go. Let her go. [18:37:53] Let her go. Let her go. OK. OK. Folks, folks, folks, folks. [18:37:59] Look, this is you know, we all know. [18:38:04] I tell you what. [18:38:14] Way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way. I released 20 years and 21 years of my tax returns. Your guy hasn't released one. What's he hiding? OK. Look, look. [18:38:28] As. Well, folks, look, here's the deal. Here's the deal. [18:38:44] No, no, no, no, no, no. Just just just just let him go. He's an idiot. Let him go. [18:38:51] All right, look, it's OK. It's all right. This is democracy. This is democracy. [18:38:58] Would you. I tell you what. How about you and I talk later? OK. All right. Well, hang around. Let me to. [18:39:12] As my mother would say, would you hush up for just a while? OK. Beep, beep, beep, beep. Polite. OK, good. Now, having said that. [18:39:30] That's what I talk about, having to restore the soul of America. [18:39:38] It's called decency. [18:39:40] It's called honor as well across the. So there's a whole lot of issues that we have to discuss. And I'm here to wanted to talk about what you want me to discuss. There's everything from I think that the existential threat to humanity is global warming, I think is the single most important threat that we have out there. I'm happy to talk about it. I think we have to deal with the issues related to foreign policy. And why have we become a pariah? [18:40:10] Why is if you take a look at the polling data done by the Gallup International Polling Association showing that Kim Jong un of excuse me, Xi Jinping of China is more respected than our president and just above and he's just above the the leader of Russia, a guy who I know relatively well. I've learned three things. Number one is that that Donald Trump don't want to be me to be the nominee. Spent an awful lot of money, about 12 million bucks so far trying to pick the Democratic nominee. It's kind of interesting. [18:40:46] I wonder why. Secondly, I've learned that Vladimir Putin don't want me to be president because he knows I know him. And they spend a lot thousands of bots, as they call them, on the Internet, putting out lies about taking pictures of American citizens who I've never met. They've never met me and putting statements under their names as if they had said something terrible about me when they never did. Even Facebook took them down. [18:41:13] And I also learned that Kim Jong un, the the dictator in North Korea, had put out an official is the official news agency in North Korea said Joe Biden is a rabid dog who should be beaten to death with a stick. Then he got a love letter from Trump. But anyway, so look, folks, this is unfortunately going to be a campaign like you see beginning here, you know? But we still have to deal with one issue. We have to notwithstanding what you just heard, we have to unite this country. The end of the day, we have to bring it together. [18:41:49] And, you know, I'm told by some of my competitors for the nomination that I'm being naive. And they say, yes, Joe used to be able to bring Democrats and Republicans together his whole career. And that was a long time ago, three years ago. But that was a long time ago. And and we. But I refuse to accept we're going to be in a perpetual state of war with the opposition. [18:42:12] We can't function that way. We cannot function that way. We have to move beyond that. And this. And they say, I don't understand. The Trump Republicans. I understand them well. Understand them very well. I I don't think there's anybody who has been on the on the short end of their attacks more than I have. They're going after my only surviving son. I had my grandchildren come to talk me into why we should run. I consider not running back in the spring. Actually, the late winter last year and my kids asked for a meeting. My five grandchildren. True story. [18:42:54] And they we have a deal on our household. And maybe some of you do. If any child wants a meeting. A family meeting. We have one. Not a joke is taken seriously. So I got a call from my granddaughters named after my deceased daughter. She's a senior now at Columbia Law School. And my two other daughters, granddaughters one. [18:43:12] They're both at Penn, a junior and a freshman and college. And my deceased son, both two children live near us. And they came and said, Pop, you gotta run, because I was thinking about run because I knew was gonna be this kind of campaign and no matter who it is. By the way, whoever the nominee is, you're going to see this multiply. And. And they said, Pop, we know it's there of their whole lives. I have been either a senator or vise president or their daddy was the attorney general, my son, who passed away. [18:43:44] So they understand. And my little boy, Hunter Biden, he's now in eighth grade. He said, we know it's going to be mean, pop. And he takes out a cell phone. He shows me a picture of me walking out of a. The funeral mass for my son Beau. And a flag draped coffin. And I have my hand on the coffin with the flag. And I leaned over and I used to always hold his daddy under the chin. Where mass. I know. And you're getting big. And I leaned over and I have my hand. [18:44:20] I'm leaning down to my grandson. OK. Do we need a doctor? [18:44:29] Someone fell and. [18:44:34] And so he opens it up and he shows me this, and then underneath there was a caption saying Joe Biden molesting another child as my grandson. [18:44:45] So that's when I know this is gonna be a really ugly campaign, no matter who the candidate is, they're going to go after it. And that's one of the reasons why I'm running. Folks, I announced I was running for three reasons. I'm going to stop and take questions. The first one, as I said, we have to restore the soul of this country. And I mean, and it wasn't it wasn't hyperbole. I come out of the civil rights movement. I thought things had really changed. [18:45:14] I got back from law school. My city was the only city in America, Wilmington, occupied by the military for 10 months because a significant portion of it got burned to the ground. When Dr. King was assassinated and I had a good job with a major law firm and I quit and became a public defender because we had for ten months. And you can as my wife, the professor, you can Google it 10 months. The National Guard was on every street corner, a drawn bayonet. And so I decided I wanted to get involved, as I always had been in the civil rights side of it. [18:45:47] And I used to interview people down. If you're ridden northeast, Carter, from Boston to Washington, you go through Wilmington, Delaware. And that whole section of the city, as you approach it, was burned to the ground. Or just just leveled. And I used to interview clients down there before they would be taken into jail. And here I was almost 40 years of the month in January, stand on that same platform, waiting for an African-American man to come 27 miles from Philadelphia on the train to pick me up to ride one hundred and fifty seven miles to Washington, D.C., to be sworn in as president and vise press the United States. [18:46:29] And all of a sudden it hit me. I thought things would never get better. And all what I did was I looked up and I called up my three children, my son Beau, my son Hunter and my daughter. And I said, don't tell me things can't change. Look, this happened. Look at this. Thriving now. Look what's going on. But I was mistaken about one thing. [18:46:49] Hate never goes away. Just hides. It hides. Because once you see. In 2017, you saw people coming out of the fields carrying torches, contorted faces, their veins bulging, literally not close your eyes, remember what you saw on television, literally bullshit screaming and repeating the same anti-Semitic bile that was spoken in the streets of Germany in the thirties company by white supremacist David Duke, the former Grand Klingle said when asked, What do you think? He said, This is why we elected him. The young woman was killed protesting. And what the president was asked. He was asked, what do you think? And he said, there are very fine people on both sides. [18:47:43] No president. No president has ever said anything like that. Close as anybody's ever come, as Andrew Jackson before this civil war. It shocked the nation and stunned the world. You had leaders around the world saying what's happening to America? And since then, it's been about dividing the country, pitting us based on our ethnicity, our gender. Our race, our religion. It's got to stop. I wrote an article for Lanark magazine saying we have to restore the soul of America. We've led the world not by the power of our example, but by the power of our example of our power. But by the power of our example. That's why we read the rest of the world's prepared to us. [18:48:38] Hold these truths to be self-evident, all men and women are created equal, endowed by their creator. Are we the people? We've never lived up to it, but we've never before walked away from it. [18:48:49] We're walking away from it. [18:48:53] Democracy isn't guaranteed. It's not guaranteed. [18:49:00] Every generation has to fight for it. Every single generation has opened the aperture of inclusion more and more and more and more. [18:49:08] We're in a long way to go. But we can't let this go on. [18:49:14] We can't let it go on. And I don't believe that's who we are. So do the American people are. [18:49:25] You come from my states like yours and everybody knows everybody. It's relatively small. Lot of medium sized small towns. [18:49:35] We teach our kids. Teach our families that we think truth matters. Decency required. [18:49:45] For example, the man who kept this place open and worked two days making sure we could do this today on your way out, thank them. [18:49:55] Thank them. But guess what's happening? [18:49:59] We're in forget a little bit who we are. [18:50:03] My dad used to have an expression, everyone's entitled to be treated with decency. Everybody, no matter what. We can't lose that. [18:50:14] The second reason I'm running is we gotta restore the middle class. And this time bring everybody along. [18:50:22] From the disabled. To people of color. To those everybody. [18:50:30] Everybody, we have such enormous opportunities. We're so much better positioned than any other nation in the world to own the 21st century. [18:50:42] The more find research universities here than all the rest of the world combined. We have the best people in the world, the best intellects in the world. [18:50:53] When a situation. [18:50:57] Where we can do virtually anything. We just gotta get up. Remember who we are. This the United States of America. [18:51:05] We've never, never, never, never, never failed once. [18:51:10] No matter what the objective was, if we'd done it together. And think about it. Think about what's out there so much we can do. Everything from curing cancer to providing access for all kids to decent education. [18:51:33] She's a lot out there. I am optimistic. I am optimistic, but we just heard does not represent. Who we are. That's not who the American people are. And so, folks, one of the things we have to do. As we have to ourselves, you know, they said, for example, that I'm being naive about this. Well, like I said, I understand, man. If anybody understands this, the Republican Party. I do. Where they're going after me. But guess what? It's not about me, it's about you. It's about the American people. [18:52:10] Presence is supposed to represent everybody. Everybody. Presidents can't afford to hold grudges. Presidents have to reach out. And I think the country's ready. I think I think they're ready. I think it's up to you to decide who among us seeking the nomination. Is the most ready to do this? That's why I'm here. [18:52:39] I'm here to ask you, as I used to say when I was a kid running for the Senate, I wasn't old enough when I got like I was twenty nine years old. I had to wait 13 days to be eligible to be sworn in for real. And I used to knock on door and say, my name is Joe Biden, Democratic candidate for the United States Senate. [18:52:58] Look me over, if you like, which you see. Help out. If not, vote for the other person. But give me a look. Folks, my name's Joe Biden. I'm seeking the nomination for president. His taste in Democratic ticket. Look me over if you like me. Please help me. If not, help another Democrat. [18:53:16] So let me open it for questions. [18:53:26] Mind you, think about it. I'm sure she's going to give you a shocking response. You think so? Thank you so much for your service to this country in the Senate and in within the executive branch. [18:53:41] As you may know, the Helms amendment bars the use of foreign assistance funds for safe and legal abortion. But nearly 30000 women die as a result of unsafe abortion each year. Will you champion legislation to repeal this law and ensure that safe legal abortion is part of international health programs? [18:53:58] Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Anybody over there on the mike? [18:54:25] First of all, thank you for coming to New Hampshire. My question is there is a tsunami of children there aging out now of services that are on the autistic spectrum. This country doesn't have the facilities. They don't have the finances to get behind and rally for these children that need a purpose, that need residential care. And just I have a sister that's got a 21 year old son and she cries at night wondering when she's too old to take care of this child who will be there to change this child's sheets if he wants the bed at night. What are we going to do about all these adults that need the respect and the care as they age out? [18:55:13] Well, first of all, you've identified the problem accurately. My wife, my wife to teach and my daughter has her master's degree in social work and deals with the very issue you're talking about. And the only thing you're wrong about is we can't afford it. We say it another way. We can't afford to not afford it because the cost if you just look as a cost benefit analysis. The cost to the community of not responding is so much higher than the cost we provide. [18:55:42] This same for foster children. By the way, there's a lot of it goes on across the board. So one of the things I do and I lay out exactly how I pay for all this, what I do in the health care side of my proposal is we provide for institutional care for those people when in fact we provide for the pain, the relative, the son, daughter, mother, husband. I mean, father, who takes care of that child just like you have now. [18:56:14] What we should have is we should have the ability for people to have to have family leave. Well, we should pay for family leave, as we did, for example, a lot of the veterans coming home, the people who most impact on moving people into a healthful, healthful situation, our family. And they should be paid for it and should be able to be paid for it just like you would if you went out and you dealt with somebody else who is, in fact, providing a similar service. We can afford to do that. And I won't go into the detail. [18:56:48] But if you want to talk to me after this, I'm going to start detail with you. We can't afford it. By the way, this tax cut that was just recently passed, I strongly opposed increase the deficit by one point nine trillion dollars every one year, one point nine trillion dollars. Now, to do all the things that I'm talking about, including that I have laid out in detail how I pay for everything, for example. [18:57:17] Right now you have multimillionaires and are not bad people because they're multimillionaires, be multimillionaires who are paying capital gains for clipping coupons and the investments they made on Wall Street. Not bad. Not bad people, but their pain at about 20 percent now. Well, guess what? If, in fact, you made them pay exactly like you have to pay, in fact, on based on what your income is here and your income taxes are, they should be paying at thirty nine point eight percent, which is this should be the highest rate that we charge people in the top bracket. [18:57:56] If we did that alone, just that one change that raises eight hundred billion dollars. Eight hundred billion. OK. If you take away right now, the corporate tax rate has been lowered to 20 percent. Well, it was at 38. You could argue it should be down. Barack and argued it should be at 28, but it's down to 20 percent. And the actual actual pays about 13 percent. Major corporations, if you just made it 28 percent, not what it is today. [18:58:27] That raises another seven hundred and thirty billion dollars. Go down the list, 10 percent corporate minimum tax. Why should as Warren Buffett said, why should he be paying at a lower tax rate than his secretary rate rate? I don't think he should. We should start to reward work, not just wealth. It's about punishing anybody. These folks will do just fine. Won't have to change any of their standard of living. Nobody's to judge it just fine. [18:58:58] If you, for example, cap deductions, you make a charitable deduction before the first of the year and you contribute 5000 dollars to your church or a thousand dollars to a homeless shelter. Whatever it is, you get to deduct whatever tax rate bracket you're in. So if you're in a 24 percent tax bracket, you get to deduct 24 percent. Well, if we capped all deductions, the most you could take is 28 percent. Then we would save just by doing that. [18:59:29] Nothing else. We would raise a total of three hundred and ten billion dollars. Why should somebody who is making millions of dollars and I'm not making them bad people making millions of dollars, why should they be able to pay have a 39 percent deduction and for the same exact contribution you'd make? So my my generic point is there's an ability there's an ability for us to pay for these things. That's that's not even count what we call tax exemptions, tax loopholes. And that's the last. I'm sound like a wonk here. [19:00:02] I know that. OK. But I want you to know I come from the same school that they do here in New Hampshire, which is if you're going to if you're going to tell me, go and do something, tell me how you're gonna pay for it and tell me who's going to pay for it, OK? And so you have a situation where if you take a look now, we're in a situation where if you there are a trillion six hundred and forty billion dollars in tax loopholes that are most of which at least 600 billion, according to most economists, aren't justified. [19:00:34] A tax loophole, meaning you or you owe a tax it doesn't have to be paid, is usually designed in the past on will. It will provide a social good. Does it promote economic growth, et cetera? There there. The rationale when you get a tax deduction for your resource, why in God's name should you have a tax deduction? Be able to have a tax credit for child care. So there's a lot of things out there that we can do and afford it. Now, the next logical question you're going to ask me and I'd ask me if I were you is OK, Joe, how can you get these guys? There's support that. Well, guess what? Everybody has sort of seen the Lord. [19:01:15] Now, you know, there's two ways people get inspired by the John Kennedy is a world who inspired us to appeal to our better angels or the guy who comes along and like the corny show comes in and there's you find out comes through town once and there's no pea under any of the three shells. You know, when you're picking. Well, come around the next time you go. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Look what's happened with regard to health care. Remember, we quote Barack and I quote, lost the House after we passed Obamacare. [19:01:50] That was the argument. We lost the House, became Republican. Well, most people didn't even know what they were getting, had anything to do with Obamacare. That that was the reason why it occurred. And all of a sudden, one of our Republican friends decided we're gonna take it away. They said, oh, well, hey, what were you mean I'm my child gets covered in his preexisting condition. And can I get an insurance form and you're taking it away? I did. Oh, that's Obamacare. Not a joke. You're right. Remember, I got kidded because I said the president should have a fireside chat, misspoke. But my point was that the president wanted states. [19:02:28] I urged him to go on air and explain in detail what we just did with Obamacare. He said we're too busy. You know, everything but locusts land on our desk. We're about to go into a depression. We don't have time. Well, once it started to be taken away, what happened? I went out in 2018 as a former vise president. I campaigned in 24 states, red states and purple states, primarily everywhere from South Carolina to North Carolina. My shoes from from Alabama to Georgia to North Carolina. To Arizona, to Colorado, etc.. [19:03:07] And guess what? I was foolish enough, which I guess no one ever doubts. I mean, when I say that, sometimes I say all that, I mean and I said, I think we're going to win 41 Republican seats. We did. And what do we do? We didn't attack them. We didn't attack there. Their motive is when you attack a person's motive, you can never get to go. You can never say you're in the pocket of. And now by their can, we will work out an agreement on this attack, their judgment. Did you hear many Republicans talking about getting rid of Obamacare in 2018? [19:03:40] No, no, no, no, no. I I'd like Prejean. We we had a cook cover preexisting conditions. Oh, no, no. You can keep your jacket on your insurance policy till I'm 26. That's OK. All those 20 million people who got that insurance they didn't have before. No, no, no. [19:03:54] So we went out and just made the case. We blew the socks off. We blew the doors off because people began to realize what was taken away was something that in fact was a consequence of an action taken by a Democratic administration. Even in this state, you have a lot of people running against totally eliminated. Some did. Some did. Totally eliminating health care. So my generic point is when you start talk. People now understand, they understand that Amazon pays no taxes. Bingo. Zero. They're not bad folks. They do a lot of good things, but no taxes. Making billions of dollars. [19:04:40] You know, many Republicans think they shouldn't pay any taxes. Raise your hand if your next door neighbors, Republicans said they shouldn't pay any taxes. [19:04:47] I'm not joking about this, but people have become aware of all the things that have happened. And what needs to be done doesn't mean we get everything done. It does mean that, but it does mean there is a distinct opening. Something has changed. And with this president, a former president, we have an opportunity to do a lot of things, a lot of things that are able to be put together with Democrats and Republicans. [19:05:16] And by the way, those things, we can't put everything together. Remember, every time we had a problem with the with the House or the Senate when I was vise president, Joe went up. Joe will do it. I'm the guy that got sent up to the Hill because I never question the motive. I question the judgment. We got a lot done. But when we don't get it done. Presidents are supposed to persuade not not not be rate, but persuade. Lay out why this is in the interest of the country as a whole to do what we have to do, like it's in the interest. [19:05:49] For example, one last example I'll give you and get off of this. You know, we should be investing billions of dollars into medical research. All timer's for one. Some of you are docs that I met tonight. And some of you may be researchers. You may be engaged in in medical research. Well, you know, for a drug company to come along and invest the kind of money needed to deal with the cure of Alzheimer's, it's going to cost them hundreds of hundreds of millions of dollars. Well, and the chances of getting it are slimmer than they are unless you spend a billions of dollars. [19:06:27] So what I propose we do, for example, is the thing in the Defense Department, there's that there's a cat called DARPA. The Defense Applied Science and research said they're the ones that came up with global positioning, the Internet. They're the ones that came up with stealth technology, et cetera, because they're separate entities, separately funded. Well, I propose we have a thing called ARPA H at the applied science effort at the Department of Health. [19:06:55] We bring in outside experts and we focus and we spend over the next four years, four billion dollars a year to be able to do research on, say, all timer's. You realize that we don't do something about Alzheimer's in 20 years. Every according to all the experts and the researchers may be able to confirm this. Every single hospital bed in America, we filled by an Alzheimer's patient. Everyone knows the cost. A yearly basis that will be for the public. Two hundred and fifty six billion dollars a year. [19:07:27] It's overwhelming our interest for us to spend the money now. [19:07:31] To do the research that the drug companies can't do or unable to do or unwilling to do. [19:07:38] Just like the Defense Department. We can do so many things, so many things that we can afford it. We can afford it. And so I believe the public has become so much more aware of what's been taken away. What is not there? What's not fair? [19:08:02] Go up to the north country, which I've been up to recently, or I've just been out in Idaho and the Tetons and in Wyoming. Guess what? You look at those magnificent trees. In the summer. Guess what? They're all turning brown. Why? [19:08:20] Insects are able to live there now for killing off the greenery. We're losing thousands of species. We're in trouble. People are beginning to figure it out. And so there is room to make some kind of change, so some changes. So that's why I'm optimistic we can get a lot done. And we can't get it done. You go out and you don't do it mean you campaign against thrash now being offered. [19:08:51] Just like we did about the health care piece, that's much too long an answer, but it's an incredibly complicated question. But I'm still optimistic we can do a lot of this. OK, I can do. Get back to yes or no, maybe. Anybody in here, sir? [19:09:09] I've been following the campaign pretty closely. The biggest difference among the candidates seems to be the health care plan and maybe explain why what your plan is and why it's better than the other choices. [19:09:21] I mean, I will if I can. I hope you'll agree with me, but I can't. What I do. There's two competing plans. Basically, if you notice, I initially was the only guy who came along and said we should build on Obamacare and add a public option, which is a Medicare like option to it. And initially, everybody was for Medicare for all. [19:09:42] Every one of the people stood up and said, I'm for Medicare for all. A great objective, except it has a few limitations. One, it costs 30 trillion dollars over 10 years. Find me an expert who will tell you it cost less than that. Most say 35 trillion to 40 trillion in 10 years. So that's between 3 trillion and three point five trillion per year per year. That is more money than we spend on every single solitary government program, from the military to education to health, every single program in a year. Now, they say we're going to do that, except Bernie is being honest about it because say we're going to do that, raising anybody's taxes. [19:10:27] OK, you got 16 million people on Medicare, now you can add another two hundred and ninety million and one fell swoop. You're now paying a Medicare tax, which we all do out of your paycheck. Tell me. How do you get there without significantly raising taxes for everybody, including middle class people, where they end up behind the eight ball? I'm not better off for it now. [19:10:57] The second thing is that in my proposal, it costs a lot of money. I subsidize it so you can buy into a better plan cheaper so you wouldn't have to pay any more than the thousand dollar deductible. If you are in upper middle class, upper middle class and you can afford to pay it. And in addition to that, the Medicare provision and the public option in my plan. Anybody who cannot afford cannot afford health care, who qualifies for Medicaid, gets a free. Everybody is automatically enrolled for free. Now. [19:11:35] That and a few other things are gonna cost about seven hundred and forty billion dollars over ten years, but I can pay for it over ten years by the proposals I haven't. If you want a copy, I'll get you a copy. Anybody who wants it. And in the process, there's nothing lip misses my mother would say between the cup and the lip. It can be done right away. It's not complicated. It's what Barack and I want to do in the first place. But the fact was five Democratic presidents wanted to do what we did and no one got it done until we came along. President asked me to go. Russell, the votes. I spent a lot of time in United States Senate. [19:12:22] Getting all the Democrats to vote for it, it wasn't easy. Without a single Republican vote, we passed it. We couldn't get the public option at it. But now the people know what they lost and what is likely to be lost. We can get the public option passed. The third thing that's really important is and I know I got criticized on the debate stage from a couple of my colleagues saying that I belong to another primary because I was criticizing some aspect of the Affordable Care Act and that I was a coward because I wouldn't go. For what? [19:12:55] The Medicare for all. If you notice, there's not one candidate who's proposing Medicare for all who says they can do it less than four to 10 years. Not one, not one. No matter how you do it, thinks it can be done in less than four years, assuming you could pass it in that time. Now you have candidates talking about we have to have a transition period where anybody promises. Ma'am, we're going to get some in 10 years. I'm not so certain that's likely to come. So but here's what it does. The provisions in the bills call for the following, how the money is saved. No one is allowed to have any private insurance, period. [19:13:40] A matter of law. You cannot have a private policy. Now there's 160. That's, I think, a section. What section is it? Everybody remember my staff? I think it's two thirty six or something. I get to six. You're not allowed to have private insurance because that gets the insurance companies out of the business. And they argue that that's the thing. It's going to causes prices to go up, etc.. [19:14:03] But here's the deal. You're in a position where you in fact have to have to give up 160 million people who like their privately negotiated health care plans with their companies who like it and think it's better they have to give it up. That can be not. I think that's a choice you should be able to make if you're negotiating with your company or your outfit and had lower wages for better benefits and you've had that happen and you think that's a better plan, you should be able to keep it. Now, they say, was that like the promise made you keep your doctor now? [19:14:42] What it's saying is that if your company gets rid of the plan, which they could, you have the option now to buy into Medicare for all that's in my plan, Medicare, if you want it, and or buy into another plan that exists under Obamacare. So that's how it works. And I think we should let the American people decide what they want to do. If you notice, the vast number of unions don't support this because they've been breaking their neck. [19:15:09] Now, one of them said we're going to do is make every one of those unions. I'm not going to mention any names, every one of those. Everyone those companies are a pain and no plan. [19:15:17] Now they've got to pay it directly into directly into Medicare. OK. They're volunteering to do that. Oh, you good? I got it, I gotta figure out how they're gonna do that. And those companies who didn't provide a decent health care plan. They don't pay anything. So the good guys, you're gonna get penalized more than the bad guys who don't get penalized at all. I don't think it's workable. It's notable. It's makes sense in terms of a theory. [19:15:44] But it is very difficult to do it. And by the way, do you realize that 60 percent of all all serious accidents where people die occurred? Rural America. Rural America, 20 percent of the population, 60 percent people die from trauma die in rural America. Why no access to hospitals? Well, guess one of the reasons why they're closing down all over America. Because they do not get paid by Medicare on time and they get paid less by Medicare, it costs more to keep open a hospital in a community of 15000 thousand people. [19:16:27] Than it does to do one in a major city where you have significant input. So it has a lot of downsides. I'm not questioning their motive. I believe they believe this is the single best thing and everybody points to look what other countries have done. Well, other countries did it because they're about one third our size or one fifth or one tenth of it down the line. And they don't have the other obligations we've had in the meantime. [19:16:57] So in addition, it takes down drug prices as well. The idea that Medicare's paying eight hundred and forty percent more than they were paying for certain insulins and other other medicines today is bizarre. These prices have gone up exponentially without an explanation. I saw a couple of docs in a room here. Guess what? It used to be an aisle, not name the drugs, but you'd sell me. You have to use them. Well, no, that's what. You're in a situation where if you had a drug when it came out, you were pain. It cost you a lot of money. It cost you 25, 30 thousand dollars a year. I can name you forward now. Cost one hundred and eighty thousand dollars a year and nothing's changed. Not one single solitary change in what cost to make that drug or the research that went into it. [19:17:52] Well, guess what? My plan and others. I'm not the only one. [19:17:57] Medicare can negotiate drug prices and they say we're gonna pay this much for it if you don't want to. So is that we're gonna go overseas and get it? We're not going to buy. Guess what? There are gigantic consumer drug companies will all of a sudden, as they say in southern Dallas, have an altar call. They'll see the Lord. You'll see prices come down exponentially. Lastly on drugs and I won't do the health anymore. I know I'm sounding I'm probably giving it too much detail, but I don't want to mislead you in any way. If, in fact, all the new drugs, not all the vast majority of the new drugs are drugs that are not chemical based drugs, they're bio based drugs and they're employing the immune system. [19:18:45] For example, when my son was dying, I didn't realize he had Stage 4 glioblastoma. I didn't realize at the time that five years before he was diagnosed, when he came home as a war hero from Iraq, a decorated soldier. Major, I didn't realize that. That that dealing with the immune system was viewed as sort of voodoo science. All of a sudden, it is now emerging as a potential, I think is almost too much optimism, potential cure for using your money, your immune system to break the blood brain barrier to go after and eat up the cell, the cancers, etc.. Well, they're called bio based drugs. Usually there's only one major company who has that drug that works on it. If it's a unique drug, there's going to be a requirement. They go before a commission in at HHS of outside experts to set the price of the drug. [19:19:44] The price shouldn't be set on whether it works. If you find a cancer drug and you say, I'm going to charge a million dollars for the cancer drug lord cure particular cancer. [19:19:53] Well, that has no relationship to it's like we say, we've we've you know, we've found electricity. And by the way, we're going to make it available. [19:20:03] Only way it can have electricity is so someone is going to pay a million dollars. [19:20:07] Oh, come on. [19:20:09] It's a social requirement. There should be some relationship to what you invested and what you, in fact, are getting back. And it can be it can be significant to be 2 to 1, 3 to 1, 4 to 1. But not the numbers that exist now. And so they're able to set the price if they do not sell. If they don't agree to the set price will buy the drug abroad or they can't sell it. [19:20:32] They can't sell it. To those covered by government plans. [19:20:37] And they'll still make a great deal of money. But it's a way and you cannot increase the price of the drug more than the cost of medical inflation unless you demonstrate you've gone down and redone the drug. You've done more expert. You've done more research and development on it. [19:20:53] And by the way, it's not a bad thing. It's not like we're doing something terrible. These companies are making a great deal of money, and that's OK. Except that. It shouldn't. [19:21:04] Look what happened to the opioids. I'm the guy that started hollering about this as an outsider, I wasn't I was a professor at University Pennsylvania when I left. Talking about this, when I found out that there were some there were literally something like 3000 prescriptions for opioids going to two drugstores in a town of 20000 people in West Virginia. So. [19:21:26] Whoa. Whoa! [19:21:29] Or a nine billion, nine billion opioid pills sold in a matter of years. When any doc will tell you if the derivative end of the opiate you're talking about, you can get hooked in five days. How many advertisements on TV did you see when they start talking about these painkillers saying you can get hooked in five days? [19:21:56] Well, guess what? All of a sudden. [19:22:00] We went and they shoot just like the tobacco companies. Well, guess what? Pfizer and others are in real trouble. They're gonna go out of business. And the CEOs, if they lied and those people who lied about it, should be held liable as well. For misleading the public. Because so many people have been hooked. [19:22:22] These opioids. It's an epidemic. [19:22:25] You know, right here in this great state, you're fire departments. What do they do? They're the place where if you ha have an overdose, they take you to try to make sure you make it. Think about it. If I told you that 15 years ago, you'd look at me like I was nuts. [19:22:44] But it's happening. There's a lot we can do this not be on our power. [19:22:51] And I am equate a flat old capitalist. I'm not. This isn't about socialism, Mrs.. But it's about every single solitary change in American history when they're gone through a major fundamental technological change. There's been an adjustment. [19:23:07] I'll end with this. [19:23:08] Some of you students up here, you're going to study about the Luddites, the people who in the first industrial revolution and then in the early eighteen twenties and thirties in England, because there was all the machinery that was moving through, all society was changing from a royal society to having kids sitting on top of slag heaps, separating coal from shale, people working multiple hours and kids were working on loans that were just being in fact invented was changing society. So what would the Luddites do? They wandered the middle of England in the Midlands of England, smashing the machinery. [19:23:47] Well, guess what? We shouldn't be out smashing the machinery that all this new I.T. and everything is put together. But we should be regulating it like we have for every single solitary, fundamental technological change it's ever taken place since the fourth industrial revolution. Look what we did when television came along. We decided we need some rational basis upon which it could be used. So there's a lot we can do without punishing anybody. Just being rational. Just being rational. But we have such enormous opportunities. [19:24:24] I'm giving it too much about my whole plan on health care, but it is, I think, the issue I find around the country that people are most concerned about. Yes, ma'am. 192437 Q: Hi, my name's Claire, I'm from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. BIDEN>> Welcome. Q: Thank you. And I was wondering what you're planning on doing to help restore the voting rights to the hundreds of thousands of voters in Wisconsin and across the country that have been, they've been taken away from. 192454 BIDEN>> You're really smart. You got it. No, I'm not just saying that. What most people don't realize, thirty seven states have gone out and made it harder to register to vote, stripped people all around the polls because they didn't vote the last time, stripping them from the polls, from being able to vote. And we're going to do what I did and the president -- I say the president, President Obama did, I don't want to confuse the two -- when with the Justice Department to challenge every one of those attempts to make it more difficult for people to vote. 192529 If you notice, the president started off, remember -- the election was stolen. In many places, he would have won by, I don't know, how many millions of votes? Well had these big studies done. Guess what? They found no patterns of abuse. Even the Republicans who put these together. But what's happening now? What's happening now is we're moving in a direction to say that there's all kinds of impediments, particularly for the elderly. 192559 You have to have a newly issued I.D. card from -- from the government. Well, how many people you know have a mom or a dad, uncle or aunt who has a hard time getting on a bus or going somewhere to go get a new I.D. card? It's not easy to do. There's no rationale for it when they already live in the place, nobody doubts that's where they're from, they voted the last time. So I would, in fact, aggressively use the Justice Department to challenge as we did, as we did under Eric Holder in our administration, challenge these attempts. mostly in states. And I'm not being a wise guy, mostly in states that are Republican states. For example, suggesting that they don't want you -- Are you a student in college, and you go to Holy Cross here -- in Worcester? 192649 Well, let's say you decided you wanted to register and declare Worcester as your place of residence as a college student? Well, in states that are, in fact, Republican states that have that occurring, they make it impossible for you to register. They keep students because they're worried if students vote, guess what? College students tend to vote significantly more for Democrats than Republicans. 192712 In states that have large black populations, what do they do? There's a new Jim Crow out there. The Jim Crow laws are you are taken off the polls if you didn't vote the last election. Some of these requirements requiring federal I.D. cards. I mean, it's all designed to make it more difficult for people of color, poor folks, elderly folks and students to be able to vote. 192737 As president of the United States, what I'm going to push very hard is same day registration, number one. Number two, when you turn 18, you automatically are registered if you identify where you're living. Why are we the only country in the world that makes it harder to vote? Harder to vote? And again, you think there was it just Biden? He's a Democrat. He's talked about look at all the investigation was done by this Justice Department. [19:28:04] They could not find patterns of abuse, cheating. They went through it and they had a bunch of attorneys general of Republicans around the country. They found no pattern. Just like the president saying, I love this one. [19:28:23] When he got when he got sworn in. He pointed out his crowds were bigger than the ones we had. [19:28:34] Or you do look to the aerial shots, rubber million people there. [19:28:39] Well, guess what? They blanked out entire sections. This is bizarre. Bizarre. [19:28:47] The rest was looking just like, what are they doing? Where I'm going on too long. All I can do, if you ask me, these men will take several more. [19:28:58] Hi. Thank you. I guess my question is whether you're Democrat or Republican. I think most of us have the same goals. We want good education, safe environment, Amazon to pay their taxes. But my concern is all politicians say they're going to solve it. And whether it's you or somebody else, we seem to have the same message every four years and nothing changes. [19:29:25] Well, I'm going to say some outrageous. I never said they would have been able to do. I said we're gonna make it easier for women to be safe in their homes. And it took me six years. But I I wrote and passed the Violence Against Women Act. I said we were gonna make sure that we had a chemical weapons treaty. And I negotiated the chemical weapons treaty where there is no chemical weapons. And in countries around the world, I said to you that I thought it was critically important that we have legislation that in fact made sure that we had community policing, because when there's community policing and I know the people in neighborhood crime goes down. [19:29:58] I passed that. We did it. I'm not saying I passed everything that I set out to do, but there's been a lot of change. I love the argument that some make. Well, you know, everything's been bad for a long, long time. Well, I didn't think Obama was that bad a president. I thought he's a pretty good president. I thought we did an awful lot of things. [19:30:20] But here's the thing, I've been saying this for a long time, and the press, the national press is with me. I think of the poor people. They just came from Iowa. They flew here when I was just in Iowa. Their boss from all over the country. I think that by the they're not going to vouch for me. I don't mean that. I'm not suggesting that. But, you know, we've been saying this for a long time. One of the things I think is absolutely necessary for your next nominee to be able to do whatever they say. [19:30:54] Have earned the credibility that, in fact, they're being authentic. The last thing any nominee should do in the Democratic Party is to offer something that, in fact, they're not being authentic about that they know can't get done. Because Trump will eat them alive, he'll eat them alive. So when I look at, for example, education, if I have a dollar to spend on education, I'm going to spend it on preschool rather than post high school. I've only had one dollar. [19:31:31] Because all the studies show, as the teachers in here know of from the great universities, that if you send children to school starting at age 3, not daycare, school, school 3, 4 and 5 year olds going to school, you increase exponentially the prospect of them no matter what the background of the home. They came from doing well all the way through high school. [19:31:55] It increases by something like 56, 59 percent. It's just a significant increase. Staying out of trouble, not getting caught in drugs and or criminal activity. (A FEW MINUTES BETWEEN PART 1 AND 2 MISSING)

CAMPAIGN 2012 / INT BROLL DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION / HEAD ON CAM ISO Libby Bruce, Columbus, OH Planned Parenthood Supporter 20:05:44 NINE WEEKS AGO TODAY, MY DAUGHTER WAS BORN. 20:05:49 SHE IS A PERFECT, HEALTHY LITTLE GIRL. 20:05:52 BECAUSE I HAVE ENDOMETRIOSIS, I FEEL PARTICULARLY LUCKY TO HAVE 20:05:56 HER. WHEN I WAS 18, I BEGAN 20:06:01 EXPERIENCING SEVERE PELVIC AND ABDOMINAL PAIN. 20:06:05 I WENT TO SO MANY DOCTORS, BUT NOBODY HAD ANY ANSWERS. 20:06:10 SEVERAL DOCTORS OUT RIGHT DISMISSED ME. 20:06:14 TREATY MY PAIN AS THE PRODUCT OF A DUMB KID'S IMAGINATION. 20:06:24 FINALLY, I WENT TO PLANNED PARENTHOOD. 20:06:26 [APPLAUSE] THEY LISTENED TO ME AS NO ONE 20:06:31 ELSE HAD. THEY ANSWERED MY QUESTIONS. 20:06:33 A CARING NURSE PRACTITIONER TOLD ME SHE THOUGHT I HAD 20:06:37 ENDOMETRIOSIS. SHE CONNECTED ME WITH AN 20:06:40 EXCELLENT, RESPECTFUL SURGEON WHO REMOVED THE GROWTH IN MY 20:06:45 PELVIS AND FINALLY, I GOT BETTER. 20:06:49 [APPLAUSE] 12 YEARS LATER, I AM STILL SO 20:06:59 GRATEFUL FOR THE EXCELLENT, AFFORDABLE, RESPECTFUL CARE I 20:07:04 RECEIVED FROM PLANNED PARENTHOOD. 20:07:07 [APPLAUSE] I AM ESPECIALLY GRATEFUL BECAUSE 20:07:13 ENDOMETRIOSIS IS THE LEADING CAUSE OF INFERTILITY. 20:07:18 WITHOUT PLANNED PARENTHOOD, MY PAIN WOULD HAVE BEEN CONTINUED 20:07:22 AND I WOULD NOT HAVE HAD MY DAUGHTER TODAY. 20:07:24 [APPLAUSE] WHEN MITT ROMNEY AND PAUL RYAN 20:07:29 MAKE THREATS ABOUT GETTING RID OF PLANNED PARENTHOOD FUNDING, 20:07:33 IT IS CLEAR THEY HAVE NOT GIVEN A THOUGHT TO WOMEN LIKE ME. 20:07:38 WOMEN WITH LIMITED RESOURCES TO OUR SICK AND SCARED. 20:07:42 HAVE THEY HAVE NOT THOUGHT ABOUT, BABIES LIKE MIND WHO ARE 20:07:47 ABLE TO BE HERE ONLY BECAUSE THEIR MOTHERS WERE ABLE TO 20:07:51 RECEIVE THE HEALTH CARE THEY NEEDED. 20:07:54 PRESIDENT OBAMA UNDERSTANDS AND HE CARES AND THAT IS WHY I AM 20:07:57 HERE. I AM HERE TONIGHT I FOR MY 20:08:00 DAUGHTER TO STAND UP FOR HER BECAUSE CRITICS SO THAT WHEN SHE 20:08:04 GROWS UP, PLANNED PARENTHOOD WILL BE THERE FOR HER, TOO. 20:08:15 PLEASE WELCOME CECILE RICHARDS, THE PRESIDENT OF 20:08:21 PLANNED PARENTHOOD. [APPLAUSE] CECILE RICHARDS, PLANNED PARENTHOOD PRES IN INTERPLAY: RS 5119 CAMPAIGN 2012 DNC SWITCHED POOL 090512 P5 7-9P.01 20:07:50: CECILE RICHARDS WALKS ONTO STAGE 20:08:00: Good evening. On behalf of the millions of mothers, daughters, wives, sisters and friends - Republicans and Democrats - who've counted on Planned Parenthood for health care, and in honor of the thousands of doctors and staff at Planned Parenthood health centers all across America, I am proud tonight to support the re-election of President Barack Obama! 20:08:35: Two years ago, when John Boehner, Paul Ryan, Todd Akin and the Tea Party took over the House of Representatives, they promised to create jobs and jump-start the economy. But, instead, on day one, they came after women's health. And they haven't let up since, right? First, they voted to end cancer screenings and well-woman visits for five million women, they voted to end funding for birth control at Planned Parenthood, and for good measure, they even tried to redefine rape. And now, Mitt Romney is campaigning to get rid of Planned Parenthood and overturn Roe v. Wade. And we won't let him! This past year women learned that if we aren't at the table, we're on the menu. So this November, women are organizing, mobilizing and voting for the leaders who fight for us. 20:09:53: Nearly 100 years ago, when Planned Parenthood was founded, birth control was illegal. And as a result, few women had the opportunity to finish school. We weren't even expected to live past the age 50. Times have changed. Today, we are mothers, and we are teachers and scientists and accountants and members of the armed forces. And because of President Obama, more women than ever are serving in the US Cabinet and on the United States Supreme Court. We've come so far. 20:10:41: So why are we having to fight in 2012 against politicians who want to end access to birth control? It's like we woke up in a bad episode of Mad Men. Because when Mitt Romney says he'll "get rid of" Planned Parenthood, and turn the clock back on a century of progress, it has real consequences for the three million patients who depend on Planned Parenthood each year. Women like Libby Bruce, the patient you just heard from. Women like Brandi McCay, a 27 year-old whose stage two breast cancer was caught at a Planned Parenthood health center. She is now cancer-free. Or the woman who went on Facebook, after Paul Ryan voted to defund Planned Parenthood, and posted, "I guess they don't understand that us military wives go to Planned Parenthood when the doctor on base can't see us." 20:11:54: So Mr. Romney and Mr. Ryan are campaigning for women's votes by saying, "Women need our help." Ok, this is coming from two men who are committed to ending insurance coverage for birth control. Who would turn women's health care decisions over to our bosses. And who won't even stand up for equal pay for women. Ok, well as my grandmother back in Texas would have said about any more help from Mitt Romney, "I'm going to have to take in ironing." 20:12:32: The good news is, we already have a president who's on our side. President Obama understands women. He trusts women. And on every issue that matters to us, he stands with women. President Obama ensured women's preventive care - including birth control, too - will be covered by all health care plans, with no co-pay, no matter where we work. Because of President Obama, soon women won't be denied insurance because we've had breast cancer, or survived sexual assault. And we will no longer pay more than men for the same health insurance. Thanks to President Obama, being a woman is no longer be a pre-existing condition in America! Back in Texas, back in Texas - yay Texas - we say that you dance with them what brung you. President Obama brought women to this dance and we're staying with him all the way through November! 20:14:17: Twenty-four years ago, my mother, former Texas Governor Ann Richards, spoke to this convention. She reminded us how far we've come, that there was a time when folks had to drink from separate water fountains, when kids were punished for speaking Spanish in school, when her Grandmother couldn't vote. My Mom spent her entire life working to make things more fair. She believed the American dream wasn't meant for just a few; it promised opportunity for everyone. Just a couple of years before she passed, Mom had the chance to become friends with a young senator named Barack Obama. She saw in him the promise of the future, and the promise of America-the promise of an America that always moves forward. That's the America we believe in, and that's the future we'll be voting for this November. As women, we've come too far to turn back. And we won't. Mom wouldn't stand for it, and neither will we. So, this November, we're going to keep moving forward, and we are going to re-elect President Obama. Thank you, thank you! STENY HOYER 2012 Democratic National Convention: Remarks as Prepared for Delivery by The Honorable Steny Hoyer, Parliamentarian of the 2012 Democratic National Convention, Democratic Whip and Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, Maryland 20:17:35 Hello fellow delegates, hello, Maryland! I'm proud to be here tonight to support President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden for a second term. President Obama has spent the last four years seeking the solutions we need to meet our challenges. He has spent his first term focused on building a strong economy and growing the middle class. Thanks to his leadership, America's auto workers are back on the job, and manufacturers are hiring at levels not seen since the 1990s. But we need to do more. That's why President Obama wants to revitalize the manufacturing sector that made our nation great. House Democrats share that vision, which is why we have a plan called "Make it in America" to invest in out-educating, out-innovating and out-building our competitors overseas. A strong America depends on a successful and growing middle class, and this election is a moment of truth for middle-class families. 20:19:13 The choice we have to make this fall is a critical one-but I don't believe it's a difficult one. Last week, Mr. Romney said he wished President Obama had succeeded when he took office. If so, he was alone in his party. Let's review the history. Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader in the Senate, said that Republicans' number one priority was the defeat of President Obama. Not the defeat of terrorism, not the creation of jobs, not the reduction of our deficit and debt, not ensuring access to health care, not educating our children. But to simply defeat our president. As the Rev. Jesse Jackson describes it, they want to drown the captain, and they're prepared to sink the ship to do so. For four years, Republicans in Congress have pursued a strategy of confrontation, obstruction, and a refusal to compromise and obstruction. That's why not a single House Republican voted for the law that brought our economy back from the brink. That's why President Obama's jobs plan was not even put on the House floor. Instead of trying to fix the problem, the Republicans unfortunately played politics. 20:21:07 But despite historic levels of obstruction, President Obama was able to bring the economy back from the verge of a second Great Depression. In January 2009, when the President took office, our economy lost more than 800,000 jobs. This July, the economy added 172,000 jobs, the 29th consecutive month of private sector job gains. We know that's not enough, but it's a turnaround of nearly one million jobs from when President Obama took office. Surely even Mr. Romney thinks we're better off now than the past four years. 20:22:32 These past four years, while President Obama was fighting for the middle class, Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan and their Tea Party allies cared more about tearing down the president than building up America. They're hoping that we will forget that. They're also hoping that we will forget their role in piling up a mountain of debt being left to our children and grandchildren. My friend Paul Ryan talks about fiscal responsibility, but voted to put two wars on the credit card. He voted to spend trillions of dollars on tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires. He voted for a prescription drug benefit with no plan to pay for it. He abandoned the bipartisan principle that we must pay for what we buy. And he voted against the balanced deficit reduction plan produced by a bipartisan commission-a fact, by the way he didn't tell us last week. 20:23:42 He also didn't tell you that Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan want to end the Medicare guarantee and turn it into a voucher, which would leave seniors with the increased costs. He also didn't tell you that President Obama has strengthened Medicare by taking away big subsidies to insurance companies and by tackling waste, fraud and abuse; he didn't tell you that President Obama has saved seniors more than $4 billion on prescription drugs by closing the "donut hole"; and that President Obama added years to the life of Medicare. Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan promise hard truths. But they don't deliver hard answers or real solutions. 20:24:26 President Obama and Democrats are working tirelessly to move our country forward over the near unanimous opposition of Republican leaders and Republican members of Congress. Ladies and gentlemen, the decision we have to make this November is simple: do we keep moving forward, or do we join the Romney-Ryan retreat and go back to the same failed policies of the past? Barack Obama and Joe Biden have been working hard to help middle-class families make it in America. Let's send them back to the White House with a Democratic House and Senate ready to get to work, ready to make tough choices, ready to meet our challenges head on. We must not flag or fail. We must keep moving forward, restoring faith in the American dream. God bless America, God bless every American, and God bless all of you! Thank you. ED MEAGHER 2012 Democratic National Convention: Remarks as Prepared for Delivery by Ed Meagher 20:28:21 Good evening. My name is Ed Meagher. 20:28:25 Can you imagine how it feels to return from war emotionally, psychologically and physically mangled, and the country you've been fighting for does not welcome you home? As a veteran of the Vietnam War, I know exactly how that feels. 20:28:43 Nine years ago I decided I would do what I can to give the soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan a better welcome home than I had. Along with two of my fellow Vietnam vets, I work with some of our most seriously injured warriors and their families to prepare them for jobs, to help them find their way through the medical system and to lift their spirits. 20:29:09 Our alive days help amputees to realize that even though they've lost limbs, they have their lives. Operation Jumpstart helps them strategically think about the next phase of their lives. 20:29:20 We've helped punch up resumes to reflect skills they possess but they didn't know were marketable. We've coached them and provided fresh business outfits and computers to help them with job searches. 20:29:33 Supporting our efforts is President Obama's actions increasing the VA budget to $140 billion in 2013, fully funding the new GI bill allowing over 800,000 veterans and their families to pursue an education and begin their post-military service to our country. 20:29:58 The Obama administration has hired more than 3,500 mental health professionals, and will hire 1,600 more over the next year, to help veterans to cope with post-traumatic stress or traumatic brain injuries and to strengthen suicide prevention efforts. 20:30:19 Last Memorial Day, President Obama declared the treatment of Vietnam War veterans a national shame and spoke two sweet words my generation of returning veterans yearned to hear: "Welcome home!" ERIK SHINSEKI IN INTERPLAY: RS 5119 CAMPAIGN 2012 DNC SWITCHED POOL 090512 P5 7-9P.01 20:30:52: ERIK SHINSEKI WALKS ONTO STAGE 20:31:04: "Aloha to the Hawaii Delegation. Good evening everyone, especially all of the veterans in the audience. My name is Ric Shinseki, and I'm a soldier." 20:31:24: "I spent 38 years in uniform, and as a veteran, I'm here to speak about a president whose devotion to veterans is sincere. It is steadfast, and it is strong-I know this first hand." 20:31:39: I first met Barack Obama in November 2008. I quickly realized we were both shaped and inspired by family members who served in World War II. Three of my uncles helped liberate Europe, and when they returned home they helped raise me. They used the original GI Bill to open small businesses and raise families of their own. They worked hard, played by the rules, and loved this country. I learned those values from them. 20:32:23: And the president learned the same values from the veterans in his family. During our first meeting nearly four years ago, the president's commitment to veterans was clear. He understands that we have the finest military in the world-and we have a commitment to keep faith with our men and women in uniform. 20:32:48: Today, our Iraq and Afghanistan warriors have displayed enormous discipline and love of country. We have a moral obligation to care for them when they come home: healthcare; education; jobs. But above all, we owe veterans dignity and respect. President Obama gets it-he listens, he wants the facts, and the results of his leadership are clear. 20:33:31: Since President Obama took office, nearly 800,000 veterans gained access to VA healthcare. There's been a historic expansion of treatment for PTSD and traumatic brain injury. President Obama has expanded job training to prepare vets for the jobs of the future. And we're on track to end veterans' homelessness by 2015. 20:34:14: No president since Franklin Delano Roosevelt has done more for veterans. We could not ask for a stronger advocate. We've made tremendous progress under this president's leadership. But there is much more to be done for the men and women who guarantee our way of life. They have served selflessly-with unmatched valor, sacrifice, and distinction. And President Obama is determined that we will repay the debt we owe them. God bless our veterans, God bless our president, and may God continue to bless this wonderful country of all of us JOHN HICKENLOOPER 2012 Democratic National Convention: Remarks as Prepared for Delivery by The Honorable John Hickenlooper, Governor of Colorado 20:35:33 As many of you know, we had a challenging summer in Colorado: wildfires that devastated homes and businesses, took livelihoods and lives; then, a few weeks later, terrible shootings in a darkened theater. So, on behalf of everyone in Colorado, let me start tonight by saying thank you. Thank you for your thoughts and prayers. Thank you for your generosity to families who lost so much. 20:36:17 The president came to Colorado. He walked the charred landscape, met with firefighters and also with those who lost homes or businesses. He and Michelle visited hospitals to comfort families of loved ones killed and injured. They shared in our grief and brought a message of support on behalf of the entire country. We weren't Democrats or Republicans in that moment, we were simply Americans trying to help one another. 20:36:58 These tragedies remind us not to waste time bickering. We have the power to come together. We need to do this as a nation. It will take a spirit of generosity and collaboration to meet the difficult challenges we face. We recognize this in Colorado, where we've been able to pass vital legislation with strong bipartisan majorities. I'm luckier than President Obama. After my inauguration, Colorado's Republican legislators didn't immediately start planning my defeat. We worked together. Some even complimented me for releasing my tax returns in the campaign, 22 years of them. We don't always agree, but when push comes to shove, Colorado's elected leaders cooperate for the good of our state. And consequently, we are moving forward. 20:38:00 And we need to keep moving forward with President Obama. And the president's policies are helping. He set a goal of doubling exports in five years, and so far, they're up by almost 40 percent. In Colorado, agricultural exports jumped 59 percent. Overseas tourism is up nearly 30 percent in Colorado. The president's "all of the above" energy strategy means thousands of jobs. Using wind, solar and vast new reserves of natural gas, we are closer to true energy independence than we have been in recent history. And as the first governor since Sam Adams to get his start brewing beer, I'm happy to announce that even craft beer production is up 35 percent. Yes, Colorado. 20:39:10 We've still got a lot of ground to cover as a country, but we are coming back. Not as fast as we want or need, but unlike four years ago, we are finally moving in the right direction. I know it's hard right now for a lot of people. And I've been there. Like too many Americans today, I was laid off and out of work for two years during the last really bad recession in 1986. So we started a brewpub. We were turned down by 32 banks and scores of investors. My own mother wouldn't invest. But we got there, because like so many other things, our business was not just me. It was we. We worked 70 hours per week. We drafted the business plan with a librarian from the Denver Public Library. We secured a development loan from the city. My landlord invested. Even my Little League baseball coach invested. We worked long hours. It was "we," not just "me." 20:40:22 In Colorado, we know that western history is not just about rugged individuals; it's also about communities coming together to raise barns, build schools and, yes, to help one another. Colorado and the United States are places that will be defined more by their future than by their past. The president knows this. He knows that to move our country forward, it takes "we" and not just "me." My mother, the lone Democrat in a family of Republicans, was widowed twice and raised four kids on her own. She always used to say, "You can't always control what life gives you, but you can control how you respond." President Obama inherited many crises, among the worst any President has faced, and in every case he's responded with optimism, with compassion, with courage. He provided hope when there was none. And he has transformed that hope into a plan rooted in reality. 20:41:47 And it takes hard work, and it takes time. But it's working. He understands that America is indeed a collection of talented, self-motivated individuals competing in a marketplace. But it's more than that; it's also a community that believes in the common good. 20:42:06 As another skinny Democrat with a funny last name, I was proud to host the convention in Denver that nominated President Obama four years ago. I am proud to support his re-election and ask that you join me-well, we-in moving Colorado and America forward. We need to finish what we started. Thank you and God bless you. SISTER SIMONE CAMPBELL 2012 Democratic National Convention: Remarks as Prepared for Delivery by Sister Simone Campbell, Executive Director, Roman Catholic Social Justice Organization, NETWORK 20:42:58 Good evening, I'm Sister Simone Campbell, and I'm one of the "nuns on the bus." So, yes, we have nuns on the bus. And a nun on the podium! 20:43:19 Let me explain why I'm here. In June, I joined other Catholic sisters on a 2,700-mile bus journey through nine states to tell Americans about the budget Congressman Paul Ryan wrote and Governor Romney endorsed. 20:43:41 Paul Ryan claims his budget reflects the principles of our shared Catholic faith. But the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops stated that the Ryan budget failed a basic moral test, because it would harm families living in poverty. 20:44:04 We agree with our bishops, and that's why we went on the road: to stand with struggling families and to lift up our Catholic sisters who serve them. Their work to alleviate suffering would be seriously harmed by the Romney-Ryan budget, and that is wrong. 20:44:28 During our journey, I rediscovered a few truths. First, Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan are correct when they say that each individual should be responsible. But their budget goes astray in not acknowledging that we are responsible not only for ourselves and our immediate families. Rather, our faith strongly affirms that we are all responsible for one another. 20:44:55 I am my sister's keeper. I am my brother's keeper. While we were in Toledo, I met 10-year-old twins Matt and Mark, who had gotten into trouble at school for fighting. Sister Virginia and the staff at the Padua Center took them in when they were suspended and discovered on a home visit that these 10-year-olds were trying to care for their bedridden mother who has MS and diabetes. 20:45:30 They are getting help and some stability. They are free to claim much of their childhood that they were losing. Clearly, we all share responsibility. They were her only caregivers. The sisters got her medical help and are giving the boys some stability. Now the boys are free to claim much of the childhood they were losing. Clearly, we all share responsibility for the Matts and Marks in our nation. 20:46:00 In Milwaukee, I met Billy and his wife and two boys at St. Benedict's dining room. Billy's work hours were cut back in the recession. Billy is taking responsibility for himself and his family, but right now without food stamps, he and his wife could not put food on their family table. 20:46:18 We all share responsibility for creating an economy where parents with jobs earn enough to take care of their families. In order to cut taxes for the very wealthy, the Romney-Ryan budget would make it even tougher for hard-working Americans like Billy to feed their families. Paul Ryan says this budget is in keeping with the values of our shared faith. I simply disagree. 20:46:50 In Cincinnati, I met Jenny, who had just come from her sister's memorial service. When Jenny's sister Margaret lost her job, she lost her health insurance. She developed cancer and had no access to diagnosis or treatment. She died unnecessarily. That is tragic. And it is wrong. 20:47:15 The Affordable Care Act will cover people like Margaret. We all share responsibility to ensure that this vital health care reform law is properly implemented and that all governors expand Medicaid coverage so no more Margarets die from lack of care. This is part of my pro-life stance and the right thing to do. 20:47:49 I have so many other stories but will only tell one more. In Hershey, Pennsylvania, a woman in her late thirties approached us. She asked for the names of some people she could talk to, because she felt alone and isolated. Her neighbors have been polarized by politics masquerading as values. She cares about the well-being of the people in her community. 20:48:20 She wishes they, and the rest of the nation, would listen to one another with kindness and compassion. Listen to one another rather than yell at each other. I told her then, and I tell her now, that she is not alone. 20:48:40 Looking out at you tonight, I feel your presence combined with that of the thousands of caring people we met on our journey. Together, we understand that an immoral budget that hurts already struggling families does not reflect our nation's values. We are better than that. 20:49:00 So I urge you, I urge you, to join us on the bus. Join us as together we stand with Matt and Mark, Billy and his family, the woman in Hershey and the Margarets of our nation. 20:49:16 This is what we nuns on the bus are all about: We care for the 100 percent, and that will secure the blessings of liberty for our nation. So join us as we nuns and all of us drive for faith, family and fairness. JACK MARKELL IN NY INTERPLAY AS: RS 5119 CAMPAIGN 2012 DNC SWITCHED POL 090512 P5 7-9.01 FTG OF JACK MARKELL, GOVERNOR OF DELAWARE, DELIVERING REMARKS AT THE DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION IN CHARLOTTE, NC 090512 20;49;54 MARKELL IS INTRODUCED WALKS ACROSS STAGE CHEERS AND APPLAUSE AUDIENCE CHANTS 20;50;14 "I am privileged to be the governor of Delaware (CHEERS), home to America's Vice President-our favorite son-Joe Biden. (APPLAUSE) Joe has never forgotten his middle-class roots or the lessons he learned. And you know what? Mitt Romney hasn't forgotten his roots or the lessons he's learned either. And that's what worries me about Mitt Romney. Mitt Romney says that he should be your president because he was a business executive." 20;51;06 "Now, I've got nothing against business executives running for office. After all, I am one. Before I entered public life, I earned my MBA at night while working during the day. I helped lead the wireless revolution at Nextel, and grew with it from 13 to 3,000 employees. I'm a proud card-carrying capitalist. (APPLAUSE) And make no mistake: I believe in private equity, which helped back Nextel." 20;51;52 "But as someone who has been a businessman and a governor, let me level with you: just because Mitt Romney was a successful private equity executive, that does not mean he deserves to be president. Because when you move from business to government, what matters are the lessons you learn and what those lessons say about your priorities. And Mitt Romney learned all the wrong lessons. (APPLAUSE) As an executive in private equity, Mitt Romney's focus was on the bottom line. And that makes sense: his constituents were his financial shareholders. When he closed factories and sent jobs overseas, it was to benefit his shareholders. That was his job, and he was good at it." 20;52;57 "But, when you are a governor, or the president, it's different. Your shareholders are teachers, construction workers, and hardware store owners. (APPLAUSE) And your bottom line is not what goes into your pocket-but what goes into theirs. That's the difference.(APPLAUSE) When your constituents are your financial shareholders, perhaps it makes sense to take control of a company, suffocate it with debt, and get rid of the workers' pensions. That kind of thing worked for Mitt Romney when he sat in his corporate office. But it won't work for the country if Mitt Romney's sitting in the Oval Office. (APPLAUSE) Mitt Romney saw the death of Detroit as good for investors. ("BOO") He couldn't see what the auto industry meant for the millions of middle-class families who depend on those jobs." 20;54;17 "And Barack Obama? He immediately understood what was at stake. He saw saving the auto industry as good for his shareholders-the American people. (APPLAUSE) President Obama made the tough call and saved the auto industry. (APPLAUSE) Luckily, we have a clear choice in this election. President Obama understands that while government alone cannot create jobs, it sure can create an environment for companies to grow, invest, and hire. That's why President Obama has a plan to create jobs and build a strong economy to last. You can read it for yourself at Barack Obama.com/plan." 20;55;27 "Now, every day, President Obama is working for the men and women of the middle class who do the hard work of this great nation-investing in you, your education, your job skills, and the roads and bridges we all depend on. When I began as governor, I received a phone call no governor wants to get. One of our top employers, a refinery, was planning to shut down, and lay off all the workers. In fact, they did just that. Days after the plant closed, I visited the workers. I could see in their eyes that they weren't ready to quit. I promised I would fight for them. (APPLAUSE) So I worked with labor, with investors, with a talented new management team-all committed to keeping the refinery running-and we saved those jobs. (APPLAUSE) You see, my shareholders were those refinery workers. I had to deliver for them." 20;56;54 Let me ask you: what do you think Mitt Romney would have done if that call came in? Well, Mitt Romney has already told us what he would do. Mitt Romney says he likes to fire people. Barack Obama? He likes to see people hired. From the moment he took office, President Obama has delivered for the middle class. He believes that we need to grow our economy from the middle out, and not from the top down, that we need to keep America a land of middle-class opportunity. And to keep faith with that promise-the promise of America-it's up to us. We must work for it. We must fight for it. And we must re-elect Barack Obama the President of the United States.****** CHEERING AND APPLAUSE MARKELL WAVES TO AUDIENCE AND EXITS STAGE AUDIENCE CHANTS Small Business Administrator Karen Mills - continued 21;00;00 OR WORK FOR A SMALL BUSINESS, THEY CREATE TWO THIRDS 21;00:04 OF ALL JOBS. SMALL BUSINESSES ARE A BIG PART 21;00:08 OF WHO WE ARE. WHEN PRESIDENT OBAMA TOOK 21;00:11 OFFICE, THE ECONOMY WAS IN FREE FALL. 21;00:14 CREDIT WAS FROZEN. SMALL BUSINESSES WERE NOT 21;00:17 THINKING ABOUT EXPANSION. THEY WERE THINKING ABOUT 21;00:21 SURVIVAL. THE PRESIDENT KNEW THAT ONE OF 21;00:23 THE MOST IMPORTANT THINGS HE COULD DO WAS TO GIVE SMALL 21;00:33 RIGHT AWAY, PRESIDENT OBAMA CUT SMALL BUSINESS TAXES. 21;00:37 NOT ONCE OR TWICE, BUT 18 TIMES. [APPLAUSE] 21;00:43 HE PUT A RECORD VOLUME OF GUARANTEED LOANS INTO THE HANDS 21;00:48 OF AMERICAN SMALL BUSINESSES. HE ELIMINATED PAGES OF 21;00:54 BURDENSOME FORMS AND REGULATIONS SO THAT SMALL 21;00:56 BUSINESSES COULD FOCUS ON PROFIT INSTEAD OF PAPER WORK. 21;01:00 HE MADE THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT PAY SMALL BUSINESS CONTRACTORS 21;01:05 NOT IN 30 DAYS BUT IN 15. TO HELP ENTREPRENEURS MAKE 21;01:11 THEIR PAYROLLS AND BUY NEW EQUIPMENT. 21;01:14 HE EVEN GAVE SMALL BUSINESS A SEAT AT THE TABLE IN HIS 21;01:17 CABINET. TODAY, SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS ARE 21;01:22 HAVING A VERY DIFFERENT CONVERSATIONS THAN THEY WERE 21;01:25 THREE AND A HALF YEARS AGO. TODAY THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT 21;01:29 STRATEGIES TO FILL LARGER ORDERS, BLUEPRINTS FOR BIGGER 21;01:34 FACTORIES, AND PLANS TO HIRE MORE WORKERS. 21;01:38 LIKE RALEIGH-DENHAM, A HUSBAND AND WIFE TEAM MAKING BLUEJEANS 21;01:47 RIGHT HERE IN NORTH CAROLINA, AND EXPORTING THEM TO EIGHT 21;01:52 COUNTRIES ON THREE CONTINENTS. AMERICAN ENTREPRENEURS ARE OUR 21;01:56 GREATEST ASSET. AS PRESIDENT OBAMA HAS DELIVERED 21;02:00 FOR THEM. HE UNDERSTANDS THAT WASHINGTON 21;02:05 DOES NOT CREATE JOBS. SMALL BUSINESSES DO. 21;02:11 THE GOVERNMENT'S ROLE IS TO PUT THE WIND AT THEIR BACK. 21;02:16 AFTER THE WORST STORM IN GENERATIONS, THAT EXACT -- IS 21;02:21 EXACTLY WHAT PRESIDENT OBAMA IS DOING -- EXPANDING ACCESS AND 21;02:26 OPPORTUNITY IN EVERY CORNER OF ALL 50 STATES. 21;02:30 WHEN THE AMERICAN PEOPLE REELECT PRESIDENT OBAMA, HE WILL FINISH 21;02:37 THE WORK THAT HE STARTED, BECAUSE ACROSS THIS COUNTRY, WE 21;02:43 KNOW WHAT SMALL BUSINESSES -- WHEN THE SMALL BUSINESSES 21;02:47 SUCCEED, AMERICA SUCCEEDS. THANK YOU. 21;02:49 [APPLAUSE] 21;03:16 WHAT WAS IMPORTANT GROWING UP WAS A SENSE OF WORKING HARD. 21;03:20 IF YOU WORK HARD, YOU CAN BE SUCCESSFUL. 21;03:23 MY NAME IS BILL BUTCHER. I OWN A BREWING CO. IN 21;03:29 ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA. THIS WAS A NEW VENTURE FOR ME 21;03:32 AND MY WIFE, KAREN. THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE IN PUTTING 21;03:35 THE BUSINESS TOGETHER WAS TRYING TO GET THE FINANCING. 21;03:39 WE KNEW THERE WOULD BE A MAJOR COMMITMENT FOR A FAMILY. 21;03:42 TO BORROW THAT AMOUNT OF MONEY -- WE WERE PUTTING THE PLAN 21;03:45 TOGETHER IN 2009. BANKS ARE NOT LENDING MONEY. 21;03:51 EVERYBODY WAS WORRIED ABOUT THE ECONOMY. 21;03:54 WHEN THAT TOOK OFFICE, I PUT IN PLACE A PLAN TO HELP SMALL 21;03:58 BUSINESSES. WE WERE GUIDED BY A SIMPLE 21;04:01 EXAMPLE -- GOVERNMENT CANNOT GUARANTEE SUCCESS, BUT IT CAN 21;04:06 KNOCK DOWN BARRIERS TO SUCCESS LIKE A LACK OF SOAP -- 21;04:09 AFFORDABLE CAPITAL. SUPPORTING LOANS TO SMALL 21;04:12 BUSINESSES. THEY ARE LOCAL BUSINESS BANKS 21;04:15 THAT ARE ROOTED IN THE COMMUNITY. 21;04:18 THEY SAW THE POTENTIAL FOR THE PLAN AND WERE AWARE OF NEW 21;04:21 PROGRAMS AS PART OF THE RECOVERY ACT. 21;04:24 GETTING THE SBA LOAN HELPED US A LOT. 21;04:30 WE SAVED THE MONEY FROM LOAN FEES TO BUY ADDITIONAL 21;04:33 EQUIPMENT. IT SAVED US THOUSANDS OF 21;04:35 DOLLARS. EVERY TIME OR ANOTHER TRUCKLOAD 21;04:38 OF GLASS, WE KEEP OUR LABEL CO. BUSY PRINTING LABELS -- THEIR 21;04:45 BUSINESS IS GROWING AS OUR BUSINESS GROWS. 21;04:47 I AM GRATEFUL FOR MANY ASPECTS OF THE RECOVERY ACT. 21;04:50 IT IS GREAT TO SEE THAT THEIR PROGRAMS ARE AVAILABLE. 21;04:53 THAT IS SOMETHING THAT OTHER SMALL BUSINESSES ARE TAKING 21;04:57 ADVANTAGE OF. SMALL BUSINESS IS THE BACKBONE 21;05:00 OF THE ECONOMY. LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, PLEASE 21;05:05 WELCOME BILL BUTCHER OF ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA. Small Businessman Bill Butcher, Port City Brewing Co. 21;05:09 [APPLAUSE] I KNOW IF YOU ARE 21;05:22 THINKING, AND I'M SORRY. I AM NOT OUT HERE TO GIVE FREE 21;05:25 BEER. [LAUGHTER] 21;05:28 YOU KNOW, I DO NOT HAVE TIME TO PAY MUCH ATTENTION TO POLITICS 21;05:32 BECAUSE I AM TOO BUSY RUNNING MY BUSINESS. 21;05:35 I THINK A LOT OF SMALL-BUSINESS OWNERS STILL THE SAME WAY. 21;05:38 WE DO NOT CARE ABOUT THE DAILY BACK-AND-FORTH OF CAMPAIGNS. 21;05:42 WE JUST WANT LEADERS IN WASHINGTON WHO BELIEVE IN US. 21;05:45 WHO MAKE IT A LITTLE EASIER FOR US TO SUCCEED. 21;05:49 OUR PRESIDENT IS THAT KIND OF LEADER. 21;05:51 [APPLAUSE] THERE WERE MOMENTS WHEN MY WIFE 21;05:56 AND I WONDERED IF WE WOULD EVER GET OUR BUSINESS OFF THE GROUND. 21;06:00 I REMEMBER WHAT IT WAS LIKE TO GO TO BANK AFTER BANK AFTER 21;06:04 BANK, A HEARING NO. WE MAY NOT HAVE EVER GOTTEN TO 21;06:11 YES IF IT WAS NOT FOR PRESIDENT OBAMA AND THE SBA LOANS HE 21;06:16 STARTED. FOR THESE LAST FOUR YEARS, I 21;06:19 HAVE HAD A PRESIDENT WHO IS ON MY SIDE. 21;06:22 HE CUT SMALL BUSINESS TAXES 18 TIMES. 21;06:25 HE KEPT MIDDLE-CLASS TAXES LOW, WHICH MEANT MORE CUSTOMERS FOR 21;06:31 MY PRODUCT. HE KNOWS THAT GROWING THE 21;06:33 MIDDLE-CLASS HELPS BUSINESSES TO CREATE JOBS. 21;06:36 I KNOW THAT IF HE GETS A SECOND TERM, ENTREPRENEURS LIKE THE 21;06:41 WILL HAVE THE BEST POSSIBLE CHANCE TO SUCCEED. 21;06:47 I HEAR PRESIDENT OBAMA HAS BEEN BREWING SOME BEER IN THE WHITE 21;06:51 HOUSE RECENTLY. I KNOW YOU ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO 21;06:54 ENDORSE A COMPETITOR, BUT IN THIS CASE I WILL MAKE AN 21;06:57 EXCEPTION. [APPLAUSE] 21;07:00 OUR PRESIDENT HAS FOUGHT FOR SMALL-BUSINESS OWNERS, AND NOW 21;07:04 IT IS TIME TO FIGHT FOR HIM. THANK YOU, EVERYBODY. 21;07:06 [APPLAUSE] 21;07:18 PLEASE WELCOME CALIFORNIA STATE ATTORNEY GENERAL - CA Attorney General Kamala Harris 21;07:32 ON BEHALF OF THE GREAT STATE OF CALIFORNIA, I THANK YOU FOR 21;07:39 THE HONOR AND PRIVILEGE TO BE HERE. 21;07:45 SO LET'S GET RIGHT DOWN TO BUSINESS. 21;07:46 WE ARE HERE BECAUSE WE LOVE OUR COUNTRY. 21;07:53 WE FIRMLY BELIEVE IN THE AMERICAN IDEAL THAT OUR COUNTRY 21;07:58 SHOULD WORK FOR EVERYONE. THAT IDEAL IS WRITTEN INTO OUR 21;08:03 LAWS, THE RULES OF THE ROAD THAT CREATE A LEVEL PLAYING FIELD IN 21;08:10 THIS COUNTRY. THOSE ARE THE RULES. 21;08:13 I BECAME ATTORNEY GENERAL TO UPHOLD. 21;08:16 THOSE ARE THE RULES MITT ROMNEY WOULD HAVE US ROLLBACK. 21;08:23 HE WOULD ROLL BACK THE RULES THAT PROTECT THE AIR WE BREATHE 21;08:28 AND THE WATER WE DRINK. ROLL BACK THE RULES THAT PROTECT 21;08:34 THE HEALTH AND SAFETY OF WOMEN AND FAMILIES. 21;08:38 ROLL BACK THE RULES THAT PREVENT THE KIND OF RECKLESSNESS THAT 21;08:42 GOT OUR ECONOMY INTO THIS MESS IN THE FIRST PLACE. 21;08:48 WELL, I HAVE SEEN ALL THAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU ROLL BACK THOSE 21;08:52 RULES. WHAT HAPPENED? 21;08:56 ROWS OF FORECLOSURE SIGNS. WHAT HAPPENS ARE MOUNTAINS OF 21;09:00 FAMILY DEBT. WHAT HAPPENS IS A MIDDLE-CLASS 21;09:04 THAT IS HURTING. THAT IS WHAT WE HAVE SEEN IN 21;09:08 TOWNS ACROSS CALIFORNIA AND ACROSS THIS COUNTRY. 21;09:11 WHEN IT COMES TO THE HOUSING CRISIS, THE CHOICE BETWEEN 21;09:16 BARACK OBAMA AND MITT ROMNEY IS CLEAR. 21;09:19 THE FACT IS, WE DO NOT HAVE TO GUESS WHAT MITT ROMNEY WOULD 21;09:25 HAVE DONE IF HE WERE PRESIDENT. HE TOLD US -- HE SAID, WE SHOULD 21;09:32 LET FORECLOSURES, AND I QUOTE, "HIT THE BOTTOM." 21;09:39 SO THE MARKET COULD, I " "RUN ITS COURSE." 21;09:44 RUN ITS COURSE. THAT IS NOT LEADERSHIP. 21;09:50 DOING NOTHING WHILE THE MIDDLE CLASS IS HURTING -- THAT IS NOT 21;09:57 LEADERSHIP. LOOSE REGULATIONS 21;09:59 LAX ENFORCEMENT, THAT IS NOT LEADERSHIP. 21;10:05 THAT IS ABANDONING OUR MIDDLECLASS. 21;10:11 HERE IS WHAT PRESIDENT OBAMA DID. 21;10:14 PRESIDENT OBAMA ONE OF WALL STREET REFORM TO PREVENT ANY 21;10:18 MORE TAX-FUNDED BAILOUT. PRESIDENT OBAMA WON CREDIT-CARD 21;10:24 REFORMS ARE YOU DO NOT GET HIT WITH HIDDEN FEES AND SUDDEN RATE 21;10:28 HIKES. PRESIDENT OBAMA STOOD WITH ME 21;10:33 AND 48 OTHER ATTORNEYS GENERAL IN TAKING ON THE BANKS AND 21;10:36 WINNING $25 BILLION FOR STRUGGLING HOMEOWNERS. 21;10:40 [APPLAUSE] THAT IS LEADERSHIP. 21;10:46 THAT IS WHAT PRESIDENT OBAMA DID. 21;10:50 THAT IS WHY WE NEED TO GIVE HIM ANOTHER FOUR YEARS. 21;10:56 [CHEERS AND APPLAUSE] WE NEED TO MOVE FORWARD. 21;11:02 PRESIDENT OBAMA WILL FIGHT FOR WORKING FAMILIES. 21;11:05 HE WILL FIGHT TO LEVEL THE ECONOMIC PLAYING FIELD AND FIGHT 21;11:09 TO GIVE EVERY AMERICAN THE SAME FAIR SHOT MY FAMILY HAD. 21;11:15 I REMEMBER WHEN MY MOTHER BOUGHT OUR FIRST HOME. 21;11:21 I WAS 13. SHE WAS SO PROUD. 21;11:27 MY SISTER AND I WERE SO EXCITED. MILLIONS OF FAMILIES AND 21;11:33 MILLIONS OF AMERICANS KNOW THAT FEELING. 21;11:36 WALKING THROUGH THE FRONT DOOR OF THEIR OWN HOME FOR THE FIRST 21;11:39 TIME. THE FEELING OF REACHING FOR 21;11:44 OPPORTUNITY AND FINDING IT. THAT IS THE CHOICE IN THIS 21;11:49 ELECTION. IT IS A CHOICE BETWEEN AN 21;11:52 AMERICA WHERE OPPORTUNITY IS OPEN TO EVERYONE, WHERE EVERYONE 21;11:56 PLAYS BY THE SAME SET OF RULES, OR A PHILOSOPHY THAT TILTS THE 21;12:02 PLAYING FIELD TO HELP THE WEALTHIEST FEW. 21;12:06 A CHOICE BETWEEN HOLDING WALL STREET ACCOUNTABLE OR LETTING IT 21;12:11 WRITE ITS OWN RULES. MITT ROMNEY SUBSCRIBES TO THE 21;12:16 CYNICAL LOGIC THAT SAYS THE AMERICAN DREAM BELONGS TO SOME 21;12:21 OF US AND NOT ALL OF US. I WILL TELL YOU WHO THE AMERICAN 21;12:25 DREAM BELONGS TO. IT BELONGS TO THE STUDENT IN 21;12:30 SACRAMENTO WHO DOES NOT HAVE MUCH MONEY BUT GOES TO BED EACH 21;12:33 NIGHT DREAMING BIG DREAMS. IT BELONGS TO THE MEN AND WOMEN 21;12:38 ACROSS THIS COUNTRY WHO KNOW THAT IT SHOULD NOT BE AGAINST 21;12:41 THE LAW TO MARRY THE PERSON YOU LOVE. 21;12:44 IT BELONGS TO THE IMMIGRANTS, YOUNG AND OLD, WHO COME TO THIS 21;12:51 COUNTRY IN SEARCH OF A BETTER LIFE. 21;12:54 AND IT BELONGS TO LITTLE GIRLS WHO HAVE THE JOY OF WATCHING 21;13:01 THEIR MOTHERS, LIKE I DID, BY THEIR FIRST HOME. 21;13:04 [APPLAUSE] THE AMERICAN DREAM BELONGS TO 21;13:11 ALL OF US. AND IF WE CAN WORK TOGETHER, AND 21;13:15 STAND TOGETHER, AND VOTE TOGETHER ON NOVEMBER 6 FOR 21;13:19 PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA, THAT IS A DREAM WE WILL PUT IN REACH OF 21;13:26 ALL OUR PEOPLE. THANK YOU. 21;13:28 [CHEERS AND APPLAUSE] 21;13:56 I GET LETTERS FROM KIDS ALL ACROSS THE COUNTRY WHO CAME HERE 21;14:03 WHEN THEY WERE FIVE, CAME HERE WHEN THEY WERE EIGHT, PARENTS 21;14:10 WERE UNDOCUMENTED. SUDDENLY THEY COME TO 18, 19 21;14:16 YEARS OLD, THEY REALIZE, THEY FEEL AMERICAN, I AM AMERICAN, 21;14:26 THE LAW DOES NOT RECOGNIZE ME AS AMERICAN. 21;14:28 I'M WILLING TO SERVE MY COUNTRY, FIGHT FOR THIS COUNTRY -- I WANT 21;14:32 TO GO TO COLLEGE AND BETTER MYSELF. 21;14:36 I AM AT RISK OF DEPORTATION. IT IS HEARTBREAKING. 21;14:40 IT MAKES NO SENSE TO EXPEL TALENTED YOUNG PEOPLE WHO HAVE 21;14:45 BEEN RAISED AS AMERICANS, I UNDERSTAND THEMSELVES TO BE PART 21;14:49 OF THIS COUNTRY. EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY, THE 21;14:57 DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY IS TAKING STEPS TO LIFT THE 21;14:59 SHADOW OF DEPORTATION FROM THESE YOUNG PEOPLE. 21;15:04 THIS IS A TEMPORARY STOPGAP 21;15:09 MEASURE THAT LETS US FOCUS OUR RESOURCES WISELY BUT GIVING 21;15:15 THESE PEOPLE ROLL BELIEF AND HOPE, TALENTED, PATRIOTIC YOUNG 21;15:19 PEOPLE -- AS LONG AS I'M PRESIDENT, I WILL NOT GIVE UP ON 21;15:23 THIS ISSUE, NOT ONLY BECAUSE IT IS THE RIGHT THING TO DO FOR OUR 21;15:27 ECONOMY, NOT JUST BECAUSE IT IS THE RIGHT THING TO DO FOR OUR 21;15:30 SECURITY, BUT BECAUSE IT IS THE RIGHT THING TO DO, PERIOD. BILL BUTCHER IN INTERPLAY: RS 5119 CAMPAIGN 2012 DNC SWITCHED POOL 090512 P6 9-10P.01 21:04:37: BILL BUTCHER WALKS ONSTAGE 21:04:47: I know what you're thinking, and sorry. I'm not here to give out free beer. 21:04:55: You know, I don't have time to pay much attention to politics because I'm too busy running my business. I think a lot of small-business owners feel the same way. We don't care about the daily back and forth of campaigns. We just want leaders in Washington who believe in us and make it just a little easier for us to succeed. Our president is that kind of leader. 21:05:22: There were moments when my wife Karen and I wondered if we would ever get our business off the ground. I remember what it was like to go to bank after bank after bank hearing "No." We may not have ever gotten to "Yes" if it wasn't for President Obama and the SBA loan program he started. 21:05:44: For these last four years, I've had a president who's on my side. He cut small-business taxes 18 times. He kept middle class taxes low, which meant more customers for my product. He knows that growing the middle class helps businesses create jobs. 21:06:03: And I know that if he gets a second term, entrepreneurs like me will have the best possible chance to succeed. 21:06:15: I hear President Obama has been brewing some beer in the White House recently, and I know you're not supposed to endorse a competitor, but in this case I'm going to make an exception. 21:06:28: Our president has fought for small-business owners, and now it's time to fight for him. Thank you everybody. of ours. BENITA VELIZ FTG OF BENITA VELIZ DELIVERING REMARKS AT DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION IN CHARLOTTE, NC 090512 21;15;17 "My name is Benita Veliz, and I'm from San Antonio, Texas. (APPLAUSE) Like so many Americans of all races and backgrounds, I was brought here as a child. I've been here ever since. I graduated as valedictorian of my high school class at the age of 16 (APPLAUSE AND CHEERING) and went on to earn a double major at the age of 20. I know I have something to contribute to my economy and my country. I feel just as American as any of my friends or neighbors. CHEERING AND APPLAUSE 21;16;16 "But I've had to live almost my entire life knowing I could be deported just because of the way I came here. President Obama fought for the DREAM Act to help people like me. (APPLAUSE) And when Congress refused to pass it, he didn't give up. Instead, he took action so that people like me can apply to stay in our country and contribute. We will keep fighting for reform, but while we do, we are able to work, study and pursue the American dream." CHEERING AND APPLAUSE 21;17;05 President Obama has fought for my community. Now it's my honor to introduce one of the leaders in my community who is fighting for him. From her television show to her magazines to her radio network, she is truly an icon: ladies and gentlemen, Cristina Saralegui. CHEERING AND APPLAUSE MUSIC PLAYS CHRISTINA SARALEGUI 21:18:15 HELLO. 21:18:24 WELL, WASN'T THAT SOMETHING. MUCHAS GRACIAS, AND MUCHAS 21:18:35 GRACIAS OF THE DREAMERS, ALL THE YOUNG KIDS TO STUDY AND DO THEIR 21:18:40 HOMEWORK. [CHEERS AND APPLAUSE] 21:18:41 LIKE MOST LATINAS, YOU KNOW I AM NOT AFRAID TO SPEAK MY MIND. 21:18:48 THROUGH THE YEARS, I HAVE ASKED PEOPLE SOME VERY TOUGH 21:18:54 QUESTIONS. I HAVE TACKLE BIG ISSUES ON LIVE 21:18:57 TV. ONE THING I HAVE NEVER DONE 21:19:00 UNTIL NOW WAS GETTING INVOLVED IN POLITICS. 21:19:04 NO, BUT THIS YEAR IS VERY DIFFERENT. 21:19:08 IN 2008 -- IF THAT WAS AN IMPORTANT ELECTION, IT IS 21:19:12 NOTHING COMPARED TO 2012. NOTHING. 21:19:15 [APPLAUSE] LIKE BENITA, I KNOW WHAT IT IS 21:19:24 LIKE TO COME TO THIS COUNTRY AT A YOUNG AGE. 21:19:26 I WAS STRUCK YEARS OLD WHEN, LIKE SO MANY CUBANS, MY PARENTS 21:19:33 FLED THE CASTRO REGIME. VIVA CUBA. 21:19:39 FOR US, AMERICA MEANT FREEDOM. AMERICA WAS THE PLACE THAT SAID, 21:19:45 IT DOES NOT MATTER WHERE YOU COME FROM, IT DOES NOT MATTER 21:19:49 WHAT YOUR LAST NAME IS, IT DOES NOT MATTER IF YOU DRINK COFFEE 21:19:57 WITH MILK. HERE, IF YOU WORK VERY HARD, 21:20:03 ERROR -- EVERYTHING IS POSSIBLE. THAT IS WHAT I DID. 21:20:06 SI SE PUEDE. EVEN THOUGH I COULD NOT AFFORD 21:20:11 TO FINISH COLLEGE, I GOT AN INTEREST OF JOB -- INTERNSHIPS 21:20:17 JOB AT A MAGAZINE. I TURNED THAT INTERNSHIPS INTO A 21:20:20 JOB AND A JOB AND TO BUSINESS AND A TELEVISION SHOW THAT ENDED 21:20:25 UP WITH 100 MILLION VIEWERS IN 40 DIFFERENT COUNTRIES. 21:20:30 [CHEERS AND APPLAUSE] SI SE PUEDE. 21:20:36 SI SE PUEDE. FOR ME -- MUCHAS GRACIAS, FOR 21:20:51 ME -- THE AMERICAN DREAM IS A PROMISE. 21:21:00 IT IS NOT JUST AN IDEA. NOT JUST A THEORY. 21:21:04 IT IS MY LIFE STORY. I KNOW MANY DREAMERS. 21:21:07 I WANT TO PASS THAT PROMISE ON TO MY GRANDCHILDREN, DOMINICK 21:21:12 AND CHRISTINA MARIA. I WANT THEM TO GROW UP IN THE 21:21:15 KIND OF COUNTRY THAT I GREW UP IN. 21:21:17 [CHEERS AND APPLAUSE] THAT IS WHAT THIS ELECTION IS 21:21:23 ABOUT. FOR THE FIRST TIME IN MY 21:21:29 LIFE, THE PROMISE OF AMERICA IS IN DANGER. 21:21:32 NEARLY EVERY PART OF GOVERNOR ROMNEY'S PLAN WOULD PUT THAT 21:21:36 AMERICAN DREAM FURTHER OUT OF REACH. 21:21:40 IN ORDER TO CUT TAXES FOR THE VERY TOP, HE WOULD RAISE 21:21:46 FAMILIES FOR MIDDLE-CLASS FAMILIES,/EDUCATION, CUT STUDENT 21:21:49 AID. GOVERNOR ROMNEY WOULD TURN 21:21:52 MEDICARE FROM A GUARANTEE INTO UNA LIVRETA DE COMPONES -- A 21:22:02 BOOK OF COUPONS. HE WOULD REPEAL OF CARE REFORM, 21:22:05 FORCING LOSING -- MILLIONS OF HISPANICS TO LOSE INSURANCE. 21:22:10 GOVERNOR ROMNEY'S PLAN IS ONLY ONE WORD -- BACKWARD. 21:22:18 WE NEED TO MOVE FORWARD. WE NEED TO RE-ELECT OUR 21:22:24 PRESIDENT OBAMA. [CHEERS AND APPLAUSE] 21:22:32 OUR PRESIDENT IS AN INCREDIBLE MAN. 21:22:36 HE FIGHTS FOR US EVERY SINGLE DAY. 21:22:38 HE HELPED PREVENT A SECOND GREAT DEPRESSION. 21:22:42 HE CUT TAXES FOR MIDDLE-CLASS FAMILIES AND SMALL BUSINESSES. 21:22:46 HE FOUGHT FOR HEALTH CARE REFORM, WHICH IS ALREADY 21:22:50 HELPING MILLIONS OF AMERICANS TO AFFORD INSURANCE. 21:22:54 THIS EDUCATION POLICIES -- HIS EDUCATION POLICIES MEAN 21:23:00 HISPANICS RECEIVE AN ESTIMATED 150,000 MORE COLLEGE 21:23:04 SCHOLARSHIPS. HE IS ON OUR SIDE. 21:23:06 [CHEERS AND APPLAUSE] YES, WE STILL HAVE A LOT TO 21:23:14 WORK TO DO. PRESIDENT OBAMA HAS A DETAILED 21:23:17 PLAN. YOU CAN FIND THIS PLAN ON HIS 21:23:20 WEBSITE. IT IS A PLAN TO GROW OUR ECONOMY 21:23:23 FROM THE MIDDLE CLASS OUT AT THE BOTTOM UP, NOT FROM THE TOP 21:23:28 DOWN. A PLAN TO INVENT -- INVEST IN 21:23:33 EDUCATION. TO INVEST IN MANUFACTURING. 21:23:36 A PLAN TO PASS COMPREHENSIVE IMMIGRATION REFORM THAT 21:23:40 INCLUDES A PATH TO CITIZENSHIP. [CHEERS AND APPLAUSE] 21:23:47 THANK YOU. ON IMMIGRATION, GOVERNOR 21:23:55 ROMNEY'S YEARS -- THIS REALLY FREAKS ME OUT. 21:23:59 HIS VIEWS COULD NOT BE MORE EXTREME. 21:24:01 HE SAYS THAT WE SHOULD MAKE LIFE SO UNBEARABLE FOR 11 21:24:07 MILLION PEOPLE THAT THEY SIMPLY SELF-DEPORT. 21:24:11 WHAT IS THAT? HE SAID THAT ARIZONA'S 21:24:15 IMMIGRATION LAW SHOULD BE A MODEL FOR OUR COUNTRY. 21:24:22 [CROWD BOOS] DO NOT BOO -- VOTE. 21:24:30 [CHEERS AND APPLAUSE] HE EVEN MADE THE ARCHITECT OF 21:24:34 THAT HORRIBLE LAW AND IMMIGRATION ADVISER FOR HIS 21:24:39 CAMPAIGN. THAT WAS REALLY SMART. 21:24:45 NO PROTESTING -- A VOTE. A VOTE. 21:24:48 HE HAS PROMISED TO REPEAL THE DREAM ACT. 21:24:51 THIS ELECTION IS ABOUT MANY THINGS, BUT IF YOU WANT TO 21:24:55 UNDERSTAND THE VALUES OF THE TWO CANDIDATES, ALL YOU HAVE TO DO 21:24:59 IS THINK ABOUT THE BEAUTIFUL LADY THAT INTRODUCED ME TONIGHT. 21:25:04 GOVERNOR ROMNEY CAUSE YOUNG PEOPLE LIKE HER, AT 27, ILLEGAL 21:25:09 ALIENS. PRESIDENT OBAMA CALLS AND 21:25:11 DREAMERS. [CHEERS AND APPLAUSE] 21:25:15 THAT IS THE DIFFERENCE IN THIS ELECTION. 21:25:21 IN CLOSING, I AM ASKING, ALL OF MY PEOPLE, PLEASE JOIN ME. 21:25:26 MANY OF US COME FROM COUNTRIES WHERE VOTES ARE NOT COUNTED 21:25:30 PROPERLY. IN FACT, THEY ARE NOT COUNTED AT 21:25:32 ALL. HERE, WE LATINOS HAVE A VERY 21:25:37 POWERFUL VOICE, BUT ONLY IF WE USE IT. 21:25:39 [CHEERS AND APPLAUSE] THAT BEGINS WITH MAKING SURE YOU 21:25:48 ARE REGISTERED TO VOTE. SO I WANT TO GO TO 21:25:51 GOTTAVOTE.COM OR VOTEMOSTODOS.COM IN SPANISH. 21:25:59 MAKE SURE YOUR FRIENDS AND FAMILIES ARE BLOATED, TOO. 21:26:07 -- REGISTERED, TOO. WHEN YOU TALK TO YOUR FAMILIES 21:26:15 AND FRIENDS? WOULD YOU FIGHT FOR THAT DREAM 21:26:18 ALL BELIEVE IN? WILL YOU KEEP THE PROMISE OF 21:26:21 THIS COUNTRY ALIVE? ESTAMOS UNIDOS -- LET'S DO THIS 21:26:27 TOGETHER. MUCHAS GRACIAS. 21:26:37 THANK YOU VERY MUCH. [CHEERS AND APPLAUSE] AUSTIN LIGON CARMAX CEO 21:26:33 When we first started CarMax 19 years ago, we had a simple idea to make buying a used car transparent, easy and an honest process. And today CarMax has grown to be America's largest auto retailer, employing 17,000 people in 30 states, and it's also one of Fortune's top 100 companies to work for. 21:26:55 We worked hard to build and conceive an idea for CarMax, but we didn't do it alone. We succeeded because we had intensely committed associates, healthy and flexible capital markets, good roads and bridges that let us move products rapidly and cooperative federal, state and local governments that helped us have clear rules of the road and plan and grow our business. 21:27:23 As a businessman, I know President Obama understands what it takes to spark economic growth because I've seen him in action. When he took office, he inherited a massive structural deficit from his Republican predecessor, an economy in free fall and, most importantly for me personally, an auto industry on the verge of collapse. 21:27:47 The president's decisive action led to rapid and successful restructuring of two of America's largest corporations, GM and Chrysler. 21:27:56 That didn't just save the car companies; it helped prevent a domino effect that would have taken down everything in the auto industry, from factories that manufactured auto parts to the dealers who sold the cars. 21:28:10 He also launched targeted efforts that helped ordinary people buy cars again. All together, these actions prevented over a million job losses and laid the groundwork for what's now a robust recovery of the American auto industry. (Cheers, applause.) The president deserves credit for this extraordinary success, and I'm determined to see that he gets it. (Cheers, applause.) 21:28:38 As a -- as a businessman who focuses on facts, not political rhetoric, I think the choice in this election is clear. President Obama has shown he has the vision to support average consumers and taxpayers. He understands that the consumer is the engine of economic growth, that businesses can't prosper without them. That's why he has a plan to reduce the deficit, to invest in infrastructure and education, to give tax relief and benefits to average consumers, not the millionaires -- because that's what works. That's how we grow the economy from the middle out, not from the top down. 21:29:19 As a businessman, I'll tell you, Mitt Romney just doesn't get it. (Cheers, applause.) That's why I'm voting to extend Barack Obama's management contract for four more years. (Cheers, applause.) Thank you. UAW PRESIDENT BOB KING 21;36:41 [APPLAUSE] TO SERVE IN BOTH HOUSES OF 21;36:48 THE CONGRESS WITH MARGARET CHASE SMITH -- SHE SAID, THE RIGHT WAY 21;36:56 IS NOT ALWAYS BE POPULAR OR THE EASY WAY. 21;37:01 STANDING FOR RIGHTS WHEN IT IS UNPOPULAR IS A TRUE TEST OF 21;37:07 MORAL CHARACTER. MARGARET CHASE SMITH WAS A 21;37:12 REPUBLICAN, BUT A VERY DIFFERENT KIND THAN THOSE REPUBLICANS 21;37:19 TRYING TO OVERTAKE OUR COUNTRY NOW. 21;37:21 [APPLAUSE] IN SOME OF AMERICA'S DARKEST 21;37:27 ECONOMIC DAYS SINCE THE GREAT DEPRESSION, AND IN THE FACE OF 21;37:33 TREMENDOUS POLITICAL VENOM, PRESIDENT OBAMA MET THE TEST OF 21;37:40 MORAL CHARACTER. HE STOOD UP FOR WHAT -- NOT FOR 21;37:47 WHAT WAS POPULAR AND EASY, BUT FOR WHAT WAS RIGHT. 21;37:50 [APPLAUSE] HE STOOD FOR AND WITH AMERICAN 21;37:57 WORKERS, NOT JUST AUTO WORKERS, BUT 1 MILLION WORKERS IN THE 21;38:05 TOWNS ALL ACROSS AMERICA. WORKERS WHO, IF THE INDUSTRY 21;38:12 WENT UNDER, WOULD NOT BE ABLE TO PUT FOOD ON THE TABLE. 21;38:17 WE ALL REMEMBER WHAT THOSE DAYS WERE LIKE WHEN PRESIDENT OBAMA 21;38:25 TOOK OFFICE. WORKERS WAITING ANXIOUSLY AS 21;38:30 THEIR COMPANIES ANNOUNCED LAYOFFS. 21;38:34 BANKS REFUSING TO LOAN. Car SALES WERE COLLAPSING. 21;38:38 IT WAS NOT JUST AUTO COMPANIES THAT WERE STRUGGLING TO SURVIVE. 21;38:44 SO WERE THOSE COMPANIES MAKING PARTS AND SELLING CarS. 21;38:49 SMALL BUSINESSES THAT RELY ON AUTO WORKERS AS CUSTOMERS LIKE 21;38:53 DINERS AND BARBERSHOPS HAD TO CLOSE DOWN. 21;38:58 UNFORTUNATELY, MOST REPUBLICANS ADVOCATED DOING NOTHING. 21;39:04 WHAT DID MITT ROMNEY SAID? YOU ALL KNOW THIS, HE SAID, LET 21;39:09 DETROIT GO BANKRUPT. [CROWD BOOS] 21;39:18 IN STRONG CONTRAST, PRESIDENT OBAMA TO ACTION, -- TOOK ACTION, 21;39:25 PUTTING TOGETHER A RESCUE TEAM, DEMANDING REAL CHANGE AND 21;39:30 SACRIFICE FROM EVERYONE INVOLVED, FROM MANAGEMENT, FROM 21;39:35 LABOUR, FROM SUPPLIERS, FROM DEBT HOLDERS, FROM DEALERS, 21;39:40 EVERYBODY INVOLVED. IT WAS NOT UNIVERSALLY POPULAR, 21;39:45 BUT IT WAS ABSOLUTELY RIGHT. [APPLAUSE] 21;39:51 PRESIDENT OBAMA'S STRONG LEADERSHIP SAVED A MILLION JOBS. 21;39:58 THIS -- SINCE JUNE OF 2009, THIS INDUSTRY HAS ADDED A QUARTER OF 21;40:05 A MILLION JOBS. THE AUTO INDUSTRY IS THRIVING 21;40:10 AGAIN. THESE ARE GOOD, MIDDLE-CLASS 21;40:17 JOBS IN THE GLASS, PLASTIC, STEEL -- JOBS MAKING THINGS FOR 21;40:26 AN ECONOMY BUILT TO LAST. [APPLAUSE] 21;40:31 MITT ROMNEY'S RECORD -- AT BAIN CAPITAL, THE CORPORATE BUYOUT 21;40:39 FIRM HE FOUNDED, TOO OFTEN HAS MADE THEIR MONEY, NOT BY 21;40:43 BUILDING COMPANIES UP BUT BY TAKING THEM APART. 21;40:50 TOO OFTEN, THE WORKERS ENDED UP IN THE STREET, EVEN AS ROMNEY 21;40:55 AND HIS PARTNERS MADE MILLIONS OF DOLLARS. 21;40:59 EARLIER THIS WEEK, WE CELEBRATED LABOR DAY. 21;41:03 MANY PEOPLE FORGET WHAT THIS HOLIDAY IS AND WHY IT WAS 21;41:08 CREATED. IT WAS ABOUT SAFE WORKPLACES, 21;41:15 HEALTH CarE, THE 40-HOUR WORKWEEK, MIDDLE-CLASS JOBS, 21;41:20 STANDARDS THAT ALL OF US BELIEVE IN. 21;41:23 BUT THE STANDARDS DID NOT JUST HAPPEN. 21;41:27 THEY HAPPENED BECAUSE GENERATIONS OF WORKERS AND 21;41:29 PEOPLE FOUGHT FOR, AND IN SOME CASES DIED FOR, THE RIGHT TO 21;41:38 ORGANIZE AND THE RIGHTS TO COLLECTIVELY BARGAIN. 21;41:41 [CHEERS AND APPLAUSE] PRESIDENT OBAMA STRONGLY 21;41:53 SUPPORTS THESE BASIC HUMAN RIGHTS BECAUSE THESE RIGHTS ARE 21;41:58 GOOD FOR ALL AMERICANS. STRONG UNIONS AND COLLECTIVE 21;42:05 BARGAINING -- STRONG UNIONS AND COLLECTIVE BARGAINING HAVE 21;42:15 LIFTED MILLIONS OF PEOPLE OUT OF POVERTY. 21;42:21 , AND HAVE BUILT THE GREAT AMERICAN MIDDLE CLASS. 21;42:27 IT IS THE MIDDLE-CLASS THAT KEEPS AMERICA'S DEMOCRACY AND 21;42:31 THE ECONOMY STRONG. THE REPUBLICANS -- JUST LOOK AT 21;42:41 WISCONSIN. THE REPUBLICANS WANT TO TAKE US 21;42:48 BACK, BACK TO A TIME WHEN WORKERS COULD NOT STAND UP FOR 21;42:53 THEMSELVES, WHEN WORKERS COULD NOT SPEAK WITH ONE VOICE, WHEN 21;42:58 WORKERS COULD NOT SPEAK UP FOR FAIRNESS, JUSTICE, AND MIDDLE- 21;43:02 CLASS OPPORTUNITY. THAT IS WHY UNIONS MATTER. 21;43:08 [CHEERS AND APPLAUSE] I AM SO PROUD TO BE A UNION 21;43:18 MEMBER. AND I AM SO PROUD, I AM SO 21;43:28 PROUD TO REPRESENT THE MEN AND WOMEN OF THE UAW. 21;43:31 [APPLAUSE] BECAUSE OF PRESIDENT OBAMA'S 21;43:41 MORAL COURAGE AND LEADERSHIP, AMERICA'S AUTO INDUSTRY IS 21;43:46 ROARING AGAIN, LEADING THE AMERICAN ECONOMIC RECOVERY. 21;43:52 AN INDUSTRY WE CALL THE ARSENAL OF DEMOCRACY IS DRIVING US TO 21;43:59 NEW PROSPERITY. THIS NOVEMBER, AMERICA FACES A 21;44:04 CLEAR CHOICE ABOUT WHAT KIND OF COUNTRY WE WANT TO BE. 21;44:08 THE CHOICE FOR WORKING FAMILIES IS CLEAR. 21;44:13 WE MUST REELECT PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA. 21;44:17 [CHEERS AND APPLAUSE] 21;44:30 PLEASE WELCOME FORMER EMPLOYEES OF COMPANIES 21;44:36 CONTROLLED BY ROMNEY POSSIBLE BAIN CAPITAL. 21;44:46 -- ROMNEY'S BAIN CAPITAL. WE JUST HEARD FROM BOB KING 21;44:55 ABOUT PRESIDENT OBAMA'S RECORD OF CREATING JOBS. 21;44:58 I WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT ROMNEY'S RECORD OF CUTTING JOBS. 21;45:01 MITT ROMNEY ONCE SAID, I LIKE TO FIRE PEOPLE. 21;45:05 I CAN TELL YOU FROM PERSONAL EXPERIENCE -- HE DOES. 21;45:10 ON JULY 5, 1994, MITT ROMNEY AND HIS PARTNERS AT BAIN CAPITAL 21;45:15 FIRED ME AND MORE THAN 350 OF MY CO-WORKERS. 21;45:18 [CROWD BOOS] IT CAME WITHOUT ANY WARNING. 21;45:26 THEY BROUGHT IN SECURITY GUARDS TO WALK US OUT OF OUR PLANNED. 21;45:29 WE WERE NOT EVEN ALLOWED TO TAKE PERSONAL ITEMS. 21;45:33 THEY HAD A JOB APPLICATIONS AND SAID, IF WE WANT TO, WE WILL LET 21;45:37 YOU KNOW. THE TRUTH IS SOME FOLKS WERE 21;45:40 HIRED BACK -- LOWER WAGES, FEWER BENEFITS, NO RETIREMENT. 21;45:44 MANY OTHERS WERE NOT. SEVEN MONTHS LATER, THEY CLOSE 21;45:50 OUT PLANS FOR GOOD. WHAT EFFECTED ME MOST WAS 21;45:54 HAVING GUYS THE AGE I AM NOW COME TO MY DESK AND CRY. 21;45:59 GUYS WHO HAD NOTHING TO FALL BACK ON. 21;46:02 I DO NOT THINK MITT ROMNEY IS A BAD MAN. 21;46:06 I DO NOT FAULT HIM FOR THE FACT THAT SOME COMPANIES WIN AND SOME 21;46:10 COMPANIES LOSE. THAT IS A FACT OF LIFE. 21;46:14 WHAT I FAULT HIM FOR IS MAKING MONEY WITHOUT A MORAL COMPASS. 21;46:18 [APPLAUSE] I FAULT HIM FOR PUTTING PROFITS 21;46:24 BEFORE PEOPLE LIKE ME. BUT THAT IS JUST ROMNEY 21;46:31 ECONOMICS. AMERICA CANNOT AFFORD ROMNEY 21;46:34 ECONOMICS. MITT ROMNEY WILL STICK IT TO 21;46:38 WORKING PEOPLE. BARACK OBAMA IS STICKING UP FOR 21;46:44 WORKING PEOPLE. IT IS AS SIMPLE AS THAT. 21;46:48 THAT IS WHY I AM SUPPORTING HIM FOR A SECOND TERM AS PRESIDENT. 21;46:51 [CHEERS AND APPLAUSE] RANDY JOHNSON IN NY INTERPLAY AS: RS 5119 CAMPAIGN 2012 DNC SWITCHED POOL 090512 P6 9-10P.01 FTG OF FORMER EMPLOYEE AT A COMPANY CONTROLLED BY ROMNEY'S BAIN CAPITAL, RANDY JOHNSON, DELIVERING REMARKS AT THE DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION IN CHARLOTTE, NC 090512 21;44;14 "We just heard from Bob King about President Obama's record of creating jobs. I want to tell you about Mitt Romney's record of cutting jobs. Mitt Romney once said-quote-"I like being able to fire people." Well, I can tell you from personal experience, he does. LAUGHTER 21;44;36 "On July 5, 1994, Mitt Romney and his partners at Bain Capital fired me and more than 350 of my coworkers. (BOO!!!) It came without any warning. They rushed in security guards to walk us out of our plant. We weren't even allowed to take our personal items. They handed us job applications and told us, "If we want you, we'll let you know.'" 21;45;05 "Now, the truth is, some folks were hired back-for lower wages, fewer benefits, and no retirement. But many others weren't. And seven months later, they closed our plant for good. What affected me most was having guys the age I am now come to my desk, and cry; guys who had nothing to fall back on." 21;45;30 "I don't think Mitt Romney is a bad man. I don't fault him for the fact that some companies win and some companies lose. That's a fact of life. What I fault him for is making money without a moral compass. (APPLAUSE) I fault him for putting profits before working people like me. But that's just Romney economics." 21;46;00 America cannot afford Romney economics. Mitt Romney will stick it to working people. Barack Obama is sticking up for working people. It's as simple as that. (APPLAUSE AND CHEERING) That's why I'm supporting him for a second term as president. STANDING OVATION CHEERS AND APPLAUSE DAVID FOSTER 2012 Democratic National Convention: Remarks as Prepared for Delivery by David Foster, Former employee at a Company controlled by Romney's Bain Capital 21:49:14 I'm David Foster, and I was a steelworker for 31 years. For 15 years, I laid brick and tapped the furnaces, and did all that hard, dirty work that turned molten metal into the cars and bridges and buildings that make America what it is today. 21:49:38 And I also led the steelworkers in the upper Midwest, including GST Steel in Kansas City, a 100-year old company bought by Mitt Romney and his partners at Bain Capital in 1993. Now it's a story that I wish I didn't have to tell, but America needs to know the truth. 21:50:07 When Romney and Bain took over the mill, they loaded it up with millions in debt-and within months, they used some of that borrowed money to pay themselves millions. Within a decade, the debt kept growing and was so large the company was forced into bankruptcy. 21:50:30 They fired 750 steelworkers while they pocketed $12 million in profit. A steelworker at GST Steel would have had to work 240 years to make $12 million. 21:50:48 So in 2001, with GST bankrupt and Romney still CEO of Bain, I stood in front of hundreds of steelworkers in their 50s and 60s, and retirees in their 70s and 80s, and told them Romney and Bain had broken their promises. Jobs, vacation pay, severance, health insurance and pension benefits that were promised-they were all gone. 21:51:25 Now, some companies succeed; others fail. I know that. But I also know this: We don't need a president who fires steelworkers or says, "Let Detroit go bankrupt." 21:51:52 We need the leadership of a man who, during the darkest hours for America's auto industry, rolled up his sleeves, risked his presidency, and saved over one million good auto jobs. We need Barack Obama. Thank you! CHRIS VAN HOLLEN IN INTERPLAY: RS 5119 CAMPAIGN 2012 DNC SWITCHED POOL 090512 P6 9-10P.01 21:52:28: CHRIS VAN HOLLEN WALKS ONTO STAGE 21:52:38: 4 more years. A week ago today, Paul Ryan accepted his party's nomination for vice president. He's chairman of the House Budget Committee. I lead the Democrats on the committee. We have sharp differences over policy, but we get along well. 21:53:01: I'll admit, I was glad Paul was picked. I hoped it would result in a serious debate about the choice before us. Then I heard his acceptance speech-it kept the fact-checkers up all night. The Republicans had this gigantic clock in the arena showing the size of the national debt. Paul told America, "If you elect Republicans, we can fix that." But, if Paul Ryan was being honest, he would have pointed to that debt clock and said: "We built that." 21:53:53: Here are the facts. When President Clinton left office, America had projected surpluses of trillions of dollars over the next decade. Then came two wars, two huge tax cuts tilted to the wealthy and a new entitlement. Republicans didn't pay for any of it. Paul Ryan voted for all of it. On top of that, they left behind an economy in free-fall. 21:54:35: So when President Obama took office, the Republicans handed him the bill: projected deficits of trillions of dollars. Congressman Ryan, America is literally in your debt. So President Obama got to work. He established a bipartisan commission to get smart folks from both parties together to develop a plan to reduce the deficit and grow jobs. Guess what? It worked. They produced a balanced, bipartisan plan that would cut $4 trillion from the deficit. Lots of Republicans supported it, including Senator Coburn from Oklahoma. And Paul Ryan? Paul Ryan was on that commission. He voted against the plan. 21:55:40: And last week, Paul Ryan criticized the president for not acting on the bipartisan plan that he himself opposed. Then, he said that President Obama doesn't have a plan to reduce the deficit. But the president does have a plan. Here it is. He submitted it to Congress. It's on the Internet. President Obama's plan uses the bipartisan commission's balanced approach. It reduces the deficit by more than $4 trillion-cutting spending and asking those at the very top to pay the same rates they did under President Clinton, when we created nearly 23 million jobs and balanced the budget. So when Paul Ryan told America that President Obama didn't have a plan, that was false. 21:56:52: The truth is, he and Mitt Romney just don't like the president's plan. They both pledged that they would never ask millionaires to pay one more dime to reduce the deficit. Mitt Romney even said he would reject a budget with ten dollars in spending cuts for every one dollar in new revenue. Now, a third-grader can do the math. If you refuse to ask the wealthiest to pitch in, then you hit everyone else much harder. And that's exactly what the Romney-Ryan plan does. They call their plan bold, brave and courageous. 21:57:46: I ask you: Is it bold to give millionaires another tax break while forcing seniors to pay more for Medicare? Is it brave to reward companies that ship jobs overseas while cutting education at home? Is it courageous to raise taxes on middle-class families while giving tax cuts to people with Swiss bank accounts? 21:58:00: Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan's obsession with tax breaks for the wealthy is part of a rigid ideology. Give people like Mitt Romney a break, and hope something will trickle down and lift others up. But this theory crashed in the real world. We all lived through the recession when jobs went down and the deficit went up. So when they say they'll turn around the economy, beware. They mean a U-turn back to this failed theory that lifted the yachts while other boats ran aground. 21:59:10: And don't buy the lie that asking the wealthy to contribute more is about punishing success. It's about asking them to share responsibility for reducing the deficit. It's about growing the economy-not from the top down, but from the middle out and bottom up, making success possible for all Americans. 21:59:38: This election is a choice. That choice will determine whether America is a place where people climb the ladder of opportunity and pull it up behind them or whether America is a place where people who reach the top help the next person up. Which America do you believe in? You know the facts. You know the choice. You know what we have to do: Re-elect Barack Obama.

LU 1 CORY BOOKER SHENANDOAH IA MEET AND GREET FOX POOL 010120 2020 BOOKER MEET & GREET 4:30 PM: MEET AND GREET WITH CORY BOOKER IN SHENANDOAH LOCATION: DEPOT RESTAURANT & LOUNGE, 101 N RAILROAD ST, SHENANDOAH, IA [16:54:54] All right. [16:54:58] I agree that this out driving all around the country, but one of the more persistent, determined leaders, the election is represented right there in your county chair. [16:55:10] You've heard about. [16:55:16] A credible quality I love, which is called defiant love, that no matter what you say about my community, what you say about my people, my defiant love is going to help to demand that you see us as you love us and you make sure that, you know there is no justice anywhere without justice everywhere. [16:55:33] And you should be very proud. [16:55:38] So my first day of the year, for crying out loud. What a great year it's going to be. [16:55:46] What an extraordinary transformative year, as Chris said. This is a year where all humanity is going to be watching. What happens to the outcome of this election is going to determine the course of humanity on some of our most significant issues. And given it all at stake, I'm so grateful that so many people are here right now. You all inspire me. You encourage me more than you know. And so I want to do something. [16:56:09] Those you've had a chance to listen to a lot of my colleagues. I'm a very different way about myself speeches because I don't want to stand here and talk about policy level. Q A session. You can ask me anything you want about the ideas in my head, the policy platforms that I have. Those are really important. But you all know in this room that the policy differences between me and my friends on that debate stage are small compared to the policy differences between us and the guy in the White House right now. [16:56:34] And let me say, as a guy who led the league in crisis, I was a mayor of New Jersey's largest city is city over crime and corruption. So that was falling in population tax space in the middle of a recession. I learned as a leader that what you do. You don't have to be the smartest person in the room. You have to make sure it brings more people around you to help solve problems. And so let me tell you a little secret. Whoever becomes your president is probably going to steal the 90 100 policy ideas platform that each of us have. All total big better be taking the best ideas from a whole lot to bring them to bear in our policy. [16:57:10] So let's me this really that the people were running for president. [16:57:14] Most of them are. I'm not exaggerating this word. These are my friends. Literally, I served in the Senate without Apple. And we're on each other's bill. We've written bills together. These are folks that I served with in the trenches under a difficult Senate controlled by a guy. And if you ever heard of a name, Mitch and you know, we bonded over that. Number two is that both the vise president, our states, he's one of our great state people of our party. I don't care. We can't detract from that. He's sworn into the office. I hold because I'm like, oh, senator, I was locked in a special election and I was sworn in on a very auspicious day, Halloween. [16:57:57] And Joe and I, we have a good vise president. And I we love dad jokes. And I thought he was going to joke when he said my name. You know, I you can call me Gore reboot. No, no. He played it straight. Most of the dad jokes only get worse from here. As I was passing, cars will drive a year ago. They are utterly amazing. [16:58:19] I milk, I milk the jokes for everything I could. [16:58:22] Oh, well, I didn't want to pour it over here. [16:58:27] Thank you very much. Thank you very much. [16:58:30] Definitely not. Try to win on humor. [16:58:34] We're not going to win this election on the head. We've lost elections before with people with better fifteen point policy plan. I can remember in 2007 and. The differences between Hillary and Barack on health care policy. But I do know when he got it there, he moved the ball as far down the field as possibly could. [16:58:51] This is a test of something different. This election is not a referendum on one guy in one office. It's a referendum on who you are and who we're going to be to each other. This is a moral moment, not right or left and right or wrong. [16:59:05] And the test is not about him. I know people always say to me, I hear pundits always say, well, you know, number one thing people want from a candidate is someone who can just beat Donald Trump. And my response always is your god. Can't we have bigger aspirations than that? Because now I tell you, I am your nominee. We're going to beat Donald Trump or send Mitch McConnell back to the backbenches. But that's not the aspiration. If we as a party define ourselves by just what we're against and not the bigger things we're for, we are going to lose. And now let me go to the controversial step. [16:59:40] We as Democrats, the core of our party in this world moment is not to try to beat Trump with more Trump meanness, not to divide this country more. The 60 million people that voted for Donald Trump or not our enemy, our country, men and women and understand this, the calling for us is, yeah. I want to win these elections on. Explain to you why the best person to do it, but to call the Democratic Party the ultimate moral call is not to beat Republicans, simply is to unite Americans in common cause and common purpose. Because that's. [17:00:20] That's our history. Think about this. America has never been free of bigotry demagogery of fear mongering. Every generation had those leaders to ascend. Come on. We had McCarthy as we had a whole political party that spoke about immigrants the way that this president does. They were called the Know Nothing party, and then they were demeaning and degrading Irish and Italian immigrants. We beat them both ways. [17:00:45] Not by showing the worst of who we are, but the best of who we are, by calling to the moral imagination of this country, by reminding us that the lines that divide us are nowhere near as strong as the ties that bind us. We are here because of good Americans who stood up and did great things to put more indivisible into this one nation under God. That's what this more moment calls, because when we've seen challenges before, well, we beat them, not seats. [17:01:17] This storm beaches in Normandy have guys for for saying they say you a Republican or a Democrat? No, we mobilized this whole country. My Iowa born, born and raised in Des Moines, Iowa. My grandmother, she my family comes from a town called Buxton. And I bought her grandmother was something I know is a mining town. And but if were blacks and European immigrants got together, it was ahead of its time to call it an American utopia. [17:01:42] It is black and white. They descended into the mines, carved out from the earth. Their American dream, our family values come from that town because they told stories about the quilting bees where they would literally, you have an Eastern European immigrant in a Western European immigrant and a black migrant from the south, all taking their stitches, a cloth, but sewing it together in a much better hole. [17:02:05] When America's these challenges were best, when out, when their partisan groups, partisan majorities, new American majorities. My grandmother brags on the day she died that when we went up against the Nazis, his country came together. She had her victory garden, working class woman, border war bonds because we were all in it together. Gosh, when the Russians put up Sputnik, did we tear each other apart? No. We came together. We brought a table together with hidden figures. We all know the movie Black Women with White Male Astronauts. And we said Sputnik. Got into the outer space. But we're going to the moon. We did that together. Rugged individualism, self-reliance. All of us, our families know the heck in rule. [17:02:47] I would you know about self-reliance and rugged individualism. But that's not the highest American values. Those were evidenced in barn raising where everybody got together. We are a nation all saying that if you want to go fast, go alone. But you want to go far, go together. Well, rugged individualism didn't get us to the moon. Didn't beat the Nazis. Didn't Bill Eisenhower Highways. We did these things together. And so what is this election about? Now, those candidates can yell the loudest or or puts forth the best policy ideas. This election is a world war about who are we going to be? What spirit are we going to bring? And let me tell you something. [17:03:24] I think this is about a four letter word that means something. It's not saccharine. It's not anemic. Four letter word is baked into the ideals of patriotism because patriotism is love of country. And you cannot love your country unless you love your fellow countrymen. [17:03:43] You. [17:03:48] He doesn't always agree with each other, heck, love. We must like each other, but there are people in this room who just came from family dinners. [17:03:56] Where are Republicans and Democrats at your dinner? [17:04:00] We have got to have a revival of civic grace in our country. We've got to have it in the ignition of a more courageous emblem. [17:04:08] People want each other because right now we have we're suffering from a severed sense of belonging. More and more Americans feeling isolated and alone, feeling like they're not a part of something bigger than themselves. And we're hurting because of it. The moral fiber of our country and an amazing man in our last stop. The Navy had a veteran who told stories about 20 to a day veterans committing suicide. [17:04:40] Had a family last night and have credible guy named Douglas, whose rationing is insulin right here in Iowa. [17:04:51] People doing that and ended up in emergency rooms. [17:04:56] I told the story in another town hall about my father with Parkinson's dementia. You see my mom, what she's going through, what she went through, trying to trying to provide for him. There are people right now isolated in our community, struggling to take care of a family member with special needs alone. We are going to be tested again, not by who's in office, but who we have to define ourselves by teachers going into public schools, not knowing how to pay their rent and their school loans. [17:05:22] But you know what their love is about, whoever that child is, where they come from, Republican family or Democratic, and they show up without their sanitary napkin to reach in their own pocket and still provide for those kids. That's the love of our country. That's who we are. You, Goodman, Chaney and Schwerner. Black, white, Christian, Jewish. Standing together and dying in Mississippi for the voting rights of other Americans is why here in Iowa, a state overwhelmingly white, that literally one of the strongest supporters of the Underground Railroad because of abolitionists in this state. Will we heal this separate sense of long, will we come back? Where are values of this nation are reflected in the policies of our nation? Well, we take a time when we are confronted with hate and not fall in this abduction to hate as well. [17:06:22] I'm running for a hall, and I hope when I fear I'm barreling towards the stage, I jump off on. Hundreds of people were there and the big ICC, you'll notice I got the former tight end for Stanford University for all American football player. The older I get, the better I was. [17:06:40] And I'm about to jump on that stage and be guy stops me and he's like, you want to have a testosterone moment? He goes, do want you to punch Donald Trump in the face? And I look at him, I go, Dude. That's a felony. [17:06:55] Man, come on, man. [17:07:00] Please sit down. Let me tell you the strategy that is best to win. The way we beat demagogery and hate in every generation was not by becoming more like them. You think we beat Bull Connor in Birmingham because the activists brought bigger dogs and bigger fire hoses? No, it's because they were artists of activism that inspired people to get out, to get off the couch. People with Iowa were marching in Birmingham. [17:07:29] And I'll tell you this. [17:07:31] People think this election is about all those bad people, quote unquote, that are trying to destroy. No. On. Look at the last election. Donald Trump got less votes in swing states like Wisconsin, goodwill, for example, and got less votes than Mitt Romney got. You want to know what this story is about? You know what kind of nominee we need is going that's going to inspire engagement and activism like the great people from our past who had towns like like in Alabama inspired more people to get off of the sidelines to understand that democracy is not a spectator sport. King said more eloquently than I can say. [17:08:07] He said the problem today, what we have to repent for is not just the vitriolic words and violent actions of bad people. It's the appalling silence and inaction of the good people. And we as Democrats have to take a low base. The whole Obama coalition, if Hillary Clinton had gotten the same turnout and just the black community that Barack Obama got, we would have President Hillary Clinton right now. Think about this in Milwaukee, to be in Wisconsin, in Michigan and in Pennsylvania. We lost those three states by seventy seven thousand votes combined in the Milwaukee metropolitan area alone, 70000 less African-Americans came out to vote as you're thinking about your decisions. Think about who is going to inspire people to come out and vote. [17:08:56] And let me tell you, I know policy issues do that. But what really energizes people in every generation of Americans is when we are called to the ideals that are greater than us as individuals, but collectively, that's when we show this world. That's when we become the light unto nations. And so I'm here today to let you know why I'm running. This is my life. I started as a tenants rights organizer making the decision of Yale Law School to go to the inner city where the lowest income neighborhoods in America. Because I would say this before you tell me about your religion for show it to me and how you treat other people. And. [17:09:37] I tell my mom, my fave, my favorite Bible verse mom is Matthew 25, and she's like, well, don't tell me that, show me that. [17:09:45] So I live in a community that the only one in the Senate government, one of the listed community below poverty line looking now for decades where we don't mistake wealth with work. I think you stand up to the community and see the beauty and the majesty, the divinity and the dignity of all God's children. And we knew when we were taking you on very powerful men, slumlords in our city, because I was a tax rights lawyer. [17:10:09] We knew that the way you beat them was not by supporting them, not by talking to people about how bad they are. No, you get to organizing people because the power of the people is always greater than people in power. And we organize tenants in that community. We took down some wards, sent one to federal court, to federal prison. I became mayor of the city. And if you want to know what how this strategy wins, that strategy of grace and dignity and honor wins. Go watch a movie. Go. Actually, YouTube. It is called Street Fight. [17:10:43] It's a movie about how we beat a political machine. Somebody watching the political machine and do it for it too loudly because it lost in the Oscars to a movie called March of the Baghdad Penguins. I think March of the Penguins, they eventually first with March of the Dagenham Penguins. I tell you that we took on the most powerful issue I had. [17:11:05] My phone's tapped, windows smashed. Federal judge called me up, telling me about threats on my life, warning me. But we overcame all of that because we organized. [17:11:14] We knew we strengthen the bonds and get more people active and engaged. My first election in New York, the incumbent part of the machine got the same my votes. He always got a energized a whole new electorate out in one. That's what this election means. There's nut we cannot lose, not just Donald Trump, Mr. Economy to the backbench, to the way to do that. He's having record turnouts here in Iowa and making sure we take that the Tennessee. That's why we've got to Democrat southwest Iowa energized, but it also the pathway to taking back the Senate, which everything, everything issues we care about help. That's why I pray to the health of Ruth Bader Ginsburg every day. [17:12:01] As if we don't beat Mitch McConnell. [17:12:05] We're not going to be able to do those things. But the pathway goes through Iowa but also goes through very diverse states. When Obama ran, we won North Carolina and had a senator from North Carolina. We got to win North Carolina and we got to win Georgia. There's two Senate seats up. [17:12:22] We need to ignite the whole coalition. There's another presidential candidate, what's called the Rainbow Coalition. [17:12:29] This is where I want to end with this story. It's about us. About me, it's about a week. [17:12:38] I'm warning you right now. Again, these are rare things you'll hear from a presidential candidate. We give you a warning when my president. [17:12:45] If you make me your president, I'm going to ask more for you than any president has asked for you in your lifetime. Because we're not solving climate change or we're not solving gun violence. We're not solving these big problems. Most all of us do more than we're doing now. And I say that to a room of obvious activists. [17:13:07] But you all know the truth. We didn't get the right to vote because Washington was a bunch of guys come together on the Senate floor, 19 1920 say. [17:13:14] Fellas, let's give women the right to vote. All right. Ready? Break. No, that's not how it happened. [17:13:21] This state should know how it happened because you are ahead of women's rights. You were head on LGBTQ rights. You guys have been ahead, all of us. I wanted everything. [17:13:30] It takes activism from everyone. It took the longest filibuster in the Senate. [17:13:36] Strom Thurmond, civil rights legislation. We didn't get to write legislation to Strom Thurmond one day came to the floor that I seen the light. Let those Negro people have some rights. [17:13:47] No, that's not how it happened. [17:13:53] I will not be able to do all those policies that President Kennedy say, let me and we'll get this done. No, I'm telling you right now, we will do everything we have to ignite the moral imagination. We have to create a movement, a campaign that goes beyond election day because we're not fighting just to beat Donald Trump. Beating Donald Trump is the floor. It's not the ceiling. Reading Donald Trump, get out of the valley. But it doesn't get us to the mountaintop. I'm going to go to the mountaintop. [17:14:25] The only way to go around topics arise together. And so I'm hurting as you are because my parents and grandparents generation. When tragedy struck this country respond with four girls died in a bombing in Birmingham. We came together, we stood together, we fought together and we won together. Change laws in Washington. [17:14:48] So you will remember this history when women in my grandparents generation were throwing themselves out windows at a factory fire called the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire that was so that so outraged America that we rose together, we stood together, we worked together. We didn't shut up, curl up or give up. We stood up and spoke up and rose up and changed workers laws. Now that my generation take things for granted, workers protections, we did it together. [17:15:19] Well, why is my heart broken? And I'm telling you right now, if America hasn't broken your heart. If you don't love her enough. [17:15:28] Because now in my generation, people are slaughtered at a concert in Las Vegas. Slaughtered in a nightclub in Orlando. And we change nothing. People are killed at a synagogue in Pittsburgh or church in South Carolina. And nothing changes. [17:15:49] And our children are beautiful children, our children, our collective wealth and bounty. The genius of our children. They were slaughtered under their desks from Newtown to Parkland and the strongest nation on the planet Earth. Dear God, we all know our strength is in our bombs or our ability or strength as each other, the strongest nation on the planet Earth. [17:16:11] Instead of changing laws that we all agree on, 90 percent of Americans, 80 percent of gun owners, instead of changing laws, we send our killed kids to school. The implicit message that we can't protect you. And now we have more shelter in place, drills in our schools and fire drills. Who are we? Who have we become? Our politics or civic spaces do not reflect our values as a people. That has to change. What is this election about? [17:16:42] Yeah, it's about the smarts of our candidate. But it's not going to be hard in this election to compare with smarts. No. What? We need to compare with is this show that darkness is not going to drive out darkness show or light, that he will not drive out hate to show our love and to let people understand that that's our strength. Why is this last story so important to me? Because it's not my family story yet. Literally it is, but it's awesome. Tells the truth in America because 50 years ago my family was moving from the south, this incredible place. It's just like a Mecca in America. Have you ever heard of a place called New Jersey? My parents were guided by one of your families in this community care. [17:17:34] They want great public schools for their kids. My peers were looking places to live. They looked at the paper, which were the best public schools in which those neighbors try to buy homes, but they definitely were white neighborhoods. Every night, parents would show up. It would be met by real estate agents. The black family, they would be lied to and told this house is sold. Telstra pulled off the market. But no, no. This is one of the most beautiful experiences on family subsistence, because in a time of trial, we are not defined by bigotry or hate, never reached by my I would respond to it. And when my parents found out a group, people that met in living rooms in a living room, mostly white people who said to my parents they had preached faith and got to know the gospel was they showed it. [17:18:16] They showed love your neighbor. They showed welcome the stranger. And they said, no, this is wrong. We're going to do something about it. Our activism won't go away for Congress. And so they set up this sting operation. I call it a conspiracy of love, where they sent out my parents to look at a house. My parents were told the soul, a volunteer white couple from that group would go right behind them. Combine combined with the houses for sale or not in the house. [17:18:42] I grew up in. My parents were told it was sold. The white couple showed up still for sale. They put a bid on the house. The bid was accepted. Papers were drawn up. The closing was set in a real estate agent's office. But on the day of the closing, the white couple didn't show up. I did it. Beautiful man. Guy from that group was a boy or showed how he walked into the real estate agent's office, confronted the real estate agent. And I wish this was the end of the story. But it's not a real estate agent. He was caught, didn't capitulate, didn't give up and let my father sign contracts. He stands up and punches my dad's lawyer in the face and he sticks his door on my dad. Now, let me tell you, every time my dad would tell these stories, I was growing up in this beautiful house and beautiful community. Every time he would tell this story, he thought it would get bigger and better. [17:19:36] Like, son, I had to fight a pack of wolves to get you at his house. [17:19:41] And I grew up in a nurturing community, a community of love, where people didn't see the color of my skin. They helped build the content of my character, my baseball coaches, my little league coach, my football coaches. By time I'm 18 years old, a president of my class honor society as my father call the family. We're still the poor raises a ton of sweeping ice cream. I go off to Stanford University because of a 4.0 sixteen hundred. Don't get me wrong. Wasn't. Hold on. It was not like you think it was 4.0 yards per carry. [17:20:11] Sixteen hundred yards. I went on a football scholarship. [17:20:18] I stayed and got my masters, I went overseas and studied on the Rose Garden with Oxford University, came back the year law school, and my dad is not impressed. I'm not joking. My bad. That's like, boy. You got more degrees in the month of July. But being hot. [17:20:34] Like sun. [17:20:35] You know something? Life is not about the degrees you get. It's about the service you give. You drink deeply from wells of freedom and liberty that you didn't did get the privileges you enjoy. Don't just luxuriate in the beginning. Dumb, fat and happy. Use those blessings. Campaign back. You got to pay for it. Why did I take my Yale Law degree? Go to a beautiful community below the poverty line. Interesting because people fought for my housing rights. I became a tenants rights lawyer. [17:21:08] I was going to fight for other people's housing rights or circle folks who took out slumlords. [17:21:15] I became mayor of a city in a crisis. We turned it around. The biggest economic hit on a period in generations in my city. Tens of thousands through jobs, supermarkets, food deserts. Our school system went from the lowest performing urban district to the number one school system in America. We beat the odds schools, kids in poverty, going on to college. They got to the United States Senate. We did all of that. I knew by bringing together people, by new coalitions, created new results. It was never about needs like the Senate. And I'm sorry, it's the Senate. Lots of Republicans there. They were not my enemy. Sure, I fought hard at times against everybody from that seat of office to Jeff Sessions, but they are not my enemy. I started asking every senator on the Republican side out to dinner with him in office and I had dinner with Ted Cruz and it was hard to find a restaurant. [17:22:12] Because he's from Texas and I'm a beacon for crying out loud. Oh, the big crowd. How do you know somebody is a beacon? Don't worry. We'll tell you. [17:22:25] And I passed legislation together to help communities recovering after a natural disasters helping people. I do Bible study read pretty regularly in Jim Inhofe. OP is a right wing conservative. Probably he and I pass legislation together to help homeless and foster kids. So I fought to find common ground to do things that had never been done before. The only major bipartisan bill passed under this president was the one that I led from the Democratic side that I was told couldn't get done as liberally, literally liberated thousands of people from prison, the criminal justice, bipartisan criminal justice reform act that we did that I led and helped write. [17:23:07] But here's the here's the end of the story that I didn't know till I got to the Senate. I decide to do what a lot of senators do that have a high sense of self-regard. I decide to write a book. And if your name is Booker, you gotta admit that's a lot of pressure. [17:23:21] Okay. [17:23:22] And so I go back to find the people from 50 years ago that were there for my family. And I research, I look for I found the head of that organization. [17:23:32] Now, she's 93 years old and she was easy to find because I had the organization of the 1960s is still head of the organization today. She's 93 years old and she still represents people, not black friends, like the black folks in Bergen County, New Jersey. Now, she represents same sex couples, Americans with disabilities, Muslim families, because to her, like to you. Justice has no color, no race, no orientation. [17:23:57] It is one justice in this one nation. It's one love. [17:24:03] She confirmed a lot of facts, this story. She said, you've got to talk to that lawyer organized the whole sting operation. I called him up. Eighty four year old retired judge. We had an amazing conversation. Every question I have for my chaplain, the answer I now even know how big the dog was. [17:24:18] Visit you online. And then I asked him one question that was not on the sheet. [17:24:23] I just suddenly had no why. Why would a guy who was just starting a business busy as heck, barely making ends meet, trying to provide for her family? Why would he go so far out of his way to help black families moving to his neighborhood at a time when the real fears about white flight? Real estate prices going down? Why would you do it, sir? This honorable man, this great patriot, said to me, Well, I know the moment I made the decision, and I go, Well, sir, what was the moment? And he goes, It was March 7th, 1964. Nothing like that's very specific. What was going on on March 7th, 1965 now was a student. History should ring a bell. I didn't recognize the date at all. And he goes, well, on March 7th, 1965, I was sitting at home watching TV. [17:25:05] Now, some of the younger people in this room, you might not understand the hardship of all. There was a day in America where we only had three channels. And what made things more difficult is you had to get up to change them. I still think to this day my dad had my brother and I. Just to get up and change the channel for. [17:25:25] So this historic day, our great country. [17:25:29] Most of America was watching a movie that I bet most of you know, condition the name of. If You're My Age or older. The movie was called Judgment at Harvard. Right. Really difficult movie. The Aftermath of the Holocaust. So just imagine this. Millions, tens of millions of Americans watching TV that night. Many of them watching this movie. [17:25:54] And then something happens that will now in history, they break from one going movie to show a bridge in Alabama called the Edmund Pettus Bridge. And here's this white man a thousand miles away from that bridge who watches on TV. These marchers started in Selma trying to get Montgomery to Montgomery to protest all rights, voting rights. They get stopped on that break by Alabama. State troopers would not let them pass. [17:26:26] And then those marshes are gassed. What's your guess? [17:26:31] And these. Troopers charge and some of them on horseback, tragically and viciously beating them. [17:26:41] Oh, no, there's the man at the front of that march. He's been my hero. These are great like heroes. You just diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Since John Lewis is considered one of the bravest in the world as. [17:27:02] You wonder how tough this guy is. [17:27:04] Well, if anybody's going to beat pancreatic cancer, it's going to be, man, it is because he had his head fractured with the bullet club knocked unconscious. [17:27:12] And this humble man, he told me the story when I got to the Senate. He's like he says, Celebrities like Corey show a little bit of blood on that bridge. [17:27:21] Congressman, I know you played profusely, literally unconscious, be carried back to a church for sanctuary. [17:27:29] And this is the power of us, the truth of us. This is the glory of us. What did a white guy on a couch a thousand miles away in New Jersey do? Did you just sit there and watch City allow his inability to do everything, to undermine his determination to do something? No. Did he turn this nation and somehow think that democracy was a spectator sport, that you could just sit on the sidelines and cheer your team and boo and jeer the other one? [17:27:57] No. Like now. It was a moral moment. So he did that great American tradition is always may change. He stood up at his first instinct as I got it. I got to go to Alabama. And he laughed at himself because he couldn't afford to close his business in a day. He could even afford a plane ticket. But that tradition in America of Iowa, a tradition in America. He stood up and said, well, I can't do everything. But you know what I can't do? I could do the best I can with what I have, where I am and get started. [17:28:34] Besides that, he's a lawyer, and as busy as he is during seven days that God gave him, he can afford one hour a week of pro bono work. He calls around to see who needs help. He finds his young woman, now 93 years old. He's like, you need some help, is there? Hallelujah. She's like, Jesus, I need some help. And so he goes to help her. They design a sting operation, a conspiracy of love. They organize their neighbors knocking on doors, like many of you are saying, will you join our fight? And people did. They felt the living room with this room here. And he goes by 69. We had this great organization going. I read his case file. I got caught, had two names on it, destroyed the storage family trying to find housing. We got him in court and we won that fight. And you know what their names are. And I go, no, sir, I don't Google the two names on a case file where Carrie and Carolyn Booker, your parents. [17:29:25] I'm not exaggerating when I say this to everybody here. Think about you. Think about what we do. I am literally standing here before you right now. A United States senator. Only the fourth black person ever elected to that office because a guy on a couch in Jersey stood up. I'm going to tell you this right now. Why is the energy of this campaign so important? Energy can't be destroyed. There's a Stanford professor who studies this. What kind act? She says he's studied the implications. [17:29:57] They were following three degrees of separation from you. When you do an act, it ripples out there. When we look at the stars tonight, the sky know that many of them, hundreds of billions light years away. Some of them have disappear. And. But we see them as if they're there because the energy you give off for your life goes on forever. That man died soon after my interview. His love, his warmth, his energy has now put me in a position to not only run for the highest office in the land, but get this. He was inspired by civil rights marchers. [17:30:25] If I become your president, I'm the first descendant of slaves in our country to ever go to the White House, which was built by slaves. What we do with ordinary Americans, all of us are imperfect. All of us are flawed. But when we stand up for righteousness and decency like our ancestors did, we do extraordinary things that changed the world in ways that we don't know. That school teacher that found the little boy that was terrified about speaking for a crowd and forced to to school play that little boy was me. [17:31:00] He was a neighbor when both my parents were working the time and time again without my parents asking in order to have me come over and sit with his kids and have an afternoon snack and wait till my parents came home. What I've encountered here in this state for family after family to carpenters who work at the last stop. Drove for hours. [17:31:23] Their sudden, serious mental illness. [17:31:27] They're going to all the candidates to talk about the outreach. They taught me. So we're working on legislation together. I don't need a president to fight for change. None of us knew. Every one of us has that power, but I'm not interested even in the individual. [17:31:45] I know it's power. Every individual here, blind, no one, even his greater is magnified and multiplied. When we come together and stand together, not hate. [17:31:55] So let me end with this. There is a poet, my Paris read me and then let's talk. You all know the poet is Maya Angelou. She has that same spirit that defiant like. You all in this room have that spirit. Just remember what she said. Take her poem and change a little bit of it. I don't try to set a record. Washington Post for lying. But remember, it's not Bill Ayers, not bigotry. He never defined a small country. It's what we would do in response. So here's her poem. You may write me down in history with your bitter, twisted lies. You've tried me in the very dirt, but still like dust, I rise. [17:32:41] Stand with me in this caucus, not just for my ideas, but for my heart and my spirit. You stand with me and help me on a revival of civic grace. Help me on igniting a more courageous empathy for each other. [17:32:53] Stand with me. And the truth of patriotism, which is an ideal of love. I promise you, he may be trying this country down, but together we will rise. Thank you. [17:33:06] Thank you, God. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. [17:33:25] I don't know, but this is amazing. Please sit down. I want to ask questions, but this. What's your name, sir? Bruce. I've had this incredible experience following this election. [17:33:34] I was in Nevada. Finish my speech just like this gentleman. This was an elderly guy in a wheelchair, stuck up his hand and he interrupted me and said I was on that bridge. And he's telling me right now that one of the people regularly march with King is a guy from Shenandoah as well. [17:33:52] I don't know. His first gonna you work for my new flight. [17:34:00] We are all connected, King said. We're all caught in an inescapable network, mutuality tied in a common garment of destiny. [17:34:07] He said injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. But I can tell you, decency and goodness anywhere affects the world everywhere. Let's let's answer some questions, please. Anything? Yes, sir. And say your name. Let's create you here. [17:34:19] So my name is Senator Johnson. I'm sending one of my earliest memories was when I was in high school. I downloaded and Twitter. One of those definitions, I came up with your name. And so I was at the time I was going to foreign exchange in Argentina. But I remember following you and that example of you responding to tweets, you know, people like you. I remember. Just how late is that, you know, about shoveling snow, about different things. [17:34:49] And I remember you would find a solution or you would connect us with somebody or you would get them in touch. And that has always been an inspiration to me. And I was recently elected mayor, Michael. I want to ask you, was somebody that inspired me, one, if you have any advice for a shoe. What was that experience of being somebody who people were reaching out to for help? And normally people may not pay attention or use Twitter as a platform to do policy ideas or things like that, and they ignore those. How did that experience form your how you lead and how you believe ever set to flood ever since? [17:35:43] The one thing I always wonder about mayors is, is why these really poor mayors are your experts you going to get. Right now it's going to be so important to America's mayor. I think a much better senator, a federal officials, because a lot of these people on top, they don't know how things actually work on the ground. [17:35:57] And I found Twitter only these Twitter and use it as a way of getting things done. And it came such a thing, this thing that during working Sandy, I'm using Twitter to respond to people. People are like. I live in Maryland, but my camera is where you live. Fine. Fine art is without power. She's disabled. She lives them. You lose finding, having to locate people. And everything became such a big moment that this guy. I'm not exaggerating. Guy in Ireland tweeted at me obnoxiously saying, hey, there's a pothole outside of my house. I'm fixing a very popular lyric of the day. I responded very simply, sir, I've got 99 problems and you're ditching. [17:36:40] So let me just I hesitate to give you any advice except for shaking your head. [17:36:44] But besides that, because my mom told me when I began politics, who you are speak so loudly, people can hear what you said and the honest energy that you get in that question. I was a judge person, not by what they say about you, but what they say about others. Voice more of indication of who they are. So you project a lot of kindness, by way, with the release of a lot of your characters. And so one day I'm going to say to you, I bet you all you do is that's what I learned. It's all good policy. I do. [17:37:14] But I do generally a lot more moral imagination for my city and even beyond. If I show people to go tell people. And so we did that. I told people, you see a problem, the city take a picture of it it to me. I became so responsive that if you thought a pothole, they would usually find it before my road crews would line up. Going to get it done in less than an hour. Do you find a traffic light out? I'm going to do almost instantaneously. [17:37:42] We just want to show people that it wasn't in government, it was weak government, and I needed them to be partners. Must make change. But I want to challenge you because I see your spirit there. Just be an actor that challenges the moral imagination of people of what their community can be. Because I found that we were often setting too little expectations for what we could do. And the best example of this and this is why I hope that again, as you're considering, lots of candidates find people that found ways out of no way mayors are asked to do that all the time. You don't have the money. [17:38:13] You don't have the resources. And why? That's the mayor. Everybody told me what we couldn't do. And we were in crisis. We had then as a Silver City, falling into a global recession and urban depression. We were losing money. We had a Republican governor with different priorities, cutting streams of funding to our city. We had challenges that were just mounting. And then I tried to ask for help and I couldn't get a lot of foundations, had to return my call. We had food deserts. [17:38:42] I couldn't get supermarkets even back at a supermarket convention in Las Vegas. I went to talk to supermarket chain and they laughed at me when I first suggested coming to board. We had we had just all kind of crises. But again, this platform that you had on Twitter, I decided to innovate with it one day and I was waiting for someone to fall into my trust. And because I know people like making fun of CEOs, they look down on rural areas. This is what I needed about. We're far more connected than you think. And so this is what happens to me. It's a funny story, but it's an incredible experience. [17:39:13] And I'm home one night hanging out my two best friends, Ben and Jerry, and they make great big flavor. [17:39:20] And and and and all the TV comes The Tonight Show, which I've been watching all my life back. And CONAN O'BRIEN is the host that he uses in his monologue. Often people. Come on, let's talk down to certain spaces in America. Detroit jokes. We're have you. He's joking. As I hear, Newark, New Jersey has new health care program. I've done something creative fun with the lower prescription drug prices for people in my city. And he continues, I think the best health care program. Remember, Newark, New Jersey, is a bus ticket out of town. And I was like, OK, I gotcha. [17:39:49] I went back to my city hall, sat behind my desk with a millennial with a camera, and I filmed a video basically saying, I'm Cory Booker. By the power vested in me, contrite as insulted our city, I write about our city. And there's a lot of funny things that I said at the end of video. I go, you know what? CONAN O'BRIEN. By the power vested in me by the people of the city of Newark, I hereby ban you. Newark Airport. You're on the no fly list. Try JFK, buddy. [17:40:16] So here was my plot. I put it online. It went viral. He gets millions of people watch The Tonight Show. Well, we were gaining on him in social media and it was such a big story that now I'm getting calls by C. Hall. [17:40:27] First of all, out civil libertarians were like thinking I was serious about complaining that I was violating CONOR O'BRIEN. Civil rights, the TSA don't mess with the TSA. I'm not exactly. They put a clarification on their website that matters in America cannot ban people from their airports. [17:40:45] I'm now getting earned positive earned media that my city had never gotten. Everybody wanted to talk about Newark crime and corruption. Cameras were shot despite being shot, but not for the larger cause of humanity that we're trying to show that every space is God's work. And so we we suddenly are just getting all kind of media. [17:41:00] And then CONAN O'BRIEN falls into the trap again. He comes on stage and I show shows my video and then says, caught you. You are behind me from Newark Airport. By the power vested in me by my studio audience, I hereby banned you from Burbank Airport. And I'm like, you know, I fly to L.A. from time to time. I go to L.A. It's not a big deal. But you know what? It was on I went back and did a video banning it from the entire state of New Jersey, and it escalates and becomes the number one trending. One of the top trending stories in America that we invited on every show that Newark mayor, little mayor. I'm going on Jay Leno for crying out loud. [17:41:38] So are you support the younger people, remind them Jay Leno was, oh, I'm going on daytime. [17:41:44] You're getting millions, millions of dollars of earned media about how great my city is. And then finally, this hero of mine was in charge of healing in war torn areas around the globe. She's the one that was the secretary of state, Greens Hillary Clinton. She comes her own video. I'm not going to go online and watch this, where she says, in essence, I'll just break it down. She basically says, Corey Coleman, give peace a chance. [17:42:06] And so the next thing you know, my mom is like, my mom has this thing behind. Every successful child is an astonished parent. [17:42:15] You know, my mom's watching TV in The Tonight Show and her son, the curtain pulled back and the mayor of Newark could have invited me over and apologized on national TV, gave one hundred thousand dollars his own money to Newark charities, but that wasn't a big deal. Now, I after all this, I call him heads of foundations. They return to call core developers. That never would give our city a shot at coming to look that supermarket chain that laughed at me. I went shopping there last week. [17:42:43] This is what I'm saying. In all the candidates here, we're all really good people. But the next president's going to face impossible problems and he can't play by the rules that we're playing by now. They have to think creative ways to get us out of these situations. I'm your president. I'm not going to give in or give up on anything. I to do everything I can. [17:43:02] What he did for Newark to excite the more imagination of the country to help out, but this time on the second will actually show our country to see each other, to stand up for each other, to solve the problems with the whole notion you solve for the price of prescription drugs. Too much suicide going on in our nation. That's now literally the life expectancy is going down for the first time in generations. These are the kind of things that we need more than just policy from Washington. We need the spirit that leaders like, you know, can bring. I know you will bring it. All right. But a question. [17:43:36] This gentleman way back, sir. Which gets the gentleman? Yes, sir. I just. I saw the beautiful baldness on the top of your head, sir. I was attracted to that. Yes. Yes. I have multiple questions. One of the first ones in the news this morning. There's a movie, the 90s. Greed is good. I don't agree that greed is good. What has happened with the circus clown? It's in. [17:44:08] But the state of Iowa has been gutted by unions. No more collective bargaining agreements really worked in the state of Iowa 20 years, first with developmentally disabled adults. Now Department of Corrections with the criminal justice. And even at that time, there is no cost of living increase. There's not. My wife is a teacher for 20 years. We brought diapers. We brought food. We run everything. I never got a raise because unions have been gutted. I pretty much by the other side of the coin in the Republican leadership. How can we make. I'm not asking for a lot. Asking for a brick. So what are your ideas on that? [17:45:02] How can we spread it throughout the whole Midwest? So first, thank you for your question. This is a national crisis. It's really steep in a huge way here in your state. Notice that as union membership in America is dramatically declining, social disparities in income in this country have been going dramatically up. This is a direct correlation attacks on unions, green concentrations of wealth and end in the public sector. [17:45:29] We've seen this with Supreme Court decisions that undermining people's ability, not just for how small. And so I want legislation to undermine those decisions that were made, undermine that that actually undermined union organizing rights. I want to tell you, as a guy who's grandson of a UAW word that I'm going to do some things to address the teachers and union workers like you. Number one, we're going to double the production, double the earning contact rate in America. We can give a hundred and fifty million Americans a pay increase. [17:46:00] We're going to do other things. Help you make ends meet. You're working a job. I know how tough teaching is, a correctional officer, whatever role you play in the corrections. And so we've done more things that elevate people's salary earnings, create a more fair system. That means we're going to create a special tax bracket for people in public school professionals, from counselors to teachers as people, biologists. [17:46:21] We're going to make sure I can do this if you get me 50 votes. I'm explaining that the second we're going to do things like that right now. Hedge fund runners, if they get paid a lower percentage of their salary in taxes. The teachers do. We're in reverse. All of that and lower the tax brackets for people in both schools and get elevate their salary. Our plan would use many teachers, makes these upwards of 50 percent income. Would help a lot of people as well. So I'll leave you a lot of that. But this is more important even than that. And this be in the Senate. Yes, we do. Oh, yes. Well, let me just make this point real quick here. The president alone is not going to change your state politics. [17:46:59] That that's that's why we give the states and the behind the whole pass getting a president elected who then goes and does their hard work and we love them and respect them. But forget the third, also the leader of the Democratic Party. [17:47:12] And then we need to have a 50 state strategy again where we're all using the power and the resources, a work of art of the Democrats to begin to invest in places. Show me. Don't tell me. So I don't think we'll have a leader on their beat, but I will show it to Iowa by all the people running. [17:47:27] We raised the most money in 2018 where your representatives and your state senators who are running for office, because I wanted people to know I'm your nominee. I believe that I have a strong Democratic Party in Iowa. I been a strong one in Georgia. Texas, too. These are states that will turn blue. We did a better job registering people about organizing. [17:47:47] And folks got to know that I understand it. [17:47:50] I'm not solving all the problems of the world. But we have to build the parties that do it. And that's also why I'm not disappearing from Iowa. [17:47:57] After you got to help you win the caucuses, I'm coming back because also critical to overturning the Supreme Court cases is getting senators in place. So with Ruth Bader Ginsburg, we pray for her health and safety every day and decide to retire. Supreme Court justices are going to workers rights over corporate rights, and that's why we've got to win here. Iowa, your Senate seat, and you've got a great big turnout in North Carolina, Georgia and other states have more diverse populations. Your follow ups are I am a mental health counseling psychologist, right? Yes. We're in the. Southwest Iowa. No. [17:48:39] We have a terrible crisis. We have a senator who grew up 30 miles from here. Two groups and one of the second largest facility in the state. A window that is empty. Close it down. Years. Either Medicaid is not. Third, party payers won't license enough people or train them in the organization. But I think we really should take care of our most vulnerable people. Most of the higher ones are going to be of retirement age or pretty soon too, and there's no place for them to go so certain that this what and should exist angry. It saddens me that when me say that the local county I just came from 50, the county chair there. [17:49:36] They cover funding to travel to all people to choose a mental health professional and travel. She had to pay for her own gas and travel expenses just go awry. They're shutting down facilities in communities like this one where we live. Our mentally mentally ill. Americans are overwhelmingly in our jails and our prisons and then they leave there after their sentence. They don't get the help they need. The teachers and schools are seeing signs, early signs of maybe some mental health, but they don't have the professionals in the schools to do something about this. More and above the prison prison. So this is what this is what the American reality we have. [17:50:16] It is more expensive and more dangerous with society not to step up and deal with this issue. It is more expensive. Seattle to the task they said was more expensive, mentally ill, homeless people on the streets or in supportive housing. They ran the numbers and found it was much cheaper to build affordable housing and put people in that state because people on the streets end up in high school or jails. We are this society. That's why so many issues, including elder care, decides that we want to pay much more on the back end, violating the human dignity of people than putting the upfront investments that would elevate human dignity. I'm in a diner in York and a guy tells me a guy tells me that he literally couldn't afford his mental health care, prescription drugs. And so we start rationing. [17:51:07] They have had an episode, lost his job. And so this is not a test of money. God, I need washing and I see the things we spend the money on. It is not a test of money. And why do I think this about our values? Why do I start my whole stump speech with values and virtues? Because it's not a test. Remember, it's not a referendum on him. It's a referendum on who we're going to be to each other. We have got to be a nation that begins to elevate these issues and begins to hold the moral imagination. People begin to care and invest. It'll make us think that the person we just step up people in an orthodox community in Muncie. Yeah. Yeah. It was anti-Semitism. But he was also schizophrenic. [17:51:50] And he had been in the system multiple times. It was never addressed. We are less state, we are less economically secure. And in our civic spaces we are violating our values by not taking this issue out. So the carpenters who've been following every candidate around the part of CNN is undecided voter group. Well, they're deciding now they announced on CNN they're supporting me not just because the policies, but also because of the passion, because I live in a community where these issues can't be hidden. You see mental health issues and the failures. You see the criminals. I go across the street for drug treatment center right across my street. And I sit with the fellows. [17:52:26] I bring them to the community because it's been very simple and well, they tell their stories. [17:52:32] You see other mental health issues, whether addictions were treated with jail and prison dozens of times, costing us millions of dollars when you add it all up as opposed to smart investments. This is it. This is a test for us. It's a moral moment. It certainly sounds like the right policy on this issue. But I the everyday lived experience, I'm going to drive change and where we can't get things done in Washington, just like we had movies before. We can raise the conscience of this country so we have the ability to push it through. But. All right. So my show is along. He's smiling now because he's at my state director here. He ran the state legislative efforts with four representatives. Incredible guy sign on my campaign early. But, you know, I'm running for president. I want to show that I'm still independent. He's not the boss of me. [17:53:19] He says one more question, I think to. That's defiant love. I don't go to this gentleman because he has gray hair cut and I'm this a gender bias, so I'm going to make sure we end up with a lot woman. OK, so go here. Go here, please. This is on. The Defense Department has a bloated budget, right? Yes, very much so. So would you think about it or would you consider allowing taxpayers to designate a certain portion of their income? [17:53:50] Is this something that Congress is responsible for raising? But it seems to me that one way to be able to designate that I don't want my taxes to go do to everybody here to back there. You just said you are such a handsome head, Corey Booker. [17:54:12] What he said how you rightfully ask a creative solution to a problem with an overly bloated military budget. And he said, well, maybe a solution that is allowing taxpayers to direct their resources. And I understand that that in many ways what I would want to do this thing is if the government doesn't want to spend money on. But I often worry that sometimes it might exclude other areas that are really, really important. [17:54:34] And so the way the only way I'm going to be open to this idea, if you want to talk to me more about it at the end of what I'm hoping, you will come up and maybe want to do something. But that's the response. I will. I will do this. Our military budget is very gloomy. There's a guy, a senator, who once said to me, we are spending so much more and our capabilities are going so far down. This guy was in John McCain. He knew about the incredible amount of military waste going on. And then there's another big problem we have, not only with the waste we're not going to take on account of local mayor. I can't print more money. [17:55:07] We have to govern down our spending, cut my budgets 25 percent. I'm going to be as a Democrat, I'm going to be a cost cutter of bureaucracy, unnecessary bureaucracy cutter, because I dealt with these things when I was mayor. But the second thing I would tell you, this can help us save our military budget. It has become this is not a Republican Democrat presence of both parties have done this. They've taken away the war powers from the Congress and shifted into the presidency. [17:55:32] We have military engagements going on without the people's house having any say in it. It is not only shameful, but it's costing us hundreds of billions of dollars. Exhibit A. Did we ever vote on a war in Yemen? No. But our military planes have been refueling sortie bombers. Who were them dropping American made bombs on Yemenis children. And an administration can argue, well, this isn't a use of force. How was it not to use force to supply bombs to the Saudis to be over, to give their fighters fuel, to put our pilots in the air over Yemen or over over the Gulf? This is shameful. And so what I'm saying is it's become so easy for presidents to engage us in military conflict costing us. I'm not exaggerating. Not now. Trillions of dollars. Nobody who voted on the authorization of military force in 2001 interview them, then said, well, we still be at war for 20 years in places like Afghanistan. And you still have the Afghanistan papers just being released. [17:56:42] I talked to the father of a New Jersey soldier on the drive over here the day after those papers were released. His son got killed. This is wrong. What we're doing with our American military right now and sees no, no glory away from our soldiers every single day. Get up and show the greatest sacrifice and greatest patriotism. But as a president, I'm your commander in chief and I am swearing an oath to uphold the Constitution. And what's going on right now to me violates constitutional principles. I stand up as a senator saying we need to restrain the understanding of the use of military force and our Constitution. As president, I'm going to be one of those presidents that doesn't want to get more military power. I'm trying to get back to constitutional intent. That's going to shrink our spending over to the next level. [17:57:32] Yes, sir. Yes, ma'am. I'm sorry. Thank you for coming. Senator, I appreciate that. And you just touched on my question, and I am terribly concerned about the constitutional crisis I see looming in front of this country. Yes. Simply because the executive has usurped the power of the Congress and this Congress has let it happen. So while you are still serving in Congress, can you do something to rein him in? Yes. [17:57:57] So this is why I work across the aisle in the first bipartisan review of the policy with the stories was happy because on the Foreign Relations Committee, hammered out that we have a president right now is foreign policy he calls American first, is America isolated America alone? [17:58:15] Because what we are doing right now, our foreign policy is hurting every country, rural areas. He literally has decided to put tariffs on everyone. He's picking a fight with China. At the same time, he's getting terrorism on everybody. It's literally akin to me when I play for Stanford. We went to South Bend to play Notre Dame was like me thing. I'm going to take on this Notre Dame because alone risk my audience. You stand on the sidelines. I'm doing this alone because instead of partnering with Europe and our European allies to take on trying to start actions supporting the candidate, we're going to Canada. He uses a national security waiver. He puts tariffs on Canada. [17:58:52] Now, look, those beautiful hair is menacing to me personally, but they are not a threat to the United States of America. [17:59:00] He's pulled out of the Paris climate because America alone, he's pulled out of the ground. It's a nuclear deal, America alone. He has a better relationship with Putin than he does with Macron and Merkel. This is dangerous. And what is the policy of getting us? South Korea is going back towards going to do nuclear tests. Iran is racing. There's more chaos. The Iranian influence is growing in that region, not shrinking. And so you want to know as a guy with Walsh to travels all around the globe. No one need to be doing. We need the understanding that there's a test on the planet Earth to totalitarian authoritarian governments and free democracies. And I hate to tell everybody this, but we are seeing us on our heels. Hungary lurching back to the authoritarian. Is a turkey going to a type of religious nationalism? We've seen this in China. [17:59:52] They got rid of term limits when their leader democracy's on their heels. I was flying again relationship across the aisle with Jeff Flake to go to Zimbabwe. [18:00:00] Mugabe, the dictator, had just been overthrown. And now there's a new guy, Emmerson. I mean, God, would we fly in to communicate with all of our values are free and fair elections stop the human rights abuses. We have strength. We have American sanctions. Good war on Foreign Relations Committee. We go in there and he's landing. From China, where they tell him we don't care about what you do to minorities, not care what you do LGBT. We don't care about free, fair elections. We just want a transactional relationship with you. This is the test on the planet Earth. And during this test, what is this president doing? [18:00:34] He's retreating from the globe, something he's wonky. And then we just do priorities again. I want everybody to remember this. I learned this as a mayor. I know the mayor here knows this as well. What is what is economically right to do? What keeps us safe is in accordance with our collective values. It makes no sense. I believe crossing our borders are unlawful and we should help protect our water, protect our laws. But I'm telling you what, the way this president is doing is making us less safe. You know why? Because they're ripping apart families in your state. My state. They're taking away a parent away from their children for being undocumented. They're making this up a culture of fear. [18:01:14] I was in Nevada, a teenage American citizen born in this country was afraid to call. This is a friend or friend who was afraid to call the authorities about her assault because she knew that if she did, her parents might have come to school and they were documented. So you get less cooperation with the police. Abandon our values, makes us less safe and it's more expensive. We talked about care. [18:01:35] The gentleman here, we live in this morally bankrupt policies with a morally rich people for our poor. These are civic spaces we have for America. You want to qualify for Medicaid. You go to a nursing home. [18:01:49] You have to go into poverty before we're going to help you fill all of your life savings. What if you're my mom taking care of my father with dementia and Parkinson's? Anybody here knows taking care of someone with dementia? My mother, I watch her health deteriorate. I watch your filthy refineries. I watched her. We were afraid. [18:02:09] We worked to get her help at night because my dad would try to leave the home convinced half dressed in his mom and Russell. What are we doing as walking dignity like we are? [18:02:22] That's why I've got the policies. I'm lifting the cap on Medicaid and life saving. So you have something to pass on to your kids. I'm lifting income for home health. People are taking care of people, special needs. Enough of this nightmare. [18:02:33] We're going to make them qualify for the earned income tax credit, get them thousands of dollars. But I'm going to tell you honestly again, this will not happen. [18:02:43] The necessary precondition to getting big policy done. All throughout our history is the raising of the moral consciousness of our country. That's what's necessary. That's why I talk about what I'm talking about. And this is how I want to end God. I want you all to know the reason why I feel so connected to all areas. The reason why my New Jersey senator literally has gotten the highest legislative award for the farmers union is because I know we're all in this together here. Farmers union. I love them. They got me in trouble on the Senate floor because it gave me the award. They also put a pin on me. I walked on the Senate floor. All the sergeant at arms were getting all upset and coming up to me and said, sir, you're on the Senate floor with that pen, and I know what you mean. I looked down and I realized the former union pin hasn't. It's just the symbol emblem in two big letters. [18:03:29] F you. [18:03:36] That's something I got in trouble for hours, but I'm the legislative champion. [18:03:43] I know corporate consolidation has been killing, gutting communities like this. What my people in New York buy stuff at the grocery store. That dollar used to fairly go to the people that produce the food. Now we live in a nation where they have squeezed it. The corporate consolidation of companies like Monsanto buying everything, these multinational ag businesses. I talked to Republican farmers who said five people would sell their cattle to now they have one person dictating price are getting squeezed. [18:04:11] That's true. And we're driving farmers and this is they're being gobbled up by these bigger and bigger farms. We are all in this together. Food systems have to be repaired and its farmers need to lead the way. Farmers are environmental champions, stopped paying oil companies to drill and having places like Chevron pay no taxes. They bring negative taxes. We give them more federal dollars and they pay take that money and pay farmers to do things to sequester carbon like cover crops. No. Till to the kind of extent that the kind of things that we don't need to hold up in the sky. [18:04:48] But it comes down to that more courageous empathy to use ag digital platforms not like this guy does, uses them to demean the great divide. I'm going to find creative ways some of them will make you laugh. [18:04:59] Someone will touch your heart to remind Americans that we're all in this together, that the dignity of your neighbor, whether the Republican or Democrat, if you're struggling with a child with special needs and we as a society don't recognize their beauty and potentially feel they have special needs, all of us are weaker and lesser and poorer because of it. [18:05:21] So I want to end with this my mind. I got my B.A. from Stanford Law. I got my peers on the streets of New York and the greatest one, my greatest professors with my first tenant leader who taught me in the first ten building crowded like everything I was keeping all the notes I needed to file a lawsuit against a slumlord. But the meeting on for hours and hours and hours. And at the end, as we're walking out this gentle, giant elderly man, I make some snarky, you know, 20 something comment or yell, walk arrogant guy that I was with a great afro. [18:05:53] I made this comment to him. Can I say something like how long meeting was he stops? [18:05:59] Turns to me. No anger. Gentility in his eyes. He says to me, core, he'd understand some routine. You on a very powerful man, rich and powerful. And in order to do that, to repair these buildings and to take him on. We have the first free care community. Every person that stand up is ours and every person is stood up in that community. They deserve to be seen. They deserve to be heard. Then having your chance to stand with authority figures, warriors like you is part of our healing process. [18:06:33] Well, we work as a community. I told you, we took out a slum lord. I always remember that. And this man. You want to know why I still live where I live? He brought me when I was running for city council. He probably fulfilled is not, you know, n other 10 meters. People look at me and I went over the door with him, see Frank Hutchins. The guy's name. And they open the door. They say, Frank, how are you doing? He helped them get hot water. Water helped them stave off eviction. [18:06:55] And Frank was. I'm doing well, but we could do better with better representation. And this young man, you can trust him. He will always be there for us. I left the city council. We beat the machine because people in the most marginalized folks, the lowest income areas of the central ward is the low income war. They turned out to be a writer numbers. We won. He helped me get elected to to do a better job. I never thought I could be in politics. He pushed me into it. But he was getting older. [18:07:23] And eventually, while I was mayor 10 years ago, I was mayor of the city of New York. He was in hospice. And God, please. [18:07:30] He finally understood why the health care professionals feel underpaid, overworked, and they are angels in our midst. [18:07:38] And these. [18:07:41] These incredible women on the last day that he was there. Remember, my ego still struggle with my ego. Guys, we all need to wrestle with it sometimes. I'm upset because there's not tons of people there and his last days. But Frank is now also at peace. He knew that life was not about popularity. It was about purpose. Life is not about celebrity. It's about significance. Life is not about how many people show for you when you're dead. Will you show up for when you're alive? [18:08:08] This these deflating, these incredible women. Tell me. This will be the last time you probably see him alive. The mayor of the city, they comfort me. They tell me that his eyesight is gone and they can't talk. He can't he can't get words out anymore. And he said, I just feel, here you go. Go in and talk to him. So I walk and I close the door behind me. But he walked to his bed and I say, Hey, Frank is calling because I'm walking this beautiful man from his bed. Can't see and can't talk. He forces the words out. I see. [18:08:41] You can see me. Ideology. I walked to his bedside and I sat next to his bed and he's left asking a lot. And I held him and kissed him on his forehead. And I told him what meant. We didn't discuss policy holding, whatever. We discussed the values. The ones he taught me through his example, told him what he meant to me, that I wouldn't be in politics. It wasn't for him. [18:09:07] He took my life and thought things in me. I didn't see myself. And finally, I have to go on. The mayor of the city are busy. I gotta go. But the last thing I do is hold him again. I give him a kiss and I say, Frank, I love you. [18:09:19] As I'm getting up again, this man forces out the words, I love you. I want you to think about this is my last appeal to everyone, you. This election is not about the head, it's about the heart. [18:09:41] It's about the real substance of life, what makes life equal for families or communities, the values that we've held up in this nation, like the Statue of Liberty, the torch that is lit in the light of all nations. But the challenge we in the moment we're in right now are embodied in the last words of my great life mentor. Think about his last words. I see you. I love you. [18:10:07] I see you. I love you. I see you. The veteran, the bravest amongst us that comes home to a nation that sings a song for the brave. But they're disproportionately homeless. I see you. I love you. That person who's at work today with a sick child and has to go through that awful experience with the only nation in the industrial world that doesn't have paid family leave. They have to try and decide to stay here, get a paycheck I to pay rent or white, be with my child in crisis. I see you. I love you. About that person in prison. I don't want to talk to wardens. I always ask you, are there people here that don't belong in these tough wardens will suddenly look soft and Bonner will say there's people here that are a waste of taxpayer money. I see you. I love you, God. [18:10:58] If if you think this election is about who has a better 50 point policy plan on guns, I'll still compete for you because I got a good one. But you know what? I'm running for president because something deeper and more important than that. We have to heal our nation. We have to cure the separate sense of belonging. We have to bring us together to realize we are not each other's enemy. We are each other's greatest hope. We are each other things. Thomas. This is what this election is about. Would you agree with me if you believe, as imperfect as I am, that I could carry this torch, that I can ignite folks off the sidelines into the field if I can get people from North Carolina to Arizona. [18:11:35] So I know what's come out of high levels, that you are the spark of my campaign. Then if you believe in that and please caucus for me. But no matter what we do, we are in this together. I promise you this. If I end up as your president every single day, I'm going to work to try to let America know there's no bad people. There is a great country, though, and their president. I see you. I love you. War America. Suburban America, urban America. We are one nation under God. And by God, we will rise. [18:12:10] Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. I'm not running away. You want to come on out, please. Thank you for. [18:12:31] Good to see you. Good to meet you. Great to be here. I know. [18:12:40] I thought you guys were.