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Warren: Washington needs courage.
Castro: Pass the ERA.
DeBlasio: Plenty of money for $15 per hour for everyone.
Inslee: Wind turbines don’t create cancer, they create jobs.
Klobuchar: Public option is a bold approach. *rump is “all foam and no beer”.
Warren: With Bernie on M4A because families go broke from the cost of health care, even when have insurance. Insurance companies’ business model — bring in as many dollars as possible, pay out as few dollars as possible — leaves families fighting for health care. Health care is a basic human right.
O’Rourke: Every American should be well enough to live their best life. Keep your plan if you like.
Delaney: Medicare doesn’t pay enough, hospitals would close.
Gabbard: Objective, every single sick American gets health care they need. Supports M4A, with a role for private insurance.
Booker: Also an education issue — kids without health care do not succeed in school. Also retirement — adults without health care have lower life expectancy. He prioritizes this. Too many people profiteer from pain, insurers and pharms.
Warren: Insurance companies last year alone sucked 23 billion dollars out of the health care system. They want it to stay the way it is.
Inslee: It should not be an option for any insurance company to deny women the right of choice. Prefers public option.
Klobuchar: We share the goal of universal health care. Public option a step to universal health care.
Castro: Plan would support abortion. Believes in reproductive freedom and reproductive justice. Would appoint judges who respect Roe v. Wade.
Warren: No limits on reproductive health care services including birth control and abortion. We need to make abortion rights federal law so we don’t have to rely on the courts.
Booker: Pharm companies should be held criminally liable. Including opioid addiction.
O’Rourke: Pharm companies should be prosecuted, not drug users.
Immigration:
Castro: First candidate with comprehensive immigration plan. Deaths at border heartbreaking and infuriating. Day 1, would reverse *rump policy. First 100 days, would make reasons for migrating fewer — plan for Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador.
Booker: Immigrants do not leave their human rights at the border. Reinstate DACA. Invest in Northern Triangle to solve this problem. Lose security when surrender values.
Castro: Get rid of Section 1325, repeal it. Do not criminalize desperation, at most a civil violation. Stop separation.
Booker: End all policies that separate children throughout the country through ICE raids.
DeBlasio: This is not America. Division fomented by this administration. Not reaching American dream? Due to corporations and the 1%, NOT due to immigrants. We will be on the side of Americans against corporations.
O’Rourke: We would not turn back immigrants. Accept immigrants, no walls, no cages, spare no expense to reunite families. Family case management, care within community at fraction of cost. Dreamers — path to citizenship. Help Central and South America. Comprehensive rewrite of our laws.
Delaney: Need to make a difference in the countries immigrants are coming from.
Klobuchar: Immigrants are America. 25% of US Nobel laureates were born in other countries. Our economy are immigrants.
Ryan: No need for Section 1325. Other provisions in the law to prosecute traffickers, drug dealers. Immediately need to send doctors and nurses to the border. Treat prisoners at Guantanamo better than children.
Booker: Stop criminalizing, deal with immigrants civilly. For-profit prisons are sickening. Affirm human rights and human dignity.
Inslee: No reason for detention and separation of children. Release them pending their hearings. Give Dreamers a college education. Washington state welcomes refugees.
Iran
Booker: Should never have pulled out of the deal. Country and region needs to be secure.
Klobuchar: Iran deal was imperfect, but good at that moment. *rump has made us less safe. Stand with our allies. President must have Congressional authorization for the use of military force.
Gabbard: This chicken-hawk *resident has taken us to the brink of war with Iran. This would expand to a war across the whole region. We can renegotiate and get back into deal with Iran. The only reason for an attack would be if we were attacked. *rump and his minions are creating a situation that makes us less safe.
Guns
Warren: We need to regulate guns. Treat it like a public health emergency, do the research to determine what is most effective, make changes whether popular or not.
Booker: This is urgent. Reading, writing, arithmetic, and what to do with an active shooter in school. Thoughts and prayers are not enough. This is personal.
Castro: The worst thing is worried children. We do not have to accept this. I believe that in 2021, we will have Dem WH, House and Senate. Things will change.
Ryan: Guns, but also trauma-based care in the schools.
O’Rourke: Universal background checks. No more weapons of war to civilians. Effort led by young people.
Klobuchar: Gun buybacks are not confiscation — voluntary. Not going to hurt hunters.
Supreme Court Etc
DeBlasio: If McConnell majority leader, Dem party needs to show we’re on regular people’s side, put pressure on Senate. Also need to do something about police brutality.
Warren: Fight from the outside and the inside.
Delaney: Real solutions, not impossible promises.
Booker: First Step Act passed, not as much as would like but we can accomplish some things.
Climate Change
Inslee: Take away the filibuster from McConnell. This is the first generation to feel the effects of climate change, last generation able to fix it. This has to be the first top priority — lead the world and invent the future.
Castro: Puerto Rico — everybody counts. Mayor — his city 100% renewable utilities, solar and wind. Executive order, recommit to Paris climate accords.
Ryan: Build and grow our way out of climate change. Perception problem: Not connecting to the working class people in the industrial midwest. Need to change the center of gravity from elite coasts. Connect to workers to solve all problems.
Delaney: Price carbon, give American people dividend, bipartisan solution.
Civil Rights
Gabbard: No one has the right to tell anyone else who they love or marry. No longer hold conservative views she was raised with.
Booker: Fight to protect Americans.
Klobuchar: Economic opportunity, better childcare, public schools, retirement, STEM. First 100 days — Everyone vote.
Castro: Dylan Roof arrested without incident, but so many die at hands of police. Only candidate to reform policing system.
Foreign Policy
O’Rourke: Responsibility to prevent genocide, but take action with international allies.
DeBlasio: Need to go to war only with Congressional authorization. Even with humanitarian crises.
Ryan: We should stay engaged with foreign countries.
Gabbard: Engaged is not enough. Bring our troops home.
Ryan: I wish we were rebuilding, but if we aren’t engaged, the Taliban will grow. We have to have some presence there.
Gabbard: Taliban has been there before we were there. We can’t solve all the Middle East’s problems.
Delaney: Biggest problem country China, biggest threat nuclear weapons.
Gabbard: Nuclear war.
Klobuchar: China, Iran.
Inslee: Climate change.
Warren: Climate change.
DeBlasio: Russia, interfering with our democracy.
Impeachment
O’Rourke: We need to enforce the law, cannot allow presidents to get away with impunity, or set new standard that some are above the law. Begin impeachment now to acquire facts and truth, follow them as high as they go. As president, my DOJ would pursue these facts.
Delaney: He should be the first to be prosecuted after office, if not during. No one is above the law. But this is not America’s #1 issue — health care, drug prices, infrastructure, jobs, schools, pay, pocketbook issues.
Klobuchar: We cannot let Russians influence elections.
Closing Statements
Delaney: On a mission to rediscover the American dream. Get back to real solutions, not impossible promises. Fix infrastructure, etc. Not about me, about getting America working again.
DeBlasio: It matters that the candidate who saw poverty and gave workers $15 minimum wage. Gave universal health care. Gave pre-K to all children for free. Put working people first. Let’s work together.
Inslee: Protect grandchildren from the climate crisis. If next president doesn’t make it top priority, we won’t get it done. Must have unified national mission. Save life on this planet.
Ryan: Nothing worse than not being heard or seen. Represents the forgotten working class. Not divided. Brown, black, gay, straight, etc. Homeless everywhere. Time to get back on track, all coming together to lift up everyone. As president, no one will be forgotten.
Gabbard: Service above self. Government of, by and for the people. Current government of, by and for the rich and powerful. Her White House will be beacon of light, hope, opportunity. Peace, prosperity, opportunity, justice.
Castro: Promise of America. Grandmother immigrant from Mexico. Health care, education, job opportunities in cities and small town. January, 2021, adios, *rump.
Klobuchar: Listen to people. Get things done. Track record. Won every race, can beat *rump in places like WI, IA, MI. Not establishment-party candidate. No political machine, no big money. Integrity, govern for us.
Booker: Fought for people’s rights. Wins fights against bullies. Country needs purpose again. Show best of who we are.
O’Rourke: We’re going to be there for children, including those sleeping on concrete floors tonight. Climate activists, students for lives, bring together to beat *rump.
Warren: It is a great honor to be here. Never in a million years did I think I’d stand on this stage. Dream growing up was to be a public schoolteacher. Went to a $50/semester community college. Created her opportunity. We can make our government, economy, country work for everyone, not just those at the top. I will fight for you as hard as for my own family.