good evening and welcome to the pbs news hour politico presidenti presidential debate from los angeles, california. i'm judy woodruff and i'm joined tonight -- thank you -- i'm joined tonight by my fellow moderators, tim alberta. pbs news hour senior national correspondent. and pbs news hour white house correspondent. and now please greet tonight's candidates. they are businessman andrew yang. south bend, indiana mayor pete

buttigieg. massachusetts senator elizabeth warren. former vice president joe biden. vermont senator, bernie sanders. >> minnesota senator amy klobuchar. and businessman tom steyer. welcome to all and we will be right back to begin the debate. >> look what's happening to american workers. they're being stifled. it has to end. >> we're the only major country on earth not to guarantee health care to all people. >> they want what it takes to be part of america's middle class. everybody deserves a living wage in this country. >> the proposals i'm putting forward would make me the most progressive president in my

lifetime. >> if people are tired of the extremes in politics, they've got to come with me. >> we've got a broken government in washington, d.c. >> what we need say new voice and a new set of solutions. >> this is the pbs news hour politico democratic debate. welcome back. a quick reminder of the rules for the debate. each candidate has 1:15 to answer direct questions from the moderators and 45 seconds to answer rebuttal and follow up questions. tonight's podium order on the stage was determined by an average of recent polls. and let's begin. to the candidates, last night at this hour, the house of representatives voted for only the third time in american

history to impeach a president. every one of you was in favor of this action. but unlike 1974 and president nixon, congressional democrats have so far not convinced a strong majority of americans to support impeachment of president trump. why do you think that is and what can you say or do differently in the coming weeks to persuade more americans that this is the right thing to do? i want to ask all of you to respond, but to begin with vice president biden. >> you know, judy, it was a constitutional necessity for the house to act as it did. and, you know, trump's response to suggest that only half of the american people want to see him thrown out of office now i find is dumbing down the presidency beyond what i even thought what he would do. you know, it is any wonder if you look at the international polling that's been done that the chinese leader is rated above american president or that

vladimir putin congratulated him staying steadfast and in fact it was a mistake to impeach him. you know, we need to restore the integrity of the presidency, of the office of the presidency. and it's about time we get that underway. my job and i think the job of all of us up here is to in fact -- that's not true because some are going to be voting in the senate. my job is to go out and make the case for why he doesn't deserve to be president of the united states for another four years. >> senator sanders, why do you think more people are not in support of impeachment, and what else can you do? >> judy, what i would say is we have a president who is a pathological liar. we have a president who is running the most corrupt administration in the modern history of this country. and we have a president who is a fraud because during his campaign he told working people one thing and he ended up doing

something else. i believe and i will personally be doing this in the coming weeks and months is making the case that we have a president who has sold out the working families of this country, who wants to cut social security, medicare, and medicaid after he promised he would not do that, and who has documentedly lied thousands of times since he is president. and the case to be made is yeah, shortly i disagree with trump on virtually all of his policies. but what conservatives i think understand is that we cannot have a president with that temperament who is dishonoring the presidency of the united states. >> senator warren why do you think more americans don't agree that this is the right thing to do, and what more can you say? >> so, i see this as a constitutional moment. last night, the president was

impeached. and everyone now in the senate has taken a constitutional oath to uphold our constitution, and that doesn't mean loyalty to an individual. it doesn't mean loyalty to a political party. it means loyalty to our country. and that vote will play out over the next several weeks. but the way i see this is we've now seen the impact of corruption, and that's what's clearly on the stage in 2020 is how we are going to run against the most corrupt president in living history. you know, this president has made corruption originally his argument, that he would drain the swamp. and yet he came to washington, broke that promise, and has done everything he can for the wealthy and the well-connected from tax breaks to ambassadorships. we have to prosecute the case against him, and that means we need a candidate for president

who can draw sharpest distinction between the corruption of the trump administration and a democrat who is willing to get out and fight not for the wealthy and well-connected but to fight for everyone else. that's why i'm in this race. [ applause ] >> senator klobuchar, what argument can you make to persuade more americans this is the right thing. >> let me make the case to the american people. as a wise judge said, the president is not king in america. the law is king. and what james madison once said when he was speaking out at the constitutional convention -- and by the way, i think he's a pretty good size for a president. he was 5'4". and what he said, he said the reason that we have these impeachment articles in the constitution that the provisions are in there is because he feared that a president would betray the trust of the american people for a foreign power.

that is what happened here. watergate, this is a global watergate. in the case of watergate, a paranoid president facing election looked for dirt on a political opponent. he did it by getting people to break in. this president did it by calling a foreign leader to look for dirt on a political opponent. and i would make this case. as we face this trial in the senate, if the president claims are that he is so innocent, then why doesn't he have all the president's men testify? richard nixon had his top people testify. we should be hearing from mulvaney who is the under oath -- witnesses have said mulvaney is the one who said we're going to withhold this to get dirt on a political opponent. we should hear from bolton who told his staff to get with a lawyer. if that is the case that president trump thinks he should not be impeached, he should not be scared to put forward his own

witnesses. >> mayor buttigieg, what addition additional argument can you make to the american people? >> at the end of the day, this is beyond public opinion. this is beyond polls. this is beyond politics. the president left the house with no choice. and i think a lot of us are watching this process, watching washington go through the motions and not expecting much for a fore gone conclusion when it gets to the senate. but we cannot give into that sense of helplessness because that's what they want. they want us to be taken in by that cynicism where we give up on the process all together. meanwhile, their allies are laughing all the way to the bank as we see policies that let giant corporations, some of which made billions in profits pay not just zero but as we recently learned negative taxes all while they blocked policies that actually boost wages for working americans. here's the good news, it's up to us. no matter what happens in the

senate, it is up to us in 2020. this is our chance to refuse to be taken in my the helplessness, to refuse and reject the cynicism. that is what this presidential election is about. it is what my campaign is about. our opportunity in 2020 no matter what happens in washington as a country to change the course of this nation for the better. >> mr. yang, what more -- >> over here. >> mr. yang -- >> judy. >> i'm sorry, mr. steyer. i'm sorry. >> well, let remind everyone that i'm the person who started the need to impeach movement over two years ago because i believe what counts here is actually the american peoples' opinion. over 8.5 million signed that petition and dragged washington into the idea that actually the most corrupt president in

american history, it's not a question of political expediency. it's not a question of political tactics. it's a question of right and wrong. so, now when we look what's going on, i actually agree with senator klobuchar. the question here is if we want the american people to understand what's going on, we need to have the administration officials testify on tv so we can judge. the court that counts here is the court of public opinion. the american people deserve to see the truth of these administration officials testifying under oath so we can make up our mind. if we want republican senators to do the right thing, we need their constituents to see the truth on tv and tell them get r rid of this guy or we'll get rid of you. that's what i believe in. i'm a believer in the grass roots as an outsider getting the american peoples' voice to count. that's who i trust, and that's who i trust now. >> mr. yang.

>> it's clear why americans can't agree on impeachment. we're getting our news from different sources and it's making it hard for us to agree on basic facts. congressional approval rating was 17% and americans don't trust the media networks to tell them the truth. the media networks didn't do us any favors by missing the reason donald trump became our president in the first place. if you turn on cable network news today, you would think he's our president because of some combination of russia, racism, facebook, hillary clinton, and emails all iks manimixed togeth. but americans around the country know different. we blasted away 4 million manufacturing jobs that were primarily based in ohio, michigan, pennsylvania, wisconsin, missouri. i just left iowa. we blasted 40,000 manufacturing jobs there. the more we act like donald trump is the cause of all of our problems, the more americans lose trust we can actually see what's going on in our communities and solve those problems. what we have to do is we have to

stop being obsessed over impeachment which unfortunately strikes many americans like a ball game where you know what the score is going to be and start actually digging in and solving the problems that got donald trump elected in the first place. we have to take every opportunity to present a new positive vision for the country a new way forward to help beat him in 2020 because make no misdak, he'll be there at the ballot box for us to defeat. >> thank you mr. yang. [ cheers and applause ] >> let's turn now to an issue that is on the minds of all americans, and that is the economy. senator sanders. today the house of representatives voted for a new bipartisan trade agreement among the united states, canada, and mexico. it was supported by union-friendly leaders like speaker nancy pelosi and big labor groups like the afl c

ikso. they say it is going to be a big job creator. senator, will you support this deal and if not, why not? >> judy, you're talking to somebody who unlike some of my colleagues here voted against nafta, voted against pncr with china, two agreements that cost us over 4 million decent paying jobs. i don't agree with your statement that people think this is going to be a great job creator. this is a modest improvement over what we have right now. it would allow, hopefully, mexican workers to organize into unions, independent unions, to be able to negotiate decent contracts. but at the end of the day in my view, it is not going to stop outsourcing. it is not going to stop corporations from moving to mexico where manufacturing workers make less than $2 an hour. what we need is a trade policy that stands up for workers,

stands up for farmers. and by the way, the word "climate change" to the best of my knowledge is not discussed in this new nafta agreement at all which is an outrage. so, no, i will not be voting for this agreement although it made modest improvements. >> senator klobuchar. >> i have a different view. i'll go with my friend sharon brown who voted against every trade agreement that's come in front of him. he's voting for this and i am too. the reason i am voting for it is that i believe that we have a change with this agreement. i would not have voted for the agreement that president trump put forward, but we've got better labor standards, better environmental standards, and better deal when it comes to the farm suital provision which i also oppose. 95% of our customers are outside of our borders and we have to make sure that we have trade agreements that are more fair because if we can encourage work made in america, every time you hold something in your hand that

says made in america, it is the ingenuity of our workers, quality of the product, quality of our workers and hopes and dreams of the american people. i think this agreement while senator sanders is correct, there are some issues with it, is much better than the one originally proposed. and for those farmers in the midwest and for those people that have been hurt by the fact that we will not have a trade segment with mexico and with canada and the united states, i think that this is a much better deal. >> we can pull some of your -- i see some other hands up. i want to move to the next question, and you can bring in, i think, your points with this. this one i'm going to initially address to vice president biden and that is the overall u.s. economy right now looks strong. the unemployment rate is at historic lows. unemployment among african-americans is down. the markets are booming. wages, while not growing as much as many would like, they're still doing about as well as they were in the obama/biden

era. my question to you, mr. vice president, is what is your argument to the voter watching this debate tonight who may not like everything president trump does but they really like this economy and they don't know why they should make a change? >> i don't think they really do like the economy. go back and talk to the neighbors in the middle class neighborhoods you grew up. middle class is getting killed. working class has no way up as a consequence of that. you have farmers in the midwest, 40% of them couldn't pay their bills last year. you have most americans if they received a bill for 400 tl$400 more they would have to sell something or borrow the money. the middle class is behind the eight ball. we have to make sure they have an even shot. we have to eliminate a significant number of tax cuts given to the wealthy. we have to invest in education. we have to invest in k had. we have to invest in those

things that make a difference in the lives of middle class people so they can maintain their standard of living. thats not being done. the idea that we're growing, we're not growing. the wealthy, very wealthy are growing. ordinary people are not growing. they are not happy with where they are and that's why we must change this presidency now. >> mayor buttigieg, is that your assessment? >> yes. where i live folks aren't measuring the economy by how the dow jones is looking. they're measuring the economy by how they're doing. when you're doing the bills at the end of the month and you find even if your wages have gone up, it's not going up as the cost of health and housing. this economy is not working for most of us. for the middle class and i know you're only ever supposed to say middle class and not poor in politic, but we've got to uk at that about poverty in this country. there is not one county in the united states of america where someone working full-time at the minimum wage can afford a

two-bedroom apartment. in most places not even a one-bedroom apartment. the biggest problem in our economy is simple. people are not getting paid enough. that is not the result of some mysterious cosmic force. it's the result of bad policy. we've got to change it by raising wages and empowering workers. [ applause ] >> mr. yang. >> gdp and corporate profits are at record highs in america today. also record highs, depression, financial insecurity, student loan debt, even suicides and drug overdoses. it has gotten so bad that our life expectancy as a country has declined for the last three years because suicides and drug overdoses have overtaken vehicle deaths in the first time in american history. the unemployment rate and gdp have little relationship with peoples' lived experiences on the ground. if you're a recent college graduate you have a 40% chance

of doing a job that doesn't require a college degree. that doesn't show up in the headline unemployment rate nor does all the families working two or three jobs to get by. >> senator warren, you have your hand up. >> i do. >> and i have a question for you. >> well, i want to ask this question. >> go ahead. >> here's the problem. i'm proud to stand on this stage with democrats who understand that rising gdp, rising corporate profits is not being felt by millions of families across this country. i'm proud to stand on a stage with people who see that america's middle class is being hollowed out and that working families and poor people are being left behind. what we need to talk about though is why that has happened. and the answer is we've got a government that works great for those with money and doesn't work for much of anyone else. we have a government that works great for giant drug companies, just not for someone trying to fill a prescription, works great

for people who want to make money at private prisons and private detention centers at our border, just not for the people whose lives are torn apart, works great for giant oil companies that want to drill everywhere but not for the rest of us who see climate change bearing down upon us. and when you see a government that works great for the wealthy and the well-connected and for no one else, that is corruption pure and simple. and we need to call it out for what it is. [ cheers and applause ] >> i want senator sanders if you would a brief response. then i have another question. >> here's the response, trump goes around saying the economy is doing great. do you know what real inflation accounted for wages went up last year? 1.1%. that ain't great. tonight while three people own more wealth than the bottom half

of america, 500,000 americans including 30,000 veterans are sleeping on the streets. today in america we have the highest rate of childhood poverty of almost any major country on earth. more income and wealth inequality than since the 1920s. we need an economy that, wos for working families, not just the 1%. that is what our campaign is about. >> senator warren, i have a question for you. every candidate on the stage has proposed tax increases on the wealthy. but you have especially ambitious plans that apart from health care would hike taxes an additional $8 trillion over the decade. the biggest tax increase since world war ii. how do you answer top economists who say taxes of this magnitude would stifle growth and investment? >> oh, they're just wrong.

[ cheers and applause ] let's start with the wealth tax. the idea of a 2 cent tax on the great fortunes in this country, $50 million and above. for 2 cents, what can we do? we can invest in the rest of america. we can provide universal child care, early childhood education for every baby in this country age zero to five. universal pre-k for every 3-year-old and 4-year-old and raise the wages of every child care worker and pre schoolteacher. we can do more for college graduates and public schools. we can cancel student loan debt. think about the economic impact. two cents to billionaires, they're not eating more pizzas, not buying more cars. we invest into early childhood

education and child care, that means those babies get top notch care. it means their mamas can finish education. it means their mamas and daddies can take on real jobs, harder jobs, longer hours. we can increase productivity in this country and we can start building this economy from the ground up. that's how we build it in small towns. that's how we build it in rural eric many. and that's how we build it in you are ban america. >> brief answers. >> an economy that works for america. >> brief answers from mr. steyer and mr. buttigieg. >> i agree with senator warren. i've been for a wealth tax for over a year. i'm in favor of undoing all the tax rates this administration has put through. and in addition i've talked about equilibrating the taxes on passive investment income which would allow us to cut taxes for 95% of americans by 10%.

but there's something else going on here that i think is really important and that's this. we know mr. trump's going to run on the economy. i built a business over 30 years from scratch. we're going to have to take him on on the economy in terms of growth as well as economic justice. we're going to have to talk about growth, prosperity across the board for everyone in america. my experience building a business understanding how to make that happen means i can go toe to toe with mr. trump and take him down on the economy and expose him as a fraud and a fill your. and i think that's different from the other people on this stage. i think we need a different unconventional way of attacking a different unconventional president who actually went after the -- >> mayor. >> -- best prepared candidate in history and beater had. >> mayor buttigieg. >> right now we're being offered a false choice. you have to go all the way to the extreme or it's business as

usual. yes, we must deliver big ideas and yes, taxes on wealthy individuals and on corporations are going to have to go up. we can also be smart about the promises we're making. make sure they're promises that we can keep without the kind of taxation that economists tell us could hurt the economy. it's why, for example, i propose we make college free for 80% of americans. but it doesn't have to be free for the top. if you're in the top 10%, how about you pay your own tuition and we save those dollars for something else that we could spend them on that would make a big difference, whether it's infrastructure, dhiechild care, housing, health. on issue after issue we've got to break out of the washington mindset that measures the bigness of an idea by how many trillions of dollars it offers to the budget or the boldness by how many americans it can antagonize. >> we will be right back in two minutes with questions from our fellow moderators.

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>> announcer: live from los angeles, the "pbs news hour"/politico democratic debate continues. once again, judy woodruff. welcome back to the "pbs news hour"/politico democratic presidential debate. the next question is from tim alberta of politico. >> thanks, judy. candidates, good evening. we're going to talk about climate now. senator klobuchar, many scientists say that even if the u.s. reduced its carbon footprint to zero by the year 2050, the damage will have been done. climate change will have made certain places in the u.s. unlivable. knowing this, would you support a new federal program to subsidize the relocation of american families and businesses away from places like miami or

paradise, california, perhaps, davenport, iowa, because we know these places will be hit time and time again? >> i very much hope we're not going to have to relocate entire cities, but we will probably have to relocate some individual residents. and the problem right now is that this climate change is an existential crisis. you are seeing it here in california with the fires that you just had. you saw it in northern california, as was mentioned with paradise, and the most moving video from that to me was the 30-second video of that dad driving his little girl through the lapping fires with his neighborhood burning behind him and singing to her to calm her down. we cannot wait to act. there is an ojibway saying that great leaders make decisions not for this generation but seven generations from now. this president doesn't keep his decisions for seven minutes.

so what i think we need to do, get back into the international climate change agreement. i will do that on day one. on day two, bring back the clean power rules. on day three, the gas mileage standards. i see the governor of california who has been working so hard to get those done, defied every step of the way by the trump administration, and then introduce sweeping legislation to put a price on carbon and build a bridge to the next century -- >> thank you senator klobuchar. >> -- which means we must upgrade our buildings and building standards. >> thank you, senator klobuchar. mr. steyer, would you support a federal program to subsidize the relocation of these towns? >> i am hoping we in fact will do what i'm suggesting which is declare a state of emergency on day one of my presidency. [ applause ] i have made this -- i believe i'm the only person here who will say unequivocally this is my number one priority. i know that we have to deal with this crisis. i know that we have to deal with

it from the standpoint of environment environmental justice. i've been working on this for more than a decade. i pushed clean energy across the country. i've prevented pipelines and prevented fossil fuel plants. what i know is this. not only can we clean up the air and water in the black and brown communities where our pollution is concentrated, this is also the opportunity to create literally millions of middle class union jobs, well-paid, across the united states of america. our biggest crisis is our biggest opportunity. and if we don't declare a state of emergency on day one, i don't understand how we go to the people around the world to lead the coalition that has to happen and that only america can lead. look, this is a generational question. i have a lot of respect for the people on this stage. i know everybody is worried about this. but for instance, i would call on mayor buttigieg to prioritize this higher because the people in his generation understand that this is a crisis that we

have to go on right now. >> thank you, mr. steyer. >> but it's also the greatest opportunity to rebuild america. >> thank you, mr. steyer. mr. buttigieg, 45 seconds to respond. >> i've made clear this will be a topic of day one action. this is not theoretical for me. i live in one of those river cities that you're talking about. not only that, i live right by the river. my neighborhood flooded in the second of two once in a millennium floods in two years. do the mathematics on that. i know what's at stake. that's why i insist we act with a carbon tax and massive research on renewable energy, energy storage, and carbon storage. bigger than that, we have to summon the energies of the entire country to deal with this. i've seen politicians in washington saying the right thing about climate change as long as i've been alive. all these plans we have to get carbon neutral by 2050. and i think most or all of us have one. their impact is multiplied by

zero unless something actually gets done. that is why i want to make sure our vision for climate includes people from the auto worker down the block from me in south bend to a farmer a few minutes away so that they understand we are recruiting them to be part of the solution, not beating them over the head. >> thank you, mr. mayor. we would like to switch gears slightly. vice president biden, three consecutive american presidents have enjoyed stints of explosive economic growth due to oil and natural gas production. as president would you be willing to sacrifice some of that growth, even knowing it could displace maybe hundreds of thousands of blue collar workers in the interest of transitioning to the greener economy? >> the answer is yes. the answer is yes, because the opportunity, the opportunity for those workers to transition to high paying jobs, as tom said, is real. we're the only country that's taken great crises and turned them into enormous opportunities. i've met with the union leaders. for example, we should in fact

be making sure right now that every new building built is energy contained, that it doesn't leak energy, that in fact we should be providing tax credits for people to be able to make their homes turn to solar power. there's all kinds of folks right here in california who are now on the verge of having batteries the size of the top of this podium that you can store energy when the wind isn't blowing or the sun isn't shining. we have enormous opportunities. for example, you talk about would we relocate people who lost their home. we have to not rebuild the standard that existed before when we talk about when we come in and help people. we have to rebuild to the standard that exists today. for example, we shouldn't build a new highway in america that doesn't have charging stations on it. we have an opportunity to put 550,000 charging stations so that we own the electric vehicle market, creating millions of jobs for people installing them as well as making sure that we

own the electric vehicle market. there are so many things we can do. we have to make sure we explain it to those people who are displaced, that their skills are going to be needed for the new opportunities. >> thank you, vice president biden. [ applause ] senator sanders. >> tim, in all due respect, your question misses the mark. it is not an issue of relocating people in towns. the issue now is whether we save the planet for our children and our grandchildren. [ applause ] the issue, as you should know, what the scientists are telling us is they have underestimated the threat and severity of climate change. you're talking about the paris agreement, that's fine. ain't enough. we have got to, and i've introduced legislation to do this, declare a national emergency. the united states has got to lead the world. and maybe, just maybe, instead of spending $1.8 trillion a year

globally on weapons of destruction, maybe an american president, i.e. bernie sanders, can lead the world, instead of spending money to kill each other, maybe we pool our resources and fight our common enemy, which is climate change. >> thank you, senator sanders. [ cheers and applause ] senator warren, a new question to you, senator warren. many of our western allies rely heavily on nuclear energy because it's efficient, affordable, and virtually carbon-free. many climate experts believe that it's impossible to realize your goal of net zero emissions by the year of 2050 without utilizing nuclear energy. can you have it both ways on this issue? >> i see it we've got to stop getting the carbon. we've got to get the carbon out of the air and out of the water. that means we need to keep only some of our nuclear in place. i will not build more knew clnu.

i want i want to put the energy, literally, and the money and the resources, behind clean energy and by increasing by tenfold what we put into science, what we put into research and development. we need to do what we do best and that is innovate our way out of this problem and be a world leader. but understand, the biggest climate problem we face is the politicians in washington who keep saying the right thing but continue to take money from the oil industry, continue to bow down to the lobbyists, to the lawyers, to the think tanks, to the bought and paid for experts. america understands that we've got to make change and we're running out of time, that climate change threatens every living thing on this planet. but getting congress to act, they just don't want to hear it. and if we don't attack the corruption first, if we don't attack the corruption head-on,

then we're not going to be able to make the changes we need to make on climate, on gun safety, on drug pricing, on all of the big problems that face us. >> thank you. >> we need a washington that doesn't just work for the rich and the powerful. we need one that works for our families. [ applause ] >> thank you, senator. senator klobuchar, then i would like to bring in mr. yang and mr. steyer. >> i want to add to what elizabeth said. the way we tackle corruption is by winning big in this election. the way we take on climate change in a big way is by, yes, talking about what's happening on the coast as i just did, but also talking about what's happening in the middle west where i'm from. it's not flyover country to me, i live there. and what we're seeing there is unprecedented flooding. we're seeing a 50% increase in homeowners insurance over the last few years. and when we make these changes, we have to make clear to people that when we put a price on carbon, that that money is going to come back to those areas

where people are going to be hurt, where jobs are going to change, and to make them whole with their energy bills. when you make the case like that, you bring in the midwestern votes. you win big. and i think the best way to do it is by putting someone at the top of the ticket who is from the midwest. [ applause ] >> mr. yang, 45 seconds, on the issue of nuclear energy. >> first, we should obviously be paying to relocate americans away from places that are hit by climate change. we're already doing it. we relocated a town in louisiana that became uninhabitable because the sea levels rose. we know that town is not alone. that's playing out in coastal areas around the country. the question is do you leave that town on its own to fend for itself, or do you come together as a country and say we need to protect our people from climate change? part of my plans literally called, move people to higher ground because that's what we need to do. that's literal and figurative.

here in california it's forest fires and forest management. on nuclear power, i agree with the research. we need to have everything on the table in a crisis situation, which this is. other countries have had success with nuclear power. and the next generation thorium reactors have a wealth of potenti potential. thorium is not radioactive the way radium is, it doesn't last as long, and you can't make a weapon out of it. we have to have nuclear on the table, as elizabeth is saying. we have to have nuclear on the table. >> the point about nuclear power is, it's not at the stage in the united states where it's competitive on price. it has a lot of risks to it in terms of disasters. and we have no ability to store the toxins that come out of it and last 100,000 years. we actually have the technology that we need. it's called wind and solar and batteries. so in fact what we need to do, we can do. we've got to stop taking a look at this as something that we can't do because we can do this,

and we can do it in a way that creates, rebuilds this country on an accelerated basis, creates millions of union jobs, and we come at it from the standpoint of environmental justice. this is our greatest opportunity to reinvent this country, to actually take on the biggest challenge in history and succeed together. you want to pull the country together with all this partisanship? let's take on the biggest challenge in history and succeed together as a nation. that's what pulls people together. >> thank you, mr. steyer. >> vice president biden, you've been reassuring voters that things will return to normal once president trump leaves office, that republicans will have what you call an epiphany and come to the table to work with a biden administration. but given everything that you have seen from current republicans, what evidence is there that things will change? >> look, i didn't say return to normal. normal is not enough. normal, in fact we have to move beyond normal, whether it's health care, the environment, whatever it is. we have to build on what we had

started in our administration, and that's been interrupted very badly, number one. number two, with trump out of the way, it's not going to change things in a fundamental way. what it will do is it will mean that we're in a position where he's not going to be able to intimidate, his base is not going to be able to intimidate those half a dozen republicans we need in other things. i refuse to accept the notion as some on this stage do that we can never, never get to a place where we have cooperation again. if that's the case, we're dead as a country. we need to be able to reach consensus. if anyone has reason to be angry with the republicans and not want to cooperate, it's me, the way they've attacked me, my son, my family. i have no -- no, no, no love. in the fact is we have to be able to get things done and when we can't convince them, we have to go out and beat them as we did in the 2018 election in red states and in purple states. [ applause ] >> thank you, mr. biden. mr. yang, i want to switch

topics, a new question. the democratic party relies on black, hispanic, and asian voters. but you are the only candidate of color on the stage tonight. and the entire field remains overwhelmingly white. what message do you think this sends to voters of color? >> it's both an honor and disappointment to be the lone candidate of color on the stage tonight. i miss kamala, i miss cory, although i think cory will be back. [ applause ] i grew up the son of immigrants, and i had many racial epithets used against me as a kid. but black and latinos have something much more powerful working against them than words. they have numbers. the average net worth of a black household is only 10% that of a white household. for latinos, it's 12%. a black woman is 320% more likely to die from complications in childbirth. these are the numbers that define race in our country. and the question is why am i the lone candidate of color on this

stage? fewer than 5% of americans donate to political campaigns. you know what you need to donate to political campaigns? disposable income. [ applause ] the way we fix it, the way we fix this is we take martin luther king's message of a guaranteed minimum income, a freedom dividend of $1,000 a month for all americans. i guarantee if we had a freedom dividend of $1,000 a month, i would not be the only candidate of color on this stage tonight. [ applause ] >> thank you, mr. yang. senator sanders, i do want to put the same question to you, senator sanders. what message do you think -- >> i'll answer that question but i wanted to get back to the issue of climate change for a moment, because i do believe this is the existential issue. >> senator, with all respect, this question is about race. can you answer the question as it was asked? [ applause ] >> because people of color in fact are going to be the people suffering most if we do not deal

with climate change. [ applause ] and by the way, we have an obligation up here, if there are not any of our african-american brothers and sisters up here, to speak about an economy in which african-americans are exploited, where black women die three times at higher rates than white women, where we have a criminal justice system which is racist and broken, disproportionately made up of african-americans and latinos and native americans who are in jail. so we need an economy that focuses on the needs of oppressed, exploited people, and that is the african-american community. >> thank you, senator. yamiche? >> senator klobuchar, here in california, people who identify as his panic, black, asian, or multiracial, represent a majority of the population, outnumbering white residents. the united states is expected to

be majority nonwhite in a generation. what do you say to white americans who are uncomfortable with the idea of becoming a racial minority even if you don't share their concerns? >> i say this is america. you're looking at it. and we are not going to be able to succeed in the world if we do not invite everyone to be part of our economy. our constitution says that we strife for a more perfect union. well, that's what we are doing right now. and to me, that means, one, that everyone can vote, and that includes our communities of color. this action that's been taken by this president and his people and his governors all over the country is wrong. they have made it harder for african-americans to vote. as one court said, discriminated with surgical precision. what would i do? as one of the leaders on voting in the u.s. senate, one, stop the purging.

as stacey abrams said, you know, you do not stop having your right to assemble if you don't go to a meeting for a year, because you don't go to a church or synagogue or mosque for three months, you don't lose your right to worship, you shouldn't lose your right to vote. i would pass as president my bill to register every kid in this country when they turn 18 to vote. that would make all of these discriminatory actions in these states go away. and i would stop the gerrymandering. in addition to the agenda of economic opportunity. because as martin luther king said, what good is it to integrate a lunch counter if you can't afford a hamburger? >> thank you, senator. let's now turn to the issue of foreign policy and the middle east. senator sanders. secretary of state mike pompeo recently declared that the united states believes israel. do not violate international law. that broke decades long u.s. precedent.

how would you respond to israeli expansion of settlements. would you link that to foreign aid to israel? >> israel has -- and i say this as somebody who lived in israel as a kid proudly jewish, israel has the right not only to exist but to exist in peace and security. [ applause ] but what u.s. foreign policy must be about is not just being pro-israel. we must be pro-palestinian as well. [ applause ] and whether in my view we must understand that right now in israel we have leadership on the netanyahu who has recently as you know been indicted for bribery who are in my view is a racist, what we need is a level playing field in terms of the middle east which addresses the terrible crisis in gaza where 60

or 70% of the young people are unemployed. so, what my foreign policy will be about is human rights, is democracy, is bringing people together in a peaceful way trying to negotiate agreements not endless wars with trillions of dollars of expenses. >> thank you, senator. mayor buttigieg? >> what we are seeing in the middle east and around the world are the consequences of this president's failure. this president's refusal to lead. it's particularly disturbing in the case of israel because he has infused domestic politics, making u.s. foreign policy choices in order to effectively interfere in israeli domestic politics. acting as though that somehow makes him pro-israel and pro-jewish while welcoming white nationalists into the white house. but it's not only in the middle east that we see the consequences of the disappearance of u.s.

leadership. we see among our allies and among our adversaries case after case where the world is making plans on what to do, ignoring the united states because we're no longer considered reliable. it's not just the mockery at a cocktail party on the sidelines of a conference. it was the looks on the faces of the leaders at the u.n. as they looked at the united states president with a mixture of kempt a contemp contempt and pity. as an american, i never again want to see the american president looked at like that by the leaders of the world. it has to be one that is actually living up to the values that make us who we are, supporting peace, supporting democracy, supporting human rights and supporting stability around the world. [ applause ] >> thank you, mayor buttigieg. senator warren. president obama pleasanted to cloej the detention camp at

guantanamo bay but could not. last year u.s. taxpayers paid $540 million to keep guantanamo epi. would you pledge to close the detention facility and if elected, how would you do it? >> yes, it's time to close this detention facility. it not only costs us money, it is an international embarrassment. we have to be an america that lives our values every single day. we can't be an america that stands up and asks people to fight alongside us as we did with the kurds in fighting isis and then turn around in the blink of a tweet and say that we're turning our backs on the people who stood beside us. after that, who wants to be an ally of the united states? we have to be an mesh thamerica understands the difference and recognizes the difference between our allies, the people who will work alongside us and the dictators who would do us

harm. and we need to treat our allies better than we treat the dictators. that needs to be our job as an america. we have -- we have the finest military on the earth. all three of my brothers served. and i -- we have people on this stage who have served and i'm deeply grateful for that. our military is strong and important, but we need to be an america that relies on our state department, that relies on diplomacy, that relies on our economic power and that relies on working together with the rest of the world to build a world that is sustainable environmentally and economically for everyone. >> thank you, senator warren. vice president biden, why couldn't you close guantanamo bay? why couldn't the obama administration close guantanamo bay? >> we attempted to close guantanamo bay, but you have to have congressional authority to do it. they kept it open. in fact, we think it is an

advertisement for creating terror. look, what we have done around the world in terms of keeping guantanamo open or what trump has done by no longer being an honest broker in israel, there's no solution for israel other than a two-state solution. it does not exist. it's not possible to have a jewish state in the middle east without there being a two-state solution. and he has played to all the same fears and all the prejudices that exist that in this country and in israel. bb netanyahu and i know each other well. he knows what i think he is doing is outrageous. what we do is we have to put pressure constantly on the israelis to move to a two-state solution. not withdraw physical aid from them in terms of their security. and lastly, i think senator warren is correct. we have led not by the example of our power but the power of our example, and the example demonstrating now is horrible. it's hurting us badly. >> thank you, vice president biden. judy? >> i want to turn to another

part of the world and that's china. mayor buttigieg, you have said that you think china presents more of a challenge than do your fellow candidates believe. the u.s. clearly wants china's cooperation on human rights, on climate change, on north korea, on terrorism, and yet americans are appalled by china's record on human rights, including the detention of over 1 million muslim uyghurs. should the u.s., is my question, do more than protest and issue sanctions? should the u.s., for example, boycott the 2022 beijing olympics? >> i think that any tool ought to be on the table. especially diplomatic, economic and social tools like what you're describing. look, for the president to let it be known that his silence, whether it's on the rounding up of muslim uyghurs, putting them into camps, ors aspirations of the people of hong kong for

democracy. for him to let china know that his silence can be purchased is trashing american values. reality is that there's a lot more to the relationship with china than who is selling more dishwashers. yes, we need a much smarter trade policy. also have to acknowledge what's going on over there. the use of technology for the perfection of dictatorship. that is going to require a stronger than ever response from the u.s. in defense of democracy, but when folks out there are standing up for democracy hear not a peep from the president of the united states, what message is that sending to the chinese communist party? the message i will send is that if they perpetrate a repeat of anything like tiananmen square when it comes to hong kong, they will be isolated from the free world and we will lead that isolation diplomatically and economically. >> mr. steyer, many americans have been moved in the last months by the protests of the people of hong kong. it is chinese territory, but

what could you -- would you do as president if the chinese government moved in militarily? >> look, there is a temptation, particularly for this president, to try and answer that on a bilateral -- in a bilateral way. the way the united states should be reacting in hong kong is by gathering our coalition of democracy and freedom loving partners and allies to push back. in fact, when we're making moral statements around the world it should not be us threatening and trying to be the world's policemen. it should be us leading on a value-driven basis with the other people who share our values and want to change the world. we actually can't isolate ourselves from china. in fact, we have to work with them as a frenemy. but who in effect we are linked to in a world that is ever getting closer. and in fact, if we are going to treat climate as the threat that

it is, we are going to have to partner with the chinese, they're going to have to come along with us, they're going to have to trust us and together we're going to have to solve this problem. >> thank you, mr. steyer. >> we need a good relationship with them and we have to work with them going forward under all circumstances. >> thank you, mr. steyer. vice president biden, on china we now know that china is engaged in an unprecedented military build-up. they have just launched a new aircraft carrier. there are new signs of their disturbing espionage campaign here inside the united states. there are a number of disturbing signs from the chinese. national security scholars have long warned about the historical precedent that when there's a ruling power and a rising power there's likely to be a war. is the u.s. on a collision course with china? what steps would you take as president? >> on a collision course with china but not for war. what we have to make clear is that we, in fact, are not going to abide by what they've done.

1 million uyghurs, as you pointed out, muslims, are in concentration camps. they're being abused. they're in concentration camps. what we started in our administration that trump stopped, we should be moving 60% of our sea power to that area of the world. to let in fact the chinese understand that they're not going to go any further. we are going to be there to protect other folks. secondly, we, in fact, should make shower that we begin to rebuild our alliances, which trump has demolished with japan and south korea, australia and all -- and indonesia. we, in fact, need to have allies who understand that we're going to stop the chinese from their actions. we should have gone to the u.n. immediately and sought sanctions against them in the united nations for what they did. we have to be firm. we don't have to go to war, but we have to make it clear this is as far as you go, china, and in terms of their military build-up, it's real, but it would take them about 17 years to build up to where we are. we're not looking for a war, but

we've got to make clear we are a pacific power and we are not going to back away. >> mr. yang and then senator klobuchar. >> i have family in hong kong. i spent four months there, and seeing what's happening on the streets, it's shocking. they banned face masks in hong kong. why? because they have a.i. technology that now is using facial recognition to identify protesters if they so much as do anything on the street so they can follow up with them and detain them later. this is the rivalry that we have to win where china's concerned. they're in the process of leapfrogging us in ai because they have more data than we do and their government is subsidizing it to the tune of tens of billions of dollars. i have sat with our leading technologists and they say they cannot match the chinese resources. china just produced their first major smartphone that does not have google apps and now trying to export its technology to the rest of the world. what we have to do is build an international coalition to set

technology standards and then you can bring the chinese to the table in a very real way because this is their top priority and this is where we need to outcompete them and win. >> senator klobuchar? >> when it comes to foreign policy, i think we need to keep our promises and keep our threats. and this president has done neither. and a country like china, their leaders, they watch that and they know. he has stood with dictators over innocents. he has stood with tyrants over free leaders. he does it all the time. and i have a little different take than some of my colleagues when it comes to what happened at that conference with nato. yeah, they were making fun of him, some of the foreign leaders. i've heard senators make more fun of other senators than that. the point of it was that he couldn't even tolerate it. he is so thin skinned that he walked, he quit. america doesn't quit. so if we want to send a message

to the chinese, we stand with our allies, we stand with them firmly. we have a very clear and coherent foreign policy when it comes to human rights. check out my website, amyklobuchar.com. i have the five r's of our foreign policy about reasserting our values, rejoining international agreements like the iranian nuclear agreement, but it all comes down to one "r," returning to sanity. >> mayor buttigieg. then we're going to take a break. >> i'm actually not worried about the president's bad sense of humor when it comes to being made fun of. i'm worried about the fact that he is echoing the vocabulary of dictators around the world. >> yes. >> when the american president refers to unfavorable press coverage as the product of the enemy of the people, democracy around the world gets weaker. freedom of the press not just here at home but around the world gets weaker.

it's one more reminder of what is at stake. not just here at home but for world history in the imperative that we win this election -- >> could i respond? >> this is our chance. >> very brief. >> i just want to make very clear, mayor, that the freedom of the press is deep in my heart. my dad was a newspaper man and i am the one that asked every attorney general candidate we've had under donald trump, both of whom i opposed, about their respect for the first amendment. and they have refused -- they have refused to follow the rules that attorney general holder put in place when it came to protecting our journalists. they would not commit that they wouldn't put a journalist in jail to doing this job. so this is not just talking points to me, this is the real world, and i think that experience that i will bring to the white house with protecting the first amendment is worth more than any talking points. >> we are going to take a short break and we will be -- we'll be

right back with more questions. >> the pbs "newshour" politico democratic debate will continue just a minute. ♪ just in case you forgot ♪ all strength. ♪ no sweat secret. all strength. no sweat.

good evening, everyone, i'm chris cuomo. we're live here in los angeles. you're watching the sixth democratic presidential debate at loyola marymount university. of course i'm with dana bash in the debate hall. so we've been watching thus far a very interesting parallel reality. on this stage we were sizing it up before we came on for you, and dana was saying not that hot a debate in terms of crossfire at each other. >> not at all. >> that distinguishing battle that we're used to seeing. the parallel existence, the president is on social media killing the democrats, saying they're afraid of a trial, afraid of witnesses. these guys are not talking about it. >> we're only halfway through,

but if it continues this way it's the second debate that we have seen in a row where the expectation -- we were talking about this before -- before it started, was that because we're so much closer to people actually going to the caucus, to the primary polls that there would be a lot more heat, that people who are ascendant like pete buttigieg who is doing quite well in iowa, that people would -- his competitors would kind of turn on him. >> so how do you explain it? >> and it hasn't happened. because the democratic electorate, and i think they've seen this as a result of the other debates they've done, they want to make a decision but they don't want to see them fight. they want these democratic candidates to save that fight for the president of the united states. but the issue is, you still have to -- you still have to if you are a discerning voter find out what the differences are. >> so the way they're helping that is by taking each other's lanes. yang with the yang gang, and they have been pretty vocal in

here. most of the young people as you might expect are up in the higher seats here. they got very hot for yang when he was talking about the needs of what to feed in this country. sanders came on the heels of him, wanted to change the topic, and you heard their frustration. so that was moving into sanders' lane. that's what we're seeing tonight. >> yeah, i thought that was a really interesting moment for that reason and for another reason because the question that yang was asked, with which he hit out of the park, was about the fact that after the most diverse debate stage that we have seen ever up until now, it's white except yang. >> and he was loaded with stats. >> he was. >> he was ready. >> he was loaded with stats, and so -- but talking about the fact that, you know, the reason why having people of color is important is to make it clear that they understand the plight of people. he didn't talk about asian americans. he talked about african-americans, about latinos. >> and he knew what he was talking about. he keeps distinguishing himself

with depth of knowledge. joe biden has been steady. let's see how he does on the back half of this. he has not been a target. he hasn't targeted anybody. dana and i will watch and come back with complete coverage after the sixth democratic debate tonight. stay with us. you wanna give the best network. feliz navidad! (announcer) and now buy the latest iphone and get iphone 11 on us, plus get $400 when you switch. happy holidays from the network that gives you more.

live from los angeles, the pbs "newshour" politico democratic debate continues. once again, judy woodruff. >> welcome back to the pbs "newshour"/politico democratic presidential debate. i'm judy woodruff joined by my pbs "newshour" colleagues. by tim alberta of politico. now, let's turn to the next question from tim. >> thank you, judy. candidates, let's make things interesting. former president obama said this week when asked who should be running countries, that if women

were in charge you'd see a significant improvement on just about everything. [ cheers and applause ] >> he also said, quote, if you look at the world and look at the problems it's usually old people, usually old men, not getting out of the way. [ cheers and applause ] >> senator sanders, you are the oldest candidate on stage this evening -- >> and i'm white as well. yes. >> how do you respond to what the former president had to say? >> well, i got a lot of respect for barack obama. i think i disagree with him on this one. maybe a little self-serving, but i do disagree. here is the issue. the issue is where power resides in america. and it's not white or black or male or female. we are living in a nation

increasingly becoming an oligarchy. we have a handful of billionaires who spend hundreds of millions of dollars buying elections and politicians. you have more income and wealth inequality today than in any time since the 1920s. we are the only major country on earth not to guarantee health care for all people, which is why we need medicare for all. we are facing an existential crisis of climate change. the issue is not old or young, male or female, the issue is working people standing up, taking on the billionaire class and creating a government and economy that works for all not just the 1%. >> thank you, senator sanders. vice president biden, i'm going to guess that president obama did not clear that remark through your campaign ahead of time. >> and i'm going to guess -- i'm

going to guess he wasn't talking about me either. [ laughter ] >> number one. look, i'm running -- i'm running because i've been around. on my experience. with experience hopefully comes judgement and a little bit of wisdom. the fact is we're in a position now the next president of the united states is going to inherit two things, a economy that is out of kilter and a domestic policy that needs to be -- where we have to unite america and a foreign policy that requires somebody to be able to on day one stand up, look out to the entire world, know who that person is, know what they stand for and know they know them. and that's what -- that's the reason i'm running. i have more experience in doing that than anybody on this stage. >> just to follow up, vice president biden, if elected, if elected you would turn 82 at the end of your first term. you'd be the oldest president in american history. >> president churchill. >> american history. >> american history. i was joking. that was a joke. >> i appreciate it.

>> politico doesn't have much of a sense of humor. >> oh, we've got a great sense of humor. they wouldn't put me on stage otherwise. are you willing to commit tonight to running for a second term if you're elected next november? >> no, i'm not willing to commit one way or another. here's the deal, i'm not even elected to one term yet. let's see where we are. let's see what happens. that's a nice thought. >> senator klobuchar, you had your hand raised. >> thank you for asking a woman this question. i think, first of all, we have not had enough women in our government. when i was on trevor noah's show once i explained how in the history of the senate there was something like 2,000 men and only 50 women in the whole history, and he said if a nightclub had numbers that bad, they would shut it down. however, it is not just about numbers, it's about what you get done. and that is my argument.

if you look at the poll -- the state that knows me best, and that is the state of minnesota, it showed -- in the state that hillary had her lowest margin of victory. it showed that i beat donald trump by 18 points. i beat him with men more than anyone on this stage. so i think what matters in this election is can you bring in those rural and suburban areas? particularly in the midwest. and number two, what will you do when you get there? and i am someone that has passed over 100 bills with men and women, with republicans and with democrats, including changing the sexual harassment laws for the united states congress, a bill i led so taxpayers are no longer going to have to pay for people that harass other people -- >> senator warren. >> i have passed a law for drug shortages. i have done work in our rural areas. i think that's what most matters to people. i would be so proud to be the first woman president, but mostly i want to be a president that gets things done and

improves people's lives. >> thank you, senator klobuchar. [ cheers and applause ] >> senator warren, you would be the oldest president ever inaugurated. i'd like you to weigh in as well. >> i'd also be the youngest woman ever inaugurated. [ cheers and applause ] >> i believe that president obama was talking about who has power. whose voices get heard. i believe he's talking about women and people of color and trans voices that so often get shoved out. look at how people are running their campaigns in 2020. you know, i made the decision when i decided to run not to do business as usual. and now i'm crowding in on 100,000 selfies. that's 100,000 hugs and handshakes and stories, stories

from people who are struggling with student loan debt, stories from people who can't pay their medical bills, stories from people who can't find childcare. now, most of the people on this stage run a traditional campaign, and that means going back and forth from coast to coast to rich people and people who can put up 5,000 bucks or more in order to have a picture taken, in order to have a conversation and in order maybe to be considered to be an ambassador. >> thank you, senator warren. >> those selfies -- no, i want to finish this. those selfies cost nobody anything. and i get it. in a democracy we all have a lot of different points of view and everybody gets one vote, but here's the thing, people who can put down $5,000 to have a picture taken don't have the same priorities as people who are struggling with student loan debt or struggling to pay off medical debt. i want -- i'm running a campaign where people whose voices get

heard. we can't have -- >> thank you, senator warren -- >> we can't have people who can put down $5,000 for a check, dro drown out the voices of everyone else. >> thank you, senator warren. >> they don't in my campaign and they won't in my white house. >> mayor buttigieg, you had your hand raised. >> well, can't help but feel that might have been directed at me. and here's thing. we're in the fight of our lives right now. donald trump and his allies have made it abundantly clear that they will stop at nothing, not even foreign interference, to hold on to power. they've already put together more than $300 million. this is our chance, this is our only chance to defeat donald trump. and we shouldn't try to do it with one hand tied behind our back. the way we're going to win is to bring everybody to our side in this fight. if that means that you're a grad

student digging deep to go online to peteforamerica.com and chip in 10 bucks, that's great. and if you can drop $1,000 without blinking, that's great, too. we need everybody's help in this fight. i'm not going to turn away anyone who wants to help us defeat donald trump. we need democrats who have been with us all along, yes, but we also need independents worried about the direction of the country. if you are a republican disgusted with what's going on in your own party, we're not going to agree on everything, but we need you in this fight and i will welcome you to our side. >> thank you, mr. mayor. senator warren, 45 seconds to respond. >> so the mayor just recently had a fund-raiser that was held in a wine cave full of crystals and served $900 a bottle wine. think about who comes to that. he had promised that every fund-raiser he would do would be

open-door, but this one was closed-door. we made the decision many years ago that rich people in smoke-filled rooms would not pick the next president of the united states. billionaires in wine caves should not pick the next president of the united states. >> mr. mayor, your response? >> you know, according to "forbes" magazine i am the -- literally the only person on this stage who is not a millionaire or a billionaire. so if -- this is important. this is the problem with issuing purity tests you cannot yourself pass. it's my pledge -- if i pledge never to be in the company of a progressive democratic donor i couldn't be up here. senator, your net worth is 100 times mine. now, supposing that you went home feeling the holiday spirit, i know this isn't likely, but stay with me, and decided to go on to peteforamerica.com and

give the maximum allowable by law, $2,800. would that pollute my campaign because it came from a wealthy person? no, i would be glad to have that support. we need help from everybody who is committed to defeating donald trump. >> we would like to bring in everyone, but obviously senator warren, we'd like to give you a chance to respond. >> i do not sell access to my time. i don't do call time -- >> hold on a second. >> with millionaires and billionaires. >> as of when, senator? >> i don't meet behind closed doors with big dollar donors. and, look, i've taken one that ought to be an easy step for everyone here. i've said to anyone who wants to donate to me, if you want to donate to me, that's fine, but don't come around later expecting to be named ambassador because that's what goes on in these high-dollar fund-raisers. i said no and i asked everyone on this stage to join me.

this ought to be an easy step. and here's the problem, if you can't stand up and take the steps that are relatively easy, can't stand up to the wealthy and well-connected when it's relatively easy when you're a candidate then how can the american people believe you're going to stand up to the wealthy and well-connected when you're president and it's really hard? >> judy -- >> senator -- senator, i've got to respond to that. first of all, if you can't say no to a donor then you have no business running for office in the first place. but also, senator, your presidential campaign right now as we speak is funded in part by money you transferred having raised it at those exact same big ticket fund-raisers you now denounce. did it corrupt you, senator? of course not. so to denounce the same kind of fund-raising guidelines that president obama went by, that speaker pelosi goes by, that you yourself went by until not long ago in order to build the

democratic party and build a campaign ready for the fight of our lives, these purity tests shrink the stakes of the most important election -- >> judy. >> we'd like to bring everyone in. >> he addressed me. >> senator klobuchar had her hand up. >> i did not come here to listen to this argument. i came here to make a case for progress. and i have never even been to a wine cave. i've been to the win cave in south dakota, which i suggest you go to. so what is making a case for progress about? that is what unites us up here instead of what divides us, which is campaign finance reform. that means passing a constitutional amendment to overturn citizens united. it means making the first bill we pass when i am president will be h.r. 1, which is the ethics reform passed in the house,

which is currently sitting on mitch mcconnell's desk along with 400 bills and if you don't think we can get this done, well, we can, but only if we win this election big. >> thank you, senator klobuchar. >> not by arguing with each other but by finding what unites us and getting it done. i came to make a case for progress. >> thank you, senator klobuchar. >> i am -- >> senator sanders? >> i am rather proud maybe, i don't know, the only candidate up here that doesn't have any billionaire contributions. but you know what i do have? we have received more contributions from more individuals than any candidate in the history of the united states of america at this point in an election, averaging $18 apiece. now, there's a real competition going on up here. my good friend joe, and he is a good friend. he's received contributions from 44 billionaires. pete on the other hand is

trailing, pete, you only got 39 billionaires contributing. so pete, we look forward to you. i know you're an energetic guy and a competitive guy to see if you can take on joe on that issue. but what is not -- what is not a laughing matter, my friends, this is why three people own more wealth than the bottom half. this is why amazon and other major corporations pay zero in federal taxes. we need to get money out of politics. we should run our campaigns on that basis. >> thank you, senator sanders. vice president biden, 45 seconds to respond. >> my average contribution is $43. number one. that's number one. number two, the idea that the senator is suggesting that i am in the pocket of billionaires when in fact they oppose everything that i have ever done and continue to do. i have made sure from the very

beginning every one of my fund-raisers is open to the press. every single, solitary one, not one single time. period. and i've made sure that you know exactly where all the -- and the largest contribution i've accepted is $2,800, which is allowed under law, and i'm the first person to introduce the constitutional amendment to make sure that there is no -- all public funding of elections and all private funding. and we all should take a commitment and make a commitment to that right now on this stage. in the meantime, you got to fund a campaign, and we, in fact, have funded a campaign. average contribution $43. >> thank you, vice president. >> i would like to bring you in. >> listen, i'm running because this government is broken because it's purchased by corporations. i've spent ten years fighting those corporations and boating them and building grassroots organizations to push power down to the people. that's what i've been doing for a decade. but let me say this, there's someone who's loving this conversation and his name is donald trump. >> that's right. >> we know how he's going to

run. he's told us last week he looked at a group of americans and said, i don't like you, you don't like me, it doesn't matter. you're going to support me because the diplomats will destroy the economy in 15 minutes. we need to go after this guy. he's a different breed of -- and we need to beat him and we need to talk about prosperity. and i spent 25 years building a business. we're going to have to take him on on the economy, not have these kinds of conversations and tear each other down, but actually go after this corrupt president and beat him on the economy where he thinks he's king and where, in fact, he's a fraud and a failure. >> thank you, mr. steyer. we're going to end it there. >> i want to turn now to an issue that's been in the headlines quite a bit and that is immigration. mr. yang, we have a question here from a professor right here at loyola marymount. there are nearly 200,000 daca recipients, so-called dreamers in the state of california, more than any other state, including

several students here at lmu. if you win and you reinstate daca through executive action, another president could just overturn it again. so will you move an awe permanent legislative fix for dreamers in your first 100 days, if elected? >> of course i would. i'm the son of immigrants myself and i know that dreamers are essentially americans in everything but this legal classification. i just want to return to this conversation because i think it's core. our country is deeply misogynist and almost all of us no that. money and men are tied together. that's where i thought elizabeth was taking the conversation. the fact is strong societies would elect more female leaders. strong men treat women well for the same reasons. i'm on the record saying that you need both strong men and female leaders in government because the fact is if you get too many men alone and leave us alone for a while, we kind of become morons.

[ cheers and applause ] >> so it's related to our campaign finance rules because right now the fact is we operate in a fundamentally anti-woman marketplace, and that includes the marketplace for politicians. if we were to put $100 democracy into the hands of every american voter instead of 5% contributing, you'd see that rate skyrocket to 50% or 60% and you'd have many, many more women who would run for office because they don't have to go shake the money tree in the wine cave. >> could i address -- >> i'd like to follow up. the question again, in yang, was about immigration -- you pledged to move on a permanent legislative fix in your first 100 days. dreamers say that they are frustrated by democrats' failure to prioritize their status in deal after deal, so why should dreamers trust democrats now? >> i believe everyone on this stage would do the right thing by dreamers in the first 100 days. i would make it a top priority.

i'm the son of immigrants myself. the fact is almost half of fortune 500 companies were started by abimmigrant or children of immigrants. immigrants make our country stronger and more dynamic and immigrants are being scapegoated for issues they have absolutely nothing to do with. if you do to the factory in michigan it's not wall-to-wall immigrants, it's wall-to-wall robot arms and machines. we have to send the opposite message of this administration. as your president i could send a very clear message, if you are considering immigrating to this country and i'm the president you would realize my son or daughter can become president of the united states. that's the opposite of the current administration and that's the message i would love to send to the world. >> thank you, mr. yang. senator sanders, a related question to you -- >> donald trump. >> i have a new question for you, you can respond to mr. yang's comment -- >> i can't respond to the immigration question? >> this is related, sir. there are estimated to be as many as 12 million undocumented immigrants in the u.s., more than 2 million right here in

california. if you have a chance to forge a bipartisan immigration reform plan would you insist on a path to citizenship for all 12 million or just a segment of that population? >> no, this is what i would do. day one, executive order, restore the legal status of 1.8 million young people in the daca program. day one we change border policy so that federal agents will never snatch babies from the arms of their mothers. day one. day one, we introduce bipartisan legislation which will, in fact, be comprehensive, which will result in a path toward citizenship for all of the 11 million who are undocumented. that is what the people of our country want. trump thinks mistakenly that he is going to win re-election by dividing us up.

we are going to win this election by bringing our people together, black and white and latino, native american, asian american. that's what this campaign is about. that's what america must be about. >> senator klobuchar? >> thank you. i started my day to day with a group of immigrants who were there talking to me about housing, and i thought about this president and what he's done. he has used our immigrants as political pawns eve. every single day he tries to draw a wedge. i will be a different president. my view on this comes from experience. he when i got to the senate, senator kennedy asked me to be one of the two new senators that was in the group to work on the immigration reform package. we got so close to passing that. i voted for it. not everyone did. but most of the democrats did. then i was on the judiciary

committee when president obama was president and we worked very hard on that immigration reform. we actually passed that with republican votes. then i was in the small group that worked on the compromise on the dreamers that would have solved that problem. we didn't get that done because this president gut punched us. >> thank you, senator. >> i will take my views, i will take my experience, i will get this done because immigrants don't diminish america, they are america. >> thank you, senator. mr. steyer, brief response. >> listen, i think it's important to note that this president is not against immigration he's against immigration by nonwhite people. >> yes. >> this is his attempt to divide us, as senator sanders said, on race. and that's what he's been doing since the very first day he started running for president. he's been vilifying nonwhite people. he's been trying to inflame his base and scare them that if, in fact, white people lose control

of this country that they're going to lose control of their lives. and as somebody who lives in a majority minority state which is california, what he's doing is so wrong on so many different levels. i agree with senator sanders, we have to reframe this argument completely. we have to go back to the idea that every american is worth being a full human being on every right. this is a racial argument by a racist president who is trying to divide us and who is vilifying people. it's absolutely wrong and it's led him to break the laws of humanity in our name. >> thank you, mr. steyer. mayor buttigieg, a new question to you, mr. mayor. you said last month that the u.s. owes compensation to children separated from their families at the southern border. the consensus among child welfare experts is that those thousands of children will likely suffer lifelong trauma as a result of that separation. are you committing as president

to financial compensation for those thousands of children? >> yes and they should have a fast track to citizenship. because what the united states did under this president to them was wrong. we have a moral obligation to make right what was broken. and on the larger issue of immigration, my understanding of this issue isn't theoretical. it's not something i formed in committee rooms in washington. begins with the fact that my household, my family came from abroad. my father immigrated to this country and became a u.s. citizen. it comes from the fact that i'm the mayor of a city where neighborhoods left to dying are coming back to life largely because of the contributions of latino immigrants. i've seen the same neighborhoods shut down, families huddling in church panicking just because of the rumor of an i.c.e. raid. that did not make our country safer. >> could i respond? >> we have to look into the eyes of an 8-year-old boy whose father was deported, even though he had nothing so much as a

traffic ticket against his name, and try to think of something to tell that boy because i couldn't tell him what he most wanted to hear, which is just that he was going to have his dad back. how can harming that young man possibly make america safer? >> mr. mayor, just -- >> when i am president, based on those experiences i will make sure that this is a country of laws and of values. and that means not only ending these unspeakable cruel practices at the border, but finally and truly fixing the immigration system that has needed a full overhaul since the 1980s. we cannot wait four years, ten years, we cannot wait anymore to do something about it. >> thank you, mr. mayor. just to follow up, since you do support compensation for though families, should the u.s. also compensate descendants of enslaved people? do you support reparations for african-americans? >> i support hr 40, the bill proposed to establish a commission on reparations. we shouldn't wait for that

commission to do its work to do things that are reparative. remember, we're not talking about a gift to anybody. we're talking about mending what was broken. we're talking about the generational theft of the wealth of generations of african-americans. and just crossing out a racist policy and replacing it with a neutral one is not enough to deliver equality. harms compound, just like a dollar saved in its value compounds over time. so does the value of a dollar stolen. and that is why the united states must act immediately with investments in minority-owned businesses, with investments in health equity, with investments in hbcus and on the longer term look at reparations so that we can mend what has been broken. >> vice president biden, do you support reparations? >> look, let me -- since i haven't spoken on this, got a chance. number one, the reason we're the country we are is because of immigration. we've been able to cherry pick

the best from every single continent. the people that come here have determination, resilience, they are ready to stand up and work like the devil. we have 24 out of every 100 children in our schools today is hispanic. the idea that we are going to walk away and not provide every opportunity for them is not only stupid and immoral but it's bad for america. they are the future of america. and we should invest in them. everybody will benefit from it. every single american. and you should get used to it. this is a nation of immigrants. that's who we are. that's why we're who we are. that's what makes us different and we should invest in them. >> thank you, mr. biden. senator klobuchar, you had your hand up. >> well, i was harkening back -- i made my case on immigration to what the mayor said about washington. so i look at this a different way. when we were in the last debate, mayor, you basically mocked the hundred years of experience on

the stage. and what do i see on this stage? i see elizabeth's work starting the consumer financial protection bureau and helping 29 million people. i see the vice president's work in getting $2 billion for his cancer moon shot. i see senator sanders' work of working to get the veterans bill passed across the aisle and i see what i've done, which is to negotiate three farm bills and be someone that actually had major provisions put in those bills. so while you can dismiss committee hearings, i think this experience works and i have not denigrated your experience as a local official. i have been one. >> you know -- >> i just think you should respect our experience. >> sorry. >> when you look at how you evaluate someone who can get things done. >> thank you, senator. mr. mayor, i'll give you a chance to respond. >> you actually did denigrate my experience, senator, and it was before the break and i was going to let it go because we've got bigger fish to fry here, but you

implied -- >> i don't think we have bigger fish to fry than picking a president of the united states. >> you're right. and before the break you seemed to imply that my relationship to the first amendment was a talking point. as if anyone up here has any more or less commitment to the constitution than anybody else up here. let me tell you about my relationship to the first amendment. it is part of the constitution that i raised my right hand and swore to defend with my life. that is my experience. and it may not be the same as yours, but it counts, senator. it counts. >> thank you, mr. mayor. senator klobuchar, 45 seconds to respond. >> i certainly respect your military experience. that's not what this is about. this is about choosing a president. and i know my view of this is i know you ran for to be chair of the democratic national committee. that's not something that i wanted to do. i want to be president of the united states. and the point is we should have someone heading up this ticket

that has actually won and been able to show that they can gather the support that you talk about of moderate republicans and independents as well as a fired up democratic base. and not just done it once, i have done it three times. i think winning matters. i think a track order of getting things done matters and i also think showing our party that we can actually bring people with us, have a wider tent, have a bigger coalition and, yes, longer coattails, that matters. >> thank you, senator. yamiche? >> excuse me -- >> i got to respond to that. i got to respond to that. senator, i know that if you just go by vote totals, maybe what goes on in my city seems small to you. if you want to talk about the capacity to win, try putting together a coalition to bring you back to office with 80% of the vote as a gay dude in mike pence's indiana.

>> again, i would -- mayor, if you -- if you had won in indiana that would be one thing. you tried and you lost by 20 points. i'm sorry. that's just the fact. >> excuse me -- >> let's talk about how we win an election, which is something everybody here wants to do in terms of the terms of defeating the most dangerous president in american history. let me tell you how you do it. you have the largest voter turnout in the history of america and you don't have -- you don't have the largest voter turnout unless you create energy and skiept. excitement. and you don't create energy and excitement unless you are prepared to take on the people who own america and are prepared to speak to the people who are working in america. we need a progressive agenda. medicare for all. raising the minimum wage to a living wage. leading the world in combatting

climate change. making public colleges and universities available to all because we have free tuition. >> thank you, senator sanders. >> and cancelling all student debt in this country. >> thank you, senator sanders. i'd like to turn to a new subject, and that is, of course, education. senator warren, you proposed free public college tuition and student loan forgiveness for most families. why should wealthy families be able to send their kids to public college for free? why not concentrate that government help on those most in need? >> so as i've talked about before, i have a 2 cent wealth tax proposed for millionaires and billionaires and that gives us enough money to invest in all of our babies age 0 to 5, to put an historic $800 billion investment in public schools k through 12 and that will permit us to offer technical school, two-year college, four-year college for every single person

who wants an education, cancel student loan debt for 50 -- put up $50 billion investment in our historically black colleges and universities and cancel student loan debt for 43 million american. look, this is about money but this is also about values. we need to make an investment in our future, and the best way to do that is let's invest in the public education of our children. that starts when they're babies and it goes long after high school. we want to have families -- i meet families every day in the selfie lines who talk about what o that's why i have a proposal popular among democrats, popular among republicans, popular among independents to ask those at the top to pay a little more so someone can get rid of that student loan debt, so they can make an investment in themselves, start a small business, buy a car, create a

future for themselves and for this country. >> thank you, senator. i see some hands but i want to go to mayor buttigieg. >> can i respond? >> mayorbuttigieg, your plan offers free or discounted public college only to families making up to $150,000 a year. do you think senator warren's plan offers free college to too many families? >> i do think that if you're in that lucky top 10%, i still wish you well, don't get me wrong, i just want you to go ahead and pay your own tuition. now, we can still have public service loan forgiveness for those who go into lower income fields to deal with that, but if you're in the top 10%, i think you're going to be for the most part okay. and there is a very real choice on where every one of these tax dollars goes. so i very much agree with senator warren on raising more tax revenue from millionaires and billionaires. i just don't agree on the part about spending it on millionaires and billionaires when it comes to their college tuition. >> wait, wait, wait, no, he mentioned me by name.

>> i'm going to let you respond, senator warren. >> he mentioned me by name. look, the mayor wants billionaires to pay one tuition for their own kids. i want a billionaire to pay enough to cover tuition for all of our kids. because that's how we build a future. the other part is we've got to deal with student loan debt. and right now most of the people on this stage are nibbling around the edges of a huge student loan debt burden. that disproportionately affects people of color. african-americans are more likely to have to borrow money to go to school, more likely to borrow more money while they're in school and have a harder time paying it off. we want to make an investment in the future, then open up education for all of our kids. that's how we build -- >> thank you, senator. >> could i respond afterward? >> we believe -- i believe in the concept of universality. and one of the crises in america today is people are sick and

tired of filling out forms. you're not eligible for the program today because you're at 150, but you lost your job, you get a better job, you're eligible. i think what we have to do is what we do with social security, what we do with public education. donald trump's kids can go to a public school. they should be able to go to a public school. what we need right now is a revolution in education. we have got to end this dysfunctional childcare system and make sure that every working-class person in this country can find high-quality affordable childcare. we need to make public colleges and universities twiguition-fre and by taxing billionaires and by taxing wall street, we will cancel all student debt in this country. >> thank you, senator sanders. tim? >> switching gears here. mr. steyer, earlier this year in iowa i met a father, bill stumpf and his son kyle in dubuque.

kyle is a remarkable young adult with significant disabilities, and though he's been employed for about five years at a local pizza par lower, tlor, the futuy uncertain for his family. bill worries there aren't enough social programs and jobs designed to meet the needs of his son. as president, are there specific steps you would take to help people more like kyle to become integrated into the workforce and into their local communities? >> look, the united states has made a commitment to treat everybody equally, and that means supporting people with disabiliti disabilities both in terms of education and later when they're a part of the workforce. that means bringing the resources to bear to make sure that we're treating them fairly in school and after school to try to integrate them fully and to make them have as full a life as possible. the question we've got here across the board is can we

afford to do the kinds of things that senator sanders and senator warren are pushing? and the answer is yes. >> we can. >> that, in fact, what we need to do is to undo the tax breaks that have been given for two generations to rich americans and big corporations. last year corporate -- the top 400 corporations paid an 11% tax. that is absolutely ludicrous. >> could i answer the question? >> the answer on disabilities is a question of focus and money. as so many of these questions are. we have a country where the government is broken because corporations have bought it. they're getting their way. and for us to get back to government of, by and for the people that serves americans, including americans with disabilities, we're going to have to take that back. >> i have a son with special needs. >> i didn't hear a specific answer from mr. steyer, can you outline specific steps that the government should take to help integrate these young people into the workforce and into their local communities? >> i would love it. i have a son with special needs.

and to me special needs is the new normal in this country. how many of you have a family member or a friend or a neighbor with special needs or autism? if you look around, most hands went up. the fact is right now we have to do more for kyle. they need to become special needs adulting in many cases. here's the challenge. we go to employers and say, hey, this person can be a special contributor in your workplace, which might be correct, but that's not the point. we have to stop confusing economic value and human value. we have to be able to say to our kids and kyle that you have intrinsic value because you're an american and you're a human being. we're going to put a freedom dividend of $1,000 a month in everyone's hands which is going to help families around the country to adapt and then we're going to take this burden off of the communities and off of the schools who do not have the resources to support kids like my son and make it a federal priority not a local one, but not robbing peter to pay paul.

>> senator warren, 45 seconds to you, please. >> so, i was a special education teacher and i loved that work because it gave me the chance to work straight out to recognize the worth of every human being. i had 4 to 6 year olds who were in special ed. what do we need to do? that's why i have a plan as a special ed teacher to fully fund i.d.e.a. my housing plan is about investing in more housing across this country in rural america, in urban america, in small town america, but it's also about making sure that people who want to live independently, people who have disabilities will have housing available to them. i make a part of my jobs bill that we are going to make sure that as president i will make sure that the people who want to bid on federal contracts are treating people with disabilities fairly and paying

them fairly. you've got to go at it at every part of what we do because as a nation this is truly a measure of who we are. we believe in treating these the least of thy brethren as people of value, and that is how we make a better america. >> thank you senator warren. judy? >> i know we have a lot of hands up. we have so many important topics to discuss. i want to come to you, senator klobuchar, on the question of the judges. president trump has appointed, as we know, two supreme court justices, but he's also had confirmed nearly 200 federal judges, most of whom are young and could shape american law for decades to come. some of them you voted for in the senate, including one who just yesterday joined a ruling to strike down a key part of the affordable care act. would president trump's appointees, my question is, make

it harder for you as president, for anyone on the stage to enact your agenda? >> of course. and i want to make it clear that i've opposed many, many

>> if you look at my record as a lawyer and as a member of the judiciary committee, look at the judges that i recommended to president obama. people like mimi wright who is a superstar. and susan richard nelson. look at who i put in as the first openly gay marshal in the history of the united states. i did that because i knew that they were qualified people to take those jobs. and you need to do it not only with the right judges and have that know-how, but you also have to do it right away. that is one thing that we all learned from when president obama was in. and that was that he was dealing with an economic crisis, and it was hard to do it right away, but we have to immediately start putting judges on the bench to fill vacancies so that we can reverse the horrific nature of these trump judges. >> a follow-up to mayor buttigieg. beyond a pledge not to overturn

roe v. wade, which i believe all of you have said would be part of your decision-making in choosing a nominee to the court, are there other litmus tests that you would apply in choosing federal judges? >> the supreme court is very personal for me because my household -- my marriage exists by the grace of a single vote on that body. and, yes, it is critical that we have justices who understand that american freedom includes reproductive rights and reproductive freedom but that's not all. i expect an understanding that voting rights are human rights. i expect an understanding that equality is required of us all. and i expect a level of respect for the rule of law that prevents this body from coming to be viewed as just one more partisan battlefield, which is why i will not only appoint judges and justices who reflect this world view but also begin moving to reform the body itself. as our country has done at least

half a dozen times in its history. so that it is not one more political ballad field every single time a vacancy comes up. >> yamiche? >> senator sanders, at least 22 transgender people were killed in the united states this year. most of them transgender women of color. each of you have said you would push for the passage of the equality act, a comprehensive lgbtq civil rights bill, but if elected, what more would you do to stop violence against transgender people? >> we need moral leadership in the white house. we need a president who test test. >> we need a president who will do everything humanly possible to end-all forms of discrimination against the african-american community,

against the -- trying to bring our people together. what we also need for the transgender community is to make sure that health care is available to every person in this country regardless of their sexual orientation or their needs. and that is why i strongly support and have helped lead the effort for a medicare for all single payer program which will provide comprehensive health care to all people including certainly the transgender community. >> thank you, senator sanders. senator warren? >> the transgender community has been marginalized in every way possible and one thing that the president of the united states can do is lift up attention, lift up their voices, lift up their lives. here's a promise i make, i will

go to the rose garden once every year to read the names of transgender women, of people of color who have been killed in the past year. i will make sure we read their names so as a nation we are forced to address the particular vulnerability on homelessness. i will do everything i can to make sure we are an america that leaves no one behind. >> thank you, senator warren. anna? >> vice president biden, let's turn now to afghanistan. confidential documents published last week by the washington post revealed that for years, senior u.s. officials misled the public about the war in afghanistan. as vice president -- >> afghanistan, you said?

>> yes, sir, afghanistan. as vice president, what did you know about the state of the war and do you believe that you were honest with the american people about it? >> the reason i can speak to this is well-known, anyone who follows my view on afghanistan. i was sent by the president before we got sworn in to afghanistan to come back with a report. i said there was no comprehensive policy available. and then i got in a big fight for a long time with the pentagon because i strongly opposed the nation building notion we set about. rebuilding that country as a whole nation is beyond our capacity. i argued from the very beginning that we should have a policy that was based on an antiterrorism policy with a very small footprint that in fact only had special forces to deal with potential threats from that territory to the united states of america. the first thing i would do as president of the united states of america is to make sure that

we brought all combat troops home and entered into a negotiation with the taliban. but i would leave behind special forces in small numbers to be able to deal with the potential threat unless we got a real good negotiation accomplished to deal with terrorism. that's been my position from the beginning. that's why i think secretary gates and some members of the pentagon weren't happy with me. >> mr. biden, the question was about your time in the white house, though. >> i'm talking about the white house. >> in that "washington post" report there's a senior national security official who said there was constant pressure from the obama white house to produce figures showing the troop surge was working. and i'm quoting from the report here, despite hard evidence to the contrary. what do you say to that? >> in 2009 i was on the opposite side of that with the pentagon. the only reason i can speak to that is because it's been published, it's been published thoroughly. i'm the guy who from the beginning argued it was a big, big mistake to surge forces to afghanistan.

period. we should not have done it. and i argued against it constantly. >> senator sanders, you had your hand up. >> in all due respect to my -- joe, joe, you're also the guy who helped lead us into the disastrous war in iraq. what we need to do is, i think, rethink, and the "washington post" piece was very educational, what we need to rethink is the entire war on terror. we have lost thousands of our own men and women, brave soldiers. hundreds of thousands if not millions of people have been killed abroad or forced to leave their countries. it is time right now that we bring this world together to try to end these endless wars and address the root causes which are causing these wars. >> senator sanders, you do often point to your vote against the war in iraq as evidence of your judgment in foreign policy, but

you did vote for the war in afghanistan. as recently as 2015 you said you supported a continued u.s. troop presence there. was that support a mistake? >> well, only one person, my good friend barbara lee, was right on that issue. she was the only person in the house to vote against the war in afghanistan. she was right. i was wrong. so was everybody else in the house. but to answer your question, i don't think you do what trump does and make foreign policy decisions based on a tweet at 3:00 a.m. in the morning or desert your long-time allies in the kurds. you remove all your troops over a period of time, a short period of time, one year. >> thank you, senator sanders. mayor buttigieg, you have pledged to withdraw all u.s. troops from afghanistan within your first year as president.

but the taliban today control or contest more than half the country. so should you as president still withdraw all those u.s. troops if the country could once again become a haven for terrorists? >> we're going to leave one way or the other. the question is to make sure we do it well and not poorly. and of course that has to respond to the conditions on the ground and the need for a political settlement. but you know, the other day i was reunited with somebody i served with over there. and the thing we were marveling at is how long it's been since we left. i thought i was one of the last troops turning out the lights when i left years ago, and we're still there. there may need to be some kind of limited special operations and intelligence capacity. the exact same kind of thing that we had in syria, holding the line before the president yanked it out, leading to the road to chaos. but what we know is that we

cannot go on with these endless wars. and i'm glad that the name of barbara lee was mentioned, not only because of what she's talked about years ago. i believe we had no choice but to go to afghanistan after 9/11. but right now she with one of the leaders of the effort to repeal and replace authorization for the use of military force and the folks that i served with deserve that. they deserve the clarity of members of congress being able to summon the courage to take an up or down vote. when i am president, any time, if i am forced to deploy troops into war, any time we seek an authorization, it will have a three-year sunset. so that if there really does have to be a conversation about extending it, it has to be brought to congress, brought to the american people, and those members of congress have to take that tough up or down vote. >> thank you, mr. mayor. tim? >> moving to health care, an issue that voters tell us every day is still the number one priority for them, senator sanders, you've spent plenty of time discussing and defending

the merits of your medicare for all plan. but the reality is if republicans retain control of the u.s. senate or even if democrats win back a narrow senate majority, your plan as constituted probably would not have the votes to pass congress. so the question, senator, is if congress rejects your plan and the american people are looking to you for leadership on this issue, are there smaller specific measures that you would take immediately to expand coverage and decrease costs as president? >> tim, at a time when we're spending twice as much on health care as any nation, when 87 million people are uninsured or underinsured, when 30,000 people are dying each year because they don't get to a doctor when they should, and when a half a million people are going bankrupt because of the dysfunctional and cruel system

we currently have, you know what, i think we will pass a medicare for all single payer system and i will introduce that legislation my first week in office. to answer your question, i think when we go out to the american people and tell them that right now we have got to take on the greed and corruption of the pharmaceutical industry, for example, which in some cases charges us ten times more for the same exact drug as is charged in this country, when the american people understand that medicare for all expands medicare to cover home health care, dental care, eyeglasses, and hearing aids, and does it at a cost far, far lower than what some of my opponents are talking about, you know what, we're going to have the american people behind us. we will have congress behind us. >> thank you, senator sanders. vice president biden, i would like to bring you in. you spent an awful lot of time ten years ago trying to pass a bill far less ambitious than what senator sanders is talking about here. is he being realistic?

>> i don't think it is realistic. let me explain why. i introduced a plan to build on obamacare. to remind everybody, 20 million people got insurance who didn't have it before. all people with preexisting conditions were able to be covered. i can go on. we didn't get all that we wanted. now it's been exposed that taking it away has such dire consequences. i've added to the obamacare plan the biden initiative, which is a public option, medicare if you want to have medicare, reducing significantly the price of drugs, deductibles, et cetera, made by underwriting the plan to a tune of about $750 billion, and making sure we're able to cover everyone who is in fact able to be covered. put your hand down for a second, bernie, okay? >> just waving to you, joe. saying hello. >> i know. so look, it covers everybody. it's realistic. most important, it lets you choose what you want. here you have 160 million people negotiating their health care plans with their employer like

many of you have. you may or may not like it. if you don't like it, you can move into the public option i propose in my plan. but if you like it, you shouldn't have washington dictating to you you cannot keep the plan you have. >> thank you, vice president biden. senator sanders, 45 seconds to respond. >> under joe's plan essentially we retain the status quo. >> that's not true. >> it is exactly true. >> thank you. and by the way, joe, under your pln you asked me how we're going to pay for it. under your plan i'll tell you how we're paying for it right now. the average worker in america, makes $60,000 a year. that family is now paying %-p. under medicare for all, that family will be paying $1,200 a year because we're eliminating the profiteering of the drug companies and insurance companies and ending this byzantine and complex administration of thousands of

separate health care plans. >> my name was mentioned. >> i'm going to come to you for 45 seconds. >> i'm the only guy who has not interrupted. i'm going to interrupt now. it cost $30 trillion. let's get that straight. $30 trillion over ten years. some say it costs $20 trillion. some say it costs 40. the idea that you're going to be able to save that person making $60,000 a year on medicare for all is absolutely preposterous. 16% of the american public is on medicare now and everybody has a tax taken out of their paycheck now. tell me, you're going to add 84% more and there's not going to be higher taxes? at least before he was honest about it. it's going to increase personal taxes. >> that's right, we are going to increase personal taxes. but we're eliminating premiums, we're eliminating co-payments, we're eliminating deductibles, we're eliminating all out of

pocket expenses, and no family in america will spend more than $200 a year on prescription drugs. our plan will save the average worker. >> senator klobuchar. >> whoa, guys, hey. >> it's the first time i did this. >> okay. that's true. i'll say this. first of all, bernie, i promise, when i am your president, i will get our pharmaceutical bills done. and we have worked together on this time and time again. and i agree with you on that. but where i disagree is, i just don't think anyone has a monopoly on bold ideas. i think you can be progressive and practical at the same time. that is why i favor a public option which is a nonprofit option to bring the cost down. and yes, it does bring the cost down immediately for 13 million people and then we'll expand

coverage to 12 million people. but here's the political problem. this fight that you guys are having isn't real. your fight, bernie, is not with me or with vice president biden. it is with all those bunch of those new house members, not everyone by any means, that got elected in that last election in the democratic party. it is with the new governor, democratic governor of kentucky that wants to build on obamacare. and the way i look at it, if you want to cross a river over some troubled waters, you build a bridge. you don't blow one up. and i think that we should build on the affordable care act. >> senator warren, we would like to bring you in. >> she took my name in vain. she hurt my feelings, i'm crushed. can i respond? >> i would never, ever. >> 45 seconds, senator sanders. >> my fight, amy, is not with the governor of kentucky. my fight and all of our fights must be with the greed and corruption of the pharmaceutical

industry, with the greed and corruption of the insurance industry. these guys last year made $100 billion in profit and tens of millions of americans cannot afford to go to a doctor tonight. the day has got to come, and joe is not talking about it, amy is not talking about it, the day has got to come and i will bring that day about when we finally say that the drug companies and the insurance companies, the function of health care is to provide it to all our people in a cost effective way, not to make massive profits for the drug companies and insurance companies. >> senator warren, we would like to bring you into the discussion. the same question to you that i posed to senator sanders. if congress rejects the medicare for all proposal and you're the president, are there smaller specific measures that you could pursue with bipartisan support to decrease costs and expand coverage. >> so this is about costs.

it's about costs on middle class families. last year 36 million americans didn't have a prescription filled because they couldn't afford it. those are people with health insurance as well. people who can't do the co-pays, people who can't do the deductibles, people who find out that the drug is not covered. so here is how i approach this. i want to do the most good i can for the most people as quickly as possible. on day one, i'm going to attack the prices on commonly used drugs like epipens and insulin. the president can do this all by herself and i will do it. that's going to save families hundreds of millions of dollars. and then in the first 100 days, because i found a way to pay for full health care coverage for everyone without raising taxes on middle class families, i'm going to make available to people for a full health care

coverage for 135 million people. it will be at no cost at all. they can opt into that system. for others it will be at a low cost. we have got to start moving and move fast. >> we do have to move on. >> we can do that on 50 votes. >> thank you. judy? >> we are coming to the end of our time. a lot of hands up, we apologize for that. in the spirit of the season i would like to ask each one of you, is there someone else among these candidates that you would -- you have two options, one, a candidate from whom you would ask forgiveness for something maybe that was said tonight or another time, or, or, a candidate to whom you would like to give a gift. and i'm going to start with you, mr. yang. >> wow. [ applause ]

>> we can do a labor action and just all go on strike on this one, andrew. >> i don't think i have much to ask forgiveness for, you all can correct me on this. in terms of a gift, elizabeth has done me the honor of starting to read my book. >> yes. >> i would love to give each of you a copy of my book. [ applause ] it's about how we're going through the greatest economic transformation in our country's history, the fourth industrial revolution. it is grinding up our communities. and d.c. is out to lunch on this, our media organizations are not covering it adequately. i wrote a book on it and if you like data, this book is for you. this goes for the people at home too, if you like data and books. >> mayor buttigieg. mayor buttigieg, ask forgiveness or give a gift?

>> first of all, i love data and books, so i think we should all be excited about this. and come to think of it, i should probably send my book around more too. >> your publisher will thank you. >> i think all of us will want the same thing at the end of the day. we know what a gift it would be for the future, for the country for literally anybody up here to become president of the united states compared to what we've got. [ applause ] and we've got to remember, there are i don't know how many, we're up to 25 something have run for president in the democratic party. the moment we got nominated, the 24 who aren't that nominee are going to have to rally around the one who does. let's hope there's not too much to ask forgiveness for when that day comes. [ applause ] >> senator warren.

>> i will ask for forgiveness. i know that sometimes i get really worked up. and sometimes i get a little hot. i don't really mean to. what happens is when you do 100,000 selfies with people, you hear enough stories about people who are really down to their last moments. i met someone just last week in nevada who said that he has diabetes, and that he has access to a prescription because he's a veteran but his sister has diabetes and his daughter has diabetes and they simply can't afford insulin. so the three of them spend all of their time figuring out how to stretch one insulin prescription among three people. when i think about what we could do, if we get a majority in the house, a majority in the senate, and get back the white house, we

could make this country work for people like that man. and that's why i'm in this fight. [ applause ] >> vice president biden. >> i think everyone up here on this stage and those who are not on this stage who have run, we owe them, because they're all pushing for the exact same thing. you're not the only one who's done selfies, senator, i've done thousands of them, thousands of them. the crew who follows me tells you there's not one line i go through i don't have at least a half dozen people who say, can you help me, i lost my daughter ten days ago. can you help me i've just lost and they go out and lay out the problems. my wife and i have a call list of somewhere between 20 and 100 people that we call every week or every month and tell them, i'm here. i give them my private phone number.

they keep in touch with me. the little kid who says i can't talk, what do i do. i have scores of these young women and men who i keep in contact with. and the reason i would give everyone here a gift is because they want to do something like i do, making their lives better because there's a lot of people who are hurting very, very, very badly. >> senator sanders, forgiveness or a gift? >> i can give out any one of four books that i wrote. but i think the gift that all of us need to give to the american people is a very, very different vision of the reality of the trump administration. and the vision that we need to bring forth is to create a government and a nation based on love and compassion, not agreed and hatred. we need a vision which says that in our great country, all of our

people should be able to earn a decent standard of living, have health care, have the ability to send their kids to college, regardless of their income. so we need a new vision which brings our people together around an agenda that works for all, not the trump vision of dividing us up to benefit the billionaire class. that's my vision. >> senator klobuchar. >> well, i would ask for forgiveness any time any of you get mad at me. i can be blunt. but i am doing this because i think it is so important to pick the right candidate here. i do. i think when you see what's going on around the country, yes, it's the economic check that elizabeth and bernie so well pointed out on this stage,

but there's something else going on here, and it is a decency check. it is a values check. it is a patriotism check. when you see people, and we've all had this happen, that come to our meetings and say, you know, yeah, i voted for donald trump, but i don't want to do it again, because i want my kids to be able to watch the president on tv and not mute the tv. we have to remember as democrats, and if i get worked up about this, it's because i believe it so much in my heart, that we have to bring people with us and not shut them out. that is the gift we can give america in this election. >> mr. steyer. [ applause ] >> so, look, this is the holiday season. and what i'm hearing from every single one of these candidates is that they've gone around the united states and what they've seen from this administration and what they've seen from the republican party is cruelty

towards the people of the united states for money. so when i think about the gift i would like to give, i think it starts with cruelty when children are born, and it goes right through life into pre-k, education, health care, a living wage. there is cruelty to working people, there is cruelty to seniors. so the gift that i would like to give everyone on this stage, which was the original question, is the gift of teamwork, because the question up here is, how are we together going to change this framework. how are we together going to beat this corrupt and criminal president. how are we going to stand up for the people of the united states together, not by tearing each other down, but by supporting each other and by realizing that what we stand for is the true value of america and as a team, that's how we're going to do it. as americans, we're going to

come together to stand up for the original values, freedom, equality, justice, teamwork. [ applause ] >> we are going to take a very short break. that does conclude our questions tonight here at loyola marymount university. we'll be back in just two minutes to hear the candidates' closing statements.

once again judy woodruf. >> welcome back to the pbs hour debate and now it's time for closing statements. each have 50 seconds beginning

with mr. steyer. >> i'm different from everybody else on this stage and here's why. i'm running because corporations have bought our government and we need to return power to the people. for the last ten years that's exactly what i've been doing, taking on unchecked corporate power. that's why i'm for term limits because if we're going to have bold change, we need new people in charge and new ideas. i'm the only person on this stage who has built a large multibillion dollar international business. i know how to grow prosperity. i can take on mr. trump on the economy and beat him. i'm the only one on this stage who said climate is my number one priority. it's a crisis we have to deal with but it's also our greatest opportunity to create millions of good paying union jobs across the country and clean up the air and water in the black and brown communities where it's so essential. so if you want to break the corporate strangle hold, beat mr. trump on the economy, and solve our climate crisis, i can deliver. and i'm asking for your vote.

>> mr. yang. sorry, my apology for interrupting. >> i know what you're thinking, america. how am i still on this stage with them? [ applause ] our campaign is growing all the time because we are laser focused on solving the real problems that got donald trump elected in the first place. i spent seven years helping create thousands of jobs in detroit, baltimore, new orleans, and other cities, serving as an ambassador of entrepreneurship under president obama and i saw firsthand what many of you already know. our country is falling apart. our senior citizens are working until the day they die. our kids are addicted to smartphones or drugs. we're seeing record high levels of depression and suicides, overdoses. our companies are recording record profits while our people are literally dying younger. our way of life is changing faster than ever and the simple fact is this.

our politicians in d.c. succeed whether we the people succeed or fail. washington, d.c. today is the richest city in our country. what do they produce? bad decisions? we need to get the money out of d.c. and into your hands, the hands of the american people. join us at yang2020.com and help us rewrite the rules of the 21st century economy to work for us. [ applause ] >> senator klobuchar. >> we have had quite a debate tonight. i want to debate donald trump. this primary comes down to some simple questions. who has the best ideas, the best experience, mostly who can beat donald trump, and how will she do it. so donald trump built his fortune on, over time, over $413 million that he got from his dad. my grandpa, he was an iron ore miner, a union member.

he saved money in a coffee can in the basement to send my dad to a community college. that's my family trust. i figure if you are given opportunity, you don't go into the world with a sense of entitlement. you go into it with a sense of obligation. an obligation to lift people up instead of hoarding what you have for yourself. our politics right now, because of donald trump, are toxic. we need a leader who can bring people together and who can win that way. so if you are tired of the extremes in our politics and the noise and the nonsense, you have a home with me. if you want a bigger tent and a wider coalition and longer coattails, join me. we will win at amyklobuchar.com. >> thank you. [ applause ] >> mayor buttigieg. >> so the nominee is going to have to do two things. defeat donald trump and unite the country as president.

it's a tall order. and in order to do it, we're going to need a nominee and a president who can respond to the crisis of belonging that is gripping our nation today. that means building up a politics that is defined not by who we exclude, not by who we reject, but by how many people we can call to this side. i have seen so many people capable of forming that multiracial, multigenerational coalition. and i am seeing more and more people who maybe have not felt welcome in the democratic party before but belong here now because they're definitely not on board with what's going on in the trump white house. i am asking you to join me, to vote for me, to caucus for me, and to help us build that future defined not by exclusion but by belonging. [ applause ]

>> senator warren. >> did you call my name? this is a dark moment in america. and yet i come here tonight with a heart filled with hope. all three of my brothers served in the military. they're all retired. they're all back in oklahoma. one is a democrat. two are republicans. but you know what unites my three brothers? amazon. they are furious that amazon reported $10 billion in profits and paid zero in taxes. my brother is a part of why america is ready to root out corruption and fight back. and that gives us a base to work from. america is ready for a 2 cent wealth tax supported by republicans, democrats, and independents. and it lets us invest in all of our children. america is ready to expand social security payments and

disability payments by $200 a month. and we can do it. you know, if someone asked what this would mean, you just give somebody $200 a month, a lady who wanted it said, you know what it will mean to me, i can get a prescription filled and i can still buy toilet paper the same week. that's where americans are right now. i am not working for millionaires and billionaires. i'm here to work for the tens of millions of people across this country who are ready to build an america that won't just work for those at the top but that will work for everyone. >> thank you, senator. [ applause ] >> senator sanders. >> 45 years, americans have been listening to great speeches. and at the end of the day, the average american worker is not making a nickel more than he or

she did in real wages over those 45 years. the truth is that real change always takes place, real change, always takes place from the bottom on up, never from the top on down. and that is why in this campaign i am so proud that we have over 1 million volunteers. we have some of the strongest grassroots organizations. we have raised more individual contributions than any candidate in american history. please join the political revolution at berniesanders.com. let's defeat trump. let's transform this country. thank you. [ applause ] >> and finally, vice president biden. >> thank you very much for listening, seven days out from christmas. thank you very much. look, we all have big progressive plans. and the question is who can

deliver on those plans. it seems to me we have to ask ourselves three questions, straight up and honestly, who has the best chance, most likely chance of defeating donald trump, who is the one most likely to do that. number two, who can help elect democrats to the united states senate in states like north carolina and georgia and arizona and other states. and thirdly, who can deliver legislatively. that requires you to look at our records. i have a significant record of getting significant things done from the chemical weapons treaty in foreign and domestic policy alike. so i think asking those questions, i believe, as you would expect, that i'm the most qualified to answer those three questions. but most of all we have to level with the american people. don't play games with them, tell them the truth and be authentic. god bless you all and may you have a great holiday season. thank you guys for doing this as well. >> thank you. thank you very much. [ applause ] and that concludes the "pbs news

hour"/politico debate. i want to thank my colleagues at the moderator table, tim alberta, anna awaz and yamiche alcindor. thank you all for joining us. please stick around and watch pbs for some analysis. thank you to the candidates. i'm going to interrupt now. >> front-runner joe biden showing more confidence on the debate stage in the final democratic showdown of the year. >> billionaires in wine caves should not pick the next president. >> wine caves is now trending after the candidates trade shots about wealth and rich donors.

welcome to our viewers in the united states and around the world. this is an early, early start. i'm chris mean romans. >> i'm dave briggs, friday, december 20th, 3:37 a.m. in new york. there are the caucuses and that's where we start with the 2020 field and a strong night for front-runner joe biden at the sixth democratic presidential debate last night the former vice president appeared in command as did pete buttigieg. the southbound indiana mayor now more of a target and still holding on as front-runner in most iowa polls. this will also go down as the debate that made wine caves a thing. >> billionaires in wine caves should not pick the next president, and i have never even been to a wine cave. i've been to the wind cave in south dakota. >> we don't have to go shake the money tree in the wine cave.

>> i've been to both the wind cave in south dakota and to wine caves, frankly. jeff zeleny in los angeles with more. >> reporter: the last democratic presidential debate of the year ends with joe biden standing strong at the center of the stage. certainly one of his strongest debate performances that he has had all yearlong. he of course struggled with debates throughout the summer and fall. but appearing at ease, appearing strong. >> i refuse to accept the notion as some on this stage do that we can never, ever get to a cooperation where we have cooperation again. if anyone has reason to be angry with republicans, it's me. >> pete buttigieg coming under fire from elizabeth warren for his fund-raising practices to amy klobuchar he took it all in stride and certainly responded

and held his own. >> if you want to talk about the capacity to win, try putting together a coalition to bring you back to office with 80% of the vote as a gay dude in mike pence's indiana. >> the mayor just recently had a fund-raiser that was held in a wine cave full of crystals and served $900 a bottle wine. think about who comes to that. >> according to forbes magazine i'm literally the only person on this stage who's not a millionaire or billionaire. so this is important. this is the problem with issuing purity tests you cannot yourself pass. >> reporter: it'll be up to voters to sort of determine the reaction to this. but bernie sanders also, if you were a bernie sanders fan before

this debate you're certainly one after the debate. >> maybe an american president, ie bernie sanders, can lead the world instead of spending mub money to kill each other, maybe we pool our resources and fight our common enemy which is climate change. >> reporter: amy klobuchar probably gained the most because she had a lot of attention on her, a lot of time to make her case. but now all the candidates head to iowa for campaigning. we are 45 days before those iowa caucuses. that starts the 2020 campaign. >> no surprise the first question out of the gate last night was about president trump's impeachment. here's what some of the candidates said. >> now in the senate he's taken a constitutional oath to uphold our constitution, and that doesn't mean loyalty to an individual, loyalty to a political party. it means loyalty to our country.

>> we cannot give in to that sense of helplessness, because that's what they want. >> what we have to do is we have to stop being obsessed over impeachment and actually start digging in and solving the problems that got donald trump elected in the first place. >> former white house press secretary sarah sanders now admitting she was disrespectful and apologizing to mr. biden after tweeting about this moment in the debate. >> my wife and i have a call list of somewhere between 20 and a hundred people that we call at least every week or every month to tell them i'm here. i give them my private phone number, they keep in touch with me. the little kid that says i -- i can't talk, what do i do? >> in a now deleted tweet sanders appears to mock

stutters. the backlash was immediate. at first sanders tried to suggest her post was not about stuttering but she eventually removed her tweet after sanders tweeted back studdering is something he's worked his whole life to overcome. >> andrew yang was one of the last to qualify for last night's debate. >> it's both an honor and disappointment to be the lone candidate of color on the debate stage tonight. but black and latinos have something much more powerful working against them than words. they have numbers. the average net worth of a black household is only 10% that of a white household. for latinos it's 12%. >> yang pivoted to a main focus of his platform, the universal

income. he said he guarantees if it already existed he would not have been the only candidate of color up there. >> senator elizabeth warren drew wild applause when she fired back a question about her age during the debate when the moderator noted she would be the oldest president ever nugerated if she wins in 2020. she didn't miss a beat. >> senator warren, you'd be the oldest president ever inaugurated. i'd like you to weigh in as well. >> i'd also be the youngest woman ever ninaugurated. >> she would be 71ats the time of inauguration if elected. i don't think anyone looks at elizabeth warren or listens to elizabeth warren and says she seems older. >> not at all. bernie sanders led the pack at over 20 minutes and biden spoke for more than 15 minutes.

steyer and yang trailed further back. ahead the term wine cave getting a lot of because after the debate. will it continue to resonate into the first primaries and caucuses? we discuss next.

seven candidates in the final democratic debate of the year, and this was the debate of the wine cave. what was that all about? pete buttigieg held a big

fund-raiser this month at a california winery in its so-called wine cave under a s r ovsky crystal chandelier. >> the mayor just recently had a fund-raiser that was held in a wine cave full of crystals and served $900 a bottle wine. >> i am literally the only person on this stage who's not a millionaire or a billionaire. >> i do not sell access to my time. i don't do call time with millionaires and billionaires -- >> hold on, senator. senator, your presidential campaign right now as we speak is funded in part by money you transferred having raised it at those exact same big ticket fund raisers you now denounce. >> buttigieg said democrats are in the fight of their lives and

shouldn't try to beat president trump with, quote, one hand tied behind our back. >> joining us from washington to talk, nathan gonzalez, he's a cnn political analyst. appreciate you leading us off here on team no sleep, so let's talk about the wine cave exchange, and who do you think got the best of it? >> well, how honest are we being this morning? i admit i helped put my kids to bed, went to watch star wars and watched the debate while wrapping christmas presents. so it's been a long night -- >> no spoilers please on star wars -- >> i definitely won't. >> a long christmas week ahead of us. >> i definitely won't. couple of things about the wine cave moment. the first is that as we get closer to iowa, things are going to get testier, more divisive because someone has to win. and if you're not leading in the polls you want to get to that

point and you have to bring the person you perceive to be the threat or front-runner, you have to bring that person down. the other thing that came to mind is if a candidate can't handle these attacks or back and forth in a primary, how are they going perform when they got on a debate stage with president trump? i know it pains some democrats to listen to this but you'd rather have some of this come out now rather than eight months from now. >> trying to differentiate each other from one another but at the same time also trying to chip away something that really is in the president's back pocket. many economists say if the election were held today just on the economy not on personality, impeachment and other things, this president would have a clear advantage. here are the candidates trying to show that the trump economy doesn't work for everyone.

>> the middle class is not as behind the eight ball. we have to eliminate a significant number of these god-awful tax cuts that were given to the very wealthy. >> trump goes around saying the economy is doing great. you know what real einflation accountable for wages went up last year 1.1%. that ain't great. >> people are not getting paid enough. that is not the result of some mysterious cosmic force. it's the result of bad policy. >> there's a break through? >> i think when talking about the economy we're talking to i think both these candidates and the president are talking to a very limited number of people who haven't made up their mind already. the vast majority of americans have already decided whether they like president trump or not or going to vote for him or against him. but it's that economy peacekeeping the president afloat. because even some people who

don't like the tweets and rallies and when he's attacking late members of congress, they don't like that but they still believe the economy is head in the right direction. so if that slips over the next year then the president is really on unfirm ground to say the least with independent voters, and he has a rally to unify the democratic base ready to vote him out. >> and through the democratic side whether it was last night or throughout this entire debate process, it's relatively unchanged, too, similar to that trump dynamic. has anything changed the fundamental element of the field that joe biden is clearly a reluctant vulnerable front-runner and everyone else is just chasing him? >> i guess i'm just skeptical. that's part of the reason why i felt it was okay not to watch this wire to wire live. in the media we tend to treat everything as a game changer and

when the dust settles it usually doesn't change that much. joe biden is still the front-runner now even if he's behind in a couple of states and same thing with trump. if you look at his job approval rating going all the way through impeachment by the house, it's virtually unchanged. so i started skeptical things are game changes until the polling proves otherwise. >> what is i guess anal analysi horse race analsis of who did well last night? >> i think who the media declares the winner is important to the extent that person will get more attention, they'll get some positive media. but what does a candidate do with that and does it last?

for example, when senator kamala harris got a bump out of that debate it seems like years ago now but months ago she did get a significant bump but it didn't last and she's no longer in the race. >> the andrew yang supporters are thrilled. >> no spoilers please for star wars. >> don't worry. >> but i'm impressed with your fortitude. the impeachment of donald trump suddenly on pause this morning with capitol hill emptying out for the recess. two titans of congress have launched a staring contest to see who will blink first. nancy pelosi is holding back sending the impeachment case to the senate aiming to create pressure for a fair process in her view in order to remove the president. >> we'd like to see a fair

process but we'll see what they have, and we'll be ready for whatever it is. >> senate leader mcconnell baiting pelosi with claims she's withholding impeachment because she has cold feet. our lauren fox is on capitol hill. >> reporter: of course all day thursday there was an expectation of majority leader mitch mcconnell sitting down with the democratic leader to hash out when the senate trial for the president's impeachment would actually begin. they did meet, however they're still at an impasse. here's what majority leader mcconnell said about the sticking points. >> as of today, however, we remain at an impasse. we have the curious situation where following house democrats rush to impeachment. following weeks of pronouncement about the urgent situation, urgent situation. though prosecutors appeared to have developed cold feet.

>> democrats still wouldn't want to hear from their witnesses. remember schumer sent that letter to mcconnell over the weekend, and essentially they're arguing their position has not changed. they still want to hear from people like john bolton, as well as mick mulvaney, the acting chief oaf staff. that leaves mcconnell and schumer without a clear path or expectation for what will happen when the lawmakers return in january. >> thank you. now that he's impeached, president trump is looking for his vindication with a quick senate trial. the president's top gop ally senator lindsey graham said he spoke to the president who asked him why the democrats are holding up a transfer of impeachment to the senate. >> so he thinks he should have his day in court sooner rather than later. i don't know what they're up to in the house. this is political stunt. o it's not funny. it tells me they don't have

confidence in their case. >> cnn's jim acosta has more. >> reporter: even after being impeached president trump is not sounding apologetic for his comments on ukraine and the president's low blow aimed at dingell was an unforced error. >> now i understand they're playing games and they don't want to put in articles, their ridiculous, phony, fraudulent articles and i think they're not allowed to do that. here it's unconstitutional and a lot of other things, but they don't want to put them in because they're ashamed of them. >> the president used his apooerns in the oval office to introduce his newest and the president all but told reporters he's settled on pat cipollone to

be his lead counsel in the senate trial. this a leading evangelical christian magazine publishes an op-ed thursday calling for president trump's removal from office. in christianity today the editor-in-chief says the democrats have been after the president from day one, but he writes the facts in this instance are unambiguous. the president of the united states attempted to use his political power to ers a foreign leader. that is not only a violation of the constitution, more importantly it is profoundly immoral. he adds none of the president's positives can balance the moral and political danger we face under a leader of such grossly immoral character. ahead, "early start" continues right now. i'm going to interrupt now.

>> front-runner joe biden showing more confidence on the debate stage in the final democratic showdown of the year. >> billionaires in wive kaefbs should not pick the next president. >> wine caves is now trending after the candidates trade shots about wealth enriched donors. welcome to our viewers in the united states and around the world. this is "early start." >> it is 4:00 a.m. in new york, 45 days until the iowa caucuses. a strong night for front-runner joe biden. the former vice president appeared in command as did pete buttigieg. the south bend mayor indiana now more of a target with a sizable campaign war chest and still holding on as a front-runner in most iowa polls. and this will also go down as the debate that made wine caves a thing.

>> billionaires in wine caves should not bick the next president. >> and i have never ever been to a wine cave. i've been a to wind cave in south dakota. >> they don't have to go shake the money tree in the wine cave. >> reporter: the last democratic presidential debate of the year ends with joe biden standing strong. he of course struggled with debates throughout the summer, end of fall. but appearing at ease, appearing strong. >> i refuse to step the noegt as some on this stage do that we can never, ever get to a place where we have cooperation again. if anyone has reason to be angry with the republicans and not want to cooperate, they attack me, my son, my family. >> reporter: pete buttigieg coming under fair for his fund-raising practices. and pete buttigieg would be the youngest president ever elected

should he win the primary and beat president trump, he took it all in stride >> if you go by vote totals, what happens in my city seems small to you. try putting together a coalition to bring you back to office with 80% of the vote as a gay dude in mike pence's indiana. >> the mayor just recently had a fund-raiser that was held in a wine cave full of crystals and served $900 a bottle wine. think about who comes to that. >> according to "forbes" magazine, i'm literally the only person on this stage who is not a millionaire or a billionaire. so, if -- this is important. this is the problem with issuing purity tests you yourself cannot pass. >> reporter: it will be up to voters to determine the reaction to this