tour at the start of the great famine. is a terrific novel called transatlantic that turns on go have him as a character going to either. he says something. he said i find myself a direct quote, i find myself treated in ireland as a man, not as a cover. the irish were not racist. he said they welcomed him. big crowds turned up and he said he was appalled by the condition of the irish peasant. he said only an american south have a seen anything worse being slaves of course the former slaves have i seen anything worse than the condition of the irish peasant. they come to america. over 10 years would've told these blocks if there ever for it will take your jobs, douglas comments happened to the irish once they came here? they picked up a racist attitudes. the big question at the outbreak of the civil war which side with a beyond what they are told by

newspapers, fight to free the blacks because they'll come and take your terrible jobs. remember, they have the lowest realm. this is always the case f there's someone below you you don't want them to be free because you don't want them to take their job and there's a real split and abraham lincoln who if you haven't come to the conclusion that he was our greatest president, come to that conclusion. this is one of the bits of bril ains hardly known. he names the best irishman a general. so marks the minute the war breaks out, mar said he had said i'm against it but there's nothing we can do about it, we might as well not break up. he went south, he was treated as a gentleman. they treat us very well.

the minute the war breaks out, it changes him. he becomes more progressive than most if not all of the irish. this is the country that gave us refuge. this is the country ta took us in. i myself exile, i'm a fugitive, i'm wanted by the british empire yet i'm a friend of presidents in this country. we have no choice but the fight for the union. because lincoln had named him a general, he then forms the irish bregade. fighting 69, a malacia in new york city. >> before we leave the topic, can you talk about the new york riots, a pif -- pivotal moment. >> he performs in all the major

battles of the war. the irish couldn't organize a parade without getting into fisting cuffs. [laughter] >> they go down to the first civil run in bull horn, the irish did not run and suddenly all of the stories, where do these irish warriors come from. they get all of this amazing press. the cover of my book, after the battle of bull run, it was a lost for the union but a win for the irish because they proved themselves in battle. they went out and visit it had irish bregade. they fight in the bloodiest single day in american history. 23,000 casualties in one day.

.. >> when john f. kennedy goes to ireland in 1963, triumphant return of the irish, a few months before mr. kennedy is assassinated, he gives a speech to the irish parliament, and he talks about the boxwood sprigs that the irish brigade put under the caps. and he says by that blood sacrifice, that's what made them american. and then he gives to the people

of ireland a flag from that battle which was a harp and a sunburrst. and it -- burrst. -- burst. now back to the draft riots. 160,000 irish served on the union cause, and only two of the brigades had higher casualty rates. because of this, there's a lot of resentment by the middle part of the. it's not going well. the union is losing. they start a draft this 1863, but you want to talk about inequality? in that draft you could buy your way out for $200. so the rich never served the union cause unless they were noble, unless they had a higher calling. for $200 you could get out of the draft, or you could present a live person. so if i brought you in and said, bruce, you're going to take my place, i wouldn't have to serve. i would have paid you to be my body. this really ticked off the irish. they could not pay for this. and as they rolled the barrel in the first draft in american

history, the names that came out were heir began, o'malley, you know, all these irish names. and so they rioted. i will not ever excuse the riot. it was the darkest point in irish-american history. they strung up african-americans, they burned down buildings, they nearly destroyed new york. they would have killed mara because he stuck to the union til the very end had he not been in washington d.c. they went into a home where he was staying, took his portrait and burned it. it was -- there's no way you can excuse it. it was the darkest day, darkest week in irish-american history. but they felt they were unjustly taking the burden of what is to this day our worst war in terms of casualties. i want to talk, touch a little bit on -- i'm a military historian. it struck me that it's really interesting to see america arr as sort of -- marr as the

epitome of a nonprofessional soldier, and his immediate commanding officer, william tecumseh sherman. >> sherman and marr did not get along at all. here's what happened. the irish could fight and did fight, and they quickly became known as one of the best units in the war. robert e. lee on the other side, on is slave holders side said famously here comes those damn green flags again. [laughter] and every time they saw it, they knew they were in for a hell of a fight. they preferred to fight up close, just pure savagery. sometimes it was hand-to-hand combat as opposed to fighting long. but marr called sherman an envenomed martinet. [laughter] he had the gift of gab. sometimes it got ahead of him. [laughter] and sherman saw this quote in the newspapers and never forgot about it. sherman later wrote: i have the

irish brigade, thank god they can fight. but he couldn't stand the irish at all. one of the things was culture. you have to understand that between battles the irish would stage these massive festivals. while they're at war, they would have steeplechase races, they would have theater, they would have -- they would play their pipes and their fiddles til three in the morning. and, of course, they had a little liquor involved. [laughter] and a massive st. patrick's day events that were the toast of the union army. all the other union generals would come to. so marr tried to find some joy -- oh, and they would play hurling too. tried to find some joy in the margins of the slaughter, and all the cultural things which the irish are known for they all practiced in between these battles, and that rubbed the career officers the wrong way as well. some of them not. i mean, burnside praised them, and he loved going to these festivities. they would actually stage plays

while waiting to charge richmond in the peninsula campaign. they were only a couple miles from the confederate capital. you just couldn't keep that spirit down, and that's how they kept their spirits up, was to do all these things. >> marr complained to lincoln about sherman threatening to shoot him. do you remember? >> i don't remember the exact throat, but president lincoln said if general sherman is threatening to shoot you, mr. marr, i would take him at his word. [laugher] >> you kind of assess -- the war obviously took a tremendous emotional toll x he developed a relationship with a young private. >> right. let me talk about the relationship with his second wife. his first wife dies in child birth giving birth to their second sop. she dies at the age of 21, i

think, meagher will never see his son, by the way, because he can't go to back to island. but he falls in love with a woman who is everything he is not. she's a protestant, he's a catholic. she's an anglo-saxon, he's a celt. she's this reserved fifth avenue beauty from old line, wasp money, meagher is a fugitive. he writes this beautiful love letter to her where he asks her her hand -- for her hand in marriage, and he goes, i am here alone, i am a homeless exile, i have nobody, i have no family. i'm wanted by the british empire, you know? i'm nothing, but the greatest thing in my life was to find you. and if you will take me as your husband, i will share everything with you. take my past, take my heritage, let us join our lives together -- it's a beautiful letter. and so she gives up everything to marry this irish rebel. her father promptly disowns her.

she ends up living the rest of her life on a $50-a-month civil war widow's pension, but they were like this. she nursed his wound. women, i didn't know this, but women could come down to the camps. he was knocked from his horse twice, he had this horrible abscess on his knee, and also his confidence was shattered. he had lost so many people who were so close to him, people he had personally recruited whose mothers he knew from the old country, whose wives he knew, who he'd danced with two nights before he had to see their dead faces, and it just killed him. he wept after fredericksburg. he just was destroyed by how many men he personally knew who he had lost. so one of those who was close to him was a young private. you mentioned him from pennsylvania, private mccarter, and the lowest point when meagher's suffering all this loss and this sense of privationing, it's winter -- privation. it's winter. they're in this cold mud. the war is not going well, and

it's just a lost cause almost. meagher is seen outside of the campfire, and he's drunk. and he starts to fall into this giant bonfire. and the private goes with his musket and holds it out and saves him, prevents him from going into this fire just at the last minute. drags him into his tent, puts him to sleep. the next day another officer says to meagher, you owe your life to this private. he then does develop a relationship to this boy, and when the kid is wounded at fred ricks burke, he's sent off to washington d.c. they're going to cut off his arm. and this guy's got this giant open wound, he's in philadelphia. suddenly, a team of the best doctors appear at his hospital, and they -- they're taking special care of him. the boy says, am i going to lose the arm? no, you're not going to lose the arm. they move him up to a private room, they keep him for ten days. meagher had gone behind the scenes to make sure this boy had the best medical care.

this kid wrote a memoir that was never published. i read it somewhere, i forget where it was, in one of the archives. he said i never saw general meagher drunk again, and he also said he was the finest, most educated man i ever saw put on a uniform. because meagher was going off on greek or latin, he would go off on these epic poems. the guy was -- he loved romance, he loved language, he love ared history. probably didn't love war, i would say. >> we were talking a little bit on the way over here about what i knew about meagher before reading tim's book, and my vague recollection, i think i may have seen the statue, i think i vaguely knew he was governor of montana. but in light of that, it seems like a real leap to go from irish lev pollution their to civil war soldier to governor of montana territory. >> not to mention a banishment in tasmania. [laughter] this is why i love this story. i was going to write something about the famine, but there's

been all this good scholarship. i'm always looking for a story, really strong story. i guess it's in the irish dna. i was looking for a story on which to hang irish history, i wanted to go deep into my own past. and then i found meagher. you see the whole arc of irish-american history through this one man, or most of it. all the things the irish have gone through, the immigration thing, trying to take away their language, their pride, their dignity, their religion. you see them becoming americans. and what is said about mexicans right now in this current political campaign is the exact same language that they said about the irish. exact same. you can just substitute the word "mexican" for "irish," and it's the exact same. so i wanted to bring that history forth. but then you get the montana part. and i'm a third generation westerner. my family, it turns out, they're montana irish. they -- my great grandfather came from county waterford where meagher is was from and moved to butte, montana. at one point there was more

gaelic spoken in butte than any place outside of dublin, they said. it's because of the mines. so there was a mine operator named daley who was a wealthiest irish industrialist of his day, and he sured at a time -- hired at a time that we were building telephone lines everybody, they needed copper. it was just clogged with irish miners. that's what became new ireland. so suddenly i've got this great western story. and in meagher's image, remember, i talked about the tenements and how he was appalled. had a newspaper, one of the best circulations in new york. he always talked about any one of you in these tenements are better off if you could just get to the west. if you could just get under some open sky, just get out here. the problem is the irish are clannish. they're not lone ranchers doing what a man's got to do what a man's got to do. they like to be together. so is they came to butte finally because it was a community. they wanted a place where they

could do their rituals, share their stories, dance and tell poems, a place where they could feast and tell stories. so meagher sees montana x this is the word they used, as new ireland. so there was a new england, there's a new jersey, there might as well be a new ireland. [laughter] and this was actually the idea of the american ambassador to great britain who had written to the president saying could we possibly establish montana territory as something we might call new ireland and name general mere meagher as its governor? he is named the secretary, which is the number two person. he comes out, it takes him almost six months to get to virginia city, montana, which is this deadwood-level city sitting at 6,000 feet with a corpse hanging over by one side and, you know, manure all over the main street, drunks rolling around. i mean, just this god awful, your worst image of a broken, you know, hard western town. meagher arrives -- this is also

the capital of the new territory. and there's this well-dressed gentleman waiting with his sheaf of papers, and he greets general meagher, and he says you are now governor, i'm out of here. [laughter] and this governor gets on the very stage that took meagher to montana territory, and i swear to god, and is never seen again. [laughter] so now meagher has gone from secretary to governor of a place that's five times as big as ireland. so you've got this irish fugitive with a price on his head is now governor of our largest territory. >> you know, this -- with tim's permission, this bookends with a mystery, and i'd kind of like to leave it that way. meagher dies, but there's still a long controversy -- >> right. i'm just -- by way of context, there's -- meagher dies at age 43. he disappears. his body's never found. he supposedly fell from this

steamer at anchor in fort benton, montana. and it is going to any place in montana and suggests that meagher's death was one thing or the other, and you'll start an argument. what he was up against was the vigilantes. it turned out what he had run up against, this is -- the constitution still applies in the territory of montana. but they had murdered these vigilantes. forty people by the time meagher's governor without a trial. they'd picked them up and hanged them because they had decided in their vigilante secret committee that they were unworthy men, and they should die. these vigilantes were the right-thinking citizen of the territory. they were free masons, they were protestants, they did not like the irish, they hated this idea of new ireland, so most of the victims tended to be democrats or irish. and meagher had pardoned one of the people they were going to hang. a picture of him. they then strung him up that night with meagher's pardon in his back pocket.

so he went up against the vigilantes, i'm just going to say -- and thank you for giving me the intro to do this -- they're the lead suspect. but also, one more thing, as one of meagher's patriots had said, the sun never sets on the british empires detectives. there were two men from scotland yard in fort benton, montana, on the night of his death where meagher spent his last day. he was still a fugitive. remember, he still had a price on his head. they could grab the governor of montana, take him back to ireland, throw him in jail. so these two scotland yard detectives are floating around this very little town, meagher also is a fine january. the brotherhood was something that came about the civil wartime, they were irish-american, mostly soldiers, who took the vow that they would later go back to ireland after they were done with the slaveholders, they'd sail across the atlantic and liberate their country from the british. and that was the pledge. they actually did invade canada

in 1867, but it was ill-fated. [laughter] and the idea was that these feenias led by meagher -- i was surprised to see this, i mean, he really was a neenian, but he wasn't organizing. so the brits thought here's this guy we can't beat, now he's reorganizing in montana, and they thought they would cross the montana border into what is now alberta but the whole country then was called british north america. so the suspects -- and please read it for the ending, too -- are the vigilantes or scotland yard. or, as was reported by the vigilantes, he was drunk and fell off a boat. [laughter] you know. >> well, that should be enough of a temptation for you all to rush out after the session and get the week. [laughter] but right now i'd like to entertain some questions, so if you'd like to come down and speak to either one of the mics.

>> so in the movie "gods and generals," the charge of mary's heights is depicted, and it's very good. but at the top of mary's heights behind the stone wall is a confederate flag with a harp on it. and they can't believe that their cousins are wearing blue. and i was just wondering if that was of substance, or was that just hollywood? >> well, this is probably an inapt comparison, but i had an interview with bill o'reilly on fox the other night, and sometimes there's irish-on-irish fighting -- [laughter] thousands of people did join the confederates, thousands of irish did join the confederate cause. now, meagher's argument was the confederates were trying to get recognized by the brits.

there's no bigger enemy than england. so one of his claims to get people to fight on the union side was the brits were cozying up with the confederacy. if they ever did that, they may have been able to last a little longer. he's the interesting thing -- here's the interesting thing. one of meagher's best friends in life was a man named john mitchell. first, he was sent to the caribbean, and then he was sent to tasmania, and he had terrible asthma. meagher was the great orator during the rebel times, mitchell was the great writer. so it was a one-two punch. mitchell would write in the newspaper, meagher would give speeches in front of thousands of people. they were very close. mitchell finally comes to america as well, but he likes slavery. something happens in him that he sees slavery as not a bad thing. he writes in his own newspaper that if you irishmen are coming to america looking for a start, get yourself a couple of slaves and come south. and so meagher and he, his other

people, break with mitchell. mitchell has three boys. two of them were on the other side of that wall when the irish stormed mary's heights. so there was not a technical irish brigade in the confederacy, but there certainly were irish who fought on the other side, including the very people who were the kids of his best friends. also i have a scene in the book where they fight -- the irish couldn't get into new york, philadelphia, baltimore, would continue going, and they came in through new orleans. new orleans was one of the main ports, later for italian-americans as well, but one of the main ports for irish entry. they had a little unit called the fighting tigers which wasn't formally an irish brigade, but an irish confederate unit. it's just hand-on-hand combat of the irish brigade fighting the irish tigers and meagher wondering why the hell aren't we directing all this energy against england. >> anyone else? any questions --

>> i think we have a gentleman coming down the way here. >> there we go. >> timothy, i want to ask about you. how does a person make the transition from a very good local newspaper reporter into a pulitzer prize-winning author? and what made you think you would make a living at it? [laughter] >> the last part is the best part of the question. [laughter] yeah. boy, you know, my mother loved literature. she had seven kids, and she loved storytelling. and when i was a little kid, my mom -- i think i was 7 years old, my mom gave me this book and said read this, and it'll change your life. it was huck finn. it was, like, he was the bart simpson of his day.

he was smarter than all the adults. it was so magical to see kid power. and that brought me into literature. and so i've always loved writing and storytelling. and i got it from my family, i think. as to the, you know, how -- what made you think you could make a living from this, you know, people raise this question every time there's a new take call device. steve jobs said at one point that the iphone would be the death of literature, because -- depth of reading because he said -- death of reading because he said people don't want to read anymore. certainly, it's changed our attention span. there was a story saying that the average attention span is now eight seconds, which is less than a goldfish. [laughter] according to the study. [laughter] but, i mean, i wrote this as i was reading the second volume of william churchill's biography which is nothing more enjoyable that going really deep into a fantastic book. so the making the living part, look, no matter what the technology is, we're a

storytelling people. we're not going to lose our love of story, our love of knowledge, our love of literature, our love of new information. and i don't with care if it's on a screen or a pixel or appears, you know, on a thing in front of our eyes. i say this to all young writers, if you feel you have a story to tell, don't worry about where it appears, just work on the story itself. also i have one more thing in that regard, and this is something that most of us -- we do have a disproportionate amount of irish writers. and i've always heard the saying that the best stories happen to those who can tell them. so -- [laughter] >> is there another question? >> yeah. >> i was curious, like, how long did it take you to compile all this his historical background, you know, for this story? and what kind of sources did you use? >> so i used mostly firsthand sources, and the information on meagher happens to be in some of the greatest places in the world.

so you start in ireland, and you go spend time in the wonderful national library of ireland, dublin, where all the papers are from the young island rebels. they're notes they wrote when they were in captivity, poems, the newspaper that was the paper for the rebels and contemporaneous accounts of what it was like while they were giving their speeches and people were dying in the streets. i used some of the illustrations from those papers in my book of the starving. they also had their houses torn down during the famine as well pause they couldn't pay the rent. -- because they couldn't pay the rent. then you go to waterford, which is a beautiful town on the river, i recommend it. you can go into meagher's house, climb the hills where he climbed. they just named the longest suspension bridge in ireland for thomas francis meagher. he wants to start the revolution, but his father's like, no, you'll hang. and he's sort of torn.

and the masses of waterford say we won't let them cross the bridge, and you feel that power. then you go to tasmania which, by the way, is one of the prettiest places on earthment it really is beautiful. it's too bad the brits tried to make a penitentiary out of a continent. to this day, by the way, if you live in australia or tasmania, you can trace your ancestry to -- the convict stain is a badge of honor. you know that? yes, i find that too. so then you come to new york, and there's this fabulous research at the american-irish historical society, at the new york city tenement museum which you can understand what it was like to be in one of those tenements. a lot of papers there. then you walk the civil war battlefields which, as an american, i think every person should do. i had never done it. it's so so profoundly moving. and the national park service, let's give them credit. they do a great job of keeping those american markers intact. so i walked the wall up to mary's heights.

and you see, my god, these guys were totally exposed. there was no way for them to go. there's formations just getting mowed down by industrial strength or artillery and musketly. and then you go to antithem and this awful, awful place where 23,000 people died, and the library of congress has all the civil war correspondence. most of it's on line now so you can read meagher's battle reports in that. finally, you end up in virginia city, montana, which isn't quite a ghost town yet. you can get a bison burger and a beer -- [laughter] and there's a great library, and they were very helpful, and there's a handful of folks that lead tours. in the summer it comes to life as a tourism place. and the montana historical society, thank god for them. because meagher was their governor. they have this wonderful research. so my research is -- i like to go to the places so i can understand the texture. >> [inaudible] >> i mean, that took a couple years. once i have the material, i'm a fairly quick writer. but i, i do all my own research

because i think you find these great discoveries by going down these little warrens. >> i want to thank you all for coming. i'm going to within this up. i'll -- wrap this up. i'll start with a plug for one of my favorite fiction writers, richard flanagan. i want to thank you for attending, thank tim for a terrific -- [applause] and i hope you all become friends of the festival and, please, i'll ask you to, please, vacate the room because there's another panel coming in the here. you can meet timothy out at the book-signing area. thank you. [inaudible conversations]

>> good afternoon. hi, everybody.

welcome to "the atlantic's cocktail caucus with refinery 29. hope you're having a good time this week. i'm senior vice president of atlantic media. the topic today is young woman rising, america's top voter. that is the question mark we'll be talking about, the focus millenial women. for those perhaps of an older generation, refinery 29 is a digital destination designed to help millenial women live in their words, a stylish, creative and inspired life. period. millenials are a pretty big topic today, we can agree. they are currently largest share of living population surpassing baby boomers. we're talking specifically about young women and the expectations that they could have a pretty

significant impact on this election. we have a great panel, for you, we hope you will tweet, facebook, instagram, snapchat, whatever it takes. the hashtag is the atlantic dnc. i'm pleased to introduce georgia state representative, stacy abrams. [applause] house minority leader for the georgia general assembly. next is general mishory, executive director and founding staff member of young invincibles a national non-profit focuses on empowering young woman with information. ayana presley was first elected to the boston city council becoming first woman of color elected to the council. then actress amber tamblyn and

appeared on hit television shows on "two and a half men" and house after getting her start on "general hospital." [applause] guiding today's discussions cale lynn ford, refinery 29 executive editor of global news. and "the atlantic senior editor, alex wagner. over to you. >> thank you guys for joining us. as far as i know the pino is still flowing so get your wine on. for all of us tea totallers on stage we'll have our chardonnay when we're done. in an hour or two hillary clinton is going to be nominated as the first female to lead a major american political party. [cheering] i think, there can be no more relevant backdrop to discuss the roll of women in politics,

specifically young women. i want to start with one factoid from this election season stuck out glaringly to me, among many others, the gulf among women who young women support and who older whim have supported. younger women have in particular overwhelmingly supported bernie sanders. that has given rise to a whole conversation about why. so let me pose that question to you first and amber, maybe i can start with you, so what gives? what was that all about? >> is this panel 3 1/2 hours? >> we'll be here till -- >> there is so much to speak to in in way and so much of it has to do with feminism and women's feelings about feminism or roxanne gay would call bad feminism. women who hate their own identity as women. women who believe they deserve more.

women who believe they deserve less. there is such a conflicting experience, the female experience and i think that so much of that has to do with, you know, a lot of older generations are seeing something and are probably more used to having hillary around and have more, you know, have seen her for longer period of time. have seen her successes, her mistakes, seen all of it so they made a longer-term judgment towards her that i think younger women haven't really experienced yet. so i think that has a lot to do with the divide between the two. you know, both sides are seen as extremely passionate about what they believe in. and each side sees both what they hate about themselves as women, their weaknesses, all of those things and what they love what they yearn, what they hunger for. >> ayanna, on that note, there

is debate what feminism means and female empowerment means. do you think it means a different thing to young women versus older women? >> i think it means a difference to every woman and one of the challenges we face we continue to talk about any constituency, any protected group as a monolith or even to narrowly divide or define them or us by one issue. for example, if you just look at millenials and continuum of the millenial experience and how diverse that is, and what a wideband width that is, yes there are millenials very concerned whether or not college will be affordable but in the same bandwidth there are millenials looking for loan forgiveness who have already gone to college. there is incredible complexity and diversity there that needs to be unpacked and we've got to do a better job at challenging

elected officials and media to not talk about any of us as a monolith and to make sure that the diversity of our stories and our narratives are being told. i want to know what is happening with black millenial women. >> right. >> transmillenial women. i want to know the totality of that experience. i think we're missing that diversity of story and narrative. we continue to be talked about and campaigns will engage us as monolith and around one issue. >> actually to that point, to add on to that, about 30% of millenials are young parents. so often when you hear the conversation about issues facing young people, and i don't know -- there we go. i don't know if folks heard that but about 30% of millenials are young parents. we're often talking about wide range of issues facing young people. we do talk a lot about issues facing students. don't get me wrong, we work a lot on that issue.

it is incredibly important for young women for variety of reasons and young issues around economic security. young women starting to think about a family or already have. those are millenials. those are young folks now. >> go ahead. >> if i could add one more. when we talk about millenial young women those aren't all, so african-american, latino, asian women supported hillary more than young white women. for a lot of women of color there is deeper conversation about them about hillary because their issues are different. that goes to the diversity and tendency to speak about millenials not only as monolith but to ignore they are the most diverse community except one following now. i'm generation-x. oldest person sitting up here. >> that may or may not be true. >> i look older than you. >> oh, god. >> i think the experiences and the conversation about identity,

goes to a conversation about community. for a lot of those young women college is not even on the table because they are struggling to get through the school systems as they existed in where college did not become an opportunity. there was no resonance for them in the conversation about college debt. they're trying to figure out how do i have a job. not only to unpack, but very thoughtful about the fact that media presentation as millenial as upper middle class, upwardly mobile is not representative of the vast population of millenials. i can tell you because of that, we have to much more complicated conversation not only about their feminism, but also about their part of it but how they live the feminism in their lives and political choice. >> the bureau of labor statistics average 29-year-old is living with a partner, not necessarily married in a suburban area and doesn't have a bachelors degree and where and how can candidates like hillary

clinton speak to that vast and interesting experience that millenials have, rather than seeing them as that monolithic group. what do they need to do? >> starting to have a conversation where people are, not where we want them to be. i'm from the south and we do actually vote and we exist and we can vote for hillary this year. [laughter]. this is a good thing. but the challenge there is that the conversation has to be very different. the fight for 15 for example, is a wonderful sound bite but difficult in right to work states where we can barely go above 5.25 which is georgia's minimum wage. there has to be a conversation that is dealing with exact issues facing them. that is where elected officials are so necessary. someone like ayana has the ability to talk about issues endemic in the boston community. i can speak what is happening in

georgia. we as elected officials can speak, basically take hillary's message distill it down to communities we can reach. our responsibilities as elected officials to know the issues and create a recent gnat conversation because of them. >> i think on issue like student debt, young women enrolling in college at higher rates but they might be facing higher debt burdens to pay back their loans when they're not actually earning as much. actually what we found in a lot of our research is that the folks struggling the most with student debt, didn't complete the bachelors degree. when err talking about issues and getting nuanced what population we talk about and how people that didn't complete get back on track. it is talking about the nuance young people are facing. >> i would also add ultimately why is there this, this effort to engage this constituency? this does have to do with this being a transactional

relationship. if there wasn't the feeling or data that wasn't supporting -- for a long time, i've been in politics and government 23 years, young professionals, this was not a constituency we worked to engage, we, i mean, the establishment so to speak. because it was a flux demographic. it was incredibly unpredictable. and you could, engage with canvasing and on social media and so many different platforms but it was unreliable constituency, very inconsistent in terms of turning out at the polls. so, you know, ultimately if you want to know how do we insure that the voices of all millenials are being heard, and that campaigns and candidates are doing their due diligence and in addressing people in their totality and not reducing them to caricatures and hashtags in one issue, we need millenials at every level to engage and to

vote. people are quick to refer to millenials as generation of discontent. i want to say i don't know that is necessarily a bad thing but sometimes that disconsent, that being uncomfortable, it is coming from, it is not apathy. they're so informed they're disenchanted. >> do you think this election has changed that idea? i know exactly what you're talking about in terms of spending capital, proverbally or literally on young people. do you this election has changed that calculation? >> yes. absolutely. >> especially with bernie sanders, speak to the way he has been able to activate young voters, change that narrative, you will come to a protest but on november 8th they will probably not show up for you, has that changed with the last campaign? >> i think so. >> i will just say, i just came from the youth council caucus, a gathering of young people at the

convention center and what struck me was, i mean, and i'm a member of the much vilified media, i think we have gotten a significant part of it wrong when we talk about young people. here was a gather being of young people, many were bernie sanders supporters. they had taken to the streets. they had been part and call and response with bernie sanders at large rallies but they also understood, hey, hillary clinton was the nominee, actually in order to sort of like move the ball forward on host of issues they would not only have to vote for her but ultimately become some part of that institution they understand to be at present rigged. i would ask you, amber, so much of sort of youthful indignation is founded on sort of outsider status. is that changing? can we get more young people to actually be in office if not just vote for people in office? >> oh, yeah.

i think, what everyone said on the panel so far is so right on and to what ayanna speaks about, talking to everybody in the base of that. a great example, fingerprints, is, i will bring up just quickly the idea of white feminism and the idea of women, white women taking care of other white women my age, i'm 33 in my community, not really actually looking at what other women in my community that are minorities need as well, and sort of all supporting each other and rising to the occasion together and going, not just about, just because i call myself as minority as a woman, doesn't mean i'm actually seeing larger issues, the bigger issues. i think so much of that, of the being disenfranchised and being angry and why some of my friends of my age of color were for bernie sanders was because of a lot of that feeling, a feeling like, originally hillary had left them out. they were feeling that, they

were feeling that anger, they were feeling that frustration, which spoke to again a larger level of like inclusion and talking about what everyone needs, i think that there is a real sense of women want to say, millenials want to say, they're rounding up and, all women are for women and they're all supporting each other, that is what feminism is and reactions don't reflect that. i think, i've seen a lot of change in that regard. because i'm even sitting here talking about it right now, that's so important, that is such a big, important, step, to the next place that allows us all to go, yeah, you know what, even though we come from different backgrounds as women, we can all get behind the same candidate or get behind the same idea, now we're all being represented. we're actually all being cared for. what we need as individual types of women within the community of woman hood. >> i love your using word

community. i do have great hope for our future, because what i see, in millenials, is the recognition of the intersection alty. if you look at movements like "black lives matter," look what is happening in the green movement, activism around, you know, climate change and those issues, when you're in these meeting spaces they are incredibly diverse. so i am very encouraged by that, we acknowledge our destinies are tied, there is the intersection alty connectedness. ultimately what needs to happen is we need to support these movements in traps significancing from activism into policy so we see real systemic and sustainable change. >> i would add one thing when young people are registered to turn out they turn out at similar rates as older voters. there is a lot of work to be

done around structures of voting so young people can engage in traditional way. >> can i ask you a data question, jen? >> you can ask. >> maybe you know this, make you don't. i am assuming if you're a subset of electorate votes more often and more after participant in the democracy you're more likely to actually run for office, is that accurate? >> i don't know that. i do think that of course if young people are voting, more engaged and their elected officials will pay more attention. >> sure. >> we do a lot of work postelection. how are young people actually engaging, showing up at their member of congress's district office, talking about issues we're facing. we go through advocacy training through people we engage. young people we work with are thrilled. they want to be engaged, showing up. no one walked them through the

process how to do that. that is something we work a lot on. there needs to be a lot more work done. >> i remember, i, i worked polls not like that. not like that. that is not how i work the polls. when i was 17 -- >> yeah, i was like, yeah, this is a stripper joke. >> when i was 17 i did sign-in, which is all you could do, you couldn't vote yet. i remember sitting there, marking off people's names in los angeles at the pre-sent where i was working -- precinct where i was working, this is so terrifying. how does someone sign up for this? there is so much information. that is a kind of a fear as well, sense how do you even begin? there is so much language about voter disenfranchisement and all scary things come with that. i will not be able to vote. someone will walk in, you didn't know there was a warrant for

your arrest? what? that play as lot into it a general fear. >> if there is that much anxiety about voting, what about deciding to run. talk to us about the moment you decided and what the sort of catalysts were for that? >> i grew up in a family very politically active, not in terms of working for candidates but we were poor or working poor because my parents had jobs. it was the fact that we often had to engage government in different ways and i grew up trying to understand how a system that paid for my parents to go to college could also be part of the oppression kept them from achieving things they should have been able to achieve. and my parent were also extraordinarily involved in the community. they were very socially active but it was really a lot. >> we'll leave this program at this point to go live to philadelphia for the new york delegation breakfast. it has just gotten underway. >> another big round of applause. [applause] good morning, everyone, welcome

to the third day of the 2016 democratic national convention. we have a few special guests here. i would like to recognize and they are a few, so please hold your applause until the very end. i think someone is going to bring me -- some cards so i can do it appropriately. thank you so much. so we have, a number of statewide elected officials with us. i'd like to certainly recognize senator charles schumer and his lovely wife iris who are with us. [applause] our state comptroller thomas dinapoli will be with us shortly.

you can give him a round of applause. [applause] yesterday we heard from our other united states senator kirsten gillibrand. [applause] attorney general eric schneiderman will be with us a little later on. speaker carl hasti is with us. [applause] and state senate democratic leader, andrea stewart cousins will join us shortly. [applause] we have a number of our labor leaders with us. the president of the afl-cio, mario solento, is with us. [applause] the president of csca, danny donahue. the president of cwa 1180, arthur celios.

the president of 32 b.j.-seiu, hector figueroa. [applause] president of nisa, karen mcgee. [applause] president of uft, michael mulgrew. [applause] and president of twu local 100, john samuelson. [applause] john chen, district director of usw, district 4. [applause] so this is an exciting day new york democrats. i will mention a couple of other great members of congress that are with us. the dean of our congressional

delegation, congressman charles rangle. congressman wrangle, good morning. [applause] congresswoman grace main. [applause] and so this is another exciting day for democrats across the nation. and new york democrats for the past two days, you have been front and center and you have done a fantastic job. give yourselves a round of applause. [applause] last night we came together in an unprecedented demonstration of support and nominated hillary clinton as the first female presidential candidate in the history of the united states. [applause] there is no one more qualified, no one more dedicated, and no

one who has the talent and expertise to move the united states forward like secretary clinton. for more than 40 years, hillary has championed children's health, stood up for working men and women, and fought tirelessly to insure full equality for all americans. she has been a true friend and partner to our great governor, andrew cuomo. joining him to sign a $15 minimum wage law and fighting to enact a smart, forward-thinking federal paid family leave policy. [applause] as our president, she will continue to take bold, progressive stances on our nation's most pressing issues and usher in a new era of change in this country.

she, like her fellow democrats in new york, will continue to build bridges rather than walls. she will embrace diversity, and understands that it is our greatest asset. here in new york we are proud to have many strong democratic leaders from labor, to education, and more who are committed to improving the quality of life, for our state's residents. in fact, we have many of them with us here today. hector figueroa, the president of the 32-bj. started a series of protests to raise the minimum wage for fast-food workers to $15 that spawn as national movement. let me say that again. hector spawn ad national movement!

[applause] during these protests, governor cuomo convened a wage board of which i was proud to chair to make $15 a reality for thousands of hard-working men and women. hector has fought tirelessly for what he believes in. he has achieved real tangible results for his members, and all of new york's working families. i'm honored to present him with the bridge builder award for success in fast-food organizing. please welcome hector figueroa to the stage. [applause] >> good morning.

first and foremost i want to thank mayor brown because it is just a little over a year ago that the mayor served on the wage board along with ryan and he delivered for fast-food workers what fast-food workers have been organizing and striking for all around the country, $15 an hour. so let's give a hand to the mayor. [applause] i want to say this is for the fast-food workers and low wage workers who hold the key what will happen in november. there are 64 million workers in this country who earn less than $15 an hour. our opposition in the republican party has been taken over by a candidate that is trying to galvanize a section of those

64 million workers, using division and hate to present a picture of how they could improve their lives. we know better in new york. we know better in the democratic party. our vision is a very different one and i want to thank governor cuomo for being the first one to pass $15 an hour across the state of new york to the country. [applause] the other thing i'm going to say, we want to be brief, we have breakfast, do a number before things today, is that the movement for five for 15 didn't happen overnight. in fact many of you here were there either supporting, supporting our campaign, and perhaps, i know, i recognize faces with us, when fast-food workers went on strike in 2012 for the first time, some of with you were there at 4:00 and 6:00 in the morning, supporting

the workers. some of you were there after the strike to make sure workers would be able to return safely to their fast-food store and not be fired. some of you were there, when 15 was really but a dream. and some of you, including our leadership in the family, carl hasty and our senators were there to make sure there was a bill we could work on that would become of the law of new york state. so i want to thank you for that. to my brothers and sisters in labor, let's make sure the $15 an hour wage increase is followed by a redoubled effort to organize. we have been organizing workers. we need to do it more than ever. if we lose the 64 million workers, either to apathy and indifference and they stay home, and they don't feel that we

speak for them, or, the other side is able to appeal to some of them out of fear, we are going to lose and the country is going to lose as well. so let's organize and organize. let's build a movement that we need after this convention. not openly for fast-food workers but for retail workers, for home care workers, for all low-wage workers, before coming to this convention how many covered news about airport workers in philadelphia? the airport workers in philadelphia, members of 32-b.j. were ready to strike, demanding a 15 and a union. our fight for the union continues. i want to thank many of you who supported us. i want to recognize senator chuck schumer who has been in the fight for airport workers from the beginning. and congressman charlie rangel, who not only supported airport

workers but went to jail with me and workers to make sure their voice could be heard. thank you, charlie. thank you to all of you, good morning. let's keep fighting. let's keep winning. let's get the country back for all low-wage workers. gracias. [applause] >> hector figueroa, thank you again for your passionate leadership in the fight for 15. let's give him another great big round of applause. [applause] and certainly on behalf of mike fisch manman kevin ryan, i want to mange the governor he placed placed in us to serve on the wage board and the governor's great expertise making 15 a reality. let's give our governor a round of applause.

[applause] we have with us today, our senior senator from new york. senator schumer has stood up for new york's middle-class families. you can do better than that. [applause] senator schumer has stood up for our new york middle-class families for decades and fought tirelessly to insure full equality for all americans. please join me in welcoming the next majority leader of the united states senate, to the stage. senator charles schumer. [applause]

>> thank you, everybody. thank you. great to be here. let me thank our mayor, our great mayor of byron brown of buffalo and great job he does in that great introduction. i want to thank all of you for being here. so many great leaders in our state, our governor and attorney general and our comptroller. sitting in mayor's table. democrats have most of the mayors in our great state. i want to say a word about my colleague who you heard from yesterday, kirsten gillibrand. what a great job she is doing in the united states senate. [applause] much of her work on women's equality is bearing fruit and will bear more fruit, when we have the first woman president of the united states, hillary rodham clinton. [applause] now we're having a great

convention. everything is working out well. and you compare our convention to their convention, it ain't even close. you will see my view, my view, when this convention is finished, hillary clinton will be ahead in the polls and she will never behind till she wins in november. [applause] i want to thank this great delegation. we have one of the most active and engaged delegations in the entire country. i had some people come up to me. i know almost all of you, to share information, to chat, to discuss things, and one of the things i have been asked most about, is tpp. so i want to talk about that. let me say this. i have been very skeptical of these arguments that free trade is good for america. i have been very skeptical from

1994, when i was a congressman and someone who was a dear friend of mine, president bill clinton, called me repeatedly ad asked me to vote for nafta. but there was something in my gut that said, if we vote for nafta, we're going to see jobs flee to mexico. so i voted against it. president was disappointed. we stayed friends. since then my views have become even harder and stronger. you know what, ladies and gentlemen? you don't need a, you don't need a phd in economics to know why companies want to take jobs out of america and move them to indonesia or mexico, or anywhere else. because the workers there get paid next to nothing! and what i told the business roundtable, the 200 biggest

ceos in america, who were there to ask me why i was opposed to then tpa, and i said this. it may be that passing tpp will increase corporate profits. that is probably true. it may even be that tpp would increase, our gdp. even that may be true, although the the statistics and studies disagree. i said to them, as long as tpp reduces the wages and working conditions of american workers i will oppose it. i want to say one other thing, ladies and gentlemen. [applause] should i, should i, god willing, become the majority leader, year going to have an entirely different approach on trade!

we're going to protect american workers first! and then look at the geopolitical benefits, not the other way around. [applause] so, thank you. overgoing to win this fight. we are going to win this fight. interesting thing we have some republican allies in the senate, lindsey graham and susan collins and jeff sessions have been on our side in this issue. we have a very good chance not just talking about it, but doing something real and good about it. okay, next, i've been hoarse from cheering so much. and so, as i said last night, i

thank all of you who were there with the new york delegation was thrilling an cheering and it is always fun to speak at these things and what i said last night is this. i know hillary clinton very well, because we have the same job. when you think about it, there is no other job where, no other political job where two people have the exact same job being senator from the state. nita, gerry, charlie, i want to say to charlie, how much we love you and we'll miss you and how much we admire you. [applause] they have different districts. we have the same job. i got to know hillary well, very well. we worked together as a team to help new york. we stayed on, we picked different committees and we each divided up the labor but when one of us needed help the other backed us up.

of course she did a great job. i saw up close the qualities that will make her a great president. i saw her brill nance. i saw -- brillance. i saw her ability to listen. i saw how she could listen to average new yorkers, internalize their fears and hopes, almost miraculously turn them into policy that could actually get something done to make their lives better. it was amazing. we all saw those qualities as secretary of state. no one is going to push america around with hillary rodham clinton as president. [applause] donald trump, a man of inspecifics, a man of braggadocio. he says he is going to beat isis. i asked our press corps, i asked some of them yesterday, ask donald trump what is the solution is? will he put troops in the middle east. how many, where?

if he is not folk to put in troops, how will he beat them? he has no solutions to this and anything else. we know hillary will be a great secretary of state. has been a great secretary of state and will be a great president. and she will do the same here in america. the again, donald trump, all the negativity. all the name-calling. all the stuff doesn't put one nickel in the pockets of working families in new york or in america. hillary clinton has solutions that will make things better. so, we're seeing a very different convention this week. theirs was one of negativity and anger. ours is one of positive solutions and hope. and that will make a huge difference to the american people. there have been a few bums in the road. but our party is unified on policy. closely.

the sanders platform has had a great effect on america and on the democratic party for the better. and we are better for bernie's hard work and activity. just as i know hillary we, i know bernie well. bernie is a constructive man, he always has been. he went to madison high school. >> there you go. >> he was on the track team. i was on the basketball team. the madison track team won a whole lot of awards when he was on it. the madison basketball team, when i was on it, had a motto, we may be small, but we're slow. [laughter]. but, but bernie has done a great, excuse me,. the alls well-prepared new york state democratic committee. thank you.

[applause] bernie has been constructive and done a great job, and now we are going to work together, for the things we believe in. and bernie has told me as well, that he is committed to making sure that we, a majority in the united states where he will be a chairman of a major committee, and i will be majority leader. and he is going to help us in that goal. knows how important it is. [applause] let me not fail to mention how important it is to take back the senate as well as electing hillary rodham clinton as president. if we take back the senate and elect hillary as president, we will, for the first time in a long time get a progressive majority on the supreme court. one of first things i do i

believe, i predict, get rid of that awful citizens united case. [applause] another thing they will do right away is restoring the voting rights act which people have died for and not let them take away the right to vote. [applause] and they will stop all these shenanigans where the right-wing brings up court cases to try to get rid of the union movement. that will be over and gone, and dead. [applause] so it is really important for that reason among so many others, to take back the senate. and we will get things done. we also should make every effort, and this is not a foregone conclusion, we have a good opportunity, particularly if hillary rodham clinton wins by as much as i think she will, to take back the house as well. and make gerry and nita, and

grace and all the other members of congress chairs of important committees and subcommittees. so i hope we can accomplish that now, we have so much at stake, ladies and gentlemen. i mentioned this last night but it always sticks with me. i look out my window in brooklyn. i live on the 10th floor. so i see the harbor the new york. with the beautiful lady with the torch. and if you asked the average american what that torch is, they would say the american dream. and then you'd ask them what does the american dream mean to you? they wouldn't put it in fancy, prove sore real language, oh, no. they simply say if i work hard i will be doing better 10 years from now than i'm doing today and my kids will be still doing better than me. that is that dream.

unfortunately so many americans, with reason, are worried that that torch is flickering. that that torch may go out. a young lady who spoke before our democratic retreat, said the following. she was in college. she was a middle class kid. and she said to me, to all of us, you know, my parents could afford a is. >> house. i'm not -- nice house. i'm not sure i will be a able to. my parents had good health care. i'm not sure i will be able to afford that. around my parent graduated from college without debt. that ain't happening to me. what is wrong with our system, our system? and if you asked worker in the suburbs of buffalo, who used to be paid $25 an hour and is now being paid 12:50, or a woman

64 years old who knows she is getting social security but doesn't have the pension she thought she would have, they would say the same thing. if people lose faith in america, if it is harder to stay in the middle class, if it is harder to get to the middle class, we become a different country, a sour, angry country. we're not the there yet. but there is a chance we could fall into that. and, it is the right-wing, right-wing's mission to make everyone feel that way, that government can't get a thing done. they paralyze it. mitch mcconnell and paul ryan have been leaders of paralysis. we can't even pass a bill on zika, for god's sakes, when we have a crisis that is beginning to occur throughout our state and throughout much of the country. so we have an obligation.

not just to take back and win the presidency and the senate, and the house, but once again, to harness government, as a force for good. as a force to make it easier for people already in the middle class to stay there. as a force to make it easier for people who are climbing up the ladder to get there, to actually arrive. this is an economic obligation of course. and as democrats, we see it as a political obligation. but if you love america, which we all do, it is a moral obligation. we can not let the forces of darkness, the hard-right oligarchs cause that torch to flicker by paralyzing government and paralyzeing america. but if we work hard, if we work

hard and elect hillary, if we work hard and take back a democratic senate, if we work hard and take back a democratic house, you can be sure, you can bet on the fact that we will change things around. we will get government once again as an engine to help the middle class and those trying to be middle class and that torch, which i look at, out my window every morning, will burn brightly once begin. thank you, god bless you, god bless new york and god bless the united states of america! [applause] >> okay. now -- [applause] a leader after lidgetive body -- of a legislative body can't do anything unless they have really

good people, unless there are really good people in that body, and one of my jobs as one of the leaders in the senate to try to get the best possible people to run for the senate and win. we want them to be smart. we want them to have great progressive values. we want them to be great speakers, leaders and have compassion. and one of the people i always had my eye on, who would make a great, my congressman, has just gotten here, yvette clark, from my district. [applause] one of the people who will, who i always had my eye on who would be an amazing asset in the united states senate is here to address you now. she's running for senate in california. she's doing, she has done a great job as attorney general. she will do even a greater job

as united states senator from california. it is my honor to introduce to you the next senator from the state of california, kamel la harris. [applause] >> good morning. good morning. good morning. my cousins, my new york democratic cousins. thank you all very much. before chuck is walking out the room, i will talk about him behind his back. he has been incredible and extraordinary leader from new york but you also know he is inspiration to all of us around the country. from the moment i was thinking about running and barbara boxer announced she was retiring, he has reached out to me. he has been supportive in in every way.

i want to thank him for his absence he has done personally and all he has done for the country. if we could hear it for chuck schumer. [applause] i want to shoutout to kirsten gillibrand, similarly she is been an extraordinary friend. there is no one greater in the united states of focusing on women and women of taking power and positions if office in the united states senate than kirsten gillibrand. give a shoutout to her. good morning. i'm kamala hair remembers and running for the united states senate and pleased to join you this morning. california and new york has so much in common, for some reasons especially as democrats. we like you have been fighting for $15 an hour minimum wage. we like you, have been fighting for our lgbt brothers and sisters having fundamental right to marry.

we like you have been fighting for all the civil rights issues that are present and demand our need and fight in the future, including what we need to do to pass comprehensive immigration reform. i'm so pleased to be with you this morning. there are many longstanding friends in the room. for my new friends i give you a sense who i am in terms of my background. my parent met when they were active in the civil rights movement in students at university of california, berkeley in the 1960s. my sister maya and i joke we grew up with a bunch of adults that spent a lot of time marching and shouting about this thing called justice. of the many heroes of that great civil rights movement we know, the architects were the lawyers. thurgood marshall. charles hamilton houston. constance baker motley. these individuals, who understood the skill of the profession of law, to translate the passion from the streets to the courtrooms of our country and the importance of doing the

work that we know must constantly be done. of reminding folks of that great promise articulated right here in philly in 1776. that we all are and should be treated as equals. so at a young age i decided i wanted to be a lawyer. i went to howard university and went back to california and attended hastings college of law. right out of the law school i joined the almeida district attorney's office because early warren led that office. i prosecuted everything from low level offenses to homicide. elected first woman of color to be district attorney in state of california in 2003. [applause] and i now stand before you as the top cop of the biggest state in the country, no offense eric schneiderman. [laughter]

and i will tell you, as many of you know, when ever we as prosecutors do our work we file a document and that document never reads the name of the victim versus the name of the defendant. it always reads the people versus the defendant. because in our system of democracy and in our system of justice we have rightly said, a harm against any one of us is a harm against all of us. and in particular when we know that harm is most often directed at some of the most voiceless and vulnerable among us. so when we look out at the landscape, when we look at where we are as a country, through that lens of being a voice for the people, we know we have great challenges and we know in this election cycle the stakes are so high. in particular, when we look at what came out of cleveland, has been coming out of the rhetoric for the last year, where they

have, they have appealed to the lowest common denominator, when they are engaging in rhetoric that is anti-muslim, anti-immigrant, fueled with xenophobia, we know the stakes are high. and we know we have a fight in front of us. when we look at the challenge that as new yorkers and californiaians we face, knowing we have two of the states with the largest immigrant populations of any states in the country. when we know that these supposed leaders on that side have suggested a person can not serve as being a judge in the united states because they are mexican-american or muslim. when we listen to their rhetoric, which has conflated criminal justice policy with immigration policy as though it is the same thing when it is not. these are two separate policies issues with their own variables and issues and solutions. when we look at what is coming out of that party, which is telling us that instead of being

a unified country, it is us versus them. we know the stakes are high. and i will say this then. there are two things that we really know we have to think about in terms of where we are. one is this. you know, there are some people who say that when you criticize what is not working in our country, that that invites a question about one's love of country. i reject that notion. in fact i say there are two definitions of what it means to be a patriot. there is the definition that suggests you defend your country, whatever it does. and then there is the kind of patriot i believe us all to be. the kind that will fight each and every day for the ideals of our country and that is what this election is about. [applause] so we know the stakes are high.

we know that we have a lot to do in the next i believe 103 days. and i will leave us with this saying that i know everyone here knows and i will paraphrase, the great lady, coretta scott king, who famously said, the fight for civil rights read, the fight for justice, the fight for equality, the fight for civil rights must be fought and won with each generation. . .

do not throw up our hands when it is time to roll up our sleeves and that is the challenge before us. i thank you my friends. thank you. [applause] >> thank you. >> [inaudible conversations] >> wow. we definitely just heard from the next united states senator from california. [applause] kamala harris.

let's give her a great big round of applause. [applause] as they say in the african-american church, speak into a system. senator kamala harris. we have been joined by some other great democratic elected officials that i would like to acknowledge at this time. congresswoman nita lowey. [applause] congressman jerry matt lord. [applause] new york city comptroller scott stringer. [applause] congresswoman yvette clarke. [applause] former new york city mayor david dinkins. [cheers and applause] the president of the aft, randi weingarten.

[applause] the president of the long island labor federation. [applause] and one of our honorees from yesterday, george gresham, from 1199. [applause] we have also been joined by the senate democratic leader, andrea stewart cousins. [applause] our former democratic party chair, judith. [applause] and are sitting vice chair, christine quinn was with us. [applause] and christine has been doing a great job in representing the new york democratic party on cnn, and she just went back to

do another segment so let's give for another round of applause. [applause] we have with us today our attorney general, eric schneiderman. from fighting to provide relief -- yes, let's get our attorney general a great big round of applause. [applause] from fighting to provide relief for families hit hard by the housing crisis to successfully securing more than $20 million in restitution for over 17,000 workers across new york. attorney general schneiderman has worked each and every day to expand opportunity and access for all new yorkers. the is one of the most active and visible attorney general's in the entire nation.

please join me in welcoming our attorney general eric schneiderman to the stage. [applause] >> thank you. thank you new york democrats. it's important to listen to your lawyer, and i'm here to give you some important advice. first of all let me recognize what we bring to this convention in terms of talent, in terms of innovation, in terms of leadership. our delegation, i mean, i don't want to sound greedy but with all due respect to the other states, bernie sanders was born in brooklyn. hillary clinton was in touch with lives in westchester.

donald trump and -- [laughter] but governor cuomo, soon-to-be majority leader senator schumer, kirsten gillibrand has been a rising star so long you have to start calling her a flooring store. our congressional delegation, our house, the other great with officials we have here from all across the state, my neighbor scott stringer i see here today. we have the leadership. second i believe we have a special obligation to the rest of the states in this convention. to obligations if i may speak frankly. obligation of one is to tell the new york story of success because new york's star is an incredible story of success. i've talked to my coats and other states whose pension funds are broke, who have incredible high crime rates go also to other problems. our pension funds thank my

partner are flush. we have had budget surpluses in hard economic times for the rest of the country. we have won the fight for 15. we have passed paid family leave. we have marriage equality. we have the strongest gun-control laws in the country and we've closed the gun show loophole. new york is a success story. i see randi weingarten, great new yorker and national leader now is here. what is the secret to our success? may be part of it is the fact was the most heavily unionized state in the country. [applause] 24.5% of the workers in our state are unionized. when you go into this alternative reality of post-factual america that was on display in cleveland, they could talk about unions hurting you. it's like obviously not because

we to tell our story of success in the atmosphere which brings anyone along together. what other stories to have to tell? we have to tell a story of diversity creating strength, of pluralism being what america is all about. we have to tell a story and we have to step to this, brothers and sisters. step to the xenophobia that has been propagated by the other side. in new york we have almost 1 billion muslims. we have four different muslim bar association's. these are my colleagues. these are your colleagues, people who believe in the rule of law and protect it. with almost 1000 muslim members of the nypd. we have to step to this racism and bigotry because i assure you, any group that has experienced discrimination whether you're jewish, catholic, mormon, we know where this leads. when we have projected.

we believe in openness. we believe in inclusion. we believe we are stronger when you bring in new ideas and new things. we live next to each other even though we are very different every day. that is an important thing in your. we have secret to our success. lots of undocumented immigrants. that maybe another secret to our success. if you want to add in high rates of taxation we get totally counter to do. we are going with all these being a true. we have to tell he our story. in terms of the criminal justice system we repeal the rockefeller drug laws in 2000 our prison population goes down, crime rate goes down, recidivism rate goes down. [applause] and thanks to governor cuomo's executive order as of last summer, i am takeover special prosecutor any case where law enforcement officer kills an unarmed citizen to restore public confidence that there will be a fair and independent investigation. [applause] you saw those mothers on the

stage last night talking about tragedies otherwise, lost children. i meet with all of them. i meet with all of them, industry they get from people who don't just retreat when it's of a crisis but they come back out to try to make it safer for the rest of our children, those are he rose and that's something we all are in new york. we celebrate. we don't run away from problems. we solve problems. [applause] we have innovative drug courts. we have done amazing things. we have to tell our story. tell the story of successful progressive governance. this is what democratic progressive covenant looks like so let's go out and share that with our colleagues. second think we have an obligation to tell the truth about, and went on this. donald trump is from new york. [booing] now, you are the people of the state of new york so i represent

you in trump university. [applause] so people of the state of new york, -- [shouting] wait a minute, that sounds like cleveland. let's talk about what's at stake here. what's at stake is not just electing a good progressive democrat with the most progressive platform the democratic party has run in decades, thanks to the campaign we have just one. let's credit senator sanders for elevating the debate and shoving these issues for and moving us forward. [applause] but we have the most progressive platform we've had in decades. on climate, guns, equality. donald trump, and one thing about suing someone, and i suited in august 2013. he says this is all political. if i come to any meeting like

this and say he's going to be the republican nominee, i probably would not have gotten elected in 2014. my credibility would've suffered so badly. this is a guy who leaves a trail of broken deals, unpaid contractors, unpaid lawyers come until filled obligations and ruin lives behind him wherever he goes. everyone since i assume has come forward with their donald trump stories. we have an obligation to make sure the rest of the country knows who we see in your. they all come and complain to me and tell me their stories about how he ripped them off or how we didn't pay its bills. what happened to the union workers in atlantic city. what happened to the contractors that he didn't pay. we have to make this clear. what is he preaching? he is preaching something fundamentally anti-american, and totally anti-new york. he is saying it's human nature, it's okay to be selfish. that's the way we are your i'm

totally selfish and that's who you should be. this guy didn't make it on his own. if he took them on his father fred left him when he was a kid and put it in mutual funds he would have more money than he is now. is not a successful businessman. [applause] one of the reasons he will not release his tax returns, and there are others. what else does he tell us? few people who are different than you. fear the other. and i will say this to you, if you think the stops against bigotry of mexicans and those of you are wrong. i wish we did dishes he tweaked i get from trump follows. it's opened the door to everything that everybody get in america. we have to reject it and rejected strong, hard. [applause] and finally what does he tell us? them most basic motivation for action should be afraid, to be

scared, to be afraid of other people. that was an unbelievable performance that we saw in cleveland. look at what we saw yesterday. we saw democracy. we saw people voicing their differences but we saw people voicing their differences and then coming together and understanding that we are stronger when we unite with people that are different from us. who we disagree with. that's not what you're seeing in cleveland. other than ted cruz, and that's a whole other subject, other than ted cruz all the other republicans who didn't like the trump should've stayed when clinton. that's the way we do things. we bring everybody in. we celebrate the fact we have -- i see people from other states. is this contentious? i'm sorry, we do this in manhattan every day. we cannot give in to fear. we cannot give in to fear. america was built on hope. america, has only recently

gotten you all tickets to see hamilton yet? hamilton tells our story, the new store and tells the american story. it is a story of hope, of incredible courage to stand up to the greatest empire in the world at the time. it is a story of ambition and a story of immigrants and people who started with nothing trying to create something better for themselves. we our new york. we have to tell the story to america. we know what progressive governance looks like. we can show models of success. and we note the republican nominee. and sooner or later he has to come home. i've gotten to know this guy pretty well. his words neither is to wake up one day at 6 a.m. and to be in the white house having to work and be scrutinized every minute of every day. we are going to win this election but let's not just win this election but let's move

forward this progressive platform. let's take the senate, no question. chuck schumer will be the majority leader. we take the new york state senate. [applause] but more important than that this election is about the transformation of what's on the table of the way people think about problems. we can have a $15 minimum wage everywhere. we can have, no one in america after we move this platform should work full-time and live in poverty. that should once again be the contact americans have with our people. we can have affordable education. we can have universal health care their mother works for everybody. we can be saved in their homes and on our streets though matter how poor the community you live in. no matter what the color of your skin. we can have the american dream represented by the statue of liberty in our harbor that we welcome everyone.

we are not going to turn away because of your religion or your grace, her sexual orientation, any reason. we are america. new york, let's get out and tell that story and let's get out there and win this election. thank you. [applause] >> new york, let's get out and tell the story. let's give our attorney general, eric schneiderman, another great big round of applause. [applause] mayor lovely warren is someone who has tackled the challenges facing her city had on. working with governor cuomo, she helped launch the first rochester anti-poverty task force to fight rampant

inequality and secure a brighter future for her region's residents. mayor warren has also worked with governor cuomo to attract new business, economic development and jobs to rochester to the upstate revitalization initiative, working to transform the city and ensure continued growth and prosperity for years to come. i am very proud to present her with the upstate champion award for all of her hard work. please welcome rochester mayor lovely warren to the stage. [applause] let's give mayor brown another round of applause. [applause] for his great leadership of our state party.

so what respect our senior mayor, mayor dinkins from new york city. let's give him another round of applause. [applause] >> good morning, everyone. i want to thank the governor and mayor brown for this award. it is truly an honor. i'm thrilled to join together with all our outstanding democrats to shore unwavering support for the next president of united states, hillary clinton. [applause] secretary clinton is a true champion for new yorkers and people across our nation. someone who believes that when our families and communities are stronger, america is stronger. national elections have a way of clouding the progress we have made with the issues we must confront. over the last eight years the truth is, our nation's economy

has dramatically improved under president obama. [applause] and in rochester, we know this firsthand. for decades we were struck in a cycle of decline where jobs left, pessimism world, and poverty was far too common. my number one priority since taking office has been to fight the cycle of poverty had on. and i am most thankful that i found a partner in governor cuomo. together we created an innovative community partnership called the rochester anti-poverty initiative and task force. the task force for resources together to target poverty from every level, keeping our kids in school, enacting minority youth to job training and careers. and providing the social support that families need to keep food on the table and stay together.

we have an ambitious goal of cutting poverty by 50% over the next 15 years in our target area. [applause] >> we are making progress and we recognize we have a long road ahead, that together we are committed to changing lives. and the governor in partner -- a partnership with the legislature has suddenly transformed the economic development process. through the governors of states initiative, he is given cities the tools to attract well-paying jobs, drive long-term economic growth, and keep young people and families in our region. today we are focusing on what works, investing in key industries like imaging, agriculture and reduction a next-generation manufacturing and technology.

this forward thinking strategy is paying dividends, big businesses are choosing us to grow and invest in. jobs are up and opportunity and optimism have returned to rochester. i am proud to be governor cuomo's partner in government, and as the first female mayor of the hometown of susan b. anthony who fought so hard to give women the right to vote, and home state of shirley chisholm, i am even prior to support a president who would care our progress forward and continue to champion the needs of working families. hillary clinton is the clear and best choice for president of the united states. [applause] but i tell you, in order for that to happen, we must return to our community and work hard to bring out the vote.

and i can't wait to celebrate another historic victory as the party who elected the first african-american to lead our country. we will together elect the first woman to lead this country. i look forward to celebrating with you in november. thank you again. [applause] >> the rochester monroe anti-poverty initiative has become a statewide model thanks to the work of mayor warren and governor cuomo. let's give them a great big round of applause. [applause] >> before we move on to our next award, i want to just acknowledge some other great democrats who have joined us. we have been joined by

congressman gregory meeks. [applause] congresswoman carolyn maloney. [applause] the naacp president hazel dukes. [cheers and applause] dennis prager, vice president of cw pay, district one your. [applause] and the president and ceo of the buffalo -- pardon me, of the national urban league, marc morial. [applause] and we will hear from urban league president morial after the next award. we certainly thank him for being with us. when somebody myrick took office

in 2012 as mayor, he worked hard to deliver results for the people of ithaca as one of the youngest mayors in new york's history. he has been a tireless advocate of state families and communities. working to generate robust economic growth and invest in education. for all he has accomplished, and all that is yet to come, i'm pleased, i'm happy, i am honored to present svante myrick with the upstate champion award. please welcome mayor myrick to the stage. [applause] >> good morning. thank you. my name is svante myrick.

i'm the mayor of the city of ithaca. i assure you i am the mayor of the city of ithaca. and i'm here because i believe that it matters who's in charge. i believe that very much because i was bored in 1987, in the last year of ronald reagan's administration. -- i was born -- ronald reagan and his administration ignored people like my family to live in the inner city, people like my father, who was a navy veteran, introduced to drugs in the navy, became an addict, left our family. he left my mother who was alone when she was nine months pregnant with me, who lost her job at a diner because she didn't have any family leave. and people like me who became homeless for days after my birth.

i lived in a homeless shelter for the first six months of my life. and for the first eight years of my life i was in and out of homelessness. so i believe it matters who's in charge. [applause] >> and i grew up in upstate new york while -- [applause] >> thank you. one other person grew up in upstate new york. where are we? yes. [applause] in upstate new york, george pataki was governor, frankly, for far too long. [laughter] and when he was governor we suffered your and we suffered because the same reason we suffered under the reagan administration. as mayor, it matters to me who the president is. we do right president i can pay for streets and build more bridges, right?

[applause] it matters to senator schumer and senator children who the president is because with the right president they can pass legislation, they can get signed into law like obamacare. but the people that it matters the most to our people who can't vote, the children. our children are going to be the ones who are most impacted by our choices. and the choices of the pataki administration left upstate new york out in the culprit and a left children suffering because there's nothing worse i can tell you from experience there's nothing worse for a child than parents who can't find work. work pays a living wage. there's nothing more damaging to their health or their education, to the future and the lives of poverty and insecure housing. it matters who is in charge. [applause] it matters to them. [applause]

and it matters what they look like. it matters what our leaders look like i'm going to tell you a quick story. what i was first elected back in 2012, i was 24. i have been two years out of cornell university. i spent four years on the city council so i been around for a little while. but still able to work inside inside city hall came up to me and said i said is 15, he just came to see me at work. he's a black kid. he gets any elevator inside city hall. and older white woman gets any elevator within. looks at him and says, hey, are you the mayor? 18 years old. -- 15 years old. she told me at this point in his life he had been mistaken for a lot of things. he then followed around stores because people thought he was going to steal.

he has had people get off the elevator when he gets on because they were afraid of what they looked like. but that was the first of you ever been mistaken for a figure of authority. the time it took them to walk from the elevator to her office, the way he thought about himself had changed her he saw in himself a leader reflected in other people's eyes. that is what president obama did for me. and for young black men -- [applause] -- throughout this country. [applause] now the first image of the blackness is the obama family. and the confidence that issue, i can tell you as somebody who lived through the transition from being not represented to being represented, well, you can't overstate it. when you walk into a job interview if you like you can