well in maine because it's close to canada. let's face it. [laughter] [applause] i think marco rubio had a very, very bad night, and personally, i would call for him to drop out of the race. i think it's time now that he drop out of the race. i really think so. [applause] i think it's probably time. i don't think tonight he can get up and rant and rave. he comes in third. every time he comes in third or fourth -- you've got to be able to win. i would love to take on ted one on one.that would be so much fun. ted can't win new york, new jersey, pennsylvania, california. i want ted one-on-one, ok?

i think one of the reasons we did so well tonight and so strong is the really had a good debate. i think we did very well. i was hit from every side, every angle very viciously, but i think we did well in the debate. we are marching along, and i think we are doing well in florida. today, i was in orlando. we had a group of at least 20,000 people. we had to send 10,000 people .way, and the place was packed it was an amazing day. i love the people of florida. it's my second home. i just want to thank florida for being just incredible, and i'm looking at the poll numbers. [applause] even though i've never seen any human being hit with more negative commercials than i've been hit with -- i'm telling

you, no human being should have $49 spent on negative commercials, and despite that, we have a lead in florida. i think we are going to do well in ohio. i think we are going to do fantastically in ohio. i love the people of that state. the biggest story in all of politics is it what is happening tonight and on super tuesday, but the biggest story is the tremendous outpouring of voters coming into the republican party. you are seeing what is happening. [applause] millions and millions of people are coming in and voting, and you've never seen anything like it before. they are doing covers on "time magazine" because it's a movement, and i'm honored to say that if i were not involved, that were not be happening.

i will say i'm kidding the cousin i want them to say i'm a nice person. i want them to say i'm a nice person. you're talking about millions of people. as a party, we should come together and stop this foolishness. i was thinking about it today for the first time. the establishment is unhappy with the way things are going, and i can understand that, although i used to be part of the establishment. seven months ago before i was part ofun, i the establishment. they said, what is he doing? we want people we can control. we want people we can give money we want somebody for pharmaceutical or utilities gas, wer or oil and have total control over our senator or congressman. i am self-funding. i'm not taking their money. i'm going to do what is right for the american people, and

that's very simple, so they are not happy. i was thinking today, because i love the republican party, and i love the conservatives, and i love a lot of people who are good friends of mine, and i've been a member for a long time. for the first time, i was really thinking about this. we lost a great man, justice scalia. needs to be replaced, and you can only replace him with someone truly great. he can never be replaced. a very good friend of my sister who is a federal judge on the court of appeals. highly respected. that was totally unexpected. picture shows what happens. we have a situation where they are saying, maybe we are not going to be able to beat trump the normal way, so we will run a third-party candidate, and maybe we can't win all the states, but we will do enough so donald

trump can't win. what are they doing? aey are going to appoint conservative, great judge, something that will make the people of the republican party very happy, someone who will make the people very happy. if they run a third-party or an independent, if they do that, it will make it impossible for the republican candidate, on the assumption it's me or anybody, to win. losing, that means hillary clinton who should not be allowed to run because of what she did with the e-mails -- should not be allowed to run -- [applause] assumption that they did that, it would be impossible for a republican to win. obviously, the independent or third party could not win, so the democrats would have an absolutely free run.

probably, you wouldn't even campaign because it would be impossible to win. what does that mean? -- that means that automatically they are going to appoint very, very, very liberal judges. the new president, who would be a democrat, will point the judge -- a point the judge, -- will appoint the judge, so it no longer matters. we could see the appointment of courtor five supreme justices. you've got to start thinking about that, folks. anybody who does a third party, that's what it's going to mean. it guarantees -- 100% guarantees the election of the democrat. that means the appointment of supreme court judges, 3, 4, or five. that's a total wipeout for conservatives and for

republicans. start thinking about that. start thinking about it. this was just an exciting time. i'm having a lot of fun. i have to tell you that ted i was watching him. congratulations on the two states, ted. he was saying the donald trump has a ceiling of 35% to 40%. lln came out with old -- a po two days ago that says i have 49% compared to his. 49% -- some of the polls are showing over 50%. i don't even think they are accurate. won many polls against hillary clinton directly , and i'm the only one that's going to beat her, if she is allowed to run. remember that.-- and i am the one person, the one person, trust me, that she does

not want to run against. now, we've only had one little skirmish here that was four weeks ago. that was not pleasant for her and bill. but i'm the one person -- [laughter] mr. trump: i'm really ashamed of the press because they got it wrong. they did not give me any credit. do you remember when she was beating bernie easily? suddenly, four weeks ago, bernie was doing great. you know why? she went down. and you know why? because of my skirmish. and i get no credit for that. please give me credit. [applause] mr. trump: so, i look forward to that race. and again, i haven't really done anything with hillary. we haven't started with hillary except for the one moment for weeks ago -- four weeks ago. i heard hillary today and i watched her statement tonight and her statement is "make america whole." that's a terrible statement. [laughter]

mr. trump: make america hwol -- whole. i think she means we are in a whole. we are in a deep -- in a hole. we are in a deep hole, and we are trying to dig our way out. make america whole? no, make america great again. that's what mine is. make america great again. [applause] ok? so, again, this has been a very exciting evening. again, i just have to think the people of louisiana and of theucky -- to thank people of louisiana and of kentucky. last night, we had a group of people in an airplane hangar. this was a seriously big hang ar for very, very big planes. there were thousands and thousands of people.

it was incredible. same thing a few days ago in kentucky. we had a rally that was incredible. today's rally in orlando, florida -- nobody has seen anything like it. they are saying they have never seen anything like it in the history of politics in this country. it was so reported -- even in "the new york times" today, people have never seen anything like it. it's a movement. i want to thank all of my friends and members, all of my everything. you have been so supportive, so great. you are very, very special people. thank you. if you would like, you know the president is among the most dishonest people ever created by god. i would like to take -- the press are among the most honest people ever created by god. i would love to take a few questions. john. >> [inaudible]

if i can do it, i would do it. thank you. if i can do it, i will do it. yes, sir. go ahead. >> [inaudible] mr. trump: i love you as a reporter. where have you been? this is the greatest guy. i call him lying ted. he holds up the bible, then he puts it down and lies. man who lies as much. what he did to ben carson is a disgrace. and actually, to me. had he not gotten those iowa votes, i would have won iowa. i would have won everything.

when he did voter violation on a form that looks like it came right out of a government agency, voter violation, and the only way you get rid of the violation is by going and voting for ted cruz. do you ever see this? people did that because they were afraid. it was terrible. it was a very fraudulent thing. he has done a lot of bad things. ben carson is a great guy. . thought that was a disgrace he said basically the ben carson is out of the race. come on, vote for me. one of those things. i do think this. i do think that ted is at least moving along ok, but marco -- how does he -- has to get out of the race. has to. despite what ted said -- ugh, do i want to run against just ted. that will be easy. go ahead. >> [inaudible]

mr. trump: yeah. >> [inaudible] well, i have made it very, very strong. we have policy on it. i've said it very strongly. i think you know it. how many times do i have to say it? example,e -- as an what is my position on 900 different things? i said it 150 times. we are not here for discussing that. but everybody knows how i feel on it. question? question? david, sit down, please. you know my position. john, go ahead. >> [inaudible] mr. trump: it's what it should be. because we are the only two that are winning.

he keeps saying "i am the one who beats donald trump." well, i have been beating him almost 3-1. on super tuesday, i got one million more votes than marco and i've hundred thousand more votes-- and 500,000 more than ted. that's a lot of votes. >> [inaudible] mr. trump: he is not going to win. you know what? the can't win -- he can't win. i'd love to have a head-to-head matchup with him in florida and in ohio. but in new york, he's not going to get very many votes. jersey,nnsylvania, new he is just not going to get very many votes. i would like marco to drop out. look at how he did tonight. he is in third and fourth. even when i don't win a state, i come in second. that's a big thing. marco is coming in fourth. i think it is time for marco to

clean the deck, i do, and i say that respectfully. >> [inaudible] mr. trump: matt is a great guy. look, i wanted to go to kansas. i felt i had an obligation. i did fairly well in kansas, considering i spent literally an .our there, very small time but i wanted to go to kansas to campaign. people-- i respect the at cpac. -- spect matt great deal matt a great deal. i hated to cancel. i'm campaigning to be president. had i not going to kansas this morning, i would not have done as well as i did. i came in second. it was a very important thing. >> [inaudible] mr. trump: john, go ahead. >> [inaudible] mr. trump: great.

i have taken more questions from reporters than any human being maybe that's ever lived. i mean, give me a break. no, i don't care. i was hearing matt say today, i did not like the format. i would rather speak for 30 minutes, but i hate when we are interviewed or use speak for 10 minutes, 15 minutes, then you're interrupted, you sit down. i have done that. i have done that three times now. i would rather speak. if someone asked me in the case of sean hannity, i would love to do that. i would love to do that. this was simply a fact that i wanted to campaign. very few people are campaigning. i'm very happy i did it. i met a lot of great people in kansas. mr. phil ruffin, one of the most united -- most successful people in the united states. i felt like i owed it to him to

go there. >> [inaudible] mr. trump: yes? >> [inaudible] mr. trump: we would want to get to the bottom of it. i think our weakness in dealing with iran has been unprecedented. the fact that we gave them $150 billion and they are a terrorist state. the fact that they spent much of that money buying other than american products. they brought 118 massive airplanes -- box 118 massive airplanes from -- they bought

118 massive airplanes from airbus. not from boeing. i will get down to the bottom of that. i think it is a disgrace. please give his family my regards. . think they know where he is one way or another, i think they absolutely know where he is. if i am elected president, i will get to the bottom of it. [applause] mr. trump: go ahead. >> [inaudible] mr. trump: well, i have nothing to do with it. when you have 25,000 people in the building. today, we had to send away so many thousands of people. when you have that many people, if you have four or five people stand up out of 22,000 that are in this holding -- building, that i'm speaking to. a very great entertainer said,

donald, you are the biggest entertainer in the world without a guitar. which is sort of interesting. i won't tell you that was the great elton john. i won't tell you that. somebody did make that statement. when you have that many people in the world -- the room, you will have a couple of people -- skirmishes. we treat them very gently. 10 years ago, they would have been treated differently, not by me. that's the way life is. we treat them very gently. we had a few protesters today, but very few. if you look at it as a theentage, we had 1/100 of people in the room. >> [inaudible] mr. trump: look, i watched bernie sanders have a protest. he was up at the microphone and two young ladies came up and took the microphone away from him. that will never happen to me. he walked meekly to the back of the room. i said, isn't that pathetic, isn't that sad? >> [inaudible]

>> [audience booing] mr. trump: this is the problem with reporters. not so you understand -- me. somebody else. marco brought it up. you look at what happens to marco. let me tell you, i didn't bring it up. excuse me, somebody else said, donald trump has small hands. i said, small hands these guys -- small hands? these guys know i hit the ball 280. is trump strong? i simply held up the hand. these are very strong hands, and they are fairly large, actually. but you know what, it was interesting. you should not even be bringing this up, to be honest with you. but it was very interesting.

because the day after he said that, i am shaking hands with people, and everybody is saying, wow, you have strong hands, you have very good hands. marco made it up out of nowhere, because he is a politician. politicians lie and they say bad things. and if you don't call them out for it -- i didn't bring it up. he brought it up. and i finished it. i will tell you something about marco. marco attacked me viciously a week ago, two weeks ago. so far, every person that has attacked me has gone down. look at his numbers tonight. he cannot hold one of those phony rallies where he did well. he did really badly. he is not going to stand up tonight and talk about how well he did in iowa, where he was in third place and he acted like he won. i agree with ted on that. >> [inaudible] mr. trump: here is the story. i would love it to be at a high level.

i will be the most presidential candidate in history other than honest abe lincoln. he was very tough to beat. you look at abe lincoln, he was serious, right? but when i get attacked by these people at a low level, i have to attack back. i can't stand there. some people say you are above it. i will never do that for our country, either. [applause] mr. trump: yes, go ahead. >> [inaudible] mr. trump: i am totally denouncing -- any hate group, no good with donald trump. any hate group. but if you are telling me, i will believe it. i totally denounce, ok? >> [inaudible] mr. trump: bullying? yeah? >> [inaudible] mr. trump: i will help the party

fundraiser, yes. i am not looking for funds for myself. i am totally self funding my campaign, but i will absolutely help the camp -- the party fundraiser. i don't want any money for myself. go ahead. >> [inaudible] mr. trump: no, i'm not. i think we will win before the convention. i think we will win before. i have sponsored a lot of sporting events. the fighters have a great expression. when they go into a city or town where it is an unfriendly town but they think they are going to win, the only way we are going to do -- to guarantee victory is to not them out. the only way i can guarantee victory is to get enough delegates. if we think about it like price fighters do, that's called a knockout. we think we are going to do very well in florida. we have the two once. -- ones. louisiana and kentucky tonight for the big ones. we did well in maine, but it was much smaller than louisiana, kentucky.

kansas was also smaller. we came in second. but we won louisiana and kentucky. they were the big ones. go ahead. >> [inaudible] mr. trump: ok. so, the question was asked about waterboarding. waterboarding is a very touchy subject. it was originally asked two decades ago to ted cruz. he sort of didn't want any part of that question. i watched and i said wow. they look at me and said, how do you feel. i said, i'm totally in favor of waterboarding. and if we can, i'd like to do much more than that. just so you understand, we are playing by a different set of rules than isis and others in the middle east. we have laws and rules and regulations and all of these things, and they have nothing. they jump off people -- chop off people's heads.

they drown people in massive steel cages. they dropped the case for one hour, they lift it up and there are 30 dead people. here we are worried about waterboarding. here is the story. i will obey the laws, but i will try and get the laws extended. i will try and get the laws broadened. because we should be allowed -- because it's very hard to be successful in beating someone when you're rules are very soft and their rules are unlimited. they can do whatever they want to do. and i want to play -- [applause] mr. trump: look, we are going to rebuild our military. we are going to knock out isis so violently and so fast. they chop off heads. they do things that we haven't seen since medieval times, and we are worried about waterboarding. sit down. let me just tell you. excuse me.

i want to stay within the laws. right now, we have the laws. i want to make those laws stronger so that we can better compete with a vicious group of animals, ok? ok. yes, go ahead. >> [inaudible] mr. trump: i love -- yeah, i think we are going to do great. we have a 20 point lead i think in florida. >> [inaudible] mr. trump: look, mitt romney was a failed candidate. he was a terrible candidate. he choked. he absolutely choked as bad as i had never seen, other than marco when chris christie was grilling him. that was a big joke also -- choke also. i thought he was going to collapse. i was getting ready to hold him

up with these very powerful hands, ok? [applause] mr. trump: that was a joke -- choke. mitt romney choked as a candidate. he knows how i feel. when he was thinking of getting into the race seven months ago, eight months ago, i said -- so important. i said you cannot let mitt romney in this race. he is a choker. you know, through sports -- i can tell you, i have some great sportsmaen right here. once a choker, always a choker. mitt romney gave that election away. that was an election against a failed president that should have been easily won. mitt romney did not work hard. that last month, he disappeared. say what you want about president obama. he was on "jay leno," "david letterman." he was all over the place. and where was mitt romney? we are all still looking for

him. if he would have devoted the same time and energy to winning the presidency four years ago as he is now to destroying our party and the unity of our party, he would have won the election and we wouldn't have the problems we do now. ladies and gentlemen, i want to thank you all. this has been amazing, very exciting. i look forward to seeing you many times in the near future. thank you very much. thank you. thank you very much. [applause] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2016] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]

>> during campaign 2016, c-span takes you on the road to the white house, as we follow the candidates on c-span, c-span radio, and c-span.org. >> and here are our results of

the caucuses and primaries held today. the kansas democratic caucuses, senator randy sanders -- berni sanderse the winner with 67.7%. republican caucuses, senator ted cruz was the winner with 48%, donald trump with 23%, senator marco rubio with almost 17%. kentucky republican caucuses, donald trump winning with 35% and some. senator ted cruz, 31% and some. senator marco rubio with almost 17% of the vote in thei -- the vote there. the louisiana democratic primary, hillary clinton with a commanding lead of 70%, the highest number of delegates at stake in louisiana. senator bernie sanders with almost -- with 23.5% there. in louisiana republican primary, donald trump winning with 41 --

almost 42% of the vote. senator ted cruz, 38%. senator marco rubio, 11% of the vote. and in the main republican -- maine republican caucuses, senator ted cruz with almost 46% of the vote, donald trump with a little more than 32.5%, and -- governor john kasich coming in with a little more than 12%. in the nebraska democratic caucuses, senator sanders winning there with 55% of the vote and hillary clinton with 45% of the vote. with senator bernie sanders those two caucuses, we would like to take you now to an event in warren, michigan, from earlier today, with bernie sanders. this is about one hour. ♪

[applause] thank you!: thank you! what a wonderful turnout. thank you so much for coming out. [applause] thank thes: let me mayor for his strong support. i appreciate it very much. thank the former president of the and -- naacp. re only problem with ben's marks is i don't know what i'm

going to say now. he has said it all. but i will try. what i'm going to try to do tonight is something very .adical in american politics i'm going to tell you the truth. [applause] mr. sanders: here is something about the truth. the truth is not always pleasant , and i wish i could come before you and tell you everything is great, don't worry about anything. but if i told you that, i would be lying to you. so what i have to do as a candidate for president is to be honest with you, because i believe that if we have the courage to look our problems right in the face and if we we can address, them, we can resolve them. [applause] so, what are some of the issues that are out there?

you all know about them. we've got to bring them up. number one. >> [inaudible] mr. sanders: you know what, i was just going to say that. [applause] mr. sanders: you've got to give me a little bit of time here. you jumped the gun. [laughter] mr. sanders: here is the issue. the gentleman just hit the nail on the head. look, i'm the former chairman of the u.s. that -- u.s. senate committee on foreign affairs. i will continue as president to do everything i can to protect the men and women who have put their lines on the line to defend us. [applause] i have met veterans from world war ii and afghanistan and you look out at these people, some of them who came home without legs or arms, they put their lives on the line to defend american democracy. and i worry very much about what is going on in american democracy today. and at the top of my list is

the need to overturn this disastrous citizens united supreme court decision. [cheers and applause] democracy is about a meeting like this where you can come out and you can agree with me, you can disagree with me, you can vote for me, you can vote against me. that's all democracy. what democracy is not about is about billionaires buying elections. >> bernie! bernie! bernie! mr. sanders: in this election it has been estimated that the koch brothers and a few other billionaires -- you know about the koch brothers.

smart group of people. ok. koch brothers and a few other billionaires will spend approximately $900 million to buy this election for candidates who are going to represent the wealthy and the powerful. when you have -- when you have one family and a few other billionaires spending more money in an election than the entire democratic party or republican party, that is not democracy. that is oligarchy and we are going to stop that. [cheering] now, when i talk about some of the differences between secretary clinton and myself, this is one of those differences. and i'll tell you why. secretary clinton has a number of super pacs. one of her super pacs recently

reported that they raised $25 million from special interests, $15 million from wall street alone. now, every candidate in the history of the world, democrat, republican, when they receive huge amounts of money from wall street, or the drug companies, or the fossil fuel industries, what they always say, not going to impact me. and our question is, if it's not going to impact their decisions, why would wall treet be spending $15 million? [cheering] and this is not just hillary clinton. this is all the republican candidates. receiving huge amounts of money. second point with secretary clinton. as some of you know she has given a number of speeches behind closed doors to wall street.

in fact, she has been paid $225,000 per speech. now, i kind of think if you're going to be paid $225,000 for a speech, it must be a fantastic speech. [laughter] a prilt speech -- brilliant speech which you would want to share with the american people, right? [cheering] you know, $225,000, extraordinary speech. shakespearean speech. but we all look forward to seeing it. all right. second issue that we talk about in this campaign is not just the corrupt campaign finance system. it is a rigged economy. now, what do we mean by a

rigged economy? what we mean is that for a start, millions of people in the middle class, working people, today are working longer hours for lower wages. ok? is that true? [cheering] this is despite a huge explosion of technology and an increase in worker productivity. so you're producing more and being paid less. in my state, i'm sure it's true in michigan, we got people working one job, two jobs, three jobs, trying to cobble together enough income and health care to take care of their families. you got mom working. you got dad working. you got kids working. we are working the longest hours of any people in the industrialized world. did you all know that? we work longer. the japanese are very hard-working people. we work longer hours per year than the japanese do. and -- i'm going to get to that. in a minute.

[laughter] in a minute. we work the longest hours. and what happens when people work such long hours? marriages suffer. because dad is here. mom's there. there's stress and tension in the family. kids do not get the attention that they deserve. because both parents are working, right? now, at the end of the all of that, 58% of all new income generated today goes to the top %. that is what a part of what a rigged economy is about. you work longer hours for low wages. almost all new income and wealth goes to the people on top. let me give you another example of a rigged economy. you know, my republican colleagues, governor norse, all over the country, they talk about welfare abuse. about all those poor people ripping off the welfare system, right? all right. i want to talk to you -- i do want to talk to you about

welfare abuse but in a slightly different way than the republicans. i want to tell you which family in america receives more welfare than anybody else? ness a brilliant add -- this is a brilliant audience. we're going to win here in michigan. [cheers and applause] can't believe it. this guy knew what i was going to say. you know the answers to my questions. what do i have to say? all right. here's the story. and this is important to understand. because this is what a rigged economy is about. it turns out that the walton family that owns wal-mart is the wealthiest family in america. i think they have $60 billion or $70 billion in wealth. they're doing pretty good. but they pay their wal-mart workers wages that are so low that many of their employees have to go on medicaid, food stamps, or subsidized housing,

right? who do you think pays for the food stamps, medicaid -- you do. so on behalf of the walton family, i want to thank you very much. you are very nice people to help subsidize -- they're very grateful tore this. -- for this. but the truth is that now is the time for the walton family, the richest family in america, to get off of welfare, pay their workers a living wage. [cheering] third part of what we're talking about in this campaign, and talked about it eloquently, one of the great experts in this country about it, is a roken criminal justice system.

now, what this campaign is about, most importantly, is demanding that the american people not think small but start thinking outside of the box, outside of the status quo. outside of what television wants you to believe are your options. you know, the corporate media that go on 24 hours a day, seven days a week, they talk about everything except the issues most important to the american people. and here's one of those issues. we have to ask ourselves why in america, the wealthiest country in the history of the world, why do we have more people in jail than any other country on earth? and the people in jail are disproportionately african-american, latino,

ative americans. we have right now youth unemployment that is off the charts. we don't talk about it much. but i want you to know we did a study on this, and economists did a study for me, for kids between 17 and 20, they're white, real unemployment, 33%. latino 36%. african-american 51%. if anyone in this room, if anyone here tonight does not see the connection between this outrageously high rate of youth unemployment and the fact that we have so many people in jail, you're missing something very important. so here is -- here is a radical idea. are you ready for a radical idea? [cheering] together, we are going to invest in jobs and education,

not jails or incarceration. [cheering] >> bernie! bernie! bernie! bernie! bernie! bernie! bernie! mr. sanders: let me also talk about other aspects of a broken criminal justice system. nd go to my website, berniesanders.com. we go to the issue at great length. but i want to mention other points. it turns out the so-called war op drugs -- on drugs has failed and has resulted in millions and millions of people over a 30-year period getting criminal records and a whole lot of people ending up in jail with their lives ruined. right now, right now, under the federal controlled substance act, marijuana is listed as a schedule one drug alongside of eroin.

you know, scientists are arguing, you know, the pluses and minuses of marijuana. but nobody believes that marijuana is equivalent to eroin. so what we have proposed, and i've introduced legislation to do this, is to take marijuana out of the federal controlled substance act. cheers and applause] and our federalist type society, states can do -- legalize it or not if they want to but it should not be a federal crime. and here is the racial aspect of that. it turns out that according to studies, the white community and the black community do marijuana at about equal rates. but blacks end up being

arrested four times more than whites for possession of marijuana. and when we talk about reforming the criminal justice system, it means police department reform as well. i am a former mayor, burlington, vermont, and i work very closely with the police. the vast majority of police officers in this country are honest, hard-working, and they have an enormously difficult job. [cheering] but when a police officer like any other public official breaks the law, that officer ust be held accountable.

we have got to demilitarize local police departments around the country. we have got to make police departments look like the diversity of the communities hey are serving. we have got to do away with minimal sentencing so that we give judges more discretion on ow to propose sentences. let me tell you something else. in my state of vermont, new hampshire is right next to us, and i know across this country, we have a major, major crisis in opiate addiction and in heroin addiction. in a small state like new hampshire, they're losing one person per day from heroin overdose. what we have got to do is begin as a sing this epidemic

health issue, not a criminal issue. and what that means is we have to greatly expand mental health facilities all over this country. [cheering] when peesm need treatment, they should be able to get it. not have to wait two months to get in the door. now, let me take a moment to discuss some other disagreements between myself and secretary clinton. i mentioned that we raise money in very different ways. when i began this campaign, we had to make a decision. unfortunately, in the real world, it takes hundreds of

millions of dollars to run for president of the united states. maybe even more than that. maybe over $1 billion. that's a huge amount of money. yuge. i know. i can't use the word yuge anymore. [laughter] always brings forth a response. but it's a lot of money. but we have to make this decision. how are we going to raise this money? virtually all candidates do it the way secretary clinton does it. you have a super pac and go to wall street and pour millions of dollars in our campaigns. thank you very much. we chose to do it a different way and went to the working class of this country and say you want real change in this country and want a candidate who's going to stand up to the billionaires and wall street, we need your help. and this is what's happened over the last 10 months. in a million years, when i began this campaign, i never, ever, would have predicted this could happen. but it's happened -- we have -- thank you.

what has -- >> bernie! mr. sanders: what has happened, this is revolutionary, when i speak after political revolution we've already accomplished this. we have received almost five million individual contributions. anybody -- anybody here know if the average contribution is? ds 27. -- $27. and this is revolutionary. so instead of having a campaign dependent on the drug companies and wall street and the fossil uel industry and billionaires, we are depending on the working families of america and i appreciate that.

to paraphrase abraham lincoln at gettysburg, this is a campaign of the people, by the eople, and for the people. but the difference is that i have with secretary clinton, go beyond how we raise money. there is an enormously important issue and the media doesn't deal with it at all. too important to be dealt with by the media. and that is the issue of trade. now, i know -- i know trade is not a sexy issue. it is not. i know that. media pays no attention to it at all. ut here is what it amounts to. 30 or 40 years ago this country began entering into what i considered then disastrous trade agreements, written by corporate america and the

bigger money interests. what these agreements were about, that's called nafta and permanent normal trade relations with china and the colombian trade agreement and korean free trade agreement. all these free trade agreements were based on a certain basic premise and that premise from corporate america was the following -- why would they want to pay workers in michigan or illinois or ohio or vermont $25, $30 an hour, a living wage, a middle class wage, why would they want to negotiate with unions? why would they want to obey environmental laws when they can shut down in america, move to mexico, move to china, and exploit poor people all over the world? whove had a brain knew what these trade agreements were about and in the 1990's i was on the picket line with trade

unionists in opposition. [cheering] while all of the fears that many of us had in opposing these agreements turned out to be true. factories in ,000 america have shut down. not all of it attributable to trade. but a lot of it. and regions, like the midwest, michigan, ohio, illinois, have been particularly hard hit. you have lost tens and tens of thousands of decent-paying jobs. corporations shut down, moved to china, moved to mexico. i voted, help lead the opposition against every one of these disastrous trade agreements. cheers and applause]

secretary clinton voted for virtually all of them. now, there's another issue out there that distinguishes ourselves. and that is everybody here knows that foreign policy is a huge -- here we go again. >> yuge! senator sanders: is a very important part of what a president does. ok? and the reason for it is these are life and death issues. now, in 2002, when i was vermont's congressman, i listened very carefully to what president bush and vice president cheney and don rumsfeld -- yeah. you got it. anyhow, they told us that the reason why we have to invade iraq and etc. listen carefully. because i knew that the decisions that congress reached would result in some people in

my own state not coming back alive. i listened very carefully. and i ended up not believing what they said. i voted against the war in iraq. [cheering] >> bernie! bernie! bernie! bernie! bernie! bernie! bernie! bernie! bernie! bernie! bernie! bernie! bernie! bernie! senator sanders: secretary clinton was in the senate and heard the same information that i did. i was in the house. she voted for the war. and that war is -- as all of you know turned out to be one of the worst foreign policy disasters in the modern history of america. now, in addition, in the last debate that i had with secretary clinton, she said something that really kind of blew me away. she said that henry kissinger thought that she did a very

good job -- can't believe -- you -- you know who henry kissinger is, right? and why one would look for approval from one of the worst, most destructive secretaries of state in the history of this country, i don't understand. [applause] i do not want henry kissinger's approval. when that day comes -- when that day comes, i know that i'll be doing something very wrong. now, the reason that our campaign is doing as well as it is, and we've come a long, long way, we started at 3% in the polls. and now we're closing in, some national polls actually have ad us ahead. [cheering] >> bernie! bernie!

bernie! bernie! senator sanders: the reason that we are doing so well nationally and why i think we are going to win here in michigan -- [cheering] is because we are doing our best to listen to the people, t just wealthy campaigns contributors. we are listening to workers all over this country who tell me they cannot make it on $8 or $9 an hour. >> what about the flint water crisis? senator sanders: and that is why we are going to fight to minimum absurd $7.25 wage. and why -- why we are going -- good. you got it. why we're going to raise the

inimum wage to $15 an hour over the next few years. [cheering] and we are listening to senior citizens. you don't read about this in the media also. but all over this country, you got seniors and disabled veterans, 70, 80, 90 years of age trying to get by on $11,000 or $12,000 a year social security. and you know what? nobody can get by on $11,000 or $12,000 a year social security. our great nation is judged not by how many millionaires and billionaires it has but by how it treats the most vulnerable mong us. [applause]

and the truth is, we do not treat our seniors particularly well. now, my republican colleagues, if you can believe -- it really is hard to believe -- they want to cut social security benefits. well, i've got some bad news for them. not only are we not going to cut those benefits. we're going to raise social security benefits! [cheering] we are listening to the veterans of this country who put their lives on the line to defend us. and they are telling us they want the health care and other benefits that they were promised. and we are going to give that to them. throughout this campaign, in state after state, we have been listening to young people.

and what -- [cheering] and what young people are telling me is why do we have to leave college $50,000, $70,000 in debt? how many people here have tudent debt? ok. and i've talked to people, i talked to the guy in iowa. had to drop out of college $60,000 in debt after two years. a woman in burlington, vermont, became a doctor. and for becoming a doctor she ended up $300,000 in debt. a dentist in iowa, $400,000 in debt. a guy in nevada has been paying off his student debt for 25 years. more -- more in debt today than

he was when he took out that loan. now, what we have got to understand, and we got to think outside of the box. everybody here knows that education and learning is inherent in being a human being. right? cheers and applause] clearly the goal of america is to make sure that all of our people get all of the education that they need and they want. that's not a radical idea. we should not be punishing people for getting an education. we should be rewarding them. [applause] and that is why i've introduced legislation and will make happen as president to do three things. , mber one, in the year 2016

public education cannot just consist of first grade through 12th grade. that was a great idea historically. the world has changed. today, today, in many respects, a college degree is the equivalent of what high school degree was 50 years ago. you know, 50 years ago, somebody had a high school degree, they were doing really well. go out and get a great job. that is not the case today. that is why i believe that we have got to make public colleges and universities, tuition, free. cheers and applause] >> bernie! bernie! bernie! bernie! bernie! bernie! two, youngs: number

people and it was not so young should not be paying off student that for decades. [cheers] when that happens, literally people cannot buy a car, a home, they can get married, they can have kids. that is crazy stuff. would it -- what we have proposed is allowed those with student debt to refinance at the lowest interest rates they can find, substantially reducing student that. -- student debt. critics say, that is a nice idea, you're giving away all of this free stuff. how are you going to pay for it? i will tell you how we are going to pay for it. here is thinking outside of the box. when wall street, through their greed and recklessness in illegal behavior helped destroy our economy, congress bailed

them out. [boos] i believe right now we should impose a tax on wall street speculation. [cheers] which brings in more than enough income to make public colleges and universities tuition free and substantially reduce student debt. [cheers] [applause] sen. sanders: this campaign is listening to women. [cheers] what women are telling me all over this country is, w