and one of the things they have to have a serious conversation about is not just campaign-finance reform. democracywe build a from the ground up. at the grassroots, how their voices are being heard in washington. heart attackis a but there are a lot of people in the grassroots that want to make .hat happen we can fundamentally return democracy to the people. thank you. i know have the distinct honor of welcoming to the stage someone who has always stayed true to his ideas and values and learned to adapt to a political and changing landscape, even while the landscape has changed, he is a proud progressive. former democratic leader, cap

chairman of the board and my friend, senator tom daschle. to [applause] let me just say what a fantastic day this has been. sen. daschle: we gather at an important time, a time when our country is facing one of the most challenging moments in history. a time when the pillars of our democratic republic are being tested. but the american people increasingly are refusing to sit idly by. they are reacting, they are responding, and yes, they are resisting. [applause]

so this afternoon, we want to talk about the energy out there and how that energy is actually affecting policy in washington and across the country. we're going to talk about climate action. we're going to talk about public lands. voting rights, and civil rights. some of the to meet resistance leaders who all across this country are organizing to defeat the trump agenda. cap, will say, as chair of how proud i am of the work this organization does day in and day out. the leadership, the staff, the board, everybody involved in supporting these efforts all across the country. but today, it is my special honor and privilege to introduce a progressive leader who comes

from an unexpected part of the country. won anvember, he election, even though donald trump won this state by more than 20%. he has been a champion of equal pay, better jobs, of good government, of improved education. citeda man i had already as i talk to people all through the midwest to follow if you want to be successful in politics in our part of the country. will you join me in a very hearty welcome to the 24th governor of the state of montana ,? [applause] much, -- thanks so much. its great to be here.

talk about how i progressive governor gets reelected in a place where hillary clinton got 30% of the vote. and it is really great to be with you today because by all accounts, i shouldn't be here. 2016 was the year of the outsider. that wasn't me. i was attorney general and i was governor. shatteredran against spending records with his own personal wealth. in montanare run than any other governor's race in the nation. if this was the europe hate, fear and discontent, -- if this was the year of hate, fear and discontent, my opponent pedaled it, but i refused to. fering antive ads of optimistic vision of the future and in the end, donald trump won by 20 points, i won by four.

[applause] iran, -- i won, mrs. something. it ought to be how i progressive democrat governance in a state where donald trump can win with 20 points. this political advice i never received can offer up -- from a republican. you run to win, but you win to run. to run government, the goal isn't to win the election. positively and meaningfully impact individuals and families, no matter where they live and no matter whether they supported us. the nextis to fight so generation, our kids and grandkids have every opportunity we had and even more. so how did i win? and more important, how do i govern? first and foremost, it is about showing up.

as a democrat, i don't have the luxury in montana spending the day talking to only people who agree with me. places wherein as a tweetre as rare -- here is what i mean when i say show up. states had say -- expanded medicaid. was asana, obamacare popular as a word like root canal. by legislature is two thirds i'lllican controlled, never forget i went to a community meeting at the hospital. 1700. in a town of throughout that whole community,

there weren't a whole lot of bullock supporters for sure. the ranchers gathered, they knew what i had come to talk about because americans for prosperity was kind enough in the weeks before i came to actually their telephones, fill the mailboxes talking about the fact i was going to come up and visit. now i have no doubt that a heck of a lot of you don't know what it is like to have them go after you, but it is a common occurrence in montana. yet, i showed up anyway. by the end of that meeting, they acknowledged that 40% of the people who walks through those hospital doors did not have health insurance. he recognized that if they lost that rural hospital, the community would soon follow. they saw past the rhetoric and understood that not only can expansion improve the health of their friends and their neighbors, but at the end of the

day, it would save that rural hospital, which also saves that rural community. their support and that visit gave their local republican legislator the confidence to defy her party leadership, to defy the koch brothers and support the measure, and every vote mattered. every single vote. because of those types of town. we are the only state since 2014 to get medicated expansion through a state legislature. [applause] and not only has a lifeline been thrown to our world health care system, not only is our unemployment -- our uninsured rate from 20% in 2013 to 7% last montanans77,000 more who previously couldn't afford to see a doctor now have health

care. i understand that man on the street stories are really only that. to haves profound people stop you on the sidewalk and tell you that your actions saved their life. thate be the first to say just showing up isn't always enough. i went to other communities where i failed. many communities where i failed. but you have to try. issue for 100% of the -- with the hope of 51%. you do that for running for office and for governing. ,s a national party democrat folks don't seem to focus on this anymore. income the rust belt states we lost in 2016. the strategy was all about using data to find people who already agreed with us so we can drag

them to the polls on election day. there was little attention paid to places that might be difficult to win. [applause] governor bullock: you must be from south dakota. and there really is little talk from my perspective about trying to persuade people offering voters a reason to vote a democrat for president. --t we followed in montana if what we did in montana, we followed nationally we would've been to babylon time ago. in the cuts need to be a cash to a better job of showing up, making an argument even when people are likely to disagree. it is good for campaigning, good for government, good for our democracy and good for our democratic party.

we also can't assume that the values of people -- even those we disagree with her didn't vote for us -- are all that different from the values that we as democrats are consistently fighting for. we saw this assumption from my perspective in 2016 when the areas of theff map. it is silly and dangerous. the values of most americans aren't partisan. folks are too busy trying to support their families and put food on the table. most americans value and want the same thing. the safe community, a roof over their heads, good public schools, clean air and clean water, a decent job and the unwavering belief that they can build a better future for their kids and their grandkids. i fundamentally believe this is true, when you believe in manhattan, new york, manhattan, kansas or even manhattan on manhattan, montana.

i thought for the public policy that delivers them. public education, protection of our public lands and economy with fair taxes. it translated into people knowing i was looking after them and that translates to the ability to fight and govern and work on areas like equal pay for equal work. translates to signing one of the most far-reaching executive orders for protecting our lgbt community. record investments in public education, the first time ever investments in public preschool. translates into never once compromising on women's reproductive freedoms. [applause] translated just last ureth when our legislat past and earned income tax credit, something we have worked on for 15 years in fontana.

-- in montana. [applause] gov. bullock: the bottom line is that when we do it right, fighting for our shared values, fighting for those great andlizers of opportunity fighting for the public good, we beat outys, always someone fighting for their narrow self-interest. finally, i want to leave you with a radical idea and here it is. , if youre going to do are going to talk about doing something, actually try to do it. [applause] gov. bullock: think about that. it is montana simple, i guess. [laughter] gov. bullock: if you are going to talk about doing something, do it. for example, i imagine everyone in this room would a great power finance -- campaign finance system is broken.

montana wrote the amicus brief in opposition. we got a majority of states to join us. including, a good handful of republican led states. the the court opened up spending floodgates, i defended a law called the corrupt practice act of 1912 in montana. for 100 years, we had a prohibition against corporate spending or contributions in our elections and unlike citizens united, i built a factual record. i got testimony from democrats and republicans talking about the corruptive and corrupting influence of independent expenditures. in a decision that is unfortunately forever captioned american traditions partnership versus bullock, the supreme -- 5-4 decision was the

first big case after citizens united. as governor then, i didn't give up. different attack, i worked with democrats and republicans, my legislature is almost two thirds republican. passed one of the most progressive disclosure laws in the country so dark money groups, no matter what part of a kind tol tax code hide behind, if they are going to spend or contribute in our elections or state elections, they have to disclose their spending and who is giving the money. differentnumber of attempts to get there, to get that past, but as a result, even the koch brothers stayed out of our election cycle last november. democrats didn't fix citizens united when we had control of congress in the white house. and reform movements more and more are working around

washington, not with it. placegton has become a where talking is often a substitute for doing. it is a place where folks outside the beltway often think the politicians complain about problems not to solve them. but so that they can raise money or get more followers on social media. i think that is a very cynical politicsapproach, the and government and it is bad for democracy. i think it accounts for much of the distrust of the federal government. yet, i also think it is fixable. i believe that the good news is that democrats can stand up for our values and the values of main street, mainstream america, and that we can win. we have to believe that share values and you have to

fight for them. you have to fight for the public good. have to do things, not just talk about them and you have to show up. having me today, but more important, thank you for all being here today. [applause] direct? -- is that right? whatever you want. >> i think he has time for one or two questions. we have microphones. we have a question right up here. if you just wait for the microphone. can you talk a little about the special election for congress and whether or not everybody in this room should send him money? >> that i cannot say.

i was told i am not allowed to say. have a special election may 25 against a guy randy gets me who spent 6 million of his own and lost. [laughter] again, i guess i wouldn't be here if it were otherwise. a gentleman named rob quest, who is new to politics. becamee congressperson the secretary of interior. he is a lifelong montana raised in a town called cap bank. after some medical issues so he knows only we talk about issues like fertility affordable care act how it can devastate individuals and families. i appreciate the question because it is not like -- unlike

when i was running or others. view, that is a long way away and there is no way a democrat can win. march, 10,000 people showed up at our state capital. i don't think you'd have 10,000 people show up if you canceled hunting season. so there is excitement and there is energy, and it is well worth following the special election is may 25. [indiscernible] there is latitude in the audience that i -- thank you very much. [applause] >> please welcome to the stage

tom stier and john podesta. [applause] good afternoon, everybody. so, we are here to talk about a lot of things. we're going to spend some time talking about climbing change -- climate change. as evidence of catastrophic climate change continues to pile up in 2016, the hottest on record. continuing to, grow, humanitarian crises and climate exacerbates security events from the middle east to the horn of africa, to nigeria. front and center in america's newspapers even, but looking at what is going on, donald trump has reacted by appropriate --

appointing a climate denier to the epa, trying to dismantle the clean power plant. a budget that decimates science. a rampage against the environment, but i think you would agree with me -- i'll ask you this at the outset, not all is lost. still tremendous leadership coming from citizens, business communities, mayors and governors across the country so we are honored to have you here today because after a super successful business career, tom spendd that he wanted to his time, not just fighting to tackle climate change but fighting for social justice. you can talk to him on the phone in california, me on the east coast and we begin every conversation by saying, it is worse than you think. it is really worse than you

thek, and then you give me latest scientific evidence and something that has happened or some that piece of ice that fell off the coast of greenland or the antarctic. now i start every conversation talking about donald trump. and he says, john, it is worse than you think. its really worse than you think. and i think, maybe not so much. maybe start the on the climate question. with really a bar -- broad question, how do you assess where we are today? fourhe planet survive years of this kind of policy coming from donald in his and menstruation? -- and his administration? mr. stier: before we start, i think we should have a round of applause for what john podesta has done. [applause]

mr. steyer: when we think about the task ahead, i like to break it down into three parts. we have to clean up the electricity system, we have to electrify everything and we have to dramatically increase our energy efficiency so when we ask about where we are as country, when you think about the cleanup of our electricity system, that is predominantly done in the states. so we can have a lot of progress over the next four years state-by-state, including red states where we have had progress since november 8 and before. we can do a major push in terms of cleaner electricity. secondly, electrify everything. when you think about what is the largest source of greenhouse gases in the united states, it is transportation. and you think about what we have

to do, we have to clearly electrify our transportation system. if we don't do the first system, if you plug your electric vehicle into a plug that is powered by a coal power plant, your -- might as will keep car. that is something the government has a big say because they are already saying they will review the cap a standards. if they rolled back with the oman -- obama administration put in place for 2025, then what california and 13 other states have already agreed to do with and be a question of how to the end that? -- undo that? we have a waiver coming from the clean air act and so what the federal government does to attack the electrification and the increasing energy efficiency of the transportation sector is critical. and lastly, energy efficiency is

something that argues for itself but the federal government can put in place policies to make things happen sooner. where are we? i would say the american people are behind us, if you look at all of the polling data, american business, establishment is behind us with exception of the fossil fuel companies and the engineering data on our ability to save money by moving to cleaner sources of energy is also behind us. the question is not, are we moving to this, the question is pace to which we moved to it, the pace to which the rest of the world is moving to it. from my standpoint, i view this urgent than is generally thought, partially because of what john started by teasing me about. if you actually listen to the saying, wethey keep said it would be 2040, now we are saying 2025.

we are compressing the time we have to act. from my standpoint, the political question here about winning becomes infinitely more important because we have to win now. mr. podesta: i want to come back to the broader role of climate change, job creation from clean energy. as part of the progressive message. but i may stick with one thing you said. he said business mosys are still on the side of change -- you said business voices are still on the side of change. not all businesses are on that side and no longer just the coal companies and oil industry, the auto companies are progressively standards arethe trying to roll them back. what do you think is the prospect of having the rest of

industry that has been more positive about trying to take aggressive action be coming a counterweight to the special rollbacks ont the regulatory side. mr. steyer: i want to address the automakers, but your question is, i think we cannot count on american business to lead a political revolution. i think it is in their interest, i think they supported, but they an also dependent on having amicable relationship with the federal government and i think they are very nervous about picking a fight with a vengeful president. and so i think it is unrealistic to think that they are going to be at the front, arguing and pushing and making trouble. mr. podesta: facing his twitter account. mr. steyer: they absolutely do. they are on our side and we can't count on them as leaders. when you look at the american

automakers, you're making the same mistake they made before they went bankrupt last time, which is if you look at the margins they make on an suv, they are gigantic. they love to sell those cars. and if you look at what they are doing in terms of electric vehicles, that is a business that is growing, but where they aren't making any bottom-line money. fact isact -- matter of that tesla is more successful in the market and gm or ford, the market is telling us where the future will be, but within the companies, the people who have power and make the cash money, the people who get to make the decisions, are still looking backwards and saying we're making more money on internal combustion engines. as long as we keep miles per gallon lower we can sell bigger cars with bigger margins, let's push for that. it is a shortsighted decision, but it looks like that is the way they are going. mr. podesta: let's come to the broader progressive argument.

you said we have to win, we have to win now. we don't have time to waste. you have tried to build a broader coalition. talk about how you see the politics intoding broader movement politics. probably 10 years under there impression that progressive energy policies would be supported on a bipartisan basis on behalf of the interests of the united states of american citizens. yearswe spent a number of and built a number of efforts around that idea. at this point, if you look -- and the administration, the congressional republicans have gone backwards from where they were when we started. so when we think about how change is actually going to come, we think about it in terms ofenergy, but also in terms

creating jobs that pay a decent wage, that families can live on. we think about cleaner air and a and we thinkrica about an inclusive and that recognizes every single citizen. and so when we think about that, we think we are going to win every one of those ones, every policy area that has been brought up today, we think a progressive coalition will do not and otherwise, it is happening. and that includes energy and climate. normally think about what we are doing, we are absolutely committed to immigrant rights. we are committed on every one of those. we are strong believers in organized labor and it is an absolute essential part of the american system. either win every thing together or lose everything together. and we talk about where we are going from here, we stick together and win period, we lose. and we lose everything across the board. [applause]

mr. steyer: the difference, and i hate saying this, i agree that american voters, american citizens are much more alike than they get credit for, but in terms of us having what i would think of as an honest counterparty in terms of elected officials and the republican party, i don't think we have one. i don't think there is a common ground. i think the only thing we can do is put our heads down and win, period. [applause] mr. podesta: building that broad coalition in california. how do you assess, now, the relationship between what you're trying to do in terms of building up clean energy infrastructure with where the

building trade unions are? tom: let me start with the coalition in california and then i'll address the trades. the coalition we have which we started ten years ago is, different from the ones that people think about. first of all, i think it's incumbent on me to say that people who are commonly thought to be environmentally focused are not necessarily the people you think they are. the number one ethnicity who clean care about clean air is latinos and built around the idea it goes to every part of society. secondly we have had always organized labor as a strong partner. part of what we're talking about is inseparable from everything that we do is that we'll create good-paying jobs and distribute them through the communities and the third thing is, we believe we can get the chamber of commerce. in california, we have always had more than half of the

chambers with us. what we'll do is build businesses and good-paying jobs. the three things that we had to do is clean up the electricity system, electrify everything and double energy efficiency that's millions of jobs. that's going to go into every commercial building into the united states of america. with equipment and making it happen. that's redoing the grid. we're going to to rebuild the united states of america period. that is going to happen. we have got to start understanding that we have to do that, and that is a gigantic work project. the people from the trades -- look, that's their bailiwick, that's their livelihood and that's what they are absolutely committed to for their members. the difference that we had with the trades is they know we're going to rebuild the united states of america, but they think that a lot of it is going to be in fossil fuel

infrastructure. and the reason they think that is we've been doing that for the last 50 years. there are a ton of pipelines that have to be built or rebuilt if we go that way. there are a ton of energy-related tasks that go to their unions. and they are absolutely committed to the jobs for unions. what we're saying is, look, it's not that we're going to build the dakota access pipeline or nothing. we're going to build something smarter and better. those jobs are going to be created. and by the way, we're going to make sure that those are organized jobs. so when i talk about it, when i say to them -- i'm like, look, our organization supported local measures and props in california last year that will create 500,000 union jobs. we are 100% committed to rebuilding the u.s. because we have to do it. by the way, that is the way we're going to get people decent wages and benefits.

[applause] tom: i love what they're fighting for, but what they want to build i think is a mistake and within five years from now when we look back and see how many tens of billions of dollars we spent on fossil fuel infrastructure that is an absolute waste of money. you know, as a 35-year investor, i can tell you making an investment is not smart. making a smart investment is smart. making a dumb investment is a big, fat mistake. >> and dumb. tom: and dumb. >> join me in thanking tom steyer and all his leadership. [applause]

>> thank you so much. thank you. whether we're fighting to protect our planet or fighting for equity in immigration, criminal justice, health care, lgbt equality, the economy or political representation, today's fight is a constant one. with each panel, each keynote, each conversation we are reminded that the resistance is fueled by persistence. our next panel will highlight the many faces and voices of the resistance, some new and others who have been working tirelessly for years to improve lives. before we get to this dynamic conversation with leah greenberg, derey, marcos, and astrid silva, please take a look at what democracy looks like. please take a look at america uprising, a new series about today's protest movements from divided films. ♪

>> see what democracy looks like. >> this is what democracy looks like. hate.say no to fear and no! >> stand up. fight back. >> there is no time for cute, political blackness. they can only win by dividing america. >> no to the ban on refugees and asylum seekers. and we say no to fear and hate. >> no. >> people just invigorated by the idea that we, not just resist, actually revive our culture through resistance. >> we stay the course we're going to continue to make our voices heard. >> you say that you are pro -- that doesn't sound right, does it? >> we can create something that is going to be wonderful for all of us. ♪ [applause]

>> please welcome to the stage leah, deree, marcos, astrid and igor. [applause] >> good afternoon, everyone. who is ready to resist? my name is igor, the deputy director of the center for american progress action fund. after the election, our work really changed. we began developing tools for people to use to defeat trumpcare, to oppose almost every trump initiative and thought a lot about how to channel all of the great energy that we saw in the aftermath of the election into tangible action, into tangible change. and so i'm just so proud to have this amazing panel here with me.

i'm going to introduce them. we're going to get into a conversation about what has worked in this new resistance movement, how we sustain the energy and the resistance over the long haul, how we translate that into real political power, and then we'll have some time for questions. so, immediately to my right is marcos, he is the founder and publisher of daily cost, the largest liberal online community in the united states, reaching up to 20 million unique visitors per month. his new book "the resistance handbook: 45 ways to fight trump" will be out next month. next to him is leah greenberg, the co-founder of indivisible, an organization that is at the front lines of fueling a progressive grass roots network to defeat the trump agenda.

over 5900 and i looked on the website yesterday to make sure local groups because it's growing everyday, with at least 2 in every congressional district are using the indivisible guide to hold their members of congress accountable. in 2007, leah caught a lucky break by interning at the center for american progress with igor. so nice of you to put this in your official bio. astrid is an immigration activist and dreamer who drifred the spanish response to donald trump joint session of congress. she is the co-founder dream big community based organization in nevada that focuses on the importance of supporting undocumented youth and their family. and then last but certainly not least is a civil rights activist, organizers, educator and co-founder of campaign zero, the resistance manual and the

podcast "pod save the people," which you should all scribe to on itunes. leave a review as well. spired by the death of mike brown and the subsequent protests in ferguson missouri, he has worked to connect individuals with knowledge and tools and provide citizens and policymakers with common sense policies to ensure equity and justice. please welcome this wonderful panel. [applause] host: so leah, i want to start with you as a former colleague of mine, to talk about indivisible really being on the front lines of this new resistance, of this new energy. can you give us a sense of what tools, what tactics have really worked in, i think, ensuring that this president, you know, doesn't have too many good days in office?

>> absolutely. thank you all for the chance to be here. i think what we found -- no. >> she's number four. >> all right. is that better? great. hi, everyone. so i think what we found in the days since the election what's worked is decentralization. what's worked is asking people to take on more than they were necessarily comfortable with. and what's worked is talking to people about sort of the strategy and about building power and how you do it. and having faith in them to sort of start to figure out how they put those pieces together on a local level themselves. so, when we wrote the indivisible guide back in november, we had sort of a really simple theory which was that a lot of people were already organizing. we had pulled together friends right after the election in our living room and we had said, you know, we don't know what we're going to do, but we have to do something. and it had become clear to us that that was not an isolated thing. can i just ask actually -- how many people got together with

colleagues or friends or neighbors immediately after the election and you had one of those meetings? right. and i've asked that question in a lot of different rooms with a lot of different people and get really similar replies. people were already starting to organize themselves and they were looking for ways to do it. and i think what we found was people were -- they were looking to do more than make a call. they were looking to take ownership of something that they could really feel invested in in reacting to what they perceived as a really extraordinary results of the election. >> marcos refers to himself as the granddaddy of the resistance, so. marcos: geriatric. [laughter]

host: you've been at this with daily cause for a long, long time. >> daily coast. >> daily coast. i'm so sorry. what do you make of this new energy? and is your sense that it's moving in the right direction in terms of ensuring that it's sustainable movement for years to come? >> yeah, there's a couple factors that i think make this super exciting in a way past movements -- i came out of the dean campaign and the dean campaign looked a lot like the bernie sanders one, very white

we have to make sure our allies are there and willing to fight for themselves. , it is to make sure

great to have these 3000 people marching, but if 10,000 people show up for a municipal election, what are we doing, where are we messing up? [applause] you, if this were , what should we be aware of? theme that we have here. if you are a white, male, christian, liberal, you feel pretty and steve. donald trump as president -- you pretty angsty.

donald trump is president. they are leading the party. there is some resistance. like weit in things have working class people. [applause] it is not just republicans talking in code. issues we need to resolve and get past is there is going to be changing of the guard of who leads the party. we are going to be better positioned for the future. the second one, and we had dinner yesterday, there is a lot of excitement.

people are signing up. 2018, things are going to go well. and 2008, we won big because of george bush. the day after it was all about how pure obama was and infighting, and we had that clash with bernie bank. -- thing. i am less worried about the future in the next four years that i am worried about what when we talk22 about how progressive our next congresses. the obama campaign did it. one of the challenges is we are outside the party. we have more control over that.

make sure we continue to educate our people that this is a long-term move. we are not fighting to defeat . -- defeat donald trump. we have to have that mentality of perpetual engagement that never ends. it is exhausting and almost frustrating to think about. we cannot give up. i am less worried about the next four years that i am what happens afterwards -- than i am what happens afterwards. >> can you give us the sense of what drives your group, who are these people? >> great question. we are seeing a real range of different stories coming together. the most common story i hear is but maywho voted before

not have been politically involved before and after november had a reaction. i heard a couple of different versions of this, but the one that seems to resonate with the most folks is the reaction people had was a sense of betrayal. a lot of people who were activated right after november had faith in some elements of american institutions to protect them from an outcome like this. whether it was media, the ortes, the parties, generally the leaders they trusted, they did not ask it american society -- did not exp ect american society to deliver an outcome like this. >> it seems like that is part of

the tension of the resistance. we live in an era where people don't trust their institutions, but we are asking people to call their member of congress to change an outcome of a piece of legislation. had we balance those conflicting balance thoseo we conflicting ideas? [applause] [laughter] [indiscernible] >> there is a question about why persis participate. shamingt obama, you people into voting is not going to be a winning strategy. i agree with you, people should vote.

calling your congressperson is a way. this idea that if you vote it will be magically better, has not worked out for people. [laughter] [indiscernible] one of the things i try to remind myself of his donald trump is the product, not the producer. his ideology has been around a long time. we need to unpack that to know what we are fighting. it isn't about what communities look like for this idea of assimilation. someone was like i think people should assimilate and speak the language i speak. it was really this idea that everybody should become english, and people that don't speak

english -- that is a problem. me understanding that as your issue helps me think about this issue helps a core me think about this better. we need to get to the root cause of what is the actual issue . it feels like a long time ago now, but at this point it is like how do we make sure activists have as much information as possible to do good work. some of this work is opposition. the other half is imagination. think about health care. a lot of people in this room probably cannot explain the difference between medicare and medicaid. on you.not a knock it is hard to make the system better when you don't understand fundamental things. we have been trying to explain fundamental things so you actually know enough to

challenge your congressperson with what the future looks like you > for me. organizingpeople within their communities, organizing school groups, .rganizing places of worship talk about the role that direct service community organizations play in organizing people in this way. >> i have never voted or been tear gassed. you are already winning on that one. it is great to be here. it is great to be with so many of you that understand the issues and have been fighting for years. the most, who needed the need to have these conversations, are the people

who thought the muslim been was the worst thing that happened in the history of the u.s. we are talking about people who are undocumented and never committed a crime, and they think one day i am going to be do thisause i didn't crime they say immigrants do. when you talk to the community, that is where it is at. it is not going to happen on this playing field where we all think federal congress is going to one day you can. -- day kick in. it is in our communities now. it always has been. as an immigrant, i was raised to believe united states is the greatest country of the world. my mom and dad left everything they ever had and came here with nothing. this was the beginning of hope.

this is the place they wanted to be in. i broke thinking, why would you think there is anything wrong with the united states? about,t to think freedom, and i cannot speak spanish. our communities have been dealing with this for so long. they are not getting the tools they need. social media is a great platform. it is a way for our community to come together. i really believed i was the only undocumented or secret none of my friends or family are undocumented. for me i was the only person that had ever committed this crime that they talk about on fox news when i was little and would show people jumping orders. now is the moment when we

right now it is when we can reach out to people. some people are terrified to go out. andle see rallies on tv they see people being tear gassed, confronted by the kkk. we need to make sure we are getting these tools but also helping people. what i see the most is people just want to hear that they belong. they want to be told that it is ok to be here. for me, i think i have this great privilege. this amazing ability to turn to people and say, you belong here. and they are like, it yeah. that they don't all have that. they do not all have somebody saying, hey, you belong here. you are contributing this labor. what we need right now is not

only to use these tools we put together but to have our community organized. for me what is most important people have that the tools they need. everyday i wake up and i am afraid to look at the news. the other day, it was an organization in washington -- i forgot their name -- they were being sued by the state because they were not providing the right paperwork. it is like that is what is happening now. to meet that is why it is important that direct services communities have their pulse on what is happening. that is where we need to be right now. more question. then we will open it up. reaching communities and new voices that are politicized because they are repulsed by what it donald trump

, what about the blue dots in red states. reaching people who might not be readers of your magazine, who are not super politically active but opening them up to this new resistance. we are the party of the majority on the issues. last year 95 million people did not vote who could have voted. ,ingle women, people of color whether they are suppressed or demoralized or don't feel like they have a stake nevertheless these are people who did not vote. peopleard to see certain within the democratic party talk about reaching these working-class people who were

newslandapped in fake at this point. they are trapped in the fox bubble. but i don't know if we even want to come out of their without a change in the people who make up our party. no bullying. note xenophobia. have an untapped pool of our voters available and i think that is one of the things i hope this is doing. if i were a billionaire and with ,o $100 billion in two texas blue states. by demographics, those are blue states. so, it pains me to see where some of this money is going. see we haveto

people with means who are not investing in those organizations that are on the ground, research, -- resource, starved. what was the question? [laughter] >> what is amazing about the resistance is it is not that 400,000 women marched on ashington, d c fox news block that out. it never happened. right? you cannot ignore that half of the power is not marching. people in the communities are being present, being heard. it is very difficult for the conservative media to become that does not exist when people are and no face telling them how much they hate donald trump and his policies into the party that has enabled him.

thee have been surprised by real strength of the indivisible andps with interest organizing across the country. we've seen extraordinary diversity. inot of the strongest are deep red areas. they did not have a venue to come together and express their shared his balls before. so it serves as more than a forum or action. it serves as a community and that goes to something else we should be looking at. and vesting over the long-term in local organizing. they are therefore school board elections and everything else. they are not just their to build the voter turnout. they are there year after year. that is something the left has not been able to do in the same way. part of what we have to do is

figure out how we build the best doingion and start by that by providing these services and capacities and people know who you are when you come round to us them to vote. >> that is exactly it. i am from nevada. andda is too big blue dots a lot of red. when you think about it, that is what it is. these communities is a calm you know, we're in the middle of nowhere. we are democrats and we get together at patsy's house. that is the only place they feel safe expressing that they are democrats. the most terrifying thing for me was driving from las vegas to reno and we pulled up friday gas station and there was a carpal of people -- a car full of people of color. and there was a car that had a -- there was a car

that had a bumper sticker with a noose on it and a picture of obama. getwhen people want to together, they can find each other. they found each other. smalle to start in the offices. we have to get the school board, the city council. that is out is going to build up. as democrats we have been focusing on the big picture and the offices, but that is where most of the money goes. we have to focus on small elections because no matter zoningown boards, boards, small things people don't even pick about but they are very important to our community. that is to me the most important way to get to communities.

they may be read on the map but when you go into them, which many of us do not go into them there, we dread going in canvassing, spending money. but when you start talking to people when they start talking about these issues and whether they agree with one issue or don't on another, they are going they areh what thinking at that minute. and if you have been now, been talking to them, they will be sure to turn out. what you said about voting, i think if it was not so important, why would the other party be trying so hard to take over these people? [applause] but it pains me to think of the people who can't because i don't have the right id or they don't have a voting center nearby.

as an indoctrinated person sometimes i doubt the system. not every day but sometimes i think, well, yes, that is totally possible. when people say, oh my gosh i do not know how donald trump one. i say, i do. people were writing on my twitter to support me and so when people are very surprised one, i say itump is not surprising to me. but what is surprising is how little people understand not only how important their vote is are willing people to do anything to take it away. the people that have withdrawn completely from the indiscernible] --

>> the fight for justice is almost always a fight about equity. to gett want every state the same amount of funding. they don't need the same amount of money. what does that say for cities that have a lot of white kids to not get enough money to fund the institutional racism. it is about the language we use. people with torches, on the news. i think it was about white nationalists. this was like middle americans. not call that white supremacy? it?we afraid to talk about people gloss it over and make it

to be sort of a movement. these are not protesters. lost the battle. the third thing is i think it is real about what are the root cause issues? in the 2009 house appropriation bill, ice has to maintain a people a day.000 it is the only one with a daily quota. arreste just going to people. detentionot have facilities so they went out local facilities. and people do not know. three people a day, every day two years?t do things against the most anytime, body cameras are important, police training, people like that. there have been 400 people

killed by the police this year alone and only a few cases have been charged. these are things we do not talk about in public like we should. [applause] microphone is coming. >> can you hear me? fromjane whitney connecticut. you represent a snapshot about aresilver line of what we going through. i want to thank you for everything you are doing. [applause]

>> if you could see a bunch of middle-aged women in connecticut going over the indivisible manual or suddenly discovering your online petitions, that really changes things. what concerns me is sustaining the energy. and also, how are you addressing the divisions within the democratic party? i mean, is what you are doing enough to transcend or to somehow resolve the actions within the them credit party russian mark thank you. -- within the democratic party? thank you. coexistu find a way to when necessary. if we're going to fight, this is not the right time to do it or we find the right time to do it.

of berniethe kind sanders holdouts, the bernie supporters in general, there is the hillary crowd or the establishment. there will always be distinctions. we do not agree on everything. there is no disagreement on something isity or --ause if so there would be they would be republicans. there is the issue of emphasis. some people think economic equality texas things. those of us who live in these communities know this is not the case. we have latinas with jobs getting families split up. jewish cemeteries. i think jewish people of jobs.

that equality is going -- income inequality is going to solve the core issues of race him and -- of racism and bigotry is almost insulting to those of us who have to live in not reality every single day. it is really to help those of us who have to deal with immediate threats to our very existence. because once we feel secure, we are going to fight really hard for income equality. [indiscernible] let us focus for saving our families. it is kind of hard to focus our communities are burning today. that is not what we ask.

[applause] >> we have to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time. i think the democratic party has a number of different arguments a have to continue to result but at the same time i think there is an enormous opportunity both to continue the energy of the show what but also to progressive government can do for people on a local and state level. that is the place to start to some of those conversations. one thing we stress on the national level is for advocacy. leverage is often about what is being put on the agenda and without the power of being able to set the agenda, you have the most leverage when you're responding to what is happening. at the state and local level you have the ability to push on something more meaningful and

show what a progressive government really looks like. host: we are out of time. please give a huge round of applause to the panel. [applause] >> it is now my distinct honor to introduce a man who represents the best of us. the best of america. has metman who inconceivable sacrifice with unwavering fidelity to our nation. mr. kahn is you, is me, is all

of us. he inspires us to speak out against bigotry and hatred. to stand up for each other. to be a citizen in the full sense of the word and to hold our constitution a little bit closer to our chest. ladies and gentlemen, mr. ke han. [applause] >> thank you. ladies and gentlemen, i have to if my voicegiveness intentional it is

, maybeate in an effort this voice will reach 1600 pennsylvania avenue. [applause] r: my offer to donald trump remainsthe constitution standing. one more time he has proven that he is unfamiliar with the basic tenets of our democracy and values. wonderfulful to this event, very timely event. i will share with you my observation. 112th event since the

democratic national convention. i have continued to speak to various communities and share what i have observed since the election where our veterans and conserved -- concerned citizens stand. i have stood in front of those who voted for donald trump and spoken to them and i have heard and i will share that blessed event later. they will share their concerns and regrets. let me first share a concern. thomas jefferson, long ago, danger to greatest american liberties, the greatest danger to american liberties is

thegovernment which ignores constitution." .ou connect the dots within these 120 or so days we have seen violation after violation after violation of our basic tenets of our constitution, our democracy. democracy, i he -- stand in front of concerned citizens concerned about the well-being of my nation, my country. but i must state this -- democracy is nothing but tyranny of majority. it is rule of law. sense inaw that makes the system of democracy.

theseou have seen within , so many days violations of rule of law. , ourystem of government system of government where we cherish separation of powers have been maligned time after time. "resistance" -- you will hear from my favorite governor of virginia shortly. but i must share with you and let me reintroduce myself to you. khan.e is khizr come from charlottesville, virginia. charlottesville, virginia, was declared by our america put

months ago to be the capital of the resistance of the united states. [applause] izr: there is only one solution to such violation of democratic values of our constitution. of our separation of power. resistance. i have traveled throughout the country. other stood before veterans. they have asked me this question. promised we would be looked after. we have given all we have to this country. we hear that not a single dollar paid to legal services corporation that served us. legalwould we go to seek help?

in the same audience, they -- that themselves but we haven't voted for donald trump. mr. khan, can you tell us what to do? up elderly people stood stretching out their arm. there dialysis -- dialysis tubes were still in their arms. they said they used to eat less so they could pay for treatment for their pre-existing condition. since the affordable care act, premiums were reasonable. we could afford to eat properly. we are concerned. do?you show us what to can you tell us what to do so that we will not face what we faced prior to the affordable

care act? my suggestion to them was one thing that i share with you and i share with the entire nation. , when you find that your government is not serving , your concerns, the only solution you have is resistance. stand up. speak louder. call your senators. call your congressman. that if you do not speak on our behalf, if you do not address our concerns, we will never vote for you. we will never stand with you. we will never contribute a penny. and you are watching, you are watching these town halls and the result of town hall meetings throughout the country. people are realizing the power

of their voice. the power of resistance. to continuee need to harness the energy, the concerns, the devotion of this nation. ishare with you something recently traveled to europe at the invitation to participate in a debate. elections of french and unity.for hope a defeat forit is fear and division. [applause] khizr: let me put it in context. the last century saw two world

wars. atrocities against mankind. division. nationalism, economic interest, fear of immigrants. .hose will divide us first world war, second world war, even today. it.pe has realized the result of the french election is a testament that the world sees progress, prosperity, and unity because they fully yearsed that the last 50 versus the first 50 years, the last 50 years saw the union come together. nations come together.

the last 50 years saw the united nations built. the last 50 years saw nato built to maintain peace. of course there have been oldies but altogether the world is realizing that in unity is prosperity. not in division. it saw two world wars. the world is realizing. the reason i say it is critical to keep an eye outside united states as well, we were hoping that after the election there would be some deliberate steps to unite us but that hasn't happened. to bring the nation together, that hasn't happened. what has been taking place, further division is taking place, minorities, other communities, different faiths are being maligned and subjected to hate and division.

that is un-american. that is against our interests. that is against our prosperity. that is against our bill of rights. the rest of the world aexpires to have the blessings that we have which are enshrined in our bill of rights, in our substitution. even -- in our constitution. even today regardless of the difficulties we're having in our country, the rest of the world still is interested in learning about our institutions, learning about rule of law. i have stood before the audience of various countries and they have asked this question, can you tell us what this rule of law is? our people wish to know. we had television crews from various parts of the world come to our home asking that question, what is this bill of rights that -- and this

constitution that you wave at donald trump? can you explain to us, can you show us what equal protection is? my question to them was, are you asking this question to make your conversation your interview interesting or you have been asked to ask this question? said, imously they all our audience wants to know what is this separation of power, equal dignities, equal protection of law that this person continues to talk about so passionately? i ind myself so humbled that was warned not to stand up, not to be so public about my passion. we were humble, modest, grateful citizen of this

country, grateful citizen of virginia. when the most bigoted statement was made by donald trump, i will ban all muslims, all hispanicics will be thrown out, women deserve no equal dignity and respect, judges are partial, small children of our friends, whenever i would go to visit with them or they would come to our home to visit, small children, elementary school children, middle school children would come to me and , would you tion please tell us, can we be thrown out of there? parents say they don't eat well or do their homework with interest, when we ask them, they simply say we are so afraid. but we are citizens, citizens of this country. these children were born. that was the impact of the

bigoted statement on small children, when the invitation came that a tribute will be umayan khan. in h the second day we were told we would respond negatively or positively, i checked the mail and there was a small white envelope without a stamp in our mailbox. i saw it was addressed to us when i collected the mail, i opened it and i read it. it was written, there were four signatures, four names, of course parents had something to do with it but four elementary school children wrote that small card to us. this is what it said. it is mr. and mrs. khan, can you please make sure that sophia is not thrown out of this country? we love her very much.

she's our friend. please make sure. i brought that small card to azala and said to her, maybe this is the message. we must stand up for these children. we must speak on behalf of these small children and we did. the rest you have seen how we were maligned but it has encouraged us because we are grateful citizens. we have bestowed all the dignities the rest of the world aspires to have by become citizens of this country. we are so honored that this is the least we can do, that we continue to speak for our values, and we continue to speak for these dignities. i do not call them amendments to the constitution or bill of rights, i call them human dignities. the rest of the world aspires to have those in their life. this person's simple mind

the world is divided in two sections, one, authoritarian regimes and dictate what the ordinary citizen will have or not have. on the other hand, we are the blessed group, blessed nations that have democracy where we choose what laws will be enacted. we do make mistakes like last election, we've made a mistake and will correct it. maybe it's a time for all patriots to join hands. people ask me, what do you advise under the current circumstances. this is my humble suggestion to all of us. you have heard from our wonderful leaders. you will hear from my hero in a

few minutes, the governor of virginia, i wish my current attorney general were here as well. these two heroes. when citizens of their state were under stress under the trump muslim ban they went straight to the airport to with the lidarity community. we love them. we appreciate them. in them we see the solution. and this is my conclusion that under these circumstances, all of us patriots need to remain standing in unity, support one another, continue to speak, speak louder.

if this humble, ordinary, barely educated person continues to speak, i'm sure i'm standing in front of most learned people today. continue to speak. support those candidates, support those office holders that fully understand your democracy, our democracy, our and make sure that during this, hopefully this is a brief moment in history. i assure you if you remain standing, remain firm, remain united, support those by your voice, by your efforts, by your contributions, those who stand for the values of this country, for the values that are enshrined in bill of rights, in

the constitution, your name and name of the organization like this will be written in the history with golden letters. i am so humbled. i am so grateful for this opportunity to stand before you. thank you very much. [applause] >> please welcome to the stage jennifer pomieri. jennifer: thank you. i want to thank mr. khan for coming. he's the living embodiment of what it means to be an american citizen, and i think he

inspires each of us to be better stewards of our citizenship. i'm very honored and privileged to be introducing governor terry mcauliffe. he is the living embodiment of optimism and i think we all agree, right? absolutely. and for him, that optimistic spirit is at the heart of what it means to be a progressive. he's been in the fight for a long time and had a lot of different positions and i was privileged to work for him when he was the chair of our party. and i've seen with each job he approaches it with the same formula. he listens to the people he's going to serve. he sets very bold goals. he puts a good team together. and then he works his heart out every single day to deliver and it's a formula that has brought him success with each endeavor he's undertaken in all of the

positions that he's undertaken as a progressive. as governor of virginia, particularly in these last few months, they've been tough months, but always had a lot of values at stake and we can count on him to be a brick wall. he was a brick wall progressive for legislation that would have funded planned parenthood and distributed against lbgt americans and made it harder to vote in virginia. as we saw in the results in wisconsin, florida, north carolina, how important it was to have him to stop those voting bills from coming into law. he has been a fighter for medicaid expansion in virginia, a committed and brave fighter since the day he was elected. in 2013 he campaigned on jobs, jobs, jobs and he has delivered. since the start of his administration jobs in virginia have increased by nearly 200,000. the unemployment rate is at the lowest in nine years. it's dropped from 5.4% to 3.8%.

is that right, governor? and then just today he signed an executive order, the first state in our country to do so, taking on -- in the response to trump's repeal of the power plant rules. he's taken action just today to restore protections around climate change in the state of irginia. i'm quite certain he's never had a bad day. i'm quite certain it is impossible to be in a bad brendon ayanbadejo mood when you're around him. it's one of the reasons why he's here today and our privilege to introduce governor terry mcauliffe. governor: thank you, good afternoon, everybody. i want to thank jennifer for the great friendship 25 years and thank mr. and mrs. khan.

as the father of a second lieutenant in the united states marine corps, i think i speak for every parent who had a child that's put on that military uniform and for you, sir, to pay the ultimate price, i just want to say our heart goes out to you, our thoughts and prayers are with the khan family forever and every man and woman and every veteran we say thank for you what you've done for our great service to our great country. i'm here and i'm not doing a commercial for what you've done in office, you can go to governor.va to read all this stuff. that's not why i'm here. i always come with tasks. i'm going to leave you with something important. i'm going to ask you to do something. we're the greatest party and nation on earth. but we have challenges. i'm here to talk about something very important which i think destroyed democracy in our nation and that's gerrymandering redistricting. we're all here today because we share a set of values as

progressives and i think we all understand those values are under siege. we have a president and congress today trying to roll back the things that we think are most important to us. that means, folks, each and every day we need to fight. but it isn't just about fighting, it's delivering with results. and that's what we as democrats have to do as we go forward. we have to fight threats to the constitution and maintain america's principles of why we're the great democratic party of the united states of america and to build a nation that's more open and more welcoming to everyone. that's with a i've tried to do in virginia. i have just vetoed my 120th piece of legislation in the commonwealth of virginia and i'm proud i have more vetoes in the commonwealth of virginia in history and i'm proud i'm 120-0 even though the republicans control 66 out of 100 seats in my house of delegates. if they get 67 they override me

and i'm proud of our democrats in four years i've never been overridden once because we stood up. i told women i would be a brick wall to protect their rights. i told members of the lbgt we'll stand tall and i am proud i'm the first southern governor to actually perform a gay marriage and the sky didn't fall in. we have led on the issues. and i'm proud that i have restored more civil rights to disenfranchised felons than any governor in the history of the united states of america. at a time, as you know, i was sued twice by the republicans. i was trying to give people a second chance at life. they took me to court. i lost the first one, not on a legal precedent because i had the authority to do it. they said we're not letting this governor do it because no other government has done it before. that's not a legal principle and said you have to do it

individually. i said line them up, 166,000. i will sign individually. they sued me for contempt of court, first virginia governor to be sued for contempt of court. i was honored with that and we won in the supreme court. last week, the most restoration of any governor in our nation's history. that's what it means to govern. that's what it means to be a democrat. that's what it means to be a progressive. that message is an important one for all of us. i thank you for being here. i thank you for your ideas. you make all of us in the elected office, you make us stronger by the great ideas you have all given us. you've had a lot of discussion today but what we need to talk about is how we go further and take it to the next step. i think the biggest threat facing our nation, as i mentioned was partisan redistricting. what's happened in america today is people don't vote for the right reasons, they vote because they're afraid of a tea party primary. that's happened all over the country. we as a party are in very tough

shape today. there are 35 states in america today where the republicans control the governor in both chambers. so let me remind you in 2020 we will have a new census done for this country and in 2021 they will redraw every single state legislative chamber in america and the congressional map. if we don't win a majority of these governor's races the 38 between now and what's coming up in 2018, we are going to be in a very difficult position because you can have the greatest ideas in the world but if you can't win elections and get in office to implement what you want to do, then the ideas are worthless. and that's why we have to be tactically smart on the ground. we have to go forward on the issues of redistricting. we've got to win a lot of these governor's races coming up. that's the most important thing i will tell you that we can do, folks. we need your help. we're making progress. in virginia we sued and we

actually won on our congressional map. the courts are beginning to help us on these gerrymandered districts that are racially drawn. we now have a new member of congress in virginia. don mckeep an, just because we sued and are able to win on that single map. we need to do it in every single state of america. we need to play tough. they've been doing this for 10 years, folks. we've got to get in the game. for too long in our party we raised billions in a presidential year and then in the off year we go away. we've got to win at the state and local level because they're passing all this legislation at the local level and they're disenfranchising voters. i vetoed a bill the other day, folks, forwardo get a absentee in virginia you have to fax in your delifere's license. number one, a lot of folks don't have driver's licenses and who has a fax machine anymore? are you kidding me? this is a deliberate attempt that's going on around the

country. but that's what happens when you control at the local level. we spent a lot of time looking at the federal level, we need to look at the local level and do what we need to do. look at virginia. in virginia we won three straight presidential elections. we hold all five statewide offices but guess what? the republicans control seven of our 11 congressional seats and 66 out of 100 house of delegate seats. it makes no sense. it's not just virginia. look at three swing states, pennsylvania, ohio, and north arolina. all these of 50/50 states in the america. but in the congressional districts it's 72%, 75% and 77% republican. that's what they're doing on he ground. four 50/50 states. but it gives republicans a

42/16 majority. think of that. and think of the legislation they're pushing at the local level. that's a 26-seat advantage from these four states alone. you know how many the democrats need to get control of the house? 24. four states. there's 26. you get my point. this is an alarm we all need to be fighting and go forward. but there's common sense support for what we need to do. i want to thank the center for american progress for all the work they've done. it's important that we get out and march and we resist and continue to come up with great ideas. more importantly we need to be smart on the ground. you need to go back to your states and ask what are you doing about the map? what are you doing about restricting? is it a fair map? if it isn't a fair map what do you need to do to change it. do what we did in virginia.

we sued on the congressional and our house of delegate map in the united states supreme court by a 7-1 ruling the other day and sent that map back to virginia. we are making tremendous progress. if we can do this in virginia, folks, we can do it everywhere. so i'm giving you a call to action as you leave here today. i didn't want to take up my time talking about me. i want to talk about you and i want to talk with all those folks around this country counting on the democrats to stand up, to fight and to fight smartly. the one thing i haven't been successful with and i've tried very hard, i've tried to expand medicaid in virginia. i've killed myself trying to do it. it's not about me. it's about those 400,000 virginians today who do not ave health care, who are dying because my republican legislators won't vote for it because it's, quote, obamacare and in the dark of the night

they'll whisper, governor, i understand it makes sense and part of our rural community but if i vote for it, i'll lose my tea party primary. and yet they've got a platinum plan. it breaks your heart. people say why are you so passionate? come to me to rural parts of virginia where people are grabbing my arm and saying governor, i'll be dead in a year if you don't help me get this. i try to explain and talk to your legislator but it's those gerrymandering districts that don't allow us to make progress in the country. 400,000. i've forfeited $10.4 billion, ladies and gentlemen, and to see these people it breaks your heart to know we've paid for them to get health care but the legislator won't do it because they'll lose the tea party primary. we've got to get back to 50/50 and leading a nationwide effort. president obama, eric holder, nancy pelosi and myself have been traveling the country to do make we need to do to raise the alarms and raise money and begin to bring lawsuits because if we don't win a majority of

these upcoming governor races in virginia, they'll draw a map to give them more seats. there's only one person who can stop a bad redistricting map and that's a democratic governor. the only one who can veto it and send it back. i'm proud to say we're making tremendous progress in this regard. but if you leave anything in this conference with all these great ideas, i'll leave you with one important point. we as democrats have to get in the game and get in the fight. for years we abdicated our responsibility at the state and local level and allowed them to take over states. north carolina was a progressive state. they turned it into a tea party state and they've done it with state after state and rolled back voting rights in all these states and when the presidential election comes, people are knocked off the rolls. they're hurting people on health care and education. ladies and gentlemen, our future, the future of the democratic party for the next decade will be determined at how we handle this redistricting fight. we've never done it before. it's time for the democrats to get in the game. thank you very much.

[applause] jennifer: please welcome to the stage representative keith alison, jason candor, and r.e. berman.

>> ok. we are going to begin. everyone hear me? hello? hello? yes? hello? all right. great. i'm r.e. berman, a writer for the nation and author of the book "give us the balance out." -- give us the ballot." i'm thrilled to moderate this with two of the smartest and coolest, more importantly, figures in the democratic party and in the progressive movement. to my right for once is keith elson. the vice chair or deputy chair? deputy chair of the d.n.c. and six term member of congress from minnesota's fifth congressional district and to my left for the first time, jason candor who was secretary

of state from missouri from 2013-2017 and is now president of latin america voting. let's get right into it. i'm starting with you. the 2016 election was the first presidential election in 50 years without the full protection of the voting rights act. we just got some new data this week from the pew research center that found african-american voter turnout declined by 7% from 2012 to 2016. the hispanic vote did not increase as many people expected it might have. there was no modge cal mcamong white voters it was that black and latino voters did not turn out were were not able to turn out. can you talk about what happened, how much of this dropoff and turnout was a lack of enthusiasm and how much was voter suppression? keith: i think a substantial part of it was voter suppression, no doubt in my mind. if you look at wisconsin, photo

i.d. has led to over -- about 200,000 people not voting that could before and the election was lost by 22,000 votes. it's substantial and harmful. you know, in minnesota, in 2012, they tried to pass photo i.d. in our state and we defeated it at the ballot box. but let me just tell you, they weren't pushing it because there were confirmed cases of impostor voting going on. there are virtually no cases of impostor voting going on across the country to claim voter fraud is a fraud in and of itself. the reality is we've got to understand that they have decided if they cannot win on the basis of ideas, they're just going to stop people from being able to participate. and i think the voter suppression feeds on itself. so if you suppress some people from voting, they're not voting, people get discouraged,

they say well, i don't have an i.d. do you have one? i don't know. next thing you know you can get an effect that goes beyond even the population that's been suppressed. it's not just veto i.d. but voter purging and voter rolls and felon disenfranchisement, in k mcauliffe for work re-enfranchisement. i'm not going to say we couldn't have campaigned better. i happen to believe we must and we can. and so we are engaging in a very intense effort to lift up -- not door knocks, phone banks, meetings, we need to engage, particularly this summer, we've got to get together with our neighbors and there's no doubt and we have responsibility but also have to understand we have got to sue and we have to raise money to sue because of the suppression that's so rampant throughout the country. r.e.: how can we get turn up in

2018 and 2020 so history does not repeat itself. keith: start now. if you want big turnout in 2018 you must seize the summer of 2017. that's right now. that means knocking on doors, that means engaging communities and means engaging in long form conversation. i'm talking about not going by and asking people who you're voting for and keep walking but what issues are important and then use a multifaceted approach. door to door is the best way but meeting is important and showing up to rallies is important, concerts are important. anything you can do to engage people around the most pressing issues of our time. and of course if you do it, you're pushing on an open door. we've had the women's march, the science march, the tax march. all these people are ready to go. and so we have just got to offer them an electoral form of expression. we've got to convert the energy into the ballot box.

we do that, things will be very different. we'll make sure terry mcauliffe can get medicaid to a lot of virginians and all over this country. [applause] can you talk about the threat you think this commission poses to voting rights? >> what this represents is a continuation of the strategy of taking the republican playbook over the last 15 or so years and making voter suppression of fundamental strategic partner.

this is not a policy disagreement. a strategy by the republican party that they are going to solve the problem by .ot letting those folks vote this is elevating that officially to this is run out of the power of the presidency. is formalizing their first step in the playbook. the playbook is to convince americans there is widespread fraud when there's not. this nothing like convincing americans that there is faith in democracy. you told me that you felt like for breakfast, they were

not engaging what came to voting rights. >> when president trump told the big lie about voting, a lot of people understandably, and i think this is accurate as well saw a deeply insecure human andg who is compensating coming up for this lie. what i saw is somebody who is chief election official and had a super majority in the republican legislature coul. thehis people get it out in ether that there's this huge problem and then you get off and the next step? now you have switching sides and the court cases and the court cases in the president trump is appointing the judges. the strategy up until now has

been to challenge these in court , which getting to your question, what we saw was a real urgency to have this fight expand beyond the court of law and also to the court of public opinion. what i mean when we say we have not engaged in it is that it's very difficult to win an argument that you are not wedging. the approach for those who support voting rights is if this passes and becomes law, we will .in in court that may not work in every situation now. no, this is un-american and wrong to do and it costs a lot of money and has all sorts of unintended consequences. presidential commission is going to give a report to president trump. i fully expect they will call for things like more voter id laws.

they might call for this on the national level. let's say they recommend to donald trump that there should be national voter ideas that should go through congress. what should the congressional response be? like a try to move this piece of legislation, will we did defeated in minnesota, but when we first introduced the bill, it was pulling at 80%. everyone thought we are not going to win this. cannotogressive said we put money into a campaign. we can just hope to beat it in court to some of us said we are going to fight it, but we whittled it down and we got a republican on our side and we ended up to feeding at the polls.

if this happens, get ready to talk to your neighbors. this is an opportunity to talk to people how photo id does exclude seniors and often veterans and soldiers who are service. it certainly excludes people of color, but they were a group of who after their photo id went to go vote, and the people knew them at the voting polls and people said, well, where is your idea if you want to vote? she said, you know i live in the convent. there were someone who is segregated and could vote incestuous black. there was a world war two veteran in ohio that was pushed out. i would say another thing connection with history jason

was the secretary of state and if there was one bloodbath we haven't suffering in elections, it is secretary's -- secretaries of state. we have got to refocus our attention on the office of secretaries of state around the country. i think, jason, we're down to about seven, is that right? i mean, we're like seven, seven. like it's this many right? , secretaries of state are the chief elections officers in the state. democratic secretaries of state don't actually try to favor a party, they just try to make sure it's a fair election. republican secretaries of state, catherine harris, blackwell in ohio, absolutely turn the tables for their side. we've got to get people who are willing to run and treat them like what they are, which is very serious, critically important elections. secretaries of state, everybody. >> one more question on voting rights. [applause]

one thing that's been missed is that so far this year, there have been 87 bills to restrict access to the ballot introduced in 29 states. and this seems to be getting lost, what's happening at the state level in the era of trump where everything is, for obvious reasons, focused on the president. how can we bring more attention to all of these state-level fights that will go along with determining what happens in 2018 and 2020? >> let america vote.org. i will stay what we are doing. our whole thesis here is that it's really important to create political consequences for folks who do this. if you are, say, a republican state legislator, and you name the state, and you have a difficult vote coming up, and it's on a labor issue or it's on a choice issue, you know there could be a political consequence for you depending on how you choose to vote in that. if it's a vote coming up on whether or not to make it harder for people in your state to vote, to gain partisan advantage

for your party, before we started doing what we were doing, there was no possible political consequence. that's at the heart of what we're doing. i'll tell you a little bit about what we've been doing. for instance, and it's not just state legislatures, it's anybody who is at the crux of that part of the process. so for instance, i recently went down to campaign with john osoff in georgia. there's two things going on in that race. the first, it's on the legal challenge side, they just want a challenge, the secretary of state there was saying if you had registered to vote after the primary, they weren't going to count that registration, which is like pretty blatantly obvious, right? if you register to vote right now, they don't want you to vote. that's what they're doing. the other thing they were doing was, they're consolidating the polling places and closing down early voting locations. so prior to the primary, the local elections authorities had a lot fewer early voting locations than they had back in november. that happened to, as usually happens, correspond directly with where there was going to be possibly high democratic turnout.

we went in and ran radio ads, mobilized people, called the local election authority. the local election authority caved, opened up an additional voting location that ended up being one of the most highly attended locations in the district. [applause] think about how many people around the country have sent a contribution or talked to their friends or sometimes even come down and knocked on doors. all we did was put a spreadsheet together of where were the polling locations before and where are they now. and it makes a huge difference on election day. that's the kind of strategy the other side employees. employs.side governor mcauliffe talked about a bill to make sure his veto was sustained in virginia. in new hampshire, these are the ones that were actively involved with folks on the ground. in new hampshire, there's colleges, there's college students there. republicans took control of the house, the senate, and the governor's mansion there. their election is every two years. they decided they have a short

window in which to change the electorate so they might be able to win more elections. they have a bill they're trying to advance that says, if you registers register to vote, they'll send somebody from the government by to question you about whether you intend to be in new hampshire long-term. you can imagine, they openly said they don't like that so many college students getting registered. you can imagine, there's probably a lot of college students who when they are thinking about registering to vote, the prospect of somebody from the government coming by their dorm room may not be of interest to them, right? it's aimed directly at them. it's voter intimidation. in that case, we haven't picked out, for instance, the sponsor of the bill, the sponsors of bills like this usually come from pretty safe spots. so we take a look at folks who may be won by 100-150 votes and have been inclined to vote for it so far. we're mobilizing folks in their districts. that is the way that we are proceeding.

we have 50,000 people signed up nationwide to volunteer for this. we've been around for three months. so there's a lot of ways you can help us. >> that's awesome. jeff sessions. >> ecchh. >> such language. why is he still attorney general? >> he's attorney general because we lost an election. i mean, elections have consequences. we've really got to internalize that. you asked what should we done if done if this commission has certain findings. i think we should anticipate that they're going to say they want to push photo id. we need to begin discrediting this commission right now. it's very important that we let the american people know -- [ [applause] -- this is a set up it's a , fraud, it's a lie, it's a commission to address a problem that does not exist. and we should go after it. the other thing we have got to do is, we do have to be very proactive. why not have 50 bills introduced by progressives saying if you're

out of prison, you can vote? i mean, we need to be on the front of this. [applause] why not say that we need to have -- if you want to vote, voting should be a holiday. and anybody who does have to work that day has guaranteed right to take time off to vote. we've got to make it easier to vote. voter registration is a silly idea. it's basically -- you don't have -- in minnesota we've had same day voter registration since the 1990's. we have very good elections. we have actually very high voter turnout, highest in the nation. if you look at the states that have same day voter registration, they all have very high voter turnout. if you look at the ones that have long registration periods, they have low turnout. and i will also say that, you know, we need to look at every -- we need to look at every congressional district, every senate district, every statehouse district, and say to ourselves, if we commit to

increasing voter turnout every term by 5%, we will find ourselves in four years with more than 10%, because of compounding. but we've got to do it. we've got to start now. we've got to engage directly. and we've got to be intense about it. we've got to remind people to vote. we've got to use social pressure to get them to vote. by the way, don't tell people to vote. tell people to be a voter. it actually makes a difference. a noun versus a verb. ask them to take on an identity as a voter. so i mean, we've got to be on offense against jeff sessions. oh, and by the way, this little war on drugs thing he wants to bring back. >> i was going to say. >> sorry. >> no, talk about it. >> he wants to drag this discredited idea of harsh sentencing back. it's shocking to me. we had a bipartisan consensus a few years ago to lower the crack powder disparity from 100-1 to 18-1. it should be 1-1. the way we incarcerate people

around nonviolent drug offenses is ridiculous, in my opinion. but understand this. the more convictions and the longer time will also suppress voter turnout, because you'll have, one, missing people who are locked up, and you'll probably have a more aggressive enforcement, which, of course, will exclude people with prior felony convictions. for those reasons and many more, he needs to be opposed. he's already violated his promise to not be engaged in the whole trump thing, i mean the whole russia thing, twice now. so we've got to call him out as a mendacious -- that's lying -- secretary of state -- i mean, attorney general. and we've got to get aggressive at going after him as well. >> two quick things before we open it up for questions. first, the ninth circuit heard arguments this week about the new muslim band 2.0. what's going to be the eventually outcome of that, do

you think? >> i understand they released -- they're trying to get some documents released from guiliani. those documents i am quite certain are going to be very clear. and evidence that's already out there. it's clear that this is a muslim ban. it's based on people's religion. congress shall make no law establishing a religion. and this applies to the executive branch and the states. you can't have a religiously-based exclusion. and he said from the very beginning we want a complete ban. then he wanted to make everybody register. then he said islam hates america. it's very clear. you might think not every muslim is being banned, keith. sure. but every country that is banned is banned because it is a muslim majority country. and so all i say to my fellow americans is, if they can ban my religion, they can ban your doors. and this is something we've got to come together around. and i can tell you that we have had other religious-based exclusions in the past.

all have gone very badly. and so we've got to stick up and stand up for each other at this moment. [applause] i want to add something on this, because i know we're talking about civil rights. there are also practical negative effects to rolling back civil rights. in this case, this makes america less safe. i mean, as somebody who served as an intelligence officer overseas, i think about what happened in the last couple of days combined with this. if you're doing intelligence work or serving the country overseas, now in the last couple of days the president has made it much harder for you to get people to cooperate and believe that you will protect them confidentially could on top of tha. on top of that, when you are having the president constantly saying, whether it's on the

campaign trail and now in court, and we all know what it really is, it really is a muslim ban. so on one side he's playing a part in an isis recruiting video and on the other side he's weakening our ability to actually take them on. this is all extremely important from the standpoint of violating people's civil rights. but we also need to make sure that we are pointing out to folks that if that is not something that you're worried about, some voters maybe aren't as concerned about that, you should be worried about the fact that this makes you a lot more likely to get killed by the enemy. that's the functional result of what the president is doing. >> one last quick thing. the director of the census just resigned. the census literally determines who and how people are counted. how concerned are you and what are you doing about that? >> i hate to say this, but it's another four-alarm fire. that's why we need to recruit more people to this movement. there's a lot of work to do. messing with the census is the precursor to voter suppression that they clearly have plans for. we need to understand if there are 100 people living in this neighborhood and yet the trump

census says there's only 50, there is going to be a substantial lesser amount of resources flowing in that community. and it will harm that community, so this is a very serious thing. we need a body of people who will stand up and fight for and and stand up for the senses. if you are looking for some activity to engage in, we need some census advocates around here. >> ok. i think we have time for maybe one or two questions. one question. i don't know, do i -- ok. there's a mike coming through. >> high. -- hi. i'm from new york. we had a mayor and a governor speak to us this morning, and both talked about the importance of getting things done. they didn't have time for gridlock. and at least by innuendo if not

overtly referred to what goes on on capitol hill as a lot of gridlock and positioning and nothing getting done. what would you say to that, about the -- you know, the governor from north carolina spoke about not getting exactly what he wanted done on lgbtq but at least making a start and getting somewhere with it. mayor mayor garcetti spoke about infrastructure bills and all the things he does, and he gets things done, but nothing's happening on capitol hill. what's your response? >> my response to that is to say, it would be very easy for us to get things done, but you may not want them things done. a a few years ago, remember the government shut down, 16-day shutdown? ted cruz told us something very simple. if you help us repeal obamacare, we'll reopen the government. and i don't think most americans wanted us to do that.

i'm telling you now. i have good friends and get along just fine with lots of republicans. it is not a problem of temperament. it is a problem of core belief and values. they think that rich people don't have enough money and poor people have too much money. that's why they're always trying to cut taxes and regulation on the rich and trying to cut meals on wheels and trio and everything else for the rest of us. they believe that. and they're aggressive about it. for us to get along with them, we have to capitulate to their demands. and i'm telling you, it's not all bad that there's gridlock right now. there might be another period of time in american history where it is bad. but i'm telling you, for the last four or five years, since 2010 if we didn't fight back, this country would be poorer for it. and, you know, we're at the point now where last year, we had to do a doggone sit-in on

the house floor just to try to draw attention to gun violence , and we still can't get them to do anything, and they're the majority. and so i guess what i want to say is, i can understand a state legislator and a governor and a mayor being frustrated about what happens or doesn't happen here. but given that they want to repeal. frank, they want to gut. frank. -- dodd frank. for folks who want to get something done, i don't think you want me to get dodd frank. understand that this is not simply bad kids playing in the sandbox. this is a group that is trying to change the fundamental culture of american society, diminish the role of government dramatically, and a group of other people who believe you ought to be able to retire, you ought to be able to earn a decent living, health care should be a right, and everybody should be treated fairly.

so that's what i say to that. >> i think that's the last word. >> sorry for going so long. >> thanks to this great panel. thank you to congressman ellison. [ applause ] >> please welcome to the stage senator maxine waters. representative maxine waters. [applause] rep. waters: hello, everybody. i'm delighted that i've been asked to participate here this afternoon with the center for american progress. i want to talk a little bit about public policy and a bit about how public policy, good

public policy, is advanced or how it is undermined by the president of the united states of america. i'm the ranking member of the financial services committee. and i have been focused on the implementation of dodd frank reforms. spent almost 20 hours pushing back on something called the choice act. the choice act is legislation that was introduced by chairman hensarling to basically deregulate. deregulate the big banks, to do deregulation in ways that would undo the consumer financial protection bureau. deregulation is all about consumer production and reigning reining in wall street and

reining in the banks that put us into the position we found ourselves in in 2008 when we actually had a recession, almost a depression. and so during this period of time, wall street and the banks literally had put on the market and produced these exotic products. exotic products meaning no interest loans, loans that reset in six months. all kinds of loans that people signed on the dotted line for that they couldn't afford. so as a result of that, we literally, because of these predatory loans, we literally ended up with foreclosures all over this nation and particularly in many of the minority communities that had been targeted with these exotic products. and so dodd frank reform was all about reining in these financial institutions and getting a handle on what was going on so we could prevent ever having to bail out these big banks and

financial institutions again. during this period of time, we had millions of jobs that were lost. we had $13 trillion that was lost in wealth, and on and on and on. it was really a very bad period of time. and so dodd frank is a complicated piece of legislation, but a very profound piece of legislation, to deal with this economic crisis that we were confronted with. the republicans have been pushing back, and they have gone at the centerpiece of the financial reforms by dodd frank, and that is the consumer financial protection bureau. we were very lucky, despite the fact that the republicans didn't want it, we got mr. cordray, who has done an excellent job in managing this consumer financial protection bureau, and compensated many of the constituents in all of our

constituents and all of our communities for those loans and all the kinds of things that they had ripped off. about paydayg loans. were talking about student loans. about the fact that communities are targeted, and we're targeted, by many of these industries, basically to rip them off and to see how they could get tremendous profits from people who were unsuspecting, for people who were uneducated in many instances, for people who did not know how to fight back. so we've been working so hard, and along comes, you know, mr. hensarling and the republicans and doing everything that they can now that trump is in charge, and now that we have a new administration, to move with what is known and is talked about as deregulation. but all that is, is undoing protections for consumers. that's really

what it's all about. and so were working very hard. but we know that the republicans are in charge, and that they're going to be able to, as they have been, to get this bill out of the financial services committee. it will go to the floor. the republicans have the numbers. we're depending on the senate to be able to push back. we don't know how well they're going to do, because wall street basically has a lot of power and influence in the congress of the united states of america. they've had it historically. they don't want to give it up. many members of congress, both on the democratic side and the republican side, have resisted really getting in there and learning exactly how it's done. they say, well, we don't understand derivatives, we don't understand default swaps, we don't know what that stuff is all about. that stuff is all about how

these major financial services industries are able to make tremendous profits in so many different ways. so while we are pushing back and fighting, democrats must be focused, along with all of the other stuff that we're doing, on what we can do to undo the power and the influence of the biggest banks in america, the consolidation has us at the mercy of what, about five of the biggest banks in america. we we cannot afford to have them continue as they're doing, going back to the predatory lending that they did that led us into the crisis in 2008. but really, the leadership starts at the top. and this president has already done in his executive orders a direction to say, i want to review all of this dodd frank is this.

best business. business.s dodd frank i want to know what it is he's done that's hurting our industries that are out there providing loans, etc. so he's moving in a direction for deregulation in a massive way by way of the choice act. we call it the bad choice act. but it is moving, and it's going to be on the house floor. we're going to lose the vote. it's going to go to the senate. we don't know really what's going to happen. we have to make sure that our legislators over there, and i want to tell you, elizabeth warren and sherrod brown and some of them are on it, but they're going to need the help of other democrats and certainly we would hope some republicans would step up to the plate and get involved in this.

but this president. this president is one that i have focused on in ways that some people say, oh, my god, she said the word "impeachment." oh, my goodness, it's too soon to say that. they say that we can't focus on it because we have members who are in districts that he won, and they can't afford to talk about impeachment. they may be endangered in their election. and it goes on and on and on. but there's no way we can move with an agenda to deal with the middle class constituency of this country and poor people and just the citizens of this country who deserve to have good public policy, with him at the helm. he does not believe in it. he's hired -- hired, that's a good way of saying it -- he's appointed, he supported all of these appointees who are focused on his agenda.

just think about it. mnuchin. he's your treasury secretary. he is known as the foreclosure king. he foreclosed on 36,000 homes in southern california. so these billionaires, whether we're talking about mnuchin, or don't get me started on betsy devos, don't get me started on -- oh, sessions. these billionaires who are now a part of his cabinet are opposed to no, we cannot. he's a liar. he

cannot be trusted. he will say one thing today and another thing tomorrow. how do you sit down with somebody who would mimic and mock a disabled journalist? how do you sit down and talk with somebody who talks about grabbing women by their private parts? how do you sit with somebody who will fire anybody who gets in the way of an investigation that is leading to us understanding whether or not there was collusion between his campaign, his allies and the kremlin and putin? i decided a long time ago when i looked at his allies and those people who are around him and their connections to the kremlin and to theole garks of russia and to oil and to wanting to lift the sanctions so that putin can drill in the arctic, when i looked at that i knew right away that this is bad business and that these allies are all aligned and they have been working on this for some time. i

believe that not only was members of his campaign like flynn and carter page and others who have relationships with the kremlin and with putin et cetera. they didn't just start this. they have been working on this for sometime. even though i can't get into it into depth it is all about in the final analysis lifting those sanctions. that's why people don't ask why did putin want to have trump so badly? it's not about public policy. it's about oil. it's about drilling and lifting those sanctions. tillerson is in on it also. coming from exxon who lobbied for lifting the sanctions, who negotiated lifting those sanctions with putin and

negotiated the multibillion-dollar deal for drilling in oil. it is all about the money. follow the money. follow the oil. i'm convinced that if we had had the kind of investigations that we should have had by now we would have connected those dots. we would know exactly what was done. i must tell you even though we have those who say we are finally moving, we are not moving. we are too slow. and i want you to know that our intelligence committee in the house even though our democrats are good and they want to do well, they don't have the cooperation of those republicans in ways that will get a credible investigation done, in my opinion. and the same thing with the senate. i had much hope that the that the senate would do better. i was depending on john mccain and lindsey graham to get him back for what he did to them when they were running, that they would step up to the plate. now i am a little bit disappointed. they don't have the personnel, etc.

we have been calling for and people have been asking for an independent commission. we are talking about independent counsel. i want you to know if it was not for the media we wouldn't be as far as we are now in understanding what has been going on. the congress of the united states has not done their job. we have not been the balance, the check and the balance on the presidential on the executive. and so everybody who is supposed to be investigating, supposed to be looking you keep on doing it. we are going to keep calling for independent council. but media, thank you. dig in there, keep doing what you are doing. keep unfolding and making it very apparent to all of the american citizens that something is tragically wrong with the president of the united states of america and his allies. we woke up this morning to the fact that your president had the audacity to meet with the ambassador and the foreign relations guy from russia, exclude the american media. somehow the russian media got in. and he gave up classified information. well, you know while i have been

waiting to connect to the collusion because i think there was collusion, just to think about the way that he gave up this classified information and the way that he has tried to obstruct the investigations by firing folks. you can't find any better person than sally yates. give her a big round of applause. and of course while i thought that comey should have been fired when he first got in if he was concerned about him. as a matter of fact he praised him all over the country. it was only when he asked for additional resources to be able to do a credible investigation that he got fired. so here you have the president of the united states, ladies and gentlemen, this is not normal. it's something very wrong with

this picture. and i don't know when americans are going to get so outraged that they will say toall of the elected officials, republican and democrats and everybody, you have to do what you know you should be doing. you have to identify and lay out for the american public everything that he has done, these firings, these obstruction of justice, et cetera and then the final analysis you have to impeach him, maxeen waters was right. you've got to impeach him. applause]d waters: and so i know that there are those who are talking about we are going to get ready for the next election. no, we can't wait that long. we don't need to wait that long. he will have destroyed this country by then. we cannot wake up every morning to another crisis, to another scandal. we cannot have the uncertainty. we cannot have people rolling out who have been with the cia

and with the justice department and who have been inputal cabinets,idential etc. saying something is wrong and they are saying it every day. i am told that there is a credible poll out today that says that 48% of the american public is now saying he should be impeached. what more do we need in the congress of the united states of america? let me just say this that i have the fortunate of truly believing in the constitution of the united states of america. [applause] rep. waters: i can recall in grade school basically about junior high when we learned about the three branches of government and their responsibilities. i was excited about all of that,

about the way a democracy works and i believe it and i believe in it very strongly. i know that there are those on the opposite side of the aisle in the right wing in particular who think that if you are progressing, if you are a liberal you are not patriotic. you don't get anymore patriotic than me. i believe in this democracy. i believe in the constitution. i am going to challenge them. all of you who think you are more patriotic than anybody else are you going to stand up for america when we show you, when we connect those dots and we can prove that there was collusion and that he has interfered with justice and interfered by way of firing all of those who have come close to identifying what happened in this campaign? i am going to be able to say to those who think they are more patriotic than anybody else you not patriotic. if you are going to stand for our democracy to be undermined, if you don't feel upset about our election systems being interfered with you are not patriotic at all. so we are going to challenge them and see if they are willing to stand up.

i think every day we get closer to it. i want all of my colleagues to say this over and over again and to challenge over and over again. we don't have to be afraid to the wordo use "impeachment." we don't have to think that impeachment is out of our reach. all we have to do is make sure that we are talking to the american public and keeping them involved and resisting every day and challenging every day and we are calling this president to account for what he is doing and saying. i believe in this strongly. so i don't know what is going to happen after today when all questions are being raised about him sharing this classified information but i think this is going to put us a little bit further on our way to what i have been calling for so long and that is impeachment. thank you.

applause]d applause]d >> we always save the best for last. thank you maxine. it is my great honor to close the ideas conference of 2017. how has it been going? how has it been going? i want to thank everyone who has

been tweeting on #capideas. we have one final speaker who i'm really excited to introduce. but i wanted to say one word about the incredible cap staff who has worked so hard to make this day work. our teams, event staff i have to call out three people who have been dealing with this conference for months and also deal with me. so it is my great, great honor to close the ideas conference with senator cory booker who i have known 15, 20 years since law school. sadly, he is behind me in law school. he is i have to say even in his days in law school he was always animated about serving others. that simple principle of taking your talents and serving other

people. and he has done that in every role he has been in. obviously, as mayor of newark we heard of his legendary efforts of public service. he'll find your dog, save your family from a fire, personally shovel your snow, perhaps not in that order. but obviously worked on revitalizing communities, insuring the real opportunity for all the people in his community in fighting for economic and social justice. so i can really think of no better person to close out the 2017 ideas conference than my friend senator cory booker. >> hello everybody. [applause] >> hello.

this is the problem when you have someone who knows you so .e here is her handheld mic. you always use a hand held. they know me enough to know that i like to roam when i speak. she has been a hero for me not just in her current role. she was one of those people in law school trying to shine light to me. if anything i am just reflecting hers because she was a source of strength even back then that understood if you are a lawyer for social justice or you are a leech upon society. she lived that principle that education is a waste unless it is being used to empower other people. and to see her career blossom and get to this place where she is now at a time there is i think a story in american history that often the right leader that appears at the right time when their country needs them. this is a time that not only her but this organization itself is an urgently needed organization

for our country. want to thank her for leadership in the entire cap staff. i want to honor everyone here or who has been here. we need to begin to see ourselves as patriots before we are democrats and progressives. we need to see ourselves as patriots. for me for her to ask me to give the closing remarks, the final remarks after you all have heard so many speakers many people who are my friends and colleagues who are my partiers it is such an honor to speak to patriots and get the responsibility of taking it home. so to do that i would literally like to take you home for a second to where my mom lives because this is my attempt to get some points with everybody here who i went to go visit in

the lead-up to mother's day. my mom now no longer lives in new jersey. she has moved to vegas. mama lives in vegas. she knows which slot machines will pay off and win. but my mom i went out there because she was performing in a play. and her senior citizen community, retirement community was putting on a play and immediately before she had to ask i knew i had a carming -- karmic obligation because she was there for everyone of my grade school plays and now the world was coming full circle and i had to be there for her. so i flew out less than 24 hours on the ground taking red eye back here but i sat in the front row and it was like god had turned the table. i was now one of those maybe annoying parents who sat in the front row. i had my recording device in my

hand recording everything. the senior citizen behind me thanked me because he said i'm far sighted. i could look in your video and see the whole thing so clearly. thank you for that, sir. so there came a moment that you all know that had me very excited and connected me to my own family and our country. what the queen responds is you haven't had much practice then. when i was your age, i always did it for half an hour a day. i believed in as many as six impossible things before breakfast.

why that touched me is i know this is the story not just of my family but if everyone else's who is here family. down with the elders in my family, the answer and uncles, grandparents will stop what i heard was not the story of simple glory and abundance. no. it was a story of profound struggle. it was a story of pain and hardship. setbacks and failures and frustrations. it was a story of feeling like you are out there in the grassroots when your government is supporting things that are working against you. when you witness firsthand the levels of discrimination and did.nce my grandfather my grandfather tommy stories about people escaping the south and having to shuttle them out of the country for their safety in duke canada.

it may be understand that when yours, asand i know well, spoke of the impossible dream of america. it went much deeper than the glory and the remembrance of the days gone past. "the fire next time." the book by james baldwin. he talks with unflinching realism about the problems of america. , he doess entire book not pull a punch. the end, and in fact there is this page in his book he took some it is is him for because some people said it -- itd to pollyanna ash "pollyanna-ish."

he strikes this note of hope amidst all that he described calling to the conscience of our country to do impossible things. writes, i know what i'm asking you is impossible but in our time as in every time the impossible is the least we can demand. what is after all emboldened by the spectacle of human history in general an american negro history in particular for testifies to nothing less than the perpetual achievement of the impossible. baldwin was writing about american black history but the

truth of our country is story after story so many so vast that our finite minds can barely contain the stories of heroic actors, every day americans who did extraordinary things under unimaginable circumstances. so much of what we take for granted right now was because of folks like baldwin who answered the call to do impossible things. you pick a segment of our society, the suffrage movement with its brutality, women literally dying for the cause of our country. the heroism of labor activists literally at a time that if you were organizing you didn't just get a threat to lose your job you got a threat to lose your life. people like eugene debbs. abolitionists who had the

boldness. before i die a slave be buried in my grave. activists whose names aren't even that well known. his wife chain whipped, himself stabbed but kept on fighting for his impossible dream of america. these are our ancestors. this is our roots. people who never surrendered to circumstances who kept on dreaming. i have to tell you right now when i hear my mom utter something and it actually fortifies me as i get on a red eye to fly back to washington in my head were the songs from a kid in a black church in new jersey, the spirituals being sung that my mom would impress

upon me. you are hearing those now in the 1980s as a little boy. those were the songs that sourced us. ain't nobody gonna turn me around gonna turn me around i'm gonna keep on walking i keep on talking marking down to freedomland one of my favorite songs i was playing in my apartment last night different renditions of

different kwoirz with this concept of keeping your hand on the plow when my way gets dark as night i know the lord will be my light. keep your hand on the plow. keep your hand on the plow hold on. now, i walked the halls of congress. i can't walk in that building. i can't go on that senate floor no matter how dispickable the cra i am forced tovote on is. i can't lose sight of the history we share that i am a black man in america walking on to the floor of the senate. and the sacrifices of black and white, male and female, christian, jewish, muslim, all that it took for me to be the fourth elected african-american in the history of our country to that body. talk about people who kept their hand on the plow. robert smalls, a name most of us don't know. this is the full history we have of heroic

actors. this was a slave who was lent to a slave ship after the outbreak of the civil war. and immediately he was plotting to break free when the confederates left the ship he took control of the ship, put on the captain's garb. saled his ship right by fort sumpter that had surrendered to the confederates. didn't think anything was wrong. he turns his ship and sails as quickly as he can towards union blockade knowing that the union army would fire on a confederate ship. they were literally preparing to fire and recognize that is a white flag flying.

he actually gets to safety. he becomes such a hero northern newspapers were writing about him. he is credited with one of the reasons why we let blacks fight in the civil war. he himself is credited with recruiting 5000 american blacks to fight and many of them died brutally in a civil war for freedom. he then after the civil war gets elected to the south carolina legislature. he passes legislation creating first public schools legislated by a state in america. then he gets nominated to congress. and walks the same hallways that i get to walk now. look, the end of his life is not great. he literally goes back to the south carolina state house and is there as an elected representative after reconstruction, one of the most

bloodiest periods of domestic terrorism we have ever seen and south carolina legislature strips blacks of their voting rights and he has to vote on it. he has to be there. two years before his death at a time where lynching is all over this country this man literally when two black men are accused of being murderers and a lynch mob forms he goes and dispersed blacks and lets rumor fly if these men are lynched they will burn the town to the ground. and the sheriff protected the two black men from the lynch mob. he died in a house that he bought from his slave master. it's one of the stories from american history that folk don't know.

and i wonder how now i hear folk despairing. talk about setbacks! to be elected to congress to have to watch voting rights being stripped. it wouldn't be until the next century when people fought to open up doors for voting rights. wouldn't be until years later and after that that a black man would return to the united states senate. we have so much power us as americans. if we keep our hands on the flow and keep fighting and don't let anything turn us around. i know we are in this time where folk are despairing. i know that. but one of the greatest gifts of my life is a community in newark, new jersey.

i grew up in the northeast of the state. i grew up in the suburbs. my parents had to fight a civil rights battle in 1969 to move into the town. working to get white family to pose as my parents to put a bid on the house and then when my father and the volunteer lawyers show up my father's lawyer gets punched in the face by the real estate agent and a dog gets sicced on him. i grew up in unimaginable circumstances that my father told me you are living dreams that were impossible, seemed impossible to me when i was a kid. you are living a life that was a dangerous dream to articulate if you were your grandfather. but itell you this when i moved to newark, new jersey i didn't have to open history books to see

heroism. i began to meet people who under unconscionable circumstances refused to stop believing in america. housing rights activists, civil rights activists fighting against injustices that we as a country didn't think necessarily deserved us all taking to streets losing the understanding that king said so articulately a generation before. that were a generation before the injustice anywhere is an

threat to justice. we are caught in inescapable network tied in one single garment of destiny somehow that garment has been ripped where we aren't even conscious of other's struggle. our neighbors, fellow americans. i'm so happy that flint, michigan is getting so much attention, but reuters just released a report that was the truth. over 1,000 communities have lead levels in their children's blood here in america four times what flint's children have. right now. when i moved in the '90s this is what i saw. what is it like to live in a neighborhood where you see a parent looking at you with a lead-poisoned child? i'm proud that i still live in that community today. when i listen to politicians like our president talk about inner cities in a way that is not appealing to our heart and to our hope and to the light but demeaning and degrading those spaces, not realizing the heroes who have been fighting come to

my neighborhood. the folk in my community don't care that much about my title. i live in a community where my census track our median income is $14,000 per household. and this is before this president got sworn in over 100 days ago we had fights. when we wanted to plant in the soil of our city urban gardening the state said you can't do that because there is too much lead in the ground. when this congress wouldn't pass reauthorized legislation that reagan reauthorized, that mitch mcconnell voted for to clean up

superfund sites. they wouldn't reauthorize the small tax on polluting industries, what did people in my community think where we have two superfund sites where the river is still fluted with the agent orange that was dumped into it and we now know with longitudinal evidence that children born within three miles of the site have 20% higher rates of autism and birth defects. in my community. i got officers who are fighting every day to stem the tide of gun violence. literally when gun literally when gun fire erupts they don't wait. they charge into places with no situational awareness putting themselves and their lives on the line. recovering guns that were obtained illegally by people with criminal records.

this issue of universal background checks to those cops in my community this is not a policy discussion. this is the difference between life and death. i have a friend of mine. she is this amazing woman. they call her mama tosha where she works because she has this heart. she takes care of the folks that work in her i-hop with her. but these issues that we as progressives are fighting for talk to ms. laurel for a little while and talk to mama tasha. she works a full time job and tries to catch shifts in other places. but guess what. we pay for her housing. because in this country you can work a full time job, catch extra shifts especially if you live places like the new york,

new jersey area you don't live above the poverty line. we pay for her food stamps. these are costs that corporations just outsource on to all of us. think about the trials that so many face when her child is sick. one of her boys has asthma. literally our i-hop is across the street from a hospital. her son rushed to the emergency room is in the hospital and this mom has to make the choice because we are one of the only industrialized nations that doesn't have paid family leave. she has to make the choice. whether to give up her shift and visit her child and lose out on that money which could be the difference between her family whether to give up her shift and having food or not or staying at

work while her child suffers with not just the debilitating effects of asthma but with fear. this is the country that we live in. a nation where the basics come to my block, see where i live. down the street is a senior citizen building. we have a nation that while people here talk about cutting social security or privatizing it we still have 5 million seniors that live in poverty still on social security checks come to my neighborhood across the street is a drug treatment center. do like i have done, sit in the circle of the men and listen to the stories about how a criminal and justice system treats people who are addicted. and turns them into a system that debilitates them and doesn't treat their disease. i tell you all of this to tell

you we have an impossible dream in america that has yet to be made real. and this is before there is a donald trump. i'm so happy to see activism and marching and organizing but i'm telling you right now if we make this all about donald trump we have seen demagogues before. we have seen public demeanors in mccarthyism. my calling is not to have this party defined by what we are against or who we are against. we must be defined by the dream of america for all americans. [applause]

>> don't get me wrong, i'm upset about donald trump. i have watched over this last 10 100 plus days a guy who literally tells his supporters one thing and then gets into the white house and does things that are 100% contrary to what he said and what he promised. it's astonishing to me how someone can speak out of both sides of their mouth. it's astonishing to me that his cras take away people's ability to better save for retirement and allow people to pollute our streams and rivers, take away people's access to preventative health and family planning. all of that to me is astonishing that he can do those things not to mention this recent stuff that to me is more out of a tom clancy novel than it is should be out of our reality. i had a person call me today and talk to me. i couldn't believe it after the russians literally attack a cyber attack and attack our election, literally associates are under federal investigation. literally he seems to get better access to the oval office to the

russian press than the american press. then he fires the very person investigating investigating folks. truman had a sign that said the buck stops here. trump should have one that says the ruble stops here. don't get me wrong. there are real issues. resisting and fighting, our aboutcannot just be that.

country aren this too disturbing. if you think about it trump is a symptom of a problem. he is not the problem. this country was fought for by irish immigrants who built factories and pushed our country into prosperity by black slaves whose labor helped fuel fortunes in this country by chinese immigrants who built the trans continental railroad by mexican immigrants who produced food and hope and put the things on the table that we eat every day. creating extraordinary wealth and then activists and progressives help to fight battles and win more quality, more opportunity, legislation from federal congress to state houses help to give us rights and privileges. so many things for us to be proud of we became the envy of the world. if you look right now, if you look at where america just over my lifetime has gone from being number one on the planet earth to where we are now on issues of the competitiveness of our democracy, indexes kept by the world economic forum, the trends in our country are troubling. we know that today in everything from prek enrollment to high school to college graduation

rates we are being outranked by by our peer nations. other countries are investing in apprenticeship programs. look what is going on in germany. in newark when i went to get more jobs and opportunity i said what do you need? they said we can't find machinists. other countries are making meaningful investments in job training but we are not, things that could be making a huge difference for our people, for our economy and for global competitiveness, other countries are seeing that lowering the bars to education in germany, the cost of college four percent of median income. england about seven percent. in america 52% median income to go

to college. other countries have decimated slashed rates of child poverty. in america still stubbornly one in every five children in america born into poverty. other countries are investing in their infrastructure. america we inherited the best infrastructure on the planet earth and we have trashed it literally engineers estimating about 3$3 trillion of infrastructure debt. we have fallen out of the top ten of infrastructure. our country is at a 20-year low in investment in infrastructure necessary for expanding economic opportunity. and when it comes to the -- it is[chuckling]

we are one of the greatest civilizations on the planet earth for investing our public resources in science and technology that have expanded businesses and job opportunities from our batteries on our iphones to the touch screens to the satellite navigation. all of those things are our collective investment in government research but now china outstripping us, europe outstripping us in investments in research and sciences. we as a nation are falling behind in expanding opportunity for all. and we are leading in the areas we should not lead in. wasting public treasure whether leading in child poverty or leading one area of infrastructure investment we shouldn't want to lead in with just five percent of the globe's population we have 25% of the dploeb globe's prison population. we were putting trillions of dollar s dollars dollars into investments in prisons building a new prison in america every ten days. so i want to fight in this climate.

i want to dedicate myself. we cannot just be a party of resistance. we have to be a party that is reaffirming that american dream. we can't just be a party that is focussed on the person in the white house. we have to be focussed on the folks in inner cities and factory towns, grass roots of our country. that is where our attention needs to be. we have to be a nation and a people and especially a party that reignites that conviction that this will be the country of impossible dreams. that is the essence of the american dream. we have to be a nation that says we are about justice and security and opportunity and

security that doesn't just mean fighting against terrorism and keeping us safe from threats but one that means whether they -- all americans are free from violence and discrimination. we have to be a nation that is focussed on justice and understands that justice means working 48 hours a week shouldn't leave you in poverty. we have to be a nation about opportunity. opportunity means we become a party of growth and innovation, of technology but we can never be a country that accepts that growth means billionaires and billionaires get richer and richer and the poor get stuck in poverty. technology can't be about transforming work for the better where people are contract workers that don't have security but work means you have true security for yourself and your family.

so i believe what our history shows us. and king said it so eloquently. the arc of the universe bends towards justice. it doesn't happen automatically. we have to bend it. i believe that we can produce an economy that works for everybody. we must build it. i believe that we can be a nation that has health care for all but we must fight for it. i believe that we can have a day where america leads in not just wealth for richest but we set that impossible dream that we have the best k-12 public education. that we will lead in the quality of opportunity and lead again in

eradicating poverty and lead again in social mobility and lead in investing in science, that will lead in conquering the threat of climate change and that will lead the globe like the torch bearers leading the globe to greater peace and prosperity. so this moment as we end an incredible conference we have to summon a greater courage, courage that our generations before us and ancestors showed us people without titles or political office, the courage that they demonstrated through sacrifice and service to this republic and for that there is no special formula. it is work, work, work back into the fields of our democracy.

work, work, work back into the roots. work, work, work back to getting folk woke, waking up sleeping people, tending to the hurt, rallying the able and igniting the dream all over again. we are democrats and we must be patriots who work and sweat and work and organize and work and never let the dream get smaller. hands upon the plow. hold on. hands upon the plow. langston hughes wrote a poem giving deference to generations who through song and spirit and faith forged a numeric. let me end with this poem. america land created in common. dream nourished in common. keep your hands on the plow.

hold on, hold on. if the house is not finished don't be discouraged builder. if the fight is not won don't be weary, soldier. the plan and the pattern is here. woven from the beginning into the warp and wolf of america a long time ago enslaved people heading towards freedom made up the song keep your hand on the plow hold on, hold on, a song a long time ago of people heading towards freedom. keep your hands on the plow, hold on, hold on. my fellow democrats, my fellow patriots, we must go back into the fields and put our hands on the plow. we must ignite the dream of our country with our hands forever on the plow. we have unfinished work to be done. our hands must remain on the plow. i know in my heart and i know in my spirit if we continue with that conviction, if we are

willing to do the work, if we are willing to stay steady then not only will we overcome the obstacles that seemed impossibly large but we will usher in a greater era for our country where we make more real and more true to more people the spirit of our nation, that we will be a nation with liberty and justice for all. thank you. [cheers and applause] announcer: c-span's washington journal, live every day with news and and policy issues that affect you. coming up this morning, a discussion about reports of donald trump sharing information with russians. and, talking about james comey into the future of the fbi. association of american

railroads president discusses the state of the u.s. will learn system during infrastructure week in washington, easy washington, d in c. join the discussion. >> we need lifelong learners. team leaders. consensus builders. business managers who can share power constructively and gracefully. >> i would just update you would understand what this responsibility means. that it means reaching out. it means caring about more than yourself. it means asking about "we" ." her than "me >> had the fortitude to do the right thing.

had the courage to speak the truth even when it is unpopular. >> i want to talk to about being open to the unexpected. about making room for the on probable and the unlikely. -- about making room for the improbable and the unlikely. at 8:00 p.m.arting eastern on saturday, mate 20. may 27. monday, memorial day, may 29. it 8 p.m.ay, june 3, eastern time on c-span and c-span.org. representative that adamant shifts. --