arms traffickers and drugs traffickers, the world of business, which is increasingly big network supply chains, global corporations, and the world of nongovernmental organizations. i think of all those actors as increasingly important actors, but we don't have strategies for how to bring them together. sundayh "afterwards," night at 9:00 p.m. eastern on c-span 2's book tv. next, former president jimmy carter and vermont senator bernie sanders discuss global human rights, american leadership in the world, and the trump presidency. this was hosted by the carter center in atlanta, georgia. it is 50 minutes.

>> yes, maybe this is our nations great transition. we are living in a very difficult time, as we've been hearing the last three days. from all over the world, with human rights activist from 31 countries, every region. it is our honor and privilege to have with us to of america's most admired leaders. [applause] >> for a conversation about, how do we stand again for human rights in the world? how does america, as imperfect as it is when it comes to human rights, bring back human rights to the centerpiece of our lives? i'd like to start with you, president carter, a question for you. if you could summarize what you have heard today, where are we and what do we need to do now? think thecarter: i

it is, weo summarize are struggling now to keep going what we achieved in the past. one of the key reasons is, in other countries they used to use the united states of america as a beacon light of the truth and human rights and justice and freedom. they no longer can see us as a beacon light of hope about the future. governmentften, our is inclined to violate human rights. the united states abandon the as one of our key elements of foreign policy. they say, it is ok for us to do it now. the entire world has slipped backwards in effect, and honoring and promoting into championing and fighting for human rights, and holding it as a key guide for all of us. >> senator sanders, how do you

see this problem now going forward, as america hopes to be a rleader on human rights? what would you say is our priority now? sen. sanders: before i respond, let me express my joy at being here at the carter center with a man who not only is respected by the vast majority of the people of our country, those who may agree with him politically and those of disagree, but who has lived his life, with mrs. carter and amy, with incredible dignity, so that we are also proud of what you have achieved as president and after president. i'm just delighted to be here. [applause] sen. sanders: let me answer your question by saying i'm not, i think, going to say anything that will shock anybody in this room.

i think the leadership of this country, i don't think they believe strongly in human rights. that is not what they believe in. we are in a new, pivotal moment in american history. again, i president, don't mean to be disrespectful to anybody. least of all the president. but he is, in contrast to the gentleman here, we have a president who lies all of the time and it is very hard to deal -- i don't mind people disagreeing. people disagree with each other. that is called democracy. i am often asked, what did you think about what president trump said yesterday? it is hard to answer because it will be different tomorrow. what he says is just not correct. and when you talk about human rights, it is important that we do not allow the normalization of a situation in which a president basically says, but

all of the media in this country -- "the new york times," "the washington post," the whole lot of them, believe me, i have problems with the lot of them. but to suggest that all the media is providing fake news, and really the only person in america, the only source of information that we can get and we can trust comes from the tweets from president trump, how crazy is that? and then you have a tax on the judiciary. so-called judges who disagree thank god,sion, that they ruled against some of his executive orders. and then you have him, a very positive relationship with mr. putin, who has moved his country into a very authoritarian direction, as well as other global leaders who went five, do not particularly believe in democracy. that is where i see us today. >> have you both explain the

rise of authoritarianism? what's this coming from? president carter:w well, i think the roof of it is something i have not heard discussed much. i told a group today that in 1999, at the end of the last millennium, the beginning of 2000, i was asked to make speeches. in norway and in taiwan. my subject was, what is the greatest challenge to be faced by the next century? i said the disparity between rich and poor people. and i think that is the case, not only between people who live in the country, but also between nations. i believe that the roof of a downturn in human rights preceded 2016. it began earlier than that. i think the reason was the disparity in income, which has

been translated into the average good, -- you know, decent, hard-working middle-class people feeling they are getting cheated by the government and by society. and they don't get the same of health care. they don't get the same quality education. they don't get the same political rights. particularly after the stupid decision of a supreme court on citizens united. said there was an unlimited amount of money going into campaigns. but now, they feel that even in politics, the choice of a candidate to be president or governor or congresswoman, or whatever, is not the same as a rich person's. also, once the candidate gets in office, if successful, quite often the average person feels that they are repaying their contributions with legal

bribery. and it is legal. and the justice system has also gone down. long before we had this last election, when i left the white house for instance, one out of 1000 people were in prison. now, seven people out of 1000 are in prison. seven times as many people are in prison as they were when i left the white house. so, the feeling of the average person, that i will be treated fairly by the justice system, that is missing. so you know, basic human rights, income, status in society. health care, education, participation in politics, justice both of the things in which we used to have complete faith now have been distorted by the rich people getting richer and the poor people getting poorer. and when the rich people get a candidate in office, they can be

assured that the tax laws and everything else will keep them getting richer and richer, but the average person suffers. i think this satisfaction with the existing system of politics resulted in the outcome of the election in 2016 in the u.s. people were willing to take a chance and abandon democracy. and what we knew about his basic principles and try something new, no matter what it was. >> one of our participants said market fundamentalism is the driving force behind this. what do you think, senator sanders? how do you explain the rise -- sen. sanders: i agree with everything president carter said. .ere is the situation you have got all over this country, tens of millions of people who are extremely angry and they are disappointed. now we on the that as a result of technology, workers are producing more today than. they

did 20 or 30 years ago. and yet, despite that, you are seeing people working not 40 hours a week, they working 50 or 60 hours a week. their wages are actually going down. how would you feel if you were a 50-year-old man or woman working at a factory and you went to work one day and somebody said, by the way, our company can make more money going to china. good luck to you. parent wheneel as a you know that your kid, who you love so much and you want better things than you had, that is the american dream, your kid can't afford to go to college, can't even find a home for himself or herself. or maybe leave school, $50,000 to $80,000 in debt. president carter is right. if you are going to look at human rights, you have to look at the term i use -- the growth of oligarchy in america. oligarchy. and what that means and the

president touched on both of the issues, it is not just an unbelievably grotesque level of incoming wealth inequality. one family in america owns more wealth than the bottom 42%, etc. but these guys are now putting their money under their mattress. they are using it politically. so, we live in a country where people fought and died for democracy, and you get the koch brothers in sheldon adelson and a handful of billionaires able to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to elect candidates who represent the wealthy and the powerful. and this recent bill, everybody is familiar with this terrible bill passed last thursday in the house. the media describes it as a health care bill. it is not a health care bill. it is a bill designed to give $300 million in tax breaks to the top 2%, and hundreds of billions more to the insurance

and drug companies. the rich get richer. they protect themselves politically. they get more tax breaks. the middle class shrinks. some people in this country live in disparate poverty. midst of all that anger and pain and poverty, somebody says, you know the problem is that muslim person over there, the latino over there. i think that has a lot to do with what is happening in this country, and internationally, with what we are seeing today. president carter: i am relieved to know that the senator agrees with me. i feel much more assured about what i have said now. [laughter] [applause] sen. sanders: how will it affect other countries? moderator: yes, and the rise of the neoliberal orthodoxy that we have lived within for how

many decades now, that we have been told, the rising tide would lift all boats, has failed. we heard many testimonies today about this problem. from the congo, pakistan, everywhere. as the united states exerts its influence in the world and we take a broader view of human rights, these are interlinked because we see in our country just as you are describing this, the police are expanding their powers. when people protest what you are talking about, we have increased prison populations. we have a militarization of the police using military equipment to control the protests. we have our atlanta leader of the black lives matter movement here. so, we see all over the country, standing rock. movement, buting these are interlinked. when these policies leave people behind and people riser, even in the united states, we heard

today from india a heartbreaking testimony that even in the last two or three years, we think of india as a great democracy, and that is going away. you cannot even protest anymore. we see the linkages between these. how can we use our influence in the world -- this question is for you both. president carter, you put human rights at the center of our foreign policy. it was a difficult time. it was the cold war. it was not easy to do that. and senator sanders, you are in the senate. you have the one of 100 seats, really, where the power is left in this country come apart from the very courageous federal courts. our courts are standing up for human right. how do we get the united states to face its own problems, but then become a leader again? president carter: you go first this time. sen. sanders: i was just copying what you were saying. [laughter]

sen. sanders: this is what i think. the bottom line is, i don't think real change will take place in the senate or in washington. it will take place in what our very brave guests here are doing all over the world. it will take place at the grassroots level from one end of this country to the other. [applause] sen. sanders: and what i mean by that, as i have said many times, i don't mean to get into the intricacies of american politics. i think in many ways, donald trump did not win the election. the democratic party lost the election. and that means we have got to revitalize the democratic party, make it a grassroots party, bring together black workers and white workers and latino workers workers.-american i think we can do that. i have spent a lot of my time recently going to not just blue

states, but going to conservative states. because if you go to states like kansas or you go to states like nebraska, which i'll vote very strongly republican, and you ask people, do you believe it makes sense to give tax breaks to billionaires and cut back on social security, medicare and medicaid, people look at you like you are crazy. of course we don't believe that. our job is to go into 50 states in this country, bring people together around a progressive agenda, which has the courage to do what democrats have historically not had the courage to do. there is wall street. there is the insurance companies. there are the drug companies. there is the fossil fuel industry. these are the people who are ripping us off and these are the people who are donating money to candidates who will represent their interests and not the interests of the middle class and working people of this country. so, i think we need to

revitalize american democracy. we have one of the lowest voter turnouts of any major country on earth. some of you may have noticed the a few weeks ago in french election, the first election, almost 80% of the french people voted. if we had 80% of the people voting in this country, the republican party would be a significant minority. so, we have got to get people involved and you do that by being honest about the real problems they face and come up with real solutions. president carter: do you see why i voted for him? [applause] president carter: well, i think the thing we need to discuss is the trend downward and the things in which we have faith aon which we can depend. we used to have faith in democracy. we used to have faith in the truth. we used to have faith in our

fellow humans citizens. we used to have faith in our public officials. but, we basically lost that element of faith. i quoted my high school teacher this morning when i made a speech. she said, we must accommodate changing times, but we must cling to principles that never change. one of those principles is the truth. and freedom. and i quoted also franklin roosevelt. two are positive. one is pretty much speech. one is freedom of religion. two of them were negative. freedom from want and fear. i think the lack of freedoms to war, because of this disparity in income, which i pointed out is getting worse every year, and this freedom from fear. we still have a long way to go.

in some cases, we still have freedom of speech and freedom of religion. so, we have freedom of religion, but sometimes it is constrained. anyway, we still have the big obstacle to overcome. one of the things we need to do now is to see how this small group of courageous human rights heroes can add their andributions of thought experiences together and form a tight coalition in this small toup, and then expanded washington and some of you are going to be going up there to meet with members of the senate and the house, and maybe some parts of the administration. i don't know about that yet. and then expanded as much as we can in the world, but never give up. and united together, which i hope we will be, just being champions of human rights and freedom and a lack of fear and voice could be greatly expanded on a global

basis. so this little tiny drop for people compared to the rest of the world can have a great influence if we speak together, forcefully, and courageously. moderator: senator sanders, president carter just opened the door for me to not let you off the hook that easily because you are in the senate. we have a people's movement for sure. you have a very, very huge platform from which you can speak. we heard today from russia about the danger of silence. that we have to speak about what is going on around the world. we have to give voice and highlight this regression of human rights that is happening globally, even in our own country. i know there are members of the senate, your own clou collings, who are looking at ways to bring the power of the senate. after vietnam we had the church committee that made important reforms in the cia. i realize it is an uphill battle right now with this

administration but we have to think ahead. can we rely on the leahy amendment to challenge military assistance to some countries where our friends are coming from? nigeria, kenya? this is something the united states could do, isn't it? president carter: theoretically, it could. sen. sanders: those of us who believe in those values are in the minority. as the president just said, even though we might be in the minority, our voices have got to be loud and clear. the united states should not be funding military dictatorships around the world, should not be giving support to leaders who torture and imprisoned thousands of their people. it is very, very sad. the president made this point. there was once a time in our ,ifetimes, not 200 years ago when people thought about the united states, they did believe,

this is a country of freedom. this is a country of opportunity. worlds the country in the that believes in truth and it is that very, very sad to see the values that were once respected for all over the world are now being diminished, especially in the last few months. moderator: well, a small group of us will be in washington dc later this weekend we will be meeting with a few senators. we will be seeing senator corker. president carter: bob corker. moderator: yes. sen. sanders: chairman of the foreign relations committee. moderator: we know it is an uphill battle. last year we talked a lot about diverting the resources from the machinery of war into the machinery of peace. in the machinery of human rights, which is in front of us.

do you see any opportunities, senator sanders two, raise this? -- any opportunities, senator sanders, to raise this? is there any chance for the people to be heard to question that? sen. sanders: the answer is, of course. if you think about what needs to be done, then look at the top budget and it is exactly the opposite of where we should be going. [applause] sen. sanders: in other words, can you imagine at a time when read to focus on diplomacy, at a the when people all over world must know or should know that the united states is their ally, that we are there to help them with food, we are there to help them with education, with new technology, we are there allies. what president trump wants to do is to substantially reduce foreign aid, substantially reduce the staffing in the state

department, but add $80 million more to the military on top of the already bloated military budget. and domestically, having done that $80wants to take billion he is spending on the military by cutting pell grants, program, a the wic program for low income, pregnant women and children. cutting the meals on wheels program, which provides nutrition and meals too low income seniors. in other words, doing exactly the opposite. our job right now, and i am working on it almost 24-7, is to go around the country and tell the american people, are those your priorities? more money for the defense? already we are spending more than the next 12 nations. and there is tremendous waste within the department of defense. do we need more by cutting programs?

do we need not to be supporting poor people around the world rather than leaving them prey to terrorism? moderator: do you think this drug in dollars we are about to spend is a wise use of resources? pres. carter: of course not. i do not think there is anyway for anyone, even your own personal mind to separate piece from human rights. because one of the basic elements of peace of human rights is to be living and peace. only then can you have other human rights like freedom of speech and religion and also a chance to have an incoming and an education and health care and a house to live in and things of that kind. when war comes, the abuses of human rights which we all know about and about which we have talked for the last three years, but the number one human rights abuse, that is women and girls, that becomes much more serious.

every human right we talk about that has existed in the intervals of human rights are exacerbated or made worse under the cloud of war. when a nation decides to go to war, they basically drop any feeling of love or absence of -- absencea version of hatred or the version to killing. the united states has been a war almost constantly since the second world war. women award now with almost 30 nations. only in four years did we not have any conflict. i won't say which for years that was. [laughter and applause] mr. carter: so we need to do what we can to let the united states honor their basic commitment and purpose, to preserve peace in the world. the united states can do its part of it ever well but i think now we are a little bit more

toward a military attitude. and, this derives not just from politicians. not just from the military industry. who manufacture weapons. but it derives from the attitude of the american people who forget about the fact that we are a nation of peace and most of us in the united states are christians who worship the prince of peace. not the prince of war. we are supposed to reach out and understand each other and not hate each other. that is a basic principle we need to remind ourselves about and that is connecting these always as human rights. that is what we have to concentrate on. without deviation. promoting peace. human rights. sometimes, neither one of those things are very popular. in moderator: yes.

and since 9/11 we have put ourselves in a permanent war frame and on a permanent footing for war. you know, the bush administration started outside that path and thank goodness that president obama did avoid war with iran bang and he normalized relations with cuba. these are two fantastic, wonderful developments. but at the same time he did not change the basic framework with which we are dealing. on 9/11, there was a very small piece of territory where you can find al qaeda. on the border of pakistan and afghanistan. very small handful of guys. now the ideology has spread globally so it obviously has not worked. just as we are closing, any thoughts about how can we get out of this mind? we have to change the minds of

the american people that this is actually a pathway that is going to lead to more security. how do we do that question mark had we get the american people to see that investing in peace and human rights is a better investment and will make them more secure? senator sanders, what advice you have for us? sen. sanders: two points. we do have, going back to somebody who preceded president carter by a few years. dwight d. eisenhower. y'all remember what he said in his farewell remarks. that is, beware of the military-industrial complex. if you think the military-industrial complex was strong when he left, it is far stronger. do not kid yourself. when we expand military spending and develop new weapons systems, there are corporations making huge amounts of money. billions of dollars of profits. the oversight abuses minimal. often they tell you they will do a weapon system for a certain amount of dollars and a big gains to be two or three times more than that. massive overruns. a lot of corruption going on there. i think i would get back to the point i made earlier. what this country is hungry for

is a vision which says, no we are not going to spend $700 billion a year on the military when we have veterans sleeping out on the street. kids can't afford to go to college. 28 million people have no health insurance. when there are signature -- senior citizens trying to make it on $12,000 a year social security. we need a vision that talks about an america which works for old people. which involves people. i do not want to see this country continuing as we did in 2014. the elections, almost two thirds of the american people did not vote. they've given up. they do not believe their voices matter. what i have heard in politics is everything is related to everything is related to everything. you can't finalize these things. we have to revitalize american democracy. get people active standing up for themselves and their kids. prepare to take on very

powerful, big-money interests. we need a progressive agenda which will in fact speak to the needs of the working people of this country. mr. carter: another thing i want to add, a lot of people think it is a choice between security and human rights. but the best way to have our country secure is to honor human rights. they are tied together. i think that is one of the biggest messages we should put forward. [applause] mr. carter: if the united states stands for human rights, freedom, and equality, that is the best way to avoid a lack of security. it makes our country stronger at home and stronger on a global basis. we should remember that human rights and security are tied together. if our people want to live securely, let them honor human rights. that choice ought not to be

undivided -- a divided thing in politics which it often is. the conservative republican candidates say, when you go to things for peace and human rights you are abandoning human -- american security. it is just the opposite. moderator: we were talking last week about we have to do a better job of explaining to the public that these things go together. sen. sanders: i was thinking when we talked about freedom from fear, that it is not just being black in this country and walking the streets and being afraid of being picked up or shot by a police officer. but also, increasingly, and this is just a whole discussion above and beyond everything we are doing today, is the kind of surveillance that exist through information technology. the fact there are resources and nobody knows exactly what is going on but we have reason to

believe that the government can easily track anything that you read on the internet. any email that you send can get into your phone calls. corporate america knows more about your purchasing habits than you know. we see that. i think in the year 2017 there is no question to my mind that we are moving toward a surveillance type of society. we need public policy to confront that exploding technology. [applause] moderator: that is right. we're going to wind up now. senator sanders agreed to take some questions by president -- but president carter needs to leave at 7:00. is anything with left unsaid? thank you president carter for you with us. president carter: i cannot tie a tie. my wrist is healing up quite well.

i told you i would ask that to you today. thank you very much again. good to see you. god bless you. [cheers and applause] moderator: now, we have some microphones that are set up for you to -- if you want to pull the microphones out to the front here so people can come and ask questions. if you want to ask a question of senator sanders, come right up to the microphones. we are grateful to you. somebody wave and show people where to line up. stand up and go to the microphone.

hard to see. is there someone there? introduce yourself. >> i am doug from the international center for nonprofit law. senator sanders, you talk about people who work so many hours a week, they have endemic poverty. you talk about people who work so many hours a week. how would they invest in human rights? senator sanders: at the end of

the day and in fact -- at the end of the day, if all that we do is grow a military and engage in wars all over the world from simply -- forget the morality and humanity of it -- from eight -- from a dollars and cents perspective that is a very, very expensive proposition which takes his right back to donald trump's budget of $89 more for the military and cuts in programs that worker made depend upon. that worker may need food stamps, it will be cut. that worker when they get old will be on social security. they just cut medicaid by $88 billion over a 10-year time. it gets back to that argument of whether we can afford to spend a huge amount of money. getting involved in war. or adequately taking care of families in this country. >> my name is colette. i am with the u.s. human rights network. thank you for being here.

i come to the human rights work from the aftermath of hurricane katrina and the bp oil drilling disaster. one frame i hear mentioned subtly but not as in front as i would hope is the issue of climate change. i wonder how you see the fight for human rights and the climate reality connected. sen. sanders: if you're talking about the survival of the planet and the lives of billions of people, guess we're talking about human rights. if we are talking about the fact that the people most immediately impacted in this country and around the world would be lower income people, you are talking about human rights. i am furious at this fossil fuel industry today that is doing exactly what the tobacco industry did 50 or 60 years ago and that is that they are lying.

you may have recalled reading 60 years ago that tobacco industry was telling you how good it was to smoke for your health. what the fossil fuel industry is due nine today is the reality that the scientific community has almost unanimously come to. climate change is real. it is caused by human activity. it is already doing devastating harm and the people most impacted will be people who are poor in this country and poor people around the world. on top of all of that if we look , at a world of more flooding and more drought and rising sea levels and mass migrations of people to find a place where they can grow their crops or live in a peaceful way, when -- what you are going to see is with that mass migration, more tension developing within the global community and the potential of more wars. so i happen to think of all the embarrassments of the trump

administration, the fact that they are rejecting what the scientific community almost unanimously agrees to is really quite pathetic. the good news is what you're seeing in state after state and around the world is quite rapid movement to energy efficiency and sustainable energy. the price of solar is plummeting. our job, and we just worked with senator jeff merkley on legislation. massive leaps in energy and sustainable energy efficiency. that is the direction we have to go. it is very much a human rights issue. [applause] >> good evening senator sanders. let me first say i was one of your many, many supporters internationally when you are -- you were running for election. my question to you and i want to challenge you a little bit. i think many of us, your supporters, both in the u.s. and outside were quite surprised when you signed on to a letter

about israel with the secretary-general of the united nations. my question is, why? i saw your interview where he made the comparison about saudi arabia, which i completely understand. but i guess the comparison would be, with the same senators have signed onto a letter if it had been about the apartheid government of south africa? sen. sanders: the reason i signed on with this letter along with every other member of the united states senate was simple. the letter to my mind was not to defend israel, that is what the media kind of picked up on. it was not to suggest some that israel does not have serious human rights violations. but to suggest that if human rights commission or committee of the u.n. is going to be honest, maybe you have to take a look at egypt where there are tens of thousands of people in jail, many being tortured. saudi arabia, knock which your

saudi arabia women can drive a car yet. or russia or other countries. it was not a denial of human rights, it was to say, why just israel? let's take a look at human rights violations all over the world. include israel, but not just israel. moderator: before i call on rodney, i would like to say the human rights council, we're very much involved in the reform of the human rights council and i would say that the human rights council is actually much better now. i think there has been a problem in the past with sort of pull focus on israel but that has really changed in the last few years. i think i would apply that -- i would applaud that question in the sense not to criticize you, but to maybe open a discussion about this. there are great resolutions on egypt. the council is quite good on many of these countries where there are problems. the council itself is getting stronger and we should

acknowledge that. rodney? >> i am an analyst. i would like to address something that has affected everyone. the budget for the state department will be cut drastically and most human rights organizations in countries like ours benefit on that funding. and, for me, i think about women who are being raped everyday. andvery day in liberia victims being victimized. they cannot speak out because there is no awareness. i wonder what you as a senator in the u.s. senate can do to advocate for increased funding. sen. sanders: look, understand, as most of you know, the way the budgetary process works in the united states is the president makes a proposal.

i think it is fair to say that his proposal, not just in the area of the state department but in general is going to be done -- going to be dead on arrival. [applause] sen. sanders: and i think you will people in the military saying, you know what? from a military perspective, you have got to continue for nader because we do not want to write terrorism and every country in the world. -- fight terrorism and every country in the world. we want people around the united states -- around the world to know the united states knows they do have problems with hunger and with women's rights. trump put forth his budget. that will absolutely not be the final budget. it will undergo massive changes and i will do my best to make sure the state department and foreign aid are very adequately funded. >> thank you very much. [applause] >> i am from pakistan.

i am muslim, and brown. no muslim ban could stop me from coming here. i am so glad that you raised an issue of surveillance. it is not happening only in america but in countries like america are setting bad precedence for countries like pakistan. i also want to raise the issue of not only the muslim ban but also the laptop ban. sen. sanders: the what? >> laptop. cannot carry their laptop in handheld luggage. also cannot have passports regarding the social media accounts and immigration. all these actresses being set --

all these practices being set by america is setting a bad presidents for countries like -- a bad precedent for countries like ours. it is not a good precedent to set. sen. sanders: this president is giving ammunition to al qaeda and isis. it is beyond my comprehension. why do you want to show the world that you are at war with muslims? that you hate muslims? it is incomprehensible to me so we're going to do our best to oppose those policies. as you mentioned earlier, thank god we had some good court decisions coming down that says we cannot discriminate against people coming into this country based on their religion. maybe just two more questions.

moderator: there is andrew anderson. >> my name is andrew anderson. i work for frontline defenders. i want to ask you about sudan. one of the last things president obama did was ease sanctions on sudan, which were coming up for review on the end of may. sudan continues to raise war on its own people and continues to jail human rights defenders including the frontline defenders award winner, who in the last couple of days had his order for his release rescinded and he remains in prison after five months without charge. i am hoping that you can use your position in the senate to continue to question the human rights record of sudan in the context of the review of the sanctions situation there. sen. sanders: thank you very much for the work you doing and that is certainly something we will pursue. thank you. last question.

>> hi senator sanders. it is a pleasure to speak to you. i work on the human rights house project for the congo. i should say the human rights struggle in the congo. not the project. i would just like to recognize -- and it is a pleasure to get to ask you this because you are in such a position of power. as an ally on the hill, i think we can all recognize that is -- that as democracy in the u.s. is threatened, we sort of see it around the echo world. this is something we have been talking about all throughout this form. particularly in the u.s., as democracy is compromised and deteriorates, you see that women of girls and especially women in girls of color feel it most strikingly. economic rights. every facet of life, women and

girls of color are really suffering as democracy deteriorates. i would like to ask you how, in your position of power in the senate -- sen. sanders: if i were as powerful as you think i was, this country would not be in the straits it is. >> let me put it this way. i read everything you post on facebook. all of my friends do. when you say something, people think about it. and they really prioritize. [applause] sen. sanders: thank you. that makes me very happy. >> i would like to appeal to you and ask how can we prioritize rights for women and girls of color in that u.s. [applause] sen. sanders: what is going on now is so important. important that we not allow ourselves to accept this as normal.

all right? right now, as you know, in the health bill that was passed on thursday in the house, they want to defund planned parenthood. taking away the choice of of 2.5 million women. donald trump just announced he is going to be thinking about aid to historically black colleges and universities. did you know that? we do not know what the repercussions are but he thinks that kind of funding maybe unconstitutional. we have jeff sessions as our attorney general, who thinks that maybe we have not been aggressive enough on the war on drugs, which has been devastating to minority communities all over this country. so, you are quite right. not to mention that the -- there is a war against women's rights for the control of their own bodies. there will be cutbacks if trump has his way.

we will do everything we can to stop him. many of you are part of organizations that are doing your best to protect girls of color around the world so they get good educations, right? so they can go out and find jobs that are nondiscriminatory. they want to cut back on those things. so, we are at war on all of those issues. we need to rally the american people. i will certainly do everything i can to fight for those in enormously -- those in -- those enormously important issues. i will tell you, we can go on and on and on, but all of you know something about american history. you know about the struggle. i was just talking to president carter. in his youth, what the south was about in this country. segregated society. we have struggled for so many years and so many people have went to jail. some have died to try to end

racism. to end sexism. t? think about the struggle of the women's movement. 100 years ago women did not have the right to vote. i remember was a big, big deal when i was mayor of burlington that we appointed the first women police chief officer. what a big deal. we have made progress and now you have a president who wants to resend and overturn so much of what was done in this country and around the world and we've got to stand united and say, sorry mr. president. you are not going to get away with that. [applause] senator sanders: so, with that, thank you you all. [cheers and applause] >> c-span's washington journal live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. coming up this morning,

confederate enterprise institute will discuss the u.s. with y'all from the paris climate accord. crystal ball talks about her organization's mission and have to fix the democratic party. talks president trump's plan. be sure to watch washington journal at 7:00 a.m. this morning. watch the discussion. >> education secretary betsy devos is on the hill to discuss her departments 2018 budget request. live coverage begins at 10:00 a.m. eastern on c-span three.

>> c-span where history unfolds daily. in 1979, c-span was created as a public service by america's cable television companies. it is brought to you today by your cable or satellite provider. ♪ >> the national constitution center in philadelphia held its annual freedom day celebration examining the relationship between the constitution and freedom. it also launched the center's bipartisan national commission looking at how james madison would deal with the current congress, presidency, courts, and the media. speakers included the aclu president and columnist george