[indiscernible conversations] >> thank you. announcer: campaign 2020. watch our live coverage of the presidential candidates on the campaign trail. yourn's campaign 2020, unfiltered view of politics. 2020 democratic presidential candidate senator michael bennet of colorado spoke at the politics and eggs breakfast in new hampshire. he discussed his tax plan, the importance of bipartisanship, and the impeachment efforts against president trump. following his remarks, he greeted attendees and took questions from reporters. >> thanks for having me.

[indiscernible conversations] michael bennet, nice to meet you. >> thank you. >>, thing you for being here. anselm.me to saint i am thinking of voting for you. >> thank you. which one? >> just hit the screen. >> good to be here. -- 1, 2, 3. >> nice to see you. thanks for being here. good morning. >> thank you for being here.

do, irything you appreciate it. how are you? good to see you. >> i will. >> good morning, how are you? good to see you guys. >> 1, 2, 3. >> thank you. hi, how are you? thank you for being here. i heard you guys were here before anybody else. >> we tried to be. >> good. >> 1, 2, 3. >> thank you. [laughter] >> thank you, good to see you. >> nice to see you. >> nice to see you again, how are you? how are you?

thank you. there we go. >> 1, 2, 3. one more. 1, 2, 3. thank you. great seeing you. see you in a bit. >> how are you doing? good morning. pleasure to meet you. whatever you want. >> great. 1, 2, 3. that's great. >> that's great, thank you. >> 1, 2, 3. thank you. >> thank you very much. >> how are you? good to see you. thank you. good morning, nice to see you. >> 1, 2, 3. thank you very much. >> thank you. much. >> thank you for being here. >> 1, 2, 3.

thank you. thanks. high, nice to meet you. morning. we will take you back. did you ever get back here? >> every year. >> how are you? >> do you know my colleague from colorado? she does a great job there. >> yes, she does. there were some people on the plane. >> 1, 2, 3. thank you. >> we have about 5000 employees. we would love to have you visit sometime. >> we have been getting more and more of your guys in colorado. we will have to come by.

>> thank you. >> thank you. perfect. >> 1, 2, 3. one more. 1, 2, 3. thank you. >> thanks, guys. see you in a minute. hi. nice to meet you. how are you? nice to meet you. hi. how are you? nice to meet you. thanks for coming. >> 1, 2, 3. one more. 1, 2, 3. thank you. >> thanks, guys. we will see you in there. going well, how are you? >> 1, 2, 3. thank you. >> thanks, appreciate it. >> thank you.

what is your name? >> patrick. >> nice to meet you, sir. >> i took my name tied off. -- i took my name tag off. [laughter] >> how are you? great to see you. >> 1, 2, 3. thank you. >> especially after a week like this. hi. >> nice to meet you. >> nice to meet you. thank you. >> hi. how are you, sir? good to see you. >> thanks for coming. >> thank you. thank you very much. >> how are you? thanks for being here. >> 1, 2, 3. thank you. thanks. >> from california. >> nice to see you.

i am glad you are here. i saw you last night on cnn. it is good repeating. [indiscernible conversations] >> 1, 2, 3. thank you. >> i remember, we were actually in the back room. [laughter] good to see you again. >> good to be here. >> how are you? >> i'm well, how are you? >> i work for mike coffman down in d.c.. >> really? tell me your name. >> brian. >> what are you doing here? >> i work for at&t in new hampshire. i was down in d.c. for five years, then came home. >> he is a good guy. >> he is running for mayor now. >> is that right? good to see you, thank you. >> thank you.

>> great. >> 1, 2, 3. let's take one more. 1, 2, 3. thank you. >> nice to meet you. >> going well. >> can you slide a little bit over? 1, 2, 3. thank you. >> i thought you were going to say we had to do them all again. [laughter] >> this is a surprisingly legible signature from me. >> thank you. >> thank you very much. ok.

>> is that what you said? >> i am a friend. anywhere you want to sign it. >> so you wrote a book? >> i wrote a book. >> and are we giving this to charlie mason? or am i signing this for you? >> you are signing this for me. i just wanted to tell you that charlie said hello. >> uh oh. what about that? >> any color. this is just what i had in my bag. [indiscernible conversations]

>> there you go. >> appreciate it. we work for the afa. >> glad to hear that. [indiscernible conversations] >> i am neil. >> thank you for having me. i appreciate you very much. >> good to see you. >> good to see you again. how are you? >> how are you? >> great. >> appreciate it very much. >> hello, senator.

good to see you, senator. someone told me you have the best chief of staff. >> he is the best. his name is john davidson. >> senator cowan's chief of staff, he always said he had the best. >> me has been working there for 10 years. -- he has been working there for 10 years. >> i will bring you over here. hey, john. >> how are you? good to see you. thank you very much for being here. how are you doing? you've got the message.

>> tell me your name. >> maria. he is a pleasant person. thank you for doing this. >> you need to sign another one. >> how is it going, folks? >> do you mind? >> glad to do it. [indiscernible conversations] >> your bio.

that was even more impressive. [laughter] >> that's true. >> very impressive. [laughter] it was very good. you have a very good bio. [laughter] >> two careers in aurora. -- two careers in a row. [indiscernible conversations] >> he must be very proud. >> i know.

[laughter] >> yeah, i know. >> the other one was santorum. he said the reason i do this is no one would know me otherwise. [laughter] >> it was illegible to begin with. >> if your name was klobuchar. >> because of the relationship we have with neil and his extraordinary team with the new england council, i think them -- i think them -- i thank them. we would not be able to put these events on without the generous support of the corporate neighbors here in new england. i would like to say thank you to all of them. he was very kind to talk about how at dinner one of the reasons we had almost 1800 people was because one of the four recipients of mayor of the year

is someone we all know. [applause] and a great choice and a great public servant. today is the second politics and eggs event of the week. if you were here earlier when we had andrew yang, in coming weeks there are members of the new england council. we will be hosting events throughout new england and washington, with people like sheldon whitehouse of rhode island, as well as congresswoman chellie pingree of portland, maine. richie neil from the commonwealth of massachusetts, chairman of the ways and means committee. and your own annie custer will be speaking to the new england council in the next couple of weeks. needless to say, we are not taking our foot off the gas pedal at all. we also have some other politics and eggs events in the works, so stay tuned for future announcements to be made. today, we are honored to welcome the united states senator michael bennet, our guest for

the 17th politics and eggs event of the year. i don't know about you, but my cholesterol level is going right through the roof. [laughter] we have got to end this, my god. my doctor is saying, slow down on the eggs. he is currently the colorado senior senator, appointed in 2009 2 finish a -- into thousand nine to finish a term. senator bennett was elected to proceed in 2010 and 2016. he has a long history of public service, having previously served as chief of staff to the denver mayor john hickenlooper and as the superintendent of schools in the great city of denver. he also has a wealth of experience in the private sector, and worked to restructure failing businesses and create the world's largest movie theater chain. in the united states senate, he sits on the agriculture, and

finance committees. and he draws on his experience. his work to transform public education to give schools the flex ability to innovate as well as to modernize so students are not burdened by overwhelming debt. he has also been a champion in the fight to combat climate change, advocating for commonsense solutions that will reduce carbon pollution and increase sustainability while growing the economy. in may of this year, he announced his candidacy for the 2020 democratic presidential nomination, to build opportunities for all americans and store integrity to our government. we are so pleased and honored that he can join us today as he campaigns in this state. join me in welcoming the honorable u.s. senator michael bennet. [applause] bennet: good morning.

good morning, everybody. thank you for that introduction. neil, thank you to the institute of politics for hosting me today. larry, thank you for inviting me. ray buckley, thank you for doing the amazing job you are doing under very trying circumstances. when i was deciding whether to run for president, a thing i never thought of in my life until i was thinking about it this year, i consulted my three are now 20, 19, and 15. incredibly-old was enthusiastic about it right out of the chute. she said you absolutely should run. and i said, that is really impressive. i am glad you care about my career and the positions i take and the importance to the republic for me to run. and the longer we talked the more it became clear that she just wanted me out of the house and away from her. [laughter] she is probably burning the

place down this morning. but the 20-year-old said to me, dad, if you want to tell the truth and you lose, no one can fault you for it. and i said to her that there was no other reason for me to run. and actually, there was no other reason for me to win. about a month or two ago, "the demoing register -- "the demoing register"s wrote that michael bennet pounced truth into the campaign. i was able to send that to caroline and say, i may not be winning yet, but at least we are doing what we said i should be doing. donald trump is much more a symptom of our problems then he is the essential cause of our problems, although he has made matters much worse, starting with an understanding of where we need to be as a country.

jim mentioned a little bit of what i did outside of politics. i spent time in the private sector. funny you mentioned the movie theaters because we did create the largest movie chain in the world at the time, and it also spawned another business, which was 20 minutes of digital advertising at the beginning of the movies, which my kids still have not forgiven me for, which they have to sit through. i have to say, it was a lot better than when they had slides from the local muffler shop or trivia. now you can watch coca-cola being poured.they are completely unconvinced . since that time, i have had the chance to run a very large urban school district, 95,000 kids, a $1 billion budget. it is three times the size of other places like south bend, indiana, is one example. [laughter]

just to pick one place on the map. [laughter] two senatealso run races in a purple state. it is a tough state to win once. it is a tough state to win twice. that will be critically important for us as we think about not only winning the alsodency in 2020, but winning the majority back in the united states senate. that will require winning in places like colorado and maine and arizona. these are tough places to win. and we have got to win. we have got to win.just this week, donald trump disgraced the united states again. he said that foreign policy is what i will be remembered for. i think he has got that right. i guarantee you the kurds will never forget about the soldiers who fought beside us to destroy

isis only to be abandoned because trump was afraid to take a stand against erdogan. erdogan got all the territories he wanted. we have to stand up to tyrants here and abroad. that is what it is to be america. to do that, we need to focus on the enormous challenges that led to donald trump's election in the first place. 9 million people voted twice for barack obama and once for donald trump. 9 million people were so fed up with our broken politics and a bunch of politicians in washington, so unresponsive to the challenges they were facing everyday, that in the end they voted for a reality tv star to lead us in washington. and i don't think we are going to trick those people into voting for us with unfunded programs or empty promises. i just don't think we are going to do it. you might be able to win a democratic primary that way, maybe. but you will not be able to win

a general election that way. instead, i think we need to tell the truth. we need to heal our divisions and drive economic opportunities for everybody in america. just as i do in colorado and just as jeannie shaheen does here and maggie hassan does here, we need to say the same thing in the primary that we do in the general election. i know those guys and i know that the day they are running, they are running for the general election, and they know what they say in the primaries will affect what they will win in the end. that is what we have to do today. i am worried about our discipline doing that. when it comes time to vote, you know it is important to nominate someone who has a vision that can actually inspire a broad coalition to beat donald trump. here is what that vision looks like for me. an economy that works for everybody, not just the top 10%, plan cutsd for my tax

childhood poverty by 40% in less than two years. that finishesn obamacare so we can cover everybody in this country in three years, and cut costs, including prescription drugs. that is not medicare for all, which other candidates have proposed without admitting the only way to do it is to raise middle-class taxes massively in this country. wonf the 40 democrats who seats last year, including right here in new hampshire, and flipped the house of representatives supported a public option, not medicare for all. most of those people beat people in the primaries who were supporting medicare for all. the only school superintendent who has ever run tell youdent, i can how important education is to driving opportunity and how important it is to our future.

when one set of kids has access to preschool and another set does not, equal is not equal. and when one set of kids has access to high-quality k-12 schools because of where their parents live and the other, through no fault of their own, does not, equal is not equal. and when one group of kids has access to guidance counselors and parents who went to college and two summer jobs to put on their resume, people who helped them fill out their college applications, and the other does not, equal is not equal. that is why today in america our education system is reinforcing the brutal income inequality we have rather than liberating people from it. true, theg as lead is promise of america, the land of opportunity, is foreclosed to almost anybody who is born poor in this country, like the kids in my old school district, most of whom live in poverty and most of whom are kids of color.

i can tell you from my perspective, and more importantly from their perspective, instead of college, whatree we should be offering in this country is free preschool for every kid who needs it, and that is every kid in america. we should be telling the kids that are graduating from high school but not going to college, which is 70% of our kids, that you can earn a living wage when you graduate from high school, not just the minimum wage. i was in manchester months ago meeting with students at a vocational education program here. there was a young woman working on a hovercraft there, which was the class project. they are building an airplane next year. we got to talking, and she is graduating this year. you?ed her, what are doing after you graduate she had a huge smile on her face. she said, i am becoming an underwater welder. i said, i bet that pays well.

she smiled and she said, yes, it does. by the way, speaking of all that, we have to pay our teachers like the professionals that they are. we are running a system of public education that was designed when we had a labor market that discriminated against women and said, you've got two professional choices. one is being a teacher and one is being a nurse. so teach julius caesar every year in manchester schools and we will pay you a ridiculously low salary that no one else in your college class whatever except. but if you stick with us for 30 years, we will give you a pension that we are not now funding. that made sense in a labor market when we are discriminating against people. we don't do that the same way anymore and we have to update that for the 20th century. that will not be easy to do. we need a climate policy that does not allow the other side to rip it out in two years. you cannot save climate in two

years. we have to create a durable solution. we will talk about it in the queue and day. -- in the q&a. comprehensive reform as part of the gang of eight with a pathway to citizenship, protection for dreamers, and 21st century border security. of by ando government for the people. we have to end partisan gerrymandering in this country, and i have the bill to do it. we have to band members of congress from becoming lobbyists. we need to make sure that every single american is able to cast their vote and i have the bill to do that. i will go across this country in every single state and lead an effort to overturn citizens united to get the money out of politics and put people back in. it is not more complicated than that. win is an agenda that will

blue and purple states, bring back those 9 million voters that voted twice for barack obama and once for donald trump. that's how we won those hard races in colorado, bringing together democrats and independents and even some trump voters. won.s how maggie has that is how i think we will win this election. i do not think it is any more complicated than that. if you remember just one thing from what i said this market, remember how you do it in new hampshire, because that's the way it will work in the rest of the country. that's how we will drive opportunity, preserve democracy, and preserve our children's future and america's role in the world. i will need your help to continue in this race. i am going to try to do it because i think it is important that we have somebody who is thinking about the general election, not just the primary. thank you very much for being here today.

with that, i am happy to take any questions, any criticisms anybody has. i was a former school superintendent. there is no way for you to hurt my feelings. ofy have all been beaten out me a long time ago. [applause] >> so we have students who have the microphones. if you would just wait until they come. if i could just ask a question or two. you mentioned about the tax cut for middle-class families that would reduce child poverty but 40% -- by 40%. i think it is called the american family act that you cosponsored with sherry brown. can you talk about it? >> thank you, thank you. i appreciate it. it is called the american family act. it dramatically increases the child tax credit in this country and makes it payable on a

monthly basis instead of an annual basis. families can actually have the money to be able to spend on childcare, higher education, housing or food. if i had to summarize the last 10 years of town halls in my state and in new hampshire for that matter and iowa, is people coming and saying, michael, we are killing ourselves. we cannot afford some combination of housing, health care, child education, early childhood education. this is a way to deal with that. for people who are not coming to my town halls because they are working just to get their kids out of poverty, they would say michael, we are killing ourselves. no matter what we do, we cannot get our kids out of poverty. you take the american family act, combine it with a big increase in the family tax credit, combine it with an increase in the minimum wage, and you're starting to grow the economy from the bottom down.

medicare for all is of no interest to the kids and people i used to work with. that is not their priority. their priority is, how do we drive on economy that actually spur everybody? actually works for everybody? in a year, you could reduce and twod poverty by 40% dollar per day poverty for children living in america and for 3% of the cost of medicare for all. that is what democrats should be standing for in this election, it seems to me. >> you said if we do not deal with climate change, it will destroy our economy. >> thank you. this is one that is particularly irritating to me. there is a climate denier in the white house. we lusted thethat economic argument to trump last time. he said -- we lost the economic

argument to trump last time. climaten't contend with , our economy will be destroyed and the globe will be destroyed. that is an argument we cannot lose. we will not win that argument with policies invented in some tester to in washington, -- test tube in washington, d.c. by politicians. we would do it by proposing strategies like the one i proposed in this campaign that would engage farmers and ranchers across this country to sequester carbon in their soil, to pay them to do it, create a coalition of americans. i want to dwell on this just a minute. if you care about climate change, and i would say if you care about the country and our children, which everybody in this room does, it is not enough to beat trump. we have to fix the broken politics in washington. we have to fix it. mitch mcconnell does not have to

fix it. the freedom caucus does not have to fix it. all they want to do is either , or put judges on the courts or occasionally cut taxes for rich people. that's what they do. if you want to solve climate change, you cannot accept the world where we put in our proposals and they last for two years, the other side rips it out. we put it in for two years, they rip it out, 4 years, they rip it out. you will hear people over and over on the campaign trail say, we need to act urgently on climate. i believe it. if i didn't, my daughter's would not let me come home. we have to have a solution that will endure for a generation. you cannot fix climate two years at a time. the only way you will do that is by building a broad coalition of americans to overcome, washington -- overcome washington, d.c.

we need a politics that is actually more robust than what we have accepted today. it would be a big mistake for us to go down the road of thinking that we can just sort of substitute our version of one-party rule for their less perverse version of one-party rule. that may be interesting to us on cable television at night but it will be of no interest for our children, who are waiting for us to solve these problems. [applause] >> you were one of the members of the gang of eight that worked on immigration reform. will we ever get back to the days where we can work together on both sides? it seems like every major piece of legislation passed today, the health care the aca is all one-party -- health care, the aca is all one-party. >> that is what we have to do. we have to find a way to do it. we are treating our current

political reality as if it is a permanent state of things. there were writers who described one the roman empire was collapsing -- when the roman empire was collapsing. they said the government was losing so much confidence in themselves that they could not figure out a way to work on anything. in the 10 years i have been in the senate, there are other examples, but no example as good as the gang of eight bill on immigration. if you remember that old saturday morning cartoon about how a bill becomes a law, "schoolhouse rock," there is a reason it is set up that way. it is supposed to work that way. when the founders set up this country, they did not set it up thinking we would agree with each other. that was not their view. they thought we would disagree with each other. in a republic, there was no king or tyrant to tell you what to think. what they believed as

enlightenment thinkers is that out of those disagreements, we would fashion more durable and imaginative solutions than any one person could come up with on their own. the worst decisions i make are the ones i make by myself at home. the best decisions i make are ones where i contend with other people's points of view, where ave the benefit of other people's experiences and perspectives. that's the way it is supposed to work. if it was all about just one person's opinion or one party's opinion, there would not be a need for a legislature. you could just have a governor, a president, or aching. that is not -- a king. that is not how it is set up. we have lost the ability at the national level to do what you guys do when you get together and say, what's the budget going to be. that's the same system. it's what we have to get back

to. when you go through a process like the gang of a process where you spend seven months -- gang spendht process where you seven months negotiating behind closed doors, democrats and republicans working in good faith on some of the toughest issues of the country, then you give it to the judiciary committee. they adopted more republican amendments than democratic moments. -- amendments. we legislated on the floor. we had something like 18 amendments this year in the senate. i think we passed 4 of them. we had more amendments than that on the gang of eight bill. that's how broken your national legislature is. my point is, in our system of government, there is no other way to create a durable result. that this has not been an equal opportunity sabotage of our government. that is absolutely true.

the freedom caucus that came in 10 years ago deliberately orempting to immobilize exercise self-government, sabotage it, destroy it. they were effective. the last six years of the obama administration, we were basically able to enact no legislation. we might as well accepted that democracy cannot solve climate change, that democracy cannot do something meaningful to educate kids or change the tax code. i dwell on this because there are people running for president on the democratic side who don't think thatview, who more of the same is going to somehow lead to something better. i completely disagree with that theory. colleagues of the united states senate who are running for president believe we ought to abolish the though buster. your thoughts -- the filibuster.

your thoughts on that. we have turned in the last 20 years the constitutional responsibility to advise and consent on judicial nominees, we have made that into a mockery of what used to be. we have made it into a completely partisan process. i predicted and i was right about this, that people would start to audition to become judges by sink, i am the most -- saying, i am the most right wing judge, i am pro-choice, or i am person.t liberal i would never have imagined we would be putting judges on the courts who will not say whether they believe brown v. board of education is settled law. that is what we are doing today, because politicians in washington. their disagreement was more important than the american people's confidence in the independence of the judiciary.

i am the only person in the senate who has gone to the floor to apologize for my role in changing those rules. first, i would say, you better be careful of unintended consequences. macconnell went to the floor and said you are going to regret this sooner than you think. he was right about that and he was much more strategic about this in the democratic caucus was. the democratic caucus was. why don't we debate what's going to happen with the filibuster one mitch mcconnell is no longer in charge -- when mitch mcconnell is no longer in charge. as long as he is the majority leader, i would rather not have it be 51 votes that decides whether we are going to privatized social security and medicare, or strip women of their reproductive rights. >> just a final question. you seem to be very firm on saying that a democratic

candidate who is running on medicare for all, green new deal , may free college or free forgiveness of debt is going to have a very hard time winning in november. >> i believe it. you can take -- you can have the point of view that donald trump is wounded -- has wounded himself so badly that anyone of us could beat him. i would not take that risk. i do not think we should take that risk. we lost to him once. we should never have lost to him to begin with. he is a reality tv star. he had no relevant experience to be president. everybody here knows the list of things that he did that should have disqualified him from being president of the the united states. there is no guarantee that he can't win this race again. i think it is important for us canominate somebody who

win. >> good morning, senator. volunteer with aarp. i will be brief. you mentioned in your remarks health care and prescription drugs. if you are elected president, what is the first thing you would do to lower the high prices of prescription drugs? >> the first thing i would do is everything i could do by executive order to give the government the opportunity to negotiate prices. but i think that we have got probably in the end to pass legislation to do it. donald trump said he would do it. he's done nothing. all over america, seniors are having to make decisions about whether to buy food or buying their prescription drugs. i believe there is a broad consensus that this is a problem that we have to overcome. that's what i would do to reduce prices. back. in the

right there. joe.s the mic here, right here. >> thank you for being here, senator. simple question, but i don't think the answer is simple. how does someone who many people might see as not being on the opinionf public find their way closer to the center of the televised debate stage. >> it has been a real challenge. i think the dnc rules have been deeply unfortunate. what they have incentivized is the same stuff that has been incentivized by the cable and social media, which is kind of a whole different primary than we used to have. the primarynalized prematurely instead of having

people come and do the work they're supposed to do. there is now sort of a national criteria for whether or not you can get to the center of the debate stage. we will have to figure out how to do it. the obvious ways of supporting pieces of legislation -- i mean, there is a leading candidate in this race -- my estimate is that of the stuff she has proposed, she has proposed how to pay for 50% of it. are these bold -- 15% of it. are these bold ideas? is it responsible to have all of these plans and only pay for 15% of it? should you be saying something different to the american people? i don't want us to learn this the hard way, which is why i have stayed in the race, even though i have not made it to the debate stage. we are just going to have to figure out a way to communicate it with the american people and get there. it is not easy. i am reminded again in this process that most people are not

focused on the cable at night and they are not focused on politics all day long. most people are just trying to support their family, build their business, build their community. what their expectation is of people like me is that we are doing our job like that "schoolhouse rock" video suggests our job should be done. it is not anymore complicated than that. to the extent we have abandoned our ability to do that, we have abandoned the american people in the process and their priorities and interests, which at the end of the day, if it looks totally broken anyway, mind as well -- might as well send a reality tv start because we cannot do any worse. i believe we can do better, which is why i am running. >> personally, i want to thank you for signing onto the approving hope for alzheimer's act. if you are elected president, what would you do to continue to

to stay on track to 2029? cure but 2029 -- by 200,000 under the age of 60 do not qualify for any of the benefits under the older americans act. stay on a you do to track to find a cure for alzheimer's? >> we have to invest to find a cure. thank you for your advocacy. it is really important. the cost will eat us alive if we do not find a cure. i believe we can find a cure. the science is completely fascinating. i would dramatically increase the investment in nih, not just for alzheimer's, but other basic research as well. we have cut our investments in our country, which includes nih, since ronald reagan was

president. all of our infrastructure, education, national forced, whatever those things are, we have slashed those by 35%. we have told ourselves our priority is borrowing $5 trillion from the chinese for the privilege of giving the wealthiest people in america tax cuts. hard to imagine that's been our priority, but it's been our priority and trump's. priority $5.6 trillion we barred -- priority.ese $5.6 trillion we borrowed from the chinese. that's money we could have spent caring alzheimer's, fixing every road and bridge in america, giving every teacher a 50% raise or giving every kid in america preschool, making social security solvent for my kid's generation, paying down the sum of our debt and deficits of the next generation is not crushed by the choices we.

have. made we could have done -- have made. ould have done every single thing i talked about. wages have not gone up for 50 years. education is reinforcing income inequality. we have got pressures coming the growth ine alzheimer's. you have to ask yourself, what in the world have we been doing? why has that been our set up priorities? it is staggering -- set of priorities? it is staggering to me. if you are looking at this planet from another planet and saw our record over the last 20-30 years, you would ask, do these people even care about their children? do they even care about their children? on our planet, we care about the next generation. on our planet, we care about what our country's role in the world is going to be.

what is wrong with these people? >> other questions? i have two final questions. >> i did not mean to depress everybody. [laughter] don't be depressed, because the answer is, stop doing that and start investing in america again. >> jim flanagan from the college here and then i west my question. >> welcome again. member --ely lost a unfortunately lost a member of my family in iraq. my son is a junior in high school. he is here today actually. if you are elected president, what are you going to do when the middle east and in particular this mess in syria, so hopefully my son does not have to -- he will be the fifth generation in our family to volunteer. so just curious. >> thank you.

i am very sorry for your loss. i remember one day i was sitting in mydesk in the senate office in washington. . the tv was on. the tv commentators were saying that trump will never win in south carolina. the next day was the south carolina primary. they said he would never win because he criticized george bush and the war in iraq. that's exactly the opposite of what's going to happen. people in south carolina know what the cost has been. they have got a real question about the gains there. is, is incredible to me while trump at first supported the iraq war and then ran claiming that he didn't support the iraq war, he's completely learned the wrong lessons from all this stuff. you look at this syria mission that he just unwound, it is the opposite of what we were doing before. we have been there for five years.

we lost six american service people, which is tragic, but it was six people. the kurds lost 10,000 people. we were able basically to dismantle isis, at least for the moment. that sounds like a fairly successful engagement in the middle east, yet that is the one he has chosen to end. now, bizarrely, he is talking inut protecting an oil rig southern syria that is not even part of the mandate that he has for our troops. they are not there to protect oil rigs. they were there to help the kurds destroy isis. that's what the authorization of the use of force says. i would do the opposite of everything donald trump has done in the middle east. he should have never torn up the iran deal. that was not perfect, but it was a moment in our history when we were actually trying to manage a problem in the middle east rather than go to war with it.

that's what he's done. i would restore our alliances with people in europe and the region so that we are not acting alone on any of the circumstances when it comes to stuff in the middle east. we tend to make bad decisions when we are acting alone and make better decisions when we have persuaded other people. i would do everything i could do to help build civil institutions that exist in that region that have not been corrupted, that our universities or -- are universities or other opportunities for us to help rebuild the architecture of civil society. it will take the rest of my life and your life to start moving things in the right direction because things have been so off-track for so long. like you said, we have got a big job to do to restore our alliances with europe and push back against the threat from russia and to lead in our own hemisphere to deal with the

refugee crisis on our border, and begin to dig ourselves out from underneath the causes of those problems in the northern triangle countries. if we have an america that has led the way we historically have led, i think we can make progress on all of those regions and issues. america thatn continues to retrieve the way donald trump has retreated, i hesitate to say what it will look like four years from now. we will not have remotely the role to play that we historically have. as imperfect as we are, we are still the world's longest lived democracy. we are still a beacon to people all over this world. they are waiting for us to lead. we have to lead. >> don't you think that the congress advocated the responsibility by giving the executive branch complete authority to send troops all

over the world? >> we do. we should be voting on this. what he is violating is more than a decade old. >> quick question please. i am also from aarp new hampshire. as you know, there are people in the country that rely on medicare and social security to ensure quality of life and also decent health care. there have been talks of cuts for medicare. we do not know about social security, how long it will last. what would you do to strengthen medicare and social security? >> there have not just been talks about it. as you know, president trump's notwithstanding his promises during the campaign have cut medicare over and over again, the biggest cuts that have ever been made. he has not been able to do it because congress has not supported him. i think we should lift the cap

on the payroll tax. we should be increasing social security payments for the most vulnerable americans among us. you are right. if we did not have these programs in place, the poverty rate among seniors would be twice as high as it is today. that is why these programs are so important. i might mention that our child poverty rate is twice the size of our seniors rate, which is why i am so interested in the american family act which we talked about earlier. on medicare, i think what we have got to do is change the way our health care system delivers medicine in america. we have got to realign our incentives and disincentives so we reduce the cost of health care. that does not mean cutting medicare. it does mean reducing the cost of health care. we are spending twice as much as any other industrialized country in the world is spending on health care. ask yourself whether you think bernie's plan will make that problem better or compound that problem? we cannot afford to do it. we are spending twice as much.

r threeere spending two o percentage points less of our gdp on health care, i would feel much better about where we are from a fiscal point of view and our ability to invest in the next generation and deal with that 35% cut would be appreciably better than today. just ask thell final question. would you support opening a formal impeachment inquiry into president trump? >> i do support it. i am glad the house has opened the inquiry. us tos an opportunity for heal our democracy and remind americans why the rule of law is so important and that nobody, including the president, is above the rule of law. >> did you have a question? >> i do. welcome. i am a sophomore here. kind of going off of the whole

impeachment process, how can members of the house and senate continue legislative progress on infrastructure, health care, taxes, foreign policy this is kind of just taking over every cable news outlet, social media? this seems to be the only thing that people are talking about on the air. >> first of all, i would say, we have an obligation to walk and chew gum at the same time. we have to do our job, whether it involves impeachment or all of the things you talking about. let me give you a more honest answer to that, which is for the 10 years i have been in the senate, we have barely been doing any of the stuff you're talking about. we cannot even pass a basic infrastructure bill in america anymore. while we spent seven or eight months consumed with the stupidity of trump's $6 billion for the wall that mexico is supposed to pay for, china is building 3500 miles of fiber-optic cable to connect

latin america with africa with china. while they are investing in infrastructure all over china and all over the world through the one belt, one road initiative reservesl that sold from our oil reserve at some ridiculously inflated amount of money which was one-time money to fund ongoing infrastructure. what i am saying is if we do not want to be the first generation of americans to leave less opportunity and not more to our kids and grandkids, we need to get our act together and we need your involvement in this now. we cannot wait. and i know we can do it. i am optimistic as americans have always stepped up even in worse times than this. no one in this room is being

asked to end human slavery. no one in this room is being asked to make sure that women have the right to vote, that my daughters have the right to vote. no one is being asked to store and the beaches of normandy. all we are being asked to do is rescue our democracy. no one else in the democratic republic to do this than us. i don't mean elected officials. all of us. everything that is obviously wrong with our broken political system is not delivering for the next generation of america and i think that is how we should ask ourselves whether we are making progress or not. everything we are not doing is not because the politicians in washington but because we are not fulfilling our role as citizens. to say to these people we have an expectation of greater leadership than this. where insteadorld

of doing the stuff this young man is talking about, we have people looking for the cameras and running into a secure briefing to make sure that the congress cannot do its job of investigating the president. and why are they there? ony want this to be seen national television. we live in a country where we have cut and run on our allies this week and a way that no other president in the history of the united states has done. none. and that is not the country that i was raised in. those are not the values that i was raised by. and what i am here to tell you is is that it is bad as it looks. the only people that can fix this is us. and the time i have spent in new hampshire, iowa, and south carolina reinforces my view that we are up to this.

and that we can satisfy the example that our parents and grandparents set for us. thate can leave a legacy our kids and grandkids will be proud of but it starts with all of us right now. thank you for having me today. i really appreciate it. [applause] >> excellent. >> well done. what, are you kidding me? >> i really enjoyed it. >> i am with you. >> senator, nice job. the energy that you have at the that was really impressive the way you answered the last question. >> thank you. pen.e a

i am prepared. appreciate it. >> there you go. you. i appreciate your comments. my mom is a teacher. >> history teacher. >> i appreciate that. i will take that. thank you. thank you. >> i appreciate you coming out. >> thank you for coming out.

thanks a lot. >> i am from colorado. >> great. nice part of the world. >> thank you very much. are you a broncos fan? >> i am. hello, how are you? >> i'm ok, how are you? >> i'm well. >> i have never signed an egg before. it is not obvious how to do it. thank you. appreciate it. thanks. thanks guys for being here.

>> thank you for coming. >> my name is anthony and i'm going to school for public education. something has to be done. there is such a gap between rich and poor. >> so true. hello. how are you? >> thank you so much for coming. >> thank you for letting me. how are you? enjoy your weekend. >> thank you for coming. i'm writing my senior thesis on bipartisanship in congress and you are actually in it. >> thank you. nice to meet you. glad to hear that. >> my son is a junior at you er.ver -- u of denv

>> have you been to denver to see him? my wife teaches there at the law school. we lived near there. hello. how are you? >> thank you for coming today. i did not have to go to class right now. >> which class? >> new hampshire primary. >> that is a good class. >> thank you, senator. you are inspiring. >> hello, how are you? >> hello.

>> thank you and good luck on the campaign. >> thank you for your questions today. thank you for your continued work. >> we appreciate everything you do. how are things going on the trail? >> one foot forward. great. >> thank you, senator. >> senator, here we go. >> shannon, where we doing this? ok.

>> thank you, thank you for letting me come. a big glass of water. ok. how are you guys? >> ok. how are you? >> doing well. >> i am happy to start. hello, senator. former vice president joe biden announced yesterday he is open to the idea of the super pac. what role do you think a super

pac should play? >> i think they are an unfortunate part of the system that we have to change. i believe we need to return citizens united and reform our campaign-finance system. i don't think people should unilaterally disarm a situation like this because we have -- he is raising all sorts of dark money but it is a terrible system and it is one we need to change. >> and a follow-up -- a couple of days ago mark zuckerberg testified before congress .egarding a new policy he was questioned on the facebook ad policy which has been accused of misinformation. doesu feel that policy what democratic lawmakers say it does? >> it is outrageous. they did not take seriously what the russians did on facebook and

now they are saying it is not their responsibility to police the advertising that is paid for. going toaid for ads the bottom line of facebook and facebook does not feel the need to make sure they are accurate? that they are not lying? for inciting the american people against each other? it is an outrageous position they have taken. >> in your remarks you talked about the house republicans with using cell phones in the classified area. how do you move forward with the impeachment messaging in a way that gets republicans onboard and is not just a fight over process? >> they are trying to make it a fight over process because that toisfied donald trump's need treat this like it is a kangaroo court.

the american people are going to know it is not a kangaroo court. at a certain point, republicans will have to decide if they are going to engage in dereliction of duty or stand up for the constitution. it is not all happening that way this week but my hope is that over time they will get their act together and the american people will begin to learn what their view is of what the president did. after all, this is about finding facts for the american people primarily and that is what the impeachment process was set up by the founding fathers to do. these guys are making a mockery of it and it is deeply regrettable. you can see it. jump. trump says -- and they say, how high? look at me, look at me. as long as they allow the republican party to be the party of donald trump, it is going to be hard to expect them to play the role that they should play

which is to help us get to the bottom of the truth. many republicans have been outspoken about the impeachment inquiry publicly. >> there is a lot of worry about this president and what he has recordd worry about the of the call he had with the ukrainian president and the suggestion that he may have done the same thing with china. people are worried. the serious stuff this week -- i think he has created a real sense among republicans that there is a huge cost to having this guy as president. >> the author of the anonymous op-ed in the new york times is now coming out with a book. what are your thoughts on trump administration officials being willing to make revelations in a private setting? do you think they need to be speaking out publicly, on the

record? >> what is interesting is that almost none of that happened during the obama administration. wasuse president obama behaving consistently the rule of law. i think we need a president that will do that again. it does not surprise me that people would be coming out the way that they are. >> to try to bring it back to the 2020 race, i know you spoke a lot about the desire -- the tension is on the progressives, medicaid for all, transformational change politics. on the debate stage, those kinds upideas are really riling grass roots. how do you as a more moderate candidate, how do you excite

voters -- >> we talked today about the american family act which is part of the series of proposals i have with centered around to thiswork pay again in country and dramatically reduce poverty. it would be the most substantial antipoverty program we have had in place since medicare was passed. i think it is a bold idea. i don't want to spend the next 10 years fighting a losing battle. choice and toe increase taxes by $31 trillion when instead we could be beginning to end childhood poverty in america, addressing the needs of school kids all over the country for preschool,

dealing with the climate change and winning races that would allow us to make a durable solution. that is what i think we should be focused on. i regret that some much attention in this race has been placed on medicare for all as i think it is another sign of washington politicians out of touch with what the american people really need. if you set down in denver and asked people -- what is your list of priorities? they would say -- and if you said, your first proposal is that everyone in denver has to give up their private insurance and they have to pay taxes that are equal to 70% of all the taxes they pay for any way they would say -- do you have another plant because we are not going to do that. on the other hand, if there was a plan to reduce childhood poverty and increase middle-class wages, they would say that sounds pretty good. it is difficult in this environment to come through with this but i think it is really important. the reason donald trump got

elected is that the american people thought that washington's priorities had nothing to do with their priorities. i am worried we are going to nominate someone that is for medicaid for all, free college when what people want is for free preschool. people want 70% of the kids that graduate from high school to earn a living wage and not the minimum wage. we really want a climate plan that can drive economic growth across the country for everyone. i'm worried that we have set ourselves up in a position where this guy can get reelected did which would be shameful. ok? >> thank you so much. >> thank you to you guys. >> thank you come everybody. have a great day. politicon, the unconventional

political convention is live from music city in nashville today at 2:00 on c-span. speakers include and coulter and andd frum, david comey chief political analyst for msnbc and nbc news, nicole wallace. clinical commentaries james carville and sean hannity and al franken. watch live on c-span anytime on c-span.org and listen wherever you are using the free c-span radio app. >> if i am a socialist, i am not --ing too much about pop lit popular opinion or pleasing the consumer. when we socialize things like health care, they say that everyone will get it. you will have to have rationing. >> sunday at 9:00 p.m. eastern on after words, in his latest

book, the case against socialism, rand paul talks about the history of socialism and argues that there is a new threat of socialist thinking on the rise in america. he is interviewed by republican congressman matt gaetz from florida. >> it seems like you are making the argument that a country that is more socialist is becoming more selfish. >> i think that is true. it is an irony. they will profess that everything is for someone else but in the end, it is driven by selfishness. words on c-span two. >> president trump was asked about media reports that the justice department has opened a criminal investigation into the origins of the russian probe. he took questions from reporters as he departed the white house for south carolina as he discussed criminal justice reform.