♪ let us create the political revolution this country needs. >> the stakes could not be higher. we cannot afford to miss the mark or to miss this moment. >> i will bring this country together instead of tearing it apart. >> i can't do it alone. i need your help to climb that mountain. together we're going to beat donald trump. >> 2020 is our time to change who makes the rules. >> i am running to restore honor to our government and build a country that we can be proud of.

♪ >> announcer: from nbc news, the democratic presidential debate live from las vegas, nevada. ♪ good evening, everyone. i'm lester holt. welcome to las vegas. everything is on the line tonight with just three days before the critical nevada caucuses. here with me on the stage, nbc news political director chuck todd. nbc news chief white house correspondent hallie jackson. also joining us is telemundo senior correspondent vanessa hauc. and editor of the nevada independent jon ralston. the rules are there tonight. candidates will get a minute 15 to answer each question and 45 seconds for follow-ups. now that the stage is narrowed

to six candidates, we encourage each of you to directly engage with each other on the issues. since the last time you all shared the stage, senator sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, has surged into the lead nationally in the democratic race. there's a new person on the stage tonight mayor michael bloomberg who spent millions of his own dollars to run in this race. a majority of democratic voters still say their top priority is beating president trump. senator sanders, mayor bloomberg is pitching himself as a centrist who says he's best positioned to win in november. why is your revolution a better bet? >> in order to beat donald trump we're going to need the largest voter turnout in the history of the united states. mr. bloomberg had policies in new york city of stop and frisk, which went after african-american and latino people in an outrageous way. that is not a way you're going

to grow voter turnout. what our movement is about the bringing working class people together, black and white and latino, native american, asian american around an agenda that works for all of us and not just the billionaire class. and that agenda says that maybe, just maybe, we should join the rest of the industrialized world, guarantee health care to all people as a human right, raise the minimum wage to a living wage of 15 bucks an hour and have the guts to take on the fossil fuel industry, because their short-term profits are not more important than the future of this planet and the need to combat climate change. those are some of the reasons we have the strongest campaign to defeat donald trump. >> mayor bloomberg can senator sanders beat president trump and how do you want to respond to what else he said? >> i don't think there's any chance of the senator beating president trump.

you don't start out by saying i've got 160 million people i'm going to take away the insurance plan that they love. that's just not a ways that you go and start building the coalition that the sanders camp thinks they can do. i don't think there's any chance whatsoever. and if he goes and is the candidate, we will have donald trump for another four years, and we can't stand that. >> i'd like to talk about who we're running against, a billionaire who calls women fat broads and horse facedless beanbea lesbians. i'm not talking about donald trump. i'm talking about mayor bloomberg. democrats are not going to win if we have a nominee who has a history of hiding his tax returns, of supporting racist polls like redlining and stop and frisk. i'll support whoever the

democratic nominee is. but understand this, democrats take a huge risk if we just substitute one arrogant billionaire for another. this country has worked for the rich for a long time and left everyone else in the dirt. it is time to have a president who will be on the side of working families and be willing to get out there and fight for them. that is why i am in this race and that is how i will beat donald trump. >> senator klobuchar, what do you think the path is from this stage to the white house? what works? >> i think the path is a high voter turnout. i'm the one on this stage who had the highest voter turnout of any state in the country when i led the ticket, as well as bringing in rural and suburban voters. and i've done that as well. i'm the only one with the receipts to have done that in republican congressional districts over and over again. but i want to say this. i actually welcomed mayor bloomberg to the stage.

i thought that he shouldn't be hiding behind his tv ads. so i was all ready for this big day. then i looked at the memo from his campaign staff this morning and it said that he actually thought that three of us should get out of the way. that is what his campaign said, because we should pave the way for him to become the nominee. you know, i have been told as a woman, as someone that maybe no one thought was still going to be standing up on this stage, but i am because of pure grit and because of the people out there. i've been told many times to wait my turn and to step aside. i'm not going to do that now and i'm not going to do that because a campaign memo from mayor bloomberg said this morning that the only way that we get a nominee is if we step aside for him. i think we need something different than donald trump. i don't think you look at donald trump and say we need someone richer in the white house. >> thank you. mayor bloomberg, a lot for you to respond to there so here's your opportunity. >> i think we have two questions

to face tonight. one is who can beat donald trump and, number two, who can do the job if they get into the white house. i would argue that i am the candidate that can do exactly both of those things. i'm a new yorker. i know how to take on an arrogant con man like donald trump who comes from new york. i'm a mayor or was a mayor. i know how to run a complicated city, the biggest most diverse city in this country. i'm a manager. i knew what to do after 911 and brought the city back stronger than ever. and i'm a philanthropist who didn't inherit his money, but made his money. i'm spending that money to get rid of donald trump, the worst president we have ever had. if i can get that done, it will be a great contribution to america and to my kids. >> vice president biden, i'll let you weigh in here. >> in terms of who can beat

donald trump, nbc did a poll yesterday. it says joe biden is best equipped to beat donald trump. that's what your poll said. and it said that i be beat him in those toss-up states, those states we have to win. in terms of beating donald trump, i'm better positioned, according to your poll, than anybody else to beat donald trump. number one. number two, the mayor makes an interesting point. the mayor says he has a great record, that he's done these wonderful things. the fact of the matter is he has n not managed his city very well when he was there. he had stop and frisk, throwing close to 5 million young black men up against a wall. when we came along in our administration with president obama and said we're going to send in a meetua yamediator to he said that's unnecessary. we're going to get a chance to talk about the mayor's record. but in terms of who is best prepared to beat donald trump,

look at your poll and what it says. >> mayor buttigieg, you'd like to weigh in. >> yes. we've got to wake up as a party. we could wake up two weeks from today, the day after super tuesday, and the only candidates left standing will be bernie sanders and mike bloomberg, the two most polarizing figures on this stage. and most americans don't see where they fit if they've got to choose between a socialist who thinks that capitalism is the root of all evil and a billionaire who thinks that money ought to be the root of all power. let's put forward somebody who actually lives and works in a middle class neighbor in an industrial mid western city. let's put forward somebody who's actually a democrat. look -- we shouldn't have to choose between one candidate who wants to burn this party down and another candidate who wants to buy this party out. we can do better.

>> senator sanders, are you polarizing? >> if speaking to the needs and the pain of a long neglected working class is polarizing, i think you got the wrong word. what we are trying finally to do is to give a voice to people who after 45 years of work are not making a nickel more than they did 45 years ago. we are giving a voice to people who say we are sick and tired of billionaires like mr. bloomberg seeing huge expansions of their wealth while a half a million people sleep out on the street tonight. we are saying, pete, is maybe it's time for the working class of this country to have a little bit of power in washington rather than your billionaire campaign contributors. >> look, first of all, my campaign is fuelled by hundreds

of thousands of contributors. >> including 46 billionaires. >> among the hundreds of thousands of crib tontributors. we've got to unite this country to deal with these issues. you're not the only one who cares about the working class. most americans believe we need to empower workers. as a matter of fact, you're the one who is at war with the culinary union right here in las vegas. >> we have more support than you have ever dreamed of. we have the support of unions all across -- >> we can actually deliver health care without taking it away from anyone. we can actually empower workers and lift wages without further polarizing this country and we can build a movement without having legions of our supporters online and in person attacking democratic figures and union leaders alike. >> i have a question for you. on sunday on "meet the press" vice president biden accused

senator sanders' supporters of bullying union leaders with vicious, malicious, misogynistic things. you said democrats cannot build an inclusive party on an foundation of hate. are senator sanders and his supporters making it harder? >> i've said it many times before we are all responsible for our supporters. we need to step up. that's what leadership is all about. the way we are going to lead this country and beat donald trump is going to be with a candidate who has rock solid values and who actually gets something done. when mayor bloomberg was busy blaming african-americans and latinos for the housing crash of 2008, i was right here in las vegas literally just a few blocks down the street holding hearings on the banks that were taking away homes from millions of families. that's when i met mr. estrada, one of your neighbors. he came in to testify and said he thought he'd done everything

right with wells fargo but they took away his house in a matter of weeks. this man stood there and cried while he talked about what it was like to tell his two little daughters that they might not be in their elementary school, that they might be living out of their van. i spent the next years making sure that would never happen again. wall street fought us every inch of the way on a consumer agency. they lost and i won. we need a candidate with unshakable values and a candidate who can actually get something done for working people. >> thank you, senator. >> that's why i'm in this race and that's how i'll beat donald trump. >> senator sanders. >> we have over 10.6 million people on twitter and 99.9% of them are decent human beings, are working people, are people who believe in justice, compassion and love.

and if there are a few people who make ugly remarks, who attack trade union leaders, i disown those people. they are not part of our movement. but let me also say what i hope my friends up here will agree with is that if you look at the wild west of the internet, talk to some of the african-american women on my campaign, talk to senator nina turner, talk to others and find the vicious, racist, sexist attacks that are coming their way as well. so i would hope that all of us understand that we should do everything we possibly can to end the viciousness and ugliness on the internet. our campaign is about issues. it's about fighting for the working families and the middle class. it is not about vicious attacks on other people. >> senator, when you say that you disown these attacks and you didn't personally direct them, i believe you. >> thank you. >> but at a certain point you got to ask yourself why did this

pattern arise? why is it especially the case among your supporters? >> i don't think it is especially the case, by the way. >> that's just not true. >> pete, if you want to talk to some of the women on my campaign, what you will see is the most ugly, sexist, racist attacks that are -- i wouldn't even describe them here they're so disgusting. let me say something else about this, not being too paranoid. all of us remember 2016 and what we remember is efforts by russians and others to try to interfere in our election and divide us up. i'm not saying that's happening, but it would not shock me. i saw some of those tweets regarding the culinary workers union. i have a 30-year 100% pro-union voting record. do you think i would support or anybody who supports me would be attacking union leaders? it's not thinkable. >> leadership is about what you draw out of people. it's about how you inspire people to act.

we're in this toxic political environment. leadership isn't just about policy. we're largely pulling in the same direction on policy, but leadership is also about how you motivate people to treat other people. i think you have to accept some responsibility and ask yourself what it is about your campaign in particular that seems to be motivating this behavior more than others. in order to turn the page on the trump era, we're going to need a president, not just a candidate who can win. >> i have an idea of how we can stop sexism on the internet. we could nominate a woman for candidate for president of the united states. i think that might go a long way if we showed our stuff as a party. the other thing i'm going to talk about is really what is at the core of this issue between senator sanders and the culinary union nap union. that is this. these are hard working people, housekeepers like elizabeth and i met with last night, who have health care plans that have been

negotiated over time, sweat and blood. that is the truth for so many americans right now. >> thank you. >> there are 149 million americans that would lose their current health insurance under senator sanders' bill. that's what it says on page 8. >> i want to turn over to my colleague chuck todd. >> i want to stay on this topic on this issue with the culinary union. obviously their leaders are warning their members that your health care plan will take away their health care plan, take away private insurance completely. there are some democrats who like you a lot but worry that this plan, medicare for all is going to take away private insurance and that it goes too far. are they right? >> no. let me be very clear. two points. for a hundred years from teddy roosevelt to barack obama, this country has been talking about the need to guarantee health care for all people.

yet today despite spending twice as much per capita, chuck, twice as much as any other major country on earth, we got 87 million who are uninsured or under insured. we got 60,000 people who die every year because they don't get to a doctor on time. we're getting ripped off outrageously by the greed and corruption of a pharmaceutical industry which in some cases charges us ten times more for the same drugs because of price fixing. 500,000 people go bankrupt every year because they can't afford medical bills. let me be very clear to my good friends in the culinary workers union, a great union. i will never sign a bill that will reduce the health care benefits they have. we will only expand it for them, for every union in the america and for the working class of this country. >> senator warren, you were all in on medicare for all and then you have since came up with a transition plan. is it because of the impact on

unions? >> so i want to be clear. i've been to the culinary union's health care facilities. they're terrific. you don't want to shut them down. you want to expand them. you want to see them all across nevada and all across this country. but we need to get everybody's health care plan out here. mayor buttigieg really has a slogan that was thought up by his consultants to paper over a thin version of a plan that would leave millions of people unable to afford their health care. it's not a plan, it's a power point. and amy's plan is even less. it's like a post-it note, insert plan here. bernie has started very much has a good start, but instead of expanding and bringing in more people to help, instead his campaign relentlessly attacks everyone who asks a question or tries to fill in details about

how to actually make this work. and then his owned a advisors s probably won't happen anyway. look, health care is a crisis in this country. my approach to this is we need as much help for as many people as quickly as possible and bring in as many supporters as we can. and if we don't get it all the first time, take the win and come back into the fight to ask for more. >> guys, i'm going to get everybody. mayor buttigieg, she name checked you first. i'll let you go first. >> she name checked me second. >> yes. okay. >> i'm more of a microsoft word guy. if you look at my plan, i don't know if there are any power points on it but you can find the document on peteforamerica.com. you'll see it is a plan that softs the probl solves the problem, makes sure there is no such thing as an

uninsured american and doesn't kick anyone off the plan they have. this idea that the union members don't know what's good for them is the exact kind of condescension that makes people skeptical. the american people are ready in a way far beyond what was true ten years ago and what was available to president obama at the time. there's a powerful american majority ready to undertake the biggest, most progressive reform we've had in health care in 50 years just as long as we don't force it on anybody. what is wrong with that? >> could i respond to that? >> senator klobuchar. >> elizabeth. >> i think the post-it note came first, senator. >> i must say i take personal offense since post-it notes were invented in my state. >> 3m. >> okay. so my plan is a public option.

according to all the studies out there, it would reduce premiums for 12 million people immediately. it would expand coverage for about that same number. it is a significant thing. it is what barack obama wanted to do from the very beginning. and the way i look at it since we're in vegas, when it comes to your plan, elizabeth and bernie's on medicare for all, you don't put your money on a number that's not even on the wheel. and why is medicare for all not on the wheel? why is it not on the wheel? because two-thirds of the democratic senators are not even on that bill, because a bunch of the new house members that got elected see the problems with blowing up the affordable care act. they see it right in front of them. and the truth is that when you see some troubled waters, you don't blow up a bridge, you build one. we need to improve the affordable care act, not blow it up. >> you name checked three of them. let me get senator sanders in there.

go ahead, senator sanders. we'll get you in. we have a lot of people in here. >> my turn now? >> yes, sir. >> okay. >> somehow or another canada can provide universal health care to all their people at half the cost. u.k. can do it, france can do it, germany could, all of europe can do it. gee whiz, somehow or another we are the only major country on earth that can't do it. why is that? i'll tell you why. it's because last year the health care industry made $100 billion in profits. pharmaceutical industry, top six companies, $69 billion in profit. those ceos are contributing to pete's campaign and other campaigns up here. >> let's clear this up. >> so maybe it is finally time that we said as a nation enough is enough, the function of a

rational health care system is not to make the pharmaceutical industry and the drug companies rich. it is to provide health care to all people as human right, not a privilege. >> mr. vice president, you got it. >> no deductibles. >> mr. vice president and senator warren. >> i'm the only one on this stage that actually got anything done on health care, okay? i'm the guy the president turned to and said go get the votes for obamacare. i notice what everybody's talking about is the plan that i first introduced. that is to go and add to obamacare, provide a public option, a medicare-like option. and increase the subsidies. it cost a lot of money. it cost $750 billion over ten years, but i paid for it by making sure that mike and other people paid at the same tax rate their secretary pays at. that's how we get it paid, number one. number two, you know, from the moment we passed that signature legislation, mike called it a disgrace, number one.

number two, trump decided to get rid of it and, number three, my friends here came up with another plan. but they don't tell you when you ask bernie how much it cost, last time he said we'll find out, we'll find out or something to that effect. it cost over $35 trillion. let's get real. >> senator warren, you get the final word on this one. go ahead, senator warren. >> so i actually took a look at the plans that are posted. mayor buttigieg, there are four expenses that families pay, premiums, deductibles, co-pays and uncovered medical expenses. mayor buttigieg says he will put a cap only on the premiums. that means families are going to pick up the rest of the cost. amy, i looked online at your plan. it's two paragraphs. families are suffering and they need -- >> that's it. >> you can't simply stand here and trash an idea to give health

care coverage to everyone without having realistic plan of your own. if you're not going to own up to the fact either that you don't have a plan or that your plan is going to leave people without health care coverage, full coverage, then you need to say so. i just want to say on this one, i was in reno when i met a man who said he had diabetes. he gets his insulin through the va, but his sister and his daughter also have diabetes, no way to pay for their insulin. three human beings right here in nevada who are struggling. they share one insulin prescription. that should not happen in america. >> is vice president biden right, you weren't a fan of obamacare? >> i am a fan of obamacare. mr. vice president, i just checked the record because you said one time i was not. in '09 i testified and gave a

speech before the mayors' conference in washington advocating it and trying to get all the mayors to sign on. i think at that time i wrote an article praising obamacare either in the the new york post or the daily news. i was there. let me finish, thank you. i was in favor of it. i thought it didn't go as far as we should. what trump has done to this is a disgrace. the first thing we've got to do is get the white house and bring back those things that were left and find a way to expand it. another public option to having some rules about capping charges. all of those things. we shouldn't just walk away and start something that is totally new, untried. >> vice president biden, go ahead. >> the mayor said when we passed it, the signature piece of this administration, it's a disgrace, exact words, it was a disgrace. look it up, check it out. it was a disgrace. that plan, you do not have

surprise billing, you bring down drug prices, give people all the things we were just talking about. i guess we've not got time to do it but i'll get a chance to talk. >> lester. >> mayor bloomberg, at the beginning of this today you took some incoming fire on this next topic so let's get into it. in 2015 this is how you described your policing policy as mayor. quote, we put all the cops into minority neighborhoods. you explained that is, quote, because that's where all the crime is. you went onto say and the way you should get the guns out of the kids' hands is to throw them against the wall and frisk them. you ov've apologized for that policy. but what does that kind of language say about how you view people of color or people in minority neighborhoods? >> if i go back and look at my time in office, the one thing that i'm really worried about, embarrassed about, was how it turned out with stop and frisk. when i got into office, there

were 650 murders a year in new york city. i thought that my first responsibility was to give people the right to live. that's the basic right of everything. we adopted a policy which has been in place. the policy that all big police departments use of stop and frisk. what happened, however, was it got out of control. when we discovered, i discovered that we were doing many, many, too many stop and frisks, but cut 95% of it out. and i've sat down with a bunch of african-american clergy and business people to talk about this to try to learn. i've talked to a number of kids who have been stopped. i'm trying -- was trying to understand how we change our policy so we can keep the city safe. the crime rate did go from 650 down to 300.

we have to keep a lid on crime, but we cannot go and stop people indiscriminately. >> let me go to vice president biden on this. >> let's get something straight. the reason that stop and frisk changed is because barack obama sent moderators to see what was going on. when we sent them there to say this practice has to stop, the mayor thought it was a terrible idea we send them there, a terrible idea. let's get the facts straight. let's get the order straight. it's not whether he apologized or not. it's the policy. the policy was abhorrent and it was a fact of violation of every right people have. and we are the one, our administration sent in people to moderate. at the very time the mayor argued against that, this idea that he figured out it was a bad idea, he figured out it was a bad idea after he sent in monitors and said it must stop. even then he continued the policy. >> mayor, would you like to make

a quick response to that? >> yes, i would. i've sat, i've apologized, i've asked for forgiveness, but the bottom line is we stopped too many people, and we've got to make sure that we do something about criminal justice in this country. there is no great answer to a lot of these problems. if we took off everybody that was wrong off this panel, everybody that was wrong on criminal justice at some time in their careers, there'd be nobody else up here. >> senator warren. >> who did you call on? >> senator warren. >> sorry. >> this is about leadership and accountability. when the mayor says he apologized, listen very closely to the apology. the language he used is about stop and frisk. it's about how it turned out. this isn't about how it turned out. this is about what it was designed to do to begin with. it targeted communities of color.

it targeted black and brown men from the beginning. and if you want to issue a real apology, then the apology has to start with the intent of the plan as it was put together and the willful ignorance day by day by day of admitting what was happening even as people protested in your own street, shutting out the sounds of people telling you how your own policy was breaking their lives. you need ap differe different a here, mr. mayor. >> senator klobuchar, we're going to stay on this topic but i want to get something in here with senator klobuchar. when you were the top prosecutor in minneapolis, there were at least two dozen instances where police were involved in the deaths of civilians. none of those officers were prosecuted. you did prosecute a black teenager who was sentenced to life in prison despite what are now serious doubts about the evidence. now, the minneapolis chapter of the naacp has recently called for you to suspend your campaign

over that case because some new evidence has come out since. big picture, why should black and latino voters trust your judgment now if it appearins yo may have gotten it wrong then? >> i'll start with that case. it is very clear that any evidence, if there is new evidence, oven o evidence, even old evidence, it should be reviewed by that office, the county attorney. this was a case involving an 11-year-old african-american girl who was shot doing her homework at her kitchen table. three people were convicted. one of the cases is the one that is being investigated, was investigated by a journalist. i think it's very important that that evidence come forward. in terms of the police shootings that you noted, those went to a grand jury, every single one of them. i have made very clear for

months now that like so many prosecutors, i think those cases in my time they were all going to the grand jury. it was thought that was the best way to handle them in many, many jurisdictions. >> you didn't speak up at the time. should you? >> i actually did speak up on something very similar. that was when our police chief in minneapolis tried to take the investigations of police shootings into his own hands. i strongly said i disagreed with that. now i do believe also that a prosecutor should make those decisions herself. the last thing i will say pause you asked the question about voting, i have the support of african-americans in my community in every election. i had strong support and strong support of leadership. that's because i earned it. this is going to be on me to earn it. you earn it with what you stand for when it comes to equal opportunity. you earn it with the work i have done, the leadership i've shown on voting rights and, yes, you earn it with the work that must be done on criminal justice reform. >> i want to talk about transparency here.

many democrats including most of you on stage have criticized president trump for his lack of transparency. senator sanders, when you were here in las vegas in october, you were hospitalized with a heart attack. afterwards you pledged to make, quote, all your medical records public. you've released three letters from your doctors, but you now say you won't release anything more. what happened to your promise of full transparency? >> i think we did. let me tell you what happened. first of all, you're right. thank you, las vegas, for the excellent medical care i got in the hospital two days. i think the one area maybe that mayor bloomberg and i share, you have two stents as well. >> 25 years ago. >> well, we both have two stents. it's a procedure that's done about a million times a year. we released the full report of that heart attack. second of all, we released the full, my whole 29 years in the capitol the attending physician, all of my medical history. furthermore, we released reports

from two leading vermont cardiologists who described my situation. by the way, who said bernie sanders is more than able to deal with the stress and the vigor of being president of the united states. they follow around the campaign trail, three, four, five events today. see how you're doing compared to me. >> mayor buttigieg, you've been critical about transparency on this stage and people needing to do better. is that response from senator sanders enough for you? >> no, it's not. first of all, we're all delights that you are in fighting shape. >> thank you. >> at the same time, transparency matters, especially living through the trump era. now, under president obama the standard was that the president would release full medical records, do a physical and release the readout. i think that's the standard that we should hold ourselves to as well. now, president trump lowered that standard. he said just a letter from a doctor is enough. a lot of folks on this stage are

now saying that's enough. but i am certainly prepared to get a physical, put out the results. i think everybody here should be willing to do the same. i'm actually less concerned about the lack of transparency on sanders' personal health than i am about the lack of transparency on how to pay for his health care plan since he said it's impossible to even know how much it's going to cost and even after raising taxes on everybody making $29,000, there is still a multi trillion dollar hole. if you add up all his policies together, they come to $50 trillion. he's only explained 25 trillion worth of revenue which means the hole in there is bigger than the entire economy of the united states. the time has come to level with the american people on matters personal and matters of policy. >> let's level, pete. under your plan, which is a maintenance continuation of the status quo -- can i finish -- the average american today is

paying $12,000 a year. that's what that family is paying. 20% of a 60,000 income, $12,000 a year, highest prices in the world for prescription drugs. just the other day a major study came out from yale epidemiologist in the lancet, one of the leading medical p publications in the world. what they said, my friend, is medicare will save $450 billion a year because we are limiting the absurdity of thousands of separate plans that require hundreds of billions of dollars of administration and, by the way, ending the 100 billion a year in profiteering from the drug companies. >> that's false. if my plan is the status quo, why was it attacked by the insurance industry the moment it came out. on issue after issue, this is what senator sanders is saying. if you're not with him, if

you're not all the way on his side, then you must be for the status quo. that is a picture that leaves most of the american people out. >> very briefly on transparency, mayor bloomberg, your campaign has said that you would eventually release your tax records. >> yes. >> but people are already voting now. why should democratic voterins have to wait? >> it just takes us a long time. fortunately or unfortunately d. >> could i comment? >> fortunately i make a lot of money and we do business all around the world. the number of pages will probably be in the thousands of pages. i can't go to turbo tax. but i put up my tax return every year for 12 years in city hall. we will put out this one. it tells everybody everything they need to know about every investment that i make and where the money goes. the biggest item is all the money i give away. we list that, every single donation i make. you can get that from our

foundation any time you want. >> i'm just looking at my husband in the front row that has to like do our taxes all the time. we probably could go to turbo tax. the point of this is i believe in transparency. i had a physical, by the way. it came out well. we might all be surprised if my blood pressure is lower than mayor pete's. that might really shock everyone out there. i think you should release your records from your physical. secondly, when it comes to tax returns, everyone up here has relesir released their tax returns, mayor. it is a major issue because the president of the united states has been hiding behind his tax returns even when courts order him to come forward with those tax returns. i don't care how much money anyone has. i think it's great you've got a lot of money, but i think you've got to come forward with your tax returns. >> mayor bloomberg, quick response to senator klobuchar? >> we'll releasing them. they'll be out in a few weeks. that's as fast as i can do it.

i only entered into this race ten weeks ago. all of my associates here have been at this for a couple of years. >> that's right, we have. engaging with voters and -- >> mayor bloomberg, let me ask you about something else. >> -- overtime and get it done. >> i wish it was that simple. >> let me ask you about something else. several former employees have claimed that your company was a hostile workplace for women. when you were confronted about it, you admitted making sexually suggestive remarks saying that's the way i grew up. in a lawsuit in the '90s one former female employee reported that you said, quote, i would do you in a second. should democrats expect better from their nominee? >> let me say a couple of things if i could have my full minute and a quarter. thank you. i have no tolerance for the kind of behavior that the me too movement has exposed. anybody that does anything wrong

in our company, we investigate it and if it's appropriate, they're gone that day. let me tell you what i do at my company and my foundation and in city government when i was there. in my foundation, the person that runs it is a woman. 70% of the people there are women. in my company, lots and lots of women have big responsibilities. they get paid exactly the same as men. in city hall, the top person, my deputy mayor was a woman and 40% of our commissioners were women. i am very proud of the fact that about two weeks ago we were awarded, we were voted the best place to work, second best place in america. if that doesn't say something about our employees and how happy they are, i don't know what does. >> senator warren, you've been critical of mayor bloomberg on this issue. >> yes, i have. i heard you heard what his

defense was. i've been nice to some women. that just doesn't cut it. the mayor has to stand on his record. what we need to know is exactly what's lurking out there. he has gotten some number of women, dozens, who knows, who sign nondisclosure agreements both for sexual harassment and for gender discrimination in the workplace. so, mr. mayor, are you willing to release all of those women from those nondisclosure agreements so we can hear their side of the story? >> we have a very few nondisclosure agreements. >> how many is that? >> let me finish. >> how many is that? >> none of them accuse me of doing anything other than maybe they didn't like a joke i told. the agreements between two parties that wanted to keep it

quiet and that's up to them. they signed those agreements and we'll live with it. >> when you say it is up to them, i just want to be clear. some is how many? and when you say they signed them and they wanted them, if they wish now to speak out and tell their side of the story about what it is they allege, that's now okay with you? you're releasing them on television tonight? is that right? >> senator, no. senator, the company and somebody else the man or woman or could be more than that, they decided they made an agreement they wanted to keep it quiet for everybody's interests. they signed the agreements and that's what we're going to live with. >> i'm sorry. the question is are the women bound by being muzzled by you and you could release them from that immediately? understand, this is not just a question of the mayor's character.

this is also a question about electability. we are not going to beat donald trump with a man who has who knows how many nondisclosure agreements and the drip, drip, drip of stories of women saying they have been harassed and discriminated against. that's not what we do as democrats. >> mr. vice president. >> let's get something straight here. it's easy. all the mayor has to do is say you are released from the nondisclosure agreement, period. we talk about transparency here. this guy got himself in trouble saying that there was a non -- he couldn't disclose what he did. he went to his campaign. >> that was about the list of clients just to be clear. >> no, no, no. he went to the company and said i want to be released, i want to be able to do it. this is about transparency from the very beginning. whether it's your health record, your taxes, whether you have cases against you, whether or

not people have signed nondisclosure agreements, you think the women in fact were ready to say i don't want anybody to know about what you did to me? that's not how it works. the way it works is, look, this is what you did to me and the mayor comes along and his attorneys say i will give you this amount of money if you promise you will never say anything. that's how it works. >> mayor bloomberg, final word to you? >> i said we're not going to end these agreements because they were made consensually and they have every right to expect they will stay private. >> if they want to release it, they should be able to release themselves. say yes. >> we talk about electability and everybody up here wants to beat trump and we talk about stop and frisk and we talked about the workplace that mayor bloomberg has established and the problems there. but maybe we should also ask how mayor bloomberg in 2004 supported george w. bush for president, put money into

republican candidates for the united states senate when some of us, joe and i and others, were fighting for democrats to control the united states senate. maybe we can talk about a billionaire saying that we should not raise the minimum wage or that we should cut social security, medicare and medicaid. if that's a way to beat donald trump, wow, i would be very surprised. >> thank you, senator. >> vanessa, to you. >> senator klobuchar, you're running on your washington experience, but last week in a telemundo interview you could not name the president of mexico or discuss any of his policies. last night you defended yourself saying, quote, this isn't jeopardy. but my question to you is, shouldn't our next president know more about one of our largest trading partners? >> of course. of course.

i don't think that that momentary forgetfulness actually reflects what i know about mexico and how much i care about it. i first want to say greetings to president lopez obrador. secondly, what i meant by the game of jeopardy is that i meant we could all come up with things. you know, how many members are there in the israeli knesset? 120. who is the president of honduras? hernandez. when it comes to mexico, i am the one person on this stage that came out first to say i was for the u.s.-mexican-canadian trade agreement. that is one of the number one duties of a president to implement that. >> my colleague specifically asked you if you could name the president of mexico and your response was no. >> that's right. i said i made an error. i think having a president that maybe is humble and is able to admit that here and there maybe

wouldn't be a bad thing. >> mayor buttigieg, response? >> i wouldn't liken this to trivia. i actually didn't know how many members were in the knesset. >> there you go. >> you are staking your candidacy on your washington experience. you're on the committee that oversees border security. you're on the committee that does trade. you're literally in the part of the committee that's overseeing these things. >> are you trying to say -- are you mocking me here, pete? i said i made an error. people sometimes forget names. i am the one that has the experience based on passing over 100 bills -- if i could respond, this was a pretty big allegation. he's basically saying that i don't have the experience to be president of the united states. i have passed over 100 bills as the lead democrat since being in the u.s. senate.

i am the one, not you, that has won statewide in congressional district after congressional district. and i will say when you tried in indiana, pete, to run, what happened to you? you lost by over 20 points to someone who later lost to my friend joe donnelly. so don't tell me about experience. what unites us here is we want to win. i think we should put a proven winner in charge of the ticket. >> this is a race for president. i would have grown up over the presidency of walter mondale. this is different. the reason i think we need to talk about washington experience is that we should ask what that experience has led to. experience and certainly tenure is not always the same thing as judgment. if we're going to talk about votes for the senate in washington, let's talk about it.

>> hello, hello, hello. thank you. senator warren and mayor bloomberg, this question is for you. i want to talk about -- maybe this is appropriate here. >> can i just defend senator klobuchar for a minute? this is not right. i understand that she forgot a name. it happens, it happens to everybody on this stage. look, you want to ask about whether or not you understand trade policy with mexico? have at it. if you get it wrong, man, you ought to be held accountable for that. you want to ask about the economy and you get it wrong, you ought to be held accountable. you want to ask about a thousand different issues and you get it wrong, you ought to be held accountable. let's be clear, missing a name all by itself does not indicate that you do not understand what's going on. i just think this is unfair. >> you're right.

you're right. but senator klobuchar could not discuss mexican policy either. >> i'm the only one who knows this man and met with him. >> i do have to respond. >> come on, man. >> you invoked my name again and i ask you to look at the interview i did directly after the forum, which we went into great detail on latin american policy. i want to say one thing about mayor pete. we just disagree. he was asked on a debate stage about the mexican cartels, which are bad, bad criminal organizations. he said that he would be open to classifying them as terrorist organizations. i actually don't agree with that. that is a very valid debate to have. i don't think that would be good for our security coordination with mexico and i think you got that wrong. >> at least that's -- >> could i get a chance to say something? >> hold on. >> si. >> si.

thank you. i'm the only one who's spent hundreds of hours in latin america. i met with this president. i met with the last president, the one before that. i've been deeply involved in making sure that we have a policy that makes more sense than this god awful president we have now. i'm the guy that put together $750 million to provide help for those latin american countries that are the reason why people are leaving because there's nothing for them to stay for. i've spent hours and hours and hours. so you want to talk about experience in washington, it's good to know with whom you're talking. it's good to know what they think. it's good to know what you think and it's good to be able to have a relationship. that's what it's about. >> all right. clearly everybody is warmed up. we're going to take a short break and kick off the next hour with a topic many voters have said are top of mind, the climate crisis. we're back in a moment. if you looked at america like a bird. and that was all you knew, would you really understand it,

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♪ welcome back. we received hundreds of questions from democratic voters and many of them were about the climate crisis. that's an issue that uniquely impacted nevadans. jon ralston kicks it off. >> y'all ready to play some nevada trivia here? i'm half joking. it's up there in polls. voters are really concerned about it. what you might know know is that las vegas and reno are two of the fastest warming cities in the country. in certain months of the year the heat is already an emergency situation for residents and for tourists walking up and down the strip. i'm going to start with you, mr. vice president. what specific policies would you implement that would keep las vegas and reno livable but also

not hurt those economies? >> it is the existential threat humanity faces, global warming. you have a facility where you have one of the largest, largest solar panel arrays in the world. it's in one of four stages completed. it will be able to take care of 60,000 homes for every single bit of their needs. what i would do is, number one, work on providing the $47 billion we have for tech to making sure we find answers is to find a way to transmit that wind and solar energy across the network in the united states. invest in battery technology. i would immediately rei believe state all of the elimination of what trump has eliminated in terms of the epa. i could secondly make sure that we have 500,000 new charging stations in every new highway we built in the united states of america or repaired.

i would make sure that we once again made sure that we got the mileage standards back up which would have saved over 12 billion barrels of oil had he not walked away from it. i would invest in rail, in rail. rail can take hundreds of thousands, millions of cars off the road if we have high speed rail. >> thank you, mr. vice president. i want to get some of the rest of you on this because y'all have plans. mayor bloomberg, let me read what you've said about this issue. you said you want to intensify u.s. and international actions to stop the expansion of coal. how exactly are you going to do that? >> well, already we've closed 304 out of the 530 coal fired power plants in the united states and we've closed 80 out of the 300 in europe. bloomberg philanthropies working with the sierra club. that's one of the things you do. if you're president, the first thing you do the first day is

you rejien toin the paris agree. two, america's responsibility is to be the leader in the world. if we don't, we're the ones that are going to get hurt just as much as everybody else. that's why i don't want us to cut off all relationships with china because you will never solve these problems without china and india, western europe. i believe -- and you can tell my whether this is right -- that the solar array the vice president is talking about is being closed because it's not economic, that you can put solar panels in modern technology. >> i want to let senator warren jump in here just because you said something that's really specific to nevada. the pension here in this state is between people who want renewable energy and people who want conservation on public lands. 85% of nevada is managed by the federal government. you have said that you were going to have an executive order that would stop drilling on public lands, stop mining, which is a huge industry here.

you've got to have lithium and copper for renewable energy. how do you do that? >> i think we should stop mining on public lands and all offshore drilling. if we need to make exceptions because there are specific minerals that we've got to have access to, then we locate those and we do it not in a way that is just about the profits of giant industries but in a way that is sustainable for the environment. we cannot continue to let our public lands be used for profits by those who don't care about our environment and are not making it better. look, i'm going to say something that is really controversial in washington, but i think i'm safe to say this here in nevada. i believe in science and i believe that the way that we're going to deal with this problem is that we are going to increase by tenfold our investment in science. there's an upcoming $27 trillion market world wide for green.

much of what is needed has not yet been invented. my proposal is let's invent it here in the united states and then say, we invent it in the u.s., you've got to build it in the u.s. that's a million new manufacturing jobs. >> we're going to stick to this topic. but senator sanders i'm going to move to trafracking. you want a total ban on fracking in the next five years, an industry that supports a lot of jobs around the country including thousands in pennsylvania. if we end up with a democratic candidate that supports a fracking ban, i'm going to tell my members that either you don't vote or you vote with the other guy. what do you tell these workers that are supporting a big industry right now, sir? >> what i tell these workers is that the scientists are telling us that if we don't act incredibly boldly within the next six, seven years, there will be irreparable damage done

not just in nevada, not just to vermont or massachusetts, but to the entire world. joe said it right. this is an existential threat. you know what that means, chuck? that means we're fighting for the future of this planet. and the green new deal that i support, by the way, will create up to 20 million good paying jobs as we move our energy system away from fossil fuel to energy efficiency and sustainable energy. this is a moral issue, my friends. we have to take the responsibility of making sure that the planet we leave our children and grandchildren is a planet that is healthy and habitable. that is more important than the profits of the fossil fuel industry. >> senator klobuchar, you're not on the same page with a total ban of fracking. you call it a transitional fuel.

scientists are sounding this alarm now. do you take these warnings that maybe fracking is a step backwards, not a step forward, not a transition? >> i have made it very clear that we have to review all of the permits that are out there right now for natural gas and then make decisions on each one of them and then not grant new ones until we make sure that it's safe. but it is a transitional fuel. i want to add something that really hasn't been brought up by my colleagues. this is a crisis and a lot of our plans are very similar to get to carbon neutral by 2045, 2050, something like that. but we're not going to be able to pass this unless we bring people with us. i'm looking at these incredible senators from nevada and i'm thinking that they know how important this is. you can do this in a smart way. one, get back into that international climate change agreement. two, clean power rules, bring those back. the president can do this herself without congress as well as the gas mileage standard.

but when it comes to putting a price on carbon -- this is very important. we have to make sure that money goes back directly as dividends to the people that are going to need help for paying their bills. otherwise we're not going to pass it. there has to be a heart to the policy to get this done. >> senator warren, address the worker issue, if you don't mind. >> yes. we can have a green new deal and create jobs. we need people in infrastructure who will help build. >> they can lose that job tomorrow, though. that's what they're concerned about. >> those jobs are for tomorrow. those are the ones we need to work onto harden our infrastructure. listen to senator klobuchar's point. she says we have to think smaller in order to get it passed. i don't think that's the right approach. why can't we get anything passed in washington on climate? everyone understands the urgency bucks but we've got two problems. the first is corruption.

an industry that makes its money felt all through washington. the first thing i want to do in washington is pass my anti-corruption bill so we can start making the changes we need to make on climate. the second is the filibuster. if you're not willing to roll back the filibuster, then you're giving the fossil fuel industry a veto overall of the work that we need to do. >> vice president biden, you have said that you want to hold oil and gas executives accountable for their role in harming our planet. you have even suggested that you might put them in jail. which companies are you talking about and how far are you willing to go? >> i'm willing to go as far as we have to. first of all, i would eliminate all the subsidies we have for oil and gas, eliminate it, period. that would save millions and billions of dollars. number two, i think that any executive who is engaged -- by the way, minority communities are the communities being most badly hurt by the way in which we deal with climate change. they are the ones that become

the victims. that's who the asthma is, that's who the groundwater supply has been polluted. that's where in fact people in fact do not have the opportunity to be able to get away from everything from asbestos in the walls of our schools. i have a trillion dollar program for infrastructure. that will provide for thousands and thousands of new jobs, not $15 an hour but $50 an hour plus benefits, unions, unions being able to do that. what it does is it will change the nature -- look, here's the last point. my time is going to run out. here's the last point i want to make to you. on day one when i'm elected president, i'm going to invite all of the members of the paris accord to washington, d.c. they make up 85% of the problem. they know me. i'm used to dealing with international relations. i will get them to up the ante in a big way. >> you didn't answer my question. >> i thought i did. >> what would you do with these companies that are responsible for the destruction of our planet?

>> what would i do with them? i would make sure they, number one, top. number two, if you demonstrate that they, in fact, have done things already that are bad and they've been lying, they should be able to be sued, they should be able to be held personal accountable and not only the company, not the stockholders but the ceos of those companies. they should be engaged. look, this is the industry we should be able to sue. we should go after just like we did the drug companies, just like we did the tobacco companies. the only company we can't go after are gun manufacturers because of my buddy here. >> we're going to stay on the topic. my question is to mayor bloomberg. your business is heavily invested in china. i think you mentioned that a few questions back. the number one producer in the world of carbon emissions. how far would you go to force china to reduce those emissions and tackle the climate crisis? >> you're not going to go to war with them. you have to negotiate with them

and we've seen how well that works with tariffs that are hurting us. what you have to do is convince the chinese that it is in their interest as well. their people are going to die just as our people are going to die. and we'll work together. in all fairness, china has slowed down. it's india that is an even bigger problem. it is an enormous problem. nobody's doing anything about it. we could right here in america make a big difference by closing the coal fired power plants. if we could reduce fracking you'll make a big difference. we frack not just natural gas. you frack oil as well. it is a technique and when it's done poorly like they're doing in too many places where the methane gets out into the air, it is very damaging. it is a transition issue. we want to go to all renewables but that is many years from now. i think the senator mentioned 2050 for some data. no scientist thinks the numbers

are 2050 anymore. they're 2040, 2035. the world is coming apart faster than any scientific study had predicted. we've just got to do something now. >> mayor buttigieg, your thoughts. >> let's be real about the deadline. it's not 2050, 2040, 2030. it's 2020. because if we don't elect a president who actually believes in climate science now, we will never meet any of the other scientific or policy deadlines and we need to. so first of all, let's make sure we're actually positioned to win, which once again if we put forward two of the most polarizing figures on this stage as the only option, it's going to be a real struggle. now, i've got a plan to get us carbon neutral by 2050 and i think everybody up here does the same. i think the real question is how are we actually going to get it done. we need leadership to make this a national project that breaks

down the partisan and political tug of war that appreciaprevent anything from getting done. how do you do it? making sure those jobs are available quickly. secondly, make sure we are pulling in those very sectors who are made to feel like they're part of the problem, from farming to industry and fund as well as urge them to do the right thing. and global climate diplomacy. i'm a little skeptical that convincing is going to do with trick to working with china. what we can do is ensure that we -- >> mayor buttigieg. senator warren? >> i want to make sure that the question of environmental justice gets more than a glancing blow in this debate, because for generations now in this country toxic waste dumps, polluting fact ories have been located in or near communities of color over and over and over.

and the consequences are felt in the health of young african-american babies, felt in the health of seniors, people with compromised immune systems. it's also felt economically. who wants to move into an area where the air smells bad or you can't drink the water? i have a commitment of a trillion dollars to repair the damage that this nation has permitted to inflict on communities of color for generations now. we have to own up to our responsibility. we cannot simply talk about climate change in big global terms. we need to talk about it in terms of rescuing the communities that have been damaged. >> senator warren, thank you. hallie. >> i want to ask you about latinos. one out of every four new small businesses in the united states, many of them have benefits from president trump's tax kucuts an they may be hesitant about new taxes or regulations. will taxes on their small

businesses go up under your administration? >> no. as a matter of fact we're going to make sure there's more money available for small businesses in the latino community and the black community to be able to get the capital to start businesses. the treasury department there's going to be a window available where we significantly increase the amount of money available so people can borrow the money to get started. they have demonstrated they're incredibly successful. we should not be raising taxes on them. we should start rewarding work, not just wealth. that's why we have to change the tax code the way it is. that's why the wealthy have to start to pay their fair share and that's why we have to focus on giving people the ability to garner wealth, generate wealth. that's why this kwhowhole idea red lining wasn't the cause of wall street failing. the greed of wall street is the reason why it occurred, not red lining. lastly i want to say, look, the idea of china, china and their

belt and road proposal, they're taking the dirtiest coal in the world mostly out of mongolia and spreading it all around the world. it's clear if you continue, you will suffer severe consequences because the rest of the world will impose tariffs on everything you're selling because you are undercutting the entire economy. >> thank you, vice president. mayor buttigieg, will taxes on those businesses go up under you? >> not if they are small businesses. we've got to level the playing field where a company like amazon or chevron is paying literally zero on billions in profits and it puts small businesses like the ones that are revitalizing small cities -- it is an investment in the future of america. it is time for a president who understands the value of immigration in lifting up all of our communities and our country.

we are getting the exact opposite message from the current president. it is time to recognize not just the diversity of the latino community, but the importance of issues like economic empowerment. >> we have an entrepreneurship gap in america. that is the gap between white sbe par entrepreneurs and black and latino entrepreneurs. the principal reason for this is they don't have the money or equity to get the businesses started. it's a $7 billion gap. we want to have entrepreneurship and a level playing field. i have a plan to put the $7 billion in to fund manage people who are routinely cut out. it can't just be about taxes. we need to make an investment to level the playing field and end the black and white -- >> look, i want to get into something. mayor bloomberg, the vice president talked about red lining.

>> he's the only one here that started a business -- >> you seem to em pli imply tha stopping red lining has somehow contributed to the financial crisis. >> that's exactly wrong. >> that was the implication that came out in your quote so i want to give you a chance to clarify this. >> i've been well on the record against red lining since i worked on wall street. i was against it in the financial crisis. i have been against it since. the financial crisis came because people took the mortgages and packaged them and other people bought them. red lining is still a practice in some places and we've got to cut it out. it's just not true. i was going to say we maybe want to talk about businesses. i'm the only one here i think that's ever started a business. is that fair? okay. what we need is -- i can tell you in new york city we had programs, mentoring programs for young business people so they can learn how to start a business.

we had programs that could get them seed capital. we had programs to get branch banking in their neighborhoods. if you don't have branch banking you get get a checking account, you can't get a loan, you can't get a mortgage, then you don't have any wealth. there's ways to fix this. it doesn't take trillions of dollars. >> 45 seconds and we're going to move on. senator sanders, 45 seconds. >> when we talk about a corrupt political system bought by billionaires like mr. bloomberg, it manifests itself in a tax code in which not only is amazon and many other major corporations, some owned by the wealthiest people in this country not paying a nickel in taxes, we have the insane situation that billionaires today, if you can believe it, have an effective tax rate lower than the middle class. >> why are you complaining?

who wrote the code? >> you did. you and your campaign -- not me. you and your campaign contributions electing people who represent the wealthy and the powerful -- >> those are democrats, thank you. >> well and republicans too. and george w. bush as well. >> senator klobuchar -- >> i was thinking there was going to be a boxing rematch on saturday in vegas and those guys should go down there. >> senator klobuchar, i actually want to get you to something. senator sanders tweeted last year, billionaires should not exist. >> okay. >> what say you? >> i believe in capitalism, but i think the goal of someone in government and a president of the united states should be a check on that. i'm not going to limit what people make, but i think right now or tax code is so tilted against regular people and that is what's wrong. i was thinking of your question about small businesses.

the small businesses i talked to, they have trouble getting employees because their employees don't have child care. we should have universal child care. we have not been talking enough about donald trump. let's just talk about donald trump, because he signed that tax bill that helped the wealthy and he went down to mar-a-lago and he said to all his friends, you just got a lot richer. that is exhibit a. and i can tell you the hard working people in nevada were not in that room. so the key to me is to not limit what people can make but make sure that we have a government that is fair for everyone. >> senator sanders, what do you mean that you don't think they should exist? >> we have a grotesque and immoral distribution of wealth and income. mike bloomberg owns more wealth than the bottom 125 million americans. that's wrong. that's immoral. that should not be the case when we have a half a million people sleeping out on the street,

where we have kids who cannot afford to go to college, when we have 45 million people dealing with student debt. we have enormous problems facing this country and we cannot continue seeing a situation where in the last three years billionaires in this country saw an $850 billion increase in their wealth. congratulations, mr. bloomberg, but the average american last year saw less than a 1% increase in his or her income. that's wrong. >> mayor bloomberg, should you exist? >> i can't speak for all billionaires. all i know is i've been very lucky, made a lot of money and i'm giving it all away to make this country better. a good chunk of it goes to the democratic party as well. >> have you earned too much money? has it been an obscene amount of money? should you have earned that much money? >> yes. i worked very hard for it. and i'm giving it away. >> thank you. hallie? >> mayor buttigieg, senator

sanders has a proposal that will require all large companies to turn over up to 20% of their ownership to employees over time. is that a good idea? >> i think that employee ownership of companies is a great idea. i'm not sure it makes sense to command those companies to do it. if we really want to deliver less inequality in this country, then we've got to start with the tax code and start with investmentins in how people are able to live the american dream, which is in serious, serious decline. as a matter of fact, last time i checked the list of countries to live out the american dream, to be born at the bottom and come out at the top, we're not even in the top ten. number one place to live out the american dream right now is denmark. as the lone person on the stage who's not a millionaire, let alone a billionaire, i believe that part of what needs to change is for the voices of the communities that haven't felt heard on wall street or in washington to actually be brought to capitol hill. it's why i am building a

politics designed around inclusion, designed around belonging, because the one thing that will definitely perpetuate the income inequality we're living with right now is for donald trump to be reelected because we're polarizing this country with the nominee. >> it is your policy? >> it is my policy and i'm very proud of that policy. all right. what we need to do to deal with this grotesque level of income and wealth inequality is make sure that those people who are working -- you know what, mr. bloomberg, wasn't you who made all that money. maybe your workers played some role in that as well. and it is important those workers are able to share the benefits also. when we have so many people who go to work every day and they feel not good about their jobs. they feel like cogs in a machine. i want workers to be able to sit on corporate boards as well so they can have some say over what happens to their lives. >> mayor bloomberg, you own a

large company. would you support what senator sanders is proposing? >> absolutely not. i can't think of a ways that would make it easier for donald trump to get reelected than listening to this conversation. this is ridiculous. we're not going to throw out capitalism. it was called communism and it just didn't work. >> so let me make a proposal that will work, that has not only support from a majority of democrats, but also from a majority of the independents and a majority of republicans. and that is a 2 cent wealth tax on all fortunes above $50 million. you hit a billion you've got to pay a few pennies more. this is a tax on the top one-tenth of 1% in america. it permits us to start to restructure our economy. it means we can afford universal child care for everybody baby in this countries age 0-5.

it means we can have universal pre-k for every child in america. we can raise the wage of every preschool teacher and stop exploiting the black and brown women who do this work. it means we can put $800 billion to our public schools. quadruple funding for title i schools. we could fully fund idea so children with disabilities could get the education they need. we could do college. we could put $50 billion into our historically black colleges and universities and we could cancel student loan debt for 43 million americans. that's something a majority of americans support, a 2 cent wealth tax. it is a question of values. do we want to address in mr. bloomberg or an entire generation? >> senator sanders, my next question is for you. our latest nbc news "wall street journal" poll released yesterday, two-thirds of all

voters said they were uncomfortable with a socialist candidate for president. what do you say to those voters? >> that was the result of that poll? who was winning? >> the question is to you. >> the question was that i was winning and i think by a fairly comfortable margin. might mention that. here is the point. let's talk about democratic socialism, not communism, mr. bloomberg. that's a cheap shot. let's talk about what goes on in countries like denmark where pete correctly pointed out they have a much higher quality of life in many respects than we do. what are we talking about? we are living in many ways in a socialist society right now. the problem is as dr. martin luther king reminded us, we have socialism for the very rich, rugged individualism for the poor. >> wait a second. >> let me finish. when donald trump gets $800 million in tax breaks and subsidies to build luxury

condominiums, that's socialism for the rich. walmart, we have to subsidize walmart's workers who are on medicaid and food stamps because the wealthiest family in america pays starvation wages, that's socialism for the rich. i believe in democratic socialism for working people, not billionaires, health care for all, educational opportunities for all. >> senator, thank you. the question was about socialism. >> what a wonderful country we have. the best known socialist in the country happens to be a millionaire with three houses. what did i miss here? >> i work in washington, house one. live in burlington, thousands two. like thousands of other vermonters, i have a summer camp. which tax haven is your home? >> new york city, thank you very much and i pay all my taxes and

iep happ i'm happy to do it because i get something for it. i think the senator next to me is half right. i disagree with the senator on the wealth tax but i do agree with her that the rich aren't paying their fair share. we should raise taxes on the rich. i did that as mayor in new york city. i raised taxes. if you take a look at my plans, the first thing i would do is try to convince congress because they've got to do it, we can't j just order it, to roll back the tax cuts that the trump administration put in through congress. >> vice president biden, weigh in on this question of americans' feeling about socialist candidates. >> let me weigh in on for 36 years and vice president i was listed as the poorest man in congress. i made money when i vote a book about my son and it surprised me how much it sold. first time i've ever made any money. here's the deal. the fact is we ought to start

rewarding work, not just wealth. the idea that we have a tax rate for corporate america at 21% is ridiculous. it should be at 28%. that would raise almost $800 billion a year. the idea that we have companies not paying anything at all, they should have a minimum tax of 15%. that would raise another 740 billion a year. the idea that you're able to have a capital gains tax that you pay at the rate of 20% if you are mike bloomberg or whomever that has a whole lot of money and someone else is paying, your staffer is paying at 25% is wrong. that would raise another $800 billion. we should be rewarding work, not just wealth. the american people, the middle class is getting killed and the poor have no way up. >> vice president biden. thank you. chuck. >> mayor buttigieg, i want to get you in on this. in 2000 you wrote an award winning essay. you praised senator sanders.

you specifically praised him for embracing socialism. you have now since said that you are concerned about his policies. but i am curious about this. are you out of touch with your own generation, millennials by a big chunk embrace his version of democratic socialism. you do not. are you out of touch with your generation? >> no. look, it's true that i was into bernie before it was cool. >> thank you. >> he was a congressman at the time. the qualities i admired then are qualities i still respect a great deal. i never said that i agree with every part of his policy views then or now. but i appreciate that at least he's straightforward and honest about them. he's honest about the fact that taxes will go up on anybody making more than $29,000 to fund his health care plan. although again a little bit vague about how the rest of that -- >> you're not being honest. the premiums should be eliminated. >> but you're still raising those taxes. >> but we're saving people money

because they don't pay any premiums out-of-pocket, co-pays or deductibles. >> where is the other $25 trillion supposed to come from? at a certain point you've got to do the math. >> it's a payroll tax. >> even after the payroll tax you still have a hole. >> because we have a wealth tax. elizabeth has a good one. ours is a little bit tougher on mr. bloomberg than hers. we're going to raise it in a progressive way which deals with income and wealth inequality and make certain finally that health care in this country is a human right, not a privilege. >> senator warren, you went out of your way to call yourself a capitalist. >> yeah because i am. >> why? >> because i am. look, democrats want to beat donald trump but they are worried. they are worried about gambling on a narrow vision that doesn't

address the fears of millions of americans across this country who see real problems and want real change. they are worried about gambling on a revolution that won't bring a long a majority of this country. amy and joe's hearts are in the right place, but we can't be so eager to be liked by mitch mcconnell that we forget how to fight the republicans. mayor buttigieg has been taking money from big donors and changing his positions. so it makes it unclear what it is he stands for other than his own -- >> senator klobuchar, go ahead. you got the floor for 45. go. >> number one, i have repeatedly said that we have to win big. the way we win big is winning states like nevada, but also winning the senate races in arizona and in colorado and beyond. the reason we want to do that is

to send mitch mcconnell packing. i think when you look at my history, i am the one that has done that. i am the one that can lead this ticket. just because i am willing to talk about common ground, that's where america is. it is not with mitch mcconnell who has 400 bills on his desk that should pass if we get rid of him. it is because i am willing to work with people and find common ground and that's what we want in a president, elizabeth. we don't want someone that looks at just plans -- >> thank you. we'll take another break here. we'll return in just a moment. ♪ if you have moderate to severe psoriasis... or psoriatic arthritis, little things, can become your big moment. that's why there's otezla. otezla is not an injection or a cream...

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i thougin that moment. illiant we have not said one word tonight about race. not one word. are you kidding me? the heart and soul of this party is diversity. when a kid succeeds in columbia, south carolina - in las vegas, nevada - that is a triumph for every american. people don't know tom steyer. i've known tom steyer for fifteen years. his commitment on racial justice and social justice is rock solid.

i'm tom steyer and i approve this message. ♪ welcome back to las vegas and the democratic presidential debate. to kick off our next round of question, here's hallie.

>> mayor buttigieg, in 2018 mayor bloomberg was the biggest outside spender helping democrats running for congress. he's also donated billions toward causes like climate change, gun safety, education. if his money wasn't a problem then, why is a it problem then? >> i think he should absolutely be doing everything in his power to beat donald trump. i just don't think that has to result in him becoming the president of the united states. our party has values. wrerp built around values like making sure we protect working people. mayor bloomberg proposed raising the minimum wage. our party has a tradition that includes excellent presidents like barack obama who mayor bloomberg opposed. at the end of the day it's not just about how much money you've got. it's what you stand for. we are living in a moment when americans are so deeply frustrated with the way that both wall street and washington seem to have overlooked our lives. the view from the porch of my

one house in indiana is that they can't even see us sometimes. if we're going into the election of our lives against a president who rose to power by cynically exploiting the frustration of ordinary americans feeling like leaders weren't speaking to them, then i think that turning to someone like mayor bloomberg who thinks he can buy this election is no better a way to succeed than turning to somebody like senator sanders who wants to burn the house down. >> mr. vice president. >> if you excuse the point of personal privilege, it was said that i was in the pocket of mitch mcconnell. i'm the only person on this stage that's beaten mitch mcconnell on four major, major cases. let me finish. mitch mcconnell -- i've been the object of his affection and the president's affection the way he's gone after me in this new republican party, after me, after my son, after my family. i don't need to be told i'm a

friend of mitch mcconnell's. mitch mcconnell has been the biggest pain in my neck in a long, long time. that's number one. number two, we have to have somebody who understands what it's like for ordinary people. they have to understand like my dad made that longest walk up a short stairs and said i don't have a job honey, we have to move with grandpa. how long it took to buy a house, how long it took to get back in the game again. they have to understand the needs of ordinary people. they are getting killed no matter what people say about this economy how good it is. the good part of the economy, it's only 60 seconds. it's not up yet. the fact is we're in a situation where you have the president making clear that he doesn't want any part of me being his opponent. he's spending $125,000 this week to keep me from being the opponent. i wonder why. >> can i respond to the vice president?

>> thank you, hallie. >> he's identifying me specifically. >> i was responding to an accusation. >> the point is different. here's what happened. according to the "new york times," the last time that mitch mcconnell was on the ballot, the vice president stood in the oval office and said, i hope that mitch gets reelected so i can keep working with him. well, mitch did -- >> that's totally out of context. >> mitch did get reelected. he did not have an epiphany. instead he blocked nearly everything that barack obama tried to pass. >> did you ever win anything? >> -- a supreme court seat from a democrat. >> come on. >> the consumer financial protection bureau. >> thank you, senator. our next question goes to senator klobuchar. about 700,000 young people known as dreamers who were brought to this country as children are currently protected from deportation because of a program

that is now under review by the supreme court. if the court sides with the trump administration, which is eager to end this protection, what exactly is your plan to protect the dreamers permanently? >> to win, to beat donald trump. the best way to protect the dreamers is to have a new president. there are the votes there to protect the dreamers. i have been working on this since i got to the united states senate. in my first campaign i had a bunch of ads run against me because i was standing up for immigrants. when i think of dreamers and i try to explain it to my state, i found a 99-year-old hispanic war veteran who was a dreamer when he was brought over to this country. and back then he just went to canada for a night and came back and he was a permanent citizen because they needed him to serve in world war ii. now, not so easy. the dreamers are our future. the dreamers are so important in nevada. the best way we can get this

done is to beat donald trump, but it is to pass comprehensive immigration reform which creates a path to citizenship to so many hard working people. we'll bring down the deficit by $158 billion and we'll bring peace for these dreamers. >> thank you so much. >> if you're going to run based on your record of voting in washington, then you have to own those votes, especially when it comes to immigration. you voted to confirm the head of customs and border protection under trump, who is one of the architects of the family separation policy. you voted to make english the national language. do you know the message that sends in as multilingual a state as nevada to immigrants? you have been unusual among democrats. i think the democrat among all of the senators running for president most likely to vote for donald trump's judges, who we know are especially hostile to dreamers and to the rights of immigrants.

in south bend, it was not always easy to stand up in a conservative place like indiana on immigration. but we delivered. we created a municipal id program so dreamers and others undocumented were able to navigate everyday life. we stood with members of our community with the message that they were as american as we are. [ speaking foreign language] >> senator klobuchar. >> i wish everyone was as perfect as you, pete. let me tell you what it's like to be in the arena. number one, do the math. if my friend andrew yang was up here, that's what he'd say. in fact, i have opposed, not supported two-thirds of the trump judges so get your numbers right. i am in the top ten to 15 of opposing them. number two, when it comes to immigration reform, the things that you are referring to, that official that you are referring to was supported by about half the democrats including someone

in this room. andly s li will say this. he was highly recommended by the obama officials. do you know why? because trump had so few career people. i did not one bit agree with these draconian policies to separate kids from their parents. in my first 100 days i would immediately change that. and i would add one more thing. i have been in the arena. ted kennedy, he had made a pretty big allegation against me again and i think i should have a right to respond. >> these are votes that you took and those votes set you alone among the democrats running for president. is it true or false -- >> what you said about the judges are false. you are comparing me to two colleagues up here on this stage and you are forgetting one thing. >> senator harris, senator booker saw through this. >> let me finish. since i have been in the arena, ted kennedy asked me to work on the first immigration bill. we were able with president bush to at least get that bill to a vote.

i'm sorry that senator sanders actually opposed that bill and i worked on it. if we had gotten that bill done, there would have been a path to citizenship for so many people. then i worked on the 2013 bill. i'm actually so proud of the work i have done on immigration reform. you know what? you have not been in the arena doing that work. you've memorized a bunch of talking points and a bunch of things, but i can tell you one thing. what the people of this country want, they want a leader that has the heart for the immigrants of this country and that is me. >> maybe leading a diverse city that was facing ruin doesn't sound like the arena to you. i'm used to senators telling mayors that senators are more important than mayors, but this is the arena too. you don't have to be in washington to matter. you don't have to be on capitol hill -- >> guys, guys, we are at the end here. we are at the end here. i've got to let that one go. we are less than two weeks away

from a national primary. i want to ask all of you this simple question. there's a very good chance none of you are going to have enough delegates. to the democratic national convention to clench this nomination, okay? if that happens, i want all of your opinions on this. should the person with the most delegates at the end of this primary season be the nominee even if they are short of a majority? senator sanders, i'm going to let you go last year because i know your view on this. so instead i will start with you, mayor bloomberg. >> whatever the rules of the democratic party are, they should be followed. if they have a process, which i believe they do -- >> so you want the convention to work its will? >> yes. >> senator warren? >> but a convention working its will means people have the delegates that are pledged to them and they keep those delegates until you come to the convention. >> vice president biden? >> play by the rules. >> yes or no, leading person with the delegates, should they be the nominee or not.

>> no. >> buttigieg. >> no. >> senator klobuchar. >> let the process work. >> senator sanders. >> the process includes 500 super delegates on the second ballot. i think the will of the people should prevail, yes. the person with the most votes should become the nominee. >> we are not done yet. we're back with more from las vegas after a short break. ever since we moved here, i've been noticing it. i think the house is changing him... -[ gasps ] -up and at 'em! ...into his father. [ eerie music plays ] is it scary? -[ gasps ] -it's in eco mode. so don't touch it. mm-hmm. i can't stop this from swinging. must be a draft in here. but he did save a bunch of money bundling our home and auto with progressive. progressive can't protect you from becoming your parents, but we can protect your home and auto when you bundle with us. -hello? -sorry, honey. [ telephone beeps ] butt dial. with tender crisp technology.

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leadership that makes a difference. vo: a great president and an effective mayor. obama: he's been a leader throughout the country for the past twelve years, mr. michael bloomberg is here. vo: together they worked to combat gun violence, and again to improve education for every child. obama: i want to thank the mayor of this great city, mayor bloomberg, for his extraordinary leadership.

i share your determination to bring this country together to finally make progress for the american people. bloomberg: i'm mike bloomberg, and i approve this message. fisn't just about polar bears. we're fighting for our lives, we're fighting for clean air and clean water. that's why i wrote the law to send billions from polluters to communities suffering the most. and only one candidate for president was with us back then, tom steyer. and he's still fighting for us, pledging to make clean air and

clean water a right for everyone, regardless of your zip code. that's the truth. that's tom steyer. i'm tom steyer and i approve this message. ♪ welcome back, everyone. it is time for closing statements. each candidate will have one minute. we begin with senator klobuchar. >> this has been quite a debate. what i want everyone out there watching to remember is that what unites us is so much bigger than what divides us and that we need a candidate that can bring people with her. yes, a fired up democratic base, but also independents and moderate republicans. and i have done that every single time i have won every

race down to fourth grade. a lot of boasting up here so thought i'd add that. secondly, you need someone who can govern. i have passed over 100 bills as a lead democrat. and third, you need someone that has the heart to be the president. they were talking a lot about heart conditions up here. we have a president right now that doesn't have a heart. i love the people of this country and i ask for the vote of the people of nevada, because this state gets it. they get that maybe you don't agree with every single thing that's said on this debate stage, but we understand that the heart of america is bigger than any heart that guy has in the white house. i ask you to join me at amyklobuchar.com. thank you. >> mayor bloomberg. >> you can join me at mikebloomberg.com too if you want. but i'm not asking for any money. look, this is a management job

and donald trump's not a manager. this is a job where you have to build teams. he doesn't have a team so he goes and makes decisions without knowing what's going on or the implications of what he does. we cannot run the railroad this way. this country has to pull together and understand that the people that we elect -- and it's not just the president of the united states -- they should have experience, they should have credentials, they should understand what they're doing and the implications thereof. and then we should as a society try to hold them accountable so the next time they go before the voters, if they haven't done the job, we shouldn't just say, oh, nice person, gives a good speech. we should say, didn't do the job and you're out of here. >> mr. mayor, thank you. >> mayor buttigieg, one minute. >> nevada, i'm asking for your vote because america is running out of time and this is our only chance to defeat donald trump. if you look at the choice between a revolution or the status quo and you don't see

where you fit in that picture, then join us. go to peteforamerica.com and help out because we need to draw everybody that we can who believes that we need to empower workers, who believes in climate science, who believes in doing something about gun violence and recognizes that the only way we can do this is to create a sense of belonging in this country that moves us out of the toxic and polarized moment that we are living in today. i already see an american majority ready to do these things. now we have a responsibility to galvanize, not polarize, that majority. we cannot afford to lean on the same washington playbook. we cannot afford to alienate half the country. we must step forward into the future in order to win and in order to govern a country that will be facing issues the likes of which we barely thought of just a few years ago. i'm asking you to join me so we can deliver that future

together. >> senator warren. >> i grew up fighting. i grew up out in oklahoma and i learned it probably from my mother. i watched when my daddy had a heart attack and didn't have any money coming in, when our car was lost and when we were on the edge of losing our home. i watched my mother fight to save our family. i grew up fighting to save our family, my family. i eventually made it through school and spent my life as a teacher and looking into why it is that so many families across this country are struggling and why it gets worse year after year after year. i for years have fought for unions to say the way we're going to restructure this economy is we're going to make it easier to join a union and get more power into unions. to fight for students who have been cut out of opportunity over and over because of the rising cost of an education. look, for me i am of all the

people on this stage i have been a politician the shortest time but i've been the one out fighting for families the longest time. i promise you this. give me a chance, i'll go to the white house and i'll fight for your family. >> thank you, senator. >> vice president biden. >> i'm running because so many people -- [ indiscernible ] >> give us a moment. we'll clear the room and let -- senator biden, you have one minute. >> i'm running because so many people are being left behind. people i grew up with in scranton when my dad lost his

job, lost his house, had to move. we found ourself in a position where we had little ability to get anything done and my dad worked like hell. i've learned a lot. i've been knocked down a whole hell of a lot. we have to provide some safety and security for the american people. right here in nevada the site of the most significant mass murder in american history, guns. our kids are getting sent to school having to hide under desks, learning how to run down corridors to avoid being shot. it's immoral. i'm the only one who's beaten the nra nationally and i beat them twice. with regard to health care, obamacare has to be expanded. it can be in fact cover everybody. lastly i think it's important that on day one we deal with senate and immigration bill to the desk. the only person in here that has a worse record on immigration is bernie because bernie voted against the 2007 bill. had that immigration bill passed, there would be 6 million members would be now american

citizens. >> all right. senator sanders, you have one minute. >> unfortunately groups say that bill having provisions akin to slavery, joe. but the bottom line is all of us are united defeating the most dangerous president in the modern history of this country. that we agree on. where we don't agree, i think, is why we are today the only major country on earth not to guarantee health care to all people. why three people have more wealth than the bottom half of america when 500,000 people sheep o sleep out on the street. why hundreds of thousands bright young kids can't afford to go to college and remain in student debt. real change never takes place from the top on down, never takes place from an oligarchy controlled by billionaires. we need to mobilize millions of

people to stand up for justice. that's our campaign. join us as berniesanders.com. thank you. >> senator, thank you. folks, thank you. that concludes tonight's debate. our thanks to my fellow moderators, to the candidates and of course to all of you the audience here at at home. the nevada caucuses are this saturday with the south carolina primary just one week later. then the big prize, super tuesday on march 3rd. we'll be following it all for you. for now, for all of us at nbc news i'm lester holt. good day. ♪ . - cancer is a heavy lift, but there's strength in community. once i let them in, it was a real comfort. - truth is, she trusts phillip. that night in my car, she was coming to show me her ring.