we're in a battle for the soul of america. >> we're ready to build this majority. >> we need big ideas. >> we are in this together. >> it's time for us to remember who we are. >> this is a fight that is borne out of optimism. >> it's also about how we govern because we are one america. >> i'm talking about changing washington. >> to restore the principles of integrity.

>> let's show them what we've got. let's show them what humanity can do. >> the msnbc/"washington post" democratic presidential debate live from atlanta, georgia and the tyler perry studios. here is rachel maddow. [ cheers and applause ] hello and welcome to the msnbc/"washington post" democratic candidates debate. at least some of us are very, very happy to be here tonight. i'm rachel maddow here in atlanta, georgia, tonight with my fellow moderators. andrea mitchell is nbc news chief foreign affairs correspondent and host of "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. ashley parker, white house reporter for "the washington post." and kristen welker is nbc news white house correspondent. >> we'll be covering a wide range of topics tonight including national security,

race, and climate. each candidate will have 1 minute, 15 seconds to answer our questions and 45 seconds if we need to follow up. and we ask the audience to respect the candidates and please don't interrupt. >> there's ten candidates here tonight. no time to waste. let's get right to it. we're in the middle of the fourth presidential impeachment proceedings in our nation's history. ambassador gordon sondland delivered testimony today in the house impeachment inquiry that buttressed the case that president trump withheld military aid to ukraine and a white house meeting with president zelensky because he wanted the ukrainian president to announce investigations that would benefit president trump politically. senator warren, you have said already that you've seen enough to convict the president and remove him from office. you and four of your colleagues on this stage tonight who are also u.s. senators may soon have to take that vote. will you try to convince your republican colleagues in the senate to vote the same way?

and if so, how? >> of course i will. and the obvious answer is to say first read the mueller report. all 442 pages of it that showed how the president tried to obstruct justice. and when congress failed to act that that moment, and that the president felt free to break the law again and again and again. and that's what's happened with ukraine. we have to establish the principle no one is above the law. we have a constitutional responsibility, and we need to meet it. but i want to add one more part based on today's testimony and that is how did ambassador sondland get there. you know, this is not a man who had any qualifications except one. he wrote a check for a million dollars. and that tells us about what's happening in washington, the corruption. how money buys its way into washington. you know, i raised this months ago about the whole notion that donors think they're going to get ambassadorships on the other side. and i've taken a pledge. anyone who wants to give me a

big donation, don't ask to be an ambassador because i'm not going to have that happen. i asked everyone who's running for president to join me in that. and not a single person has so far. i hope what we saw today during the testimony means lots of people will sign on and say we are not going to give away the ambassador posts to the highest bidder. >> senator warren, thank you. senator klobuchar, you've said you support the impeachment inquiry but you want to wait for a senate trial to hear the evidence and make a decision about convicting the president. after the bombshell testimony of ambassador sondland today, has that view changed for you? >> i have made it very clear that this is impeachable conduct. and i've called for an impeachment proceeding. i just believe our job as jurors is to look at each count and make a decision. but let me make very clear that what this impeachment proceeding about is really our democracy at stake. this is president that not only

with regard to his conduct with ukraine but every step of the way puts his own private interests, his own partisan interests, his own political interests in front of our country's interests. and this is wrong. this is pattern with this man, and it goes to everything from how he has betrayed our farmers and our workers to what he has done with foreign affairs. leaving the kurds for slaughter, sucking up to vladimir putin every minute of the day. that is what this guy does. and i think it is very, very important that we have a president that's going to put our country first. i was thinking about this when i was at the carter presidential museum, and on the wall are etched the words of walter mondale when he looked back at their four years, not perfect. and he said this. we tell the truth, we obey the law, we kept the peace. we told the truth, we obeyed the law, we kept the peace. that is the minimum we should

expect in a president of the united states. >> senator, thank you. senator sanders, i'd like to go to you. americans are watching these impeachment hearings at the same time they're also focused on the more immediate daily and economic and family concerns. how central should the president's conduct uncovered by this impeachment inquiry be to any democratic nominee's campaign for president? how central would it be to yours? >> well, rachel, sadly we have a president who is not only a pathological liar, he's likely the most corrupt president in the modern history of america. but we cannot simply be consumed by donald trump. because if we are, you know what? we're going to lose the election. right now you've got 87 million people who have no health insurance or underinsured. we're facing the great existential crisis of our time in terms of climate change. you've got 500,000 people sleeping out on the street and

you got 18 million people paying half of their limited incomes for housing. what the american people can understand is that the congress can walk and chew bubble gum at the same time. in other words, we can deal with trump's corruption but we also have to stand up for the working families of this country. we also have to stand up to the fact that our political system is corrupt, dominated by a handful of billionaires. and that our economy is rigged with three people owning more wealth than the bottom half of america. we can do it all when we rally the american people in the cause of justice. >> mayor buttigieg, let me put the same question to you. how central should the president's conduct uncovered by the impeachment inquiry be to a democratic nominee's campaign? how central would it be to yours? >> well, the constitutional process of impeachment should be beyond politics, and it is not part of the campaign but the

president's conduct is. the impeachable conduct that we have seen and the abuse of power that we're learning more about in the investigations, but just to be clear, the president's already confessed to it on television. but that's just part of what we've seen. under normal circumstances a president would leave office after something that was revealed recently that barely got any attention at all, which was the president had to confess in writing, in court to illegally diverting charitable contributions that were supposed to go to veterans. we are absolutely going to confront this president for his wrongdoing, but we are also each running for be the president who will lead the country once the trump presidency comes to an end one way or the other. and running to be the president for that day the sun comes up and the trump presidency is behind us, which will be a tender moment in the life of this country. and we are going to have to unify a nation that will be as divided as ever. and while doing it, address big issues that didn't take a vacation for the impeachment process or for the trump presidency as a whole, a climate

approaching the point of no return. the fact we've still got to act on health care, kids learning active shooter drills before they learn to read. and an economy where even the dow jones is looking good, far too many americans have to fight like hell just to hold onto what they've got. >> mr. mayor -- >> those are the crises that will be awaiting the next president and will be at the heart of our campaign. >> mr. mayor, thank you. andrea? >> vice president biden, you've suggested in your campaign if you defeat president trump, republicans will start working with democrats again. but right now republicans are demanding investigations not only of you but also of your son. how would you get those same republicans to work with you? >> well, look, the next president of the united states is going to have to do two things. defeat donald trump, that's number one. and number two, going to have to be able to go into states like georgia and north carolina and other places and get a senate majority. that's what i'll do.

you have to ask yourself up here who is most likely to be able to win the nomination in the first place, to win the presidency in the first place? and secondly, who is most likely to increase the number of people who are democrats in the house and in the senate? and by the way, i learned something about these impeachment trials. i learned number one that donald trump doesn't want me to be the nominee. that's pretty clear. he held up aid to make sure that while at the same time innocent people in the dombas are getting killed by russian soldiers. and secondly i found out that vladimir putin doesn't want me to be president. so i've learned a lot about these early on from these hearings that are being held. but the bottom line is i think we have to ask ourselves the honest question, who is most likely to do what needs to be done? produce a democratic majority in the united states senate, maintain the house and beat trump. >> senator harris, your thoughts about that. >> well, first of all, we have a criminal living in the white

house. and there is no question that in 2020 the biggest issue before us until we get to that tender moment is justice is on the ballot. and what we saw today is ambassador sondland by his own words told us that everyone was in the loop. that means it is a criminal enterprise engaged in by the president from what we heard today, the vice president, the secretary of state and the chief of staff. and so this not only points to the corrupt nature of this administration and the need for these impeachment proceedings to go forward, but it also point to another issue. and back to the question that you asked earlier, which what does this mean for the american people? because what it means when i watched this is there are clearly two different set of rules for two different groups of people in america. the powerful people who with their arrogance think they can get away with this and then everybody else. because here's the thing, those

working people working two or three jobs, if they don't pay that credit card bill by the end of the month they get a penalty for the people that don't pay their rent, the get evicted. for the people who shoplift, they go to jail. we need the same set of rules for everybody and part of the reason i'm running for president is to say that we have to bring justice back to america for all people and not just for some. >> thank you, senator. senator warren, you have cast yourself as a fighter. if you were elected, though, you would be walking into an existing fight. a country that is already very divided over the trump presidency among other things. do you see that divide as permanent, or do you need to bring the country together if you become president to achieve your goals? >> so i think the way we achieve our goals and bring our country together is we talk about the things that unite us. and that is that we want to build an america that works for the people, not one that just works for rich folks. you know, i have proposed a 2 cent wealth tax. that is tax for everybody who

has more than $50 billion in assets. your first $50 billion is free and clear. but your 50 billion and first dollar you've got to pitch in 2 cents. and when you hit $1 billion, you got to pitch in a few pennies more. and doing a welt tax is not about punishing anyone. it's about saying you built something great in this country, good for you. but you did it using workers all of us helped pay to educate. you did it getting your goods to roads and bridges all of us helped to pay for. you did it protected by police and firefighters all of of us helped pay the salaries for. so when you make it big, when you make it top one tenth of 1% big, pitch in 2 cents so everybody else gets a chance to make it. and here's the thing, that's something democrats care about, independents care about and republicans care about. because regardless of party affiliation people understand across this country our government is working better and better for the billionaires, the

rich, for the well-connected and worse and worse for everyone else. we come together when we acknowledge that. >> thank you, senator. senator booker, do you agree with that strategy? >> well, first of all, i think we all agree that we need to bring in a lot more revenue in this country. we actually have a real problem with the tax rates, tax loopholes, tax cheats. and i don't agree with the wealth tax the way that elizabeth warren puts it, but i agree we need to raise the estate tax. we need to tax capital gains as ordinary income. real strategies will increase revenue. but here's the challenge, we as democrats need to fight for a just taxation system. but as i travel around the country we democrats also have to talk about how to grow wealth as well. when i stood in church recently and asked folks in a black church how many people here want to be entrepreneurs, half the church raised their hands. if we as a country don't start -- if we as a party don't start talking about how not just to

tax weathlth, but to give peopl more opportunities to grow businesses, to have their american dream. because we need to raise the minimum wage. $15 an hour. but people in communities i frequent their aspiration for their lives is not just to have fair wages. they want to have an economy that provides not just equality in wealth, but they want equality in opportunities and that's what our party has to be about as well. >> senator warren, you want to respond? >> sure. let me tell you what we can do with that 2 cent tax wealth. 2 cents on the of one-tenth of 1% in this country and we can provide universal child care for every baby in this country 0 to 5. that is transformative. we can provide universal pre-k for every 3-year-old and 4-year-old in america. we can stop exploiting the women, largely black and brown women who do this work. and we can raise the wages of every childcare worker and pre-school teacher in america. we can put $800 billion new federal dollars into all of our public schools.

we can make college tuition-free for every kid. we can put $50 billion into historically black colleges and universities. and we can cancel student loan debt for 95% of the folks who have got it. 2 cent wealth tax and we can invest in an entire generations future. >> let me let senator booker respond. >> sure. >> you know, again, i agree with the need to do all of those things. we're all united in wanting to see universal preschool. and i'll fight for that. we're all united in wanting to fund hbcus. heck, i wouldn't be here if it wasn't for two parents that went to hbcus, but the tax the way we're putting it forward, the wealth tax, i'm sorry, it's cumbersome. it's been tried by the nation. it's hard to evaluate. we as democrats have got to start talking not just how we tax from a stage, but how we grow weather in this country amongst those disadvantaged communities that are not seeing it. look at vc dollars in this country. 75% go to three metropolitan areas.

there is worth in the inner city. there is value in our rural areas. if i am president of the united states we're going to have a fair just taxation where millionaires and billionaires pay their fair share, but, dear god we're going to have pathways to prosperity for more americans. we're going to see a change in what we see right now. small businesses, new startups are going down in this country. >> just your last thoughts. >> so the idea what is fair, today the 99% in america are on track to pay about 7.2% of their total wealth in taxes. >> i'm not disagreeing with that. >> the top one tenth of 1% that i want to see pay 2 cents more, they'll pay 3.2% in america. i'm tired of freeloading billionaires. i think it's time we ask those at the very top to pay more so every single one of your children -- >> everybody's tired of

corporations getting away with paying zero in taxes. i'm not disagreeing with that. >> thank you, senator warren. mayor buttigieg you have said, quote, i will never allow us to get so wrapped up in the fighting we start to think fighting is the point. the republican party never stopped fighting president obama in his eight years in office. so what would you do that president obama didn't do to change that? >> well, as president obama commented recently, we are now in a different reality that we were even 12 years ago. and to me the extraordinary potential of the moment we're in right now is that there is an american majority that stands ready to tackle big issues. that didn't exist in the same way even a few years ago. even on issues where democrats have been on defense like immigration and guns, we have a majority to do the right thing. if we can galvanize not polarize that majority. for example, on health care, the reason i insist on medicare for all who want it as the strategy to deliver on that goal we share of universal health care is that that is something that as a

governing strategy we can unify the american people around. creating a version of medicare, making it available to anybody who wants it, but without the divisive step of ordering people onto it whether they want to or not. and i believe that commanding people to accept that option, whether we wait three years as senator warren has proposed or whether you do it right out of the gate is not the right approach to unify the american people around a very, very big transformation that we now have an opportunity to deliver. >> thank you, mr. mayor. kristen welker. >> let's talk about medicare for all. senator warren, you are running on medicare for all. democrats have been winning elections even in red states with a very different message on health care. protecting obamacare, democrats are divided on this issue. what do you say to voters who are worried that your position on medicare for all could cost you critical votes in the general election? >> so i look out and i see ten of millions of americans

who are struggling to pay their medical bills. 37 million people who decided not not to have a prescription filled because they just can't afford it. people who didn't take the test the doctor recommended because they just couldn't afford it. so here's my plan. let's get as much help to the american people as we can as fast as we can. on day one as president i will do -- bring down the cost of prescription drugs of things like insulin and epipens. that's going to save tens of millions, hundreds of millions of dollars for people. i'm going to defend the affordable care act from the sabotage of the trump administration. and in the first hundred days i want to bring in 135 million people into medicare for all at no cost to them. everybody under the age of 18, everybody who has a family of four income less than $50,000. i'm going to lower the age of medicare to 50 and expand

medicare coverage to include vision and dental and long-term care. and then in the third year when people have had a chance to feel it and taste it and live with it, we're going to vote and we're going to want to medicare for all. >> senator, thank you, senator. senator sanders, let me bring you into this conversation. >> thank you. i wrote the damn bill. >> well, i want to ask you the question this way, senator sanders. you describe your campaign, including your plans for medicare for all, as a political revolution. >> yes. >> president obama explicitly said the country is, quote, less revolutionary than it is interested in improvement. the average american doesn't think we have to completely teardown the system and remake it, end quote. is president obama wrong? >> no, he's right. we don't have to teardown the system, but we do have to do what the american people want. and the american people understand today that the current health care system is not only cruel, it is dysfunctional. now, you tell me how we have a system in which we spend twice

as much as the people of any other country, and yet we've got 87 million uninsured, underinsured. in some cases we pay ten times more for prescription drugs as do the people of canada or other countries. 500,000 people go bankrupt because of medically related issues. they come down with cancer, and that's a reason to go bankrupt? now some of the people up here think that we should not take on the insurance industry, we should not take on the pharmaceutical industry. but you know what? if you think back to fdr and jfk and harry truman and barack obama, as a matter of fact, people have been talking about health care for all. well, you know what? i think now is the time. and in the first week of my administration we will introduce medicare for all, medicare for

all, that means no deductibles, no co-payments, no out-of-pocket expenses. >> may i respond? >> thank you, senator sanders. vice president biden? >> you know, we can do this without charging people -- raising 30, $40 trillion. the fact is that right now the vast majority of democrats do not support medicare for all. it couldn't pass the united states senate right now with democrats. it couldn't pass the house. nancy pelosi is one of those people who doesn't think it makes sense. we should build on obamacare, provide the plan i put forward before anyone in here, adding a medicare option in that plan, and not make people choose. allow people to choose i should say. if you go the route of my two friends to my right and my left, you have to give up your private insurance. 160 million people like their private insurance. and if they dent like it they can buy into a medicare proposal like in my plan.

drug prices go down, premiums go down across the board. but here's the deal, they get to choose. i trust the american people to make a judgment what they believe is in their interest and not demand of them with the insurance companies. they want no competition. and my friends say you have to only go medicare for all. >> vice president biden, thank you. ashley? >> congresswoman gabbard, you have criticized hillary clinton as the, quote, personification of the rot that has sickened the democratic party. what is the rot you see in the democratic party? >> that our democratic party, unfortunately, is not the party that is of, by and for the people. it is a party that has been and continues to be influenced by the foreign policy establishment in washington represented by hillary clinton and others foreign policy, by the military industrial complex and other greedy corporate interests. i'm running for president to be the democratic nominee that rebuilds our democratic party,

takes it out of their hands and truly puts it in the hands of the people of this country. a party that actually hears the voices of americans who are struggling all across this country. and puts it in the hands of veterans and fellow americans who are calling for an end to this ongoing bush, clinton, trump foreign policy doctrine of regime change wars, overthrowing dictators in other countries. needlessly sending my brothers and sisters in uniform into harm's way to fight in wars that actually undermine our national security and have cost us trillions of dollars since 9/11 alone. dollars that come out of our pockets, our hospitals, our schools, our infrastructure needs. as president i will end this foreign policy and this regime change war, and instead invest

our hard earned taxpayer dollars actually into serving the needs of the american people right here at home. >> senator harris, any response? >> oh, sure. i think that it's unfortunate that we have someone on this stage who is attempting to be the democratic nominee for president of the united states, who during the obama administration spent four years full-time on fox news criticizing president obama. >> that's ridiculous, senator harris. that's ridiculous. >> who has spent full-time criticizing people on this stage as affiliated with the democratic party. when donald trump was elected, not even sworn in, buddied up to steve bannon to get a meeting with donald trump in the trump tower, fails to call a war criminal by what he is as a war criminal. and then spends full time during the course of this campaign, again, criticizing the democratic party.

what we need on the stage in november is someone who has the ability to win. and by that, we need someone on that stage who has the ability to go toe-to-toe with donald trump, and someone who has the ability to rebuild the obama coalition and bring the party and the nation together. i believe i am that candidate. >> thank you, senator. congresswoman gabbard, i'll give you a chance to respond. >> what senator harris is doing is unfortunately continuing to traffic in lies and smears and innuendos because she cannot challenge the substance of the argument that i'm making, the leadership and the change that i'm seeking to bring in our foreign policy, which only makes me guess that she will as president continue the status quo, continue the bush/clinton/trump foreign policy of regime change wars, which is deeply destructive. this is personal to me because i served in iraq. i left my seat in the state legislator in hawaii, volunteered to deploy to iraq

where i served in the medical unit where every single day i saw the terribly high human cost of war. i take very seriously the responsibility that the president has to serve as commander in chief, to lead our armed forces and to make sure always -- no, i'm not going to put party interests first. i will put the interests of the american people above all else. >> thank you, congresswoman. i want to briefly give senator harris a final second to respond. >> i believe what our nation needs right now is a nominee who can speak to all people. i spent my entire career standing mostly in a courtroom speaking five words, kamala harris for the people. and it was about all the people regardless of their race, regardless of their gender, regardless of where they lived geographically, regardless of the party with which they're registered to vote or the language their grandmother speaks. we need someone who has the ability to unify the country and win the election. and i believe, again, i am that

candidate. >> thank you, senator. >> thank you. >> mr. steyer, you have denounced the special interests that pour hundreds of millions of dollars into the political process to influence it, but, in fact, you have spent over $300 million of your own money in support of your political goals. how do you respond to critics who see you as the embodiment of a special interest? >> what i've done over the last decade is to put together coalitions of ordinary americans to take on unchecked corporate power. we have a broken government in washington, d.c. it's been purchased by corporations. over the last decade with the help of the american people we have taken on and beaten the oil companies. we have taken on and beaten the tobacco companies. we have taken on and beaten utilities. we've taken on and beaten the drug companies. i've also built one of the largest grass roots organizations in the united states. last year next gen america did

the largest youth voter mobilization in american history. i also in partnership with seven national unions knocked on 15 million doors in 2016 and 10 million in 2018. what i've done is to try to push power down to the american people, to take power away from the corporations who have bought our government. and i'm talking about structural reform in washington, d.c. term limits. if you want bold change in the united states, you're going to have to have new and different people in charge. i'm the only person on this stage who will talk about term limits. vice president biden want, senator sanders won't. even pete buttigieg will not talk about term limits and structural change. i will let the american people pass laws themselves through direct democracy. it's time to push the power back to the people and away from d.c. >> mr. steyer, thank you. senator klobuchar, your response. >> i just want to stick up for

tom. tom is one of the good ones. >> i'm someone that doesn't come from money and i appreciate the work of mr. steyer. but right now we have a system that's not fair and not just fair from money. i would start a constitutional amendment and pass it to overturn citizens united. that's what we should do so that we stop this dark money and outside money from coming into our politics. i have led the way on voting, and i can tell you right now one solution that would make a huge difference in this state would be allow every kid in the country to register to vote when they turn 18. if we had a system like this and we did something about gerrymandering and did something significant about making sure we don't have money in politics from the outside, stacey abrams would be governor of this state right now. and that's what should have happened. >> thank you, senator. >> while i appreciate his work, i am someone that doesn't come from money. i see my husband out there. my first senate race i literally called everyone i knew and i

raised $17,000 from ex-boyfriends. [ laughter ] >> and i'd like to point out it is not an expanding base, so i don't just think this with my head, i feel it in my heart. >> thank you, mrs. klobuchar. mr. yang, i want to bring you in. you've made a virtue of your outsider status. you've nerve served in military or the government. what has prepared you to respond to a terrorist attack or a major disaster? >> well, first, i want to stick up for tom. we have a broken system and tom has spent his money fighting climate change. you can't knock someone spending money in the right way, in my opinion. >> thanks, andrew. >> no problem. as commander in chief i think we need to be focused on the real threats of the 21st century. and what are those threats? climate change, artificial intelligence, loose nuclear material, military drones and non-state actors. and if you look up we're in the process of potentially losing

the ai arms race to china right now because they have more access to more data than we do, and their government is putting billions of dollars to work subsidizing the development of ai in a way that we are not. we are 24 years behind on technology. and i can say that with authority because we got rid of the office of technology assessment in 1995. think about that timing. i guess they thought they'd invented everything. the next commander in chief has to be focused on the true threats of tomorrow. and that's what i will bring to the table as commander in chief. >> thank you, mr. yang. andrea? >> mayor buttigieg, let's talk about your record as a candidate. you were elected mayor in a democratic city receiving just under 11,000 votes. and in your only statewide race you lost by 25 points. why should democrats take the risk of betting on you? >> because i have the right experience to take on donald trump. i get that it's not traditional

establishment washington experience, but i would argue we need something very different right now. in order to defeat this president, we need somebody who go toe-to-toe, who actually comes from the kinds of communities that he's been appealing to. i don't talk a big game about helping the working class while helicoptering between golf courses with my name on them. i don't even golf. as a matter of fact, i never thought i'd be on a "forbes" magazine list but they did one of all the candidates by wealth, and i am literally the least wealthy person on this stage. i also wore the uniform of this country and know what is at stake in the decisions that are made in the oval office and in the situation room. and i know how to bring people together to get things done. i know that from the perspective of washington what goes on in my city might look small, but frankly where we live the infighting on capitol hill is what looks small. the usual way of doing business in washington is what looks small. and i believe we need to send somebody in who has a different kind of experience.

the experience on the ground solving problems, working side by side with neighbors on some of the toughest issues that come up in government. recognizing what is required of executive leadership, and bringing that to washington so that washington can start looking a little more like our best run communities in the heartland before the other way around starts to happen. >> thank you, mayor. senator klobuchar, you said this of mayor buttigieg. quote, of the women on the stage do i think we would be standing on that stage if we had the experience he had, no i don't. maybe we're held to a different standard. senator, what did you mean by that? >> first of all, i made very clear i think that pete is qualified to be up on this stage, and i am honored to be standing next to him. but what i said is true. women are held to a higher standard. otherwise we could play a game called name your favorite woman president, which we can't do because it has all been men.

and all vice presidents being men. and i think any working woman out there, any woman that's at home knows exactly what i mean. we have to work harder, and that's a fact. but i want to dispel one thing because for so long why has this been happening? i don't think you have to be the tallest person on this stage to be president. i don't think you have to be the skinniest person. i don't think you have the loudest voice on this stage. i don't think that means you will be the one that should be president. i think what matters is if you're smart, if you're competent, and if you get things done. i am the one that has passed over a hundred bills as the lead democrat in that gridlock of washington in congress on this stage. i think you've got to win, and i am the one, mr. vice president, that has been able to win every red and purple congressional district as a lead on a ticket every time. i govern both with my head and my heart. and if you think a woman can't beat donald trump, nancy pelosi does it every single day.

>> mr. vice president, do you have a quick response? >> i think a woman is qualified to be president and there's no reason why. if you think a woman is the most qualified person now, you should vote for them. the reason why i think i should be president and be the nominee is, number one, i have brought people together my entire career. in the united states senate i've pass more legislation than anybody on this stage combined. from the violence against women act to making sure we have the chemical weapons treaty and a whole range of things i've been engaged in my whole career. i've done it. i've brought people together. i'm always told by everybody around here things have changed, you can't do that anymore. i thought the question was initially asked of the senator, how do you unify this country? we have to unify this country. i have done it. i've done it repeatedly. and lastly, to be commander in chief there's no time for on the job training. i've spent more time in the

situation room, more time abroad, more time than anybody up here. i know every major leader. i they know me and when i speak who we're for and against and what we'll do, and we'll keep our word. >> thank you, mr. vice president. ashley? >> senator booker, one of the defining characteristics of the trump presidency is that the american people hear from him directly all the time about everything, on twitter and just about everywhere else. setting aside your views of his tone is that unfiltered communication something you as president would continue? is this one of the norms broken by president trump that needed to change? >> so, look, this president has broken norms as you've said. he used his platforms to demean, degrade and divide this country in ways that are repugnant and appalling. but the next president whoever they are is going to have to be someone who can heal and bring this nation together, this whole nation. so absolutely in that office i will do whatever it takes to

make sure we bring this country together. but it's not for a kumbaya moment. we are a nation that achieves great things when we stand together and work together and fight together. so, absolutely. when i was the mayor of the largest city in my state -- this is where i agree with mayor pete. mayoral experience is very important and i happen to be the other rohde scholar mayor on this stage. and what i learned there is you have to be an executive that can heal. in my city we have racial divides. we have geographic divides that go from wealth to people that are struggling. the success of my city was because we brought us all together and did things that other people said couldn't be done. when i am president of the united states, my campaign from the very beginning has not changed. my charge is to see a nation right now which has so much common pain, to channel that back into a sense of common purpose. and i will do whatever it takes

bringing creativity to that office like it's never been seen before. >> thank you, senator. rachel? >> chants of "lock her up" are still heard at president trump's rallies today. now some opponents of the president are turning the same slogan against him. they've chanted "lock him up" at a recent world series game in washington and at a veterans day event in new york. and senator sanders, at at least two of your campaign events recently. senator, should democrats discourage this or are you okay with it? >> well, i think the people of this country are catching on to the degree that this president thinks he is above the law. and what the american people are saying, nobody is above the law. and i think what the american people are also saying is, in fact, that if this president did

break the law, he should be prosecuted like any other individual who breaks the law. but at the end of the day, what we need to do is to bring our people together not just in opposition to trump. the initial question i think that you wrote -- that somebody raised here was that we are a divided nation. you know what, i kind of reject that. i think when you talk about the pain of working families in this country, majority of the american people want to raise the minimum wage to a living wage. when you talk about the climate crisis, the overwhelming majority of the american people know that it is real. they know we have to take on the fossil fuel industry. they know we have to transform our energy system away from fossil fuel to energy efficiency and sustainable energy. even on issues like guns, the american people are coming together to end the horrific level of gun violence.

so i believe, yeah, we've got to deal with trump. but we also have to have an agenda that brings our people together so that the wealth and income doesn't just go to the people on top but to all of us. >> vice president biden, let me ask you to pick up on the issue that senator sanders just raised of no one being above the law. when president ford pardoned president nixon he said it was to heal the country. would you support a potential criminal investigation into president trump after he leaves office even if you thought it might further inflame the country's divisions? >> look, i would not direct my justice department like this president does. i'd let them make their independent judgment. i would not dictate who should be prosecuted or who should be exonerated. that's not the role of the president of the united states. it's the attorney general of the united states, not the president's attorney -- private attorney. so i would -- whatever was determined by the attorney general i supported, that i appointed, let them make an

independent judgement. if that was the judgment that he violated the law and he should be, in fact, criminally prosecuted, then so be it. but i would not direct it. and i don't think it's a good idea that we mock -- that we model ourselves after trump and say "lock him up." look, we have to bring this country together. let's talk civilly to people, and treating, you know, the next president who starts tweeting should -- anyway -- it just -- look, it's about civility. we have to restore the soul of this country, and that's not who we are, that's not who we've been, that's not who we should be. follow the law. let the justice department make the judgment whether or not someone should be prosecuted, period. >> senator sanders, let me ask you briefly to respond to that, your difference of opinion there with vice president biden. >> no, i think joe is right. i think it is the function of the attorney general, but what i

am of the opinion is that the american people now do believe -- and the more they see these impeachment hearings on television, they do believe that we have a president who thinks he's above the law. we have a president who has engaged in corruption. we have a president who has obstructed justice and in my view someone who's violated the emoluments clause. i think joe is right, that is a function of an independent department of justice. but my inclination is that the american people do believe that this president is in violation of the law. >> can i respond very quickly? >> briefly, senator. >> distinction, should he be impeached and should he be thrown out of office? that's one question. he's indicted himself. number two, after he's defeated should he be then prosecuted? should he be prosecuted for a criminal defense while he was president? that's a judgment to be made by an attorney general. >> mr. vice president, thank you. ashley? >> we now focus on an issue

facing many americans, childcare and paid family leave. here in georgia the average price of infant day care can be as much as 8,500 per child per year. that's more than in-state tew titian at a public college in georgia. mr. yang, what would you do as president to ease that financial burden? >> there are only two countries in the world that don't have paid family leave for new moms. p papua, new guinea. p papua, new guinea. that is the entire list and we need to get off that list as as soon as possible. we need to start supporting our kids and families from the beginning. because by the time they're showing up to pre-k and kl kindergarten, in many cases they're already years behind. 2/3s of studies have shown our kids' educational outcomes are

determined by what is happening to them at home. this is stress levels, number of words read to them as children, type of neighborhood, whether a parent has time to spend with them. so we need to have a dividend in place from day one, $1,000 a month for every american adult which would put in many cases $2,000 a month into families pockets so they could either pay for child care or if they want stay home with the child. we should not be pushing everyone to leave the home and go to the workforce. many parents see that tradeoff and say if they leave the home and go to work, they'd be spending all that money on child care anyway. in many cases it would we better if the parent stayed home with the child. >> no parent in the united states is federally guaranteed a single day of paid leave when they have a new baeb. a number of you on stage have a plan to address this. senator harris, you're one of the candidates proposing legislation to guarantee up to six months of paid family leave. and senator klobuchar, you're one of the candidates proposing up to three months. i want to hear from both of you on this starting with you,

senator klobuchar. why three months? >> i've looked at this economically and i want to make sure that we help people. because as just pointed out, we are way behind the curve, our country is, when it comes to providing paid family leave and child care. we must do this, and we will do this if we have the right person heading up the ticket so we can win big. but what i have done with all of my plans is i've shown how i am going to pay for them. meticulously. i think that is really important for a president who we have in the white house right now one who have told over 10,000 lies. so when you look at my went at amyklobuchar.com, you're going to see my plans and you're also going to see how i'm going to pay for it. and i think that is so important because this president is literally increasing the debt, treating our farmers and workers like poker chips in a bankrupt casino and really putting this country in a worse financial situation every single day.

so, yes, my plan is three months. i think that's good. i'd love to do more. as i said before, i'd love to staple free diplomas under people's chairs. i'm just not going to go for things -- and i'm talking about senator harris' plan, but other ideas that have been out here. i'm not going to go for things just because they sound good on a bumper sticker and throw in a free car. i think we have an obligation -- we have an obligation as a party to be, yes, fiscally responsible, yes, think big, but make sure we have people's backs and are honest with them about what we can pay for. and that is everything from sending rich kids to college for free, which i don't support, to kicking 149 million off their health insurance -- >> thank you, senator. >> in four years. >> thank you. >> i just think we have to be smart about how we do this. >> thank you. senator harris, why six months and how would you pay for that? >> sure. and everyone please visit my website kamalaharris.org for

the details on everything i talk about. so six months. part of how we're going to win this election we are focused on the future, we are focused on the challenges that are presented today and not trying to bring back yesterday to solve tomorrow. so on paid family leave, it is no longer the case in america that people have having children in their 20s. people are having children in their 30s, often in their 40s, which means that these families and parents are often raise young children and taking care of their parents, which requires a lot of work from traveling back and forth to a hospital to day care to all of the activities that are required, much less the health care needs that are required. and what we are seeing in america today is the burden principally falls on women to do that work. and many women are having to make a very difficult choice whether they're going to leave a profession for which they have a passion to care for their family, or whether they're going to give up a paycheck that is

part of what that family relies on. so six months paid family leave is meant to adjust to the reality of womens' lives today. the reality also is that women are not paid equal for equal work in america. we passed the equal pay act in 1963, but fast forward to the year of our lord 2019 and women are paid 80 cents on the dollar, black women, 61 cents. native-american women 58 cents, latinas 53 cents. so my policy is about there's a whole collection of the work i'm doing that is focused on women and working women in america and the inequities and, therefore, the injustice that women in america are facing that needs to be resolved and addressed. >> thank you, senator. kristen? >> mr. steyer, millions of working americans are finding housing has become unaffordable, especially in metropolitan areas. it's particularly acute in your home state of california in places like los angeles and san francisco. why are you the best person to fix this problem?

>> when you look at inequality in the united states of america, you have to start with housing. where you put your head at night determines so many things about your life. it determines where you kids go to school. it determines the air you breathe, where you shop, how long it takes you to get to work. what we've seen in california is as a result of policy we have millions too few housing units. and that affects everybody in california. it starts with a homeless crisis that goes all through the state. but it also includes skyrocketing rents, affect every single working person in the state of california. i understand exactly what needs to be done here, which is we need to change policy, and we need to apply resources here to make sure that we build literally millions of new units. but the other thing that's going to be true about building these units is we're going to have to build them in a way that's

sustainable. that, in fact, how we build units, where people live has a dramatic impact on climate and on sustainability. so we are going to have to direct dollars. we're going to have to change policy and make sure that the localities and municipalities who have worked very hard to make sure that there are no new housing units built in their towns, that they have to change that. it, and then direct federal dollars to make sure those units are affordable so that working people can live in places and not be spending 50% of their income on rent. >> thank you, mr. steyer. senator warren, i see your hand raised. >> yes, think of it this way. our housing problem in america is a problem on the supply side. and that means the federal government stopped building new housing a long time ago, affordable housing. also, private developers, they've gone up to mansions. they're not building the little

two bedroom, one bath that i grew up in. garage converted to be a bedroom for my brothers. so i've got a plan the 3.2 million houses units in america, those are housing units for working families, for the working poor poor, for seniors with disabilities. for people who are coming back from being incarcerated. it's about tenants' rights, but there is one more piece. housing is how we build wealth in america. the federal government has subsidized the purchasing of housing for decades for white people, and has said for black people you're cut out of the deal. that was known as red lining. when i built a housing plan it's not only a housing plan about building new units. it's a housing plan about addressing what is wrong about government-sponsored discrimination, how we need to address it, and we need to say we're going to reverse it. >> thank you, senator. senator booker? >> i am so grateful, again, as a mayor who was a mayor during a recession, who was a mayor

during a housing crisis who started my career as a tenants' rights lawyer, these are all good points, but we're not talking about something going on all over america which is gentrification and low income families being moved further and further out often compounding racial segregation. so all these things we need to put more federal dollars into it, but we've got to start empowering people. we use our tax code to move wealth up, the mortgage interest deduction. my plan is very simple. if you're a renter who pays more than a third of your income in rent, then you will get a refundable tax credit between the amount you're paying and the area median rent. that empowers people in the say way we empower homeowners. and what that does is actually slashes poverty, 10 million people out. by the way, for those people facing eviction, it is about time that the only people when they show up in rentals court that have a lawyer is not the landlord, it's also low-income families struggling to stay in their homes.

>> thank you, senator. rachel? >> we're going to take a quick break but we'll be back with these candidates. stay with us. there's a company that's talked to even more real people than me: jd power. 448,134 to be exact. they answered 410 questions in 8 categories about vehicle quality. and when they were done, chevy earned more j.d. power quality awards across cars, trucks and suvs than any other brand over the last four years. so on behalf of chevrolet, i want to say "thank you, real people." you're welcome. we're gonna need a bigger room. but maybe not for people with rheumatoid arthritis. because there are options. like an "unjection™". xeljanz xr, a once-daily pill for adults with moderate to severe ra for whom methotrexate did not work well enough. xeljanz xr can reduce pain, swelling and further joint damage, even without methotrexate.

xeljanz can lower your ability to fight infections like tb; don't start xeljanz if you have an infection. taking a higher than recommended dose of xeljanz for ra can increase risk of death. serious, sometimes fatal infections, cancers including lymphoma, and blood clots have happened. as have tears in the stomach or intestines, serious allergic reactions, and changes in lab results. tell your doctor if you've been somewhere fungal infections are common, or if you've had tb, hepatitis b or c, or are prone to infections. needles. fine for some. but for you, one pill a day may provide symptom relief. ask your doctor about xeljanz xr. an "unjection™".

some things are too important to do yourself. ♪ get customized security with 24/7 monitoring from xfinity home. awarded the best professionally installed system by cnet. simple. easy. awesome. call, click or visit a store today.

[ cheers and applause ]

welcome back to the msnbc/"washington post" democratic candidates debate. let's get right back into it. american farmers are struggling under the effects of president trump's trade war with china. the trump administration's payments to farmers to offset those losses already have a price tag that is more than double what was spent on the obama administration's auto bail out. mayor buttigieg, would you continue those farm subsidies? >> we shouldn't have to pay farmers to take the edge off of a trade war that shouldn't have been started in the first place. i will support farmers, but not long ago i was in boone, iowa, a guy came up to me said i got my trump bailout check but i would have rather spent that money on conservation. by the way, this isn't even making farmers whole. if you're in soybeans, for example, you're getting killed. and it's just what the president has done with the trade war. in a large part of the country

the world thing is these so-called small refinery waivers which is killing those involved in ethanol. look, i don't think this president cares one bit about farmers. he keeps asking to take one for the team, but more and more i'm talking to people in rural america who see they're not going to benefit from business as usual under this president. i believe that so many of the solutions lie with american farmers, but we have to stand up for them. not just with direct subsidies and support but making sure we do something with the consolidation, the monopolies that leave farmers with fewer supplies to purchase supplies from and american farming should be one of the key pillars of how we combat climate change. i believe that the quest for the carbon negative farm could be as big a symbol as dealing with climate change as the electric carbon negative farm could be as big a symbol as dealing with climate change as the electric car in this country. it's an important part of how we make sure we get a message out around dealing with climate cha i that recruits everybody to be part of the solution, including conservative communities where a

lot of people have been made to feel admitting client science -- >> i need you to answer the question. would you consider those subsidies or not? >> yes, but we won't need them because we're going to fix the trade war. >> thank you, sir. the u.n. recently reported that what was once called climate change is now a climate crisis with drastic results already being felt. climate is an issue important to our audience. we received thousands of questions from our viewers and many of this were about climate. calista from minneapolis writes this. leading the world in resolving the clumt crisis will be a multi-decade project spanning far beyond even a two-term presidency. if you are elected president, how would you ensure that there is secure leadership and bipartisan support to continue this project? congresswoman gabbard? >> this is an issue that impacts all of us as americans and people all over the world. this is not a democrat issue or republican issue. this is about the environmental

threats that each and every one of us face. these are the kinds of conversations that we're having in our town hall meetings and house parties in different parts of the country where we have democrats, republicans, libertarians and independents coming together saying, hey, we are all concerned about making sure we have clean water to drink for our families, that we have clean air to breathe, that we're able to raise our kids in a community that's safe. it is the hyperpartisanship in washington unfortunately that has created this gridlock that has stood in the way of the kinds of progress that i would bring about as president. transitioning our country off of fossil fuels and ending the nearly $30 billion in subsidies that we as taxpayers are currently giving to the fossil fuel industry. instead investing in a green renewable energy economy that leads us into the 21st century with good-paying jobs, a sustainable economy, investing in infrastructure, and

transitioning our agriculture. that is a great contributor to the environmental threats we face, towards an agriculture system that focuses on local and regional production of food, healthy food that will actually feed the health and well being of our people, leading as a leader in the world to make the global change necessary to address these threats. >> thank you, congresswoman. i want to bring in mr. steyer on this. you've made climate change a central point of your political career. to this issue of making changes that last, making changes that are permanent, could you address that, sir? >> rachel, i'm the only person on this stage who will say that climate is the number one priority for me. vice president biden won't say it. [ applause ] senator warren won't say it. it's a state of emergency, and i would declare a state of emergency on day one. i would use the emergency powers of the presidency. i know that we have to do this. i've spent a decade fighting and beating oil companies, stopping pipelines, stopping fossil fuel plants, ensuring clean energy

across the country. i know that we have to do this. i also know that we can do this. i would make this the number-one priority of my foreign policy as well. we can do this and create literally millions of good-paying union jobs across this country. i would make sure that my climate policy was led by environmental justice and members of the communities where this society has chosen to put our air and water pollution, which are low-income, black and brown communities. and when we ask how are we going to pull this country together? how about this? we take on the biggest challenge in history. we save the world, and we do it together. do you think that would pull america together? i do. >> quickly, vice president biden, you were name checked there. i would like to give you a chance to respond. >> yeah, i was. i think it is the existential threat to humanity. it's the number one issue. i might add, i don't really need kind of a lecture from my

friend. while i was passing the first climate change bill that was a game-changer, while i managed the $90 billion recovery plan, investing more money in infrastructure that related to clean energy than anytime we've ever done it, my friend was producing more coal mines and produced more coal around the world according to the press than all of great britain produces. now, he's -- i welcome him back into the fold here, and he's been there for a long while. but the idea that we talk about where we started and how we are, let's get this straight. i think it is the existential threat of all time. >> thank you, mr. vice president. you may respond, mr. steyer. >> look, i came to the conclusion over ten years ago that climate was the absolute problem of our society and was the unintended consequence of

our whole country being based on fossil fuel. everybody in this room has lived in an economy based on fossil fuels and we all have to come to the same conclusion that i came to over a decade ago. if we're waiting for congress to pass one of the bills -- and i know everybody on this stage cares about this. but congress has never passed an important climate bill, ever. this is a problem which continues to get worse. that's why i'm saying it's a state of emergency. that's why i'm saying it's priority one. if it isn't priority one, it's not going to get done. and this is something where we absolutely have to address it up front. we have to make it the most important thing, and we can use it to rebuild and re-imagine what the united states is. we can be the moral leaders of the world again while we clean up our air and water and create millions of good-paying jobs. >> senator sanders, i'm going to ask you to jump in here. >> tom, you stated -- you talked about the need to make climate change a national emergency.

i've introduced legislation to just do that. now, i disagree with the thrust of the original question. your question said, what are we going to do in decades? we don't have decades. what the scientists are telling us, we don't get our act together within the next eight or nine years, we're talking about cities all over the world, major cities going underwater. we're talking about increased drought, talking about increased extreme weather disturbances. the united nations is telling us that in the years to come, there are going to be hundreds of millions of climate refugees. causing national security issues all over the world. what we have got to do tonight, and i will do as president, is to tell the fossil fuel industry that their short-term profits are not more important than the future of this planet. and by the way, the fossil fuel industry is probably criminally

liable because they have lied and lied and lied when they had the evidence that their carbon products were destroying the planet, and maybe we should think about prosecuting them as well. >> thank you, senator sanders. andrea? >> president trump has dramatically changed america's approach to our adversaries by holding summits with kim jong-un, getting out of the iran nuclear deal and at times embracing vladimir putin and other strongmen. so let's talk about what kind of commander in chief you would be. senator harris, north korea is now threatening to cancel any future summits if president trump does not make concessions on nuclear weapons. if you were commander in chief would you make concessions to kim jong-un in order to keep those talks going? >> with all due deference to the fact that this is a presidential debate, donald trump got punked. he was -- he has conducted foreign policy since day one

born out of a very fragile ego that fails to understand that one of the most important responsibilities of the commander in chief is to concern herself with the security of our nation and homeland. and to do it in a way that understands that part of the strength of who we are as a nation, and therefore an extension of our ability to be secure, is not only that we have a vibrant military, but that when we walk in any room around the globe, we are respected because we keep to our word, we are consistent, we speak truth, and we are loyal. what donald trump has done from pulling out of the paris agreement, to pulling out of the iran nuclear deal, to consistently turning a back on people who have stood with us in difficult times, including most recently the kurds, points out that donald trump is the greatest threat to the national

security of our nation at this moment. >> but would you make concessions to north korea? >> not at this point. there are no concessions to be made. he has traded a photo op for nothing. he has abandoned, by shutting down the operations with south korea for the last year and a half, so those operations which should be and those exercises which should be active because they are in our best national security, the relationship that we have with japan, he has in every way compromised our ability to have any influence on slowing down or at least having a check and balance on north korea's nuclear program. >> thank you, senator. mr. vice president, president trump inherited the north korea problem from past presidents over decades. what would a president biden do that president obama didn't do in eight years? >> first of all, i'd go back and making sure we had the alliances we had before he became president. he has absolutely ostracized us from south korea.

he has given north korea everything they wanted, creating the legitimacy by having a meeting with kim jong-un, who is a thug, although he points out that i'm a rabid dog needing to be beaten with a stick, very recently was his comment. >> other than that, you like him? >> other than that, i like him. and putting pressure on china in order for them to make sure that it is a nuclear-free peninsula. and the way we do that is we make clear to china, which i have done personally with the president of china, and that is we're going to move up our defenses. we're going to continue to make sure we increase our relationship with south korea. and if they view that as a threat, it's an easy thing to respond to. they in fact can in fact put pressure on north korea. but the fact is that we're in a position where he has done this across the world. he's embraced thugs. look what putin is doing in

europe. putin -- his whole effort is to break up nato to increase his power. look what he's done to it. so this guy has no idea what he's doing. he has no notion how to go about it, and we need a commander in chief when he stands, everybody what he or she is talking about. >> thank you, mr. vice president. two more u.s. soldiers were killed today in afghanistan tragically in america's longest war. senator sanders, you've long said you wanted to bring the troops back home from afghanistan. would you cut a deal with the taliban to end the war even if it means the collapse of the afghan government that america has long supported? >> well, let me just say this. one of the big differences between the vice president and myself is he supported the terrible war in iraq, and i helped lead the opposition against it. and not only that i voted against the very first gulf war

as well. and i think we need a foreign policy which understands who our enemies are that we don't have to spend more money on the military than the next ten nations combined. but to answer your question, yeah, i think it is time after spending many trillions of dollars on these endless wars, which have resulted in more dislocation and mass migrations and pain in that region, it is time to bring our troops home. but unlike trump, i will not do it through a tweet at 3:00 in the morning. i will do it working with the international community, and if it's necessary to negotiate with the taliban, of course we will do that. but at the end of the day, we have to rethink the entire war on terror, which has caused so much pain and lost so many lives, not only for our own men and women in the armed forces but for people in that region as well.

>> thank you, senator. ashley? >> thank you. mr. yang, if you win the 2020 election, what would you say in your first call with russian president vladimir putin? >> well, first i'd say, i'm sorry i beat your guy. [ applause ] or not sorry. and second i would say the days of meddling in american elections are over, and we will take any undermining of our democratic processes as an act of hostility and aggression. the american people would back me on this. we know they found an underbelly and they've been clawing at it. and it's made it so we can't even trust our own democracy. the third thing i would say is we're going to live up to our international commitments. we're going to recommit to our partnerships and alliances

including nato. and it was james madison who said the more you invest in diplomats and diplomacy, the less you have to spend on ammunition. that has to be the path forward to help build an international consensus not just against russia but also to build a coalition that will help us put pressure on china in terms of their treatment of their ethnic minorities and what's going on in hong kong. i want to propose a new world data organization, like a wto for data because right now unfortunately we're living in a world where data is the new oil and we don't have our arms around it. these are the ways we'll actually get russia to the table and make it so they have to join the international community and stop resisting appeals to the world order. >> thank you, mr. yang. rachel? >> on the issue of china, senator booker, china is now using force against demonstrators in hong kong where millions have taken to the streets advocating for democratic reforms. many of the demonstrators are asking the united states for help. if you were president, would the

u.s. help their movement and how? >> well, first of all, this is a president who seems to want to go up against china in a trade war by pulling away from our allies and, in fact, attacking them as well. we use a national security waiver to put tariffs on canada. so at the very time china is breaking international rules, is practicing unfair practices, stealing technology, forcing technology transfer and violating human rights, this nation is pulling away from critical allies we would need to show strength against china. there is a larger battle going on on the planet earth right now between totalitarian, dictatorial countries and free democracies. and we see the scorecard under this president not looking so good with china actually shifting more towards an authoritarian government, with its leader now getting rid of term limits. so i believe we need a much stronger policy, one that's not led, as president trump seems to want to do, in a transactional way but one that's led by american values.

so, yes, we will call china out for its human rights violations. but not only that, we will stop engaging in things that violate american rights because it is a human rights violation when people at our border, children are thrown in cages. it's a human rights violation without coming to the united states congress for an authorization for the use of military force for us to refuel saudi jets to bomb yemeni children. it is about time that this country is led by someone who will say the values of freedom and democracy are what we are going to lead with and begin to check china, check putin, and the other folks that are trying to undermine american values and democratic values around the globe. >> thank you, senator. andrea? >> mr. vice president, the cia has concluded that the leader of saudi arabia directed the murder of the u.s. based journalist jamal khashoggi.

president trump has not punished senior saudi leaders. would you? >> yes, and i said it at the time. khashoggi was, in fact, murdered and dismembered, and i believe in the order of the crown prince. and i would make it very clear we were not going to in fact sell more weapons to them. we were going to in fact make them pay the price and make them in fact the pariah that they are. they're very little social redeeming value in the present government in saudi arabia. and i would also, as pointed out, i would end subsidies that we have, end the sale of material to the saudis where they're going in and murdering children and they're murdering innocent people. and so they have to be held accountable. and with regard to china, we should -- look, unless we make it clear that we stand for human rights, we should be going to the united nations seeniking condemnation of china, what they're doing with the million

uyghurs that are essentially in concentration camps in the west. we should be vocally speaking out about the violation of the commitment they made to hong kong. we have to speak out and speak loudly about violations of human rights. >> senator klobuchar, just to follow up, would you go against the saudis even though that would potentially help iran, their adversaries? >> we need a new foreign policy in this country, and that means renewing our relationships with our allies. it means rejoining international agreements, and it means reasserting our american values. and so when the president did not stand up the way he should have to that killing and that dismemberment of a journalist with an american newspaper, that sent a signal to all dictators across the country, across the world, that that was okay, and that's wrong. and i want to add a few things to what my colleagues have said. first of all, the question about

russia. when we look at international agreements, we must start negotiating back with russia, which has been a horrible player on the international scene. but the president precipitously got out of the nuclear agreement with russia, and we must start negotiating, even though they were cheating, for the good of this world. and we must also start the negotiations for the new start treaty. when it comes to china, we need someone that sees the long term like i do, just like the chinese do, because we have a president that literally makes decisions based on his next tweet, and they are in it for the long game. >> senator sanders? >> i think i may have been the first person up here to make it clear that saudi arabia not only murdered khashoggi, but this is a brutal dictatorship which does everything it can to crush democracy, treats women as third-class citizens. and when we rethink our american foreign policy, what we've got to know, is that saudi arabia is

not a reliable ally. we've got to bring iran and saudi arabia together in a room under american leadership and say, we are sick and tired of us spending huge amounts of money and human resources because of your conflicts. and by the way, the same thing goes with israel and the palestinians. it is no longer good enough for us simply to be pro-israel, i am pro-israel, but we must treat the palestinian people as well with the respect and dignity that they deserve. what is going on in gaza right now where youth unemployment is 70% or 80% is unsustainable. so we need to be rethinking who our allies are around the world, work with the united nations and not continue to support brutal dictatorships. >> thank you, senator. rachel? >> senator warren, only about 1% of americans serve in the united states military right now. should that number be higher? >> yes, i think it should be.

you know, all three of my brothers served in the military. one was career military. the other two also served. i think it's an important part of who we are as americans. and i think the notion of shared service is important. it's how we help bring our nation together. it's how people learn to work together from different regions, people who grew up differently. it's also about how families share that sacrifice. i remember what it was like when i was a little girl. my brother, my oldest brother who served 5 1/2 years in combat in vietnam, and what it was like for my mother every day to check the mailbox. had we heard from him? how is he doing? and if there was a letter, she was brighter than the day. if there wasn't, she'd say, maybe tomorrow. this is about building for our entire nation. and i believe we should do that. i also believe we should have other service opportunities in our country.

so, for example, what i want to do is for our federal lands. i want to bring in 10,000 people who want to be able to serve in our federal lands to be able to help rebuild our national forests and national parks as a way to express both their public service and their commitment to fighting back against climate change. we can do this as a nation. >> thank you, senator. in president trump's first two years in office, the pentagon budget ballooned. mayor buttigieg, would you cut military spending, or would you keep it on the same upward trajectory? >> we need to reprioritize or budget as a whole and our military spending in particular. it's not how much, although we certainly need to look at the runaway growth in military spending. it's also where. right now we are spending a fraction of the intention and resources on things like the artificial intelligence research that china is doing right now. if we fall behind on artificial intelligence, the most expensive ships that the united states is

building just turn into bigger targets. we do not have a 21st century security strategy coming from this president. after all, he's relying on 17th century security technologies like a moat full of alligators or a big wall. there is no concept of strategic planning for how civilian, diplomatic, and military security work needs to take place for the future. >> can i respond? >> mayor buttigieg, thank you. >> could i respond on this? >> coming up, we will have much more from the candidates. we're going to take a quick break. just a moment. stay with us. [ applause ]

these folks, they don't have time to go to the post office they have businesses to grow customers to care for lives to get home to they use stamps.com print discounted postage for any letter any package any time right from your computer all the amazing services of the post office only cheaper get our special tv offer a 4-week trial plus postage and a digital scale go to stamps.com/tv and never go to the post office again!

what are you doing back there, junior? since we're obviously lost, i'm rescheduling my xfinity customer service appointment. ah, relax. i got this. which gps are you using anyway? a little something called instinct. been using it for years. yeah, that's what i'm afraid of. he knows exactly where we're going. my whole body is a compass. oh boy... the my account app makes today's xfinity customer service simple, easy, awesome. not my thing.

whether you're out or here on a wifi hotspot. xfinity mobile has more coverage to keep you connected to what matters most. that's because it's the only wireless network that automatically connects you to millions of secure wifi hotspots and the best lte everywhere else. and now get $250 off when you buy a new samsung phone during xfinity mobile beyond black friday. plus, you can save up to $400 a year. click, call or visit a store today. investigated are motivated by white supremacist violence. congresswoman gabbard, to you. as president, would you direct the federal government to do something about this problem

that it is not currently doing? >> yes, i would. we have seen for far too long the kind of racial bigotry, divisiveness, and attacks that have unfortunately taken the lives of our fellow americans. leadership starts at the top. it's important that we set the record straight and correct the racial injustices that exist in a very institutional way in our country. beginning with things that have to do with our criminal justice system where predominantly the failed war on drugs that has continued to be waged in this country has disproportionately impacted people of color and people in poverty. this is something i'll do as president and commander in chief is to overhaul our criminal justice system, working in a bipartisan way to do things like end the failed war on drugs, end the money bail system and add

the kind of prison reforms and sentencing reforms that we need to see that will correct the failures of the past. the most important thing here is that we recognize that we have to treat each other with respect, all of us as fellow americans regardless of race, religion, ethnicity, gender and our politics. that kind of leadership starts at the top. as president, i will usher in a 21st century white house that actually represents the interests of all americans first and foremost. >> congresswoman gabbard, thank you for that. mr. yang, what would you do about the issue of white supremacist violence? >> first, we have to designate white supremacist terrorism as domestic terrorism so the department of justice can properly measure it. i talked to an anti-hate activist who told me about how he was radicalized over a ten-year period. he said he was a lonely 14-year-old and that he was reached out to by a hate group, and he wound up joining it for a decade.

now he's out and he's helping convert people out of those hate groups and back into the rest of society. but what he told me was that if anyone had reached out to him when he was that hurt, broken 14-year-old boy, he would have gone with them. he said if it had been a coach, i would have gone with him. if it had been a mentor or teacher, i would have gone with them. so what we have to do is get into the roots of our communities and create paths forward for men in particular who right now are falling through the cracks. and when you look at gun violence in this country, 96-plus percent of the shooters we're talking about are young boys and young men. we have to as a country start finding ways to turn our boys into healthy, strong young men who do not hate but instead feel like they have paths forward in today's economy. >> mr. yang, thank you for that. vice president biden, the "me too" movement has forced a cultural reckoning around the issue of sexual violence and harassment against women in america. are there specific actions that

you would take early in your administration to address this problem? >> yes. and by the way, it's one of the reasons -- the first thing i would do is make sure we pass the violence against women act reauthorization, which i wrote. i didn't write the reauthorization. i wrote the original act. the fact is that what happens now is we in fact have to fundamentally change the culture, the culture of how women are treated. that's why as vice president, when i asked the president i could start the movement on the college campuses to say, it's on us. it's everyone's responsibility. we do not spend nearly enough time dealing with -- i was stunned when i did a virtual town meeting. they told me 30,000 people were on the call, young people between 15 and 25, and found out -- i said, what do you need? what do you need to make you safer on college campuses in your schools? you know what they said? get men involved. engage the rest of the community. and that's when we started this movement on the college campuses

to fundamentally change the culture. no man has a right to raise a hand to a woman in anger other than in self-defense, and that rarely every occurs. so we have to just change the culture, period, and keep punching at it and punching at it and punching at it. no, i really mean it. it's a gigantic issue, and we have to make it clear from the top, from the president on down, that we will not tolerate it. we will not tolerate this culture. >> mr. vice president, thank you. senator harris, this week you criticized mayor pete buttigieg's outreach to african-american voters. you said, quote, the democratic nominee has got to be somen who has the experience of connecting with all of who we are as the diversity of the american people, end quote. what exactly prompted you to say that, senator harris? >> well, i was asked a question that related to a stock

photograph that his campaign published. but, listen, i think that it really speaks to a larger issue, and i'll speak to the larger issue. i believe that the mayor has made apologies for that. the larger issue is that for too long i think candidates have taken for granted constituencies that have been the backbone of the democratic party and have overlooked those constituencies and have -- you know, they show up when it's close to election time and show up in a black church and want to get the vote, but just haven't been there before. i mean, you know, there are plenty of people who apply to black women for the success of the 2018 election, applauded black women for the election of a senator from alabama. but at some point folks get tired of saying, oh, thank me for showing up and say, well,

show up for me because when black women -- when black women are three to four times more likely to die in connection with childbirth in america, when the sons of black women will die because of gun violence more than any other cause of death, when black women make 61 cents on the dollar as compared to all women who tragically make 80 cents on the dollar, the question has to be, where you been, and what are you going to do? and do you understand who the people are? [ applause ] and i'm running for president because i believe that we have to have leadership in this country who has worked with and have the experience of working with all folks. and we've got to recreate the obama coalition to win. that means about women. that's people of color. that's our lgbtq community. that's working people. that's our labor unions. but that is how we are going to win this election, and i intend to win. >> senator harris, thank you.

mayor buttigieg, your response to that? >> my response is i completely agree. and i welcome the challenge of connecting with black voters in america who don't yet know me. and before i share what's in my plans, let me talk about what's in my heart and why this is so important. as mayor of a city that is racially diverse and largely low-income, for eight years i have lived and breathed the successes and struggles of a community where far too many people live with the consequences of racial inequity that has built up over centuries but been compounded by policies and decisions from within living memory. i care about this because my faith teaches me that salvation has to do with how i make myself useful to those who have been excluded, marginalized, and cast aside and oppressed in society. and i care about this because while i do not have the experience of ever having been

discriminated against because of the color of my skin, i do have the experience of sometimes feeling like a stranger in my own country. turning on the news and seeing my own rights come up for debate, and seeing my rights expanded by a coalition of people like me and people not at all like me, working side by side, shoulder to shoulder, making it possible for me to be standing here wearing this wedding ring in a way that couldn't have happened two elections ago lets m he know just how deep my obligation is to help those whose rights are on the line every day even if they are nothing like me in their experience. >> mayor buttigieg, thank you very much. senator harris, quick response. >> look, there is a lot at stake in this election, and i've said it many times. i think justice is on the ballot in 2020. and it's about economic justice. it's about justice for children. it's about justice for our teachers. i could go on down the list. and so the issue really is not

what is the fight. the issue has to be how are we going to win. and to win, we have to build a coalition and rebuild the obama coalition. i keep referring to that because that's the last time we won. and the way that that election looked and what that coalition looked like was it was about having a leader who had worked in many communities, knows those communities, and has the ability to bring people together. and everyone is going to have to be judged on their experience and therefore ability to bring folks together around our commonalities, of which i believe there are many. >> thank you, senator. senator warren, quickly. >> so i think it is really important that we actually talk about what we're willing to get in the fight for. and i just want to give one example around this. senator harris rightly raised the question of economic justice. let me give a specific example, and that is student loan debt. right now in america, african-americans are more likely to borrow money to go to college, borrow more money while they're in college, and have a

harder time paying that debt off after they get out. today in america, a new study came out. 20 years out, whites who borrowed money, 94% of them have paid off their student loan debt. 5% of african-americans have paid it off. i believe that means everyone on this stage should be embracing student loan debt forgiveness. it will help close the black/white wealth gap. let's do something tangible and real to make change in this country. >> senator warren. thank you. ashley. >> senator warren, back to you. you've said that the border wall that president trump has proposed is, quote, a monument to hate and division. would you ask taxpayers to pay to take down any part of the wall on the nation's southern border? >> if there are parts of the wall that are not useful in our defense, of course we should do it. the real point here is that we need to stop this manmade crisis at the border. trump is the one who has created

this crisis, and he has done it in no small part by helping destabilize the governments even further in central america. he has withdrawn aid. that means that families have to flee for their lives, have to flee for any economic opportunity. now, when i found out that our government was actually taking away children from their families, i went down to the border. i went down there immediately. i was in mcallen, texas. i hope everyone remembers what this looks like. there's like a giant amazon warehouse filled with cages of women, cages of men, and cages of little girls and little boys. i spoke to a woman who was in the cage of nursing mothers, and she told me she had given a drink to a police officer and that the word had come down from the gangs that she was helping the police. she knew what that meant. she wrapped up her baby, and she ran for the border. we need to treat the people who come here with dignity and with

respect. a great nation does not separate children from their families. we need to live our values at the border every single day. [ applause ] >> thank you, senator. senator booker, a quick response. >> look, i want to be quick on this because i would like to get something i wasn't included in, is -- >> so would we all? >> absolutely if this is not effective, we see people cutting holes in his wall. we need to have -- i want to return back to this issue of black voters. i have a lifetime of experience with black voters. i've been one since i was 18. nobody on this stage should need a focus group to hear from african-american voters. black voters are pissed off and they're worried. they're pissed off because the only time our issues seem to be paid attention to by politicians is when people are looking for their vote. they're worried because the

democratic party, we don't want to see people miss this opportunity and lose because we are nominating someone that doesn't -- isn't trusted, doesn't have authentic connection. and so that's what's on the ballot, and issues do matter. i have a lot of respect for the vice president. he swore me into my office. this week i here him literally say i don't think we should legalize marijuana. i thought you might have been high when you said it. and let me tell you because marijuana -- marijuana in our country is already legal for privilege the people, and the war on drugs has been a war on black and brown people. so let me just say this. with more african-americans under criminal supervision in america than all of the slaves since 1850, do not roll up into communities and not talk directly to issues that are going to relate to the

liberation of children because there are people in congress right now that admit to smoking marijuana while our kids are in jail right now for those drug crimes. so these are the kind of issues that mean a lot to our community, and if we don't have somebody authentically, we lost the last election. let me just give you this data example. >> quickly. >> we lost in wisconsin because at a massive diminution in the african-american vote. we need to have someone that can inspire as kamala said, to inspire african-americans to the polls in record numbers. >> thank you, senator booker. vice president biden, you can respond to that. >> i'll be very brief. number one, i think we should decriminalize marijuana, period. and i think anyone who has a record should be let out of jail, their records expunged, be completely zeroed out. but i do think it makes sense based on data that we should study what the long-term effects are for the use of marijuana. that's all it is, number one. everybody gets out, record

expung expunged. secondly, i'm part of that obama coalition. i come out of the black community in terms of my support. if you notice, i have more people supporting me in the black community because they know me. they know who i am. three former chairs. black caucus. the only african-american woman that ever been elected to the united states senate. a whole range of people. my point is -- >> that's not true. the other one is here. >> i said the first. i said the first african-american woman. so my point is, the reason i was picked to be vice president was because of my relationship, longstanding relationship with the black community. i was part of that coalition. >> thank you. kristen? >> and we do have to take another quick break, but we are going to hear much more from the candidates when we come right back here in atlanta, georgia. stay with us.

[ applause ] there's a company that's talked to even more real people

than me: jd power. 448,134 to be exact. they answered 410 questions in 8 categories about vehicle quality. and when they were done, chevy earned more j.d. power quality awards across

cars, trucks and suvs than any other brand over the last four years. so on behalf of chevrolet, i want to say "thank you, real people." you're welcome. we're gonna need a bigger room.

welcome back to the msnbc "washington post" democratic

candidates debate. many states including right here where we are tonight in georgia have passed laws that severely limit or outright ban abortion. right now roe v. wade protects a woman's right to abortion nationwide. but if roe gets overturned, would you intervene as president to try to bring that access back? senator klobuchar? >> of course. we should codify roe v. wade into law. that is what we should do. and this president indicated early on what he was going to do, and he's done it. when he was running for office, he literally said women should go to jail. then he dialed it back and said doctors should go to jail. so no surprise that we're seeing these kinds of laws in georgia and alabama where his allies are passing these bills. and what we have to remember is that the people are with us. and i predict this will be a big election in issue in the general election, and i just can't wait to stand across from donald

trump and say this to him. know what? the people are with us. over 70% of the people support roe v. wade. over 90% of the people support funding for planned parenthood and making sure that women can get the health care they need. he is off the track on this, and he will hear from the women of america, and this is how we're going to win this election. >> just this weekend, louisiana re-elected a democratic governor, john bel edwards. he has signed one of the country's toughest laws restricting abortion. is there room in the democratic party for someone like him, someone who can win in a deep red state but who does not support abortion rights? senator warren? >> look, i believe that abortion rights are human rights. i believe that they are also economic rights. and protecting the right of a woman to be able to make decisions about her own body is fundamentally what we do and what we stand for as a

democratic party. understand this. when someone makes abortion illegal in america, rich women will still get abortions. it's just going to fall hard on poor women. it's going to fall hard on girls, women who don't even know that they're pregnant because they have been molested by an uncle. i want to be an america where everybody has a chance, and i know it can be a hard decision for people, but here's the thing. when it comes down to that decision, a woman should be able to call on her mother. she should be able to call on her partner. she should be able to call on her priest or her rabbi. but the one entity that should not be in the middle of that decision is the government. >> senator warren, i need to push you on this a little for a specific answer to the question. is there room for the governor in the democratic party with those politics? >> i have made clear what i

think the democratic party stands for. i'm not here to try to build fences but i am here to say this is what i will fight for as president of the united states, the women of america can count on me. >> senator sanders. >> amy mentioned that women feel strongly on it. well, let me just tell you that if there's ever a time in american history where the men of this country must stand with the women, this is the moment. [ applause ] and i get very tired, very tired of hearing the hypocrisy from conservatives who say, get the government off our backs. we want small government. well, if you want to get the government out of the backs of the american people, then understand that it is women who control their own bodies, not politicians. >> senator sanders, thank you. senator booker? >> this is a voting issue. this is a voter suppression issue. right here in this great state of georgia, it was the voter

suppression, particularly of african-american communities, that prevented us from having a governor, stacey abrams, right now. and that is when you have undemocratic means, when you suppress people's votes to get elected, those are the very people you're going to come after when you're in office. and this bill opposed by over 70% of georgians is the result from voter suppression. this gets back to the issue about making sure we are fighting every single day, that whoever is the nominee, they can overcome the attempts to suppress the votes, particularly of low income and minority voters and particularly in the black community like we saw here in georgia. >> thank you. to that point, individual states as you all know set their own rules for voting and for elections. depending on where you live, you may be required to show i.d. or not. you might have a lot of days for early voting or fewer days or none. you might have a polling place in walking distance, or you might have to drive or take a bus to the edge of town.

with that in mind, our next question comes from jenna in maryland, who asks what will you do at the executive level to ensure that every american has equal access to the ballot box? mayor buttigieg? >> we need federal leadership to establish voting rights for the 21st century because this affects every other issue that we care about. now, the house of representatives passed a pro-democracy, anti-corruption bill, which is one of many good bills to die in mitch mcconnell's hands in the united states senate. we know that with the white house in the right hands, we can make, for example, election days a federal holiday. we can use carrots and sticks to induce states to do the right thing with automatic voter registration, same-day voter registration, making it easier for people to vote and, in particular, recognizing that we cannot allow the kind of racially motivated -- that

dictates the outcome of election before the voting even begins. right now we have politicians picking out their voters rather than the other way around. that compounding with what is being done to restrict the right to vote means that our democracy is not worthy of the name and why these process issues are not always fashionable, we must act to reform our democracy itself, including when it comes to choosing our presidents like -- >> i want to -- >> giving it to the person who got the most votes. >> i agree with what the mayor has just said, but this is a good example where he has said the right words, but i actually have the experience and am leading 11 of the bills that are in that house-passed bill you just referred to. and i think this kind of experience matters. i have been devoted to this from the time that i've got to the senate, and i think having that experience, knowing how you can get things done, leading the bills to take the social media

companies to task, a bipartisan bill to say, yeah, you have to say where these ads come from and how they're paid for, and stop the unbelievable practice where we still have 11 states that don't have backup paper ballots. that is my baipartisan bill, an i am so close to getting it done. and the way i get it done is if i'm president. but just like i have won statewide -- and, mayor, i have all appreciation for your good work as a local official, and you did not when you tried. i also have actually done this work. i think experience should matter. >> mayor buttigieg, i'll let you respond to that. >> so first of all, washington experience is not the only experience that matters. there's more than 100 years of washington experience on this stage, and where are we right now as a country? [ applause ] i have the experience of bringing people together to get something done. i have the experience of being commanded into a war zone by an

american president. i have the experience of knowing what is at stake as the decisions made in those big white buildings come into our lives, our homes, our families, our workplaces, and our marriages, and i would submit that this is the kind of experience we need not just to go to washington, but to change it before it is too late. >> mr. mayor, thank you. >> voting rights are essential for our democracy. securing elections is essential for our democracy. i've introduced legislation called the securing america's elections act that mandates paper ballots to make sure that every single voter's voice is heard. but i want to get back to pete buttigieg and his comment about experience. pete, you'll agree that the service that we both have provided to our country as veterans by itself does not qualify us to serve as command eve er in chief. i think the most recent example of your inexperience in national security and foreign policy came

from your recent careless statement about how you as president would be willing to send our troops to mexico to fight the cartels. as commander in chief, leader of our armed forces, i bring extensive experience serving for seven years in congress on the foreign affairs committee, on the armed services committee, on the homeland security committee, meeting with leaders of countries around the world, working with military commanders of different commands. >> congresswoman, thank you. >> dealing with high-level national security briefings, understanding what's necessary, the preparation that i've gotten to walk in on day one to serve as commander in chief. >> congresswoman, thank you. mr. mayor, i'll allow you to respond. >> i know that it's par for the course in washington to take remarks out of context, but that is outlandish even by the standards of today's politics. >> are you saying that you didn't say that? >> i was talking about u.s.-mexico cooperation. we've been doing security cooperation with mexico for

years with law enforcement cooperation and a military relationship that could continue to be developed with training relationships, for example. do you seriously think anybody on this stage is proposing invading mexico? >> that's not what i said. that's not what i said. >> i'm talking about building up alliances, and if your question is about experience, let's also talk about judgment. one of the foreign leaders you mentioned meeting was bashar al assad. i have in my experience, such as it is, whether you think it counts or not since it wasn't accumulated in washington, enough judgment that i would not have sat down with a murderous dictator like that. >> congresswoman gabbard, let me allow you to respond. >> thank you. you were asked directly whether you would send our troops to mexico to fight cartels, and your answer was yes. the fact checkers can check this out. but your point about judgment is absolutely correct. our commander in chief does need to have good judgment. and what you've just pointed out is that you would lack the

courage to meet with both adversaries and friends to ensure that peace and national security of our nation. i take the example of those leaders who have come before us, leaders like jfk, who met with khrushchev, like roosevelt who met with stalin. >> like donald trump who met with kim. >> like reagan who met and worked with gorbachev. i will meet with and do what is necessary to make sure that no more of our brothers and sisters in uniform are needlessly sent into harm's way fighting regime change wars that undermine our national security. i'll bring real leadership and experience to the white house. >> i've got to respond to this. >> the american people understand that the political system we have today is corrupt, and it is not just voter suppression, w