thief. however if you get to raucous we have sixteen police. and this is the chicago police where they ask questions later he's going to fool around ok we'll be starting thank you for coming and we think all voices should be heard i think this is a noble cause themed thank you one minute to go. by county where do i look. it's ok that was larry king there making his introduction and the debate is going to kick off in just a few minutes maybe just a few seconds but it's interesting larry king of course he retired from c.n.n. c.n.n. though is not just covering this debate it's kind of interesting and we just saw it larry king himself you know a journalistic icon saying this is

a noble cause i mean it is there you mean we have to you know. c.n.n. did have i think joel stein on and governor gary johnson on for like a short segment once or i think we were going to go under full think i did say and you area god i didn't know you're out i said he was i didn't we see i mean i know they are but they aren't covering the debate tomorrow none of them are herschel none of them are none of them are and you can see that again i think you're missing the boat honestly because i feel like some of the candidates also and the panel before him were saying you know americans have sort of a distrust of you know the government of the system and you know if you're not seeing anything else you're just going to get turned off of it as a whole retiring guy is iowa and it looks like the debate is kicking off right now .

live here in chicago our viewers watching and listening online to our candidate moderator political correspondents broadcasting partners and sponsors to every individual taking the time to care to watch this is stuart debate tonight no matter where you are tuning in no matter what party or group to which you belong this debate is for individua. walls the voter the taxpayer the hardworking middle class worker the struggling single parent on minimum wage the small business owner everyone i'm christina toben of freeney collections foundation and i welcome and thank all of you for being here tonight tonight we're all taking part in something good and real and honest and open without the big contracts and private interests

controlling thank you thank you. for thousand controlling the questions we ask and the answers in the candidates the lever free open and fair free and equal works to improve the electoral system of the united states by bringing the elections back to the people where it belongs we do this by opening the very it's improving ballot access laws and forming nonpartisan coalitions of unite people and organizations across the political spectrum who also want free open and fair elections tonight's debate is the first of its kind and our sponsors represent a diverse group of media businesses musicians radio personalities organizations and individuals representing all types of political ideologies i imagine our audience is just as diverse as another you want me for

a presidential candidate two of them leans a little while the other to lean a little more to the right giving us a perfect balance of ideas and viewpoints on how to fix our broken nation please can is it secured enough balance to be here today and the future we hope to have more resources so we can open the debate even further with more debates more candidate at every level of government. thanks to mitt romney we the people are responsible for our government. if we don't pay attention if we don't go if we don't protest or discuss important issues with friends coworkers and classmates then we get more of the same the same corrupt this function the system no matter who's in charge but if we turn off the distractions. and learn and read and question more about really benefiting and educate ourselves

on how we really got here and figure out how each of us can make a positive impact that's the way to change the system knowledge sharing through seeking open debate fresh ideas and discovering a common ground amongst each other no matter what your political persuasion we are at a critical time in our nation's history it's time to take our country back from the private interests who control our belief our opinions and our lives. thank you. thank you very much for joining us tonight our moderator this evening is award winning broadcaster and media personality larry king thanks

his new online home is or a t.v. and he is the host of larry king now welcome larry thank you thank you. and welcome everybody i'm very happy to be doing this i think all voices should be heard a few notes about the format for tonight's debates really easy job for me because it's rather simple format each candidate will have an opportunity to make a two minute opening statement the order of these statements have been randomly determined six jews will be asked in all in the ninety minutes the questions have been selected from submissions may be. as social media after question is s. each candidate will have two minutes to answer each candidate will have a total of six opportunities in all once all candidates gave their two minute responses will each have an additional one minute to expand or not expand they can

choose to respond or not candidates to use their additional minutes or save their time to use it later we will wrap up with a two minute closing statement from each candidate with that let me introduce these for independent candidates first joel stein the mother mother of physician longtime teacher of internal medicine and the green party nominee for president the of three . if you can already tell we are permitting audience participation we're in downtown chicago by the way at the hilton hotel next is rocky anderson the former mayor salt lake city and the justice department justice for you know. you the

earth makes his birdsville handling the goods here in your poem a member of the u.s. house of representatives and the constitution party nominees for the earth. and the final independent candidate is former governing gary johnson this is thank. the earth through gary thank you gary as the libertarian party nominee the first question for tonight probably is our electoral system this question is from the free and equal elections foundation posting this debate and will be asked by her seen at token christina thank you i will start from the left to the right and here's our question. a top two primary is an election in which party labels appear on the ballot but parties do not nominate

candidates and says that the candidates choose their own ballot label all candidates run in the primary but only the top two vote getters appear on the ballot in the november election the system is currently used in louisiana washington state and california it is now a ballot measure and arizona prop one twenty one with other states interested in adopting the system what is your position on the top two primary system and why will. thank you and again thank you so much to free and equal and to all of you for being here yes i think top two does not enlarge our democracy in many ways it confuses things more it puts many candidates onto the ballot all together and it arbitrarily attaches party labels to them any candidate can choose any label they want so it really

degrades the meaning of our political parties where they have meaning and i know they don't always but there are some that do have meaning that aren't bought and sold to the highest bidder and the green party is is one of those parties and i know there are some other parties here as well the independent parties where the party actually represents real values and the. top two obscures the meaning of those parties and it essentially puts everyone together so you really can't tell who's representing you and whoever has the biggest budget stands to win that primary and essentially becomes another way that big money can control our elections so i oppose top. as the green party does and we actually support

a whole variety of election reforms for the purpose of enlarging our democracy not increasing the sellout of our democracy we are calling for getting money out of politics through public financing we're calling for opening up the airway. all qualified candidates we are calling for a constitutional to say ten seconds a day or five that money is not speech and that corporations are not people to take back our. two minutes rocky anderson rocky the top two system is simply a continuation of the degradation of our democracy by this too awfully of the republican and democratic parties are electoral system has been so constricted our democracy so degraded by these two parties from the very beginning

in terms of ballot access and even getting on the ballot so you can give people choices this talk to option would simply tell the do awfully you just go ahead and keep raising all your money you put your own candidates out there you could even have just two people from the same political party and that means no choice for the voters. last night last night and all these presidential vice presidential debates look how constricted the debate has been when you've had two parties there the republicans and the democrats they're arguing about who's going to spend more on the military budget iraq obama last night bragging that he's increased the military budget every year that he's been in office. they're both trying to outdo each other in terms of who's going to drill more both off shore and

on public lands and neither of them even dares to talk about getting rid of this disastrous failed war on drugs neither will talk with catastrophic when we see right there on fox about poverty when we got the worst poverty rate in this country since nine hundred sixty five so we need to open up the choices in south africa of the world rejoice at the growth of their democracy falling apart right i've got the ballot the first ballot in the presidential election that had eighteen people's names on in iraq that's real democracy and that's giving the voters roll choice. rock the just one quick question when you were mayor what party were you when well i was in the democratic party but it was a nonpartisan office i was democratic candidate for congress in one thousand nine

hundred six but i have adequate the democratic party. virgil good one party when i was an dependant democrat republican and i am in the constitution party conservative ok but your response for two minutes to the initial question thank you first i want to cite thanks to you for being here for lending your name and your press stage to this event and to die free and equal for they are hard work and bring a much broader vision to the american people so they will know they got more choices than just dial bamma and romney i do not favor the top two. system and i agree with geo. when she said money is not speech and that that power to system and hansis those that have the

most money however i am not a public financing i was not in favor of a hundred million dollars for the democratic national convention of taxpayer money one hundred million dollars to the republican national convention taxpayer money. thank you on. that top two system is primarily a state issue i would not be in favor of federal legislation repealing what louisiana has done are telling for genya are telling my are telling. arizona or new mexico any state what they should do but we've got to work with every state and every legislature and oppose top and my view it's a hindrance to true democracy for grassroots americans that don't want to be controlled by super pacs and pacs. all right.

and our final speaker on this topic i know you were republican as governor of new mexico gary johnson your response well running for governor of new mexico as a republican i ran completely outside of the political system completely i mean i and went and i introduced myself to the republican party two weeks before i ran and they said you know what we like you we like what you've got to say worked for completely inclusive you can go and you can make your case to all republicans in the state you know take part in the debates take part in the discussions well that's the way that politics should be i was able to make that presentation i was able to make that case and by the way the republican party chairman at that time said you can do all this stuff but you just need to know that you'll never get elected because it's not possible to become a good elected governor in a state that's two to one democrat well i did get elected so as governor of new

mexico completely outside of the political system i've always been pro-choice regarding everything ok so should this be top to voting top two candidates voting system this should be something that gets ferreted out at the local level that should be something that gets ferreted out at the state level not the national level look there is only a couple of voices being heard here and it's tweedledee and it's tweedle dum it's two weeks ago i. it's two weeks ago two candidates talking about who's going to spend more money on medicare when medicare is a system that you and i pay thirty thousand dollars into and get one hundred thousand dollars benefit it's a three to one what you pay in and what you get out it's not sustainable yet it's indicative of our federal government today which is on an absolute unsustainable

path the results of which. are going to be a monetary collapse unless we actually bring this under control and as a third party i've been given the opportunity here to make the case that's not being made by either of the two major candidates now if you go in. right away years. personal a lot of people asked me why i would consent to do this one i like moderating and two i like asking questions even though i did miss these questions that were submitted and three i think these people deserve a lot of credit for coming forward it's easy to sit back and watch these people stand up they may not be counted on november sixth but they're counting today and they deserve to be heard. each you know entitled to a one minute response and begin to use it joe yeah thank you i just want to mention talking about how all of us need to stand up and demand real democracy and demand

free and open inclusive debates i just want to mention that my running mate and i went to the doorstep of the commission on presidential debates at hofstra university last week and that we were arrested we were tightly bound with plastic restraints and tied to chairs for eight hours for daring to stand up and demand open debates but this is what all of us need to do i encourage you to go to my website to work and sign the petition there for opening the debates and for challenging the commission on presidential debates we should not let them do this again. rocky have one minute to talk to system is a sign that these two parties the stupid little do awfully in this country is.

trying to further put their stranglehold on our democracy we have to stand up together and in federal elections it is a federal matter we shouldn't leave it to the states the corrupting influence of money in this country is at the root of every major public policy disaster it's why we don't have health care for all as in the rest of the industrialized world that's why we are providing international leadership on the climate crisis because of all the corrupting money coming from the fossil fuel industry and it's why we have this enormously wasteful military budget with this military industrial complex putting pressure on congress and the white house second so we need public financing of elections for our democracy we merge very unequal access public airwaves thing where you. were the one minute bank you. the

top two system as others have indicated it favors the super pacs and the political action committee their political action committee is not just of businesses but of unions amfa no political action committee individual contributions only and no super pacs and i believe congress can craft legislation with presidential leadership to stop political action committee big money that funnels through the pac is the greatest hendrickson my opinion to free and open elections and freedom and democracy and this country we threw off the king and the time of the revolution because of have it had and we need to throw the packs out and i out and vote for third parties i will stand up for america i'm reminded that was this is a rebuttal one minute you could use or not use it governor well i think that when it comes to political campaign contributions that candidate should be required to

wear nascar like jackets with patches on the jackets in the men's room so what's really needed is one hundred percent transparency i will tell you that regardless of whether or not romney gets elected or obama gets elected three things are going to happen we're going to find ourselves with a continued heightened police state in this country we're going to find ourselves continuing to militarily intervene in the world which results has resulted in hundreds of millions of enemies to this country that wouldn't otherwise exist there's a reason why we shouldn't be using drones it's because we don't just take out the target we take out a lot of innocent civilians in these countries where these. five five and then lastly we are going to find ourselves in a continued stay. unsustainable spending and borrowing to the point that we are

going to experience a monetary collapse unless we fix this thank you governor. tonight's second question all questions submitted by social media was submitted by jeff tangle of colorado be a facebook question is in what ways does the war on drugs impact americans and how could these impacts be reduced is their own more efficient way to deal with the issue of drug use in america two minutes just on rocky actually rocky you go first on this whole rocky. thank you but i'm ok don't worry all of this so we understand as each question goes up a different statement a different person started we have a statement which we did. ok grassroots. that's good and you don't get it mostly opening statements my apologies i didn't

know we had openings he was i thought we were right to the questions so two minutes so let's start in the left there and then we'll go with our second question starting with rocky opening statements two minutes each ok visibility statements have been will go to september thank you until five please thank you kerry. good job ok great thank you. always glad to lead. the american people are in crisis we are losing our jobs decent wages our homes by the millions affordable health care and higher education the climate is in meltdown and our civil liberties are under attack. the wealthy few are richer than ever rolling in more dull than ever and the political establishment is not only not making it better they're actually making it worse

imposing austerity on every day people while they continue to squander trillions of dollars on wars for oil that we don't need on wall street bailouts and tax breaks for the very wealthy. the american people the american people are at the breaking point and we need to turn that breaking point in this election into a tipping point to take back our democracy and the peaceful just green future that we deserve and we do that by standing up and making sure that every day people have a voice in this election and a choice at the polls that's not bought and paid for by wall street and by advancing the critical solutions that the american people are clamoring for by large majorities our campaign is calling for a green new deal to create twenty five million jobs and on

a. jump start the green economy and now it's putting a halt to climate change and making wars for oil obsolete we're calling for health care as a human right through medicare for all and for bailing out the students not the banks and making public higher education but by the way it was not in our government was not in my notes about opening statement so i apologize to ship in a way for that but it was not high notes because i followed my notes. with your books and we do what we're told. there are dealing with more people are here to listen to you than us thank you for being here and giving us the star rocky two minutes we are out a moral point in our nation's history we've all. suffered through the sell out of our government to wall street young people are burdened with crushing record

tuition debt millions of families have lost their homes retirement accounts have been decimated while wall street fact cats who are buying our elections have made out like bandits we've never had the disparity in income and wealth that we see between the very wealthy and all the rest of us since the one nine hundred twenty s. our poverty rate as never been so high since nine hundred sixty five child poverty and infant mortality rates in the united states are next to the worst in the industrialized world and among fifteen nations the united states has the worst rate of women dying in connection with pregnancy and childbirth and under obamacare there will be thirty three million people without essential health care by the year twenty twenty two. am during the bush and the obama years our constitution has been shredded while the imperial presidency has expanded with presidents who think they

can unilaterally take us to war often on a pack of lies with presidents who think the federal government should have the authority to round anyone up including us citizens and imprison them up to the rest of their lives without charges without trial without legal representation and without the right of habeas corpus and our elected officials are sound asleep when the pentagon is mourning with me. is a really long term security risk to the united states than terrorism ok so if you like the way things are going vote democratic or republican if you want real change vote your conscience vote justice over any anomic justice social care are about environmental justice. back you are opening up the first question over a statement from virgil goode. thank you larry i want to say giants to gary

on rocky for being here on the four way shows i'm going to address right now you can deduce that position from what i say and i'm going to name four positions that i am very different from obama iraq obama and mitt romney forced obama and romney both claim that they were are and still are balanced by reality the obama budget this year was one trillion in deficit that paul ryan budget which passed the you asked passed was six hundred billion and deficit i have the courage to submit a balanced budget if bama lect at present at white after i'm inaugurated sack him like i am playing jobs in america for american citizens farce and the only candidate that has call for a near complete moratorium on green card emissions to the united states.