Transcripts For CSPAN Campaign 2020 CBS Hosts Democratic Presidential Debate In South Carolina 20240713

Lets get started. Time has come to turn the page and open a new chapter in the american story. Tonight let us go forward. Lets win this thing. Lets transform america. America decides. America deserves a president who is as resilient as her people. 2020 is our time to change who makes the rules. One stage. This election is just too important and we cant afford to get it wrong. Theres no limit to what we can do in the next four years. Show up in november, 2020, and win. Seven democratic candidates. Together we have built a movement. We have a fantastically diverse and wonderful party. We choose hope over fear. We are going to unite together. And together we are going to get it done. We are here and we are strong. Live from South Carolina, this is the thbs democratic debate. Here are the seven dand cats for the president ial nomination. The cbs news democratic debate. Here are the seven candidates for the president ial nomination. Cheers and applause] good evening and welcome. The democratic president ial primary here in South Carolina, the first primary in the south is just four days away. And super tuesday is just a week away. And this is the biggest primary day of the year. As voters in 14 states cast ballots and many of them tell us they have not actually made up their mind. So this debate when you think about it tonight may be the last, best chance for the candidates to make their case to South Carolina and super tuesday voters. And cbs news is proud to bring you this debate, along with our cosponsors. They are the Democratic National committee, and the Congressional Black Caucus institute, a Nonpartisan Organization committed to educating voters and training political leaders. And we are partnering tine also with twitter so you at home can participate in this debate. How do you do that . Send us your questioners in candidates using the twitter hashtag, demdebate. When you are asked a question you have one minute and 15 seconds to answer and 45 seconds for followups. Lets begin. Senator sanders, we havent had a National Unemployment rate this low for this long in 50 years. Here in South Carolina, the Unemployment Rate is even lower. How will you convince voters that a democratic socialist can do better than President Trump with the economy . Senator sanders youre right, the economy is doing great for people like mr. Bloomberg and other billionaires. In the last three years, last three years, billionaires in this country saw an 850 billion increase in their wealth. But you know what, for the ordinary american, things are not so good. Last year, real wage increases for the average worker were less than 1 . Half of our people are living paycheck to paycheck. 8 million americans have no Health Insurance or are underinsured. 45 Million People are struggling with student debt. 500,000 people tonight are sleeping out on the street, including 30,000 veterans. That is not an economy thats working for the American People. Thats an economy working for the 1 . Were going to create an economy for all, not just wealthy campaigns. [cheers and applause] mayor bloomberg, ill let you respond to that. Do you think senator sanders economy would be better for america . Minor bloomberg i think donald trump thinks it would be better for hes president. I do not think so. Vladimir putin thinks donald trump should be president of the United States, thats why russia is helping you get elected so oull lose to him. Senator sanders let me tell mr. Putin, im not a good friend of president xi of china. I think president xi is an authoritarian leader. Let me tell mr. Putin who interfered in the 2016 election trying to bring americans against americans, hey, mr. Putin, if im president of the United States, trust me, youre not going to interfere in my nor american elections. Senator warren. Mayor bloomberg we know what russia wants its chaos. Senator warren the way i see this, bernie is winning because the Democratic Party is Progressive Party and progressive ideas are popular ideas, even if there are a lot of people on this stage who dont want to say so. But bernie and i agree on a lot of things but i think i would make a better president than bernie. The reason for that is that getting a Progressive Agenda enacted is going to be really hard. And its going to take someone who dig into the details to make it happen. Bernie and i both wanted to help rein in wall street. In 2008 we both got our chance. But i dug in, i fought the big banks, i built the coalitions and i won. Bernie and i both want to see universal health care but bernies plan doesnt explain how to get there doesnt show how were going to get enough allies into it. And doesnt show enough about how were going to pay for it. I dug in, i did the work and then bernies team trashed me for it. We need a president who is going to dig in, do the hard work and actually get it done, progressives have got one shot and we need to spend it with a leader who will get something done. We want to bring you in this conversation. Why would the russians want to be working on behalf of Bernie Sanders . Ill tell you what the russians want. They dont have a political party. They want chaos. And chaos is what is coming our way. Look, if you think the last four years has been chaotic, divisive, toxic, exhausting, imagine spending the better part of 2020 with Bernie Sanders versus donald trump. Think about what that will be like for this country. [applause] d meanwhile, folks at home from South Carolina to south bend are trying to figure out what any of this means for us. Because its right that theres a progressive majority, an american majority, that wants to see real change. Wants to see wages go up and go up faster than the cost of health and saving for retirement but also theres a majority of the American People with i think who i think right now just want to be able to turn on the tv, see their president and actually feel their Blood Pressure go down a little bit instead of up through the roof. We have an opportunity your time expired. Bernie sanders analysis is right. The difference is i dont like his solutions. I dont believe that a government takeover of large parts of the economy makes any sense for working people or for families. I think that what we need to do is to present an alternative that includes a vibrant, competitive, private sector, but we all know, unchecked capitalism has failed. The answer is not for the government to take over the private sector, though. The answer is for us to break the corporate stranglehold on our government and have the government work for the people again. Let me just finish. We need to have an alternative to donald trump. Im talk about doubling the minimum wage, cutting taxes by 10 for everybody who makes less than 250,000 and creating over 4. 5 million goodpaying union jobs. Ld trump think he is can we have is to show we can create a growing, prosperous economy for the American People. Your time sup. Vice President Biden. When we talk about progressive, lets talk about being progressives. Walking distance here, mother emanuel church, nine people shot dead by a white supremacist. Bernie voted five times against the brady bill and wanted a waiting period of 12 hours. Im not saying hes responsible for nine death bus that man wouldnt have been able to get that weapon if he waiting had been what i suggest, until youre cleared. In addition to that he thought barack obama, he wanted a primary, he said we should primary barack obama. The president was weak and our administration was in fact not up to it. Look, folk, lets talk about progressives. Progressive is getting things done. Thats what we got done. Got a lot done. Senator sanders, your response . Pete mentioned, im hearing my name mentioned a little bit tonight. I wonder why. Maybe pete mentioned what the American People want. I will tell you, pete, what the American People want and joe, what the American People want. They dont want candidates to be running for billionaires for uge amounts. Speaking over each other] theyre raising the minimum wage to 15 an hour, making public colleges and universities 2003 igs tuition free and doing what every other major country on earth does, guaranteeing health care for all people as a human right through a medicare for all single payer system. I cant allow this to stand because its not true. Senator sanders well allow everyone an opportunity to respond. That is untrue about my campaign. The idea that most of my campaign is funned by billionaires, 50 people, all right, in charleston alone, just in charleston, over 2,000 people have contributed to my campaign. That means the dollars that have come to my campaign, just from charleston, is more than the dollars that have come from the 50 people that you mentioned. Grass roots contributions are the life blood of my campaign. I shouldnt miss the opportunity if youre watching right now and u support my campaign, go to peteforamerica. Com and chip in if youre watching right now and youre a billionaire, i will raise your taxes. But if youd like to defeat donald trump pleas go to peteforamerica. Com and doe mate the legal maximum of 2,800. All right. Vice President Biden. I want to bring us to another topic. Were in South Carolina. Its the first primary with a significant black voting population. Your numbers appear to be slipping with black voters. Im wondering if you could respond about why that is happening to you at this particular time . First of all, the latest poll i saw, my numbers, im still 15 points ahead. The latest poll. Look. Yes but senator sanders is in striking distance. You are within the margin of error within the state. It depends on which poll. Look. Ive earned the vote, ive work like the devil to earn the vote of the africanamerican commun, not just here but across the country. Ive been coming here for years an years, creating jobs here, making sure that the port that employees one in 11 people, we put 500 Million Dollars in our Administration Just into this county. E created jobs for people. The people know me. My entire career has been wrapped up in civil rights and civil liberties. I plan to earn the vote. Im here to act. Folks, i intend to win South Carolina and i will win the africanamerican vote here in South Carolina. Mr. Biden will you continue if you dont win South Carolina . You said that South Carolina will determine the outcome of this president ial race. If you dont win South Carolina will you continue i will win South Carolina. All right, sir. Mayor bloomberg, id like to bring you into the conversation. I want to ask you about a question that impacts the black and brown community. Youve apologized for stop and frisk repeatedly. What exactly are you apologizing for . We let it get out of control and when i realized that i cut it back by 95 and ive apologized and asked for forgiveness. Ive met with black leaders to try to get an understanding of how i can better position myself and what i should have done and what i should do next time but let me tell you i have been work very hard, weve improved the School System for black and brown students in new york city. Weve increased the jobs that are available for them. Weve increased the Housing Available to them. What can you say to put peoples fears and skepticism to rest. It continues to follow you. Thats because its in their interest to promote that. But if you talk to the people in new york city, i have over 100 black elected officials that have endorsed me. A lot of them are in the audience tonight. Ive earned the respect of the people in new york city. I was the mayor of the this of the largest, most populous city in the United States for 12 years and people will tell you its a lot better city today, it is safer for everybody, the School System is better. The budget is under control, weve done the things that people need for new york city for all ethnicities. Mayor buttigieg. Youve had your issues with the black community as well. Do you think new york citys implementation of stop and frisk was racist . Yes, in effect it was. Because it was about profiling people based on their race. The mayor even said that they disproportionately stopped white people too often and fores too little. And im not here to score points. I come at this with a great deal of humility because we have had a lot of issues, especially when it comes to Racial Justice and policing in my own community and i come to this with some humility because im conscious of the fact that theres seven white people on the stage alking about Racial Justice. None of us have the experience, the lived experience of, for example, walking down the street or in a mall and feeling eyes on us regarding us as dangerous without knowing the first thing about us just because of the color of our skin. None of us have the experience that black women have had that drives that Maternal Mortality gap that we are all rightly horrified by, but going into a doctor and being less likely of having your description of being in pain believed because we dont have the experience the next best thing we can do is listen to those we can do. I know if i were black my success would have been a lot harder to achieve and i know a lot of black people that if they were white it would have been a lot easier for them. Thats just a fact and weve got to do something about it rather than just demagogue aut it. Senator klobuchar, was the way the mayor implemented stop and terrific racist. Yes. I think that what we need to do instead of just reviewing everything from the past is talking about where were going to go forward. Martin luther king once said that we are all tied in a single garment of destiny and what affects one of us directly affects all of us indirectly. So when there is racism in the criminal Justice System we need to fix it. To me that means sentencing reform like the First Step Act and extending that to the states with the second step act. It means equal opportunity because if we dont pass representative clyburns bill out of South Carolina here to invest in impoverished communities, were never going to get to the single garment of destiny. We also need to do something about child care, about making sure we increase the minimum wage, and then finally voting. While we are all sitting here debating, wisconsin has kicked hundreds of thousands of people off of their voting rolls. Georgia kicked 100,000 off. As president i will get Voting Rights to be a reality for everyone. Senator warren, coming to you. I want to direct this question to you because mayor bloomberg said he got in this race late because he doesnt believe any of you on stage can beat donald trump you said mayor bloomberg is not the safest candidate, hes the riskiest candidate. What did you mean by that . I mean that mayor bloomberg lets look at thisy. Were in charleston you know who will be in charleston late they are week . Donald trump. Hell be here to raise money for his buddy senator Lindsey Graham. Who funded Lindsey Grahams campaign for reelection last time . Mayor bloomberg. Thats not the only right wing senator that mayor bloomberg has funded. In 2016, he dumped 12 million into the Pennsylvania Senate race to help reelect an antichoice, right wing republican senator, and i just want to say, the woman challenger was terrific she lost by a single point. To2012, he swooped in to try defend another republican senator against a woman challenger, that was me. It didnt work. But he tried hard. [applause] i dont care how much money mayor bloomberg has. The core of the Democratic Party will never trust him. He has not earned their trust. I will. And the fact that he cannot earn the trust of the core of the Democratic Party means he is the riskiest candidate standing on this stage. Senator warren, thank you. Mayor bloomberg, would you like to respond . Mayor bloomberg . I have been training for this job since i stepped on the pile that was still smoldering on 9 11. I know what to do. Ive shown i know how to run a country. Ive run the city which is almost the same size, bigger than most countries in the world. I am not i am the one choice that makes some sense. I have the experience. I have the resources. And i have the record. And all those sideshows that the senator wants to bring up have nothing to do with that. When people hired me to run new york city, three times in an overwhelmingly democratic progressive city, they elected e again and again. He called me out by name and referred to what i talk about as a sideshow. You know, this is personal for me. When i was 1 years old i got my first job as a special education teacher. I loved that job. And by the end of the first year i was visibly pregnant, the principal wished me luck and gave me job to someone else. Pregnancy discrimination, you bet. But i was 2 years old, i didnt have a union to protect me and i didnt have any federal law on my side. So i packed up my stuff and i went home. At least i didnt have a boss who said to me, kill it. The way that mayor bloomberg have said to one of his pregnant employees. People want a chance to hear, people want a chance to hear from the women who worked for you. I never said that. For the record if she was a teach for the new york city she would never have had that problem. We treated our teachers the right way and the unions will tell you exactly that. Mayor bloomberg, let us have the women have an opportunity to speak. The Bloomberg Corporation and mayor bloomberg himself have been accused of discrimination, they are bound by nondisclosures, so that they cannot speak. If he says there is nothing to hide here, then sign a blanket release and let those women speak out. Let them tell their stories the way i can tell my story. A number of issues to discuss tonight, i want to give the mayor an opportunity to respond, she has raised concerns about women in your workplace. At the last debate you said some of your female employees might not have liked some of your jokes. Did these women take your joke wrong or were you wrong to make the jokes . Probably wrong to make the jokes. I dont remember what they were so i assume, it bothered them i was wrong and i apologize, im sorry for that. What happened is we went back 40 years and we could only find three cases where women said they were uncomfortable. Nobody accused me of doing anything other than just making a comment or two. And what the senator did suggest was that we release these women from the nondisclosure agreement. I did that two days later and my company has said we will not use nondisclosure agreements ever again. The senator has done it, i dont know what else she wants us to do. Were following exactly what she asked and the trouble is with this senator enough is never enough for what this im going to start focus option some of these other things. We cannot continue to relitigate this every time. We did what she asked and thank you, probably made the world better because of it and by my company renouncing using these we probably changed hopefully the corporate land cape across america. If you get nominated well be relitigating this all year. Thats a very serious charge you leveled at the mayor. Told a woman to get an abors. What evidence do you have of that. Her own words. Mayor bloomberg could you respond to this . I never said it. Period. End of story. Categorically never said it. When i was accused of doing it we couldnt figure out what she was talking about. But right now, im sorry if she heard what she thought she heard or whatever happened i didnt ake any pleasure in that i asked the mayor to do a release of all people we are doing that senator. We want to get to the issue. The ideological differences in the Democratic Party. Senator sanders. You released information about how you will pay for your major proposals but not all of your details are clear. You proposed more than 50 trillion in new spending. You said medicare for all. Over a 10year period. But you only explained how youll pay for just about half of that can you do the math for the rest of us. How many hours do you have . Two. Thats the problem. Thats not the problem. Lets talk about medicare for all. Im sure youre familiar with the new study that just came out of Yale University published in lancet magazine, one of the prestigious medical journals in the world. It said medicare for all will Lower Health Care costs in this country by 450 billion a year and save 68,000 lives of people who otherwise would have died. What we need to do is to do what every other major country on earth does, guarantee health care to all people, not have thousands of separate insurance plans which are costing us some admit. Lion a year to we have laid out options all over the place. One of the options is a. 5 payroll tax on employers which will save them substantial sums of money. Let me respond does the math add up . The math does not add up. In fact just on 60 minutes this weekend he said he wasnt going to rattle through the nickels and dimes. Let me tell you how many nickels and dimes were talking about. Nearly 60 trillion, do you know how much that is for all of his programs . That three times the american economy. Not the federal government, the entire american economy. The medicare for all plan alone, page 8, clearly says it will kick 149 million americans off their current Health Insurance in four years. That is true. As one prominent democrat once said we should Pay Attention to where the voters of the country are, bernie that prominent democrat was barack obama a few months ago. I think thats what we should do. They are not with you on spending nearly 60 trillion. What i think we should do is make thins more affordable, nonprofit public option, make sure were paying for longterm care better. Take on the pharmaceuticals like you and i have done together and do something for the people of america instead of a bunch of broken promises that sound good on bumper stickers. Mr. Steyer. Mr. Steyer. First of all let me talk. I think she was talking about my plan, not yours. I think we were talking about math and it doesnt take two hours to do the math. Lets talk about [speaking over each other] can i respond. Senator sanders youre allowed a quick response. Senator sanders. Moderator, is it my turn . Senator, you have been name checked, you are allowed to respond. What the health and Human Services have said in analyzing health care costs, what a recent yale study said is your program would cost some 50 trillion over a 10year period. We would continue to pay in some cases 10 times more for the same exact prescription drugs. What every study out there, conservative or progressive says, medicare for all will save money. Ours will cost about 45 billion, not 60 trillion. I would lishe zph senator sanders, we would like to bring mr. Steyer in on this. I was talking about the program. This conversation shows a huge risk for the Democratic Party. We are looking at a party that has decided that were either going to support someone who is a democratic socialist or somebody who has a long history of being a republican. And let me say that ive got into this race because i wanted to fight for Economic Justice, for Racial Justice and to make sure we had Climate Justice for the American People. And i am scared. If we cannot pull this Party Together if we dwe to one of those extremes, we take a terrible risk of reelecting donald trump. Thank you, mr. Steyer. That is something i still have some time. That is a risk that will hurt the American People in a way that we none of us on this stage should be willing to risk. Thank you. Lets keep this topic going, mayor pete. Lets do some math. Senator sanders at one point said it would be 40 trillion, hen 30 trillion, then 17 trillion. Incredible shrinking price tag. At some point he said its unknowable to see what the price tag would be. Ill tell you what it adds up to. It adds up to four more years of donnell trump, Kevin Mccarthy as speaker of the house and the snabblet to get the senate into democratic hands. Its time for us to stop act like the presidency is the only office that matters. Not soninlaw this a way to get donald trump reelected, weve got a house to worry about. Weve got a senate to worry about. This is important. If you want to keep the house in democratic hands you might want to check with the people who actually turned the house blue. 40 democrats. Who are not running on your platform. They are running away from your platform as fast as they wobal can. I want to send those democrats back to the United States house. Listen to them. [speaking over each other] Vice President biden. I guess the only way to do this is jump in and speak twice as long as you should. Heres the deal. A guy is a friend of mine down here, fritz hol, he said you want to know what a man or woman will do, look what theyve done. Look what theyve done. You talk about concern about race, my good friend on the end of this platform, he in fact bought a system that was private prison system. After, after he knew that in fact what happened was they hogtied young men in prison here in this state. They in fact made sure that in georgia they did not have health care for the people who were being held. They in fact went on an he said after he knew that, he bought it. And then he said he was proud of his accomplishment. Talk about what we talk about with bernie. Bernie in fact hasnt passed much of anything. The fact of the matter is [applause] the fact is youre out of time. Im not out of time, you spoke over time and im going to talk. Heres the deal. [cheers and applause] look at whats happening here. Look at whats happening here. We have to win the senate back and by the way, all those races that got 41 new democrat the majority of them are supporting me for president. Mr. Vice president i have to allow, mr. Mayor mr. Mayor youre allowed to respond. I bought a Prison Company thinking theyd do a better job, i investigated and closed it. You knew when you bought it. Since then ive worked to end the use of private prisons in my own state. I started a bank to support black owner shep of businesses, women ownership of businesses and latino owners of businesses because this Financial Service industry is prejudiced. I have worked tirelessly on this and you know im right you wrote he crime bill. Put hundreds of thousands of young black and latino in prison. Not true. Let me say something. I have worked for Racial Justice. Thank you. Thats an absolutely untrue all i know is im if we spend the next four months tearing our party apart were going to watch donald trump spend the next four years tearing our country apart. So my argument here is that we need to get back to whats happening right now. We have a clear choice. Of who is going to lead this party. And i am the only one in the New Hampshire debate when asked if we had a problem with a socialist leading the ticket that raised my hand. I like bernie, we came in together in the senate. I do not think this is the best person to lead the ticket. If you want to talk about getting things done, and make a comparison, according to Vanderbilt University in tennessee, last congress, i was the most effective democrat in the u. S. Senate, im 15 on 15 metrics. Bernie and elizabeth were in the bottom half. It matters. It matters if you can actually get things done. It is not just who talks the best, who actually get things done. Especially with the africanamerican community, there have been a lot of broken promises. I think having someone that keeps their promises and follows through and is going to get things done for the people matters. Lets go on the record. They talk about 40 democrats. 21 of those were people i spent 100 million to help elect. All of the new dems that came in, put nancy pelosi in charge and gave the congress the ability to control this president , i got them. When you talk about money, lets put this in perspective. The federal budget is 4. 5 trillion a year. We get 3. 5 trillion in revenue. We lose 1 trillion a year. Thats why the federal budget deficit is right now the debt is 20 trillion going up to 21 trillion. We cannot afford some of the stuff people talk about. Let me finish. If you keep on going, we will elect bernie. Bernie will lose to donald trump. And donald trump and the house and the senate and some of the state houses will all go red and then between gerrymandering and appointing judges for the next 20 or 30 years were going to live with this. Mayor bloomberg, thank you, i will allow senator sanders a quick response. Thank you very much. Mayor bloomberg has a solid and strong and enthusiastic base of support. Problem is, theyre all billionaires. Ow if you look oh. On the other hand, of the last 50 polls that have been done nationally, mr. Bloomberg, i beat trump 47 of those 50 times. If you look at battleground states like michigan, wisconsin, and pennsylvania, polling polls arent the election. I beat trump. If you want to beat trump like youre going what youre going to need is an unprecedented Grass Roots Movement of black and white and latino, native american and asian people standing up and fighting for justice. Anybody this can anybody in this room imagine moderate republicans voting for him . If you cant do that you cant win. That is the problem. And that is Progressive Agenda is popular, mayor bloomberg. For everyone on this stage. We talk about how to build a future. Thats what matters. I talk to people in selfie lines every day who tell me about the importance of getting real help on health care. Its why i have a way to pay health care that doesnt raise taxes on middle class families. But its so much more than that. As democrats, we need to speak to the future we can build together. We need to speak of the prosperity we can build together. How about a wealth tax in america . Because with a two cent tax on the top. 1 , we have a chance to invest in universal child care for every one of our babies. To really level the playing field. 50 billion into historically black colleges and universities. And start closing the racial wealth gap by canceling Student Loan Debt for 43 million americans. We need to talk about our aspirations, our hopes. This is a moment to choose hope over fear. This is our moment. Senator, thank you. We have to take a quick break. When we come back, the democratic president ial debate continues after this only on cbs. Joining us now, Bill Whitaker 60 minutes, and the moderator of face the nation. We begin with you, Vice President biden. Across the street, as you mentioned at the top of the debate is a theater is the area where nine people were shot and killed inside the mother emanuel church. Every day in our country over 100 people die from gun violence. You all have plans, i know, on this stage to address the gun crisis. But congress has not been able to pass a major Gun Legislation in a quarter century. Just think about this. In those 25 years we have had columbine, newtown, parkland, las vegas, we could go on and on. Vice President Biden, i want to start with you. Why should anyone have faith that youre the one who can get this done now . Because im the only one that got it done nationally. I beat the n. R. A. Twice. I got assault weapons banned, i got magazines that could not hold more than 10 rounds in them and got them eliminated, except we had a thing called an election with hanging chads in florida and it was not reauthorized. In addition to that, i passed the brady bill with waiting periods, i led that fight my friend to my right and others have in fact also given to the gun manufacturers absolute immunity. Imagine if i stood here and say we give immunity to drug company we give immunity to tobacco companies. Thats caused carnage on our street. 150 Million People have been killed since 2007 when bernie voted to exempt the gun manufacturers from liability. More than all the wars including vietnam from that point on. Carnage on our streets. I want to tell you if im elected, im coming for you and gun manufacturers im going to take you on. Im the only one thats done it. Dig in and talk about what really is going to take to get something done. Ive been in the senate, ive seen gun safety legislation introduced, get a majority, and then doesnt pass because of the filibuster. Understand this. The filibuster is giving a veto to the gun industry. It gives a veto to the oil industry. Its going to give a veto on immigration. Until were willing to dig in and say that if Mitch Mcconnell is going to do to the next democratic president what he did to president obama, and that is try to block every single thing he does, that we are willing to roll back the filibuster, go with the majority vote and do what needs to be done for the American People. Ok but senator. Understand this. Many people on this stage do not support rolling back the filibuster. Until were ready to do that we can cant change this. I want to allow senator sanders to respond. Youve gone off the insurance industry. Youve taken on pharmaceutical companies. An youve taken on big tech. Why did you vote repeatedly to give gun manufacturers a pass . You know, joe has voted for terrible trade agreements. No, no, no. Joe voted for the war in iraq. My point was not to be i have cast thousands of votes including bad votes. That was a bad vote. I have today a d minus voting record from the n. R. A. 0 years ago, i likely lost a race for the one seat for congress in vermont because 30 years ago i opposed i supported a ban on assault weapons. 30 years ago. Right now, my view is, we need to expand background checks. End the gun show loophole. And do what the American People want, not what the n. R. A. Wants. Recognize me, thank you. I have a six million Person Organization around this country, moms demand action, in every town that we have put background checks, we have got background checks in 20 states. So you can do it. Its congress that cant seem to do it. I dont know why we think theyre going to do it. E Vice President voted for a death bill and supported the n. R. A. Senator sanders has supported the n. R. A. We have to do it. The way we do it is having someone leading the ticket from a part of the country that we actually need the vote. So i have long supported the assault weapon ban. I am the author of the bill that closed the boyfriend loophole that says that domestic abusers cant go out and get an ak47. That bill along with you didnt write that bill. I did write the bill. Ok, you did that. Of the hands of people who well have fact check look at that. The only thing the boyfriend loophole was not covered. I couldnt get that covered. You in fact when you were as a senator tried to get it covered and Mitch Mcconnell is holding up on his desk right now and were going to lose the vinyl against women act across the board. If i could finish. I have the bill, anyone can check it out, to close the boyfriend loophole, also to close the charleston loophole, another bill thats out there, universal background checks. Let me tell you how you win this. We have to win in the middle of the country. While everyone talks about winning rural areas, suburban areas, im the only one out there with the receipts thats actually, repeatedly, while being for the assault weapon ban, won in republican congressional districts over and over again, including Michele Bachmanns district. So having someone that can lead the ticket, that can bring people with her is the way you get gun safety legislation. I look at these and say do they hurt my uncle dick in the deer stand . They do not. Coming from a proud hunting state and still being able to pass this legislation senator klobuchar, we want to allow as many people get on this. Im on board with sending somebody from thed my tholve country. I want come back to the question of the filibuster. This is not some long ago bad vote Bernie Sanders took. That is a current bad position that Bernie Sanders holds. Were in South Carolina. How are we going to deliver a revolution if you wont everyone support a rule change. In e in a state we are the state that where Strom Thurmond used the fill buster to block civil rights legislation repeatedly. No less a senate traditional figure than harry reid has called for it to go. Its got to go because otherwise washington will not deliver. I was in high school when the columbine shooting happened. I remember everybody in washington saying never again. Well never let this happen again. And then a Second School shooting generation has now been produced. Shame on us if we allow there to be a third. I think it wouldnt be a bad idea for somebody to illustrate from the perspective of a veteran why the kinds of weaponry, anything remotely like what i trained on to go serve in a war zone has no business being sold anywhere near an American School or church or neighborhood. All right, senator sanders, please. 30 years ago, supported a ban on assault weapons. Mike bloomberg has started a good organization, millions demand action, congratulations. They have credited me with gun sense. Furthermore, it is my view that the time is now, joe made this point. At the end of the day we need to rally the American People. Here is the good news. Because of all these disgusting and horrific mass shootings, the American People now understand that we must be aggressive on gun safety. Not be dictated to by the n. R. A. And i am proud that i have a dminus voting record from the nra if elected president it will get worse than that. Mr. Steyer, please. It isnt it isnt a question of the American People deciding we have too much gun violence. Everyone in america knows we have too much gun violence. The problem we have is that corporations have bought washington, d. C. The gun manufacturers own the senate of the United States. So even though more than 90 of americans want mandatory background checks on every gun purchase, we cant get it through the senate. So the question you have to ask yourself is, how do we change the senate of the United States in a material way. There are two things. Thats why i am for term limits of 2 years for every congressperson and senator, to change who is in charge, to get rid of Mitch Mcconnell and Lindsey Graham and ted cruz. Senator sanders is right. We need to win a huge victory across the board. Democrats need togo to the grassroots, i built one of the biggest grass roots organizations in the United States. Your time is up. Tell the truth an organize, thats what it will take. Lets talk about education. South carolinas schools score in the bottom half of the national assessment. Black students consistently score worse than white students. Mayor bloomberg, a key element of your response to failing schools in new york city was a dramatic increase in public Charter Schools. As president , would you pursue that same strategy and seek to expand Charter Schools nationwide . Im not sure theyre appropriate every place. I can only tell you in new york they provided parents with an alternative to send students to them. The Charter Schools are mixed with the noncharter Public Schools because our Charter Schools are Public Schools as well. Theyve helped each other. I saw a statistic the other day. When i came into office, zero new York City Schools were in the top 25 of the state. When i left, 23 out of 25 were from new york city. Weve cut the gap between the rich and the poor. Weve made an enormous difference in all the options that parents have. I have raised teacher salaries by 43 . Put an extra 5 billion into our School System. I value education. It is the only way to solve the poverty problem is to get people a good education and rather than just talk about it in new york, we actually did it. Senator warren. So this is one thing where a president can make a big difference all by herself. And im going to start with my secretary of education. My secretary of education will be someone who has taught in Public Schools. My secretary of education will be someone who believes in Public Education. And my secretary of education will believe that public dollars should stay in Public Schools. One more thing, my secretary of education will believe that it is time to get rid of high stakes testing. We need to support our children. But look, we want to build a future in this country. We build a future by investing in our children. Ive got a plan to put 800 billion new federal dollars into our Public Schools. We education is not free, we must invest in the future of our children. Senator sanders. This campaign, our campaign, our campaign is about changing american priorities. Instead of giving tax breaks to billionaires, were going to have high quality universal child care for every family in this country. Because the psychologists tell us zero to four are the most important years human development. Well triple funding for lowincome title 1 schools because kids education should not depend upon the zip code in which they live. Were going to make public colleges and universities tuition free through a tax on wall street speculation and were going to move to make certain that no teacher in america earns less than 60,000 a year. We want great teachers. [applause] the best thing we can do to support Public Education is to support public educators. Im a little biased because im married to one. I get an education about education every day i come home. I have seen how teachers are being expected to dip into their own pockets to furnish their classrooms. Teachers are being expected to handle the Mental Health challenges that their students are facing because we dont have an adequate Mental Health system to support kids. And now some politicians, because they arent willing to face the feed for commonsense gun law, are expecting teachers to somehow transform ethems into highly trained armed guards when theres a threat to a classroom. We have to show not only with compensation but with support for the profession overall our regard for those educating our kits. Kids. Yes, that means a secretary of education who will support teachers. It also means investing. One we can support candidates, good evening. Good evening. People across this country are being ushcred by student loan, this is an issue we need to talk about. Thats what i plan to do. We all know the political conversation in our country is interactive. Because of our partner, twitter this debate is no different. I want to put a question from twitter to you, senator klobuchar. This is from casey pennington. How will your policies adress and ensure Affordable Housing and Education Equity for minimum wage workers . Thank you. This is one of the first times weve talked about housing and i put forward an extensive policy. I think when ive looked at this both in my job in local government and in the senate, one sure way to make sure that kids get a good start is if they have a roof other their heads and a stable place to live. The way you do that is first of all taking care of the section 8 backlog of applicants. There are literally hundreds of thousands of people waiting. And i have found a way to pay for this and a way to make sure that people get off that list and get into housing. Secondly, you create incentives for Affordable Housing to be built and third to help people pay for it. And i want to make clear, given South Carolina and the rural population as well as urban, that this isnt just an urban problem. Its a big urban problem but its also a rural problem where we have housing deserts an people want to have their businesses located there but theyre not able to get housing. So for me, its building a coalition. And i actually like to get these things done and to the way you do it is by building a coalition between urban and rural so you can pass Affordable Housing. Senator, one second. We need to talk about race though. It is not enough to talk about housing. It is important to recognize the role that the federal government plays, for decades and decades, in discriminating against africanamericans having an opportunity to buy homes. Thats redlining. And while mayor bloomberg was blaming the housing crash of 2008 on africanamericans and on latinos, in fact, i was out there fighting for a Consumer Agency to make sure people never get cheated again on their mortgages. We have a house i have a housing plan. What it has specifically senator warren, thank you. It is to deal with the effects of redlining. We can no longer pretend everything is race neutral. We have to address race consciously. Whats happening in this. Mayor bloomberg, i want to give you a chance to respopped. In addition to what senator warren just said, on twit cher called you a liar and borderline racist because of what you said about redlining. Im sorry but unfortunately hes misinformed on redlining. You can go back and look at the record. I fought against it before 2008, the crisis. During 2008, and after that. Redlining is not the problem with the Mortgage Market but it was a problem for the communities where it was done and we stopped that. Let me also say because just to since i have the floor for a second, that i really am surprised that all of those, my fellow contestants up here i guess would be the right word for it, given nobody pays attention to the clock, im surprised they show up. I would have thought after i did such a good job beating them last week theyd be afraid to do that. Let me just say when youre talking about Affordable Housing we created 175,000 units of Affordable Housing in new york city. And i listened to them, theyre in congress and say they cant get it done, cant get it done. But if you change something they would. You have to learn to work with both sides of the aisle and you can get stuff done. I did it in new york city. I got the Republican State Senate to vote for gay marriage, virtually before anybody else in this country. You can work across the aisle. You just have to know how to deal with people. Mayor, thank you very much. Back to you. Vice President Biden, black men earn 73 cents for every dollar earned by white men, are about twice as likely to be unemployed, five times more likely to be incarcerated, conditions that rip ail cross black families and have endured during both democratic and republican administrations. How do you convince black voters that you can change years of inequities. Two ways, number one, my entire life ive been involved with the black community. I was public defender, i worked in the projects, came along and first thing i did is the chairman of the Judiciary Committee extended the Voting Rights act eventually for 25 years and ive been deeply involved. My first effort i had as a councilmember was doing away with redlining in the county. We have to help create wealth. Thats why we doubled the amount of money available for young entrepreneurs and black entrepreneurs are as successful as any other group of people in the country. We go from 1. 5 billion to 3 billion, taking 30 billion off the zhrines. Thats how you create wealth. Secondly, provide for the opportunity for first time home buyers to be able to have a 15,000 tax credit so they can get the mortgage at the front end and be and be able to keep it. Third, i go after people involved in gentrification. Were moving people out of their neighborhoods in ways that in fact make no sense. Theyre being bought out. You cannot find a place to live. Thirdly i make sure that with regard to housing we allow people, look, right now if you live in a black neighborhood, you have the same exact house as the guy across the street in the white neighborhood has, your house is valued significantly less than the white. Weve got to do i love how you cut me off anytime im not going to be quiet anymore. Every single policy area in the United States has a gigantic subtext of race. Were talking about education, were talking about criminal justice, were talking about housing. Were talking about loans. I started a bank to basically correct the injustice in the Financial Services industry. Basically to make loans to blackowned lark tino owned and womenowned businesses. We supported over 8,000 Affordable Housing units. But more than that, i believe im the only person on this stage who believes in reparations for slavery. [applause] something happened, we should have a formal commission on race to retell the story of the last 400plus years in america of africanamericans, of systematic legal injustice, discrimination d cruelty, but also 400plus years of contribution in terms of building the United States of america and leading the United States of america from a moral standpoint. Your time has expired. [talking over each other] senator klobuchar. If you could honor the trials of debate. Senator klobuchar id like to change topics. Rural airsa have populations who are older, sicker and poorer than nonrural communities and they have to travel farther to get medical help when they need it. Expanding coverage is expanding coverage will be useless if there are no providers to go to. How will you ensure that there is Affordable Health care in these areas . Sen. Klobuchar the answer is one size does not fit all, and one of the ways you do this, right now we have something called critical access hospitals, so they are designated for rural areas, and i am the lead democrat on the bill to expand that. The other issue is we do not have enough personnel, and so that is where we get to the education plan, and i dont agree with some of my colleagues here about putting hardearned taxpayer money into rich kids going to college. What i think we need to do instead is look at what our needs are in our economy. We are going to have one million openings for Home Health Care workers, particularly in rural areas that we dont know how to fill. We will have 150,000 openings for nursing assistants. We will not have a shortage in Sports Marketing degrees, we will have a shortage of plumbers and nurses, so putting incentives in place for how we do loan payback, making one and twoyear degrees tuitionfree, and the final thing as comprehensive Immigration Reform. I have passed a bill that allows doctors from other countries that study in our medical schools to stay and serve in rural areas we need to expand that. Margaret same question. Mr. Buttigieg when i was born, there was no difference in your life expectancy. If you were born in a rural area or a city. Now it is the biggest gap in a generation, and that is particularly affecting black, rural families in places like South Carolina. We are seeing hospital closures right and left, particularly in states where medicaid was not expanded, something that is hurting black and poor white families. And is largely the vote of racial voter suppression. All of these are connected. Housing, wages, the ability to get anything meaningful done on criminal Justice Reform all of these things are going to be harder to deal with as long as black voices are systematically excluded from political participation, which is happening on everything from the purging of voter rolls margaret you are out of time. Mr. Buttigieg it is why i want to comprehensively deal with these issues. Part of the core of it is a 21st century Voting Rights act. [applause] margaret senator sanders. Sen. Sanders very proud working with congressman clyburn of South Carolina, that we increased funding for the Community Housing Center Health Center Program by 11 billion as part of the Affordable Care act, which now provides for 9 illion americans access to primary health care, dental care, Mental Health counseling, and lowcost prescription drugs in that bill. We also put 2 billion into a program, which would provide Debt Forgiveness for doctors, nurses, dentists we have a major affordable dental crisis in this country to make sure they are practicing in underserved areas. The advantage of a medical for all, health care program, because it is not driven by profits for insurance companies, we will have health care for all people in all parts of this country. Mr. Buttigieg but in order for any about to happen, it has to pass, and we are talking about a plan gayle mayor buttigieg, i am sorry, we are going to go to mayor bloomberg and change topics. Mayor bloomberg, as mayor of new york, you declared a war on obesity, you banned trans fats from restaurants and tried to ban large sugary drinks. Would you push those on the National Level as well . Mr. Bloomberg well, i think what is right for new york city isnt always right for every city. Otherwise youd have a naked cowboy in every city. [laughter] but seriously, it is the governments job to have scientist take care of themselves and do their jobs. We need to take a look at what happened with smoking. We did banned smoking in new york city, public places, restaurants, offices, and that ort of thing, and it is spread cross europe, latin america, even to places across the middle east and into the far east. It has saved an enormous number of lives, so it just goes to show that if you have good public health, then you can do things, and one of the great problems you have today, you read about the virus, what is really happening here is the president fired the pandemic specialist in this country two years ago, so there is nobody here to figure out what the hell we should be doing [applause] and hes defunded the centers for disease control, c. D. C. , so we dont have the organization we need. This is a very serious thing. As you see, the stock market is falling apart. We do not have anybody gayle we are going to talk about that in our next segment. Before i leave you, are new yorkers living longer because of your policy . Mr. Bloomberg there is no question about that. Life expectancy in new york had grown by three years in the 12 years, three years greater than he national average. Gayle Vice President biden. Mr. Biden look, one of the things we have to do, we have a thing in the Defense Department called darfus. They came up with the internet, they came up with stealth technology. I will do the same thing at the National Attitude of health. National institute of health. We will focus at least 50 billion over the first five years on focusing on obesity, diabetes, alzheimers, and cancer, and we are going to make that investment, because no one else is willing to make that investment we can in fact find cures if we make the investment, and we can get that done, the American People support it, even republicans support it. We have to focus on extending life, saving lives, and put them in a position that they will live longer and more securely. Gayle senator klobuchar. Norah senator sanders wants to legalize marijuana on day one of his presidency. Norah and is promising to expunge the record of anyone who has been arrested for possession. As a former prosecutor, is that a realistic promise . Sen. Klobuchar well, it is realistic to want to legalize marijuana. I want to do that too. I also think you need to look back at peoples records. You maybe cannot do it on day one, as he said, there is a process to go through. There are too many things on the records that have stop them from getting jobs. I think what we also need to do is make sure when we do this that we have money for treatment, and it is not necessarily because of the marijuana, it is because of things like opioids and the like that is why one of the first plans i put out was for treatment, because if you want to make the criminal Justice System work, you do not want to have repeat customers, and you want to help get people off of drugs, and the way that you do that is with drug courts, the way you do that, by the way, is with my proposal for the clemency board in the white house that you do not give so you dont have a president who givespardons to his buddies and to whitecollar offenders, but instead, you have a set process that you use that is fair and is outside of the Justice Department and while getting their advice. Mr. Biden may i respond to that . Norah mayor bloomberg, you have called marijuana another ddictive drug. That weve never done research on. Mayor bloomberg you should not make this a criminal thing if you have a small amount. For dealers, yes. But the average person, no. Expunge records in the persons who got caught up in this before. Number two, we will not take it away from states that have already done it. Number three, you should listen to the scientists and the doctors. They say go very slowly. They have not done enough research, and the evidence so far is worrisome, before we get all of our kids, particularly kids in their late teens boys even more than girls which this may be damaging their brains. Until we know the science, it is just nonsensical to push ahead. But the cat is out of the bag. Some states have it. You are not going to take it away. Decriminalize the possession. Norah thank you. Senator sanders, you would like to interject . Sen. Sanders look, we have a criminal Justice System today that is not only broken, is racist, has more people in jail than any other country on earth, including china. One of the reasons for that is a horrific war on drugs, so i do believe on day one, we will change the federal controlled substance act, which, if you can believe it, now equates heroin with marijuana. That is insane here we will effectively legalize marijuana in every state of the country. What we are also going to do is move to expunge the records of those people arrested for possession of marijuana, and i will tell you what else we are going to do. We are going to provide help to the africanamerican, latino, nativeamerican community to start businesses to sell Legal Marijuana rather than let a few corporations control the legalize marijuana market. Norah all right, senator sanders, thank you. Mr. Biden may i respond to this . I wrote the bill to set up the drug court. Gayle thank you, Vice President biden. We will get back to you. The cbs democratic debate will continue right after this. Norah welcome back to cbs news democratic debate. Each of you is campaigning for the role as commanderinchief, where you will command 1. 3 million u. S. Troops and be responsible for protecting Americas National security. There are also 53,000 here in South Carolina. Senator warren, you said you wanted to bring them all troops from the middle east, and then you walked that back to say you want to bring back combat troops. How does that protect Americas National security . Sen. Warren look, the president s first job is to keep america safe. An important part of that is to have a strong military. All three of my brothers served in the military, and i understand how much the military sacrifices, how much their families sacrifice, and how much they are willing to put on the line. That means that we have a sacred responsibility to them, and that is not to use our military to solve problems that cannot be solved militarily. We are not winning in afghanistan. We are not winning in the middle east. What we need to do is we need to use all of the tools in our toolbox. We need a strong military. We also need a strong state department. Those are our eyes and ears on the ground. They are our front lines in diplomacy. We need a Strong Economy and to work worldwide on that economy, and we need strong alliances. We need to know the difference etween our friends and between dictators who would do us harm, and we need to be nicer to our friends than to dictators. We need to not cut and run on our allies. We need an approach that keeps us safe by using all of the tools in a measured way. Norah mayor bloomberg, voters have not heard much about your foreignpolicy views. When you pull all combat troops out of the middle east . Mr. Bloomberg no. You want to cut it back as much as you can, but i think if we learn something from 9 11, people plan things overseas and execute them here. We have to be able to stop terrorism, and theres no guarantees that you will be able to do it, but we have to have some troops in places where terrorists congregate, and to not do so is just irresponsible. We should not be fighting wars that we cannot win. We should only go to war as a last resort nobody argues with that but this is a dangerous world, and if we have not learned that after 9 11, i do not know what is going to teach us what to do. We have to do something, and i think the budget that one of the things that ive seen recently convinced me that the military today is better prepared than they have been an awful long time, and with the moneys they are spending on the war, weapons that we need for the next war and not the last, a common mistake that they are not making now. But they are doing a good job. Gayle mayor buttigieg, i would like to go to you as the only veteran on stage. Can you weigh in on this . Mr. Buttigieg the first time i stepped off the bus into South Carolina, it was for combat training, and that was to go to afghanistan, where i saw that one of the things that kept me safe, just as sure as my body armor, was the flag on my shoulder represented a country that was known to keep its word. Our allies and adversaries knew it. The president has turned back to shreds the first thing we have got to do is restore the credibility of the United States. [applause] the second thing we have got to do is make sure that we not only have the intelligence capabilities i guess i disagree with the mayor. I do not believe that we need troops everywhere terrorists can gather. They can gather anywhere in the world. We need boots on the ground, but what good is that if the president is not supporting hem . Some of the biggest threats we face are things like counterterrorism but issues like Global Health security and the coronavirus that rely on the ability to listen to scientists, listen to your own intelligence, and coordinate with an International Community that this president has alienated because his idea of a Security Strategy gayle a minute 15 is a long time. We would ask respectively that you all stick to the time. Mr. Biden good idea. Gayle senator klobuchar i promise, mr. Vice president , we are going to get to you. Mr. Biden you keep promising me that, but you have not done it yet. Gayle i have never broken a promise. Senator klobuchar, there was breaking news on the cdc from the coronavirus. There were over 2000 deaths globally, and so far in the u. S. , there have been no deaths, but the cdc says this, it is not a matter of if the virus will spread here but when. When you close the border to americans that have been exposed to the coronavirus in order to prevent an outbreak here in this country . Sen. Klobuchar well, what we have to do is make sure that we have treatment for those americans and that they are in a quarantined situation. We do not want to those people, but we want to give them help. And i would agree, when mayor bloomberg said that this president has not invested like he should have in budget, he tried to cut back on the cdc, he tried to cut back on the International Organization that would coordinate with the rest of the world, he has not yet really addressed the nation on this topic i would do all of that. But i want to take this out of politics right now and talk to the American People, because his is so serious. I am not going to get my website right now, im going to give the cdcs website, which is cdc. Gov, so that people keep checking in, and they follow the rules, and they realize what they have to do if they feel sick and they call their health care provider. Because many doctors are saying it is just a matter of time we are going to start seeing this year. And i think the answer is, as president , what would i do . I would better coordinate throw my presidency to be better ready for the next pandemic and to prepare for this winter it i would have better relations with our allies, and i would support, because i know the vaccine is out there, in the head of some kid in a school in columbia, South Carolina or houston, texas, and it is investing in education so we are ready to lead again in the world. Norah ok, thank you. Mr. Vice president , we reached a turning point at the cdc, warning schools that they must prepare that they have to close. Members of the Trump Administration saying we do not have enough medical masks if necessary. What would you do . Mr. Biden what we did with ebola i was part of making sure that pandemic did not get to the United States saved millions of lives. Set up the office and the presidency, and the president s office on diseases that are pandemic diseases. We increased the budget of the cdc. Our president today, he wiped all of that out. We did it. We stopped at. The second thing i would point out to you is what i would do immediately is restore the funding. He cut the funding for cdc to he tried to cut the funding for nih. He cut the funding for the entire effort. Here is the deal i would be on the phone with china making it clear we are going to need to be in your country. You have to be open. You have to be clear. We have to know what is going on. We have to be there with you. And insist on it, insist, insist, insist. Norah thank you. Mr. Biden i can get that done. None of these people appear have dealt internationally with these World Leaders paradigm the only one who has. Norah senator sanders. Sen. Sanders in the white house today, we have a selfdescribed great genius. Selfdescribed. And this great genius has told us that this coronavirus is going to end in two months. April is the magical date that this great scientist that we have in the white house has determined i wish i was kidding that is what he has said. What do we have to do . Whether or not the issue is Climate Change, which is clearly a Global Crisis requiring international cooperation, or Infectious Diseases like the coronavirus, requiring international cooperation, we have to work and expand the world health organization. Obviously, we have to make sure the cdc, the nih, our infectious departments are fully funded. This is a global problem. We have to work with them to stop it. Norah margaret brennan. Margaret thank you, norah. Mayor bloomberg, you said that the u. S. Must cooperate with beijing. How far would i go . Would you allow chinese firms to build critical u. S. Nfrastructure . Mr. Bloomberg no i would not, nd i think if china does not open their press, the freedom of press does not exist there. Their human rights record is abominable, and we should our economies are inextricably linked. We would not be able to buy products that we need. In terms of whether he is a dictator, he does serve at the behest of the public, their roup of people, but there is no question he has an enormous amount of power, but he does play his constituency. You can negotiate with him. That is exactly what we have to o. Make it seem that it is in his interest and it is in his peoples interest to do what we want to do. Follow the rules, and particularly, no stealing of intellectual property. Follow the rules in terms of the trade agreements that we have our reciprocal and go equally in both directions. Margaret thank you, mayor bloomberg. Vice President Biden, same question to you. Would you allow chinese firms to build critical u. S. Infrastructure . Mr. Biden no i have not, and i spent more time with xi jinping than anybody else running for office. This is a guy who does not have a democratic bone in his body. This is a guy who has a million uighurs in reconstruction camps, meaning concentration camps. This is a guy, you see what is happening in hong kong. This is a guy i was convinced should join the International Agreement at the paris agreement, because guess what . They need to be involved you can cooperate and you can also dictate exactly what they are. When they said they are going to set up a nofly zone, that you cannot fly for our zone, he said what you expect me to do . When i was over there, and i said we are going to fly right through it. They must play by the rules, period, period, period. Margaret senator warren, same question. Would you allow chinese firms to build critical u. S. Infrastructure . Sen. Warren we have to be able to trust a president. There are a lot of decisions a president makes. That is one of the reasons that we need to see any candidates taxes. We know that mayor bloomberg has been doing business with china for a long time, and he is the only one on this stage who has not released his taxes. He plans to release them after super tuesday. It is not enough to be able to say just trust me on this. We have a president who said he was going to release his taxes after the election and has refused to do this. Margaret was that a yes or no . Sen. Warren no, i would not. Margaret mayor bloomberg, would you like to respond . And he is the only one on stage who has not released his taxes. He plans to release the mapper super tuesday. Them after super tuesday. It is not enough to be able to returns. I released my tax returns. That was easy to do. Max how many years . 10 years. We keep acting as if we are in the 20 century or the 19th century. If you look at the biggest threats to the United States, we are talking about coronavirus that cannot be solved within the borders of the United States. We are talking about Climate Change which is a global problem where we need u. S. Leadership for countries around the world. In fact, mr. Trumps policy of us going it alone, of america first, of having no values, no allies and no strategy is disastrous for us. The biggest threat to america ight now in terms of our safety of our citizens is climate and its time for us to do with it that way. Every single issue is about American Leadership and coalition. New topic. Senator sanders, youve priced the chinese come as party for lifting more people out of extreme poverty than any other country. He also have a track record of expressing sympathy for socialist governments in cuba and nicaragua. Can Americans Trust that a democraticsocialist president will not give authoritarians a free pass . I have opposed authoritarianism all over the world. I was really amazed about what mayor bloomberg said a moment ago. He said the Chinese Government is responsive to the pilot bureau. Who is the pilot bureau esponse to have . You have a real dictatorship there. What i said is what barack obama said in terms of cuba. That cuba made progress on education. Yes i think really . Eally . What barack obama said was they made great progress on education and health care. That was barack obama. Occasionally it might be good idea to be honest about American Foreign policy and that includes the fact that america has overthrown governments all over the world in chile, in guatemala, in ran. And when dictatorships whether it is the chinese or the cubans do something good, you cknowledge that. You but you dont have to trade love letters with them. [talking simultaneously] barack obama was abroad. He was in a town meeting. He did not in any way suggest that there was anything positive about the cuban government. He acknowledged that they did increase life expectancy. But he went on and condemned the dictatorship. He condemned the people who had run that committee. He also and by the way i called to make sure i i never say my private conversations with him. The fact of the matter is he in fact does not, did not, has ever embraced an authoritarian regime and does not now. This man in fact did not condemn what they did. That is untrue, categorically untrue. What did you tell him . I have condemned authoritarianism whether it is the people in saudi arabia that the United States government [talking simultaneously] cuba. Knick rag washington nicaragua. Authoritarianism of any stripe is bad. But that is different that saying that governments occasionally do things that are good. That is what barack obama said. Talking simultaneously] the only way we can do this is to actually win the presidency and i am not looking forward to a scenario where it comes down to donald trump with his nostalgia for the social order of the 1950s and Bernie Sanders with his nostalgia for the revolutionary politics of he 1960s. This is not about what was happening in the 1970s or 1980s, this is about the future. His is about 2020. We are not going to survive or succeed and we are certainly not going to win by reliving the cold war and we are not going to win these critical house and senate races if people in those races have to explain why the nominee of the Democratic Party is telling people to look at the bright side of the castro regime. Weve got to be a lot smarter about that. Senator sanders, your esponse. Let us be clear. Do we think health care for all, pete, is some kind of radical communist idea . Lets talk about that. [talking simultaneously] do we think raising taxes on billionaires is a radical idea . Do we think Immigration Reform . Talking simultaneously] lets talk about this. Talking simultaneously] one at a time. That is why i am beating trump in virtually every poll. Weve got to open this up. Universal health care. Senator klobuchar. Donald trumps Worst Nightmare is having someone that the people in the middle who are tired of the insults and the extremes in our politics have someone to vote for. And i was going to comment on cuba policy because i actually lead the bill to lift the embargo. I went with barack obama when he went to cuba and i have seen firsthand how the cuban people are way in front of their leaders. They like america. They want to be entrepreneurs. And the way that we embrace them and not the socialist regime is by opening up cuba and starting to do business with them. But to get at what we were just talking about, i think we have a huge choice. Super tuesday states. One third of america will vote. Do you want to have someone in charge of this ticket could i finish. Do you want to have someone in charge of this ticket who wants to put forward 60 trillion in spending, three times the american economy. I dont think we do. I think we can get all of the progressive things done without having someone that is so lienating that we are going to turn off the voters we need to bring with them. Talking simultaneously] alienating, my favorability i believe is the highest up ere. Its a matter of fact. The point is the way we are going to beat trump is we need a campaign of energy and excitement. We need to have the largest voter turnout in the history of the United States. We need to bring working people back into the Democratic Party. We need to get young people voted in a way they have never done before. That is what our campaign is about. The Bipartisan Senate select committee on Intelligence Report concluded russia interfered and our last residential election and the Obama Administration failed to respond forcefully. U. S. Intelligence says russia is at it again. If it is proven that russia has improved interfered in the 2020 elections, would you launch a retaliatory cyberattack . I would make them pay for it. Economically. They are engaged now as i speak in interfering in our elections. They were engaged. In the last election against hillary. This man stood before the whole world, turned to the russian leader and said, why in gods ame with this man ever interfere in our elections would give me a break. 17 intelligence agencies said they did. We went to Mitch Mcconnell and said, join us and point out what is happening here. E said, we wanted no part of it. If we had moved, we didnt have all the information until it was over. The idea the Bipartisan Committee said we could have done more, theoretically thats rue. The fact of the matter is we didnt have the information until the end. We in fact should be imposing sanctions on russia now for heir interference. 21st century warfare is cyber warfare. What we are having is an attack by a hostile foreign power on our democracy right now. He question you have to ask is where is the commanderinchief. We dont have one. This isnt news. What Vice President biden said is true. He did stand next to vladimir putin. There was a hostile foreign attack on our election last time and the president sided with the hostile foreign power. Thats why i started need to impeach. We have to oppose a president who sides with a hostile foreign power that commits yber warfare against the United States of america. Thats where we are. Where are all these patriotic republicans who wave the flag but when we are actually under attack they side with our enemies . Its outrageous. Thats why he should have impeached. They covered it up and i was years before these people. Theres something wrong here. We are under attack and they are not doing a darn thing about it. Senator sanders, i have a question for you. Youre the front runner in this race. You are on the ballot in South Carolina. If elected, you would be americas first jewish president. E recently called a very prominent wellknown american israel lobby a platform for bigotry. What would you say to American Jews who are concerned you are not supportive enough of israel and would you move the usa embassy back to tel aviv . The answer is it is something we would take into consideration. But here is the point. Im very proud of being jewish. I actually lived in israel for some months. But what i happen to believe is that right now sadly, tragically, in israel, through bibi netanyahu, you have a reactionary racist who is now running that country. And i happen to believe that what our Foreign Policy in the mideast should be about is absolutely protecting the independence and security of israel. But you cannot ignore the suffering of the palestinian people. We have got to have a policy that reaches out to the palestinians and in answer to your question, that will come in the context of bringing nations together in the mideast. Mayor bloomberg. The battle has been going on for a long time in the middle east whether its the arabs versus the persians, the shias versus the sunnis, the jews and the palestinians. Its only been going on for 50 years. Number one, you cannot move the embassy back. We should not have done it without getting something from the Israeli Government but it was done and youre going to have to leave it there. The only solution is a two state solution. The palestinians have to be accommodated. The real problem is you have two groups of people both of whom think god gave them the same piece of land. The answer is to split it up. Leave the israeli borders where they are. Try to push them to pull back some of those extra on the others of the wall where they have built these new communities, which they should not have done that. Pull it back. Senator warren. The way we have to think about this is start with the values and what has to be protected here. Israelis have a right to security and the palestinians have a right to be treated with dignity and have selfdetermination. That is a two state solution. But its not up to us to determine what the terms of a two state solution are. We want to be a good ally to everyone in the region. The best way to do that is to encourage the parties to get to the negotiating table themselves. Donald trumps big mistake is he keeps putting his thumb on the scale on just one side and that moves the parties further away from working out their own solution here. We need to be an ally by supporting them to come to negotiate. Just on the question of the embassy. It is not ours to do. Would you move it back . It is not ours to do. We should let the parties determine the capital. I want to turn to the issue of north korea because President Trump has engaged in direct diplomacy meeting directly with kim jongun. Senator klobuchar, would you meet with the north korean eader . I would, but not in the way this president has done it. He literally thinks he can go over and bring a hat dish to the dictator next door and he thinks everything is fine. He has not done it with our allies. He has literally just hastily called summits and ran off. That is no way to do it and as you can see north korea is mboldened. They are still launching missiles. Theyve promised a christmas surprise that thankfully never happened and he has not been able to advance the ball at all. So i would work with our allies. It has been pointed out this is what this president fails at all the time. We should be negotiating ourselves back into the iran nuclear agreement. We should be working with ussia not only to stand up for the protection of our elections that takes down planes and poison dissidents but also at the same time we have to acknowledge that we should be renegotiating the new start treaty and the other arms negotiations that must happen. This president likes to do tweets at 4 00 a. M. In his athrobe. Gets out there and doesnt achieve the results we need. I would meet with him but i would do it with our allies. I would have clear deliverables and i would achieve those deliverables. Mr. Vice president , how would you deal with north korea . You dont negotiate with the dictator, give him legitimacy, without any notion other he is going to do anything at all. You dont do that. Look what happened. He gave this dictator, hes a thug, legitimacy. Weakened the sanctions around the world against committing people not to trade anything from oil to providing missile technology. And whats happened . Its been weekend. I would be in beijing. I would be speaking with xi jinping. I would be reassigning the relationship between japan and south korea and i would make it clear, i would make it clear to china. We are going to continue to move closer to make sure that we can in fact prevent north korea from launching missiles to take them down, and if we dont why am i stopping. No one else stops. [laughter] ok. Ok, sir. My Catholic School training. [applause] biden, you are a gentleman. Good home training. Gentlemen dont get very well treated up here. This is a question for mayor buttigieg. Viewers and voters are participating in this through twitter. A city in syria is facing an unprecedented humanitarian crisis. The Syrian Regime and russia are targeting schools, bakeries and hospitals. What would you do as president to push back regime and Russian Forces and stop the killing of innocent civilians . First of all i stand with the people of idlib who are being targeted in a brutal fashion by a dictatorship and this is one of the reasons we have got to change the balance f power in the region. He president has basically vanished from the stage and it comes to even playing a role in the future. Turkey, russia, iran all have so much more to say than we do. We dont have to be invading countries to be making a difference, working with our International Partners in order to deliver peace and support those who are standing up for selfdetermination. I want to come back to something because senator sanders asked me a question earlier. He asked whether health care for everyone is a radical idea and its not which is why im for it. Very much in a different way. What is a radical idea is completely illuminating all eliminating all private insurance. Part of how you know sst that it is is that no industrialized country has gone that far. He and i both like to talk about denmark. Even in denmark they have not abolished the possibility of private insurance. This is an idea that goes further than what is acceptable in denmark the country let alone imagining how thats going to fly in denmark, South Carolina. Senator warren, what would you do to stop the mass murder . N syria. I think what weve got to do is we have to provide humanitarian relief. We need to work with our allies. This is not a moment for military intervention. We have got to use our military only when we see a military problem that can be solved militarily. We cannot send our military in unless we have a plan to get them out. For me this is about working with our allies. It is about standing with the people who are under enormous pressure right now. This is recognizing what donald trump has put us in a terrible box around the world. But the solution is not to use our military. The solution is to use the ther tools here. Weve talked a lot about your policies during this debate. Now wed like to get more personal. I know senator sanders, we are going to ask you when you come back from the break about the words you live by. We are going to give you a couple minutes to gather your thoughts. We will be right back. [applause] welcome back to charleston, South Carolina. This is the final segment of the final debate before the first in the south primaries this pattern and super tuesday one week from today. One final question. I would like you each to tell us the biggest misconception about you. Thats number one. Number two, the South Carolina model is this. While i breathe, i hope. So outside of politics in no more than 45 seconds, what is your personal motto, your personal belief, your favorite quote that represents you . Mr. Steyer. The biggest misconception and then your motto. The biggest misconception is that somehow im defined by Business Success and money. And your motto . Every day i write across on my hand to remind myself to tell the truth and do whats ight no matter what. Senator klobuchar. The biggest misconception is that im boring because im not. [laughter] and then i would say that my motto is the words of one of my political mentors Paul Wellstone who sadly is no longer with us. He said that politics is about improving peoples lives and hat has been my life from when my grandpa was a miner and the unions politics made those mines safer and when my dad needed treatment it was there for him and in his words he was pursued by grace. And when my mom got divorced and didnt have a job and went back to teaching and that gift of Public Service got her through. When our daughter was born. Senator klobuchar, what was your motto . I thought we had a minute. My motto was that politics is about improving peoples lives. Vice President Biden . When you get knocked down, get up and everyone is entitled to be treated with today. Dignity. No matter what. No matter who they are. Everyone should be represented. No one is better than me and im no better than anyone else. He fact is we talked about the supreme court, im looking forward to making sure theres a black woman on the supreme court. [cheers and applause] [indiscernible]not a joke. I push very hard for that. My mothers motto was, you are defined by your courage. You are redeemed by your loyalty. I am loyal. I do what i say. Whats the biggest misconception about you . I have more hair than i hink i do. Theres a way to fix that. Senator sanders. Misconception. Misconception and youre hearing it here tonight is the ideas im talking about are radical. They are not. In one form or another, they exist in countries all over the world. Health care is a human right. We have the moral imperative to address the existential threat of Climate Change. Other countries are doing that. We dont need more people in jail disproportionately africanamerican than any other country on earth. Not a radical idea. The motto, the saying that moves me the most is from elson mandela. Mandela said, everything is impossible until it happens. And that means if we have the guts to stand up to powerful special interests, we are doing phenomenally well. If we can bring working people together, black and white and latino, we can create a nation. Where all people have a good standard of living. Senator warren. I suppose when misconception is that i dont eat very much. In fact i eat all the time. Because i get teased about this. I never was supposed to be on a stage like this. The misconception is that i thought i should be president of the United States. I got into this because i am a fighter. My motto ties in directly to this. Its matthew 25. Inasmuch as ye have done it to one of these beliefs of thy brethren, you have done it unto the. Me. For me this is about how we treat other people and how we lift them up. That is why i am in this fight. That is why i am running to be president and its why i will be an effective president. Mayor buttigieg. I think the biggest misconception is that im not passionate. I get that im kind of level. Some say unflappable. I dont think you want a president who is flappable. But its precisely because im so passionate about the things that are going on in this country that i consider it important to approach all of that with discipline. My disciplines are guided by the mottos i try to live by, many of which come from scripture. Just to be clear, i would never impose my interpretation or religion on anybody. Just as sure as i am wearing this ring i will never let that happen to anybody. I seek to live by the teachings that say if you would be a leader, you must be a servant. A big part of the christian tradition holds that we are to treat others as we would be treated. When i think of everything at stake from racial and Economic Justice to our studentship of the climate to the need to heal the sick and this country, i seek for those teachings to order my steps through this campaign and through life. Mayor bloomberg. Misconception, that im six feet tall. Ive trained for this job for a long time and when i get it, im going to do something rather than just talk about it. Thank you senator. Thank you. That concludes our debate. We have time for one more break. Youre watching the democratic debate right here on cbs. [applause] thank you. That concludes our debate. We want to thank the candidates, the moderators and you watching at home tonight. The primary happening in South Carolina is this aturday. Next tuesday is super tuesday. Cbs news will have special coverage. Our coverage of tonights debate will continue in a moment from the spin room here on cbs. There will be more about the debate on your late local news and first thing tomorrow on cbs this morning. Im getting on a plane right now to go to new york. From all of us here at cbs news, im nora odonnell. Good night. [applause] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2020] the South Carolina primary is saturday. Join us to hear the candidates reaction to the results. Live coverage saturday evening starting at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan, ondemand at cspan. Org, or listen live on the free cspan radio app. This evening, President Trump holds a rally in South Carolina ahead of the democratic primary in the state tomorrow. Well have live coverage of the president scheduled to get under way at 7 00 eastern time