[applause] poll, he is in second place ahead of the primary. [applause] good morning. [applause] mr. Steyer hey guys, good morning. Good morning. Mr. Steyer wow friday morning. Whoo. So i want to thank all these guys. I want to thank katherine and councilman calvin and derek for those very nice introductions. And what i really want to do this morning is take as many questions from you as i possibly can. Ill do a short introduction, but what i really want to do is talk to you whatever you want to talk about. Let me say that i was asked on the debate stage on tuesday night what i think people misunderstand about me. And i said that people think that im defined by my money. I am not. You know, i am from a family my mom was a teacher in the new york public schools. She when she retired from being , a teacher in the new york public schools, she went and taught prisoners at the brooklyn house of detention. She was someone who the is what defines her with service to other people and trying to give young kids a chance to get ahead in the world. My dad was somebody who was the first generation in his family to go to college. Lets my grandfather was a plumber. They were people who thought that education was the chance to get ahead. And so my father graduated from college at the age of 18, graduated from law school at the age of 21. He was a young man in a hurry. He went into the navy in world war ii. And at the end of the navy as a at the end of the war as a naval officer, he prosecuted the nazis, the nazi war criminals at nuremberg war trials. My parents were people that thought that the point of life was service. Actually doing things for other people was the way that you justified your life. And so when we were being brought up, the other thing that was true about my parents, they had a strict sense right and wrong. Trust me. It wasnt easy being the son of parents who had a strict sense of right and wrong. But my fathers point about being a nazi prosecutor, you have to stand up against what is wrong. What he saw at the end of world war ii was a country that hadnt stood up against the nazis. And had let them take over the whole society. Started the need to impeach and honestly that is why i started the need to impeach movement. When you see something really wrong in your society, it is going to flourish if good people dont do anything about it. [applause] mr. Steyer let me say south , carolina was way overrepresented in the 8. 5 Million People who signed the need to impeach movements. People from South Carolina stood up in need to impeach way beyond the numbers of the people in this state. Just so you know. But if you look at whats happening, people ask me, are you sad that mr. Trump got exonerated. And i say mr. Trump has never been exonerated and never will be exonerated. [applause] thats what you call a republican coverup of the facts. I mean we had a trial where they , didnt allow witnesses. Theyre the jury. We had a trial where the jury said before the trial is the evidence is brought in, he is not guilty. The senator from this state, lindsey graham, was right out in front saying those things. I dont view that as an exoneration. I view that as them breaking their oath to the constitution and the American People. [applause] mr. Steyer look, i started a business. I started a business. My parents had a deal with us. Well get you through school and thats it. Nothing after that. Youre on your own when you graduate. I never got a penny from my parents. And i started a business, i built a business, i walked away from the business. I took the giving pledge to give the bulk that i made to good causes while im alive and spent 10 years putting coalitions of people to fight what i think of as the unchecked Corporate Power in our country. Let me say this. We have never lost. We can win every time. You know, i started taking on a fight against two Oil Companies in my home state who are trying to repeal our very Progressive Energy laws. And they thought that they could get their way because no one would fight them. And honestly, nobody wanted to fight them because they thought the Oil Companies are so rich theyll do whatever it takes, well lose. And if you leave the fight against them, you will lose, you will be embarrassed and spend a lot of time and money doing it. I did that. We got 70 of the vote. By the time it was over the , president of one of the Oil Companies was complaining about what a mean person i am. My feeling is, you know what . I want all the Oil Companies and all the Drug Companies and all the Insurance Companies and all of the private hospitals to be saying what a mean person i am. That is exactly what i want to hear from them because that means i stood up to them successfully. I want them to complain, whine and pout. So we have never lost. I took on Tobacco Companies in my home state. They had won 17 times in a row over 20 years. I got them to give up 3 billion to 4 billion a year in tax money and gave it to medicare to to medical to the lowest income californians. They didnt think they were going to have to do that but now they are doing it every single year. [applause] mr. Steyer i think we have a broken government in washington, dc, its broken. Our problems have to do with a government thats been bought by corporations. And i spent 10 years as an outsider taking on those corporations, and i have never lost. Thats why i want to go to washington, dc, and i dont have any conflict. You know, i am not as an outsider, im not tied to the washington establishment. You know, im the only person in this race who is for term limits for congresspeople and senators because i am the only person who thinks more about what is good for the American People than has allegiance to the system as it is. Look if we are going to change , things, we need new and different people in charge. People, the to sixword argument for term limits is Mitch Mcconnell, ted cruz and lindsey graham. We need a new group of people running the United States of america. I am fighting for stuff in this election that i have been fighting for for decades. Im fighting the things im promising to do, i have been doing for over a decade. If it really comes down to beating corporations, you have to ask who you can trust, someone who has done it successfully for over a decade . From the outside, or someone from the system . Is the system going to reform itself . Do those systems ever reform themselves . No. Mr. Steyer no, i know. Thats the question. Look, i have three simple things i am fighting for. Im fighting for economic justice. All right. Mr. Steyer im fighting for Environmental Justice and im fighting for racial justice. All right. [applause] mr. Steyer thats what, all across this country look trump said he is good on the , economy. He stinks on the economy. No one ever faces him down on the economy. Every time i go on fox news, we go through something, and then the anchor the fox anchor says , to me, but he is good on the economy. I say no, he is terrible on the economy, and then they have a conniption fit because no one has ever said that to them. There is a meme in the United States. He is good on the economy. He is incompetent. He stinks at his job. [applause] his economy move is he has done two big things and he is about to do a third. Big tax cut big tax cuts for , rich people and corporations that is going go to grow the economy and trickle down. Not true. Not true. Mr. Steyer and by the way, we are not going to have a deficit. Not true. No trickle down. Trade war, we are going to force these people, im so smart and im so tough. False. Terrible idea. Even the administration is now admitting it is a total flop. And third thing, he has done those two. Here is his not respond to the third. Coronavirus. That is a big deal, you guys. Do you remember katrina . George w. Bush. We have an actual crisis and the president totally flops. We are in the middle of an actual crisis, and we are watching the president of the United States show us in realtime that he has no idea what hes doing. He is two months late. The coronavirus was announced publicly to the world, to all of us, in december of 2019. He decided two months later this was a problem. That is the problem. He was two months late. He put in charge mike pence. Mike pence was in charge of the aids epidemic when he was governor of indiana and his response we need to pray. ,that is not the answer to a medical scientific problem. So we are watching in realtime a president of the United States show us that he is deeply incompetent. And we are going to see the results medically and we are going to see the results economically. And we have to make sure he is going to explain a million different ways that its not his fault, i promise, because thats what he does. And the press is going to repeat what he says. And we have to make it clear. Actually, it is your fault, sir. You blew it. You got rid of the center or disease control, you are two months late and thats how you get in front of problems, anticipate them, not if you are competent. Im talking about doubling the minimum wage at least. I have been fighting for 15 for years, but i think it should be 22. A tax cut of 10 who make less than 250,000. Easy to pay for. Easy to pay for. We charge rich people and corporations a fair rate and 4. 5 Million Union goodpaying jobs. We have to rebuild the United States. It is not an option not to. We have a Climate Crisis. We have to do it. We have to do it fast. Millions and millions of good paying union jobs. Think about an economy with double the minimum wage, people paying 10 less taxes where we have millions and millions of good paying union jobs everywhere in the United States. That is a growing economy where working people are making more and keeping it in their pants pocket. That is actually what we are supposed to have in the United States of america. [applause] mr. Steyer and so Environmental Justice. I am the only person state of person who says state of emergency on day one. Using the powers of the presidency and a state of emergency it is an emergency. This is exactly like coronavirus. Deal with the facts. It is an emergency. We have to get ahead of it. Day one state of emergency, do it through Environmental Justice. Start in the communities like denmark, South Carolina, where you cant drink the water without getting sick. Places where you cant breathe or drink the water without getting sick. Start in those communities because thats where the energy is. Thats where the leadership is. Look, i have fought this stuff for over a decade. We have never lost. Why is it that i have passed 50 clean energy ask by 2030 in this country and nobody else has . The answer is we start with Environmental Justice. We start with black and brown communities who are in the fight and provide the leadership. Thats how you get things done in climate. [applause] its a completely different attitude. Its not a topdown attitude. It is a grassroots bottomup attitude. We will do it, we will create the jobs because if you are going to rebuild the country, people got to get paid to do it. Thats called work, jobs. You cant rebuild the United States without hiring people, and you cant hire people in beijing to rebuild the roads and bridges in South Carolina. The huge union job program. And the third thing is racial justice. It is impossible i have been traveling around this country fulltime for eight years as a political organizer. I started up one of the biggest grassroots organizations in the United States, nextgen. It is all about registering and engaging and turning out voters. And we are focused on young people and sporadic democratic voters and overwhelmingly people of color. It is one of the biggest grassroots organizations in the United States. I have been traveling around. It is impossible to look at the major policy areas in the United States, any of them, education, housing, health care, criminal justice, every single one has a gigantic, unspoken racial component to it. And unless im telling you, climate. People think climate is a science issue, and it is. Parts per million, rising water levels, melting ice in antarctica, threatening charleston. It is a science issue. If you want to solve it, its a human issue with a gigantic racial subtext to it. You want to solve climate, i just said, you have got to start with Environmental Justice if you want to solve climate. Thats true in every single issue in the United States. If you want to solve them, you have to get down to the Grassroots Level and understand there is an unspoken racial component to it, that people are too scared, or awkward or too selfish to want to talk about it. I want to talk about it because thats the way you solve problems, and that is why i for am reparations for slavery, because i think if we are going to move forward and be the just society we want to be, we have to tell the truth. For 400plus years of whats happened to the Africanamerican Community in this country, and that is a story. It is a story about systematic legal discrimination, cruelty and injustice and is a 400plusyear story of enormous contribution both in terms of building the country and providing the moral leadership not just for the Africanamerican Community, but for everybody in the United States of america. And that story has to be told. [applause] and the reason that we have to tell the story is so we understand how we got here so we understand together how we got here. And so we understand together how to repair the damage that has been done so we can move forward together. And what derek was talking about in terms of historically black colleges and universities, im proposing to give the hcbus 125 billion over five years. 10 years. That is, just so you know, that is 40 times what they get right now from the federal government. 40 times. It is not up 40 , its not four times, its 40 times. And why would i do that . Because thats whats right. These this is a system that has worked, was put in place for reasons that black kids werent allowed to go to the mainline colleges and universities. Last night i was talking to an allafricanamerican audience and one of them said, do you think we dont know hcbus have turned out over half of the black generals, doctors, engineers, judges and teachers . I can tell you the white people back in california dont know. They really worked. Its a huge part of this society. They are starved for cash. Theyve done the job, theres a reason to exist, i think we need to take them to the next level in terms of support. And last thing i want to say is this. We need to beat trump. We need to beat trump. We need to beat lindsey graham. We need to get rid of Mitch Mcconnell. We need to pull the Democratic Party together, and people think the press wants you to believe we are either going to have a socialist or republican mayor representing the Democratic Party. South carolina gets to reset this. South carolina gets to decide that maybe what we want is a democrat at the head of the ticket for the Democratic Party, strange as that may seem. So i believe i can do that. I believe South Carolina can show that i can pull a Diverse Party together. Im asking you to help me do that on saturday. And i believe if we do that and we do grassroots that we will not beat the republicans, but we will sweep away the republicans which is exactly what we need to do. So i know its friday morning. I said i was taking questions. Ask a question put your hand up , and we will bring you over a microphone and i will answer your question. We have mr. Steyer please send your name. [indiscernible] we have right now i president in the white house who causes a lot of hatred in america. We have a lot of groups who would like Nothing Better than to see a nazirun country here. What can be done by the next president to bring together all of america . We need to bring the democrats together to get a president in there but what can we do to bring america together . Mr. Steyer so chuck, everybody is asking that question. I think everybody is disturbed at the partisanship. Let me put it this way. The democrats are disturbed about the partisanship in this country. You know, i never heard anyone ask Mitch Mcconnell what are you going to do to get along with democrats . I have been asked a dozen times, what are you going to do to get along with Mitch Mcconnell. It is true. Let me think two things. One, we are going to treat White Nationalism as domestic terrorism. [applause] it is domestic terrorism. And the f. B. I. Came out with a report this week that said White Nationalism is more dangerous to americans than isis. That isnt the way its reported in the press, i assure you. But White Nationalism is more dangerous to americans than isis. What are we going to pull together . Look, i think every single thing i stand for is good for republican voters. Health care as a right for every single american. Thats good for republicans. Quality Public Education for american including universal preschool. That is good for every republican voter. Clean air and water. Nobody gets to poison you. I dont think republicans want to get poisonned. A living wage. That one job should be enough for a family. I think republicans want to be fairly paid. So in answer to your question a, i think what im talking about is very good for them. B, i think they were sold a bill of goods by mr. Trump. I think they were mad yes, there is a racial overtone to this party. We have a president who is a racist who plays andre spears across the board on race fears across the board, yes. But republicans in general were saying, drain the swamp. This country has been bought by corporations, and its corrupt and we want someone to break washington, dc because it is corrupt and doesnt work for us. I think that, too. The problem is, they didnt drain the swamp. They hired the biggest swamp rat there is. Honestly. [cheers and applause] mr. Steyer in the last thing is this. Look i dont want to play down , how big a deal it is going to be to solve the Climate Crisis. I mean im looking at those , three kids. We are going to have to solve the Climate Crisis for the people of the United States of america. And honestly the lowlands of South Carolina are going to be very heavily affected if we dont solve the Climate Crisis. And i think that will pull us together, chuck. You know, the United States is an idea. Its an idea about freedom and justice and equality. We are the moral leaders of the world. We are the country that leads the world in terms of freedom and justice and equality. And if we dont lead the fight to solve the Climate Crisis, it doesnt get solved. There is no second country that is going to do this job. There isnt. So actually doing the job, succeeding in it, Getting Better paid as a result of it, cleaning up the air and water, starting from justice is actually going to be great for everyone in the United States, democrat, republican and independent. I think winning teams love each other. I have played a lot of team sports. When you are on a winning team, everyone is a great person. When you are on a losing team, not so much. This is going to be a winning team. We are going to do that. We can do that and will do that and i think we are going to be very proud of each other when it is all over because we will have to do it and have a completely different feeling in standing up for justice in terms of climate, race and the economy. We will care differently about each other when we succeed in making this country what we claim it already is. [applause] hi, tom. Mr. Steyer good morning. I know that you, Bernie Sanders and joe biden are the front runners in this race and i am an undecided voter. I was wondering why should i vote for you and not the other two . Mr. Steyer whats your name . Forest. Mr. Steyer forest. Nice to meet you. Let me say this. Those actually are pretty different choices, and ill try and outline as objectively as i can. Let me say this. I think bernie has done us all a service by bringing up big problems in the United States. I dont agree with his solutions and i will tell you why. I dont believe the government should take over big parts of the economy. I worked for 30 years in the private sector. I know we need a competitive, innovative, dynamic private sector to create jobs and prosperity. I know that unchecked capitalism has failed the American People too, but the answer is not for the government to take over big parts of the economy. It is for us to break the corporate stranglehold and ownership of our government. And so i just dont people have tried government takeover of big parts of the economy around the world. Its never worked. You really dont want the government running the electricity system. You want a government that says to the electricity system, you are going to be 100 clean energy by this day. Now go invest again invest , against it and make it happen. I dont think the government is going to do a good job running the electricity system because i have seen the i have seen governments run dozens of electricity systems and it has never worked. Once you are over 100, does 101 really make any sense . Not to me. Second, there is actually a difference between me and joe biden. Im a progressive. I deeply believe that we are in a framework in america set by ronald reagan, and its terrible. The framework is low taxes and small government because governments bad. Fight unions. 7. 25 minimum wage. That is just outrageous. That is outrageous. You cannot live on 7. 25. Ifey have, you know the wage was the same as 1980 in 2020 dollars, the minimum wage would be 11 right now everywhere in the United States. And if you included the increases of how well people work over the last 40 years, it would be 22. Im not making it up. That shows how unfair this system is. You know, there is the things they promised us werent true. If we help the people at the top, it will trickle down. We have had 40 years to find out its not true. If we decrease the tax rates on rich people, the amount of tax dollars will go up because the economy grows so much, it will get more dollars in. Thats not true. We now have a system so i dont want to modestly change what we have. I want to transform what we have to a completely different way of thinking where we are really investing in each other where the success of america is the success of people, actual americans succeeding, making more money, keeping more money, being better educated being , healthier. The story that derek told about his friend going to the hospital and dying because she didnt get any care that is not just a , story, that is unacceptable. That is unacceptable in 21st century america. So i thats why im different from joe biden. Joe biden thinks everything is basically needs a tweak. I dont think it needs a tweak. We ought to turn a page on this whole thing and think differently. And we got to get back to the idea that this country is for the people of this country and not the corporations of this country, and that is completely different way of thinking. We need a change. And somebody look. I have been up to South Carolina more than any other candidate. I started coming here a couple of years ago for need to impeach. I have loved the people i have met here. Just so you know. Loved. It is my wife moved here. We have really, really really , i think we have only met the democrats, to be honest, but we have loved the democrats we have met. But i have got to say as an outsider, and i know im from california and we have big problems, but the injustice here is stark. It is. Mr. Steyer its painful. When you hear that story that , story is about debt. Unnecessary debt. If you see people in denmark, i wouldnt drink the water coming out of the tap in denmark. They showed me the water. Its scary. You know, if you see people working there was a guy two nights ago working three jobs and living paycheck three jobs. Gentrification in the United States is in charleston, South Carolina. The fastest. The Education System here is ranked really close to the bottom. I went to you know, i went to hilton head and never been to hilton head. I went to hilton head over a year ago to do a townhall on impeachment. And i went around with one of the goal it people whose family has been there for 150 years or something. And i went and looked at what hilton head looks like, and i read the law about how they did zoning when they started building golf courses and built the bridge or tram so it could be part of the mainland, and they basically wrote the law to make sure that when hilton head got developed and a lot of rich people came into play golf that the tax money didnt get shared with the black people who lived there. And it was like right there in black and white. It was absolutely deliberate. Honestly, i am somebody who feels as if we need a serious transformational change. We need it. [applause] and i am the only last thing i will say is this. Im the only person here running for president who will declare a state of emergency on climate on day one. I dont know how old you are. Forest. I have four kids. My kids are terrified on climate. Honestly, they are scared witless that we are not going to solve this, that we are not going to address that. But politicians are going to say things but not do things. Im saying we cant wait for congress. I dont have a plan on a shelf that if congress passes, we are going to start something. We will deal with this as a state of emergency on day one because its a state of emergency and because if we dont, there is no way we can go around this world. If we are the biggest polluters per capita, which we are, how do we go to india and explain to them they have to do what were doing if we are not doing it . Its impossible, they will tell us to go fly a kite, really. And they will be right. Thats why we have to get on it. And if for no other reason. Take a im sure you have, i dont want to be condescending but the science on this is , overwhelming, and the answer has to be immediate. [applause] maam. My name is Regina Shelton and i have a question i have two questions on two areas of concern. The first one is, i dont know if you are aware, but on the marketplace in South Carolina to get your Health Insurance, if you have to get your Health Insurance on the marketplace we , only have one Insurance Company which is Blue Cross Blue Shield. Have anything to compare it with, and i believe it all happened when nikki haley did not accept the whole have anything tomr. Steyer me. Medicaid expansion so a lot of the providers walked away from South Carolina. I believe Blue Cross Blue Shield stayed because they are the second or Third Largest employer in South Carolina. So what are you going to do for states that have only one provider to choose from because i dont have any choices . So i have to pay what Blue Cross Blue Shield says. I dont have anything to compare it to. My second question or area of concern is gun control. Sumter South Carolina has , experienced one of the most horrific summers ever. It wasnt on a National Scale where we had massive shootings, but every other weekend or every weekend, there was someone getting killed, someone getting shot. And when you hear about gun control, its always after these big mass shootings, but they dont hit every Community Like the weekly shootings and things like that. They affect our community. And it is all a trickledown effect and what happens here on the federal level. The state can go below what the federal level says. So what do you do to address those issues . Thank you. Mr. Steyer thank you very much. So let me start with the Affordable Care act and the marketplace. I want the government to provide a public option for every single american basically to join medicare. [applause] and so, mr. Trump has tried to he had tried to break he couldnt repeal the Affordable Care act, so he has done everything he can to hobble the Affordable Care act. What i want to do is have a public option for every single private insurer to compete against, that they have to compete on cost and coverage of a public option where we will cut out the overhead and drive down the cost. The Health Care System is owned like everything else, but it is owned by Drug Companies and Insurance Companies and private hospitals, and they are ripping us off. They charge us twice as much as people in other countries get charged. You can see it. Its just numbers and data. The question is how do we drive that down. A aunts are my answer is public option where we drive down the cost in overhead and cut out the profit and drive down the costs of drugs and private hospitals and provide an option that will hopefully not only be better than blue then forceshield but Blue Cross Blue Shield to drive down their own costs. We are getting eaten alive by medical prices. It is like the creature that eight new york. Ate new york. It is a blob that keeps getting bigger and eating more of us and the government has to lead the fight and they have totally fallen down on the job because when a drug Company Negotiates with the u. S. , he this are negotiating with something they own. They charge it that has got to change. And im promising you, thats a fight im dying to take on. I have been fighting for these fighting these companies for 10 years and never lost. I want to find them. They have to lose for the American People to win, its true. [applause] and the second question is about guns. Look, why do not have common sense Gun Legislation in this country . Because gun manufacturers own the senate. 90 of americans want mandatory background checks and have for a long time. We dont have mandatory checks on gun purchases. 90 want it. And the reason is, most nra members want mandatory checks. It is not the nra members. The nra is controlled by gun manufacturers and their money. And they control the Lindsay Grahams of the world. You are absolutely right. We have mass killings, yeah, we do at a level no other country does. You know if norway has one, it , was once eight or 10 years ago. We have spousal, you know, killings with guns at a level nobody else has. We have streets people are scared to walk down in this country like no other country does. And we have suicide levels in this country that are responsible for 60 of the gunrelated deaths. We have too many guns in the society and they are in the wrong hands. I have to tell you what we have to change it. Look, im proposing mandatory background checks. I am proposing licensing every gun owner. We license car owners, why not gun owners . Registering every assault weapon and forbidding the sale of and highcapacity magazines. Voluntary buybacks of ars. States have different rules. And we know that when they are fewer guns and they are not in the wrong hands, you have much lower levels of gun violence. Why . The question is, how are we going to get that to happen . Its easy to say what you want. How are you going to get that to happen . And honestly we need to do a great job of grassroots organizing and truth telling, just those two things. Tens of millions of americans dont vote including hundreds of thousands here in South Carolina by the way. And they are all democrats. They just think the system is broken and no one tells the truth and nothing will change. So why would i vote for a system that doesnt work . And the answer is, if we can get turn out, we win everything. Nextgen, the organization i started in 2018, went into 38 republican congressional districts. All right. Mr. Steyer we doubled the turnout of young people, more than doubled the turnout of young people. Young people are the biggest generation in America Biggest in history most diverse in history, most progressive and vote half the rate of other americans. We went into 38 republican districts. We doubled the rate of turnout and flipped districts. That is what we need to change due to change gun control. We need to organize and change it. Because if we change that, we change everything. We need to change the composition of who runs the senate. We need to change who lives at 1600 pennsylvania avenue. We need to organize on a Grassroots Level for the whole thing and its very doable. , the crazy thing is, look, it is crazy that an organization started by me in san francisco, california should be the largest youth Voter Mobilization effort in american history. Im proud of it, but to be called but it should be the Democratic National committee, honestly. Why is it that im doing it . I did it because no one else would do it. Because someone had to do it. But the question is why did i , have to do it at all . Every time someone says, you know you dont have to do it, i , would be like, ok. Here are the keys to the car and go drive this car. We have to do and thats what we have to do in 2020 honestly and we have to win. [applause] good morning. Mr. Steyer good morning. My name is Gary Washington and i have a Company Called carolina [indiscernible] it was based in graham,ontacted lindsey tim scott, and different thoughts taking place recently and i have probably stolen from us. I would like to see if in fact you would get involved, not only because your headquarters are based there. I dont know if you have anything to do with it. I have gone to Brooklyn Baptist in columbia and listened to you guys have been married 32 years. The bottom line is i represent over 612 businesses. We help Small Businesses build their infrastructure and win contracts and done 50 million worth of contracts. Our Business Incubator was on that property, and we have had some great steps through the court system. And i am looking for your commitment to evaluate what i have brought to you and see if you would get involved to assist us. I am a republican, point blank. And i have gone to the people that assist us, and they dont understand. They cant even address this issue. We have some judicial thoughts from judges and attorneys in columbia, and we have some great difficulty in getting her i had to go out of state to florida to amber robinson, an attorney, to fight this center of corruption here in columbia. Thank you for hearing me. I would like to see if you reach out. Mr. Steyer let me say a couple of things. I dont know if you guys know, but cat and i started a Nonprofit Bank 15 years ago basically to support black entrepreneurs, latino entrepreneurs, and female entrepreneurs because the Banking System is so prejudiced and discriminatory. And you know, that bank of course we had to get license and built it and it is now dedicated. We measure every single loan impact in the community. We have been doing it for 15 years. So the idea there would be discrimination in commerce in this country is something we have not only known about, but we have taken action on for over 15 years to try and when i say there is a racial component to every single policy area and aspect of american society, this is a big one. And you know, i was just in las vegas, nevada, and they rebuilt rebuild,idnt just they build a new stadium because the raiders are moving from oakland to las vegas. One in 11 contracts went to a blackowned firm. When you tell me there is discrimination in commerce that is substantial and effects money and control of things in society, that is not news. Its new that we do something about it but it is not news that it is happening. Our bank and that activity is not in South Carolina. I mean we are californiabased, we are in three states, but not as far east as South Carolina, but we can look at it and help you. At worst we can refer you to people here who we are in contact with who fight the same battles as we do. When i talk about term limits, im talking about putting new and different people in charge and that includes a lot more people of color across this country. [applause] im talking about changing control and the reason we have the bank the bank stands up for a lot of things. We have done over 8,500 Affordable Housing units in the last three years. It does a lot of things. But it was started to put new and different people in control of economic activity. And so, when we see the transformation of this society, its got to include change at the very top. Look, our campaign, our bank are more than 50 people of color. I promise you that any campaign, any administration i have will be more than 50 people of color. It will be more than 50 women. It is time to put new and different people in charge of america. That is really what we are talking about here. [applause] good morning, tom. Mr. Steyer good morning. William anderson here. Im a military brat, so i didnt do any actual service. I want to know what is your plan , to keep americas military at home and to keep us out of the desert over there for something g that has no business, especially with the new energy that we are looking at, we dont need any of that over there. What is the energy for this country that you propose that we take the initiative to improve on . Thank you. Mr. Steyer so william, the implication of your question is we have wasted trillions of dollars and thousands of american lives in the middle east, and i totally agree. [applause] i think we have been reckless with the lives of our service people. We have gone into we have thought there were military answers to issues, and we have almost 20 years in iraq and afghanistan to show that we were wrong. And that there has got to be a different way of doing it. And as you point out, what is our purpose in the middle east . Is it to secure the oil supply, which, if we actually use moved to clean energy, will not be something we are so worried about at all . Is it to preserve peace in the middle east . Is it to make americans safer around the world . I think we have got to ask ourselves if we have done any of those things other than secure the oil supply. And i think when you look we have spent trillions of dollars in iraq and afghanistan. That is money we did not spend in South Carolina educating our children. That is money we did not spend in South Carolina on health care. It is money we did not spend in South Carolina building Affordable Housing, fixing up the roads. And its totally failed. Weve accomplished less than nothing. So in answer to your question, i believe we need to rebuild our diplomatic efforts. I believe we need to rebuild our status in the world in terms of freedom and democracy, loving coalition. I believe we have to acknowledge that our being the sole policeman of the world is a terrible idea. We do best as part of a coalition that is valuebased and we need to redirect our dollars elsewhere and take much more care of the lives of our service people. And i will say this. Forget iraq and afghanistan, we spent over 700 billion a year on defense. That is not on people. That is on systems. We spent 70 billion a year on education at the federal level. That cannot be right. That if you think about what , actually makes us productive, prosperous and safe, it has to be our children succeeding. That is right. Mr. Steyer if you think about what justice looks like, it has to be our children succeeding including specifically black and brown kids, kids from lowincome neighborhoods, that is success in america in a huge way. How is it possible that we spend over 10 times on defense what we spend on education . And that education budget, just so you know has gone up by 100 , billion under mr. Trump, the increase is more than what we spend on education. That is an amazing fact. I agree with your underlying question. Look Dwight Eisenhower warned us , in the 1950s about the Defense Industrial complex taking over the government. I am sitting you sitting here telling you corporations have bought our government and this is actually the result. [applause] mr. Steyer let me say one last thing. I told you guys i would come here more than anyone else. I told you that i we have fallen in love with South Carolina. One of the people who endorse me in the Legislature Said how do i , know you will not just come for our votes and never come back once it is over . Thats a good question. Mr. Steyer the other question is how do i know youre not lying . Kind of like woo, oh, ow. And i said to her, look, win or lose or draw, im coming back to South Carolina. [applause] because [indiscernible] i really have loved being here. And i have loved the people i have met, not liked. Loved. And a change look im saying , there is a change necessary in the United States of america. There is really a change necessary here. [applause] and i run one of the biggest grassroots organizations in the United States and we are not in South Carolina, and i can see thats got to change. All right. [applause] mr. Steyer so win, lose or draw, im in this for you guys, really. Im asking you to help me on saturday. I am asking for your vote for a simple reason. I promise you i will repay it with everything single thing i have. I write a cross on my hand every morning to say do the right thing no matter what it costs you. All right. Mr. Steyer and i am promising you i will stand up for the , people in this room, and the people across state, no matter what it costs me. [applause] mr. Steyer we can win. We can win. We will win. Thank you very much. [applause] i wish you had celebrated more on how your solutions are different than bernies. [indistinct conversations] i am not for medicare because i think we should give people a choice. His plans in terms of Climate Change involves taking over the government. [indiscernible] mr. Steyer absolutely, you have to regulate. Your solution is regulation . Mr. Steyer i think it is an oversimplification, but it is pretty right. How old are these guys . 18. Mr. Steyer you seniors . Yes, sir. Where did you get the belt . Mr. Steyer kenya. Interesting you. Ank mr. Steyer nice to meet you guys. I am team tom. I have already voted. Also, i took off this week from work to make sure i would vote. Mr. Steyer thank you. What is your name . Linda shaw. Mr. Steyer thank you so much. I so appreciate that. Thank you. Hey. The answer you give the gentleman that thinks were spending too much money on a military . Star efficient let me say best mr. Steyer . No i was on a 12 billion destroyer. It was fun. I said, if i could be the captain of the ship, i would do it. But that is money were spending on something were never going to use. When was the last time we had a destroyer in combat . 1944 that is 12 billion down the tube. It is not going to happen. Thanks. Mr. Steyer yeah. We have to have our phones out on camera and ready to go. Mr. Steyer what is your name . Jeff mitchell. Health care is really big. Mr. Steyer huge. 43 of south carolinians are not covered. I have a job and i am covered but i still have a huge bill. Thank you so much. [indistinct conversations] cspans washington journal. Live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. This morning, we discussed the latest on the South Carolina democratic primary with Political Science professors state senators, and South Carolina state representative Krystal Matthews and k. A. Moore. Watch cspans washington journal live at 7 00 eastern this morning. Join the discussion. The South Carolina primary is tonight. Join us for candidates reaction to the results, and live this evening starting at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan ondemand at cspan. Org or listen live on the free cspan radio app. Next from capitol hill and the white house, reaction to the spread of the coronavirus, its impact on the stock market, and potentially the u. S. Economy. First with representative John Garamendi of california, followed by the direct of the National Economic council, larry kudlow