Into removal little bit of the suspense about october, that on october 28 we learned that David Axelrod will be joining us. Most of you know, was the chief strategist during the Obama Campaign and the Senior Advisor to president obama, and we are very eager to hear what he has to say only a few days before the election. Tonight we are thrilled to welcome congresswoman karen bass. In the past few weeks, all of america for the first time learned quite a bit about karen bass. But we in los angeles have known what a gem she is for years. As a member of the california assembly, her colleagues elected her speaker of the assembly at a particularly critical time, and her depth ofime, leadership was essential in rescuing californias economy from the greatest financial crisis since the Great Depression at least until now. In congress, she quickly gained the respect of her colleagues due to her judgment and temperament, and just plain hard work, and her legislative skill. Ime of the legislative skill believe carried over from her years as a community organizer. She chaired the african subcommittee and is the house leader on u. S. Policy toward africa. She was elected by her colleagues as chair of the blackrock is, and in that capacity black caucus, and in that capacity was the lead author of the farreaching George Floyd Justice and pleasing legislation, which was enacted by the house and sits on senator mcconnells desk. She is also passionate about foster youth and she chairs the congressional caucus on adoption. We are very, very pleased to have lori levinsohn here to interview congresswoman bass. She is a beloved professor of criminal law and procedure at loyola law school, where she leads the project for the innocents, program which the exoneration of the wrongfully convicted. With her students, professor levenson has not only brought justice to the wrongfully convicted, but she has inspired hundreds of her students to pursue the path of Public Interest law. Laurie is a frequent commentator on various news outlets and is an active participant jewish and civic life in los angeles. So i turned it over to laurie to interview congresswoman bass. Laurie thank you, and thank you to everybody joining us. Im really excited and proud to have this opportunity to interview my congressperson, my representative, because i am in your district, congresswoman karen bass. She is really a leader for our time. The accolades she has received smart, a woman of action, honest, committed, a civil rights leader, and a uniter, a builder. Today she has the easy task of talking about bigotry, please reform, and more in the time of trouble. I want to first ask the congresswomanpolice reform, and more in the time of trump. I want to first ask the congresswoman, how do we build bridges in this time . Rep. Bass absolutely. Well, first of all, thank you so much. It is an honor to be with you today. I was not aware of the anniversary. That was quite a History Lesson to hear about of poets and the many crimes of stalin. I want to hear it is my honor to be with you and to hear from mel, who i consider a mentor. And i know that our former senator is on the line, and i want to give a shoutout to her and a big thank you. She knows what im thinking her for. In times like this, i think we all were just mortified when we saw the torture and murder of george floyd. But you know, it really led to what i believe is a Seismic Shift in our country, not just on policing, but on race. And that is on top of going pandemic that also has racial implications. When i see hundreds of thousands of people out protesting in every state in the union, people protesting around the world, all 54 nations on the continent of africa waged a protest at the United Nations over Police Brutality in the United States, to me that is indications of a Seismic Shift. And i always get excited in those moments, because that is when real change can happen. It was no small matter that all the democrats voted for the bill, laurie. That wouldnt have happened if it hadnt been for the tragedy. When tragedy strikes, you deal with the tragedy, but if it presents opportunity, you go for it, and that is what we are doing. You hearepresentative, people say we have been through this before, and in los angeles, the rodney king case. Do you see a difference, and if so, what . Rep. Bass i think it is profoundly different, i really do. You know this because we all experienced this together. When rodney king happened, i said finally, finally we will be believed, because we have been protesting police abuse i have personally for 20 years before rodney king. Gates as the police chief, no one ever believed when we talked about what would happen, and it was finally on videotape. And we know what the outcome of that was. With the invention of cell phone cameras, we have seen murder after murder affirmative. But every time people would say oh, we dont really know what happened, we dont know who this person was. Seconds, its and 15 was not even for dispute. And that officer when he was killing george floyd was looking at the camera, with his hand in his pocket. And that is what really rage, whichhe is what open up opportunity for us to do legislation in the first place. Laurie what is going to change things in this country . The George Floyd Justice and pleasing act policing at. But we have a republicancontrolled senate. As i understand it, it deals with qualified immunity, the standards for prosecuting Police Officers, getting rid of chokeholds. That is the lingle ankle legal angle. But how about the political angle . How do we move this forward . Rep. Bass without this the qualified immunity is what makes it almost impossible to sue a Police Officer, and then the way you have to determine whether or not the officer killed someone, it was a netminder to do it, or ittheir mind to do it, or was just reckless, we lowered the standard to reckless. Doesnt matter what was in your mind, it was reckless. Just think, the person who does your hair has to be accredited, has to have a license. But a Police Officer does not. Which is why in some cities citieslds r. O. K. , other they are not. They want to raise the standards as well. And in addition we are providing grants to communities so communities can reenvision public safety, because that is part of the cry as well. We have divested from mental health, from economic opportunities. And then we leave the police to pick up the pieces. You have never met a Police Officer who said i became a Police Officer so i could deal with drug addiction, so i could do with homelessness. When we dont take care of the social problems, we leave it to the police take care of them. We want to change that. Laurie a couple of followups on that. Some viewers may not understand what qualified immunity is all about and why officers can hide behind that. Tell us your thoughts on that. Rep. Bass qualified immunity basically makes it impossible to sue a Police Officer. You really have to go through finding a case that is exactly like the one that is yours, which is virtually impossible to do. And so these cases never get anywhere. In thewhat we are doing bill is we are taking the immunity status away so that an officer can be sued. But i will tell you, one of the things ive found so interesting and why i say it was a Seismic Shift, aside from the fact that all democrats voted for the bill, we got three republicans, and those three republicans voted for the bill three days after trump tweeted. You know when trump tweets, they sit up straight and do what he says. But through the hearings in the voting and all of that, republican colleagues kept coming up to me afterwards and going, i really think we could do something here, i would really like to do something. And they talked about everything under the sun with the bill. When i saw that happening, to me that indicated that maybe there ar is some republican support. The bill is in the senate. It is sitting along with 200 other bipartisan bills that which mcconnell wont do anything with, because he is pretty much advocating his role abdicating his role. I would love to know what , but itboxer thinks seems like he is not president of the senate. It seems like President Trump is president of the senate. Senator scott introduced a bill. That bill was so bad, it was so superficial, that democrats in the senate did not allow it to go forward. But we are talking to senator scott, and maybe he will introduce another bill. If he introduces another bill, we can go to conference and actually begin to negotiate. I am keeping hope alive. I do think we will be able to get something done, because there is so much republican interest. Laurie do you think any of that will happen before the election, before november, to work towards that goal, or are we on a hiatus for now . Rep. Bass no, i think the negotiation can happen before the election. It might be the vote in the lameduck. Some people say why dont we just wait for President Biden . Because i believe we will have President Biden, i am not flippant about that. We will have to work every day over the next 83 days to make sure it happens. But he was what im worried about im worried that the next administration could be facing pressure, facing over 300,000 dead americans. I dont want to say lets just wait. I remember people did that in the last administration to him were going to wait for president clinton to do criminal justice reform. How did that work out . Laurie people are still taking to the streets, in portland and seattle, and im wondering your view on that, and especially the administrations response of sending in federal agents. Rep. Bass i think the administration is using it as an excuse. Our president wants to be an authoritarian leader. Adcept he does not want to le around covid. He could use his authoritarian impulses and protect the American People, but that is not important enough. I actually believe this is a little crazy, but i think they are doing part of what they are doing because it is footage, it is footage for commercials, it is footage for campaign commercials. To send out the troops like that, where you have people you dont even know who it is pulling you off the street and putting you in a van. Laurie i might be missing something, but does that appeal to people, seeing people in camouflage with no names grabbing people off the street . Rep. Bass what they did in our last hearing, where we had attorney general barr come, when it was republicans time to open up the hearing, they played five minutes of footage of rio ting. That is what gins up their base, from their viewpoint. They played all the footage of rioting, and leaving around law and order. That is the way it is crafted. I do serve on the africa subcommittee and i deal with african countries all the time. You can just imagine i dont have a leg to stand on to talk to them about being abusive to protesters exercising their freedom of speech, African Leaders that want to change the election day, African Leaders that want to suppress the vote. Right now there is so much to repair. I do know that vice President Biden and senator harris will be up for it when they are president and Vice President. I just think of the damage that has to be repaired, domestically and internationally right now. Laurie one other question on the policeperform aspect. You have interacted with police as well. Police,eard defund but you have never advocated that. What do police want . Rep. Bass i think police want to be able to do their jobs. I the police want to go to work and know they will come home alive. I think they want a sick respect. I think that is right atwant basic respect. I think that is right and how we should treat Police Officers. I dont say defund the police. I say refund the community. What is at the heart of that in my opinion is the fact that we have divested from communities. When we shut down the mental institutions, we did it with a commitment we would build Community Mental health centers, and we do not follow through on that commitment. We have people on the streets or people who get out of control. Some people say if there is somebody who is mentally ill and they are violent, do we send them to a social worker . Of was not, we send them to the police. But if you took care of that person to begin with, they wouldnt be violent. People become violent when they are off the medications or destabilized. If we provided Adequate Health care, we would be able to prevent a lot of the problems. Instead of doing that, we have no problems funding police, but we need to address the social, andealth, Economic Issues that the police should not have to deal with. Laurie and there is a lot more to Racial Justice than just interaction with the police. In fact, you mentioned health care. Do i have it right that you got your masters degree in social work while you were in congress . Rep. Bass yes, i did. Laurie you didnt have enough to do rep. Bass one of the issues that my background professionally is in medicine, not social work. One of the areas i work on is trying to transform the nations Child Welfare system. I have spent years working on a county and state level but really did not know the issue nationally. I wanted to have the depth of knowledge. If i am trying to change the system, i need to know about the system. I dont just rely on people telling me their view. Laurie can you share with us what is happening in that area with children, rep. Bass i am so worried. The damage from this pandemic is so comprehensive. We were already dealing with an achievement gap, can you imagine how much wider the achievement gap will get now because of young people being out of school . We make an assumption that everybody in our great city, everybody has broadband. That is not the case. You have to be able to afford it. We make the assumption that Everybody Knows how to use computers. What about a sevenyearold whose mother or father is an essential worker and they are not at home. Those kids will fall through the education cracks, as well. I am deeply, deeply troubled by that. We will be dealing with the health, social and Economic Impacts from this virus for a long time to come. Laurie lets assume the election goes for biden. What would be your highest priority for change . Rep. Bass the health of this nation. I worry that President Biden on day 1 will probably have to hit the reset button with covid. He will probably have to do what trump should have done in march of this year. You cannot address it pandemic through denial and magical thinking and that is what the president has done. I cannot imagine that we would have to shut down, but there is no end in sight because they will not handle it appropriate lee. Think about california our state legislator, governor, mayor, they all did what they were supposed to do and we are still having a problem. You have states where they have taken Public Health and turned it into a political issue. It is like a climate. Andcan just deny science they are denying science when it comes to the pandemic. To say you are going to make masks optional it is a health issue. Laurie you are known as someone who builds bridges, coalitions. When it comes from a different place, how do we bring people together . Think on day 1, in addition to having to push the reset button, President Biden will have to do serious education and im hoping he will get the media involved. It is sad, though, because we have one network that has no problem spewing misinformation that hurts people. Telling people that taking hydroxychloroquine will help you. I think there will have to be massive education for people to understand Public Health and science is not a political issue. We are in this together, it is not a question of individualism and individual choice, it is a question of the health of our nation and what we have done so far how has not worked for us . We are an embarrassment in the world. Laurie lets talk about our world status. There has been concerns with china, israel and the middle east, iran. Maybe explain to the viewers why it is important we get involved with these places and what we regain our status . Rep. Bass i can go back to the virus one more time it is called pandemic because it has affected the world. If you look at what obama and biden did with ebola, ebola could have been a pandemic. It wasnt, why . Mobilized the world to address ebola. They kept it isolated to three african countries. That is one thing we will have to do. It is not just us going through an economic crisis, it is a global crisis. That is where we are very fortunate with vice President Biden, because he knows World Leaders. He will have to do a world tour, basically making up with all of the insults. I will share one story with you when trump said what he said about the african countries, the shole countries. Washington, d. C. , there is an office were all ambassadors meet once a month. After he did that, i called the African Union and asked to address all 50 ambassadors. I apologize on behalf of the American People. What i invented you and other people affected you for the last 3. 5 years, every time we go overseas, we are apologizing for something. I went over to sedan because the trump i would over to sudan because the Trump Administration was trying to call off he arees a travel ban and they looking at me like, what are you here for . We will be fortunate to have him as a president because biden knows the World Leaders but he will have to piece together all of the agreements they tore up, from the paris climate agreement, some of the Nuclear Weapons agreements with russia, there will be a lot of repairing nato, you name it. Laurie it looks like our government has become government by executive order instead of real legislative process. What do you expect after the elections, will be go back to someone else signing orders, or can we get some real legislative process going . Rep. Bass i hate to say this and be partisan, we have to have a senate and the house, and we have to have the presidency. I think one day the republicans might regain their party, but they have given up their party to an extremist element. You see all of these republicans, like with the lincoln project, and other projects like that, you have to have a partner to legislate. You cannot legislate alone, unless that party is not in power at all. I think that is what will have to happen until they can get it back together it is really sad. My republican colleagues, who i get along with really well, we talk about this. I think it is bad, when he tweets, they be quiet because they are worried he will cost them their election. Laurie we will do a few more questions like this but i want the viewers to know i will be getting their questions. I hear you love rapid fire questions so i will throw them at you. Voter suppression, it has been a big issue. The Supreme Court seems to not be willing to open things up. Do you think we can have a Fair Election . If it comes out in bidens favor, will the Current White House members actually leave . Rep. Bass i have to have faith in our system that if the current occupant try to stay, he would be evicted. I say that because, the only way for him to stay would be for the military to go along with it and i just cant believe that is something we would see in our country. But will we have a Fair Election . I honestly believe we will have to be very tightly organized and we will have to make sure people vote early. People will have to vote really early because their latest maneuver is to mess with the post office, and do things like canceling overtime to make the delivery of the mail very difficult. Our organization will have to be tight. In some states like california, i am not worried about voter suppression, maybe in some parts of our state, but for the most part, that is a problem in other states. I think they are going to make it as difficult as possible. That is another International Issue how do i go around the , promote tell people democracy, the way we do us, i cant door that right now. Laurie what do you think of senator harris on the ticket and what you think she will bring to the ticket . Rep. Bass she is going to be wonderful. She has the experience, the profile, she will generate tremendous excitement. I think we saw a taste of it today after she was announced she would be on the ticket, vice President Biden said they had the biggest grassroots fundraising haul they had since he started. I think it will be so exciting it is history. California. Laurie i dont want to put you on the spot, but if you were chosen to replace her, what would your thoughts be . Focus for i have one 83 days. Winnings depend on us this election. I will see what happens after this, i want to explore many different possibilities. Important,lly especially in california, along with immigration, what can we do . Rep. Bass i am worried about the census. It is so sad that all of our institutions are attempting to be sabotaged and undercut for a small group of people to save power. The first thing they came out the remember was citizenship question. It will not be on the census, but a lot of people in the immigrant community are worried because they had that scare. Now they are talking about, maybe they will only send the state information for citizens. They are trying another way around we will have the information, but we will not send it to you. I am sure that will not stand in the court, but the fact they would even propose it. We have been monitoring the senses, we know there is a serious undercount in the africanamerican population. I chair the black caucus come i work with the native american caucus, we are monitoring the numbers in the communities and making sure we address the undercount. , irie i have a pet peeve was a proud member of the department of justice. Some of the people i admire most or in the department when i was there, but i am not so proud now. How do we restore confidence in the department of justice . You see career people leaving. I know you and the attorney general had a few words. What are your thoughts . Rep. Bass you might have to go back to the department of justice. I discussed this with the Vice President. I said one of the things i hope you do, one of the first steps of your administration is to put out a clarion call for everyone to come back. Think about the epa the scientists left and they took their science with them because they were worried about it being destroyed. This is the United States it is incredible to say that. For will have to be a call the career people to come back because these agencies have been hollowed out. The department of justice, you name it. Department of education, they have all been completely subverted. Laurie i think people were so excited when the biden team were talking to you because you have great ideas. Do you have a chance to share those ideas with biden and his team even though you werent the person selected . Rep. Bass it was quite a long process. There were opportunities to do that and i plan to still be involved. Before the process began, i was cochairing the economy task force. Unity the bidensanders task force. I plan to be involved in the campaign. It will be frustrating this year because campaigning is about meeting people and going to events. I will be zooming day and night. Laurie rachel asks what can you do to help biden and harris other than giving money . Rep. Bass giving money is an excellent idea, it is always needed, but everything we are talking about. Making sure people fill out the census forms, that will help the biden administration. First and foremost is we all need to be educated about how to vote this year. The good side of zooming is we all know people around the country and we can bring friends and family together around the country and talk about, what is it like to vote in your state . How do you get a ballot so you can vote from home . We need to start those conversations now. In some states, early voting starts soon. We all need to be educated because we are trying to spend some much time trying to subvert the process, we should not assume we know what the process is. In california, that is a different story, but even in los angeles county, we changed our voting to share, we instituted a new system. People need to be educated about voting and find out when is the first day you can vote so you get that ballot in asap. Laurie where would people go for the most Accurate Information . I think people are spectacle with news sources. Working people get the information . Rep. Bass the county registrar in york county and in your state. County and in your state. That is why you need to have a zoom party and get that happening now. We dont want to wait until the end of october and people are scrambling to get a ballot. Depending on your state, if you lateailing in a ballot in october, your vote might not be counted. Laurie it is rapidfire question time from our viewers. I want to ask about black lives matter and the relationship with israel and the jews. Has there been friction . How do we deal with that . Rep. Bass one of the problems with the new organizing that is out there, black lives matter is not a real tight organization. I know they have a website, i know that on their website there are very questionable things i have not looked at it lately but i think engaging the movement is the most important thing to do. It is a little difficult when it is vague. Where do you go to see black lives matter in los angeles . It is not like they have an office. It is tough. You see all kinds of people with black lives matter signs and i dont know if they are part of an actual structure or not. Laurie have you engaged with them on a formal level . Rep. Bass absolutely. The three women who started black lives matter i know personally. Beyond that, who their active membership as i do not know. What i know we all have to do is be very strong against antisemitism, period. There is not a meeting you can go to or an organization you can go to and talk to. When i spoke to the leaders, we discussed that. But beyond that, it is very difficult. Laurie what can the Jewish Community due to be more engaged with the movement . Rep. Bass embracing the Jewish Community already does whole blackink the lives Matter Movement has raised peoples consciousness about systemic racism. One thing i said when i spoke to different jewish groups but i think would be extremely helpful, because nobody understands this more than the Jewish Community, is the power of symbols. The confederate statues are being challenged, and the flag, and all of those symbols and relating to that, from the history of the jewish people, could be very, very helpful, so it is not just about the confederacy, it is about hate, what it means to have those symbols in your face. When i walked through the capitol and i see the statues of traitors because the confederates were traitors. Laurie that brings up the question what are your thoughts . It boggles my mind because trump is talking about accepting the nomination from gettysburg. Do you ignore that . Do you respond to that . I think we should ignore it because that is what he said on one day, do you know what i mean . He only knows how to be provocative. I think we have no idea or he will actually wind up, so lets see when against closer. He said he would deliver his speech at the white house. Laurie is it that problematic under the law . Rep. Bass Speaker Pelosi informed him he could not do that. It is just like when he came to the state of the union, he said he would come over here and talk and he did not realize she controls the building. Give hised him to state of the Union Address from the oval office but he was not coming over here until she invited him. He does things like that, just like he suggests maybe he will cancel the election. Remember, he made that suggestion on the same day that the economic reports came out that said our economy had plunged. Then he puts out, maybe i will change the election. He is very skillful in changing the news cycle. Laurie biden today talked about jobs, jobs, jobs. How do we do that . Rep. Bass one of the first things we do, one of those 200 bills is for infrastructure. It is pretty embarrassing that in 2020, the United States, the richest country in the history of the world, and we have crumbling infrastructure bridges falling. That is one thing we could do. In the era of covid, we need to pass the heroes act. We talk about jobs, people have been losing jobs by the millions. Small businesses predict its never open again. This notion we do not want to give people 600 per week extra because it is a disincentive for them to work without recognition they dont have jobs to go to. Laurie a congressman who voted for you, are the repercussions . Did they suffer any negative repercussions . Rep. Bass i dont know. I do know that at least one of them was retiring. Understand, a number of my republican colleagues are retiring but they still will not push back against him. Laurie what is that about . Enabler, he word does what he does and there is not much to do about it. I dont remember that. Inexcusable ifs you are retiring. Some of my colleagues that are retiring, i know they will not speak out in hopes they will have a future career, run for some other office. Some of my colleagues are not running for another office, they are not feeling well, they are battling illness. I do not understand it. Laurie when you have conversations with your colleagues, it is wonderful speaking to you, do we have that level of civility in washington . Lost the ability to talk to each other. Rep. Bass it is especially difficult now because we do not see each other. I think the civility is there. There are certainly some exceptions, but for the most part it is. I gave you an example, when we were passing the George Floyd Justice in policing act, our colleagues were giving speeches, and then they would come over and say we need to work on this. Some of it is performance. Some of it is if i get really crazy, maybe i will have a segment on fox tonight. Some of it is absolute theatrics. Laurie let me ask you how women, particularly women of color, change the dynamic in the legislative discussion . Rep. Bass i think women in general changed everything in terms of the legislative process. I feel really bad for my republican colleagues who are women. Ofre are only 14 of them out 100 99 republicans, 14 are women. Republicans, 14 are women. I have a bill about pregnant women who are incarcerated. I tried to get women to cosponsor the bill, i cant get them to i get the men, but i cant get the women. Fear ofm to me to be in their colleagues. I think that is really a shame. Ran for leadership. This one woman in leadership and nail. Ought her tooth and you would think at least in a but no, theyay, fought her. Sense they are not even aware of some stuff. Floor, if you the look at cspan and you see the floor of the house, it is completely segregated. Likeide of the house looks 1950, and there is the other side that looks like 2020. Laurie lets talk about social media and particularly conspiracy theories. Planneddemicas a and it is part of a conspiracy. What do we do with that . Rep. Bass that is just a tragedy. That is the kind of madness that kills people, leads people to believe they can go to parties and they dont have to worry. One of the things that is happened in the house, i know you have seen a number of my republican colleagues, every now and then a democratic collie, who has covid now. Colleague, who has covid now. He was like, no, i dont have to because i tested negative because i do not have covid. Well, he does now. Laurie it is an ignorance that is hard to believe. Rep. Bass they walk around of t masks as an as act of defiance. That is what i mean when i say president bynum will have to go with President Biden will have to focus on education. Laurie your wish list. You might not be the Vice President , but your wish list with to be the first thing to do with the Democratic Party . Rep. Bass the first thing we have to do is get a handle. We cant keep losing americans. I think the pandemic is having a disproportionate impact and we need to develop strike teams where we go into areas where there is a concentration of the virus and we have massive testing, tracing, early treatment. In the ebola crisis, president obama and vice President Biden sent our military to africa and they build hospitals quickly. That is what the military can do. We need to bring in everybody to address this and it needs to be addressed extremely aggressively. At the same time, there has to be a Massive PublicEducation Campaign and we have to get the American People the resources they need. It is shameful that peoples Unemployment Insurance ran out. Literally, we are arguing over putting resources into communities for food banks and they dont want to do that. I figure they think if people get hungry enough they will be forced to go back to work. And havea dozen exist everyone continue their business as normal, some people will die, some people will get sick but will get through this. Laurie what do you say to people who say it should be left to the state . A virus does not acknowledge borders. It makes no sense. It is a profound ignorance to not understand basic health. Rep. Bass i am sure that biden would do this, you have to let scientists,e the physicians, researchers, they have to be the ones to take the lead and guide us in what we do. The other thing i think that has to be dealt with that is just a horrible thing that happened on our watch is the caging of children. The statesponsored abuse of immigrant children is unforgivable and we dont know what is happening to those children. They are off the radar. We know they are deporting them, i dont know what it means to deport a child. Who do you deport a child to . They are sending people to their countries. There is going to be so much. President biden will have to spend four years cleaning up. Laurie in terms of what your next step is. I can see you are enthusiastic about the election. What role do you think you will play in the campaign and getting biden elected . Rep. Bass i hope to play a surrogate role and a unifying role. I hope the campaign will energize. It will be frustrating because i want to get out there. I am sure i will. I will get out there safely. At some point i dont think the entire thing can be done role asy, but i see my being a bridge to the sanders, supporters other that are on the left, since most of my life was spent as a progressive activist and that of those people who said they might not be excited i would like to dispel the notion that for some reason we need to be in love to vote. Laurie what do you mean . Rep. Bass i am not excited by who is that the top of the ticket. This is about life and death, i am sorry if you are not in love. This is about 160,000 dead americans. Understand, this is about the next two generations. We have the Supreme Court hanging by a thread. That they have confirmed that are all in their 40s so they will be there for a couple of generations. There is so much at stake in this election it is insufficient to say this is the most important election of our lifetime. Laurie wow. Is there anything i have not covered . I want to give you the last minute or two to share any thoughts you have had with the audience before i turn it back to david. Rep. Bass i want to thank anyone. So many of you and so many of the organizations that are here this is the conscience of our community. The conscience of our country. People are together because of the same set of values around justice and equality and equity. A veryto say it has been tough 3. 5 years, but he has brought us together in a way. He has brought us together against him. We now understand so much more about each others issues. People that never thought about immigrant issues think a lot more about that, environment, racism. Ever since he has been elected, since the womens march we have won the election. We just have to do it again. Laurie you have been inspiring to all of us. I want to thank you not just for today, which was wonderful, but for everything you do. I want to commit on behalf of the 4000 people watching this cspan live coverage continues at 1 00 eastern when the White House Press secretary will talk with reporters and answer questions about issues facing the Trump Administration. That starts at 1 00 p. M. Eastern. At 2 00 we take you live to iowa where Vice President mike pence will deliver remarks at a Campaign Event in des moines. Both of these events will be streamed live on our website, or you can listen with the free cspan radio app. Cspan has covered every minute of every Political Convention since 1984 and we are not stopping now. This months Political Conventions will be like none other in history with the coronavirus pandemic still booming the democrats will meet to nominate joe biden on monday and President Trump his partys nomination the next week. 9 00 p. M. An at eastern for live coverage of the Democratic Convention on monday, and the Republican Convention starting monday, august 24. Live streaming and on demand at cspan. Org or listen with the free cspan radio app. Cspan, your unfiltered view of politics. The contenders, about the men who ran for the presidency and lost, the changed political history all week at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan. , fivetime socialist Party President ial candidate. Eugene v debs. President trump has announced the United Arab Emirates and israel agreed to soap and diplomatic ties in a deal hoping he talked to reporters in the oval office