Transcripts For CSPAN3 Ideas Conference Govermor Bullock Senator Booker And Others 20170516

Building bombers on the assembly line, today theyre building rail cars, improving traffic and creating jobs where they live. Thats just the start. We passed the nations largest housing initiative. We have the highest graduation rate. Thank you, i know have the distinct honor welcoming to the stage someone who has always stayed true to his ideas and values and learned to adapt to a changed political landscape. Hes stayed a proud progressive. Former democratic leader, cap chairman of the board and my friend, senator tom daschle. Please join me in welcoming him to the stage. [ applause ] thank you very much. For that kind of introduction. I know better to compete with clearing tables. Let me say what a fantastic day this has been. We have heard inspiring speeches. We have heard some thoughtful conversations. And we gather at an important time. A time when i think our country is facing one of the most challenging moments in all of our history. A time when the pillars of our very democratic republic are being tested. But the American People increasingly are refusing to sit idly by, theyre reacting, theyre responding and, yes, theyre resisting. [ applause ] so this afternoon, we want to talk some about the energy out there and how that energy is actually affecting policy in washington and across the country. Were going to talk about climate action. Were going to talk about public lands. Voting rights and civil rights. Were going to meet some of the resistant leaders who all across this country are organizing to defeat the trump agenda. And i will say, as chair of cap, how proud i am of the work this organization does day in and day out. The leadership the staff the board, everybody involved, in supporting these efforts all across the country. But today its my special honor and privilege to introduce a progress i progressive leader who comes from an unexpected part of the country. Last november, he won an election even though donald trump won his state by more than 20 . Hes been a champion of equal pay. Of better jobs. Of good government. Of improved education. Hes a man that i have already cited as i talked to people all through the midwest to follow if you, too, want to be successful in politics in our part of the country. Join me in a very hearty welcome to governor of montana, steve bullock. [ applause ] thanks so much, senator daschle. I was saying i should drop the mike and leave after that introduction. Its great to be here. I was invited today to talk about how a progressive governor gets reelected in a place where Hillary Clinton got 36 of the vote. And its really great to be with you today because by all accounts i shouldnt be here. 2016 was the year of the outsider. That wasnt me. I was the attorney general and i was governor. The guy i ran against shatter spending records in montana with his own personal wealth. More ads were run in montana than any other governor race in the nation. If there was the year of hate, fear and discontent, my opponent pedal it but i refused to. I offered an optimistic vision for the future. At the end of the day, donald trump won by 20 points. I won by 4. [ applause ] focusing, though, on how i won misses something. Because what ought to be equally important is how a progressive democrat governs in a state where donald trump could win by 20 points. Best of political advice i ever received actually came from a republican, he said to me, you run to win but you win to run. To run government, the goal isnt to win the election. Its to positively and meaningfully impact individuals and families, no matter where they live and no matter whether they supported us. The goal is to fight so that next generation our kids and our grandkids have every opportunity that we had and more. So, how did i win and how do i govern . First and foremost its about showing up. As a democrat, i dont have the luxury as a democrat in monta montanaof spending the day talking to people who only agree with me. Democrats are rare as a twe tweetless twitter feed from 1600 pennsylvania avenue in the Early Morning hours. Heres what i mean, though, when i say show up. By 2015, 30 states had expanded med medicaid. In montana, the word obamacare was about as popular as the word, like root canal. My twothird republican controlled legislation. Its important for montana to get medicaid passed. I went to a Community Meeting in town. Populati population, 1,700. There werent a lot of bullock supporters there for sure. The ranchers gathered, they knew what i had come to talk about because americans for prosperity was kind enough in the weeks before i came to actually bombard their telephones, fill their mailboxes talking about the fact that i was going to visit. I have no doubt that a lot of you dont know what its like to have them go after you but its fairly common occurrence in montana. But i showed up anyway. 40 of those who worked through hospital doors dont have insurance. If they lost that rural hospital that community was soon to follow. They saw past the rhetoric and understood that not only expansion improve the health of their friends and neighbors, but attend of the day it would save that rural hospital which also saves that rural community. Their support and that visit gave their local republican legislation or the the confidence to defy her Party Leaders and the Koch Brothers and sport the measure. Every single vote matter because of towns like that. Were the only state since 2014 to get Medicaid Expansion through a state legislation. [ applause ] and not only has a lifeline been thrown to our rural healthcare system, not only is our Unemployment Insurance went 7 . But 77,000 more montanans who couldnt afford to see a doctor now have healthcare. I understand that man on the street stories are really only that. But its profound. To have people stop you on the sidewalk and tell you that your actions saved their life. Let me be the first to say that just showing up isnt always enough. I went to other communities where i failed. Many communities where i failed. But you have to try. I shoot for 100 with the hope of getting 51 . You do that in running for office and you do that in governing as the National Party democrats dont seem to focus on this anymore. Think about those rust belt states that we lost in 2016, the strategy was all about using data to find people who already agreed with us so we could drag them to the polls on election day. There was little attention played to places paid to places that might be difficult to win. [ applause ]. Theres little you must be from south dakota. Theres real little talk about persuading people. If that was my strategy in montana what we followed nationally i would have been kicked out a long time ago. From my perspective, democrats need to do a better job of showing up, making an argument even in places where people are likely to disagree, its good for campaigning. Its good for governing. It would be good for our democracy and it would be good for our Democratic Party. We also cant assume that the values of people, even those who disagree with us are all that different than the values we as democrats are consistently fighting for. We saw this assumption from my perspective in 2016, when the party wrote various parts of the country off. Folks are too busy trying to support their families and put food on the table. Most americans value and want the same thing. A safe community. A roof over their heads. Good Public Schools. Clean air and clean water. A decent job and the unwavering belief that they can build a Better Future for their kids and their grandkids. I believe this is true, whether you live in manhattan, new york, manhattan, kansas, or even manhattan, montana. I fought for these values and the Public Policy that delivers them. Public education, protection of our public lands. An economy that works for everyone and fair taxes. It translated into people knowing that i was looking out for them. And then what that translates into the ability to fight and govern and work on areas like equal pay for equal work. Translates to signing one of the farreaching executive orders for protecting our Lgbt Community. Translates into never once compromising on womens reproductive freedoms. [ applause ] and it translated just last month when our lejs or the left something that we had been working on for 15 years in montana. The bottom line is, when we do it right, fighting for our shared values, fighting for those great equalizers of opportunity and fighting for the public good will always always beat out somebody fighting for their narrow selfinterests. Finally, i want to leave you with a radical idea and here it is if youre going to do if youre going to talk about doing something then actually try to do it. [ applause ] think about that. Its montana simple, i guess. If youre going to talk about doing something then actually try to do it. I imagine everybody in this room would agree that our Campaign Finance reform is broken. When the Supreme Court took up Citizens United. Montana wrote the brief in opposition. We got a majority of states to join us. Including a good handful of republicanled states. When it opened up the corporate flood gates, montana for 100 years, we had a prohibition against corporate spending or contributions in our elections, and unlike what happened in Citizens United i build a record, i got testimony from democrats and republicans talking about the corruptive and corrupting influence of expenditures. In a decision thats unfortun e unfortunately for ever caption ed citizens against bullock. It was 54 decision, the first significant case after Citizens United. Yet as governor then i didnt give up. I took a different tact. I worked with democrats and republicans. Its twothirds republicans. I have to do that. I worked with them to pass one of the most progressive disclosure laws in america. No matter what the federal tax code they try to hide behind if theyre going to spend or contribute in our elections, our state elections they have to disclose their spending and whos giving them money. I took a number of different attempts to get there, to get that passed. But as a result, even the Koch Brothers stayed out of our election cycle, out of our state elections last november. Now, democrats didnt fix Citizens United when we had control of congress and the white house. And reform movements more and more are working around washington, not with it. Washington is become a place where talking is often a substitute for doing. Its place where folks outside the beltway often think politicians complain about problems not to solve them. But so they can raise money and get more followers on social media. I think thats a very, very cynical view or approach to politics and government. Its bad for democracy. I think it accounts for much of the distrust of the federal government. Yet, i also think its fixable. I believe that the good news is that democrats can stand up for our values and the values of main street, main stream america and that we can win. You have to believe that we share values. And you have to fight for them. You have to fight for the public good. You have to do things not just talk about them, and you have to show up. Thank you for having me today. But more important thank you all for being here today. [ applause ]. Questions . Fantastic. Thank you so much, governor. I think he has time for one, possibly two questions. We got microphones. A question right up here. If you just wait for the mike, fantastic. You got it. Can you talk a little bit about this special election for congress and rob quest and whether everybody in this room should send him some money . That i cannot say. I was told what im not allowed to say. So, we actually have a special election may 25th. Against a guy named greg, who ran against me, who spent 6 million of his own and lost. I guess, again, i guess i couldnt be here if it were otherwise. And against a gentleman rob quist, he was new to politics. One congressman in our state, became the secretary of interior. Rob quist a life long montanan. Went through some medical issues. We knows when were talking about repealing the Affordable Care act how it can devastate families. I appreciate the question. Its not unlike when i was running and others. People want to view, thats a long way away. On the womens march, 10,000 people showed up at our state capitol. I dont think you would have 10,000 people if you cancelled hunting season. So, theres excitement and theres energy and its well worth following the special election, may 25th. I can say theres latitude in the audience that i apparently dont have. Am i done . Thank you very much. [ applause ] please welcome to the stage, tom steyer and john podesta. [ applause ] good afternoon, everybody. Is my mike working . Yeah, its now working. So were here to talk about a lot of things. But well spend some time talking about Climate Change. At the beginning, as evidence of catastrophic Climate Change with 2016, Sea Level Rise continuing to grow with humanitarian crises and climate xexacerbated events fr at the horn of africa, front and center in americas newspapers, finally looking at whats going on, donald trump is reacted by appointing a climate deanier to run the epa, by trying to dismantle and tear down the clean power plant. Hes proposed a budget that decimates science. Hes on a ram page really against the environment. But i think youd agree with me, tom, ill ask you this at the outset not all is lost theres still tremendous leadership coming from citizens, business communities, from mayors and governors across the country, so were honored to have you here today. Because after a supersuccessful business career, tom decided that he wanted to spend his time not just fighting to tackle Climate Change but fighting for social justice and i i used to talk to tom on the phone. He in california and me back on the east coast. And he would begin every conversation by saying, john, t its worse than you think. Its really worse than you think. He would give me the latest Scientific Evidence or something thats happened. Now, i start every conversation when hes on the west coast and im on the east coast talking about donald trump and he says, john, its worse than you think. Its really worse than you think. And i think maybe not so much, tom. Let me start, though, on the climate question, and with really a broad question, how do you assess where we are today . Can the planet survive four years of this kind of policy coming from donald trump and his administration. So, before i start, i think we should have a round of applause for what john podesta has done and what he continues doing. [ cheers and applause ] seriously. When we think about the task ahead i like to break it down into three parts. We have to clean up our electricity system and we have to lek try fie everything and we have to dramatically increase our Energy Efficiency. Where are we as a country . If you think about cleanup our electricity system thats predominantly done in the states. So, we can have a lot of progress over the next four years, state by state, including in red states, we have had progress of november 8th in four red states. We can do a major push in terms of cleaner electricity. Secondly, electrify everything. When you think about what we have to do, we clearly have to lek tr lek try my our system. A plug powered by a coal power you have to do the first step. The second step we need to el electrify everything. Theyre going to review the cafe standards. If they roll back what the Obama Administration put in place for 2025 then what california and 13 other states have already agreed to do would then be a question of how do they undo that . We have a waiver coming from the Clean Air Act and so, what the federal government does to attack the electrify case and the increasing of the transportation sector is critical. Then lastly, Energy Efficiency is something that argues for itself in terms of cost. Where the ability of the federal government can put in place policies to make things happen sooner. Where are we . I would say, the American People are behind us. If you look at the polling data, American Business establishment is behind us with the exception of the fossil fuel companies and the engineering data, our ability to save money by moving to cleaner sources of energy is also behind us. The question is not are we moving to this . The question is, the pace at which were moving to it . So, from my standpoint i view this as much more urgent than is generally thought partially by john started by teasing me about. The scientists keep saying its going to be 2040 and now were saying its 2025. Were come pressing the time we have to act. The political question about winning becomes infinitely more important. We have to win now. Let me i want to come back to the kind of broader role of Climate Change, energy transformation, job creation from clean energy, as part of the progressive message, but let me stick with one thing you said, you said business voices are still on the side of change in support of this energy transformation, not all businesses are all on that side. No longer just the Coal Companies and oil industries, the Auto Companies are aggressively who had supported the cafe standards after trumps election are trying to roll them back, what do you think is the prospect of having the rest of industry thats been more positive about trying to take aggressive action becoming something kind of a counterway to the special interests that want to see the roll backs on the regulatory side . I want to address the automakers. Lets answer your question first. We cant count on American Businesses to lead a political revolution. I think theres supportive of it but dependent on having an amicable relationship with the federal government and i think theyre very nervous about picking a fight with a vengeful president. I think its unrealistic to think theyre going to be at the front, arguing and pushing and making trouble. They fear his twitter account they absolutely do. The fact of the matter is, theyre on the side and we count on them to be leaders. When you look at the American Automakers theyre clearly making the same mistake that they made before they went bankrupt the first time. If you look at the margins they make on an suv they are gigantic. Theyd love to sell those cars. What theyre doing in terms of electr electric vehicles thats an area where theyre growing but theyre not making bottom line money. The market is telling us where the future is. The people who make the cash money and get to make the decisions are still looking backwards and saying we want our money on combustion engines. Its a terribly shortsighted decision. Okay. Lets come to the broader progressive argument. You said we got to win, we got to win know, we dont have time to waste, you have tried to really build a broader coalition, talk about how you see the effort of blending essentially politics into Broader Movement politics . Well, probably ten years ago, we were under the impression that Progressive Energy policies would be supported on a bipartisan basis on behalf the interests the broader interests of the United States of america and its citizens and i think we spent a number of years and built a number of efforts around that idea. At this point if you look at the administration the Congressional Republicans have gone backwards from where they were when they started. When we think about how change is actually going to come we think about it in terms, should we think about it in terms of energy but creating jobs that pay a decent wage that families can live on. We think about cleaner air and a theltier america. We think about an inclusive america that recognizes every single citizen. So, when we think about that we think were going to Win Every One of those policies. We think a Progressive Coalition will do that and otherwise its not happening. And that includes energy and climate. So when we think about what were doing were absolutely committed to immigrant rights. Were absolutely committed on every one of those. Were strong believers in organized labor. Essential part of the american system. We think we win everything together or lose everything together. We think we stick together and win, period, or we lose. And we lose everything across the board. And the difference, john, which i hate saying this, i completely agree that american voters, american citizens are much more alike than they get credit for but in terms of us having i would think of an honest counterparty in terms of elected firms in the Republican Party i dont believe one. Theres not a common ground. The only thing we can do is put our heads down and win period. Thank you. You have had success in building that Broad Coalition in california. How do you assess, now, the relationship between what youre trying to do in terms of building up Clean Energy Infrastructure with where the building trade unions are . Let me start with the coalition in california and then ill address the trades. The coalition we have which we started ten years ago is, different from the ones that people think about. First of all, i think its incumbent on me to say that people who are commonly thought to be environmentally focused are not necessarily the people you think they are. The number one ethnicity who cle care about clean air is latinos and built around the idea it goes to every part of society. Secondly we have had always organized labor as a strong partner. Part of what were talking about is inseparable from everything that we do is that well create goodpaying jobs and distribute them through the communities and the third thing is, we believe we can get the chamber of commerce. In california, we have always had more than half of the chambers with us. What well do is build businesses and goodpaying jobs. The three things that we had to do is clean up the electricity system, electrify everything and double Energy Efficiency thats millions of jobs. Thats going to go into every commercial building into the United States of america. With equipment and making it happen. Thats redoing the grid. Were going to to rebuild the United States of america period. That is going to happen. We have got to start understanding that we have to do that, and that is a gigantic work project. The people from the trades thats their bailiwick, thats their livelihood and thats what they are absolutely committed to for their members. The difference that we had with the trades is they know were going to rebuild the United States of america, but they think that a lot of it is going to be in fossil fuel infrastructure. And the reason they think that is weve been doing that for the last 50 years. There are a ton of pipelines that have to be built or rebuilt if we go that way. There are a ton of energyrelated tasks that go to their unions. And they are absolutely committed to the jobs for unions. What were saying is, look, its not that were going to build the Dakota Access pipeline or nothing. Were going to build something smarter and better. Those jobs are going to be created. And by the way, were going to make sure that those are organized jobs. So when i talk about it, when i say to them im like, look, our organization supported local measures and props in california last year that will create 500,000 union jobs. We are 100 committed to rebuilding the u. S. Because we have to do it. By the way, that is the way were going to get people decent wages and benefits. [ applause ]. I love what theyre fighting for, but what they want to build i think is a mistake and within five years from now when we look back and see how many tens of billions of dollars we spent on fossil fuel infrastructure that is an absolute waste of money. You know, as a 35year investors, i can tell you making an investment is not smart. Making a smart investment is smart. Making a dumb investment is a big, fat mistake. And dumb. And dumb. Join me in thanking tom steyer and all his leadership. [ applause ]. Thank you so much. Thank you. Whether were fighting to protect our planet or fighting for equity in immigration, criminal justice, health care, lgbt equality, the economy or political representation, todays fight is a constant one. With each panel, each keynote, each conversation we are reminded that the resistance is fueled by persistence. Our next panel will highlight the many faces and voices of the resistance, some new and others who have been working tirelessly for years to improve lives. Before we get to this dynamic conversation with leah greenberg, derey, marcos, and astrid silva, please take a look at what democracy looks like. Please take a look at america uprising, a new series about todays protest movements from divided films. See what democracy looks like. This is what democracy looks like. Stand up. Fight back. There is no time for cute, political blackness. They can only win by dividing america. No to the ban on refugees and asylum seekers. And we say no to fear and hate. No. People just invigorated by the idea that we, not just resist, actually revive our culture through resistance. We stay the course were going to continue to make our voices heard. You say that you are pro that doesnt sound right, does it . We can create something that is going to be wonderful for all of us. [ applause ]. Please welcome to the stage leah, deree, marcos, astrid and egor. [ applause ]. Good afternoon, everyone. Who is ready to resist . My name is egor, the Deputy Director of the center for American Progress action fund. After the election, our work really changed. We began developing tools for people to use to defeat trumpcare, to oppose almost every Trump Initiative and thought a lot about how to channel all of the great energy that we saw in the aftermath of the election into tangible action, into tangible change. And so im just so proud to have this amazing panel here with me. Im going to introduce them. Were going to get into a conversation about what has worked in this new Resistance Movement, how we sustain the energy and the resistance over the long haul, how we translate that into real political power, and then well have some time for questions. So, immediately to my right is marcos, he is the founder and publisher of daily cost, the largest liberal Online Community in the United States, reaching up to 20 million unique visitors per month. His new book the resistance handbook, 45 ways to fight trump will be out next month. Next to him is leah greenberg, the cofounder of indivisible, an organization that is at the front lines of fueling a progressive Grass Roots Network to defeat the trump agenda. Over 5,900 and i looked on the website yesterday to make sure local groups because its growing everyday, with at least 2 in every Congressional District are using the indivisible guide to hold their members of congress accountable. In 2007, leah caught a lucky break by interning at the center for American Progress with egor. So nice of you to put this in your official bio. Astrid is an activist and dreamer who drifred the spanish response to donald trump joint session of congress. She is the cofounder dream Big Community based organization in nevada that focuses on the importance of supporting undocumented youth and their family. And then last but certainly not least is a civil rights activist, organizers, educator and cofounder of campaign zero, the resistance manual and the pod cast pod save the people which you should all scribe to on itunes. Leave a review as well. Spired by the death of mike brown and the subsequent protests in ferguson missouri, he has worked to connect individuals with knowledge and tools and provide citizens and policymakers with common sense policies to ensure equity and justice. Please welcome this wonderful panel. [ applause ]. So leah, i want to start with you as a former colleague of mine, to talk about indivisible really being on the front lines of this new resistance, of this new energy. Can you give us a sense of what tools, what tactics have really worked in, i think, ensuring that this president , you know, doesnt have too many good days in office . Absolutely. Thank you all for the chance to be here. I think what we found no. Shes number four. All right. Is that better . Great. Hi, everyone. So i think what we found in the days since the election whats worked is decentralization. Whats worked is asking people to take on more than they were necessarily comfortable with. And whats worked is talking to people about sort of the strategy and about building power and how you do it. And having faith in them to sort of start to figure out how they put those pieces together on a local level themselves. So, when we wrote the indivisible guide back in november, we had sort of a really simple theory which was that a lot of people were already organizing. We had pulled together friends right after the election in our living room and we had said, you know, we dont know what were going to do, but we have to do something. And it had become clear to us that that was not an isolated thing. Can i just ask actually how many people got together with colleagues or friends or neighbors immediately after the election and you had one of those meetings . Right. And ive asked that question in a lot of different rooms with a lot of different people and get really similar replies. People were already starting to organize themselves and they were looking for ways to do it. And i think what we found was people were they were looking to do more than make a call. They were looking to take ownership of something that they could really feel invested in in reacting to what they perceived as a really Extraordinary Results of the election. Marcos refers to himself as the granddaddy of the resistance, so. Gee yat rick. Youve been at this with daily cause for a long, long time. Daily coast. Daily coast. Im so sorry. What do you make of this new energy . And is your sense that its moving in the right direction in terms of ensuring that its Sustainable Movement for years to come . Yeah, theres a couple factors that i think make this super exciting in a way past movements i came out of the Dean Campaign and the Dean Campaign looked a lot like the Bernie Sanders one, very white and very male. And realized very early on that a movement cannot sustain itself in progress of politics if thats who was represented. And for years and years after they reflected that. And im latino. My name doesnt give it away. And i sort of tamped that down. Im going to be mainstream coasts. And from the beginning we were focussed on elections and focussed on trying to generate grass roots excites like state legislative races and nobody gave a shit because they wanted to argue whether obama was good enough or not and whether the Health Care Law was good enough and whether Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton and it was all these stupid arguments while the grass roots was burning. Thats exactly what happened. So systematically republicans being republicans and very organized and smart did what they did and they took over elected office from the bottom up to the point where we got to last year where an idiot buffoon with no Campaign Beat our candidate, probably would have been the smartest president in American History. And so, this new movement emerged is exciting for a couple reasons. Unlike most past movements it is almost electorally focussed which is critical. I mean, their sister district has hundreds of chapters and theyre focussed on state legislative races. I mean, i could never get anybody excited about state legislative races but there are organizing so we left on house races. So indivisible doing just all of the above and more. And furthermore beyond that, though, is the fact that this is the future of america right here. [ applause ]. Did not have to go out of its way to find diversity for this panel. You know, one little fact, before the election, daily coast leadership was 35 female. It wasnt that there was a lack of women female voices it was for whatever reason i dont know why those voices people did not come. The day after the womens march it was 50 50. Literally overnight. So you have a movement thats really built on communities of color and women and now you have a movement thats being led by communities of color and women. And so this is the future of the country. And this movement thats why i think it has lasting power because it looks like the Democratic Party and looks like america and is focussed on the important things which is you do not get to yield power unless you win elections. [ applause ]. You ran for office. Talk about a bit about that experience but also your move into advocacy, into part of this larger Resistance Movement and where you see it going. Yeah. I think that so much has changed since we ran the street in ferguson three years ago. People forget that it was a leave it a standstill in august, september 2014 if you sit still for more than five seconds you were arrested immediately. It was nuts. When i say that i say that because its interesting that protests is the most american thing you can do. Everybody should protest. Were like, we were protesting, it was not this thing that everybody should do. But what is really powerful is that but when we think about protests, we think about it as this idea of telling the truth in public. We use our bodies to tell the truth. So many people that we disrupted board meetings to tell the truth that they werent using their institutional power to benefit the lives of people of color. Protest is not the answer but it creates space for the answer. Thats what weve seen happen all across the country. Its been incredible to see groups like the indivisible come in this moment and create space for so many people to organize in ways that they didnt think they could do and i think that that is incredible. Weve also seen the power of social media, right . So before, as people of color and minorities, weve often faced these issues of e. R. A. Ser. The story is never told or told by everybody but us. In this moment we became the unerased. Everybody became able to be their own Story Tellers and they were no longer gate keepers. Again, i remember talking about indivisible right when they started. They could put something on line and millions of people could look at it. That didnt exist before. When we were on the street in ferguson in the early days, most of you knew us because of twitter or facebook. It wasnt because of the news. If you saw us on the news, we were the worst people in america. But if you saw us online, you saw the truth about what was happening. And i think about running for office, you know, the people that bernies fundraising did mine and we raised a lot of money very quickly and one of the key lessons there was theres a lot more left to disrupt in this space. The people who are bread and butter they know all the answers dont actually know all the answers. People knew the answers we wouldnt be in this spot right now where this guy is the president who knew nothing, right . The last thing i will say is that im worried about the left in some ways that weve been seduced to believe that the best idea always wins. What we know to be true the idea thats beat into peoples head thats the idea that wins. The idea that people can repeat at the dinner table wins. We are normally right about so many of the issues being but right is not enough. When i think about being in communities and talking about the police or safety, its like were not against the police, right . Weve always said in the movement is that were pro safety. Ive asked you where you feel the most safe is probably not in a room full of police. Its probably in a room where people care about you and love you. Like thats how we started to talk about this issue because thats what people understand at the dinner table. Theres a wonkier way to talk about it, but that doesnt translate all the time and we cant be seduced to believe that the best idea is the idea that will always win. Astrid, for me [ applause ]. For me one of the most inspiring pieces of advocacy, of activism was, of course, the Dreamer Movement that we saw. And i really have this strong sense that in some ways its laid the ground work for a lot of the great Resistance Movement that we see in this era of trump. Can you talk about how the that movement inspired this resistance . What this current resistance can learn from the Dreamer Movement and everything its been able to accomplish. You know, i think for me one of the things can you guys hear me . No. Hello. Nope. Too close. I think for me one of the most important things has been that i think seeing everybody wake up on november 9th and say, we have to start resisting. This is something that my community, my family has been doing since the day we set foot in the United States. Weve been resisting being deported. Weve been resisting being labeled all these things. As you mentioned, all these labels is what is being heard at dinner tables that undocumented immigrants are rapists. That, you know, we do all these horrible things. So for me laying the ground work has been that. It has been that our families have really demonstrated that, you know, we cant vote. I wish we could do civil disobedience and many have done it and risked it with very big sacrifice. And yet, you know, weve been able to get were not out of the woods. Were still living in fear, but weve been able to take control of our stories. Weve been able to become the people that are defending ourselves with our allies. I came of i dont know, awareness of political movements in 2009. And i know that many people had been working on it far longer than i had, but in 2009 is when i really understood that for me that was a time for me to get active and that was because of senator reid in nevada and, you know, he was a politician who took a risk. He backed undocumented immigrants when people were telling him, you know, dont do it. Its not good polling. Youre going to lose. And i think to me that really stuck with me because its like, if youre willing to fight for yourself, we have to make sure our allies are there and that theyre willing to fight for themselves. Right now thats what we need to make sure were doing. We need to make sure, you know, its great to have 50,000 people marching, but if 10,000 show up for a municipal election, what are we doing . Where are we messing up . Marcos, let me ask you right along those lines, what are as we move forward as the resistance move forward, what are some of the pitfalls as astrid describes, for instance, not voting, not translating that energy into the voting booth, but what else should we be aware of to ensure we dont fall into traps that dont keep this movement sustainable . So, yeah. Before i get to that actually i want to sort of reenforce kind of a theme that we had here is that if youre a white male christian liberal right now youre feeling pretty angsty. Oh, shit, donald trump is president. Its horrible. Thats how we all felt, always. This is something that needs to be acknowledged because theres a changing of the guard kind of leads into in progressive leadership to one where women and marginalized communities are centered. Doesnt mean theyre part of the party anymore. Theyre leading it. And there is some resistance amongst some corners of that. And you see it in things like people say, well, we need to reach out to working class people because, you know, none of us know any working class people in our communities. [ applause ]. So theres code, right . Its not just republicans talking in that kind of code. I think thats going to be one of the key issues that we need to sort of resolve and get past is that there is going to be a changing of the guard in who leads the party. And its good because the party is going to look like america and were going to be better positioned for the future. And, the second one and leah and i had dinner yesterday and i talked about this because theres a lot of excitement right now and people are signing up and they want to do stuff. This is great. And in 18 and 20 if all goes well well have good electoral years because we have donald trump. But once upon a time we had george bush, right . We won big in 2006 and 2008 because of george bush. And then obama won and the day after it was all about how pure obama was in fighting. And we had sort of that grass roots burning thing. And our energy dissipated and sort of withered away. And so to me im actually less worried about 18 and 20. Im worried in the sense that im working hard towards it, but im less worried about the future of the movement in the next four years than i am what happens in 2022 when were arguing about how progressive our next president and next congress is. So, its going to be a challenge. You know, one of the i think strategic mistakes that the Obama Campaign did is to let organizing for america wither away. So one of the challenges is were outside of the party, so i think we have more control over that is to make sure we continue to educate our people that this is a longterm movement. Were not fighting to defeat donald trump. Thats just sort of a way stop in his Broader Movement because republicans didnt stop organizing when obama was president and theyre never going to stop organizing. We have to have that mentality of perpetual engagement that never ends and its exhausting and kind of almost frustrating to think about that, but if they dont give up, we cannot give up. Im less worried about the next four years than i am about what happens afterwards. Leah, can you give us a sense of the advocates, the new activists that your group works with. What drives them . What motivates them . Who are these people . Thats a great question. Yeah. I would say that we are seeing a whole a real range of different stories coming together. I think the most common story that i hear is a woman who she voted before but she may not have ever been politically involved before. And after november had a reaction. I think the ive heard a couple of different versions of this, but the one that seems to resonate with the most folks is that the reaction that people had was sort of a sense of betrayal, that a lot of people who are activated right after november had faith in some element of american institutions to protect them from an outcome like this. It was, you know, whether it was the media or leaks or the parties or just generally the leaders that they trusted, they didnt expect that American Society could deliver an outcome like this. And i think that goes to a little bit the demographics of folks who were already resisting before because people who already had good reason to not have faith in the institutions of society had a different reaction in november. Deray, it feels to me that thats really the tension of the resistance. We live in an era where people dont trust their institutions, yet were asking people to call their member of congress to change an outcome of a piece of legislation. How do we balance those seemingly conflicting ideas . Yeah, its a real tension. Ill say people have talked about it a little bit theres some people who think the history of injustice began with the muslim ban. If you think that was this is like a hard conversation to have. And that is real, though. There are people like, wow, america is so crazy. America has been crazy. So, that is like one bucket of it. Then there is a question of like why participate, right . The last time we elected president obama around the police, he was in this small room, deray, people should vote. President obama, you shaming people into voting is not a winning strategy. I agree with you that people should vote, but people should understand voting is one way to build power. Being in the streets is one way. Calling a congresswoman is voting. If you vote the world will be a magically better place, a, hasnt worked out. I got tear gassed in the street many places and i voted my whole life. Voting wasnt the thing that was going to save me. When i think about trump, it is one of the things that i try to be mindful is that he is the product, not the producer. He like the physical embodiment of ideology thats been around for a long time. And that part of our work is to make sure that we unpack that so we know exactly what the what is that were fighting. So with immigration, is it actually about what communities look like . Is it about felons or is it about this idea of assimilation. I was in a room and somebody very interestingly was like i just think that people should assimilate. I think they should speak the language i speak. That was their crux. What i kept reading was this idea of safety and felons. Everybody should speak english and people that dont speak english that is a problem, but me understanding that is a core issue actually helps me think about this et beer how im going to respond to it. And then the other thing ill say around this product not the producer, is that we have to get to sort of the root cause of what is the actual issue. One of the interesting things in the movement sort of we got in the street in ferguson a long time ago. Now it feels like a long time ago. Its really just a couple years. At this point its like how do we make sure that activists have as much information as possible to do the good work of imagining what the future looks like, that opposition some of resistance is opposition but the other half is health care, theres a lot of people in this room that cant explain the difference between medicare and medicaid. Its not a knock on you. Its hard to imagine how the system can be better if you dont understand fundamental things. What are the Building Blocks so when you get into the room or go to your indivisible meeting and push your congressman that you actually know enough so you can really challenge them about what the future looks like. Astrid, for me part of the reason why the resistance has been successful is because you have people organizing within their communities, theyre organizing in their school groups, theyre organizing in their places of worship. You cofounded a communitybased organization. Talk about the role that direct service, Community Organizations play in the resistance in organizing people in this way. Yeah. And you know, ive never voted or been tear gassed, so youre already winning on me on that one. I think our communities, you know, its great to be here. Its great to be with so many of you that understand the issue, so many of you that have been fighting for years. But i think the people who need it the most, the people who need to have these conversations are the people who thought the muslim ban was the worst thing that had ever happened in the history of the United States. The people that were talking to are the people that are undocumented and have never committed a crime, so they thought, oh wow, one day im going to be okay because i never did this crime that they say that immigrants do. And so when you talk to o your community, thats where its really at. You know, its not going to happen on this megaplaying field where we all think, you know, the federal congress is one day going to kick in. You know, unfortunately its in our communities. Its in our backyards right now. And i think it always has been, but i think that weve, you know, as an immigrant i was raised to believe that the United States was the greatest country in the world. That my mom and dad left everything they had ever had and came here with nothing because this was the becon of hope. This was the place that they wanted to be in, and i grew up believing why would anybody think that anything is wrong with the United States . It isnt until you get older and start to realize, wow, this is really whats happening or somebody would tell me on the bus dont speak spanish and you start to think about, well, freedom and i cant speak spanish. So our communities have been dealing with this for so long and our communities are now getting these tools that they need, you know, social media is a great platform. Its a way for our community to come together and to say i thought i was the only undocumented person. I really believed i was the undocumented person. None of my friends, none of my family are undocumented. And so for me i was the only person that had ever committed this crime that they talked about on fox news when i was little and that they would always show, you know, people jumping borders. And so, right now is the moment when we can reach out to people. People who have never been to one of these events. People who have never been to a rally, and we cant start off at a rally. You know, some people are tearfied to go out there. People see rallies on tv and they see people being tear gassed. They see people, you know, being confronted by the kkk. People are terrified of that. And so we need to make sure that were getting all these tools, but that were also helping people, at least for my community what ive seen the most is people just want to hear that they belong. People just want to be told its okay to be here. And i think for me, you know, i think i have this great privilege, right . I have this amazing ability to turn to my right and say, hey, do i belong here . Hes like, yeah. But they dont have that. But they dont have that at home. They dont have somebody saying, hey, you belong here. They have a boss who is telling them, you know, all you contribute is this labor. And so for us i think the thing that we need the most right now is not only use these tools to come together but to really have our communities organize and thats why for me the most important thing right now is our local Community Organizations. Its making sure that were reaching out to them and saying, do you have the tools that you need . You know, everyday i wake up and im afraid to look at the news. Just the other day i saw that an organization in washington and i forgot their name, they were being sued by the state by providing these services to undocumented immigrants because they werent providing the right paperwork. And its like, thats whats happening right now. And so for me thats why its so important that direct services and organizations that are in the community that actually have their pulse on whats happening, thats where we need to be right now. Im going to do one more question down the line and then well open it up, two questions from you. Marcos, starting with you, speaking of reaching communities and reaching new voices who are politicized or repulsed by what trump is doing, how important is it for us to prioritize reaching the blue dots in red states . That is reaching voices who may not be readers of yours, for instance, who arent, you know, super politically active or arent liberals themselves but could be open to this new resistance. Yeah. Its not even blue dots. Its actually we are by far the american majority on the issues. You know, last year 97 million americans did not vote that could have voted. 97 million. And the bulk of those are our voters, single women, people of color and whether theyre suppressed or demoralized or dont feel they have a stake or whatnot, go down the list, these are people who are natural voters who did not vote. This is why its so frustrating at times to see certain people within the Democratic Party talk about reaching these working class people who are really trapped in fake news land at this point. Right . Theyre trapped by the fox news bubble and theyre not getting out of there. And you have to want them to come out of there without a change in attitudes towards the people that make up our party, right . No grabbing pussies, no bullying, no overt racism and kpeen phobia and all those things. And if you needed those people for electoral majority you had an argument, but we actually have a large, untapped pool of our voters available and i think thats one of the things im hoping that if i was a billionaire, i would throw 100 Million Dollars in texas and georgia and do nothing but tv. Those are blue states. By demographics, those are blue states. And so it pains me to see where some of this money is going. And it pains me to see that we have the resources. We have people with means that arent investing in those organizations that are on the ground resource starved trying to get people to register to vote. So, what was the question . Should we be reaching the blue dots . So i was answering it. And so that i think you know, whats amazing about the resistance its not that 400,000 women march in washington, d. C. For the fox news and the fake news world, they can block that out. Never happened, right . But its different when your town of 80 up in the north literally the north pole half of the town is out marching. You cant ignore that. And that to me is the beauty of this decentralized Movement People are being in the communities being present and being heard. It is very difficult for the conservative media to pretend that does not exist when people are in their face telling them how much they hate trump and his policies and the party that is enabling him. I would add from our perspective weve actually been surprised by the real strength of the indivisible groups or of the interest in organizing across the country weve seen extraordinary geographic diversity and in fact a lot of strongest groups are in deep red areas. You know what we hear from them is they didnt have a venue to come together and to organize and to express their shared principles before. So it actually really serves, you know, something more than a forrum for action, its a community. And i think that that also goes to Something Else that we need to be thinking about which is that when we look at the right, they invest over the longterm in local power and local organizing. Theyre there for School Board Elections and everything. And theyre not there just to build the voter turnout operation. Theyre there all year, every year. And thats something that the left just doesnt hasnt been able to do in the same way. And so, part of i think what we have to do is figure out how we build the best possible operation for 2018, but how we start by doing that by providing the local services and the local capacity that people know who you are when you come around to ask them to vote. Thats exactly it. You know, im from nevada. Nevada is two big blue dots and a lot of red. And when you think about it, thats what it is. Its these small communities that said, well, you know, we live out in the middle of nowhere and theres 12 democrats and we get together, you know, at patsys house. Because thats the only place where they feel safe expressing their ideas and saying theyre democrats. I think one of the most terrifying parts for me was one time driving from las vegas to reno and we pulled over at a gas station and this car full of people of color. We were driving up there and seeing a sticker that i had never seen that had a noose on it and a picture of president obama. And im just thinking, ive never seen that before. And i know people have, but i hadnt until that moment. And then i met somebody from that same town that said like, im a democrat. I voted democrat since however long ago. And right now are those moments when they want to get together. They found other democrats whether it be because they have a blue shirt that they wore for the election or they were crying after the election, but they found each other. And we have to start in those small offices. We have to get the school board. We have to get the city council because thats how its going to build up. I think as democrats weve been focussing a lot on the big picture and on the important offices, which are very important and dont get me wrong, but thats where most of the money goes. We have to focus on these small elections because no matter what, town boards, zoning boards, small things that people dont even think about but that are really important to our communities. And so, thats to me the most important way to get to these smaller communities. To these communities that are red. And they may be red on a map, but when you go into them, which, you know, many of us dont go into them because were like, oh, its red. Why spend money there or why canvas there, why phone bank there, but then you Start Talking to people and they Start Talking about these issues and, you know, whether they agree with one issue but they dont on another, theyre going to go with what they need at that moment. And if youve been helping them f youve been there, if youve been phone banking or talking to them, theyre going to make sure to turn out. Going off of what you said about voting. I think if it wasnt so important, why would, you know the other party be trying to hard to take it away from people . [ applause ]. You know, i cant vote. Im undocumented. I cant. But it pains me to think of these people that can vote but they cant because they have the right id or didnt have a birth certificate or didnt have a Voting Center nearby. And thats where we really need to be concentrating. Yes, you know, i think as an undocumented person, sometimes i doubt in the system not everyday but sometimes i think well, yeah, thats totally possible. I dont know how donald trump won. I do. Those are the same people that were writing on my twitter to deport me and writing to deport these immigrants that were u. S. Citizens at this point. And so when people are very surprised that donald trump won, im like, no, thats not surprising to me. But what is surprising to me is how Little People understand not only that how important their vote is but how much people want it that theyre willing to do anything to take it away. One thing is that people want to experience success. The people that are withdrawn kpleemly from the system if you want them to be reinvested, you should work to build a win for them. People want to be part of a private system. Equity and equality, people confuse it. Everybody gets the same thing. Equity is people get what they deserve. The fight for justice is almost a fight about equity. We look at funding for School Systems in most urban places, we dont want them we dont want every School District in the state to get the same amount of funding because they dont need the same amount of funding. What does it mean for the cities that have a lot of poor and black kids to get not enough money to fund the impact of institutional racism. This is always about equity. Its not often about quality in the sense that people think it is. Its about the language we use. We think about charlottesville people showed up with the tiki torches and it was on the news. When you saw the news, they wrote like white nationalists. What nation is yours . This isnt yours. This is not this was like native americans. This was first nations. Right . This is not yours. How do we not call that white supremesy. When we are afraid to talk about the real issues well never win. People gloss that over and sort of make that out to be sort of a movement, like, they literally, it was like protesters. The kkk is not protesters. We have reduced them to protesters. We lost the battle. And the fourth thing is that i think its not very sexy but i think its real about what are the root cause issues. We think about immigration and 2009 House Appropriations bill theres a quo ta for i. C. E. They have to detain a minimum of 34,000 a day. So theres a lot of people fighting about i. C. E. Until the owe ta changes theyre going to arrest that many people. I. C. E. Doesnt have enough detention facilities. People dont know, right . They rent out jails and prisoners. The Police Killed three people a day everyday in the past two years. Its things that people just dont know so the things that get the most air time are like body cameras which is important, Police Training and stuff like that, but of the 400 People Killed by the police this year alone, only two cases has an officer before charged. Whether you love the police or not, i refuse to believe 400 people did something wrong and the police are just always right in every case. These are the things we dont talk about in public like we should. [ applause ]. Questions, yes, maam. Hi, can you hear me . No. Im jane from connecticut. You all kind of represent a snapshot, to me at least, when i talk about theres a Silver Lining in this cataclysmic event that were all sort of suffering through. You all really represent it. I want to thank you for doing everything youre doing. [ applause ]. Leah, if you could see a bunch of middleaged women in connecticut, northwestern connecticut pooring over the indeviceable manual or discovering your online petitions, its just really changed a lot of things. But what concerns me what concerns me, sustaining the energy and also how are you addressing the divisions within the Democratic Party . I mean, is what youre doing enough to transcend or to somehow help resolve the factions within the Democratic Party . Thank you. Leah, do you want to . Oh, i guess im getting theres going to be factions in the Democratic Party. The republicans are split three ways. You find a way to coexist when necessary and then you fight when the opportunity arises. Right now its actually if were going to fight, now is a really good time to do it. So and you know whats ironic about the divisions in the kind of bernie holdouts theres no good word for them because i dont want to smear the bernie supporters in general. Theres a crowd thats arguing and then theres the hillary crowd or the establishment and these are all sort of b. S. Distinctions. Because we all agree on everything. Theres no disagreement on income inequality and Police Brutality and insane immigration policy because if there was they would be republicans. So there is actually so what happens whats going on here . Really what it comes down to is an issue of emphasis. Some people think economic equality fixes things. And those of us who live in these communities know that thats not the case. Sandra had a job. We have latinos with jobs getting deported and families being split up and jewish cemeteries. I think jewish people have jobs. So, its the idea that bigotry i mean, donald trump grabbing the pussies of unemployed poor women . The idea that income equality is going to solve these sort of core issues of racism and kpeen phobia and bigotry is kind of absurd and almost insulting to those of us who have to live in that reality every single day. So really its emphasis. Its help those of us who have to deal with immediate threats to our very existence because once we feel secure in our bodies and in our families and in our communities, were going to fight really hard for income equality. You know, latinos are the number one supporters of socialism. Latino is number one. Right now our families are being split up. So let us focus on saving our families because thats as o thats why i like what tom was saying working within those communities. Its kind of hard to focus about florida being under water in 150 years when our communities are burning today. So thats what we ask. [ applause ]. So i would just say i think we have to do we have to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time here on a lot of different fronts. I think the Democratic Party has a number of different arguments that they have to continue to resolve, but at the same time, i think theres an enormous opportunity both to continue the energy of the resistance but also to start to craft the positive agenda and to show what progressive government can do for people on a local and state level. And so i think thats really the place to start to have some of those conversations now. I think one thing that we stress on the National Level is for advocacy, your leverage is often about responding to whats being put on the agenda and without the power to set the agenda you have the most leverage when youre responding to whats currently happening. But thats not true at the state and local level. You have the ability to push for something thats more meaningful and start to deliver for people and show what a progressive government really looks like. All right. On that note, were unfortunately out of time. Please give a huge round of applause to this remarkable panel. [ applause ]. Good job, guys. Is this your pen . It is now my distinct honor my distinct honor to introduce a man who represents the best of us, the best of america. Keezer khan is a man who has met inconceivable sacrifice with unwavering fidelity to our nations value. A gold star father, mr. Khan is america. He is you. He is me. He is all of us and more. Keezer khan inspires us to speak out against bigotry and hatred, to stand up for each other, to be a citizen in the full sense of the word and to hold our institutions a little bit closer to our chests. Ladies and gentlemen, mr. Keezer khan. [ applause ]. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Please be seated. Be seated. Ladies and gentlemen, i have to ask your forgiveness if my voice rises. Its intentional. It is deliberate. In an effort, maybe this voice will reach 1600 pennsylvania avenue, even now. [ applause ]. My offer to donald trump to read the constitution remains standing. Remains standing. One more time he has proven that he is unfamiliar with the basic tenants of our democracy, our values. I am grateful. Im grateful to this wonderful event, very timely event. Ill share with you my observation. This is my 112th event since the Democratic National convention. I have continued to speak to various communities. I will share what i have observed since election whe, wh our veterans stand, where our concerned communities stand, where those who voted for donald trump i have stood in front of them and i have spoken to them and i have heard from them. Ill share that blessed event where they shared their concerns and their regrets. But let me first share a concern. Thomas jefferson long ago wrote the greatest danger to american liberties, the greatest danger to american liberties is the government which ignores the constitution. You connect the dots. Within these 120 or so days we have seen violation after violation after violation of our basic tenants of our constitution, of our democracy. Democracy is nothing i stand in front of learned audience, all patriots concerned about the well being of this nation, well being of my nation, my country. But i must state this democracy is nothing but tyranny of majority. Its rule of law that makes sense in the system of democracy. And you have seen within these 120 or so days so many violation of rule of law. Our system of government, our system of government where we cherish separation of powers have been maligned time after time. I heard the word resistance. You will hear from my hero, my favorite governor of virginia shortly, but i must share with you and let me reintroduce myself to you. My name is khizr khan. I come from charlottesville, virginia. Charlottesville, virginia, was declared several months ago by our courageous mayor to be the capital of resistance of United States. [ applause ]. We saw he saw then and along with we saw then that there is only one solution to such violation of our democratic values, of our constitutional values, of our bill of rights, of our separation of power is resistance. I have traveled throughout the country. I have stood before our veterans. They have asked me this question, mr. Khan, we were promised we will be looked after. Mr. Khan, we have given all that we had to this country. We hear that not a single dollar was allocated to Legal Services corporation that served us. Where would we go . Where would we go to seek legal help . In the same audience, they identified themselves that we have voted for donald trump. We ask you, mr. Khan, can you tell us what to do . Two of the elderly persons stood up in that audience stretching their arm. Their dialysis tubes were still in their arm. Mr. Khan, prior to Affordable Care act, we used to eat less so we could pay the premium for our preexisting condition. Since Affordable Care act, our premiums were reasonable. We could afford to eat properly. We are concerned. Can you assure us can you show us, can you tell us what to do so that we will not face what we faced prior to Affordable Care act . My suggestion to them was one thing that i share with you and i share with the entire nation wherever i have gone is that in democracy when you find that your government is not serving your concerns, the only solution you have is resistance. Is stand up. Speak louder. Call your senators. Call your congressmen. Tell them that if you do not speak on our behalf, if you do not address our concerns, we will never vote for you. We will never stand with you. We will never contribute a penny. And you are watching. You are watching these town halls and the result of town Hall Meetings throughout the country. People are realizing the power of their voice, the power of resistance. It is there that we need to continue to harness the energy, the concerns, the devotion of this nation. I share with you something i recently traveled to europe at the invitation to participate in a debate. The result of French Elections is victory for hope and unity. Its a defeat for fear and division. Let me [ applause ]. Let me put it in the context. Last centuries first 50 years saw two world wars. Atrocities against mankind, division and the script was nationalism. Economic interest. Fear of immigrants. Those who divide us are so dumb they continue to carry that script. First world war, second world war, even today. But europe has realized it. The result of French Election is a testament that the world sees progress, prosperity in unity because they fully realize that last 50 years versus first 50 years, last 50 years saw European Union come together, nations come together. Last 50 years saw United Nation was built. Last 50 years saw nato was built to maintain peace. Of course there had been difficulties, but all together the world is realizing that in unity is prosperity, not in division. The division was it saw two world wars. So the world is realizing. And the reason i mention this why it is critical, why it is important for us to keep an eye outside of United States as well, we were hoping that after the election they would be some deliberate steps to unit us, but that hasnt happened. To bring the nation together, that hasnt happened. What has been taking place, further division is taking place. Minorities, other communities, different faiths are being maligned and subjected to hate and division. That is unamerican. That is against our interests. That is against our prosperity. That is against our bill of rights. The rest of the world aspires to have the blessings that we have, which are enshrined in our bill of rights in our constitution. Even today, even today regardless of all the difficulties that we are having within our country, rest of the world is still is interested in learning our institutions, learning about rule of law. I have stood before the audience of various countries. They have asked this question, can you tell us what this rule of law is . Our people wish to know. We had Television Crews from various parts of the world come to our home, asking that question. What is this bill of rights and this constitution that you waved at donald trump . Can you explain this to us . Can you show us what 14th amendment is, what equal protection is . My question to them was, are you asking this question to make your conversation, your interview interesting . Or you have been asked to ask this question . And unanimously, they all said, our audience want to know what is this separation of power, equal dignities, equal protection of law, that this person continues to talk about so passionately. I find myself so humbled that i was warned not to stand up, not to be so public about my passion. We were humble, modest, grateful citizens of this country, grateful citizens of virginia. When the bigoted, most bigoted statement was made by donald trump, i will ban all muslims, all hispanics will be thrown out, Women Deserve no equal dignity and respect, judges are partial, small children of our friends, whenever i would go to visit with them or when they would come to our home to visit, small children, elementary schoolchildren, middle schoolchildren, would come to me and ask this question, can you please tell us, can we be thrown out of here . But we were born here. Parents would say, they dont eat well, they dont do their homework with interest. When we ask them, they simply say, we are so afraid. But we are citizens. We are citizens of this country. These children were born. That was the impact of the bigoted statement about small children, when the tribute for captain khan, and we appeared. We talked for two days. The second day, when we said we would respond positively or negatively. There was an envelope in our mailbox. I was it was addressed to us. There were four signatures, four names. Of course parents had something to do with it, but four elementary schoolchildren wrote that small card to us. This is what it said. It said, mr. And mrs. Khan, can you please make sure that sofia is not thrown out of this country. We love her very much. She is our friend. Please make sure. I brought that small card to my wife and said to her, maybe this is the message. We must stand up for these children. We must speak on behalf of these concerned children. And we did. The rest you have seen, how we were maligned. But it has encouraged us, because we are grateful citizens. We have been bestowed all the dignities that the rest of the world aspires to have by becoming citizens of this country. We are so honored, this is the least we can do. We continue to speak for our values, we continue to speak for these dignities. I do not call them amendments to the constitution or the bill of rights. I call them human dignities. The rest of the world aspires to have those in their life. In this persons simple mind, the world is divided in two sections. One, authoritarian regimes. They dictate what ordinary citizens will have, will not have. On the other hand, we are the blessed group, blessed nations that have democracy where we choose who will govern us, what laws will be enacted. We do make mistakes, like last election, we have made a mi mistake. We will correct it. We are correcting it. Maybe this is an opportunity for all patriots to come together, all patriots to join hands. People ask me, what do you advise under the current circumstances . This is my humble suggestion to all of us. You have heard from our wonderful leaders. You will hear from my hero in a few minutes, the governor of virginia. I wish my attorney general of virginia was here as well. These two heroes, when the citizens of their state were under stress after trumps muslim ban, they went straight to the airport to stand in solidarity, stand in solidarity with the community. We love them. We appreciate them. In them we see the solution to this tyranny of majority, by standing firm, by standing tall, by standing with community. And this is my humble suggestion in conclusion, that under these circumstances, all of us, all of us patriots need to remain standing in unity, support one another, continue to speak, speak louder. If this humble, ordinary, barely educated person can continue to speak, i am sure i am standing in front of most learned people today. Continue to speak. Support those candidates. Support those Office Holders that fully understand your democracy, our democracy, our values. And make sure that during this, hopefully this is a brief, brief moment in the history. I assure you, if you remain standing, remain firm, remain united, support those by your voice, by your efforts, by your contributions. Those who stand for the values of this country, for the values that are enshrined in the bill of rights, in the constitution, your name and name of organization like this will be written in the history with golden letters. I am so humbled, i am so grateful for this opportunity to stand before you. Thank you very much. [ applause ] thank you very much. Please sit. Thank you. Please welcome to the stage jennifer palmieri. Thank you. I want to thank mr. Khan for coming. He is the living embodiment of what it means to be an american citizen. And i think he inspires each of us to be better stewards of our citizenship. Im very honored and privileged to be introducing Governor Terry mcauliffe. He is the living embodiment of optimism. Can we all agree . Absolutely. And for him, that optimistic spirit is at the heart of what it means to be a progressive. He has been in the fight for a long time. And hes had a lot of different positions. And i was privileged to work for him when he was the chair of our party. And i have seen that with each job he approaches it, the same formula. First he listens to the people hes going to serve. He sets very bold goals. He puts a good team together. And then he works his heart out every single day to deliver. It is a formula that has brought him success with each endeavor that he has undertaken and all the positions hes undertaken as a progressive. As governor of virginia, you know, particularly these last few months have been tough months, but he always had a lot of progressive values at stake. He was a brick wall for progressives, between legislation that would have defunded planned parenthood, discriminated against lgbt americans, and as we saw in florida and North Carolina, how important it was to have him to stop those voting bills from coming into law. And he has been a fighter for Medicaid Expansion in virginia, a committed and brave fighter since the day he was elected. In 2013 he campaigned on jobs, jobs, jobs. And he has delivered. Since the start of his administration, jobs in virginia have increased by nearly 200,000. The Unemployment Rate is at the lowest in nine years. Its dropped from 5. 4 to 3. 8 , is that right, governor . Good. And then just today, he signed an executive order, the first state in our country to do so, taking on, in response to trumps repeal of the power plant rule, so he has taken action just today to restore protections around Climate Change in the state of virginia. [ applause ] im quite certain he has never had a bad day. Im quite certain it is impossible to be in a bad mood when you are around him, which is among the reasons im very glad hes here today. And its my privilege to introduce Governor Terry mcauliffe. [ applause ] thank you. Good afternoon, everybody. I want to thank jen palmieri for her great introduction, her great friendship for 20, 25 years. I want to thank mr. Khan, mrs. Khan, as the father of a child in the marine corps, i think i speak for every parent who has a child who has put on a military uniform. For you, sir, who paid the ultimate price, our heart goes out to you. Our thoughts and prayers are with the khan family veteran. For every man and woman, for every veteran, we say thank you for the Great Service you have done to our country. Im not going to do a commercial on the great things weve done in office. I want to leave you with something very important. Im going to ask you to do something. We are the greatest party in the greatest nation on earth. But we do have some challenges. Im here to talk to you about something very important, that i think has destroyed democracy in our nation, and thats jer gerrymandered redistricting. I think we all understand our values are under siege. We have a president , a Congress Today that are trying to roll back the things that we think are most important to us. That means, folks, each and every day we need to fight. But it isnt just about fighting. Its delivering with results. And thats what we as democrats have to do, as we go forward. We have to fight threats to the constitution and maintain americas principles of why we are the great Democratic Party of the United States of america. And to build a nation that is more open and more welcoming to everyone. Thats what i have tried to do in virginia. I have just vetoed my 120th piece of legislation in the commonwealth of virginia. I am proud that i have more vetoes that any governor in the history of the commonwealth of virginia and proud that i am 120 and zero. Even though the republicans control 66 out of a hundred seats in my house of delegates. If they get 67, they override me. Im proud of our democrats, in four years i have never been overridden once, because we have stood up. I told women i would be a brick wall to protect their rights. [ applause ] i told members of the Lgbt Community that well stand tall. I am proud i am the First Southern governor to actually perform a gay marriage, and the sky didnt fall in. We have led on the issues. And im proud that i have restored more civil rights to disenfranchised felons than any governor in the history of the United States of america. [ applause ] as you know, i was sued twice by the republicans. I was trying to give people a Second Chance at life. They took me to court. I lost the first one, i had a legal precedent, i had the authority to do it. They said, were not going to let this governor do it because no governor has done it before. Thats not a legal principle. I said, line them up, 166,000 i will sign individually. They sued me for contempt of court. First Virginia Governor to be sued for contempt of court. I was honored. And we won before the Supreme Court. Last week, the most restoration of any governor in our nations history. Thats what it means to be a democrat. Thats what it means to be a progressive. That message is an important one for all of us. I thank you for being here. I thank you for your ideas. You make all of us in elected office, you make us stronger by the great ideas that you have all given us. Youve had a lot of discussion today. But what we need to talk about is how we go further, how we take it to the next step. I think the biggest threat facing our nation, as i mentioned, was partisan redistricting. What has happened in America Today is people dont vote for the right reasons. They vote because theyre afraid of a tea party primary. And that has happened all over the country. We as a party are in a very tough shape tonight. There are 35 states in America Today where the republicans control the governor and both chambers. So let me remind you, in 2020, we will have a new census done for this country. And in 2021, they will redraw every single state legislative chamber in america and the congressional map. If we dont win a majority of these governors raises, the 38 between now and whats coming up in 2018, we are going to be in a very difficult position. Because you can have the greatest ideas in the world, but if you cant win elections and get into office to implement what you want to do, then the ideas are worthless. Thats why we have to be tactically smart on the ground. We have to go forward on the issues of redistricting. Weve got to win a lot of these governors raises coming up. Thats the most important thing i can tell you well do, folks. We need your help. Were making progress. In virginia, we sued and actually won on our congressional map. The courts are beginning to help us on these gerrymandered districts that are racially drawn. We now have a new member of congress in virginia. Don mckeetcen, because we sued and won because of the map. Well be able to do this in every state in america. We need to play tough. Thats been doing this for ten years, folks. For too long in our party, we raise billions of dollars in a president ial year and then in the off year we go away. Weve got to win at the state and local level, because theyre passing all this legislation at the local level. Theyre disenfranchising voters. I just vetoed a bill that in order to get an amnesty in virginia, you have to fax in a drivers license. Number one, a lot of folks dont have drivers licenses. And who has a fax machine anymore . Are you kidding me . This is a deliberate attempt going on around the country. Thats what happens when you control at the local level. We spent a lot of time looking at the federal level. We need to look at the local level and do what we need to do. In virginia we won three straight president ial elections. We hold all five statewide offices. But guess what . The republicans control seven of our 11 congressional seats and 66 out of a Hundred House of delegates seats. It makes no sense. Its not just virginia. Look at three swing states. Pennsylvania, ohio, and North Carolina. All of these are 50 50 states in the president ial election. But guess what . In their congressional delegations, it is 72, 75, and 77 . Thats what theyre doing on the ground. These are four 50 50 states. But their congressional delegates give republicans a 4216 majority. Think of that. And think of the legislation theyre pushing at the local level. Thats a 26seat advantage for these four states alone. Do you know how many the democrats need to get control of the house . 24. Four states, theres 26. You get my point. Now, this is an alarm that we all need to be fighting. Its important for us going forward. But there is common sense broad support of what we need to do. I want to thank the center for American Progress for all the tremendous work that weve done. Its important that we get out, that we march, that we resist, that we continue to come up with great ideas. More importantly, weve got to be smart on the ground. You need to go back to your states and ask, what are you doing about the map . What are you doing about redistri redistricting . Is it a fair map . If it isnt a fair map, what are you doing to change it . Do what we did in virginia. Weve sued on the congressional and sued on the house of delegate map. And the United States Supreme Court by a 71 ruling the other day sent that map back to virginia. We are making tremendous progress. [ applause ] if we can do this in virginia, folks, we can do it everywhere. So im giving you a call to action as you leave here today. I didnt want to take up my time talking about me. I want to talk about you. And i want to talk about all those folks around this country who are counting on the democrats to stand up, to fight, and to fight smartly. The one thing i havent been successful with, and ive tried very hard, ive tried to expand medicaid in virginia. Ive killed myself trying to do it. Its not about me. Its about those 400,000 Virgin Virgin virginians today who do not have health care, who are dying because my republican legislators wont vote for it because its, quote, obamacare. In the dark of the night theyll come up to me and whisper, you know, governor, i understand it makes sense and its important for my rural community, but if i vote for it, ill lose my tea party primary. And yet, theyve got a platinum plan. It breaks your heart. People say, why are you so passionate . Come with me to rural parts of virginia where women are grabbing my arm saying, governor, im going to dead in a year if you dont help me get this. I try to explain, talk to your legislator. But its those gerrymandered districts that dont allow us to make progress in this country. 400,000. I have forfeited 10. 4 billion, legislation. And to see these people, it just breaks your heart to know weve prayed for them to get health care but the legislators wont do it because they will lose a tea party primary. Weve got to get back to 50 50. Were leading a nationwide effort. President obama, eric holder, nancy permanelosi and myself ha been traveling the country, raising money, and beginning to bring lawsuits. Folks, if we do not win a majority of these upcoming governors raisces, theyll draa map and well give up more seats. The only person that can stop those maps is a democratic governor. Im proud to say were making tremendous progress in this regard. If you leave this conference with anything, i want to leave you with one important point. We as democrats have to get in the game. For years weve advocated our responsibility at the state and local level. Weve allowed them to take over states. North carolina was a progressive state. They turned it into a tea party state. They did this to state after state. This rolled back Voting Rights so when the president ial election comes, theyve knocked people off the rolls. Theyre hurting them on health car care. It is time for the democrats to get in the game. Thank you very much. [ cheers and applause ] please welcome to the stage representative keith ellison, jason kander, and ari berman. Okay. We are going to begin. Can everybody hear me . Hello . Yes . All right. Great. I am ari berman. Im a Senior Writer for the nation and the author of the book give us the ballot. I am thrilled to moderate this discussion on Voting Rights and civil rights with two of the smartest and two of the coolesc, more importantly, figures in the Democratic Party. To my right, for once, is keith ellison, the vice chair vice chair or deputy chair . Deputy chair of the dnc and sixterm member of congress in minnesotas fifth Congressional District. To my left, for the first time, jason kander who was secretary of state from missouri from 2013 to 2017 and is now president of latin america vote. [ applause ] lets get right into it. Im going to start with you, congressman ellison. So the 2016 election was the first president ial election in 50 years without the full protections of the Voting Rights act. We just got some new data this week from the Pew Research Center that found that africanamerican voter turnout declined by 7 from 2012 to 2016. The hispanic vote did not increase as many people expected that it might have. There was no magical increase among white voters. It was that black and latino voters either did not turn out or they were not able to turn out. Can you talk about what happened . How much of this dropoff in turnout was a lack of entheusiam and how much was Voter Suppression . In wisconsin, voter i. D. Has led to 200,000 people not being able to vote, and the election was lost by 22,000 votes. So this is substantial, its harmful. In minnesota in 2012, they tried to pass photo i. D. In our state and they defeated it at the ballot box. They werent pushing it because there were confirmed cases of imposter voting going on. There are virtually no cases of imposter voting going on throughout the country. To claim voter fraud is a fraud in and of itself. [ applause ] the reality is we have got to understand that they have decided that if they cannot win on the basis of ideas, theyre just going to stop people from being able to participate. And i think that Voter Suppression kind of feeds on itself, right . If you suppress some people from voting, theyre not voting. People get discouraged. They say, i dont have an i. D. , you know, do you have one, i dont know. The next thing you know, you can get an effect that goes beyond even the population thats been suppressed. Its not just photo i. D. Its also purging voter rolls. Its felon disenfranchisement. Im not going to say we couldnt have campaigned better. I happen to believe that we must and we can. And so we are engaging in a very intense effort to lift up you know, door knocks, phone banks, meetings. We need to engage, particularly this summer, weve got to get together with our neighbors. There is no doubt, and we have responsibility, but we have to understand we have got to sue and we ought to raise money to sue because of the suppression that is so rampant throughout the country. How do you think we can get turnout up in 2018 and 2020 so history doesnt repeat itself . Start now. Theres no way. If you want to see big turnout in 2018, you absolutely must seize the summer of 2017. Thats right now. That means knocking on doors. That means engaging communities. That means engaging in long form conversations. Im not talking about go by and ask people who theyre voting for and keep walking. Im talking about, what issues do you care about, what is important. Then using a multifaceted approach. Of course i think door to door is the best way. But phone calls and meetings are important. Showing up at rallies is important. Concerts is important. Anything you can do to engage people around the most pressing issuing of our time. And of course if you do it, youre pushing on an open door. Weve had the womens march, the science march, the tax march. People are ready to go. We have just got to offer them an electoral form of expression. Weve got to convert the energy into the ballot box. We do that, things are going to be very different. We will make sure Terry Mcauliffe can get medicaid to Virgin Virginians and all over this country. Jason, two days after President Trump fired jim comey, he announced a commission for electoral inte electoral integrity. When you have to change the subject from a scandal, youre not doing well. The vice chair is kris kobach, your friend from kansas. Can you talk about the threat this commission poses to Voting Rights as part of the larger backdrop of republicans limiting the right to vote . So what this represents is a continuation of the strategy of taking the republican playbook over the last 15 or so years and making Voter Suppression a fundamental strategic part of it. Its important to remember, this is not a policy disagreement. This is a strategic decision by the Republican Party politically, just like which doors youre going to knock on. Theyve made a strategic decision to stop folks from not voting republican by not letting them vote. It will be run with the power of the presidency. Its an enormous step. The first element in their playbook is convince americans there is widespread fraud when theres not. The sitting president is working hard actively to undermine faith in american democracy. One of the things you found was this year or last year . Three months ago. You told me you felt like progressives were engaging in the war of ideas when it comes to Voting Rights. Talk to me about whats missing and what youre trying to do now. When President Trump told the big lie about voting, 3 to 5 million illegal voters in the election, a lot of people understandably, i think this is accurate as well, saw a deeply insecure human being who was competen compensating for his marginal defeat in the popular vote by coming up with this line. Thats also correct, i believe. But what i saw was somebody who was chief election official in missouri for four years, ive seen this play book play out. I saw the first step. Convince people, get it out in the ether that there is this huge problem, and then you move on to the next step. But you combine that with the fact that now Jeff Sessions is now in charge at doj and is literally, you know, moving from one counsel table to the other, switching sides in the court cases. And President Trump supporting the judges. The strategy up to now has been to challenge these in court, right . Which getting to your question, what we saw was a real urgency to have this fight expand beyond the court of law and also into the court of public opinion. The court of law remains very important. So what i mean when i say we havent engaged in it is, its very difficult to win an argument that youre not waging. The approach for those who support Voting Rights has been, well, if this passes and becomes law, well but in in court. That may not work in every situation now. So we have to engage politically. We have to get out there and say, no, this is unamerican, its wrong to do, and by the way, it costs a lot of money and it has all sorts of unintended consequences. We have to go out to the people and make our argument. So the president ial commission on Election Integrity is going to give a report to President Trump. And i fully expect theyre going to call for things like more voter i. D. Laws, like more proof of citizenship laws for Voter Registration. They might call for this on a National Level. Lets say kris kobach recommends to donald trump there should be National Voter i. D. , there should be National Proof of citizenship which has to go through the congress. What will and what should the congressional response be . Understand that we can defeat this stuff if they try to move a piece of legislation. As i mentioned before, we did defeat it in minnesota. But when they first introduced the bill to do it, it was in march of 2012. And it was polling at like 80 . And so everybody thought, oh, my goodness, were not going to win this. Great friends, solid democrats, real progressives, said we cant put money into a campaign, we can just hope to beat it in court. But some of us said, no, were going to fight this, without regard to the odds, because its wrong. Over time we whittled it down, we inched it down. We even got a moderate republican governor on our side. We of course had mark dayton on our side. And we ended up defeating it at the polls. If this happens, get ready to talk to your neighbors. This is an opportunity to talk to people about how photo i. D. Does not does exclude seniors, often veterans and soldiers who were in service. It certainly excludes lowincome people, people of color. But there were people, there was a group of nuns in indiana who after their photo i. D. Went to go vote, these are nuns, 90yearold nuns, and the people knew them at the voting polls, and they said, well, sister mary margaret, you know, where is your i. D. If you want to vote . Shes like, dear, you know me, i dont have an i. D. , i live in the convent. If you dont have an i. D. , you cant vote. And they were excluded. There were people in North Carolina, a woman who had been segregated and couldnt vote because she was black, and did everything to vote, she was pushed out. There was a world war ii veteran in ohio pushed out that you probably know these cases, ari. But i would say another thing. In connection with this, that this was the secretary of state. If there is one bloodbath that we have been suffering in elections, it is secretaries of state. We have got to refocus our attention on the office of secretaries of state around the country. I think, jason, were down to about seven, is that right . I mean, were like seven, seven. Like its this many, right . Secretaries of state are the chief elections officers in the state. Democratic secretaries of state dont actually try to favor a party, they just try to make sure its a fair election. Republican secretaries of state, catherine harris, blackwell in ohio, absolutely turn the tables for their side. Weve got to get people who are willing to run and treat them like what they are, which is very serious, critically important elections. Secretaries of state, everybody. One more question on Voting Rights. [ applause ] one thing thats been missed is that so far this year, there have been 87 bills to restrict access to the ballot introduced in 29 states. And this seems to be getting lost, whats happening at the state level in the era of trump where everything is, for obvious reasons, focused on the president. How can we bring more attention to all of these statelevel fights that will go along with determining what happens in 2018 and 2020 . Go to voteamerica. Org. Our whole thesis here is that its really important to create political consequences for folks who do this. If you are, say, a republican state legislator, and you name the state, and you have a difficult vote coming up, and its an on a labor issue or its on a choice issue, you know there could be a political consequence for you depending on how you choose to vote for that. If its a vote coming up on whether or not to make it harder for people in your state to vote, to gain partisan advantage for your party, before we started doing what we were doing, there was no possible political consequence. Thats at the heart of what were doing. Ill tell you a little bit about what were doing. For instance, and its not just state legislatures, its anybody who is at the crux of that part of the process. So for instance, i recently went down to campaign with john osoff in georgia. Theres two things going on in that race. The first, its on the legal challenge side, they just won a challenge, the secretary of state there was saying if you had registered to vote after the primary, they werent going to count that registration, which is like pretty blatantly obvious, right . If you register to vote right now, they dont want you to vote, thats what theyre doing. The other thing they were doing was, theyre consolidating the polling places and closing down early voting locations. So prior to the primary, the local elections authorities had a lot fewer early voting locations than they had back in november. That happened to, as usually happens, correspond directly with where there was going to be possibly high democratic turnout. We went in and ran radio ads, mobilized people, called the local Election Authority. The local Election Authority caved, opened up an additional voting location that ended up being one of the most highly attended locations in the district. [ applause ] think about how many people around the country have sent a contribution or talked to their friends or sometimes even come down and knocked on doors. All we did was put a spreadsheet together of where were the polling locations before and where are they now. And it makes a huge difference on election day. Thats the kind of strategy the other side employs. Governor mcauliffe talked about a bill to make sure his veto was sustained in virginia. In New Hampshire, these are the ones that were actively involved with folks on the ground, in New Hampshire, theres colleges, theres College Students there. Republicans took control of the house, the senate, and the Governors Mansion there. Their election is every two years. They decided they have a short window in which to change the electorate so they might be able to win more elections. They have a bill theyre trying to advance that says, if you registe register to vote, theyll send somebody by to question you about whether you intend to be in New Hampshire long term. You can imagine, they openly said they dont like that so many College Students getting registered. You can imagine, theres probably a lot of College Students, the prospect of somebody from the government coming by their dorm room may not be of interest to them, right . Its aimed directly at them. Its voter intimidation. In that case, we havent picked out, for instance, the sponsor of the bill, the sponsors of bills like this usually come from pretty safe spots. So we take a look at folks who maybe won by 100, 1 150 votes a have been inclined to vote for it so far. Were mobilizing folks in their districts. We have 50,000 people signed up nationwide to volunteer for this, weve been around for three months. So theres a lot of ways you can help us. Thats awesome. Jeff sessions. Ecchh. Such language. Why is he still attorney general . Hes attorney general because we lost an election. I mean, elections have consequences. Weve really got to internalize that. You asked what should we done if this commission has certain findings. I think we should anticipate that theyre going to say they want to push photo i. D. We need to begin discrediting this commission right now. Its very important that we let the American People know [ applause ] this is a setup, its a fraud, its a lie, its a commission to address a problem that does not exist. And we should go after it. The other thing we have got to do is, we do have to be very proactive. Why not have 50 bills introduced by progressives saying if youre out of prison, you can vote . I mean, we need to be on the front of this. Why not say that we need to have if you want to vote, voting should be a holiday. And anybody who does have to work that day has guaranteed right to take time off to vote. Weve got to make it easier to vote. Voter registration is a silly idea. Its basically you dont have in minnesota weve had same day Voter Registration since the 90s. We have very good elections, we have actually very high voter turnout, highest in the nation. If you look at the states that have same day Voter Registration, they all have very high voter turnout. If you look at the ones that have long registration periods, they have low turnout. And i will also say that, you know, we need to look at every we need to look at every Congressional District, every senate district, every statehouse district, and say to ourselves, if we commit to increasing voter turnout every term by 5 , we will find ourselves in four years with more than 10 , because of compounding. But weve got to do it. Weve got to start now. Weve got to engage directly. And weve got to be intense about it. Weve got to remind people to vote. Weve got to use social pressure to vote. By the way, dont tell people to vote, tell people to be a voter. It actually makes a difference. A noun versus a verb. Ask them to take on an identity as a voter. So i mean, weve got to be on offense against Jeff Sessions. Oh, and by the way, this little war on drugs thing he wants to bring back. I was going to say. Sorry. No, talk about it. He was to bring this discredited idea of harsh sentencing back. Its shocking to me. We had a bipartisan consensus a few years ago to lower the crack powder disparity from 1001 to 181. It should be 11. The way we incarcerate people around drug offences is ridiculous, in my opinion. But understand this. The more convictions and the longer time will also suppress voter turnout, because youll have, one, missing people who are locked up, and youll probably have a more aggressive enforcement which of course will exclude people with prior felony convictions. For those reasons and many more, he needs to be opposed. Hes already violated his promise to not be engaged in the whole trump thing, i mean the whole russia thing, twice now. So weve got to call him out as a mendacious thats lying secretary of state i mean, attorney general. And weve got to get aggressive at going after him as well. Two quick things before we open it up for questions. First, the ninth circuit heard arguments this week about the new muslim ban 2. 0. Whats going to be the eventually outcome of that, do you think . I understand they released theyre trying to get some documents released from guiliani. Those documents i am quite certain are going to be very clear. And evidence thats already out there. Its clear that this is a muslim ban. Its based on peoples religion. Congress shall make no law establishing a religion. And this applies to the executive branch and the states. You cant have a religiouslybased exclusion. And he said from the very beginning we want a complete ban. Then he wanted to make everybody register. Then he said islam hates america. Its very clear. You might think not every muslim is being banned, keith. Sure. But every country that is banned is banned because it is a muslim majority country. And so all i say to my fellow americans is, if they can ban my religion, they can ban yours. And this is something weve got to come together around. And i can tell you that we have had other religiousbased exclusions in the past. All have gone very badly. And so weve got to stick up and stand up for each other at this moment. [ applause ] i want to add something on this, because i know were talking about civil rights. There are also practical negative effects to rolling back civil rights. In this case, this makes america less safe. I mean, as somebody who served as an Intelligence Officer overseas, i think about what happened in the last couple of days combined with this. If youre doing intelligence work or serving the country overseas, now in the last couple of days the president has made it much harder for you to get people to cooperate and believe that you will protect them confidentially. On top of that, when you are is the president constantly saying, whether its on the campaign trail and now in court, and we all know what it really is, it really is a muslim ban. So on one side hes playing a part in an isis recruiting video and on the other side hes weakening our ability to actually take them on. This is all extremely important from the standpoint of violating peoples civil rights. But we also need to make sure that we are pointing out to folks that if that is not something that youre worried about, some voters maybe arent as concerned about that, you should be worried about the fact that this makes you a lot more likely to get killed by the enemy. Thats the functional result of what the parking lot is doing. One last quick thing. The director of the census just resigned. The census literally determines who and how people are counted. I hate to say this but its another fouralarm fire. Thats why we need to recruit more people to this movement. Theres a lot of work to do. Messing with the census is the precursor to Voter Suppression that they clearly have plans for. We need to understand if there are 100 People Living in this neighborhood and yet the trump census says theres only 50, there is going to be a substantial lesser amount of resources flowing in that community. And it will harm that community. So this is a very serious thing. We need a body of people who will stand up and fight for and stand up for the census. If you are looking for some activity to engage in, we need some census advocates around here. Okay. I think we have time for maybe one or two questions. One question. I dont know, do i okay. Theres a mike coming through. Hi. Im from new york. We had a mayor and a governor speak to us this morning, and both talked about the importance of getting things done. They didnt have time for gridlock. And at least by innuendo if not overtly referred to what goes on on capitol hill as a lot of gridlock and positioning and nothing getting done. What would you say to that, about the you know, the governor from North Carolina spoke about not getting exactly what he wanted done on lgbtq but at least making a start and getting somewhere with it. Mayor garcetti spoke about infrastructure bills and all the things he does, and he gets things done but nothings happening on capitol hill. My response to that is to say, it would be very easy for us to get things done, but you may not want them things done. A few years ago, remember the government shut down, 16day shutdown . Ted cruz told us something very simple. If you help us repeal obamacare, well reopen the government. And i dont think most americans wanted us to do that. I am telling you now, i have good friends and get along just fine with lots of republicans. It is not a problem of temperament. It is a problem of core belief and values. They think that rich people dont have enough money and poor people have too much money. Thats why theyre always trying to cut taxes and regulation on the rich and trying to cut meals on wheels and trio and Everything Else for the rest of us. They believe that. And theyre aggressive about it. For us to get along with them, we have to capitulate to their demands. And im telling you, its not all bad that theres gridlock right now. There maybe another period of time in American History where it is bad. But im telling you, for the last four or five years, since 2010 already if we didnt fight back, this country would be poorer for it. And, you know, were at the point now where last year, we have to do a doggone sitin on the house floor just to try to draw attention to gun violence and we still cant get them to do anything, and theyre the majority. And so i guess what i want to say is, i can understand a state legislator and a governor and a mayor being frustrated about what happens or doesnt happen here. But given that they want to repeal dodd frank, they want to cut dodd frank. For folks who want to get something done, i dont think you want me to gut dodd frank. Understand that this is not simply bad kids playing in the sandb sandbox. This is a group that is trying to change the fundamental culture of American Society, diminish the role of government trag dramatically, who believe you ought to be able to retire, you ought to be able to earn a decent living, health care should be a right, and everybody should be treated fairly. Thats what i say to that. I think thats the last word. Sorry for going so long. Thanks to this great panel. Thank you to congressman ellison. [ applause ] please welcome to the stage senator maxine waters. Representative maxine waters. [ applause ] hello, everybody. Im delighted that ive been asked to participate here this afternoon with the center for American Progress. I want to talk a little bit about Public Policy and a bit about how Public Policy, good Public Policy, is advanced or how it is undermined by the president of the United States of america. Im the Ranking Member of the Financial Services committee. And i have been focused on the implementation of dodd frank reforms. We spent almost 20 hours push back on something called the choice act. The choice act is legislation that was introduced by chairman hensarling to basically deregulate. Deregulate the big banks, to do deregulation in ways that would undo the Consumer Financial protection bureau, deregulation is all about consumer production and reigning in wall street and reigning in the banks that put us into the position we found ourselves in in 2008 when we actually had a recession, almost a depression. And so during this period of time, wall street and the banks literally had put on the market and produced these exotic products. Exotic products meaning no interest loans, loans that reset in six months. All kinds of loans that people signed on the dotted line for that they couldnt afford. So as a result of that, we literally, because of these predatory loans, we literally ended up with foreclosures all over this nation and particularly in many of the minority communities that had been targeted with these exotic products. And so dodd frank reform was all about reigning in these Financial Institutions and getting a handle on what was going on so we could prevent ever having to bail out these big banks and Financial Institutions again. During this period of time, we had millions of jobs that were lost. We had 13 trillion that was lost in wealth, and on and on and on. It was really a very bad period of time. And so dodd frank is a complicated piece of legislation, but a very profound piece of legislation, to deal with this economic crisis that we were confronted with. The republicans have been pushing back, and they have gone at the centerpiece of the financial reforms by dodd frank, and that is the Consumer Financial protection bureau. We were very lucky, despite the fact that the republicans didnt want it, we got mr. Cordray, who has done an excellent job in managing this Consumer Financial protection bureau, and compensated many of the constituents in all of our communities for those loans and all the kinds of things they had been ripped off. Were talking about payday loans, were talking about student loans, were talking about the automobile industry. Were talking about the fact that communities are targeted, and were targeted, by many of these industries, basically to rip them off and to see how they could get tremendous profits from people who were unsuspecting, for people who were uneducated in many instances, for people who did not know how to fight back. So weve been working so hard, and along comes, you know, mr. Hensarling and the republicans and doing everything that they can now that trump is in charge, and now that we have a new administration, to move with what is known and is talked about as deregulation. But all that is, is undoing protections for consumers. Thats really what its all about. And so were working very hard. But we know that the republicans are in charge, and that theyre going to be able to, as they have been, to get this bill out of the Financial Services committee. It will go to the floor. The republicans have the numbers. Were depending on the senate to be able to push back. We dont know how well theyre going to do, because wall street basically has a lot of power and influence in the congress of the United States of america. Theyve had it historically. They dont want to give it up. Many members of congress, both on the democratic side and the republican side have resisted really getting in there and learning exactly how its done. They say, well, we dont understand derivatives, we dont understand default swaps, we dont know what that stuff is all about. That stuff is all about how these major Financial Services industries are able to make tremendous profits in so many different ways. So while we are pushing back and fighting, democrats must be focused, along with all of the other stuff that were doing, on what we can do to undo the power and the influence of the biggest banks in america, the consolidation has us at the mercy of what, about five of the biggest banks in america. We cannot afford to have them continue as theyre doing, going back to the predatory lending that they did that led us into the crisis in 2008. But really, the leadership starts at the top. And this president has already done in his executive orders a direction to say, i want to review all of this dodd frank business. I want to know what it is hes done athats hurting our industries that are out there providing loans, et cetera. So hes moving in a direction for deregulation in a massive way by way of the choice act. We call it the bad choice act. But it is moving, and its going to be on the house floor. Were going to lose the vote. Its going to go to the senate. We dont know really whats going to happen. We have to make sure that our legislators over there, and i want to tell you, Elizabeth Warren and Sherrod Brown and some of them are on it, but theyre going to need the help of other democrats and certainly we would hope some republicans would step up to the plate and get involved in this. But this president. This president is one that i have focused on in ways that some people say, oh, my god, she said the word impeachment. Oh, my goodness, its too soon to say that. They say that we cant focus on it because we have members who are in districts that he won, and they cant afford to talk about impeachment. They may be endangered in their election. And it goes on and on and on. But theres no way we can move with an agenda to deal with the middle class constituency of this country and poor people and just the citizens of this country who deserve to have good Public Policy, with him at the helm. He does not believe in it. Hes hired hired, thats a good way of saying it hes appointed, he supported all of these appointees who are focused on his agenda. Just think about it. Mnuchin. Hes your treasury secretary. He is known as the foreclosure king. He foreclosed on 36,000 homes in southern california. So these billionaires, whether were talking about mnuchin, or dont get me started on betsy devos, dont get me started on oh, sessions. These billionaires who are now a part of his cabinet are opposed to everything that we stand for. And so were not going to be able to move an agenda. Some people say, cant you try and work with him . No, we cannot. Hes a liar. He cannot trusted. He will say one thing today and another thing tomorrow. How do you sit down with somebody who would mimic and mock a disabled journalist . How do you sit down and talk with somebody who talks about grabbing women by their private parts . How do you sit with somebody who will fire anybody who gets in the way of an investigation that is leading to us understanding whether or not there was collusion between his campaign, his allies and the kremlin and putin . I decided a long time ago when i looked at his allies and those people who are around him and their connections to the kremlin and to theole garks of russia and to oil and to wanting to lift the sanctions so that putin can drill in the arctic, when i looked at that i knew right away that this is bad business and that these allies are all aligned and they have been working on this for some time. I believe that not only was members of his Campaign Like flynn and carter page and others who have relationships with the kremlin and with putin et cetera. They didnt just start this. They have been working on this for sometime. Even though i cant get into it into depth it is all about in the final analysis lifting those sanctions. Thats why people dont ask why did putin want to have trump so badly . Its not about Public Policy. Its about oil. Its about drilling and lifting those sanctions. Ti tillerson is in on it also. Coming from exxon who lobbied for lifting the sanctions, who negotiated lifting those sanctions with putin and negotiated the multibilliondollar deal for drilling in oil. It is all about the money. Follow the money. Follow the oil. Im convinced that if we had had the kind of investigations that we should have had by now we would have connected those dots. We would know exactly what was done. I must tell you even though we have those who say we are finally moving, we are not moving. We are too slow. And i want you to know that our Intelligence Committee in the house even though our democrats are good and they want to do well, they dont have the cooperation of those republicans in ways that will get a credible investigation done, in my opinion. And the same thing with the senate. I had much hope that the that the senate would do better. I was depending on john mccain and Lindsey Graham to get him back for what he did to them when they were running, that they would step up to the plate. Now i am a little bit disappointed. They dont have the personnel, etru. We have been calling for and people have been asking for an independent commission. We are talking about independent counsel. I want you to know if it was not for the media we wouldnt be as far as we are now in understanding what has been going on. [ applause ] the congress of the United States has not done their job. We have not been the balance, the check and the balance on the president ial on the executive. And so everybody who is supposed to be investigating, supposed to be looking you keep on doing it. We are going to keep calling for independent council. But media, thank you. Dig in there, keep doing what you are doing. Keep unfolding and making it very apparent to all of the american citizens that something is tragically wrong with the president of the United States of america and his allies. [ cheers and applause ] we woke up this morning to the fact that your president had the audacity to meet with the ambassador and the Foreign Relations guy from russia, exclude the american media. Somehow the Russian Media got in. And he gave up classified information. Well, you know while i have been waiting to connect to the collusion because i think there was collusion, just to think about the way that he gave up this classified information and the way that he has tried to obstruct the investigations by firing folks. You cant find any better person than sally yates. Give her a big round of applause. And of course while i thought that comey should have been fired when he first got in if he was concerned about him. Matter of fact he praised him all over the country. It was only when he asked for Additional Resources to be able to do a credible investigation that he got fired. So here you have the president of the United States, ladies and gentlemen, this is not normal. Its something very wrong with this picture. And i dont know when americans are going to get so outraged that they will say toall of the elected officials, republican and democrats and everybody, you have to do what you know you should be doing. You have to identify and lay out for the American Public everything that he has done, these firings, these obstruction of justice, et cetera and then the final analysis you have to impeach him, maxeen waters was right. And so i know that there are those who are talking about we are going to get ready for the next election. No, we cant wait that long. We dont need to wait that long. He will have destroyed this country by then. We cannot wake up every morning to another crisis, to another scandal. We cannot have the uncertainty. We cannot have people rolling out who have been with the cia and with the Justice Department and who have been inputal cabinets saying something is wrong and they are saying it every day. I am told that there is a credible poll out today that says that 48 of the American Public is now saying he should be impeached. What more do we need in the congress of the United States of america . Let me just say this that i have the fortunate of truly believing in the constitution of the United States of america. [ applause ] i can recall in grade school basically about junior high when we learned about the three branches of government and their responsibilities. I was excited about all of that, about the way a democracy works and i believe it and i believe in it very strongly. I know that there are those on the opposite side of the aisle in the right wing in particular who think that if you are progressing, if you are a liberal you are not patriotic. You dont get anymore patriotic than me. I believe in this democracy. I believe in the constitution. I am going to challenge them. All of you who think you are more patriotic than anybody else are you going to stand up for america when we show you, when we connect those dots and we can prove that there was collusion and that he has interfered with justice and interfered by way of firing all of those who have come close to identifying what happened in this campaign . I am going to be able to say to those who think they are more patriotic than anybody else you not patriotic. If you are going to stand for our democracy to be undermined, if you dont feel upset about our election systems being interfered with you are not patriotic at all. So we are going to challenge them and see if they are willing to stand up. I think every day we get closer to it. I want all of my colleagues to say this over and over again and to challenge over and over again. We dont have to be afraid to use the word impeachment. We dont have to think that impeachment is out of our reach. All we have to do is make sure that we are talking to the American Public and keeping them involved and resisting every day and challenging every day and we are calling this president to account for what he is doing and saying. I believe in this strongly. So i dont know what is going to happen after today when all questions are being raised about him sharing this classified information but i think this is going to put us a little bit further on our way to what i have been calling for so long and that is impeachment. Thank you. [ cheers and applause ] we always save the best for last. Thank you maxine. It is my great honor to close the ideas conference of 2017. How has it been going . I want to thank everyone who has been tweeting on cap ideas. We have one final speaker who im really excited to introduce. Butd i wanted to say one word about the incredible cap staff who has worked so hard to make this day work. Our teams, event staff i have to call out three people who have been dealing with this conference for months and also deal wg me. So it is my great, great honor to close the ideas conference with senator cory booker who i have known 15, 20 years since law school. Sadly, he is behind me in law school. He is i have to say even in his days in law school he was always animated about serving others. That simple principle of taking your talents and serving other people. And he has done that in every role he has been in. Obviously, as mayor of newark we heard of his legendary efforts of public service. Hell find your dog, save your family from a fire, personally shovel your snow, perhaps not in that order. But obviously worked on revitalizing communities, insuring the real opportunity for all the people in his community in fighting for economic and social justice. So i can really think of no better person to close out the 2017 ideas conference than my friend senator cory booker. Hello everybody. So this is the problem when you have someone who knows you so well. She is like literally i have a scuffle in the back because here is her hand held mic. You always use a hand held. They know me enough to know that i like to roam when i speak. She has been a hero for me not just in her current role. She was one of those people in law school trying to shine light to me. If anything i am just reflecting hers because she was a source of strength even back then that understood if you are a lawyer for social justice or you are a leech upon society. She said she lived that principle that education is a waste unless it is being used to empower other people. And to see her career blossom and get to this place where she is now at a time there is i think a story in American History that often the right leader that appears at the right time when their country needs them. This is a time that not only her but this organization itself is an urgently needed organization for our country y. Want to thank her for leadership in the entire cap staff. I want to honor everyone here or who has been here. We need to begin to see ourselves as patriots before we are democrats and progressives. We need to see ourselves as patriots. For me for her to ask me to give the closing remarks, the final remarks after you all have heard so many speakers many people who are my friends and colleagues who are my partiers it is such an honor to speak to patriots and get the responsibility of taking it home. So to do that i would literally like to take you home for a second to where my mom lives because this is my attempt to get some points with everybody here who i went to go visit in the lead up to mothers day. My mom now no longer lives in new jersey. She has moved to vegas. Mama lives in vegas. She knows which slot machines will pay off and win. But my mom i went out there because she was performing in a play. And her Senior Citizen community, Retirement Community was putting on a play and immediately before she had to ask i knew i had a carming obligation because she was there for everyone of my grade school plays and now the world was coming full circle and i had to be there for her. So i flew out less than 24 hours on the ground taking red eye back here but i sat in the front row and it was like god had turned the table. I was now one of those maybe annoying parents who sat in the front row. I had my recording device in my hand recording everything. The Senior Citizen behind me thanked me because he said im far sighted. I could look in your video and see the whole thing so clearly. Thank you for that, sir. So there came a moment that you all know that had me very excited and connected me to my own family and our country. What the queen responds is you havent had much practice then. When i was your age i always did it for half an hour a day. While sometimes i believed in as many as six impossible things before breakfast. The reason why that touched me and i know this is the story not just of my family but everyone heres family is when i sat down with the elders in my family, my aunts and uncles and grandparents the story of america that i heard was not the story of simple glory and abundance. It was a story of profound struggle. It was a story of pain and hardship. It was a story of setbacks and failures and frustrations. It was a story of feeling like you are fighting out there in the grass roots when your very government is supporting thins z that are working against you. When you witness firsthand levels of discrimination and violence my grandfather told me stories about people escaping the south and having to shuttle them out of the country for their safety into canada. It made me understand that when my family and i know yours, as well, spoke of the impossible dream of america it went so much deeper than the glory and the remembererance of some days gone past that havent been. I love the book the fire next time. It is this book by James Baldwin where he tells in brutal truth kind of writer today like where he talks beunflinching realism about the problems of america. And in this entire book he does not pull a punch but then at the end this page in his book he took criticism for it because some people said ittoo he strikes this note of hope amidst all that he described calling to the conscience of our country to do impossible things. Baldwin writes i know what im asking you is impossible but in our time as in every time the impossible is the least we can demand. What is after all emboldened by the spectacle of Human History in general an American Negro history in particular for testifies to nothing less than the perpetual achievement of the impossible. Bald wb was writing about american black history but the truth of our country is story after story so many so vast that our finite minds can barely contain the stories of heroic actors, every day americans who did extraordinary things under unimaginable circumstances. So much of what we take for granted right now was because of folks like baldwin who answered the call to do impossible things. You pick a segment of our society, the Suffrage Movement with its brutality, women literally dying for the cause of our country the heroism of labor activists literally at a time that if you were organizing you didnt just get a threat to lose your job you got a threat to lose your life. People like eugene debbies, abolitionists who had the boldness before ill be a slave i will be buried in my grave. William garrison civil rights activists whose names arent even that well known. His wife chain whipped, himself stabbed but kept on fighting for his impossible dream of america. These are our ancestors. This is our roots. People who never surrendered to circumstances who kept on dreaming. I have to tell you right now when i hear my mom utter something and it actually fortifies me as i get on a red eye to fly back to washington in my head were the songs from a kid in a black church in new jersey, the spirituals being sung that my mom would impress upon me you hearing those now in the 1980s as a little boy. Those were the songs that sourced us. Aint nobody gonna turn me around. Im gonna keep on walking. Im going to keep on talking. Marching down to freedomland. One of my favorite songs i was playing in my apartment last night different renditions of different kwoirz with this concept of keeping your hand on the plow when my way gets dark as night i know the lord will be my light. Keep your hand on the plow. Keep your hand on the plow hold on. Now, i walked the halls of congress. I cant walk in that building. I cant go on that senate floor no matter how dispickable the cra i am forced tovote on is. I cant lose sight of the history we share that i am a black man in america walking on to the floor of the senate. And the sacrifices of black and white, male and female, christian, jewish, muslim, all that it took for me to be the fourth elected africanamerican in the history of our country to that body talk about people who kept their hand on the plow. Robert smalls, a name most of us dont know. This is the full history we have of heroic actors. This was a slave who was lent to a slave ship after the outbreak of the civil war. And immediately he was plotting to break free when the confeteerates left the ship he took control of the ship, put on the captains guard. Saled his ship right by fort sumpter that had surrendered to the confederates. Didnt think anything was wrong. He turns his ship and sails as quickly as he can towards Union Blockade knowing that the union army would fire on a confederate ship. They were literally preparing to fire and recognize that is a white flag flying. He actually gets to safety. He becomes such a hero northern newspapers were writing about him. He is credited with one of the reasons why we let blacks fight in the civil war. He himself is credited with recruiting 5,000 american blacks to fight and many of them died brutally in a civil war for freedom. He then after the civil war gets elected to the South Carolina legislature. He passes legislation creating first Public Schools legislated by a state in america. Then he gets nominated to congress. And walks the same hallways that i get to walk now. Look, the end of his life is not great. He literally goes back to the South Carolina state house and is there as an elected representative after reconstruction, one of the most bloodiest periods of domestic terrorism we have ever seen and South Carolina Legislature Strips blacks of their Voting Rights and he has to vote on it. He has to be there. Two years before his death at a time where lynching is all over this country this man literally when two black men are accused of being murderers and a lynch modforms he goes and dispersed blacks and lets rumor fly if these men are lynched they will burn the town to the ground. And the sheriff protected the two black men in the lynch mob. He died in a house that he bought from his slave master. Its one of the stories from American History that folk dont know. And i wonder how now i hear folk despairi despairing. Talk about setbacks to be elected to congress to have to watch Voting Rights being stripped. It wouldnt be until the next century when people fought to open up doors for Voting Rights. Wouldnt be until years later and after that that a black man would return to the United States senate. We have so much power us as americans. If we keep our hands on the flow and keep fighting and dont let anything turn us around. I know we are in this time where folk are despairing. I know that. But one of the greatest gifts of my life is a community in newark, new jersey. I grew up in the northeast of the state. I grew up in the suburbs. My parents had to fight a civil rights battle in 1969 to move into the town. Working to get white family to pose as my parents to put a bid on the house and then when my father and the volunteer lawyers show up my fathers lawyer gets punched in the face by the Real Estate Agent and dog gets sicked on him. I grew up in unimaginable circumstances that my father told me you are Living Dreams that were impossible, seemed impossible to me when i was a kid. You are living a life that was a dangerous dream to articulate if you were your grandfather. But tell you this when i moved to newark, new jersey i didnt have to open history books to see heroism. I began to meet people who under unconscionable circumstances refused to stop believing in ameri america. Housing rights activists, civil rights activists fighting against injustices that we as a country didnt think necessarily deserved us all taking to streets losing the understanding that kings that were a generation before the injustice anywhere is an threat to justice. We are caught in Inescapable Network tied in one single garment of destiny somehow that garment has been ripped where we arent even conscious of others struggle. Our neighbors, fellow americans. Im so happy that flint, michigan is getting so much attention, but reuters just released a report that was the truth. Over 1,000 communities have lead levels in their childrens blood here in america four times what flints children have. Right now. When i moved in the 90s this is what i saw. What is it like to live in a neighborhood where you see a parent looking at you with a lead poisoned child . Im proud that i still live in that community today. When i listen to politicians like our president talk about inner cities in a way that is not appealing to our heart and to our hope and to the light but demeaning and degrading those spaces, not realizing the heroes who have been fighting come to my neighborhood. The folk in my community dont care that much about my title. I live in a community where my census track our Median Income is 14,000 per household. And this is before this president got sworn in over 100 days ago we had fights. When we wanted to plant in the soil of our city urban gardening the state said you cant do that because there is too much lead in the ground. When this congress wouldnt pass reauthorized legislation that reagan reauthorized, that Mitch Mcconnell voted for to clean up sites they wouldnt reauthorize the small tax on polluting industries, what did people in my Community Think where we have two superfund sites where the river is still fluted with the agent orange that was dumped into it and we now know with longitudinal evidence that children born within three miles of the site have 20 higher rates of autism and birth defects. In my community. I got officers who are fighting every day to stem the tide of gun violence. Literally when gun fire erupts they dont wait. They charge into places with no Situational Awareness putting themselves and their lives on the line. Recovering guns that were obtained illegally by people with criminal records. This issue of universal background checks to those cops in my community this is not a policy discussion. This is the difference between life and death. I have a friend of mine. She is this amazing woman. They call her mama tosha where she works because she has this heart. She takes care of the folks that work in her ihop with her. But these issues that we as progressives are fighting for talk to ms. Laurel for a little while and talk to mama tasha. She works a full time job and tries to catch shifts in other places. Guess what. We pay for her housing. Because in this country you can work a full time job, catch extra shifts especially if you live places like the new york, new jersey area you dont live above the poverty line. We pay for her food stamps. These are costs that corporations just outsource on to all of us. Think about the trials that so many face when her child is sick. One of her boys has asthma. Literally ihop is across the street from a hospital. Her son rushed to the emergency room is in the hospital and this mom has to make the choice because we are one of the only industrialized nations that doesnt have paid family leave. She has to make the choice. Whether to give up her shift and visit her child and lose out on that money which could be the difference between her family having food or not or staying at work while her child suffers with not just the debilitating effects of asthma but with fear. This is the country that we live in. A nation where the basics come to my block, see where i live. Down the street is a Senior Citizen building. We have a nation that while people here talk about cutting Social Security or privatizing it we still have 5 million seniors that live in poverty still on Social Security checks come to my neighborhood across the street is a drug treatment center. Do like i have done, sit in the circle of the men and listen to the stories about how a criminal Justice System treats people who are addicted. And turns them into a system that debilitates them and doesnt treat their disease. I tell you all of this to tell you we have an impossible dream in america that has yet to be made real. And this is before there is a donald trump. Im so happy to see activism and marching and organizing but im telling you right now if we make this all about donald trump we have seen demagogues before. We have seen public demeanors in mccarthyism. My calling is not to have this party defined by what we are against or who we are against. We must be defined by the dream of america for all americans. Dont get me wrong, im upset about donald trump. I have watched over this last 0 100 plus days a guy who literally tells his supporters one thing and then gets into the white house and does things that are 100 contrary to what he said and what he promised. Its astonishing to me how someone can speak out of both sides of their mouth. Its astonishing to me that his cras take away peoples ability to better save for retirement and allow people to pollute our streams and rivers, take away peoples access to Preventative Health and family planning. All of that to me is astonishing that he can do those things not to mention this recent stuff that to me is more out of a tom clancy novel than it is should be out of our reality. I had a person call me today and talk to me. I couldnt believe it after the russians literally attack a cyber attack and attack our election, literally associates are under federal investigation. Literally he seems to get better access to the oval office to the Russian Press than the american press. Then he fires the very person investigati investigating folks. Truman had a sign that said the buck stops here. Trump should have one that says the ruble staumz here. Dont get me wrong. There are real issues. That nuset tate us resisting and fighting. Our party cannot just be about that. The trends in the country are too disturbing. If you think about it trump is a symptom of a problem. He is not the problem. This country was fought for by irish immigrants who built factories and pushed our country into prosperity by black slaves whose labor helped fuel fortunes in this country by chinese immigrants who built the Trans Continental Railroad by mexican immigrants who produced food and hope and put the things on the table that we eat every day. Creating extraordinary wealth and then activists and progressives help to fight battles and win more quality, more opportunity, legislation from federal congress to state houses help to give us rights and privileges. So many things for us to be proud of we became the envy of the world. If you look right now, if you look at where america just over my lifetime has gone from being number one on the planet earth to where we are now on issues of the competitiveness of our democracy, indexes kept by the World Economic forum, the trends in our country are troubling. We know that today in everything from prek enrollment to high school to College Graduation rates we are being outranked by our peer nations. Other countries are investing in apprenticeship programs. Look what is going on in germany. In newark when i went to get more jobs and opportunity i said what do you need . They said we cant find machinists. Other countries are making meaningful investments in job training but we are not, things that could be making a huge difference for our people, for our economy and for global competitiveness, other countries are seeing that lowering the bars to education in germany, the cost of college four percent of Median Income. England about seven percent. In america 52 Median Income to go to college. Other countries have decimated slashed rates of Child Poverty. In america still stubbornly one in every five children in america born into poverty. Other countries are investing in their infrastructure. America we inherited the best infrastructure on the planet earth and we have trashed it literally engineers estimating about 3 trillion of infrastructure debt. We have fallen out of the top ten of infrastructure. Our country is at a 20year low in investment in infrastructure necessary for expanding economic opportunity. When it comes to the sciences we are one of the greatest civilizations on the planet earth for investing our Public Resources in science and technology that have expanded businesses and Job Opportunities from our batteries on our iphones to the touch screens to the satellite navigation. All of those things are our collective investment in Government Research but now china outstripping us, europe outstripping us in investments in research and sciences. We as a nation are falling behind in expanding opportunity for all. And we are leading in the areas we should not lead in. Wasting public treasure whether leading in Child Poverty or leading one area of Infrastructure Investment we shouldnt want to lead in with just five percent of the globes population we have 25 of the dplo globes prison population. We were putting trillions of dollar dolla dollars into investments in prisons building a new prison in america every ten days. So i want to fight in this climate. I want to dedicate myself. We cannot just be a party of resistance. We have to be a party that is reaffirming that american dream. We cant just be a party that is focussed on the person in the white house. We have to be focussed on the folks in inner cities and factory towns, grass roots of our country. That is where our attention needs to be. We have to be a nation and a people and especially a party that reignites that conviction that this will be the country of impossible dreams. That is the essence of the american dream. We have to be a nation that says we are about justice and security and opportunity and security that doesnt just mean fighting against terrorism and keeping us safe from threats but one that means whether they all americans are free from violence and discrimination. We have to be a nation that is focussed on justice and understands that justice means working 48 hours a week shouldnt leave you in poverty. We have to be a nation about opportunity. Opportunity means we become a party of growth and innovation, of technology but we can never be a country that accepts that growth means billionaires and billionaires get richer and richer and the poor get stuck in poverty. Technology cant be about transforming work for the better where people are contract workers that dont have security but work means you have true security for yourself and your family. So i believe what our history shows us. The arc of the universe bends towards justice. It doesnt happen automatically. We have to bend it. I believe that we can produce an economy that works for everybody. We must build it. I believe that we can be a nation that has health care for all but we must fight for it. I believe that we can have a day where america leads in not just wealth for richest but we set that impossible dream that we have the best k12 public education. That we will lead in the quality of opportunity and lead again in eradicating poverty and lead again in social mobility and lead in investing in science, that will lead in conquering the threat of Climate Change and that will lead the globe like the torch bearers leading the globe to Greater Peace and prosperity. So this moment as we end an incredible conference we have to summon a greater courage, courage that our generations before us and ancestors showed us people without titles or political office, the courage that they demonstrated through sacrifice and service to this republic and for that there is no special formula. It is work, work, work back into the fields of our democracy. Work back into the roots. Work back to getting folk woke, waking up sleeping people, tending to the hurt, rallying the able and igniting the dream all over again. We are democrats and we must be patriots who work and sweat and work and organize and work and never let the dream get smaller. Hands upon the plow. Hold on. Hands upon the plow. Langston hues wrote a poem giving deference to generations who through song and spirit and faith forged a numeric. Let me end with this poem. America land created in common. Dream nourished in common. Keep your hands on the plow. Hold on, hold on. If the house is not finished dont be discouraged builder. If the fight is not won dont be weary, soldier. The plan and the pattern is here. Woven from the beginning into the warp and wolf of america a long time ago enslaved people heading towards freedom made up the song keep your hand on the plow hold on, hold on, a song a long time ago of people heading towards freedom. Keep your hands on the plow, hold on, hold on. My fellow democrats, my fellow patriots, we must go back into the fields and put our hands on the plow. We must ignite the dream of our country with our hands forever on the plow. We have unfinished work to be done. Our hands must remain on the plow. I know in my heart and i know in my spirit if we continue with that conviction, if we are willing to do the work, if we are willing to stay steady then not only will we overcome the obstacles that seemed impossibly large but we will usher in a greater era for our country where we make more real and more true to more people the spirit of our nation, that we will be a nation with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. [ cheers and applause ] and that concludes the 2017 ideas conference. Thank you everybody. I hope i see some of you tonight celebrating and see you next year. Thank you [ cheers and applause ] so a whole day here at the center for american prognosis. We will show you the whole thing again in just a few minutes. First we turn the attention to the white house where National Security adviser hr mcmaster defended President Trumps revelations to the russians as wholly appropriate. Lets take a look at a few moments from todays white house briefing. And coming out to the area you said that Washington Post story came out late yesterday afternoon was false. Do you stick by that assertion . Do you think that every element of that story is false and do you have anything to correct in terms of what you said at the podium . I stand by my statement made yesterday. The premise of that article is false that in any way the president had a conversation that was inappropriate or resulted in lapse in National Security. So i think the real issue i think what i would like to see debated more is our National Security has been put at risk by those violating confidentiality and those releasing information to the press that could be connected with other Information Available to make american citizens and others more vulnerable. When you came out after the story broke you said that the president did not disclose any sources or methods and did not reveal anything about military operations. Why were you denying things that were not even reported . What the report said is that the president revealed classified information that had been shared by one of our allies in the middle east. So the question is simply yes or no question. Did the president share classified information with the russians in that meeting . As i mentioned already, we dont say what is classified and not classified. What i will tell you again is that what the president shared was wholly appropriate. The story combined what was leaked with other information and then insinuated about sources and methods. I wanted to make clear to everybody that the president in no way compromised any sources or methods in the course of this conversation. There are no sensitivities in terms of me or anybody who has been with the president. He shares information away that is wholly appropriate. I should just make maybe the statement here that the president wasnt even aware of where this information came from. He wasnt briefed on the source and method of the information. So this has to be the last question because we do have the president of turkey coming momentarily. Thank you very much. As you saw we spent the day at the center for American Progress. A bit earlier today at the conference a couple of senators commented on the allegations about the russian information. We will start with senator klobachar of minnesota. It is important that if there is a readout from that meeting and transcript that means there is probably a tape unless they had someone in there. We need to get ahold of that. Obviously classified information should be redacted but when you have the president of the United States disclosing allegedly disclosing secret information as our function in the senate is oversight of intelligence agencies, oversight of judicial, Justice Department we need to get ahold of that because its a risk to our intelligence and our agents in the field. It is a risk for our relationship with allies and its putting people in danger. One of the reasons that president s are so careful when they look at disclosing classified information is that you never know the next level down of where that source came from or how it was done. That is why when president reagan disclosed that russians shot down a plane and decided he thought it would be better for the country to understand that he worked with our intelligence agencies to figure it out. So we have to get to the bottom of this. How does this relate to the Bigger Picture of what is going on . I always echo in my mind what former director clapper said before our Committee Last week and he said that we are simply emboldining russia. We are emboldining them when we dont take this seriously and not investigating what has happened. By giving this classified information to them that they didnt give to the senators at the laptop briefing that i attended at 8 30 in the morning that emboldins russia. I get really back to where i start which is that we need a special prosecutor appointed by the Justice Department to get to the bottom of what happened. All of the standards of that rule have been met. [ applause ] we also need an independent commission because if you want to stop this from happening again in the future look at what the 9 11 commission did. They were able to put out rules oftd road so if there is a breach in the middle of major president ial campaign there is suggestions and agreement on what people do when they get that information. What does the media do . Look how the media handled it in the French Elections . They didnt immediately put things out because it was a cyber attack from another country. So i think both of those things, getting to the bottom of the connections between the Trump Campaign and russia when we have 17 intelligence agencies telling us that russia tried to get involved in our election, influence our election is critical. But it is equally critical that we put some rules of the road in place so this doesnt happen again. Could you argue that this is the kind of thing that president s sometimes just have to do . You could argue that if you were under the belief that this white house was operating in a way that was anything other than Foreign Policy by improvisation. Yes you are right that in previous times other president s have decided to share classified information with socalled adversaries but only after consulting with intelligence agencies and having a whole of government approach to it declassifying that information. It was strategic. This clearly as far as we understand was not strategic and the idea that russia is going to be a responsible partner in the future of syria is belied by years and years of facts on the ground. We have been trying to get the russians to be a meaningful partner inside syria and they end up doing more damage than good. They end up conducting themselves in a way that kills, hurts and maims civilians such that more, not less people on the ground inside syria are pushed into the camps of extremist rather than moderates. We have enough experience inside syria to understand that russia is not going to be a credible partner. You are right that there is a reasonable way to use classified information in order to win new friends or influence adversaries. This was a president who was trying to show off how much he knew in the context of that meeting and potentially did serious jeopardy to immediate u. S. National security concerns as we are finding out today that some of our allies are already rethinking whether ear not they should share information or rethinking what kind of information they should share with the United States. So we will take you now back to this center for American Progress all day ideas conference. We will begin from this mornings session and show you the whole thing now here on cspan 3