[cheers and applause] [inaudible] is this working . Myself, who does . To orourke remind me of three people said Robert Kennedy. I said maybe, you know. Hes tall, his handsome. [indiscernible] not just because his given name is robert. But its also because, like Robert Kennedy, better overwork beto orourke is tough, hard working, and courageous. As attorney general, Robert Kennedy took on the mob. I remember. I was a kid. It was pretty scary stuff. Congressman,rm Robert Francis beto orourke took on the most disliked and i might add the meanest longterm senator from texas. Francis beto orourke has taken on the most dishonest, immoral trading out. Start over. Immoral i want to back up in that sentence. [laughter] it turns out that it was just a trial run when he went after ted cruz. Orourkeerwork beto decided to take on the most dishonest, immoral, and incompetent president in the history of the United States of america, donald trump. Beto is like another strong bipartisan leader. A lot of people may remember bob right bob brady. I worked with him on a diversity middlemy daughters pretty harde worked and checked to see how many kids were from Foreign Countries or their parents were from Foreign Countries. We had 54. We were shocked. We ended up buying flags and we flew flags, and they still fly in the cafeteria there. We got flags from all the countries i might add, except from 1, 2 giga stand except or one, two giga stand except for one, tajikistan. And the two boys made their own flag and brought it in. Beto orourke not only cares about himself, he not only respect every americans Constitutional Rights and is loyal to his country, he also cares about the vulnerable and needy and in particular, the immigrant families that have been separated on the border. Me, that is one of the most offensive and horrific things ive ever seen in this country. I cannot believe it every day. I cannot believe it. But i know that with beto orourke as our president , those children will be reunited with their parents. Represents the best of what america is, the best of what islands are , and the iowans are best of who we are as people. I am very honored to introduce beto orourke. [applause] joan, thank you. That was incredibly kind and very important to focus on the moral issue of this moment right now, which happens to be very close to home for us in el paso, texas. Im so grateful that all the way you are trying, to make sure we Pay Attention to what is happening in our name on the u. S. Mexico border at this moment and not just now at this moment. We met earlier in the campaign and shared contact information. Youve been staying in touch with me and making sure i am okas on that and making sure i bring other americans into this conversation and into an understanding about just what is happening at this moment of truth. Im grateful to you and to dan are opening up your home, making sure all of us could join together today, not for candidate, not for a political party, but for our country. That is what has brought us all out at this moment, so we thank you. I want to thank ross, who we came in. S theres ross. Please come forward so everyone can see you. On the ballot august 6 for the statehouse here in iowa. [applause] you never, ever want to ascribe motive, but you have to ask yourself why kim reynolds set the election date two weeks before students come back into classes at iowa state. If that is an attempted voter suppression, it is incumbent on all of us to overcome that suppression by not just voting but by making sure we are getting in touch with our classmates, coworkers, friends, family members, to make sure we bring them to the polls on august 6. A very decisive election for iowa. The only way that we have the basis to build a majority going into 2020. So grateful that you are running, ross. So grateful for every one of you who is supporting him. Lets make sure we get everyone out to the polls on august 6. Appreciate it. [applause] mr. Orourke so many friendly people. We just flew in from texas. We went from el paso to houston, from houston to des moines, and in des moines at the airport, we were picked up by mustafa in an rv. First time we have had a chance to travel in an rv in the campaign and in part, we were in the rv because weve got the rourke family. This is my wife amy, next to her is ulysses, molly, and henry. The barents here the parents here in the room know this is like. As we were driving, there is this beautiful Lightning Storm and theres something were not so familiar with in the chill while in desert the Chihuahuan Desert that you will call rain. We make the kids put their lookronics down and outside of this beautiful thing, handle itre able to for about teen of minutes before reaching and itching for the electronics, in other words providing some Birth Control for mustafa. We went across the possibility norte bridge connecting el paso to our sister city. These cities form the largest by National Community in the western hemisphere. 3 million of us joined, not separated, by the rio grande river. It is extraordinary and it is the source of so much of our success, if you measure it economically or the quality of life that we have come to enjoy in el paso, or the fact that my hometown is one of the safest cities in the United States of america. It has been for 20 years running. Before there was a wall, after there was a wall in fact, a little bit less safe after there was a wall, and we are safe because were a city of immigrants and refugees and we are joined at the hip literally with mexico and ciudad juarez. What is happening now on that bridge is that when families make this 2000mile journey from honduras or el salvador or guatemala, some of the deadliest places on the planet today, places that are also experiencing historic droughts, what they are trying to grow is not producing anything for those communities. They cannot feed themselves and they are having to leave the area they are doing what any human being would do in the same set of conditions. They may get all the way here to the United States border where. Exas meets chihuahua in an unprecedented move, this administration does not allow them to follow our own asylum laws, to set foot in the United States, to cross the International Boundary line on that bridge and to seek asylum, which, as you may know, does not guarantee them lifelong access to the United States. They are not going to be able to take anyones benefits or place in school or job. It just allows them to lawfully petition for asylum, especially if they can prove they are not able to return to their home country without endangering themselves or their kids. What this administration has done is stop them from being able to set foot in this country and told them to remain in which is itself not the safest place in the world today. In fact, within the last nine years, in 2010, 2011, ciudad j was the deadliest place on the planet bar none. These refugees, penniless strangers in a strange land speaking neither english or spanish in some cases, many speaking an indigenous language from the northern triangle of central america, are in shelters at best, and in the worst case scenarios, they are on the streets, pray to those prey to those who would take advantage of those in their most miserable, their most desperate, their most vulnerable moments. We talked to some of the at a shelter. We met a 19yearold young woman , came with her family from honduras. All of her family members were able to go forward and to california where they are now, but because she is over the age of 18 she is 19 years old she had to stay behind. Imagine when you were 19 years ad being stopped staying in shelter not knowing when or if you will ever join your family again. Trying to navigate the u. S. Legal code without the aid of an attorney and without speaking the english language. We met a father, mother, and thereforeyearold son who traveled six days through the desert on foot, without their shoes. He talked about the broiling sun on his back, neck, head, and as the shoes were out, the broiling hot sand he was walking on with his fouryearold son on his shoulders. One of the people with whom he was traveling died of thirst, dehydration, exhaustion. Not in a cage, not separated from her family, not deported to another country dead. Fellowan 8000 of our human beings have died making that same crossing just in the last 20 years and the walls that we built, the militarization of the border, consigns more to greater suffering and greater levels of death, just like that woman with whom that family was traveling. They get to the United States, they kiss the ground upon which they arrive. Doy turn themselves into, not try to flee from, a Border Patrol agent who takes them into a freezing icebox of a jail cell in a Border Patrol station. They go from extreme heat to extreme cold, freaked out, do not know what will happen next, spend three days there before they are deported back, i think 7023 to beumber processed in the United States, which, to remind everybody, is the wealthiest, most powerful country on the face of the planet. Almost everyone here is dissented from those who came here as Asylum Seekers or refugees or immigrants or in some cases, brought here in bondage against their will to literally build the wealth of this country, but in every instance are what made us great and strong and successful and powerful in the first place and this is what were doing to those families. We then crossed the river and went to a Border Patrol station in clint, texas. Ou may have read the reports this is where we have been keeping hundreds of children who have been separating from their parents. Happening right now in this moment in 2019. Toddlers as young as five months , teenagers as a list 17 none of them knowing each other. Kids taking care of kids. Not having diapers on for the little kiddos, which means they are pooping in their pants and poop proved that rolls them onto the floor that these kids will be sleeping on underneath alumina blankets. Some are standing on the toilets were they can just get some air to breathe because they are far overcrowded, well be on capacity that these cells can hold. Inextricable, the administration has argued that we dont have to provide diapers or soap or toothpaste or showers to kids who are absolutely defenseless in the face of this cruelty. Kids who may not know when or if they will ever see their parents again. But here is the bright spot in all this when we showed up to that Border Patrol station, there were nearly 300 people outside holding vigil, testifying to their fellow americans just what was being done in their name, transmitter get through Facebook Live or instagram or other social media channels. Members of the media and the press, not the enemy of the people but the best defense against tyranny, broadcasting these images out so the rest of america knows what is happening. I guarantee you it is the only way we will force the kind of change were going to see. Imagine my kids, imagine your kids, years down the road, knowing just what was happening here in america in 2019. They are going to want some answers from all of us. How did we account for our behavior, our action or inaction in the face of this injustice . The fact that seven children have died over the last year in u. S. Customs and Border Protection custody that is on all of us in this great democracy. With this great democracy springing into action, people showing up, standing up to be wanted in this remote stretch of the Chihuahuan Desert, not easy to get to from ames, iowa, or any other part of the country. In conclusion, let me tell you what it reminds me of on this incredibly important, his story. Its the fact that in 1964, july 2, president Lyndon Johnson signed into law the civil rights act. He did not do it because he was the most enlightened president we have ever had, although we are proud of him from the state of texas. He did not do it because of the enlightened members of congress who voted for it or managed that bill through the house and senate, the we are grateful to them as well. He did it because of people, just like the young people we saw outside the clint would official station who were willing to stand up when it counted outside the clint Border Patrol station. I think about birmingham, alabama, and april and may 1963. School kids, the same age as those kids locked up in that Border Patrol station in clint, took to the streets of downtown alabama, on the first day, as young as nine years old, they were arrested, more than 1200 of the birmingham county jail, standing up for the full civil rights of every child, every woman, every man in that community and those protests continued day after day after day. It was the people against bull connor. The people against injustice. The people against segregation and racism and the legacy of slavery. And the people were hellbent on winning that struggle. Becausely, they did they forced president John Fitzgerald kennedy to do the right thing. He is one of my favorite president s. He was a good man. He was an irish catholic, but he did not take on the task of introducing that civil rights legislation on his own. He was forced to do it by people who wanted to demand this country live up to its potential, live up to its promise, and live up to its values. Those freedom writers those who preceded that people who were arrested for being human beings in their own country are the ones who made that political change possible. Those who wonder what we do in the face of this injustice and this torture we are visiting on our fellow human beings at the u. S. Mexico border, just know there is powerful precedent before us of people standing up tothese moments of truth force the hand of this country. That is in part why im running right now. I hope that is in part why you are here right now. Want to make sure i can answer my kids, look them in the eye, when they ask what we did in 2019 and this was going on in our country. You look at any challenge we face be on the border in immigration and separated families and kids in cages, if its the Healthcare System where millions are left to fend for themselves because we do not have the political will to offer them in sure is an care or in an economy where too many are working two and three jobs just to make instant, or the challenge of climate, which perhaps in iowa you understand better than anyone because just this year, both the Missouri River and Mississippi River have the highest level of flooding in all of recorded history. To meet any single one of these challenges we will need every single one of us to come together in rooms like these, and streets in downtown, des moines. We saw protesters came into one of the congressional toresentativess offices protest conditions on the border. Its that kind of action that produces the change that allows us to be who we were intended to be in the first place. To all of you who came out here tonight, all of you who will demand justice at the border on any of these issues, know that we are with you. Im grateful to be running with you, and i came not only to share with you my thoughts but to listen. Looking forward to your questions, your comments, your ideas. Thank you, joan and dan, and thank you all for what you are doing right now. Gracias. [applause] cynthia on the right side of the room has a microphone. She will do her best to get that microphone to you. I will do my best to listen to you and answer questions or just hear your comment or idea. Im actually from independence where you will be in a couple of days, but half an hour away from here, my brother was working in a liquor store. An alarm went off the cuss because he was new to the job. Came. Lice the owner told them not to come in because it was not a real alarm. The police came in and saw a black man and a liquor store entry a gun on him. He luckily was saved by his boss arriving in the nick of time. Do you have any plans to diffuse the tensions between the black community and the police . Fororourke thank you asking the question and having the courage to share a very personal, very difficult story. Hopefully, we all agree that no one in this country should have to fear those who are sworn to serve and protect us, who are put in this position of public a firearm carrying and have the ability to deprive us of our liberty and our life, even. And yet, too many do, and too many do based on their race. Should have noat distinction, should not matter in this country, and yet, it does. The Alarming Number of unarmed black men and women who have lost their lives at the hands of Law Enforcement in this country is unconscionable and must be stopped. What do we do as a country . What could i do as president . Number one, we can ensure that our department of justice and the Civil Rights Division investigates and fully process prosecutes every use of force a localunwarranted by police force. We could tie federal funds to sheriffs offices and Police Departments to their ility to have full transparency and full reporting on use of force and against whom it is used. Three, we need to make sure theres real accountability, consequences, and justice at the end of the day, or else this will continue to happen year after year to person after person. But the last thing, and this is therest among them are some real bad actors in our Police Departments, and they should be rooted out. The vast majority of them i hope most of us can acknowledge are doing a really difficult job under trying circumstances. I want to support