Aunt, who great was born and raised in des moines. I am not the first in my family to be at the iowa state fair. Loreay the lord goes, goes, my grandmother and great , and that they took second prize to Shirley Temple back then. [laughter] sen. Booker i will not saying, but i am proud of those iowa roots. As i said at the eulogy this morning when we buried a 100yearold iowan, the story of the states the story of the country. My family came here, they were called miners in alabama, and they moved to a town called buxton, iowa. Many of you know buxton because there is a book that calls it the american utopia. There was a time in the late 1800s when blacks migrating from the south and european immigrants joined together in an integrated town well before its time. It is evidence of the best of who we are as a nation. Struggling black and white who went down into a out of theto dig earth their american dream. We are all americans. We all come from humble backgrounds. In that town, the spirit was simply we stand for each other. Buxton, theyed in pay, they up a days would go to work, but they would give the days pay to the family of the miner who was lost. We are defined not by race or religion but common commitment to the best of human ideals. We are a nation because even with our founders, these imperfect geniuses, who even in our earliest documents called native americans savages and blacks were fractions of human beings, they elevated the highest principles of humanity. We in this nation broke with the course of human events. In thehere because oldest constitutional democracy of people that said we are going to put the highest of human virtues literally in place in the society, its not about how you were born or where you were born dumb is not about what religion you have or what race are, in this country we are one people with one destiny. We are one people with one cause , and now more than ever, in our nation, we have to get back to that ideal. It doesnt mean to surrender what we believe in, it means we double down on that. Our nation has never been free of bigotry and hate. It has never been free of the kind of violence we have seen in this last week. What has defined us is not the fact that our gardens of democracy has been free of those weeds, its how we came together to deal with them. We are a nation that has always with aourageous empathy, desire to make this nation, to put more indivisible back into this one nation under god. I want to say very plainly that this is a moral moment in america. Regardless of what your party is, there are forces every day trying to tear our country apart along racial or partisan lines. That is not how we achieve such extraordinary achievements in the past. We are the nation that beat the nazis, we are the nation that went to the moon, we are the nation that mapped the human thate, and the nation first put onto to this earth ideals like Public Education. We are a country that did those things together. Now more than ever we need each other. We have to have a revival of civic grace. I am running for president of United States because i believe in us, and i believe this election is not a referendum on one guy in one office. This election is a referendum on who we are and who we must eat to each other in the generation ahead. [cheering and applause] sen. Booker we have big challenges, america. We have a challenge of climate change, we have the challenge of a generation for the first time in our history with a lower Life Expectancy than the one before. We have the challenge of people in our nation working hard, whether they are farmers in fields, whether they are men and women in factories, whether they are waitresses in cities like mine who work fulltime jobs but still find themselves with more month at the end of their money than money at the end of their month, because we have stripped the dignity from work in this country. We have to get back to the nation we work. My grandfather was a union worker on an Assembly Line during the depression and world war ii. He stood sidebyside with white workers joined together in the cause of a union and the idea that in this nation, if you work hard, if you play by the rules, you can have your american dream. That this generation restore the very idea of this country, that this generation restores the american dream. That is not going to be easy. To achieve that, we have to not turn against each other but turned toward each other. To do that, we have to get rid of leaders that try to demean pit americansnd against each other. It is time to have leaders that speak to that revival of civic grace and to speak to our common values. If you are an american, i know you agree with me that no american should go without health coverage. It is an american right, not a privilege. If you are like me, you believe that Public School teachers should be paid for the contributions they are making. [cheering and applause] sen. Booker if you are like me, you believe that this is a nation where if you have worked all your life, you should be able to retire with dignity and security, not fear and insecurity. Care if you are a gun owner or not, we can unite as americans and say it is outrageous that we now still live in a country where someone who wants to do harm, who seeks to do terrorist acts can go on the internet or to a gun show and buy a weapon. We need universal background checks. [cheering and applause] sen. Booker dont let you dont let people sell you a lie that we dont have common cause. In america, we have too much common pain and it is time to get back to our common purpose. It is time to unite as a nation and understand we need each other. That even our enemies abroad, like the russians, are trying to use the internet that we invented, they are trying to use that to insinuate divisions amongst us. Our best response to those trying to tear us apart is to unite. Our best response to those who are trying to demean and the great people because of the color of their skin or because of the god we pray to is to elevate our brothers and sisters no matter who they are. [cheering and applause] sen. Booker our best response to the darkness of some is the light of the many. , this nextright now election, i tell you, it is going to be a test for all of us. But if you give me a chance to be your nominee, i will show you that the way we beat bullies, like we beat full connor in birmingham, is not fighting on their turf and their terms, we did not beat him by baking bringing bigger dogs and eager fire hoses. We answer dark times in our country by elevating the best of who we are. This is the time that we need leaders, all of us to call for the moral imagination of this country and indeed because once again a nation with liberty and justice for all. Thank you very much. [cheering and applause] sen. Booker all right. So ive got a few more minutes left and im not going to jump before i start eating a bunch of fried stuff. A questiono answer here, this person here. [indiscernible] its actually a National Security issue. She asked me about the childcare crisis. Why do i say its a National Security issue . Our competitor nations actually believe in something really radical. They believe in science. Science will let you that the greatest Natural Resource any nation has is not oil, gas, or coal, the greatest Natural Resource is the genius of our children. Now we seem to think about education now as k12, and we used to lead the earth on educating our kids. Other countries look to what we got doing and said, weve to expand the understanding of education, because science tell us tells us the brain develops the most from the time 30 year. Mb through the our public 30 year. Our Public School teachers know that by the time they come to kindergarten, they are already behind global peers. We need to start valuing children in the earliest stages. That means first and foremost making sure that every woman in our country regardless of income has access to prenatal care. America thatl in we lead the planet earth in infant mortality rates, that we lead in maternal mentality rates in advance nations. Not only if i am president not only will we have universal prenatal care, but we will make toe that women have access what is necessary to be successful. When that child is born, we will make sure we have Affordable Health care in this country once and for all. We are going to make sure we have universal preschool. End am president , we will the absurd reality were every industrial nation has this, even afghanistan and the congo, but we dont. We will be a nation that has paid family leave once and for all. All right. I dont know what is in this bottle, but i am drinking appeared linking it. Drinking it. I saw somebody over here. Go ahead. Did you hear what he said . He said how is it a man like you is so handsome . [laughter] sen. Booker he said i have the best haircut of any of the candidates in this race. Theeally should go from opposite of what we have now. Look at trumps hair, this is the antidote. In terms of haircut, i am the antitrump. He asked a great question. We started with our children, lets now go to our elders. Now is shameful, the way we look at aging in our country. I want to go over a few things real quick. That wene, it is absurd have a nation that says to an elderly person, you have worked your entire life to amass a little bit of resources, a home to pass on to your children, now we are going to say to you if you want to qualify for medicaid, you have to go into the poor house, go through your savings and going to poverty before we give you medicaid. That will end under my leadership. We will make sure we raise the income cap and savings cap to make sure we can help people retire and have the individuals with dignity. We will do more than that. Right now we have a nation that does not prioritize seniors who want to age at home. We have an institutional prioritization. Will change that to give seniors who want to age at home more resources to do so. For those people who are at home as a caregiver as my mom was for my dad, who had parkinson and dementia, we dont honor those people with beautiful children with special needs, we dont honor them for the work they are doing. Under my leadership, we are going to make sure they qualify. Like the earned income tax credit, that is work. You will qualify for that as well. The last thing i want to say about retirement is we will end the reality we have in this country we have for millions and millions of seniors where they have worked all their lives and retire into poverty because Social Security checks dont go far enough. Under my leadership, we are to make sure that no senior is poor. How will we do that . People will tell you, Many Republican people will let you Social Security is insolvent, this entitlement is not secure. Number one, it is not an entitlement. People have paid into it all their lives. The problem is that the Social Security tax as it is right now is a regressive tax. People who are at the lower income, making 40,000 a year pay more into the tax then people making 1 million per year. We are going to make Social Security solvent by lifting the cap on the highest income earners in america. We are going to use those resources to give people in our country who are poor and retired bigger Social Security checks as well. All right. Yes, right in front of me. For lgbtql you fight education and rights in Public Schools . Sen. Booker her question was, how will i stand up and fight rights in writes Public Schools. Questions of these with our candidates, we should be asking what have they been doing to fight for the rights of lgbtq people in Public Schools. Since i was a mayor in newark, new jersey, i was fighting for my lgbtq kids. I made sure we created after School Centers that were safe spots for them. I made sure they sell their their mayor and a time when we had such violence against lgbtq americans, we are still in a moment where 30 of schoolids admit missing because they fear for their safety. Make up about 40 of homeless kids. This is outrageous. Higher suicide rate. When i was mayor, the second flag i raised in city hall after the American Flag was the pride flag. I wanted them to know. I tell you right now, the first thing im going to do is get us a secretary of education that has actually worked in Public Schools. [cheering and applause] sen. Booker and we are going to use the division of civil rights of educationment to boldly stand up for the safety, security, and protection of all of our children and make sure that when Public Education that in Public Education in america, every child should be safe. We should honor the beauty and wonder of all of our children, no matter what their background is, and that is the commitment i am making. All right. I know im in trouble because am going to have to say this, i love your hat. Of reggiein the era jackson and you have my team on. [indiscernible] sen. Booker this is a deep question right now. I think we need to have an honest conversation about this really quick. She said to me, are you willing to talk about cutting the Defense Budget . I want to say this is a deep question because what we have seen in the last two decades was and we areer wars, spending money in ways most americans dont even realize we are spending from our Defense Budget. I spoke with a group of senators and said enough, we have American Military planes refueling saudi american planes to Saudi Arabian planes to yemenis children. Live into understand we a nation where we are engaging in wars overseas the so Many Americans dont know about. About two years ago, many people woke up when about four of our soldiers died in niger. We need to get back to what the constitution says, that a president cannot engage in war and military activity without getting permission from congress. So i can tell you that i am going to do to bring things. Do two things. Thisng to end wars is a president that bombed the assad regime in violation of a president is needing authorization of military force. That alone will reduce the amount of money were spending overseas. More than that, im going to make sure we return in this country to not leading with bombs and military intervention. Even Donald Trumps first secretary of defense said that if you cut the state department, if you cut diplomacy, if you cut foreign aid, you will have to buy me more bullets. We need to get back to a nation that leads with our values, that stands with our allies, that creates security not sibley through military strength, but through the moral strength of this nation. That is what i am going to do. End military waste and over rage, an overreach, and make sure we are safe and secure not by violating our values but by living by them. Thank you, iowa. God bless you and god bless the United States of america. [cheering and applause] [indiscernible conversations] Elizabeth Warren has called for the end of the filibuster. What concerns do have about that . Sen. Booker my concerns lie did notn the filibuster exist, as a guy who lives in a thely vulnerable community, only person in the senate that lives in the community, they could have done things that were life or death in my community. We didnt have the ability for minorities to stand up in the senate and stop some of the dastardly things they would have done, like stripping away health care from the people in my community and across this country. Oding theving er rights of women. Im sibley saying, please simplyr the tides saying, please remember the tides go back and forth in politics. We could face a crises that could be bleak and disastrous. Perhaps before we think about the filibuster come we think sen. Booker texas is a blue state if you look at the demographics and the people that live there. At georgia as well. We could actually get into the hard work at our parties have not done. And build the kind of party that can win elections all over the place. That is the kind of work im going to do if i become a leader of the democratic party. And what im president obviously im leaving all options on the table. What is your [indiscernible] frankly, this is a real outrage of what is going on in the United States of america now. You have a president who as opposed to standing with our allies and taking on the challenge of china where you can have north american countries, the European Union in solidarity, criticized, and picking a fight with everybody at the same time. The National Security waiver despite taxes on canada, as if there eight National Security threat. True joe with his hair i find it medicine personally. Trudeau. To playhave never gone notre dame and told my entire offense, you guys set on the sidelines and im going to play notre dame alone. What he is really doing in America First as america alone, america isolated policy. That is not the way you do it. The pain ive seen is farmers in the states do not want handouts. They want to compete. In other are farmers can compete and win across the globe. This president hasnt hurt farmers, he has hurt our economy. He has hardworking people because of these tariffs. We are paying the tariffs not other countries. Their attacks on americans. These are attacks on americans and tariffs on american and i will have a real trade policy. And we will take on people like china and we will win. We will not just talk about it with bluster. Gun policy. How do you find that in the rural [indiscernible] do. Booker first of all, i not be leading in the polls now. Because the polls in my lifetime have not been productive. One thing you can know about our party we send on to be president , anybody lady in t