President ng for because i think our country is running out of time. But i also think it is not too late. A moment thatin is even more serious than what the Trump Presidency represents. You have to ask yourself, how does a guy like donald trump even get within cheating distance of the white house. That doesnt happen in ordinary times. It happens in crisis and weve seen it. Living with School Shootings and Climate Change, and an economy that doesnt work for most of us, where gdp can go up and Life Expectancy can go down. Something is deeply troubled in this country. It means were not going to be able to fix it by recycling the same arguments that have dominated washington as long as ive been alive. Weve got to do something completely different. [applause] now im excited to be in this part of iowa because this is a great place to remind the country and each other that there is no such thing as a permanently red state or county precinct. [applause] but we got to find a new vocabulary, call on us to organize around our values. So now is the time that values is a conservative idea, especially in our time. Values like freedom are not conservative values. Theyre American Values and today, they have progressive implications. [applause] were the ones ready to secure freedom in a world where freedom requires access to health care. Thats freedom, too. Not just cutting a regulation. Freedom comes by way of education, which is why we need a secretary of education that actually believes in public education. [applause] youre not free in this country if youre not able to organize for a good days pay and a good days work. Thats why i stand for organized labor. [applause] and women are not free in this country when their access to Reproductive Health is dictated by mailboxes and mail politicians male bosses and male politicians. So dont let anybody tell you the other party is the party of freedom. Same thing that goes for patriotism. We are going to break the thinking that the flag longs on one side of the aisle. The flight that was attached to my soldier when i was in afghanistan, it was not a republican flag. It was an american flag. [applause] the idea that we are able and indeed sometimes required to be critical of our leadership, and when we do, nobody will question our loyalty to the public, for which it stands, let alone tell us to go back to where we came from. [applause] lets talk about patriotism. Lets talk about National Security. There is no National Security when we dont have racial justice, let alone where we have a president coddling white nationalists. White nationalism is a threat to this country. Weve got to name it for what it is and weve got to fight it. [applause] so is climate disruption. Thats a security challenge. So is cybersecurity and election security. Were not going to meet these 21st century challenges with 17thcentury solutions. Weve got to do something different. Lets talk about political strategy. We cant look like the party of back to normal. What we have now isnt working, but normal isnt working either. And were not going to win on this president s show, because on his show, i dont know what to call it. Horror show, reality show, a couple other words come to mind. But if youre on this show, even winning or losing, which is why were going to pick up the remote and change the channel. So can i count on you to help us change the channel . Can i look to you to help us not just when the era, but the future of this country . And are we willing to do it in the name of our values . There is hope in our hearts. We are going to do it together. Im proud to be with you every step of the way. Thank you. I will see you on the ground. Thank you. [applause] thank you. Thank you so much. [applause] welcome to the stage representative tulsi gabbard. Gabbard aloha. Aloha, iowa democrats. Its so great you could be here. Now its been a dark week for us in this country. Weve seen great loss and weve seen great tragedy, and it breaks our heart to see how this country that we love is being torn apart. And it breaks our hearts because we care for each other. We care for our fellow americans. And it breaks our heart to see that we have a president in the white house who is abusing his power, who is misusing his position to stoke fear, to stoke racism, to stoke bigotry, all for his personal selfish political gain. It breaks my heart because its not who we are. Its not who we are as americans and its not who we are as a country during these times where we feel such despair and all hope is sometimes lost to remember who we are. And the values and principles that bind us together in this country, enshrined in our constitution, that remind us we are all created equal. [applause] that we all are guaranteed these freedoms and rights, the right to life liberty, and this pursuit of happiness. We are seeing the dangerous consequences of where this device of past takes us, and we are choosing to stand firmly in those values that unite us as we build this path forward, recognizing that yes, our country is far from perfect. We still have a lot of work to do. But when we focus on this unifying principle, but we in hawaii call the spirit of aloha, aloha means it so much more than hello and goodbye. What it really means is love and respect, and a recognition that we are all connected, that we are all children of god. We are all brothers and sisters regardless of the color of our skin or where we come from or who we love or how we worship or if we worship. [applause] it is in this spirit that i am asking and offering to lead as your president and commanderinchief. It is in this spirit that we together can stand united and lift our voices for each other, inspired by this unified spirit of love, towards that more Perfect Union that we always strive for. It is in this spirit that we can bring about the kind of systemic change that we need to see to make sure that every american in this country is able to get the Quality Health care that they need and deserve. [applause] it is in this spirit we can bring about the kind of change we need to protect our planet, to address Climate Change, make sure each of us has clean water to drink and clean air to breathe, things that are essential to every single one of us. We can bring about political justice reform, comprehensive immigration reform, deal with the challenges of our time when we stand together and against anyone who seeks to divide us, because this has happened for far too long and we the people have suffered as a result. I want to take a moment here and recognize the veterans here in the room and anyone who has a military family member. Would you mind standing for a second and let us thank you for your service . Thank you for your sacrifice. [applause] you embody thank you so much. You embody what it means to put service above self. You have experienced what i have, what it means to see the diverse fabric of this country come together in the uniform that we wear, united with that singular focus of putting service above self, putting the interest of our country and the American People above all else. As veterans, we also know the cost of war. And as your president and commanderinchief, i commit to ending these wasteful regime change wars, making it so not a single more of our brothers and sisters loses their life, and instead focus on investing our resources, our limited taxpayer dollars of serving the needs for people right here at home. Weve got to get our priorities straight. Im grateful for the opportunity to be here. For more information, visit my website. See you back here soon. Thank you all so much. Have a great night. Aloha. [applause] welcome to the stage new senator kristin gillibrand. Gillibrand hello, iowa. So i got to tell you. The reason i love iowa is you know how to fight and you know how to win elections. Who is going to beat steve king next election . Iowa and jd. Hes going to do it. And what about teresa greenfield . Is she going to be in the u. S. Senate in 2020 . Yes, she is. And thank you for sending cindy and abby. They have made such a difference already. I got my start in politics because i had a grandmother who got her start in politics. She never got to go to college. She was a secretary in the state legislature. But she spent the next two generations organizing women to get an politics, to stuff envelopes and make phone calls. My First Experience was 11 years old, i am in a hot campaign headquarters, everybody stuffing envelopes. The ladies are wearing sleeveless dresses. Im mesmerized by their arms, those jiggly arms, just jiggling. And in my mind, im thinking i want to be just like them someday, jiggly arms for everybody [applause] so my grandmother taught me a lot of things. The one thing she taught me, the one thing she taught me is that nothing is impossible. Nothing is impossible if youre willing to put your mind to it, if youre willing to work hard and never give up. And i learned that lesson from her. So if you want to get something done in washington, just, its impossible and i promise you ill get it done because thats what ive done every step of my career. When i first ran for congress, everyone said it was impossible. You can never win. I said i can raise the money. I can clearly win. He said you cant win. Theres more cows than democrats. You just cant win. But sure enough, we won. And we won again and the second time, we won by a 20 point margin. [applause] i know how to win and read places and blue places and purple places. When i went to the senate, i met with a man serving in the military. He was willing to die for our country. But he was told he had to lie about who he was and who he loved. I went to democrats and said we need to repeal dont ask, dont tell. They say why are you doing this now . Its so inconvenient. I said when our civil rights ever convenient . You do it because its the right thing to do. So i stood up to the pentagon and we repealed it. Not impossible. When i met with 9 11 first responders, they said they needed health care. They said no one will ever spend money in new york state. Sure enough, we knocked on every door, lifted up their voices. Last week, we made the 9 11 bill permanent, not impossible. [applause] so the only question that iowa asked me, the only question is can you beat President Trump . Yes, we can. It is not impossible. We can beat him at the ballot box. President trump has done some of the worst things i can imagine. Hes divided us. He spewed hate and division everywhere he goes. He separated and divided this country. We need a president whose brave. We need a president who will take on the battles no one else will. We need a president who will Bring Congress together to pass the Green New Deal, put a price on carbon, health care as a right, not a privilege, take on the nra, and and gun violence in this country. These are not impossible. We will, together, defeat trump and get things done because that is who we are as iowa democrats. We will defeat trump god bless you. [applause] welcome to the stage new york city mayor bill de blasio. Blasio good evening, everybody. Everyone, there are a lot of wonderful people, a lot of vips, but i want to introduce you to the most important vips in my life. First of all, my wife of 25 years, charlene mcrae. [applause] and everyone in this room who cares about Mental Health care, she has made it her business to break down the stigma thats keeping people from getting the Mental Health care they need. Weve got to fix that in america and in iowa, dont we . And i want to introduce you a recent college graduate, my son dante. [applause] you dont mind if im a proud papa for a moment, do you . Dante was also a new york state debate champion. [applause] and i had a secret weapon a few days ago because he helped prepare me before i went on Sean Hannitys show. So i was able to put sean in his place because i had a good coach. Thank you, dante. [applause] so, i want to do some quick audience participation. Look around the room. People are making a difference, agents of change. People are helping their communities. Give your neighbor a round of applause, everyone. [applause] and a little more audience participation, lets be clear about who we are as democrats. Are way the party of working people . [applause] are we the party of labor unions . [applause] are we the party of equality . [applause] are we the party of change . [applause] are we the party of big donors . No are we the party of big corporations . No. Are we the party of the status quo . I agree with you. We are going to make changes to this country. I run the nations largest city. Its not easy. When i became mayor, i said i would make a lot of changes. They said it could not be done. But we gave prek to every single child for free in new york city. [applause] we made sure we got the 15 minimum wage for working people. We got paid sick days. And then we went farther because we had hundreds of thousands of april with no Health Insurance. So now we are guaranteeing health care for anyone who does not have insurance. And one more thing, for all the hardworking people out there, we are going to do something to new york that should have then done along time ago, the only country that doesnt guarantee people time off. We are guaranteeing two weeks paid vacation for every working person. And that should be all over america, shouldnt it . Prek, 15 minimum wage. These are changes we need. Ive seen change. Ive made change. I know it can happen. But my friends, i want to caution. Because theres a lot of voices of conventional wisdom telling us dont be too bold. Dont sound like you want to rock the boat too much. A lot of time the commentators say the only way we win is if we dont sound like we are trying to do too much for people. Doesnt make sense to me. Rural iowa doesnt need just a little change. Rural iowa needs Mental Health services for everyone who needs it. Rural iowa needs hospitals to be kept open, not for them to close. Rural iowa needs schools to be kept open, needs prek for the children. Rural iowa needs universal health care more than most places because people are not going to get these things unless there is universal health care. When we are bold, we inspire people, we move people. Folks dont come out to vote because they hear a nice bland message. They come to vote when they hear passion and believe change can happen. And thats the party we need to be. Im going to Say Something controversial. The man were all here to beat, he told people they were going to break the status quo. He told them he was going to rock the boat. He rocked it a little too far, i think we would agree. But he got people start because he said things would change. We need to be the party that says things will change once and for all. And we can do that. And ill finish with this. I want to say, as a new yorker, im really, really sorry you got to know donald trump. Im really sorry about it. But this new yorker is happy to get rid of him for you. Thank you. God bless you all. [applause] welcome to the stage marianne williamson. Williamson its been wonderful to hear all my fellow candidates who are here this afternoon. And i have agreed with more than them than i disagreed with. But i also think we need to face facts. Weve been saying these things and we lost last time. Weve been promoting these same political values and weve been losing congressional seats too often, losing senatorial seats too often. I want to talk to you about the transformation we need in this country that will only happen if we have transformation in politics, and if we embrace a more transformational vision. Ive read an interview with Jared Kushner and he said he had been in a mcdonalds with his fatherinlaw, and he told his fatherinlaw there are so many angry people out there, we could harness all that anger and we could make you president. And i thought to myself when i read that, there are so many good people out there and 70 decent people, loving people out there, we could harness all that and change the world. [applause] the American People are good people. They are loving people. But the American Peoples goodness and love has not been channeled through american politics in a way that it should be, for a long time. And the only way were going to do that is if we get way more deep and way more real, because love tells the truth. We have an enemy here that is more than one political candidate. We have collective eyes, fear, bigotry, racism, islamophobia, antisemitism. There are more that love than hate, but those who hate hate with seriousness and they are politicized. The only way you are going to be to big lies is with big truth. The Democratic Party is only going to win this election and our future if we start telling big truths that too often we have not called. The truth is, 40 years ago, we started acquiescing to an Economic System that has corrupted our government, that said shortterm profits came before the advocacy for the people of the United States, for the people of the world, and the planet on which we stand. Too often, democrats have been proposing policies that help us sway the pain. Democrats need to challenge those forces that make that pain and evitable. We cannot do that if we are making the money from those Health Insurance companies and taking money from big pharma and from the manufacturers, from oil and gas, taking money from chemical companies, taking money from the defense contractors. Ladies and gentlemen, people can smell it. People can smell it. Thats the problem. Donald trump did not win just because a few people were passionate about donald trump. And if he wins again, it will not just be because of a few people who are so passionate about donald trump. He won last time, and if he wins again, he would win again because of so many people that didnt vote. Thats why those of us who are not from careers entrenched within that system have something very important to bring. We have not taken forprofit donations. We are not from the system. I am not prosecuting a case against donald trump. I am prosecuting a case against the system that delivered donald trump. It is that level of truth telling that is going to win this election. Otherwise, we