Candidate marianne williamson. She talks about her proposal to create a u. S. Department of peace if elected in 2020. From the National Press club, this is an hour. Good afternoon. Welcome to the National Press club. My name is alison and im the washington investigative editor and im the 112th president of the National Press club. Our guest is a candidate for the Democratic National nomination. She has spent half a lifetime as author, activist and faith leader. She has been speaking, writing and writing about spirituality and politics. Author of 14 books, four that reached number one on the New York Times best seller list, including the last one. She has founded several nonprofit organizations, including the Peace Alliance and project angel food, a nonprofit, that has delivered millions of meals to americans since 1989. She joins us here to detail her signature policy proposals. The creation of a department of peace. Please join me in welcome ms. Marianne williamson. [applause] ms. Williamson this is quite a historic building. Its wonderful to have this opportunity to speak to you. As i walking through the hallway, there are great photographs and buttons from the past president ial campaigns and one is a button from the campaign of the comedian named pat paulsen, from back in the 1970s. He was saying during his news campaign, the American People who want a president who is smart, strategic and on their side, to which i say, picky, picky, picky. I thought that was just great. As much as political humor is a long part of the historical landscape all the way back to the beginning, that same landscape has had very serious times and i would say this is one of them. Barack obama is basically the last american president who had the luxury of seeing the world through the lens of 20th century mindset. The 21st century is a different world. And the 20th century was a different mindset since the 19th. The American People are just fine. They are forward thinking. The American People are regenerative. This is part of our national character. The American People get that the world is different in health, education, health and wellness and in every area. The americans are on the move. They know that if something is not working on wednesday, we have to change it before saturday. The problem as i see it is not with the American People. At the same time, when it comes to our political establishment, thats not regenerative or on the move, not forward thinking and very little to do with a 21 century mindset. It is stuck and corrupted quite frankly. It is under the sway of a 20th century mindset. And at this moment and this has been true for decades is infiltrated by the underinfluence of money, corporate money on our Public Policy. Closing that gap between the consciousness of the will of the American People and the way our government operates is the moral and Political Task of our time. Thats whats is supposed to happen in a representative democracy. The whole point is the government is here to represent the will of the people and it is certainly here in advocate for the American People. Nobody here is under the illusion that that is what is happening now. The last 40 years we have been sliding away from a genuine vital democracy that might be called a corporate aristocracy. Big pharmaceutical companies, oil and gas companies, gun manufacturers, et cetera, they wield more power on the functioning of our government than does the concern of the American People. Im here to talk to you about one of the ways and there are many ways in which that that corporate dominance has created tremendous amounts of unnecessary human suffering. And human suffering is what the government should be concerned with, the suffering of the American People, the unnecessary suffering of us and our children and of other people in the world who are impacted by American Foreign policy and that which is ultimately the suffering of people that will occur if we continue to desecrate the planet itself. There is people talk about famous peoples last words. The last words of the famous french scientist louis pasteur, his last words were this. I was wrong. Its not the germ, its the terrain. Now the 20th century is being dominated by a mindset that is a product of physics saw the world as a huge machine. All you did was tweak things on the outside. That 20th century mindset dominates our Politics Today and that is why there is no real transformation that emerges from washington. All that emerges is a treatment of the symptom. Thats what our policy is about and discussions. Our politicians talk to us about changing this or that policy, but the change in policy is disconnected from a recognition of what caused the problem to begin with. The 21st century is integrated. In the 21st century we recognize its not just the germ but the terrain, not just the violence in terms of peoples behavior but its the thoughts and feelings within people that led to the dysfunctional or malfunctional behavior. You can talk about a domestic level and talk about the fact that 100 people are killed by guns every single day. We can talk about the mass shootings. We can talk about all of these horrible statistics regarding gun violence in the United States and we can talk about a change in our gun safety policy, which i support, like most americans, i want universal background checks. I want to outlaw bump stocks and the gun show loopholes and want to bring back the ban on military assault weapons and want to see a change in American Foreign policy wisdom natured by isch which too often owned by this obsession with the perpetration of the military and Industrial Complex and its power. However, those things of themselves are symptoms. We must ask ourselves why are we such a Violent Society . Thats why i want the United States department of peace. And the United States department of peace is very connected also with the United States department of children and youth and i believe my plan nor search for reparations of plans for the reparations of slavery will help address the turbulence that leads to violent behavior in our society, including white nationalism. When you look at what we know now, we know things about the brain of a child they didnt know 50 years ago. We know how much happens before the age of eight. How can you talk about gun violence and talk about violence in our society and not even have a conversation about the violence that is perpetrated by so much of our Public Policy . Our criminal Justice System is in many ways as violent as the Violent Crimes it seeks to prosecute. Our food policy is how many visit is violent in how many toxins are in our air and our how much violence is allowed to be done on the earth. Our educational policies are violent in the sense that if you are withholding a high Quality Public School education from any child, particularly given the fact that when that is withheld, it is due to the fact that the child wasnt lucky enough to live in a rich neighborhood and we have the audacity to base it that is a form of oppression and that is violent. Poverty is violent. For that matter, hunger is violent. This idea that we are going to deal with violence by building more prisons and having tougher gun safety laws, ladies and gentlemen, we have to look in the mirror as an American Society and realize we will be violent until we decide to be nonviolent. All the darkness is absence of light and all that violence is is the absence of peace. Are we willing to declare peace . If we are willing to declare peace, we have to look at the fact that there were 45 million impressions of violence against children last year alone on the internet. If we are interested in dealing with the terrain out of which societal dysfunction and malfunction arises, we need to deal with the fact that 13 million children in america are hungry. 100,000 children in america are homeless. Almost a third of the American People live in conditions that are near poverty. That is violent. That is where the seeds are, ladies and gentlemen. We should see in we should factor in our domestic and International Policies the fact that large groups of desperate people are a National Security risk. When you have large groups of desperate people, dont go acting like you have no idea where all that violence came from, because if people experience violence in accumulated layers of Human Experience over and over again, all that anybody has to do is look in the violent perpetrators that are in american prisons and you will see a high number of them were the victims of violent abuse when they were children. Thats why i want all of the issues we know to actually dismantle violence to brought to the fore, conflict resolution, restorative justice. We need traumainformed education. We need Community Wraparound services, Mental Health services, not only for our children but for their families and mindful in schools, antibullying and violence prevention. Washington doesnt look underneath the water line. It talks about policy, but not people. The next time that congressmen or senators are taking a jaunt to the middle east, which i support, i would like them to take a jaunt to the inner city of los angeles, chicago or indiana. 40 of the girls in the schools of chicago have a form of ptsd, that is considered no less severe than the ptsd of returning veterans from afghanistan or iraq. We have millions of children living in chronic trauma. When an american child, we have millions of American Children who go to school and ask the teacher, do you have some food for me. We have millions of children that go to school that dont have adequate School Supplies to teach a child to read. If the child cannot read by the age of 8, the chanes of incarceration are increased. The chances of incarceration are drastically increased. We will then perhaps be incarcerating that person for what they did, but isnt the original question what we did. Thats why America Needs to look in america. In the mirror. The same is true internationally as domestically. Our government has been corrupted by an obsession to get shortterm profits that the unnecessary human suffering that results from this, the squeeze of people, the economic anxiety, the constant economic tension that millions of people live through, this is the source of the societal dysfunction and yet the same level of malfunction on the part of how we behave as a society in terms of policy is mirrored in international affairs. Our National Security is dominated basically by the constant perpetration of war. Lets look at the map. We spend 760 billion in one year of our military budget. Our state department, which is mediation and diplomacy and development, they get 40 billion. Now within that 40 billion, there is 17 billion [loss of audio] also within that 40 billion, there is less than 1 billion given to the peace building agencies and the u. S. Institute of peace gets Something Like 38 million. There are four factors that constitute what we call peace building. And people dont understand what peace building is. The truth of the matter is that peace building exemplifies skill sets and expertise just as sophisticated, just as important and in many ways given some of the places where these peace builders are assigned, takes just as much coverage. Just as much courage. There are four factors to peace building that when present, there will be a Greater Peace and lower conflict. One, expanding Economic Opportunities for women. Number two, expanded Educational Opportunities for children. Number three, a reduction of violence against women. And number four, the amelioration of human suffering. All of that should be expressed in the way how our government operates. Love that is common. We should see large groups of desperate people whether a corner of an american city, large groups of desperate people are a risk. Why . Because desperate people do desperate things. Toperate people on or likely succumb to psychological forces, whether it has to gangs in america or terrorist organizations somewhere else. And that is why when im elected president of the United States i want a department to deal with the horrendous need that we have for massive realignment in our children and that is the only way to have a peaceful future. In order to coordinate, these departments are basically coordinative. We have the experts in peace building. We have the experts in social work. We have the experts in Early Childhood. We already have the experts in international affairs, people who know the humanitarian assistance needed, the expansion of opportunities that are needed. It is simply this is not what we fund. How can you compare 760 billion to the military and less than 1 billion that is given to our peace building agencies. We dont have to bring in new people. We need to coordinate among the agencies that already exist, and the United States department of peace will do just that. The u. S. State department, the usaid, all of this should be given equal weight to military. And when im president , they will. The head of the usaid should have a seat at the table. No less powerful than our secretary of defense. We need the equivalent in Global Society of what already exists in health and healing. The health and wellness space. We have long past evolved beyond the idea that you didnt have to take care of your body, your diet or nutrition or your illness and then when sickness arrives, which it will, you can go to a doctor and hope that the doctor can suppress or eradicate the symptoms. We dont look at healing the body that way anymore, and we shouldnt look at healing the society or the planet that way anymore either. We need to cultivate peace, not just be prepared for war. I see the u. S. Military like i see a surgeon. I have Great Respect for the military. My critique here is not of the military. The decisions are not military decisions but political decisions. Every dollar that the military says they need they should get. What im talking about here, what every american should be concerned about is the hundreds of billions over and above what the military says they need which has to deal with maximum shortterm need for military contractors. If you want to be healthy, you cannot just fight disease. Sickness is the absence of health. Health is not the absence of sickness. If you want a peaceful world, you need to cultivate peace. You just cant fight war. We need to have the best surgeon onhand. Thats what the military should be, but a sane person tries to avoid surgery. Thats the kind of paradigm shift that we need. This is not just a shift of policy here or there that can be shifted back with the next president. We need a shift in the thinking of the American People and need the American People to realize that the reason we have so much violence on the streets and in our world is because our government is so corrupted by the undue influences by corporations that are mainly concerned about their shortterm maximazation and do not consider it their job to have to worry about the suffering that emerges because of it. That suffering is what leads to violence in the heart, and violence in the heart is what leads to violent behavior. The American People understand this kind of thing. The American People are not stupid. It is time for the American Government to catch up. Thank you very much. [applause] if you have a question, raise your hand, and wait for the microphone, and identify yourself. I want to start off with, you sell an awful lot of books and you are very wellknown and popular, but your candidacy has not taken off in the same way. Where do you think that disconnect is . Ms. Williamson the disconnect itself is an illusion. If you say i havent broken through, in the second debate and its because of my popularity after the second debate and because of the fact that i was googled more than any other candidate in 49 states that the political hits began and everybody in this room knows what that is. You know what a smear is. The illusion, she is antimedicine, antiscience, neither which is true. Crazy dangerous lady, none of which is true. You heard my ideas that are disruptive to the status quo and those who are so attached to the status quo saw me and within three days the smears began. People have continued to come to my talks and donate to my campaign. Its interesting, in the last election, the Democratic Party was gobsmacked by the success of Bernie Sanders and success of donald trump because neither one could see beneath the waterline. I would think that the Democratic Party would be happy that i bring people to politics. When the polls are done and polling democratic voters, people who come to my talks and Campaign Rallies werent not necessarily people who voted, many people who are republican and independents. And there will be millions of people voting in this next election who were not even born in the 20th century. I think there was an illusion and mischaracterization of who i am, and i have broken through and the same system would like it not to be true is pretending that it isnt happening. You just came back from a trip in iowa. Can you talk about the reception you got there . Ms. Williamson when you are in the early primary states, and many of you are journalists spending during campaign seasons, its a real honor to be in iowa and New Hampshire and South Carolina and nevada. The things that changed in california with the early voting there, i dont get that the average californian has integrated that in their thinking in the same way. There are two different political universes. One is the pundits, the polls, the Corporate Media, the d. N. C. Here in washington, you know all about that. But there is another political universe that you know about as well. Thats what is going on on the ground in iowa, in New Hampshire, in South Carolina, in nevada. And there it is so profound actually. People in those states know, iowa is what you are asking about, they have the power and d. C. Doesnt have the power. Cnn and fox doesnt have the power, except insofar as they are able to manipulate the views of people in those states. Political establishments such as Political Parties should facilitate the process of democracy. So when im in iowa as i was in monday and mobile and go to marianne2020, my twitter, facebook and see pictures of the mobile traveling, people in iowa are smart and know how much power they have and they know the issues and they want to hear what youve got and people are showing up and people are listening. I see we are engaged in a deeper conversation about what is happening in this country, about traumatized children, economic injustice, world war ii mobilization to go to a clean economy. They are interested in things like the department of peace, changing from a war economy to a peace economy and so when im actually there, it is one of the greatest privileges and honors of my life. And i have been saying recently when asked, i have learned from this experience that the system is even more corrupt than i feared and the people of the United States are even more wonderful than i knew. You were not on the debate stage the last time and you have been very critical of the d. N. C. The way they have run this and their role in the election. Can you talk about what is wrong with their not thod of managing with their method of managing the debate. Ms. Williamson im somewhat critical. And i will be glad to articulate that. It should be the purpose of the d. N. C. To facilitate american democracy, not to dictate american democracy. The constitution doesnt mention Political Parties, and George Washington warned us against them. To the extent that they are appropriate, they should take a back seat and should be serving the political process, not in any way dominating the political process. What happens right now these debates which on a certain reality are a reality show. D. N. C. Says there are so many candidates, we have to narrow this down. I dont agree with the premise. I say it is healthy for the Democratic Party and the United States there are so many people. This is an allhandsondeck type of moment. If you have a good idea, we really have to win in 2020. Anybody have any good ideas . I can say as a candidate, anytime any of the candidates has a good idea ups the of every other candidate. There is a good idea limiting the number. One woman say, you know, its like with children, you cant give them too many choices. And i looked at her and said, the voters are not children. Thats the point. People have said, what is the limit and what are the choices . The primaries, thats what they are for. That should be up to the voters. The voters can walk and chew gum at the same time. I have been in iowa. This is the most consequential election not just in our lifetime. This is one of the most consequential elections in american history. Give people time to think this through. And particularly if you are a candidate like myself whos outside the box, people have to process this. But i think this is important because the box itself is saturated with toxicity. And no way should the d. N. C. Including Corporate Media be trying to manipulate or limit the opportunity of the voter to hear everybody, see everybody and make their own decisions. Have you found that members of congress here in d. C. Are interested in what you are saying or anyone reaching out to you . Ms. Williamson are they interested in what i have to say . Both. And have they called you up and say talk to us . There are very, very wonderful people who i have met in government. Nothing that im saying is personal. Even with the other candidates. Im not running against anyone but im running with a lot of good people. Its the system that is corrupt. And sometimes it is well intentioned people that become part of the system and its like you get sucked into it. So i dont know. Some people have been kind. I dont know what they are saying after they have been kind to me. This is far too important to be filtering through how much i feel about this or that. This is too serious a moment to be thinking about things on that level. Donald trump says he deserves the nobel peace prize. What do you say to him . Ms. Williamson people say he deserves he said that. Especially with north korea. Ms. Williamson poor darling, i dont think he can help himself. What the president did in iran, its extremely dangerous. He shouldnt have taken us out of the iran nuclear deal. For all we know it seemed to be working and iran was complying with the things they were given. As president i will go go back to the deal. He has destabilized the region. He has caused more and more misery. He is foolish to think this will turn them against their government because they are absolutely clear about where these sanctions come from. Thats number one. In terms of syria, what he has done is not only equally dangerous but more dangerous to the kurds. He has caused tremendous suffering already, slaughter among kurds. He has created a situation where why would any ally of the United States trust us and think we are going to be there for them as we had promised. These people have fought at our side and been loyal partners. What has happened now will have consequences that we cant imagine. In terms of the prisoners let go and isis fighters, this is terrible what he has done in syria. By the way, if anybody out there thinks the boys are coming home, they were sent to iraq. This president does not deserve a peace prize. He possibly, however, deserves impeachment. Bloomberg environment. I was wondering if you could talk about Climate Change. What would be the number one item that you would take on to combat Climate Change . Ms. Williamson first thing i would do is make sure that the Environmental Protection agency is headed by environmental scientists. We need the ex Chemical Companies to be gone and ex lobbyists to be gone and e. P. A. Needs to become a magnet for world class environmental science. We have a situation where if we do not act and act radically within the next 12 years, we could have within the next 15, 20 years social collapse. We could be on the way toward a situation where whole swaths of continents are uninhabitable because of the heat and food cannot be grown there. That means massive Food Shortages and levels that could be up to the hundreds of millions of environmental refugees. Right now we have a terrible environmental crisis. Over 63 million who have been displaced, you think there is a refugee crisis now, wait until you see what happens then. We need nothing short of a world war ii level Mass Mobilization to reverse Climate Change. Not only do we need to see sequester carbon, we need the forest and animal factory farming. Even if we did anything else, we would have the same level of problem because of the methane if we do not deal with that. Now its interesting on this because a few years ago we were talking about the Paris Climate Accords and saying the democratic president has to get back into them. That seems quaint. That is only step one. And now we are going through the same transition regarding the green new deal. Rejoining the Paris Climate Accord is the least of what we need to do. That isnt going far enough. We need an enrollment unlike anything we have seen since world war ii. There are two main issues. First of all, the people, the institutions, and the industries that have done industrialscale harm to the earth, we need those industries to now help us do industrialscale repair of the earth. And we have to admit, there was a time when the use of fossil fuels, people didnt know and didnt see it i will legitimate. We wouldnt have fought world war ii without the use of fossil fuels. This has to be a just transition. One of the things i bring to the table is to navigate systems carefully. The challenges that lies before us in terms of our need to move from a dirty economy to a clean economy. We need change but cant have chaos. We have seen what a chaotic president does. We need fundamental change but someone who can navigate this change in a nonchaotic way. We need a genuine and tender respect for the thousands and thousands of people who now make their living in fossilfuelrelated industries. So they understand they have a president who has their back. We need your creativity and research and development and manufacturing skills. They need to be repurposed, but we are going to do this carefully and take care of each and every one of you so this transition not only serves the country and the planet and also serves you. And the United States in doing this, not only to be participating in all of the things i said, it needs to be a change. We need in this area as in so many areas for the United States to become a leader once again in doing the right thing. You have been critical of u. S. Military intervention. What are some things you approve of and some things the military does correctly. Williamson i wear hearing aids. Think the u. S. Has had the most. Ms. Williamson a direct threat to our homeland and a direct to the safety and security of an ally. And number three, when the world order, the safety and security of the world order is being violated. I certainly think that the invasion of iraq was an absolutely horrible transgression on every level and we should not ever forget that the genesis of isis comes from that. I believe this is not that one did happen but should have happened in rwanda. Bill clinton said one of his sorrows and regrets is that he had not used military people in rwanda. I think i would have. Im not a pacifist. I think that the use of the American Military should be along the same Core Principles as all other Public Policy. I want Public Policy, both domestic and international, to be that which helps people thrive and which on a public level makes a stand for morality, democracy, and humanitarian values. But in yugoslavia or the taliban in afghanistan . You mentioned the taliban. Even before 2001, i was an American Woman very aware of their brutality towards women. The conversation about the taliban predated even here in this country, predated 9 11. So when we sent troops to afghanistan after 9 11, this was not illegitimate to me and not inappropriate to me. Should we have sent troops before that . Ms. Williamson probably not. But i would, had i been president , had been interested in ways that we could be of service. There are a lot of ways the United States can exercise power short of military intervention. Hi, im with the national journal. I have been talking to folks who are on the ground combatting the Opioid Crisis who are worried that the rhetoric kind of emphasizing Holding Drug Companies Accountable could take away plans for access to care for folks who are dealing with the Opioid Crisis. How could you detail your plan to folks who are struggling with that . Talking about Opioid Crisis and hold Drug Companies accountable and taking away from access to care and drugs for people who are suffering. Ms. Williamson lets be clear, the United States has to stop enabling pharmaceutical companies. At what point is this going to stop . We have attorneys general throughout this country who are prosecuting executives who are known to have practiced predatory terms in order to overmanufacture and allow for the overprescription of painkillers. We know this. And even now it is fascinating watching the settlements are happening and how small they are compared to what they should be. So im not sitting here playing a violin worried about what is happening to them. Big pharma has an important function in this country. We need painkillers but we cant allow them to do whatever they want. We need to fly. But we shouldnt have allowed boeing to do whatever they want. There are a lot of areas, not just with the f. D. A. , centers for disease control, the e. P. A. And with the f. A. A. We need to remember that these agencies were established to advocate for and protect the American People against overreach by corporate entities who went unfettered by government regulation and serving their shortterm profit bottom line can hurt people. No, im not concerned. Im concerned for the larger issue of making sure im concerned that pharmaceutical companies are serving the American People before they are serving their own bottom line. The focus is Holding Drug Companies Accountable, does it get taken away from people who are suffering from addiction . Ms. Williamson no. Name a way that it would . You never have to worry doing the wrong thing, having integrity and legitimate regulation is going to hurt people. Its the lack of integrity and lifeserving regulations that hurts people. I was wondering if you had dollar amounts on how much you allocate for your department of peace . Ms. Williamson we need to look at all the pieces. A lot of it isnt bringing in new things as much as it is coordinating things that are already there. Im not sure that it would cost much of anything. If we need to start with a number in terms of what we could go to and say we would have this space if need, i have no problem with 2 of the military budget. But i dont think anything like that would be necessary because as i said, youre talking about changing power positions. You are talking about where money is spent more than you are talking about how much money is spent. But i think you are going to be a lot better off spending money to cultivate peace if you spend a lot more money cultivating health, you will spend a lot less money on doctors later. So if we spend more money on cultivating peace, we will have to spend a lot money later on to spend a lot less money later on military misadventures. The American People need to wake up and smell the coffee. This has to do with corporate profits and corporate profits for huge multinational defense contractors. I wonder how Many Americans know that the u. S. Has ordered 100 b21 raiders. The b21 is a bomber and you expect bombers to drop bombs. Each plane costs 560 million. Interesting, unique characteristic and that is they drop not only conventional bombs but also Nuclear Bombs. Now let me ask you, maybe im just dumb, i dont understand, why do we need 100 airplanes that drop Nuclear Bombs . You drop five of those, its over for human civilization as we know it. You drop 10 of those because remember every nuke that exists on the planet makes hiroshima look like a pinprick. 10 of those, it is over for our species on this planet. So does anybody think that 100 airplanes at 560 million each that drop Nuclear Bombs is to ep keep us safe . This has to do with the money of Nuclear Industry and its time for the American People to wake up, and i find it stunning that only two people in this race are even talking about this. To follow up on the opioid question, it seems like doctors are left out of the equation. Big pharma is blamed and we know there is addiction and death. But what about the doctors . People dont have access to them unless they are prescribed. And real quickly on the institute of peace, the Peace Institute and h. H. S. , those are dedicated to peace, children and families, so why would you want to expand government . You are talking about h. H. S. What they have is agencies that help with working families and children and the Education Department. Its really good we have an Education Department and really good we have h. H. S. But how can we look at the infiltration of foster care by the sex trafficking industry and children who are violently abused . How can we look at the fact that 13 million children are hungry . How can we look at the fact that we have American Children living in constant trauma due to the factors i mentioned today and say h. H. S. Is fine and Education Department is fine. Clearly we need a massive realignment of investment in the direction of our children. Like we put together the department of Homeland Security because we knew there was a tragic problem on 9 11. The fbi and cia were not conversing. We need a more holistic view. The threats and vulnerabilities. And as president i want to sit at a table with all of those agencies as well as all of the people, many of whom i meet throughout this country, who are social workers, Early Childhood educators. The doctors being left out, that is true. Teachers are left out. Social workers are left out. Same is true with our trade agreements. Workers are left out. These are all backroom deals where a bunch of people are paid hundreds of thousands of dollars talk to lobbyists and lawyers and they come up with policy. When im president of the United States, those days are over. I wanted to ask you about democrats who have been making the case since 2016 since the election of President Trump had no government experience when he came into office. How do you respond to democratic voters who are making the same case about your candidacy . I dont see the problem as his lack of experience. I see the problem as his lack of ethics and distaste for democracy itself. If the president wanted to bring in political experts, he could havem, and he didnt. And those close to the job, he got rid of soon enough. Very experienced politicians took us into iraq. And very experienced politicians agreed with the decision. Very experienced politicians took us into vietnam. Very experienced politicians brought us here. We are naive to believe that all of these problems were created by donald trump. All of these problems created donald trump. We need to get out of the vicinity of the cliff. And the kind of experience that is represented by political expertise, while i admire it and respect it and certainly see the need for it in any Successful Administration and governance, there is another kind of experience and another kind of qualification that i bring to the table that i believe is lacking in other candidates. Franklin roosevelt himself, this is a president that led us through world war ii and the president who led us through the new deal, someone who didnt understand policies and plans, he said that the most Important Role of the presidency is moral leadership. He said that the administrative aspects of the presidency is secondary. Do we need political experts . The Democratic Party is filled with them. But in the president we need more than a car mechanic. We need someone who can discern what road we are. I want to go back to the iran subject. Clearly the iranian attacks the oil tankers in the gulf area and attacked saudi arabia. You mentioned you will go back and sit down at the table. President obama, he did the best that any president could do. He sent airplanes full of money, like 1. 8 billion to the iranians and he was as easy as any president could be. They still work on the nuclear weapons. I want to hear from you why do you want to take it easy on iran . Ms. Williamson i would be walking up to the person and i would be able to hear. Im sorry, can you tell me . He said you wanted to sit down with iran and get back into the iran nuclear deal, he is basically saying that president obama was easy on iran and iran went in bombed saudi arabia and oil tankers. Why would you want to negotiate with them again . Those bombings came after we exited the iran deal. There is no direct connection between the deal and those bombings. I think president obama and former secretary of state john kerry would admit it wasnt as far as we would have liked it to have gone, but it was a beginning. When you are talking about diplomacy and countries that are adversaries, you dont enter the room to get everything you want but get the best deal possible. And it was a concensus between the western allies that we got the best deal possible and as i said before, the iranians for all we know we are complying. What the president has done by leaving, this is what destabilized the region including the bombings. The bombings happened after the president left the iran deal. Hi, one american news. I want to go back to what you said moving away from fossil fuels and alternatives for these people in regions that are reliant on that industry. You said their creativity and value could be used. There would be away to find work for them. Im from one of those areas. They felt like the Obama Administration was hard on them and there wasnt Economic Opportunity presented as they went against fossil fuels. Clearly, Hillary Clinton did not help herself in west virginia. They feel like people make these promises and said well find you other economic alternatives, thats a very hard thing to do. I have talked to leaders in that region, how do you do that . There is a lot of flowery language and hopeful talk, but lets take the coal regions, specifically what is your idea for alternatives and how to create more Economic Activity for them . Ms. Williamson ok, your point is very well taken. I would like to deconstructed if i might. In the case of Hillary Clinton, that line was so taken out of context saying we are going to take a lot of jobs away. She was talking about that as part of a larger conversation about what we needed to do. In terms of president obama and not just president obama, i believe and this is not just regarding the subject you mentioned, i think it is regarding a lot of things. There has been what has come across to many people an arrogance and elitism and lack of concern for the Collateral Damage that might be experienced by thousands of people who need to put food on their table to feed their children. I dont need to come up with flowery language. I think they have come up with perfunctory language that has made them feel dismissed. Im not. One of the reasons i feel im a good person for the job is because i dont have this combative attitude so much as i have a cooperative attitude towards as i said industries that have done industrialscale harm that we need to do industrialscale repair. Martin luther king said you have very little morally persuasive power with people who can feel your underlying contempt. Now, i led with the need. To me, when i talked to you about it just now, i led with that need. The American Worker in that situation, whether it has to do with trade or anything else, deserves to feel that the American People have their back. And i feel even when you ask me what industries, there is so much money to be made. There are so many jobs to be created greening this country. Solar, wind, reforestation or regenerative agriculture, planning to deal with floods, wetlands and management. I dont think the issue is what you just said and im sensitive to the issue. And that is a conversation on the part of the american president that we take managing this transition in a way as i said earlier is about change but not chaos. And i actually use the phrase tender respect. I feel that and i believe people hear you on the level that you speak from. I mean it. Hi, breitbart news. Good to see you. Would Hillary Clinton be a part of your department of peace . If so, or if not, why . Ms. Williamson you know, i dont agree with Hillary Clinton about everything, but i dont want to be drawn into this piling on of Hillary Clinton that should offend every American Woman. Can i follow up . The question regarding jobs. Ms. Williamson Hillary Clinton is the person who said womens rights are human rights. Remember when she made that statement . Hillary clinton has spent a lifetime working with issues around girls and women around the world. In fact, if anything, the mistake she made in her president ial campaign is she didnt talk more about that. Even though i dont agree with mrs. Clinton about everything, i was a passionate bernie supporter, but once the primaries were over, i supported Hillary Clinton. I tweeted on behalf of Tulsi Gabbard the other day. However, i think all of us have a lot to be grateful for in terms of the service she gave and peace building and development of soft power. We can talk about other issues, militarily, in terms of her tenure as secretary of state where i might not agree with her and dont agree with her, but we need to be nuanced right now and we need to keep our conversation on the left and right to return to honorable debate and honorable disagreement. And when it comes to Hillary Clinton, she is a perfect example where we agree, dont agree. But not piling on. It hurts every woman when any woman is made a target. [indiscernible question] ms. Williamson pardon . You lean one way or another in the department of peace including her . If im elected president of the United States, i will think long and hard about everything, including personnel. Going back to the question about jobs. We had earlier this week andrew yang. He talked about the displacement due to Artificial Intelligence and automation and proposed this basic universal income which he described as a way to give people the freedom and cushion so if they arent fully employed they can find a way to move on. What do you think about his proposal . Ms. Williamson i read his book and he convinced me. I did more research having read that book and he is absolutely right, we have a tsunami on the way. There are nine states in the United States in which trucking is the primary industry. Lets say someone has been a trucker for four decades and then what happens, what, in fact is going to happen . We will have driverless trucks. What is that trucker supposed to do . This is industry after industry after industry. A lot of us who might think well my job couldnt be replaced by automation, dont kid yourself. No person should live for themselves. We have such shortterm thinking and everything regarding our Public Policy. We need to think about what is coming down the road 10, 12 years from now. I agree with him about universal basic income. I tell you who else wanted income blows my mind. Milton friedman. He himself said none of us will be safe without a universal pentagon basic income. It is not something new. And i want to Say Something else, i have mentioned already here today that all domestic and Foreign Policy should be built around the core principle, what would help people thrive . Tense, anxious, stressed people are not at their best. They dont have time, energy and band width for their partners, children to read a bed time story, they dont have the energy to be there for their children and to really participate in family dynamic the way they might. They dont have the happiness and stressfree ability to be good employers and employees. This is the again he cyst of this is the genesis of societal dysfunction and malfunction and malfunction happens when dysfunction is so bad that you are talking about selfdestruction here. Anything that helps people thrive allows greater access to their own creativity and productivity. Thats where money comes from. We need to throw away bad economic ideas that are holdovers from the 20th century. Money is not produced by aristocrats. Who dropped crumbs from their table in the form of job creation. Money is produced by people spreading their wings and living their dreams and manifesting their godgiven potential and being their productive best. This is why we should have universal health care and free tuition at state colleges and universities and we should cancel these college loans. 1. 5any of these trillion loan debt. How many of those hundreds of thousands of people would love more than have access to 2,500 so they can start their website . They just want to be part of the game and we are leaving them out. To me, anything that helps people thrive helps create peace and helps create prosperity. Ok, we are now out of time. I know there are more questions. I think ms. Williamson might be able to talk on the side if you need. But before you go, id like to present you with the National Press club coffee mug. Ms. Williamson thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you, everyone. I appreciate it. [applause] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2019] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] go shopping at the cspan online store, including the campaign 2020 sweatshirts and hats. Go to cspan store. Org and browse all of our products. Cspans washington journal come alive every day with news and policy issues that impact you. Sunday morning democratic pollster Stefan Hankin and republican pollster Conor Maguire discussed campaign 2020 and the impeachment inquiry and the center for new American Security will be on to talk about the geopolitical fallout from u. S. Troop withdrawal from syria, washington journal, live at 7 00 eastern sunday morning. Join the discussion. President trump awarded the medal of freedom to roger penske, an entrepreneur and former professional auto racer. The event took place in the oval office of the white house. Pres. Trump thank you very much. A very special day. Today i am delighted to present our nations highest civilian honor to a giant of american industry, entrepreneurship, and
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