You have the same relationship with the National Weather service as our current president . Exactly. Thanks so much for taking your time this weekend to join us today. During the thanksgiving holidays my older son and his girlfriend, someone we consider to be a daughter, shared with us that they have talked about not having children because of the potentially devastating changes relayed to global warning, changes that we can now see with our own eyes. Our children just one generation back face decisions about serious issues that simply did not exist when debbie and i first started out. I dont think its an exaggeration that in addition to Climate Change we face more threats to our way of life than any time in history. Because of that i feel this is the most important election in my life. We need leadership guided by stedfart character and intellect and we need leadership that is not at the extreme left or right but centered practical and reasonable, responsibly. Senator bennett has all of these qualities. He also has the educational background, work, and legislative experience and character to lead this country. As debbie said after the first time we met michael at a house party three weeks ago, he is recent and seasoned. This separates him from other Democratic Candidates and why we support him. Please welcome senator michael bennett. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Lets give these guys a round of applause for opening up their home. Thank you, michael, thank you, debbie, thanks for having me and thanks all of you for being here. I was on time but we hit a bus of students from all around the world who stopped at the bottom of the driveway to hear whats on the mind of New Hampshire. So its good and theyre here. And they will be part of our conversation which is great. I also want to introduce you to my wife susan who is here today. Shes been with me in New Hampshire for most of the whole race. She and i met about 25 years ago and shes the reason we are lucky enough to live in colorado and are raising our three daughters there. She is a public environmental lawyer who wanted to go to work for something called the Sierra Club Legal defense fund now called earth justice. She ran that organization for years and i mostly just wanted to get out of the practice of law and we found a way to do that in colorado. I was in business for a while when i got out there restructuring companies that were failing. And then had the chance to be superintendent of the Denver Public schools. Which they tell people on the campaign trail that the School District of about 95,000 kids in denver, colorado, most kids are kids of color, most kids living in poverty. That it has a 1 billion budgeted which is about three times the size of south bend, indianas budget just for perspective on that. I went into the senate about ten years ago, i was appointed the first time i when i arrived and ive been there ever since. And fid to sum rise for you the last ten years of town halls in my state which is exactly a third democratic third republican and third independent, its very easy to do it. Its people coming and saying, michael, were working really hard but we cant afford some combination of housing, health care, higher education, and Early Childhood education. We cant afford to live the middle class life and we cant save and we think our kids are going to lave more diminished life than the life that we lived. If i think about the families in my old School District, as i said, most of whom are living in poverty, what they would say if they came to the town halls which they dont because theyre working two and three jobs, what they would say is no matter what we do we cant get our kids out of poverty. I think these are the central challenges that we face as a democracy. A democracy will not do well if we have massive economic inequality and no economic mobility. And thats been the story for the last 50 years, an economy thats worked well for the people at the very top and not so well for everybody else. I think thats one of the reasons why donald trump was elected president was people were looking and saying nothing seems to make much of a difference so maybe we ought to try sending reality tv star to washington, d. C. To blow the place up. And when i meet people who voted for donald trump and say why did they do it . Because we wanteds to blow the place up, i sometimes say congratulations. You achieved your objective but now what are we going to do for our kids and grandkids . What are we going to do for americas place in the world which is whats at stake in this election. I think the election of donald trump is not the source of all of our problems. I think he is a symptom of our challenges more than he is the cause of or probably certain has made matters much worse and is not solving the issues that ive heard about in my town halls and certainly making matters much worse across the world because i believe he is the weakest Foreign Policy president weve had in my lifetime and every single day another day passes where hes shown that he is weaker and weaker which is the reason we really ought to move him out. If i think about my own familys history a little bit, when i was in the second grade my everybody in my class was asked to stand to line up based on who had been here the shortest period of time and whose family had beer here the longest period of time. I turned out to be the answer of both those questions. My family on my dads side had gone all the way back to the may flower and my dad had been a Public Servant mostly in washington, d. C. In most places taught me that Public Service is noble, he worked on capitol hill at a time when our Congress Actually functioned. He worked in the state department a t the time when we were setting an example for the rest of the world. My moms Family History couldnt have been more different. They were polish jews who survived the holocaust. Everyone in the family was killed chept for an aunt and my mom and my grandparents. And they lived in poland for two years after the war was over. Then they went to he will sinkie for a year or helsinki for a year or stock holme and then mexico city for a year and then came here. The only place in the world they hey could where thought they could rebuild their shattered lives and they did. My mom was the only person in the family who could speak any english and sheds enrolled herself in Hunter High School actually in the Elementary School but graduated from high school and went on to graduate in one generation from college. I traveled our country very broadly both before the president was elected and after he was elected. I can tell you ive met lots of immigrants in my state and other places. I have yet to meet any that had a stronger accent than my parents grandparents had and never met anybody stronger patriots than my grandparents were. It wasnt because we were perfect, it wasnt because they saw us as some privileged place. It was because they knew that when we were at our best we were actually trying to work out the imperfections that we had, that we were working hard as americans to make the country more democratic, more fair, and more free. And that has been our imperfect story from the very beginning of the country really until now. And i think donald trump is a threat to all of that in my view, which is why he should which is why we need him to be a oneterm president. But that isnt enough. We have to govern the country again as well. And i believe i presented a unique agenda in this race calling it the real deal that would address directly the issues that ive heard in my town halls both in colorado and New Hampshire about the lack of economic mobility, the lack of Educational Equity in our country, the importance of dealing with Climate Change, the importance of investing in our infrastructure again creating universal health care in the country and cutting our Health Care Costs and reforming the way our democracy works and the way our Government Works so we can actually deliver for the American People because we dont have a lot of time left. Ill speak for myself. I dont feel like i have a lot of time left on this planet and i want to make sure that when susan and i are turning this over to our kids and this democracy to the kids working so diligently in the Denver Public schools every single day to try to get an education to participate in our economy and our democracy meaningfully that weve turned over the democracy that we could be proud of one working on the generational issues that we have to be focused on. We have to win not just the presidency and also the majority of the senate. And to do that weve got to win purple states. And i am the only candidates in this race that has won a National Election in a swing state. Ive done that twice. No one else has done it. The longer i go in this election the more certain i am that it is really different to run in the commonwealth of massachusetts for an example or in vermont than it is to run in colorado and iowa and arizona and maine and North Carolina the places were going to have to win if we are going to send Mitch Mcconnell home. So im deeply honored that youre here today. Im particularly honored because i know you know im not polling as high as other people in this race. Im not as well known. I havent raised as much money. But i have committed myself to New Hampshire. I have spent more time in this state than anybody else in this race. I had done 33 townhall meetings just like this one, our house party when i announced i would do another 50 when this is all over not witsstanding the fact that in the next two weeks i am going to have the impeachment stuff that i am going to have to work on as well. But i think it is in many ways because i think your state and my state are very much the same politically and my belief is that if we nominate somebody who can win your state, we nominate somebody who can win my state we can win the presidency and we can win a majority in the senate and we can begin to govern the country again. If we nominate somebody who cant, we wont, and then it will be shame on us for having put this guy back in office again. I cant i just cant accept that and thats why even though my numbers havent been as high as some others is because in part i know New Hampshire is less decided than six weeks ago and youre less decided today than six months ago. And the reason you are i think without being presumptuous is you havent decided which one of us can actually take on donald trump and win. And i think that is exactly the right question for you to ask. If youre looking for somebody who is kind of like him obviously im not your candidate. If you think as i do that maybe what the American People will look for is the opposite of donald trump thats what im offering up in the selection. I dont think he can get more opposite of donald trump than i am. And i think the pendulum is going to swing and give us a chance to beat him. So i want to thank you all for being here. I would love to take whatever questions critisms observations anything you wouldnt ask another politician because you might be worried that you would hurt their feelings. As i mentioned i was an urban School Superintendent for years so you cant hurt my feelings. It was beaten out of me a long time ago. Yes. Thank you for getting us started. My brother who worked for the state of New Hampshire was a wild life biologist for over 25 years, educated me on the changes that have happened in the state of New Hampshire. Just one of the examples is whats happened to the moose population. In the last 15 years it has declined by 30 due to Climate Change primarily. The warm winters, the lack of snow, mothers hundreds of thousands of ticks she no longer feeds her calves. And so as a result and New Hampshire depends a great deal on tourism, wild life viewings. It is a big industry. So i would like to know first of all i would like to present you with New Hampshire moose. Thank you very much. I am grateful to have it. Thank you. Thank you so much. Youre welcome. And i would like to know what you would do in the first 100 days of your presidency to help our Climate Change. Thank you for that wonderful question. Thank you for this wonderful tickfree moose. I appreciate it. So on new years day susan and i took a walk in one of your beautiful towns with a forester who was telling the group that was there about the changes that were going on in the forest, the fact that the ash trees were dying because of the Climate Change that we talked about the moose population and i had heard about that before, and were having all that happen in colorado as well. Many of our forests are dying because of the bark beetle infestation as a result of Climate Change because just like New Hampshire exactly the same thing, the winters are no longer getting cold enough to kill off the beetles between one winter and the next, which means theyre then around for the next year to do the damage that theyve done. And i actually the first plan i put out was my climate plan. Im a former School Superintendent i could have put out an School Education plan but i put out a climate plan this is the existential crisis that we face and i think this is the existential crisis that our democracy faces. In the plan that i put out, i actually laid out how i would spend the first day working on climate not just the first 100 days and that would be sumning all the people needed to write a plan along the lines of the american demrimet plan which i proposed in this campaign and to do the work over nine months to try to get something through the congress. And if we cant get it passed in the congress at the end of nine months to use every executive Authority Available to me under the Clean Air Act to try to do what we can on climate. This next not you who dont live here but the young people from here that have so much to be sore about us about, our records with respect to what were delivering for them is pretty pitful when it comes to the National Debt that weve put on, the fact that reduced what we spend on our investment in them by 35 , the fact were not investing in our infrastructure so that theyve got to figure out how to preserve the assets that our parents and grandparents very grate or thoughtfully built for us but we didnt maintain. The fact that they have to borrow 25 years worth of debt just for the privilege of going to college. All of that should enrage them about what weve done but nothing will enrage them more than our failure to address Climate Change if we dont do it. And weve got a big task in front of us. It is not enough to act urgently. Its in the enough for somebody to come here and say this is what im going to do the first day. We need a solution that will endure for a generation, we need a solution that will last. You cant solve Climate Change two years at a time. Which is why i want to argue today you cant accept the fundamental politics of washington today because thats the politics of i put my ideas in for two years, the other side rips it out. The other side puts it in for two years, the other side rips it out. Thats what weve been dealing with health care. And you cant solve climate two years at a time. Sometimes people say we should do just what mcconnell does, we should outmcconnell mcconnell. I think thats totally the wrong way of looking at it because theyre not trying to do what were trying to do. Mcconnell is not trying to do Climate Change. He doesnt care. What hes trying to do is put right wing judges onts courts and put judges. And he can do that with our institution in rubble. We cant achieve something that will last the next generation some day well have to have something that we think of as american Climate Policy like we used to have something called american Foreign Policy. And when we elected a president the president knew what their job was with respect to the soviet union and with respect to the cold war, wh respect to the transatlantic alliance. Im not naive. Some would say youre so naive. Whats naive is believing that we can continue doing what we have been doing the last ten years and actually deliver a real solution for the next generation, which is why on climate i propose for example paying farmers and ranchers and foresters to sequester carbon in their soil and in their trees as a way of trying to build a broader coalition of people to sustain a durable approach to Climate Change over time. I know it seems unimaginable today when our politics is captured by the coke brothers the way it is, captured by partisan jerry mannedering. But we cant lose site of the importance of having to make longterm commitments and decisions like other americans have done during the life of this democracy. All of which is just to say its a reminder of how broken our current politics is and the only way were going to fix that politics is with an agenda broadly appealing to the Ame