Our moderators, jim broudy and margery eagan. At evening and welcome to our audience here at wgbh and those watching at home for the first debate in the senate race being closely watched, not just here but all across the country. With the incumbent serving about the house of the senate the challenges for seven years under his belt and the house [inaudible] they will weigh their differences and their worldviews and ask for the rules there are no rules. The opening statements, no closings, no time limits although we will be keeping track of speaking time to keep things relatively even and we want to cover a lot of ground so brevity is appreciated. The free to talk to each other as well. In fact, we encourage it, gentlemen paid since we asked our studio audience not to applaud during the debate we want to take a moment to give senator ed markey and congressman joe kennedy a hand. [applause] gentlemen, thank you so much for joining us tonight. Marjorie, it is all yours. Some of markeys supporters have criticized you with an opportunist in this race so what are you running to see a man whos championed so many of the same policies you support . Jim and marjorie, thank you for having us but thank you for the audience and for those jeanine in around the country. Look, this election, this time around, so much of what we care about, everything we care about is on the line. What is at stake for us for our parties, commonwealth and country this one counts. For this moment we have to make sure that the United States senator is getting everything you possibly half to make sure the guide our party and commonwealth good at this moment massachusetts is not a swing state or a swing seat. There is a special opportunity and obligation that comes with it because voting in the right way, Mitch Mcconnell does not care. This is about making sure that you are a constant presence in massachusetts we can sure the people across the state note that youre fighting for them and know when you care about. Two, the folks victimized most by this president , those vulnerable and suffering, immigrants and different know the average champion for you there everything will day. Three, even the challenges we face that you have two bring everything you possibly can to restore power to a Democratic Party so we can advance the causes we care about and protect the people we care about. Has he been a good senator . Absolutely, but jim this is about whether senator markey made an important contribution because of course he has but the issue is at this moment he beat wanted stick with headlines we saw with president trumps pardons and what hes done for vulcanizing ice and this is not about voting for the rights bill or the right way but we have to do every weekend to restore power to a Democratic Party across the entire country, flip the house, flip the fed, flipped the presidency and that, i think, is a type of leadership i can bring to the seat and that is what massachusetts deserves. We will return but some of the critics of your talent note that you been in congress more than 40 years and in fact, he first served before he was born, as i am sure you noted but partisanship in the senate is dead and the democratic agenda is going absolutely nowhere and some believe a fresh face with a different approach is exactly what is needed to change the namic so why are they wrong, senator . Thank you, jim, thank you marjorie, thank you wgbh. I thank you two the audience, especially the young people, this debate should be about the features and that is why i fight for. I fight for the future everything the day for these young people. When i interest the Green New Deal with alexandria ocasiocortez one year ago it transformed the way which Climate Change is being debated in the United States and across the planet. It made a huge difference and based on laws are passed, fuel economy standards we live under is my lot in 2007, supply and [inaudible] it reduces the amount of oil the Koch Brothers can sell and thats the coal industry and on guns i passed legislation to just in december 25 million spent at the centers for Disease Control to begin the research on the causes of gun violence in our society. This is built on law passed earlier that bans timely and chinese assault weapons from coming to the streets of the United States and i might add in december again, seven weeks ago my law passed, three to 50 lien or dollars to find the cure for alzheimers before 2025. Listen to this number. Unbelievable. 50 million baby boomers will have all timers if you dont find the cure. On the big issues of today the challenges that say have not only believing but deliberating with legislation which passes and protects the people of massachusetts and the whole country. [inaudible conversations] could you respond senator . As i said, the center has made an important contribution to our commonwealth and country but the fact remains that on a number of the challenges we confront today many of us just celebrated valentines day and it was the twoyear anniversary of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman douglas but the factor Means Congress has not in the federal government has not passed meaningful gun violence legislation in decades. When it comes to the environment we have not, senator markey has been a leader on this but the last transformative law that was signed into the bill was signed into law to transform the way the federal government protects the environment was signed by Richard Nixon for the clean air act. Bottom line is when it comes to the moments of today and the challenges with Mitch Mcconnell saint look, this is about maintenance and access to power and he will hold onto it with everything hes got. Let me interrupt, thats not accurate. The last meaningful gun safety legislation passed in the last week of december 2019 when my bill was signed donald trump to Begin Research at the cdc that had been blocked for 25 years by the nra. My bill makes an array not relevant in american politics when you can have a victory like that. The end i might say the last environmental law, the big one that was my law is wellpaid it was the 2007 law that doubled the fuel economy standards of the vehicles which we drive 70 of all oil goes into gas tanks and is the single largest reduction of Greenhouse Gases of any law ever passed in any country of the law so i have been meeting and delivering industry i beat the gun lobby just in december but beat them in the law is on the books. One thing about the Green New Deal is you know many of your democratic colleagues including congresswoman nancy pelosi, house speaker, does not say that the Green New Deal can pass but there is no carbon tax in the Green New Deal and that is something that a lot of businesses in your gop establishment leaders have supported so why not put that in there and maybe have increased chance that we could get it through in a bipartisan way . Look, the Green New Deal since we introduced it, alexandria ocasiocortez and i one year ago transformed the debate on this issue but we deal with the fact that our own Scientists Say the planet can one by 20 degrees in the next 80 years and that our sea levels will go up 80 feet. The magnitude of the problem is clear but what we say is we have to solve this problem but with millions of new jobs created in to do it with justice big frontline communities, minority communities we do it with intersection. We have to make sure no matter what we do and it doesnt leak for dramatic price increase for our society and we have to have a debate but we have to be absolutely nonnegotiable comes to the we seyfried we can encompasses goal the many different pathways and in order to a compasses goal we have to say we have to transform our society into one 100 clean energy and we can do it with a number of different pathways including fuel economy standards, appliance official standards. You said recently i would put up your environment record against anybody. Please do. Look, big picture too small. This issue is important to me. Im 39 years old and of a four yearold and a two yearold and my goal as a parent is to make sure that they have a planet that will be there for them in the same planet i was able to inherit and the fact is that while i believe the senator is right that there are now plenty of different policies ideas out there to try to address the warming climate that what we lack is in fact the political will to get there. I support the Green New Deal. I think it does frame the debate the right way and Carbon Neutral emissions and net zero emissions and carbonization, the approach ive taken is to ensure the communities that have borne the brunt of environmental degradation and Climate Change are put in the forefront like amenities like and specifically if you look at what ive done it is filed a bill last week to make sure communities are targeted for petrochemical that they have a greater ability to push back again. Weve worked with the communities to transform that economy for offshore wind and worked on that with senator markey. Weve been dedicated to the issues like combined sewage overflow so the ways that it impacts frontline communities and gateway cities spirit both of you have been supportive of those opposing citing the natural gas but one thing i dont quite understand youve taken money from blackrock which is a major investor in the compressor and you have according to dacian magazine close to 2 million in your portfolio of stocks and fossil fuels and does that not at least leave the appearance of some sort of conflict even if you say it will not affect why dont you divest in those and return that contribution starting with you, senator. Look, i went down to weymouth and stood with those citizens. I told them in the citizens of braintree and quincy that its a small piece of land where a Natural Gas Company wants like a straw that compressor station should not be there so they can ultimately move it up to maine to export that oil or natural gas most likely to china. What i have done is i have lead on that issue but i will tell you why. But youre taking money from the investor in the project. Look, i vote for my convictions. From my perspective what ive done is taken on that company. That company that wants to go to weymouth and im told absolutely not and i led the effort on that issue as well. Absolutely guaranteed there is no dispute which i will not be the leader and i will tell you, i lead on it because when i was a boy and i was in malden my mother told me not to swim in the malden river because of the Chemical Companies in the Coal Companies that were polluting the river and she said to me it would be unsafe to swim so wherever i see these Environmental Justice issues i stand up and i fight for those communities. I have done so for weymouth and i have taken on that company and i have told him absolutely under all circumstances right from the beginning that it should not happen. Why dont you divest of the Stock Holdings . There is not a single vote that anybody can point to that shows an Investment Holdings or have long held influenced by vote just once. If you look at my record with the fossil fuel companies its a strong is anyone else in congress. You cant find it. One less thing about Campaign Finance and then we turn you over to what we were intending. The charisma and his challenge you repeatedly, senator, to support a peoples pledge originated by, as you know, Elizabeth Warren years ago and virtually the same peoples pledge that you embraced in 2013 and 2014 and that it was good enough for your races then so why is it not good enough for this race in 2020 . Ive introduced a progressive peoples pledge 42020 so that we deal with the era of donald trump. Yet, we should have a pledge the keeps money and keeps out negative voices but we should welcome positive voices and we should welcome disclosed contributions so that environmentalists, womens groups, labor groups, lgbtq groups can speak in massachusetts. Its 2020. Donald trump is president did we need to have a new modern peoples, one for the trump era, its time for positive voices to speak. That is an exception that follows the rule but what we have asked and if it was good enough for senator markey back in 2013 and goodenough in 2014 and when massachusetts set the standard for kicking dark money out it is the same pledge now. You start making people adding voices we like who gets to decide which voices those are and who gets to say that the voices we are lack . Dark money, jim, is dark money. Massachusetts walk the walk when it comes to progressive values and we need to do it now. You open this door to this and you open the door to absolute lamplight of money coming in to electoral framework that we would be so proud. Very quick, who does decide what is positive and progressives and what is not . We need the voices to be positive. Who decides it . You will decide with the media will decide what we should have positive [inaudible conversations] no dark money. If it is not disclosed it should not be allowed in our space. It should be disclosed. Why wouldnt we [inaudible conversations] the media will come in and say its not so fox news could say it is but wgbh could say it is not . There is no rationale to this whatsoever. Jim, brought a point on this is a cant gain finance or form is one of the core issues for a democrat and for progressive values to try to make sure that you leveled the Playing Field so you can in fact empower the people that are hurting today across our country but you do not do this so how will you ever pass a Green New Deal if you allow also fuel industry to open up the spigot and flood the airwaves that is what this is about. We should not silence these progressive groups. We should not we should encourage them but we should celebrate their desire in the era of donald trump, in the white house, trying to destroy every one of our values that if they want to come into the space speak positively, disclose their Funding Sources and we should welcome and celebrate it but keep out the dark money and keep out the negative [inaudible conversations] the Koch Brothers, the number one opponent of Environmental Protection and environmental regulation can craft things in a positive way. That is what the senator is advocating for. There is no way this works, none. Lets talk about a couple Current Issues starting with immigration but you both condemned the customs and Border Patrol division to come into boston but what are you propose to do . A couple points on this. One, the way in which this administration has gone about targeting and vilifying the committee is one of the most opponent things i have seen certainly over the course of my time in office and i think the senator would agree. We have to ensure we continue to speak up and pushed back good has a proud history of integration in our country my own family are is an immigrant family and im proud of it. What we need to do is ensure that we are as not just elected officials but as members of our communities standing up, speeding up and rejecting the trump administrations efforts but more than that going to a place where we can in fact pass completions of immigration laws. The first fathers day with my son i spent on the border outside texas protesting the family separation policy as this administration ripped children from their parents and there is no way that is ever an answer for immigration. That is what this administration will do and that is what they will continue to do is scare and vilify and to tear this country apart and it means you have to go at this with everything youve got. That is the leadership i hope to bring. Yep, thank you. This is part of the donald trump policy of trying to make America Great again by making america hates again the swat teams the common are meant to terrorize immigrants. He has tried to take mexican immigrants, women of color an and when i announced for the senate six years ago i went up where my father grew up to knock on the door where the five markey brothers and sisters grew up. Who lives there now . A mexican family for the exits were different but the aspiration is the same for that family as the markey family. Donald trump is trying to terrorize those families in boston. Hes trying to make them afraid to answer the door and make sure the parents are separated from the children and to make it much less likely that they will cooperate with law foresman officials. I agree with the mayor of boston and i agree with rachel the District Attorney of suffolk county. We have to make boston a beacon on the hill and we have to make it stand for the freedom which it always has stood for and we have to fight donald trump every single step of the way and taken to court, not to operate but this is fundamentally a challenge to who we are as bostonians. But that is no way to stop them right now. I have to take them to court. We have to stop them in court but we have to introduce legislation so that we debated on the floor of the house and senate and try to move it as far as we can and as fast as we can to let them know he is accountable. I will let you know when tom announced that he would take kids who were and hospitals in massachusetts and deport them even though they had cancer i stood up and i bought them along with congresswoman presley and in two weeks we got trump to back down. You cant deport kids with cancer. I want in august on that issue and we have to do the same thing that is who we are. As you know interred 700,000 recipients brought to this co