applause senator Bernie Sanders of vermont. applause and martin omalley, the former governor of maryland. applause joining me in the questioning tonight are cbs news Congressional Correspondent nancy cordes. Anchor kevin cooney of our cbs des moines affiliate kcci. And Political ColumnistKathie Obradovich of the des moines register. applause twitter is another of our partners for this debate. Tweets will help us follow the reaction to what the candidates say. So please send us your comments using the hashtag demdebate. And well begin in just a applause this is a peoples campaign. I. I am a real person with all the pluses pluses and minuses that go along with that. You start where you start through your own hard work. Im running to help working families get a raise. The American People are sick and tired of hearing about your damn emails. They are dead wrong for 21st century america. Were Going Forward. Were not going back tonight, live from Drake University in des moines, iowa, cbs news brings you the democratic president ial debate. cheers and applause before we before we start the debate, here are the rules. The candidates have one minute to respond to our questions and 30 seconds toy respond to our followups. Any candidate who is attacked by another candidate gets 30 seconds for rebuttal. Heres how well keep time. After a question is asking, the green light goes on. When there are 15 seconds left, the candidate gets a yellow warning light. And when time sup, the light turns red. That means stop talking. laughter those are the rules. So lets get started. You will each have one minute for an Opening Statement to share your thoughts about the your vision for america. First, senator sanders. Well, john, let me concur with you and with all americans who are shocked and disgusted by what we saw in paris yesterday. Together, leading the world, this country will rid our planet of this barbaris Organization Called isis. Im running for president because as i go around this nation, i talk to a lot of people, and what i hear is peoples concern that the economy we have is a rigged economy. People are working longer hours for lower wageand almost all of the new income and wealth goes to the top 1 . And then on top of that, weve got a corrupt Campaign Finance system in which millionaires and billionaires are pouring huge sums of money into super pacs heavily influencing the political process. What my campaign is about is a Political Revolution. And saying, enough is enough. Our government belongs to all of us and not just the hand full of billionaires. Secretary clinton. Well, our prayers are with the people of france tonight, but that is not enough. We need to have a resolve that will bring the world together to root out the kind ofad jihadist ideology that motivates organizations like isis, a barbaric, ruthless, violent jihadist terrorist group. This election is not only abouting electing a president. Its also about choosing our next commander in chief. And i will be laying out in detail what i think we need to do with our friends and allies in europe and elsewhere to do a efforts against the scourge of terrorism. Our country deserves no less because all of the other issues we want to deal with depend upon us being secure and strong. Governor omalley. My heart, like all of us in this room, john, and all the people across our country, my hearts go out to the people of france in this moment of loss. Parents and sons and daughters and family members and as our hearts go out to them and as our prayers go out to them, we must remember this, that this is the new face of conflict and warfare, not in the 20th century but the new face of conflict and warfare in the 21st century. And there is no nation on the planet better able to adapt to this change than our nation. We must able to work collaboratively with others. We must anticipate these threats before they happen. This is the new sort of challenge, the new sort of threat that does, in fact, require new thinking, fresh approaches and new leadership. As a former mayor and a former governor, there was never a single day, john, when i went to bed or woke up without realizing that this could happen in our own country. We have a lot of work to do to better prepare our nation and to better lead this world into this new century. All right, thank you, governor. Thank all of you. The terror attacks last night underscore biggest challenge facing the next president of the United States. At a time of crisis, the country and the world look to the president for leadership and for answers. So, secretary clinton, id like to start with you. Hours before the attacks, president obama said i dont think isis is gaining strength. 72 of americans think the fight against isis is going badly. Wont the legacy of this administration, which is which you were a part of, wont that legacy be that it underestimated the threat from isis . Well, john, i think that we have to look at isis as the leading threat of an International Terror network. It cannot be contained. There is no question in my mind that if we summon our resources, both our leadership resourcessources and all of the tools at our disposal, not just military force, which should be used as a last resort, but our diplomacy, our development aid, law enforcement, sharing of intelligence in a much more open and cooperative way, that we can bring people together. But it cannot be an american fight. And i think what the president has consistently said which i agree with is that we will support those who take the fight to isis. That is why we have troops in iraq that are helping to train and build back up the iraqi military. Why we have special operators in syria working with the kurds and arabs so that we can be supportive. But this cannot be an american fight, although American Leadership is essential. But, secretary clinton, the question was about was isis underestimated . Referred to isis as the j. V. U. , in a speech. I could not have predicted the extent to which isis could be effective in seizing cities in iraq. So youve got prescriptions for the future, but how do we even those prescriptions prescriptions are any good if you missed it in the past . Well, john, look, i think that what happened when we abided by the agreement that george w. Bush made with the iraqis to leave by 2011 is that an iraqi army was left that had been trained and that was prepared to defend iraq. Unfortunately, nouri almaliki, the prime minister, set about decimating it. And then, with the revolution against assad and i did early on say we needed to try to find a way to train and equip mod raits very early so that we would have a better idea of how to deal with assad because i thought there would be extremist groups filling the vacuum. So, yes, this has developed. Other reasons why it has in addition to what happened in the region, but i dont think that the United States has the bulk of the responsibility. I really put that on assad and on the iraqis and on the region itself. Okay, governor omalley, would you critique the administrations response to isis. If the United States doesnt lead, who leads . I would disagree with secretary clinton respectfully on this score. This actually is americas fight. It cannot solely be americas fight. America is best when we work in collaboration with our allies. America is best when we are actually standing up to evil in this world. And isis, make no mistake about it, is an evil in this world. Isis has brought down a russian airliner. Isis has now attacked a western democracy in france. And we do have a role in this. Not solely ours, but we must work collaboratively with other nations. The great failing of these last 10 or 15 years, john, has been our failing of human our role in the world is not to roam the globe looking for new dictators to topple. Our role in the world is to make ourselves a beacon of hope. Make ourselves stronger at home, but also our role in the world, yes, is also to confront evil when it rises. We took out the safe haven in afghanistan, but now there is, undoubtedly, a larger safe haven and we must rise to this occasion in collaboration and with alliances to confront it and invest in the future much better human intelligence so we know what the next steps are. Senator sanders, you said you want to rid the planet of isis. In the previous debate you said the greatest threat to National Security was Climate Change. Do you still believe that . Absolutely. In fact, Climate Change is directly related to the growth of terrorism. And if we do not get our act together and listen to what the scientists say, youre going to see countries all over the world this is this is what the c. I. A. Says theyre going to be struggling over limited amounts of water, limited amounts of land to grow their crops ask international conflict. But, of course, International Terrorism is a major issue that we have got to address today. And i agree with much of what the secretary and the governor have said. But let me have one area of disagreement with the secretary. I think she said Something Like the bulk of the responsibility is not ours. Well, in fact, i would argue that the disastrous invasion of iraq, something that i strongly opposed, has unraveled the region completely and led to the rise of al qaeda and to isis. Now, in fact, what we have got to do and i think there is widespread agreement here is the United States cannot do it alone. What we need to do is lead an International Coalition which includeses very significantly the muslim nations in that region who are going to have to fight and defend their way of life. Quickly, just let me ask you a followup on that, senator sanders. When you say the disastrous vote on iraq, lets just be clear about what youre saying. Youre saying secretary clinton, who was then senator clinton, voted for the iraq war. Are you making a direct link between ther vote for that war and whats happening now for isis, just so everybody i dont think any sensible person would disagree that the invasion of iraq led to the massive level of instability we are seeing right now. I think that was one of the worst Foreign Policy blunders in United States. Respond to that. Thank you, john. Well, i think its important we put this in historic context. The United States has, unfortunately, been victimized by terrorism going back decades. In the 1980s, it was in beirut, lebanon, under president reagans administration, and 258 americans, marines, embassy personnel, and others were murdered. We also had attacks on two of our embassies in tanzania and kenya. When my husband was president. Again, americans murdered. And then, of course, 9 11 there was an invasion of iraq. I have said the invasion of iraq was a mistake. But i think if were ever going to really tackle the problems posed by jihadi extreme terrorism, we need to understand it and realize that it has antecedents to what happened in iraq and we have to continue to be vigilant about it. Senator sanders let me follow this line of thinking. You criticized thensenator clintons vote. Do you have anything to criticize in the way she performed as secretary of state . I think we have a disagreement, and the disagreement is that not only did i vote against the war in iraq. If you look at history, john, you will find that regime change change, whether it was in the early 50s in iran, whether it was toppling salvador in chile, whether it was overthrowing the when, these invasions, these toppling of governments, regime changes have unintended consequences. I would say that on this issue, im a little bit more conservative than the secretary. And i am not a great fan of regime change. Senator john, may i interject here . Secretary clinton also said we it was not just the invasion of iraq which secretary clinton voted for and has since said was a big mistake and, indeed, it was. But it was also the cascading effects that followed that. It was also the disbanding of many elements of the iraqi army that are now showing up as part of isis. It was country after country without making the investment in human intelligence to understand who the new leaders were and the new forces were that are coming up. We need to be much more far thinking in this new 21st century era of nation state failures and conflict. Its not just about getting rid it is about understanding the secondary and third consequences that fall next. All right, secretary clinton. Of course, each of these cases needs to be looked at individually and analyzed. Part of the problem that we have currently in the middle east is that assad has hung on to power with the very strong support of russia and iran and with the proxy of hezbollah being there basically fighting his battles. So i dont think you can paint with a broad brush. This is an incredibly complicated region of the world. Its become more complicated. And many of the fights that are going on are not ones that the United States has either started or have a role in. The shiasunni split. The dictator sthaps have suppressed peoples aspirations. The increasing globalization without any real safety valve for people to have a better life. We saw that in egypt we saw a dictator overthrown. We saw a Muslim Brotherhood saw him ousted and the army back. I think weve got to understand the complexity of the world that more so than in the middle east. Quickly, senator. The secretarys obviously right. It is enormously complicated. But heres something that i believe we have to do as we put together an International Coalition, and that is we have to understand that the muslim nations in the region saudi arabia, iran, turkey, jordan all of these nations, theyre going to have to get their hands dirty, their boots on the ground. They are going to have to take on isis. This is a war for the soul of islam. And those countries who are opposed to islam, they are going to have to get deeply involved in a way that is not the case today. We should be supportive of that effort. So should the u. K. Show should france. But those muslim countries are going to have to lead the effort. They are not doing it now. Secretary clinton. I think that is very unfair to a few you mentioned, most particularly jordan, which has put a lot on the line for the United States, has also taken in hundreds of thousands of refugees from syria and has been therefore subjected to threats and attacks by extremists themselves. I do agree that in particular, turkey and the gulf . Ragz got to make up their minds. Are they going to stand with us against this kind of jihadi radicalism or not . And there are many ways of doing it. They can provide forces. They can provide resources. But they need to be absolutely clear about where they stand. Let me ask you, secretary clinton, a question about leadership. Were talking about what role does america take. Let me ask you about libya. So libya is a country in which isis has taken hold in part because of the chaos after muammar gaddafi. Presume says this is the lesson he took from that operation. In an interview he said the lesson was, do we have an answer for the day after . Wasnt that suppose to be one of the lessons that we learned after the iraq war . And how did you get it wrong with libya if the key lesson of after . Well, we did have a plan, and i think its fair to say that of all of the arab leaders, gaddafi probably had more blood on his else. And when he moved on his own people, threatening a massacre, genocide, the europeans and the arabs, our allies and partners, did ask for american help and we provided it. We didnt put a single boot on the ground, and gaddafi was deposed. The libyans turned out for one of the most successful fairest elections that any arab country has had. They elected moderate leaders. Now there has been a lot of turmoil and trouble as they have tried to deal with these radical elements which you find in this arc of instability from north africa to afghanistan. And it is imperative that we do more not only to help our friends and partners protect themselves and protect our own homeland, but also to work to try to deal with this arc of instability, which does have a lot of impact on what happens in a country like libya. Governor omalley i want to ask you a question, and you can add whatever youd like to. Let me ask you, is the world too dangerous a place for a governor who has no Foreign Policy experience . John, the world is a very dangerous place but the world is not too dangerous a place for United States of america provided we act according to our intelligently. Instability that secretary clinton talked about. Libya is now a mess. Syria is a mess. Iraq is a mess. Afghanistan is a mess. As americans, we have shown ourselves to have the greatest military on the face of the planet, but we are not so very good at anticipating threats and appreciating just how difficult it is to build up stable investments and Sustainable Development that we must as a nation if we are to attack the root causes of these sorts of instability. And i wanted to add one other thing, john, and i think its important for all of us on this stage. I was in burlington, iowa, and a mom of a Service Member of ours who served two duties in iraq said, governor omalley, please, when youre with your other candidates and colleagues on stage, please dont use the term boots on the ground. Lets dont use the term boots on the ground. My son is not a pair of boots on the ground. These are american soldiers and we fail them when we fail to take into account what happens the day after a dictator falls and when we fail to act when a whole of government approach with Sustainable Development, diplomacy, and our economic power in align am with our principles. Well, i think its perfectly fair to say that we invested quite a bit in development, aid. Some of the bravest people that i had the privilege