Catch up on the full remarks of each of the 10 candidates from night one of the first Democratic debate in Miami, Florida, on June 26.
Biggest geopolitical threat to the United States? Russia
Key Quote: “The way that American citizens have been told that immigrants somehow created their misery and their pain and their challenges, for all the American citizens out there who feel you’re falling behind or feel the American dream is not working for you, the immigrants didn’t do that to you. The big corporations did that to you. The 1 percent did that to you. We need to be the party of working people, and that includes a party of immigrants.”
Cory Booker
Biggest geopolitical threat to the United States? Nuclear proliferation, climate change
Key Quote: “I live in a low-income black and brown community. I see every single day that this economy is not working for average Americans. The indicators that are being used, from GDP to Wall Street’s rankings, is not helping people in my community. It is about time that we have an economy that works for everybody, not just the wealthiest in our nation.”
Julián Castro
Biggest geopolitical threat to the United States? China, Climate change
Key Quote: “If I were president today, I would sign an executive order that would get rid of Trump’s zero-tolerance policy, the remain in Mexico policy, and the metering policy — this metering policy is basically what prompted Oscar and Valeria to make that risky swim across the river. They had been playing games with people who are coming and trying to seek asylum at our ports of entry. Oscar and Valeria went to a port of entry, and then they were denied the ability to make an asylum claim, so they got frustrated and they tried to cross the river, and they died because of that.”
John Delaney
Biggest geopolitical threat to the United States? China, Nuclear weapons
Key Quote: “Listen, I will sign into law bills that come to the White House that are passed on a party-line basis, absolutely. But all the big transformative things we’ve ever done in this country’s history have happened when huge majorities of the American people get behind them, which is why we need real solutions, not impossible promises. We need to put forth ideas that work, whether it’s on health care, creating universal health care so that every American gets health care, but not running on making private insurance illegal.”
Tulsi Gabbard
Biggest geopolitical threat to the United States? Nuclear war
Key Quote: “We have to bring our troops home from Afghanistan. We are in a place in Afghanistan where we have lost so many lives. We’ve spent so much money. Money that’s coming out of every one of our pockets, money that should be going into communities here at home, meeting the needs of the people here at home. We are no better off in Afghanistan today than we were when this war began. This is why it’s so important to have a president and commander-in-chief who knows the cost of war and who’s ready to do the job on day one. I am ready to do that job when I walk into the Oval Office.”
Jay Inslee
Biggest geopolitical threat to the United States? Donald Trump
Key Quote: “And I know to a moral certainty, if we do not have the next president who commits to [the climate crisis] as the top priority, it won’t get done. And I am the only candidate — frankly, I’m surprised. I’m the only candidate who’s made this commitment to make it the top priority. If you join me in that recognition of how important this is, we can have a unified national mission. We can save ourselves. We can save our children. We can save our grandchildren. And we can save literally the life on this planet. This is our moment.”
Amy Klobuchar
Biggest geopolitical threat to the United States? China, Iran
Key Quote: “There is a much bigger issue in addition to that, and that is pharmaceuticals. The president literally went on TV, on Fox, and said that people’s heads would spin when they see how much he would bring down pharmaceutical prices. Instead, 2,500 drugs have gone up in double-digits since he came into office. Instead, he gave $100 billion in giveaways to the pharma companies. For the rest of us, for the rest of America, that’s what we call at home all foam and no beer. We got nothing out of it.”
Beto O’Rourke
Biggest geopolitical threat to the United States? Climate change
Key Quote: “So getting to guaranteed, high-quality, universal health care as quickly and surely as possible has to be our goal. The ability to afford your prescriptions and go to a primary care provider, to be — the ability to see a mental health care provider. In Texas, the single largest provider of mental health care services is the county jail system today. And health care also has to mean that every woman can make her own decisions about her own body and has access to the care that makes that possible.”
Tim Ryan
Biggest geopolitical threat to the United States? China
Key Quote: “We have a perception problem with the Democratic Party. We are not connecting to the working class people in the very states that I represent in Ohio, in the industrial Midwest. We’ve lost all connection. We have got to change the center of gravity of the Democratic Party from being coastal and elital — elitist and Ivy League, which is the perception, to somebody from the forgotten communities that have been left behind for the last 30 years, to get those workers back on our side so we can say we’re going to build electric vehicles, we’re going to build solar panels.”
Elizabeth Warren
Key Quote: “So the way I understand this, it’s there is way too much consolidation now in giant industries in this country. That hurts workers. It hurts small businesses. It hurts independent farmers. It hurts our economy overall. And it helps constrict real innovation and growth in this economy. Now, look, we’ve had the laws out there for a long time to be able to fight back. What’s been missing is courage, courage in Washington to take on the giants. That’s part of the corruption in this system.”
Biggest geopolitical threat to the United States? Climate change
Photo Credit: Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Source: NBC San Diego
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