Tune in on Wednesday for more back-to-back CNN town halls:
Tom Steyer said Monday that he would start a “formal commission on race the first day of my presidency” and would support direct payments to descendants of slaves if that commission recommended the policy.
“I’m the person running who’s for reparations for slavery because I believe that we need to tell the true story of the last 400-plus years of the African-American experience in the United States,” Steyer said.
He added that his commission would be “solutions-oriented” but would also aim to “tell the story of systematic, legal discrimination, injustice and cruelty for over 400 years.”
CNN’s Chris Cuomo followed up, “If the commission suggested direct cash payments to the descendants of slaves, do you support the recommendation of the commission?”
“Yes,” Steyer said.
Steyer has made courting black voters central to his presidential campaign, especially in South Carolina, the state where he is staking his campaign.
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Tom Steyer said he supports 12-year term limits for members of Congress, and named three Republican senators as his argument for his proposal.
“If we want real change, we need new and different people in charge. We need it,” Steyer said. “And, you know, look, the six-word argument for term limits: Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham, Ted Cruz.”
McConnell, a Republican from Kentucky, is the Senate Majority Leader and was elected to the US Senate in 1984. Graham, a Republican senator from South Carolina, was elected to the US House of Representatives in 1994, and later was elected to the Senate. Cruz, a Republican senator from Texas, was elected to the Senate in 2012.
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Tom Steyer said he would mandate that Americans get vaccinated against the coronavirus if there was a vaccine developed and it was necessary to prevent the disease spreading in the US.
“If and when they were to develop a vaccine, if you were president, would you mandate that Americans take the vaccine?” CNN’s Chris Cuomo asked Steyer.
“If it were necessary to take the vaccine to prevent the spread of the coronavirus through the United States, yes, I would,” the billionaire businessman responded.
Steyer criticized President Donald Trump’s response to the coronavirus and praised former President Barack Obama’s handling of the Ebola outbreak in 2014.
“What we’re seeing is that this is a pandemic that hasn’t been handled well,” Steyer said .
The death toll from the novel coronavirus has risen to 2,698 worldwide, with the vast majority of those in mainland China. The total number of global cases stands at over 80,000. World Health Organization officials say it’s still too early to declare the novel coronavirus a pandemic – but now is the time to prepare.
See Steyer’s response:
Tom Steyer faced an unexpected challenge to his climate credentials on Monday night when an exasperated voter asked how the billionaire can really be “pro-environment” when his campaign is sending out so, so, so much mail.
“How do you justify this unnecessary overkill of mailings and printed material in a digital world that would certainly be much more environmentally friendly?” asked Steven, who said he gets three to five mailers from Steyer every week.
The businessman tried to cut the tension with a joke.
“I think we’re also bombarding you with digital material,” Steyer said, before turning serious. “But we have tried to use only recyclable materials.”
Steyer then turned to his own behavior, claiming that he is the only candidate not to travel on private planes and talking about a family ranch.
“My wife and I raise cattle, chicken and pigs,” he said. “And we’re trying to do it in a way to show that actually you can sequester carbon if you do regenerative agriculture.”
The upshot? That sequestration, Steyer said, more than cancels out his own overall carbon footprint.
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Tom Steyer said Monday that it was a “mistake” for his company to own stock in private prisons earlier in his career.
The comment comes after former Vice President Joe Biden criticized Steyer’s investment in private prisons.
“We bought stock in a private prison company 15 years ago. I thought it was the right thing,” Steyer said. “I decided it was the wrong thing and 15 years ago I sold it for moral reasons.”
He added: “I came to the conclusion that I’ve come to conclude now, this isn’t a place to make money. But I didn’t just make a mistake and correct it. I have worked to get rid of the use of private prisons in my home state, and we’ve successfully done it so that they’re not used either for incarceration or detention.”
Steyer has been making significant inroads in South Carolina, especially with black voters in the state. That rise could hurt Biden, who is betting his campaign on a first-place showing in South Carolina.
Hear his answer:
Tom Steyer said it is “inappropriate” for Bernie Sanders to praise former Cuban dictator Fidel Castro’s regime for its literacy efforts.
The businessman said he would never praise “unelected leaders of countries who completely control without any form of democracy, justice or equality.”
Steyer’s comments come as Sanders faces backlash for saying that Castro’s regime had succeeded in some ways, and cited literacy as an example. The Vermont senator stood by those comments in a CNN town hall Monday night, saying that “the truth is the truth.”
But Steyer said of Castro, who died in 2016: “He’s had the government own the economy and people are hungry and he’s been a cruel controller of the country. I don’t think it’s appropriate to be giving him a lot of compliments.”
“The United States is supposed to be the value driven leader of the world. We stand for freedom. We stand for democracy and justice and equality. And I think when we go out to the world, we should be standing up for the things that we believe in. That’s what the whole idea of the United States is,” Steyer said.
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Tom Steyer said the American people haven’t spoken “just yet” when asked how he would combat Bernie Sanders’ momentum in the presidential race.
CNN’s Chris Cuomo pointed out that Sanders won Nevada, New Hampshire and had a strong showing in Iowa, where results are still being examined and Pete Buttigieg holds a narrow lead over Sanders.
“You are in a hole versus (Sanders) in terms of how those results have gone,” Cuomo said. “Do you have a plan to change your fate?”
The billionaire businessman responded, “So far, Bernie has 39 delegates out of the 2,000 that he needs to be the Democratic nominee. So I would say the people of America haven’t spoken just yet.”
Steyer said South Carolina is a diverse state with a high proportion of African Americans and Latinos, and reflects the Democratic Party and the United States.
“How about let’s let the people of South Carolina have their say, and say what they care about and stop declaring that this is over and that the conversation is over and we should just end it,” Steyer said.
“That is so early and premature, I can’t believe it,” he continued.
Hear Steyer’s response:
Businessman Tom Steyer had barely said hello before he began taking his shot at the Democratic front-runner.
“I know there’s been a lot of talk this week about Bernie Sanders,” Steyer said. “And I think we all owe Bernie Sanders a lot of thanks for bringing up real issues that are confronting America and Americans.”
The crowd cheered. Then Steyer got to his criticism.
The answer, Steyer argued, was to “break the corporate stranglehold” on the government.
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Pete Buttigieg was asked to tell the town hall audience three things the American people don’t already know about him.
“That’s a hard one, just because I feel like when you run for president, somebody once called it an MRI of the soul. By the end of it, or frankly by the middle of it, you feel like people have gotten to know just about everything about you,” Buttigieg said.
“I’ll mention one,” Buttigieg continued.
“It’s probably why I’ve learned to deal with things in a way that tries to be as calm as possible, because I feel so passionate about things I see going on around the world and things I see happening right around me,” he continued.
The former mayor said the American people probably “don’t know as much about the things I’m bad at because you don’t advertise those, although I think people are beginning to learn I can’t dance.”
“I just can’t,” Buttigieg said. “Exactly. Somebody saw me doing the — I won’t even do it, the raise the roof thing,” he joked, raising his hands above his head for a moment.
He said his favorite food is beef jerky, and said he is “pretty well-behaved” when asked by CNN’s Don Lemon if he eats in the middle of the night.
Hear Buttigieg’s answer:
Pete Buttigieg turned a question about how he would handle the threat of the coronavirus into an attack on President Donald Trump’s push for a wall on the US-Mexico border.
“We have to meet 21st Century security threats with a forward looking policy. This President’s idea of keeping us safe is a big wall. That’s a 17th Century security solution,” he said.
The former South Bend, Indiana, mayor said his coronavirus response would focus on coordination across the federal government.
Buttigieg also said it was crucial to “restore the credibility of the United States in the rest of the world.”
“The virus does not care what country it is in, and in order to deal with an issue like that, you need international partnerships and global relationships of the very kind that this president is tearing to shreds on an almost daily basis,” he said.
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Businessman Tom Steyer has taken the stage. CNN’s Chris Cuomo is moderating.
Pete Buttigieg recalled a campaign event in Colorado where a 9-year-old asked the former mayor for advice on how to be brave in telling other people that he is gay.
“And that’s more or less what I told him,” he continued. “Although I gave him the best advice that I could for the future, which is mainly just to let him know that even if it’s not always easy, that I was going to be rooting for him and other people were, too.”
“There have been so many moments like that. Whether it’s a young person who is wondering where they fit, and this campaign sends a signal to them that they belong,” he said.
“Or people I meet sometimes who are my parents’ age who come up to me, sometimes with tears in their eyes, to let me know they never thought this day would come, that this would even be possible,” Buttigieg continued.
“And that whole thing makes me hopeful,” he said.
See Buttigieg’s response:
Pete Buttigieg said Monday that all non-profit institutions, including colleges and shelters, should lose their federal funding if they refuse to hire LGBTQ Americans.
“Do you believe other religious and non-profit institutions like colleges and homeless charities should lose federal funding if they refuse to hire or serve LGBTQ people,” CNN’s Don Lemon asked Buttigieg.
The response came after Buttigieg was asked by a voter about how he would uphold the separation of church and state, particularly when it comes to federal funding.
“It’s very simple. I believe that federal funding should never be used to discriminate,” he said. “It’s a basic principle. I feel this way as citizen and a person of faith.”
He added: “Of course it is so important to the fabric of the country that people of every religion and of no religion can practice their faith to the best of their conscience. But like any other freedom, that freedom ends where it you begin to invoke it to harm other people.”
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Pete Buttigieg said he hasn’t spoken with any Democratic presidential rivals about consolidating the field so that one moderate alternative to Bernie Sanders emerges.
The former South Bend, Indiana, mayor said that “of course I think it would be beneficial if everybody else were to drop out and support” his campaign.
He said he’s demonstrated that he has support across the ideological spectrum, and noted his apparent win in Iowa, where he and Sanders are virtually tied in state delegate equivalents. Sanders then won the New Hampshire primary and the Nevada caucuses.
Hear his response:
After Sanders won the Democratic caucuses in Nevada last week, Buttigieg gave a speech warning against a “rush” to nominate the Vermont senator.
He returned to that argument on Monday night – this time in response to Sanders’ refusal to back off his praise of Fidel Castro’s early efforts to spread literacy in Cuba.
Asked if he could appreciate the nuance of Sanders’ remarks, which also included a criticism of the Castro regime’s abuses, Buttigieg seemed exasperated.
“Of course literacy is a good thing,” he said, “but why are we spotlighting the literacy programs of a brutal dictator instead of being unambiguous in our condemnation about the way he was treating his own people.”
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Pete Buttigieg said Monday that he has a simple message for Americans who backed President Donald Trump in 2016: “This President does not respect you.”
The answer came in response to a question about how Buttigieg could convince Trump supporters that he is a better bet than the President.
Buttigieg, throughout his campaign, has made a concerted effort to court what he calls “future former Republicans,” people who likely voted for Trump in 2016 but are now disillusioned by the President.
“We’re not going to win over everybody,” Buttigieg said. “But I also think there’s an opportunity to bring a lot of people back into the Democratic Party.”
Buttigieg added that this is where he sees “things differently from Sen. Sanders.”
“I believe we can be true to our progressive values and be inviting to a lot of people who feel politically without a home,” Buttigieg said.
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Pete Buttigieg, pressed on why black Americans should support him, said that he “recognizes” and is “humbled” by the fact that he has to earn the support of black voters, something he has struggled to do since announcing his presidential bid.
“This is a vote that has been won within living memory. It’s not just expressing a political preference, it is something that was earned with blood and sweat and tears,” he said. “I recognize that and I’m humbled by that.”
Buttigieg went on to say that he “recognize(s)” that he has not had to experience a host of things that impact black America directly because of the color of his skin.
“I recognize that I don’t have that lived experience,” he said. “So, the question becomes what can I do to try to reach out to those who do and invite them to shape the vision of my campaign and invite them into shaping the vision of the White House I propose to build.”
Buttigieg, for the bulk of his campaign, has struggled to win over black voters, with the issue becoming one that has followed him for months.
It is particularly pressing in South Carolina, a state where 60% of the electorate was black in 2016.
Buttigieg, in response to a follow-up from CNN’s Don Lemon, said that he wants black voters to support him not just because of what is in his plan, but also because of his “determination to make sure that we win so we can deliver on those.”
“I know that nobody is feeling the pain of living under the presidency of Donald Trump more than Americans of color,” Buttigieg said. “And so many voters I talk to are laser-focused on making sure we defeat the President.”
Hear Buttigieg’s answer:
Pete Buttigieg said he would focus on making the case for how to defeat President Donald Trump when asked how he would stop Bernie Sanders’ momentum in the presidential race.
CNN’s Don Lemon said to Buttigieg, “Mayor Pete, the crowd loves you, we can see. They loved you in Indiana, they loved you in Iowa, they loved you in New Hampshire. You ran neck and neck with Senator Bernie Sanders there.”
“But (Sanders) pulled away in Nevada, where he was a clear front-runner,” Lemon continued. “Tomorrow night on the debate stage you’ll have the chance to stop his momentum. How are you going to do that?”
Buttigieg responded, “Well, by making the case for how we will defeat Donald Trump.”
“And it’s going to be more important than ever that we build a coalition that can invite people – not just fellow die hard Democrats, but Independents. I’m seeing what I call future former Republicans who are not going to agree on me with everything but they’re disgusted with what’s going on in this White House,” Buttigieg continued.
Watch:
Former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg has walked on the stage. CNN’s Don Lemon is moderating.
Bernie Sanders said it’s “absolutely untrue” that he considered challenging then-President Barack Obama in the 2012 Democratic primary.
He called an attack ad from Joe Biden’s campaign – which highlights a report from The Atlantic that Sanders had considered a run – “not true at all” and part of campaign “silly season.”
“I did not give any consideration to running for president of the United States until 2015,” he said. And that run, he said, came only after he waited to see whether Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren would run, and she chose not to.
See his answer:
Bernie Sanders said Monday that his vice-presidential pick would not be “an old white guy.”
The quip came in response to a voter asking Sanders whether, because of health concerns around him, he would announce a vice presidential nominee sooner rather than later. Sanders had a heart attack in October, leading some voters to question how the 78-year-old lawmaker could be president for four or, possibly, eight years.
Sanders said that while he “will do that,” doing so right now would be “a little presumptuous right now.”
Watch:
Bernie Sanders on Monday night stood by his qualified praise of Fidel Castro’s regime in Cuba, again talking up a “literacy program” the government launched in its first years.
“There were a lot of folks in Cuba at that point who were illiterate. He formed the literacy brigade,” Sanders said. “(Castro) went out and they helped people learn to read and write. You know what, I think teaching people to read and write is a good thing.”
Sanders dismissed the criticism he received from members of Congress as politically motivated.
“If you want to disagree with me, if somebody wants to say – and by the way, all of those congresspeople that you mentioned just so happen to be supporting other candidates, just accidentally, no doubt. Coincidentally,” Sanders said. “But the truth is the truth, and that’s what happened in the first years of the Castro regime.”
Though no names were mentioned, neither Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell or Rep. Donna Shalala, both of South Florida, have formally endorsed any Democratic primary candidate.
Sanders also defended his record when it came to opposing corrupt and undemocratic governments around the world.
“I have been extremely consistent and critical of all authoritarian regimes all over the world – including Cuba, including Nicaragua, including Saudi Arabia, including China, including Russia,” he said.
Hear Sen. Sanders’ response:
Bernie Sanders said that “99.9% of our supporters are fantastic people,” but admitted some are not.
But, Sanders added: “I do want to say to those folks: We do not want your support if you think that what our campaign is about is making ugly attacks on other candidates. We don’t want you.”
The Vermont senator’s comments come amid criticism – including from former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s campaign – of his supporters’ online tactics.
Sanders pointed to attacks on leaders of the Culinary Union, a major Las Vegas union that disagreed with Sanders on health care. He said he thought those attacks might have come from Russians meddling in the election, because he said his supporters would know of his lifelong support for unions.
“It just seemed to be kind of fishy,” he said.
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Bernie Sanders sought to draw a distinction between himself and President Donald Trump, and said he would release a list of how to pay for every proposal he has put forward.
At the town hall, the second vice chair of the Charleston County Democrats asked Sanders how his campaign is different from Trump’s.
“I’m really excited about getting a Democrat in office, and when I hear you speak I get really excited,” Emmanuel Ferguson said. “But I remember that Trump excited his base with a promise to build a wall with no real plan to pay for it.”
Ferguson continued: “Your plan for free college tuition and Medicare for All seems like a way to excite the Democratic base with no real plan to pay for it. Now how is your position and your campaign different from what Donald Trump did?
Sanders responded that he has spent his “entire adult life fighting against everything that Trump stands for.”
“I thought that question might come up,” Sanders continued, pulling out a piece of paper and handing it to CNN’s Chris Cuomo. “This is a list that will be on our website tonight of how we pay for every program that we have developed.”
Hear Sen. Sanders’ answer:
Bernie Sanders said Monday that if the Democratic Party does not give the nomination to the candidate who has a “substantial plurality” of delegates headed into the convention, it would lead to a “serious, serious problem” for the party and could “wreak havoc on that person’s campaign.”
The issue is becoming a real one for the Democratic Party: With so many candidates still running for president, it is increasingly a possibility that none of the candidates will be able to secure the 1,991 pledged delegates needed to win on the first ballot.
Democrats were asked this question during last week’s debate and only Sanders said the candidates with a plurality should be the winner, while others said the rules of the convention allowing second and third balloting should play out.
Sanders said Monday that not giving the nomination to the candidate with a substantial plurality would be a “serious, serious problem.”
“All of the candidates are working really hard. And if one candidate comes out on top, to say to the country, ‘You voted for that candidate, but by the way we don’t think that candidate should be the nominee,’ I think that would be a serious, serious problem for the Democratic Party,” he said. “And I think it would wreak havoc on that person’s campaign.”
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Bernie Sanders called it “total nonsense” to suggest he can’t work with Republicans.
He touted writing “one of the most sweeping veterans bills in history” with former Arizona Sen. John McCain, the 2008 Republican presidential nominee, as well as leading an effort along with Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah to end the US role in the war in Yemen.
His answer came after Sanders was asked about Democratic presidential rival Pete Buttigieg characterizing him as inflexible. Sanders said the former South Bend, Indiana, mayor’s ideology is shaped by his fundraising from wealthy donors.
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Bernie Sanders rejected the idea on Monday night that he is too radical by, at one point, using a call and response with the audience to demonstrate that his views are in line with Democratic voters.
“Not only all Democrats, a whole lot of independents and some Republicans understand that it is absolutely imperative that we defeat this extremely dangerous President,” Sanders said before pointing to polls that show he can defeat Donald Trump.
Sanders built to the crescendo of his answer by taking on the idea that he is extreme.
“I know if you look at the media, they say Bernie’s ideas are radical, they are extreme, they are out of mainstream,” Sanders said. “Let me just tell you, I don’t think that is true.”
He then added: “Is raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour a radical idea?”
The audience responded with a “No!”
Sanders continued this back and forth with his policies on free college for all and guaranteeing health care.
“I rest my case,” Sanders concluded.
Hear Sen. Sanders’ answer:
Bernie Sanders said he is ready to take the debate stage Tuesday night after wins in Nevada and New Hampshire have made him a target of his fellow 2020 contenders.
CNN’s Chris Cuomo asked Sanders, “So, you are the front runner. You’ve had the results, you clearly have energy, and now along with it you will have the target.”
“A representative of the Bloomberg campaign said there’s one person who matters on the debate stage tomorrow night and that is Bernie Sanders,” Cuomo continued. “Are you ready for that pressure?”
“Absolutely,” Sanders responded.
“But, look, we are going to enter this debate with the full knowledge that tens of millions of Americans want fundamental change in terms of what is going on in this country,” the senator continued. “They’re tired of a President who is a pathological liar.”
Watch the moment:
Bernie Sanders has staked a large portion of his political appeal on his consistency over four decades.
But on the question of gun control, he has moved decidedly to the left over the past two decades. In the early 1990s he repeatedly voted against the Brady Bill, which eventually passed and created a waiting period for handgun purchases.
It was a position his rivals now – and in the past – have pointed to as being key to his ascent.
Pressed about his past positions on Monday night, Sanders again pointed to his evolution on the issue and noted his D- rating from the NRA – one he said would “get even worse” if he became president.
Sanders also noted that, despite voting years ago for a bill exempting gun manufacturers from certain lawsuits, that he is now attached to legislation that would undo it.
They included: a push for universal background checks; keeping guns out of the hands of people with a “violent past”; ending the “gun show loophole”; and banning the sale and distribution of assault weapons.
Watch:
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders has taken the stage. CNN’s Chris Cuomo is moderating.
Sen. Bernie Sanders offered a partial defense of Fidel Castro’s Cuban revolution, asserting that “It’s unfair to simply say everything is bad” with the way the late despot ruled the country.
“We’re very opposed to the authoritarian nature of Cuba but you know, it’s unfair to simply say everything is bad. You know?” Sanders said on CBS’ “60 Minutes” in an interview that aired Sunday. “When Fidel Castro came into office, you know what he did? He had a massive literacy program. Is that a bad thing? Even though Fidel Castro did it?”
The comments — which could prove to alienate some moderate Democrats as Sanders’ chases the party’s primary nomination — came in response to a question about remarks Sanders had made in the 1980s assessing that the Cuban people didn’t rise up against Castro because of education and healthcare.
When host Anderson Cooper pointed to the notable number of dissidents imprisoned in Cuba, Sanders responded, “That’s right. And we condemn that.
“Unlike Donald Trump, let’s be clear, you want to — I do not think that Kim Jong Un is a good friend,” he said. “I don’t trade love letters with a murdering dictator. Vladimir Putin, not a great friend of mine.”
Castro, who died in 2016, drew scores of admirers and detractors as he clung to a socialist economic model and one-party Communist rule, even after the Soviet Union disintegrated.
Sanders’ comments drew pushback online Sunday night, including from Democratic Rep. Donna Shalala of Florida who tweeted, “I’m hoping that in the future, Senator Sanders will take time to speak to some of my constituents before he decides to sing the praises of a murderous tyrant like Fidel Castro.”
CNN will host two nights of town halls this week, starting tonight.
The town halls will feature the leading Democratic presidential candidates, just days before voters head to the polls in South Carolina and on Super Tuesday.
Here’s the schedule:
How to watch: The town halls will air on CNN, CNN en Español, CNN International and CNN Airport Network and will stream on CNN.com, CNN OTT apps for AppleTV, Roku, Amazon Fire, Samsung SmartTV and Android TV, and CNN Mobile apps for iOS and Android, CNN’s SiriusXM Channels and the Westwood One Radio Network.
